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version abrégée
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The Balanced Scorecard (BSC) is being discussed as a possible
appropriate conceptual framework for Corporate Social Responsibility
(e.g. see Bieker et al., Figge et al., Orssatto et al., 2001). As
research activities underlying this paper show, the predominance of
the financial perspective of the concept prevents companies from
integrating sustainability-related issues in an equal way into this
concept. Coming up from an integrative ethical point of view, this
paper tries to illustrate, the structural modifications needed to
overcome the conceptual shortcomings of the BSC on the way to a
pluralistic-oriented stakeholder management system. The concept of
the Balanced Score-card (BSC) tries to integrate intangible assets
in the management system in a more efficient way. It has been
developed in the early 1990s by Kaplan and Norton to help companies
better manage such intangible assets as "intellectual and
organisational capital" as the value drivers for future
success. Most management tools, they argued, focus primarily on
financial results, which are inherently lagging indicators.
How-ever, for business to successfully manage its future
performance, a system is needed based on leading indicators of
business success. The BSC accordingly analyses the expected future
contribution to financial performance of such intangible assets
(e.g. a firm´s knowledge base, its ability to enthuse
customers, or excellent control of process quality). Recent research
activities at the IWOe-HSG have shown that the instrument of the BSC
is suitable to integrate qualitative, e.g. environmental and social,
aspects into the core management system of companies (see Bieker,
Dyllick, Gminder, Hockerts, 2001). However, the BSC, being a
functionalist tool that aims at linking any activity of a company to
its predominant financial objectives, is likely to fall short on the
way to Corporate Social Responsibility. Besides, the BSC is a tool
that allows top-management to implement strategies and measures in a
regardless way without encouraging internal and external
stakeholders to engage in the debate. Finally, the predominance of
quantitative key performance indicators in companies´ practice
neglecting qualitative, long-term oriented strategic
success-factors, presumably prevents them from focusing a more
long-term-oriented sustainable business. Coming up from an
integrative ethical approach facing a pluralistic value-based
management of stakeholder demands in order to prove as a "good
corporate citizen" (see Ulrich, 2001), this paper will analyse
how the concept of the Balanced Score-card should be modified to
better integrate corporate sustain-abi-lity stra-te-gies into the
core manage-ment systems.
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