Citation:
Mike Bourne, Mike Kennerley, Monica Franco-Santos, Managing through measures: a
study of impact on performance, 2005, Volume:16, Issue:4, Page:373 - 395
Abstract:
Performance measurement has developed rapidly over the last two decades. The
dissatisfaction with financial measures, which came to the fore in the 1980s,
has given way to a plethora of balanced performance measurement frameworks. Over
the period, the focus has moved from designing balanced performance measurement
systems, through implementation to the use of measures to manage performance.
There is now a debate in the literature over whether performance has a positive
impact on business performance, but despite the research, until recently, few
studies have examined the use of performance measures and how performance
measurement impacts performance. This paper reports on a study of the use of
performance measures in multiple business units of the same organisation. The
findings suggest that current research into the impact of performance
measurement on performance may be too simplistic in its approach as much of the
research relies on studying the physical and formal systems used, ignoring the
types of factors found to be important in this study. These factors include
Simons’ (1991) concept of interactive control and the paper suggests that this
concept deserves further stud