St.

Mary’s University School of Graduate Studies Institute of Quality & Productivity Management

Course: MQP521-Bussiness Research Methods

ASSIGNMENT#3: EVALUAITING RESEARCH REPORT

ASSESSEMENT OF PERCEPTION AND IMPLEMENTATION OF BALANCED SCORE CARD IN QUALITY

MANAGEMENT FRAME WORK
THE CASE OF BEREHANENA SELAM PRINTING ENTERPRISE

By (Group-3) Id
1) Eyerusalem Birega SGS/0631/2011A
2) Kalekirstos Ayele SGS/0634/2011A
3) Alemayehu Emiru SGS/0627/2011A

Submitted to Dr. Melaku Girma

May 2019
Objectives:
To measure
 The employee’s understanding levels of BSC and QM,
 The employee’s perception and implementation of BSC,
level of satisfaction and acceptance in the
implementation,
 Key performance indicators from the four perspectives
of balanced scorecard,
 Financial
Customer perspectives.
Internal business processes
Learning and growth perspectives

Evaluated the research paper meticulously to the level of

our best capacity on basis of common research evaluation
standard
Title of study paper:

 The assessment of perception and implementation of

balanced score card in Quality management framework
in Berehanena Selam Printing Enterprise.

 The title of the study paper was clear and concise.

 It indicated what was actually studied and its outcome

of the study in a fair manner.

 The researcher has covered all the requirements

appropriately and no gaps to be incited as a weakness.
 The researcher used the acknowledgment
page of the report appropriately and
specifically;

 No word of flattery and unnecessary emotions

were used and to this context, this part was
well addressed.
 Outlined of the contents of the report.
 Considered the general report writing
principles to this specific case and could be
considered acceptable.
 Page references for each topic, title for
figures and tables was exactly as they
appeared in the text and corresponding
numbers were also correct.
 No any critic to this specific point.
 Used as stand-alone text.
 Considered major elements that the abstract at
least should encompass statement of the
problem, methodology deployed, results of the
study and conclusion and recommendation. From
this context,
 Gave good coverage to the topics.
 Regarding total number of words used, in most
master thesis the maximum words used in this
topic are about 150 word, at least that were
submitted to Canada’s national Archive. Seeing it
from this perspective, the researcher used 320
words. This is too much.
 Didnot exhaustively listed such acronyms
such as: SPM, BRP, PSCBP, EFQM, whereas
used in the literature review randomly.

 For some representation of the alphabets was

given for some meaning was given in
brackets – lack of consistency and somehow
inefficient.
 The word “introduction” was added unnecessarily in
chapter line.
 In each of major headlines, the researcher used
opening statements and was good to give an insight
to the reader about his/her expectation while going
on reading the document.
 Cover all the major elements like background of the
study, significance of the problem, specific purpose
of the study limitations and important terms were
contained.
 In the background of study part of the document, the
definition given for BSC was an old version, whereas
the intent of the research was to give the reader up-
to-date info
 Statement of the problem had to be clear and
precise to understand.

 The research paper under consideration its

statement of the problem was vague and
unnecessarily burdened with more explanation
and didn’t give a clear incite to the reader
outright.

 General objective linked with the statement of

the problem and topic of the research but in this
case not linked with word by word.
 The researcher put six research questions
and four specific objectives it should be
related each other

 Significance of the study stated very well, it

touched all the necessary components answer
why the research was conducted, put the
benefit that derived from the research and
who would be benefited from the research.
 Limitation factors of the research which likely to
hinder from achieving research objectives and
the scope had the boundary on the study by
limiting the concept and implementation on BSPE,

 However the researcher stated the limitation on

the scope like financial, time and data
availability. Organization of the paper stated as
usual, the paper organizes on five chapter and
including reference and appendix.
 This section is a critical evaluation of the academic
literature relevant to the problem under investigation. The
content is supposed to identify, organize, and/or critique
key theories, concepts, or ideas in the field of study.
 It should examine both theoretical and empirical
contributions in the field.
 It should conclude with well-defined concepts to be
examined in the study, or the reasons why no pre-existing
concepts can be used.
 For the above contexts the researcher well covered all the
necessary info and as a result it was clearly seen and
clarified that the research questions were being pursued;
and the hypotheses/temporary answer intended to be
tested were derived or in line with the review.
 Hence, it was well narrated and followed proper structure. But
some points of critique were during the incitation of reference
materials used in the review naming was not following the
dictations in the guideline, for example:Page 24, Yared
Gebremeden(2016) should have been presented as Yared(2016)

 Page 25, 26, 27, and 28, referring the material by Jovanovic,
Vujoovic and Krivokapic, 2008. For authors more than two, one
can economically use it shortly as Jovanovic and others, 2008.

