Creating, communicating and measuring strategic objectives through the application of a balanced scorecard: the case of the University of Alaska Fairbanks Police Department

Abstract

This project served to align the vision and mission of the University of Alaska Fairbanks Police Department with the needs of the University community through the employment of a balanced scorecard. The balanced scorecard itself is a strategic performance management framework that enables organizations to identify, manage and measure strategic objectives. While there have been instances where police agencies have attempted to implement the balanced scorecard in the past, these police agencies have been very large, and they failed to achieve the level of granularity in their balanced scorecard necessary to effectively identify and manage true strategic objectives. In case of the University of Alaska Fairbanks Police Department, the balanced scorecard served to answer four fundamental questions: how will they sustain their ability to change and improve, what business processes must they excel at, how should they be perceived by their community, and how can they be responsible stewards of the funds that they are given?