.png)
1. Reflecting on criticism
Think about a time when you or your colleagues were criticised in the workplace. Was this a direct criticism, or via routine feedback, or perhaps invited as part of a consultation? What was the object of the criticism; personal, performance, a programme issue, or something else?
Firstly, for the purposes of this topic we’ll make a rough distinction between feedback, criticism, and complaints in an international education workplace, even though these are interrelated.
Feedback can be offered by anyone in the organisation. Generally, it is invited when managers want to evaluate their performance, or a programme. Written feedback is commonly sought to give organisations quantitative data to use to improve their practices. Note that written feedback is largely controlled by the questions asked, the cohort of respondents approached and the mode of collecting it; online, a paper survey or feedback buttons such as emojis.
Complaints, as the word suggests, are a form of negative feedback. Complaints are expressed by a person or group who have negative feelings about something. Organisations take complaints seriously if they value their programmes and reputations. They know that feedback and criticism can develop as complaints if ignored or mishandled. International education organisations are required by Consumer Protection legislation and the Education Code of Practice to have complaint handling processes in place. Section 4 provides an overview of complaint handling and your obligations.
Criticism is generally directed at a person and expressed as disapproval. It can be delivered anonymously by a colleague, friends, students and by employers. It can be understated, connected to a particular incident, or focussed on a persistent pattern of behaviour. It can take the form of invited feedback or as part of a debriefing session. Criticism is less controllable (like elicited feedback) and less manageable by organisational policy (like complaints).
Put simply, Criticism puts more attention on the thing being criticised. Complaints put more attention on the person complaining.
Below, we focus on types of criticism, including the difference between constructive (or instructive) and destructive criticism.
Consider the nature of the criticism you thought about in the reflection question. Was it constructive or destructive criticism?
- Constructive criticism is designed to point out your mistakes, but also show you where and how improvements can be made. Constructive criticism should be viewed as useful feedback that can help you improve yourself rather than put you down
- Destructive criticism is often just thoughtlessness by another person, but it can also be deliberately malicious and hurtful. Destructive criticism can, in some cases, lead to anger and/or aggression. Destructive criticism can have significant impacts on yourself, your work colleagues and on the organisation. It can affect confidence, productivity, relationships and an organisation’s reputation.
The table below frames criticism in a typical international education setting. The table demonstrates that criticism is normal and can be analysed according to the way it is expressed.
2. Reacting to criticism
Now, return to the reflection questions at the start of this section. How did you or your colleague/s react to the criticism you thought about?
How do you normally react to criticism?
Your reactions might relate to:
- Your level of responsibility, stress, temperament or preparedness, or your self-esteem.
- The relationship you have with the critical person or group.
- How much is at risk in terms of available resources or your programme’s viability.
- A more personal edge; whether you think the criticism is fair or unfair.
People interpret and react to criticism in different ways; ranging through subjective reactions, to objective consideration, to dismissive responses.
Exercise
Use your understanding of constructive and destructive criticism to complete the dialogue box below by noting, and adding a reason for, your reaction.
Now, think about whether you might have reacted differently if you’d had more time to think, or more support, or better strategies to employ at the time.
In the next section, you will consider the impacts of criticism on your team, on your professional network/s, and on your institution.
3. How might criticism impact me and my workplace?
Destructive criticism exists and potentially affects all areas of an organisation such as:
- Individual practices
- Performance targets
- Mission and values
- Systems and processes
- Policy implementation.
Here are some examples:
As a manger in your institution, you should understand the nature and the impacts of criticism, in order to:
- Minimise impact on your teams or programmes
- Support the wellbeing of your teams and the institution
- Manage the risk of jeopardising your programme’s success
- Provide a safe and positive workplace
- Maintain and progress your institution’s policies and practices.
The scenario below illustrates the way criticism can impact on your colleagues and the institution more broadly, using a range of possible risks and responses.
“You should have been here.” A student’s criticism
You are the Student Services Manager at the Mahy Senior College.
One of your homestay students has visited your office, with a request that you help with a problem he is having with his host parents. He says he’s had three phone conversations with different people at your student centre who he could not understand well; he says he was told he must attend the office in person. He explains to you that he could not get to the campus until now, as he has an important assessment coming up, and does not have time to travel.
The student directly criticises you for his frustration, although you have been on leave for two weeks, and not in the office.
The student also tells you that his father, a prominent businessman with ties to New Zealand intends to contact the media to expose what he sees as a failure of your standard of service.
