Implementation and Effectiveness of Using Balanced Scoreboards - Research Proposal Example

 REAEARCH PROPOSAL IMPLEMENTATION AND EFFECTIVENESS OF USING BALANCED SCOREBOARDS INTRODUCTION The use of balanced scorecards or scoreboards has been spreading through out the world of business and commerce in recent years. The scorecards are metric devices which will help the organizations to view their organizational measurements in various areas of their managements. To achieve a strategy has become the most important perspective of all the commercial and other fields related to continuous financial and successful improvement in their respective areas. The balanced scorecard methodology is a management system that provides various results of the organizations in simple format so that the executives as well as the others working under them would be able to focus on areas that requires immediate attention and monitoring key performance measurements. Since measurements will help in all the working units of an organization to monitor the growth and performance. The common areas that require this measurement system such as the balanced scoreboards are customers, employees, stockholders, suppliers, and communities. It enables the management system to make their vision clear over the functional areas and improve their strategy and apply them practically. This proposal is to analyze the reason behind the adoption of balanced scoreboards and its impact and finally what makes the local authorities and the Government of UK very particular in adopting this method. The proposal will also Research Proposal 3 include the information regarding the effectiveness of the balanced scoreboard or scorecard system. The aims behind this proposal are as follows 1. To have a clear idea of what is the purpose of adopting balanced scoreboards by going through the various organizational reports regarding this topic. 2. To collect databases on the previously done scorecards of various organizations and the results in strategic management after the adoption of these scorecards. 3. To compare the application of the scoreboards with that of other methods that was adopted previously. 4. To analyze the reasons behind why do the UK authorities adopt this method of measurement, and also find out the comparative results of the previous methods adopted in their management with that of the results gained through the adaptation of scoreboards 5. And finally to check the inadequacies that are in this system [If any ]. 6. And providing recommendations to follow this scoreboard system continuously without any further drawbacks. Research Proposal 4 LITERATURE REVIEW Today’s business and management fields require new and innovative approaches to cope up with the existing competence through out the world. There are many companies that work with the support of collective investments. This has lead to instability of markets and capital losses and the range of management in those collective investment companies, financial sectors and industries. A collective investment company does not always refer to a place of attractiveness of the management, in reality the problem of performance management appears in times of crisis such as diversified portfolios and volatility. The identification of the core activities and gaining best and new clients has becomes a compulsory requirement for the executives and the employees to achieve the strategic development. Based on these drawbacks the Balanced Scorecards or Scoreboards was adopted. It was actually formulated by Drs. Robert Keplan [Harvard Business School] and David Norton, during the 1990’s. The balanced scoreboards provide a clear perception of what the companies should measure with the aim of maintaining a balance in finance and management strategies. It is a management system that helps the organizations to get a clear notion what are the strategies they should follow and they in turn transfer this to practical action. It gives a comparative feed back around internal and external business processes so that a continuous development could be achieved in performance management. The website for details regarding the balanced scoreboards provides the information on the departments Research Proposal 5 in UK and also other countries that adopt this method and the reasons which persuaded them to adopt. 1.The British Telecommunications Worldwide 2.The Lloyds SB Bank. UK 3.The Finnforest UK 4.UK Ministry of Defence UK. The balanced scoreboard method is being adopted in all these fields of the UK . The British Telecommunications Department wanted to work with new ways of joint venture partners, and they would like to have a continuous global communications to the demands of e-commerce. They say the following core values that are existing in it should be under continuous development. They are 1. Putting the customer first 2. Being professional 3. Working as one team 4. Being committed to continuous improvement For Bell, “Having the scorecard reflect the culture is so important that he is in favor of making culture the fifth perspective of a balanced scorecard”. [http://www.balancedscorecard.org/adoptors/details.asp?refid=113] The Finn forest, Europe’s largest manufactures and supplier of timber products were unable to identify and trace the profits or find out exactly profitable and unprofitable customers. So as a remedy a combination of combination of work based costing