Difference between effectiveness and efficiency - I

An action is effective when it serves a specific desired purpose and that specific purpose is achieved.

An action is efficient when the results are good, even if they do not achieve the specific purpose originally desired.

Thus, effective actions can be efficient or not. And ineffective actions can be efficient or not. We can therefore be:

1. Effective and efficient;

2. Effective and inefficient;

3. Ineffective and efficient; and

4. Ineffective and inefficient.

How so? - Simple: when we do something, we do to a goal. By doing so, there are always side effects. These side effects can be small or trivial, and can be large to the point of harming the major goals of the corporation. Suppose a seller who aims to sell one hundred objects in ten days, spending up to five hundred dollars. If he sells the objects on time and costs expected, was effective. However, there may be consequences. Consider: 

If he sells everything in a record time or if he pleases the customers in an exceptional manner, was effective and also efficient (1).

If he sells only half of the objects and blows deadline and budget, was not effective, nor was efficient (4).

If he sells only half of the objects, blowing deadline and budget, but bring twenty new clients or be able to receive a large debt during the journey, was not effective, but was efficient (3).

Finally, if he can sell one hundred objects on time and within budget, but leave customers dissatisfied, was effective but was not efficient (2).

Why this difference is relevant in the corporate world? Because managers need to know the tolerance with the results that are not effective if they are efficient - and very often this happens in cooperative processes: we shoot at what we see and hit what we dont. In the examples above, the good manager is interested in the results 1 and 3 and not in 2 and 4.

The relevance of this distinction is just be prepared to accept the result 3 and not to become obsessed with the goal to the point of giving the result 2 as acceptable.

Who built this first deffinitions was a Business Administration named Chester Barnard in an very important book, "The Functions of the Executive."

I like administration a lot