Organizational Cockpit

The “rationalization of costs” is the actual paradigm of current national and international scene. However, even in a time of enormous savings, organizations must continue to effectively perform their missions. To accomplish it without the slightest fault and in spite of budget reductions, organizations must possess the ability to adapt to reality and create mechanisms that provide situational awareness and rapid reaction to external actions. One of these mechanisms involves finding indicators that can assess the effectiveness of the operation. This chapter develops the theory behind an artifact that is used to obtain the Global Organizational Effectiveness Index Subsystem that, when applied to an organizational subsystem will give quantitative and qualitative information about its performance by comparing the performed actions with the planned actions. The research was conducted in the Portuguese Air Force and the resulting Model is now being used with success in the operational subsystem.