and Research Proposal 6 adoption of balanced scorecard has been followed. “ Seeing the Forest and the Trees: ABC and BSC at Finn forest U.K “ this book published with the view of providing the importance of using balanced scorecards shows how the authorities in UK are in favor of this method. The details regarding this could be gathered from the website mentioned above http://www.balancedscorecard.org/adoptors/details.asp?refid=113 The UK Ministry Of Defense also has adopted this method of balanced scorecards in order to make the performance management strategy a continual process. The details of why they have adopted in detail are found in the book “ Making Strategy a continual Process at the UK Ministry Of Defense”, By Lauren Keller Johnson, one of the Britain’s longest government departments , and fifth largest military spender in the world. “This valuation methodology will convert an organization’s value drivers such as customer service, innovation, operational efficiency and financial performance to a series of defined metrics.” [ http://www.cio.com/archieve/051502/scorecard.html] The metrics will help the authorities as well as the workers to determine their strategic goals and how to achieve them. Each individual worker or member of the concerned organization works of a personal scorecard striving to achieve personal objectives with connection to the corporate strategy. Its speciality seems to lie in the fact that the scorecards require every action to answer the goals proposed. It is the kind of measurement that measures the financial and production and management sides of a company to get a clear view of how the company had been in its progression in financial and management performance and how it will be working in future. Research Proposal 7 This method turns strategies into action and it highlights the different areas by means of boxes. “ Smaller boxes within the larger ones contain graphs, charts or statistics usually arranged with connections clearly identified. When intelligently constructed, scoreboards displays links between key measures” [http://www.qulitydigest.com/nova7/htm] The articles on balance scorecards reflect the effectiveness in the financial and development in business sectors of UK. The overall articles show their support in favor of scorecards. 1. “The Balanced Scoreboard Approach. The Business Community’s Latest buzz brings new opportunity to an old way of thinking . By Ann Parrish. http://www.varbusiness.com/sections/98pages/190mgt.jhtml 2. “ Executive Summary. What the Value Added Scoreboard Analysis Says! http://www.informationforaccountants.com/articlemgmtprincl.html 3. The Balanced Scoreboard: Translating Strategy into Action. _ Book reviews http://www.findarticles.com 4. A proposal on How to apply the balanced scoreboard to the collective investment managerial firms. By Munoz Colomina, Clara.I, Urquia Grande, Elena Sevillano Martin, Fco Javior http://www.ucm.es/BUCM/cee/doc/03-006/03006.pdf 5. Spiders Scoreboards and instrument Panels By. Blanton Godfrey http://www.qualitydigest.com Research Proposal 8 The analysis of these articles support the view that balanced scoreboards or scorecards has brought out a development and change to meet the competences in the industry. And it becomes very easy for the managers to have a balanced view of their firm’s profit and loss, their customer’s nature, how they could best suggest improvement or developmental methods in all the required areas etc. A balanced scoreboard will suggest the best alternative methods to improve the strategy and apply the acquired knowledge into action. METHODOLOGY There are various research methods that could be applied to a business research. The research on balanced scoreboards requires a Case Study research. The Case study design is followed with the intention to evaluate the effectiveness of a program’s processes including the strength and weaknesses of the case. Here the case will be The Local Authorities of UK and why do they go foe balanced scorecards method for measuring various aspects. 1. The case study involves collection of data about the and gathering all the data foe comparison 2. Then the data is organized into an approach to focus on the study 3. The data could be databases, articles related to the data 4. The data also includes questionnaires and interviews 5. The interview is of a general interview guide approach Research Proposal 9 These methods are taken from the site http://www.managementhelp.org/commskls/questnair/Questnair.htm The databases are taken from the sources given in the literature review. The logic behind adopting this method in business research is that the case study will help in getting accurate records over the use and effectiveness of balanced scorecards. The questionnaires includes three sets one should be asked to those in authority, the next set should be asked to those in managerial level and the third set should be asked to employees, since balanced scoreboards are found out to be effective in determining the development goals in employees also. An employee could suggest within himself the ways which he could follow to bring about strategic performances in production level. The questionnaires prepared for these three categories are common for all those who come under that category. The interviews should be done only with those who are in managerial level, because they could give or provide the metrical details as they will have a good knowledge of the proceedings of their organizations. These interviews will have collected information with proof so that it becomes easy to support the arguments taken for research. The information collected from the interview are like direct and reliable sources and the validity will be sure. The proposed questions will be 1. In what way the adoption of balanced scorecards help in forming a strategic development in management performance? 