- April 17, 2014
- Posted by: essay
- Category: Term paper writing
Introduction
In this paper, the learning and growth perspective of the balanced scorecard for the target organization (ACF International) is considered. The goal of this paper is to identify three learning and growth objectives for ACF International, develop measures and targets for the next financial year, and outline actions which are needed to reach the objectives. Furthermore, the objectives will be aligned with three other perspectives (financial, customer service and business processes) considered in the previous three papers.
1. Analysis of learning and growth perspective
Among four balanced scorecard perspectives, learning and growth perspective is the most difficult one for measuring, because the progress in this sphere has an impact on all other organizational variables, and is often gradual and implicit. According to Kaplan & Norton (2004), there are three areas of learning and growth perspective: human capital, information capital and organization capital. Each of these three areas is valuable for organizational development, and it is reasonable to develop at least one objective for every area of learning and growth perspective.
2. Objectives for internal business processes perspective
With regard to human capital, the objective for ACF International is increasing employee satisfaction. In the area of information capital, the objective is increasing the availability of documents, data and policies for the employees in the corporate network. Finally, in the area of organizational capital, the objective is improving employee alignment with corporate values. Measures, targets and actions for these objectives are outlined in the next section.
3. Measures, targets and actions for internal business processes perspective
Measures, targets and actions needed to reach the objectives associated with internal business process objectives are listed in Table 1.
| Objective | Measure | Target | Action |
| increasing employee satisfaction | level of employee satisfaction according to company surveys | increase the level of employee satisfaction to at least 8.5 by 10-point scale | provide professional and personal trainings for employees; involve employees in the process of decision-making |
| increasing the availability of documents, data and policies for the employees in the corporate network | average percentage of essential documents available in the corporate network | increase this percentage to 95% | perform a research on data and tools needed for different job positions; align different parts of corporate network into one knowledge database |
| improving employee alignment with corporate values | level of employee alignment with the corporate values | increase this level by 3% | effectively communicate corporate values to employees; include value screening into the recruitment process |
Table 1. Learning and growth objectives, measures, targets and actions
4. Relationship to customer service and financial perspectives
All three learning and growth objectives have an indirect effect on internal business processes (more effective work, better access to information and adherence to corporate values will lead to better organizational governance, improved communications and, certainly, to greater program effectiveness). The objectives also affect customer service variables, since all programs will be implemented faster and with greater effectiveness if employees have passion for work, are satisfied with their work and have access to all necessary data. Finally, the learning and growth objectives will obviously have an impact on financial objectives: improved access to information and employee satisfaction will definitely increase operational effectiveness, and better governance activities will help improve financial stability and structure of net assets of ACF International. Again, all measures are aligned and there is no need to revise the objectives which were set previously.