Developing performance-measurement systems as enabling formalization: A longitudinal field study of a logistics department

This paper reports on a developmental approach to performance-measurement systems (PMS). In particular, we look at characteristics of a development process that result in the PMS being perceived by employees as enabling of their work, rather than as primarily a control device for use by senior management. We will refer to such a PMS as “enabling PMS”. The theoretical part of the study builds on ideas of enabling versus coercive formalization [Adler, P. S., & Borys, B. (1996). Two types of bureaucracy: Enabling and coercive. Administrative Science Quarterly 41 (March), 61–89]; on notions of organizational learning (e.g., [Zollo, M., & Winter, S. G. (2002). Deliberate learning and the evolution of dynamic capabilities. Organization Science 13(3), 339–351]); and on awareness of the incompleteness of performance measures (e.g., [Chapman, C. S. (1997). Reflections on a contingent view of accounting. Accounting, Organizations and Society 22, 189–205; Lillis, A. M. (2002). Managing multiple dimensions of manufacturing performance—An exploratory study. Accounting, Organizations and Society 27, 497–529]). The empirical context entails a mixed-method, 3-year longitudinal study of the logistics department of a medium-sized company in the beverage manufacturing industry. Qualitative data were gathered through interviews, participation in meetings, action research, and review of company documents. We also analyzed two waves of quantitative survey data, gathered from a panel of 42 employees. We find that a development process that is experience-based contributes to the enabling nature of the PMS, as it builds on existing skills, local practices, and know-how on performance measurement to enrich the PMS step-by-step over time. Also, experimentation with specific performance measures was found to enhance the enabling nature of the PMS: testing, reviewing, and refinement of conceptualizations, definitions, data, and presentations of new performance measures. Professionalism was significantly related to positive attitude toward performance measures in our survey data. The results also illustrate that transparency of the PMS itself is key to enabling PMS.     

Performance measurement systems and their relation to strategic learning: A case study in a software-developing organization

Authors have often suggested that expert systems for measuring and assessing intangible and tangible resources fulfill strategic learning purposes. This role requires further theoretical discussion and empirical investigation since strategic learning does not automatically result from the implementation of performance measurement systems (PMS). PMS can be used for internal or external control purposes in addition their development and usage can lead to strategic learning processes. Depending on how PMS are conceptualized they can be related to different modes of learning. Thus, this article links different types of PMS enactment with specific modes of learning. Strategic learning is thereby defined as specific mode within the organizational learning approach by Bateson (1972) and Argyris and Schön (1978). Orlikowski's work on technologies (2000) provides a framework for the different types of PMS enactment. A strategic learning process initiated by the development of PMS is illustrated through a case study in the software development industry.     

Performance management systems: A conceptual model

This paper builds on the view that too much attention in the management, management control and management accounting literatures has been given to ex post performance measurement as distinct from ex ante performance management. The paper develops a conceptual model of Performance Management Systems (PMS) building on the work and insights of primarily Otley (1999) and Ferreira and Otley, 2005, Ferreira and Otley, 2009 who share similar concerns. Particular attention is given to analysing the underlying factors that influence the nature of any PMS, which Ferreira and Otley, 2005, Ferreira and Otley, 2009 address only to a limited extent in their model. This analysis into these factors leads to the development of Ferreira and Otley's conceptualisation into a ‘middle range’ (Laughlin, 1995, Laughlin, 2004, Broadbent and Laughlin, 1997) model of the alternative nature of PMS lying on a continuum from ‘transactional’ at one end to ‘relational’ at the other built on respectively underlying instrumental and communicative rationalities and guided by a range of contextual factors.     

The decision-influencing use of performance measurement systems in relationships between headquarters and subsidiaries

Although theoretical frameworks assume that performance measurement systems (PMS) can be employed for different uses, there is a lack of prior empirical research examining the use of PMS. In addition, recent International Business studies reveal many unresolved issues about the use of PMS to manage relationships between headquarters and subsidiaries. After summarizing the evolution of the use of PMS over three International Business eras, we focus on the decision-influencing use of PMS, operationalized as the influence of the PMS implemented by headquarters on subsidiaries’ decisions. Based on International Business literature and Management Accounting research, we hypothesize that the subsidiary participation in PMS design, measurement diversity in PMS structure, the linking of PMS to reward, as well as headquarters’ national culture, subsidiary size, and global pressure affect the influence of PMS on subsidiaries’ decisions. We collected data through questionnaires emailed to 100 subsidiaries. Findings show that PMS have a greater influence on decisions in cases of higher subsidiary's participation in PMS design, headquarters’ cultural tolerance for uncertainty, subsidiary size, and global pressure. Contrary to what is contended by advocates of multidimensional approaches to PMS, measurement diversity and the linking of PMS to reward mechanisms do not have a significant impact on the decision-influencing use. We discuss the empirical evidence providing qualitative arguments derived from a focus group, which reveals the existence of a PMS decoupling and helped us to describe four situations with different levels of decision-influencing use of PMS and different economic performance results. The presented quantitative and qualitative empirical evidence offers several insights for research on PMS within multinational companies.     

