A Note on that Dirty Word “Efficiency”

Efficiency gets a bad name because it inevitably means measurable efficiency, with three unfortunate consequences. Because costs are typically more easily measured than benefits, efficiency all too often reduces to economy. Because economic costs can usually be more easily measured than social costs, efficiency often produces an escalation in social costs, which are treated as “externalities.” Because economic benefits are typically more easily measured than social benefits, efficiency often drives the organization toward an economic morality which can amount to a social immorality.