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Proposal for a Performance Dashboard for the Monitoringof Water and Sewage Service Companies (WaSCs)
Get PDFThe water and sewage industry provides an essential service to the community, but it is characterized by natural monopoly tendencies of service suppliers. In this framework, it is very important to assist regulators with a small set of critical indicators (performance dashboard) for the evaluation and monitoring of the service provided by Water and Sewage Companies (WaSCs). The paper originates from the analysis of situation of Piemonte (Italy), where each regional and local body adopts a proprietary Performance Measurement System (PMS). In order to improve the coordination of information flow and to support the definition of common service standards, a methodology to merge existing PMSs and define a unique shared reference system is proposed. The Kaplan and Norton's Balanced Scorecard (BSC) is adopted as the reference model of this approach. BSC is widely recognized to be an exhaustive and balanced framework in describing the performances of an organization and ensures that all the operational aspects of WaSCs are adequately monitored. The output of the proposed procedure is a general performance dashboard for the monitoring of WaSCs. The dashboard is shown and some remarks about indicators properties are developed. In particular, this analysis highlights some common pitfalls originated by a ‘rushed' aggregation of several performance indicators. Description is supported by several example
Water and sewage service Quality: a proposal of a new multi-questionaire monitoring tool
No full textThe measurement of a service Quality is a relevant issue for organizations. In this paper we describe an application of the Parasuraman, Zeithalm and Berry's (PZB) conceptual model of service Quality in the field of the water and sewage service. The PZB model determinants have been specialized for this specific target and a multi-questionnaire has been developed. This activity has been developed basing on Quality Function Deployment methodology. The described approach is structured into two parts. The first one concerns a general evaluation of the service Quality, while the second one considers specific service aspects enabling to better understand possible reasons of dissatisfaction. A specific software application to support data collection and statistical analysis is described. The proposed monitoring tool ensures an overall evaluation of serviceQuality from the customer point of view. Its organization into two parts allows reducing the overall costs of data acquisition as well as maximizing the information got from customers. The multi-questionnaire can be tailored in order to meet the needs of both customers and service controller in the monitored areas. The results of the survey show the perceived Quality of the service. Future work will be focused on the comparison between the customers' perceptions and the Quality which is actually assured by the service provider (the offered Quality
Impact of performance indicators on organisations: a proposal for an evaluation model
Get PDFThis work aims at giving some guidelines to assess the impact of performance indicators on organisations.
Performance measurement systems are usually introduced into organisations in order to monitor goal achievement, to
allocate resources and to implement a strategy. However, the implementation of performance indicators may generate
an alteration in the rational behaviour of the monitored structure. The risk of this impact is always present, and must
be considered very carefully in order to preserve the organisation from a counter-productive effect. In the present
analytical work, a reference model is proposed as a first step. This model considers all the organisational dimensions
on which an indicator may exert its influence. The method makes use of the four Kaplan and Norton’s balanced
scorecard perspectives in order to identify the dimensions on which an indicator may exert its impact. Previous works
reported in scientific literature do not provide operational models for impact analysis, whereas, the proposed model is
linked to an operative procedure in order to support management to make this analysis. The aim is to make the
impact analysis less complex by structuring it in a sequence of predefined steps. The proposal is supported by some
practical examples
Service quality monitoring by performance indicators: a proposal for a structured methodology
No full textTechniques for impact evaluation of performance measurement systems
Get PDFPurpose - Organizations often introduce performance measurement systems (PMSs) in order to evaluate the level of their performance, make comparison with competitors, and plan their future activities. Since indicators may affect the behaviour of the monitored system, the design and implementation of a PMS should always include the analysis of the impact it may exert on the organization itself. The aim of this paper is to suggest a methodology to evaluate this impact. Design/methodology/approach - The proposed approach is based on an impact reference model derived from the balanced scorecard (BSC) framework. The different perspectives of the BSC are interpreted as areas of impact within an organization. Structured steps for impact evaluation are described and specific techniques of analysis are introduced. Findings - A series of case studies, together with an analysis of advantages and disadvantages