Strategic responses to Performance Measurement in Nonprofit ...

Employee perspective 10
Membership perspective 1
Output Perspective 1
Source: author‟s compilation
Tab. 8: Perspectives of the balanced scorecards (n = 19)
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In contrast to Kaplan and Norton (2001) suggestion that non-profits should place an
overarching (societal) objective on top of the scorecard that represents their long-term
objective, the findings show that the majority of the interviewees did not. This low ranking of
a mission or outcome perspective came as a surprise. The result is not in line with the
normative proposals for adopting the balanced scorecard in the non-profit context. Two
interview partners voiced strong opposition against including a mission perspective and one
stated: “I am not a saint”.
Twelve non-profits had four or less perspectives; one organisation six and the rest had five
perspectives which show that the majority of the participating non-profits kept their scorecard
simple.
Like in the quantitative study, the interviewees were asked which performance measures they
use for measuring operational success. The results showed again that financial measures play
an important role, followed by subjective satisfaction measures. Performance measures like
liquidity, cash flow or covering the expenses ranked high. Such measures are important for
monitoring the short term financial situation, but lack a medium to long term strategic
orientation. Long term outcome measures and short term outcome measure did not make it
into the top ten performance measures chosen by the non-profit managers.
The interviews were also used to ask the interviewees which essential performance measures
are missing in their performance measurement system. Twelve interview partners saw deficits
with respect to client satisfaction indicators, eleven identified a need for improving their
measurement system with respect to ecological and social indicators.