The Tyranny of Metrics / Jerry Z. Muller.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Muller, Jerry Z., Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Organizational effectiveness--Measurement.

Organizational effectiveness.

Performance--Evaluation.

Performance.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (220 pages)

Place of Publication:

Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, [2019]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

How the obsession with quantifying human performance threatens business, medicine, education, government-and the quality of our livesToday, organizations of all kinds are ruled by the belief that the path to success is quantifying human performance, publicizing the results, and dividing up the rewards based on the numbers. But in our zeal to instill the evaluation process with scientific rigor, we've gone from measuring performance to fixating on measuring itself-and this tyranny of metrics now threatens the quality of our organizations and lives. In this brief, accessible, and powerful book, Jerry Muller uncovers the damage metrics are causing and shows how we can begin to fix the problem. Filled with examples from business, medicine, education, government, and other fields, the book explains why paying for measured performance doesn't work, why surgical scorecards may increase deaths, and much more. But Muller also shows that, when used as a complement to judgment based on personal experience, metrics can be beneficial, and he includes an invaluable checklist of when and how to use them. The result is an essential corrective to a harmful trend that increasingly affects us all.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Preface to the Paperback

Introduction

1. The Argument in a Nutshell

2. Recurring Flaws

3. The Origins of Measuring and Paying for Performance

4. Why Metrics Became So Popular

5. Principals, Agents, and Motivation

6. Philosophical Critiques

7. Colleges and Universities

8. Schools

9. Medicine

10. Policing

11. The Military

12. Business and Finance

13. Philanthropy and Foreign Aid

14. When Transparency Is the Enemy of Performance: Politics, Diplomacy, Intelligence, and Marriage

15. Unintended but Predictable Negative Consequences

16. When and How to Use Metrics: A Checklist

Acknowledgments

Notes

Index

Notes:

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 06. Apr 2020)

ISBN:

9780691191263

0691191263

OCLC:

1097665213