International Business & Economics Research Journal – November/December 2014 Volume 13, Number 6 Copyright by author(s); CC-BY 1539 The Clute Institute Factors Contributing To The Unsuccessful Implementation Of The BSC In A South African Provincial Treasury Department Chengedzai Mafini, Vaal University of Technology, South Africa David R.I. Pooe, Vaal University of Technology, South Africa Hebert Nqcobo, Vaal University of Technology, South Africa ABSTRACT This study investigated the factors that contributed to the unsuccessful implementation of the Balanced Scorecard in a provincial government department in South Africa. The study was inspired by the unsatisfactory attempt to introduce the Balanced Scorecard as a performance measurement system in that department in the year 2009. Data were collected through a questionnaire comprising of two sections. The questionnaire was administered to 81 managers and employees who were on the approved establishment of the department in 2009. The factors contributing to the failure of the program were extracted using principal components analysis. An analysis of the descriptive statistics for each factor was also conducted. The findings of the study indicate that the failure of the Balanced Scorecard project may be linked to four factors; namely, inconsistencies within the project team, an ineffective communication strategy, myopic planning and poor execution. Among these factors, planning contributed the highest to the demise of the project. Using these findings as an anchor, the study recommended a number of strategies that may be adopted in in the event that public organisations intend to implement Balanced Scorecard programs in the future. Keywords: Organisational performance, performance management, Balanced Scorecard, Government Department, South Africa INTRODUCTION he aim of this study was to investigate the factors that contributed to the unsuccessful implementation of the Balanced Scorecard in a South African Provincial Treasury Department. The field of organisational dynamics continues to develop tremendously, involving numerous interesting topics that have attracted research interest for a long time (Niven, 2003). Among these topics is performance management, which is the process of creating a work environment or setting in which people are enabled to perform to the best of their abilities (Shahzad, Luqman, Khan & Shbbir, 2012). Performance management can focus on the performance of an organisation, a department, employee, or even the processes to build a product or service, as well as many other areas (Mafini & Pooe, 2013). On the overall, performance management is concerned with organisational performance, which per se, is the organisation’s capability to accomplish its goals effectively and efficiently using resources (Short, Ketchen, Palmer & Hult, 2007). Performance management therefore acts as an instrument through which the general concept of organisational performance may be understood. In the context of the public sector in developing countries such as South Africa, performance management has become an important activity in organisational practice because most public organisations struggle to perform optimally (Mankins & Steele, 2005). However, the measurement of performance in organisations is shrouded in controversy, since there are numerous performance management systems that have been developed over time (Short et al. 2007). However, among the performance measurement systems that have won the confidence of most scholars T brought to you by CORE View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk provided by Clute Institute: Journals