Fad and fashion? The relevance of subjective performance measures
ISSN: 0025-1747
Article publication date: 4 July 2018
Issue publication date: 23 October 2018
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of the use of subjective (objective) performance measures on relevant organisational outcomes, namely perceived managerial discretion (PMD) and manager’s satisfaction with the performance measurement system (PMS). Furthermore, the paper analyses the indirect link between subjective vs objective measures and managers’ satisfaction through PMD.
Design/methodology/approach
To test the research hypotheses, a paper-based questionnaire was sent to Italian health care managers in Lombardy. Thus, a PLS-SEM analysis was performed on a data set of 97 Italian health care managers.
Findings
Empirical findings showed that objective measures are more capable of supporting the managerial perception of discretion when compared to more subjective ones such as “fads” and “fashions”, and that managers are more satisfied with the PMS when it is grounded on objective measures rather than subjective ones.
Originality/value
The paper operationalizes and empirically tests the measure of PMD, linking this to antecedents and consequences. It also extends the literature on subjectivity in the PMS, since it develops new knowledge on the choice between subjective and objective measures by applying this choice to a variety of PMS, whereas prior literature on objective vs subjective measures has mainly focussed on performance evaluation.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
An earlier version of this paper has been presented to the 39° European Accounting Association Congress in Maastricht (2016). We would like to thank the anonymous reviewers, the Editor-in-Chief, Patrick J. Murphy, and the Associate Editor, Richard Hunt, for their useful comments. We also wish to thank participants of the survey who allowed us to gather the data for this study, although we alone are responsible for the findings, recommendations and errors of the manuscript.
Citation
Demartini, M.C. and Trucco, S. (2018), "Fad and fashion? The relevance of subjective performance measures", Management Decision, Vol. 56 No. 11, pp. 2391-2407. https://doi.org/10.1108/MD-05-2017-0509
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited