Define and differentiate between aptitude and attitude. In your opinion, which of these two is more important for a civil servant? Justify why. (200 Words)
Aptitude is the human ability associated with problem solving whereas Attitude is the ingrained set of emotions that defines the orientation towards human and innate factors in varying circumstances.
For a Civil servant Aptitude is important as he has to balance both between the rules of the bureaucracy as well as requirements emerging out of a variety of situation he has to deal with on a daily basis. Finding a middle way out for such decisions require his aptitude to be sufficiently sharp.
As far as attitude is concerned , A civil servant has to deal with people and situations of varying nature. He is answerable to his superiors as well as to the citizenry. There have been incidences when the attitude of civil servants has been brought into negative focus which is detrimental to service delivery. In India which is diverse country both culturally and economically, addressing concerns and expectations of all the stakeholders requires a balanced attitude of a civil servant.
Though attitudinal attributes like Patience, Perseverance, Tolerance are as much important as aptitude related qualities like Focus, Prudence and Logical ability. It is more common for attitude related qualities to be taken for granted and not focused upon. Also the state of bureaucracy in India is such that public servants are not deemed to be cooperative and empathetic to people and hence Civil servants need higher focus on attitudinal traits for better service delivery.
Thus for better sensitization towards citizens’ need it is important that attitude related aspects be better inculcated via training and spreading awareness among civil servants.