Ratty’s latest wheeze is a “staff recognition scheme”. And we thought he was just ignoring all the bad bits (i.e. the whole lot) of the staff survey. But no reward comes without a threat at Kingston. Just look at what is written in the objectives: “To reinforce desired behaviours”, “improved performance”, “set standards of desired behaviour and performance”. Sounds as authoritarian as we have come to expect of the VC.
He and the SMT are obsessed with management mumbo jumbo; how does he think that vague promises of paper certificates and silly awards are going to motivate the staff? Is motivation even really the purpose? “Reinforcement”, “desired behaviours” are what this is all about. Rather than pay attention to staff welfare and comfort, withdraw threats of demotion, sackings and performance indicators, the VC turns the screws on us some more under the pretence of rewarding staff. But few will see this as any other than another timewasting stupid management scheme.