In recent years the process of managerialisation in the museum sector has become more and more intense. This is the result of challenging forces which include: increased competition in the arts sector; more sophisticated and demanding stakeholders and greater accountability required by legislation. All these things are placing pressure on museums to adopt managerial principles in order to measure and control what appears immeasurable: the creation of cultural value.
The implementation of a new Performance Measurement System (PMS) at the British Museum (BM) draws on the modern conception of cultural value. The principal aim is to measure the effectiveness of BM policies and actions, in terms of production and distribution of cultural value in the community, both for purposes of internal control and accountability