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This paper outlines an ethnostatistical perspective on use of performance metrics in management research and education. Recent social science literature shows numbers produce control in organizations. But this literature fails to explore how numbers are constructed, given meaning and enact control. Ethnostatistics fills this gap by exploring construction and use of measures in organizations. Three levels of analysis are addressed. An agenda for scientific study of performance metrics for management research and academic work is offered. The paper suggests a SEAM based intervention could use ethnostatistical insights to uncover hidden costs of performance metrics and to develop improved metrics.