The relations between balanced scorecard, job satisfaction and organizational commitment: The case of Central Organization of the Ministry of Finance

The most basic functions of the science of management have been identified as planning, staffing, directing, coordination and controlling. To fulfill these most basic functions of the management, we are faced with the truth that it is necessary to evaluate the activity and to get the information which will be the input for the functions of management. That?s why the saying, which has been identified with the science of management, ?If you can't measure it you can't manage it?, gains importance again. As a result of this fact, profit and nonprofit organizations are now in need of performance evaluation in order to manage their activities accordingly by setting their basic objectives. However, while these organizations are determining their performance evaluation criteria, they focus on financial statement and employee performance, which could be evaluated as insufficient. Indeed, the only use of profit-based performance measurement systems by many enterprises, the adherence only to the short term indicators, and the imbalance between incomplete and one-sided measurement and the factors which affect performance have been the subject of criticism. Such problems have been felt more prominently especially in service sector in which it is difficult to evaluate performance due to its outputs? abstract nature. This situation affects the organizations negatively in today?s market conditions which have been prevailed by competition and economic crisis, and makes it necessary to follow a much more different method of performance evaluation. From now on, with the impact of global crisis, it won?t be probable for the organizations, which cannot determine their strategy in a right way and apply it realistically, to survive. Research in the past indicates that taking only fiscal precautions to motivate the employees may not be the most effective method. As an alternative to this, the strategy which has been provided by the BSC motivates individuals to act in a way that may result in informing the individuals about the results of their actions and achieving the organizational goals. The only way to keep the well-versed individuals in the organization is certainly not limited to financial resources. Not only business executives but also academic staffs have realized that in today?s competitive environment, a performance evaluation system which can entirely meet the needs of management does not exist. Therefore, organizations are in need of a management tool both in planning the future and adjusting themselves to today?s competitive environment. The Balanced Scorecard (BSC) Method, which has been used for the first time by Kaplan and Norton, has emerged as a management tool which claims to meet this need. This management tool, which has been translated into Turkish by some writers as ?Performans Karnesi, Kurum Karnesi, Dengeli Ölçüm Kartı? and so on, provides some input which makes it easy to make strategic planning while measuring the performance of the organization. Because of its having a holistic approach while dealing with the organization, it becomes prominent among the other performance evaluation methods. When it comes to job satisfaction, it brings into mind the colleagues with whom the employee enjoys working with and the happiness which is the result of producing some work. If the employee sees the work that he has produced in the concrete, the employee honor that he feels is a great source of satisfaction. In an environment in which the world has become a global village, national borders have been abolished and the intensity of competition has increased, management approaches which focus on employees gain importance day by day. One of these approaches is the commitment to the organization which is tried to be established in order not to lose the trained employees. It is seen that some of the qualified employees has left the enterprise and accepted to work in other less paid enterprises. One of the most important reasons which has been emphasized by many studies for this is the enterprise?s and its executives? failure in binding the employees to the organization. The effects of organizational commitment as a business attitude on the enterprise and the employees have been shown in multiple studies and in these studies it has been stressed that employees who are more committed to the organization have more contributions to it. It is important to reveal the level of the commitment of employees to the organization in terms of competent personal policies which are going to be developed by the authorized units for the sake of the organization. Nowadays, the insurance of the employees? satisfaction with their jobs is seen as one of the fundamental functions like producing goods and providing service, and one of the main goals for the organizations. For the realization of this goal, it comes forward that employees should embrace the organization?s objectives, and organizational commitment which means that the employee wants to continue his/her existence within the organization. Keywords: Performance, Performance Appraisal, Performance Management, Balanced Scorecard, Job Satisfaction, Organizational Commitment