A Study of Organizational Effectiveness

Abstract

ORGANIZATIONAL effectiveness is one of the most complex and least tackled problems in the study of social organizations. Many difficulties arise with attempts to define the concept of effectiveness adequately. Some stem from the closeness with which the concept becomes associated with the question of values (e.g., management versus labor orientations). Other problems arise when researchers choose a priori criteria of effectiveness that seem intuitively right, without trying systematically to place them within a consistent and broader framework. In effect, specific criteria that might be proper in one case may be entirely inappropriate to other organizations. The question arises whether it is possible to develop a definition of effectiveness and to derive criteria that are applicable across organizations and can be meaningfully placed within a general conceptual framework. The present paper has three objectives: (a) to examine the concept of effectiveness and to provide a definition deriving from the nature of organizations; (b) to develop operational criteria and to measure the concept in a specific industrial setting; and (c) to evaluate these criteria and operations in terms of their organizational character, i.e., the extent to which they represent an organizational-level phenomenon, their reliability, and their agreement with independent expert judgment.