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Meten is weten : het ontwikkelen van een enabling performance management systeem voor Te Woon bij woningcorporatie ProWonen

Verdonk, Inge (2009) Meten is weten : het ontwikkelen van een enabling performance management systeem voor Te Woon bij woningcorporatie ProWonen.

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Abstract:This master thesis describes how an enabling Performance Management System (PMS) is developed for Te Woon within ProWonen. Te Woon is a fairly new concept for social housing organization ProWonen. It offers the customers of social housing organizations the chose out of different rental- and buy options. Within ProWonen Te Woon is at a transition phase, its going from project status to an organization wide concept. The aim is that mid-2010 Te Woon will be fully integrated in all business processes of ProWonen. It needs to be clear which results have to be reported to the MT+ (middle and top management) of ProWonen. This information is necessary to make the right adjustments and to ensure the continuity of ProWonen. Therefore, ProWonen has to be more results-oriented. To achieve this, the employees need to work more result-oriented. Furthermore, it is important that this research (given the chosen research method) has added value for the scientific community. Therefore, it is also has a scientific contribution. This contribution is described in the conclusion and recommendations of this project. Based upon the information the following research question is formulated: “What is the desired management information about Te Woon for the MT+ of ProWonen and how can commitment being created for result-oriented working under the employees of ProWonen who are concerned with Te Woon?” To provide an answer to this question the following sub questions are developed: 1. Which quality criteria have to be taken into account for periodic reports? 2. How can performance management system (PMS) and the balanced scorecard (BSC) make the results understandable and measureable? 3. What information about Te Woon is informally and formally kept by the employees who are concerned with Te Woon and the MT+ of ProWonen and what management information do they desire about Te Woon? 4. How can Key Performance Indicators (KPI‟s) be developed in cooperation with employees, so that the MT+ of ProWonen can monitor the results of Te Woon and make adjustments? 5. How can the employees who are concerned with Te Woon and the MT+ of ProWonen improve the KPI‟s? 6. How can commitment be created for result-oriented working under the employees who are concerned with Te Woon and the MT+ of ProWonen? To answer the research question the sub questions need to be answered. First the quality criteria that need to be taken into account for periodic reports will be described. It is important the management information about Te Woon meets the criteria for periodic reports to develop „good‟ management information, so the MT+ can monitor the results and make adjustments. The following quality criteria are important for periodic reports about Te Woon: (1) effectiveness (relevant), (2) availability (continuity), (3) vi exclusiveness, (4) reliability, (5) possibilities for auditing, (6) efficiency, (7) timeliness, and (8) presentation (Koning, 2000; Spoor, 2005). To monitor and make adjustments based upon the results of Te Woon, the results need to be understandable and measurable. This can be achieved by developing and implementing a PMS for Te Woon. A PMS makes the processes and the performance of Te Woon visible by the use of performance indicators (PI‟s), so the right adjustments can be made in the interests of ProWonen. The implementation of a PMS is a kind of formalization. When this formalization helps the employees to perform their tasks better, this is called enabling PMS. Wilderom et al. (2009) developed a participatory approach for the implementation of enabling PMS. This approach involves a number of steps. 1. An inventory of the existing and informal PI's. 2. Cooperation with people from outside the organization. This has the advantage that they can bring new developments about PMS into the project and they can help with the development of the KPI‟s; they are almost never seen as a threat by the employees. 3. Control of the project by the management team. 4. Developing KPI‟s in cooperation with the employees. This involves the following steps: a) Make performance as concrete as possible and translate it into measurable indicators; b) defining indicators as exact as possible; c) search for information in IT systems to measure the results efficiently; d) experiment with the indicators until the employees find them clear, reliable and useful. 5. Use IT systems to measure the KPI‟s as efficiently as possible. 6. Implement the KPI‟s in the BSC-approach of the organization. Steps 1, 4, and 6 are translated into a participatory approach for the development of KPI‟s and enabling PMS for Te Woon, so that the results of Te Woon become visible and measurable. The final step of the implementation of enabling PMS consists of the implementation of the KPI‟s in the BSC-approach of the organization. The BSC translates the mission and strategy of ProWonen for Te Woon to a complete set of performance measures that is input for strategic measurement and management systems (Kaplan & Norton, 1996). A modified BSC for social housing organizations is used for ProWonen. This offers ProWonen five perspectives on which the results of Te Woon can be measured, and if necessary be adjusted: customer, financial, employees (within the organization), production & management, and society (Dreimüller, 1999). The advantage of the BSC is that it not only focuses on financial results, but also on not financial results. This enhances the value of the BSC for ProWonen, since the financial results are only one part of Te Woon. The BSC brings to the social results of Te Woon also into view. In addition, ProWonen will get a better understanding of the long-term strategy and the short-and long-term objectives of Te Woon. The first step of implementing enabling PMS consists of the inventory of the existing and informal KPI‟s. That is why an inventory has taken place under the employees who are concerned with Te Woon and the MT+ of ProWonen of the informal information which they currently keep about Te Woon. In addition, the periodic reports of ProWonen are vii examined for existing PI's about Te Woon. Furthermore, there has been an inventory of the desired management information about Te Woon under the employees concerned with Te Woon and the MT+. Finally, the company documents of ProWonen are examined, among other things formulated objectives and results for Te Woon. Through these inventories the current performance measurement was brought into view. In addition, it was possible to design a framework which