Effectiveness and Efficiency
Efficiency and effectiveness were originally industrial engineering concepts that came of age in the early twentieth century. Management theorists like Frederick Taylor and Frank and Lillian Gilbreth designed time and motion studies primarily to improve efficiency. Work simplification efforts again focused primarily on questions like "How fast can we do this task?" Work simplification also led to terminology like streamlined processes and efficiency experts, but the emphasis was still on time and motion. The concept of effectiveness, which takes into consideration creating value and pleasing the customer, became popular in the United States in the early 1980s when Americans perceived Japanese products such as cars and electronics to offer greater value and quality.
The words efficiency and effectiveness are often considered synonyms, along with terms like competency, productivity, and proficiency. However, in more formal management discussions, the words efficiency and effectiveness take on very different meanings. In the context of process reengineering, Lon Roberts (1994: 19) defines efficiency as "to the degree of economy with which the process consumes resources-especially time and money," while he distinguishes effectiveness as "how well the process actually accomplishes its intended purpose, here again from the customer's point of view."
Another way to look at it is this: efficiency is doing things right, and effectiveness is doing the right things.
This is a free page. This page contains 201 words. This
article contains 1,910 words (approx. 6 pages at 300
words per page).
Read the rest of this Article with our Effectiveness and Efficiency Access Pass.
