Module 1 – Case
THE BALANCED SCORECARD & THE FINANCIAL PERSPECTIVE
Assignment Overview
In this module’s case assignment you will be introduced to
the balanced scorecard concept and will begin to consider how organizations
link strategy with the balanced scorecard approach. We will look at the
interrelationship of strategy and the balanced scorecard approach in more depth
later on in this course. For now, however, it is good to understand the
fundamentals of the BSC and to consider examples of how organizations have
integrated the BSC approach into their daily operations in a fashion that reflects
the strategy of the respective organizations.
To prepare for this case assignment you are to start by
reading the required readings identified on the background page. You’ll note
that one of those articles includes:
Martello, M., Watson, J., & Fischer, M. (2008).
Implementing a balanced scorecard in a not-for-profit organization. Journal of
Business & Economics Research. 6(9), 67-80. Retrieved from
http://journals.cluteonline.com/index.php/JBER/article/view/2471/2517
This is the case study you will be evaluating for this
assignment. Note that there is an option to download the PDF file rather than
using the PDF viewer on this page. This may save you some aggravation.
After reading this article, formulate an argumentative essay
around the following thesis statement:
Cattaraugus County Rehabilitation Center did an effective
job of implementing a balanced scorecard approach in a fashion that reflects
their organizational mission and vision.
If you do not think
this thesis is accurate, you can argue that the Center did not do an effective
job.
Assignment Expectations
Your analysis should be structured in terms of the following
four perspectives (you will be using essentially this same comparative
evaluation framework for the first four modules of this course):
Introduction: In this part of your essay you will need to
set up your argument by introducing your topic and presenting your position or
thesis statement somewhere in this introductory paragraph.
Analysis: In this section you will present several arguments
arguing in favor of your thesis statement. Make sure you discuss how the Center
used the score card quadrants to align with organizational strategy (or how it
failed to do so).
Conclusion: Wrap up your argument with a clear and cogent
synopsis of your findings. Do your best to convince your reader (aka, your professor)
as to your position.
Additional Instructions: Your argumentative essay should be
3 to 4 pages in length (not counting your title page or references). You must
include a list of references. APA formatting is preferred. Do not paste in
sections of text into your essay. All of your work must be written in your own
words. It’s OK to use a short quote now and again, but quotations must be in
quotation marks and properly cited. In-text citations should be used anytime
you are borrowing somebody else’s ideas, or information. That is to say, if you
are borrowing a thought from a publication from G. Jetson’s article written in
2010, that section of text must be followed with (Jetson, 2010). Quotations,
data, and general ideas (put into your own words) should all be cited.
Module 1 SLP
THE BALANCED SCORECARD & THE FINANCIAL PERSPECTIVE
The purpose of the Session Long Project is to give you the
opportunity to explore the applicability of the Module to your own life, work,
and place in space and time, and to experiment with the Module to see how the
otherwise academically rigorous presentation of a topic may, with more or less
work and/or trauma, become “up close and personal”. This is done in a
number of different ways — sometimes cumulative papers, sometimes practical
hands-on experimentation with a tool of some sort, sometimes reflections on a
place of work or life. The common thread is personal application, aimed at
demonstrating a cumulative knowledge and understanding of the course’s
material.
For this course, the Session Long Project will take the form
of putting together background from each of the four perspectives for a
balanced scorecard approach to an organization or organizational unit with
which you are familiar. In the final module, you will have a go at strategy
mapping. You’re not building a complete balanced scorecard — that would be far
beyond our current scope – but you’ll have a chance to see what goes into it
and how it gets put together into a coordinated whole. As in the cases, you’ll
be drawing on your previous course work to help.
The Module 1 assignment has two parts. First, you need to
identify an organization to which you have access to at least some information
concerning financial data; staffing and human resource systems; marketing and
customer relations; information systems; and operations. While most material on
the Balanced Scorecard is written from the private, for-profit point of view,
it’s perfectly possible to use this approach with public or non-profit
organizations as well.
For the second part of this assignment, consider the
organization’s mission and strategy from the perspective of its financial
operations (from your work on the case, your previous course work, and your
background reading, you should be reasonably clear what such operations are).
In this section of the assignment you’ll begin to identify objectives and
measures relevant to that perspective. If you’re unclear on just what
objectives and measures are, here is a presentation that describes what they
are and how to write them.
