Shyamal Majumdar: Responsibility without power

THE HUMAN FACTOR

That's the main reason why young officers in PSU banks are in an exit mode.

Soon after his fast-track promotion as Deputy General Manager in a public sector bank, Kishore Jha (not his real name) was transferred to Mumbai from his hometown Patna. This involved a lot of adjustments in his personal life as he had to stay away from his family. But Kishore took the plunge as this gave him the opportunity to understand the real big world of finance.

So when the Mumbai regional head told him after a brief induction that he would be heading the Bandra branch "" one of the biggest branches in Mumbai "" Kishore thought it would be a big turning point in his career.

But just three months later, he isn't so sure. He has written to the HR department several times about his problems but the response has varied from pure indifference to snide comments about his small-town mentality of constant cribbing. Kishore may be just one among the hundreds of bright young officers leaving public sector banks. But his story exposes the indifference with which public sector bank managements deal with their officers.

A week after joining the branch, Kishore called a meeting of the officers of his core "lending" team, made a presentation to them on the way forward and allocated the revised job responsibilities. As the presentation came to end, four of the six-member team wanted to meet him separately. Two of them said they were confused about their revised responsibilities as they had received transfer orders from the regional office just two days back.

A surprised Kishore said this was impossible as he hadn't got any such intimation from the regional office. The two officers showed him the transfer order that was dated exactly five days after Kishore joined the branch. The letter was signed by the HR head "" the same gentleman with whom he had spent several days during his induction but who had not uttered a word about the transfers.

The other two had a different story to tell. One of them said he wanted to stay back in the regional office as he liked the job profile there but had now been "dumped" in the branch. He had informed the regional office several times but hadn't got a response. He had a couple of job offers and would the branch manager mind if he asked for an early acceptance of his resignation? The fourth person said she had already told the regional office that she would prefer a less taxing job profile and was asked to move to the new department as soon as the new branch head joined.

As his original six-member core lending team shrunk to two, Kishore was told by the regional office that he would get a Scale III officer immediately. When the officer didn't show up even after a fortnight, Kishore called her up directly only to be told that she had already resigned from the bank and got an acknowledgement from the regional office to this effect.

The micro-management by the HR department meant while the branch head had all the responsibilities, he had no control over the staff he required. Kishore says he has now forgotten the big picture and is only doing plain old daily fire-fighting.

While working in Patna, Kishore had read former State Bank of India Chairman P G Kakodkar's book on his 40 years with SBI. What Kakodkar wrote sounded too distant then, but it's only now that he has really understood what PSU bank managers, at all levels, face.

This is what Kakodkar wrote about the circumstances under which he took over as chairman: On a Saturday, he came home from office and was just about to take a nap when he got a call from the finance ministry. The earlier chairman had retired on August 31, but the government had not chosen his successor, so the managing director, who was to retire after a month, (September 30) was directed to look after the office of chairman for one month.

On September 30, the finance ministry official told Kakodkar that he had been appointed the chairman and should take over immediately. Kakodkar told him that it was 4 o'clock in the afternoon on a Saturday, and the bank must be closed. But he was told that some people have already been informed about his appointment and they were all waiting at the bank for him!

Cut to the end of his tenure in March 1997, and the same story almost got repeated. No decision was taken on his successor even on March 30, Kakodkar's penultimate day in office. On March 31 "" his last day as chairman "" he telephoned the finance secretary who told him that the selection was done, but it was still awaiting the signature of the PM.