Accounting, Organizations and Society 63 (2017) 60e75

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Accounting, Organizations and Society

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/aos

The expressive role of performance measurement systems: A field

study of a mental health development project
Robert H. Chenhall a, Matthew Hall b, *, David Smith a
a
Department of Accounting, Monash Business School, Monash University, Australia
b
Department of Accounting, London School of Economics and Political Science, United Kingdom

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The management control systems (MCS) literature has long recognized the importance of values and
Available online 5 December 2014 beliefs (e.g., Ouchi, 1979; Simons, 1995). However, in this literature, values and beliefs are typically
presented in the context of mission statements or company slogans that can play little substantive role in
shaping actions and behaviors. In this paper we focus on how MCS can play a more active role in values
expression, and examine the potential for performance measurement systems (PMS) to be used within
organizations to express the values and beliefs of organizational members. This use of PMS, which we
term its expressive role, is important as pluralistic and expressive forms of organizing are becoming more
prevalent. Furthermore, prior research indicates that enabling the expression of values and beliefs by
organizational members can generate energy and commitment that are important to the achievement of
organizational objectives. In a field study of a mental health development project in a non-government
organization, we examine the design and operational characteristics that are important for the
expressive role of PMS. We also examine the interplay between the expressive role and the instrumental
role of PMS and identify circumstances in which these roles can clash and/or be complementary.
© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Introduction increasingly operating in more pluralistic contexts characterized by

multiple objectives (Denis, Langley, & Rouleau, 2007). In this
The management control systems (MCS) literature has long context, in addition to a purely instrumental rationale focused on
recognized that values and beliefs are important in the functioning the pursuit of specific objectives, organizations can have an
of organizations (Ouchi, 1979; Simons, 1995). Scholars have ques- expressive purpose (Berry, 2005; Etzioni, 1961; Frumkin, 2005;
tioned, however, whether those MCS often associated with values Schultz, Hatch, & Larsen, 2000). This expressive purpose reflects a
and beliefs, such as mission statements and company slogans, play focus on helping individuals to express their values, commitment
any substantial role in shaping actions and behaviors (e.g., Argyres and faith through their work in organizations (Frumkin, 2005;
& McGahan, 2002: 48). Furthermore, even in contexts where MCS Gordon & Babchuk, 1959; Mason, 1996; Schultz et al., 2000).
are envisioned to play a more prominent role, it is typically to A focus on the expressive dimension of organizations is
promote conformance by organizational members with corporate consistent with emerging research attempting to reposition the
values and beliefs espoused by senior management (Ouchi, 1979; role of organizational members’ values, beliefs and emotions at
Simons, 1995). In this way, there has been little attention directed work e not as a nuisance or obstacle to organizational progress, but
toward the possibility for MCS to play a more active role in values rather as a potentially productive feature of the work environment
expression, particularly in the context of enabling a wider variety of (Boedker & Chua, 2013; Bolton & Houlihan, 2009; Dutton, Worline,
organizational members (and not only senior managers) to express Frost, & Lilius, 2006; Huy, 1999). In particular, research indicates
their beliefs and values as part of their work in organizations. that enabling the expression of values and beliefs by organizational
Attention to a more active role for MCS in values expression is members can generate energy and commitment, enhance learning
important because recent research indicates that organizations are and exploration of alternatives, and reduce value conflicts in ways
that can aid the collective achievement of organizational objectives
(c.f., Frumkin, 2005; Huy, 1999).
* Corresponding author. In this study we examine the potential for PMS to be used within
E-mail address: [email protected] (M. Hall).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aos.2014.11.002
0361-3682/© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 R.H. Chenhall et al. / Accounting, Organizations and Society 63 (2017) 60e75 61

organizations to express the values and beliefs of organizational commitment that values expression can create (c.f., Dutton et al.,
members. In particular, we consider whether and how organiza- 2006; Frumkin, 2005; Huy, 1999). Examination of the expressive
tional members’ involvement with PMS can potentially provide a role of PMS is likely to be important for those organizations that
context within which their values and beliefs can be expressed. This have an evident expressive purpose, such as NGOs, and for orga-
focus on organizational members’ substantive engagement with nizations more generally as pluralistic and expressive forms of
PMS seeks to highlight a more active role for MCS in values organizing become more prevalent (Denis et al., 2007; Schultz
expression, moving beyond the typically passive role ascribed to et al., 2000; Huy, 1999; Dutton et al., 2006).
elements of MCS such as mission statements and slogans. We also The remainder of the paper is structured as follows. The next
seek to pay particular attention to the expression of values and section provides the theoretical framework for the study. The third
beliefs held by a variety of organizational members, and not only on section details the research method. The fourth section provides
how PMS can be used instrumentally by senior managers to information on the case context, with the fifth and sixth sections
encourage conformance with corporate values and beliefs. Specif- presenting our empirical analysis from our field study. In the final
ically, we address three interrelated research questions: Can PMS section we discuss our findings and provide concluding comments.
help organizational members to express their values and beliefs? If
so, what design and operational characteristics of the PMS could Theory development
help to facilitate this process? How does the expressive role of PMS
relate to and/or conflict with an instrumental use of PMS in Our conceptualization of the expressive role of PMS has its roots
organizations? in literature seeking to distinguish between expressive and
To analyze the potential for an expressive role of PMS we con- instrumental organizations, a typology first adopted by Gordon and
ducted a field study of the development of a PMS in the Sri Lankan Babchuk (1959). An expressive organization is one whose activities
office of Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO), a non-government or- can help individuals to express their values, commitment and faith
ganization (NGO) working in the field of international develop- through their work, while an instrumental organization is one
ment. NGOs, like VSO, are characterized typically by the designed to maintain or create some normative aim (Frumkin,
instrumental pursuit of specific objectives, such as poverty reduc- 2005; Gordon & Babchuk, 1959; Mason, 1996).
tion and meeting other developmental goals related to health, ed- Recent research has indicated that rather than being either
ucation and empowerment. In addition, they are characterized by a purely expressive or purely instrumental, organizations can operate
salience of beliefs and values related to missions to help the in more pluralistic contexts characterized by multiple objectives
disadvantaged, where organizational members participate in these (Chenhall, Hall, & Smith, 2010; Denis et al., 2007). On this basis, the
organizations in order to help express their commitment to these idea that all organizations have an expressive purpose (to varying
values and causes (Frumkin, 2005; Mason, 1996). Our empirical degrees) has gained increasing attention. This is founded on the
setting provides us with a powerful lens through which to examine idea that organizations compete based on their values, or what they
the potential for PMS to play an expressive role, as well as the way are seen to stand for (Schultz et al., 2000). This can be the case for
in which this expressive role relates to the instrumental use of PMS both for-profit and non-profit organizations. In considering for-
in organizations. profit organizations, Shaw (2000) notes the importance of values
Our study contributes to the literature by developing and relating to innovation at 3M and HewlettePackard and the manner
advancing understanding of the expressive role of PMS. We in which these organizations have used stories of organizational
conceptualize this role as the capacity of a PMS to facilitate the members past and present to highlight these values to new
display of a variety of values and beliefs held by organizational members. On this basis, rather than organizations being purely
members. The findings from our field study indicate that the ability expressive or instrumental, it makes more sense to consider the
of a PMS to enable organizational members to express their values expressive and instrumental purposes that may be at play within
and beliefs is related to specific design and operational character- any given organization. As such, our study focuses on the role PMS
istics. The creation of a ‘playful’ environment (c.f., Huy, 1999) in can play in supporting this expressive purpose, as well as instru-
which the PMS operates, and a PMS that is easily accessible to mental roles for PMS in organizations.
organizational members, are both important in order for the PMS to
operate in an expressive role. Prompting the expression of values PMS, roles of accounting information, and the expression of values
and beliefs by organizational members is then facilitated by the and beliefs
indicators included in the PMS aligning with the important values
and beliefs of organizational members, where the development of a In examining the expressive role of PMS, we focus on the way in
close affinity between the specific values and beliefs of organiza- which MCS can be used to express values and beliefs. Prior MCS
tional members and the precise content and wording of those in- research has tended to focus on the values of top managers where,
dicators is paramount. for example, they can use interactive control systems to reveal their
Our identification and conceptualization of the expressive role values and preferences to other managers and employees in the
of PMS contributes to the MCS literature (e.g., Simons, 1995) by organization (Simons, 1995). However, this is very much a top-
exploring how values and beliefs can be discussed and expressed as down, hierarchical process whereby the values of top managers
part of MCS and how this actually shapes behavior. This is in are communicated to others in the organization, with little capacity
contrast to, for example, MCS in the form of a mission statement for the expression of values and beliefs by employees at lower
that is neither referred to, nor thought about, by organizational levels of the organization. We seek to understand how PMS can
members (e.g., Argyres & McGahan, 2002: 48). This focus also help to express or ‘signal’ the values and beliefs of a variety of
contributes to emerging research positioning the expression of organizational members, not only top managers. Prior MCS
organizational members’ values and emotions as a potentially research also tends to locate values under the domain of ‘belief
productive feature of the work environment (Boedker & Chua, systems,’ where practices such as mission statements are used to
2013; Bolton & Houlihan, 2009; Dutton et al., 2006; Huy, 1999). valorize particular values (Simons, 1995). However, such practices
In particular, our study provides insight into the way in which the seemingly have little active or on-going role in helping organiza-
expression of values through PMS can help the achievement of tional members to discuss and express their values as part of their
organizational objectives by mobilizing the energy, motivation and work (e.g., Argyres & McGahan, 2002: 48). In contrast, our focus is
62 R.H. Chenhall et al. / Accounting, Organizations and Society 63 (2017) 60e75

