Quantitative performance measurements produce undesired outputs

<p>Although it has been a trend for the past several decades, quantitatively measuring performance of people or companies may produce unintended consequences. </p> <blockquote> <p>indiscriminate use and undue confidence and reliance in them result from insufficient knowledge of the full effects and consequences. - [<a class="litnote tooltip" href="/literature/@ridgway1956">@ridgway1956<span class="tooltiptext">Dysfunctional Consequences of Performance Measurements</span></a>]</p> </blockquote> <p>When <a class="wikilink" href="/measuring_performance_using_single_criteria/">measuring performance using single criteria</a> it is likely that people will be incentivized to optimize for those specific performance metrics. This is visible in the <a class="wikilink" href="/publish_or_perish/">publish or perish</a> attitude in academia, for example, which gives raise to <a class="wikilink" href="/problems_with_citation-based_metrics/">problems with citation-based metrics</a>. </p> <p>Of course it is possible to try to overcome this by <a class="wikilink" href="/quantifying_performance_using_multiple_measurements/">quantifying performance using multiple measurements</a>. Of course this will have normalization problems, so it is easy to start building ratios between quantities. The biggest challenge is that this leads to a variety of metrics that change over time and from place to place. This is exactly one of the discussions regarding the <a class="wikilink" href="/exchange_rate_of_scientific_output/">exchange rate of scientific output</a>. </p> <p>The other approach would be to use <a class="wikilink" href="/composite_measures_of_performance/">composite measures of performance</a>, which is essentially a clear way of adding multiple measurements, including their weights. Although it may seem a more appropriate way forward, experience shows that this approach creates strain in organizations, and can induce culture shifts[<a class="litnote tooltip" href="/literature/@ridgway1956">@ridgway1956<span class="tooltiptext">Dysfunctional Consequences of Performance Measurements</span></a>].</p>