Think about these questions and respond by indicating the closest option in the dialogue boxes.
4. How do I manage criticism?
Firstly, you should:
- Remember that criticism is a normal part of human interaction in organisational and personal relationships
- Understand why criticism is expressed and how it can be handled through professional skills that can be learned
- Be confident that you’ll probably have a number of other skills you can apply to managing criticism. These include:
- negotiating
- communicating effectively
- managing organisational and personal relationships
- intercultural competence
- empathy – skills in trust and fair dealing
- reflecting, questioning, seeking clarification – techniques in active engagement
- working with young people
- problem solving.
Codes and charters
Specific rules, customer service charters and Codes of Practice can be used to support your professional practice in relation to criticism. These measures and tools are important to maintain your duty of care. The Education Code of Practice provides a toolbox to support education providers in their care and responsibility for students.
Below, look at some tips you can use in the short term to deal with criticism. Be aware that it’s possible that your initial response to criticism is the most important one.
TIPS: STEP BY STEP GUIDE TO DEALING WITH CRITICISM
4.1 Be prepared with a set of responses
Toastmasters offers these simple steps to respond to criticism immediately:
- Listen and keep it polite
- Don’t respond immediately
- Respond to the point highlighted not the tone
- Do not take it personally
- Seek learning from the criticism.
4.2 Understand the international education context
As an international education professional, there are specific elements you need to consider in your responses, such as:
- The cultural aspects of behaviour, such as power relationships, and communication conventions.
- Your responsibility to understand international student needs and your Code obligations to them, including ensuring cultural safety.
- The context, such as the background story, time and place, and the issue on which the criticism is focussed.
- Working in a culturally diverse environment means that your colleagues, students and stakeholders may express criticism in quite different ways.
To illustrate, a student may hesitate to criticise a teacher or someone in authority for fear of adverse reactions, harassment or, in serious cases, reprisals. On campus, or in an informal setting, criticism can be expressed differently. A student who openly criticises you may have hesitated; worried about taking this step and may be agitated and less coherent. An issue that seems simple may indicate a more serious, even life-threatening student matter.
In your response, understand that being critical may be uncomfortable for the students, as well as for you. Students and colleagues need to trust that you have the skills to deal with issues effectively.
4.3 Maintain trust and open dialogue
- First, show that you've heard what the criticism is, and are thinking about it.
- If the criticism is fair, act on it and show that you're doing so.
- Have the humility to acknowledge your failings, and the confidence to do things differently.
- If, on reflection, you think the criticism is unfair, challenge it calmly and rationally. Don't just pull rank and shut down discussion. Your critic may have underlying grievances that you need to talk through.
- Offer the critical person a path to resolve the issue, through talking to another professional, or making a complaint through your institution’s processes.
- Understand that the issue may need to be managed differently depending on the intention and disposition of the critical person.
4.4 Focus on the outcome you want
This might include your objective to:
- Modify behaviour.
- Improve workplace relationships.
- Increase productivity in your organisation.
- Make the professional practice improvements that are possible when criticism is managed effectively, such as
- listening to student voices
- being open to discussion about workplace processes, and
- identifying opportunities for systematic change to the ways you work.
4.5. Listen and respond strategically
Listening to criticism is a vital means of gathering data about how fair and effective your organisation is in servicing it’s clients. Handling criticism and complaints well is essential, to make good use of this data and to foster trust in your organisation. It’s also a strategic approach to respond to client feedback.
In the next section, we take a broader view and connect criticism to the longer-term management of your workplace relationships and complaints processes.
5. Use criticism to improve professional practice
Your skills that manage criticism (and complaints) are relevant to
- better understanding your clients
- the practical aspects of programme improvement, and
- mitigating reputational, and professional, risk.
By being strategic in managing criticism, you should see broader improvements to your workplace environment.
Consider this scenario
You manage a large university student services department and you have just presented a strategic plan to your executive group meeting. You hear from a friend that a number of your colleagues are dissatisfied with your plan document. Although this was a result of a collaborative process, and the document has been approved by the university (school), you now feel that the criticism may affect the relationships and work effectiveness in your workplace.
6. Putting policies and procedures in place to manage criticism
Imagine that the criticisms expressed in the two scenarios above are ignored and re-emerge as complaints.
Do you know where to find your complaints policy?
International education organisations are required by Consumer Protection legislation and the Code of Practice to have complaint handling processes in place. This includes its requirement for education providers to:
- work with learners to effectively respond to, and process complaints (including appropriate engagement with support people); and
- inform learners on how the complaint will be handled and how it is progressing.
