Multilevel Design of Performance Measurement Systems : Enhancing Strategic Dialogue Throughout the Organization

Strategy (re)formation and implementation pertains to the collective ambition and responsibility of an entire organisational population. This perspective justifies an integral approach to the design of organisational controls, implying a design effort throughout the organisation at multiple organisational levels. The article proposes a normative framework for multilevel design of diagnostic controls, i.e., performance measurement systems. The framework is an attempt to synthesise a design theory from systems theory and cybernetics, using a composite of the goal-oriented model, the multiple-constituency model and the natural-systems model of organisation. Although the framework concerns design of diagnostic controls, these products of designing are not an end in themselves. Rather, the process of designing is a means for enhancing strategic dialogue throughout the organisation, thereby interactively controlling strategy. Hence, participation in the process of designing, during which the collective attitude of mind is reset in accordance with changed or even new strategic priorities, is essential. Application of the framework is explored in the illustrative case of a service organisation