2. How these strategic developments will be transformed into action? Research Proposal 10 3. What could be called the strategic goals ? 4. Who are all eligible to achieve this goal? 5. What is the role of a manager in measuring the values displayed in a balanced scoreboard? 6. What are the other ways in which the values could be compared easily with that of the previous values? These are the questions that could be asked to a manager. Likewise the following could be asked to an employee 1. What is the difference that is found after analyzing the scorecard details? 2. Is there improvement?. If so how far the improvement has been reached? 3. Do they really get benefited by this method? 4. What is the difference that they find in their organizations’ outfit? The authorities should be asked based on the strategic development that they found in their managers, employers, with the application of the balanced scoreboards. The questions should include 1. The reason behind preferring this method 2. The comparison of previous stage and the present stage of development 3. whether the balanced scorecards could be considered as a complete remedy to solve this problem 4. why don’t they go for adopting other ,methods such as graphs, panels etc. 5. why do the local authorities particularly go for this ? Research Proposal 11 6. Why don’t the government adopt this in all its activities? 7. If this method has not been adopted how the organizations would be working in performance development? The analyses of these collected data from the interviews needs lot of attention as they are direct sources and reliable. The result that is gathered based on these analysis will definetly be a valid one. Because the real time experience will be shared by the persons. Other online sources and articles could also be included to support the argument collected from the interviews. Examples of various balanced scorecards should be collected and analyzed so as to give a detailed and valid support to the aims taken for the research. PLAN OF WORK From 1st to 7th July - Analyzing the aims chosen for the research or dissertation. This Process also includes identifying the variations in the aims selected and sorting out the topics under each aim separately. From 8th to 14th July - Writing a literature review based on the previous work done on this topic and providing databases to support the aims chosen. From 15th to 21st July - Designing the research format. This includes the presentation of what research style has been selected and how that would be included with this topic. From 22nd to 28th July – The process of collecting questionnaires should be done. This also includes collecting information from various sources. Research Proposal 12 From 29th to 31st July – Interviews should be conducted with people who have already done works on this balanced scoreboard and with managers concerned with this field. From 1stto 7th August - Analysis of the information collected from these interviews also included in this time period. From 8th to 14th August - This time period includes analysis and comparison of collected publication sources with the information given directly by the interviewee. From 15th to 21st August – This time period includes writing of the first draft of the Dissertation. From 22nd to 28th August – Proof reading and final corrections are done in these days. From 29th to 31st August – Final submission of the finally completed dissertation will be The above plan details are given in Gantt chart and it has been attached separately. SOURCES REQUIRED Databases http://www.balancedscorecard.org/adoptors/details.asp?refid=113 The website mentioned above have collective data bases of those who adopt the balanced scorecard method. The following are the literature databases for balanced scorecards The Balanced Scorecard:A foundation for the strategic management of information systems [ 1999 ] Martinsons, Maris, / Davison, Robert/Tse, Dennis Research Proposal 13 The Balanced Scorecard an IT Governance [ 2002 ] Van Grembergen, Wim A Balanced Scorecard Approach to Enterprise Systems Performance Measurements . Sedera, Darshana/ Gable, Guy/ Rosemann, Micheal. Computer And Software facilities for Balanced Scorecards The websites 1. http://www.balancedscorecard.org/adoptors/details.asp?refid=113 2.http://www.performancesoft.com/balancedscorecard.asp?ppc=G&adgroup=Balanced+S 3corecard&gclid=CLPd1-PpiYYCFQ8xSQod71TiBw 3. Balanced Scorecard solutions http://www.pbviews.com 4.Corporate ::Home with a balanced scorecard corporate software version 2.6 http://www.corporate.com 5.Balanced Scorecard Software and corporate performance management software http://www.mybalancedscorecard.com Research Proposal 14 BIBLIOGRAPHY http://www.managementhelp.org/commskls/questnair/Questnair.htm http://www.qulitydigest.com/nova7/htm http://www.cio.com/archieve/051502/scorecard.html http://www.balancedscorecard.org/adoptors/details.asp?refid=113 Read More