Hr Synergy For Security Systems

By Prof. Sharu S. Rangnekar, Mumbai.

The security aspect is increasingly tied up with terrorism. Generally we talk as if terrorism started with the 9/11 attack in USA and similar earlier activities in Palestine, Sri Lanka, India, etc.

Terrorism is not a specific act but a mentality which is thoroughly convinced what they believe is right and everybody else is wrong. Furthermore, those who believe something different have to be eliminated to bring people to the “right” path and this has to be done by any method.

This is the basic fundamentalist approach and is becoming a strong problem today.

In historic times, it was not necessary to have any philosophy as the basis for aggression. Alexander the Great, Taimur Lung or Changez Khan did not have to get philosophical position to carry out their aggression.

In some cases, the divine right to rule was accepted by many royal families right from the date of pharaohs of Egypt. Even many of the Indian kings traced their ancestry to the sun or the moon to justify their dynastic rule.

The situation changed with the emergence of fundamentalist philosophy based on nationality, religion or culture. With the advent of technology, the fundamentalist activities have become more and more threatening. The fundamentalist theories are not sustainable in the face of evidence in the modern world. However, they are generally based on scriptures. The dependence on scriptures is antithesis to the scientific thought. In science we depend on the latest knowledge. In scriptures, the oldest is supposed to be the most dependable.

As long as the technology to establish fundamentalist viewpoint was not very destructive, the situation was not particularly dangerous. But in today’s world an individual having technology – including nuclear technology – can be a menace to the whole world. This terrorism cannot be eliminated by eliminating the terrorists. Isolating and insulating the trend is an unreliable and costly proposition. So we have to depend on a very long-term process to discourage fundamentalist beliefs. In every country some kind of fundamentalist process is going on under the name of religion or culture. Unless a sustained campaign is made, the fundamentalist trend cannot be reversed.

Some of the projects can be very unpopular under the present circumstances but through sustained efforts the popular thinking can be changed. These efforts will essentially involve:

1. Elimination of organized fundamentalist teachings: e.g. madrasas or cultural centres.
2. Discouragement of ritualistic religion.
3. Emphasis on scientific thinking so that in time to come, a greater degree of objective thinking is achieved.

In organizations, morale has to be built by creating

• Sense of Identity
• Sense of Importance
• Sense of Development

SENSE OF IDENTITY

First let us take Sense of Identity. Once a person feels that the organization is his organization, there is no reason for creating any further motivation. That feeling itself is a motivating factor. The best example of this is the housewife. We talk of bonded labour. Has anybody seen labour more bonded than the housewife? First to get up in the morning to get milk, last to go to bed. No holidays – Sundays, festival days, everybody says: “Extra dish is required today.” So extra work. The one who works like this is not even born in that family. She was born somewhere else, brought up there for twenty odd years. One fine morning, afternoon or evening, we throw some rice at her, bring her to the house and say: “This is your house.” Very silly trick! But it works!! Within 20 days when she talks of “my house”, she does not mean the house she had been for 20 years but the house she has been for 20 days!!! And once she thinks that it is her house, we don’t have to put “standing orders”: “This house shall be kept clean at all times.” She nags you, your children, your servants, to keep it clean. As we can see, the sense of identity is a very powerful motivator.

The feeling of identity is very important. How can we create this feeling? Frankly, this is not a new problem that we are facing only in industry today. It is a very old problem – starting with religion. How do people of a religion feel that they belong to the same group? We find that the trick used is physical work together. People working physically together get a feeling of identity. You go to a church. As soon as the service starts, people get up, sit down, sing together. This working together creates an identity. I saw a film on Haj. Muslims from all over the world go there. Each Muslim coming from a different country has a different cultural background. But once he goes there, goes around the holy stone so many times according to the rituals with everybody around him, he starts getting a feeling of identity. This is probably why all important Hindu temples are at the top of the hills. Tirupati, Sabarimala, Badrinath, Kedarnath, Vaishno Devi. The reason is people should climb together.

