Human Resource Management in Organisations - Shipyard Progres - Essay Example

Conclusion and Recommendations 11 References 12 Appendix 13 1. Introduction The evaluation of business plans is of critical importance for understanding the potential of a firm to secure its position in the market. The use of management systems that have been already tested in real market conditions can help managers to develop more accurate assumptions regarding their firm’s potentials both in the short and the long term. Balanced Scorecard is a management system focusing rather on long-term business goals and achievements.

Different approaches have been used in the literature for describing the Balanced Scorecard; in accordance with Chi et al. (2011) the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) can be characterized as ‘a performance management system for assisting a corporation in actualising its strategy’ (Chi et al. 2011, p.224). From a different point of view, Rabbani et al. (2011) note that the BSC is based ‘on the critical success factor (CSF) concept of a limited set of performance measures’ (Rabbani et al. 2011, p.1). The above approaches reflect the aims of Kaplan and Norton in regard to the use of BSC as a management system for measuring organizational performance. . Reference is made to a specific firm: the shipyard Progres, a firm established in 1837 as part of the shipbuilding industry of Netherlands.

Due to the radical changes in market structure and trends, the firm’s existing strategies need to be thoroughly reviewed and updated. Emphasis should be given on the management of staff but also on the management of the firm’s financial sector. The development of an appropriately customized Balanced Scorecard system could improve the monitoring of the firm’s strategies, helping to identify the key reasons of the failures in regard to the firm’s plan for expansion within its industry. Moreover, the specific system could help the organization to estimate whether the project under review, the purchase of an existing dry dock - which could be moored in Eemshaven harbour, is feasible and under which terms it could contribute in the firm’s growth. 2. Balanced Scorecard – usefulness, applicability and pitfalls against Self-appraisal models The performance of organizations in the long term is difficult to be estimated with accuracy.

The use of management systems, such as the Balanced Scorecard, helps towards the identification of a firm’s potentials within its market; in fact, the Balanced Scorecard, can offer to a firm’s managers the chance to evaluate the performance of their organization as being influenced by specific strategies and initiatives. From this point of view, the Balanced Scorecard can be characterized as a valuable management tool helping managers to develop a complete view of their firm’s current operational status but also of its perspectives in the future (Ba-Abaad 222009).

The Balanced Scorecard has a