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This study aims to explain how negative workplace interactions are formed by the application of a performance management system (PMS).

The study draws from unique in-depth interviews with service workers who resigned from an accounting shared service centre (SSC), discussing the reasons behind the resignations. Following an abductive approach, organisational justice theory is used to analyse the service workers' perceptions of negative interactions and to link the negative interactions to the use of the PMS.

The findings suggest that negative workplace interactions are characterised by cost consciousness, inequality and competitiveness. These interactions are attributed to the use of a PMS in the centre and are related to perceptions of distributive, procedural and interactional injustice.

Managers and leaders of shared service–type organisations should not rely on PMSs as an all-encompassing solution; instead, they should acknowledge the fairness of the use of PMSs. Moreover, HR professionals should choose and train employees to apply PMSs fairly. Fairness is important in work allocation, resourcing, monitoring, giving feedback, recognising good performance, promotion and interaction between peers.

This study contributes to the literature by taking an overall perspective on PMSs to analyse and explain the unintended negative consequences of a PMS in a highly scripted and monitored work environment that is usually considered appropriate for such a system's use. Through the analysis, the study highlights pitfalls in the use of a PMS and the importance of interactional injustice not only between but also within organisational levels.

Managing a complex, boundary‐spanning function to maximize its contribution to the firm can be a challenging task. This research is concerned with providing management with increased understanding of the effects of different ways of managing a function, especially a significant boundary‐spanning operation. Conducted in the context of a procurement function, through a laboratory experiment, explores the impact of performance measures, interaction with other internal organizations and access to information about external events on an individual′s decision making and “comfort level”. Results indicate that the performance measurement system determines an individual′s decision‐making performance. The broader, more effectiveness‐oriented measures also tend to make the individuals more confident and satisfied with their operating environment and decisions. The availability of interaction with other internal organizations and the access to information about external events impact on an individual′s decisions but have relatively little effect on his/her comfort level.

The purpose of this article is to explore and explain the existence and implementation of performance management practices in four public universities in Uganda.

A mixed‐method study approach (qualitative and quantitative) was adopted. A sample of 900 employees was drawn using a disproportionate stratified purposive sampling approach that yielded a 53 per cent response rate. Of the participants, 12 were purposively selected from top management members and interviewed using a semi‐structured interview guide. Using Nvivo software and Miles and Huberman approaches, interview data were managed and analysed.

Qualitative data results revealed that employees in public universities built relationships, utilised available resources, adapted to external environment, set goals and targets. This was made possible through planning, mobilising resources, problem solving, evaluating performance and adopting ICT to deliver cost‐effective quality services/products. The hypotheses were tested and revealed a significant positive relationship between performance management practices and managed performance (r=0.25, p<0.001). A moderating influence of organisational culture and climate on performance management practices and managed performance was also established and confirmed (ΔR²=0.012) significantly above zero (p =0.015).

Cross‐sectional studies by their nature are subject to common method variances; further refinement of the instrument and a replication of the study using a longitudinal approach are recommended. Also, the additional studies should be supplemented with in‐depth interviews or case studies where possible to tap salient issues from the respondents.

Public universities should have visionary managers who should manage strategic barriers, attract and retain thinkers, and also create result‐oriented relationships to make a dynamic contribution to the development process of Uganda.

Mass university education in Uganda today calls for new approaches to managing employees in order to balance cost, quality and education access.

The aim of this paper is to investigate how social exchanges modify the relationship between psychological contract breach and work performance. It aims to present two concurrent hypotheses, based on theoretical interaction effects of social exchanges (conceptualized as social exchange relationships, POS, and trust).

Data were collected from a sample of 266 employees in a service sector company in the USA. Regression analysis was used to explore the moderating effects of social exchanges on the relationships between psychological contract breach and work performance (operationalized as in‐role behaviors and organizational citizenship behaviors).

It was found that the negative relationship between psychological contract breach and work performance was moderated by social exchanges, such that the relationship was stronger for employees with high social exchange relationship, perceived organizational support, and trust.

The data were collected cross‐sectionally, and thus causal inferences have to be made with caution. Moreover, the data were collected from a single source. The study shows that the relations between contract breach and outcomes are moderated by the existing relationship between employee and organization.

Although organizations may invest in long‐term relationships with their employees, psychological contract breaches have a profound impact on work performance. Therefore, organizations should diminish perceptions of contract breach; for instance by providing realistic expectations.

The paper provides new theoretical insights on how social exchange can have two distinct effects on the breach‐outcomes relations. It shows that social exchanges moderate the relations between contract breach and work performance.

What is contractual governance in a scenario of performance management? When approached from a static viewpoint, contracting is largely connected with the securing of resources, thus acquiring a capacity focus. In this article, we focus on contractual governance as a part of performance management for a stakeholder network in a specific, government‐controlled context: Public Transport. In order to contribute to more dynamic and sustainable public service, a more process‐oriented approach to contractual governance is necessary. Public Transportation in Sweden has undergone an initial wave of development, the production paradigm, and is now undergoing what is more a second wave of service, the service paradigm. A third wave of development is approaching: sustainability. We argue that contractual governance creates a more dynamic contractual relationship as a key element of performance management leading to more sustainable public service. We also argue that a proactive approach during the mission will positively affect all the stakeholders involved.

The purpose of this chapter is to provide a comprehensive review of empirical research on performance management (PM) in former communist Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries, to evaluate the state of knowledge in this area and suggest possible directions for future research.

