By Kehinde Okeowo
At the beginning of every financial year, corporate organizations, profit oriented or otherwise draw up a strategic plan which unequivocally sets the target for the year and breaks down the corporate target to group and individual targets. The plan is equally expected to encompass how it intends to provide the resources expected to achieve the said corporate objective. Thereafter, these targets are measured from time to time, to determine if the organization is on track or not. Strategic planning is centre to the achievement of every organization’s set objective, if it intends to remain solvent, make profit or simply continue to survive. However, one germane management tool that can be deployed in ensuring that the organization’s strategic plan is successful is Consequence Management.
In order to truly appreciate the role of this concept as part of the tools used in driving the success of a strategic plan in an organization, it is imperative to have a working knowledge of the concept. Consequence Management can be simply seen as a process of applying the appropriate and clear consequence for every action and inaction of staff or group of staff in an organization. The action will have to be established and implemented without fear or favor and expectations should be set in very clear terms at the outset. What is even more important is that, it should not be used in negative perspective nor implied as a reactive approach or a threat. What it should do, is establish in advance, the clear outcomes for someone’s actions, stating the reward and downside for a given standard of performance.
This concept is mostly associated with corporate organizations, government, social and structured institutions. It is however sometimes practiced unconsciously in our daily life and at the lowest level of social interactions. For instance, a father who got his son a pizza on his way from work for finishing his assignment on time but did not buy for his sister because she failed to finish her own on time is indirectly practicing consequence management as well as trying to elicit a attitudinal change in future. Therefore, if an informal institution such as a nuclear family can appreciate and employ this tactic effectively, then employers of labor must understand that it remains one of the most veritable tools in motivating staff and keeping them happy as well as modifying their behavioral pattern to suit the need of the organization and achieve their set goals and objectives.
As the name consequence connotes, it is applicable both ways; it could either serve as a reward for impressive performance or deterrence for misdemeanor. Generally, when a staff is aware that a constructive action will lead to a positive reward, there is the tendency to continuously engage in such an act. A good example is a staff who knows that more sales will attract more commission or bonus will likely strive to achieve more than the set target while one that is not motivated with such reward will likely call it a day upon the attainment of his or her target. Same applies to negative actions. If staff gets reprimanded for a misdemeanor, he or she is likely to desist from such activity in future. Therefore, any organization that encourages positive actions through rewards and have consequences in place for misconducts is likely to see an increase in positive behavioral pattern and a decline in negative ones and this will ultimately translate to overall improved performance of individual, units and by extension lead to greater productivity in the organization.
A lot of times, you hear leaders or line managers complain that people under their supervision are not performing well, not delivering up to mark or not standing accountable for their actions. The truth is in a competitive market, only consistent high quality performances can sustain an organization and anything less will not work, at least, on the long run. Therefore, organizations must start setting the right expectations, having consistent channels of communication and clearly defining consequences, so those managers are better enabled to manage and drive high level of accountability and productivity. Every organization that intends to survive competition and meet its target must know that the art of consequence management clarifies the carrot and stick approach and makes driving people to achieve their results more effective and clear.
The successful implementation of this strategy is largely dependent on the “know how” in the organization and the Nigerian business environment being a very peculiar one makes the effective execution of consequent management sometimes difficult. Majority of organization employ quacks to oversee this critical Human Resources functions, thereby jeopardizing the desired outcome of the exercise. It is therefore imperative for organizations to recruit thorough breed professionals who can change the mind set of most management who sees this practice as an instrument for punishing erring staff only and not a tool designed to reward both positive and negative actions. In addition, these managers should be able to justify the importance of this apparatus through provision of empirical data that shows how it has positively impacted the fortune of the organization. In other words, they should be able to show that staff or units that are rewarded for positive actions tend to achieve the set target or even exceed it and that staff misdemeanor reduces when there are consequences for actions. In conclusion, when staff misconducts reduces and productivity increases due of the existence of an unambiguous consequent management practice in an organization, the individual and group targets are realized and corporate objective is met and everyone is happy.