At a glance
Managerial bureaucrats see their main task as ensuring that rules are followed.
Managerial priorities
1
Trust deficit
A majority of managers believe that subordinates will be lazy unless they are closely monitored, indicating a high level of distrust.
2
Frontline workers overwhelmingly report that block officers are the most important senior officer in their everyday work and generally report positive evaluations of their managers.
Block managers
3
The Government of Bihar may want to undertake exercises that allow to build trust across administrative levels. Retraining state-cadre officials to reconsider their role as managers to be more than ensuring rule adherence might be a cost-effective way of improving state effectiveness. For this, more clarity about where both managerial bureaucrats and frontline staff have discretion might be useful. As block officers are seen as crucial by frontline staff, a steady and swift filling of vacancies is crucial.
Recommendations
4
Manager perceptions
Managers prioritise rule following.
Overall, responses by managerial bureaucrats indicate that they put a major emphasis on rule-following. A sizeable majority across departments and administrative levels has low trust in subordinates working hard unless closely monitored and there is generally a strong feeling that any diversion from rules, even if there are good reasons for it, needs to lead to disciplinary action. At the same time, managers paint a rather positive picture about their own attitudes and roles, claiming they see it as their role to practice tasks with subordinates, instil a sense of equality, and protect them from undue influence.
PRACTISING TASKS
We asked managerial bureaucrats whether they think that they consider it their job to practice tasks with subordinates if these do not know how to do their task. Almost all managerial bureaucrats responded that they consider it part of their duty to practice such tasks with their subordinates.
PROTECTING SUBORDINATES
Managers largely see it as their task to protect subordinates from undue influence.
BENDING RULES
Finally, we asked managers if they think subordinates need to be disciplined if they divert from rules even if they provide a good reason for it (e.g., ensuring effective service delivery). Almost all managers responded that they see such a need for disciplining for any diversion from rules.
SENSE OF EQUALITY
Managers state that a sense of equality helps keeping subordinates motivated.
TRUSTING SUBORDINATES
Managers, however, appear to have low trust in subordinates and more than three in four across departments report that subordinates will be lazy unless closely monitored.
Our findings hint at a need for trust building across administrative levels, and more reassurance for managerial bureaucrats to allow for local discretion when this is used to improve service provision. This connects with perceptions of managers more frequently reporting that they take risks while frontline staff reports that too strict rules hinder their work. Taken together, providing more clarity about areas where rules can be applied more flexibly and autonomy to managerial bureaucrats to judge whether the use of discretion is for good reasons might allow for less emphasis on rule-following and more attention to actual service delivery. This, however, is likely only successful when managerial bureaucrats and frontline staff can overcome the apparent trust deficit
PERSPECTIVES OF SUBORDINATES
Frontline workers stress the importance of block level managers.
We also ask managers what topics are covered in meetings and conversations with colleagues to get a better understanding of what features in these discussions.
Overall, frontline workers have largely positive impressions of their supervisors (albeit these responses might be particularly prone to social desirability bias). Across departments, block level officials are the most important supervising officers in the eyes of frontline staff.
BEYOND INSTRUCTIONS
Most senior officers are also said to not only give instructions but show how things are done.
ORDER ADAPTION
At the same time, frontline workers see little agency among senior officers in adapting instructions and state that they think that senior officers simply pass down instructions from above.
SUPERVISOR VISION
Frontline workers also overwhelmingly state that their senior officers have a clear vision of what they want to change, slightly more pronounced for block officers.
FAIR TREATMENT
The perception of being treated fairly in case of complaints if these are not the fault of frontline staff appears to generally be high.
DISCRETION
However, when asked if frontline staff is given discretion in how they go about implementing guidelines, the picture is more mixed. This indicates that the level of discretion differs by senior officer.
GOOD EXAMPLE
A majority of frontline staff either agreed or strongly agreed that their current senior officers lead by setting a good example.
SUPERVISOR EFFORT
A majority further states that they have observed senior officers doing more than required in the post. This is more pronounced for block officials than district officials with higher shares of frontline staff neither agreeing nor disagreeing in the case of district officials. This might be due to fewer interactions with the higher level of administration.
PERCEIVED EQUALITY
While most frontline workers agree with the statement that they feel the senior officer is one of them, the perceived sense of equality is lower for district officials.
SUPERVISORS CONTRIBUTING TIME
Many frontline workers report that if there is too much work, supervisors contribute their time.
REPUTATION
Asked if the type of supervisor is widely known even before senior officers start a new post, the picture is mixed. Nonetheless, many senior officers appear to be generally known to frontline staff even before their arrival in a new post.
INSTRUCTION DETAIL
An overwhelming majority of frontline staff agrees or strongly agrees that instructions are very detailed, and their implementation is closely monitored.
That block officers are seen as the most central supervisors for frontline staff indicates the need to ensure that vacancies are filled swiftly for these posts and block supervisors are supported with training and resources to fill this leadership role. Both district and block officers, however, are perceived to merely pass orders down from above and put a lot of emphasis on monitoring their implementation. Allowing for more flexibility and enabling block and district officials to adapt guidelines to local needs might be a potential avenue to improve service provision. The level of autonomy granted by supervisors to frontline staff in how they implement orders differs and might be another aspect to address in in-service-training to ensure that more frontline staff feel empowered to make use of their professional judgements to cater to local needs. Importantly, frontline staff generally state that supervisors have clear visions, and enabling block and district officials to undertake this leadership role effectively could be aided by a wider recognition that these state-cadre officers play a crucial leadership role for their departments and the frontline staff within it, similar to IAS officers in the cross departmental coordination at district-level.
Management practices
