Employees are the organization’s most important asset and are empowered with information, resources, training, and authority to manage their work and contribute to the business in significant ways. Work is designed in a way that employees own responsibility for a whole and meaningful process or segment of work.
The increasing complexity of organizations, expanding relationships between organizations and their environment and the growing turbulence created by technological change require that organizations introduce new methods of evaluating performance.
The difficulty of measuring organizational effectiveness is compounded when organizational complexity increases, when decision-making time horizons grow longer, and when a number conflicting factors in organizational performance must be balanced. Managers face a number of internal organizational problems when complexity grows. Top management, obviously, wants to optimize the performance of the entire organization.
Employees need basic financial know-how and the knowledge of a company’s operations before they can understand how their individual efforts affect a company’s efficiency as a whole. Empowered employees are the essence of an innovative culture. Employees should feel free to contribute ideas and improvements that they feel will make difference. When a company depends on meeting specific goals, those goals should be foremost the minds of every employee. Constant measuring and tracking of employee and company performance related to those goals helps ensure that employees are focused on what matters most.
All employees must be encouraged to submit ideas for improved efficiency, and even the smallest improvements must be rewarded. Employees must be required to attend special courses in managerial field, to write business plans for their respective departments and held accountable for the productivity that results from their business plans.
A rapidly changing world requires continuous innovation in managing people and organizations. A clear understanding of an organization’s functional and environmental uniqueness is a prerequisite to assigning its effectiveness. Organizational design is at the heart of the organizing process. Managers must assign explicit responsibility to people for implementing plans. Organizations function best when they are appropriately matched to their environments. For contemporary organizations, the environment is increasing in complexity and instability, both continuously and rapidly.
The improvement of organizational efficiency and effectiveness is what managing is all about. In broad terms, they are measured by performance in accomplishing goals, using standards based on management’s past achievements and future expectations. Consequently, efficiency and effectiveness are always a dependent condition contingent on the nature of the organization’s goals and these goals can vary from organization to organization.
Every organization is constantly evaluating the efficiency and effectiveness of their programs and performances. As companies measure employee performance, they should actively reward employees who meet projected goals. Rewards motivate employees to keep working toward company targets. If a company’s goal is to reduce deficiencies in production, the company should reward employees who meet that goal. The concept of measuring effectiveness and efficiency is based on the view of organizations as production systems, transforming multiple inputs (resources) into multiple outputs (goods and services) through organization, management and technology.
Increasing efficiency helps an organization to increase productivity, paving the way for cost savings and growth. Today’s organizations are faced with a dynamic and turbulent environment that requires flexible and fast responses to changing business needs. Many organizations have responded by adopting decentralized, team-based, and distributed structures. Efficiency must be increased, so that the productivity is increased, costs are reduced, volume is expanded, and the organizational payoffs to owners, managers, employees, customers, and society are improved.
Organizations in either the public or private sectors, all aim at achieving objectives effectively and efficiently. They can focus on their core competencies, thereby enhancing productivity and efficiency which result into (a) (a) greater profitability, (b) minimizing overhead cost, (c) flexible workforce that can be easily varied according to your needs, (d) reduce cost of training, and (e) customized solutions to cater to your needs and requirements. Teams often result in high performance and are responsible for managing all of the tasks to accomplish business goals. Besides, the role of management must be very outstanding in defining strategy, managing systems, and creating an environment in which employees can be most effective.
In our current economy, there is no doubt many companies will experience a significant downturn. It will demand from managers a more strategic review or organizations, processes, and procedures as well as actions to ensure the maximum level of organizational efficiency and effectiveness which require (a) quality employees with a passion for their work and a level of satisfaction that leads to low turnover, (b) communication strategy with consistent and energizing messages, (c) clear practices, policies and decisions, (d) an environment accepting of change and innovation, (e) effective management of human resources (increased information sharing, extensive training, financial and non-financial rewards, appraisal and extensive feedback), (f) a strategy linked to organizational goals and reviews, (g) opportunities for employees' advancement and growth, (h) high levels of organizational trust which minimize unnecessary bureaucratic control and administrative expenditures, (i) consistency and congruency between words and actions, (j) effective board of directors, (k) using information technology effectively, and (l) an emphasis on ethics, the environment, and sustainability.
High efficiency and effectiveness require (a) work done by teams organized around processes, (b) teams empowered to make decisions so management is decentralized, (c) empowered employees with high skills and advanced training, (d) rewards for team performance, (e) collaboration among teams, between employees and management, and with suppliers, (e) focus on customers, quality, and continuous improvement, and (f) flexible technologies.
However, today under tough competition, organizations cannot survive if they cannot operate with greater effectiveness and efficiency. By using latest thinking and techniques and introducing new ideas or refining the tools already being used, the organizations can get their work done faster and more efficiently. This increased efficiency allows the organizations to offer greater services which naturally leads to an expansion of their business.
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