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1. Introduction
Although for over 30 years management scholars have been striving to understand performance differentials between organisations, there is some consensus that management practices explain a share of observed variations in performance (Bloom et al., 2016; Nisar et al., 2019). Bromiley and Rau (2014, 2016) argued that managers replicate practices or activities that are perceived to be successful and amenable to transfer between organisations. Unsurprisingly, across the globe, as organisations attempt to address performance gaps, business excellence models and improvement initiatives are implemented. Quality management practices are now part of the daily routine in most organisations. Yet, while some practices have been found to be directly associated with performance, others are thought to be mediated through employee-decision making and effort (Bender et al., 2018). In this context, how to efficiently manage performance remains a key question which has implications for management, employees and societies.
From an operations management perspective, performance management translates the organisational strategy into the reality of work units and ultimately to the employee (Melnyk et al., 2004; Franco et al., 2012). Disseminating the organisational strategy, setting targets and monitoring are means to engage the workforce with strategic objectives and encourage problem-solving attitudes for learning and continuous improvement (e.g. Neely, 2005; Prajogo and McDermott, 2005; Franco et al., 2007; Bourne et al., 2013; Koufteros et al., 2014). Together, these practices are core to any improvement initiative and reflect two main stages in the quality management cycle: quality planning and information and analysis (Mellat-Parast et al., 2011; Laosirihongthong et al., 2013). Performance management systems are, therefore, required to support continuous improvement (DeNisi and Murphy, 2017) and, ideally, ensure that all subsystems in an organisation work optimally towards the desired goals (Biron et al., 2011).
Several scholars have described how quality management underscores the use of a process-based performance management system. In particular, Linderman et al. (2003) explained the importance of setting and achieving targets in Six Sigma: set goals are means to motivate workforce participation in learning activities and to develop behaviours that lead to sustainable improvements. Nevertheless, as Soltani and Wilkinson (2018) observed, reviews of the extant literature on quality management and, specifically on managing performance in organisations, imply that...