The Balanced Scorecard and Twenty‐First‐Century Thoughts on Motivation

• Author: Stan Davis,Christopher M. Burgess,Thomas L. Albright
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/jcaf.22049
• Published date: 01 May 2015
• Date: 01 May 2015

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© 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com). DOI 10.1002/jcaf.22049

This article was originally published in Volume 23, Number 1 of The Journal of Corporate Accounting and Finance.

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Thomas L. Albright, Christopher M. Burgess, and Stan Davis

The balanced

scorecard (BSC)

was origi-

nally introduced in

response to perfor-

mance measurement

systems that relied

exclusively on finan-

cial performance

metrics. Rewarding

performance based

on these systems was

thought to promote

short-term decision

making at the expense

of long-term profit-

ability. Originally, the

balanced scorecard

was a performance measure-

ment system; however, it has

evolved to include a significant

strategic planning element.

At the core of the balanced

scorecard are metrics that are

designed to reward behavior

that is consistent with strategic

objectives. However, noted best-

selling author and motivation

expert Daniel Pink maintains

that research in behavioral

science refutes many of the

commonly held beliefs about

rewards and motivation used by

businesses today. Pink’s uncon-

ventional ideas on workplace

motivation have received broad

attention from university and

business audiences, and readers

of his four books (the New York

Times bestseller, A Whole New

Mind; Free Agent Nation; The

Adventures of Johnny Bunko;

and Drive: The Surprising Truth

About What Motivates Us). In

addition, Pink has shared his

philosophy through articles

appearing in the Harvard Busi-

ness Review, Wired, and the

New York Times. Our article

considers key concepts from

Daniel Pink’s writings

on rewards and moti-

vation and compares

and contrasts these

ideas with balanced

scorecard principles

that are widely used in

business.

PINK’S IDEAS ON

REWARDS AND

MOTIVATION

Daniel Pink has

written extensively

about motivation.

His A Whole New

Mind was a New York

Times and Business

Week bestseller. His recent

book, Drive: The Surprising

Truth About What Motivates

Us,1 challenges many common

practices relating to rewarding

behavior. In this article, we com-

pare and contrast his ideas on

motivation with concepts and

principles commonly found in

a widely adopted performance

measurement practice: the bal-

anced scorecard.

Beyond basic biological

drives, Pink maintains that

there are two types of drives

How can you motivate people to accomplish

an organization’s goals? Is a carrot-and-stick

approach the only—or even the best—way? This

article suggests an approach that is potentially

more effective by focusing less on the traditional

approach of rewards versus punishment, relying

instead largely on intrinsic motivations to help

bring about desired outcomes. These efforts are

consistent with the balanced scorecard concepts

of goal setting and rewards that have been widely

adopted as performance measurement and strate-

gic communication systems since the early 1990s.

© 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The Balanced Scorecard and Twenty-

First-Century Thoughts on Motivation