Study On The Balanced Scorecard’Application In The Performance Evaluation Of The Public Sector

Performance evaluation in Public Sectors has always been a hot and thorny problem and improvement of performance level has also become one of the goals pursued by government in countries. Nowadays, with the New Public Management blossoming and going deeper, performance evaluation, which is not a fresh word any more, has been widely applied in government management in various countries and regions and thus has become an effective tool for realizing Government Reengineering, implementing government responsibility, improving and evaluating government behavior. As an important basic organization form in modern society, public sectors have played an increasingly significant role in politics, economy and society in China. Therefore, it is obliged to carry out performance evaluation in public sectors scientifically. However, having been launched late, China’s performance evaluation in public sectors is still at the exploratory stage and a certain gap still exists between China and western developed countries.The emergence and development of Balanced Scorecard, a globally discussed and applied performance evaluation tool, as well as its successful application in private sectors, has enlightened China’s public sectors. Balanced Scorecard is capable of overcoming the defect of the way public sectors used to carry out performance evaluation, thus, competent to evaluate performance of public sectors in a more integrated assessment system. As a result, the paper is to design indicator system of performance evaluation in public sectors with the effective tool of Balanced Scorecard.The paper has carried out some research on Balanced Scorecard theory, explained its four structural elements and their mutual logical relationship on the basis of concept definition and pointed out two core ideas:the idea of balance and the idea of strategy. Thereinafter is a deep probe into the great significance of the combination of Balanced Scorecard and China’s public sectors. On that basis, the feasibility of applying Balanced Scorecard into China’s public sectors will be analyzed in terms of theory, value, technology and regime. The paper is to focus on empirical research. The city management law enforcing sector in Cangnan County being the case sector, the paper is to briefly introduce the sector, explain the present situation, traits and some existing problems of the performance evaluation in this sector and afterwards set about structuring the indicator system of performance evaluation. First, the paper is to point out some explicit condition for structuring indicator system of performance evaluation, which is to benefit the effective implement of Balanced Scorecard. Secondly, it is to set up a framework for Balanced Scorecard in the county’s city management sector. Thirdly, it is to carry out interviews and questionnaires to design, filter and finally determine all the indicators in the sector’s Balanced Scorecard and their weight using Analytic Hierarchy Process and Delphi Method. Finally, it is to illustrate some changes taking place within the county’s city management sector after the application of Balanced Scorecard, further consider the possible difficulties and barriers in the application of Balanced Scorecard in public sectors and then put forward some guarantee measures.The combination of Balanced Scorecard and public sectors is to open up a new frontier for Balanced Scorecard tool and method and to replenish its relevant theory. Structuring an indicator system of performance evaluation for the case sector will definitely bring about a brand-new idea and concept of performance valuation in other public sectors, and make some contribution to the reasonable and scientific evaluation of performance in China’s public sectors.