PurposeSets out to stress the need to adjust performance management to the deficiencies inherent in the output controls within The Netherlands defence forces.Design/methodology/approachBy analysing the management control reforms of the recent past, the paper assesses the scope for a “decision revelation” within the Defence organisation. It develops a framework for disclosure of decentralised decision making focusing on the allocation of labour time within the fixed labour force. Recent developments in the Defence organisation units for officer education and training are used to illustrate the framework.FindingsManagement control systems fail because of weaknesses in the management accounting information underlying them. Management accounting information with respect to defence expense budgets does not grasp the relevant decentralised decision making to be controlled. This decision making is primarily concerned with the opportunity costs of the allocation of time within the labour force of the Dutch Department of Defence.Practical implicationsVariability of costs should be disclosed in terms of labour time information. Budgetary accounting restricted to the department's (fixed) expenses on military personnel will not reveal for which purposes defence money is actually spent.Originality/valueOutlines a framework for decision revelation as a base for management contracting between central management and lower level organisation units.
This article investigates how and to what extent performance indicators in Dutch central government are actually embedded in performance management. In a case study encompassing 12 government organizations, the relevance of the indicators presented is analysed in three stages: (1) with respect to the responsibilities for results intended in performance measurement, (2) with respect to responsibilities actually implied in resource allocation and (3) with respect to responsibilities ultimately to be inferred from governance – planning and control – systems applied. In our research, management control systems appear to be only partially tuned to the performance indicators specified in advance. The familiar expression ‘What you measure is what you get’ is thereby invalidated by all kinds of restrictions imposed on a manager’s actual responsibility for measurement outcomes.
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