BALANCED SCORECARD – A STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT

BALANCED SCORECARD – A STRATEGICMANAGEMENT SYSTEMMircea BĂCALĂ1Abstract: For the development and implementation of Balanced Scorecard(BSC) for the public administration, the organizations assign a significantamount of time, energy and resources, in order to measure performances in thereaching of the strategic goals. Nowadays, we can use BSC, appeared asexcellent instrument destined to capture, describe and translate the strategicgoals of the organizations into goals fully understood by the whole organization,by departments or by component parts of the organization, and as well by allindividual employees or by groups, for a successful implementation of thestrategies. BSC is a performance management instrument, which allows thealigning of the goals from the organization strategy to the goals of thedepartments implied in the strategy accomplishing, respectively to the key-goalsand key-indicators of the employees performances. By the Strategy Map areemphasized the main goals and the link between them, which outline thestrategy. This is based on the grouping of the goals from the ones perspectiveBSC chosen, mainly financial, customers/citizens, internal processes andinnovation, learning and development and is an excellent instrument, whichoffers a quick general view („a one-page summary“) of the link between thesegoals and, implicitly, of the strategy functioning mood.The use of this instrument within the Prefect’s Office of Timis County allowed thedevelopment of the information from various strategic documents elaborated bythe institution, and its transposing in a singular form, structured on perspectives.Keywords: Balanced Scorecard, Public Management, Measuring of theinstitutional performance, Strategic ManagementJEL Classification: H110, H400, H7001Candidate for a doctor’s degree, University „Universitatea de Vest” of Timișoara,Faculty for Economy and Business Administration, Chair Management, Timișoara,Romania132 Volume 19, Issue 1, Year 2014Review of General Management

1. IntroductionBalanced Scorecard (BSC) has been launched in the early ‘90s, as newmanagement concept. Subsequent to the publishing of the first book on thistheme by Dr. Robert Kaplan (professor at the Harvard Business School) andby Dr. David Norton (management consultant), the popularity of the BSCconcept rose exponentially, becoming gradually one of the most usedmanagement instruments, on international level.Since its appearance, BSC registered a continuous development, froma simple instrument for measuring of the performance, to a strategicmanagement system of the organizational performance.The influence and notoriety of the concept, as well in the academicworld, as also among practitioners from all organizational categories:governmental, non-profit and corporative, brought it along the past twodecades as well critics, as also numerous appreciations. It is used for bothorganizations, but also for more macroeconomic systems. This happens aseven the regions are trying to identify different systems and levers fordeveloping as business units, within a unitary vision (Nastase, Roja, 2012).In 1997, The Academic Journal “Harvard Business Review” consideredBSC ”one of the most influent management idea and concept of the XXcentury” (Calabro Lori, 2001, p.72), meanwhile the American BookkeepingAssociation granted it in the same year the ”Prize for the best theoreticalcontribution of the year” (Norreklit Hanne, 2003, p. 591).The last studies performed worldwide by Bain & Company (2009)place BSC on the 6th place in a top of the mostly used overall managementinstruments. According to the same studies, 53% of the interviewedcompanies use BSC, with an average satisfaction value of 3,85 out of 5(Rigby D., Bilodeau B., 2009).2. BSC Definition. Basic Operating Concepts Of BSCThe term BSC has multiple meanings. The initial meaning, at themoment of its popularization, in the early 90s, was the one of generating ofa performance report, grouping the performance measures into perspectives,of which the most used were: Financial, Customers, Internal Processes,Innovation and Learning.Gradually, since its appearance, BSC had a continuous development,from a simple instrument for the performance measuring, to a strategicperformance management system, which uses plans of strategic operationalReview of General ManagementVolume 19, Issue 1, Year 2014133

and individual performance as base of communication, monitoring and ofimproving of the organizational performance.Although the concept has evolved from a strategic managementinstrument to a performance management system, it kept mainly its initialname, the one of “Balanced Scorecard”, due to its huge popularity (BrysonJohn M., 2004).Balanced Scorecard – “Strategic Performance Management System”The main component parts of BSC as Strategic PerformanceManagement System are: the Desired Evolution State, the Strategy Map, thePerformance Scorecard (or Balanced Scorecard) and the Initiative Portfolio.Balanced Scorecard / Performance Scorecard – Component Part ofthe Strategic Performance Management SystemBSC or the Performance Scorecard, as performance measuring andmanagement instrument, groups the financial and non-financial keyperformance indicators (KPIs) into perspectives, out of which the mostfrequently used are: Financial, Customers, Internal Processes, Innovation &Learning. The four perspectives offer a balance between the short-timegoals and the long-time goals, between the desired results and the factors,which lead to those results, and as well between the tangible goals and theunreachable effects.Figure no. 1. The four perspectives of Balanced ScorecardSource: adapted from Kaplan & Norton (1996)134 Volume 19, Issue 1, Year 2014Review of General Management

