Today’s world is characterized by materialistic interest and increasingly dominated by financial value. It is widely recognized that knowledge and skills are not sufficient for individuals to attain performance and productivity. It is the positive attitude of a person toward his respective field along with knowledge and skills that are responsible for his outstanding performance in the role.

Employee performance has always been a major challenge in organizational management. It is even more challenging in government organisations. Organizational effectiveness and efficiency depend on how effective and efficient the employees in the organization are.

An established theory of human performance states that people achieve high performance when they have the required abilities (knowledge and skills), motivation, and opportunities. But motivation is the most important determinant for high performance because it is the factor that makes the best use of the abilities and opportunities to create desired outcomes. However, adopting reward and punishment strategies (extrinsic motivation) to motivate employees to achieve and deliver higher job performance is generally of limited success in the long run. In government organisations, their scope is even more limited.

Extrinsic motivation can’t push a person beyond a certain level for long-term performance due to its own limitations (i.e. it is not sustainable). Therefore, intrinsic motivation (a consequence of internal rewards and punishments) leads to better long-term performance than extrinsic motivation in organisations. The intrinsic motivation of a person is determined by his values and pure interest (inner satisfaction) and thus by his positive attitude towards his respective field.

It is widely recognized that a person who has intrinsic motivation (positive attitude towards his respective field) is more productive and useful to organizations. Therefore, there is a greater emphasis to select persons with a positive attitude towards public service (Right Attitude) in government organizations to achieve high performance.

A person’s attitude determines the valuability of things in his brain. As people differ in their attitudes so do they differ in the valuability of things in their brains. The things for which we have a positive attitude are valuable to us. The valuability of a thing is the most important criterion for our brain to focus on that. The structure and function of our brain is such that it is capable to focus naturally for a long (effortless focus) on things that it considers valuable for us (for which we have a positive attitude). Effortless focus channelizes our full mental energy to create high performance.

A person’s attitude is a deep-seated characteristic of him and is determined by his beliefs, preferences & values, social role, self-image, motives, and upbringing; therefore, it is usually difficult to change it later. Hence, a person’s attitude towards public service is the most important determinant to be tested at the recruitment stage itself for the civil service.
 

Positive attitude towards public service (i.e. Right Attitude)

Right Attitude is the spirit and in-depth interest in public service. It is the most important attribute of civil servants’ intellectual identity and is responsible for their outstanding performance in the role; job satisfaction; and commitment to public service.

Right Attitude determines the dispositions/tendencies of civil servants to work in public life and motivates them for lifelong learning to bring out great job satisfaction and commitment to the organization. Civil servants with Right Attitude have more intrinsic needs, desires, and experiences than extrinsic ones; therefore, their job satisfaction lies in delivering outstanding results in public life. Also, they are expected to show less counterproductive behaviour, while also engaging in a greater amount of positive extra-role behaviour and better quality in-role behaviour. They are also more likely to expend discretionary efforts towards achieving government organizational goals.
 
Candidate’s attitude towards the public service: the most important determinant to achieve a high performance (high score in less time) in the civil services examination

A candidate’s beliefs, feelings, points of view, and priority about public service are the manifestation of his attitude towards public service. A candidate’s attitude towards public service is significantly shaped by his value system, personality traits, self-image, social role, life priorities, and upbringing; therefore, it is usually difficult to change it later. Hence, candidates’ attitude towards public service is the most important determinant to be tested at the recruitment stage itself by UPSC to select the most suitable candidates for higher civil services.

All candidates have to be placed under two categories to understand their attitude towards public service. The first category includes those candidates who take civil service as a better career option and are attracted to this service due to its benefits i.e. what they will get from this service (respect, power, identity, compatibility of work, and financial benefits & other amenities, etc.). While the second category consists of those candidates who are deeply interested in public service and want to choose public service as their domain of work to create public value i.e. they are focused on what they can contribute to this service. They have positive beliefs, points of view, and a spirit of service to public life.

The first category of candidates has a negative attitude towards public service because they want to join public service with their interests at the center and consider public service as a means to fulfill their personal desires. While the second category of candidates have a positive attitude towards public service (i.e. Right Attitude) because it is intrinsic motivation (internal reward) for them to serve the people i.e. they value being a public servant and create public value (to ensure justice, fairness, and equity, as well as – efficiency and effectiveness). They are motivated to work in public service to contribute their best and public service is the greater purpose of their life.

