Performance measurement and management systems: Different usages in Brazilian manufacturing companies

Managerial usage of performance measurement and management systems (PMMS) is commonly far from what theory advocates as ideal. Based on this, the purpose of this paper is to identify the justifications for using PMMS and how much each of them explains the actual use of these systems.

An empirical survey was conducted with 149 manufacturing companies’ managers as respondents. Descriptive statistics analysis and factorial analysis were performed with multivariate analysis to test proposed hypotheses.

The results for all the companies surveyed are similar for the four dimensions – monitoring, focus, strategic decision-making and legitimization. Only monitoring dimension presents a difference between larger and smaller companies. There is no difference in the other three dimensions. As for the source of capital, there is no difference in any of the four dimensions. It evidences that companies do not seem to be mature enough in the full usage of their PMMS.

Data are related only to a sample of São Paulo manufacturing companies and should not be fully considered in different contexts without the proper awareness of ambiance differences.

There is still room for organizations to improve their performance measurement systems as managers could learn how to better avail themselves of the information from the PMMS. Brazilian policymakers could support this process through policies and programs that incentivize manager to gain education in PMMS.

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) should be supported by policymakers (through learning programs or internal monitoring incentives) to improve their measurement performance systems usage capabilities.

Discussion was based on data from an emerging country where there are mostly SMEs and companies have to deal with more contingencies and restrictions. Although the lack of resources tends to diminish a more effective usage of these systems, PMMS are mostly directed to monitoring issues.