Organisational Development for Kerala Instiute of Local Administration (KILA) : A Draft Report

8/8/2019 Organisational Development for Kerala Instiute of Local Administration (KILA) : A Draft Report

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PROJECT REPORT

ORGANISATION DEVELOPMENT FOR KILA

SUBMITTED TO KILA

PREPARED BY - IRMA FACULTY

Prof. DEBIPRASAD MISHRA

Prof. SASWATA NARAYAN BISWAS

Prof. NIVEDITA KOTHIYAL

Prof. AJAY DANDEKAR


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1. BACKGROUND

Kerala Institute of Local Administration (KILA) is a unique institution in several

ways. Kerala Institute of Local Administration (KILA), the lead institution in

capacity building of local governments was established in 1990, on the pattern

of a national institute, with the main objective of strengthening local

governance through training, research and consultancy. With a view to

develop it as an institution of excellence, KILA was registered as an

autonomous institution under the Travancore-Cochin Literary, Scientific and

Charitable Societies Act 1955. Kerala Institute of Local Administration (KILA)

is synonymous with decentralisation and local governance. The best of its

kind in the third world, KILA aims to address the emerging issues of

decentralised governance at the grass roots through a plethora of divergent

activities like training, research, consultancy, policy advice, publications and

information services. KILA thus became a harbinger of the emerging dawn of

vibrant local democracy.

KILA is the only Institution in India that functions with the sole mandate of

promoting decentralised governance both in urban and rural areas. As a result

of this, efforts are on to establish KILA as an international training centre on

local governance and declare KILA as the SAARC centre of excellence in

local governance

As the nodal institution for training, research and consultancy for the Local

Self-Government Institutions in Kerala the Institute engages in different

capacity building activities of the local governments, both rural and urban.

Training continues to be the dominant activity of KILA, with an out turn of


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around one lakh trained manpower in Kerala. The institute also conducts

research studies and has brought out a number of reports and working papers

on the related issues of local governance and developmental paradigms. KILA

has been engaged in the capacity building activities for local governments in

Kerala since its establishment in 1990.

KILA actively collaborates with many national and international agencies like

Swiss Agency for Development and Co-operation (SDC), United Nations

Development Programme (UNDP), UN-HABITAT, and Housing and Urban

Development Corporation (HUDCO) with a motive of deepening local

governance. KILA collaborates with the Sri Lanka Institute of Local

Governance and All India Institute of Local Self Governments, Mumbai to

conduct international course in decentralised governance and poverty

alleviation.

The primary stakeholders, i.e., the local governments, were among the

founding members and have a sizeable representation in its governing

council. Growth in its institutional profile has happened in tandem, and also in

conjunction, with one of the largest initiatives in decentralisation undertaken in

the country. As a result, KILA has been a key participant and also a

repository of direct knowledge of the decentralisation process and local

governance as it has unfolded in Kerala. Lastly, it has in recent years

emerged as a major training centre for the peoples representatives and local

government officials in the matters of institutionalising local governments, both

in the rural and urban areas. The democratic decentralization process in


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Kerala is also an innovative developmental initiative for the developing

societies of the world.

The capacity building strategy adopted for decentralization in Kerala with the

support of SDC has attained wide currency and its learning can be adopted in

other States and other countries in the South Asian region. There is a

massive demand from other States of India and the countries in the South

Asian region for organizing study visits and training programmes at KILA on

democratic decentralization, decentralized participatory planning, local

governance and democratic accountability. Therefore, it is an urgent need of

the day to strengthen KILA and SIRD as a Centre of Excellence in

Decentralization and Local Governance.

Though KILA had a remarkable trajectory until now, it is engaged in the

process of taking stock of its past and looking ahead towards its future. One

of the future agenda is congregate the activities of KILA and SIRD and to

ensure effective and more fruitful functioning of the organisation as a lead

institution of excellence in decentralization and local governance.

In April 2008 KILA organised a vision workshop to build the perspectives for

future and also to build a road map towards 2020. The workshop focused on

the present context in which KILA was placed as well as looked at the future

critically in the newly emerging context. It identified six thematic areas and

the discussions resulted in identifying the goals, objectives, outputs and

activities relating to the specific themes. KILA has invited the Institute of Rural


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Management, Anand (IRMA1

i. IRMA would undertake a Comprehensive Strategic Planning exercise

as part of OD Study for KILA and SIRD. This exercise would have a

build in understanding of the history of KILA and SIRD, also address

the evolving demands and possibilities to create a comprehensive

roadmap to realise the shared vision of the primary stakeholders of

KILA and SIRD.

