Far from being a doctrinaire affair, the Max Webber doctrine is a summary of the cream and global best practices in management science. An organisation or a nation succeeds or fails in its goals and objectives, based on the application or non-application of the Webber doctrine of resources management. In the words of Max Webber: “It is God’s will that only industry, not relaxation and pleasure, can magnify His glory. Wasting time is thus the first and fundamentally most serious of all sins”. Available manpower rarely utilised!
A doctrine, prescription or formula, becomes doctrinaire, if it is full of sound and fury but signifying nothing, with regard to addressing the challenges and problems of every-day living. The philosophy of management, summarised in the Webber doctrine, places emphasis on prudent use of resources, of which time counts as vital. To spend time effectively demands not relaxation and pleasure, but industry or self-exertion. Self exertion also demands vigilance and the ability to know what demands priority attention.
A sad flaw in Nigeria’s public sector manifests visibly in what a common man describes as “lack of a maintenance culture”. Do we make timely repaires of ailing or decrepit public facilities or draw up a regular maintenance schedule? Webber doctrine prescribes that managers of public affairs should be co-ordinators rather than dictators; consultants rather than confrontationists. Rather than civility, public servants become pugilists and macho-men.
A sound management and maintenance economy would prescribe taste for good quality and durable standards. What we find common in Nigerian project execution is usually cosmetic adornment which rarely stands the test of time. No one is clever enough to bamboozle everybody all the time, even as a miracle performer. What Webber doctrine calls emotional maintenance prescribes that humans give their best when they are in a state of emotional stability. This comes about when there is justice in public affairs, demonstrated by transparency and accountability.
Sad practice of monopoly and hoarding of power is sharply detested in the Webber doctrine, but rightly recommends the cultivation of team spirit and power sharing. Where the masses have a stake and commitment towards public affairs, available resources can be used judiciously and responsibly. Through voluntary, cost-saving and direct labour strategies, management of public affairs would become a mass movement. Priority attention should be given to security and safety of the masses, rather than a situation where security and safety facilities become the shield and succour of delinquent political elite and power merchants.
Where there are partnership, cooperation and commitment of the masses with regard to security and safety of the nation, criminality would bear the tag of a common enemy of the masses. The public would collaborate with state agencies to see that terrorists and bandits do not take over the country. Neither security nor politics must be allowed to become an all-comers’ affair, hence there must be serious screening and selectiveness of intending candidates.
Webber doctrine warns that in the development of a nation, there comes a critical moment when dabblers and fraudsters seek to take over the polity. Where such project succeeds, a nation so doomed finds it difficult to get out of such plight. The seriousness and sanctity of the management of public affairs, demand that only people of highest integrity should handle a nation’s political offices. Mismanagement of public facilities and abandonment of public projects demand that serious penalties be visited upon those who aid and abet such malfeasance.
Use of local resources and expertise must not only be implemented as a policy, but it must also be applied with strict selectiveness, whereby “quota system” must never over-ride competence and merit. Nigeria cannot move forward where the polity can be over-run by baboons. Undue interferences in professional matters by political influences, or putting square pegs in round holes, are not compatible with the ideals of bureaucracy. Things must be done according to guidelines provided for them, rather than a situation where there are abuses of due process and the rule of law.
Max Webber doctrine encourages use of personal initiatives and discretion, provided there is a process of transparency, accountability and personal responsibility attached thereto. Public officials who frustrate planned projects and programmes arbitrarily should be penalised, while those who make thing work better through personal discretion should be commended and rewarded. What we find common in Nigerian public sector is the killing of personal initiatives and discretion because of envy.
Committed and competent professionals do not become slaves to rules, especially when rules are seen as impediments to efficiency and effectiveness. They would break the rule, get things done better and then stand tall to take responsibility and be accountable. Webber doctrine detests buck-passing or evasion of responsibility, but demands strict monitoring and self-evaluation as regular practices. Rigidity in management is not the same thing as firmness. Rigidity can arise from incompetence and fear, while firmness means sticking to the rules of justice, without fear or favour.
Any nation where incompetence, mediocrity and serious official lapses and misconducts can be condoned, ignored and covered up, is a nation that would install corrupt practices. Part of corrupt practices include the implementation of flamboyant or “white elephant” projects whose priority or value is merely cosmetic, meant to line up private pockets. In reality, politics is a contractual affair which demands public office holders to perform according to public mandate, but also conserve rather than waste and squander public resources, including public confidence.
To procure irrelevant, flamboyant, expensive facilities solely for the comfort and pleasure of public office holders, while the masses languish in hunger and penury, is a gross abuse of public trust. Rather, good political culture encourages self-reliance, industry, effective use of time, resources and leisure, through exemplary leadership that would not pander to ignoble propensities. Nigerian politicians must acquaint themselves with Max Webber doctrine.
Dr Amirize is a retired lecturer from the Rivers State University, Port Harcourt.