Measurement Madness: Recognizing and Avoiding the Pitfalls of Performance Measurement

From the Authors

Over the past 20 years, the world has witnessed a booming interest in performance measurement across all walks of life. Today, the vast majority of organizations employ at least some aspects of a performance measurement system, be it the use of key performance indicators to track progress, the setting of targets to motivate and direct attention, or the use of measurable objectives for appraising and rewarding individual behaviour. In short, performance measurement has profoundly changed societies, organizations and the way we live and work. We can now access incredible quantities of data, display, review and report complex information in real time, and monitor employees and processes in detail. But have all these investments in collecting, analyzing and reporting data helped governments, organizations and people perform better?

Measurement is often associated with the objectivity and neatness of numbers, and performance measurement efforts are typically accompanied by hope, great expectations and promises of change; however, these are then often followed by disbelief, frustration and what appears to be sheer madness. Between the three of us, we have spent over four decades working, consulting, researching and teaching across the wide variety of topics associated with measuring and managing performance, and we are of the belief that performance measurement is first and foremost about behaviours. Our involvement with a large variety of organizations has taught us ...