) for conducting an Organisational Development

(OD) Study for KILA and SIRD. Based on a days consultations at KILA the

following terms of reference have emerged;

a. IRMA would facilitate the process of generating organisational

configurations/designs that would enable the stakeholders of

KILA and SIRD to make a suitable choice in terms of creating an

organisational structure and mechanism required to walk the

path as outlined in the Strategic Plan Document to realise the

desired vision.

ii. IRMA would prepare a comprehensive OD Report for the reengineering

of these two institutions and integrating them into a common entity to

create a Centre of Excellence in Decentralization and Local

Governance with all modern facilities and requisite human resources.

1IRMA shares several similarities with KILA. A product of the Operation Flood movement, IRMA was

founded by its most significant stakeholders, i.e., Dairy Cooperatives, who continue to constitute the

most significant proportion of the membership of its General Body.


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iii. The OD Report would give recommendations for developing KILA and

SIRD as lead learning institutions in the country and in the South Asian

region in the area of decentralization and local governance.

iv. IRMA would facilitate the process of Organizational Development of

KILA and SIRD and give clear insights to strengthen these institutions

as national and international resource centres in the area of Gender

Planning and Budgeting, Natural Resource Management,

Decentralized governance and Social Inclusion.

2. METHODOLOGY

The study team visited KILA and SIRD to understand the background, origin,

structure and process the study team consulted various published documents.

During the first visit, the faculty team interacted with the Director and other

members to firm up the Terms of Reference of the study. During this period it

was agreed that IRMA would examine the present structure and functioning of

KILA as well as the State Institute of Rural Development (SIRD) and examine

the possibilities of merger of the two Institutions and suggest a suitable

structure of KILA after the merger.

The IRMA faculty team, in its second visit has carried out intensive structured

and free flowing interviews with all the faculty members (except one on

deputation), the Director of KILA, the two Deputy Directors, the Finance


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Officer, and other staff members of KILA. Besides, the team members also

examined various documents prepared by the faculty members and the

training contents of different training programmes. The structured interviews

focussed on understanding the participants views on the following:

a) Historical origins of KILA

b) KILAs existing structure

c) The problems the faculty members encounter in discharging their

duties; particularly in relation to training and research

d) Problems faced by support staff in their day-to-day functioning

e) The process flow of different activities like training, research, and

consulting

f) The thrust areas of training, research and consulting

g) The way through which KILA ensures quality in its three focal activities;

training, research and consulting

h) The desirability of merger of KILA and SIRD and consequences thereof

Apart from this, the faculty and staff members responded to a structured

questionnaire measuring motivational climate within KILA.

During the third visit, the IRMA team conducted a one-day workshop with the

critical stakeholders of KILA. The workshop was carried out in a free-flow

dialogical mode and all the participants actively participated. The focus of the

workshop was to initiate a discussion on future of KILA. It was focussed on

the existing institutional arrangements as well as shared vision of KILA within

its existing structures, the arrangements of its training programmes, possible


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focus areas of research, its relationship with other Institutions within and

outside the state.

Apart from this the Chairman of the KILA executive Council, Mr. Vijayand was

interviewed by the study team in Trivandrum. Similarly, at SIRD a one-day

workshop was conducted where all faculty members, the few key staff

members were present. The focus of the workshop was to gain an insight into

the workings of SIRD, its different programmes, the internal structure of the

organization. The issue of the possible merger with KILA was discussed. The

focus was on the consequences for the institution as well as the individuals

within the institution.

3. KILA, ITS PRESENT DESIGN AND FUNCTIONING

KILA as an institution was mandated to strengthen local government and such

was created by the Department of Local Self Government. However, its origin

lied in the Peoples Planning Process that was carried out throughout the

state of Kerala. Its mission is to facilitate the process of strengthening the

local self-government through capacity building of such institutions. The

capacity building measures comprise of extensive training of elected

representatives as well as officials of local self-government, action research,

and dissemination of the knowledge through publications, seminars, etc. The

Institute has also carved a niche identity in facilitating participatory planning

process at the local level. However, the ultimate mission remains as

facilitating and accelerating socio-economic development of the State through

Local Self Government Institutions (LSGIs). It functions as a nodal agency for


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the state to strengthen local democratic governance through capacity building

programmes. From this perspective, it is fully supported by state and remains

a state organization.

KILA is primarily funded by the Government and hence has the presence of

government all over its administrative and academic set up. However, it has

actively maintained strong relationship other external organizations. It has

strong ties with international agencies like Swiss Agency for Development and

Co-operation (SDC), United Nations Development Program (UNDP), UN-

HABITAT, and national agencies like Housing and Urban Development

Corporation (HUDCO) with a motive of deepening local governance. KILA

collaborates with the Sri Lanka Institute of Local Governance and All India

Institute of Local Self Governments, Mumbai to conduct international course

in decentralized governance and poverty alleviation.

