View source for Tick-box culture

{{Short description|Bureaucratic and external impositions on professional working conditions}}
'''Tick-box culture''' or in [[American English|U.S. English]] '''check-box culture''', is described as [[Bureaucracy|bureaucratic]] and external impositions on professional working conditions, which can be found in many organizations around the world.<ref name="Guardian">Steven Poole. [https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jan/16/tickbox-by-david-boyle-review Tickbox by David Boyle review – thinking inside the box: From call centres to management consultancy to government, decision-making is being dehumanised. We need to take a stand against the culture of targets], The Guardian, 16 January 2020</ref> Another related term is the '''culture of performativity'''.<ref>Ball, S. J. (2003). The teacher’s soul and the terrors of performativity, ''Journal of Education Policy'', 18(2), 215-228.</ref>
==Origin==
According to [[David Boyle (author)|David Boyle]], the tick-box culture emerged with the introduction of targets and [[Performance indicator|key performance indicators]] in [[corporate governance]] and official [[bureaucracy]]; it resulted in overzealous focus on rules and regulations rather than issues and people.<ref name="Boyle">Boyle, David. [https://www.littlebrown.co.uk/titles/david-boyle/tickbox/9781408711866/ ''Tickbox'']. Little, Brown Book Group Limited, 2020</ref> For Boyd, the tick-box culture is associated with dehumanized decision-making in organizational settings that manifests itself in the growth of [[management consulting]], the pervasiveness of [[employee monitoring]], and [[identity politics]], among others.<ref name="Guardian"/>
Tick-box culture is studied as a contributing factor in a number of fields, such as [[education]], [[criminal justice]], [[management]], and [[medicine]].<ref>Marshall, Bethan. "A crisis for efficacy?." ''Education Review'' 20, no. 1 (2007).</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Ball | first1 = Stephen J | year = 2003 | title = The teacher's soul and the terrors of performativity | journal = Journal of Education Policy | volume = 18 | issue = 2| pages = 215–228 | doi=10.1080/0268093022000043065| s2cid = 143547127 }}</ref><ref>André Spicer. [https://aeon.co/essays/you-don-t-have-to-be-stupid-to-work-here-but-it-helps Stupefied: How organisations enshrine collective stupidity and employees are rewarded for checking their brains at the office door], ''Aeon'', September 27, 2016</ref>
==Fields==
In [[social work]], tick-box culture means there is too much emphasis on following rules instead of actually helping children.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.standard.co.uk/news/tick-box-culture-for-social-workers-needs-to-come-to-an-end-6399989.html|title='Tick box culture' for social workers needs to come to an end|date=10 May 2011}}</ref>
In the [[Incarceration in the United States|US criminal justice system]], some performance measures appear to have more influence on outcomes than others, and police targets have led to the [[criminalization]] of greater numbers of children, while goals for reduction youth in detention remain unmet.<ref>Bateman, Tim. "‘Target practice’: sanction detection and the criminalisation of children: Tim Bateman sets out how police targets have led to the criminalisation of greater numbers of children and dispels the myth of a girl crime wave." Criminal justice matters 73, no. 1 (2008): 2-4.</ref> In England, probation officers reportedly spend 75% of their time on red tape, and the tick-box culture was blamed for the growth in bureaucracy.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/society/2011/jul/27/probation-officers-bureaucracy-report|title=Probation officers spend 75% of time not dealing with offenders, report finds|first1=Alan|last1=Travis|first2=home affairs|last2=editor|date=26 July 2011|newspaper=The Guardian}}</ref> In Europe, crime prevention is thought to have shifted away from reducing opportunities for [[money laundering]] towards an emphasis on the demonstration of compliance with systems and procedures (tick-box culture) with the expectation that they will prevent money laundering from occurring.<ref>Harvey, Jackie. "Controlling the flow of money or satisfying the regulators." The organised crime economy (2005): 43-64.</ref>
