Stability Indicators

Abstract

This paper is a summary of my MPhil Thesis (Morales, 1992) and discusses a methodology that helps to identify and measure Stability Indicators (SI’s). SI’s are used as a tool for organizational planning and control. A SI is a measure of those organizational variables that are characteristic of the overall state of the organization. The organization is assumed to be stable when the organization is controlled and management plans are realized in practice.

The factors that motivated this research were the need for integrating the functions of planning and control and the need for flexible evaluation methods in organizations. The work uses systems approach, cybernetic, and strategic planning approaches as a theoretical framework.

The methodology was used in a project with Carbocol (The Colombian National Coal Company). Managerial ability has been strongly applied in order to learn from the company’s past and present problems, and also as means of solving them. Arriving at the set of necessary SI’s for control is the result of a learning process. Permanent feedback from the whole system helps to define strategies because it is characterized by a progressive knowledge of institutional learning programme.