Question : “The distinction between line and staff is relative rather than absolute.” Discuss.
(2007)
Answer : The dichotomy of line vs. staff primarily depends upon the nature of work done by them. Essentially, both of them form a necessary component of any organisation.
The functions related to policy formulation, advice, informatory, regulatory etc. are performed by the staff agencies. While on the other hand, the functions related to implementation of policy forms the part of line agencies.
The conflict between these two organs arises mainly when the staff agencies, which generally form the upper layer of organization, assumes the Ivory-Tower approach for themselves. This tends to subordinate the line agencies in front of staff agencies. But in theory, both have to work in mutual cooperation and coordination.
Moreover, association of higher dignitories e.g. the Prime Minister, the President with staff agencies and their control over personnel and financial administration gives them a superior outlook. Though, this may be attributed to mental construct rather than real.
For, smooth-functioning of any organisation and for getting better results, the cooperation, and not conflict, between line and staff agencies is required.
Question : What is meant by morale? There is a belief that “morale and productivity go hand in hand and higher the morale, higher the productivity.” Do you agree? Substantiate.
(2007)
Answer : There are many factors, both on the part of the employee and the orgaisation, that determine the productivity of an employee. Out of these, the morale is most influential catalyst of productivity. Esteem is a powerful motivator of energetic and rightly oriented action. Government is a human institution and rests not only on formal arrangements, skill and principle but even more so on attitudes, enthusiasms and loyalty. Work, having lost its joy, loses its quality while the worker; having found his appreciations brings forth his best. Thus for the success of an organization high morale among the employees is essential.
Motivational Theories
According to L. D. White: “Morale is a by-product of a combination of component which produces a balanced healthy situation in which people may work with self-respect and with the opportunity for individual growth”.
Similarly according to J.D. Mooney: “Morale means the sum or several psychic qualities that include courage, fortitude, resolution and above all, confidence”.
Morale has an individual as well as group or institutional aspect. The two are interactive, one sustaining and stimulating the other. The two are interactive, one sustaining and stimulating the other.In its individual form, morale is built upon “ the opportunity to acquire distinction, prestige and personal power, the right to be considered successful, and to be respected; and an opportunity for personal self-development”.
Prof. F. Marx has placed morale on an intellectual and emotional pedestal. His observation is that in the highest morale there are both intellectual and emotional qualities.
Thus, about morale we can conclude that it is basically a state of mind, is an expression of higher will power of individual, is a compound of psychological virtues.
The importance of good morale to a service cannot be over emphasized. Its presence leads to all-round efficiency and success, its absence to inefficiency and failure. Good morale is to a service, what good health is to the body. Broadly speaking, the more one is able to understand the purpose of the organization to which he belongs, and the more he is able to sympathise with it and identify himself with it, the higher will be his morale.
The morale is the capacity of the people to maintain belief in an institution, or a goal, or in a purpose, or in oneself and others. Though it applies primarily to military organisations and sports groups, it is also being applied in business and organisations context.
The main determinants of morale in an organisation, may be summarised as:
The morale brings about many advantages for both, the employee and the organisation. It helps in making organisation efficient and effective by making the increased level of employees performance. It increases loyalty of an employee towards the organisation, higher discipline among employees, higher sense of belongingness among employees and also with organisational goals.
Out of all the above mentioned advantages, the higher productivity of employees is the most prominent one. The higher sense of morale of an employee helps him to get rid of physical constraints. This is an essential requirement to work focussedly on organisational goals. It helps employees to be more efficient and consistent, as the physical infrastructure may not be upto the work at each and every organisation.
The higher morale helps the employees to work as a team. This enhances the espirit de corps among employers. This essentially increases the mutual cooperation and coordination among employees. This also influences positively the communication within an organisation, thereby increasing the productivity.
This helps the employees to work effectively within, both formal and informal set-up, thereby smoothens the environment of a workplace and harmonize the social esteem of employees. This becomes a major cause of their higher productivity.
The higher morale has very important bearing upon the less skilled and low qualified employees. Such employees even with their low profile, work hard to enhance their sense of productivity.
