Multiple duplicates of contacts on multiple devices

I have an iPhone, iPad, an iMac and a Mac Mini. I am using the latest versions of Mountain Lion and IOS. I have multiple copies of the same individual contacts everywhere. For example, for one catering company I have:
- three identical contacts in my contact app on my Mac
- the same three identical contacts in my contact app on my iPad
- five contacts on my iPhone, 4 are identical to themselves and those on my pad and Mac, but the 5th has two "linked contacts" that point to the other individual contacts for this catering company
- three identical contacts in my contacts in iCloud
So my question is, basically, how to I clean all of this up? If I sit at my Mac, can I delete contacts in the Cloud and have these lead to being deleted on my other devices?
Rocketman

First open your contacts on your Mac and back them up now that they are cleaned up, by going to File>Export>Calendar Archive. Then go to Settings>iCloud on your phone and turning Contacts to Off. When prompted, choose Delete from My iPhone.
If you still have any contacts on your phone, download the app My Contacts Backup. Open the app, tap the gear shaped icon on the lower right, scroll to the bottom and tap Remove All Contacts. This will remove any remaining contacts from your phone. When all contacts are removed from your phone, check to be sure you have set iCloud as the Default Account on your phone for contacts in Settings>Mail,Contacts,Calendars. (If you don't have multiple accounts for contacts you won't see this setting.) Finally, go to Settings>iCloud and turn Contacts back to On to sync back the contacts in iCloud to your phone.

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Thanks for your reply Nick101. I see my example was oversimplified. When I say "multiple groups of contacts over multiple users" I'm really referring to N groups of contacts over N users.
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