KILA is committed to be a top ranking institution for local governments in the

country. Nevertheless, it aspires to become a national and an international

level organization of eminence in the field of local democratic government and

play a much bigger role than at present. It has several achievements to its

credit to be already counted as one. Deepening democracy, taking democratic

governance to the local level and simultaneously ushering in sustainable and

equitable socio-economic development through participatory, bottom-up

planning are the key aspirations of KILA. Much like democracy which is

always an evolving/ emergent project KILA is also conscious of the maxim

that an effective organisation is not a stable solution to achieve, but a

developmental process to keep active. In walking this talk KILA has engaged


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in numerous consultations and deliberations among its key stakeholders. On

27th April 2008 KILA had organised a Vision Workshop which was attended

by a cross section of the major partners, associates and friends. The resultant

has been a 2020 Vision document, which clearly spells out the guiding

principles and concerns as under.

The philosophy underlying KILAs vision is to create an alternative

culture of people-centred participatory governance. The focus is on the

transformation of systems and practices away from the current forms

and methods which have their origins in the feudal as well as colonial

past of the country. Absorbing and inculcating the aspired new ethos is

a gigantic responsibility and a Herculean task. KILA will first equip

itself with the absorption of the new vision before attempting to promote

it among the functionaries of the local bodies and the citizens.

It is a part of KILAs vision that decentralization should lead to the

empowerment of the disempowered. This is achieved through

preparing the masses and their leaders for a new democratic culture.

KILA recognizes that political devolution will benefit only the powerful,

unless there is social transformation. A success indicator of KILAs

capacity building attempts will be an extension of participation of those

sections of the polity which have been traditionally excluded from the

processes of decision making.

Learning/knowledge creation will be the core process which entails

unlearning and re-learning, reinforced by critical reflection. The core


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theme of learning is decentralization and local governance, in their

multifarious meanings and implications.

Learning, to be promoted, will be both intensive and extensive and will

be rooted in the soil of social and historical experience. KILAs

initiatives will be rooted in the local culture, while aiming at national and

international out-reach and partnership,

KILA will strive hard to maintain an autonomous address as well as

identity.

Policy decisions and programmes will be supported by reliable field

data, for which a data base will be created and updated continually.

Documentation is the mirror of an institution. As such, KILA will ensure

proper process documentation as an integral part of consolidating

learning.

KILA should address not only promotional demand but also

transformational demand. New models should be explored and

created. New inputs should be given, leading to new perspectives.

Quality will not be sacrificed to accommodate quantity. The institution

will insist on quality of faculty and results.

Meticulous planning of the programmes will be done well in advance.

There will be strategic planning every year.

Staff development and team building will be a priority concern of KILA

For creating an improved learning environment, facilities will be

restructured and redeployed. For instance, the library will be kept open

even after the office hours.


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The summary sheet of Action Blueprint for 2020 annexed to the KILA vision

document enumerates the following goals for KILA to pursue.

To develop KILA as a centre of excellence and premier learning

institution of decentralization and local governance in India and in the

South-Asian region;

To equip KILA with all the necessary facilities, resources and ambience

for enabling it to function as an international centre of excellence;

To expand the space and enhance the efficacy of KILA in its

multifarious interventions at the national as well as international level;

To enable KILA to excel in ventures of collaboration with prestigious

national and international institutions;

To enable KILA to effectively fulfill its function as disseminator of

scientific and technological advancements in the service of the local

governments;

To transform KILA into an institution of excellence capable of doing,

promoting and coordinating research and offer high quality consultation

in the area of local governance and democratic decentralization;

To showcase the achievements of KILA in order to get a global

interaction and acceptance.

The goals have been broken into specific objectives and further elaborated in

action terms to create a set of deliverables to be realised over the coming

years2

2

KILA Vision Document 2020

. Particular citation may be made here of KILAs intent in establishing


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specialised resource centres such as; (a) Centre for governance; (b) Centre

for sustainable development; (c) Centre for gender development; (d) Centre

for participatory poverty management; and, (e) Centre for micro-level

planning. These resource centres are envisioned so as to keep the

institutional engagements in the front and centre of the emerging needs of

strengthening participatory development planning and local self-governance

goals of the State.

4 MERGER WITH SIRD

The State Institute of Rural Development (SIRD), located at Kottarakar, is the

premier training institute in Rural Development in the State. Its mission is to

impart training to various official and non-official functionaries, directly or

indirectly involved in the process of rural development, to carry on research-

operational and policy and to create an awareness of the potentialities of

modern management3

It is clear from the foregoing that there is a strong overlap between the goals

and mandates of the KILA and the SIRD. The overlap becomes even more

apparent when seen in the context of huge strides made by the State in

devolution to local governments including devolution of funds, functions and

. The Institutes mandate includes training in rural

development, Panchayati Raj and Decentralisation process and poverty

related sector with the objective of socio-economic well being of the rural

people.