SLP Assignment Expectations
When you have thought about it and made your selection,
please specify (2-3 pages):
The name of your organization
What this organization does – its mission, vision and
overall strategy
The access you have to information about this organization
— remember, you’ll need information about its financial performance,
marketing, internal operations, strategy, and management systems.
Once you’re reasonably clear on what’s involved, think about
your organization and its finances, and then:
Identify at least three objectives for improving the
organization’s financial position, and show how they relate to the mission,
vision and strategy of the organization.
For each objective, develop at least one meaningful
performance measure (metric).
For each objective, identify at least one expected level of
performance (target).
For each objective, identify at least one new action or
program that needs to be developed to ensure successful implementation of the
organization’s strategy (initiative).
Here’s a table that you may wish to copy and fill in:
Objective
Measure
Target
Action
Module 2 – Case
BSC FLEXIBILITY & THE CUSTOMER PERSPECTIVE
Assignment Overview
In the last module we looked at the Balanced Scorecard and
how it is implemented from more of a purist’s approach and just touched on the
flexibility of the tool. In this module, we are going to look at the BSC from
more of an adaptive approach. That is to say, how adaptable is this tool given
the wide variety of organizations out there in the world.
In this assignment you are asked to study the required
readings and to read the following case study:
Basu, R., Little, C., & Millard, C. (2009). Case study:
A fresh approach of the balanced scorecard in the Heathrow Terminal 5 project.
Measuring Business Excellence. 13(4). 22-33. Retrieved from
http://www.perf-ex.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/T5-case-study-MBE-papaer.pdf
After reading this article, write an essay in which you
compare and contrast the balanced scorecard utilized by the British Airport
Authority (BAA) at Heathrow Airport’s Terminal 5 project with the standard
quadrants typically applied in a traditional BSC approach (financial focus, Internal
focus, Learning and Growth focus, and Customer focus). That is to say, the
Terminal 5 project was a large, public construction project using private
contractors. Yet, the BSC approach is also applied to the manufacturing sector,
health care sector, and is applied in both private and public organizations. So
you’ll want to consider how the T5 project adapted the BSC approach to fit the
prevailing circumstances to help formulate your arguments.
Assignment Expectations
In formulating your essay you need to discuss to what degree
the evidence suggests the balanced scorecard approach is amenable to most
organizations.
Introduction: In this part of your essay you will need to
introduce your topic and provide a very brief overview of the key points you
plan to make in your paper.
Analysis: In this section you will present the actual
comparison and contrast between BAA’s approach to the Balanced Scorecard and
more traditional approaches.
Conclusion: Wrap up your argument with a clear and cogent
synopsis of your findings. Do your best to convince your reader (aka, your professor)
as to your position.
Additional Instructions: Your essay should be 3 to 4 pages
in length (not counting your title page or references). You must include a list
of references. APA formatting is preferred. Do not paste in sections of text
into your essay. All of your work must be written in your own words. It’s OK to
use a short quote now and again, but quotations must be in quotation marks and
properly cited. In-text citations should be used anytime you are borrowing
somebody else’s ideas, or information. That is to say, if you are borrowing a
thought from a publication from F. Leghorn’s article written in 2010, that
section of text must be followed with (Leghorn, 2010). Quotations, data, and
general ideas (put into your own words) should all be cited.
Module 2 – SLP
BSC FLEXIBILITY & THE CUSTOMER PERSPECTIVE
For Module 2, consider your organization’s mission and
strategy from the perspective of its potential, prospective, and present customers.
In this section of the assignment you’ll begin to identify objectives and
measures relevant to that perspective. Refer back to this presentation on
objectives if you need to.
SLP Assignment Expectations
Once you’re reasonably clear on what’s involved, think about
your organization and its customers/clients/users/service recipients/whatever-you-wish-to-call-them,
and then:
Identify at least three objectives for the organization’s
customer service perspective and show how they relate to the mission, vision
and strategy of the organization.
For each objective, develop at least one meaningful
performance measure (metric).
For each objective, identify at least one expected level of
performance (target).
For each objective, identify at least one new action or
program that needs to be developed to ensure successful implementation of the
organization’s strategy (initiative).
Comment briefly on the relationships of the customer service
objectives that you’ve identified here to the financial objectives that you
identified in the Module 1 SLP assignment. How do they help to fulfill those
objectives? If they don’t (and they don’t have to), what makes them more
important than objectives that would relate to finances?
