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Research on how performance measurement systems affect employees’ perceptions of workplace fairness is important. As organizations often rely on their performance measurement systems to communicate information to their employees, it is useful to ascertain if and how the developments of performance measurement systems that are far more comprehensive than traditional financial systems affect employees’ perceptions of informational fairness through the information communicated to employees. Informational fairness refers to employees’ perceptions of workplace fairness that is based on the amount and the truthfulness of information that organizations provide to their employees. Based on a sample of managers from manufacturing organizations, the Partial Least Square results indicate that comprehensive performance measurement systems (comprehensive PMS) have a significant direct effect on job-relevant information. They also indicate that comprehensive PMS have an indirect effect on informational fairness via job-relevant information. In contrast, systems that are based on financial measures have no significant effects on job-relevant information and informational fairness. These results demonstrate how comprehensive PMS (through the communication of a greater amount of job-relevant information) can be used to engender employees’ perceptions of high workplace fairness.

An organization’s ability to navigate uncertain conditions hinges on its members generating timely and productive responses to ongoing changes in their local task environments. Since less healthy employees are less productive, organizations stand to gain from fostering their physical and mental health. Little knowledge, however, exists as to whether and how an organizations’ internal control systems affect employee health. In the following the authors, therefore, shed light at this relation drawing on an empirical study with 179 employees. Results suggest that the design of control systems has an impact on employee health. This has important implications for ongoing theory-building efforts on the effects of organizations’ internal control systems and for business practice.

The purpose of this paper is to recognise the importance of the interplay between performance measurement, performance management, employee engagement and performance. However, the nature of this phenomenon is not well understood. Analysis of the literature reveals two dimensions of organisational control, technical and social, that are used to develop a conceptual framework for studying this phenomenon.

The authors conducted explorative action research involving pilot and control groups from two departments of a UK bank.

The authors show that an intervention on the social controls has led to changes in technical controls of the performance measurement system resulting in significant improvement in employee engagement and performance.

The research was undertaken with two cases from a single organisation. Further fine-grained, longitudinal research is required to fully understand this phenomenon in a wider range of contexts.

The paper contributes to the theory on performance measures and gives guidance on how organisations might design their performance measurement systems to enhance employee engagement and performance.

The study makes three contributions. First, the authors introduce a new theoretical framework based the organisational control theory providing a basis for future research. Second, through nine propositions, the authors establish a causal relationship between performance measurement, performance management, employee engagement and performance. Third, the authors identify a gap in knowledge concerning the design of organisational controls in the context of the process that is being managed.

The purpose of this paper aims to make contributions to the debate on “performance measurement in practice” focussing on how organisational participants respond to the “new regime” of key performance indicators (KPIs) and whether KPIs materialise as intended in a transitional economy.

Inspired by the epistemological instruction of Schatzki's practice theory, this paper draws on qualitative data collected through face-to-face interviews, observations and documentary analysis of a single organisation.

KPIs were introduced at PK (a manufacturing concern in Czech Republic) but widely seen as contradictory, inconsequential, top-down and unrealistic. These lead organisational participants to adopt a pragmatic approach towards PM embracing KPIs' subjective assessment and manipulation, common sense or doing the job as given, and superficial compliance (symbolism).

The paper would be interesting to researchers because of its explanation of performance measurement practice in a distinct empirical setting, for its application of a practice theory inspired by Schatzki, and for inspiring new research agendas in transitional economies.

The paper recommends the mobilisation of artefacts, such as various forms of bottom-up discussions, to encourage interactions between organisational members and influence individual beliefs and practical understandings of the intended managerial projects.

The paper has focussed on “organisations of practice” to unravel the “doings” of organisational participants to explore the micro-processes of PM which otherwise would have been ignored. These “doings” and “sayings”, linked by pools of understanding, rules or instructions, and a teleoaffective structure, enabled the authors to unmask inherent tensions and contradictions in a new regime of performance measures such as KPIs.

The purpose of this paper is to present an exception to the common belief “If you can't measure it, you can't manage it”. It aims to show how in certain situations particular practices, attitudes and cultures can remove the need for individual performance measurement.

First, the paper identifies the usual roles of performance measurement in managing individual employees as described by control and motivation theorists. Second, it identifies a market‐leading organisation where managers deliberately refuse to use their top‐level performance measurement system to manage the performance of individual employees. A case study is carried out to test what non‐measurement mechanisms fulfil the roles of individual performance measurement in this organisation.

Building on situations observed at this company, a set of possible characteristics of companies that do not require formalised individual performance measurement systems in order to achieve high performance standards is put forward.

Managers should not always assume that individual performance measurement is the only way to achieve excellent performance. This study shows that, by granting responsibilities and providing appropriate support, managers can channel workers' enhanced motivation towards meeting wider organisational goals.

This work broadens the understanding of how excellent performance can be achieved. It shows that excellence can be achieved through practices based on shared values linked to motivation, trust, and a common sense of mission, without the need to install individual performance measurement systems based on cybernetic principles.

