PRESSURE TO MEET TARGETS CAN
DRIVE MIDDLE MANAGERS TO
TWEAK THE NUMBERS. COULD
YOUR DECISIONS BE BASED ON
FALSE INFORMATION?WORDS • DOMINI STUARTTHE FIGURES
Y
our middle managers have achieved their
targets and banked their bonuses. But
what if things aren’t quite as they seem?
A study by the University of Kansas
School of Business suggests that middle managers
who fear they might lose their bonus – or, worse still,
their job – might be driven to falsify their results.
“Upper management was so focused on whether
the unit was reaching its performance numbers that a
kind of goal displacement occurred,” says study leader
Niki den Nieuwenboer, an assistant professor of
organisational behaviour and business ethics. “It led
middle managers to do whatever they could to report
the ‘right’ numbers which, in our case, involved getting
their subordinates to do unethical things.”
The potential fallout from such fraudulent
behaviour starts with the cost of paying out unearned
bonuses and ripples out to a toxic culture, reputational
damage and an undermined CEO.
“How can you lead a company if the performance
information you get is fake?” says den Nieuwenboer.FUDGING