Management control systems and strategy: A resource-based perspective

The aim of this study is to examine, from a resource-based perspective, the relationships between the use of management control systems (MCS) and organizational capabilities. More specifically, the study focuses on the diagnostic and interactive uses of one important aspect of MCS, namely performance measurement systems (PMS), and four capabilities leading to strategic choices (i.e., market orientation, entrepreneurship, innovativeness, and organizational learning). Three research questions are investigated in this study: (i) to what extent do the diagnostic and interactive uses of MCS contribute specifically to the creation and maintenance of capabilities leading to strategic choices? (ii) To what extent do the diagnostic and interactive uses of MCS act in combination to produce dynamic tension which contributes to the creation and maintenance of these capabilities? (iii) To what extent does the use of MCS contribute to organizational performance? The results suggest that an interactive use of PMS fosters the four capabilities by focusing organizational attention on strategic priorities and stimulating dialogue. Also, by creating constraints to ensure compliance with orders, the diagnostic use of PMS exerts negative pressure on these capabilities. Furthermore, some evidence suggests the influence of dynamic tension resulting from the balanced use of PMS in a diagnostic and interactive fashion on capabilities and performance.     

New development: Integrating risk management in management control systems—lessons for public sector managers

Exploring multiple dimensions of management control systems (MCS), this article proposes a new framework to integrate risk management with strategy, MCS and performance measurement systems (PMS). Considering the public sector as a focal point, the article points to some enterprise risk management (ERM) issues and argues that ERM-enabled MCS has potential to improve PMS and strategic decision-making, leading to a more proactive risk management framework and a culture that promotes performance driven accountability. Consequently, the article calls for further research towards solving the public sector’s risk management problems, motivating its managers to adopt best practices, and stimulating suitable policy developments.     

Exploring the generative power of performance measurement systems design

Prior studies recognise the enabling power of incompleteness in the design of Performance Measurement Systems (PMS). We add to these studies by exploring the ‘time dimension’ of incompleteness as a way to delve into the generative power of design. To this aim, we rely upon the experience of a knowledge-intensive organization during the design of a new PMS. While knowledge complexity engaged the participants within an open-ended design process, incomplete measures were associated with unfolding memories of the past and confident beliefs in future solutions, which generated effects through the knowledge gaps that they entailed, as well as through the projections in the past and in the future that they enabled. By delving into the time dimension of incompleteness, we add to prior studies on PMS design by showing the relationships between managers' hopes for the future, patterns of memory (and forgetting) of the past and incompleteness in design. In particular, we show that although incomplete measures stimulate managers' aspirations and search for further possibilities, it is forgetting about the past (its evolving memories) that triggers this search, facilitates new actors entering the design process and enables unpredictable outcomes of design.     

Accounting for Research: Academic Responses to Research Performance Demands in an Australian University

This study examines the perceptions of individual academics about performance management systems (PMS) developed by an Australian university to meet government research assessment requirements. Using a case study method, the research examines the period 2006–2010 within a university, relying on academics’ responses to a survey on the effect of research PMS, contextualised with publicly available organisational documents. The case study university performed well in the Australian Government's first research assessment exercise, Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) 2010. However, academics reported increasing levels of stress and decreasing job satisfaction, consistent with research that identifies the commodification of academic research. This process of commodification has occurred as a result of the implementation of PMS designed to assess academics’ research‐focused performance and thereby strengthen the university's performance under ERA. In investigating in detail the responses of individual academics to Australia's research assessment initiative, the paper reveals a disconnect between the macro‐institutional demands placed on the higher education sector, university changes made to accommodate these demands, and the ability of academics to meet these demands in a sustainable way.     

Performance measurement systems in higher education: How levers of control reveal the ambiguities of reforms

This paper focuses on the introduction of new performance measurement system (PMS) for measuring teaching performance in Universities. The adoption of such PMS should prompt significant changes in existing control processes, but the goals of reform do not automatically translate into the desired organisational responses. Given the impact of PMS on management controls, the nature of such ambiguities may be better investigated using a framework that allows management control systems (MCS) to be taken in account. This paper investigates key actors' perceptions regarding the introduction of PMS through the lens of the levers of control (Simons, 1995, 2000). A qualitative analysis is conducted on interviews held with Italian university teaching managers and heads of programmes to examine the ambiguities arising from the implementation of a PMS.Several ambiguities emerge, both within and between the levers analysed, suggesting some reasons for the (partial) ineffectiveness of PMS reforms. In particular, the belief systems lever is crucial in making reforms acceptable, bureaucratic procedures are important in the diagnostic control systems lever, and performance indicators operate as a boundary system lever. Our findings show that administrative and academic actors perceive the interactive control capacity of PMS differently.     

