TARGET SETTING - AN APPLICATION TO A BANK BRANCH NETWORK

In this paper we examine the performance of the target setting procedu re employed by a large financial institution in Spain to evaluate the operating performance of its branch offices. We begin by evaluating th e ability of the branch offices to meet the targets established by ban k management. We then evaluate the targets themselves, and we find tha t the list of targets can be substantially reduced without significant loss or distortion of information to bank management. We then re-eval uate the performance of branch offices on the basis of a reduced set o f influential targets. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.