We are all interacting with human beings on the day in day out basis and communicate to get our personal and professional tasks done and carry out day to day routine work from household chores to working in, Private sector, public sector, government sector, and multinational company. The biggest phrase that multiple times we often listen in our day in day out discussion is “ IT IS NOT MY JOB”.
This scenario is often common across cross-countries’ culture of personal and in professional life. Initially, I thought that this scenario is only common in India till I have a lot of discussions with my friends working in USA, UK, Middle East countries where they have come across similar scenarios but same is streamlined there with the help of very strong system in place where role responsibilities are very clear but still gap exists where interfaces bound to happen are there with different stakeholders. This is one of the things I have observed in the private sector public sector, manufacturing, and retail sector also and it is futile to tell more about the Government sector in India.
I just want to share my own experience when I was admitted in a renowned hospital in the city which is among the top three hospitals in that particular city. I find the scenario exists in the night when saline dip with medicine is administered continuously one after other and the mid of night when all fluid of dip finished and I informed doctor on duty to check and change as no nurse was visible nearby may be busy with other patients, doctor on duty has not informed by words but very clear from his expression that it is not my job and I will arrange nurse as soon as available means if the attitude can be prevalent in the critical medical industry then we can very well imagine the scenario in government hospitals.
My concern is not with that particular incidence only , there may be some other medical reason for justification but not a proper professional justification. I still find a lot of improvement in the private sector where traditional paper work and the manual file system is replaced with MRP [ Manufacturing Resource Planning ] system and mail correspondence and the biggest decision has been taken in a very prompt manner and systems are in place to demarcate the roles and responsibilities at each level, still watertight compartmentalization is not possible.
We can take an example of a household where a father asked his son to wash the car then son sometimes replied it’s your car and it’s not my job. I find these scenarios where even senior Government executives give the same explanation that it is not my job. Another incidence which I come across like this is when I applied for passport renewal in one of the RPO in India where passport processing is on halt and when I wrote a mail to expedite same the RPO office replied that one of your previous passports is not closed properly in the system hence we are not in a position to move forward and advised me to visit previous RPO located in other state and get it clear from there personally. I later revert back to them that I have done everything as per procedure in every renewal then how come I am responsible for this gap and even if it required you enquired from previous RPO as per your internal mailing protocol as I have filled the complete fee required for passport renewal. Ultimately I need to follow up with secretary MEA personally to resolve the issue.
I hope I am able to put forth the issue clearly with some examples from home to hospital in the personal, professional life and one more example from the government department.
Now, what is the solution to this problem in the day in day out basis ???. I have read some Harvard articles and discussed it with some management coaches.
Two important books that I read to touch upon this subject are Speed of trust by Steven Covie and Leader who had No title by Robin Sharma which throws some light. In the first book, Mr. Steven covie try to explain the importance of mutual trust among team members in the organization and it has been proved that initiatives to increase trust level in an organization leads to a great place to conducive work environment in Organizations and speed of decision making ultimately leads to increase in productivity and performance ultimately.
