Introduction
There is a need to provide balanced scorecards in strategic management for every organisation, spanning from non-profit to profit generating companies, to help build a sense of purpose for management to pursue through the organization’s running process (Hannabarger, Buchman & Economy, 2011). A variety of priorities can be established during strategic management to enhance customer quality and the general areas of which the organisation participates. It is simple for the organisation to work on certain things and follow-up and ensure that each defined target is accomplished for the benefit of the organisation, by balanced score cards.
Developing balanced scorecards for the charitable company serves to guarantee that the organization’s purpose, vision and priorities are accomplished. In this situation, the company runs programmes aimed at financing and caring for children who have problems. The organisation offers resources that enable these institutions to operate efficiently and ensure that the best of education is provided to these students. The goal of this research is to address a balanced score card for the charitable organisation and the application by which the organisation will expand its programmes and keep centred on enriching these individuals with learning disabilities with the real skills they need for daily life. The information include a balanced scorecard on which the corporation depends to guide its activities.
Healthy scorecards help a company remove gloom. Darkness of its practises and the development of a consistent direction for the organization’s followers to help accomplish its objectives. The implementation of these goals focused on annual evaluation approaches has served to establish the appropriate standards to quantify the success of a company. In recognising the Metric-Driven Benefits, the structured scorecard often helps to concentrate more on the financial facets of an enterprise that vary from increasing revenues to reducing operating costs. Via the funds collected from personal budgets, the charitable association runs its operations. The profits from the canteen pay for the seamless operation of the company’s services, thereby fulfilling the company’s financial needs (McCarthy & Chapman, 2013).
A balanced scorecard refers to a corporate document that is in the strategic strategy and management framework for the coordination of business practises with the goal statements and the purpose through which the corporation works, in reference to the above. It simplifies the mission and vision of the organization into small practicable forms that the organization relies on to sustain its activities (Niven, 2011). They are simply management betterment tools. For a proper development of the balanced scorecard, understanding the organization’s mission statement and strategic plan provides a good start. Understanding the financial status of the organization, its current structures, operations, the employee’s expertise and level of satisfaction it provides to its cause or customers aid in developing the balanced score card.
For the organization under consideration, the operations are for a nonprofit charitable organization that obtains its funding from running a number of cafes and personal budgets. The employees provide the necessary support for running the organization and the organization depends on the sales in the cafes and profits for their services.
Generally, a balanced scorecard carries four major arms that range from the finance department, the internal processes that the organization holds, learning and growth and the specific target people that the organization targets or customers for profit making organizations. Each of these areas require improvement and alignment to the goals of the organization and through these, better returns will yield that will cover the organization’s plans.
Finance Department
The finance department works in developing and controlling the financial aspects of the organization. As a nonprofit organization, their finances require proper control measures that ensure the expenditures are controlled for retaining more money for running the activities of the organization. Controlling of the financial resource helps the organization to obtain resources and control them for better delivery of their intended objectives. These parts of the scorecard help the management to track financial aspects ranging from expenditures and incomes (Marr, 2014). For the purpose of this paper, the cash flows of the organization, increasing funding, financial results with regard to incomes and expenditures, value for money audits and the review of expenditures are considered as items to discuss under this.
Cash Flow Management
Cash flows provide organizations with better directions for their money that ensures that they obtain the right resources and place them in the right aspects to control their movements. Using cash flows enables the organization to understand the cash aspect invested in operating and financial investment aspects. The management of cash flows will help provide a better system for managing the cash of the organization and ensuring that their core objectives are achieved.
Increasing Funding
Another goal in the scorecard is the increment of the funding that the organization obtains from the different sources to support their activities more. The increased funding will require more activities that generate income and increasing of the donor related funding. As the organization grows, the number of children with learning difficulties that the organization needs to handle may increase causing a need to have ready funds to handle them. Creating a funding advantage earlier provides the organization with a better strategy to handle growth.
Financial Results
The consideration of the financial results of the organization for the improvement of the processes would guide the organization in improving their financial resources. Financial results may look at the incomes and expenditures of the organization, the balance sheet of the organization, the different cash flow needs and the analysis of the results especially the income statements to reflect the level of growth and in returns or accumulated fund. Trough this, the organization is in position to priorities their operations with the most pressing handled first followed by those that may not affect the financial aspects of the organization.
Value for Money Audits
The need to audit consumption of finances creates the need to identify value for money as an essential aspect of financial control. Value for money provides of the control of expenditures and any outflows of money for a variety of these reasons. Value for money ensures that the organization is in position to obtain its needs in expenditure and asset forms at reasonable prices that will ensure the value of the goods or item purchased meets the money expended on it. Value for money audits creates a watch over the expenditures and the cash movements of the organization.
