Can organizational effectiveness be measured by the degree to which the organization achieves its goals

 Can organizational effectiveness be measured by the degree to which the organization achieves its goals?

I do agree that the organizational effectiveness is measured by the degree to which the organization achieves its goals. The goals are stated in each area in order to evaluate the degree of performance and efficiency in attaining those goals. When the goals are attained, the organization is reaching the level of effectiveness. Effectiveness evaluates the extent to which multiple goals whether official or operative are attained (Daft, 2010, p.95). A goal represents a result or end point toward which organizational efforts are directed. The entire strategic plan, the organizational structure and the resource distribution are made in order to attain the established goals. If the goals are reached, that means the organization is efficient is following the needed strategies in order to deliver the expected outcomes. The overall performance may be directed to different outcomes depending on the nature of the organization. A for-profit overall performance is aimed to Profitability. The latter may be expressed in terms of net income, earnings per share, or return on investment. Other overall performance goals are growth and output volume. Growth pertains to increases in sales or profits over time (Daft, 2010, p.83). Conversely, for a nonprofit, the goals must be focused on specify the delivery of services to clients or members.

How does the organization's effectiveness relate to success?

For an organization to be successful, it may be performing well on several levels such as core competency, hitting the operative goals, attain the overall performance, make wise use of the resources, reach the market standing desired, set strong employees’ development goals, realized the needed productivity level by having a well balanced output in relation to the resources available, be efficient in facing innovation and change. As stated in this week lecture, there are various approaches to measuring organizational effectiveness. From the goals or technical approach, the external resource approach, the internal systems approach, to the balanced scorecard approach which may include the shareholder or constituency approaches, the balanced scorecard is one of the most complete measures of effectiveness because it combines several indicators of into a single framework, balancing traditional financial measures with operational measures relating to a company’s critical success factors (Daft, 2010, p.97). However, if the organization is not paying great attention to the constituencies and contingencies, it may be effective, but not successful. The concept of organizational citizenship and corporate social responsibility are not yet integrated in the balanced scorecard. However, they are of importance in evaluating organizational overall effectiveness. That is, the organizational goals and strategies, as well as the concept of fitting design to various contingencies will be undoubtedly resulting in organizational effectiveness (Daft, 2010, p.94). Consistency in the achievement of  efficiency while keeping a balanced relation between productivity and high ethical values, corporate citizenship, and also corporate social responsibility are the key to success.

References:

Daft, R. L. (2010).  Organization theory and design (10th ed.). Mason, OH: Cengage Learning.

Grand Canyon University. (2013). Defining and evaluating organizational effectiveness and success. Retrieved  from  https://lc.gcu.edu/learningPlatform/user/users.html?

Leontes Dorzilme