The physical work together is a very powerful method of creating identity. Such identity is created by the army. Motivation is a great challenge for the army. In industry what we mean by motivation is that one gets paid for 8 hours and probably works for four hours – if you can make him work for an additional hour, we say he is motivated. In military, when we talk of motivation we mean that the soldier must risk his life! When a commander tells a soldier to go and fight the enemy and capture the enemy post, the soldier knows the enemy is not standing with a while flag in his hand. He is sitting with a machine-gun. If he starts doing a cost/benefit analysis: what are the chances of my capturing the post, getting a medal, getting promoted and what are my chances of catching a bullet and lying horizontal for ever, do you think that army has any chance? The soldier must risk his life! That is motivation! To create that motivation through identity, the army uses some very interesting methods. First is the uniform, people wearing the same uniform, looking largely alike is one method of creating identity. Number two: lot of physical work together – drill, marches. During peace time, the army is not relaxing. The soldiers are often marching with the officers along. There are lots of route marches and this creates a feeling of identity amongst the army. To the extent we can create this kind of physical work together, we can create identity.

SENSE OF IMPORTANCE

This is important because of ego. In all spiritual discourses, we are told: “Forget your ego.” In management, we don’t forget ego. We pamper and exploit the ego. How does the boss get work done by anybody? He takes him aside and says, “I don’t want to give this work to anybody else. You are the chap to do it!” What it means is that you are the only stupid chap who will work 14 hours a day and complete it. But immediately it creates the motivation. So the feeling of importance is vital.

All of you know the phrase: “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Let me give you another phrase to think about. “Powerlessness corrodes and absolute powerlessness corrodes absolutely.” Many people ask me: “How do you recognize sick units? Do you study the balance sheets?” I say: “In India I don’t think anybody believes in balance sheets. I go to a factory. I see the pipes are leaking, drums are leaking, cement in the open getting spoiled. I ask the worker: “What is happening?” He says, “Na koi dekhta hai na koi sunta hai – nobody is bothered!” I say, “Why don’t you tell your Manager?” He says, “He also can’t do anything.” Everybody is powerless. Whenever there is a feeling of powerlessness, you can’t get motivation. Where people feel that they have power they can do something. They get motivation.

SENSE OF DEVELOPMENT

The third important aspect is the Sense of Development – the feeling of growth. I am working here, I am growing here, I am learning something new. This is a great motivator, particularly for youngsters. Youngsters of today are very ambitious. They want to go right to the top! They don’t mind if they don’t reach the top in this company; they would think of another company. They must go up. To the extent they feel they are learning they are motivated and ready to work. Whenever they feel they are stagnated, they are getting nowhere – de-motivation comes in.

In this respect, I would like each one of you to think of your own career. Sometimes when you start your career, you get a boss who says, “You look like a bright young man, go and do things. If you have problems, come and see me.” You are developing and you are motivated. You work not only for 61/2 hours or 8 hours, but 9 hours, 10 hours, 11 hours!

Then you get another boss who says, “Have you done this before? If you have not done this before, don’t do it. I shall do it or I shall get somebody else to do it. You do only what you have done before.” You get a feeling of stagnation. You just start watching the clock. If the office ends at 5 O’clock, at 4:45 your desk is clean! Then you get a third boss. He says, “Although you have done this before, check with me. Don’t send any letter out. Give me the draft.” What happens? You get totally de-motivated with a feeling that you are learning less and less – in fact your capabilities are decreasing! This is the time you take every possible leave – privilege leave, sick leave, casual leave. The other day I met a clerk. He said, “Sir, I have not enjoyed my sick leave this year.” I said, “I never knew anybody enjoyed sick leave!” But under the third type of boss, people may really enjoy sick leave!

CONCLUSION

These three senses: Sense of Identity, Sense of Importance and Sense of Development are vital if you want to motivate people. Particularly when you are sure that the fear and money are not working or may not work for long. After all, we know sacking a subordinate is becoming a full time task – and the chances are 50/50 who will go! In that situation, it is not worth trying to use fear on the subordinates. Using money works in the short term, but in the long term, it causes a problem. So when fear and money are out of the window (when we are not going to use the stick and the carrot as the main motivators), these three motivators i.e. Sense of Identity, Sense of Importance and Sense of Development become vital and this is the way we can keep on motivating a group of people to work with us.

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