Effectiveness is linked to the ability to achieve an objective or reach a goal.
Effectiveness is the ability to achieve the desired result . Whoever is effective, therefore, obtains the desired effect .
For example: “LeBron James was highly effective in last night's game: he made twenty shots and scored eighteen” , “The army incorporated new technology to increase the effectiveness of its missiles” , “Our country's prison regime lacks effectiveness anymore” . "that does not achieve the social reintegration of criminals."
Effectiveness, efficiency and efficiency
Effectiveness is a concept that relates to effectiveness and efficiency . Regarding effectiveness, in fact, they are synonyms: the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy ( RAE ) defines both terms in the same way, linking them to the ability to access the desired goal. Efficiency, on the other hand, is the ability to count on something or someone to achieve the intended result.
In this way, it is often said that effectiveness and efficiency refer to achieving what is sought; Efficiency, on the other hand, is aimed at achieving the same thing but using the appropriate resources. A person can kill an ant by throwing a ten-kilogram rock at it: the measure is effective, but not efficient, since it appealed to an exaggerated resource. A simple stomp or the use of an insecticide would have been effective and also efficient.
A subjective notion
Having said all this, it is clear that the concept of effectiveness is very subjective, since several people can claim to have found an effective method to achieve the same objective, although they all refer to different methods . Although one of the ways to limit this appreciation is by taking into account an efficient one, this can also be subjective: if we compare a current one with one conceived half a century ago, we surely believe that the first uses better resources and makes more appropriate use of them. .
This ambiguity, so to speak, of the concept of effectiveness gives rise to an attitude that many experts in different fields criticize negatively: "if I find a method that works, then I use it." In other words, it is a lack of commitment to seeking optimization , settling instead for the first acceptable solution that presents itself to us.
The idea of efficiency appears in the field of computing.
Effectiveness in computing
In the world of computing, for example, developers of programs, applications and video games know that they have a limited amount of resources, much more than that available to film companies or research centers. When they set out to create a product, therefore, they must make sure to adjust their requirements to the characteristics of the computers that most users own. Here effectiveness is not valued as much as optimization: ensuring that the methods make the most of the available resources, and that the processes can be scaled according to the possibilities of each device.
If a program can run on at least one computer, it is correct to say that we have developed it effectively, or with effective methods and design. But if our objective was to market it, then this achievement is not enough for us to talk about effectiveness, but rather we should aim for a large part of our target audience to be able to use it. In this case, we could say that what in one context can be defined as "efficiency" (adjusting the performance of the program even if we will only use it on our computer and it is not necessary to save resources), in another it can simply be "effectiveness."
The validity
On the other hand, effectiveness can refer to the validity of something.
For a decree to be effective, for example, it must be published in the official gazette, so that the population is aware of its scope. Until said publication is finalized, the decree is not in force.