Questioning the numbers: Epistemic authority, narrative and performance evaluation

Using a case study of a nongovernment organization, Matt demonstrates how junior managers use narrative information to question the epistemic authority of quantitative performance indicators, and how senior managers use a combination of quantitative performance information, narrative information about performance, and their own knowledge to evaluate the performance of organizational subunits.

Professor Matt Hall has recently taken up an appointment as Professor in the Accounting Group at Monash University. Prior to that Matt worked at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Matt’s research interests include management control systems and performance measurement particularly in non-government organisations. His work is widely published in many accounting journals. Matt is on the editorial board of a number of journals.