3. BSC Implementation MethodsFundamental Decisions, Necessary for ImplementationBefore the proper starting of the project, we need to take a decisionregarding the extension degree and the depth of the BSC introducing. Inbigger institutions, it is advisable that the leadership team should decide, infirst stage, the introducing of BSC in just one section of the institution (forexample, a department). The experience gained in this pioneering projectmay be further used to extend BSC over the whole institution, and as well,in order to detail BSC in all sections.Figure no. 2. BSC Detailing (Cascading)Source: Creating Balanced Scorecards people actually use, Ed Warnock, orecards%20People%20Actually%20Use.htmAccording to the basic BSC principle, the strategy implementation hasan impact upon the whole organization, being able to reach up to everyemployee. In bigger institutions, it is recommendable that BSC, developedover the whole institution, should be implemented also in the organizationalunits situated in the lower part of the hierarchic pyramid, or in subordinatedunits (concept defined as “detailing” or “cascading” – see the figure below).Review of General ManagementVolume 19, Issue 1, Year 2014135

In the development process of the BSC concept have to be implied allmembers of the leadership team, as well as employees who, subsequently,will act as promoters of BSC within the institution. These may, after thecascading, take over the role of multipliers: they may develop own BSCs fortheir responsibility areas, or they may adapt the goals within BSC, fromlevel of the whole institution, at the defining of which they have broughttheir contribution, to the specificity of their own area. After the taking ofthe fundamental decisions, regarding the extension degree and theprofoundness of the BSC introducing, we may pass to the planning and tostart the development of the BSC instrument.Development Management of the BSC InstrumentThe BSC development is a complex project and it is advisable, that itsdevelopment should be guided after the methods for project management.In order to implement Balanced Scorecard, the system, which willadministrate the strategy execution, it is absolutely necessary to obtain firstthe support of the person with supreme decision authority.In order to obtain that the management of the BSC developmentshould provide the framing within the planned time interval, we need,beside a clear defining of the goals and an allotment of the roles andresources, also an establishing of terms and landmarks, in order to offercompulsoriness and transparency. The development planning offers, duringits evolution, a reference frame and an orientation landmark for the onesinvolved. A decisive role has in the planning the identification of thesuitable team, within which to be represented the most important decisionalfactors and the most important key-persons of the institution. Teamwork isessential. She involves not only high level management but, also, andoperational level personnel who are responsible with implementingstrategies (Panzaru, S., Dragomir, C., 2012, pp. 94). The strategyformulating and execution is a complex phenomenon and is not simple.Depending on the necessities, the team may be extended, by incorporationof some specialist in the aimed field.136 Volume 19, Issue 1, Year 2014Review of General Management

4. Development of the Performance Measurement System – BSC –within the Prefect’s Office of Timis CountyDuring March 14-18, 2011, 5 employees of the Prefect’s Office ofTimis County attended a training session on the BSC instrument (BalancedScoreCard).The first workshop for the development and adapting of the BSCinstrument within the pioneering institutions took place between July 11-12,2011.During July 21-22, 2011, I coordinated the consensual sessionsregarding the goals, indicators and the initiatives established for theimplementation of the BSC instrument within the Prefect s Office of TimisCounty.The second workshop for development and adapting of the BSCinstrument BSC took place between August 4-5, 2011.By the BSC system, the Prefect’s Office of Timis County may nowplan, coordinate and monitor its organizational performance. BSC revealsthe institution strategy from four perspectives – the financial perspective,the citizens/Customers perspective, the perspective of internal processes, theperspective of learning and development and it allows the transposing ofstrategic goals into operational goals, actions, indicators and operationaltargets, up to the last organizational level.The BSC development and implementation supposed the passing ofseveral stages: identification and assessment of the architectural elements ofthe organization, analysis of the strategic documents of the institution,choosing of perspectives and establishing of the strategic goals,identification and emphasizing of the relationships between goals, definingof the performance indicators and of the targets, defining of the strategicinitiatives, BSC cascading on departments, providing of the computersupport and monitoring.In order to visualize the state, respectively the degree of the goalsreaching, in the BSC reporting system is used the traffic light mechanism.Starting from the proposed targets, it has been defined, for whichcharacteristic features of the performance indicators, the accomplishing ofthe goals has to be represented by the colors green, for which by yellow andfor which by red (for example, reached value green, value improvedtowards the initial target, but unreached target yellow, value under theinitial level or situated below red).Review of General ManagementVolume 19, Issue 1, Year 2014137