Balance Scorecard Perspectives and Performance Of Kirinyaga County Law Courts

Abstract

The significance of performance measurement in relation to an organization's success cannot be denied. Balanced Scorecard provides a holistic approach to the concept of performance management. Performance of the Legal system especially the courts has been a point of focus by many Governments especially the developing countries like Kenya. The focus is largely because their performance has been unsatisfactory in several aspects. The study's general objective was to establish the balanced scorecard perspectives influence on performance of Kirinyaga County Law Courts. The study was guided by expectation confirmation theory and organizational learning theory and descriptive research design was utilized. The population included the entire staff working in Kirinyaga County Law Courts who were 109 in number. Data was collected using closed ended questionnaire using drop and pick method to provide adequate time for the respondents to fill in the questionnaire with minimal influence. A pilot study was carried out to enhance the reliability as well as validity of the data collection instrument. Cronbach alpha coefficient of 0. 7 was used to test the reliability of the data collection instrument. Analyzed data was obtained from 81 respondents out of the targeted 109 achieving 74.3% response rate. Frequencies and percentages were generated from the data and presented using frequency distribution tables while multiple linear regression analysis was done to determine relationship between each parameter of the independent variables and the dependent variable in the study. The results indicated that customer perspective and internal business process had positive and significant effect on Law Courts performance in Kirinyaga County when considered singly and when combined with other variables. Financial perspective, and learning and growth measures had positive and insignificant effect on Law Courts performance in Kirinyaga County when combined with other variable but had positive and significant effect when considered singly. The study established a correlation value of 0.646 per cent which indicates that there is a positive association between balanced scorecard perspectives and performance of Kirinyaga County Law Courts and that 0.418 % of the variation in law courts performance can be explained by BSC perspectives. The remaining 58.2 % of the variation can be explained by other factors. The researcher suggests that future research could focus on use of expanded balanced scorecard featuring other perspectives such as leadership, corporate social responsibility and the environment to establish their influence on performance, effect of balanced scored card on performance of High Courts and challenges Law Courts face in the use of balance scorecard perspectives in measuring performance