 In the mean time, the overall idea of the articles from these
authors would have been rewritten by the researcher and
incitation may have been once.
 The researcher made the systematic identification, location and
analysis of documents containing information related to the
proposed research problem. He used review of empirical studies,
historical records, and government and company reports. He
used Text- APA styles of quotation.
Balanced score card/BSC/: is a performance metric used in strategic management to
identify and improve various internal functions of a business and their resulting external
outcomes.
 It is used to measure and provide feedback to organization.
 It is a strategy performance management tool.
 Its objective is to translate an organization mission and vision into actual (operational)
actions (strategic planning)
 The name “balanced scorecard” comes from the idea of looking at strategic measures
in addition to traditional financial measures to get a more “balanced” view of
performance.
 It’s this focus on both high-level strategy and low-level measures that sets the balanced
scorecard apart from other performance management methodologies
 The integral concept of balanced score card are targets and key performance
indicator(KPI).
Perspectives:
 A balanced scorecard looks at an organization from four different perspectives to
measure its health.
 Each of these perspectives focuses on a different side of the company, creating a
balanced view of the organization and namely:
1) Learning & Growth 2) Internal business process
3) Customer 4) Financial
1) Learning and Growth:
 Looks at your overall corporate culture.
 Are people aware of the latest industry trends?
 Is it easy for employees to collaborate and share knowledge, or
 Is company a mess of tangled bureaucracy?
 Does everyone have access to training and continuing education opportunities?
2) Internal Business Processes:
 Looks at how smoothly the business is running. Efficiency is important here.
 It’s all about reducing waste, speeding things up, and doing more with less.
 Checking and acting on unneeded obstacles standing between new ideas and
execution?
 How quickly can you adapt to changing business conditions?
3) Customer:
 Focuses on the people who actually buy company’s products and services.
 Are you winning new business? How about keeping your existing customers
happy? How are you viewed in your industry compared to your competitors?
 Customer satisfaction is a great forward-looking indicator of success
4) Financial:
 The financial perspective is a major focus of the balanced scorecard.
 Is the Org’n making money? Are shareholders happy?
 The financial health an organization may be a lagging indicator showing the result
of past decisions, but it’s still incredibly important.

Structure
 The researcher used a descriptive method of a research
and collect data using both questionnaire and interview.

 The choice of the descriptive research method was

adequately justified by describing the characteristics of
objects, people group, organization or environments. In
other words, descriptive research tries to paint a picture of
a given situation by addressing who, what, when, where
and how questions. Descriptive research method describes
―what exist in a given situation (Cooper and Schindler,
2014).
 Questionnaires and structured and unstructured interview
sampling techniques were employed so as to address the
BSC implementation in the quality management framework
on organizational performance in Berehanena Selam
Printing Enterprise (BSPE).
 The structured and unstructured interview
was used to gather some information about
the views of the top manager.

 Both qualitative and quantitative data were

used for the study.
 The sampling and stratification method used was
appropriate to collect data on extent of
implementation and corresponding benefits of BSC,
the performance measurement tool, the perception of
employees and their level of commitment, knowledge
and attitude on its implementation were addressed
and acceptable.

 For primary data interview was conducted with Top

manager and questionnaires distributed to sample
respondent of 163 to those who work in Berehanena
Selam Printing Enterprise.

 Out of which 163 questionnaires, 149 of them were

returned , response rate was 91.4%
 The total population size was 808 and determined the sample size of the
division using proportional stratification, 17 divisions was made.

 The researcher took total samples size 163, the top management
process owners and Committee members in the implementation of BSC
and QMS from the total samples size28 of them were selected
purposively the rest of 135 representative samples size and determined
the sample size of the division using proportional stratification.

 The researcher used both primary and secondary data. The

questionnaire and interview were used to collect the primary data. The
questionnaire contained open ended and close ended questions and
likert type questions were used. For the interview the subjective
information were collected using purposive sample, the interview
structured and non-structured. Purposive sampling made possible to
intentionally select key informants who had more exposure and
experience.
 A triangulation technique was applied for more
acceptance and reliability of sampling methods.
The data were collected from different sources
using different instruments such as interview,
documentation, and open ended and likert scales
questionnaire.

