Gaming and Cheating

This chapter focuses on the core of measurement madness and explores the depths that people sink to in order to play the system in their favour. While one may feel powerless when confronted by such uncontrollable and at times unimaginable behaviours, often targeted at improving reported results rather than underlying performance, the chapter shows how to take back the initiative, using both technical and cultural ammunition. Gaming is a particular form of measurement madness. Gaming can be defined as a response to performance measurement that involves the development of a new and stable pattern of behaviour that aims to take advantage of the measure in a way that is different from the original purpose of the measure; resulting in an improvement in the measured aspect of performance; but detrimental for the actual performance. Cheating includes an ethical dimension and involves an active and deliberate misrepresentation of performance information, from internally defined procedures to national law. Such misrepresentation usually breaches explicit regulations and can be deemed illegal. The important contextual factors that drive gaming and cheating include: the pressure to perform, the type and intensity of performance targets imposed on the employees and the organisational climate and culture in which people work.