Many theories have been advanced to explain higher levels of corruption in our society, especially that at the lower levels of hierarchy, as compared to certain developed western countries. One theory attributes lower levels of corruption in the west to their individualistic tendencies while an individual in India is defined only in terms of his family, community and society. Another theory attributes corruption in our society to our firm belief in placating planets and gods and, by extension, all authority figures through offerings. There are other theories too. I would like to add one more theory to this collection. I have constructed this theory on the basis of my observations during a few brief visits to USA.
I have noticed during my visits that operating procedures are very highly standardized and are modeled as an assembly line. You notice this in fast food joints, retail stores, government offices and everywhere. As a friend put it, USA is an SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) driven country. I am sure that the standard procedures are defined at the very top level where people have a complete view of the business and apply careful thought to processes. As against this each operative at the customer contact point has a rigorously defined process to execute. They are so focused on their process that they neither have the time nor the inclination to go or learn beyond it. Even the language for interaction with the customer is standardized and any deviation from it often leads to confusion. This ensures efficient delivery of services and eliminates any discrimination.
I feel that the situation is very different here in India. Of course we are excepting the organizations that are an offshoot from the west or have deliberately modeled themselves on that pattern. In our country the top only defines things in broad terms, if at all, and seldom takes the trouble of structuring the processes and procedures in complete detail and this is left to the people at the lower level who actually deliver the service. I used to work in a bank and had the opportunity to see the manual operations being computerized. There was frequent bewilderment while defining the standard procedures for implementation in the software because several branches and regions were found to be following a different procedure of their own. I have seen most formats received from RBI or the government at the head office level for certain data being passed on to the branches exactly as they were received. Nobody bothered to consider why should a format to be filled out by a single branch have rows for district-wise and state-wise totals. As the government bureaucracy was the role model for Public Sector banks, I presume things must be the same in the government offices too.
The result is that while the top is busy with unabashed exercise and enjoyment of power, people at the lowest levels evolve all the detailed processes. Their motive is seldom to provide the very best service to the customer. Things are often kept vague to enable staff to evade responsibility and to browbeat the customer into submission to their demands. The system is designed, rather misdesigned by them and they know it too well to twist and bend it as they like. So if you are from the VIP class and have the contacts to get me chastised, your job gets done in a jiffy using embedded alternate shortcuts. If you are not, God help you. I do wonder if it is the lack of discrimination between VIPs and non-VIPs that offends the sensibilities of our VIPs when they travel abroad to more egalitarian and process-driven parts of the world.
The insistence by Kejariwal and his party for having well defined Citizens' Charter and ruthlessly implementing it is only an attempt at straightening out the garbled up processes in government offices.
This is also the reason that IT-enabling the bureaucratic processes is seen as one way of curbing corruption. IT-enabling forces you to define your processes clearly and also provides efficient tools for monitoring (by a Lokpal!?)
I have noticed during my visits that operating procedures are very highly standardized and are modeled as an assembly line. You notice this in fast food joints, retail stores, government offices and everywhere. As a friend put it, USA is an SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) driven country. I am sure that the standard procedures are defined at the very top level where people have a complete view of the business and apply careful thought to processes. As against this each operative at the customer contact point has a rigorously defined process to execute. They are so focused on their process that they neither have the time nor the inclination to go or learn beyond it. Even the language for interaction with the customer is standardized and any deviation from it often leads to confusion. This ensures efficient delivery of services and eliminates any discrimination.
I feel that the situation is very different here in India. Of course we are excepting the organizations that are an offshoot from the west or have deliberately modeled themselves on that pattern. In our country the top only defines things in broad terms, if at all, and seldom takes the trouble of structuring the processes and procedures in complete detail and this is left to the people at the lower level who actually deliver the service. I used to work in a bank and had the opportunity to see the manual operations being computerized. There was frequent bewilderment while defining the standard procedures for implementation in the software because several branches and regions were found to be following a different procedure of their own. I have seen most formats received from RBI or the government at the head office level for certain data being passed on to the branches exactly as they were received. Nobody bothered to consider why should a format to be filled out by a single branch have rows for district-wise and state-wise totals. As the government bureaucracy was the role model for Public Sector banks, I presume things must be the same in the government offices too.
The result is that while the top is busy with unabashed exercise and enjoyment of power, people at the lowest levels evolve all the detailed processes. Their motive is seldom to provide the very best service to the customer. Things are often kept vague to enable staff to evade responsibility and to browbeat the customer into submission to their demands. The system is designed, rather misdesigned by them and they know it too well to twist and bend it as they like. So if you are from the VIP class and have the contacts to get me chastised, your job gets done in a jiffy using embedded alternate shortcuts. If you are not, God help you. I do wonder if it is the lack of discrimination between VIPs and non-VIPs that offends the sensibilities of our VIPs when they travel abroad to more egalitarian and process-driven parts of the world.
The insistence by Kejariwal and his party for having well defined Citizens' Charter and ruthlessly implementing it is only an attempt at straightening out the garbled up processes in government offices.
This is also the reason that IT-enabling the bureaucratic processes is seen as one way of curbing corruption. IT-enabling forces you to define your processes clearly and also provides efficient tools for monitoring (by a Lokpal!?)
No comments:
Post a Comment