The bureaucracy, which is the pillar of democracy or best of the forms of Government, has, of late, remained the standard whipping boy in as much as that sometimes it has lost its confidence and commitment to the virtues. With the turn of events, sometimes the pioneers of the best of the virtues are not rewarded, rather sidetracked. On the other hand, sometimes officers with vices camouflaging them nicely, masquerade as the officers of competence and become the torchbearers of the bureaucracy with hidden vices.
If honest and capable officers are punished by keeping them away from the mainstream, development of a race or a State remains a distant dream. While writing this article, I had the news of the shocking demise of a very competent and virtuous IAS officer, Arun Kumar Samantaray, who had just retired from the post of chairman, OSRTC. A very competent, confident and sincere officer with integrity, Arun Samantaray had a very positive mind and proactive attitude. Probably, he could have been more valuable to the State had he been given some important responsibility. It is really shocking to hear about his demise just two months after his retirement. The message is clear: If these endangered rare species of honest bureaucrats are not nurtured and protected, one would find few of them on virtuous pilgrimage on the road of future.
It is rightly said that stonewalls never make a nation; rather the quality of the people behind/beneath do. Long back, I had read a beautiful story, which runs like this: Once upon a time, a king had engaged many sculptors and architects to build a palace for him. After many years, the palace was built and the king came to occupy it. After the palace was occupied by the king and other royal dignitaries, the king wanted to see the ambience and surroundings of the palace. He and his ministers went and saw the palace from outside which was built beautifully on a hillock. But after a while, the king discovered a solitary sculptor going on carving the stones. When asked, he replied that the construction of the palace was not yet over, so his work was still to be over. Year after year, sans family, sans friends he had done his work to be left unnoticed. The title of the story was Who converted this man to a stone.
The reason of writing this story is obviously to state that the honest and sincere officers, who have given their best to build this race, should not be neglected or lost sight of. The recognition and appreciation of their good work, if not done in time, is left like the solitary sculptor in the story narrated above, and, along with them goes the precious virtues to be lost forever. Scrounging works from these officers without rewarding them or sidetracking them in the long run makes and turns the development pyramid of the State upside down.
What is the solution? To continue finding scapegoats or whipping the boy or usher in fresh air of change to avoid cataclysmic apocalypse? The need of the hour is to motivate the bureaucracy to go in for positive virtues in the line of the age-old theory of reward and punishment.
The private sector has adopted the motivational concepts to the greatest advantage of the sector. The Government of India has also changed the rules of writing the annual confidential reports of senior bureaucrats by introducing a more transparent Performance Appraisal Report (PAR) rules in the line of appraisals made by the private sector. Hence, more of motivational methods used by the private and other sectors can be considered to be used to enhance and uphold the moral of the bureaucracy.
Different theories on motivational concepts may be glanced for adopting the same. Maslow theory of needs, and self-actualisation has already been discussed by me in one of my previous articles. This theory, when applied to motivational concepts, can be stated as that the physiological needs and safety needs of-the bureaucracy should be taken care of first for maximising the developmental outputs. This can be stated in other words that salary, shelter (physiological needs) and seniority, financial stability, status (safety and social needs) should be ensured for the bureaucracy for getting creative success, from out of them. Even Clayton P Alderfer's ERG theory also stressed the similar points. This theory is based on the three concepts of existence, relatedness and growth. A little different from Maslow's theory in the sense that it does not rank needs in any particular order and recognises that more than one need may operate at a given time. This theory has a frustration-regression, hypothesis, suggesting that one person or officer, who is frustrated in his attempt to satisfy his needs, may regress to another one. For example, an officer, who is sidetracked and frustrated by the lack of growth opportunities in his job and slow progress towards career goals, may regress to related needs and start spending more time socialising with his coworkers or pursue his creative talents to excel in other spheres. The ORG theory is based on three concepts like existence needs, related needs and growth needs. Satisfaction in existence needs like salary, status, stability, takes to related needs and progression in related needs takes to growth needs, but regression and frustration bring him back to existence needs only.
The other theories like Theory X and Theory Y also stress motivational aspects. The Theory Y states that motivation occurs at the social, esteem and self-actualisation levels as well as at the physiological and security levels, and people can be self-directed and creative at work if properly motivated where as the Theory X states motivation occurs only at the physiological and safety levels, which may not be correct. Herzberg’s two-factor theory also states hygiene and motivation factors as the main factors to motivate. While hygiene factors encompass quality of supervision, pay, physical working condition, job security, motivational factors include promotion opportunities, recognition, opportunities for personal growth and achievement.
The McClelland's theory of needs identifies three needs of importance in workplaces — power needs, achievement needs and affiliation needs. Power needs are stated as power of influencing others, defeating an opponent or competitor, attaining position of greater authority. Persons with low need for power may lack assertiveness and self-confidence to achieve targeted goals. Affiliation needs are illustrated as friendly relationship enjoying social activities, cooperative attitude and acceptance. Achievement needs are reflected in attaining challenging goals, setting new standard and records, successful completion of difficult tasks, etc.
All the theories described here on motivational concepts have been successfully implemented by the private sector for its greatest advantage. All these theories and hypotheses pinpoint one thing that is the workforce (bureaucracy) should be motivated for obtaining maximum developmental outputs, otherwise regression would take control of the workforce with manifested frustration, and thereby achievement of goals would remain distant dreams.
The persons involved in vices like malfeasance, misfeasance and nonfeasance should be inflicted with heavy punishments, but the torchbearer of virtues should not be sidetracked so as to choke the virtues to the extent to make them nonexistent.
I end this article with my greatest regards for the departed soul of late Arun Kumar Samantaray, who was a rare genius and torchbearer of exemplary values in the bureaucracy.
(The writer is a senior IAS officer in Odisha)
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