The American balanced scorecard versus the Chinese practice of Peng Jeng Ji Fen Ka: A critical analysis

Our objective in this paper is to undertake a critical analysis of prevailing frameworks of performance management by aiming to demonstrate that those frameworks fail to address critical cultural factors when Performance Management systems (PMS) are designed and implemented in multicultural contexts. We investigate the potential issues that may arise from applying the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) or the French Tableau de Bord Prospectif (TDB) in the context of Chinese culture where the practice of the BSC is commonly known under the name of Peng Heng Ji Feng Ka. We use the Cultural Orientations Model (COM),a theoretical framework for cultural competence, in order to examine the implications of cultural differences on PMS design and implementation. This approach enables a comprehensive approach to understand how people make sense of the design and the implementation of PMS, by focusing on their behavioral preference rather than focusing on the social values that imply their behaviors. Our critical analysis addresses several cultural dimensions of the COM model successively, including: the constraint-control. hierarchy-equality, being-doing. linear-systemic and competitive-cooperative dimensions. For each of those dimensions we analyse the advantages and disadvantages of the BSC and TDB respectively when applied in a Chinese context. We conclude that the BSC and TDB have both their advantages and disadvantages, but that those advantages and disadvantages are relative and may not be transferable into a context where Chinese values predominate. This paper extends the recent management literature on performance management by providing justification for more contextualized approach and theories in the field of performance management.