KPI is driving the Government forward

Using KPI to improve operating system performance in Government Depertment

Performance Measurement System or Balanced Scorecard
The Next generation Managerial Tool - for Corporate and Governemtn

Background
"How to develop an effective performance measurement system for supply network" has now become a high priority for many manufacturing companies. The objectives of this research are to explore and understand performance measurement used in supply network; to develop a framework that can capture the above findings; and to test a practical tool to facilitate the process of evaluating and identifying key performance measures for different supply networks. The methodological approach adopted here is a combination of distilling best practice through case study research and thorough testing of the supply network performance measurement tool using process approach. This will generate empirical evidence on the used of a performance measurement tool for supply network and for the construction of a framework. The major deliverable will be a workbook on supply network performance measurement. The workbook will incorporate a detailed description of the framework and tool, examples of its application and detailed advice on how it should be applied in industry. As the objective is to make a contribution to both academic knowledge and industrial practice in the field, the following sections will review the perceived gap in the literature from academic and industrial practice perspectives

Academic literature
In the academic literature, much has been written about the development of extending performance measurement research in a supply network context (Lee and Billington, 1992; Mason-Jones and Towill, 1997). Many researchers had proposed performance measures used in a supply network by a firm. Among the benefits of using these supply network performance measures are: to acquire competitive advantages; to reduce transaction cost; to cultivate relationships and understanding among members in the chain for performance improvement (Bullinger et al., 2002; Gunasekaran et al., 2001; Lai et al., 2002). However, the research in this field has been focused on the design and implement a performance measurement system for an individual business unit (Neely et al, 1996). Two examples of performance measurement tools in the literature that have received considerable attention are the Balanced scorecard and Cambridge’s performance measurement process. Balanced scorecard developed by Kaplan and Norton (1996) from Harvard Business School is particularly preferred among the American’s executives and is being widely promoted in the Asia Pacific region. Recently, many researchers have proposed the use of the balanced scorecard in supply networks (Brewer and Speh, 2000; Bullinger et al., 2002). The Cambridge’s performance measurement process: Getting the measure of your business (Neely et al., 1996); have proved to be a useful way of assessing business performance. The tool is used mainly in western companies in Europe, and thus their use does not appear to be wide spread. In general, the performance measurement tools discussed above have been focused on an individual business unit, they have been criticised for lack of network perspective. Consequently, their advance in the supply network is limited. Future work needs to build upon this by extending the work in the context of supply networks



However, without a clear direction for improvement and common companies’ goals in a supply network, testing the relevance and viability of performance measures would be highly difficult. In an actual situation, firms in different parts of a supply network tend to work on improving performance in those areas within their interest (Lai et al., 2002). Their impact on the performance of other network members is usually ignored. It is not difficult to understand and believe that a supply network does not focus on a single firm. Firms are embedded in relationships; and thus strategic actions are not limited to any single firm within a network. Rather it involves part or even most of the networks to which a firm is linked (Hakansson and Ford, 2002). Under this circumstance, firms are not completely free to choose their performance measures without taking into consideration the interdependency among network members. Consequently, the ability to act is constrained by the existing network structure and no company is likely to have complete control over it (Hakansson and Ford, 2002). Unfortunately, many researchers had fail to recognise this network perspective of a balanced performance measurement system (Bullinger et al., 2002; Gunasekaran et al., 2001; Lai et al., 2002) and thus effective supply network performance measurement systems are still in their infancy


