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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