Univ., Diss--Frankfurt

This thesis presents the findings from two case study examinations of strategic performance measurement systems within two turbulent environmental contexts: the U.S. security software industry and the U.S. health care industry. Despite a three-­‐decade emphasis on performance measurement research, little empirical work has been carried out inside turbulent settings—contexts characterized by rapid change, high levels of instability and complex configurations among environmental variables. This research targets that gap. Through exploratory case studies from seven security software firms paired with a single in-­‐ depth case investigation within a transforming health care system, this study addresses the question: “how do firms in turbulent environments measure strategic performance?” The research found that in turbulent environments, an effective strategic performance measurement system contains six interrelated elements: management aims, performance objectives, uncertainty areas, decision data, management attention and performance measures. Top managers focus on their aims and performance objectives to meet requirements via a closed-­‐loop approach while monitoring uncertainty areas and gathering decision data in an open-­‐loop way. This union of feedback and feedforward control enables dynamic interaction among the various elements of the system all of which are informed by performance measure data. Effective use is moderated by management’s focus of attention. The research has implications for information processing and management control literature; it extends existing theory to incorporate the use of semi-­‐structures within the framework of the strategic performance measurement system as a means of overcoming the challenges of uncertainty. Further, the research contradicts both extant literature and practice convention that claims strategic performance measurement frameworks need to be balanced to be effective. Practitioners are provided with a strategic performance measurement framework for use in turbulent environments. The framework would benefit from further examination in a variety of different, equally turbulent, contexts.

Bakgrund: Prestationsmätning är en viktig del av ekonomistyrning och mätningarna ser olika ut beroende på organisation. Inom offentlig verksamhet har intresset för prestationsmätning ökat i och med New Public Management-idéerna (NPM). NPM har bidragit till en ökad företagsekonomisk inriktning på offentlig styrning, där resurshushållning och effektivitet fått ett tydligare fokus. Prestationsmätning har tidigare främst förknippats med finansiella prestationer. Under 1980- och 90-talen ökade kritiken mot detta ensidigt finansiella intresse, företrädelsevis ur en företagskontext. Att även utföra icke-finansiell prestationsmätning, och att då ha en flerdimensionell styrning, framhölls allt oftare som ett sätt att få organisationer mer framgångsrika. En av de mest välkända styrmetoderna för detta synsätt är det balanserade styrkortet. Balanserade styrkort som flerdimensionell styrmetod är enligt vissa forskare lämpligt även för offentlig verksamhet. Andra forskare menar att offentlig verksamhet genom NPM och fokus på resurshushållning samt effektivitet i sig är endimensionellt. Kollektivtrafiken i Sverige tillhör den offentliga sektorn. Under senare år har kollektivtrafiken dragits med låg effektivitet samtidigt som branschen har som mål att fördubbla resandet. Hur väl balanserade är olika perspektiv inom kollektivtrafiken?   Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka befintlig perspektivbalans av de mått som används bland svenska kollektivtrafikhuvudmän samt att kartlägga faktiska prioriteringar mellan olika mål och mått. Metod: Till denna studie har det använts kvantitativ metod med en deduktiv ansats, arbetsgången har varit parallell.  Empirisk data har insamlats genom enkätundersökning som skickats ut till respondenter hos samtliga trafikhuvudmän i landet. Slutsats: Inom kollektivtrafiken finns det en relativt god balans mellan olika perspektiv, både i organisationer som uttalat använder sig av balanserade styrkort och de som uppger att de inte gör det. Enkätstudien visar att bland de fem perspektiv som studien utgått från är kundperspektivet och utvecklingsperspektivet de som används mest aktivt inom kollektivtrafiken. Det finansiella perspektivet och effektivitetsperspektivet är något man arbetar mindre med. Några enskilda mått som framstår som mest frekvent använda är antal resenärer, kundnöjdhet och att hålla sig inom budget. Studiens resultat visar att man arbetar mer aktivt med prestationsmätning inom organisationer som använder balanserat styrkort samt att trafikdirektörer arbetar mer aktivt med prestationsmätning jämfört med andra funktioner. / Context: Measuring Performance is an important part of management control, as well as the manner in which these performance measurements are implemented in different organizations. Interest in measuring performance in the public sector has grown with the introduction of New Public Management (NPM). NPM has contributed to a more business-like way of dealing with public management, focusing on efficiency and resource management. Previously, performance measurements were mainly associated with financial performance. During the 1980s and 1990s, criticism arose against what was perceived as being companies focusing solely on financial performance. Complementing non-financial performance measurements were seen as way of bringing more prosperity to organizations. One of the most well-known multi-dimensional management methods is the balanced scorecard. According to some researchers, balanced scorecards are also suitable for public sector management, due to their multiple dimensions. Other research indicates that the influence of NPM and the focus on efficiency and resource management in this sector is one dimensional. The public transport sector in Sweden is partly funded by public finance and hence part of the public sector. During the last decade, public transport has lacked efficiency, while at the same time having a goal of doubling the number of passengers using its services. How balanced are the different perspectives in the public transport in Sweden? Aim: The aim of this study is to investigate the balance between the different modes of performance measurement used within the Swedish public transport system. Secondly, this work aims to map the actual priorities of the different measurements used. Method: This study uses a quantitative method with a deductive approach; the work process has taken place in parallel. Empirical data has been collected by means of a web-based survey that has been sent out to respondents working in all the public transport authorities in Sweden. Conclusion: Within the Swedish public transport system, there is a relatively good balance between different perspectives; this pertains to both the organizations that use balanced scorecards and the non-users. This study shows that among the five researched viewpoints, the customer aspect and the development aspect are the aspects pursued most actively. The financial aspect and efficiency aim are pursued less actively. Single measurements that seem to be most actively used are the number of passengers, customer satisfaction and keeping within budget. The results also indicate that there is a more active work done with performance measurements within organizations, which use balanced scorecards and that traffic directors are using performance measurements more actively than other functions.

