D Course: IP6163 - 4 Managing Or x Shine, Chapter 13.pdf X + X CA @ https://www.elearning.crandallu.ca/pluginfile.php/82019/mod_resource/content/0/Shine%20%20Chapter%2013.pdf . . . of 12 Q + Page view | A Read aloud | (T) Add text | \\ Draw ~ Highlight Erase 231 Increasing Organizational Effectiveness Early theories of organization were content to specify single goals or functions for organizations, such as maximizing profits, providing useful products for society, increasing productivity, or achieving high employee morale. What has undermined these types Increasing of criteria as viable measures of effectiveness is (1) the discovery that seemingly rational organizations behave in ways that appear to be highly inefficient if the sole criterion is profit maximization or pro- Organizational ductivity, and (2) that real organizations do have multiple functions and multiple goals, that some of these are actually in conflict with Effectiveness each other, and that the organization tolerates and "works through" the conflicts. Thus, maximizing profit may rationally entail cutting 13 labor costs, but this action may have the side effect of undermining morale. Lowered morale may mean worker alienation and eventually increased threat of sabotage or strikes, which in turn lowers produc- tivity and eventually reduces profit. The dilemma of effectiveness, then, is clear. Is effectiveness the ability to maximize profit in the short run (which would require a definition of "short run"), or does effectiveness have something to do with the ability to maintain profits over some longer period of time to which the concepts of WHAT IS ORGANIZATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS? survival and growth are more applicable? Or, to take another kind of example, if we think of organiza- tions like universities, teaching hospitals, or prisons, we can imme- Throughout this book we have used the term organizational effect diately name several functions or goals, all of which are primary and tiveness but have avoided defining it because of its inherent essential. The university must simultaneously teach and create valid ambiguity and complexity. If a person, group, or some larger system knowledge through research; the teaching hospital must take care of such as an organization has a single clear-cut goal, one can measure and cure patients, and must, at the same time, provide learning progress toward that goal. Effectiveness could then be defined in opportunities for interns and residents; the prison must keep crimi- terms of how quickly or cheaply or efficiently goal progress was nals out of circulation but also provide opportunities for rehabilita occurring. But two problems immediately surface when one attempts tion. Is the effectiveness of the organization to be judged by its such a definition: First, what if the person, group, or organization performance on one function, on both separately, or on some com- has chosen the wrong goal by some broader criterion-for example, plex integration of the several functions? trying to be the world's fastest runner without any basic talent in One attempted resolution to these dilemmas has been to define running, or trying to sell a product to a consumer group that does effectiveness in terms of systems-level criteria. Acknowledging that not want that product? Second, one rarely, if ever, finds a real-life every system has multiple functions and also exists within an en- situation in which there is only one goal operating. It is a char- vironment that provides unpredictable inputs, a system's effective- acteristic of all human systems to have multiple goals, all of which ness can be defined as its capacity to survive, adapt, maintain itself are generally operating simultaneously, and among which the pri- and grow, regardless of the particular functions it fulfills. A number orities are shifting constantly. Progress toward any goal can be meas- of students of organizations such as Argyris, Trist, Rice, Kahn, and ured, and that measure has usually been defined as the efficiency of Bennis have argued explicitly for this type of conception. Perhaps an organization. But choosing the right priorities among goals, en- the clearest statement of effectiveness criteria in these terms has been suring that the ultimate functions of the organization are met, is a given by Bennis (1962). He introduces these ideas in relation to the more complex process, one that approximates the concept of effect traditional approaches of measuring output and satisfaction at a tiveness. given point in time and introduces the more general concept of "health": 230 OLIOOL music N ENG 14:22 IN 28-03-2022