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I feel like I should use "focuses" as using "focus" sounds weird in the following sentence.

Risks are not identified prospectively, i.e. this is a case of “Fighting the Last Battle” syndrome, whereby management focus most on risks that have occurred recently.

Are they both acceptable? I'm not big on the rules of the English language, I tend to just go by what sounds right in my head and here "focus" seems out of place.

I appreciate any feedback.

Mauro Augusto
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1 Answers1

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Risks are not identified prospectively, i.e. this is a case of “Fighting the Last Battle” syndrome, whereby management focus most on risks that have occurred recently.

Consider the last part of the sentence by itself. How would you phrase it if it wasn't part of a larger sentence?

Management focus(es) most on risks that have occurred recently.

What's the subject of the sentence? Management. The subject is third person singular (edit not exclusively. See the edit I added at the bottom of the answer), which means that it's grammatically equivalent to "he". If we can find the right answer for "he", then we know that that will also be the right answer for "management".

He focus(es) most on risks that have occurred recently.

Now, it should become clear to you that "he focuses" is correct, and "he focus" is not.

Knowing this, you can now correct your sentence:

Risks are not identified prospectively, i.e. this is a case of “Fighting the Last Battle” syndrome, whereby management focuses most on risks that have occurred recently.

Edit

Following an existing answer, "management" can correctly be considered plural by the COED:

[treated as singular or plural] the people managing a company or organization, regarded collectively:
management were extremely cooperative

That would mean that both singular and plural are correct, and you can therefore choose whether you use "focus" or "focuses".

"focuses" sounds better to my ears, but I accept that that may be a subjective judgment on my part.

Flater
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  • Except that management can be treated as a plural (because generally it comprises more than one person). – Andrew Leach Sep 06 '17 at 09:58
  • @AndrewLeach: You're correct that management can be used plural (and I will add that), but your subsequent justification is not correct. "Our group consist of five members" is obviously about a group that comprises more than one person, but it is grammatically singular. – Flater Sep 06 '17 at 10:00
  • Yes, but "management" is merely an amorphous collection of individuals. "Group" is not. See the answers at the duplicate. – Andrew Leach Sep 06 '17 at 10:02
  • @AndrewLeach: You seem to have missed the purpose of my first comment. I agree that you are correct that "management" can be considered plural. However, you then state that this is the case is "because generally it comprises more than one person", and I'm saying that that is not the defining reason why "management" can be plural (as this reason would then also apply to "group", which is not the case, as per my example). – Flater Sep 06 '17 at 10:07