Impact of Performance Measurement and Management Systems.

This report describes the results of a detailed research on the impact of performance measurement and management systems (PMMS). It presents the results of the first UK Survey on this specific theme. Then, it explains the effects of the implementation of a scorecard-based performance management system (PMS) within EDF Energy’s Networks Branch, the UK-based division of a multinational company. Cranfield School of Management’s Centre for Business Performance has conducted this research, with funding from the Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council. It has two phases: 1) a survey study in the UK manufacturing and service sectors and 2) an in-depth case based on multiple structured interviews. The report addresses an analysis of the positive, negative, internal and external effects in the UK manufacturing and service sectors. It is extended to the analysis of EDF Energy’s experience of implementing a PMS, in the context of Cranfield researchers’ previous research findings in this field. In doing so, it describes the factors that contributed most to the PMS’s successful implementation and those aspects which, at least initially, tended to hold it back from achieving its full potential, and so draws conclusions and lessons from these research results. The report also identifies moderating factors that influence these critical effects and highlights the vital importance of performance reviews at both executive and operational levels. It provides guidance too on where EDF Energy will need to make future adjustments to the ongoing development of its PMS. The results of this research will make interesting reading for all executives involved in the PMS development process; and the report also contains valuable lessons for executives in other companies who wish to embark on a similar implementation process. We hope, therefore, that EDF Energy will be willing to share their learning experience with other executives in other industries. This report has, therefore, been structured in such a way that this can easily be enabled.