Calculating pay in Swedish schools: Accounting, performativity, and misfires

This is a study of individual differentiated pay (IDP) for teachers in Sweden. We regard IDP as part of the observed accountingization of professional work. Our aim is to contribute to the understanding of accounting as a performative calculative device through the study of how performance is made an element of individual pay. As we sought to answer “How are merits and performance of professionals turned into a set IDP?” we observed the ways in which IDP had diverse performative consequences, which made the connection between performance and merit less influential in the process of setting wages. We contribute to the theorizing of accounting as a performative practice by introducing two propositions that indicate the importance of considering the extent to which accounting is turned into a dominant narrative and the extent to which the operations can be visualized in a relevant, stable manner. The propositions are the result of the approach to include visualizations as a focal dimension of performativity. The concept stresses the importance of recognizing the prerequisites of relevance and correspondence.