What is the balanced scorecard primarily used for in organizations?

The balanced scorecard is primarily used as a strategic planning and management tool that helps organizations monitor their performance against strategic goals. It translates an organization's mission and vision into a set of performance measures across multiple perspectives, including financial, customer, internal processes, and learning and growth. This holistic approach ensures that an organization not only tracks financial outcomes but also addresses the key drivers of future performance.

By utilizing the balanced scorecard, organizations can align their business activities to their vision and strategy, improve internal and external communications, and monitor organizational performance against strategic goals. This systematic approach allows companies to gauge how well they are doing in terms of reaching their long-term objectives and to make informed decisions to guide future actions and strategies.

It is important to recognize that while employee performance reviews, visual representations of business metrics, and managing daily operations are critical aspects of an organization's functioning, they do not encapsulate the primary aim of the balanced scorecard, which is fundamentally focused on strategic alignment and overall organizational performance evaluation.