‘A user-friendly and efficient complaint handling system doesn't just resolve problems for individuals. A well-handled complaint can help restore complainant satisfaction and confidence in public administration. Complaints also provide a wealth of data that can be interrogated to identify program weakness, systemic administration issues and opportunities to improve business practices. Complaint data may also indicate a difficulty with policy settings that should be considered by policy makers.’ (The Australian Commonwealth Ombudsman, 2020).
Use your complaints processes to understand the way your programme is received by students and other stakeholders. If you’re not afraid of the criticism and complaints that may be made against you, the benefits to your programme will emerge.
Do you have a client service charter?
An important tool for an organisation to anticipate, listen to and cope with criticism and complaints is a client service charter. Most organisations have a client service charter in some form, from a statement of values, a statement about the value of its clientele, to a formal client service charter policy document.
A client service charter is a short publication that describes the service experience a client can expect from an organisation. It allows for an open and transparent approach that all relevant stakeholders understand and can work within. It covers key information about the organisation’s service delivery approach, and the relationship the client will have with the organisation, including:
- what the organisation does
- how to contact and communicate with the organisation
- the standard of service clients can expect
- clients’ basic rights and responsibilities
- how to provide feedback, express criticism or make a complaint.
Here are some websites with examples of Client Service Charters:
New Zealand Qualifications Authority: https://www.nzqa.govt.nz/about-us/our-role/our-client-charter/
University of Auckland (Accommodation): https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/on-campus/accommodation/university-accommodation/resident-support/accommodation-customer-care.html
Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA) (Australia): https://www.teqsa.gov.au/for-providers/resources/teqsa-service-charter
Education Code of Practice 2021
It is important to be familiar with Education Code of Practice requirements for managing complaints. See Clause 11.13 for tertiary education providers and 82 for schools for managing complaints. There is also a Code requirement to be familiar with the Dispute Resolution Scheme rules (clause 11.4 for tertiary accommodation providers and 84 for schools.)
7. Summary
In this topic you explored the way criticism is expressed and answered in an international education setting. This introduced you to common types of criticism, the related cultural and social issues evident in education institutions and the impact criticism can have on people. Resources focussed on ways of managing criticism.
8. Resources
iStudent Complaints https://www.istudent.org.nz is a free and independent complaints service. Its service provides international students with complaints about a New Zealand education provider.
Michel, F. & Fursland, A. (2008). Assert Yourself! How to cope assertively with criticism. Centre for Clinical Interventions, Perth, Western Australia. This is a useful exploration of the process of coping with criticism, including how to respond to criticism assertively; staying calm and accepting the criticism without negative emotions. Accessed at:
Nawaz, S. (2 April 2019). How to Take Criticism Well. Harvard Business Review. Accessed at: https://hbr.org/2019/04/how-to-take-criticism-well\
The Australian Commonwealth Ombudsman (ACO) (2020). Better Practice Complaint Handling. Preamble: Michael Manthorpe.
New Zealand Ministry of Education (2021). Education (Pastoral Care of Tertiary and International Learners) Code of Practice 2021. See: https://www.nzqa.govt.nz/assets/Providers-and-partners/Code-of-Practice/Tertiary-and-International-Learners-Code-2021/NZQA_Pastoral-Care-Code-of-Practice_English.pdf
Pandey, N. (2021). How to respond to criticism? Toastmasters international. https://d73toastmasters.org/response-to-criticism/
The NZ Ombudsman handles complaints about and investigates the administrative conduct of public sector agencies, including official information requests.
The NZ Qualification Authority (NZQA) has a process for handling complaints it receives about education organisations, including private training establishments (PTEs), wānanga and Te Pūkenga subsidiaries.
Unfair Criticism: Taking the Positive from Negative Feedback. Accessed on 6 June 2022 at:
https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/UnfairCriticism.htm
How to Handle Social Media Criticism: Protecting Your Reputation and Strengthening Customer Loyalty. Accessed on 6 June 2022 at: https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/social-media-
Riopel, L. (2019). Resilience Skills, Factors and Strategies of the Resilient Person. Positive Psychology website. Accessed at: https://positivepsychology.com/resilience-skills/
SkillsYouNeed is an online resource relevant to education institutions and individuals. The Web service is managed in Wales, UK and was founded in July 2011. Accessed at: https://www.skillsyouneed.com/ips/feedback.html
