The evolution and role of diagnostic control systems in the “agile” context
The adoption of logics aimed at fostering organizational agility has profoundly changed the structure of traditional managerial models. This implies the need to revise control systems in a direction aimed at making “radical decentralization” (O’Grady, 2019) choices effective and fostering the emotional involvement of employees. The role played by measurement systems has always been particularly important, so it should come as no surprise that there have been significant evolutions in these forms of control. In agile companies, measurement plays an important role in nurturing interactive control mechanisms so as to capture the whole breadth of strategic uncertainties» (Tuomela, 2005). However, proper development of goal-setting processes and effective operation of diagnostic control systems maintain an important role in these contexts as well. These systems must clearly move in the same direction in which the overall control system evolves and thus take on a new physiognomy compatible with the new information and control requirements. In this contribution one of the possible evolutionary forms represented by the «collaborative goal-setting protocol» (Doerr, 2018) called OKR is analyzed.
Keywords: Management Control Systems, Agile companies, Organizational agility, Decentralization, Performance measurement, Objective and Key Results
