PhD Project opportunity at Cranfield School of Management within the area of Business Performance Management and Strategy. http://www.cranfield.ac.uk/som/phd

1. Target Gaming, Organizational Deviance
and the Unintended Consequences of
Performance Measurement [PhD Project]
Strong candidate
sought to study the
impact of performance
measurement on
organizational behaviour.
“Youwerethechosenone!"byKyknoordislicensedunderCCBY2.0
www.cranfield.ac.uk/som/phd
working on understanding the full effect of using performance measurement in
organizations and will challenge the prevailing view of performance measurement as an
effective instrument for leading change and managing strategy execution.
Admission requirements:
• a strong first degree (UK level 2.1 minimum)
• please see website for English language requirements.
Deadlines:
• applications for scholarships – mid-April.
Expressions of interest, alongside a CV, are invited via email to
andrey.pavlov@cranfield.ac.uk in the first instance.
See full details on our website.
The concepts of “alignment”, “cascading”, and “strategic performance management” have come
to dominate recent research in performance measurement. They have also been eagerly
adopted by many organizations, where performance measurement has become the standard
tool for implementing strategies and ensuring consistent behaviours.
However, the dismal success rate of performance measurement initiatives and the additional
problems they cause are starting to raise serious questions. Recent revelations of data
manipulation by the NHS and the Police in the UK as well as in the Education sector in the USA
suggest that measures can - and do! - drive behaviours that were not intended by those who put
the measures in place. Performance measurement may in fact be a crude way of interfering in
organizations rather than a sophisticated instrument for implementing strategies. Moreover, the
use of measurement may be driven by its ability to mask managerial incompetence and serve
the desire for control rather than by its benefits for managing organizations.
So what drives the dysfunctional consequences of measurement? What is its impact on
people’s behaviour? How does it affect collaboration, cooperation, and trust? You will be
Supervisors:
Dr Andrey Pavlov, Professor Cliff Bowman & Professor Mike Bourne