on how the PMS can become involved in the communication, dis- though the energy generated from the process of articulating be-
cussion and expression of values by members of the organization. liefs and values can complement efforts to improve organizational
As such, we consider how PMS can be used to discuss and express effectiveness (c.f., Frumkin, 2005). Frumkin (2005) notes that the
the beliefs and values of organization members, and how these instrumental and expressive perspectives may not necessarily be in
systems can be used to shape behavior. tension. Specifically, PMS playing an instrumental role may support
In line with this discussion, we define the expressive role of PMS expressive purposes by serving to highlight and focus attention on
as the capacity of a PMS to facilitate the display of a variety of values areas seen as important to the values of organizational members.
and beliefs held by organizational members. In crafting and elab- As above, however, this may only be possible where there is scope
orating this definition, we first draw on research into organiza- for the inclusion of organizational members’ values in the PMS that
tional symbolism. Scholars have focused on a variety of different go beyond the purely economic or instrumental.
types of organizational symbols related to the core and distinctive The above discussion examined the role of organizational
values and beliefs of an organization, and, in particular, have members’ values and beliefs in the development of a PMS. How-
identified the use of material objects and artefacts as being a ever, when and how a PMS could provide organizational members
potentially powerful symbol in this process of values expression with opportunities to express their values and beliefs is unclear,
(c.f. Pratt & Rafaeli, 1997; Trice & Beyer, 1993). and is likely to depend on the presence of certain design and
PMS typically (if not always) involve the development of ma- operational characteristics.
terial objects and artefacts, such as indicators, spreadsheets, and
performance reports. Smith and Stewart (2011) argue that the Characteristics of PMS enabling the expression of values and beliefs
process of transferring unexpressed beliefs and values into
comprehensible symbols and material artefacts is important for the In considering the characteristics that may enable the expres-
expression of values. Boedker and Chua (2013) argue that emotions sion of values and beliefs of organizational members, we first draw
like hope, desire, fear and passion can come alive and circulate on research suggesting that the engagement of organizational
through material artefacts such as accounting templates, reflecting members in the performance measurement process is likely to be
their role in not only engaging intellectual and reasoning skills, but important for the expressive role of PMS. This can involve opening
also playing on people’s passions and feelings. Other research in- up information production activities to a wider variety of partici-
dicates that measurement and evaluation practices can provide an pants in order to make the PMS more accessible and visible to
important mechanism through which individuals in organizations organizational members (c.f., Deetz, 1995; Greene, 1999). This could
can reflect upon and express their beliefs and values (Abma, 1997; involve providing organizational members with the opportunity to
Dart & Davies, 2003; Greene, 1999; Howes, 1992). This research ask questions, offer views and provide suggestions during the
suggests the development and operation of a PMS, particularly its development and operation of the PMS (c.f., Hirschheim & Klein,
manifestations in material artefacts, could help staff to think about, 1994). Organizational members could be given power to nego-
reflect on and articulate their values and beliefs. tiate collectively the development of the PMS, where engagement
In elaborating this idea, we draw on Huy’s (1999) work on is more than a mere ‘feel good’ exercise akin to a ‘sham ritual’
emotional dynamics, specifically on the role of ‘display freedom.’ (Ebrahim, 2003; Najam, 1996). Engagement of organizational
Huy (1999) refers to display freedom as the organization’s ability to members with the performance measurement process may also
facilitate the variety of emotions that can legitimately be displayed involve senior staff adopting an empowering approach facilitating
and felt in the organization. We adapt this conceptualization of dialogue and information sharing rather than being overly com-
display freedom to refer to the capacity of a PMS to facilitate the manding or directive (c.f., Bisbe, Batista-Foguet, & Chenhall, 2007;
display of a variety of values and beliefs held by organizational Simons, 1990). Research also suggests that involving organizational
members. Huy’s (1999) work suggests that the creation of an members in the development and operation of the PMS may
environment in which there is freedom from the fear of reprisal for facilitate the expressive role as they are best placed to judge
holding ‘inappropriate’ views, and in which there is ‘time’ and whether their values and beliefs are suitably reflected in the PMS
‘space’ to have the ability for reflection, experimentation and (c.f. Wouters & Wilderom, 2008).
expression of new ideas, is likely to support the development of To understand how to engage organizational members in the
display freedom. In contrast, display freedom is low when organi- performance measurement process, we first draw on Huy’s (1999)
zational members are faced with an organizational climate where work on ‘playfulness.’ Huy (1999) refers to playfulness as the ability
they feel restricted in their ability to share their values and beliefs of the organization to create a context promoting experimentation
(for example, where there is fear of reprisal, or embarrassment). and tolerating mistakes. We adapt this conceptualization to refer to
On first consideration, it may appear that an instrumental use of the organization’s ability to create an environment for developing
accounting places little or no explicit emphasis on the expression of and operating the PMS in which mistakes are tolerated and
values and beliefs held by organizational members, given that its experimentation is encouraged. Such an environment would be
focus is on efficiency and the pursuit of instrumental ends. How- characterized by jokes, laughter, and playful activities legitimizing
ever, a large body of more critical accounting scholarship illustrates trial and error (Huy, 1999) as part of the PMS’s operation. This is
how the (often typical) focus in PMS on financial goals can serve to consistent with the notion that fun and playfulness are an impor-
promote a narrow range of values related to efficiency and purely tant part of organizational life and part of attempts to engage with
economic or profit-based ends (e.g., Cushen, 2013; Dent, 1991; the human side of organizing (Bolton & Houlihan, 2009).
Ezzamel, Willmott, & Worthington, 2008). This suggests that a The dynamic of playfulness appears particularly important in
strong focus on economic goals may restrict the expressive role of enabling freedom of expression. The process underpinning the
PMS.1 In contrast, an expressive role of PMS need not be restricted development of the PMS would need to have aspects of ‘playful-
to a focus on improvements in operations and efficiency, even ness’ in order for staff to feel comfortable enough to provide sug-
gestions as to the properties of the PMS. This is consistent with
research focusing on the way in which fun and playful activities can
1
An exception to this could be in situations where organizational members
create a sense of involvement (Bolton & Houlihan, 2009). Playful
happen to value highly goals related to organizational efficiency and profit-based and game-like qualities in accounting systems can also encourage
ends. organizational members to be more open and to engage in more
 R.H. Chenhall et al. / Accounting, Organizations and Society 63 (2017) 60e75 63

creative, innovative and experimental behaviors (Cooper, Hayes, & the authors were conducting on VSO (Chenhall, Hall, & Smith,
Wolf, 1981). It would appear, then, that the presence of “playful- 2013). The author subsequently applied to become a VSO volun-
ness” in the development of a PMS would promote “display teer through the standard VSO volunteer recruitment processes.
freedom”, and thus the expression of values and beliefs in the PMS. Accordingly, during this time the author’s position changed from a
In addition to Huy (1999), we also draw on research in evalua- researcher studying VSO as an ‘outsider’, to a participant observer
tion, organizational communication and management accounting or ‘insider’ who was immersed in the real-time flow of activities in
that helps to shed light on how to engage organizational members the mental health programme (c.f. Ahrens & Mollona, 2007;
in the PMS. Research in evaluation suggests formal evaluation € nsson & Lukka, 2007). The author completed the volunteer
Jo
techniques can aid the expression of values by providing a medium placement in two visits to Sri Lanka in 2009, the first during two
through which individuals feel comfortable expressing their per- weeks in April and the second during JulyeSeptember.4 During the
ceptions, which often involves modifying conventional frameworks placement the author was based in the VSO Sri Lanka office, located
to suit the skills and culturally familiar idioms and styles of in a suburb of Colombo, where most of his time was spent. He also
expression of participants (Howes, 1992). These modified formats travelled to other locations in Sri Lanka to visit various mental
can then provide memory triggers whereby individuals are able to health facilities where other volunteers were working. In total, the
recount and reconstruct key events and experiences as part of the author spent 61 days as a participanteobserver, where, in addition
formal evaluation process (Howes, 1992). Evaluation that is to his work as a volunteer, he observed the everyday goings-on at
responsive to and promotes the expression of the values of par- the office over the course of the placement, participated in lunches
ticipants tends to be formalized in a more open and narrative style, and conversations with office staff and volunteers, as well as other
which helps to invite reflection, rather than in a propositional style, activities such as social gatherings, meetings, and weekends away.
which limits dialogue by being more declarative about findings and The majority of the placement concerned the development of a
their meaning for participants (Abma, 1997). new system for use in the monitoring and evaluation of a mental
Research also suggests that in order for a PMS to enable orga- health development programme operated by VSO in Sri Lanka
nizational members to express values and beliefs, it needs to be (which came to be known by the acronym ‘LEAP’). Compared with
accessible. This is because organizational members are unlikely to interview-based studies, participant observation can make more
engage with and adequately express their values and beliefs credible claims toward studying accounting in ‘action’ (Ahrens &
through a PMS that they cannot understand. Prior research in- Mollona, 2007). It can help researchers to gain the trust of organ-
dicates that user engagement with formal systems can be aided by isational members, which can provide access to information often
presenting information in a language familiar to the operator rather unavailable to outsiders (Rowe et al., 2008). This can provide the
than the language and terms of technical staff (Adler & Borys, opportunity to collect more significant and subtle data as the
1996).2 This is because overly formal and technical language can researcher can see what organizational members actually say and
provide an expressive privilege to (often) managerial voices and do and what really matters to them (Jo € nsson & Lukka, 2007) and to
thus makes it difficult for a wider variety of organizational mem- get a closer look at people’s facial and bodily responses (Boedker &
bers to express their views and opinions (Deetz, 1992, 1995). The Chua, 2013). Participant observation is particularly important to
use of more every-day and natural language in formal systems can this study in order to observe organizational members in situ and
help organizational members to access their content and reflect see their responses (verbal and otherwise) to the PMS ‘close up.’ To
upon its significance for them (Abma, 1997; Deetz, 1992). This can this end, there was an explicit agreement that the volunteer
also increase access to formal systems by limiting the need for placement would serve the dual purposes of helping the mental
training in specialized techniques or abstract concepts (Hall, 2014). health programme to develop a PMS as well as provide an oppor-
Management control process can be made more accessible to tunity for the author to gather empirical data for research purposes.
organizational members by, for example, calculating variances us- Overall, we adopted an interventionist approach. The author’s
ing categories relating to operational work, integrating budgeting participation was as follows: he facilitated the involvement of
with operational planning, and by presenting simple information in programme staff, volunteers and partners’ in the development of
easily digestible formats so staff can process them quickly (Ahrens LEAP, organized regular meetings where staff and volunteers’
& Chapman, 2004). Research also suggests PMS can be made more feedback on the tool was obtained and then incorporated into each
accessible by eliminating accounting jargon and using plain lan- subsequent version, and coordinated completion of LEAP at each of
guage instead of technical terms (Rowe, Birnberg, & Shields, 2008). the mental health facilities. During these processes he spoke with
organizational members (individually and in groups) about their
work and the on-going development of LEAP. In this way, the
Method author participated in a change process with people working in the
organization that lead to the creation of a new accounting practice,
For this study, the second author was a full-time volunteer at participating on equal terms with other members of the team and
Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO), an international development sharing responsibility for the development of LEAP (c.f., Jo€ nsson &
NGO. The author’s volunteer placement was as a “Monitoring and Lukka, 2007). The author’s involvement was democratic (Jo €nsson &
Evaluation Advisor” responsible for helping the mental health Lukka, 2007) in the sense it was the organizational members who
programme to develop “appropriate M&E systems to monitor developed the indicators in LEAP and took the primary role in
progress of the VSO mental health programme/project.”3 The scoring the indicators and providing narrative descriptions during
author became aware of the volunteer placement during a research its completion at each mental health facility, albeit with help and
visit to Sri Lanka in January 2009 that formed part of a wider study support from the author. Our involvement at VSO did not set out to
test or develop a particular accounting innovation or practice
(Wouters & Wilderom, 2008) but was designed to gather empirical
2
Adler and Borys (1996) refer to the use of familiar language as part of their
discussion of ‘internal transparency’ within their description of enabling and co-
ercive bureaucracy. This work has, of course, been developed further in manage-
4
ment accounting research to refer to enabling and coercive controls (see for During the research period the first and third authors were ‘outsiders’ who
example, Ahrens & Chapman, 2004; Wouters & Wilderom, 2008). remained involved in on-going research at VSO but did not participate directly in
3
Source: Placement outline for Monitoring and Evaluation Advisor. the work in Sri Lanka.
64 R.H. Chenhall et al. / Accounting, Organizations and Society 63 (2017) 60e75