Industrial practice
Recently, interviews were carried out on this subject with two senior managers from industrial companies. The report is attached (refer to paper for Asian Finance Conference, 2005). From the interviews, high on the managers’ priority list of concerns was their inability to effectively implement a supply network performance measurement system throughout their supply networks. During the discussions, many factors were discovered and the managers expressed their interest in the development of a management tool to incorporate these factors. Their initial conclusion was that existing tools for performance measurement were inappropriate as long as the network issues were not taken into consideration. They are making this subject of high importance for future research.
Current experience and initial discussions with these practitioners suggest that effective strategy may well require both the use of a specific tool as well as a thorough understanding of performance measurement systems in supply network environment. If this is the case, the tool may be very sensitive to the environment in which they operate. Therefore, the research proposed here needs not only to explore and understand the current use of performance measures (and identify a suitable best practice tool) in supply network, but also to prove its utility by successfully reapplying it in a new environment.
Therefore, the objective is to identify, document, develop and empirically test a tool which will be useful to practising managers. As a result of the tool application, new knowledge will be generated and used as a basis for framework development. The tool will serve as a management tool to facilitate the process of evaluating and identifying key performance measures for different supply networks. The framework provides explanations of the data captured by the tool and serves as a guideline with practical advice on the tool application in industry. In general, the framework and tool will help managers to understand supply network performance measurement better

References


Brewer, P.C. and Speh, T.W. (2000), "Using the balanced scorecard to measure supply chain performance", Journal of Business Logistics Vol. 21 No. 1, pp. 75-93.

Bullinger, H-J., Kuhner, M. and van Hoof, A. (2002), "Analysing supply chain performance using a balanced measurement method", International Journal of Production Research Vol. 40 No. 15, pp. 3533-3543.

Gunasekaran, A., Pater, C. and Tirtiroglu, E. (2001), "Performance measures and metrics in a supply chain environment", International Journal of Operations & Production Management Vol. 21 No. 1/2, pp. 71-87.

Hakansson, H. and Ford, D. (2002), “How should companies interact in business networks”, Journal of Business Research 55, pp. 133-139.

Kaplan, R. S. and Norton, D. P. (1996), The balanced scorecard - translating strategy into action, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA.

Lai, Kee-hung, Ngai, E.W.T., and Cheng, T.C.E. (2002), "Measures for evaluating supply chain performance in transport logistics", Transportation Research Part E 38, pp. 439-456.

Lee, H.L. and Billington, C. (1992), "Managing supply chain inventory: pitfalls and opportunities", Sloan Management Review Spring, pp. 65-73.

Mason-Jones, R and Towill, D.R. (1997), "Enlightening suppliers", Manufacturing Engineer August, pp. 156-160.

Neely, A. D., Mills, J. F., Gregory, M. J., Richards, A. H., Platts, K. W., and Bourne, M.C.S. (1996), Getting the measure of your business, Findlay, London



* Related research
Neely, A. D., Mills, J. F., Gregory, M. J., Richards, A. H., Platts, K. W., and Bourne, M.C.S. (1996), Getting the measure of your business, Findlay, London.

Yee, C.L., (2004), “Developing a framework and tool for understanding supply network strategy”, Unpublished Ph.D. thesis. Centre for Strategy and Performance, Manufacturing and Management Division, Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge.

TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT

Technology can be considered as a specific type of knowledge that may appear in explicit or tacit form (Gaynor, 1996; Phaal et al., 2004). Explicit technological knowledge can normally be codified in terms of texts, drawings, or formulas; embodied within a physical artefact, such as a machine, equipment, or product which always associated with hard sciences or engineering (‘Hard’ technology). Tacit technological knowledge cannot be easily articulated, and normally appear in the forms of experiences and skills. It is normally associated with the ‘soft’ aspect of technology such as innovation processes, organisational learning processes, and new product development and introduction processes (Phaal et al., 2004).
The management of technology is becoming increasingly important in today global competitive environment (Gaynor, 1996). According to the European Institute of Technology and Innovation Management, technology management addresses the effective identification, selection, acquisition, development, exploitation and protection of technologies (product, process and infrastructural) needed to achieve, maintain [and grow] a market position and business performance in accordance with the company’s objectives (EITM). This definition highlights the importance of establishing linkages between commercial and technological functions in order to achieve the business objectives. This requires effective knowledge management and supported by appropriate management tools or processes (Gaynor, 1996). However, there is lack of effective processes to technology management. Consequently many technological investment projects, such as on robotics, computer integrated manufacturing, and flexible manufacturing systems had failed (Gregory, 1995). The failure is not due to the technologies itself, but because the links between technology and strategy to satisfy the business needs were not well understood (Gregory, 1995). As a result, companies today are aware of the importance of technology strategy and concern about how to deploy and manage technology to support the goals of the business. Clearly, there is a need to understand the potential of existing and new technologies, integrate and exploit them to provide new capabilities, products and process in the context of business and corporate strategy (Roussel et al., 1991). Furthermore in a fast changing technological age, the frequent interaction between users, manufacturers and scientists to provide innovative capabilities is getting important. Periodical technological review may be changing from annual to day-to-day basis. Companies’ managers need to build-in the technology management process into their daily operating system and routine in order to ensure critical changes are closely monitored. In order to do that, there is an increasing industrial focus on management tools or methods that can satisfy the above needs (Phaal et al., 2004). An important aspect of such a method is that it encourages collective discussion among managers from different functional departments such as commercial and technology, and linkages between technology resources and company objectives. A technology roadmap process is an example of such a method that can be used for exploring and communicating the linkages between technological resources, company products, and business requirement.

