Since it is critical for the identity of the appraiser to be confidential in the interests of objectivity, this tool works best only in large organisations in which the executive concerned interacts with a wide universe of people. On the face of it, then, the system should work admirably in India's vast government apparatus, especially in addressing the enduring problem of insulating bureaucrats from the caprices of the political class. That, perhaps, is the thinking behind a proposal from the Prime Minister's Office to introduce a 360-degree feedback mechanism for the empanelment of secretaries from the 1983 batch of civil servants, a report in the Indian Express says.
The temptation to introduce corporate best practices to streamline government functioning and maximise efficiency has afflicted politicians and administrators before. Rajiv Gandhi's well-known solution was to hire Doon School cronies from the corporate world as a shortcut - or so he thought - around slow-moving mandarins. In (then undivided) Andhra Pradesh, Chandrababu Naidu tried to invest project implementation with a corporate-style efficiency. P Chidambaram once requested corporate India to send their best and brightest to work on welfare projects. Narendra Modi, who thinks of himself as a CEO-politician and appreciates direct simplicity over the complex nuances involved in policymaking, has been trying to do the same, or so it is said.
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So far, however, Mr Modi's efforts in this direction have been focused on building his core team by bringing to New Delhi the most efficient bureaucrats with whom he had worked in Gujarat. This is understandable and not undesirable. All CEOs like to work with their hand-picked teams. But this practice sends contrary signals if the prime minister accepts the importance of the arm's length distance between bureaucrat and politician implicit in the 360-degree appraisal system.
Some questions arise. The report suggests that this appraisal system will supplement the standard annual confidential reports (ACRs) from the bureaucrat's superior as well as political boss. So what weight will the 360-degree appraisal carry in the larger assessment exercise? Will it outweigh the ACRs?
Another critical element of the 360-degree exercise is how the questions are framed. In the corporate world, the judgements can be made on specific metrics: sales growth, targets and so on. But meeting specified targets is just one part of a public administrator's job. As the Second Administrative Reforms Commission, which submitted its (mostly ignored) report in 2007, observed, the question of values and ethics are absent in the current appraisal system. Yet that's the issue that lies closest to the heart of the harried Indian citizenry and certainly to businessmen assessing investment options around the world. It certainly plays a part in the collective reputation of the Indian bureaucracy. Has it been incorporated in the 360-degree exercise?
Administering the process also requires cast-iron anonymity. The Express report suggests that a committee of five former bureaucrats has been set up, each of which will talk to at least five others who have worked with the officers who are up for empanelment, including people who are outside the system. The danger here is ensuring the veracity of this exercise. The administrative service maybe a bloated institution but it is a small world where all bureaucrats across batches know, or know of, each other. The temptation to influence the appraiser can be high.
And finally, the 360-degree mechanism is more than an appraisal to facilitate a promotion - its real function is to act as a performance enhancer. The PMO's limited exercise, thus, is unlikely to achieve this fundamental objective. As a move towards a more credible system of performance appraisal the initiative deserves approval. But as the Administrative Reforms Commission pointed out, these methods may not be effective given the unique nature of India's politics and work culture. Or, to put it another way, corporate techniques may not be the best way to address the insane complexity that is India.