Gournalist Specialist Controversy - All, generalists vs specialists, have a role to play in modern administration. Here is an example to explain the gournalist v/s specialist controversy UPSC better.
Gournalist Specialist Controversy UPSC - In recent times a controversy has arisen in is the context of the most suitable personnel at various levels of public administration. The ever-increasing number of public services and public servants calls for a careful analysis of the type of personnel that will best serve the purpose in modern state. The real issue is the extent of importance to be assigned to these gournalist v/s specialist controversy categories of administrative personnel.
Generalist V/S Specialist Controversy In Indian Adminitration
Generalists: A generalist is defined as a public servant who does not have a specialised academic or technical background and hence is easily transferrable from one department of Gevernment to another.
The top-grade civil servants who belong to managerial class will come under this category.
It may be men- tioned that management itself has become a subject of specialisation, even in the academic sense.
So when we refer to the managerial class, we don't have in mind those who have got specialised degrees and diplomas in management but those who have been shouldering managerial responsibilities.
A manager, in the traditional sense, is expected to perform the POSDCORB functions (plan- ning, organising, supervising, directing, coordi nating, reporting and budgeting).
Thus the forte of a generalist is his versatility and fami- liarity with rules, regulations and procedures.
Specialists: A person who has a lot of specialized knowledge or a high level of technical skill in any given area is someone to called a specialist.
The traditional specialists are engineers, educationalists, medical men, agricultural scientists etc.
Generally, a specialist would have had technical prosional education and training However, in practice it may be difficult to maintain the line of division between genera lists and specialists.
It may be possible to interpret the same person as a generalist as well as a specialist.
The Indian Administra tive Reforms Commission has used the term Functional services to cover specialists and experts as against the term 'general perfor mance service to cover generalists or administration.
Grievances of Specialists
- (i) Lower pay and allowances compared to 1.A.S. and other generalist services-provision of special pay and allowances for generalists.
- (ii) Better ser- vice conditions, status and respect for genera- lists rent-free accommodation-priority in the waiting lists-quicker promotion.
- (iii) Most posts at the very top level of all depart- ments including technical, manned by L.A.S. officers the generalists' encroachment on technical posts like Director of Agriculture, Director of Indian Medicine, Director of Education, Chief Conservator of Forests etc.
- (iv) It is often the case that technical personnel with high qualifications are assigned to work under less experienced colleagues.
- (iii)Justification offered by Generalists: The generalist administrators, particularly I.A.S. Officers, advanced many arguments in favour of the superior status and position assigned to them:
- (i) High calibre of the ICS/IAS personnel-their recruitment based on the h highest-level competition open even to techni- cal personnel.
- (ii) Varied experience in diverse posts-combination of field experience with secretarial experience-high-level management, talent and leadership qualities.
- (iii) The generalist administrator has a special ability to understand complex issues.
Relationship between journalist and specialist
In case you are wondering, the best experts for public administration could be specialists like finance, revenue, taxation and city management. These categories require a greater amount of knowledge and experience. Thus it is always advisable to hire people with the right expertise in public administration to lead your organization's processes. However, if you don’t have any resources or time to search for qualified staffs who can provide exceptional services at the cost-effective rates then a well-trained journalist might just do the trick! In the end, it all depends on how efficient you are during your interview.
Your performance can be judged by the questions you throw at candidates and also by their competency in answering .
There are a few key points that need to be taken into account when it comes to top-level administration.
First, specialists are often limited in their perspective, seeing only the specific aspects of a major programme or project that they know well.
This limits their ability to take an over-all view and make sound decisions.
Second, technical personnel tend to have a general reluctance towards taking on responsibilities such as finance, personnel policies, public relations etc., which can lead to issues down the line.
Finally, specialization often leads to parochialism - i.e., being limited in one's outlook and unwilling or unable to see things from a broader perspective.
As a result of these limitations, top-level administration requires both strong leadership capabilities and extensive knowledge about all aspects of the program or project being managed
Generalist vs. Specialist
There is a clear difference between generalists and specialists, and it has far-reaching consequences for how well we perform our jobs.
A generalist is able to take an overall view of everything related to a major programme or project - the limited perspective and horizon of the specialist.
The general reluctance of technical personnel to take interest in general aspects of administration such as finance, personnel policies, public relations etc.-'a specialist is one who knows more about less', often leads to problems with projects.
Top-level administra- tion requires people with both broad perspective and depth knowledge on specific areas.
Administration pool, public sectors under- taking pool etc.
- Appointment of highly qualified specialists in different technical fields directly as the Secretaries in the departments as has been done in the case of nuclear energy, planning etc,
- A more immediate step will be increase in the number of promotion posts for specialsits-liberal appointment of specialists for administrative posts in technical departments.
- Common pay and allow- ances for technical and generalist posts of equal rank.
Conclusion :-
Preparing for the UPSC? Here's a controversy you need to be aware of- the Gournalist Specialist Controversy. Learn about its key points and why it matters for your preparation.