La mesure de performance est utilisée dans tous les systèmes informatiques pour garantir la meilleure performance pour le plus faible coût possible. L'établissement d'outils de mesures et de métriques a permis d'établir des bases de comparaison entre ordinateurs. Bien que le monde de la carte à puce ne fasse pas exception, les questions de sécurité occupent le devant de la scène pour celles-ci. Les efforts allant vers une plus grande ouverture des tests et de la mesure de performance restent discrets. Les travaux présentés ici ont pour objectif de proposer une méthode de mesure de la performance dans les plates-formes Java Card qui occupent une part considérable du marché de la carte à puce dans le monde d’aujourd’hui. Nous étudions en détails les efforts fournis par d'autres auteurs sur le sujet de la mesure de performance et en particulier la mesure de performance sur les cartes à puce. Un grand nombre de ces travaux restent embryonnaires ou ignorent certains aspects des mesures. Un des principaux défauts de ces travaux est le manque de rapport entre les mesures effectuées et les applications généralement utilisées dans les cartes à puce. Les cartes à puce ont par ailleurs des besoins importants en termes de sécurité. Ces besoins rendent les cartes difficiles à analyser. L'approche logique consiste à considérer les cartes à puce comme des boites noires. Après l'introduction de méthodologies de mesures de performance pour les cartes à puce, nous choisirons les outils et les caractéristiques des tests que nous voulons faire subir aux cartes, et nous analyserons la confiance à accorder aux données ainsi récoltées. Enfin une application originale des cartes à puce est proposée et permet de valider certains résultats obtenus. / Performance measurements are used in computer systems to guaranty the best performance at the lowest cost. Establishing measurement tools and metrics has helped build comparison scales between computers. Smart cards are no exception. But the centred stage of the smart card industry is mostly busy with security issues. Efforts towards a better integration of performance tests are still modest. Our work focused on a better approach in estimating the execution time within Java Card platforms. Those platforms constitute a big part of the modern smart card market share especially with regards to multi-applicative environments. After introducing some methodologies to better measure the performance of Java Cards, we detail the tools and the tests that we mean to use on smart cards. We will thereafter analyze the data obtained in this way. Finally, an original application for smart cards is proposed. We used it to validate some points about the results.

