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ACCA Strategic Professional · Strategic Business Leader · Enabling success: performance excellence

A publicly funded university has multiple stakeholders: government funders wanting graduate employment, students wanting teaching quality, and researchers wanting academic freedom. Management finds that no single measure can define success. Which approach to performance management is most appropriate?

A balanced, multi-perspective scorecard adapted to the university's stakeholders is most appropriate. It captures outcomes such as employability, teaching quality and research alongside financial inputs, reflecting that public sector success has several conflicting dimensions rather than a single profit measure.

  1. AA balanced, multi-perspective scorecard adapted to stakeholder objectives with outcomes as well as inputsCorrect
  2. BA single financial surplus target, since all stakeholders ultimately depend on funding
  3. CMeasures set only by government funders as the dominant stakeholder
  4. DDropping measurement of research because it cannot be quantified

Explanation

Public bodies have multiple, sometimes conflicting stakeholders, so a balanced scorecard-type approach with stakeholder-relevant outcome measures suits them. A single surplus target ignores the mission, and excluding stakeholders or research ignores key objectives.

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