IN THESE TOUGH economic times, everyone is looking for ways to be more efficient and
cost-effective. Unfortunately, efficiency often comes at a cost, a cost that may destroy
the essence of what you are trying to achieve. The greatest lesson in life is learning
to do what you need to do, when you need to do it, whether you want to or not (
Covey, 1990
). I recently presented at a conference in Las Vegas where they had kiosks, similar
to the ones that you find in the airport, where you could self-register for a room
at the hotel. It was certainly efficient. After registering, I asked the one live
registration clerk how this system was working. She said it saved money by eliminating
a lot of front desk jobs, yet was impacting on good customer service, which eventually
could impact on the number of customers coming to the hotel. Thus, an initial improvement
in efficiency and cost savings could eventually prove destructive to business. Technology
often offers the promise of improved efficiency and cost savings. However, without
careful attention to the implementation, technology can actually have harmful long-term
outcomes.To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
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Biography
Dr. Michael Grossman, DM, MSN, RN, NEA-BC, CNML, has more than 35 years of nursing leadership experience and is a nursing consultant, academician, and career coach. As a professor in the graduate schools of nursing at the University of Phoenix and Walden University, he specializes in health care ethics, leadership development, career coaching, mentoring, team building, motivation, change, communications, and dealing with difficult people. For further information, go towww.nurseleadershipbuilders.com. He can also be reached at 610-331-8470 [email protected]ders.com.
Article info
Publication history
Published online: May 10, 2012
Column Editor: Karen Goldschmidt, MSN, RNCIdentification
Copyright
© 2012 Published by Elsevier Inc.
