Another method that managers use to increase efficiency and productivity is performance indicators, which must appear rational. If managers want to improve performance, it must be monitored, and key performance indicators (KPIs) must be agreed upon and measured. But those subjected to this rationale can sometimes see its weaknesses. The police, for example, working with between 20 and 30 KPIs at any one time, find that the theft of a milk bottle by a juvenile carries the same weight as a multimillion-pound fraud, so feel that they are being motivated to look after the easy detections rather than the harder ones (BBC News, 2008).

Goal setting and setting SMART (specific, measurable, agreed, relevant and time-bound) objectives have also been critiqued (Brown, 2013; Ordonez et al., 2009). Here are some examples of where goal setting and employing SMART objectives have gone wrong.