Therefore, there is no denying of the fact that both the morale and the productivity go hand in hand. And higher the morale, higher the productivity.
Question : “No science of public administration is possible unless there is a body of comparative studies from which it may be possible to discover principle and generalities that transcend national boundaries and peculiar historical experiences”. Discuss.
(2005)
Answer : The case of public administration being a science has been stated in three ways varying in the degree of the claim made. On the lowest plane, it has been said that though at the present state of its development, public administration may not merit the name of a science, in due course it may become one. What it presents to us at present is a framework of connected ideas about public administration which provides a basis for further study and analysis, and when these have been carried forward sufficiently, public administration will emerge as a science just like other social sciences.
Working in a field where there are still so many unknown factors, so much territory unexplored, the student can do no more than suggest a framework of thought, an arrangement of ideas and principles which may help others to make their own synthesis out of their own experiences. The fact that these principles, collected from the writings of half a dozen different people, many of whom made no attempt to correlate their work with that of the others, can be presented in a coherent and logical pattern is in itself strong evidence that there is a common element in all experience of the conduct of social groups, that a true science of administration ultimately possible.
Question : “Motivation theory is not synonymous with behaviour theory. The motivations are only one class of determine of behaviour while behaviour is almost always motivated it is also almost always biologically, culturally and situationally determined as well”. Comment.
(2004)
Answer : Behaviour of a man is a collective result of interactions between various types of emotions with the situations in which he lives, whereas motivation is the feeling that drives the man to work and induce in him a feeling of willingness to work. Motivation is due to either any emotion or the situation but the difference in behaviour and motivation is that behaviour is a comprehensive term, which incorporates in it virtually every emotion of human beings, whereas motivation is just a part of behaviour and the behaviour is always motivated.
Behaviour takes its shape by a complex relationship between emotions of anger happiness, sadness, joy, fear with the particular situations, which acts as a motivator of behaviour. While motivation is just the feeling of willing to work it is much more a simplistic term. Behaviour depends up on biological, cultural practices, customs, experience, values and situations and many more factors which motivates its whereas motivation can be induced by an economic incentive, feeling of responsibility, opportunity of proving oneself, self actualization etc.
The motivation works as a basic tool in shaping the behaviour of some one. Behaviour do no only takes its shape due to motivation but also due to other class of determinants which include biological, social, economic and political or virtually any thing that can affect human body whereas motivation is the result of any thing the induce the feeling to do work.
Question : What is morale? State its significance and suggest methods to foster and sustain morale in an organization.
(2003)
Answer : Man does not live only by breads alone. Esteem is a powerful motivator of energetic and rightly oriented action. Government is a human institution and rests not only on formal arrangements, skill and principle but even more so on attitudes, enthusiasms and loyalty. Work, having lost its joy, loses its quality while the worker; having found his appreciations brings forth his best. Thus for the success of an organization high morale among the employees is essential.
According to L. D. White: “ Morale is a by-product of a combination of component which produces a balanced healthy situation in which people may work with self-respect and with the opportunity for individual growth”.
Similarly according to J.D. Mooney: “ Morale means the sum or several psychic qualities that include courage, fortitude, resolution and above all, confidence”.
Morale has an individual as well as group or institutional aspect. The two are interactive, one sustaining and stimulating the other. The two are interactive, one sustaining and stimulating the other.In its individual form, morale is built upon “ the opportunity to acquire distinction, prestige and personal power, the right to be considered successful, and to be respected; and an opportunity for personal self-development”.
Prof. F. Marx has placed morale on an intellectual and emotional pedestal. His observation is that in the highest morale there are both intellectual and emotional qualities.
Thus, about morale we can conclude that it is basically a state of mind, is an expression of higher will power of individual, is a compound of psychological virtues.