data in order to theorize about how PMSs were developed and Table 1
operated, particularly in a setting with limited resources, expertise Formal fieldwork activity.

and time-pressure. As such, we did not enter the field with an idea Participant observation 61 days, 127 pages of typed field notes
of the expressive role, so our analysis of the data in relation to the Observation and attendance
expressive role of PMS took place entirely after the participant at meetings
observation had ended (Ahrens & Chapman, 2004). LEAP meetings 7 meetings
Formal data collection consisted of field notes, meetings, in- VSO Sri Lanka office meetings 5 meetings

terviews and documents. The author took detailed field notes Interviews
during each day of the research period, keeping a hand-written VSO Sri Lanka staff 5 interviews
diary providing a description of events as they unfolded, which is VSO Sri Lanka volunteers 4 interviews
VSO Head Office e Health 1 interview
important in preserving the traceability of the research process programmes manager
€nsson & Lukka, 2007). Each evening after work, the hand written
(Jo
Documents
notes were turned into an ‘expanded account’ (Spradley, 1980)
LEAP reporting templates 7 iterations of the template
using an electronic word processing system. Once a day’s entry was LEAP guidance documents >50 documents
completed it was not edited (Jo€ nsson & Lukka, 2007). The expanded Mental health programme and >100 documents
account totalled 127 pages of text. Additionally, seven meetings VSO Sri Lanka office
concerning the development and implementation of the LEAP
system were digitally recorded and transcribed, representing a total
of over 14 h of meetings. Further, we draw on documents from the from three months to two years) involve taking up a specific po-
LEAP development and implementation process, comprising seven sition in an organization, usually working alongside a local staff
iterations of the LEAP report template, as well as supporting member. 6
documentation. We also draw on interviews with staff and volun- The VSO Sri Lanka country office is located in Colombo, with 12
teers involved with the VSO Sri Lanka programme office (seven full-time staff, including a Country Director, three Programme
interviews), observations of office meetings (five meetings in total), Managers, and a variety of support staff responsible for volunteer
and over 100 documents relating to VSO Sri Lanka’s mental health relations, administration and logistics. VSO Sri Lanka operated
project and the VSO Sri Lankan programme office more generally. programmes in three areas: mental health, disability, and partici-
We also sought to provide a longitudinal perspective to the study pation and governance, with each programme area headed by one
by conducting interviews and collecting further documentation at of the three Programme Managers. Each programme consisted of a
the completion of the mental health programme in February 2013. set of partner organizations and a group of volunteers.
We conducted an additional three interviews (consisting of an
interview with the Mental Health Programme Manager, a Mental
The mental health programme
Health Programme Volunteer, and the Health Programme Manager
at VSO Head Office) and collected documents and reports per-
VSO had identified mental health as ‘a neglected area with
taining to the overall evaluation of the project. Table 1 provides an
services and resources concentrated in Colombo and a few urban
overview of the formal data collection.5
areas.’7,8 The VSO mental health programme had volunteers
With respect to data analysis, we followed the approach out-
working in a variety of roles in the Sri Lankan mental health sector,
lined by Eisenhardt (1989), which has been utilized in several prior
typically as trainers in contemporary and community-based mental
accounting studies (see for example, Ahrens & Chapman, 2004;
health care. Most volunteers were qualified mental health practi-
Chenhall et al., 2010; Free, 2007). This involved arranging the
tioners from the United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS),
different types of data (field notes, meeting transcripts, documents)
with some volunteers from the Netherlands and India. At the time
chronologically and identifying common themes and unique in-
this research was undertaken, 10 volunteers were in placement in
sights and also areas of disagreement. We also used archival records
Sri Lanka. Most partner organizations in the mental health pro-
to elaborate and refine our understanding of important issues that
gramme were government hospitals and rehabilitation centres,
arose in field notes, meetings and interview discussions. We then
along with two NGOs. The country office worked closely with the
re-organized the original transcripts around key events and issues;
Sri Lankan Ministry of Health through on-going involvement in
and compared emerging findings from our study with existing
regular meetings of the mental health sector and having senior
research.
mental health professionals on the programme’s advisory com-
mittee. The mental health programme was primarily organized by
Case context two staff, a ‘Programme Manager’ and a ‘Programme Officer’, who
were responsible for day-to-day programme organization, admin-
VSO is an international development NGO that works by istrative tasks such as planning, budgeting, and reporting, devel-
(mainly) linking volunteers with partner organizations in devel- opment of partnerships and volunteer placements, and liaising
oping countries. VSO’s head office is in London, United Kingdom, with current volunteers and partner organizations on a regular
with a ‘country office’ situated in most of the developing countries
in which VSO operates. Volunteers are typically professionals with
substantive experience in their field, and their placements (lasting
7
Source: ‘Supporting and Developing Rights-Based Mental Health Services in Sri
Lanka’ e project description document.
5 8
We also draw from prior research on VSO (including 32 interviews from In 2005 the Sri Lankan government issued the ‘Mental Health Policy of Sri
Chenhall et al. (2013)), which although not referenced directly in the empirical Lanka 2005e2015’ that identified the poor state of mental health in Sri Lanka,
material below, helped to provide the knowledge necessary to make meaningful stating that it had ‘an estimated 2% of the population suffering from serious mental
and valid interpretations of the practices we observed (c.f., Alac & Hutchins, 2004). illnesses.’ The policy was primarily directed at establishing minimum service and
6
VSO operates programmes in a variety of areas, including health, education, staffing levels in each of the districts of Sri Lanka, with a focus on promoting
secure livelihoods, HIV/AIDS, disability, and governance. For further information on community-based mental health care that catered for social as well as medical
VSO and its operations, see www.vsointernational.org (accessed 5 September 2012) needs (Sri Lankan Mental Health Policy, see www.searo.wo.int/LinkFiles/On_going_
and Chenhall et al. (2013). projects_mhp_slr.pdf, accessed 5 September 2012.
 R.H. Chenhall et al. / Accounting, Organizations and Society 63 (2017) 60e75 65

basis.9 ‘the volunteer’s main activities so far’ and asked volunteers to

In 2008 VSO obtained external funding for the mental health report on ‘how has your job developed since you arrived and what
programme, with a four-year project worth approximately one lessons can be learnt’ and ‘how have you adapted personally?’12
million euros. The project was 75% funded by the European Com- This report was considered inadequate by the Programme Man-
mission, with other funding from the World Health Organization, ager, as it did not relate to the mental health project’s objectives
Astra Zeneca and the Silvia Adams Charitable Trust. There were four outlined above.
stated objectives for the mental health project: The development of a new PMS for the mental health pro-
gramme began in August 2008, when the Mental Health Pro-
1. National Mental Health Policy implemented in six target prov- gramme Manager devised an Excel spreadsheet centred on
inces within Sri Lanka; reporting progress toward the four objectives of the programme
2. mental health workers in the six target provinces use more (see Fig. 1 for a timeline of key events in the development of a new
client-centred and rehabilitation-focused approaches; PMS). The spreadsheet had rows containing questions to gauge
3. newly trained mental health workers and non-mental health progress on each objective, with each column corresponding to one
workers are trained using interactive and practical methodolo- of the six provinces in Sri Lanka.13 In attempting to complete the
gies; and spreadsheet, the volunteers and Programme Manager were
4. partners engage in more community-based rehabilitation- required to consider the effects of VSO’s work in each province. This
focused approaches, in particular ensuring the involvement of proved problematic, however, with the Programme Manager
people with mental health problems and/or their families in commenting that the spreadsheet she had devised was not very
these approaches.10 ‘user-friendly’14 and the volunteers did not complete it. Little
progress was made, until April 2009, with the beginning of the
These objectives of the mental health project focused on the researcher’s volunteer placement, along with another mental
extent and quality of mental health practices across different health programme volunteer working part-time on the process
provinces, as well as the involvement of beneficiaries and their (referred to here as Volunteer 1).
families. The mental health project required very detailed reporting The development of the PMS took the Excel spreadsheet as the
on budgeting and expenditures according to pre-specified budget starting point and proceeded through a total of seven different
codes and reporting procedures. These reports were submitted designs (comprising different sections and indicators) that were
quarterly to the European Commission. The project also required trialed and tested during the period AprileAugust 2009. Each
VSO to provide annual and end-of-project evaluations on progress round of this testing involved the development of a new design,
in achieving the stated objectives, but the precise content and which was then discussed in face-to-face meetings with mental
format of this evaluation was not specified by the donors, meaning health volunteers, VSO staff and some representatives from partner
VSO was able to develop its own measurement and reporting sys- organizations. Feedback from these meetings was then incorpo-
tem for this purpose. To this end, VSO proposed that evaluation of rated into the next design of the PMS, which was taken to another
the mental health project ‘include annual partner reviews, and meeting, and so on. The PMS that was developed from this process
mid-term reporting by partners and volunteers on progress be- came to be called LEAP, an acronym representing ‘Learning, Eval-
tween annual reviews. These involve participatory exercises and uation, Assessment for Partners.’ This PMS was to be completed for
workshops with the volunteers, partner’s staff and client groups each of the mental health facilities with which VSO had placed a
and other stakeholders.’11 volunteer. The final version of LEAP had four sections: Capacity
External funding provided a moderate amount of resources with Building and Service Delivery, Training and Behavior of Staff, Pa-
which to undertake monitoring and evaluation activities as well as tient Experiences, and the Impact of Mental Health Services on the
funding volunteer placements focused on monitoring and evalua- Lives of Beneficiaries. Each section consisted of a set of indicators,
tion. In this way, the mental health project provides a useful where each indicator was scored on a 5-point scale and accompa-
empirical setting for examining the expressive role of PMS as it is nied by narrative information.15
unlikely to be dominated by external pressures, and there is the The following sections reveal the different ways in which a PMS
potential for tension between the expressive and instrumental can help organizational members to display and express their be-
roles of PMS in that it should be ‘useful’. Further, the project was liefs and values. First, we focus on the way in which a PMS can be
undertaken in an environment with sufficient financial resources to developed to engage people in the performance measurement
enable the PMS’s development. process. Second, we analyze the way in which the design and
operation of the PMS can embed (to varying degrees) and therefore
Developing a performance measurement system help with the display of values and beliefs held by staff and
volunteers.
One of the main existing reporting practices used in the mental
health programme was the ‘Volunteer Report’, which focused on
the activities of an individual volunteer placement. Each volunteer Engagement, accessibility and playfulness
completed it, typically at two-month, 12-month and 24-month
intervals. This reporting format had been in place for many years, This section examines the way in which LEAP was developed
and was used widely across volunteer placements throughout VSO. and operated to engage staff, volunteers and others in the perfor-
The report was a narrative account that included sections such as mance measurement process. Below we analyze how engagement
was facilitated in two ways: by improving LEAP’s accessibility to