The role of organisational concern for workplace fairness in the choice of a performance measurement system

Prior studies linking performance management systems (PMS) and organisational justice have examined how PMS influence procedural fairness. Our investigation differs from these studies. First, it examines fairness as an antecedent (instead of as a consequence) of the choice of PMS. Second, instead of conceptualising organisational fairness as procedural fairness, it relies on the impression management interpretation of organisational fairness. Hence, the study investigates how the need of senior managers to cultivate an impression of being fair is related to the choice of PMS systems and employee outcomes. Based on a sample of 276 employees, the results indicate that the need of senior management to cultivate an impression of being fair is associated with employee performance. They also indicate that a substantial component of these effects is indirect through the choice of comprehensive performance measures (CPM) and employee job satisfaction. These findings highlight the importance of organisational concern for workplace fairness as an antecedent of choice of CPM. From a theoretical perspective, the adoption of the impression management interpretation of organisational fairness contributes by providing new insights into the relationship between fairness and choice of PMS from a perspective that is different from those used in prior management accounting research.     

中国国有企业业绩评价制度:回顾与思考

业绩评价制度是股东对经营者、经营者对组织内部各层级进行管理控制的重要机制。本文以中国改革开放30年来国有企业业绩评价制度演变为主题,归纳分析了中国国有企业业绩评价制度在不同时期(承包经营责任制、现代企业制度初步建立、现代产权制度等)的基本特点及其演变路径;文章还着重讨论了在科学发展观指引下国有企业业绩评价需要解决的几个理论问题。本文认为,业绩评价制度不应被简单地理解或矮化为一种用于衡量组织各级经营者"奖金数"的制度安排,它应当是构建国有企业产权管理体系、完善国有企业内部管控制度的重要组成部分。     

Globalization discourses and performance measurement systems in a multinational firm

This paper examines the role of management control systems, in particular performance measurement systems (PMSs) such as the Balanced Scorecard and key performance indicators, in a multinational context. We begin by exploring how globalization discourses are engaged with, consumed, appropriated, re-produced, disseminated and promoted in a major multinational company. We link the adaptation and dissemination of global discourses of senior managers with Said’s (1975/1997) concepts of authority and molestation. We then examine how PMS are translated and customized within local manufacturing plants and sales units in the UK and China, the significance of benchmarking and the extent to which PMS render managerial discourses of globalization practical. We comment on the importance of discourse in understanding control systems in general and the way in which external discourses impact the internal practices of the organization. We also explore some of the sources that give rise to molestation (deviation of practice from global aspirations of senior managers). We conclude by stressing the potential for the globalizing effects of PMS through the interaction of the discourses of HQ and subunits, even in the absence of explicit statements about globalization.     

The effect of comprehensive performance measurement systems on role clarity,psychological empowerment and managerial performance

This study examines how comprehensive performance measurement systems (PMS) affect managerial performance. It is proposed that the effect of comprehensive PMS on managerial performance is indirect through the mediating variables of role clarity and psychological empowerment. Data collected from a survey of 83 strategic business unit managers are used to test the model. Results from a structural model tested using Partial Least Squares regression indicate that comprehensive PMS is indirectly related to managerial performance through the intervening variables of role clarity and psychological empowerment. This result highlights the role of cognitive and motivational mechanisms in explaining the effect of management accounting systems on managerial performance. In particular, the results indicate that comprehensive PMS influences managers’ cognition and motivation, which, in turn, influence managerial performance.     

Impact of the interactive and diagnostic uses of performance measurement systems on procedural fairness perception,cooperation and performance in supply alliances

We examine the effects of interactive and diagnostic uses of performance measurement systems (PMSs) on two behavioural factors (procedural fairness perception and cooperation) in inter-firm alliances. We further investigate whether the two behavioural factors mediate the relationship between PMS uses and alliance performance. We find that both interactive and diagnostic uses of PMS are significantly related to procedural fairness perception but only the interactive use is significantly related to cooperation. The relationships between the two uses of PMS and alliance performance are serially mediated by procedural fairness perception and cooperation. These findings contribute to management accounting studies in inter-firm alliances.     