Tick-box culture in [[medicine]] is seen as a system increasingly engineered to medical technicians rather than to professionals.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Gannon | first1 = Craig | year = 2005 | title = Will the lead clinician please stand up?. | journal = BMJ (Clinical Research Ed.) | volume = 330 | issue = 7493| pages = 737 | doi=10.1136/bmj.330.7493.737| pmc = 555652 }}</ref> In Scotland, a study found that clinical audit are perceived by practitioners as time-consuming and a managerially driven exercise with no associated professional rewards.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Bowie | first1 = Paul | last2 = Bradley | first2 = Nicholas A. | last3 = Rushmer | first3 = Rosemary | year = 2012 | title = Clinical audit and quality improvement–time for a rethink?. | journal = Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice | volume = 18 | issue = 1| pages = 42–48 | doi = 10.1111/j.1365-2753.2010.01523.x | pmid = 21087366 }}</ref> For example, a hospital in England was investigated over the death of young woman who was being monitored by hospital staff, the tick-box culture was blamed in part for the woman's death.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/news/9380740/Hospital-tick-box-culture-contributed-to-death-of-girl-18.html|title=Hospital tick-box culture contributed to death of girl, 18|date=6 July 2012 }}</ref><ref name="Cleland">{{cite journal|last1=Cleland|first1=Jennifer|last2=Reeve|first2=Joanne|last3=Rosenthal|first3=Joe|last4=Johnston|first4=Peter|title=Resisting the tick box culture: refocusing medical education and training|journal=The British Journal of General Practice|date=2014|volume=64|issue=625|pages=422–423|doi=10.3399/bjgp14X681169|pmc=4111334|issn=0960-1643|pmid=25071054}}</ref>
==Criticism==
Darren Mccabe, professor of organization studies at the [[Lancaster University|University of Lancaster]], wrote that "the shift towards a 'tick box' culture was a particular source of cynicism because it has created a shadowland where things are not as they seem or as they measured and represented."<ref>McCabe, Darren. [https://books.google.com/books?id=StTHDwAAQBAJ&dq=Tick-box%20culture&pg=PT198 ''Changing Change Management: Strategy, Power and Resistance''], Routledge, 2020. {{ISBN|9780367140656}}</ref> Other commentators also criticized a tick-the-box approach in the workplace and beyond.<ref>[https://www.pitcher.com.au/news/tick-box-approach-governance-can-be-dangerous A tick the box approach to governance can be dangerous]</ref><ref>[https://www.ft.com/content/60254af5-deaa-40bd-86c8-6655967fb7f3 Box ticking is bad for corporate governance]</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=2013-05-25|title=Are You Working In a Checkbox Culture? {{!}} PMC Coaching|url=http://www.pmcoaching.com/are-you-working-in-a-checkbox-culture/|access-date=2021-03-02|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130525030738/http://www.pmcoaching.com/are-you-working-in-a-checkbox-culture/|archive-date=2013-05-25}}</ref><ref>Nicole Anand. [https://ssir.org/articles/entry/checkbox_diversity_must_be_left_behind_for_dei_efforts_to_succeed ‘Checkbox Diversity’ Must Be Left Behind for DEI Efforts to Succeed], ''Stanford Social Innovations Review'', May 21, 2019</ref>
In 2015, [[Theresa May]] stated that she wanted to stop the "tick box culture" of policing in England.<ref>[http://news.sky.com/story/may-tells-police-officers-stop-crying-wolf-10358852 May Tells Police Officers: Stop Crying Wolf: Theresa May tells police officers to stop "scaremongering" over cuts and promises an end to "tick box" targets.]</ref> The [[Daily Express]] blamed the tick-box culture for embarrassing incidents in the English health-care.<ref>Nick Ferrari. [http://www.express.co.uk/comment/columnists/nick-ferrari/507984/Tick-box-culture-is-ruining-our-country The Ashya King case shows the tick-box culture is ruining our country], The Daily Express, September 7, 2014</ref>
In England, in an effort to reduce formalistic, tick-box inspections of schools, official on-site examinations were greatly reduced and more emphasis was placed on professional judgement.<ref>Baxter, Jacqueline, and John Clarke. "Farewell to the tick box inspector? Ofsted and the changing regime of school inspection in England." Oxford Review of Education 39, no. 5 (2013): 702-718.</ref>
==See also==
* [[Checkbox]]
* [[Organizational culture]]
==References==
{{reflist|2}}
==Further reading==
* Boyle, David. [https://www.littlebrown.co.uk/titles/david-boyle/tickbox/9781408711866/ ''Tickbox'']. Little, Brown Book Group Limited, 2020. {{ISBN|9781408711873}}
==External links==
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=EnkfbbQgxTIC&dq=Tick-box%20culture&pg=PA61 Improving Learning How to Learn: Classrooms, Schools and Networks]
[[Category:Organizational culture]]
[[Category:Quality management]]
[[Category:Sociology of culture]]