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The Formation and Development of Performance Regime under the RDEC in Taiwan

The Formation and Development of Performance Regime under the RDEC in Taiwan

Bennis Wai Yip So, Ho-Chin Yang*

Abstract

This paper analyzes the formation and development of performance regime of Taiwan by zeroing in on the Research, Development and Evaluation Commission (RDEC), Executive Yuan. Making use of the performance regime framework offered by Colin Talbot, this paper explores how Taiwan established institutional context and performance intervention for steering performance behavior.

This paper indicates that the foundation of performance regime of the Taiwan government was laid by the “administrative trinity system” framework initiated by Chiang Kai-shek. The framework was experimented in the Nationalist rule in Mainland China and it was ultimately rooted in Taiwan. The establishment of the RDEC developed a performance management system in the name of “research & evaluation mechanism” The RDEC also promoted an array of tools for performance intervention. Compared with Western countries, the performance regime in Taiwan has its own unique context and has developed its own particular tool for performance intervention - monitoring-cum-evaluation. At the same time, Taiwan also shared a lot of management tools from the West to fill the gap of management skills.

Through this review, this paper will interpret the performance movement in Taiwan from a macro perspective and introduce a better analysis unit beyond the organizational performance measurement. This would help establish a complete framework for accounting for the organizational performance behavior.

Keywords:  performance regime, performance measurement, performance intervention, the Research, Development and Evaluation Commission

* Bennis Wai Yip So, Professor of Department of Public Administration, National Chengchi University. e-mail: bennisso@nccu.edu.tw; Ho-Chin Yang, PhD Candidate of Department of Public Policy and Management, Shih Hsin University. e-mail: D98820004@mail.shu.edu.tw.