Developing Enabling Performance Measurement Systems: On the Interplay Between Numbers and Operational Knowledge

Abstract

Performance measurement systems (PMSs) are generally regarded to serve the needs of top managers. However, a growing literature has started to explore what it takes for these systems to be(come) enabling also for those whose performance is being measured. In this paper, we build on and add to this literature by providing ethnographic insights into how and why a group of middle-managers transformed a set of performance measures, initially developed as monitoring devices for top management, into a so-called enabling PMS. Regarding how this came about, we elaborate on how actors mobilised two different forms of mental models of the operations (specific and generalised), and a set of number-to-number tactics, as important means in their development work. Regarding the why-question, we identify a high evaluation pressure from top management, in combination with recurrent reconstructions of the existing mental models of operations, as important conditions that worked to initiate, fuel, and, eventually, cease the process.