Fad and fashion? The relevance of subjective performance measures

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of the use of subjective (objective) performance measures on relevant organisational outcomes, namely perceived managerial discretion (PMD) and manager’s satisfaction with the performance measurement system (PMS). Furthermore, the paper analyses the indirect link between subjective vs objective measures and managers’ satisfaction through PMD. Design/methodology/approach To test the research hypotheses, a paper-based questionnaire was sent to Italian health care managers in Lombardy. Thus, a PLS-SEM analysis was performed on a data set of 97 Italian health care managers. Findings Empirical findings showed that objective measures are more capable of supporting the managerial perception of discretion when compared to more subjective ones such as “fads” and “fashions”, and that managers are more satisfied with the PMS when it is grounded on objective measures rather than subjective ones. Originality/value The paper operationalizes and empirically tests the measure of PMD, linking this to antecedents and consequences. It also extends the literature on subjectivity in the PMS, since it develops new knowledge on the choice between subjective and objective measures by applying this choice to a variety of PMS, whereas prior literature on objective vs subjective measures has mainly focussed on performance evaluation.