Balance Scorecard, KRAs & KPIs... again!

I once visited an organisation that is also using the KPIs, but somehow or other people are no longer 'hot' about the KPIs anymore. What seem to had happened was that, initially people were happy with the KPIs as they had the idea that the KPIs would enable them to perform and thus in return will also help the organisation to perform, and now the KPIs had not function as they were intended to be.

What happened? Now it seems that the bosses are using the KPIs as a threat to the staff, as a stick, to make the staff perform. They state things like, "If you don't meet your KPIs you better watch out," "How come other met their KPIs but not you?"

So the intention of the KPIs as a measure to help people to be able to perform better was not achieved but it is now used as a stick to punish or a threat to punish people.

In the first place do people understand about the KPI? Or for that matter the bosses understand the intended purpose of the KPI?
On the other hand the bosses need to understand that the KPI is a measure of performance, but the thing is had the bosses had dialogues with the staff as to what would they require to enable them to perform?

The Malaysian government had embarked on the KPI thingy, as that is all very good. But what I fear is that the executioners of the KPIs are not properly brought up to speed as to what is the KPI all about, what need to happen before a KPI can be achieved to contribute to the KRA (NKRA) then also will the KPI that the government is trying to implement is driven by political needs or by the need to serve?


In the first place, do the organisations that implemented or intend to implement the KPIs go the full cycle of understand the Balance Scorecard? Do they understand what is the inherent intent of the BSC/KRA/KPI? Do they have the will to make it work? Or do have the right mind-set to make it work?

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