Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-7bb8b95d7b-wpx69 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-09-07T09:49:39.003Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

10 - Productivity: efficiency and effectiveness

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

J. David Johnson
J. David Johnson
Affiliation:
University of Kentucky
Get access

Summary

The major downfall of the network approach is that they are such sparse social structures that it is difficult to see how they can account for what we observe.

(Fligstein and Mara-drita 1992, p. 20, quoted in Swedberg 1994, p. 270)

…the exact contribution of communication processes towards outcomes is often hard to assess, and the connection is more intuitive than demonstrated or empirically proven.

(Downs, Clampitt, and Pfeiffer 1988, p. 171)

…the chain of conditions between amount of communication in the workplace and outcomes such as satisfaction, effectiveness, or other effects may be quite lengthy.

(Zimmerman, Sypher, and Haas 1996, p. 200)

I will use productivity in its broadest sense here, focusing on the generation of wealth in organizations in a variety of forms entailing social as well as economic capital, which also suggests some degree of efficiency and of effectiveness. Since these terms are closely interrelated I will begin with some basic definitional issues. As the colon in the chapter title implies, productivity is a function of both effectiveness and efficiency, with the former term somewhat more difficult to define concretely.

Effectiveness details a desired outcome or result. It therefore implies some degree of rationality, intention, and purpose and could be closely associated in this sense with more functional approaches to organizations. It implies some martialing or matching of organizational outputs to particular goals that here I will discuss primarily in terms of contingency impacts and resource-based views of strategy.

Type
Chapter
Information
Managing Knowledge Networks , pp. 196 - 209
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Downs, C. W., Clampitt, P. G., and Pfeiffer, A. L. 1988. Communication and organizational outcomes. In Goldhaber, G. M. and Barnett, G. A. (eds.), Handbook of Organizational Communication: 171–212. Ablex.Google Scholar
Farace, R. V., Taylor, J. A., and Stewart, J. P. 1978. Criteria for evaluation of organizational communication effectiveness: review and synthesis. In Nimmo, D. (ed.), Communication Yearbook 2: 271–292. Transaction Books.Google Scholar
Johnson, J. D. 2008. Dosage: a bridging metaphor for theory and practice. International Journal of Strategic Communication, 2: 137–153.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pirolli, P., and Card, S. 1999. Information foraging. Psychological Review, 106: 643–675.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shaw, M. E. 1971. Group Dynamics: The Psychology of Small Group Behavior. McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Zimmerman, S., Sypher, B. D., and Haas, J. W. 1996. A communication metamyth in the workplace: the assumption that more is better. Journal of Business Communication, 33: 185–204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zipf, G. K. 1949. Human Behavior and the Principle of Least Effort: An Introduction to Human Ecology. Addison-Wesley.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×