PARTICIPATIVE LEADERSHIP

Participative leadership that involves all members of a team in identifying essential goals and developing procedures or strategies for reach those goals. This  style of leadership can be seen relies heavily on the leader functioning as a facilitator rather than simply issuing orders or making assignments. 

One of the main benefits of participative leadership is that the process allows for the development of additional leaders who can serve the organization at a later date. Because leaders who favor this style encourage active involvement on the part of everyone on the team, people often are able to express their creativity and demonstrate abilities and talents that would not be made apparent otherwise. The discovery of these hidden assets help to benefit the work of the current team, but also alerts the organization to people within the team who should be provided with opportunities to further develop some skill or ability for future use. This also expands the range of possibilities for the team. When leadership styles that essentially leave all the direction and decision making in the hands of one individual, it is much more difficult to see a given approach from several different angles. When the leadership style encourages others to be involved in the decision making process, a given course of action can be approached from a variety of perceptions. This can often point out strengths or weaknesses to the approach that would have gone unobserved and thus unresolved without this type of participatory brainstorming and decision making.

One potential disadvantage of participate leadership is the time factor. This leadership style does often involve the need for more time before action is taken. This is only natural, since the very nature of participative leadership means allowing input from every member of the team. However, the extra time necessary for this process often leads to decisions that ultimately benefit everyone to a greater degree than faster decisions that are more limited in scope.

Extra bonus for govt workers

NQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos

P10K bonus OK'd for government workers

ABS-CBN News Latest Philippine Headlines

The Philippine Star

Posted at 11/28/2010

MANILA, Philippines – President Aquino has authorized the granting of a P10,000 Productivity Enhancement Incentive to state employees on top of their Christmas bonus and 13th month pay.

Under Administrative Order No. 3 signed on Nov. 25, Aquino said the government’s austerity measures have greatly contributed to keeping the fiscal deficit within target.
“The economy has stabilized; investors’ confidence, trust and faith in the Philippine government have been restored; plans for the effective implementation of government programs such as on education, health, poverty alleviation, and job generation are pursued under the platform of good governance,” Aquino said in the order.

“These accomplishments were achieved through the unwavering support, commitment, and collaborative efforts of all government employees from all sectors and levels of Philippine bureaucracy,” he added.

State employees in the executive branch, government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs), and government financial institutions (GIFs) hired on a permanent, temporary, casual or contractual status are entitled to the one-time productivity bonus if they have rendered at least four months of service as of Nov. 30.

Government employees who have rendered less than four months of service as of Nov. 30 will receive the bonus on a pro-rated basis: 40 percent for service rendered for three months but less than four months, 30 percent for service rendered for two months but less than three months, 20 percent for work rendered for a month but less than two months, and 10 percent for work rendered for less than a month.

The employees should also not have received any additional year-end benefit in the current fiscal year other than the P5,000 Christmas bonus.

The productivity bonus for employees of the executive branch will be sourced from the 2010 budget savings of the national government agencies (P7,000 for each employee) and from savings in the allotments of the respective agencies of state workers (P3,000 for each employee).

If the savings of the agencies are not enough to fund the balance of P3,000, it is advised that the bonus be given at a lower but uniform rate.

For employees of GOCCs and GIFs, the productivity bonus will be sourced from the savings of the corporate budgets for 2010.

If the corporate savings are not enough to fund the bonus, a partial but uniform rate can be disbursed.
Employees of the Senate, House of Representatives, the judiciary, the Office of the Ombudsman, and constitutional offices are also entitled to the bonus which may be charged to savings in allotments of their offices.

The granting of the bonus to employees of local government units (LGUs) will have to be determined by the local council.

The productivity bonus will likewise be sourced from the LGUs’ savings in 2010.

The payment of the bonus to state employees shall be made not earlier than Dec. 15.

LEGAL PROCEDURE

Katarungang Pambarangay

The “Katarungang Pambarangay” or the barangay justice system is governed by Sections 399 to 422 of the Local Government Code. It has helped lessen the burden of our courts by settling at the barangay level conflicts and disputes between residents of the same barangay. Please take note of these issues regarding barangay justice:

Where is corruption most prevalent?

