Scorecard invaluable in managing public sector

Samuel B Macharia

Recent efforts to improve service delivery in the public sector have been recognised by the United Nations through its Public Service Excellence Award. To improve, the Public Service must consider new approaches to performance management.

One of the widely acclaimed tools in use today is the Balanced Scorecard, a planning and measurement framework with similar principles as Management by Objectives. It focuses on overall indicators — including customer perspectives, learning, growth internal processes and financials — to monitor progress toward an organisation’s strategic goals.

Each major unit throughout the organisation often establishes its own scorecard which, in turn, is integrated with the scorecards of other units.

A number of organisations in the country are implementing the Balanced Scorecard, including CIC Insurance and the Athi Water Services Board. Others expected to implement it include the Kenya Wildlife Service and Kenya Revenue Authority, among others. Strathmore Business School is a leading trainer in the scorecard, a tool relevant to public sector in addressing management issues similar to those seen in commercial entities.

The Balance Scorecard was publicised by Robert S Kaplan and David P Norton in the early 1990s to address the limitations of relying solely on traditional financial ratios to measure performance. Since then, the scorecard has evolved to become applicable to nonprofit organisations. The success of any business ultimately relies on its ability to fulfill expectations, typically through the delivery of related strategic goals. The scorecard helps managers to articulate and track delivery of strategic goals.Though still in the early stages of development, the Balanced Scorecard could represent the emergence of a new era in which both the hard and soft variables of work life are taken into account in a rigorous, testable fashion. Their practical value can only be realised if it is successfully designed and implemented.

The writer is a lecturer at the Kenya Institute of Administration.