Against metrics: how measuring performance by numbers backfires

The key components of metric fixation are the belief that it is possible – and desirable – to replace professional judgment (acquired through personal experience and talent) with numerical indicators of comparative performance based upon standardised data (metrics); and that the best way to motivate people within these organisations is by attaching rewards and penalties to their measured performance. Subject to performance metrics, people are forced to focus on limited goals, imposed by others who might not understand the work that they do. Organisations in thrall to metrics end up motivating those members of staff with greater initiative to move out of the mainstream, where the culture of accountable performance prevails.

Source: aeon.co