Cattaraugus County ReHabilitation Center Case Study
Balanced Scorecard is a concept that was introduced in 1992 through the publication of an article on the topic by Harvard Business Review. After its introduction, the concept was quickly adopted by various companies, which was a reflection of the potential and power of balanced scorecard. This concept became a revolutionary management tool within the first two decades of its inception as evident in its adoption by many private, public, and non-profit organizations or enterprises across the globe. Cattaraugus County ReHabilitation Center is an example of a non-profit organization that has adopted this concept. The organization started using balance scorecard approach in its strategic planning process as a measure towards bridging the gap between strategic planning and the daily activities of the Center. Cattaraugus County ReHabilitation Center adopted the balance scorecard approach with the ultimate objective of aligning each of its departments with the overall objective strategic plan. As evident it in adoption process, Cattaraugus County ReHabilitation Center did an effective job of implementing a balanced scorecard approach in a fashion that reflects their organizational mission and vision.
Conceptual Framework of Balanced Scorecard Approach:
The Balanced Scorecard Approach was introduced by Kaplan and Norton to help in designing, assessing, and measuring factors that enhance the performance of an organization. Organizations have traditionally placed considerable emphasis on financial measures in their internal operations. When introducing the concept, they argued that dependence on financial measures in a management...
The concept retains measures of financial performance and complements them with factors that promote and enhance future financial performance. Generally, it's based upon the cause-and-effect relations of the financial and non-financial factors, which are foundations of organizational strategy. Kaplan and Norton emphasize on the need to shift from focusing on tangible assets to intangible ones because intangible assets have become the main source of competitive management by the end of the 20th Century (Kaplan, 2010).
Since the introduction of this concept, it has become necessary to design initiatives for managing the intangible assets of an organization. This process is based on four perspectives i.e. financial, customer, internal business processes, and learning and growth. The use of the four perspectives is attributed to the fact it provides managers with a series of performance metrics balanced between product measures and factors that drive future outcomes.
Cattaraugus' Adoption of Balanced Scorecard:
Cattaraugus ReHabilitation County Center has existed for more than 50 years by a group of parents who had disabled children. The Center has been involved in the process of strategic planning for various years, especially through the use of consultants. While these efforts have yielded some results, the top management has experienced difficulties in bridging gap between strategic planning and daily activities within the organization. As a result, the top management was unable to develop a strategic…
