Developing a service culture in the income tax department in India: a study of employee perceptions

Abstract

Global trends in tax administration have been towards supplanting an exclusive command and control model with one where enforcement and tax payer services operate in tandem to facilitate voluntary compliance by the tax payer. In the latter paradigm the treatment of the tax payer as a valuable customer/ client, whose satisfaction is a key concern for the organization, has been a foundational purpose. The transformation, however, has been beset with conflicts of values and cultures, not to mention the legacy systems of revenue administration built around antagonistic relations with the tax payer. The Income Tax Department in India is in the throes of a similar metamorphosis. As its business processes, technology and organizational structures change at different paces the necessity of understanding its level of preparedness to deliver quality services to its tax payers was felt. The present study has, accordingly, focused on employee perceptions of the existence of an organizational service orientation and an employee orientation in the Department, the latter on the understanding that satisfied and happy employees can deliver the best service to the client. The variations in perception by the biographic dimensions of gender, age, service experience, designation and educational qualification have been noted and discussed. The broad results of the employee perception survey indicate that the norms of service are no longer an alien value to the organization, although the Department is yet to define clear cut standards and measures for the same or factor service performance into its employee appraisal or training programs. In fact, it is still largely perceived as a service deficient organization. The lingering mistrust based perceptions about taxpayers are still widely prevalent, although the canvas of change is enlarging gradually. The survey also highlighted the need for the department to move up personnel management higher in the organizational agenda as, in the perception of the employees, it was not sufficiently employee centered. An important element of this shortage arises from the ownership or lack of discretionary authority. The mutually accusatory note on which relations between the discretionary authority wielding officers and the frontline staff appear to be built inhibit the creation of a robust service culture. The existence of a strong organizational commitment amongst the employees was emphatically revealed during the study. This is the strength of the organization around which the management of change is to be strategized for development of a vigorous service culture in the Department.