Sunday, December 03, 2006

Effectiveness

Levels of Effectiveness

Managing the social impact of the organization is the most complex of the management. It is dependent on the management's ability to "think through" the total effectiveness of the organization. An organization can be seen as an effective organization essentially at three levels.

1.0 Firstly, the organization is productive. it is able to produce the goods or services it is intended to produce

2.0 Secondly, the organization is efficient, it produces the goods or services with a minimum expenditure of resources-- particularly the scarce resources and,

3.0 Thirdly, the organization has a reputation for excellence.. i.e. it has a public image that its goods or services are of a high quality and its management is alert to its responsibilities within and without the organization.

Compartmental Feuds
Every large organization has a number of active feuds. Some of them are generic feuds, others are personal feuds. Generic feuds are a result of traditional rivalry, e.g., marketing vs. production, production vs. purchasing, accounting vs. engineering, head office vs. factory or branch office, etc. Added to these are the conflicts generated by the ambitions and jealousies of individual managers. Excessive compartmentalization, characteristic of large organizations, often accentuates the generic feuds, and managers from different departments act as if they belong to different organizations.
Recently, I met a marketing manager. Normally he is a morose person. But that day he looked jubilant. "What makes you so happy today?" I asked. "Well, you know, "he replied, "our factory boiler has burst, and they are screwed up for the next two months." He was already enjoying the nasty memos he would be sending to complain about lack of dispatches and consequent loss of sales.

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