Performance Indicators and their Relationship with Organizational Strategy - A Study in Brazilian Companies

The institutional mission declared by an organization can be taken as baseline for management as well as a mechanism for communicating its objectives and organizational strategies. In a complementary fashion, performance indicators support the evaluation of the processes aimed to execute companies specific strategies. Thus, the present study sought, through an empirical quantitative approach, test the hypothesis of the performance indicators used by a company is associated with the content of the mission it declares. A sample of 85 Brazilian companies listed in BM&FBovespa’s IbrX Index was used. Data has been extracted from the mandatory reference reports issued annually by companies and from its institutional sites. For examination of the data, the technique of content analysis was used in order to identify the characteristics present in the missions reported by the companies studied. Further, the logistic regression was used to test the association between the variables studied. In the context analyzed, no evidence of association between the characteristics of the missions reported by the companies and the performance indicators used by them was observed in the results. The results found contradict, in part, the logic and theory of organizations management control, especially regarding the congruence amongst the objectives that must be pursued, including the alignment of what an organization declared as being relevant in its mission with the indicators it uses to evaluate its performance. Finally, Business Process Management (BPM) is discussed as a fundamental support for the definition of performance indicators in order to guarantee the alignment to the organization’s strategic objectives.