ISLAMABAD: Economists at an event stressed the need for putting the right people in the right jobs with real motivation to steer the country out of crisis.
Speaking at an event, "An Introduction to the Behavioral Science Behind the Decisive Mind" organised by the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) here on Thursday, Dr Shehryar Banuri of the University of East Anglia said that placing the right people in the right jobs with motivation is one of the key factors of American progress.
Banuri said that the USA was doing exceptionally well on account of providing desired opportunities to the people and as a result, people are doing very well. Usually, one is motivated by the most or least resources he/she has, as far as Pakistan is concerned here monetary incentives could be the biggest motivation for any task, but it does not mean other rewards are less important.
People want rewards now because the future is uncertain, even in evolutionary biology, they talk about it and one does not know if you are going to live tomorrow, so why would you delay rewards for tomorrow? Nowadays, that is different. But our thinking still remains the same. Trying to push back those initial instincts to gain rewards that are going to occur in the future is the secret to achieving long-term goals. But that requires a lot of mental resources.
It would be best if a person also made an effort to stay in the know about industry trends and keep up to date with news and developments in their chosen field. This way, you will be able to identify potential opportunities and make sure your skills are always relevant.
Certain industries, such as digital marketing, are highly competitive, and the rules change regularly. For example, search engine optimisation is entirely different today from five years ago. By understanding your industry, you will be able to adapt to new changes and make yourself a more attractive candidate to potential employers.
While explaining his research work, he said that basically the classic model, which is a simplified model of the brain but I think a very powerful one, is what is known as System one/System two thinking, or thinking fast and slow. The idea here is very simple. There is system two processes that lead to deliberative decision-making, and system one processes that lead to emotional or reactive decision-making.
When people are confronted by a decision we go through a sort of mental calculus. It is very quick but the idea is that we are trying to decide if something is worth deliberating – are the rewards worth the mental effort we are going to put in.
Lots of times your brain will say, no, that is not worth the effort, make a quick decision and move on, that is system one, whereas, system two thinking requires using mental resources, so things like sitting in class or learning something new.
Talking about decision-making, Banuri said lots of times people are thinking about instant rewards, therefore, spending a lot of time picking out the destination for your holiday, but no time at all picking out the insurance. These are the different sorts of mental processes that guide us toward making what could be a very bad decision.
Basically, how someone thinks about it is that a bad decision is any decision that runs counter to an aspiration or a goal that one has. So, if your aspiration is to write a book, any decision that takes you further away from writing that book - long sessions of gaming, for example - which is a problem for one, is something that he would classify as a bad decision. But the idea is that a bad decision is something that moves them further away from where they would like to be.
The literature is quite clear. People vary in how much they value short-term over long-term which in economics is called hyperbolic discounting. But one can also think of it broadly as patience as they differ in their capacity to delay immediate rewards for future rewards.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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