Do Performance-Based Funding Policies Promote Prestige Ambitions? An Interest-Convergence Analysis

Through engagement in theory and analysis of institutional data, this study advances a critical organizational framework that integrates concepts from institutional logics and critical race theory – the hybridity of institutional logics of divergence framework – as an explicit centering of critical perspectives to advance our understanding of how multiple systems work to the disadvantage of students of color. We apply the framework to understanding the relationship between prestige seeking and PBF within an institutional case of an urban-serving research university within a state with recently implemented PBF policies, to examine the implications of the convergence of prestige seeking and pbf and its impacts on students of color. The study finds that within the logics dominating the confluence of prestige and PBF, divergence from interests of people of color is the preferred and rationalized approach. The analytical framework developed provides an alternative framing to capture the intersections and interactions of oppressive systems, policies, and practices, and pushes for greater attention to these interactions through critical lenses that center the self-serving aspects of compliance to them..