Performance measurement and management: a Singapore perspective

Citation

Kon, D. (2005), "Performance measurement and management: a Singapore perspective", Measuring Business Excellence, Vol. 9 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/mbe.2005.26709caf.004

Performance measurement and management: a Singapore perspective

Performance measurement and management: a Singapore perspective

Introduction

Performance measurement and management practices have come on leaps and bounds Singapore over recent years. The private sector has always been open to international influences and has many examples of best practice. In the public sector, the emphasis is now moving to implementing the balanced scorecard. I start by looking at some developments in the public sector and conclude with one example of the sophistication that is developing in the private sector.

Performance measurement in the public and non-profit sector

Public sector organisations have also placed emphasis on performance measurement in recent years. The balanced scorecard (BSC) approach has risen to that performance measurement challenge to not only the private sector, but also to the public sector organisations. Through its effective implementations, the balanced scorecard can rapidly transform the public and non-profit sector organisations into high performing organizations.

Without doubt, strategy remains at the core of the balanced scorecard regardless of whether it’s a private or public organization. Simply put, the balanced scorecard is a strategic management tool that helps you measure, monitor and communicate your strategic plan and goals throughout the organization. It creates more customer focused organisations, build organisational capacity and communicate progress to all employees within the organisation.

The perspectives of the balanced scorecard in relation to public sector and non-profit making organisations.

Customer perspective

The emphasis on customer’s service in the public sector has risen in recent years. In meeting the needs of its clients, public sector organizations are formally tracking customer complains and queries to see whether they are rising or falling and if so, by how much and also causes of such complains. We see customer feedback forms and customer satisfaction surveys being actively utilized here.

With the balanced scorecard, these public institutions can identify their customers and stakeholders and develop customer related key performance indicators (KPIs) that matter to them.

Financial perspective and internal business process perspective

While public sector is non profit, the cost of providing their service is still regarded as important. Most of these public sector organisations here have been actively reviewing their current practices and internal business processes; some have undertaken business process reengineering (BPR) initiatives to further improve and streamline their internal business processes. For this balanced scorecard perspective KPIs, most public sector organisations has focused on unit costs, changes in expenditure and ratio of administrative support to direct service costs.

Learning and growth perspective

In the learning and growth perspectives, the public sector organizations here have also placed emphasis on developing its people skills. They realized that to be effective and efficient, they must continuously train and reward its staff. We see that those public sector organisations that focus attention in this perspective have become best practices organizations. Some of the KPIs that have been used include level of investment in training, number of staff trained in customer services and various other soft skills.

In conclusion, the majority of the public sector organisations here have adopted the balanced scorecard management approach to enable them translate their strategic goals into a set of meaningful performance measures to drive organisational performance.

I have outlined a couple of examples below.

Performance measurement in a court

Handling majority of all court cases conducted in the country, this court’s goal was to be a “world-class court”, and was constantly seeking to improve its effectiveness in administering justice.

Being a public service organisation whose performance is not measured by financial performance, the balanced scorecard methodology was adopted to achieve the following objectives:

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  Clearer linkages between vision, mission and action.

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  Balanced view, internally and externally.

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  Proactive management.

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  Simple and critical performance measures.

In terms of implementation, the court started with the BSC in one division. Once it was successful, it was rolled out to the various other different divisions, such as the criminal, civil, family, and small claims tribunals.

In conclusion, the key success factors for the BSC implementation for this court have been their top management commitment, the establishment of a clear purpose of its implementation, the positive attitude to change in the organization, and the effective communication of the goals and KPIs within the organization through the balanced scorecard.

National libraries

The National Library of Australia and the National Library Board of Singapore have signed a Memorandum of Understanding that will allow both libraries to benefit from each other’s expertise with the ultimate aim of improving services to users. The agreement is for a five year period and covers the following three areas:

1. 1.

   exchange of information about strategic directions and performance management and improvement;

2. 2.

   information sharing and access to new systems, programs and services; and

3. 3.

   co-operation in resource sharing across all areas of library operations.

A key tool in this collaboration will be the balanced scorecard. The emphasis will be on using the scorecard as a strategic management and measurement instrument enabling the organisations to clarify their vision and strategy, which can then be translated into action.

This is another example of a public sector organization going much further than the standard Balanced Scorecard application of performance measures with a strong emphasis on leadership and innovation and learning.

Private sector

Many private sector companies have well-developed performance management systems and I will illustrate this with one example. Citibank’s Corporate Bank has been in Singapore since 1902, when it was set up to serve the colonial businesses trading between the East and West. Today, its expertise, experience and capacity provide a range of products and services that address the latest corporate and institutional needs.

Citibank has implemented a balanced scorecard that draws together people management, customer focus, control and risk, strategic cost management and the community. This is a broader range of perspectives than the original four in Kaplan and Norton’s scorecard, but it is not just the range that is important, it is the mechanisms that Citibank use to manage the business that are illuminating. These include:

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  Voice of the employee survey. An annual survey to gauge employee satisfaction on aspects of the job including remuneration, current duties and relationship with supervisors and work life balance. The survey registers current satisfaction but also looks to elicit ideas for improvement.

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  Off-site meetings. Off-site meetings to discuss and analyse the results of employee and customer surveys.

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  Voice of the employee task forces. Teams of between five to a dozen employees from different departments or business groups are formed to tackle problem areas. These teams recommend solutions to be implemented.

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  Quarterly dialogue with employees. The Country head holds quarterly dialogue sessions with employees to update them on the business results and performance, future strategies, issues and challenges.

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  Pulse lunches. Another feedback route to senior management.

The balanced scorecard at Citibank has gone far beyond the normal use of measures and perspectives by developing a whole series of mechanisms for all employees to engage with the strategies, issues and performance of the business.

Conclusion

Overall, the state-of-the-art of performance measurement implementation here is rather advanced. Public and private sector organizations are taking interest in various methodologies (including six sigma and economic value added) for monitoring, measuring and driving business objectives. However, the balanced scorecard remains a popular strategic organizational-wide performance management methodology.

Derrick KonPresident, CEO Solutions Pte Ltd, based in Singapore. He has a Doctor of Business Administration from Victoria University of Technology, MBA from RMIT University and MSc from the University of Essex. His research interests are in the areas of business performance, marketing strategy and leadership development.