Review of Expenditures
Review of expenditures on a regular basis creates the necessary understanding of the expenditures and a better way of ensuring that the expenditures are controlled. Control of expenditures aids in the control of the financial aspects of the organization that leads to better financial decisions that promote the objectives of the organization. Reduction of expenditures reduces costs of production (Novak, 2000. p.10).
Internal Processes of the Organization
The internal processes of the organization refer to the different activities that the organization runs as a way of ensuring its objectives are met and sustained (Wang, Pfahl & Raffo, 2007, p.27). These range from the number of activities attached to the different functions, the alignment of the processes, the development of control measures for the process bottlenecks, the process automation, the regular appraisal of the business processes and development of better internal structures to manage employee activities.
Alignment of the Business Processes
The business processes that the organization engages in require a procedural approach if they are to lead to better results. Developing procedures creates avenues for the proper management of the organization’s vision and mission.
Process Bottlenecks
Many operations in the organizations create bottlenecks that may cripple the operations and make it difficult for the company to operate smoothly. The bottlenecks in the processes create management difficulties and handling them enables continuity in management and hence achieving the set objectives along with the mission and vision of the organization.
Process Automation
Process automation is possible through the development of procedures of the company’s operations. The automation creates a systematic flow of work and the development of better planning abilities. The workers can have a particular culture developed that will guide work and ensure a constant flow of work as per the needs of the organization.
Regular Process Appraisal
The regular process appraisal creates an understanding in the processes of the organization and helps improve where lapses seem evident or prone to occur. Improving the processes will create room for better results hence aiding the organization obtain its mission and goals.
Internal Structures Established In Organization Structure Forms
The development of an organization structure helps reduce conflicts within the organization and align responsibilities to the appropriate arms of the employee. These structures allocate responsibilities to employees; ensure they all know their span of authority, and work providing a harmonious working environment through which attainment of the vision of the organization becomes possible.
Learning and Development
Learning and development requires the continuous provision of training to the employees to ensure they are equipped with the necessary skills it takes to run the operations of the organization (Balanced Scorecard Institute, 2014). As a nonprofit organization, provision of services and management of their operations in relation to the vision and mission requires skilled labor to ensure the necessary skills that help students with learning difficulties are utilized to enable their learning. These parts of the scorecard require a consideration of the skills necessary to handle the organization, employee turnover aspects, provision of learning and training opportunities to the employees to ensure their skills development, aspects of job satisfaction and constant appraisals to rate employee development and growth.
For skills necessary to run the organization provide the organization with skilled manpower that will execute their duties right creating an environment that supports the vision of the company. Employee turnover affects the organization and may make it difficult for the achievement of the vision and goals. The employees require guiding the organization in the direction that supports and helps the organization achieve its goals and in return reward the employees with growth opportunities as motivational aspects. These help the employees’ confidence hence controlling the turnover aspect. The constant learning and training of employees provides the company with the necessary skills it requires in it employees. Their constant appraisal will reveal the area in which they prove lacking and the training programs will cover these.
Specific Target Populations
The target population for this organization is the people with learning difficulties that the organization aims to support and guide through the learning process. Development of better training means to these people enables them to obtain the necessary skills to manage life. The company will consider the delivery of quality services to these people to help improve their learning process, provide a more favorable environment for their learning through systems developed to handle their special needs and ensuring constant review to prove the effectiveness of the different methods applied in the education. Regular checks on their progress and the consistent development of programs that develop and enhance their learning abilities will provide a positive impact to the learning of this class of people.
In conclusion, the balanced score card for the charitable organization provides a sense of direction that will enable the organization stick to their goals and ensure that the people that they serve obtain better services that will help them manage and improve their learning abilities. It is therefore vital to follow the scorecard and rate the performance on a regular basis to ensure the organization keeps growing overtime. Ensuring that this process is critically programmed for makes it easier for the achievement of the goals and objectives of the organization. They provide the organization with the necessary direction for running their affairs and keeping their target groups taken care of.
References
- Balanced Scorecard Institute. 2014. Balanced Scorecard Basics. Retrieved from https://balancedscorecard.org/Resources/About-the-Balanced-Scorecard
- Hannabarger, C., Buchman, F. & Economy, P. 2011. Balanced Scorecard Strategy for Dummies. John Wiley & Sons.
- Marr, B. 2014. What is a Balanced Scorecard? Advanced Performance Institute. Retrieved from https://www.ap-institute.com/Balanced%20Scorecard.html
- McCarthy, S. & Chapman, A. 2013. Kaplan and Norton’s Organizational Management Tool. Business balls. Retrieved from https://www.businessballs.com/balanced_scorecard.htm
- Niven, P. R. 2011. Balanced Scorecard: Step-by-Step for Government and Nonprofit Agencies. John Wiley & Sons.
- Novak, C.2000. HPI Balanced Scorecard. ASTD.
- Wang, Q., Pfahl, D. & Raffo, M. D. 2007. Software Process Dynamics and Agility: International Conference. Software. Springer.