Research Brief

From Boardroom to Shopfloor:

Aligning Performance Measures with Strategy

April - June 1999

During the 1990s, many large companies have made a significant investment in developing performance measurement as a management technique. Yet the debate continues about the reasons why so many of these programmes have failed to realise their potential benefits.

The Foundation for Performance Measurement is delighted to have the opportunity to sponsor a research study which aims to investigate one contributing factor: the extent to which organisations are succeeding in aligning performance measures "on the shop floor" with their top level goals and business drivers. The researcher, Jennifer Conaghan, is a Masters student from the Institute of Manufacturing at the University of Cambridge. The Centre for Business Performance at the Institute has a long-standing interest in performance measurement and further information about their work can be found on their web site at www-mmd.eng.cam.ac.uk/cbp/

The study will take the form of a series of company case studies that are expected to include:

• A top-level business driver map for the businesses participating in the study.
• A review of the performance information routinely reviewed and analysed by the senior management teams of those businesses.
• An examination of the performance measures used to motivate employees on the "shop floor" and an analysis of the behaviours these measures encourage.
• An analysis of the alignment between these behaviours and the organisation’s top level business drivers and goals.

A summary of the overall findings will be published on the Foundation’s web site (www.fpm.com) and will be presented at the Foundation’s meeting in central London on 10^th June. Participating companies will have the opportunity to review the summary for any sensitive information, or to remain anonymous, at their discretion.

How you can participate

Companies wishing to participate in the study are invited to contact the Foundation at the address below. The case studies will require individual one to two hour interviews with representatives from three levels within each organisation, as follows:

• Initial brief planning interview with the person responsible for the organisation’s performance measurement process (by telephone).

• Subsequent detailed interview with the same person.

To gain a high level perspective of the business drivers for the company and an understanding of the current programme, including design, implementation and current usage.

• Interview with a representative from middle management.

To validate the usage of the current metrics and to investigate the behaviours these promote within the organisation.

• Interview with a representative from the "shop-floor".

To identify the metrics in use at this level of the organisation and determine their ability to motivate the behaviours required by the overall strategy.

Details of the interview structure and questions will be made available to interviewees in advance.

Details of the research findings are available to Foundation members via the Resource Library (search by title or author - Jennifer Connaghan).

Send mail to FPMWebmaster with questions or comments about this web site (www.fpm.com).
CopyrightInfo CompanyLongName

Last modified: December 15, 1999