Making Meaning Measurable: How to See Coherence in Decision Systems

This paper develops a conceptual and methodological approach to making institutional meaning observable and measurable. It introduces coherence as a property of alignment between intent, decision criteria, and outcomes, and proposes a framework for tracing how meaning is encoded and transformed across governance artefacts. The paper outlines how coherence can be operationalized as a longitudinal signal, enabling the detection of drift before outcome failure. It contributes a measurement-oriented foundation for studying institutional decision systems.