Performance management: observations from empirical work

Abstract

A review of field studies in Accounting, Organizations and Society and Management Accounting Research from 1990-2003 (in press) finds that there are few field studies that examine overall performance management processes in any depth. The review highlights the fragmentary nature of performance management research in terms of the performance management elements and method. To develop a cumulative body of performance management research, future research needs to examine the operation of overall performance management processes by using in-depth research methods to understand the use, rather than the existence of performance management processes.