Is the 'tick box culture' destroying the world?

So what is a tick box culture? Well what I mean is this emerging necessity for targets and objectives to be completed. Doesn't sound all that bad does it? Well unfortunately it's not about what things get done, it's about what is compromised in order to complete them.

Of course you educated folk reading this will be demanding examples and statistics, which is no problem considering the amount of times this increasingly popular culture has been to blame for failures in fundamental organisations.

The first example is the shocking treatment if patients within the Stafford hospital, responsible for a numerous amount of unnecessary deaths. I'm pretty sure that the staff were under such pressure to complete goals and targets that people's welfare is considered lower down on their list of priorities. I'm not in any way condoning the staff, but could it be said they were just following orders?

Despite that being the most recent and shocking example of tick box culture, it's not the best to explain what really goes on, so bring on example number two.

It's all about education. For the past few years the main statistic that every secondary school is being forced to care about is the 5 A - C grades at GCSE. So what does that mean for quality of teaching? Who do the teachers start to care about?

Well think about it from a schools point of view. There is no point concentrating on the best students because they already satisfy the targets, the average students may also be neglected as they are pretty safe within the A - C bracket. The only students that would see and increase in teaching quality is the students currently achieving a D, as they are the easiest to move up to a C.

Overall a school will look better statistically, but has quality of teaching actually improved? I'm skeptical to say the least.

So who's to blame? That's what really matters right?

Well this is the controversial part, some would say the staff are to blame for following the orders of senior management. I would disagree. We seem to live in a time where labour is very replaceable, and managers are looking for reasons to get rid of you, so if meeting targets is what keeps you in a job then it's logical to see why such commands are obeyed regardless of consequences.

I believe the management is to blame and ultimately the government. Although my frequent rants at the government may appear to show some sort of bias, I genuinely think they are to blame for this. They need to realise that the country will be better off if we focus on the quality of our services rather than the quantities and targets.

It really is as simple as that.

Any comments? Post 'em below