Promotion of university teachers

There exists a relationship between employee promotion and job accountability. A failure on the part of the promotees to discharge properly their higher level accountability to the people of Bangladesh and others in pertinent areas could result inter alia in wastage of national resources, especially the tax payers' money.

Many of the candidates, who were not promoted this time, might have felt strongly about their candidacy both in terms of merit and time-in-grade. Employee promotion is inter alia a sensitive career matter and a crucial factor for on-the-job motivation. It has bearing, among other things, on an employee's physical, mental, social and performance-related behaviour, as well as well-being, in varying degrees though, and relative to time and space. Further, its initial thrust has the potential to affect, either positively or negatively, the employee's own family and others.

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Any administration in Bangladesh cannot give promotion to each and every government employee (used in a wider sense) at the same time nor should it do that. What it can do now is, to accelerate its effort towards making pertinent selection and decision-making processes for promotion more transparent, objective, forward-looking and competitive. Promoting the right employee at the right time is one of the core conditions for the development of a more reliable, neutral and competent public service.

Bangladesh's existing public policy on promotion should be reviewed, updated (as required) and the resultant policy implemented in a more comprehensive and coherent manner during the pre and the post promotion phases -- all in light of the requirements such as: individual and team performance outcomes, as well as competitiveness which are considered as key bases for promotion or demotion of an employee; an employee's promotion to a higher position or grade or level of responsibility does not automatically guarantee his or her continuity in that position or grade or level of responsibility; and promotion should not only be earned but also protected through a higher level self as well as team performance, among others. The government's post-promotion employee performance appraisal and analysis system should be more effective and efficient in identifying poor performance(s) and poorly performing promotee(s), to mention a few.

Closely related to the above, is the need for the establishment of measurable and achievable performance goals (for government position holders and others) that are consistent with the accountability of the respective positions. A proper use of a yearly work plan for each and every government employee and others inter alia as a basis for performance assessment could help improve objectivity, transparency and dynamism in the employee promotion processes.

Finally, against the backdrop of recent promotion in the country's public service, it is hoped that the government would lift soon the current embargo on the promotion of university teachers. A delay say, in promoting a deserving teacher to the next available higher position due to avoidable or unavoidable reasons or circumstances (or both) can hurt his or her prime time career related expectations and that might, in effect, deprive the nation of the teacher's best of potential in real times and beyond.

In other words: a continuous capturing, harnessing and sustaining prime time motivation of teachers and other nation builders is essential for boosting their efforts towards achieving excellence in their respective fields of work. Bangladesh at this juncture of its development cannot simply afford to ignore that.