Change management: do performance measures reward yesterday's priorities?
A transformation can alter stated objectives without changing the criteria that determine a bonus, a promotion or a favourable appraisal. The practical question is precise: are employees assessed on what the change now asks them to prioritise?
What the literature establishes
Steven Kerr (1975, Academy of Management Journal) examines a recurring contradiction: organisations sometimes reward behaviours other than those they claim to want. His article draws on examples from several fields, rather than an experiment measuring the effect of a single intervention. For change management, it suggests examining actual rewards as closely as stated intentions.
The mechanism: effort also follows what is measured
Bengt Holmström and Paul Milgrom (1991, Journal of Law, Economics, & Organization) propose a theoretical model in which a person allocates effort across tasks whose outcomes differ in how easily they can be measured. Strong incentives attached to an easily observed dimension can divert effort from other important dimensions. Applied to change, this mechanism highlights the risk of asking for greater cooperation while continuing to reward individual output exclusively.
The hasty conclusion
It would be tempting to conclude that replacing old measures with new ones is enough. Yet a cooperation metric can also reward visible evidence rather than a useful contribution. The issue is therefore not to make everything measurable, but to check which priorities assessment criteria make rational in everyday work. (our executive and employee training programmes)
What these studies cannot promise
Neither article provides a causal evaluation of transformation programmes: one develops an analysis through examples, the other a formal model. They do not quantify the gains to be expected from changing bonuses or objectives. In practice, safety obligations, professional rules and dependencies between teams also constrain the criteria management can change.
A practical check in Sion
As part of the SHR — Swiss Human Resources change management programme, one possible exercise in Sion is to select a new priority: coordinated hydropower maintenance, continuity of care, wine-sector traceability or cooperation between alpine tourism providers. For one month, record each documented trade-off in which this priority conflicts with an existing objective, noting the decision and the assessment criterion invoked. Then calculate the proportion of these trade-offs decided in favour of the old objective, reporting the number of cases observed and retaining supporting records for inspection. This record does not establish a causal effect of incentives, but it makes it possible to check whether the criteria actually used support the announced priority. To go further: explore the Change Leadership training in Sion in the canton of Valais, or browse our executive and employee training programmes in Switzerland.
In pictures: Change Leadership in Sion
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