Finally, do you wish to make any changes to your Module 1
objective write-up in light of your Module 2 experience?
Here’s a table that you may wish to copy and fill in (the
boxes are expandable – take all the space you need to be complete in your descriptions.
No more than 2-3 pages should be necessary.)
Objective
Measure
Target
Action
Relationships to other objectives
Revisions (if any) to Module 1 Objectives
Objective/Module
Measure
Target
Action
Module 3 – Case
BSC IMPLEMENTATION & THE INTERNAL BUSINESS PROCESS
PERSPECTIVE
Assignment Overview
Any large scale change endeavor requires a great deal of
effort on the part of a given organization to implement. Implementing a
corporate wide BSC based performance management system is no difference. In
implementing such a system, organizational leaders face the challenge of
overcoming organizational inertia rooted in resistance to change. This is no
easy challenge, and is one of the major reasons why the majority of BSC
initiatives (or large scale change initiatives in general) fail.
In this module, therefore, we are going to look at the BSC
not due to its value as a means of integrating strategy with operations or due
to its usefulness as a performance management tool. Rather, in this module we
are going to put on our organizational dynamics consultant hat and consider
what it takes to implement a large scale organizational change endeavor.
After completing the readings presented, write a 3-4 page
essay that addresses the following issues.
In your own words, describe the efforts put forth by BAE in
implementing the BSC approach in their organization from an implementation
perspective. What efforts did they make to assure employees would be receptive
to, and accept the BSC initiative? Describe to what extent you believe their
efforts paid off.
The case study for BAE can be found in Chapter 7 of:
Murby, L., & Gould, S. (2005). Effective performance
management with the balanced scorecard: Technical report. Chartered Institute
of Management Accountants. Retrieved from
http://www.cimaglobal.com/Documents/ImportedDocuments/Tech_rept_Effective_Performance_Mgt_with_Balanced_Scd_July_2005.pdf
Assignment Expectations
Your assignment should include the following:
Introduction: In this part of your essay you will need to
introduce your topic and provide a very brief overview of the key points you
plan to make in your paper.
Analysis: In this section you will present the actual
comparison and contrast between BAA’s approach to the Balanced Scorecard and
more traditional approaches.
Conclusion: Wrap up your argument with a clear and cogent
synopsis of your findings. Do your best to convince your reader (aka, your
professor) as to your position.
Additional Instructions: Your essay should be 3 to 4 pages
in length (not counting your title page or references). You must include a list
of references. APA formatting is preferred. Do not paste in sections of text
into your essay. All of your work must be written in your own words. It’s OK to
use a short quote now and again, but quotations must be in quotation marks and
properly cited. In-text citations should be used anytime you are borrowing
somebody else’s ideas, or information. That is to say, if you are borrowing a
thought from a publication from J. Bravo’s article written in 2010, that
section of text must be followed with (Bravo, 2010). Quotations, data, and
general ideas (put into your own words) should all be cited.
Module 3 – SLP
BSC IMPLEMENTATION & THE INTERNAL BUSINESS PROCESS
PERSPECTIVE
For Module 3, consider the organization’s mission and
strategy from the perspective of its internal business processes (from your
work on the case, your previous course work, and your background reading, you
should be reasonably clear what such business processes are). In this section
of the assignment you’ll begin to identify objectives and measures relevant to
that perspective. Refer back to this presentation on objectives if you need to.
SLP Assignment Expectations
Once you’re reasonably clear on what’s involved, think about
your organization and its business processes, and then:
Identify at least three objectives for improving the
organization’s internal business processes, and show how they relate to the
mission, vision and strategy of the organization.
For each objective, develop at least one meaningful
performance measure (metric).
For each objective, identify at least one expected level of
performance (target).
For each objective, identify at least one new action or
program that needs to be developed to ensure successful implementation of the
organization’s strategy (initiative).
Comment briefly on the relationships of the process
objectives that you’ve identified here to the finance objectives that you
identified in the Module 1 SLP assignment and/or the customer service
objectives that you identified in the Module 2 SLP assignment. How do they help
to fulfill those objectives? If they don’t (and they don’t have to), what makes
them more important than objectives that would relate to finance or customer
service?
