Module 4 – Home
Strategy Mapping & the Learning and Growth Perspective
Modular Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion of this module, the student will be able to satisfy the following outcomes:
Case
Evaluate the application of the Balanced Scorecard approach in an organizational situation.
SLP
Write objectives, identify measures, and propose initiatives to improve performance from the learning and growth perspective.
Discussion
Discuss the application of an integrative approach to organizational improvement using a learning and growth perspective.
Module Overview
In this module, we will be taking a look at how organizations utilize the process of strategy mapping in order to integrate their balanced scorecard efforts with organizational strategy. This is an important step in the BSC approach in that this process helps to determine if the strategic actions of the organization are in line with the organization’s strategy as a whole. We’ll look at several examples of organizations that have implemented the BSC approach and consider their strategy mapping efforts.

In this module’s SLP, however, we still have one more internal perspective to consider. Module 4 brings us to learning and growth. In using a learning and growth perspective, organizations ask the question: “Can we continue to improve and create value?” This is perhaps the hardest one to fold one’s mind around, being the most intangible, so it’s best approached after some experience with the other perspectives. The graphic highlights where these questions fit into the whole model.
The learning and growth perspective focuses on capacities the organization must develop to create long-term growth and value. This perspective is unique among the four in having an orientation more toward the future, which is of course unknown and indeed unknowable, rather than toward a present that, while it may be unclear, is at least in principle determinable. These capacities include the ability to innovate, improve, and learn. And these capacities are important in order for any organization to succeed. An organization that is not learning and growing internally, and that is not providing opportunities for its employees to learn and grow as well, is not likely to survive in today’s competitive world.
There are three main areas that encompass the learning and growth perspective:
People
Systems
Organizational procedures
Robert Kaplan and David Norton (1996) suggest the following as measures:
People
Employee satisfaction
Employee retention
Employee training
Employee skills
Systems
Real-time availability of accurate customer and internal process information to front-line employees
Ability to launch new products
Ability to create more value for customers
Ability to penetrate new markets
Organizational procedures
Alignment of employee incentives with overall organizational success factors
Rates of improvement in critical customer-based and internal processes
In this module, you’ll look at how the balanced scorecard is utilized to assure the processes are in line with the organization’s strategy. Obviously this module relies on your understanding of your previous coursework in MGT 499 (Strategic Management).
Secondly, you’ll look at how getting a handle on the firm’s learning and growth processes completes the loop in implementing a balanced scorecard. You’ll have a chance to apply the material relevant to people, systems, and organizational procedures from courses like BUS 303 (Business Communications), BUS 401 (International Business), MGT 301 (Principles of Management), MGT 302 (Organizational Behavior and Teamwork), and MKT 301 (Principles of Marketing). You’ll also pick up some key new vocabulary for looking at these issues.