Abstract

The University Health Network (UHN) is a large Canadian teaching and research organization involving three hospitals. UHN implemented a new Balanced Scorecard development, rollout and management methodology that is based on the principles of Kaplan and Norton's Strategy-Focused Organization (SFO) principles strategy-focused organization (Kaplan and Norton 1996) approximately one year prior to this current analysis. The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which the BSC has focused and aligned UHN's various organizational units and departments around shared goals and objectives. The organization planned this evaluation of progress to assess the BSC's impact on front-line staff and also to determine how the development and rollout of the BSC should be modified in the next planning iteration. The evaluation portion of the BSC was also a crucial mechanism for engaging and empowering staff in this methodology by involving them in the planning and action stages to improve results.

Although this evaluation was specific to BSC implementation at UHN, the evaluation process would be applicable to any organization interested in assessing the impact of the BSC.