mskd96
Sep 10, 2015
Writing Feedback / Is it better to hire outside consultants or just inquire of own people? Analysis of the issue. [2]
Please rate the essay on a scale of 0-6. Please point out any errors and please make suggestions for improvements.
Thank you.
Question:
All too often,companies hire outside consultants to suggest ways for the company to operate more efficiently. If companies were to spend more time listening to their own employees, such consultants would be unnecessary.
Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with these statements and explain your reasoning for the position you take. In developing and supporting your position, you should consider ways in which the statements might or might not hold true and explain how these considerations shape your position.
Using consultancy or listening to the own people; GRE AWA analyze an issue
The issue argues upon necessity of hiring outside consultants to suggest ways of improving a company's efficiency. In the following paragraphs, I will try to put forth my view that if a company is new or has less number of employees, it might be beneficial to hire such a consultant but if the company is a well-established one, it might not be worthwhile.
Sometimes, it is natural that a company's own employees are too much into the current methods of a company that it might not be easy for them to think of something different. This phenomena might be true for large and small companies but given that there are less people in a new company, we can guess that different views might not come up among these people.
Such a phenomena occurs quite naturally. For example, let's consider a company whose working hours are from afternoon 12 pm - night 7 pm. This is actually true for some of the new companies. For employees of this company, this timing might be natural(for many college graduates this indeed is natural) and they might not even think of changing it. In such a scenario, it could be possible that efficiency of employees increases if this is shifted to an hour early. What a external person could suggest is that the company should try out different working hours and see what works and what doesn't before sticking to a particular timing. This suggestion most probably will not come up from the current employees.
Given that employees know how the company operates they are in a good position to understand what needs to be improved and might also suggest good improvements. For example, consider a well-established company which has a large number of employees. I am taking the liberty of assuming that there is a good mix of people of different habits and thinking in such a company. Although this assumption will have to be verified, it seems natural to assume such a variance among the employees. Considering the example in the above paragraph, it is quite plausible that one or the other employee will definitely come up with such a suggestion owing to the wide variety of habits among the employees. In such cases, it seems that taking employees suggestions might be worthy simply because there probably all kinds of people in the company
Finally, I also believe that hiring an analyst will be of some help to a small or a large company. The employees of the company might be business analysts or programmers but they might not be experts at analysing how company's operations can be improved. I do agree that they could suggest improvements in their fields, given that they are experts. But, a consultant who has experience in analysing companies and suggesting improvements might be more helpful.
There does seem to be a relation between size of the company and whether they should hire a consultant in order to improve the efficiency of the company. Such a relation will have to properly analyzed by experimenting with new and old companies. It seems that if a company is of considerable size they might not want to venture too much into hiring a consultant. Having said that, hiring a specialist consultant will definitely be of considerable value for any company because of his expertise in this area. The companies should weigh the benefits and the costs they are going to incur before taking such a decision.
Please rate the essay on a scale of 0-6. Please point out any errors and please make suggestions for improvements.
Thank you.
Question:
All too often,companies hire outside consultants to suggest ways for the company to operate more efficiently. If companies were to spend more time listening to their own employees, such consultants would be unnecessary.
Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with these statements and explain your reasoning for the position you take. In developing and supporting your position, you should consider ways in which the statements might or might not hold true and explain how these considerations shape your position.
Using consultancy or listening to the own people; GRE AWA analyze an issue
The issue argues upon necessity of hiring outside consultants to suggest ways of improving a company's efficiency. In the following paragraphs, I will try to put forth my view that if a company is new or has less number of employees, it might be beneficial to hire such a consultant but if the company is a well-established one, it might not be worthwhile.
Sometimes, it is natural that a company's own employees are too much into the current methods of a company that it might not be easy for them to think of something different. This phenomena might be true for large and small companies but given that there are less people in a new company, we can guess that different views might not come up among these people.
Such a phenomena occurs quite naturally. For example, let's consider a company whose working hours are from afternoon 12 pm - night 7 pm. This is actually true for some of the new companies. For employees of this company, this timing might be natural(for many college graduates this indeed is natural) and they might not even think of changing it. In such a scenario, it could be possible that efficiency of employees increases if this is shifted to an hour early. What a external person could suggest is that the company should try out different working hours and see what works and what doesn't before sticking to a particular timing. This suggestion most probably will not come up from the current employees.
Given that employees know how the company operates they are in a good position to understand what needs to be improved and might also suggest good improvements. For example, consider a well-established company which has a large number of employees. I am taking the liberty of assuming that there is a good mix of people of different habits and thinking in such a company. Although this assumption will have to be verified, it seems natural to assume such a variance among the employees. Considering the example in the above paragraph, it is quite plausible that one or the other employee will definitely come up with such a suggestion owing to the wide variety of habits among the employees. In such cases, it seems that taking employees suggestions might be worthy simply because there probably all kinds of people in the company
Finally, I also believe that hiring an analyst will be of some help to a small or a large company. The employees of the company might be business analysts or programmers but they might not be experts at analysing how company's operations can be improved. I do agree that they could suggest improvements in their fields, given that they are experts. But, a consultant who has experience in analysing companies and suggesting improvements might be more helpful.
There does seem to be a relation between size of the company and whether they should hire a consultant in order to improve the efficiency of the company. Such a relation will have to properly analyzed by experimenting with new and old companies. It seems that if a company is of considerable size they might not want to venture too much into hiring a consultant. Having said that, hiring a specialist consultant will definitely be of considerable value for any company because of his expertise in this area. The companies should weigh the benefits and the costs they are going to incur before taking such a decision.