UGC NET/JRF EXAM, June-2019* Labour and Social Welfare

Andre Laurent (1983) has carried out investigations into the attitude of managers in several countries towards their organization. A series of studies he made concerning national differences in concepts of management produced interesting results.

Over a period of two years, questions were put to experienced international managers attending executive programmes at an international business school.

The findings showed clear differences between countries with regard to the perception of organisations as political, systems, authority systems, roleformalization systems and hierarchical relationship systerms.

The study was replicated among much younger and less experienced MBA students and, in two multinational companies, one being a US-based chemical firm with subsidiaries in France, Germany and Great Britain, later in amended form in another multinational.

The results from the replications were essentially the same as those from the first survey among executive programme participants.

Although it might have been expected for those working in multinationals to have undergone some kind of homogenizing effect in terms of managerial concepts, the results showed a surprising stability.

Moreover, the results from the first multinational surveyed showed respondents' concepts to be even more entrenched.

Laurent's conclusion-that the management process in the ten countries surveyed is as much culture-bound as their cooking-is echoed in the results of the GLOBE project's survey among company employees working in their own society.

The national culture remains dominant within the organization. As Laurent explains, employees do not leave their national culture behind at the company entrance.

The goal of training is not only to make them learn a task or behaviour but to retain what has been learned. Some factors which enhance the retention level of learners are meaningfulness of material, degree of original learning and interference.

The meaningfulness of material is the extent to which it is rich in association for the individual learner. For example, the learner should be able to associate the matter learned with his real job situation.

It is easier to learn and remember when the material is more meaningful and factual. Therefore, a meaningful training can be designed for the employees to encourage learning retention.

The degree of original learning also influences learning retention. What has been learned initially is normally retained. Efforts should be made by the training through over learning or repetition to impart the initial learning.

Interference also affects the extent to which learning is retained. The material and skill learned before the training session and the material learned after the training session may interface with retention.

The learner is required to make different responses to the same situation. The more responses one learns, the greater the chances are for retention of what has been learned.

Grapevine refers to rumours and unofficial information circulating among employees. It is an informal communication network. Employees often seek information from the grapevine to satisfy their curiosity.

Grapevine exists because the formal network may not always provide adequate information about organizational policies and developments. It involves the gossips and passing of information at coffee breaks, other gatherings.

and chit chat among employees. Sometimes, the unofficial sources of information generated and transmitted may not always be a reliable source of information. However, grapevine can have its uses because it helps in bonding within the group.

An organization may also slowly leak out some necessary information deliberately through the grapevine in order to test the possible reactions of employees to some policy matters.

Grapevine can also help in releasing the pentup emotions, frustrations, and aspirations of employees, and can act as a safety valve.

The purpose of HR planning is to make available, right quality and quantity of manpower at right time in organization. With the increased pressure on companies to cut down manpower costs, it is also important to see that no surplus manpower exists. HR planning typically involves two steps:

(i) HR demand forecasting and
(ii) HR supply forecasting.

Demand forecasting has to be done based on a number of long- and short-term factors such as
(i) changes in economy,
(ii) technological trends,
(iii) market trends,
(iv) global trends,
(v) strategic plans of organization,
(vi) ongoing and immediate future projects/ operations and
(vii) production schedules.

There are number of techniques in vogue across the organizations in Globe for forecasting HR demand. Some of them are quantitative and others are qualitative. Popularly used techniques are:

1. Predictor variables: This technique is akin to statistical tool of regression. Based upon past employment levels vis-a-vis. sales/production, the future requirement can be forecasted. It is mere extrapolation of an assessment to similar situations.

2. Zero-base technique: Here, the present level of employment is used to determine future requirement. Everything starts with zero. It implies that organization has zero manpower and starts analyzing manpower requirement for each operation carefully.

3. Bottom-up technique: This is a widely used technique in our organizations. The process involved is, each manager gives his requirement of HR in operations he is responsible. Requirement projected by all managers will be aggregated to draw organizational level forecast.

4. Simulation technique: It is a technique of experimentation. A real-time situation will be created and then forecast assessment will be made manipulating different quality and quantity of manpower.

Model Grievance Procedure A Sub-committee appointed by the 16th Session of the Indian Labour Conference (ILC had evolved a model grievance procedure (in 1957); and this procedure has been incorporated in the Code of Discipline (a voluntary one) that was evolved by the ILC.

The grievance procedure, to be established by the unions and management upon a mutually agreed basis, provided for a stepladder procedure with time limit at each step. An aggrieved employee can go from one steр to the other if he prefers an appeal.

The Foreman, Departmental Head, and the Grievance Committee (a bipartite committee) and voluntary arbitration are the steps suggested in the model grievance procedure.

Reference of a grievance to voluntary arbitration has to be made jointly by the union and the management.

The procedure suggested that a grievance relating to discharge or dismissal can be taken up directly with the appropriate authority by passing the earlier steps.

Section 7: Power of appropriate Government to appoint authorities for hearing and deciding claims and complaints:

The appropriate Government may, by notification, appoint such officers, not below the rank of a Labour Officer, as it thinks fit to be the authorities for the purpose of hearing and deciding:

(a) complaints with regard to the contravention of any provision of this Act;
(b) claims arising out of non-payment of wages at equal rates to men and women workers for the same work or work of a similar nature;

and may, by the same or subsequent notification, define the local limits within which each such authority shall exercise its jurisdiction.

The concept of organisation has been perceived differently by different persons. The biologists consider the human body as an organisation. The sociologists think of society as an organisation and the political scientists think of government as an organisation.

To a top executive, the term organisation means the weaving together of functional components in the best possible combination so that the enterprise can accomplish its objectives.

Generally speaking, an organisation is the rational coordination of the activities of a number of people for the accomplishment of some common goals, through division of labour and function, and through a hierarchy of authority and responsibility.

Some writers on management have defined organisation as a structure of relationship between the various positions in the concern. This relationship is in the form of well-defined authority and responsibility in the formal structure.

McFarland has defined organisation, "as an identifiable group of people contributing their efforts towards the attainment of goals". Thus, the term organisation represents a particular group of individuals engaged in accomplishing common goals.

Organisation as a group bas certain features. They are as follows:

1. It is a cooperative relationship of two or more persons.
2. Its purpose is to accomplish certain goals.
3. Its members can communicate with each other.
4. The behaviour of the group is regulated through their own bye-laws.

In the words of Koontz and O'Donnell, "Organisation involves the grouping of activities necessary to accomplish goals and plans, the assignment of these acttivities to appropriate departments and the provision for authority delegation and coordination." Organisation as a process, therefore, is an executive function that consists of:

(i) breaking up the entire work into different segments,
(ii) assigning each segment to the qualified individuals, and
(iii) coordinating the efforts of job-holders to attain the organisational goals.