Revue du Journal arabe des affaires et de la gestion

The current intense nature of competition among firms has increased the pace of innovation within and across industries. Rapid changes in the taste and requirements of consumers have compelled organizations to think of ways of constantly improving their processes, product offerings and service delivery. Benchmarking as a tool has assisted organizations to fast track their innovation pipeline while reducing time and route to market. It has helped firms meet the requirements of their consumers at low level of risk and cost. This paper presents an expository review of some new ideas and approaches to effective benchmarking and provides practitioners with some contemporary insights on approaches and tools for benchmarking as a way of improving corporate performance in a measurable way.

While the concepts of financial intelligence (FI) and financial intelligence quotient (FIQ) as it pertains to the individual has been widely investigated and used by practitioners and academics, the operational definition and scope of these concepts have not been sufficiently rigorous. Neither have they been specifically applied to the organization, even though some researchers agree that financial intelligence could improve corporate performance. This paper proposes the concepts of corporate financial intelligence (CFI), measured by corporate financial intelligence quotient (CFIQ) as an organizational-wide practice for institutionalizing and improving corporate performance and shareholder value. This exploratory study argues for the development of a framework/model for defining corporate financial intelligence (CFI) and measuring corporate financial intelligence quotient (CFIQ), and to demonstrate their linkage to corporate performance and shareholder value. This study will present the opportunity for ongoing research into the relationship between corporate performance, shareholder value and the institutionalization of corporate (organizational) financial intelligence.

This research was conducted to assess the practices and challenges of employee performance management system (EPMS) at Commercial bank of Ethiopia (CBE), a leading commercial bank in the country by collecting evidences from Bishoftu district area. The study focused on how PMS process was practiced, identify the purpose and challenges faced while implementing performance management in the case organization. The study employed descriptive research method of study with stratified random sampling technique to select respondents and collected empirical evidences using questionnaire and interview. The study used both primary and secondary data for the study. The analysis was done by the help of SPSS and presented using descriptive statistics techniques. The research has confirmed that CBE has good qualities in practicing clearly by defining the mission, vision and values and developing strategy map. However, the study identified that the EPMS of the CBE has limited awareness and trainings concerning the purpose, requirements and implications of PM (performance management) among employees; lack of trust and continuity of the system; lack of regular feedback and coaching to improve performance, subjective supervisor assessment. Based on the gap, the study has recommended to the management to improve employee’s participation in the process, to avail adequate and timely trainings concerning all aspects of the EPMS, revise performance standards and measures to minimize subjectivity and inappropriateness; enhance the involvement and ownership of employees via promoting transparency and equip them with the required knowledge, skill and resources, provide regular feedback and coaching. Furthermore, it has been suggested that CBE shall make the evaluation criteria objective, conduct the evaluation at the right time and clearly articulate the end-to-end implication of good as well as poor performance. The study was limited to empirical data collected from one district of the case bank, however as the HRM policy of the bank is same throughout the bank system the data is expected to be valid.