Keywords

performance measurement, strategic objective, surrogation, fMRI, SPMS

Abstract

A central feature of most organizations is the use of measures to represent key elements of performance across multiple strategic objectives. Prior research has demonstrated a tendency for individuals to treat these measures as though they are the higher-order strategic objectives the measures were intended to represent, as opposed to imperfect representations of those strategic objectives—a phenomenon labeled surrogation. We employ an experiment to further understand this phenomenon. In this study, we capture neural activation when processing measures and when processing strategic objectives. We find that differences in brain activity when processing measures and strategic objectives are similar to the differences in brain activity when processing concrete and abstract words. We further find evidence that greater brain activity and longer response times are associated with less surrogation. This affirms the notion that increased cognitive involvement can reduce surrogation.

Original Publication Citation

Black, Paul and Kirwan, C. Brock and Meservy, Thomas and Tayler, William B. and Williams, Jeffrey, An fMRI Investigation of the Neurocognitive Processing of Measures and Strategic Objectives (December 9, 2022). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3659646 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3659646

Document Type

Peer-Reviewed Article

Publication Date

2022

Publisher

SSRN

Language

English

College

David O. McKay School of Education

Department

Accountancy

University Standing at Time of Publication

Full Professor

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