The candidates with a negative attitude towards public service are not inclined to observe public life, and its problems/issues nor interested to understand it. They generally approach the civil services examination with the notion to crack it to get the benefits of service. Therefore, they are more inclined to shortcuts, dysfunctional practices, and sub-standard sources of knowledge (notes, materials, guides, etc.) in the hope to crack the exam anyhow. As a result, they have a very shallow understanding of public life and its issues/problems; poor quality of thinking; narrow perspective; defective decision-making; and are swayed easily by others’ perspectives on important public life issues and problems.

While the candidates with a positive attitude (i.e. Right Attitude) clearly manifest certain behaviours (dispositions/tendencies) i.e. they have a natural inclination towards public life, deeper involvement in various public life issues/problems and current happenings, motivation for lifelong learning, and are inquisitive about the clarity of detail. They approach the civil services examination to qualify it successfully keeping in mind the larger purpose of serving the people.

Therefore, they focus to broaden their public service horizons (a deeper involvement in various public life issues and problems and current happenings) to shape their attitude towards public service. As a result, they take the bigger picture into consideration and develop clarity of detail, a deeper understanding of public life and its issues/problems, quality decision-making, a better quality of thinking, and their own mature perspectives on important public life issues and problems. It provides them with actional insights to create productive and intended outcomes of their actions. Consequently, their responses (answers) are of high quality to enable them to score high in the exam.
 

Right Attitude – how it is tested in the civil services examination

Right Attitude (spirit and in-depth interest in public service) is the most important fundamental quality for civil servants to work in public life. Consequently, all the two stages (preliminary examination and main examination) of the civil services examination focus on selecting candidates who have a positive attitude towards public service (i.e. Right Attitude). The civil services examination tests candidates’ Right Attitude through their inclination and dispositions/tendencies for public life such as their awareness, deeper involvement, and clarity of detail about public life issues/problems and current happenings.

Candidates with a positive attitude towards public service (Right Attitude) have a natural, continuous, and effortless focus (attention) on public life issues and problems and current happenings. Therefore, they excel both qualitatively and quantitatively in their awareness, understanding, and clarity of detail of public life issues/problems and current happenings.

In the prelims exam, some items/questions (MCQs) are included just to test candidates’ basic awareness of current issues and events that are relatively simple to answer. While a good number of questions are based on the clarity of detail of public life issues/problems and current happenings. The candidates who have a deeper involvement in public life issues/problems and current happenings are comfortable answering these questions correctly but others find them difficult to answer. Therefore, candidates with a positive attitude towards public service (Right Attitude) are comparatively better positioned to qualify the prelims exam.

In the main (written) examination, the majority of constructed response items/questions are based on the deeper understanding and clarity of detail of public life issues/problems and current happenings. The candidates who have a positive attitude towards public service are able to construct high-quality responses (answers) to these questions at the assessment time which results in getting high marks in the exam.

Whereas, the candidates who have a negative attitude towards public service find these questions difficult to construct (answer) at the assessment time because they do not have a natural inclination to interact with public life issues/problems but rely on notes, guides, materials, and others’ perspectives on public life issues/problems and current happenings that result in their shallow or superficial understanding of public life, lack the clarity of detail, and immature perspectives on public life issues and problems. Consequently, their responses (answers) are of poor quality in the exam and they end up getting low marks.

In the interview stage, a candidate’s positive attitude towards public service (Right Attitude) is tested through his Statement of Purpose (SOP) and intellectual identity (how he interprets and understands the world around him). A candidate’s Statement of Purpose (his reasons to pursue a career in public service) and intellectual identity most importantly reflect his attitude towards public service and are the crucial criteria at the interview stage to distinguish the candidate with a positive attitude towards public service. Therefore, the majority of questions in the interview test are based on the candidate’s hobbies, interests, reasons to pursue a career in public service, deeper understanding of public life and its issues/problems and current happenings, and his educational background and working profile to test his Statement of Purpose (SOP) and intellectual identity.

Therefore, to get their desired success in the civil services examination, students should focus on the broader discovery of their personal interest (natural inclination towards public service) to shape their attitude towards public service (Right Attitude). The broader discovery of their interest is to understand how their personal interest is relevant to their lives, the lives of others, and the world at large. It will establish the valuability of their personal interest in their brain. As a result, their brain will automatically start focusing (awareness, deeper involvement, and inquisitiveness) on public life issues/problems and current happenings to broaden their public service horizons and deepen their understanding of public life.

The ptsx perspective