Alan Meekings and Steve Briault
The purpose of this paper is two-fold: first, to bring into sharper focus the role of organisational performance management both for “exploring the future to deliver better…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is two-fold: first, to bring into sharper focus the role of organisational performance management both for “exploring the future to deliver better outcomes” and “learning from the past to improve the future”; and second, to introduce the control tower approach to optimising complex service delivery performance, explaining how this approach is derived from a unique combination of lean thinking and connected performance.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a practitioner paper based on extensive practical experience.
Findings
While the tools and techniques of “exploring the future to deliver better outcomes” may be less common than those for “learning from the past to improve the future”, they offer significant benefits, particularly in complex service delivery situations.
Research limitations/implications
It has not, so far, been possible to find organisations willing and able to participate in a quasi-controlled experiment to explore how organisations which implement the control tower approach actually perform in relation to others that do not. However, the authors hope this paper will help move thinking forward in the field of complex service delivery, and perhaps inform future academic research.
Practical implications
The control tower approach offers significant opportunities to improve service delivery performance, not just within healthcare but across all sectors where service delivery is complex and important.
Social implications
The improvement of complex service delivery performance offers huge social benefits for all stakeholders, including customers, providers (and their staff) and society as a whole, notably through improved outcomes and efficiency.
Originality/value
Although the value of “learning from the past to improve the future” in organisational performance management terms is widely understood, the value of “exploring the future to deliver better outcomes” is much less well known. Hence, this paper highlights a perspective of real practical significance.
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Through an illustrative case study, the paper seeks to demonstrate the implementation and use of new performance improvement software.
Abstract
Purpose
Through an illustrative case study, the paper seeks to demonstrate the implementation and use of new performance improvement software.
Design/methodology/approach
Past research in the field of performance measurement and management has tended to focus on what to measure. The reality, though, is that most of the value in performance measurement lies not in the measures selected, nor even in how the data are presented visually (using SPC where applicable) but in the decisions and actions that flow from insights provided. Deriving maximum value from performance measurement requires linking powerful insights from data to appropriate decision making, action and feedback.
Findings
Especially in situations of fast‐moving, operational data, it is possible to improve rates of innovation, adaptation and learning in organizations dramatically through a combination of: implementing the new genre of performance improvement software that currently has no name; structuring and enabling the performance planning and review process; and creating the necessary updraught of management attention.
Originality/value
This paper describes the impact of a new genre of performance improvement software implemented alongside novel concepts in performance planning and review. Performance measurement and management frameworks are analogous to new washing machines in the sense that they need to be properly plumbed‐in, connected‐up and switched‐on before they can deliver value. Given that achieving faster rates of innovation, adaptation and learning is now widely recognized as a key challenge for the coming decade, the message is that “plumbed‐in performance improvement” offers huge potential benefits for organizations that spot the opportunity first.
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Alan Meekings, Simon Povey and Andy Neely
The purpose of this paper is to explore the concept of performance plumbing, arguing that too often performance management systems in organisations are not correctly installed…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the concept of performance plumbing, arguing that too often performance management systems in organisations are not correctly installed. Without the appropriate plumbing, performance management systems do not drive organisational change and improvement.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper draws on the consultancy experiences of two of the authors, as well as the research of the third. Specific case examples are provided throughout the paper to illustrate the points being made.
Findings
The paper argues that the key elements of a plumbed‐in performance management system are: performance architecture; performance insights; performance focus; and performance action. Taken together, these four elements provide the necessary plumbing to enable performance management systems to deliver real value.
Research limitations/implications
The paper draws on the experience of the authors, rather than a formally designed piece of research. The ideas presented in the paper would therefore benefit from further investigation and testing.
Originality/value
The paper will be valuable to scholars and practitioners interested in ensuring that performance management systems deliver lasting value.
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Alan Meekings, Steve Briault and Andy Neely
Advocates and critics of target‐setting in the workplace seem unable to reach beyond their own well‐entrenched battle lines. While the advocates of goal‐directed behaviour point…
Abstract
Purpose
Advocates and critics of target‐setting in the workplace seem unable to reach beyond their own well‐entrenched battle lines. While the advocates of goal‐directed behaviour point to what they see as demonstrable advantages, the critics of target‐setting highlight equally demonstrable disadvantages. Indeed, the academic literature on this topic is currently mired in controversy, with neither side seemingly capable of envisaging a better way forward. This paper seeks to break the current deadlock and move thinking forward in this important aspect of performance measurement and management by outlining a new, more fruitful approach, based on both theory and practical experience.
