OBSERVATION: The Ethics of Numbers — Hitting the numbers without meeting the goals.

In the last decade, the ability to track and measure almost any factor of business performance on a daily, even an minute-by-minute basis, has resulted in an even greater emphasis on setting quantitative goals to assess effectiveness and drive effort. The concept of “hitting your numbers”  is a dominant theme in many organizations. The problem is, sometimes without the knowledge of, and sometimes at the direction of, a superior, employees are finding ways to game the system so that they hit their numbers while falling  short of the company’s goals.  Whether the method involves clever deceptions with smoke and mirrors or outright falsifications, there is lots of dishonesty going on to make numbers-driven organizations vulnerable to the weakness of character.

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