Measurement as Encroachment: Why “Measuring Everything” Cannot Succeed

Measurement is an integral part of organizational life, with contemporary organizations striving to measure all their activities. Such an expansion of measurement is based on the assumption that it will lead to organizational rationalization and social progress. The idea is that through measurement, the true contributions of individuals within the organization can be accurately represented, benefiting both personal development and resource allocations. Furthermore, individuals can identify their weaknesses and improve their work based on measurement, ultimately increasing organizational and social efficiency. Measurement also enables organizations to allocate resources more fairly, promoting internal equity and, by extension, social justice.

However, the reality is far from these anticipated outcomes. Instead, the current obsession with “measuring everything” has resulted in pervasive tensions between employees and their organizations. This article posits that this discord arises because measurement, at its core, is an act of encroachment. Unlike displacement, which is a static, zero-sum game whereby one value's territory expands at the expense of another's within a fixed value space, encroachment is an aggressive expansion, whereby the encroacher continually seizes more value from the one being encroached upon. As an encroacher, measurement seeks to strip the measured object of its value-creating capacity, inevitably provoking resistance and leading to widespread organizational strife and conflict, and thus failing to achieve the promised rationalization and progress.

This realization shifts our perspective on measurement. Historically viewed as a technical procedure in organizational performance management, the role of measurement has been to transform employees' individual value-creating actions into quantifiable performance metrics that organizations can then standardize. This allows for a uniform comparison and recognition of all employees' value-creating behaviors. Given that organizational work represents the fundamental value-creating path for modern individuals, embracing measurement has become a fundamental method for modern individuals to validate their worth. From the vantage point of this article, measurement, as an activity that determines the behavior and even the value of a specific subject through external value standards, does not enhance the value of the object being measured but rather infringes upon the value of the object being measured. When our value-creating activities are subsumed under an external value standard, we inevitably cede control over our own value, leading to devaluation and encroachment.

If traditional organizational theory predominantly reflects the organization's standpoint and reinforces such a view through the ongoing refinement of measurement tools, in the current climate where the value conflicts between organizations and individuals are so pronounced, fostering a more harmonious value relationship between the two necessitates that contemporary organizational theory increasingly adopt the individual's perspective. It is only by acknowledging this reality that we can hope to transform the practical application of measurement and its repercussions.