Linking Strategy to Implementation

Most organisations (large, medium or small) in the world today are facing a similar problem - strategy can not be effectively implemented. The consequence of not implementing the strategy effectively would be low performance. This has lead to a popular criticism "Talk only, no action". Thus, having the right strategy is not sufficient. The leader of an organisation can not just sitting down there waiting for the strategy to be realised by itself. Right strategy should be coupled with an effective implementation plan. How to develop an effective implementation (action) plan is the concern of many organisations today. Research in the more well developed countries and from world leading universities has undegone major change. This change is characterised as paradigm shift. The generation of a new type of knowledge (called mode 2) has improve organisation performance further. The adoption of tools and methods to link strategy and implementation has proven to be successful.

Managing a country

Understand what is politics?

Politics is defined as

• the science which has for its object the ascertainment of political facts and arrangement of them in systematic order as determined by the logical and causal relations who exist between them
  
• a branch of the social sciences dealing with the theory, organization, government and practice of the state

The roles of Politics

• To reshape or influence governmental structures or processes
  
• To influence or replace governmental office-holders
  
• To influence the formation of public policies
  
• To influence the implementation of public policies
  
• To generate public awareness of, and response to, governmental processes, personnel and policies
• To gain a place of influence or power within government

Political values

• People are to judge whether they are satisfied / not satisfied with the performance of the government
  
• People expect that power should be used in certain ways
  
• People evaluate power is used or misused
  
• People are to judge whether the resources of the country are properly and carefully utilized
  
• People expect good health care
  
• People expect equal opportunity in education and business
  
• People expect guaranteed jobs

• People expect justice and the rule of law

Scope of political science (Undertand politics from 4 perspectives)

• Political theory
  
• International relations (national security, diplomacy, international law, regional organizations, warfare)
  
• Comparative politics and government (executive, legislative and judicial bodies)

• Public administration (methods of managing and administrating government. Government needs trained personnel, for more cooperation and coordination, management and supervision, for more efficient performance of government functions and for better government organization)

Political party

Political party is a formal organization whose self-conscious, primary purpose is to place and maintain in public office persons who will control, alone or in coalition, the machinery of government.

Functions of political parties

1) A link between people and government
(the mechanisms through which the citizens’ needs and wishes are communicated to the government. Without parties, individuals would stand alone and ignored by government)

2) Aggregation of interests
a) Parties struggle to capture power, they strive to form order out of chaos.
b) Parties seek to widen the interests they represent and harmonize these with each other
c) Parties help interest groups moderate their demands
d) Parties help resolve interest group conflicts by aggregating their separate interests into a larger organization
(Political parties are coalitions of interest groups)

3) Political socialization
a) Ground for political training and enhance leadership
b) Leaders learn to speak, conduct meeting, carry out door-to-door campaign

4) Mobilization of voters
a) Parties use mass media to educate the people politically
b) To mobilize masses and to get them vote

