▶ Your Answer :To some people, hiring outiside consultants may seem like a waste of time and money. Outside consultants are less knowledgeable about the company than insiders, and thus make more blanket recommendations. Recommendations by the people actually working in such companies, who are actually familiar with the company, may seem like a better deal than paying thousands for an outside evaluation. However, although I agree that evaluations from employees are important efficiently operating a company, such evaluations should serve as a second resource, in addition to outside consultants. Outside consultants provide an objective outlook of the company and provide professional solutions that are in sync with business trends.
Employees of a company are familiar with day-to-day workings of the company. They have a specialty, and have grown accustomed to the ways of doing things. Although individual employees can provide recommendations for improving the management of a company, these recommendations are most likely short-sighted. In addition, the biases of individual employees should be taken into account. What is good for individual employees may not necessarily be compatible with what is good for the company. For example, some people may feel pressured to keep silent of inefficient management methods because such methods could benefit their careers.
An analogous example is student evaluations of faculty in college for tenure. Students, because they interact with professors on a regular basis by going to lectures and courses, are very familiar with the professor's teaching style. However, they can comment on only one area of a profesor: their teaching methods. They are not familiar with the research track records of a certain faculty, a crucial factor that the university should take account of to manage prestige. In addition, a student could give the professor a bad rating if he/she got a bad grade in their class, even though the professor's teaching had no fault. Although student evaluations of a professor's teaching should be a factor in deciding tenure, the decision should be considered holistically. It may be better for the university as a whole to retain a faculty member with a stellar publication record and prestige in his/her field than a faculty who is better at teaching but has no publication records.
Outside evaluations by consultants thus provide an objective look at the shortcomings of a company. Consultants spend lengthy periods of time examining the fiscal, organizational, and management structures of a company as a whole, something individual employees would not be familiar with. In addition, they provide concrete ways for improvement and take into account various factors, such as current market trends, in their recommendations. Individual employees, although very familiar with specific and narrow niches of a company, probably would not look at the bigger picture.
Assessment by individuals is an important factor to take into account. However, they should not be the only factor. They should be used as a supplementary resource in conjunction with consultants. Outside consultants provide valuable perspective that employees would not be able to offer. | |