Struggle_Between_Efficiency_And_Effectiveness

Struggle Between Efficiency And Effectiveness The Struggle Between Efficiency and Effectiveness Business books, magazines and newsletters are full of recommendations about becoming more efficient. They talk at length about the importance of the bottom line and incremental gains from reengineering and total quality efforts. And they talk about how technology can provide a real boost in efficiency. But with all this talk about efficiency, are we losing something in terms of being effective' To distinguish between effectiveness and efficiency, a brief definition should help. Effectiveness is doing the right thing. Efficiency is doing things right. These simple definitions point to a clear distinction that has major implications for businesses of all sizes. The implications arise from the difficulty in balancing both efficiency and effectiveness. With the pressure to constantly be as efficient as possible, an organization can get caught up in focusing too much on reducing process time and/or the number of employees and not enough on what makes sense for the organization. For example, suppose a distribution company decides that it is taking too long to process orders because there is an additional review step in place to ensure that the order is accurate. But often times, orders get backed up slightly for shipping because the people efficiency, process, customer, technology, additional, orders, time, often, important, impact, efficient, effectiveness, doing, about, things, right, because, times, talk, step, should, quality, over, money, example, employees, eliminating, decisions, company, business, being, ways, way, variables, thing, terms