Sen Gupta is working as a Sub divisional officer in Visakhapatnam. He married his childhood friend Poornima Chaterjee. Poornima studied fine arts in college. They live in the city outskirts near the beach. Poornima was delighted to find a cultural forum which organised cultural events and concerts regularly. She attended all the programmes. The organisers were delighted at the interest she showed and lavished attention on her. Meanwhile, government asked for volunteers to serve in a remote, backward, tribal area. Sen Gupta, along with some others, volunteered, and was transferred. Poornima was terribly upset that she would have to leave Visakhapatnam. She would especially miss the cultural programmes. She chides Sen Gupta for his folly.
From the standpoint of intimate interpersonal relationships examine each of the following answer choices and give reasons why you accept or reject an answer choice. More than one choice may be valid.
1. Poornima is right; there is no point in volunteering for posting in a tribal area. Governments are very poor in appreciating good work done in the face of challenges and hardships. Then why to dive into such a situation knowing well that Poornima is enjoying stay in Visakhapatnam?
2. There is an idealist streak in Sen Gupta’s personality or else why should he opt for such posting? Poornima, being a friend of Sen Gupta from childhood days should have appreciated this.
3. SenGupta is selfish and is a careerist. He is trying to get attention of Government unmindful of suffering of his spouse.
4. Poornima’s disappointment is understandable. However, she is taking a somewhat myopic view of life. In this type of career, such inconvenience and loss of community contact is very common. She needs to accept that gracefully.
Answer choice (1) looks at things from Poornima’s perspective.It argues that as Governments are generally slow to appreciate an officer’s commitment and contribution, there is no point in Sen Gupta making such a choice. He will be better off, if he does notvolunteer.
This view of human motivation is superficial at best. Career choices cannot mirror commercial transaction.Sometimesofficersmakechoicesthat reflecttheirworldview andtheirsense of purpose in life. Don’t we know that there are many eminent individuals who left civil services and took different paths to serve the community? Some of them acquired name and fame after long years of effort. The concept of self-actualisation captures such motivation well. Sen Gupta possibly has a genuine desire to serve the poor tribal community with full knowledge that his contribution may not earn any special recognition. Thus answer choice (1) does not express an objective view of human motivation and hence it is incorrect.
(2) This action of Sen Gupta suggests that he at least for some time wants to serve in tribal area. Those areas may not offer urban facilities and social interaction with elites in the ordinary sense we understand the term. However, they offer rich potential to do good for a section of disadvantaged Indians. No doubt, it is a worthy cause that Sen Gupta has espoused. An element of idealism in his personality may be inferred from this choice. It is also true that Poornima should have known him better and should have been prepared to live for some time in tribal area. Thus, this statement is correct.
(3) There is no substance in the argument that Sen Gupta is trying to capture Government’s attention by making this choice. Government memory is known to be too short to register such quality of an individual officer. For Government it is a routine. If nobody indicated preference they would select some officer in their best judgement and post him in that place. Hence this statement is incorrect.
(4) It is true that Poornima has to have a holistic appreciation of facts and their family life. Government servants do not stay long in one place except when they become senior and gravitate towards state and/or national capital. Anyway, she should have realised that stay in Vishakhapatnam cannot be for too long. While transferring government officers, Governments seldom take their preferences into account. That is the way it works, and officers know this as soon as they join civil services.
She is a bit myopic too. As an educated person she would have known that tribal areas offer different kinds of avenues for culture related pursuits. With time and open mind she would perhaps discover one or two such avenues and then put her drive and energy into them. She should not allow disappointment to weigh heavily on her mind. Hence this statement is also correct.
This brings us to empathy which is a most important aspect of emotional intelligence. It is the quality which enables government servants to address the problems of the poor, deprived and the vulnerable sections of the population. It lies at the root of human altruism and concern for others. Itstotal absence leads to criminal psychopathic behaviour as in killers, rapists and child molesters.
Self-awareness opens the gates to empathy. If one cannot gauge one’s emotions, he will hardly know how others feel. The inability to observe the feelings of others is a notable failing of emotional intelligence. It means that one misses out on what it is to be human. For building rapport with others and concern for fellow human beings arise from attuning oneself to the emotions of others or from capacity for empathy. Empathy or the ability to read the emotions of others is critical for many tasks – whether it is parenting, teaching, negotiating or explaining government policy to villagers.
Deep attentive interest in fellow human beings is a mark of empathy. This does not mean unwholesome curiosity about the personal life of others or maliciously gossiping about them. At the same time, we should not be indifferent to others or ignore their existences and well being. But it meansthat we shouldobservethemandguess at theirmoodsandfeelings.Emotionalstatesof people are usually revealed through bodily clues, facial expressions and general movements, gestures and postures. By paying attention to these, we can interact with them better in various situations. The purpose is not take advantage of their emotionally vulnerable states but to help them better.
Empathy is the basis of considerate behaviour towards others. A famous line of John Donne runs: “Never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.” In simple terms, it means that we should consider the troubles of others as our own. Empathy is feeling one with another; its opposite is antipathy. This feeling and concern for others frequently crops up in ethical dilemmas. Should X share the difficult office situation with his pregnant wife or spare her the anxiety?
In empathy we are moved by the pain of others. When a bystander meets with an accident, we rush to his aid. Empathy also leads to higher principles of conduct and justice. In this situation, we put ourselves in the place of the other and view things from his perspective. The idea of punishment for a crime originates in this manner. We feel one with the victim and feel from his point of view that his pain should be assuaged at least partly through the punishment meted out to the criminal.
Empathy is a first step in cultivating social skills needed in an organization. Empathy enables us to observe the feelings and perspectives of others and actively follow their interests. In this process, we understand others. This makes us recognise their needs and offer them help. In a business context, this translates to anticipating, recognizing and meeting customer needs. As we noted earlier, this service orientation will be of great use in social and economic development programmes focused on the poor and the weak.
Managers have to attend to and foster the development needs of those working with them. Empathy is essential forperformingthistask.Onepart of thistaskis to recognisethe goodperformance of subordinates and reward them suitably. Second is to see their likely career growth path in the organization and help them along the way. Finally, subordinates have to be supported with advice, feedback and through assignment of challenging tasks.
Though it may seem surprising,empathy helps managers to followthepolitical dynamics within an organization. The politics within an organization are not part of national politics. It refers to the way senior managers combine forces to exert influence in organizational decision making. It may also mean recognition of the prominent social networks in the organization and the manner in which they operate. This awareness will also promote understanding of the forces that shape the views and actions of clients, customers and competitors. It will also help in accurately reading the actual situations within and outside the organization. These insights are important in devising and implementing corporate policies and programmes.
In one sense, the components of emotional intelligence we discussed can be called character. It is a term which moral philosophers used since ancient times. One writer described character as the psychological muscle needed for moral conduct. We conclude with the following passage from Daniel Goleman which can serve as a summation of this chapter. “The bedrock of character is self discipline;the virtuous life, as philosophers since Aristotle have observed, is based on self control. A related key-stone of character is being able to motivate and guide oneself, whether in doing homework, finishing a job, or getting up in the morning. And, as we have seen, the ability to defer gratification and control and channel one’s urges to act is a basic emotional skill, one that in aformerday wascalledwill. Beingable toput away one’sself-centeredfocusand impulses has social
benefits. It opens the way to empathy, to real listening, to taking another person’s perspective. Empathy, as we have seen, leads to caring, altruism, and compassion.”