3Perspective Plan for Comprehensive Development, Vision Document, SIRD, Kottarkara.


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functionaries. As a result of sustained efforts in decentralisation, the local

government bodies have come to assume central responsibilities in rural

development. The functionaries of development departments are placed with

the local government institutions and work in tandem with the elected

representatives of Panchayats. There is thus a strong ground for the two

institutions to collaborate and work closely so as to continually play their

strategic roles within the relevant policy frameworks of the state government.

What is more, such collaboration could create synergies which would allow

both the institutions to emerge as Centres for Excellence participatory

development planning, and institutional strengthening of local self

governments.

The core of what KILA and SIRD do could be stated as knowledge-based

support to the efforts of the State in decentralisation, participatory planning

and (rural) development. KILA also additionally has the urban development

space within its institutional mandate and scope. Both have similar and unique

strengths as well as weaknesses4

4

The vision documents of KILA and SIRD contain analysis of respective Strengths, Weaknesses,

Opportunties and Threats.

. While having high calibre academic staff

who have also distinguished themselves through their dedication and

commitment to the institutional goals is common to both, as also utilising a

network of resource persons who contribute to the efforts of the respective

institutions, both share a common weakness in quantitative terms. Both are

constrained by limited number of core academic staff, which would be the

most limiting factor as the two institutions move forward in realising their


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respective visions. Presently KILA has 4 full time faculty positions while the

same for the SIRD is only 3. It would therefore appear that the best way to

collaborate would be to merge the two institutions; the merged entity would

have, to begin with, 7 full-time core faculty members. The jump in number

could be expected to have qualitative multiplier effects and with some

additions in future, the new entity would be far better placed to address the

combined future vision.

5. INSTITUTIONAL ARRANGEMENTS WITHIN KILA

KILA has a Director who is both the administrative and academic head of the

Institution. The director is overall in-charge of all affairs of the Institute, is

assisted by seven faculty members, and on the administration side is

supported by two Deputy Directors; one, Deputy Director, administration and

the other, is the Deputy Director, training. Apart from this the key functionaries

of the Administrative wing of the Institute comprises of one Assistant Director,

one section officer, one finance officer who are assisted by about 50 support

staff.

6. DECENTRALIZATION OF FUNCTIONING WITHIN KILA

Keeping with the spirits of good academic institutions KILA has made efforts

to decentralize the functioning of the institute to bring about more participation

of the faculty members and staff by constituting different committees; such as,

Research Advisory Committee, Training Advisory Committee, Library

Advisory Committee, Grievance Redressal Committee, .Monitoring Committee


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for Public Works, etc. However, when faculty members were asked about the

formation and functioning of the committees and the decentralization process

within the Institute; they were of the opinion that the decentralization is only in

letter not in spirit. Few committees have convenors who are not core faculty

and most of the times the committees never meet. For most administrative

purposes and facilities the faculty members are wholly dependent on the

administration and have no real power to enforce certain disciplines. For

example, if a faculty member requires certain number of photocopied material

for some programme or research, she/he has to seek permission of the

Deputy Director (administration) for the same. Similarly, the faculty members

have very little say in the library matters. The Librarian is the convenor of the

library committee and the faculty members who are in the committee say that

the librarian has not called a meeting of the committee. In fact, when the team

visited KILA library and was talking to the Library Assistant about the function

of the library, it was made clear that books are ordered and procured only on

the basis of the indents given by the Director and the Chairman of the

Executive Council. When the team members asked what happens when a

faculty member sends a requisition? Her only answer was that it has to come

from the Chairman or the Director.

7. KILAs THRUST AREAS

The Institute disseminates the insights of research and recommendations of

its various training programs and workshops through a number of

publications. The Institute over the years has acquired expertise beyond its

immediate focus and has imparted training in several related areas. The


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diversity of the training program imparted is very impressive. Every year, on

an average, KILA conducts about 50-60 program in more than 10 different

core areas. It has conducted training in the following major areas:

Decentralized Participatory Planning

Local Governance and Administration

Inclusive Urban Development

Local Economic Development

Participatory Poverty Alleviation Management

Gender and Development

Development of Marginalized Social Groups

Natural Resource Management and Watershed

Development

Development of Trainers Training Skill

Community Participation and Social Accountability

HIV/AIDS-related interventions through local governments

Data Based Planning for Human Development

Asset Mapping and Management of Assets

However, the study team, after analyzing the contents of different training

programs offered by KILA has broadly classified it into five major domains;

decentralized governance and management, poverty alleviation, gender and

development, natural resource management and sustainable livelihoods,

urban governance. As a nodal training institute, KILA has trained more than

twenty-two thousand elected representatives of the local self government

apart from delegates from other SAARC countries. To make its reach national


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KILA has embarked upon developing expertise in other states and has

translated several documents in English and other Indian languages like

Hindi, Tamil, Bengali and Kannada.

