Different countries and companies with different national and corporate cultures, respectively, will prefer to implement (and benefit from) different types of performance management systems. Specific to the balanced scorecard (BSC), more companies in the United States than anywhere else have implemented them. My own international research revealed that the American and German cultures are both well suited to BSC implementation. Not surprisingly, big manufacturing firms including DuPont and General Electric (USA), Siemens and DaimlerChrysler (Germany) have implemented BSCs successfully.    

Interest in performance measurement grows daily but the state of the art leaves much to be desired. To promote performance leadership, one must examine both its shortcomings and its pernicious effects. The Perils of Performance Measurement, available at https://www.researchgate.net/publication/239823667_The_Perils_of_Performance_Measurement, argues that performance indicators are more often than not misunderstood, overpromoted, and accordingly misused.

Article The Perils of Performance Measurement

Attached please find papers on performance measurement.

Dear Yitagesu,

Due to the fact that most of performance measurement techniques are developed in the English speaking world and are published in English language journals, I assume that the USA and the UK benefit the most from these new developments. For example, there is great coverage of academic literature on the usage of the Balanced Scorecord in the USA.

For a general overview about the application of the Balanced Scorecard please feel free to refer to my research paper: "The Balanced Scorecard and Beyond – Applying Theories of Performance Measurement, Employment and Rewards in Management Accounting Education".  In the paper you can find further references. It was published in the International Research Journal of Management Sciences 4 (7), pp. 483-491 and thus can be used for referencing.

Paul

Article The Balanced Scorecard and Beyond – Applying Theories of Per...

I think the OECD economic indices index and rankings is a good benchmark to measure a country's performance; however, it can also be misleading as it may not take into account social justice measures.  Another way of gauging performance is to consider variations between different types of governments such as when a more left (Labour/socialist) government is in power and when a Liberal/conservative/Christian Democrat government is in power.  Historically governments of the more left persuasion tend to spend more and incur greater debt whereas more right wing conservative governments try to reign in expenditure and reduce debt.  Another measure is the percentage of GDP consumed by government.  Government in itself creates very little wealth generation whereas the private sector generates true wealth and jobs.

(Dr) Randall Whyte, Griffith Aviation, Brisbane, Australia

 Thank you all of you for your answers!

I agree with Olivier ( which I find happens a lot in this forum!).  Performance indicators are often poorly aligned with what the organization needs to know, what is critical to measure.  I once worked fo a small unit in a university that had a vey narrow focus and less than 10 employees, yet had 103 indicators!  The first step is not determining key performance indicators (KPI) but asking the right KPQs - key performance questions.  If the questions are wrong, then the indicators will be wrong, and the performance framework will ineffective.