Balanced Scorecard Memo
High performance organizations must develop a plan that encompasses high-quality service implementation with the integration of high-quality performance measures. Most organizations have begun to utilize Dr. Norton and Dr. Kaplan's balanced scorecard system as a means to maintain high-quality standards within an organizations daily operations.
A balanced scorecard is a fundamental framework used to identify key objectives stemming from an identification mechanism of consumer segmentation to understanding the pertinent target markets within the four categorical factors of performance measures, i.e. financial, consumers, internal, and developmental perspectives, which ultimately assists most organizations with focusing on primary objectives that includes a comprehensive analysis as to how an organization might work towards sustaining customer relationships, retaining loyal employees, and exceeding consumer expectations, and benefiting major stakeholders simultaneously. A balanced scorecard will enable SAC to develop an adequate strategy for exceeding the needs of consumers, stakeholders, and all parties influenced by the organization's operational processes. The purpose of a balanced scorecard is to analyze an organizations previous methodology, evaluate the organizations current methodology, and to measure what processes can be improved upon, in SAC's case, improvement is needed in the area of overall performance. A question was raised by the presided of SAC as to how the organization should tie compensation to performance measurements? When considering combining the two (compensation and performance), one must acknowledge that this combination is a developmental process that appropriately compensates employees for a job well done instead of monetary compensation distributed "under the table" which completely defies corporate responsibility.
Several years ago, I had the opportunity of working for a medical facility that fairly compensated their employees according to exceeding the company's monthly goal of patient intake,. The office manager established a quota. The goal was to book a certain amount of patients per month. The responsibility of achieving this goal relied upon every staff member from scheduling, to receptionist, to medical records. If the quota was reached, each employee received a handsome reward/bonus on their paycheck. This type of performance measure enabled staff members be competitive within the organization and the marketplace. Productivity increased, company morale increased, profitability increased, and our organization had a low-turn around as a result of fair compensation.
"Ethics are standards of behavior within a group or society that indicate how we should behave to achieve the moral goals upon which the society places importance. Ethics are related to how we act and interact with others, and so are external in nature. These vary from society to society, but individuals within the society are expected to maintain these standards. If they do not, there is often a social price to pay"(Ouellette, 2009) which may result in public scrutiny, legal ramifications, possible criminal prosecution, and/or fines, etc.
In an article "The Decline of Ethical Behavior in Business" by Jeffery T. Luftig, and Steven Ouellette (2009), they make mention of various organizations that were scrutinized as a result of failing to yield to their corporate responsibility as top-level executives, instead each member within such organizations as Enron, Worldcom, Tyco, etc., yielded to much greater temptation that allowed them to take part in unethical behavior, that created a major financial breakdown in the most lucrative firms during that time period.