abstract and formulaic knowledge, 59–60
“Academic Ranking of World Universities,” 75–76
accountability, 3–6; advocates of, 17–18, 113; growth in applications of, 63–64; quest for numerical metrics of, 40
Acemoglu, Daron, 72
achievement gap, 20, 91, 96–99
Adelphia, 144
Affordable Care Act, 104, 114–15
agency capitalism, 148
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, 94
Annals of Internal Medicine, 115–16
Arnold, Matthew, 12, 30–31, 92
authority, suspicion of, 41
Autor, David, 72
Baumol, William, 44
Bell, Daniel, 33
benchmarks, 6
Benghazi investigations, 162
Bin Laden, Osama, 171
BlackRock, 149
Blair, Tony, 114
bounded rationality, 45
Bowen, William G., 44
Bratton, William J., 126
Bush, George W., 11, 64, 89, 90
business and finance: financial crisis of 2008 and, 145–47; other dysfunctions in, 150–51; short-termism in, 147–50; when paying for performance works, and when it doesn’t, in, 137–45
business schools, 12–13, 138–39
Cable, Dan, 138
Campbell’s Law, 19, 24, 80, 93, 127
capitalism, 87, 172; agency, 148
case selection bias, 117–18. See also creaming
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, 112, 119
cheating, 24
Chronicle of Higher Education, The, 76
Circle, The, 140
civil rights law, 42
Cleveland Clinic, 107–8, 110–11, 117
Clinton, Hillary, 162
Coleman Report, 98
colleges and universities. See higher education
Collini, Stefan, 40
Commission on the Future of Higher Education, 11
“complicatedness,” 45
Comte, Auguste, 169
Connable, Ben, 135
Conquest, Robert, 45
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, 143
cooperation and common purpose, discouragement of, 172
cost disease, 44
Counterinsurgency, 132
counterinsurgency metrics, 131–35
Countrywide, 146
Cubberley, Ellwood P., 33
Cukier, Kenneth, 35
Daschle, Tom, 161
degrading information quality through standardization, 24
Department of Defense, U.S., 131
Department of Education, U.S., 67
diminishing utility of metrics, 170
diplomacy and intelligence, 162–65
discouragement of risk-taking, 171
distortion of information, 23–24
Doctor’s Dilemma, The, 40
Ebbers, Bernard, 144
Eggers, Dave, 140
Embracing the Fog of War: Assessment and Metrics in Counterinsurgency, 135
EpiPen, 141
“Equal Educational Opportunity,” 98
Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015, 96
extrinsic rewards, 53–57, 119–20, 137–38, 144
Federal Bureau of Investigation, 127–28
Federal Reserve Board, 142
Ferguson, Niall, 145
financial crisis of 2008, 145–47
Fink, Larry, 149
fixation, metric. See metric fixation
Forbes, 76
Ford Motor Company, 34
foreign aid and philanthropy, 153–56
Freedom of Information Act, 162
From Higher Aims to Hired Hands: The Social Transformation of American Business Schools and the Unfulfilled Promise of Management as a Profession, 12
gaming the metrics, 3, 24–25, 149–50
Geisinger Health System, 108–9, 110–11, 123
General Motors, 33
Geographical Information Systems (GIS), 126
goals: displacement of, through diversion of effort, 169–70; value of short-term over long-term, 20
Google Scholar, 79
Government Accountability Office, 156
Guardian, The, 163
Hayek, Friedrich, 12, 59, 60–61
Healthgrades, 115
Henderson, Rebecca, 150
higher education, 9–14, 175–76; designed to make money, 86–87; encouraging everyone to pursue, 67–68; grading institutions in, 81–86; higher metrics through lower standards in, 69–73; measuring academic productivity, 78–80; pressure to measure performance in, 73–75; raising the number of winners lowering the value of winning with, 68–69; rankings, 75–78; value and limits of rankings in, 81
high-stakes testing, 93
Howard, Philip K., 41
impact factor measurement, 79
Improving America’s Schools Act, 90
information, distortion of, 23–24
innovation, 20; discouragement of, 140, 150–51, 171–72; employees moving to organizations that encourage, 173; unmeasurable risk for potential benefits of, 61–62
intimacy, 160
intrinsic rewards, 53–57, 119–20
Johns Hopkins University, 109–10
Johnson, Lyndon, 98
Joint Commission, 115
Joint Stock Companies Act, 30
judgment, 6–7; distrust of, 39–42; measurement demanding, 176–77