Top management team expertise and corporate real earnings management activities

This study investigates the effects of top management team (TMT) expertise on real earnings management (REM) activities by examining a hand-collected data set that contains 4,690 firm-year observations from Taiwanese listed firms during 2006 to 2010. The results of this study show that the percentages of TMT members possessing master's degrees (PMS) and managing core functional areas (CORE) negatively relate to REM activities, whereas the percentage of TMT members possessing a CPA certificate (PCPA) has the opposite effect. We also find that the PMS and CORE effects are mainly demonstrated through the channel of raising firm performance and thereby reduce managers' incentives to manage earnings. In addition, the effect of TMT expertise on REM activities becomes weaker with increasing firm age. Finally, the outcomes of several robustness tests, such as suspect firm analyses, endogeneity analyses, employing other TMT expertise variables, and additionally controlling for accrual-based earnings management also support our results.     

Conflicting interests but filtered key targets: Stakeholder and resource-dependency analyses at a University of Applied Sciences

Stakeholder theory (SHT) emphasizes that different stakeholders and their interests need to be identified and addressed to maximize firm performance. This emphasis can make the design of performance measurement systems (PMS) challenging because the interests of stakeholders are often in conflict. Based on previous research and using stakeholder and resource dependency theories, we develop a theoretical model suggesting that resource dependency acts as a “filter” in selecting which of the PMS design measures are emphasized for decision making. We find various conflicting interests between stakeholders in our case organization (a unit of University of Applied Sciences in Finland) that affected PMS design. Contrary to the earlier studies, however, we found that despite conflicting interests, all of the different stakeholders considered one nonfinancial indicator to be the most important: attractiveness, or the number of applicants divided by number of new students. As suggested by resource-dependency theory (RDT), the stakeholder providing the most resources had the most significant impact on the selection of the key performance indicators used. The key resource provider may also have had some effect on the expectations of other stakeholders.     

Discussion of: The effect of client gender and negotiation style on auditors' proposed audit adjustments

This article provides a discussion of the Hamrick, Schafer, and DeZoort (2023) study published in Advances in Accounting. The discussion first provides an overview of the study and strengths of the article. Constructive commentary follows, centered on understanding the theoretical underpinnings of the study's findings and the measurement of process variables to deepen our understanding of why these findings occurred. Additionally, I encourage expanded research using alternative methodologies to increase external validity of the study's findings. The commentary concludes with a discussion of future research opportunities to extend the study's compelling results, highlighting the importance of expanding our understanding of social stereotypes and gender dynamics in the auditor-client negotiations process.     

Back to the future: The dream of a perpetuum mobile in the atomic society and the hydrogen economy

This article analyses a certain kind of society in which it is proclaimed that abundant energy can be used without any negative side effects. In such “utopias”, individual needs are described as unrestricted, and economic and technological change is said to be unlimited - as if the society were to have a perpetuum mobile at its command. The two examples connected with such expectations are “the atomic/nuclear society” and “the hydrogen economy”. Although these two utopias do differ, their many similarities are the focus of this article. They are similar in that they both invoke the dream of controlling a virtual perpetuum mobile, propose an expert/lay knowledge gap, downplay any risks involved, and rely on a public relations campaign to ensure the public’s collaboration with companies and politicians. I thus connect these two different utopias, discussing them as a part of the modern history of energy production and consumption. Making this connection clarifies some lessons for future energy planning, such as the need for reflection on and critical engagement with utopias, awareness of how a more participatory democratic process may be secured regarding energy issues, and the negative consequences if risk is described in solely economic terms.     

Organizational culture and performance measurement systems

The aim of this study is to articulate and test the relationships between organizational culture and two attributes of performance measurement systems (PMS), namely the diversity of measurement and the nature of use. The results of a survey reveal that top managers of firms reflecting a flexibility dominant type tend to use more performance measures and to use PMS to focus organizational attention, support strategic decision-making and legitimate actions to a greater extent than top managers of firms reflecting a control dominant type.     

Consumer education and everyday futures work

The purpose of this article is to draft new tasks for consumer education in a transformed and transforming world and consumption situation. The basic claim is that consumer education needs to become empowering or emancipatory, and that this can be reached through emphasizing the futures aspect and skills concerning everyday futures work. The functions of traditional consumer education can be described as socializative, preventive and corrective. This is not enough in a rapidly changing world in which consumers face completely new challenges. Section 2 of this article studies changes focal to the individual consumer. In Section 3 I define the basic functions of a household as an economic unit, consumption and consumer education. In Section 4 I continue the analysis of the functions of consumer education with the help of the neologism everyday futures work, which is grounded on the application of Joseph Nuttin's theory of action. I also argue that to fulfill an empowering function, consumer education has to emphasize the futures aspect. The core concept here is futures-will, which highlights the dynamic character of human action. In Section 5 I suggest relevant solutions for consumer education in relation to the challenges and functions of consumption described above as well as explain how the enhancing of everyday futures work skills could be applied in the framework of the cycle of human action. I conclude the article by discussing some recent topics in consumer education to show that consumer education thinking is in some measure - even if not often explicitly expressed - converging with futures education.