Narayana Murthy’s idea Wrong: The problem is productivity, Not Working Hours
Narayana Murthy, perhaps unknowingly to himself, expounds the organismic view when he exhorts young men and women to sacrifice their joys and pleasures for the sake of the country's future.
How many working hours does it take to make a country wealthy? No, it’s all about output. Being present on the job and claiming to work 70 hours a week will not result in maximum production.
What is worse than politicians moralizing? Can’t and harrumph by business magnates That group includes Infosys co-founder NR Narayana Murthy’s gratuitous preaching to India’s youth to work 70 hours a week (14 hours a day in a five-day week).
Murthy suggested in a podcast that India should adopt the work ethics of countries such as China and Japan in order to enhance productivity: “If we want to compete with the fastest-growing countries such as China and Japan, we need to boost our work productivity.” Currently, India’s labor productivity is quite low. The government must also shorten decision-making time and combat bureaucratic corruption.”
He claimed that this is exactly what the Germans and Japanese did after WWII. “They made sure that every German worked extra hours for a certain number of years.”
Many business titans back him up, including a young tech entrepreneur who is allegedly unpleasant and harsh to his employees. Unfazed by the media’s exposure of his wrongdoing, he brazenly admitted it at a public gathering. He rationalized his arrogance by claiming, “My own personal style is aggressive.”
Murthy clearly wants employees to suffer uncouth bosses for the better honor of the nation! “Theirs not to make reply, Theirs not to reason why, Theirs but to do and die.”
Murthy’s statement is reminiscent of the famous quote by former US President John F. Kennedy, “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” The quote was evaluated by the famed economist Milton Friedman in Capitalism and Freedom: “Neither half of the statement expresses a relationship between the citizen and his government worthy of the ideals of free men in a free society.” The paternalistic ‘what your country can do for you’ suggests that the government is the patron and the citizen is the ward, which contradicts the free man’s confidence in his own responsibility for his own fate.”
Aside from the implied paternalism, both situations entail a false binary: the citizen and the country in Kennedy’s phrase; the child and the nation in Murthy’s statement. However, citizens, including children, are not separate from and distinct from the country or nation; they are the country. Similarly, government is neither separate from nor distinct from citizens; it is citizens’ expression. Particularly in a liberal democracy.
There may be doubts about the sincerity or even representativeness of democracy in India and many other nations, but no one can argue that the relationship between the individual and the state under a democracy is organic and symbiotic, rather than organismic and symbolic.
Murthy, perhaps unknowingly to himself, expounds the organismic view when he exhorts young men and women to sacrifice their joys and pleasures for the sake of the country’s future.
Aside from being dangerously close to collectivist ideologies like fascism and communism, this viewpoint contradicts facts and practical imperatives. Murthy laments that “India’s work productivity is very low,” which is correct, but this has nothing to do with the number of hours Indians work.
According to the International Labour Organization (ILO) 2023 data, Indians work 47.7 hours per week per employed person, the most of the ten largest economies. Despite this, India’s productivity is only $8.47, compared to $70.68 in the United States, where working hours are 34.4. Productivity in a more comparable Brazil is $17.4, while working hours have ranged between 38.1 and 39.4 since the fourth quarter of 2018.
According to available data, there is little, if any, correlation between working hours and productivity. Murthy is thus barking up the wrong tree by attempting to increase productivity by increasing the number of working hours.
Furthermore, working 70 hours a week may not be as physically and psychologically taxing for CEOs and other top corporate executives as it is for those who do not have chauffeur-driven cars, spacious office rooms, and luxurious homes. Reaching the office by Metro (which, incidentally, is one of the more comfortable public transportation options in India), working there for nearly 12 hours (in a six-day week), and returning home by Metro would take up 15 hours of each day. A rigorous routine like this can turn normal people into automatons.
And this only applies to white-collar jobs. Blue-collar workers’ commutes and working conditions are far worse than those of office workers. By the way, many of them are already working 70-hour weeks or worse.
Murthy and his supporters have demonstrated a profound lack of empathy for their less fortunate contemporaries. They should advocate for the acceleration of economic reforms, which alone can boost output, productivity, and prosperity. They should also resist the urge to seek easy solutions and lecture others.
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