In the previous episode, we had witnessed the continuation of Sage Naarada’s advice to Yudishtra on various aspects of “Raaja-Dharma”. In due course, we had witnessed Sage Naarada’s important accord on how a leader should take care of his people. He explained an important concept, which in modern-day management is referred to as “Empathy”. A leader becomes a “people’s leader” when he / she puts himself / herself in the shoes of others and understands their problems and grievances, while making decisions. A leader in an organization or in a government should not focus his / her sole aim on making money. Of course, money is important – In an organizational setup, profits are important, whereas in a government setup, taxes are important. But the point here is, how this money is made! Is the money made by harassing people? If this is the case, then neither the organization nor the government is never going to be successful. Organizations should make sure that they charge money for the value that they offer in terms of their products / services. Similarly, governments should collect taxes nominally from people and should not harass them with exorbitant taxation. This, according to the “Raaja-Dharma”, is extremely detrimental to the country’s growth and welfare.
Moving on further, Sage Naarada raises the next important question to Yudishtra thus, “Oh Yudishtra! Please understand that “Salary” is not the only thing that would make your servants / employee’s satisfied. There are various other things that you’ve to take care, along with the salary part. Are you doing all of it properly?” This is an important question raised by Sage Naarada which explains a great deal about “Job Satisfaction” and “Employee Satisfaction”, which we frequently talk about today in all organizations across the world. Of course, as I mentioned earlier, salary and money are integral components for an employee to be satisfied with the job. It is a known fact that all of us work to make money for our survival. This is something that is constant, and nobody is running a charity here. Hence, let us make this point very clear upfront.
But apart from salary and money, there are other aspects as well – First of all, employee’s must have a good work environment. Employee’s should be made comfortable – both physically and psychologically. When I say “Work environment”, it includes a good physical workspace, ventilated / air-conditioned office spaces, good ambience and infrastructure for people to carry out their work, etc. These parameters contribute directly to the physical work environment. Moreover, the organization should be free of unwanted power struggles and politics. This is often better said than done. We witness in almost every organization, some sort of a power struggle and politics happening and hence, we as employee’s should also learn to live with it in some way or the other. Of course, politics can be tolerated until a certain level, but if it goes beyond, employee’s might start quitting the organization.
\Moreover, the employee’s should be happy with what they’re doing. This is where in Human Resources Management (HRM), we have this concept of allocating the “Right job for the right person at the right place and at the right time”. These four parameters are very important to be taken care of by the leader. For instance, depending upon the qualifications and experience that employee’s hold, jobs should be allocated, because they can use their experience and knowledge in giving better performance on the job, which would directly result in increase in productivity and profits for the organization. Similarly, everyone would have a “comfort zone”, working in a particular place – This place might be viewed in terms of geographical locations or even physical locations within the office premises. Moreover, due to the current pandemic situation, many of us are used to this concept of “Remote working” or “Working from home”. Many of us find that this arrangement gives us a better work-life balance and hence, organizations should give such options to employee’s to choose whichever way they would like to work.
Finally, the employee’s should have a good amount of respect for the leader. This can be ensured in many ways – First of all, a leader must be accessible to his / her employees at any time for anything. Going back to my earlier point on “Empathy”, a leader should go down to the level of his / her people and understand what is going on in the ground. Only then, a leader would be able to gain the respect of people and at the same time, make informed decisions. Thus, through all these points, Sage Naarada is explaining to Yudishtra how to transform himself from just a “Leader” to a “People’s leader”, which is extremely important for all of us in today’s scenario as well! So for today, let us understand these points pertaining to “Employee Job Satisfaction” and we shall wait till the next episode to continue this discussion further! Stay tuned! 🙂
The Indian Dharma 