शुक्रवार, 28 अगस्त 2015

ATTITUDE AND MOTIVATION

ATTITUDE AND MOTIVATION

The two topics dealt with in this article are attitude and motivation.

A.    ATTITUDE

The very common phrases heard are Positive attitude and Negative attitude.

TODAY Attitude is taken POSITIVE if it is considered favourable by the person considering it and NEGATIVE if otherwise.

The words positive and negative are relative in itself. Therefore the reference is all the more important.

Going by absolute terms – positivity of an attitude can ascertained if it helps the achieving the goal or reaching near to the goal providing a positive progress. With this definition building a wall is positive if construction is on and negative if destruction is on. Moreover the motive of construction is also equally important. If the wall is constructed to separate two brothers in a joint family certainly it is negative motivation. The same may be considered positive by some persons – with the feeling that having separated both the brothers can be happy in their own selves. It all depends.

This drives to a situation notwithstanding how much isolation you want to create some relativity drops in the consideration of these attitudes – if they are positive or negative.

Say a job has to be accomplished. A specific method is suggested by someone. You have to accomplish the job. Once the task is assigned to you, it is your duty to find out all possible methods and select the method needing minimum expenses, resources including money and time and satisfying to the owners and others in general.

If you find that suggested method meets all the requirements   within allowed variations – you go ahead with the execution of the task. You complete it without any hurdles and then you are termed a man with positive attitude.  

But, if you find some issues there, you may approach the elders / seniors / Owners who are in better command, with the views and suggestions. Notwithstanding your views and suggestions this society will stamp you as person with negative attitude, because you are not falling in line with the requirement of the owner of the idea / project. – here is the climax.

 In general in present genre negative attitude means that you are negating the authority or question the reasonability of his / her decisions. It does not bother anyone whether your questions and reasoning for negating has / have any logics or substantiation. It is not agreeing in ditto – that’s enough for them to brand you a person with negative attitude.

Obviously this example well defines the person with positive attitude – one who always agrees to the other person who matters. Factually it should have been - the person always supporting the other person – which doesn’t always mean to accept ones ideas as they are – they may get modified or at times get rejected with proper logic and substantiation.

Therefore the absolute values of positive attitude is formatted with the perceptive values which now means – If you agree to one’s all sorts of views you are rated as a positive attitude person by him. Hence it is a relative rating and not absolute one. In the present scenario of affairs these relative ratings have become more important and valuable as they quickly allow the benefits. In this way this has become a tool of management for your cadre to get rated as a positive attitude person and get benefitted.  At some places tricks are used by medium and senior cadre as well. But in the process everyone has lost long sight and has become short sighted for immediate benefits forgetting its shortcomings.

The absolute values don’t have a seat here and in turn may cause damages to either of the parties in the long run.

On the other hand a person who calls a spade a spade, may get rated as negative attitude person because he might not be in line with the other person and often may be contradicting elders and seniors for the right cause. But the humane interference doesn’t allow liking of such things in the present set of world ethics and this type of person is strongly disliked and punished for attitude one possesses. May be at a later stage he may be remembered for his straightforwardness and appreciated but that will be too late for any amends to be incorporated.

It might mean to me that to be a positive attitude person say yes to all notwithstanding its locus-standi. With these the values, saying yes – is therefore a mechanical response to the issue - is not a considered one. What are the uses of such type of responses. Where is the sense of responsibility imbibed in such a response -- itself is missing? It is getting relinquished in this fashion. To me it seems that under such situation we are cheating our selves. Both the [persons involved are happy go goody - goody and the issue suffers so the project and the owner. But in this selfish world no one bothers for the project and owner—everyone is bothered for oneself.

To me it sounds positive, if anyone says, this scheme will fail because these reasons and they can be corrected / circumvented in this manner. The person is pointing out the issues and also the solutions. Should you dislike the person just because he could find out issues with your proposal? It is rather your foolishness to do so and reject a person rendering a valuable and correct advice to you. If one goes by absolute value a couplet by Sufi poet Sant Kabir comes into memory,  who says-

 Nindak neare rakhiye aangan kuti chivay,
Bin pani sabun bina nirmal karey suhay.

निंदक नियरे राखिए, आँगन कुटी छिवाय,
बिन पानी साबुन बिना, निर्मल करे  सुहाय

It says - the people who criticize you, need to be kept close to you as because they point out your shortcoming (weaknesses and faults) and provide you opportunities to mend them and improve your personality.