9
For further information about the mental health programme, see www.vso.org.
12
uk/Images/sri-lanka-mental-health-summary-mar07_tcm79-20599.pdf, accessed 5 Source: Sample of Volunteer Reports.
13
September 2012. See Appendix 1 which shows a sample from the spreadsheet.
10 14
Source: ‘Supporting and Developing Rights-Based Mental Health Services in Sri Source: Field notes, January and April 2009.
15
Lanka’ e project description document. See Appendix 2 which shows the complete set of indicators, and Appendix 3
11
Source: ‘Supporting and Developing Rights-Based Mental Health Services in Sri which reproduces the beginning of Section 1 and indicator 1.2 from LEAP as given in
Lanka’ e project description document. the final version.
66 R.H. Chenhall et al. / Accounting, Organizations and Society 63 (2017) 60e75

Fig. 1. Timeline of PMS developments.

users, and by making the process of developing and using LEAP motivation for working on the mental health programme was
playful, fun and enjoyable. The findings reveal how the engagement driven by their work as health professionals where tools like LEAP
of organizational members, as facilitated by both accessibility and are viewed as a potential obstacle to their work. In this context PMS
playfulness, was a key part of making LEAP expressive, and, as such, are viewed as a distraction or even an incursion on much more
forms a key part of the expressive role of PMS. valuable activities; a situation observed in the wider NGO sector
(e.g., Chenhall et al., 2010).
Accessibility The importance of LEAP being as simple and less onerous as
possible was evident in the following excerpt, taken from a meeting
Making the PMS accessible to staff, volunteers and partner in August 2009, where volunteers contrast the first and final drafts
representatives was particularly challenging. The Health Pro- of LEAP:
gramme Manager described a typical view of monitoring and
evaluation processes as follows: Volunteer 2: When this [LEAP] was first shown to us some
months ago it was like, my god, what on earth has VSO thrown
I think there’s a lot of mystique around M&E [monitoring and up […] this is too big […] I feel this [the revised version] is
evaluation] which perhaps doesn’t necessarily have to be there. I workable […]
think people think ‘oh, M&E is something which clever people Volunteer 1: We’ve listened to your feedback.
that crunch data and statistics and things do.’ […] I think Volunteer 2: It’s not just that, it’s that, I’m a volunteer, I’m sur-
providing people with systems whereby they can actually do it rounded by paper work more than I was in the UK […] Finally I
very simply is important but I think that can be a bit of a chal- understand the value of reporting for the future […] it’s more
lenge sometimes. user friendly for me, so a round of applause for the LEAP team,
yeah!
This ‘mystique’ was addressed by designing LEAP so it was un- [General applause]
derstandable to people without a background in monitoring and Volunteer 7: And also like the guff that we end up filling in in
evaluation. This was significant because the vast majority of people England, you know, I’ve not been in the statutory sector in En-
involved in the mental health programme, including the volun- gland [the NHS) very long but I’ve never yet had any input into it
teers, did not have such a background. LEAP avoided jargon, used at all. You know, you ring up, I can’t even remember the name of
non-technical language and expressed indicators so they related the wretched database team, about why something doesn’t
directly to the activities of the mental health programme (see Ap- work, and it’s just like, well, you can’t do it like that, you can’t
pendix 2). put in the information you want, you’ve got to put in the in-
A further way accessibility was promoted was by ensuring LEAP formation we want, you know, and to have something that’s
was ‘as simple as possible.’16 This was particularly important what we actually need and is useful and is things that we’re
because volunteers and staff who came to work on the mental doing and talking about that is rather refreshing because that’s
health project held somewhat negative views about the use of PMS. not been my experience at home.
The Programme Officer explained: Volunteer 5: I think the thing I like about it is, I find paperwork
absolutely demoralizing, but this is less of an imposition.17
The majority of volunteers…are psychiatric nurses and occu-
pational therapists and psychologists and psychiatric social As with the Excel spreadsheet completed in August 2008, the
workers. They are health professionals and when they see this first version of LEAP was criticized for being too big and compli-
kind of a tool [LEAP], if they don’t have a lot of background in cated. In contrast, the final version of LEAP, which was the result of
monitoring and evaluation and project management and so on extensive efforts to simplify and make it clearer, is viewed as user-
[…] I think they don’t want to take it up. friendly and more workable. The lack of user input Volunteer 7
perceives in the NHS (‘you can’t do it like that’) is clearly a cause of
This quote highlights the way in which the volunteers’ much frustration, evident in her view of the operators as the

16 17
Source: Draft 1 of LEAP reporting template. Source: LEAP meeting, August 2009.
 R.H. Chenhall et al. / Accounting, Organizations and Society 63 (2017) 60e75 67

‘wretched database team.’ In effect, by (seemingly) not even evaluation can help to generate improvements in the lives of per-
considering the views of the volunteer, this lack of user input can be sons with mental illness, which was reinforced through the selec-
seen as limiting and controlling the types of values and beliefs that tion of an image attempting to capture visually the progress the
can be displayed and included in the PMS (c.f. Huy, 1999). In project was trying to achieve, as shown in Fig. 2. The use of such
contrast to the NHS case, she views her involvement in LEAP as images can encourage hope and motivation by giving flesh to the
‘refreshing’ and considers its content as related directly to her work vision of a project or goal (Huy, 1999; Smith & Stewart, 2011).
(‘things that we’re doing and talking about’), evident in another Playfulness was also evident in the informal nature of the dis-
conversation where Volunteer 7 stated that LEAP is ‘actually rooted cussions held with staff (e.g., doctors, nurses) at each mental health
in our work.’18 This is further supported by the statement of facility in the process of completing the LEAP reports. For example,
Volunteer 5 who describes LEAP as ‘less of an imposition’, revealing these discussions would begin with an ‘ice-breaker’ activity, the
the way in which it could bring a sense of hope and encouragement discussion space was designed so that participants sat in a circle
(rather than ‘demoralizing’) by not encroaching on the work the without any tables and chairs between them, and VSO volunteers
volunteers came to Sri Lanka to pursue. were intermingled amongst staff rather than in separate groups.
Volunteer 6 made the following comment about these discussions:

Playfulness It’s [the LEAP discussions] not like a serious thing […] like in an
exam where you have to give an answer, people are able to tell a
Games and other techniques to encourage a sense of playfulness joke and say, you know, what they feel like and they are able to
were also a feature of the LEAP development process. One example express themselves freely.
is from a pivotal moment in the development of LEAP that occurred
at a quarterly Sector Group Meeting in July 2009. At this meeting,
These informal arrangements provided a relatively safe and
which involved VSO staff, volunteers and representatives of partner
protective environment in which staff could share ideas and have
organization, LEAP was officially introduced for the first time. This
the freedom to participate in the discussion and answer questions
did not involve a formal presentation, but was organized around a
(Huy, 1999).
brief introduction followed by a game. At the very start of the ac-
In this section we examined how the engagement of staff, vol-
tivity, all 50 participants were asked to stand up and, then, on the
unteers and others in the performance measurement process was
count of three, to jump in the air and shout ‘LEAP.’ This prompted
facilitated by making LEAP accessible to users (e.g., using simpli-
much laughter from participants.
fying language for indicators) and by creating a sense of playfulness
The game used to introduce LEAP was called ‘Making Rice’, and
(e.g., the use of the ‘making rice’ game) when developing the LEAP
was the suggestion of Volunteer 1 who had been exposed to a
template and throughout its completion at each mental health fa-
similar game in her volunteer placement. The game involved par-
cility. Accessibility and playfulness were both important in
ticipants being organized into groups of approximately five people,
engaging organizational members in the development and opera-
and then being provided with 20 min to answer five questions
tion of LEAP and thus formed a key part of the expressive role of
concerning the making of rice, where each question was designed
PMS. The involvement and engagement of volunteers and staff also
to mimic a stage in a typical evaluation process, such as monitoring,
helped to facilitate the inclusion of indicators in LEAP focused on
evaluation and impact.19 Responses from each group were collected
their values and beliefs, primarily related to the importance of the
and placed on a flipchart, and the session ended with analogies
beneficiary. In the next section we focus on the way in which the
being drawn between the stages in the evaluation of making rice
indicators that were included in LEAP helped organizational
and the stages in the evaluation of the mental health programme.
members to express their values and beliefs through the PMS.
The game itself prompted much discussion, joking and laughter
throughout and was also a source of amusement at several mo-
ments later in the meeting e for example, one participant joked
Expressing values and beliefs through the PMS
that the researcher and Volunteer 1 should conduct a rice tour to
research how to cook the best rice and that this should involve its
In this section we first examine the way in which the expressive
own evaluation. That these jokes were made at all indicates LEAP
role of PMS was helped by the inclusion of a focus on beneficiaries
was indeed perceived as accessible and non-threatening by par-
in LEAP. We then focus on tensions that arose in enabling the
ticipants, which is important in enabling the expression of beliefs
expressive role in both the design of, and scoring process for, the
and values (Huy, 1999). The ability of the game to generate a sense
of playfulness relates, at least in part, to the selection of a context
that was culturally and cognitively appropriate. Rice is a staple food
LEAP
in Sri Lanka and is often used to celebrate important events e hence
selecting this as the context can be seen to symbolize the signifi-
cance of the LEAP process. In addition, as participants would
actually have experienced the cooking of rice themselves, they
How do we
were all able to participate in the activity, helping to reduce Where are
get here?
we now?
mystique or feelings of exclusion from evaluation activities such as
LEAP.
Several other aspects of the process sought to generate
encouragement and a sense of hope. For example, the ‘LEAP’
acronym was chosen deliberately to symbolize the way in which

