Managing the tension between performance measurement and strategy : coping strategies

Purpose - The aim of this paper is to explore an important but relatively uncharted territory: the actual functioning of performance measurement systems (PMS) in their organisational context. The objective of the paper is to document the ways in which managers go about aligning operational measures with their organisation's strategy in practice. Design/methodology/approach - This research adopts an interpretive multiple-case approach in order to gather rich data on the strategies used in managing operational PMS. Data were collected from detailed interviews with managers and supervisors in four government agencies. Findings - The expectations were that the operations managers would adjust their performance measures to support the changes in strategy. This was not the case. All the interviewees employed one or more tactics to cope with the tensions between strategy and performance measures. The ten tactics identified are collected into three strategies; do-nothing strategy, pseudo-realigning strategy, and distracting strategy. Research limitations/implications - This paper casts some doubt on the practice, rather than the principle, of strategy-aligned performance management. More work needs to be carried out to ascertain how other, both for profit and public sector, organisations deal with these tensions in practice. Practical implications - From a practitioner point of view it raises the question as to whether senior managers are exerting sufficient control over the alignment issue or providing suitable tools, methods or indeed incentives to bring alignment about. Originality/value - The paper highlights a gap between theory and practice and suggests that the way to ensure implementation of "modern management methods," might be to deal firstly with the issues of relevance, timeliness, structure, integration, and symmetry

Gas seep induced interstitial water circulation: observations and environmental implications

An interstitial water circulation, generated by gas flow through a permeable sediment, was observed at an intertidal site on the Kattegat coast of Denmark. Concentrations of methane dissolved in the interstitial water of the near-surface sediment decreased sharply only centimetres away from gas seeps venting almost pure methane (circs 99% methane). Water was driven out of the sediment by the rising bubbles of gas at the seep and was replaced by an equivalent draw-down of overlying, oxygenated water into the surrounding sediment. This process steepened the chemical gradients close to the gas flow channel, with the effects progressively diminishing with increasing distance from the seep. The position of the redox potential discontinuity (RPD) moved by as much as 7 cm deeper into the sediment close to the seep: this effect was less marked, but still detectable, 50 cm away. The degree of displacement from the “normal” sediment profiles depended on the magnitude of the interstitial flow rate. The distribution of pore water pH and sulphate:sodium ratios were also dependent on the flow rate of the circulating water. The concentrations of sulphide, thiosulphate and sulphite in the interstitial water from the top 10 cm of sediment, were high at a seep, decreased to a minimum at 20-30 cm distance, then increased again at 40-50 cm distance. Laboratory experiments confirmed that gas bubbling through a fluid filled permeable matrix generated a flow, out of the sediment at the gas exit and into the sediment over the peripheral surfaces surrounding the outlet. Experimentally determined rates of dispersion, for gas flow rates of 3-20 ml/min, for a 40 g/l sodium chloride solution, were 62.5 x 10-9 to 540 x 10-9 m2 s-l, 40-400 times the molecular diffusion coefficient. Linear interstitial fluid velocities of 3-12 mm/min, were recorded at 14-3 cm from the seep axis respectively, with a gas flow rate of 5 ml/min. Two-dimensional modelling of the experimental system confirmed the flow patterns determined visually with dye. Implications of this process with regard to the recycling rates of elements generally, and of nutrient and waste materials,in particular, are discussed