Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- Part I Performance measurement – functional analyses
- Part II Performance measurement – theoretical foundations
- Part III Performance measurement – frameworks and methodologies
- 9 Performance measurement frameworks: A review
- 10 The critical few: First among equals as parameters of strategic effectiveness
- 11 Integrated performance measurement systems: Structure and dynamics
- 12 Why measurement initiatives succeed and fail: The impact of parent company initiatives
- Part IV Performance measurement – practical applications
- Part V Performance measurement – specific measures
- Part VI Performance measurement – emerging issues and trends
- Index
12 - Why measurement initiatives succeed and fail: The impact of parent company initiatives
from Part III - Performance measurement – frameworks and methodologies
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 July 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- Part I Performance measurement – functional analyses
- Part II Performance measurement – theoretical foundations
- Part III Performance measurement – frameworks and methodologies
- 9 Performance measurement frameworks: A review
- 10 The critical few: First among equals as parameters of strategic effectiveness
- 11 Integrated performance measurement systems: Structure and dynamics
- 12 Why measurement initiatives succeed and fail: The impact of parent company initiatives
- Part IV Performance measurement – practical applications
- Part V Performance measurement – specific measures
- Part VI Performance measurement – emerging issues and trends
- Index
Summary
Introduction
Currently, there is considerable interest in performance measurement, and, within the growing literature on the subject, an influential section has focused on promoting performance measurement (e. g., Eccles, 1991; Simons, 1995; Kaplan and Norton, 1996). However, less attention has been paid to the problems or difficulties associated with implementing a balanced performance measurement system.
Traditional performance measures, developed from costing and accounting systems, have been heavily criticized in the literature for encouraging short termism (Banks and Wheelwright, 1979; Hayes and Garvin, 1982), lacking strategic focus (Skinner, 1974), encouraging local optimization (Hall, 1983; Fry and Cox, 1989), encouraging minimization of variance rather than continuous improvement (Johnson and Kaplan, 1987; Lynch and Cross, 1991), and not being externally focused (Kaplan and Norton, 1992). But judging from the reaction of practitioners attending our industrial workshops, the problems with traditional accounting based measures are now much more widely recognized than they were two to three years ago.
In an attempt to overcome these and other criticisms, performance measurement frameworks have been developed which provide a more balanced view between internal and external focus (Keegan, Eiler, and Jones, 1989), between levels in the organization (Cross and Lynch, 1988–9), between results and their determinants (Fitzgerald et al., 1991), between the four perspectives of the balanced scorecard (Kaplan and Norton, 1992), and the multiple stakeholder perspectives of the performance prism (Neely and Adams, 2000). In particular, the balanced scorecard is being widely promoted, through articles (Kaplan and Norton, 1993), books (Kaplan and Norton, 1996; Olve, Roy, and Wetler, 1999) and conferences (e. g., Norton, 1997). Within this growing literature, one subset focuses on the management processes for designing balanced performance measurement systems.
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- Business Performance MeasurementTheory and Practice, pp. 198 - 208Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2002
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