Management Science Seminar:Beyond Performance Measurement

Event Date: 20 February 2015

When: Friday 20 February

Where:Blackett room, GH 863, Graham Hills Building

Time:   2.30pm - 3.30pm

Speaker: Farhad Shafti

The presentation shares a view point on performance measurement that looks beyond the current dominating scope of the subject. The aspiration of this view point is to look beyond business interests by including the impact of an organisational or business performance on different aspects of the society. To achieve this, the idea of Contribution Assessment is presented. This is illustrated by an imaginary scenario that is developed based on published empirical research.

The scenario is about the social effects of mobile phones. Based on cause and effect study, a proposed balanced scorecard for mobile industry is extended to include some of the social impacts of this business. It is argued that the aim of the extended scorecard is not to maintain any balance, as this can be practically difficult, if not impossible. The aim is simply to provide insights into the way the performance of an organisation may contribute, positively or negatively, into the society. It is also noted that accurate measurement may not always be achievable for such contribution and in these instances knowing the direction and strength of the contribution may be all that can be explored.

The talk ends by sharing some thoughts on challenges of this line of research and possible ways to develop it further.

Published: 17 February 2015