Adaptation of the Balanced Scorecard to Measure Organisational Safety Culture

Abstract

The Balanced Scorecard is strategic management tool that effectively combines financial and non-financial measures to guide strategy development, implementation and communication. It provides a means of identifying links between strategic objectives and concrete measurements throughout an organization. This paper investigates the possibility of adapting this tool to measure organizational safety culture in construction. The paper argues that this tool provides a medium to translate the organization's safety policy into a clear set of goals across four perspectives (management, operational, customer and learning). These goals are then further translated into a system of performance measures that effectively communicates a powerful strategic focus on safety to the entire organization. Four perspectives have been developed to represent all stakeholders, thereby ensuring that a holistic view of safety is used for strategic reflection and implementation. The paper argues that by selecting and evaluating the appropriate measures, in each perspective, requirements can be identified and actions to the identified goals can be aligned and facilitated. Finally, the paper reports on an exploratory study aiming to test the potential applicability of the proposed tool.