Saturday, 4 July 2009

Are our leaders properly motivated to sort out our problems?

David Jones wonders whether the people in senior office are properly motivated to act in the county’s best interests...

What motivates the leaders of our society?

I don’t ask the question glibly; I ask it because I think it really matters.

Who is sorting out the economic mess we’re in? Who is charged with leading the country out of this recession? The answer is Government Ministers, senior civil servants, senior industrialists and senior trade union leaders. If these are the men and women who are responsible for taking us forward, what motivates them? If we knew that, then we might have an idea whether they’re likely to be taking us where we want to go to. Whether we like it or not, we’re forced to follow these top officials and executives, maybe we should have some idea therefore where they might be taking us.

Now I don’t profess to know anybody who could remotely be classified as a top exec, so I have no idea what motivates them on a personal level; but from an organisational perspective I reckon we’ve all got a pretty good idea of their priorities.

Let’s start with the politicians. They might claim otherwise, but they’re really only interested in getting re-elected. If they’re not then they aren’t doing their job properly. What good is an unelected politician? The next General Election is going to be take place sometime in the next three years. If this Government manages to hang for as long as they possibly can, June 2012 is the latest judgement day. Some might say that’s too long for a Government that seems to be stumbling from one crisis to the next. Party politics aside, three years isn’t very long given the seriousness of the situation that’s facing us.

It means our Government’s priorities are short term. At a time when we need people to take a long term view of things, the very people charged with setting strategy don’t really give a damn about what happens after 2012. They are motivated to make choices that have a three year impact. Borrowing policy is a classic example of how short term gain and long term benefit are in conflict with each other. Governments across the Western world are borrowing like crazy to prop up their ailing economies in the hope they can get things patched up before their next trip to the polls.

If they were taking a longer term view they’d be doing it completely differently. They’d be radically cutting back on public spending, (including reducing social welfare benefits and pruning the number of public sector employees), to reduce borrowings, and seriously reducing wage rates to improve competitiveness. They’d be reducing direct taxes to stimulate initiative and encourage employment, but increasing indirect taxes to conserve raw materials. They’d also be increasing interest rates to boost savings and pension funds. As far as I can see, this is the opposite of what they are actually doing.

What of the senior civil servants, what motivates them? If you run a not for profit organisation of any kind, your motivation is to make it grow in size. If you aren’t rewarded by profit, then the size of your income can only be related to the size of your organisation. The bigger the organisation you control, or the bigger the budget you have to spend, the larger your pay cheque is likely to be.

Once again we have a motivational dilemma. At the very time we need to be cutting back on public spending, the people charged with running the public sector are themselves motivated by the exact opposite agenda.

Ah, I hear you saying; at least our industrialists are motivated in the right way. It’s true, big and small businesses are motivated by profit, and that means cutting costs to the bone; but that inevitably means minimal employment. Not a good thing really is it, when we look at the massive number of people on the dole queues? We need businesses to be motivated to employ staff, not make people redundant. Obviously this isn’t something businesses can take on alone.

Government has to create the structure to reduce the cost of employing people so businesses can afford to keep people working. That means lower minimum wage rates, lower PRSI rates, lower council taxes and so on.

And so to the trade unions; surely they must have the right motivation. They have the interests of their members at heart, and therein lies the problem. Firstly the unions represent a relatively small number of people; they punch way above their weight. Secondly, they’re parochial; they represent vested interests. Their only interest is to get as much as they possibly can for their particular membership. They don’t represent the country’s workers; they don’t act in the national interest. Even worse, they’re selfish; they want more pay and better conditions for their members; when the country needs workers to take less pay and be more productive.

So it would seem we have a serious problem. The senior executives charged with getting us out of the mess we’re in; all seem to be motivated by goals and objectives that are in contradiction to the needs of the country.

Doesn’t augur too well for us does it.

Copyright © David Jones, 2009

1 comment:

  1. I understand what you are saying. I have been unemployed since January and I am finding it hard, is the government to blame? I think they are, the people that should be helping you have not got time, you are left feeling alone and worthless. All I can say to anyone out there who is in the same situation as me, not to give up and you are worth more than that. I feel that society has let me down but it won't keep me down, I will rise above it and I will get a job eventually but it is hard and I fully understand that I am not alone and that the Government could have done more to stop redundances but they just can't be bothered.

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