The minimum number of trainings in each core area is 2 and 15 trainings have

been provided in Urban Governance area. The 272 days were involved

technically to provide 63 trainings in 11 different core areas ranging the

duration from 1 day to 30 days (1 month). The KILA training calendar shows

that during the 2009-2010 financial year 310 trainings were conducted

successfully and the duration was ranged from 1 day training program to 6

days training schedule. As per the KILA training calendar around almost 962

days were invested to train people from different sectors and in different

areas.

The core faculty of the KILA has been actively involved in conducting various

training programs such as gender and development, local economic

development, financial management, decentralized planning and local

development, panchayat administration and governance. One of the core

faculty Dr. Retna Raj has successfully conducted 28 number of training

courses ranging from the area panchayat administration and governance to

HIV/AIDS. Dr. J.B.Rajan and Dr. Abey George have been actively involved in

14 and 16 numbers of training programs respectively. Dr Sunny George has

been delivering his expertise on urban governance; also he has conducted 18

successful trainings on urban governance. So far the KILA faculty and their

support staff have been keenly involved in conducting 76 numbers of training

courses in different areas at the state level.


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To conduct such a large number of programmes not only on campus, but also

throughout the state, KILA has, over the years created a large pool of trained

persons who actively participate as resource persons. Presently, there are

more than 150 master trainers who conduct training of trainers programmes

and Institutional training programmes at KILA. Additionally, KILA has about

900 district level trainers who organize and conduct district level training

programmes. The resource persons comprise a vast array of talent pool for

KILA as they include; policy makers, academicians, administrators,

researchers and practitioners in the field of decentralised governance and

development. However, time to time KILA core faculty members organize

training and consultation workshops of resource persons which also includes

documentation and standardization of training materials. The core faculty is

more involved in designing, documenting, and training the potential trainers to

have a snowball effect.

8. EVALUATION OF TRAINING PROGRAMMES

Evaluation of training is important, and particularly so in the context of KILA.

The fundamental objective of evaluation of any training programme is to

assess whether the basic objectives of the training programme have been

achieved or not. The focus of the evaluation is to demonstrate whether the

expected learning that was determined before the training programme was

conducted has taken place after the conclusion of the training programme or

not. Secondly, the objective of any training is to improve organizational


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performance i.e. to ascertain that the training programme has achieved to

bring about a change in the organizational functioning.

In KILA, every training programme is evaluated. However, the training

programmes largely evaluated are based on the subjective responses of the

trainees at the end of the programme. This is a good practice but for

substantive improvement of training, its effectiveness should be measured by

follow-ups with the local level institutions. The training evaluation component

has to go beyond the immediate response on the participants and the

changes that they have brought about at the ground level should be

investigated. It is important to note that though the core faculty is largely

involved in designing and training of the master trainers. The ultimate delivery

of training is done at several levels and has varying degrees of effectiveness.

It was suggested that for at least training conducted within KILA campus, the

core faculty should be involved in delivery of such programmes. External

resource persons are great strength of KILA however, solely depending on

the external key persons for the delivery of the programme may raise certain

quality issues. It was also found that that the subjective evaluation of the

training programmes is also not being compiled regularly and stored in

electronic format for easy retrieval.


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9.RESEARCH

In academic institutions of excellence research forms the backbone for

teaching and training activities. It is important that KILA engages in action

research projects as well as strong grounded research to develop alternative

theoretical models of local governance, poverty alleviation, gender and

development, etc. There are only five core faculty members (two members

listed under faculty are library staff) whose core functions involve

development, design and delivery of effective training and also to document

and organize workshops for dissemination. Thus, the core faculty is extremely

tied up and consequently research has fallen behind. It is true that most

Institutions concentrate on their core strength, but training without being

informed by research will lose its sheen.

This becomes important when KILA aspires to play a significant role in the

SAARC region. For example, we have very little knowledge about the impact

of strong independent NGOs in the functioning of local governments (i.e.,

Bangladesh). Similar, research across the country as well as other SAARC

countries will form the backbone of KILAs training efforts. Few participants

from other states, attending KILAs programmes, observed that KILA has

good infrastructure but the programme is Kerala centred and the trainers are

not sensitive to the contextual differences. KILA wants to establish itself as an

international training centre on local governance and declare KILA as the

SAARC centre of excellence in local governance, establish itself as the centre

of excellence in SAARC region by 2020. In order to achieve this, KILA has to


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undertake serious research efforts throughout the country as well as in other

SAARC countries to develop a contextualized understanding, which will go

beyond the socio-politico-economic climate of Kerala.

