Performance Management in educational institutions – the Balanced Scorecard as a holistic management approach for steering and managing educational institutions

Effectiveness and efficiency oriented thinking supplements more and more management decisions in the educational context. This development is not only based on socio-economic changes like the decreasement of public funds. The market of educational services grows also constantly and privat companies are heating the competition.The crucial challenge lies within the architecture of the performance management. What kind of figure systems fits best? How to execute a set strategy and of course how to control the achievement? Hence, to draw a comprehensive picture of the situation of an educational institution, the controlling must also deal with soft-facts like teaching or process quality, even motivation and capability of the staff are playing a vital role. The Balanced Scorecard in its adaption to the specific needs of an educational institution seems to be a fruitful approach to tackle these multidimensional steering requirements. The following article is going to discuss the benefits and the success factors of the Balanced Scorecard as a systemic management approach to be understood as a center of management navigation for educational institutions.