Marc Wouters

extern

The purpose of this study is to empirically analyze the development of a performance measurement (PM) system for a financial shared service center. In the literature, both PM-System development and the concept of financial shared services have received much attention, but the topics have not been combined. The question of what is essential for PM-System development within an extensive organizational change project is very relevant, both theoretically as well as practically. The paper describes a longitudinal case study about PM-System development in a centralization project at the German conglomerate Robert Bosch GmbH. A broad supportive base as well as effective coordination and intensive communication between all respective stakeholders are identified as the main success factors for a PM development project in the shared service context where managers face an extensive amount of uncertainty due to the fact that the PM project is just a small subset of an extensive organizational change project. The explicit accentuation of these factors in the shared service context and further practical recommendations form the contribution to the literature. Furthermore, the study offers detailed insights into a concrete case that may help managers to learn from my experiences and use these, as well as the provided recommendations, in their own projects. However, the research is limited to the conceptualization phase of the PM-System development process. Future research could focus on the implementation and use phase. It seems reasonable to conduct case studies in further centralization projects in order to challenge the appropriateness of the given recommendations.