TQM Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

TQM - Research Paper Example The paper will discuss the history of the balanced scorecard as a tool of performance measurement and management and outlines the detailed four perspectives of measuring the performance of the organization. The paper will also outline some benefits that are offered by the balanced scorecard as a tool of process improvement and performance measurement. The balanced scorecard was developed by Robert Kaplan and David Norton in 1995 and considers four perspectives of organizational performance that include the financial perspective, customer perspective, internal business process and finally learning and growth perspective (Niven, 2005). According to Kaplan and Norton, the tool translates the organizational mission and strategy in set of performance measures that will determine the short-term and long-term organizational progress in executing the mission and strategy of the company (Niven, 2005). In this case, the tool is useful since it clarifies the vision and strategy and links the strategic objectives with the measures and further enhances the strategic feedback of the attainment of the corporate objectives. The financial perspective measures the economic performance of the actions taken by the firm such as the increase in revenues, the increase in profitability, the decline in the operational costs and decline in bad debts (Meyer, 2002). The short-term financial measures can include an increase in the number of sales units while the long-term financial measures will include increase in overall profitability and reduction in the operating costs. The customer perspective is geared at identifying the market segments and ensuring higher customer satisfaction and retention. High customer satisfaction will lead to higher customer loyalty and retention thus reducing the marketing costs and increasing the business revenues (Niven, 2005). The customer measures of performance include the number