Intraorganisational evaluation: Are there 'least evaluable units'?

An increasing number of universities and research organisations are introducing internal evaluations which are often based on quantitative indicators. However, it is likely that a 'least evaluable unit' (LEU) exists in every research organisation, and that below this level many standard quantitative performance indicators no longer provide a valid measure of performance. In this paper, the LEU of a research organisation is identified by analysing retrospective performance evaluations at different levels of aggregation and enhancing their interpretation with the detailed knowledge of the organisation's senior manager. The main obstacles to further disaggregation below the LEU are that indicators lose their statistical validity because of low numbers of publications and that the performance of subunits cannot be independently measured. The latter phenomenon is heightened at the level of scientists because work roles emerged that further clouded the application of performance measures to individuals.