| Abstract: | Abstract 
This study assessed the overall practices and challenges faced while implementing 
the  balanced  scorecard  (BSC)  as  a  performance  measurement,  strategic 
management  and  communication  system  in  three  state  owned  banks  of  Ethiopia: 
Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE); Construction and Business Bank (CBB) and 
Development Bank of Ethiopia (DBE). The study tried to evaluate the challenges 
faced as compared to the standard literatures of the system. In order to assess the 
implementation  status  of  the  stated  banks,  the  study  has  been  conducted  by 
designing  five-point  Likert  scale  questionnaires.  The  total  population  size  of  the 
study  was  654  involving  department  managers,  team  managers  and  non-management  senior  officers  of  the  stated  banks.  The  study  adopted  purposive 
sampling technique to select 150 respondents who have the working knowledge of 
the  system  of  which  the  responses  of  105  respondents  were  analyzed.  Common 
implementation challenges such as limited understanding of BSC, lack of executive 
sponsorship,  lack  of  BSC  education  and  training,  inadequate  IT  support, 
inadequate  project  team  and  organizational  participation,  inadequate  key 
performance  indicators  (KPIs)  and  lack  of  planning  and  communication  were 
observed  in  the  stated  banks  at  different  level.  However,  lack  of  formal  BSC 
education  and  training,  lack  of  planning  and  communication,  lack  of 
organizational participation and inadequate IT support were the major challenges 
identified. The study advised those banks to conduct intensive awareness creation 
activities, ensure organizational level participation, develop strong implementation 
and  monitoring  mechanism  and  back  the  system  with  relevant  IT  system  to  gain 
advantage of the Balanced Scorecard system. |