In many countries today there is a debate on how to improve accounting to recognise also the non‐material value of companies. As a contribution to this debate, the Swedish Public Relations Association has initiated a project to develop the know‐how of how a company's profits and value can increase through investments in information, communications and relationships. The project applies also to the public sector and other organisations.

This study examines how employee participation in the performance measurement system affects the relationship between authentic leadership and job satisfaction.

Survey data for this study were obtained from 322 employees in South Korea. Structural equation modeling and bootstrapping method were applied to test the proposed hypotheses.

This study first confirmed that authentic leadership positively affects job satisfaction. In addition, the results showed that employees' participation in developing performance measures partially mediated the relationship between authentic leadership and job satisfaction.

The findings imply that employees' participation in developing performance measures, which is promoted by authentic leadership, can be a strategy for enhancing job satisfaction. Therefore, in order to increase employees' job satisfaction, organizations need to promote employee participation in the performance measurement system and develop authenticity in leaders.

Employees' participation in developing performance measures has not been investigated sufficiently from the leadership perspective. This study expands the literature on the influence of employee participation in the performance measurement system on work-related outcomes by demonstrating that employees' participation in developing performance measures partially mediates the effect of authentic leadership on employee job satisfaction.

The purpose of the study is to explore the relationship between performance measurement systems (PMSs) and organizational learning (OL) and the impact on firm human capital building.

Data were collected using a survey instrument. Then, a structural equation model (SEM) was used to test the proposed model.

The results reveal that PMS, which is designed with three main qualities – valid, comprehensive, and coherent with its environment – has an overall positive relationship with OL and firm's human capital (employee satisfaction and work‐related competencies). First, the validity of the individual performance measure is found to be positively linked to employee satisfaction. Second, the comprehensiveness of the PMS and work‐related competencies are positively associated. Third, the coherence of the PMS with its environment has a positive relationship with OL but not directly with the human capital indicators. Thus, OL, which is positively associated with both work‐related competencies and employee satisfaction, mediates the relationship between the coherence of the PMS and the work‐related competencies.

There are some linkages among these three concepts (PMS, OL and human capital) that have not been specifically explored in the existing relevant studies. Previous studies have asserted that human capital could not be utilized and nurtured without supporting infrastructure. Therefore, this study explores the relationships among the three constructs to uncover the additional benefits of PMS and OL for different purposes such as building firm's human capital. This could help firms to improve the utilization of their existing management tools and their competitiveness.

This paper aims to interpret and compare managerial intentions for and employee perceptions of group-based incentive systems.

The data comprise interviews with managers and employees in four Finnish firms with experience of company-wide incentive systems involving profit-sharing and team-based rewards. Benefitting from social exchange theory, managers’ intentions and employees’ perceptions are examined.

Managers’ and employees’ views resemble each other concerning profit-sharing as reflecting reciprocity rooted in perceived distributive fairness, whereas examination of the team-based rewards revealed impediments in reciprocity. While managerial intentions for team-based rewards refer to social exchange with economic intensity via selection of controllable performance measurements aimed at making individual-level effort count, the employees’ perceptions deem such metrics non-controllable, reflecting perceived distributive and procedural unfairness.

Profit-sharing seems to create fair social obligation and goal congruence between managers and employees, whereas team-based incentives easily suffer from unfairness, reducing their effectiveness.

Distinguishing between managerial intentions and employee perceptions pertaining to incentive systems facilitated in-depth exploration of the social exchange inherent in them, conceptualized in terms of economic intensity, fairness and controllability. With this lens, qualitative analysis revealed differences in interpretations of controllability and fairness between the managerial intentions and employee perceptions. The central contribution to scholarship takes the form of interpretations reflecting upon these key findings.

The purpose of this paper is to present a case study demonstrating the role of performance measurement systems (PMS) in driving strategic transformation.

Using a case study approach this paper analyses how Babcock Marine, a service provider to the Ministry of Defence (MoD), is using performance measurement as a catalyst to bring about strategic transformation at Her Majesty's Naval Base – Clyde. Transformation is required to facilitate a new public‐private sector contractual and financial relationship.

This paper highlights the differences between the use of PMS in static and dynamic (transformational) environments. It proposes that the balanced scorecard is a useful tool to monitor the pace of change and communicate the status of the change. It indicates that during the transformation program care must be taken to ensure that the measures used stay aligned with strategic objectives and that the balanced scorecard does not become cumbersome in terms of number of measures and administrative overhead. Finally it suggests that even in the absence of other critical success factors normally associated with transformation (such as a clear transformation plan and a strong ongoing communication mechanism), the balanced scorecard can provide structure and focus which will help to maintain the pace of change. It therefore demonstrates that the introduction of a performance management system can be complementary to the process of strategic transformation.

The paper provides empirical evidence of PMS supporting transformation even in the absence of other critical success factors normally associated with strategic transformation.