Subjectivity: in the Banner of Performance

Bureaucrats are best known for their undisciplined, lazy, miss productive and lack of innovation. Maybe we can admit it to represent what bureaucracy happened in Indonesia. Scholars and practical expertise are taking their attention to “heal” this sickness, we named it Bureaucracy Pathologies.  But the basic question we shall answer is, was that true this condition caused by the system rather than the people itself?

This question is still debatable until today. People tent to blame the system than the personality itself. It is easy to take that option because we are free to condemn the abstract thing than human. And the other question is created: Why I still deny the system as roots problem?

As we know, the Reform Era required the government to change. Scholars and activist wants transparent, productive, disciplined and accountable governance, creating clean government. It argued from the reality that the former government, people declared as a tyranny, creating corrupt governance side effect. Then, the state man resolved this problem by designing a new system that bound any possibilities to corrupt. The latest President, SBY, giving intention to this problem, making the Bureaucracy Reform as one of priority subject to his National Priority Agenda 2009-2014. This subject is fulfilled with performance allowance as a reward for ministry and local government achievement in supporting good government and clean governance in their organization.

The Ministry and Local Government are preparing the whole strategy to implement the spirit of bureaucracy reform into their organization. They make their action supporting this reform agenda such as organization and performance evaluation, identifying operational standard procedures and its improvement, work load analysis position mapping, until resulting position price. But then, implementing those agenda and its result, still create critics. However, subjectivity is distinct as the natural characteristic itself. Workload analysis process, mapping function and ended with determine job pricing. At the ideal value, job pricing is reflecting the amount of reward given according to the workload borne, objective assessment. However, the result is far from the satisfactions standard, it can be occurred in some minister.  Determining the number of personal job priced causing the limitation to the manager to decide which one of the person get the highest scores in such respective levels, that could create subjectivity in turn of limitation. Although there is no doubt, a number of employees actually get the work load harder than anyone, but it prevents the majority of others due to the attitude of individuality, both from the employees concerned, the supervisor and other users.

The rigidly of government system has creating individuality and subjectivity which can disturb culture and environment in such organizations. Although competent, but it cannot guarantee someone trusted to do the job or even forecasting his/her career in the future. Those with a bright potential will be easily eliminated by the fellow who has got full reliance over the years, although has a relatively equal competence. Relying only one or a couple person causing stagnant in regeneration, organizational culture turned into depending on one or several personnel and it’s extremely damaging.

 It requires change management, both in organizational and human resource development to ensure the transfer of competence, so that the officers have the same skill. Officer paradigms turn from just sitting and do nothing, into active workers to increase his performance and his organization. It is unfortunate when so many people who have the potential and high capability but restrain only in a small scope and learn just by seeing and hearing, without a chance to develop themselves and achieve.