Examining a positive psychological role for performance measures

Emerging evidence suggests that management control systems may generate positive psychological effects, leading to higher levels of managerial performance. We extend this literature by examining the extent to which (1) financial vis-à-vis non-financial measures and (2) diagnostic vis-à-vis interactive utilisation of performance measures may be associated with decreasing role ambiguity and increasing psychological empowerment with performance as the ultimate outcome variable. We find that the interactive utilisation of non-financial performance measures can be particularly important for generating a positive psychological experience and (indirectly) increasing performance. Our study contributes further evidence of the psychologically beneficial role played by management control systems

From ‘rock stars’ to ‘hygiene factors’:teachers at private accountancy tuition providers

In this paper, we examine the role, status and autonomy of teachers at English private accountancy tuition providers from 1980 to the present. We argue that, during this period, teachers transformed from ‘rock stars’ who enjoyed significant status and autonomy over their work to ‘hygiene factors’ in a largely standardised and commodified teaching environment. Growing cost pressures on tuition providers and an increasing emphasis on the quality and consistency of the learning experience are identified as significant factors in this transformation. We discuss these findings with reference to current developments towards corporatisation and marketisation in the English higher education sector

The multiplicity of performance management systems:Heterogeneity in multinational corporations and management sense-making

This field study examines the workings of multiple performance measurement systems (PMSs) used within and between a division and Headquarters (HQ) of a large European corporation. We explore how multiple PMSs arose within the multinational corporation. We first provide a first‐order analysis which explains how managers make sense of the multiplicity and show how an organization's PMSs may be subject to competing processes for control that result in varied systems, all seemingly functioning, but with different rationales and effects. We then provide a second‐order analysis based on a sense‐making perspective that highlights the importance of retrospective understandings of the organization's history and the importance of various legitimacy expectations to different parts of the multinational. Finally, we emphasize the role of social skill in sense‐making that enables the persistence of multiple systems and the absence of overt tensions and conflict within organizations

Examining a positive psychological role for performance measures

Emerging evidence suggests that management control systems may generate positive psychological effects, leading to higher levels of managerial performance. We extend this literature by examining the extent to which (1) financial vis-à-vis non-financial measures and (2) diagnostic vis-à-vis interactive utilisation of performance measures may be associated with decreasing role ambiguity and increasing psychological empowerment with performance as the ultimate outcome variable. We find that the interactive utilisation of non-financial performance measures can be particularly important for generating a positive psychological experience and (indirectly) increasing performance. Our study contributes further evidence of the psychologically beneficial role played by management control systems