10. INFRASTRUCTURE

Infrastructural facilities at KILA are sufficient to accommodate at least five

different groups. The training halls are spacious and can be used for multiple

purposes. There are two hostels for participants and it has a capacity to board

200 participants. However, the maintenance of the rooms for participants

does not have consistency in quality. The Institute has to focus on the

maintenance functions in terms of cleanliness and hygiene of the rooms.

Secondly, participants coming from other states face problems in dealing with

the staff because of the language barrier. The study team had interacted with

one such group coming from outside the state and it was shared by the group

that they had problems in communicating to the staff and no special

arrangements were made for them keeping in view the language problem as

well as food related issues. If KILA wants to serve the national audience then

it has to become sensitive towards the needs of the participants from the state

other than Kerala. The mess is run effectively, efficiently and the food is

appealing.

KILA is equipped with the necessary training equipments like LCD projector,

overhead projector, film projector, slide projector, TV, VCR, etc. KILA has a

computer centre which is networked with the computers of the Faculty and


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Administration. There is a computer lab for conducting training programmes

on e-governance.

KILA has a library which is well-stocked with books not only in the area of

local governance but also in other related social science areas. The library

has a collection of more than 10,000 volumes and over 200 journals. The

development of library, for any academic institution is a continuous process. It

is important that faculty members become actively involved in the

development of the library, it will be better if the library gets into the network of

libraries in the country and also subscribe to electronic databases of journals.

Governance and development is an interdisciplinary area, therefore it is

important to subscribe journals from different social science areas to provide

the faculty access to the latest knowledge bases in these areas. Presumably

the library needs more e-journals on economics, sociology, psychology,

gender studies, organizational management, etc. The library should be

developed into a major information centre on local governance, decentralized

planning. It should have few computer terminals with access to e-resources.

11. ISSUES OF CONCERN

11.1 The distinction between the Faculty and the administrative/support staff

If the Institute has to play a crucial role in both the national and international

academia, it has to closely look into the structure that has emerged in KILA

and align it with the practices of leading academic institutions. For example,


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the KILA Service bye-laws does not specifies faculty; however, it mentions

Academic Staff and includes; Assistant Professors, Associate Professors,

Research Associates, Research Assistants, Librarian, Assistant Directors,

and Deputy Directors. There is no mention of faculty as a separate category.

Interestingly, the study team found mention of faculty in the Annual Report of

KILA (2008-09). The team noted that apart from the Assistant Professors,

Research Assistants, Research Associates, Professors, the Librarian and a

Library Assistant is also included in the list of faculty. In common parlance,

faculty is one whose core responsibility is to train/teach and engage in

research. Other members may contribute but if their core function is not

teaching, training, or research then it becomes difficult to count them as

faculty. Secondly, to become a faculty in a niche Institution one has to

possess the requisite qualification and experience to be considered as faculty.

11.2 Issue of the Deputy Directors on Deputation

Both the Deputy Directors are on Deputation from the Panchaytraj

department. One is Deputy Director (Training), who overlooks all training

related functions; and the other, is the Deputy Director (Administration), who

overlooks all administrative functions.

The role of Deputy Director (Training) many times overlaps that of the faculty

and often creates conflict. The Deputy Director (training) also coordinates

training programmes and is also in-charge of the training logistics. There

seems to be a conflict of interest arising and it is shared by the faculty


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members that the in the programmes conducted by the Deputy Directors extra

care of participants comfort and other logistics are given and this is not in the

case of programmes coordinated by the faculty members. It is alleged that

this is done to receive good feedback for the programmes coordinated by the

deputy directors. It should be noted that whether this is done or not there is a

conflict of interest arising when the support service provider themselves the

direct service provider. Secondly, the Deputy Directors who are deputed to

the Institute are usually at the end of their career and often they come to

serve the institute for a year and less. Their long-term stake with the Institute

is absent. Recently, there have been frequent changes of the Deputy

Directors. Thirdly, the Deputy Director in-charge of training does not report the

faculty member who is coordinating the programme. The Deputy Director is

not accountable to the faculty concerned for any negligence in the

arrangements made. It is argued, that faculty members on the other hand

have a long-term interest in the Institute. People on deputation always have

the privilege of going back to the parent department if something goes wrong

with the Institute. But the faculty members have full stake in the health and

growth of the Institute as they are directly recruited for the position and cannot

go back to their earlier jobs.

The motivational climate survey revealed that due to the administrative

matters the faculty feel that it is the most neglected group within the Institute

and they have very little say in the running of the Institute. They also felt that

there are no growth opportunities for them; the promotion policies do not take

the faculty interest in consideration. Similarly, the faculty pay structure is not


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in commensurate with what other state and national level academic

institutions offer. This was also accentuated by the overwhelming presence of

the Deputy Directors who control most of the resources which should have

been primarily under the control of the faculty. The faculty members also

observed that they most often fell stifled by the system and very little time and

resources available for them to engage in research and related activities.

