A study of the implementation of balanced scorecard as a contituous improvement tool in Kenya Revenue Authority
Abstract
The study sought to determine the role of management in facilitating Balanced Scorecard
(BSC) implementation for improved and successful performance of Kenya Revenue
Authority (KRA), establish the success factors in BSC implementation essential for
Continuous Improvement (CI) and the benefits of implementation of BSC for CI at KRA,
and establish the challenges of BSC as a continuous improvement tool at KRA.
Studies have shown that BSC has been effectively applied in strategy implementation. In
KRA, the implementation of BSC performance had not fully lead to the desired results.
This was partly due to resistance to change from staff and stakeholders, lack of adequate
resources and lack of an institutionalized monitoring and evaluation system to monitor
implementation. As a consequence, there had been the need to shift emphasis from
corporate to operational levels where initiatives can be prioritized and specific and
measurable deliverables of the desired goals set. Thus, KRA needed to evaluate how to
continuously improve its operations, that is, how to apply BSC to increase revenue
collection through continuous improvement of its operations.
The first objective findings showed that the role of management in facilitating BSC
implementation for improved and successful performance of KRA could be summarized
into: creation of strategic awareness on BSC implementation; educating employees on
BSC; ensure attainment of organizations objectives, goals and strategy; influence,
motivate and direct staff towards the achievement of set goals and communication by
enhancing flow of information to staff.
The second objective results summarized the main success factors essential in
implementation of BSC for CI as training and education; top management support and
commitment; ensuring clarity of vision, strategy and overall outcome; creation of
strategic awareness of BSC, operations strategy and CI; link BSC to incentives and
resources to implement system; and departmental, middle manager and employee
participation buy in.
The third objective findings established the benefits of implementation of BSC for CI at
KRA. These were: delivery of customer focused services; employee co-operation and
participation; embraced modern processes and technological advancements; clarity and
better understanding of organization’s processes; teamwork-dedicated professional team;
and systematic development of organization’s vision and strategy.
The final objective was to establish the challenges of BSC as a CI tool at KRA. The
findings recognized that KRA’s management challenges include: matching individual
qualifications with job work assignments; effectively communicating the balanced
scorecard; training and implementation challenges; continuous feedback process; main
focus on top management; and lack of participation of all employees. These results
confirmed that management should recognize that challenges do exist with any
methodology adopted and should therefore be prepared to continuously improve their
operations and processes.
The study thus revealed that there is need for management to employ more resources in
encouraging an effective feedback process. This is important since communication within
an organization sets pace for employees’ participation and buy-in hence creation of
strategic awareness across all management levels for CI. Further, endeavour to apply and
provide a framework in which the success factors can be adopted to facilitate CI through
BSC hence address the challenges faced in BSC implementation. In addition, the need to
take advantage of all the benefits demonstrated by BSC approach for CI.
Publisher
University of Nairobi
Description
MBA Thesis