The impact of the Balanced Scorecard in libraries: From performance measurement to strategic management

Abstract

unlike traditional approaches primarily relying on financial measures, the BSC evaluates whether an organization is moving towards its strategic goals from four different perspectives:financial, customer, internal business process, and learning and growth. It aims to balance longand short-term objectives, financial and non-financial measures, leading (performance drivers) and lagging (outcome measures) indicators and internal and external performance perspectives (Hepworth, 1998). First designed as a simple performance measurement framework, it has 2 evolved into a comprehensive management system that enables organizations to clarify their vision and strategy and translate them into action.Originally developed for the private for-profit sector, in order to bring about financial success, it was soon adopted by, and adapted to, public sector organizations as a system to achieve and communicate their effectiveness in serving the public. In 1999, Kaplan himself stated that the BSC was equally or even more appropriate for not-for-profit organizations: "Although the Balanced Scorecard has initially been applied to the for-profit (private) sector, its potential to improve the management of public-sector organizations is even greater" (Kaplan, 1999).However, when the BSC is applied to public organizations, the framework should be changed to capture their mission-driven nature, placing more emphasis on accountability and results in meeting user expectations for public services and products (Rohm, 2004). In that regard, the literature review developed by Greatbanks & Tapp (2007) on public sector performance measurement and the use of the BSC confirmed that its application in public and not-for-profit organizations is not readily transferable from the private sector, and some modifications and adjustments are necessary. Furthermore, they determined that the implementation process was more complex and difficult than in the private sector, owing to the multiplicity of customers and stakeholders and the disparate nature of public sector organizations. Finally, they concluded that those difficulties appear to be responsible for the reported lack of empirical evidence regarding BSC implementation within public and not-forprofit organizations.Thus, the present study about the use of the BSC in libraries can be located in this context of an expanding body of literature on BSC implementations in public and not-for-profit sector Taking that diagnosis as the starting point of our research and aware that the BSC is a relatively new concept in libraries which has not been thoroughly investigated, this paper aims, firstly, to analyse and trace the development of the BSC in libraries worldwide through the testimonies and experiences that have appeared in the literature during the last fifteen years;and secondly, to explore the use and impact of BSC implementation in libraries, surveying and providing evidence of the main characteristics and outcomes of BSC practice in these not-forprofit organizations. The development of the BSC in libr...

Beyond use statistics: Recall, precision, and relevance in the assessment and management of academic libraries

“…loans per capita), and opinions (e.g. user satisfaction) that are not grounded in any particular model of the library's mission (De la Mano and Creaser, 2015;Passonneau, 2013;Reid, 2011;Taylor and Heath, 2012). For overviews of library assessment in the context of institutional goals, see Hufford (2013) and Oakleaf (2010Oakleaf ( , 2011.…”

Performance indicators framework for assessment of national libraries using the analytic hierarchy process

“…However, according to the research that has been done in this field, many countries, including Oman (Zahran Al Hijji and Cox, 2012), Vietnam (Kim Thi Ninh et al, 2010), Estonia (Nuut, 2002), China (Huang and Song, 2010) and Kenya (Odera-Kwach and Ngulube, 2011), have announced that they are at the beginning of the path of evaluating the performance of libraries, and more research is needed in this area. In Iran, research on this subject has been published in relation to academic, public and special libraries (Hariri and Sarafpour, 2015;Ketabi et al, 2011;Moazzen et al, 2017;Zaboli et al, 2015).…”

Assessing ‘Goodness’: A Review of Quality Frameworks for Australian Academic Libraries

“…While satisfaction may be a precondition for quality and impact, it is not considered an impact in and of itself (De Jager, 2015;Laitinen, 2015;Poll, 2012;Poll & Payne, 2006). As discussed, however, the use of ISO 16439 can inform approaches that address impact more systematically, as opposed to simply satisfaction.…”