Finally, do you wish to make any changes to your Module 1 or
Module 2 objective write-ups in light of your Module 3 experience?
Here’s a table that you may wish to copy and fill in (the
boxes are expandable – take all the space you need to be complete in your
descriptions. No more than 2-3 pages should be necessary.)
Objective
Measure
Target
Action
Relationships to other objectives
Revisions (if any) to Module 1 and/or Module 2 Objectives
Objective/Module
Measure
Target
Action
Module 4 – Case
STRATEGY MAPPING & THE LEARNING AND GROWTH PERSPECTIVE
Assignment Overview
Explain the process of strategy mapping and how it relates
to performance management and establishing value propositions. You may discuss
this theoretically or use the Glacier Inn case study presented in Armitage and
Scholey (2009) to serve as an example for integrating these ideas.
Alternatively, you can use the Hazard Action Zone case study presented in Murby
and Gold (2005) if you’d prefer.
Armitage, H., & Scholey, C. (2006). Using strategy maps
to drive performance. Society of Mgt. Accountants of Canada. Retrieved from
http://www.cimaglobal.com/documents/importeddocuments/tech_mag_strategy_mapping_march07.pdf
Murby, L., & Gould, S. (2005). Effective performance
management with the balanced scorecard: Technical report. Chartered Institute
of Management Accountants. Retrieved from:
http://www.cimaglobal.com/Documents/ImportedDocuments/Tech_rept_Effective_Performance_Mgt_with_Balanced_Scd_July_2005.pdf
Assignment Expectations
Your essay should be 3 to 4 pages long and include the
following:
Introduction: In this part of your essay you will need to
introduce your topic and provide a very brief overview of the key points you
plan to make in your paper.
Analysis: In this section you will present several arguments
in favor of your thesis statement. Discuss how either Glacier Inn or Hazard
Action Zone effectively used strategic mapping (or how they failed to do so).
Conclusion: Wrap up your argument with a clear and cogent
synopsis of your findings. Do your best to convince your reader (aka, your
professor) as to your position.
Additional Instructions: Your essay should be 3 to 4 pages
in length (not counting your title page or references). You must include a list
of references. APA formatting is preferred. Do not paste in sections of text
into your essay. All of your work must be written in your own words. It’s OK to
use a short quote now and again, but quotations must be in quotation marks and
properly cited. In-text citations should be used anytime you are borrowing
somebody else’s ideas, or information. That is to say, if you are borrowing a
thought from a publication from J. Neutron’s article written in 2010, that
section of text must be followed with (Neutron, 2010). Quotations, data, and
general ideas (put into your own words) should all be cited.
Module 4 – SLP
STRATEGY MAPPING & THE LEARNING AND GROWTH PERSPECTIVE
For Module 4, consider your organization’s mission and
strategy from the perspective of its learning and growth (from your work on the
case, your previous course work, and your background reading, you should be
reasonably clear what such activities are). In this section of the assignment
you’ll begin to identify objectives and measures relevant to that perspective.
Refer back to this presentation on objectives if you need to.
SLP Assignment Expectations
Once you’re reasonably clear on what’s involved, think about
your organization and its learning and growth processes, and then:
Identify at least three objectives for improving the
organization’s learning and growth, and show how they relate to the mission,
vision and strategy of the organization.
For each objective, develop at least one meaningful
performance measure (metric).
For each objective, identify at least one expected level of
performance (target).
For each objective, identify at least one new action or
program that needs to be developed to ensure successful implementation of the
organization’s strategy (initiative).
Comment briefly on the relationships of the learning and
growth objectives that you’ve identified here to the financial objectives that
you identified in the Module 1 SLP assignment, the customer service objectives
you identified in Module 2, and/or the internal business process objectives you
identified in Module 3. How do they help to fulfill those objectives? If they
don’t (and they don’t have to), what makes them more important than objectives
that would relate to customer service, business processes, or financial
operations?
Finally, do you wish to make any changes to your Module 1,
2, or 3 objective write-ups in light of your Module 4 experience?
Here’s a table that you may wish to copy and fill in (the
boxes are expandable – take all the space you need to be complete in your
descriptions. No more than 2-3 pages should be necessary.)
Objective
Measure
Target
Action
Relationships to other objectives
Revisions (if any) to Module 1, 2, and/or 3 Objectives
Objective/Module
Measure
Target
Action
