ABSTRACT
Measuring performance can be fraught with problems and is notorious for creating unintended consequences and encouraging unhelpful behaviour as people strive to meet their targets. This chapter provides a framework for designing appropriate measures and an example of how this works in practice. It continues by providing guidance on how to create a measurement system that will achieve what you want. It highlights the main pitfalls and how to avoid them. There is special emphasis on different types of targets and the effect they have on performance and how to select the most appropriate target for the situation. Finally, there is a description of work conducted by researchers at Cranfield University showing the main problems associated with target setting with a recommendation on how to avoid them.