Across staff categories, it clearly emerged that the lower level of motivational

climate can be attributed to lack of growth opportunities within the Institute.

It is clear that in the absence of an unambiguous distinction between the

faculty and administrative/ support function there is bound to be many areas

of conflict which may be detrimental to the long term interest of the Institute.

The faculty would like KILA to expand its ambit of activities and emerge as a

leading institution in the SAARC region. They also felt that there is a need for

them to handle administrative responsibility but with commensurate authority

over staff members. They were ready for a stringent academic performance

appraisal of the academic staff as well as similar performance appraisal

system for all other staff. The administrative and support staff felt that KILA is

only a training Institute for the members of local self-government and should

focus only on this activity. Most staff members envisioned keen interest to

impart training. There has to be a distinct division of labour at least with

reference to the core activities of the Institute the faculty will be responsible in

discharging its duties, such as design and directing the training programmes.


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For an Institution to grow as a centre of excellence long term commitment of

faculty is needed, as the contribution is made over the years. The major

challenge is to find the right kind of faculty. Any academic Institution needs to

find good faculty. It has to be understood that academic institutions of

excellence are not built by brick and mortar alone to be effective it needs good

quality faculty. The present faculty at KILA have been selected from reputed

institutions and have the unnecessary disqualifications. And whatever name

kola has so far built for itself can be attributed to the faculty contributions.

However, the small size of the faculty has been accused of concern. Though

KILA has built a reputation in the field of training, but the research side has

taken a beating. The faculty size has to increase to a critical threshold to be

able to accomplish this. KILA does a large number of training programmes

and many training programmes are not designed by the faculty members. In

order to have good quality output it is important that the faculty members are

directly involved in the design of the programmes and development of

teaching materials even if their involvement in delivery is difficult to achieve.

However, it is suggested that the faculty members also involve themselves in

the delivery of most number of programmes.

12. POSITIONS IN THE MERGED ENTITY

The Institution will have a Director, selected through an open selection

process, with relevant educational qualification and or experience (needs to

be elaborated).


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The climate survey suggested that there is low morale among the faculty of

KILA. A section of the staff, because of lack of promotional avenues, is also

dissatisfied. People who are on deputation from the government are

seemingly at best to be apathetic as they were waiting for retirement with the

next couple of months. The overall motivational climate of KILA was at the

lower ebb. Except that faculty members expressed their desire to continue

with their academic work and not get disturbed by the external environment.

There is a need for KILA to develop a system which encourages faculty to

develop their skills and contribute to research and think creatively on new

programmes. However, given the existing structure, it seems KILA has

inherited more from the administrative arrangements of government

department than of a thriving academic institution. In an academic Institution

both academics and administration has to be faculty driven and at the centre

should be the participant organizations and individuals who patronize the

organization. The strength of the non-academic support staff maybe reduced.

13. RECOMMENDATIONS

Based on the above discussions, it is recommended that the SIRD may be

merged with KILA.

13.1 However, as SIRD staff members are under a different service rules it

should be seen that there is no detrimental effect on the staff. It is

suggested that the existing service bye-laws be suitably modified to

create a category of staff labelled as faculty. All Assistant Professor,

Associate Professor and Professor will come under the category of


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Faculty including the Research Associate and Research Assistant.

Keeping with the involvement of the participation of faculty in the

governance of the institutions it is recommended that at least two

faculty members other than the Director nominated to the Executive

council of the Institute and they may be rotated every two years.

13.2. The faculty member appointment and pay and other allowances may

be governed by the pay scale and allowances as recommended by

UGC from time to time.

13.3 Policy on Faculty Recruitment Selection Review and Promotion

13.4 Recruitment

The faculty recruitment may be guided by the policy as suggested by

the University Grants Commission, in terms of educational

qualifications and experience.

13.5 Career Advancement Scheme for Faculty

In order to motivate good faculty KILA should adopt a procedure of Career

Advancement Scheme for faculty members. All faculty members who have

completed 8 years of services as Assistant Professor and have the requisite

qualifications, publications and any other conditions stimulated by the

committee will be eligible for apply for career advancement scheme.

The executive council may appoint a committee comprising of the Director

and at least two experts in the field should be empowered to review the

performance of the concerned faculty over the last 8 years and if the


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committee finds for promotion by career advancement scheme may

recommend so.