But in present genre of sychophancy such people are always disliked as Negative attitude person. Therefore if look at it seriously and sincerely it is the attitude of preceptors, which has changed with the times and the definition of positive and negative have also undergone the changes - relatively. Condider a situation where in more than two persons / groups re involved. Ther may be a situation 9 possibility is more in this genre) that one person is stamped positive by one grop and negative by the other gri=o[pe because the decision by the person suit one grope and doesn’t suit to other. This clearly states that the decision of attitude has become a relative one and it has lost its absolute value.

Earlier the age was of Management by ethics (MBE) then followed by  Management by Objectives (MBO) – MBE is managing the goal inspite of remaining within the frame of ethics, but in MBO ethics are set aside and any means of achieving goals are acceptable. Therefore Goal is primary to means by which it is achieved. Ethical/ unetrhical are not a consideration.

Later MBO went a little ahead and elaborated that management is a process to achieve Goals – means is not important, it is the goal that is utmost important. There came the process of bribing wherein, it is a positive motivation on the wrong side. This made the means closer for those who can bribe but made it a Himalayan task for those who can’t subscribe to it – may be because of ethical boundary, not having sufficient capacity to bribe etc. A wrong stream has been set up and after years of sufferings even today, we the society are bearing the brunt of it. Now this has become the cancer of the society which has eaten away much of it.  Presently not only in our country but all over the world population is fighting hard to eliminate this cancerous disease of bribing in different forms. As per recent surveys India stands at 86th in the chain of 146 corrupt countries – as a result of this MBO process.

Already in many of the management circles this has been seriously realized and MBE is gearing  up to re-dominate the management by its weight.

MOTIVATION

Motivation is an action to encourage or discourage an action of another person. For example, rewarding a student for scoring maximum in a subject in the class encourages the student to replicate and do better next time. This encourages the student to perform the way to get prizes. For some ( at the younger ages in particular) prize material may be worthy and for some the recognition is more valuable. Whatever it is – this action of rewarding promotes the action for which reward is given. This promoting effect is known as POSITIVE motivation. So are negative motivators which promote the act of refraining from the activities.

Motivation has many forms. It may be kind of cash, material, services tangible & in-tangible benefits. Like I may drop a colleague back home daily for good dishes he shares with me daily or may be on festivities.

A person, who disturbs others after his own part of the work is completed, can be loaded quite much, such that he does not get time to disturb others. If by this he realizes the reason of getting loaded and corrects, things may again turn in his favour. This “loading” action is a negative motivator to the person by a positive motivator for office environment. Therefore reference is always important to decide the type of motivation. Building A may be taller compared to Building B but might be shorter compared to Building C.

A motivator succeeds if the communication regarding the reasoning of motivation is sent to the person getting directly affected by it. Rather would be worth advising the person of issues before a motivator is pressed into action.

There may motivators used in a manner to negate something, which in turn promotes another. For example : If a son of a shop keeper avoids handling shop and assisting father in the shop and during the period he is wasting his time with his mates, the friends of  shopkeeper’s son can be motivated to do another job ( in which shopkeeper’s son is not interested) during the period so that shopkeepers son gets back to the shop for the benefit of the father.

A motivation turns out to be bribe when benefit is owned by individual or a group who themselves are not providing the return consideration for which motivation is made. i.e.  a servant in an organization gets some amount to pass a bill of a contractor. Here bill of contractor is passed by an employee for doing a job for which he / she is paid by the organization / department. The contractor normally does not get anything in return but that his logical bill is passed and he gets payment a little before allowing him to circulate his funds for better business. Which ethically he should have received sooner the work is completed. In the process to strike a balance the contractor escalates the billing amount in some multiples of consideration offered to employee, which gets through because of consideration paid. In the process organisation tends to shell more than genuine bill amount and employee gets part benefit of its share, while lion’s share of benefit  goes to contractor. In the process both employee and contractor gets benefitted at the cost of the organization. This is illegal and hence the consideration for positive motivation of employee to pass the contractor’s bill is treated as bribe and not motivation.

 Therefore it may please be noted that some positive motivators are used for absolute negative motivation and vice versa.

This enlightens that it is channelization of the motivation where in the same can be called bribe and not motivation.


M.R.Iyengar.


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