18
Source: Field notes, July 2009. Challenges?
19
For example, question 2 was ‘What do you do to check if the rice is cooking
properly?’, which referred to the monitoring stage, and question 4 was ‘What is the Fig. 2. Diagram used in presentation at Sector Group Meeting and on cover page of
result of well-cooked rice?’, which portrayed the impact stage. LEAP reporting template and all guidance documents.
68 R.H. Chenhall et al. / Accounting, Organizations and Society 63 (2017) 60e75

indicators in LEAP. to discussions concerning patients, providing a setting in which

staff and volunteers could discuss and reflect on values related to
Focusing on the beneficiary beneficiary care. The following four examples serve to illustrate this
process: the first two examples show how LEAP prompted orga-
A strong belief in the importance of the beneficiary was evident nizational members to recall particularly impressive activities and
throughout the mental health programme. For example, pro- outcomes for patients, whereas the third and fourth examples
gramme documentation regularly expressed the importance of a show how LEAP provided opportunities for organizational mem-
rights-based approach to mental health and of having mental bers to display and register failures and disappointments as they
health services centred on clients and service users.20 Volunteers relate to patient progress and treatment.
often expressed the belief that their motivation for volunteering The first example concerns the completion of LEAP at a large
was to ‘make a difference’ in the lives of staff and patients they were mental health hospital in Colombo. This involved three volunteers,
working with in their placements.21 The Programme Manager one hospital staff member and the researcher in a discussion lasting
stated the programme was ‘ultimately about the beneficiary group, approximately two hours. During the discussion of the indicators in
this is why we are here.’22 A belief in the importance of benefi- Section 2, particularly the indicator on violence and aggression
ciaries was also evident in changes to VSO’s approach to its work, training, the hospital staff member was prompted to offer the
with its increased focus on ‘impact’, that is, whether and how the following reflection:
work of VSO contributed to changes at the beneficiary level (see, for So the big thing is that we have a target to train all the staff in the
example, VSO, 2004). management of violence and aggression, we have trained nearly
The Volunteer Report was viewed as ‘quite good at looking at half [of the staff]…now we can see in the hospital, there is a big
activity but less strong in terms of [capturing] overall impact.’23 The difference with the staff, now no violence, the violence has
programme manager commented that the existing volunteer re- stopped, it has reduced, it’s very very nice […] When I came to
ports were ‘still placement specific’ and, in the context of devel- this hospital in 1998, every staff, the minor staff, had a big stick
oping LEAP, she stated a PMS should enable her and others ‘to see to attack the patients… now no sticks…It changed, it changed.
the benefits [of the programme] for them [the beneficiaries].’24
Volunteers also expressed frustration at not being able to see
how their work was having an impact.25 As such, the existing The comments it is a ‘big thing’ and a ‘big difference’ illustrates
Volunteer Reports did not provide volunteers and staff with the how LEAP provided an opportunity for the staff member to express
freedom to display and express the importance of the beneficiary in the importance of the change in the behavior of staff he had
their work (c.f., Huy, 1999). In contrast to the Volunteer Report, the observed. Discussing the indicator on violence and aggression
first (and subsequent) drafts of LEAP sought to include a stronger training allowed him to register the significance of the change since
focus on beneficiaries. In particular, indicators were developed his time at the hospital, particularly as he, along with the volun-
concerning patient behavior (such as whether patients provide teers, had been largely responsible for developing and operating
input into their treatment), as well as a separate section on ‘the the training for staff in violence and aggression management that
impact of mental health services on the lives of beneficiaries’, had helped to change the patient experience at the hospital.
which included indicators such as the length of stay, readmissions, A second example concerns the completion of LEAP at a
community visits, and discharges (see Appendix 2 for further women’s mental health facility located in Colombo. This involved
detail). three staff at the facility (the matron, a doctor and a nurse), a
The inclusion of indicators focused on beneficiaries in LEAP volunteer, and the researcher in a discussion prompted by the cover
helped to express values and beliefs by prompting discussion of page of the LEAP report, which asked participants to identify and
values amongst staff and volunteers during the completion of LEAP record the ‘three biggest achievements’, the ‘three biggest chal-
at the different mental health facilities. This was because lenges’ and the ‘three biggest priorities for the coming year.’27 Many
completing LEAP typically involved volunteers and staff from the achievements were raised during this discussion including, as
respective mental health facility meeting in face to face discussions above, changes in the way staff were acting toward patients. The
to review progress and complete the scoring for each of the in- doctor was the most vocal in expressing the significance of the
dicators. 26 As many of the indicators in LEAP concerned benefi- changes and in particular reflected on the importance to her of
ciaries, this meant most of the time spent completing LEAP related changes in the behavior of patients she had observed. Specifically,
she commented the patients now ‘have ambitions…enjoy them-
selves’ and ‘they have wishes and preferences.’ She further com-
20
Source: End of Project documentary (see www.youtube.com/watch? mented that in the past the patients were ‘institutionalized to a
v¼UZcQ9a0bLm0&feature¼youtu.bevideo, accessed 14 March 2013) and End of high degree’ but now had begun to show ‘more expressions’ with
Project report entitled ‘Sharing skills and experiences: good practices in mental ‘even acute patients saying hello.’28 As the indicators in LEAP were
health’, see http://www.vsointernational.org/Images/sharing-skills-and-
focused on changes in the experiences of beneficiaries, it prompts
experiences-good-practices-in-mental-health-sri-lanka_tcm76-38911.pdf, accessed
16 March 2013). the doctor to register and express the importance of the positive
21
Additional motivations expressed by volunteers related to the chance to changes in the behavior of the patients she had witnessed. By
experience life in a different country, to travel and meet new people, and to gain providing opportunities to reflect on significant achievements they
experience in the international development sector with a view to gaining had observed and/or were involved in, LEAP helped to provide for
employment after their placement (Source: Field notes).
22 uplifting moments where participants could experience a sense of
Source: Field notes, April 2009.
23
Source: Field notes, April 2009. hope and encouragement (c.f., Huy, 1999). It also provided a setting
24
Source: Field notes, April 2009. in which values related to the importance of beneficiary care were
25
Source: Field notes, January and April 2009. espoused and discussed amongst staff at the hospital, particularly
26
These discussions typically lasted between a half-day and one and a half days values concerning the treatment of patients as individuals with
and could involve discussions with different groups of staff and patients at each
mental health facility. For example, those involved in completing LEAP could speak
to doctors, nurses, social workers, support staff and patients in separate groups.
27
Each group discussion could take at least one hour. Source: LEAP guidance docu- Source: LEAP Reporting template document.
28
ment and field notes. Source: Field notes.
 R.H. Chenhall et al. / Accounting, Organizations and Society 63 (2017) 60e75 69

