It has been our experience
in working with numerous state, local, and federal government
agencies that there are some similarities with private sector
organizations. Just as private sector organizations frequently
focus only financial results, such as ROI, government agencies
many times focus on measures related to budget performance
at the expense of other, more indicative measures. We have
found that government organizations are moving toward private
sector models and private sector "best practices". We see
more and more agencies who “sell” their goods and services
either to the private sector or to other public agencies.
In addition to these similarities, there are some significant
differences which must be acknowledged. Government agencies
do not have “net income” and as a result cannot directly predict
that an increase in financial performance will allow investment
in the future. The legislature or congress may decide to increase
an agency’s budget because it is performing poorly. Private
sector investors rarely have such thoughts. In addition, the
current “line item” appropriation format provides little flexibility
for managers to invest in new approaches. Thus it is difficult
to crosswalk performance indicators to funding sources.
These differences do not mean that the Balanced Scorecard
cannot be used successfully in government agencies. It merely
means that the framework and the methodology must be somewhat
tailored to the agency’s business. Numerous government agencies
have been successful at employing this translation.
Examples include:
· Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) acknowledges that they
increased employee understanding of strategic direction from
30% to over 85%.
· City of Charlotte points out the improvement in management
focus across diverse agencies and departments.
· State of Massachusetts Department of Mental Health believes
they can greatly improve communications between the administrative
offices and field offices, not to mention the vendor community,
through the use of a BSC.
For further information contact
Debrah Whitaker at 1-800-281-5458 or email dwhitaker@BSC4GOV.com
