Perceptions, attitudes, and motivations
At a glance
Job satisfaction is generally high and respondents are committed to the public sector
Salary satisfaction is low among the frontline workers in the social welfare and rural development department.
Job satisfaction
1
Purpose & effort
A sizeable share of frontline respondents state that they often do repetitive tasks or tasks where they do not see a purpose.
Two thirds of frontline workers indicate their willingness to work harder if others reciprocate.
2
A majority of frontline staff reports that rules create obstacles in their work and around one in three frontline workers reports a sense of loneliness in their work.
Rules & companionship
3
The Government of Bihar might consider reviewing the work routines of frontline staff to limit the number of repetitive tasks and leverage technology to automate some of them. It might also consider increasing discretion for frontline staff by streamlining rules and empowering them.
This might be balanced by increased peer monitoring which simultaneously could address the sense of loneliness among frontline workers. Ensuring steady and higher wages especially for the female workforce at the frontline of health care and early childhood service provision could contribute to gender equity and worker satisfaction. Recent steps in this direction by the Government of Bihar already took place after our survey concluded and are therefore not reflected in the responses.
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Recommendations
4
Satisfaction, public sector preference, and fulfilment
Commitment to the public sector is high.
While job satisfaction in general is high and respondents report a strong commitment to the public sector, salary satisfaction is particularly low among respondents from the social welfare and rural development departments and for the frontline overall. Worryingly, a sizeable share of respondents from the frontline level report that they often do tasks that are repetitive or where they do not see a purpose. On the other hand, there is a high sense of fulfilment associated with providing services directly to citizens.
JOB SATISFACTION
Overall, respondents report high job satisfaction across departments with a somewhat lower level for the department of rural development. Splitting the sample by administrative level reveals that job satisfaction is highest among frontline workers and lowest among district respondents.
PUBLIC SECTOR PREFERENCE
We find that there is a strong commitment to the public sector except for respondents in the rural development department.
REPETITIVE TASKS
Around half of respondents in all departments but education report that they feel that the work they do is repetitive. We find that this perception of repetitiveness is particularly severe among frontline respondents but sizeable throughout administrative levels.
SALARY SATISFACTION
We find that a majority in the social welfare and rural development department either disagree or strongly disagree that they are satisfied with their salaries whereas almost two thirds of the respondents in the education department respond that they are satisfied.
PURPOSELESS TASKS
A considerable share of respondents agrees with the statement that they often do tasks where they do not see a purpose. In the case of the social welfare department, half of frontline workers either agree or strongly agree with this statement. Overall, we find that this sense of a lack of purpose is particularly severe among frontline staff.
FULFILMENT
We find that respondents across all departments feel a sense of fulfilment albeit there is a considerable number of respondents from the rural development department that report that they do not feel that they have achieved something at the end of their workdays.
This hints at a highly committed and intrinsically motivated workforce which could be further supported by streamlining processes and redesigning workdays to ensure less repetitiveness and a higher sense of purpose for everyday tasks.
Since our survey took place, the Government of Bihar has undertaken steps to improve the renumeration of ASHA workers (by increasing their incentives from Rs 1,000 to Rs 3,000) which is not reflected in the responses above. The same applies to Anganwadi Workers and Helpers who recently saw a hike in their honorariums (from Rs 7,000 to Rs 9,000 for AWWs and from Rs 4,000 to Rs 4,500 for AWHs).
WORKING ENVIRONMENT
Frontline workers see room for increased effort levels.
Our survey indicates that there is generally a positive perception around effort levels of colleagues, most pronounced at the frontline. At the same time, there is room for improvement as more than two thirds at frontline workers indicate they would be willing to work harder if others did so as well.
HARD WORK
We asked respondents if they feel that everyone is working hard to get a sense of the perceptions around effort levels of colleagues. Overall, respondents indicate high levels of agreement with the statement that everyone works hard. Across administrative levels, this perception is particularly widespread among the frontline whereas more than one fifth of district-level respondents do not agree with the statement.