their own wishes and preferences. These two examples also show they’re [the staff] concerned […] if they’re [staff] handing out
that this is possible because the LEAP process actually involved the tablets on the ward the patient should be at least reminded ‘this
staff at each facility in completing LEAP thereby providing them is your epilepsy tablet’ […] they’re [the staff] not doing that,
with the opportunity to express their values and beliefs. they [the patients] just have two pink ones [tablets], and a
Along with the ability to highlight achievements, LEAP provided yellow one and a green one, and off you [the patient] go…
participants with the chance to display disappointments and fail-
ures related to patient treatment and progress. The third example
Echoing the sentiment of those present during this discussion,
occurred during the completion of LEAP at a rehabilitation centre
Volunteer 2 recalls how current practices at the mental health fa-
located in a central province of Sri Lanka. This involved a staff
cilities do not involve the type of staff behavior volunteers believe
member, a volunteer, and the researcher in a discussion lasting
should be occurring. As with Marsha’s story, discussing treatment
approximately three hours. The story of Marsha, which Volunteer 7
with patients, thinking of them as more than a diagnosis (not ‘all
relates below, arose during discussions over the completion of the
schizophrenics’) and giving patients information regarding their
indicators in Section 4 of LEAP related to changes to the lives of
medication (‘this is your epilepsy tablet’) were central pillars of the
beneficiaries:
approach to mental health care volunteers and others working in
Marsha was a really bright young woman, in her early thirties, the programme valued and believed in very strongly. Importantly, it
with a diagnosis of bipolar affective disorder, a history of mental is the review of, and subsequent discussion surrounding, indicator
illness in the family […] she’d been here [to the rehabilitation 2.3 that prompts the volunteer to recall this experience. This allows
centre] three times […], she was chief editor of the little her and others present to express the disappointment of the cur-
newsletter that we’ve got going [at the rehabilitation centre], rent practices they had been observing in their volunteer place-
she was always up for speaking at a meeting or singing or ments and to discuss how this connects to their values surrounding
anything. She’s always interested, a real bright spark, and I really proper patient care and treatment.
wanted her to go and learn something or do something […] but
it wasn’t to be […] her father was fretting and he rolled up one
day […] the house in Colombo he’d exchanged for lifetime care
Designing indicators to express values and beliefs
of Marsha and her brother in this private long stay institution
[…] I said ‘what’s it like? Do they go out there?’ And he
In this section we examine how the ability of a PMS to enable the
[Marsha’s father] said ‘oh yes, they go out once a year.’ […] It was
expression of values and beliefs can depend, at least in part, on the
completely crap […] It was awful, it was awful.
way in which particular indicators are seen to capture and relate to
sometimes quite specific values and beliefs. We present three ex-
In recalling this experience Volunteer 7 is able to display her amples to illustrate this process.
fondness and affection for Marsha (‘she was a real bright spark’) One example of where the design of the indicators in LEAP was
and express her sadness and disappointment at her being taken able to capture specific values and beliefs concerned the develop-
away to a long stay institution by her father (‘it was awful, it was ment of indicator 1.3 (focused on keeping records in the patient
awful’). This shows how the LEAP process prompted the volunteer file). The following excerpt, from the above-mentioned three-hour
to recall a significant moment from her work where, in this LEAP meeting in July 2009, arose in a discussion regarding indicator
instance, a patient’s life had changed for the worse. This story was 2.2 on the extent to which qualified staff actively seek out, listen
particularly meaningful because a key aim of the mental health and respond to the preferences of patients:
programme was to move mental health care away from the type of
‘long stay institution’ Marsha had been taken to and toward the Volunteer 8: Could it [indicator 2.2] be something along the
rehabilitation model of care available at the rehabilitation centre. lines of actively seek out, listen and record?
LEAP provided a setting where the values of staff and volunteers Volunteer 7: Well, except that recording is maybe a different one
concerning the fundamental importance of the potential rehabili- [indicator] and maybe that if we’re interested in recording then
tation of patients (rather than a lifetime of institutionalization) maybe we need that as a separate indicator of some kind […]
could be expressed and discussed. The opportunity to recall a sig- Volunteer 8: I mean just something basic, like each patient has a
nificant event was helped by Volunteer 7 being provided sufficient file is a start […]
time and space to actually tell the story, which was exemplified Programme Manager: But what they record is not really relevant
when she commented toward the end of telling the Marsha story or appropriate information, it’s just basic stuff on medical stuff,
that she was ‘ranting’, but was reassured by those present that the but not on social elements, […]
recalling of the experience was valuable and that she should Volunteer 2: And even that is very badly recorded […]
continue. Importantly, the telling of this story was not strictly Volunteer 8: You know there’s a few people [patients] inevitably
necessary for scoring the indicators in Section 4 and completing the that are regularly upset or whatever but little of that goes into
LEAP report. the record, all that goes into the record is the extra dose of
The fourth example occurred during a three hour meeting with tracomazine [a drug].
the mental health volunteers, VSO mental health programme staff Volunteer 3: Do you need to add another indicator here about
and the researcher during July 2009. The purpose of the meeting recording?
was to discuss the near-final draft of the LEAP report, and to review Researcher: Each patient has a file with basic information? […]
each indicator and garner feedback and any final suggestions for Programme Manager: In some places they do but that won’t give
change. The following statement from Volunteer 2 arose during the us the indicator that is progression, my concern is […] it’s just
review of indicator 2.3, which concerns whether staff at the mental basic information based on medical diagnosis just now we’re
health facilities informed patients about their diagnosis, treatment talking about their life situation, their priorities, their prefer-
and side effects of medication: ences and family situation and the psychiatric social workers
also need to be included so if we are putting an indicator we
They [the hospital staff] don’t discuss anything with the clients,
need to make it something that’s really capturing all elements of
at [a hospital] they’re [the patients] all schizophrenics as far as
the patient’s life and not just basic information.
70 R.H. Chenhall et al. / Accounting, Organizations and Society 63 (2017) 60e75

The discussion of indicator 2.2 prompts the volunteers to reflect indicator 3.3 used the precise wording as suggested by the volun-
on values related to appropriate forms of care and treatment for teers meant it was able to express ‘really well’ volunteers’ values
patients. In particular, Volunteer 7 suggests that an additional in- concerning more extensive involvement of patients in their own
dicator concerning the recording of information about patients care and treatment.
might be required (as none of the indicators in LEAP at that time In contrast to the previous two examples, the indicators related
captured recording of patient information). Importantly, the dis- to community-based mental health care provide an illustration of
cussion is focused not only on the absence of record keeping per se, where the design of the indicators made it more difficult for LEAP to
but that the type of record keeping the indicator would attempt to function in an expressive role. LEAP included a section on
measure needed to be consistent with the specific values and be- ‘Engagement in the community’ (see Section 4.2 in Appendix 2)
liefs espoused by the volunteers and staff on the mental health that consisted of indicators to address visits to the community by
programme. A core value of volunteers and staff concerned shifting patients, and any employment, training and work activities outside
practice away from the ‘medical stuff’ and to concentrate attention of the hospital/rehabilitation centre. These indicators were viewed
on the ‘life situation’ of each patient. In the context of record as problematic, however, because they were seen to promote a
keeping in the patient file this meant that a variety of information conception of mental health care at odds with volunteers’ values
reflecting the patients’ experiences should be recorded, not just the and beliefs. For example, Volunteer 1 commented that the in-
medical information such as the ‘dose of tracomazine.’ This was dicators in Section 4 should be framed in a way that helped ‘gov-
considered by staff and volunteers to be a central tenet of the ernment services to think beyond day trips to the community’,29
approach they believed in e to think of, and therefore treat, mental indicating they were lacking in their ability to help volunteers to
health patients as a human being, rather than as a medical diag- express to others their beliefs about the importance of particular
nosis. LEAP thus provided a setting where they could discuss values forms of community-based mental health care.
concerning the treatment of patients and how best to reflect these These indicators were also criticized because they focused on
values in the indicators (e.g., whether there is a patient file vs. a file the activities of patients who remained in hospital and not on those
capturing holistic patient information). The indicator developed patients who had been rehabilitated. This issue was raised during a
from this discussion, which assessed whether the patient file meeting with volunteers in July 2009:
included demographic, assessment, treatment and progress infor-
mation from different staff (see Indicator 1.3 in Appendix 2), was Volunteer 7: If the beneficiaries have really benefited they might
seen to capture and thus express these beliefs and values not be in the institution any more.
appropriately. Volunteer 8: How are you going to follow that up?
A further example relates to the development of an indicator to Volunteer 2: If you capture this [patient experiences in Section
capture the extent to which patients have a say in their care and 3] they’ll always be there. The statistics on the other one [Sec-
treatment. During the same meeting in July 2009, volunteers tion 4], you might catch them [going] in and out [of the hospital]
reviewed the indicators used in Section 3 on patient experiences, but the effectiveness is not going to be there.
and, as above, felt the existing indicators were insufficient: Volunteer 8: And that quality.
Volunteer 2: Yeah, that’s the essence, yeah.30
Volunteer 7: You’d [the patient] be having a bit more choice
about lots of things. There’s something about patients [whereby In this way the indicators are viewed as focusing on patients
they] don’t feel they’ve got a right to say anything. It’s kind of, who are ‘in’ the facility, and as there was no mechanism to ‘follow
“I’m a mental patient, what do I know?” kind of a notion that is up’ patients who had left, volunteers were unable to express the
reinforced by the service [at the mental health facility] importance of focusing on patients who had ‘really benefited.’
Volunteer 8: Maybe something [for the indicator] around pa- Furthermore, it shows that the indicators are lacking in their ability
tients actually feel[ing] able to state what their needs are. to provide a sense of hope and encouragement by excluding the
Volunteer 7: Yes. very activities seen by volunteers to be the ‘essence’ of the project.
Volunteer 8: Yeah, being able to state what they want. However, the collection of data on community mental health ser-
Volunteer 7: Yeah […] vices would have been very expensive and time-consuming,
Volunteer 2: Which is breaking that culture of long institutional involving travel to different areas in the province to collect the
care in different organizations, isn’t it? […] necessary data and follow up with patients. This was because
Volunteer 8: So there’s something also about patients feeling ‘volunteers didn’t have the knowledge to complete’ such informa-
able to refuse… tion, evident in such information being missing from the Excel
Volunteer 7: To say what they want and what they don’t want spreadsheet.31 This example shows how although it was more
[…] efficient not to develop indicators addressing community mental
Volunteer 5: For example, [the patients are] expected to stay in health services in a more comprehensive manner, this made it
bed whether or not they are asleep. difficult for those indicators to enable organizational members to
Volunteer 7: So I think that expresses it really well, what they express their values and beliefs about the importance of
want and what they don’t want. community-based care.

In this excerpt, the volunteers are able to discuss and directly

Scoring the indicators
engage with values relating to the importance of treating patients
as having their own individual preferences rather than treatment
From above we saw that scoring the indicators and completing
being driven by the dictates or preferences of the mental health
the LEAP report provided a setting where organizational members
care facility. This is evident in how the volunteers comment that the
indicator should capture whether patients are ‘able to state what
their needs are’, ‘what they want’ and being ‘able to refuse.’ This 29
Source: comment from Volunteer 1 on 3rd draft of LEAP reporting template,
leads to a suggestion that an indicator be developed to capture the May 2009.
extent to which patients are able to say what they want and what 30
LEAP meeting, July 2009.
31
they don’t want, which subsequently became indicator 3.3. That Source: Mental Health project baseline spreadsheets, August 2008.
 R.H. Chenhall et al. / Accounting, Organizations and Society 63 (2017) 60e75 71

