Proceedings

considered under a different statement, set by other objectives. Performance can be
considered only by achieving preset goals and objectives.”
According to the second view, “performance in enterprises (socio-human activities) is
anything that enhances the value-cost set and not just something that reduces costs or
increases value”, as Jianu I. wrote in the same paper, mentioned previously. Added
value must be analysed through the perspective of all parties involved in the entity’s
activity – stock-holders, employees, customers, and not the least through the lens of
the social-political and natural enviroment in which the said activity occurs.
The last vision can be found in Niculescu M.’s volume Diagnostic global strategic:
“an enterprise is theoretically performant if it is at the same time both productive and
effective.” Our opinion is that the meaning of performance cannot be reduced to the
meaning of these terms. Productivity expresses only a state of fact that characterises
the productive activity of an enterprise. The fact that an enterprise is productive does
not mean it is necessarily performant.
“Every organization, regardless of type, needs a clear and cohesive performance
measurement framework that is understood by all levels of the organization and that
supports objectives and the collection of results”, mentions Procurement Executives
Associations in “Guide to a Balanced Scorecard Performance Management
Methodology.” According to this guide, performance measurement is the process used
in determining the companies’ progress and meeting the goals, in matters of efficiency
(resource consumption), product quality and results.“Performance management”
means using performance measures to change processes, activities, and organizational
culture and to allow the establishment of policies and objectives as well as their
implementation. “Performance measurement precedes and includes performance
measurement,” wrote C. Albu and N. Albu in Soluţii practice de eficientizare a
activităţilor de creştere a performanţei organizaţionale.
Performance has to be tracked, measured and managed around the clock. We can state
that an organization’s performance depends on its environment, strategy and mission
as well as its responses in matters of flexibility and adaptability. “Measurements are
key. If you cannot measure it, you cannot control it. If you cannot control it, you
cannot manage it. If you cannot manage it, you cannot improve it and achieve
performance,” state P. Kueng P. and A.J.W Krahn in “Building a process.
Performance Measurement Systems: some early experiences.”
As C. Albu and N. Albu mention in the article above, “the way we perceive
performance is a representation of the business’s activities, it is a communication
means by establishing a common terminology, it helps us comprehend the
phenomenon, it has limits (like any other construct) and that is why the modeling
(construction, integration and model valuation) is more important than the model
itself. As they write, “the control and measurement of the performance must be
coherent with the mission, the strategy, governance and organization’s objectives, and
more they have to ensure their presence and compliance in the organization’s current
actions.”
The enterprise, as a complex and adaptive system, with a certain finality and being
permeable to influences from the exterior, can be considered a set of subsystems.
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