Evaluating conflicting performance on driver and outcome measures: the effect of strategy maps

This study examines how strategy maps affect balanced scorecard (BSC) evaluators’ assessments of managerial performance. We examine a setting in which managers achieve target levels of performance on driver measures but not outcome measures. Without a strategy map, the more evaluators believe the outcome was beyond the manager’s control, the more they indemnify the manager. In contrast, evaluators with strategy maps do not use their beliefs about the uncontrollability of the outcome when making evaluation decisions. Rather, evaluators with strategy maps evaluate the manager without regard to the extent to which they believed the poor outcome was due to uncontrollable factors. Thus, strategy maps affect how evaluators implement control over the firm’s strategy. The finding suggests that the use of strategy maps, which is an integral part of the BSC, may actually have detrimental effects for organizations whose outcomes are influenced significantly by uncontrollable factors. Copyright Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2012