At a first, indiscriminate glance, the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), published annually by TI, seems to confirm the stereotypical notion that corruption is predominantly a problem of the South. While the Scandinavian countries come out on top, most of sub-Saharan Africa ranks at the bottom. It would not only be wrong to conclude, however, that - according to the CPI 2008 - Somalia and Myanmar are the most corrupt countries in the world; it would also be counterproductive. The index is not intended to brand any one country or territory, or to pit the North against the South. Rather, it is a tool to raise public awareness of the problem and promote better governance. Corruption is as much a problem of the North as it is of the South. Recent scandals in Germany, France, Japan, the US or the UK attest to that. It is well-established checks and controls that make the difference in proportion. People are as corrupt as the system allows them to be. It is where temptation meets permissiveness that corruption takes root on a wide scale. Such an environment is more likely in the emerging democracies of the South and East. There, administration and political institutions are still weak and pay scales are generally very low, tempting officials to "supplement" their income. In dictatorial systems, meanwhile, administrative and political institutions are nothing but an extension of the usurper's corrupt practices.

The North also carries part of the responsibility for the situation in the South due to its role as the bribe-payer. After all, it is largely Northern corporate interests that supply the bribe payments. Until recently, governments of the North not only tolerated these corrupt practices, but they even rewarded them with tax deductibility. Fortunately, the 1999 OECD Anti-Bribery Convention has made the bribing of foreign officials a criminal offence. TI has addressed this aspect with its Bribe Payers Index (BPI), the logical complement to the CPI. In addition to the question of the regional pervasiveness of corruption, the issue of corruption by sector is often raised. The BPI provides statistical evidence as to which business sectors are most prone to corruption. According to these results, the problem of corruption is particularly prevalent in public works and construction, followed by the arms and defence industry. The sector with the least detected corruption was agriculture.

What are the costs of corruption?

The cost of corruption is four-fold: political, economic, social, and environmental. On the political front, corruption constitutes a major obstacle to democracy and the rule of law. In a democratic system, offices and institutions lose their legitimacy when they are misused for private advantage. Though this is harmful in the established democracies, it is even more so in newly emerging ones. Accountable political leadership can not develop in a corrupt climate. Economically, corruption leads to the depletion of national wealth. It is often responsible for the funnelling of scarce public resources to uneconomic high-profile projects, such as dams, power plants, pipelines and refineries, at the expense of less spectacular but fundamental infrastructure projects such as schools, hospitals and roads, or the supply of power and water to rural areas. Furthermore, it hinders the development of fair market structures and distorts competition, thereby deterring investment. The effect of corruption on the social fabric of society is the most damaging of all. It undermines people's trust in the political system, in its institutions and its leadership. Frustration and general apathy among a disillusioned public result in a weak civil society. That in turn clears the way for despots as well as democratically elected yet unscrupulous leaders to turn national assets into personal wealth. Demanding and paying bribes become the norm. Those unwilling to comply often emigrate, leaving the country drained of its most able and most honest citizens. Environmental degradation is yet another consequence of corrupt systems. The lack of, or non-enforcement of, environmental regulations and legislation has historically allowed the North to export its polluting industry to the South. At the same time, careless exploitation of natural resources, from timber and minerals to elephants, by both domestic and international agents has led to ravaged natural environments. Environmentally devastating projects are given preference in funding, because they are easy targets for siphoning off public money into private pockets.

How do you define corruption?

Transparency International (TI) has chosen a clear and focused definition of the term: Corruption is operationally defined as the abuse of entrusted power for private gain. TI further differentiates between "according to rule" corruption and "against the rule" corruption. Facilitation payments, where a bribe is paid to receive preferential treatment for something that the bribe receiver is required to do by law, constitute the former. The latter, on the other hand, is a bribe paid to obtain services the bribe receiver is prohibited from providing.

What is "transparency"?

"Transparency" can be defined as a principle that allows those affected by administrative decisions, business transactions or charitable work to know not only the basic facts and figures but also the mechanisms and processes. It is the duty of civil servants, managers and trustees to act visibly, predictably and understandably.

EDITORIAL

Making monsters
Philippine Daily Inquirer
11/19/2010

It became clear in the traumatic aftermath of the gruesome massacre in Ampatuan, Maguindanao, a year ago: the rule of violence that was associated with the Ampatuan family in the province could not have been possible without sins of omission or commission of the Arroyo administration. A report prepared by the New York-based Human Rights Watch and issued this week is a useful and sobering reminder of that fundamental but often-fudged fact.

THE STATE OF THE NATION (Part 1)

A Situationer: Perfecto Yasay Jr.

Sometime last August, I found myself between two friends doing a post mortem of the results of the presidential elections over a cup of coffee. “What is wrong with our country?” asked the fellow on my left. Without batting an eyelash the friend on my right sarcastically replied: “Everything is terribly wrong with the Philippines today!”