 The questionnaire were tested before distributing

the final questionnaire, and then it was re-
structured and re-defined getting feedbacks
from respondents and some wordings were
corrected in a way to be understood by
respondents.
 The Cronbach’s alpha, α (or coefficient alpha), developed by Lee
Cronbach in 1951, measures reliability, or internal consistency.
“Reliability” is how well a test measures what it should. Cronbach’s alpha
tests to see if multiple-question Likert scale surveys are reliable.
Cronbach’s alpha tells that the method designed is accurately
measuring the variable of interest.

 The researcher established the validity and reliability of method using

Cronbach‘s alpha to measure the reliability for a set of two or more
constructs where the alpha coefficient values ranging between 0 and 1
with higher values indicating higher reliability among the indicators. A
measuring instrument is reliable if it provides consistent results, (R.
Kothari, 2004). Moreover, a reliable measuring instrument does
contribute for validity. Alpha (Cronbach‘s) reliability scale was used for
this research study. According to Babine & Griffin (2009), when alpha
values for pilot data test in a certain questionnaire are >0.70, the
questionnaire is considered to be a reliable and no further action with
item deletion was required.
 The reliability of the questionnaire with respect to data about the
perception and implementation of balanced scorecard in quality
management framework has been tested by using Cronbach‘s
Alpha. The reliability test was conducted for five degree of likert
scale survey questionnaires using Cranach's alpha in order to
determine the internal consistency of the variables, indicating
the coefficient value with 0.830 implying that the scale used was
reliable.
 In the explanation of validity page 48 as “qualitative research
used detailed description with a measure and interpretation of
the data obtained, I narrated and describe what I understand” is
an unacceptable as it lacks the objectivity and causes bias, it
should have been be replaced “by researcher” instead of
pronounce “I”. The “I” and “my” wordings should be avoided.

 There were unnecessary usage of comas, full stops, space and

grammatical errors were observed in this research paper (page
49). The texts look overburdened.
 For the data analysis the researcher used SPSS v.
21 and for the descriptive part, mean,
percentage and standard deviation staticstics
were applied.

 The collected data organized, summarized and

presented in tables, pie charts and bar charts and
critical interpretation was made to adequately
demonstrate the major findings. Whereas, the
data collected through structured and
unstructured interview were also analyzed
qualitatively by descriptive statements.
 The data about the employees demographic gender and age
categories (table4.2.1), educational background (4.2.2),
experience (4.2.3), understanding on concept and perception of
employees of QM and balanced score card ( table 4.3, 4.4 and
4.7), implementation of BSC within the QM framework (4.5), job
and personal performance target (4.6), the design of
appropriateness of performance evaluation system /KPI/ in BSPE
and level of satisfaction with Balanced Scorecard and Quality
Management as performance evaluation system in BSPE (
Table4.8-4.10) were statistically treated and satisfactorily
interpreted in the analysis part of the research.

 The tables, pie charts and figures were appropriately presented.

The discussion and interpretation of the summarized data was
clear and concise in textual manner. The logical relationship of
the subject matter and the conclusion drawn was perceptive and
the statistical analyses obtained were accurately interpreted to
clearly demonstrate each specific findings of the researcher.
 In accordance to BSC metrics, the researcher
collected the relevant data depicting performance
Measurement of BSC in QM Framework,
Contribution of BSC on Customers Perspective in
Quality Management Framework/ Customers
Satisfaction Index/, Financial Perspective in
Quality Management Framework Item/ Revenue
Progress Before and After the Implementation of
BSC, Internal Process Perspective in Quality
Management Framework, Learning and Growth
Perspective in Quality Management Framework
and the performance of BSPE was measured and
the findings were interpreted in clear manner.
 Based on the findings of the study, it is fair to
conclude that BSC implementation in quality
management framework in Berhane Selam
Printing press has brought positive
improvements on its financial, internal
business, customer and learning and growth
perspectives of BSC.
 The knowledge and understanding of BSC by
employees was not sufficient due to
inadequacy of the two way communication
system in the enterprise.
 The performance evaluation system did not fully satisfy,
applicable, differentiates effective performer from non-
performer.

 Key performance indicators were used in BSPE but did not

effectively measure individual as well as the organization and
also targets given to individuals were unachievable.

 The working environment was not suitable for carrier

development and improvements.

 Researcher proposes some recommendations BSPE should give

more attention to provide training and workshop regarding BSC
and QM to improve the level of employees understanding the
importance of BSC implementation in QM framework and to
create interactive two way communications.
 Some of the reference material taken or
definition used for main technical issue under
study was old definition.

 For example, the Balanced Scorecard/BSC/

considered as one management tool, whereas the
contemporary literature and management
thoughts consider it as management system.

 The reference material indicated names of books

and periodic, but not listed in alphabetic order
and appendix made center, but not capitalized.
Thanks