The object of this study is to investigate how small and medium-sized hospitals in Korea developed and launched the performance evaluation of Knowledge Management with emphasis on Balanced Score Card(BSC).
Since early 1990s, leading global companies h...
The object of this study is to investigate how small and medium-sized hospitals in Korea developed and launched the performance evaluation of Knowledge Management with emphasis on Balanced Score Card(BSC).
Since early 1990s, leading global companies have recognized knowledge as the primary weapon in the age of new competition. Besides, they have promoted and emphasized knowledge sharing as well as Knowledge Management. In the age of knowledge based economy, knowledge is the most powerful tool to create the value. Therefore, companies need to develop and administer their own Knowledge Management system which promotes knowledge sharing among the employees so that they can deal with uncertainties and quickly adjust to the rapidly changing environment.
Companies should recognize and implement a knowledge system as a valuable management system which allows them to keep their competitive advantages and to grow continuously. Moreover, the eventual performance of companies depends on the effectiveness of Knowledge Management. Therefore, the company which adopted the Knowledge Management should have its own evaluation system to make sure whether Knowledge Management is implemented as expected. There are many methods of evaluation, and among them, the most popular method is Balanced Scorecard(BSC).
BSC was developed by Kaplan RS. and Norton DP. in 1993. The purpose of the BSC is to solve the limitation of current performance measure systems which just have refuted financial performances of the past. BSC has 4 perspectives; financial, customer, internal business process, and innovation and learning perspective. The performance measure is used to establish strategies through the mission and vision of the organizations.
In Korea, many small and medium-sized hospitals had crises in hospital management because the environment of management was dramatically changing. According to successful case studies, there are common factors. At first, needs for a new strategic tool was raised by internal and external factors. Secondly, the strong leadership of CEO was an important factor. Thirdly, the management method was flexible for each hospital. Fourthly, mission, vision and strategy were defined clearly.
The BSC development requires a lot of resources such as time, human resources, capitals and etc. Even though it might not be affordable for the small and medium-sized hospitals, BSC is a valuable system to try for hospital managing efficiency, employee motivation, and growth and success.
BSC will influence to whole organization because BSC is not only the simple performance measurement system but also the integrated strategic management system. Therefore, the CEO should have the strong leadership to introduce BSC and keep up consistently. Also, the manager of each business unit and all employees should be involved actively in the process.