This archive report was first published on 10 October 2019.
Thursday, October 10, 2019, a fable making rounds in social media highlighted the importance of motivating the workforce in achieving positive output.
The story revolves around a small ant who arrives at work very early every day and starts working immediately, only to be supervised and eventually demotivated by a plethora of paperwork and bureaucratic layers.
As the parable goes, a lion, the chief, gets surprised to see the ant working without supervision and decides to recruit a cockroach as a supervisor, a secretary, a spider to manage the archives, and a fly to manage the IT department.
However, the once happy and productive ant becomes unhappy with the new paperwork and meetings that consume her productive hours, and the work environment is no longer pleasant.
Notwithstanding the many bureaucratic layers established, the lion goes ahead and nominates a cicada in charge of the department where the ant works, who convinces his boss to do a climatic study of the work environment and eventually recommends the ant's sacking.
This fable is a model practice in human resource management and governance in most public institutions, especially in developing countries.
Organisations should value the contributions of the low-cadre employees amongst the labour force as a critical asset to any given organisation.
According to the Solow residual, technological advancement, labour supply, and capital accumulation are critical aspects of any organisation's growth and development agenda.