the KPI‟s have to meet. The results of the inventories are classified according to the perspectives of the modified BSC (Dreimüller, 1999). This shows that the financial perspective is already largely measured. Only a few additional KPI‟s were necessary to meet the needs of ProWonen in the area of finance. New KPI‟s are developed for Te Woon situations that have not taken place yet. In addition, it appears from the inventories that the other four perspectives; society, customer, production & management and employee (including efficient management) are hardly being measured. ProWonen in particular, needs more information about the employee perspective. The processes for Te Woon are new. Therefore, it is important to follow the execution of these processes with the aim to improve efficiency. In addition, ProWonen needs more information about the customer perspective. The customer is important for ProWonen. Therefore, it is important to know why the customer makes specific choices. It may lead to the conclusion that the products of Te Woon or the policy of ProWonen need to be adjusted. In addition, the society perspective needs to be measured more specific, to determine the influence of Te Woon on the livability in specific areas. Finally, the production & management perspective needs to be measured more effectively in order to monitor the quality of the housing stock of ProWonen. The next step, after the inventory of the formal, informal and desired management information about Te Woon, is to develop KPI‟s in cooperation with the employees. These KPI‟s make the results of Te Woon measurable, so that the MT+ ProWonen can monitor the results and make adjustments. To think of KPI‟s for Te Woon a brainwrite-session was organized with nine employees who are concerned with Te Woon. These employees came from all four departments of ProWonen, so that they reflect the organization. After this the KPI‟s from the inventories and brainwrite-session were made concrete during a workshop with the same nine employees. Prior to the workshop, the KPI‟s where classified into clusters (topics) that are based on the perspectives of the modified BSC. During the workshop the employees determined the measurement unit, frequency, and norm with which the main PI's should be measured. After that, the KPI‟s were classified in three categories: strategic, tactical, and operational PI's. Only the strategic and tactical PI's were defined. The operational PI's were not defined, because they are not of important for the MT+. To improve the strategic en tactical PI's for Te Woon two evaluation workshops were organized, and they are evaluated with the concerned supervisors. Finally, the strategic and tactical PI's were merged in a BSC for Te Woon. Trough this approach the project manager could make use of the expertise and experience of the employees. This is important in order to develop „good‟ management information about Te Woon. Through the approach the KPI‟s and the relationship between the KPI‟s of the different departments and layers within ProWonen became clearer during the project. In addition, the KPI‟s that were not relevant could be deleted. Furthermore, the KPI‟s are gradually and by a participative process developed. As a result, they are close in line with the Te Woon processes, which are followed by the employees. In addition, is it supposed that the approach will lead to continuous performance improvement, when the PI's are fully implemented within ProWonen (Evers et al., 2009; Wilderom et al., 2009). Because the employees developed the KPI‟s, they viii learn from each other as well from themselves. In addition, this approach units and uses local and implicit knowledge. Finally, the reflective knowledge that emerges from the implementation of the KPI‟s of Te Woon can be used to optimize activities, processes, and so on (Evers et al., 2009). For the development of clear, reliable and useful management information about Te Woon, it is essential that the PI's are improved by the employees, because they are almost never good right away (Wouters et al., 2007; Wilderom et al., 2009). This is done by experimenting with the proposed PI's by organizing two evaluation workshops with three employees of the department Wonen. The PI‟s of the other departments are evaluated with the concerned supervisors, to see if the PI‟s meet the needs of the employees. If it was necessary the developed PI‟s are modified. The results of the workshops are, in addition to the three employees, also send to the other employees of Wonen who are concerned with Te Woon. As a result, they also had the opportunity to improve the PI's. This improving increases the reliability and validity of the PI's. Especially when the experimenting is carried out in a context that almost matches the real situation. For the second evaluation workshop, the developed PI‟s that could be measured were measured, so the PI‟s presented the real situation. Trough this approach the employees used their knowledge to define and refine the KPI‟s. This has led to an excellent result. The employees and the MT+ have spent al lot of time and energy in the development of the KPI‟s for Te Woon. The next step is the implementation of the developed PI's (management information) and enabling PMS for Te Woon. In order to create commitment for result-oriented working the PI‟s for Te Woon are developed in cooperation with the employees who are concerned with Te Woon and the MT+ of ProWonen. It is important that the employees come up with ideas and share them with other employees (Evers et al., 2009; Wilderom et al., 2009). This is achieved by using the participatory approach for the development of KPI‟s and enabling PMS for Te Woon. As a result the employees were involved in every stage of the project. Through this approach commitment has been created for result-oriented working. Because the employees who are concerned with Te Woon and the MT+ developed, defined and improved the PI‟s themselves. As a result, they feel more connected with ProWonen. This is also evident from the results of the questionnaire about the developed PI‟s for Te Woon, which is held under the employees who are concerned with Te Woon and the MT+. These show that the employees who have taken part in the brainwrite-session and workshop have more ambition for performance measurement, than the employees who have not have taken part in this. This shows that, as the employees are more involved in the development process for KPI‟s for Te Woon, this leads to a greater commitment for result-oriented working.
Item Type:Essay (Master)
Clients:
Woningcorporatie ProWonen
Faculty:BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:85 business administration, organizational science
Programme:Business Administration MSc (60644)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/60131
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