Managing through measures: a study of impact on performance

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