Enacting Performance Measurement for Control and Decision Making: Relating Performance Measurement and Managerial Work

This chapter reviews qualitative research on performance measurement and develops a proposition about the dynamic relationship between performance measures and managerial work. We review and compare two strands of research on performance measurement which both build on the inherent differences between performance measures and the world with which they engage. The commensuration literature emphasizes that performance measures put pressure on managers through institutionally backed rankings and comparisons. The incompleteness literature emphasizes the role of performance measures in facilitating learning. This dichotomy can be rendered dynamic by drawing on Latour’s notion of script, and we discuss how managers switch between being above or under the script of performance measurement.