Methods to foster and sustain morale in an organization: The importance of good morale to a service cannot be over emphasized. Its presence leads to all-round efficiency and success, its absence to inefficiency and failure. Good morale is to a service, what good health is to the body. Broadly speaking, the more one is able to understand the purpose of the organization to which he belongs, and the more he is able to sympathise with it and identify himself with it, the higher will be his morale. Following are the methods to raise the morale of the employees: -
Thus, High morale in an organization is significant for unity, high will power and discipline. With the result of high morale among the personnel, the feeling of self-respect is developed, and it, in turn converts into the prestige and glory of the organization; the efficiency is increased. With a pride the employees speak of their organization, and describe its achievements. It the standard of morale goes down, the employee start suffering from inferiority complex, and they fail to concentrate on their work.
Because of high morale the manpower planning and its maximum utilization becomes possible. Past achievements encourage them to undertake greater responsibilities. They start feeling stronger for their inherent strengths and capacities. An organization, which possesses all the above qualities, is sure to achieve crowning glory.
Question : Compare Abraham Maslow’s theory of motivations and Herzberg’s motivation-hygiene theory. Do you think that they are universally applicable? If so, why? If not, why?
(2002)
Answer : Maslow’s and Herzberg’s contribution are a landmark in social-psychological research. Their theory of Need-Hierarchy (Maslow) and Motivation-Hygiene (Herzberg) has a tremendous impact on the modern management approach to motivation. Both of them elaborate upon importance of communication to motivate.
According to Maslow’s need-hierarchy theory, there is a hierarchy of needs. These needs are to be fulfilled. Unfilled needs provide motivate. A leader must know the fulfilled and unfilled needs to motivate.
According to Maslow’s theory, communication plays an effective role in realizing needs like social needs, esteem needs and self-actualization needs.
Social needs: Man is a social animal. Once his physiological needs are fulfilled, he seeks affection, love and belongingness from other human being and the society around him. These desires motivate the human beings and society around him. These desires motivate the human beings consciously. The informal communication plays an important role in this context.
Esteem needs: People have a desire for respect and recognition form society, work place, family and friendship circle. These esteem needs are fulfilled through recognition of personal achievements by the society. This recognition is in the form of certificate, citation oral appreciation etc.
Self-actualization needs: This term was coined by Kurt Goldstein, is considered the highest need in the hierarchy of needs and as it is directed towards, searching the meaning and purpose in life. Reading good literature, writing and meeting with people from different fields. Especially spiritualists play an important role in realizing these needs.
Herzberg’s two factor theory identifies five strong determinants of the job satisfaction and five of job dissatisfaction. The former is known as motivation factors and the latter as Hygiene factors. The factors associated with pain avoidance and the “ context/surround” of the job were labelled dissatisfiers. Herzberg found a duality of attitudes about work experience in the responses of workers on their jobs. Job experiences leading to favourable reactions most often were related to the context in which the job was performed, that is, the surroundings and factors on the periphery of task content. As against this, factors causing unfavourable responses were found to be related to avoidance of discomfort. Again the factors causing good responses are related to personal growth, or fulfillment of psychological needs.
Satisfiers: The factors identified as satisfiers, which perform the role of motivators in jobs are as follows:
Achievement: The personal satisfaction of solving problems independently, completing tasks, and seeing the results of one’s effort.
Recognition: Positive acknowledgement of the task completed or other personal achievement, rather than generalized “human relations” expression of rewards.
Work Itself: The task content of job and relative interest, variety, challenge and freedom form boredom.
Responsibility: Entrusted with full responsibility and accountability for certain tasks.
Advancement and growth: implies advancement to a higher order task to perform. The sense of the possibility for growth and advancement as well as the actual satisfaction from new learning being able to do new things.
Dissatisfiers: The potential dissatisfiers, or “hygiene factors” are salary, company policy and administration, supervision, working conditions, and interpersonal relations.
Hygienic factors, such as working conditions, company administration, salary, supervisory relations and benefits and services are envisioned as environmental elements that have little or no relationships to the motivation of specific job-related behaviour. Herzberg has argued that an employee is either dissatisfied or not dissatisfied with hygienic factors, and he is either satisfied or not satisfied with motivational job factors.