of the proposed method, are presented. Results show that, although many sets of indicators are usually able to meet the role of a PMS, they may exert a different impact on the context they are applied. The proposed methodology results to be a useful instrument for choosing the right set of indicators from the impact point of view. Finally, possible research paths to be undertaken for further developments of the proposed methodology are traced. Research limitations/implications - The application of the method is based on the assumption that managers charged with the analysis have a profound understanding of the specific contextual factors which may determine a reaction of the organization to a performance indicator or a PMS. Furthermore, at the moment, the methodology does not consider the possibility of interaction among different indicators in producing the impact. Practical implications - This paper may be used to guide the selection of the most appropriate PMS from the impact point of view. The proposed methodology can be very helpful instrument for an organization involved in the design of new PMSs. It guides the decision maker through the various phases: indicators definition, analysis of their properties, impact analysis, and choice of the set with the preferable impact profile. Originality/value - The issue of impact has been long debated in literature. Many articles try to analyse the operative and strategic consequences of the introduction of a PMS in an organization. This paper proposes a methodology for a more structured and objective evaluation of the impact of new PMS before introducing it in a firm. This can result in a significant help for manager who have to find the best set of indicators for the performance evaluation of their organization or have to choose between two or more sets of indicator satisfying, in principle, the same representation objective
Quality improvement and redesign of performance measurement systems: an application to the academic field
Get PDFThe increasing competition both in the public and private sectors gave rise to a growing interest in quality improvement and in designing and implementing Performance Measurement Systems (PMS). Academic organizations also recognized the need for implementing performance measurement systems. Some recent works on PMS in the higher education make use of the Kaplan and Norton's Balanced Scorecard (BSC) to translate the characteristic strategic goals (e.g. research and teaching excellence) into performance measures. However, a PMS needs to be updated when external or internal changes influence the organization modus operandi. In this way a continuous quality improvement of organization performance is required. This paper describes a methodology based on the BSC model to redesign a current PMS. In detail, a reference BSC-check matrix is proposed. A "mapping analysis" of the current PMS is developed to understand if all the operational aspects involved in goals achievement are considered and if proper indicators have been defined. As an example, the methodology is applied to a Department of the authors' own University. The paper shows also how the proposed approach can be extended to other context
Bibliometric-patent analysis of European researchers in the field of Production Technology and Manufacturing Systems
Get PDFThis paper develops a structured comparison among a sample of European researchers in the field of production technology and manufacturing systems on the basis of two research outputs: scientific publications and patents. Researchers are evaluated and compared by a variegated set of indicators concerning (1) the output of individual researchers and (2) that of groups of researchers from the same country. Whilst not claiming to be exhaustive, the results of this preliminary study provide a rough indication of the publishing and patenting activity of European researchers in the field of interest, identifying (dis)similarities between different countries with regard to their inclination to publishing and patenting. Of particular interest is a proposal for aggregating analysis results by means of maps based on publication and patent indicators. A large amount of empirical data are presented and discusse
A pragmatic approach to evaluate alternative indicators to GDP
Get PDFThe serious economic crisis broken out in 2008 highly stressed the limitations of GDP used as a well-being indicator and as a predictive tool for economy. This induced the need to identify new indicators able to link the economic prosperity of a country to aspects of sustainable development and externalities, both positive and negative, in the long run. The aim of this paper is to introduce a structured approach which supports the choice or the construction of alternative indicators to GDP. The starting point is the definition of what a well-being indicator actually should represent according to the Recommendations of the Stiglitz-Sen-Fitoussi Report on the measurement of economic performance and social progress. Then the paper introduces a systematic procedure for the analysis of well-being indicators. The different phases of this procedure entail the checking of indicators technical properties and their effect on the representational efficacy. Finally, some of the most representative well-being indicators drawn from the literature are compared and a detailed application example is propose
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
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