Total Performance Scorecard: Redefining Management to Achieve Performance with Integrity

Citation

Narasimhan, K. (2004), "Total Performance Scorecard: Redefining Management to Achieve Performance with Integrity", The TQM Magazine, Vol. 16 No. 1, pp. 67-68. https://doi.org/10.1108/tqmm.2004.16.1.67.1

This is a concise book comprising ten main chapters (of various lengths) grouped into two parts. Part one deals with the foundations of Total Performance Scorecard (TPS) in six chapters; and organizational requirements to implement TPS successfully are dealt with in part two comprising four chapters. TPS is a new concept that blends the balance scorecard approach of Kaplan and Norton (1996) with those of organizational learning, change management, and teamwork to form an integrated holistic method of bringing about organizational improvement.

Dr Rampersad has worked as an academic in the field of production technology operations management and has published many articles and conference papers. He is founder and Chief Executive Officer of Quality Management Consulting, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. He has been working as a management consultant since 1987. The reviewer had reviewed Dr Rampersad’s equally concise book on Total Quality Management about two years back. Dr Rampersad has developed his ideas by leaps and bounds since he wrote that book and TPS is a really integrative concept.

In Chapter 1, the introductory chapter, 16 learning objectives of the book and a brief framework of the book are provided. An introduction to the TPS is given in the following chapter. It contains an explanation of the concept, the interrelationship among its five key components – individual and organizational scorecards, total quality management, performance and competence management, and the individual and organizational learning cycle – and the sub‐factors of each of the components. The TPS cycle’s five phases (formulating, communicating and linking, improving, developing, and reviewing and learning) and their linkages with the Plan‐Do‐Check‐Act cycle to improve, develop, and learn to enhance knowledge are explained with the help of 11 exhibits.

Formulating the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) is the focus of Chapter 3, a long chapter (60 pp.). With the aid of a fictitious case study it is shown how to develop an organization’s vision, mission and strategy, determine critical success factors, etc. by formulating personal and organizational scorecards. It is also explained how to try and achieve balance between personal and shared ambitions, how to define performance measures, and set targets.

Chapter 4 is a short one (11 pages), which deals with the dissemination of the organizational BSC to all the key stakeholders in a coherent, and informative manner using a systematic and structured way. A brief example is also given of how to link organizational BSC and personal BSC from the strategic level to individual levels, through tactical and operational levels.

In Chapter 5, attention is focused on implementing organizational improvement plans to improve both effectiveness and efficiency, to attain the goal of doing things right the first time. Dr Rampersad explains with examples the three stages of organizational improvement – selection, evaluation, and improvement – using customer‐supplier chain and critical success factor matrix. Also explained is a generic model of quality function deployment, customer‐orientation audit, and a seven‐step risk management process. Implementing a personal improvement plan is glossed over in two pages. However, this is explained in detail in the following chapter on helping employees to develop job‐oriented competences through individual performance plans and appraisal including 368 feedback.

The final chapter of part one is devoted to a brief discussion of individual and collective learning using David Kolb’s (1984) learning cycle. This chapter also contains an example of the application of a 50‐item organizational knowledge and orientation learning scan instrument to gain an understanding of barriers to organizational learning. The chapter concludes with a list of 22 strategies to increase an organization’s learning ability.

In Chapter 8 (55 pp.), the first chapter in part two, teamwork that is essential for the successful implementation of the TPS concept is covered in some depth. Topics briefly covered include team roles, phases of team development (forming, storming, norming, and performing), interpersonal communication, conflict handling, coaching team members, leadership roles, and conducting effective meetings. The chapter concludes with an example of a completed teamwork evaluation form developed by Dr Rampersad.

Organizational structures of improvement teams and circles are covered in Chapter 9 (6 pp.). Managing change and organizational culture are respectively dealt with in the next two chapters.

In Chapter 10, the reasons why people resist change, why they do not change, how to create and encourage change are dealt with in some depth. Also provided is a checklist to assess organizational circumstances before a change is introduced.

In the final chapter, how to evaluate and change existing culture to ensure internal integration and external adjustment is briefly explained.

The book is easy to read, though it takes a while to read and digest the details in the tables and appendices. The model depicting the TPS cycle is reproduced at the beginning of Chapters 3‐7, which is a great help in following the logic as the model is quite complex. Appraisal form, produced in Appendix A, is difficult to read as the font is small. Though the exercises and examples illustrate the application of TPS, it is advisable to get experts help to start with.