Analysing business performance: counting the “soft” issues Available to Purchase

Management literature describes the “revolution” in business performance measurement which encourages the use of “soft” employee‐related measures, such as employee satisfaction, morale and commitment. Cultural issues have been identified as common stumbling blocks to progress in organizational change programmes, such as total quality management; hence, the use of measures in monitoring or inducing cultural change has great potential. Describes the results of a postal survey of the Times Top 500 companies carried out in early 1995, designed to probe issues such as the degree of use of these measures and associated benefits. The results, derived from 45 companies, reveal a significant gap between management theory and practice in this area. Few companies report innovative use of “soft” measures in the determination of business strategy, i.e. the “balanced scorecard” approach, which is attributed to the lack of evidence of “hard” (financial) benefits from companies successfully involved in this practice.