5) Forming a government
a) Political parties try their best to win majorities, to form a government and remain in power
b) Political parties, then appoint people to high-level jobs in the executive departments, this allows the PM to implement the policy effectively. The PM can implement his policies without much delay
c) The party control of the government is not absolute, parties have to deal with established bureaucracies of government that have considerable power of their own
d) It is essential for parties to recruit winning candidates in the election and to identify people who will fill important positions in the government

6) Viable opposition
(oppose, criticize the policies and activities and act as a check and balance)

(a political party is different from interest group because a political party is the only organization that runs candidates for office under its label)

Pressure Groups

A pressure group or interest group

Is any collection of people organized to promote a goal they share or to resist some objective of government of other groups that somehow relates to the political process

A pressure group is define as:

• Is any voluntary organized group of individuals outside the governmental structure which attempts the nomination, appointments of government personnel, government administration and public policies
  
• They have a formal structure of organization
  
• They are able to aggregate and articulate interest
  
• They influence public policies
  
• They try to influence power rather than exercise the responsibility of government themselves
  

Types of pressure groups

1) Associational pressure group
- Trade associations
- Labor unions
- Professional body
- Farmers groups

2) Non-associational pressure group
- Religious group
- Ethnic groups
- Non-smoker groups

3) Institutional groups
- Government bureaucracies
- Members of armed forces
- Members of Parliment

4) Anomic groups
- Hindraf (born due to oppose to specific policies)

The Roles/Contributions of Pressure Group

1. A mechanism for political representation. The people’s interests are well represented in a political system in an organized way.
2. Allows the political process to be more responsive.
3. Plays the role of a mediator between people and the government. Help the administrators or legislators to secure information on facts and attitudes.
4. Supplement the government agencies.
5. Each citizen may be weak as an individual, it may be difficult for an individual to put his/her demands or grievances, but through an association individual become strong.
6. Prevents the concentration of power.

Methods of influence strategy and tactics

Direct methods
a) By seeking the election of like-minded representatives
b) By seeking access to public officials
c) By mounting mass-media campaigns.

Indirect methods
a) MP are also members of the group
b) Bureaucrats spouse are members of the group
c) Part-time trade representative who have continuous access to political representatives or ministers
d) Retired bureaucrats join NGOs, private companies

Make use of Politics in a right way

Understand how politics work

- Exists because we do not agree with one another
- Is about choosing between competing interests and views often demanding incompatible allocation of limited resources
- Is about trying to get what you want for yourself, or alongside others, for a common cause.
- Is about reaching a compromise, and finding ways for those who disagree to rub along with one another.

Politics matters because

- There are conflicts and differences of perspective in society about when to do, what resources to collect for public use and how those resources should be spent.
- If everyone agreed we should value the environment and the future of the earth there would be plenty of scope for disagreement about what to do, what course of action to take and at what level of urgency.
- So if people agree about the goal there remain a lot of arguments to be had about the means to achieve the goal. A lot of collective decision making involves redistribution, and so politics can involve intense arguments about who gets what.
- Politics always involve regulation or intervention that passes costs on to some rather than others. And in the details of implementation – the way that a policy is put into effect – there is plenty of scope for further differences of opinion and interest.

Politics is important

- It reflects the tensions created when human beings rub up against each other and at times it does more than just express those conflicts, it finds a way of settling them.

Politics – is one of the ways we know of how to address and potentially patch up the disagreements that characterize our societies without course to illegitimate coercion or violence.

Politics – especially in democratic societies, enables people to compromise and reach an agreement. It is a means to orderly and legitimate self-rule.

Politics – can provide a means of getting on with your fellow human beings that aims to find a way forward through reconciliation and compromise without recourse to straight forward coercion or outright violence.

Politics in right use

- It provides a way to live in an ordered manner with your neighbors, but one that unavoidably often calls on you to sign up to deals and compromises that might not be yours first or even tenth choice, but which nevertheless have something in them that enables you to put up with them.
- It might not be very inspiring. But, when it works politics delivers one great benefits
- It enables you to choose, within constraints, the life you want without fear of physical coercion and violence being used against you
- Create space for human choices and diverse lifestyles, create positive context and stable environment for you to live your life.

