Harri Laihonen and Sanna Pekkola explain the Transfer of Performance Information as a Driver of Network Performance, at the 2014 PMA Conference

Written by Denisa Călin on June 29, 2014. Posted in News, Organisational performance

Within the parallel sessions, of the 2^nd day of the 2014 PMA Conference there was a presentation provided by Harri Laihonen, researcher at the Department of Information Management and Logistics, of the Finnish Tampere University of Technology and Senior Researcher Sanna Pekkola, of the same institution.

Their presentation, named “Transfer of performance information as a driver of network performance”, looked into how performance information is shared between partners, and the effect this exchange has on the overall performance of a collaborative network.

Searching for the motivation behind performance information sharing within a network, the researchers brought insights from their single case network study on partner companies.  This implied designing and implementing a network-level Performance Management system, through which partners could have access to measurement data and compare themselves.

Presenting their findings, they highlight the following aspects related to inter-organizational performance information sharing:

• Performance information exchange brings increased awareness related to shared targets and their current status;
• Perceived and actual performance has increased, as a consequence.

The impact may be assessed considering several organizational dimensions, as the researchers have shown.

There is a positive impact on people’s behavior:

• Increased understanding of the business and success factors;
• Aspiring towards a performance-driven culture;
• Self-monitoring and awareness towards aligning individual performance to the general strategy;
• Increased openness and transparency
• Cooperation and participation;
• Increased trust that enables the network culture.

Also, there is an impact on organizational capabilities, as expressed by the following structures (or tools), identified by Harri Laihonen and Sanna Pekkola:

• Monthly meetings among partner network managers, where the performance information is analyzed;
• Similar meetings, in place, between the main sales manager and the resellers, where the focus becomes a single network partner.

Given these positive occurrences, there also is a counterintuitive link between a Performance Management System and network-level financial performance, where the researchers found that there is no significant link between the two. However, they reiterate the importance of Performance Management Systems for creating a performance driven knowledge-based management culture that in turn, generates performance improvements.

Tags: Performance Management, PMA 2014 Conference