<p>The concept of the balanced scorecard was introduced by Harvard professors Robert</p><p>S. Kaplan and David P. Norton in 1992 when organizations realized that it was no</p><p>longer sustainable to focus only on financial objectives in order to stay competitive.</p><p>The balanced scorecard was traditionally developed for use in for-profit organizations</p><p>but with its fundamental idea that the financial perspective does not always cover</p><p>what is most important, it has also been implemented in non-profit organizations</p><p>where profit maximization is not the main objective. Although the balanced scorecard</p><p>is presented to be an effective management system for survival in a more</p><p>challenging and competing environment it has also been strongly criticized by several</p><p>authors as well as organization that have unsuccessfully implemented it. Empirical</p><p>studies evaluating this relatively new management control system are still rather</p><p>limited, especially in non-profit organization which made us eager to look deeper into</p><p>the effects of using the balanced scorecard and we identified a research problem;</p><p><em>Is the balanced scorecard an effective management system that improves the</em></p><p><em>performance of a local public administration in Northern Sweden?</em></p><p>For this study we identified our alignment toward the positivistic scientific ideal. We</p><p>have further chosen a deductive approach as the already existing theory of the</p><p>balanced scorecard is the base of our research. We have used a qualitative research</p><p>strategy where our empirics are based upon eleven semi-structured interviews with</p><p>leaders in Skellefteå municipality where they have given their perception of the</p><p>balanced scorecard and its influence on the organization management. Our main</p><p>purpose has been to evaluate whether the usage of the balanced scorecard is</p><p>improving the performance of Skellefteå municipality. In the process of evaluating our</p><p>results it has been made evident that the management system is perceived as</p><p>performance increasing even though areas of improvements do exists. One example</p><p>of improvement could be to develop an IT-tool to facilitate the reporting of the</p><p>balanced scorecard as it is at present experienced as a very time consuming process</p><p>since it is manually completed. Skellefteå municipality has put a lot of time and effort</p><p>on the implementation of the balanced scorecard as well as on developing suitable</p><p>perspectives and objectives for the management system. Furthermore, the</p><p>municipality has emphasized the importance of communicating and follows up</p><p>processes to improve the quality of the system. This careful implementation and</p><p>utilization is something that has lead to a balanced scorecard that increases the</p><p>performance of Skellefteå municipality</p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA/oai:DiVA.org:umu-22176 |
| Date | January 2009 |
| Creators | Lindberg, Elin, N Schönfeldt, Sara |
| Publisher | Umeå University, Umeå School of Business, Umeå University, Umeå School of Business |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, text |
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