{
  "title": "Prioritisation: when metrics decide the agenda",
  "url": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog/prioriser-quand-les-indicateurs-decident-de-l-agenda-en",
  "language": "en",
  "datePublished": "2026-06-09",
  "publisher": {
    "name": "SHR — Swiss Human Resources",
    "url": "https://www.shr.swiss",
    "address": "Esplanade de Pont-Rouge 9A, 1212 Lancy, Suisse"
  },
  "summary": "A dashboard does more than describe work: it can influence how much time people devote to it. The literature suggests examining what it rewards before asking teams to prioritise better.",
  "section": "Research",
  "topic": "Time Management & Prioritisation",
  "place": {
    "name": "Basel",
    "region": "Bâle-Ville",
    "country": "CH"
  },
  "keyPoints": [
    {
      "heading": "What the literature establishes",
      "point": "Steven Kerr (1975, Academy of Management Journal) examines a recurring organisational mismatch: rewarding certain behaviours while claiming to want others."
    },
    {
      "heading": "The mechanism: shifting effort towards what gets measured",
      "point": "Bengt Holmström and Paul Milgrom (1991, Journal of Law, Economics, & Organization) formalise this problem in a model where one person performs several tasks whose outcomes are not equally measurable."
    },
    {
      "heading": "The premature conclusion",
      "point": "One might conclude that numerical targets should be abolished or that every activity should be measured."
    },
    {
      "heading": "What these works cannot quantify",
      "point": "An organisational analysis and an economic model cannot establish how many hours a team loses pursuing a poorly chosen metric."
    },
    {
      "heading": "A practical check in Bâle",
      "point": "In Basel, a pharmaceutical or life sciences team, a Rhine logistics unit or an international R&D group can test this alignment over two weeks, using a protocol proposed here rather than taken from the cited studies."
    }
  ],
  "sources": [
    {
      "authors": "Kerr",
      "year": "1975",
      "source": "Academy of Management Journal"
    },
    {
      "authors": "Milgrom",
      "year": "1991",
      "source": "Journal of Law, Economics, & Organization"
    }
  ],
  "wordCount": 436,
  "image": "https://www.shr.swiss/img/blog-editorial-2026-06-09-en.jpg?v=4",
  "translations": {
    "fr": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog/prioriser-quand-les-indicateurs-decident-de-l-agenda",
    "en": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog/prioriser-quand-les-indicateurs-decident-de-l-agenda-en",
    "de": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog/prioriser-quand-les-indicateurs-decident-de-l-agenda-de",
    "it": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog/prioriser-quand-les-indicateurs-decident-de-l-agenda-it"
  },
  "relatedPages": {
    "programme": "https://www.shr.swiss/formation/gestion-du-temps/bale",
    "city": "https://www.shr.swiss/formations-ville/bale",
    "blog": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog"
  },
  "citationPolicy": "Citation autorisée avec mention « SHR — Swiss Human Resources » et lien vers l'article."
}