could discuss values concerning the treatment of patients, which be very important in enabling the expressive role of PMS.
was particularly evident in discussions over significant achieve- The potential for tension between the instrumental and
ments and setbacks in attempts to improve patient care. Below we expressive roles of PMS is further highlighted by the involvement
examine two examples where the scoring process is more prob- of patients in the scoring process. Patients were involved by
lematic. The first example concerns the ability of the indicators to asking them a series of questions about their experiences in the
capture variations in performance significant to organizational ward and/or rehabilitation centre and then using their responses
members. The second example relates to the involvement of pa- to help determine the most appropriate score for each indicator
tients in the scoring process. Both examples also illustrate how the (primarily indicators 1.4e1.6 and 3.1e3.3). Staff and volunteers
scoring process for the indicators can result in a situation where the expressed the importance of involving patients directly in the
instrumental and expressive roles of PMS appear irreconcilable. process not only because the programme was strongly focused
The following statement is from Volunteer 5 and occurred on patient involvement per se, but also because of a desire to
during the above-mentioned meeting to complete LEAP at a large produce relatively accurate scores. That is, volunteers and pro-
mental health hospital in Colombo. The statement was prompted gramme staff expressed concern that staff at the mental health
during discussions focused on scoring indicator 1.6 e the extent to facilities may present a somewhat optimistic picture of the cur-
which patients have a say in their treatment: rent level of performance and this would then overstate the
performance of the programme as a whole.33 Patient input was
On [the] forensic [ward], there are very few care plans but there
therefore viewed as a way to ‘correct’ for this potential optimism.
are some, and some of those do allow people to make some
However, this was problematic as illustrated by a situation that
choices, one man for instance, on the care plan we did this week,
arose when completing LEAP at a rehabilitation centre in August
had wanted to read a newspaper. They have no newspapers up
2009.
there [in the forensic ward], they get ward three’s second hand
In the course of asking patients about their experiences, one
ones […] they’re planning now to setup a reading group so that
patient asked whether she would be able to get a job and wanted
people don’t smoke the newspapers, and all of that, so that one
to know what the future would hold for her. As providing answers
man did have a choice […] I don’t know where you put that […]
to these questions was well beyond the remit of LEAP, Volunteer 1
there was another [patient] actually who wanted to work in
stated involvement was not ‘meaningful enough for the patients’
horticulture and it was agreed that he could but of course the
and it was primarily directed at ‘getting what we want’, that is, the
system doesn’t allow for that ‘cause the walls aren’t high enough
information to complete the LEAP report.34 In this way, the
and the fence isn’t finished so I don’t know quite where you’d
involvement of patients does not register the significance of being
put these little nuggets of progress like that because there’s kind
able to do something for patients who found themselves in a
of some choice.
troubling situation e in effect, it was viewed as an information
gathering exercise at odds with the volunteer’s beliefs about the
Volunteer 5 relates examples of the development of care plans, importance of helping patients. This left Volunteer 1 feeling
whereby two patients on the forensic ward were given opportu- frustrated and pessimistic about being able to achieve meaningful
nities to engage in activities they individually preferred, such as ‘to change for patients (c.f., Huy, 1999). Thus, there were tensions
read a newspaper.’ Recall, however, that the scoring of the in- associated with the involvement of patients in completing LEAP e
dicators required an assessment of the extent to which all patients on the one hand it was considered important to help develop
are given opportunities to have a say in their treatment and to accurate scores, on the other hand it caused distress and made it
assign a score on the 5-point scale. As opportunities were only difficult to express the importance of helping patients in a
being given to a few patients, the indicator was assigned a low meaningful way. The frustration and distress experienced by
score, prompting Volunteer 5 to query how the indicator would Volunteer 1 highlights the potential for the conflict between the
capture these ‘little nuggets of progress.’ It is important to note that expressive and instrumental roles to have adverse effects on staff
this is not merely a concern over an incomplete or ill-specified and volunteers.
indicator, as it was the recognition and celebration of these nug-
gets of progress that gave meaning to the volunteers’ work and Collection and use of LEAP information
gave the hope and encouragement (c.f., Huy, 1999) necessary to
sustain them through what were often extremely difficult and The final version of LEAP was finalized in late July 2009, after
trying circumstances where progress of any kind was a rare com- which it was completed at each mental health facility where VSO
modity. This was particularly acute on the forensic ward, which was had placed a volunteer. By September 2009, the LEAP process had
the area of the hospital identified by volunteers as being in most produced a large quantity of performance information that had not
need of improvement.32 existed previously. This information consisted of the scores for each
This example shows how in this situation the sensitivity of the of the performance indicators for each mental health facility, an
scoring system used in LEAP was not able to capture and express extensive set of comments related to performance on each indi-
the significance of the change in practice Volunteer 5 had observed cator, as well as written details of plans that were underway to
on the forensic ward. In this example it resulted in a meaningful improve performance.
discrepancy between the value the volunteer attributed to the The collection of quantitative performance indicators meant
changed practice and the way the score on indicator 1.6 repre- that, for the first time, reports were produced that aggregated
sented that change, and meant the indicator did not help Volunteer performance on each indicator across the mental health pro-
5 to express her values and beliefs. Although throughout the study gramme. This had the effect of providing performance information
we saw little further evidence of such meaningful discrepancies, considered helpful by organizational members. In particular, the
this example does suggest that the sensitivity of indicators in Programme Manager highlighted the limitations of the volunteer
expressing the meaning of activities and achievements is likely to report, stating that the information from that report meant ‘we’ve

32 33
Source: The LEAP report for the hospital identified the forensic ward as the Source: Field notes and interviews with volunteers (2009 and 2013).
34
biggest priority for the coming year. Source: Field notes, August 2009.
72 R.H. Chenhall et al. / Accounting, Organizations and Society 63 (2017) 60e75

never been able to measure change and impact.’ In contrast, she Playfulness and accessibility
made the following statement about the inclusion of indicators
related to beneficiaries in LEAP during a meeting in September LEAP was characterized by trial and error and experimentation
2009: (c.f. Wouters & Roijmans, 2011; Wouters & Wilderom, 2008),
developed through the use of games, imagery, and fun to promote
This [LEAP] is definitely useful for me when you’re looking at
the capacity of participants to feel comfortable expressing their
changes and making sure we make an impact […] that’s what’s
values and beliefs in a supportive environment. We identified
been missing all this time and even though we’ve done the
‘playfulness’ e the organization’s ability to create an environment
programme area review […] this [lack of information] is why
in which mistakes are tolerated and experimentation is encouraged
I’ve been struggling, the fact that we don’t have baselines, we’ve
e as being an important mechanism for enhancing the expression
never been able to measure change and impact.
of values and beliefs in the PMS. Key to this was the use of games to
allow organizational members to share ideas relating to their be-
This statement indicates how LEAP allows the Programme liefs in a way that was non-threatening, free from judgement and
Manager to look at changes and impact in two ways. First, because fear of reprisal, and having a high level of informality and flexibility
LEAP collected information using indicators that were standardized associated with the PMS. In particular, LEAP operated in such a way
across mental health facilities, it meant she could examine differ- that there was the opportunity for organizational members to have
ences and changes between the different facilities using common the time and space to reflect, experiment and offer up new ideas,
indicators. Second, as noted, many of the indicators in LEAP related which supported the display of their values and beliefs (Huy, 1999).
to beneficiary progress, thus providing information on the impact LEAP was characterized by the use of non-technical language,
of the mental health programme that had been lacking under prior the avoidance of jargon, and the expression of indicators in a way
reporting systems. Echoing this sentiment, VSO’s Health Pro- that was ‘meaningful’ and understandable to organizational
gramme Manager in London stated that the focus on beneficiaries members (c.f. Rowe et al., 2008). It was important to adapt the level
in LEAP was the ‘most advanced I have yet come across in any of sophistication of the PMS and the technical expertise required so
health programme’ and, given this, he believed it should serve as a it was accessible to users and allowed them to engage with the
model for VSO’s other health programmes.35 PMS. The fact that the suggestions of organizational members were
used in developing the measures in the first instance supported this
Discussion and conclusions process, reflecting an evaluation process using techniques and
concepts readily understood by participants without the need for
This study has examined the expressive role of PMS, which we training (Hall, 2014). This is in contrast to common monitoring and
conceptualized as the capacity of a PMS to facilitate the display of a evaluation tools used in international development, such as the
variety of values and beliefs held by organizational members. As Logical Framework,36 which are replete with jargon and technical
such, our study contributes to the nascent body of literature terms that are often difficult to comprehend without any prior
considering organizational members’ values, beliefs and emotions training and exposure (see for example, Gasper, 2000; Wallace,
at work as potentially productive elements of the work environ- Bornstein, & Chapman, 2007).
ment (Boedker & Chua, 2013; Bolton & Houlihan, 2009; Dutton Overall, our analysis shows that engaging organizational
et al., 2006; Huy, 1999). Additionally, with its focus on how PMS members in the PMS is important for the expressive role. This is
can play an active role in helping organizational members to ex- because for a PMS to help the expression of beliefs and values, it
press their beliefs and values as part of their work, our study pre- must actually involve people in meaningful action of some kind,
sents a counterpoint to prior MCS research that conventionally whether that is developing indicators, providing feedback on PMS
considers values as something to be expressed through belief sys- design, or considering the implications of PMS information.
tem mechanisms like mission, vision and values statements, and Passivity or lack of engagement provides little opportunity for the
top management communications by way of the interactive use of PMS to enable staff and others to express their values and beliefs in
accounting systems (e.g. Simons, 1995). In contrast, our focus is on a meaningful way. In this way, engaging people with the PMS re-
how the PMS are implicated in the communication, discussion and flects a particular kind of participation where organizational
expression of values and beliefs by organizational members. members are actively involved in negotiating, developing and, later,
Through our analysis of the development of LEAP at VSO, it operating the PMS. In contrast, engagement that is a mere ‘feel
emerged that a PMS can provide a mechanism through which the good’ exercise, akin to a ‘sham ritual’ (Ebrahim, 2003; Najam, 1996),
values and beliefs of organizational members can be expressed as is unlikely to promote the expressive role of PMS.
part of their work. We saw how LEAP helped staff and volunteers to
express and discuss the importance of the beneficiary in meetings Design of indicators
where the indicators were developed and refined, during comple-
tion of LEAP at the various mental health facilities, and in discus- Our study showed how the content of the performance in-
sions following the completion and collation of the LEAP data. In dicators was important in enabling the expressive role of PMS. The
this way LEAP provided organizational members with settings in variety of indicators that focused on beneficiaries enabled staff and
which they could discuss values concerning patient treatment and volunteers to express their beliefs regarding the importance of
express the significance of a variety of events related to changes beneficiaries by prompting them to discuss and reflect on patient
toward the type of patient care they valued, which included both progress with other staff and volunteers. These indicators provided
distressing episodes and moments of progress and success. Our a prompt for volunteers and staff to have discussions about patients
analysis also sought to illuminate the design and operational e it enabled them to express their feelings and beliefs about what
characteristics that would help a PMS to fulfil an expressive role, has occurred, which, can be moments of achievement and
which we discuss in the following sections.