LONELINESS
We find that around one third or more among social welfare, rural development, and health respondents say that they often feel on their own. This sense of loneliness is particularly prominent among frontline respondents outside schools.
RULES & LAWS
When asked if too many rules create obstacles in their work, around half or more of respondents either agree or strongly agree with the statement. This is perception of a lack of discretion is particularly pronounced among frontline staff.
TRAINING NEEDS
An overwhelming majority of respondents report that they receive sufficient training with slightly higher shares of respondents indicating further training needs in the rural development and education department.Training needs are generally higher for managerial posts.
RECIPROCITY & EFFORT
When asked whether respondents themselves would be willing to exert more effort if others would reciprocate, i.e., respond with equally higher efforts, a majority across all departments agrees with the statement, indicating that there might be room for higher effort levels. We find that this willingness to work harder if others would join them is particularly strong among frontline respondents.
GOOD WORK
Overall, there is a strong sense that good work gets recognised across all departments. This sense of recognition for good work is strongest at the frontline.
CLARITY OF TASKS
Do respondents know what they need to do when coming to work in the morning? Overwhelmingly, respondents state that they do. There is a slightly larger share among managerial bureaucrats who do not know what to do when coming to their offices in the morning.
That two thirds at frontline workers indicate they would be willing to work harder if others did so as well indicates an area for managerial bureaucrats to address by coordinating increases of effort-levels within frontline units. At the same time, a majority of frontline workers report that too many rules create obstacles in their work, indicating a need for increased discretion and flexibility. Around one in three frontline staff report a sense of loneliness when it comes to their work. This might be particularly relevant for frontline staff outside multi-teacher schools as it is these workers who spend much of their working day on their own. A higher level of support and opportunities for peer exchange might boost their confidence. For managerial bureaucrats, our findings indicate that around one in five district respondents openly admit that they need more training. Such training could address other concerns indicated in this chapter, such as how to coordinate higher effort levels among frontline workers or how to instil a higher sense of companionship among frontline staff. Retraining existing managerial bureaucrats might be particularly cost-effective. Such training could also include selected frontline staff and state-level representatives to jointly address redesigns of formal rules and procedures which are often perceived as obstacles.
Risk-taking, autonomy and transfers
Managers frequently take personal risks to achieve their work.
Responses indicate that both risk-taking is most common at the managerial level while patterns of political interference differ by department.
Frontline workers are in favour of fewer transfers while managerial bureaucrats are split.
RISK TAKING
Around one quarter of respondents across departments report that they undertook actions that contributed to achieving their work but personally exposed them to risk with a higher share for respondents from the rural development department. Across administrative levels, we find that managerial bureaucrats report higher levels of risk-taking with more than two in five district-level respondents reporting that they undertook such risks within the past six months.
TRANSFERS
Post stability is a concern across departments with majorities of frontline workers across all departments preferring fewer transfers.
Political interference
Perceptions of political interference are mixed. While in the rural development department, interference is more frequently reported at the frontline level, the opposite is the case for the health department.
As managerial bureaucrats often take personal risks to achieve their work, strengthening the state-level support for district- and block-level bureaucrats by providing reassurance for risk-taking and by taking a more flexible approach to the application of formal rules might enhance state effectiveness. Bureaucrats who undertake risks to ensure higher quality of service provision should be treated distinct from those who bend rules for illicit aims. Ensuring a consistent, supportive, and mutually coordinated understanding of when, where, and for what purposes bureaucrats are encouraged to respond flexibly to local needs and delimiting areas where strict rule-following is essential might provide reassurance to bureaucrats and lower their level of perceived exposure when undertaking innovative initiatives. At the same time, this might strengthen the bond between managerial bureaucrats and the state-level leadership and provide reassurance in cases of political interference. In the case of transfers, managerial bureaucrats are split about whether there should be fewer transfers. This might, however, be influenced by the perceived desirability of their current posting. For frontline workers, around two thirds would prefer fewer transfers. While transfers might generally increase the insulation of the bureaucracy and lower risks of capture or collusion for corrupt means, their impact on motivation and satisfaction should also be considered.