"What does this mean for our ministerial cabinet and their huge take-home pay? Intrinsic interest is a relevant issue, and this hinges on how Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, for instance, plans his cabinet. When Lee assigns a minister to head a particular ministry, e.g. Yaacob, an engineering PhD to head Ministry of Communications and Information, Vivian Balakrishnan, an ophthalmologist to head Ministry of Environment and Water Resources, the first thing he has to know is whether these potential ministers have the intrinsic motivation, i.e. interest in the work itself (eg. an engineering professor is interested in work related to information and communications) in serving the public, to perform in the various ministries. It is not surprising that PAP will always reiterate the fact that its candidates want to serve the public. However, with the huge take-home pay? Robust research data now suggests that a huge pay packet is detrimental to intrinsic motivation. Yes, some cynics are saying,”you pay peanuts you get monkeys, you pay millions you still get monkeys.” The saying isn’t totally wrong. As such, we never did, and we hope the same for you readers, expect much from this current cabinet of ministers despite their high pay."
Posted on: Thu, 25 Jul 2013 15:12:34 +0000