An examination of the literature was undertaken to review the empirical studies treating on PM in ex-communist countries from CEE. A total of 96 journal articles, PhD thesis, and conference papers were identified, categorized, and analyzed according to research questions, methodology, and theoretical framework. Contributions are classified by countries, according to progress in transition process (post-transition/transition countries) and membership in the Soviet Union (Soviet/non-Soviet countries). The review examines publications in four languages (English, French, Romanian, and Russian).

The literature review identified various stages of development of PM research and practice in the different groups of CEE countries.

In post-transition CEE countries, PM research follows the trends settled up in the developed countries (quantitative studies examining the extent of usage of different PM tools, influence of contingent factors, relationship PM-strategy, and impact on company’s performance). Also, the findings illustrate the modernization of PM practices: increasing importance of nonfinancial indicators and integrated performance management systems (PMS), although financial indicators are prevailing.

On the contrary, in transition countries PM research and practices are at an early stage, the reviewed literature highlights some specific issues related to transition context: the dynamic aspect of PM, change management, importance of informal systems, cultural aspects, and business traditions.

Because of the large number of CEE countries and the diversity of their national languages, many studies conducted in native languages have not been addressed in this literature review, which is essentially based on publications in English and French. Only for three CEE countries (Russia, Romania, and Moldova) publications in national language were considered.

This literature review may be useful for practitioners, providing insights on the extent of diffusion and usage of different PM tools and identifying difficulties and pitfalls to avoid in their implementation.

The chapter represents one of the first contributions to the knowledge about PM research and practice in former communist CEE countries. The adopted framework for reviewing and classifying the literature allows identifying the differences in PM research and practices between post-transition/transition and Soviet/non-Soviet countries.

This study aims to explore the role of individuals’ habitus in an organization’s performance measurement practices. Habitus refers to how individuals with a particular background perceive and react to the social world.

Drawing from the habitus philosophy developed by Bourdieu in his practice theory (Bourdieu, 1977), this study used a qualitative research methodology involving face-to-face interviews, observations of performance evaluation meetings and examination of documents within a Sri Lankan public university.

The authors revealed the power of university individuals as they possess practical knowledge in their field where they operate to make effects in the practice of a performance measurement system (PMS). In addition, the research findings show that mutually opposing strategies, self-interests and individuals’ varied power relations collectively play a dominant role in deciding the practical operation of the PMS at the university.

While this study is constrained to a Sri Lankan public university, its findings offer insights into how individuals within an organization can emerge as influential players in PMS practice.

The findings enhance the understanding of how PMS practice may operate beyond traditional, calculative and abstract forms in an organizational setting. Instead, individuals, as micro-level forces in a specific social space, shape organizational practices, such as PMS, in universities.

This paper aims to address the growth and importance of build‐to‐order (BTO) supply chains, which allow consumers and supply chain participants to select, configure, purchase and view order delivery status. The paper supports BTO as a source of critical competitive advantage to many organizations.

This paper uses an interpretivist case study research strategy that exploits multiple research methods. It presents an overview of supply chain management (including BTO‐centric approaches) and performance management and then focuses on a case study in which an aerospace components company was attempting to become a BTO enterprise. Thenceforth, the paper analyses key business drivers of using performance management systems (PeMS), and how supply chain‐oriented organizations can best leverage IT and PeMS solutions in this regard.

The case study has highlighted the need for the evaluation of PeMS implementation solutions regardless of their typology; wholly vendor‐based, best of breed or combination of vendor solution and in‐house development, but also an internal audit of processes and existing IS that would aid the implementation of such a concept. Furthermore, the intra‐ and inter‐company political/social/commercial tensions (e.g. relating to anxieties about measuring and highlighting relative business performance) need to be recognized, acknowledged in an open/honest manner and addressed in order that such tensions do not outweigh the concept justifiers which drive systems improvements. Education, ownership, responsibility, sponsorship, openness and collaboration between and amongst the supply chain participants will aid in overcoming these barriers.

This paper offers a novel insight into BTO supply chains.

The aim of this paper is to provide a validated theoretical framework for the measurement of office productivity.

The study's strength is that it is based on two sizable data sets. The data collected consists of data about the physical characteristics of the office environment and data pertaining to the behavioural environment.

One of the key contributions of this study was the development of the components of office productivity, which were: comfort, office layout, informal interaction points, environmental services, designated areas, interaction and distraction. The components were reduced to four in preparation for subsequent analysis. The four distinct components were comfort, office layout, interaction and distraction.

This study establishes that it is the behavioural environment that has the greatest impact on office productivity. It demonstrates that it is the dynamic elements of the office environment, interaction and distraction that are perceived as having the greatest positive and negative influences on self assessed productivity.

This paper aims to provide a perspective on the office productivity debate, with a particular focus on providing a framework for examining those factors relating to the design and management of the office environment.

The approach taken has been to examine the plethora of factors that might be involved, principally through a literature review, and then to group these into four generic areas of enquiry. Within each of these, potential measures of productivity are described, and these are connected to building lifecycle decisions.

Combined, the findings produce a practical framework within which various actors in the design, delivery and management offices can understand and influence the productivity question. In this way, the findings have practical implications rather than simply describing the factors that influence productivity.

The paper develops a report produced in 2017 for the British Council for Offices. Building on the main findings of the original work, this paper expands the literature review, provides more context regarding the significance of office productivity and expands upon the conclusions. The author fully acknowledges the contributions of the whole research team behind the original paper. The originality of the work lies in its development of a framework that can be applied by practitioners in the built environment.