Balanced scorecard and organizational alignment: a study of multiple cases

Abstract

The Balanced Scorecard (BSC) is presented in the technical literature as an administration instrument that makes it possible to align an organization with its strategy. This paper discusses how the BSC promotes that organizational alignment and tries to identify the factors that contribute to it. For that purpose, an exploratory-qualitative research of companies that have implemented the BSC for at least more than one year was made. The sources of evidences were focal interviews, documents and direct observation. The factors of the organizational alignment were grouped in two categories: structure and management. The most relevant factors were: (a) the relation of cause and effect and the unfolding of the scorecard in the category of structure; (b) focus on the strategy, priority of projects, the people’s participation in the discussions on the strategy and motivation and their commitment to the strategy process in the category of management. The results show that the BSC contributes to the organizational alignment because its structural components bring about managerial changes that lead to an improvement of the focus on the strategy.

Key words: balanced scorecard, organizational alignment, corporate strategy.