Design/methodology/approach
The topic was approached in three phases: assembling and reading key academic and other literature on the subject of target‐setting and goal‐directed behaviour, with a view to understanding, in depth, the arguments advanced by the advocates and critics of target‐setting; comparing these published arguments with one's own experiential findings, in order to bring the essence of disagreement into much sharper focus; and then bringing to bear the academic and practical experience to identify the essential elements of a new, more fruitful approach offering all the benefits of goal‐directed behaviour with none of the typical disadvantages of target‐setting.
Findings
The research led to three key findings: the advocates of goal‐directed behaviour and critics of target‐setting each make valid points, as seen from their own current perspectives; the likelihood of these two communities, left to themselves, ever reaching a new synthesis, seems vanishingly small (with leading thinkers in the goal‐directed behaviour community already acknowledging this); and, between the three authors, it was discovered that their unusual combination of academic study and practical experience enabled them to see things differently. Hence, they would like to share their new thinking more widely.
Research limitations/implications
The authors fully accept that their paper is informed by extensive practical experience and, as yet, there have been no opportunities to test their findings, conclusions and recommendations through rigorous academic research. However, they hope that the paper will move thinking forward in this arena, thereby informing future academic research.
Practical implications
The authors hope that the practical implications of the paper will be significant, as it outlines a novel way for organisations to capture the benefits of goal‐directed behaviour with none of the disadvantages typically associated with target‐setting.
Social implications
Given that increased efficiency and effectiveness in the management of organisations would be good for society, the authors think the paper has interesting social implications.
Originality/value
Leading thinkers in the field of goal‐directed behaviour, such as Locke and Latham, and leading critics of target‐setting, such as Ordóñez et al. continue to argue with one another – much like, at the turn of the nineteenth century, proponents of the “wave theory of light” and proponents of the “particle theory of light” were similarly at loggerheads. Just as this furious scientific debate was ultimately resolved by Taylor's experiment, showing that light could behave both as a particle and wave at the same time, the authors believe that the paper demonstrates that goal‐directed behaviour and target‐setting can successfully co‐exist.
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Peter Jones, Nick Whale and Alan Meekings
Reports that product or service features in today’s fast‐moving markets, that seemed distinctive and attractive yesterday may turn into little more than “hygiene factors”…
Abstract
Reports that product or service features in today’s fast‐moving markets, that seemed distinctive and attractive yesterday may turn into little more than “hygiene factors” tomorrow, such is the pace of change. The car market is a good example. Who remembers, or even cares, which manufacturer first introduced ABS or airbags? Every major manufacturer now offers these features, or better. So, what are the implications for Rover Cars? Rover’s much‐respected turnaround in product design and quality is no longer sufficient to secure the group’s profitability and long‐term success. Rover has recognized the need to become even more customer‐focused to continue building brand equity. It is doing this through a deep understanding of its marketplace, a new approach to brand planning and brand management, and the systematic development of organizational capability.
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To present clear pointers to best practice in the implementation and use of performance measurement, highlighting the significance of effective review meetings, connected across…
Abstract
Purpose
To present clear pointers to best practice in the implementation and use of performance measurement, highlighting the significance of effective review meetings, connected across functions and between levels in organisations.
Design/methodology/approach
A summary of practical experience in the implementation and use of performance measurement, supported by three complementary case studies, each illustrating ways in which it can be both a catalyst and impetus for results otherwise unachievable. In particular, this paper explains why the greatest benefits lie not in specific measures themselves, nor even in the process used to develop them, but in how performance measurement is actually implemented and used in practice. It argues that the key to getting the most out of performance measurement is to grab the review process and make it work properly.
Findings
Insights into how to maximise the value of performance measurement by making the review process work properly, such that strategic developments and continual improvement are effectively “pulled‐through” in a coherent and progressive fashion and the measures themselves become essentially “self‐correcting”.
Originality/value
This paper brings performance measurement to life, by concentrating on how it is best implemented and used in practice through focusing on what it takes to make the review process work properly from top to bottom and side to side across organisations. It also offers some interesting hypotheses for further academic work in this field.
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Asks why business performance measurement has become so topical, so recently. Argues that there are seven main reasons: the changing nature of work; increasing competition;…
Abstract
Asks why business performance measurement has become so topical, so recently. Argues that there are seven main reasons: the changing nature of work; increasing competition; specific improvement initiatives; national and international quality awards; changing organisational roles; changing external demands; and the power of information technology. Evidence to support this assertion is drawn from the academic and practitioner literatures, interviews and discussions with people specialising in the field and a broad review of the current state‐of‐the‐art in business performance measurement. Presents a framework onto which current research in business performance measurement can be mapped and identifies areas which require further work.