Phase 2: Qualitative Study
III. Performance and Engagement Appraisal and Feedback
6.5 QUALITATIVE RESULTS
6.5.3 Theme 3: Strategic alignment to organisational and employee goals
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“The communication was very poor. Emails and corporate mails add little or no value when it comes to understanding such an important initiative. Our managers should have, and could have done better. (Interview 10)”.
Interviewees 1, 8 and 10 expressed very strong views around the way the BSC communication plan was implemented. It appeared that the BSC communication plan did not properly explain how employees could benefit from its implementation. There was also a concern around the fact that non-management did not fully understand the objectives and purpose of the BSC.
Managers felt that the level at which the BSC was explained was not easily understood by their staff. Finally, while the use of electron communication enabled executive and senior managers to reach all staff, this was not preceded by a proper one-on-one or verbal discussion. In order for the BSC to be properly understood and implemented, there needed to be a detailed understanding of its purpose and objectives through workshops and meetings, as opposed to electronic mediums only.
From the above narratives, it appears that although the organisation designed a comprehensive BSC communication plan, the delivery of the plan by some senior managers was not good. In addition, it appears that the level at which the plan was designed was not suitable to non- management employees. While, many of the managers were complementary of the communication plan, the inconsistency at which it was rolled out is a concern. To mitigate this risk, the BSC communication plan must be designed to ensure an understanding at all levels of the organisation, must be delivered consistently by all relevant stakeholders, and must clearly and concisely ensure an understanding of the purpose, expectations, and outcomes required by the BSC.
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The sub-themes for the strategic alignment to organisational and employee goals are (1) the BSC is aligned to the employee goals and (2) the BSC is not aligned to the organisational goals.
The interviewees’ responses to the themes and sub-themes are indicated below.
BSC strategically aligned to employee goals
It order to manage the performance of the employees using the BSC, it is essential that the BSC KPI’s are aligned to the employee goals. This is important as the goals that managers are performance manages on, must be the same goals in their performance agreements and in the BSC KPI’s. There was a general agreement amongst most of the respondents that the BSC is strategically aligned to their employee goals. The store managers’ main goal is to sell more products and services to increase their sales, and since their sales target formed part of the BSC key performance indicators (KPI’s), they felt that there was a strategic alignment between their goals and the BSC. This was evident, amongst others by, a clear alignment between performance goals and the BSC’s KPI’s and the alignment to the sales targets.
‘The BSC is incredible in that we finally getting measured on things that impact in our store.
Our only interest is in increasing the sales of our store, and if we increase the sales, we make more money for the organisation. (Interview 6)”.
‘Our business is driven by sales and costs. Therefore, if the performance indicates measure sales and costs, then something is right. There is clear alignment, as increased sales lead to increase profitability. (Interview 8)”
“The BSC helped me focus on the internal processes of the store. The alignment to costs, and its impact on the overall performance of my store was surprising. I’m really happy we have a strategy that measures our business holistically. (Interview 9)”.
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It is clear from the responses that the BSC KPI’s were aligned to the employees’ goals. This ensured that the training programmes that the employees were performance managed on in terms of the BSC, aligned to their performance goals. Therefore, any improvement in their BSC score, resulted in an improved in their individual performance score.
BSC not strategically aligned to organisational goals
It was interesting to note that although the BSC seemed to align to employee goals, some of the respondents felt that there was no alignment of the BSC to the organisational performance goals. This alignment is critical to the business as De Geuser, Mooraj and Oyon (2009, p.93) found that “when the BSC is used to align resources to the strategic objectives, it apparently leads to positive organisational performance”. Conversely, Decoene and Bruggeman (2006, p.429) found that the lack of strategic alignment negatively impacted managers' intrinsic motivation to improve organisational performance.
The organisational performance goals determine the profitability of the store. The stores profitability contribute to the overall profitability of the organisation. The feeling that the organisational goals were not aligned to the BSC was a concern. The reason been that any improvement in the BSC KPI’s would not have a significant impact on the stores profitability, and ultimately the organisations profitability.
‘My manager showed me how the BSC KPI’s relate to my goals. She also tried to explain how it would increase my store’s trading profit. We spent an hour discussing this, but I still did not see the alignment. Honestly, I don’t think there is an alignment. (Interview 8).”
“There is no alignment between the KPI’s and my store making money. Sure sales is there, but profitability of the store goes beyond sales. We talking profit margins. I can sell all my products, but if the profit margins are low, what’s the point. Furthermore, I don’t see how the BSC to linked to our organisational goals. To be honest, I have seen no improvement in my
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trading profit. Maybe if management spoke to us before rolling out the BSC, we could have advised them of this’ (Interview 4).”
From the above narratives, it seems that the BSC is strategically aligned to the employee goals, but there is a feeling that it does align to the organisational performance goals. In order for the BSC to be effective, the BSC KPI’s must align to the employee goals, which in turn must align to the organisational performance goals. This ensures that an employees’ performance is directly linked to the performance of the organisation. In other words, if the employee performs well, then ideally the organisation should perform well. Therefore, it is important for the organisation to ensure that an employee’s performance agreement correctly reflects what the organisations expectations are, and that the performance measures that are put in place, align to these expectations.