Spinal Cord Injury Ontario

Case Analysis: SCI Ontario
Student’s Name
Course Number and Name
Instructor’s Name
Date
Executive Summary
This case analysis examines the critical problem facing SCI Ontario as it pursues its mission and strategic objectives. The analysis identifies the lack of appropriate performance measurement as the main problem facing SCI Ontario. The identified problem arises due to a lack of sufficient performance indicators, ineffective reporting mechanisms, and difficulty establishing its performance data's relevance. This hinders its ability to measure its social impact or social value. Yet, measuring social impact is vital for organizations whose primary goal is not profit generation. After the analysis, two potential solutions are identified. One involves using the social return on investment (SROI) to measure performance, and the other involves using the performance prism to assess stakeholder involvement in performance measurement. The SROI is recommended as the most viable solution because it incorporates financial and social value in performance measurement. The implementation would require at least 36 months to identify stakeholders, map the outcomes, collect data on achieved outcomes, monetize the outcomes, calculate the benefits against the investment, and report the findings.
Introduction
Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) Ontario is a not-for-profit organization (NPO) whose mission is to help those with spinal cord injuries and physical disabilities become independent and self-reliant. The NPO aspires to develop a leadership role as an Ontario's expert on spinal cord injuries. This calls for strategic decision-making, reporting, and communication to ensure the NPO has sufficient visibility in the community. This case analysis will identify the critical problem faced by SCI Ontario, examine the underlying causes of the problem, and establish possible solutions to the problem. Based on the identified alternatives, it will then recommend the best course of action.
Problem Statement
The core problem facing SCI Ontario is that the organization does not have appropriate methods of measuring organizational performance in relation to its mission and goals. This lack of a proper performance measurement system makes it difficult for the NPO to measure its performance in its leadership role and social impact. This further makes it difficult for the organization to establish whether it is achieving its overall strategic goal.
Analysis
SCI Ontario lacks good performance indicators, which has contributed to its difficulties in performance measurement. As Merchant and Van der Stede (2017) indicate, NPOs lack adequate quantitative performance indicators, such as profit generated, making it difficult to measure the organization's overall performance. Like many NPOs, SCI Ontario does not have sufficient quantitative performance indicators to measure the organization's visibility, productivity, community engagement, and leadership. Currently, it collects data on the number of customers served per year, the percentage of members renewing their annual membership, and the number of customers who would recommend the organization to others in the spinal cord injury community. It also collects employee turnover and development data, as shown in exhibit 8 of the case study (Merchant & Van der Stede, 2017). These indicators only measure customer and staff satisfaction and do not necessarily measure other aspects of organizational performance. The lack of sufficient performance indicators means SCI Ontario has been experiencing difficulties measuring its social impact. As Moura et al. (2019) reveal, outcomes for NPOs are measured by social impact. SCI Ontario can enhance its performance measurement indicators by focusing on social impact. SCI Ontario needs to include other performance indicators to measure its social impact comprehensively. For instance, it can include indicators such as the percentage of clients who become independent and self-reliant within two years or the percentage of clients with improved well-being after receiving SCI Ontario services.
By measuring social impact, SCI Ontario will not only enhance its ability to measure performance but will also increase transparency. According to Beer and Micheli (2018), measuring social impact generates clarity and enhances loyalty and organizational reputation. The senior marketing and communications manager at SCI Ontario notes that one of the challenges related to performance measurement is how the organization could demonstrate to stakeholders that the adopted plans are helping the organization achieve its strategic objectives. Most of the stakeholders are not involved in the planning and can only judge the effectiveness of the plans based on the impact it creates on society. Thus, measuring social impact and communicating the results with stakeholders can ensure that SCI Ontario has improved its performance measurement while still creating transparency to show stakeholders that the organization is successfully achieving its objectives.
The difficulty in measuring organizational performance is also caused by the financial reporting mechanisms used by the NPO. Currently, SCI Ontario provides the statement of financial position and the statement of financial activities (Merchant & Van der Stede, 2017). However, the lack of a bottom-line profit hinders the organization from establishing and measuring performance in terms of profits generated. In addition, measuring the performance using financial statements is quite limiting for NPOs because their mission differs from for-profit organizations. As noted in the case study, the senior manager of marketing and communications was contemplating how to measure and communicate the organization's performance in terms of its work for the spinal cord injury community. It is true that the financial reporting mechanisms used by SCI Ontario show stakeholders that the resources are being used effectively; however, it is difficult to measure the social value created using these resources. For SCI Ontario, the financial reporting mechanisms cannot effectively demonstrate whether the organization is performing or achieving its leadership role.
It lacks a well-defined measure of success. The organization's goal is to become a leader in providing spinal cord injury services. However, it is unclear how a successful leadership role is defined, which can create ambiguity among different stakeholders responsible for judging the organization's success. Is leadership defined in terms of the number of new referrals, mentions on social media, or membership in the organization? Merchant and Van der Stede (2017) state that because of this lack of well-defined measures of success, it becomes difficult for NPOs to compare their performance against that of entities performing different activities. There are many worthwhile causes in Ontario, as noted in the case study. Still, it is difficult for stakeholders to understand SCI Ontario's good work compared to other entities. This difficulty results from the lack of well-defined measures of success which complicates performance measurement in the organization.
Further, SCI Ontario is experiencing difficulties establishing how relevant the collected performance data is to stakeholders. The senior manager of marketing and communications questioned whether reporting the performance data on the usefulness of SCI Ontario would be enough to establish that SCI Ontario was progressing towards achieving its leadership role (Merchant & Van der Stede, 2017). This shows a lack of clarity on what matters most and how to capture it in the form of data enough to convince stakeholders. It would be difficult to measure performance when the relevance of the collected data is questionable. SCI Ontario cannot establish what matters most and record data on the same. It must establish what is essential to all stakeholders and address this by collecting relevant data. The stakeholders to be considered include the media, potential volunteers and donors, opinion leaders, the spinal cord injury community, and the wider public.
Performance measures can be helpful in organizations where the primary performance measure is not shareholder value or profits (Lee & Clerkin, 2017). Exhibit 1 shows the different uses of performance measures that NPOs can benefit from. All the uses indicated in exhibit 1 are significant to SCI Ontario because they can help it ensure that it performs its leadership role and reaches more people.
Discussion of Alternatives
Currently, SCI Ontario uses the balanced scorecard as its performance measurement system. However, as established in the problem statement section, the organization still has difficulties measuring performance and demonstrating its effectiveness to stakeholders. The two most viable alternatives SCI Ontario can use to solve the problem are the social return on investment (SROI) and the performance prism models.
On the one hand, SROI is a performance measurement tool adapted from the ROI to measure an NPO's social and economic performance (Moura et al., 2019). Specifically, it assesses the performance by monetizing the social value and comparing it to the social costs (Cordes, 2017). This is helpful to SCI Ontario because currently, it is struggling to establish and report the social impact it has created. A...