Phase 2: Qualitative Study
III. Performance and Engagement Appraisal and Feedback
6.5 QUALITATIVE RESULTS
6.5.4 Theme 4: Influence on management practices, processes and systems
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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.
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expenses related to the organisation focusing its efforts on improving its internal business processes.
There was a mixed response from the participants regarding whether the BSC improved their business practices and processes. It seemed evident that some of the managers felt that the BSC added tremendous value to the way they worked. One of the purposes of the BSC is to improve internal business processes, and the some of the responses seemed to indicate this; amongst others, business practices and processes are managed effectively and efficiently, ways of working has improved, training is more focused on opportunity areas.
“The BSC helped me change the way I use to work. I didn’t focus on our processes as I believed those were not in my control. However, after seeing my results on customer service, inventory loss and stock integrity, I realised that I had the power to change this. I got my staff on-board, and together we reviewed our action plans and checklists. The results were excellent.
(Interview 2)”.
“My biggest issues was stock loss. I did well on sales, but could not control stock loss. The BSC has helped me improve my processes and practice so that I can now effectively manage these issues. My way of working has improved substantially. (Interview 5)”.
The narratives above clearly indicate that some of the respondents had a favourable view on how the BSC enabled them to improve their internal business processes. The improvement in inventory loss and stock integrity not only decreases operational costs, but also ensure that there is sufficient stock in the store for customers. This ensures that the needs of the customer is met, which ultimately leads to an increase in sales, and in turn an increase in the store profitability.
138 No store manager buy-in
It order for the BSC to be successful, there needed to be manager buy-in. As highlighted above, many of the manager did not fully understand the purpose and objective of the BSC due to a lack of management support, and a perceived poor communication plan. This may have resulted in managers not ‘buying in’ to the BSC process. This issue can be mitigated by senior managers playing an active role in clearly discussion and ensuring an understanding of the BSC objectives, purpose and expectations, as well as the organisation implementing a proper communication plan.
As indicated, some of the participants did not seem to buy-in to the BSC process. This was evident; amongst other by, training on KPI’s are unnecessary, there’s a preference to the ‘old way of working’, the view that the BSC was tedious and unnecessary. The feeling among these managers was that the store is their responsibility, and therefore they know what works and what doesn’t. From an organisational perspective, this is a serious concern. In order for the BSC, or any management process to work, it is essential to get employee buy-in. Employee buy-in can determine the success or failure of a process, and hence a management support, a good communication plan, and employee participation is critical.
“All this coaching and training on KPI’s is unnecessary. Employees will perform well if the manager drives a performance driven environment. For me, this is just additional paper work.
“(Interview 1)”.
“The sales for the store is my responsibility, and I prefer using measures that has worked for me. I have constantly met my sales target, so why must I change the way I work. The BSC may work for other stores, and that is great. However, I believe that if it’s not broken, don’t try to fix it. I’m happy with the way I manage my people and business. (Interview 10)”.
The above narratives seems to indicate that the BSC added some value to improving the business internal processes of the managers. Managers indicated improvements in their ways
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of working, as well as improvements in their targets. However, there was a feeling that the implementations of the BSC was unnecessary and that the focus on KPI’s was tedious. There was also a concern regarding manager’s buy-in into the BSC implementation. This is a concern as the store managers drive the process. If they don’t support the process, then the process will most likely fail. It should be the responsibility of top and senior management to ensure that all employees have a clear understanding of the BSC strategy, and how it links to the business strategy.