Differential Weighting of Objective Versus Subjective Measures in Performance Evaluation: Experimental Evidence

In this paper, we conduct two experiments to investigate how managers’ differential weighting of objective versus subjective measures affects their performance-evaluation decisions. Drawing on psychological theory, we predict that managers heuristically perceive objective measures to be more scientific than subjective measures. As a result, their performance-evaluation decisions are influenced more by objective measures than by subjective measures. Experimental results are consistent with our prediction. Supplemental analyses further support our theory by showing that participants do not perceive objective measures to be more important for performance evaluation nor do they perceive subjective measurement to be inappropriate. The implications of our findings for management accounting research and practice are discussed.