Balance Score Card

Accounting, Organizations and Society 28 (2003) 591–619 www.elsevier.com/locate/aos

The Balanced Scorecard: what is the score? A rhetorical analysis of the Balanced Scorecard

Hanne Nørreklit

´ Department of International Business, Aarhus School of Business, Fuglesangs Alle 4, 8210 Aarhus V, Denmark

Abstract The Balanced Scorecard currently receives much attention. This article analyses the means by which the authors of The Balanced Scorecard have created that attention. Is it the result of a new and convincing theory, or is it merely the result of persuasive rhetoric, where convincing theory differs from solely persuasive rhetoric in that concepts and claims are based on sound argumentation? The article concludes that the text is not so convincing as persuasive—a feature characteristic of the genre of management guru texts; and, at the end, the article discusses the reasons for and appropriateness of such a genre and the consequences that should follow from the results of the analysis. # 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Introduction Presentation of the problem The Balanced Scorecard (BSC) is one of the latest innovations in management. It is a tool of strategic control developed by Kaplan and Norton and described in their 1996 book The Balanced Scorecard. The book has been awarded a prize by the American Accounting Association with the justification that it was ‘‘the best theoretical contribution in 1997’’. In the business world, the balanced scorecard has engendered great interest internationally. The question of whether this is due to its substance as an innovative and practical theory or simply to its promotional rhetoric provides the focus of this paper.

E-mail address: hann@asb.dk (H. Nørreklit).

The balanced scorecard (Kaplan & Norton, 1996a) aims to solve the problem related to the historical nature of the financial measures of accounting systems (AICPA, 1994; Dearden, 1969, 1987; Hopwood, 1972; Johnson & Kaplan, 1987; Kaplan & Norton,...