Chapter 13

Organizational Effectiveness
 What is Organizational
Effectiveness?
 Effectiveness refers to the degree of congruence between
organizational goals and some observed outcome.
 Three reasons why the concept of organizational
effectiveness remains muddled.
 There are important differences in the way scholars have
conceptualized organizations.
 The complexity of organizations.
 Researchers have often used different, non-overlapping criteria,
thus limiting the accumulation of empirical evidence about
organizational effectiveness.
 What is Organizational
Effectiveness?
 Organizations can be effective or ineffective in a number
of different ways, and these ways may be relatively
independent of one another.
 Productivity
 Efficiency
 employee absenteeism
 Turnover
 goal consensus
 Conflict
 participation in decision making
 Stability
 communications.
 The Goal Model
 The goal model is the most common theoretical perspective on
effectiveness.
 It is both simple and complex. In its simplest form, the goal
model defines effectiveness as the degree to which an
organization realizes its goals.
 The model posits that organizations can be understood as rational
entities.
 Evaluators assume that an organization’s goals can be identified.
 Evaluators assume that organizations are motivated to meet those
goals and progress toward them can be measured.
 Difficulties with Goal Model
 Most organizations have multiple and conflicting goals.
 Conflicting goals reflect conflicts absorbed by the
organization from society at large.
 Public organizations are designed to be ineffective when
effectiveness is ascertained by a broad based goal model.
 Official goals are generally for public consumption and can be found
in annual reports and broad policy statements.
 Operative goals are generally derived from official goals but tell us
exactly what the organization is trying to do.
 Difficulties with Goal Model
 Another problem with focusing on
organizational goals relates to the
consequences of measuring goal attainment.
 A final concern about the goal model of
effectiveness deals with the relationship
between goal attainment and consequences for
the organization.
 Process approach.

 Under this model, effectiveness is described as a process

rather than an end state, as might be the case under the goal
model.
 The process approach consists of three related components:
 goal optimization,
 a systems perspective,
 and an emphasis on behavior within organizations.
 Goal optimization refers to the need to balance goals and thus
to optimize multiple goals rather than achieve a particular one.
 Process approach.

 A systems view incorporates concerns for changes

in an organization’s environment
 The behavioral emphasis suggests attention to the
possible contributions of individual employees to
organizational effectiveness.
 The effective organization is one in which goals are
responsive to the environment, optimization of
multiple goals is pursued, and employees are
contribute to meeting those goals.
 System Resource Model.

 Organizations are not assumed to possess

goals, nor is goal accomplishment a relevant
consideration. Instead, an organization is
effective to the extent that it can obtain
needed resources from its environment.
 Methods of Assessing
Effectiveness
 Reviewing a variety of theoretical perspectives on
effectiveness is useful because it not only points out
the limitations of the goal model but also provides
alternative ways of considering organizations.
 Variable Analysis.
 Research designs that attempt to measure the attainment of some
goal.