In this study, an organization is primarily approached as a social system of multiple and goal interdependent constituencies. For this system to be successful in attaining its common goals, a coordinated effort of people is required. Such a coordinated effort implies a coordinated allocation of scarce human resources.
The human decision making process that reflect the allocation of people's time and attention regard the designing of performance indicators and the setting of goals.
A framework for multi-level designing, referred to as Strategic Dialogue, is proposed, which aims to coordinate the designing of performance indicators at multiple, organizational levels. Concretely, the Strategic Dialogue intervention prescribes how to deploy integral goals at the macro or business unit level into local goals at the micro level of daily operations.
The SD is practically illustrated by a case study, concerning a business unit of Corus in the Netherlands. As a result the effectiveness is empirically demonstrated in light of the Goal Coherence construct. Goal Cohorence refers to the degree of consensus on goal priorities within and between the organization's multiple and goal interdependent constituencies.