Blekinge Hospital suffers from a budget shortage of 100 million SEK, while the government now requires that hospitals will no longer be running a deficit. Blekinge Hospital will then use their limited resources to survive in the future and the activity must be enhanced in order to keep costs low without having to lay off personnel. The idea is that the organisation should be more efficient with a more efficient resource usage. Performance measurement systems are important tools for achieving the policies set out within an organization, measuring and evaluating performance is a way to see where improvements in efficiency may be necessary in the business. Balanced Scorecard (BSC) is one of several measuring systems, where the focus is on measuring non-financial performances. Diagnosis Related Groups (DRG) is another performance measurement systems used in healthcare so that comparisons between hospitals can easily be performed. The purpose of this study was to investigate what performance measurement systems that Blekinge Hospital uses and how they are used. To examine this, qualitative interviews with politicians and officials of the Blekinge county council and employees working at one of Blekinge Hospital clinics has been conducted. The result shows that the Blekinge Hospital has problems in maintaining and evaluating the results of performance measurements. This is mainly due to time and resource constraints, but also as a result of lack of communication down to the clinics from the hospital's management and officials. On the other hand, this study shows that Blekinge Hospital used DRG to a greater extent than the BSC which was not used at all. We see this as a result of good communication and understanding of what the measurement system is good at. / Blekingesjukhuset dras med ett budgetunderskott på 100 miljoner kronor, samtidigt som regeringen nu kräver att sjukhusen inte längre får gå med underskott. Blekingesjukhuset får då använda sina knappa resurser för att klara sig framöver och verksamheten måste effektiviseras för att hålla nere kostnaderna utan att behöva avskeda personal. Tanken är att verksamheten ska effektiviseras och att resurser ska användas på ett mer effektivt sätt. Prestationsmätningssystem är viktiga verktyg för att uppnå de strategier som satts upp inom ett företag, att mäta och utvärdera prestationer är ett sätt att se var effektivitetsförbättringar kan behöva göras i verksamheten. Balanced Scorecard (BSC) är ett av flera mätsystem, där fokus ligger på att mäta icke finansiella prestationer. Diagnosrelaterade grupper (DRG) är ett annat prestationsmätningssystem som används inom vården för att jämförelser mellan olika sjukhus enkelt ska kunna utföras. Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka vilka prestationsmätningssystem som Blekingesjukhuset använder och hur dessa används. För att undersöka detta har kvalitativa intervjuer med politiker och tjänstemän på landstinget Blekinge samt anställda som arbetar på en av Blekingesjukhusets kliniker genomförts. Resultatet visar att Blekingesjukhuset har problem när det gäller att upprätthålla och utvärdera resultatet av prestationsmätningar. Detta beror främst på tid- och resursbrist, men även som följd av brist på kommunikation till Klinikerna, från sjukhusets ledning och tjänstemän. Däremot användes DRG i större utsträckning än BSC, som inte användes alls, vilket vi ser som ett resultat av god kommunikation och förståelse för vad mätsystemet är bra till.

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The current approach to performance measurement in British Columbia is to select and match performance measures with strategic goals and objectives so that health administrators and decision makers can evaluate the performance of different care sectors (e.g. primary, community and acute care) within the provincial health system. Although this approach offers basic understanding of system performance, it is static and considers the performance of organizational components in isolation from their interrelationships and external influences. The purpose of this research is to enhance the current performance measurement approach in BC by linking health system variables through causal relationships and feedback loops that can impact and lead to health system sustainability. The qualitative system dynamics method was applied to develop a conceptual performance measurement model. Fifteen interviews with stakeholders were conducted at the BC Ministry of Health to validate and improve the pre-validation model. A post-validation model was then created based on the feedback and comments from the 15 interview participants. As a product of this research, the post-validation model, Web of Measures 2.0, will explain how the identified cause and feedback mechanisms both internal and external to the BC health system may help determine policy levers for designing and developing quality improvement initiatives. Although quantitative analysis is out of scope for this research, potential benefits of inputting BC data into the proposed model are discussed at the end of this thesis. / Graduate / 0769 / 0790 / qi.william.yang@gmail.com