“juking the stats,” 2
Kelvin, Lord, 17
Kennedy, Edward, 90
Keystone project, 109–10, 111–12, 176
Khurana, Rakesh, 12
Kiplinger, 76
Klarman, Seth, 47
knowledge: forms of, 59–60; practical, local, 62; pretense of, 60
Kohn, Alfie, 62
Kolberg, William, 90
Kozlowski, Dennis, 144
Lancelot, William, 33
leadership and organizational complexity, 44–47
Levy, Steven, 47
Limited Liability Act, 30
litigation, fear of, 42
London Business School, 138–39
luxury goods, 104
Manning, Bradley (later Chelsea),162–63
Mass Flourishing: How Grassroots Innovation Created Jobs, Challenge, and Change, 172
Masters of Management, 13
materialist bias, 36
Mayer-Schönberger, Viktor, 35
measurement and improvement, 16–17, 101, 107, 111, 119, 123, 132, 176, 183
measuring inputs rather than outcomes, 23–24
“Measuring Progress in Afghanistan,” 132
measuring the most easily measurable, 23
measuring the simple when the desired outcome is complex, 23
Medicaid, 104
medicine: broader picture on metrics, pay-for-performance, rankings, and report cards in, 112–20; case selection bias in, 117–18; Cleveland Clinic, 107–8, 110–11; conclusions from success in, 110–12; cost disease and, 44; discouraging cooperation and common purpose in, 172; financial push to control costs in, 103–4, 119–20; Geisinger Health System, 108–9, 110–11, 123; Keystone project, 109–10, 111–12, 176; measured performance metrics in, 2–5, 107, 123, 176; ranking the American system of, 105–7; reducing readmissions test case, 120–23; rise of metric fixation with increased critique of, 42–43; tales of success in, 107–10
metric fixation, 4–9, 13; in business and finance, 137–51; cost disease and, 44; critique of the professions and apotheosis of choice in, 42–44; defined, 18; distortion of information with, 23–24; distrust of judgment leading to, 39–42; in higher education, 9–14, 67–87, 175–76; innovation and creativity stifled by, 20; key components of, 18; leadership and organizational complexity and, 44–47; lure of electronic spreadsheets in, 47; managerialism and, 34–37; in medicine, 2–5, 42–44, 103–23, 172, 176; by the military, 35–37, 131–35, 176; negative transformations of nature of work with, 19; pay for performance and, 19; in philanthropy and foreign aid, 153–56; in policing, 125–29, 175; predicting and avoiding negative consequences of, 169–73; recurrent flaws in, 23–25; relationship between measurement and improvement in, 17–19; in schools, 11, 24, 89, 175–76; Taylorism and, 31–34; theory of motivation and, 19–20; and transparency as enemy of performance, 159–65
metrics: checklist for when and how to use, 175–83; corruption or goal diversion in gathering and using, 182; costs of acquiring, 180; development of measures for, 181; diagnostic, 92–93, 103, 110, 123, 126, 176; diminishing utility of, 170; gaming the, 3, 23–24, 149–50; kind of information measured by, 177; media depictions of, 1–4; philosophical critiques of, 59–64; purposes of specific measurements and, 178–79; reasons leaders ask for, 180–81; recognition that not all problems are solvable by, 182–83; transactional costs of, 170; used to replace judgment, 6–7; usefulness of information from, 177–78
Michigan Keystone ICU Project, 109–10, 111–12, 176
Middle States Commission on Higher Education, 10–11
military, American, 35–37, 131–35, 176
Minsky, Hyman, 148
Mintzberg, Henry, 52
Mitchell, Ted, 82
Moneyball, 7
mortgage backed securities, 146–47
motivation: extrinsic and intrinsic rewards and, 53–57, 119–20, 137–38, 144; theory of, 19–20
Muller, Jerry Z., 79
National Alliance of Business, 90
National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), 91, 97, 99
National Center for Educational Statistics, 97
National Center on Performance Incentives, 95–96
National Health Service, 104, 114, 116–17
National Security Agency, 163
Newsweek, 76
No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, 11, 24, 89, 100; problem addressed by, 89–91, 96; Race to the Top after, 94–95; unintended consequences of, 92–94. See also schools
Obama, Barack, 33, 81–82, 85, 94
Obsessive Measurement Disorder, 155–56
Office of Management and Budget, U.S., 155, 156