36
The Logical Framework is a commonly-used planning, monitoring and evalu-
35
Source: Email from Programme Development Advisor, Health, VSO London, to ation tool in international development NGOs. For a description, see Hall (2014),
Mental Health Programme Manager, VSO Sri Lanka, November 2009. and for an example of its application, see Martinez and Cooper (2012).
 R.H. Chenhall et al. / Accounting, Organizations and Society 63 (2017) 60e75 73

jubilation, along with particularly distressing episodes. standardized indicators and/or scoring processes (c.f., Espeland &
The opportunity to discuss both positive and negative benefi- Sauder, 2007) can, in some situations, make it difficult for the
ciary outcomes (e.g., a volunteer relaying Martha’s story) also PMS to operate in an expressive role. However, with careful
meant volunteers and staff were encouraged to express a wide attention to the development of indicators, this situation was un-
range of experiences and emotions without fear of reprisal (c.f. Huy, common in our setting.
1999). This is in contrast to the typical situation in NGOs where This analysis also has implications for prior research stressing
there is often pressure to report only success stories (e.g., Lewis, the importance of developing indicators to reflect the unique
2006). More generally, this suggests that the capacity of a PMS to strategy and operating characteristics of divisions in an organiza-
fulfil an expressive role is likely to be hindered when indicators are tion (e.g., Kaplan & Norton, 1996; Lipe & Salterio, 2000). The
focused too narrowly, for example, where there is a focus on only development of unique indicators is typically premised on instru-
financial metrics (Kaplan & Norton, 1996) or a strong reliance on mental grounds e they promote better decision making, resource
only profit-based measures of performance (Hopwood, 1974). In allocation and performance evaluation.37 Our study suggests an
addition, strong sanctions from failing to achieve particular objec- additional (and complementary) rationale for the development of
tives or targets associated with the PMS (e.g., Van der Stede, 2000) unique indicators because they are better able to reflect, and thus
can create a fear of reprisal inhibiting rather than promoting the enable, the expression of values and beliefs salient to organiza-
free expression of values and beliefs, particularly where they relate tional members in different divisions. In contrast, common mea-
to expressing the significance of negative outcomes. sures, by definition, are standardized across divisions and thus
Developing a close affinity between the specific values and be- would only fulfil an expressive role where values and beliefs are
liefs of organizational members and the precise content and relatively homogenous throughout the organization. This discus-
wording of indicators is also important in enabling the expressive sion may also help to explain resistance to top-down PMS ap-
role of PMS. In this process there are likely to be trade-offs involved proaches imposing standard indicators and templates (e.g.,
in terms of time and resources necessary in order to develop in- Wouters & Wilderom, 2008) as they can fail to account for the
dicators. Achieving a close affinity can be aided by drawing on the differing values and beliefs of organizational members in different
experiences and suggestions of organizational members (e.g., vol- divisions.
unteers) when developing indicators, as it is these staff who are
best placed to judge whether their values and beliefs are reflected
Effects of expressive PMS
in the PMS (c.f. Wouters & Wilderom, 2008).

As outlined above, our study was focused on the ability of a PMS

The expressive and instrumental roles of PMS in organizations
to help organizational members express their values and beliefs,
the design and operational characteristics of PMS that facilitate this
Our study also sought to shed light on the way in which the
process, and the relation between the expressive role of PMS and
expressive role of PMS can be a complement to, or clash with, the
other uses of PMS in organizations. As such, in terms of the effects
use of accounting information for instrumental purposes, namely,
of expressive PMS, our data are more limited in this regard, so we
to improve efficiency. Our findings show that the expressive and
seek to highlight aspects of our findings that provide some pre-
instrumental roles of PMS can, and at times do, complement each
liminary evidence. Given our study was focused on the develop-
other (c.f. Frumkin, 2005). For example, the development of in-
ment of a PMS, the effects we observe relate primarily to attitudes
dicators for beneficiaries provided a mechanism to enable the ex-
toward and use of the PMS itself rather than behavioral and orga-
change of views relating to individuals’ values and beliefs about
nizational outcomes (Cavalluzzo & Ittner, 2004; Wouters &
beneficiary care (expressive role), and also enabled the organiza-
Wilderom, 2008).
tion to capture outcomes relating to beneficiary care that could
The first effect we observed related to changes in attitudes of
help with decision making and resource allocation (instrumental
organizational members toward the PMS (Wouters & Wilderom,
role). The indicator on the patient file provides a further illustration
2008). In particular, we observed more positive attitudes to the
e it was standardized and so could be used to aggregate perfor-
PMS, with organizational members viewing the final version of
mance across the different mental health facilities (essential for
LEAP as less onerous, more user-friendly and more closely linked
assessing the progress of the programme and the development of
with their work activities in comparison to both prior versions of
action plans), yet it was also viewed as expressing the importance
LEAP and also the Excel spreadsheet. LEAP was also viewed by staff
of the social model of care valued by staff and volunteers. As such,
as providing important information on progress with the mental
we see that PMS fulfilling an instrumental role can support
health programme that had been lacking for some time and was
expressive purposes by focusing attention on areas important to
considered the most advanced PMS in use in VSO’s health pro-
the values and beliefs held by organizational members.
grammes. We suggest the expressive role of PMS helps to generate
Our study also reveals situations in which there is tension be-
such positive attitudes because it is focused on the collection of
tween the expressive and instrumental roles. This appears to be
information relating to and allowing the expression of the values
particularly the case where the use of indicators is unable to
and beliefs of organizational members, which, in our setting, was
recognize the uniqueness of particular situations and the meaning
primarily concerned with patient care. The effect of the expressive
attached to them by members of the organization. This was most
role of PMS in fostering more positive attitudes toward the PMS is
evident where performance was represented in LEAP through the
likely to be important in ensuring sustained engagement with the
use of a standardized scoring method (five levels of performance
PMS over time and thus may help to enhance commitment to a
for each indicator), which meant the ‘nuggets of progress’ that were
PMS. The absence of an expressive role could help to improve un-
very meaningful to volunteers were not reflected adequately in the
derstanding of how and why PMS do not operate effectively and/or
scoring process. In this way, the transformation of qualities (such as
nuggets of progress) into quantities expressed on a standard scale
(such as a rating of performance on a scale) hindered the ability of 37
As Lipe and Salterio (2000) show, this may not eventuate if managers fixate on
organizational members (such as volunteers) to express the common measures to the exclusion of unique measures, but subsequent research
meaning and significance of some activities. As such, this illustrates reveals this can be overcome (e.g., Banker, Chang, & Pizzini, 2004; Libby, Salterio, &
that the commensuration process inherent in the use of Webb, 2004).
74 R.H. Chenhall et al. / Accounting, Organizations and Society 63 (2017) 60e75

face resistance and tension during their implementation and in developing and using the PMS.
continued operation (e.g., Ittner & Larcker, 1998). Our empirical setting was characterized by organizational
The second effect relates to the quality of data captured by the members having relatively homogenous and strongly held values
PMS. The Excel spreadsheet developed by the Programme Manager and beliefs. Future research could examine the expressive role of
was not completed by volunteers and thus did not provide any PMS in situations where the values and beliefs of organizational
helpful information for managing the mental health programme. In members are more heterogeneous and/or where the strength of
contrast, LEAP was completed for each mental health institution those beliefs varies. In these situations, it may be more difficult for
where VSO had placed a volunteer, and thus provided a large the PMS to incorporate a wide variety of indicators adequately
quantity of performance information that had not existed previ- addressing those beliefs and/or the beliefs of organizational
ously. We suggest this arose because enabling organizational members may conflict in ways making them difficult to accom-
members to express their values and beliefs as part of the perfor- modate within the context of a single PMS. In these situations,
mance measurement process serves to elevate the level of care and careful attention to the development of workable compromises in
attention they devote to the production of high quality information the design and operation of the PMS (c.f. Chenhall et al., 2013) is
for the PMS, helping to ensure the information in PMS is more likely to be very important for enabling the expressive role of PMS.
complete and less prone to errors. In our case setting, progress toward realizing employees’ values
Relatedly, the third effect we observed concerned the use of and beliefs could, in some cases, be achieved in ways that were
performance measurement information in planning and decision- consistent with more instrumental objectives. Future research
making. In our study we saw that information from LEAP was, to- could consider situations in which the values of organizational
ward the end of the project, forming a more central part of regular members are in more serious conflict with more instrumental
programme planning and review processes, providing information concerns. Finally, as our study shows that PMS can fulfil an
making it easier to identify and review more systematically areas of expressive role, future research could explore whether and how
good and bad performance in the mental health programme. We other elements of MCS can potentially operate in ways that enable
also saw some evidence of the way in which the expressive use of organizational members to express their values and beliefs.
PMS can promote learning and exploration of alternatives (Huy,
1999), where organizational members used the information from Acknowledgements
LEAP to learn from prior experiences and develop action plans
exploring a variety of different ideas and alternatives, drawing on The support of CIMA General Charitable Trust is gratefully
the suggestions of volunteers, VSO staff and staff at the mental acknowledged. We would also like to thank Brendan O’Dwyer, Kate
health institutions. These findings are consistent with the expec- Ruff, Mike Shields, Kim Langfield-Smith, Susan O’Leary, Clinton
tation that the expression of values and beliefs can generate higher Free, Emily Barman, Kerry Jacobs, Martin Messner, Allan Hansen,
levels of energy and motivation amongst organizational members Binh Bui, Kari Lukka, Suresh Cuganesan, participants at the AOS
(Frumkin, 2005; Huy, 1999). In particular, our findings suggests that Workshop on Accounting, Non-government Organizations and
where a PMS can enable the expression of values and beliefs, the Civil Society, London, December 2012, the 6th Workshop on Man-
resulting energy and motivation can help with planning and review agement Accounting as Social and Organizational Practice, Copen-
processes, particularly in settings where organizational members hagen, April 2013, the Accounting and Finance Association of
come together to discuss progress and action plans as part of Australia and New Zealand (AFAANZ) Conference, July 2013, the
organizational processes. Global Management Accounting Research Symposium (GMARS),
June 2014, and seminar participants at the University of Innsbruck,
Suggestions for further research University of Exeter, Erasmus University, University of Technology,
Sydney, University of New South Wales, HEC Paris, the University of
Most generally, our study suggests that future research should Western Australia, Macquarie University, and Griffith University for
devote more attention to examination of the expressive role of PMS, their helpful comments and suggestions.
particularly as organizations are increasingly being seen as having
both instrumental and expressive purposes (Denis et al., 2007; Appendix A. Supplementary material
Schultz et al., 2000). In our study the primary focus was on expli-
cating the expressive role of PMS and examining the effects on Supplementary data associated with this article can be found, in
individuals’ use of and attitudes toward the PMS itself. As such, the online version, at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aos.2014.11.002.
future research could investigate the likely behavioral and organi-
zational effects of expressive PMS. At the behavioral level, this
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