UPSC 2017 GS-IV · 10 marks · 150 words

Discipline generally implies following the order and subordination. However, it may be counter-productive for the organization. Discuss.

What “Discuss” demands

present several distinct facets of the issue and connect them into an argument, giving the competing views real weight rather than one line each.

The characteristic failure: a list of points with no argument running through them.

What a top answer must contain

These are the checkable specifics from the marking standard for this question — the actual case, committee, datum or thinker, not an instruction to “give examples”.

The case for discipline: predictability, chain of command, coordination at scale — Weber's rational-legal bureaucracy
Where it turns counter-productive: goal displacement and 'trained incapacity' (Merton), following unlawful orders, suppression of dissent, bad news travelling slowly
Concrete failures: the Nuremberg defence, the ignored engineers before Challenger, disasters where juniors saw the risk and did not speak
The resolution: distinguish obedience to lawful authority from moral abdication — the CCS (Conduct) Rules require carrying out lawful orders, not any order
Institutional fixes: recording dissent on file, whistle-blower channels, and a culture that rewards the inconvenient warning

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Discipline generally implies following the order and subordination. However, it may be counter-productive for the organization. Discuss.

What a top answer must contain

Now write it, and find out what you actually scored

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