Balanced Scorecard: linking strategic planning to measurement and communication

This paper discusses issues and strategies in implementing Balanced Scorecard to facilitate strategic planning in a small private university library. Bond University has been using the Balanced Scorecard to measure and manage its performance. One of the challenges in implementing the Balanced Scorecard is selecting appropriate performance measures for the four areas of the Balanced Scorecard which are: • Financial perspective – how do we look to stakeholders? • Customer perspective – how do our customers see us? • Internal business processes – what must we excel at? • Innovation and learning – how can we continue to improve and create value? Other challenges include collecting the desired information and systematising its production and analysis. Alignment of libraries with the university’s performance measurement methodology and identification of the library’s contribution to the University’s overall performance are not always straightforward. Specifically this paper will discuss how use of the Balanced Scorecard in a university library can facilitate linking the strategic plan of the Library with that of the University, explore cause-effect relationships between performance measures and mapping of the Balanced Scorecard to the activities of the Library. Introduction The challenge of implementing performance management systems has assumed a higher profile in Australian university libraries in recent years. Libraries in common with many other organisations have been developing performance management systems that not only measure the “right” things, but also enable effective communication to external and internal stakeholders. Our objectives in this paper are to discuss Balanced Scorecard as a methodology for facilitating strategic planning for both university libraries and their parent organisations, and to examine the process of identifying performance measures linking library’s BSC to the overall BSC for the university. We will examine the cause-effect relationship between performance measures and linkages between the overall objectives for the library and the goals of the university. The Balanced Scorecard experience at Bond University will be presented as a case study. Background and Context Australia's mostly Government-funded higher education sector has experienced significant changes in recent years. Massive growth accompanied by financial constraints has placed pressure on traditional modes of teaching and research. Student-staff ratios have risen substantially. Students are being asked to contribute a greater proportion of the costs of their tuition. Bond University, Australia's first private university was established in 1987. The University has grown quickly to 2000 Equivalent Full-time Students (EFTSU) in five academic areas: Business, Humanities & Social Sciences, Information Technology, Law and Health Sciences, plus the newly established Institute for Learning Communities. Bond University differentiates itself by its emphasis on small class sizes, personal attention and close contact between staff and students. The University also emphasises fast progress with a three-semester academic year which translates to two-year completion for most of its degrees. Bond is an international university with approximately half of the students and staff coming from overseas.