Making Translation Coherence Observable: Methodological Pathways for Studying Meaning in Decision Systems

This methodological paper addresses a core challenge in organisational and governance research: how to make interpretive coherence empirically observable in institutional decision systems. Building on prior work on translation drift and decision-system architectures, the article proposes that meaning becomes traceable at translation interfaces where strategic intent is stabilised into artefacts such as criteria, metrics, funding rules, and review narratives. It outlines three complementary methodological pathways — artefact stability analysis, interpretive framing analysis, and structural coherence mapping — that enable the study of interpretive coherence as a latent institutional property using longitudinal artefact patterns. Rather than introducing a prescriptive measurement instrument, the paper provides a methodological scaffold for studying how meaning stabilises, moves, and shifts across governance layers under conditions of delayed feedback. The contribution extends organisational methods beyond outcome and process observability toward architectural observability of institutional meaning. This preprint forms part of a research programme on decision-system learning and translation coherence.