Establishment of automatization as a requirement for time management input modules in project management information systems for academic activities - a game theory approach

Academics are expected to engage in several works in several different domains, namely research and development, general management and services to the community, while lecturing a set of courses. Academics might differ in their preference for some of these activities and also in their corresponding performance. Quality assurance in academic institutions implies monitoring performance, what is frequently done by measuring a set of quantitative results at the end of a certain period. Project Management best practices can change this frequent practice, introducing, for instance, the concept of cost efficiency, allowing for objective comparisons between different types of activities. For this to happen there is a need to monitor the time spent by each academic in each activities or, at least, in each set of activities of the same type. The challenge is to know how to do that. Game Theory has been studying decision making in competitive environment, which is increasingly the case in academic institutions. Therefore, there is a primary need to verify if a relevant percentage of the academics have a perception that there is an incentive to lie in their timesheets, due to competitive thinking. This paper presents a pilot study that allowed concluding that time management input modules in project management information systems for academic activities must be automated, eliminating the human factor in timesheet fillings.