In response to changing management and budgetary strategies that have been driving decision making to the lowest administrative levels, institutional researchers have been attempting to identify indicators which can be used to evaluate institutional performance and progress. This paper reviews efforts to introduce departmental operational performance indicators at the University of Minnesota. A decision support schematic illustrates the instructional resource management tool that was developed. The diagram shows the relationships of the broad indicators, such as demand, fiscality, and productivity, to each other and to specific lower-level measures such as tuition revenue management, instructional cost management, curriculum management, enrollment and tuition management, and faculty course management. Two other programs, a "U2000 critical measures" process and incentives for managed growth, are also discussed. The former, an attempt to demonstrate to faculty how daily planning and operational decisions affect overall institutional goals, was judged to have failed. The initial attempts to establish an "incentives for managed growth" program (also termed responsibility-centered management), a financial strategy that emphasizes entrepreneurial activities and encourages decision making at the lowest administrative levels, were disappointing, and few of the university's departments were deemed able to use this strategy. (CH)