Business School Balanced Scorecard

The balanced scorecard provides a picture of the company from the perspective of internal and external customers, employees, and shareholders in terms of satisfaction, innovations, and profitability. It helps determine what a company needs to focus on, such as customer satisfaction, research and design, improved quality, better leadership, or more cooperative employees. Balanced scorecards can be used to link human resource activities to the organization's business strategy and evaluate the extent in which HR is helping the company reach its strategic objectives. Productivity (output), people (employees), and process (systems) are important components of an HR balanced scorecard. The following scenario guides you through an academic administrator's dilemma of determining what to focus on in the balanced scorecard for this university.

In this exercise, please read the mini-case below and answer the questions that follow.

Brutus U. Versity is the Dean of the School of Business. He is interested in evaluating the effectiveness of the business school and decides to develop a balanced scorecard. The long-term vision of the business school is "to create an environment in which the development and dissemination of business knowledge can flourish." The mission is "to advance scientific research and development in the field of business; to provide the highest quality instruction in business; and to serve the business community through the effective design and delivery of value-added programs." Brutus knows that the purpose of the balanced scorecard is to translate an organization's strategy into operational terms by measuring performance from many perspectives or across several categories. Thus, he determines that he is going to consider the four perspectives or categories - Customer, Internal Employees, Innovation, and Financial - in the balanced scorecard for the School of Business.

1) What market should be used as a comparison in creating the balanced scorecard?

A) All business schools that have a similar size

B) All colleges and universities in the country

C) All business schools in one geographic area

2) Which of the following is a financial goal Brutus should consider in developing the scorecard?

A) Student evaluation of quality

B) Satisfaction of students

C) Revenue per student

3) Which of the following is NOT a metric of an internal business perspective?

A) Graduation rates per student

B) Training costs per student

C) Compensation and benefits for faculty and staff

4) Which of these tasks emphasizes an innovation perspective?

A) Satisfying faculty and staff

B) Increasing profitability

C) Developing new course offerings