The Tyranny of Metrics
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Jerry Z. Muller
About this book
How the obsession with quantifying human performance threatens business, medicine, education, government—and the quality of our lives
Today, organizations of all kinds are ruled by the belief that the path to success is quantifying human performance, publicizing the results, and dividing up the rewards based on the numbers. But in our zeal to instill the evaluation process with scientific rigor, we've gone from measuring performance to fixating on measuring itself—and this tyranny of metrics now threatens the quality of our organizations and lives. In this brief, accessible, and powerful book, Jerry Muller uncovers the damage metrics are causing and shows how we can begin to fix the problem. Filled with examples from business, medicine, education, government, and other fields, the book explains why paying for measured performance doesn't work, why surgical scorecards may increase deaths, and much more. But Muller also shows that, when used as a complement to judgment based on personal experience, metrics can be beneficial, and he includes an invaluable checklist of when and how to use them. The result is an essential corrective to a harmful trend that increasingly affects us all.
Author / Editor information
Reviews
“Muller delivers a riposte to bean counters everywhere with this trenchant study of our fixation with performance metrics.”—Barbara Kiser, Nature
“Highly readable.”—Luke Johnson, Sunday Times
“Many of us have the vague sense that metrics are leading us astray, stripping away context, devaluing subtle human judgment, and rewarding those who know how to play the system. Muller’s book crisply explains where this fashion came from, why it can be so counterproductive and why we don’t learn. It should be required reading for any manager on the verge of making the Vietnam body count mistake all over again.”—Tim Harford, Financial Times
Topics
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Frontmatter
i -
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Contents
xiii -
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Preface to the Paperback
xvii -
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Introduction
1 - I. THE ARGUMENT
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1. The Argument in a Nutshell
17 -
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2. Recurring Flaws
23 - II. THE BACKGROUND
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3. The Origins of Measuring and Paying for Performance
29 -
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4. Why Metrics Became So Popular
39 -
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5. Principals, Agents, and Motivation
49 -
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6. Philosophical Critiques
59 - III. THE MISMEASURE OF ALL THINGS? Case Studies
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7. Colleges and Universities
67 -
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8. Schools
89 -
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9. Medicine
103 -
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10. Policing
125 -
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11. The Military
131 -
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12. Business and Finance
137 -
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13. Philanthropy and Foreign Aid
153 - EXCURSUS
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14. When Transparency Is the Enemy of Performance: Politics, Diplomacy, Intelligence, and Marriage
159 - IV. CONCLUSIONS
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15. Unintended but Predictable Negative Consequences
169 -
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16. When and How to Use Metrics: A Checklist
175 -
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Acknowledgments
185 -
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Notes
189 -
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Index
213