For the purpose of Career and Advancement Scheme there will be no need to

create new positions as the sanctioned positions are the positions in which

the faculty was appointed. Similarly, for promotion under career advancement

scheme from Associate Professor to Professor the candidate must have

served at least six years in the position of Associate Professor with at least

five publications in ISSN numbers journals and or published books in ISSBN

number s. Similar procedure should be adopted for faculty members who had

applied for under career advancement scheme for professor. Research

Associate/Assistant who have completed 12 years of service on permanent

post and possess the requisite qualifications may be considered for promotion

under career advancement scheme to the position of Assistant Professor.

13.6 Officers on Deputation in SIRD

The Director and Additional Director/Secretary are deputed to the rural

development department of government. These officers have considerable

experience in various areas of rural developments which may be very

profitably used. To retain an employee involvement and stake in the

organization, it is recommended that the period of deputation from the

government to the institute should not be less than 3 years that means

officers who have less than 3 years to the retirement age cannot come on the

deputation to the Institute. All officers on deputation should have minimum

qualification is graduation. To retain the post of joint commissioner the officer

may come on deputation to the Institute as Chief Administrative Officer


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reporting to the Director, KILA. The Chief Administrative officer will be the

head of Administration for all staff members excluding the faculty who will

report to the Director.

13.7 Officers on deputation in KILA

Similarly two deputed directors in KILA are deputed from the department of

panchayati raj. These officers will also play a crucial role in training and other

academic activities of the Institute.

All Officers on deputation to get it into the faculty cadre should at least hold a

graduation degree and 10 years of experience in the class-2 and above

grade.

13.8 Promotion Policy for other Staff Members

There is set of disenchantment among the members of staffs besides the

faculty. There are less promotional avenues for staff members in this support

it is suggested the staff promotion policy to be review in such a manner that

the staff member will have at least two promotion in her career at KILA. It

should be understood that all promotion to the officer cadre should be either

or to direct recruitment or to the deputation. It is suggested that all staff

members other than the people in officer categories will be eligible for

promotion after 7 years of continuous service in the same grade and

promotion will be based on years of service and performance record.


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13.9 Constitution of a Personal Committee

a. A Personnel Committee may be constituted by the Director for regular

periodic reviews of the performance of the staff, to be considered for

promotion. The Committee may have three members; two faculty

members (one of these should be a senior member) and the Head of

the Administration as its Member-Secretary. The faculty members may

be nominated by the Director for every two years. One of the two

nominated faculty members may be appointed as the

Coordinator/Convener of the Committee. The member-secretary

should initiate the process for every promotion of Non-teaching Staff.

The Coordinator/convener may co-opt the respective Sectional Head

as an additional member of the Committee for the review of the

employees of his/her Section.

b. The case of an employee may be reviewed regularly after seven years

of his or her joining date or last promotion. In case someone is not

found suitable for promotion his or her case may reviewed

subsequently on an annual basis till he/she gets promotion.

c. Since the promotion should be performance based, there should be a

system of annual appraisal of the work of each employee by the

respective reporting officers. Such appraisals should be the core of the

review done for promotion.

d. The Personnel Committee should conduct annual performance review

and feedback meetings with all the non-faculty staff members. These

meetings should be used for sharing with the respective employees


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their performance review every year and a appropriate feedback

should be provided to them about their strengths and the areas in

which they need improvement.

e. There needs to be provision for institutional action on the feedback

given to the staff especially in cases where the employees need to

undergo training for improving their performance.

g. For fast track promotion, the committee will review the performance

appraisal report of the last five years of the eligible employees in each

grade/cadre. The Committee will also seek specific recommendation

from the respective reporting officers for the concerned eligible

employees.

h. The personnel committee will recommend to the Director to constitute

an interview panel for promotion of all the eligible candidates i.e., both

under regular promotions and fast track promotions. All the candidates

under consideration for regular promotion (based on a fixed number of

years of service as per the seniority list in each grade) will be called for

interviews. However, in case of fast track promotion, only those

candidates short listed by the Personnel Committee, will be called for

promotion interview.

i. The Interview panel will submit its recommendations to the Director.

The short listed candidates under fast track category will appear for

final interview before the Director. After a decision is taken, the Head

of Administration Group will issue the promotion orders.


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14. PERFORMANCE MONITORING SYSTEM FOR FACULTY

There is a need to develop rigors academic performance indicated for faculty

members for each activity such as directing training programmes, conducting

sessions in training programmes involving in research involvement in

consultancies will get due weight age. As KILAs main area focus has been

training following by research and consultancies it is suggested 50% of work

by the faculty should be in the area of training. The other 50% may be divided

into research, consultancies and other administrative duties. Internally KILA

has to work out a suitable framework for development of academic

performance indicators. The basis of such evaluation must take into

consideration both quantitative and qualitative aspects of the work.

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Organisational Development for Kerala Instiute of Local Administration (KILA) : A Draft Report

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