Reflections on the role, use and benefits of corporate performance measurement in the UK

The development of performance measurement in the UK private sector has been heavily influenced by developments in the US. Sharing a common language has meant that British executives were exposed to the balanced scorecard as soon as the concept appeared in Harvard Business Review in 1992. This paper will reflect on performance measurement and management practices as people see them in the UK today. The results of the survey of practice is highlighted. Reflecting on more anecdotal evidence of where practice is developing is followed, drawing from the wide teaching, research partnership and consulting experiences. Finally, the future of performance measurement and management development in UK businesses is speculated. KPIs are by far the most commonly-used performance measurement system in this survey with 60% of companies using KPIs to a great extent and 90% using them to at least some extent. Like all tools, performance measurement, and the balanced scorecard in particular, has been criticized for not delivering the expected performance improvements.