Maslow is helpful in providing an insight into the needs or motives. Herzberg on the other hand provides an insight into the goals or incentives that tend to satisfy the needs
Thus there is “no important difference between the two models”. Maslow emphasizes that any unsatisfied need, whether of lower order or higher order, will motivate individuals. Thus it has “universal application”. It is ‘more true’ in a developing country like India. Where even the lower needs are not reasonably satisfied and therefore such needs act as motivating force. According to Herzberg these lower level of needs are hygienic factors and failed to motivate workers.
This is more true in case of developed countries where most of the lower order needs are fulfilled and for people only higher level remains as motivating factors.
Their theories are not free from problems and suffer from unrealistic assumptions, imperfect methodology, lack of empirical data, lack of universality etc.
In spite of the criticism their contribution to motivation is phenomenal.
Question : “The nature and value of communication in administration vindicates that “communication is authority”. Comment.
(2001)
Answer : In any organization whether public or private while organizing the activities of an organisation, authority and responsibility is equally decentralized taking into consideration various facts into consideration.
The whole organization structure is based on principle of hierarchy. That is there is various levels of administrative authority.
Similarly various managerial activities take place in this hierarchy from down to bottom. Communication in particular in several organizations is deliberately established. Who should report to whom in which frequency, how should written communications more in the hierarchy. Which is first level where action should be initiated and then passed on to successive higher levels – all these are formally laid down to guide communication along desired lines.
So, such an arrangement of communication in a hierarchy under vindicates that “Communication is authority”.
Question : “That is, to be a successful administrator one must have a catholic curiosity.”
(1997)
Answer : Administration is a process permeating all collective effort. It is a cooperative effort directed towards the realization of a consciously laid down objective. Administration has been described by Ordway Tead as “the central power house of the motivational impulsion and spirit which makes the institution drive to fulfill its purpose”. As administration is manned by and meant for human-being, the human factor becomes of central concern to it. Administration is a social process comprising a series of action that leads to accomplishment of objectives. The effectiveness of this process depends on the administrator; especially on his leadership role. Leadership always involves attempts on the part of a leader to influence the behavior of group of people.
People not organisations have ideas; people create and people innovate. In the final analysis, individual efforts determine whether organisations succeed or fail. An administrator, who is culture builder, fosters creativity and productivity. Administrator envisions the future.
An important feature in managing people is people’s creativity. The basic requirement for this is catholic curiosity, a curiosity with all embracing or wide sympathies or interests.
Question : “Fredrick Herzberg’s two factor theory is more or less an extention of Abraham Maslow’s theory of motivation.” Explain.
(1997)
Answer : Maslow’s contribution is a landmark in social-psychological research and he was a forerunner to many like Herzberg and Vroom. His theory of need hierarchy has had tremendous impact on modern management approach to motivation.
Maslow theory is based on the idea of prepotency of needs. Accordingly he developed a scale on which at one end are lower order needs like physiological and security needs and at the other end higher order needs like, social and self-esteem needs.
Influenced by the writings of the Abraham Maslow, Frederick Herzberg became interested in analyzing the relationship between meaningful experience at work and mental health. He believed that all individuals have two sets of needs; (i) to avoid plain; and (ii) to grow psychologically.
The motivation-hygiene theory grew out of the studies he conducted in Pittsburgh, the platform for the same was provided by Maslow.
Two- factor’s theory of Herzberg which talks about Satisfiers and Dissatisfiers are largely drawn from or is extension of Maslow’s need theory. Herzberg found a duality of attitudes about work experience in the responses of workers on their jobs. Job experiences leading to favourable reactions most often were related to the context in which the job was performed, that is, the surroundings and factors on the periphery of task content. As against this, factors causing unfavourable responses were found to be related to avoidance of discomfort. Again the factors causing good responses are related to personal growth, or fulfillment of psychological needs. Herzberg labelled the factors associated with growth and the task content of the job as ‘satisfiers’. Factors associated, with pain avoidance and the “context/surround” of the job were labelled dissatisfiers.
Thus, it is well said that Herzberg’s two-factor theory is more or less an extension of Abraham Maslow’s theory of motivation.
