Performance Management: Putting Research into Action

Alignment and Performance Management

So what is “alignment,” and how is it related to performance? There have been many different definitions of alignment. Nadler and Tushman (1997) and their colleagues were among early proponents of what they called organizational congruence, extending some of the early work by Katz and Kahn (1966) showing the theoretical importance of the connections of organizational inputs, throughputs, and outputs into a cohesive framework for managing overall organizational performance. Nadler and Tushman say, “Other things being equal, the greater the total degree of congruence, or fit, among various components, the more effective the organization will be,” or essentially “the degree to which strategy, work, people, ...