Bakgrund: Livsmedelsbranschen är tuff för många producenter. Konkurrensen är hård och säljarens ställning är svag. Trenden i branschen rör sig emot att effektivisera företaget, såväl organisatoriskt som operativt. Prestationsmätning är en viktig del vid effektiviseringar men trots detta har få studier genomförts inom livsmedelsindustrin. Syfte: Syftet med studien är att utvärdera Scans prestationsmätningssystem och identifiera faktorer som kan öka jämförbarheten mellan produktionsenheter med olika produktionskontext. Ett bisyfte blir därmed att utveckla förbättringsförslag kring Scans prestationsmätningssystem. Metod: Uppsatsen är en kvalitativ studie bestående av en fallstudie med utvärderingsinriktning kring hur Scan arbetar med sin prestationsmätning. Datainsamlingen har primärt bestått av intervjuer med anställda som är ansvariga och operativt arbetar med prestationsmätningssystemet på produktionsnivå. Intervjuer har genomförts med personer från alla Scans anläggningar och på olika nivåer av företaget. Även årsredovisningar och företagsekonomiska teorier har varit en del av studien. Resultat och slutsatser: Studien visar att drivande styrtal lämpar sig bättre än utfallsmått vid jämförelser av produktionsenheter med olika produktionskontext samt att det är viktigt med en likriktad kommunikation när avdelningar skall jämföras. Studien visar även på flertalet förbättringsmöjligheter med Scans prestationsmätning. / Background: The food industry is tough for many producers. The competition is hard and the sellers position in the supply chain is weak. Trends in the industry mentions a more effective company, both organizational and operative. Performance measurement is a vital part to reach higher efficiency but it has despite that been few research studies on the subject. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate Scans performance measurement system and identify factors which can increase benchmarking between production units with different production contexts. Another purpose is to come up with improvements for Scans performance measurement system. Methodology: This report is a qualitative study consisting of how Scan are working with their performance measurement system. Data collection has primarily consisted of interviews of people that work with the performance measurement system. Also studies in annual reports and business economic theories have been part of the report. Results and conclusions: The study shows that leading indicators is better suited for benchmarking between production units with different production contexts. It is also important that the communication is unified throughout the company.

The last two decades of public sector reform have ushered in a new paradigm of client-citizens expecting better governmental performance at lower costs. Two distinct, but not unconnected, forces have been at the heart of this transformation: the drive towards applying “New Public Management” (NPM) techniques in public sector administration, and the shift to a “Governance” view in rule making and political action. The City of Austin has been at the forefront of these movements, and The City Auditor’s Office (COA) rests at their nexus. This report is a study of the City Auditor Integrity Unit (CAIU), the investigative arm of COA, and more specifically, the CAIU’s system of performance measurement. The report explores the challenges of designing and using a performance measurement system within CAIU to achieve more socially optimal outcomes for the City of Austin. The analysis in the report draws on a number of theoretical perspectives, most significantly on Complex Adaptive Theory (CAS). / text

The main purpose of this study is to define important criteria to consider when selecting and implementing performance measures on a strategic, tactical and operational level. The thesis is built around the questions "What to measure" and "How to measure". Generally within the thesis the question of "what" concerns different frameworks and working procedures that can be used to determine what to measure, while the question of "how" concerns criteria to consider when implementing performance measures, such as how to design measure formulas and targets, how to communicate measures, etc. The study has been conducted as a qualitative study, where the empirical data has been collected through interviews and by using information material from the case company. The purpose of the case study was to test the theoretical framework. The studied case company was Sandvik Process Systems, a product area within the Sandvik group. The case study was complemented by two minor comparative studies of companies also belonging to the Sandvik group. In total the study comprised interviews with 15 persons within different organizational levels. Several different frameworks aiming to help organizations to answer the question of what to measure have been developed during the last decades. The frameworks differ more or less, but theorists appear to agree on several matters. My conclusions of the most important criteria to be taken into consideration when answering the question of what to measure is: * Complement the outcome measures, i.e. the financial measures that show the results from past efforts, by pro-active performance drivers - the measures that drive the future performance * Ensure linkage between performance measures and company vision and strategic objectives * Involve the co-workers in the process of developing measures * Use an overall comprehensive view and methodic approach * Limit the amount of measures * Retain the methodic approach – manage the performance measurement system After answering the question of what to measure there are also a number of important criteria to consider when it comes to how to measure and implement measures into the organization: * Define measure purposes * Assign reasonable targets to the measures * Consider the field of application when designing a performance measure * Communicate the performance measures * Specify the measures Despite attempting to simplify a complicated reality the frameworks aiming to help organizations to select measures are all rather complex. Hence, to develop and implement a PMS (Performance Measurement System) by the book will imply an extensive project for any company. How time- and resource demanding the project will become will differ from one company to another. Thus, a general conclusion of this study is that a company must start out from its own conditions in order for the development and implementation not to become too complex a project, where the organization loses focus and fails to manage the project all the way through. Companies must consider factors such as the size and complexity of the organization, how the business is controlled and managed as well as the structure and control of an already existing PMS. For large organizations, already possessing a rather unstructured PMS, the best approach could be to look upon the development as a constantly on-going activity in the spirit of continuous improvements, rather than a complex project running over a limited time. A vital success factor is also to communicate the intentions to the whole organization at an early stage. If the whole organization is aware of the intention and the purpose this will facilitate the process of developing and implementing a successful PMS.