Comments,opinions, and suggestions are welcome at the main page.

Managing a larga organisation

Managing a Large Sized Organisation: a Government

Understand what is government?

Govern is

• to exercise continuous sovereign authority over
  
• to control and direct the making and administration of policy in
  
• to control the speed of (as a machine) especially by automatic means
  
• to control, direct, or strongly influence the actions and conduct of
  
• to exert a determining or guiding influence in or over
  
• to prevail or have decisive influence
  
• to exercise authority
  

The definition of Government

A government is the organization that is the governing authority of a political unit, the ruling power in a political society, and the apparatus through which a governing body functions and exercises authority. Government, with the authority to make laws, to adjudicate disputes, and to issue administrative decisions, and with a monopoly of authorized force where it fails to persuade, is an indispensable means, proximately, to the peace of communal life. We should maintain that the necessity of government derives from the fact that the people need to live in communities, yet personal autonomy must be constrained in these communities. A state of sufficient size and complexity will have different layers or levels of government: national, regional and local.

Types of government

Democracy - Rule by a government where the people as a whole hold the power. It may be exercised by them (direct democracy), or through representatives chosen by them (representative democracy).
Monarchy - Rule by an individual who has inherited the role and expects to bequeath it to their heir.
Despotism - Rule by a single leader, all his or her subjects are considered his or her slaves.
Dictatorship - Rule by an individual who has full power over the country.
Oligarchy - Rule by a small group of people who share similar interests or family relations.
Plutocracy - A government composed of the wealthy class.
Theocracy - Rule by a religious elite. Anarchy - Absence, or lack of government.

Fundamental purpose of government

The fundamental purpose of government is the maintenance of basic security and public order. Without government, individuals cannot attempt to find happiness. Individuals, or more accurate The People, live in this world, act rationally, saw submission to a government dominated by a sovereign as preferable to anarchy. People in a community create and submit to government for the purpose of establishing for themselves, safety and public order.

Managing an effective Government

Important of Law and Government in maintaining public order

For many thousands of years, humans lived in small and self-sufficient communities. Overtime, knowledge and technology allowed humans to become more effective at agriculture, and thus allowed for increasing population and densities. This has resulted in the development of township and cities. And the development in states with laws and governments.

As farming populations gathered in larger and denser communities, interactions between different groups increased and the social pressure rose until, new structures suddenly appeared, together with a new level of complexity. Cities and states reorganize and energize the smaller objects within their gravitational field.

The exact moment and place that the phenomenon of human government developed is lost in time; however, history does record the formations of very early governments-The Chin Dynasty of China (before that were Shang and Zhou). About 5,000 years ago, the first small city-states appeared. By the third to second millenniums BC, some of these had developed into larger governed areas such as the Chin Dynasty: States formed as the results of a positive feedback loop where population growth results in increased information exchange which results in innovation which results in increased resources which results in further population growth. The role of cities are important. Cities became the primary conduits for the dramatic increases in information exchange that allowed for large and densely packed populations to form, and because cities concentrated knowledge, they also ended up concentrating power. Increasing population density in farming regions provided the demographic and physical raw materials used to construct the first cities and states, and increasing congestion provided much of the motivation for creating states.

Government is sometimes an enemy and sometimes a friend. Government exalts some of us and oppresses others. At times, governments are aligned with our religious, economic and social views, and at other times, it is misaligned. The role of government in the lives of people has expanded significantly during human history. Government's role has gone from providing basic security to concern in religious affairs to control of national economies and eventually to providing lifelong social security. As our societies have become more complex, governments have become more complex, powerful and intrusive. The controversies over how big, how powerful and how intrusive governments should become will continue for the remainder of human history.

Organisational size

Managing different Organisational size

Size of organisation

• Small-sized organisation: school, societies, and clubs
• Medium-sized organisations: business companies, big factories, univerties
• Large-sized organisations: government, UN, army