organizational complexity and leadership, 44–47
Patten, Simon, 32
pay for performance, 19; in business and finance, 137–45; extrinsic and intrinsic rewards and, 53–57; in medicine, 114–16; in New Public Management, 52; origins of, 29–31; in schools, 95–96; situations for successful use of, 179–80; Taylorism and, 31–32
performance measurement, 8, 63–64, 74, 177, 180; college, 73–75; medicine, 2–5, 107, 123, 176; and transparency as enemy of performance, 159–65
Peters, Tom, 17
pharmaceutical industry, 140–42
Phelps, Edmund, 172
philanthropy and foreign aid, 153–56
philosophical critiques of metrics, 59–64
Polanyi, Michael, 59
politics and government, 160–62; Bush’s use of performance metrics in, 11, 64, 89, 90; diplomacy and intelligence in, 162–65; higher education and (see higher education); Obama’s use of performance metrics and, 33, 81–82, 85, 94; Obsessive Measurement Disorder in, 155–56; public policy related to accountability and, 12, 41, 73; schools and (see schools); Thatcher’s use of performance metrics in, 56–57, 62–63, 73
practical tacit knowledge, 59–60
pretense of knowledge, 60
Princeton Review, 76
productivity: increased numbers of college graduates and, 68; measuring academic, 78–80; metric fixation and costs of, 173
Pronovost, Peter, 109–10, 111–12, 176
Public School Administration, 33
Rand Corporation, 116, 131, 135
Rappaport, Alfred, 148
Ravitch, Diane, 89
remedial college courses, 70–71
Repenning, Nelson, 150
resistance to change, 46
rewarding of luck, 171
rewards, extrinsic and intrinsic, 53–57, 119–20, 137–38, 144
Rigas, John, 144
risk adjustment, 122
risk-taking, discouragement of, 62, 117–18, 171
rule cascades, 171
Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, 144–45
SAT and ACT tests, 70
schools, 11, 24, 89, 175–76; achievement gap in, 20, 91, 96–99; costs of attempted gap-closing in, 99–101; paying for performance in, 95–96; problems and purported solution of NCLB for, 89–91; Race to the Top and, 94–95, 100; unintended consequences of NCLB for, 92–94. See also No Child Left Behind Act of 2001
Scientific Institute for Quality of Healthcare (IQ Healthcare),113–14
Simon, David, 1
Smith, Adam, 12
Snowden, Edward, 163
social trust, lack of, 41
Soviet system, 61
Spellings, Margaret, 11
spreadsheets, 47
standards and standardization: costs of not relying on, 178; degrading information quality through, 23; higher metrics through lower, 69–73; improving numbers by lowering of, 23; Taylorism in, 33
Status and Trends in the Educational Achievement of Racial and Ethnic Groups, 97
Steele, Glenn D., 111
Taylor, Frederick Winslow, 32
Thatcher, Margaret, 56–57, 62–63, 73
time loss, 10, 11, 62, 74, 180, 182; in bureaucratic organizations, 156; caused by executives under the spell of metric fixation, 45; in charitable organizations, 154; in colleges and universities, 83; in education, 173; by employees, 170; increased performance measures leading to more, 18; in medicine, 119
Times Higher Education Supplement, 76
Tirole, Jean, 54
“Toxicity of Pay for Performance, The,” 119–20
transactional costs of metrics, 170. See also time loss
transparency, 3–4, 17–18, 113; diplomacy and intelligence, 162–65; as enemy of performance, 159–65; in government, 160–62
“Twice-Revised Code, The,” 30
Tyco, 144
unintended consequences of metric fixation: costs in employee time, 170; costs to productivity, 173; degradation of work, 172–73; diminishing utility, 170; discouraging cooperation and common purpose, 172; discouraging innovation, 140, 150–51, 171–72; discouraging risk-taking, 62, 117–18, 171; goals displacement, 169–70; by No Child Left Behind, 92–94; rewarding of luck, 171; rule cascades, 171; short-termism, 170
U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), 155, 156
US News and World Report, 76–77, 81, 115
value agenda, 107
Vermeulen, Freek, 138
Veterans Administration, 104
Wikileakism, 164
Witch Doctors, The, 13
Woodford, Neil, 139
Woodford Investment Management, 139
Woolridge, Adrian, 13
World Bank, 34
WorldCom, 144
World Health Organization, 105–6
“World Health Report 2000,” 105