UGC NET/JRF EXAM, June-2021 Labour and Social Welfare

Cognitive approach emphasizes the positive and freewill aspects of human behaviour and uses concepts such as expectancy, demand, and intention. Cognition can be simply defined as the act of knowing an item of information. In cognitive framework, cognitions precede behaviour and constitute input into the person's thinking, perception, problem solving, and information processing.

Under this framework, cognitions precede behaviour and constitute input into the person's thinking, perception, problem solving, and information processing. Concepts such as cognitive maps can be used as pictures or visual aids in comprehending a person's "understanding of particular, and selective, elements of the thoughts (rather than thinking) of an individual, group or organization".

The classic work of Edward Tolman can be used to represent the cognitive theoretical approach. According to Tolman, learning consists of the expectancy that a particular event will lead to a particular consequence. Tolman believed behaviour to be the appropriate unit of analysis. He felt that behaviour is purposive, that it is directed toward a goal.

In his laboratory experiments, he found that animals learned to expect that certain events would follcw one another. For example, animals learned to behave as if they expected food when a certain.cue appeared. He used white rat in his psychological experiment of Cognitive theory. He found that the rat could run through critical path with particular intention of getting food (goal/ objective).

In the experiment, Tolman established certain choice points where expectations were established. The rat learned cognitive cues at various choice points, which would raise its expectation to move forward to the objective (food). Thus the rat turned to acquire food, based on relationship of Cues and Reward or expectations.

This theory was later applied on human resources where incentives were related to higher performance. Thus, Tolman believed that learning consists of the expectancy that a particular event will lead to a particular consequence. This cognitive concept of expectancy implies that the organism is thinking about, or is conscious or aware of, the goal.

Applied to the field of organizational behaviour, a cognitive approach has traditionally dominated units of analysis such as personality, perception, and attitudes, motivation and goal setting, and positive constructs such as psychological capital.

Recently, there has been renewed interest in the role that cognitions can play in organizational behaviour in terms of advancement in both theory and research on social cognition. This social cognitive process can be a unifying theoretical framework for both cognition and behaviourism.

Job Specification: While job description focuses on the job, job specification focuses on the person i.e., the job holder. Job specification is a statement of the minimum levels of qualifications, skills, physical and other abilities, experience, judgment and attributes required for performing job effectively. In other words, it is a statement of the minimum acceptable qualifications that an incumbent must possess to perform a given job. It sets forth the knowledge, skills and abilities required to do the job effectively. Job specification specifies the physical, psychological, personal, social and behavioural characteristics of the job holders.

Usages of Job Specification: The usages of job specification include:

(1) Personnel planning
(2) Performance appraisal
(3) Hiring
(4) Training and development
(5) Job evaluation and compensation
(6) Health and safety
(7) Employee discipline
(8) Work scheduling

Register of Adult Workers (Sections 62 and 63):

(i) The manager of every factory shall maintain a register of adult workers showing (a) the name of each adult worker in the factory,
(b) the nature of his work,
(c) the group, if any, in which he is included,
(d) where his group works on shifts, the relay to which he is allotted, and
(e) such other particulars as may be prescribed.

(ii) The register shall be available to the Inspector at all times during working hours, or when any work is being carried on in the factory.

(iii) If the Inspector is of opinion that any muster-roll or register maintained as part of the routine of a factory gives the above particulars in respect of workers, he may direct that such muster-roll or register shall be treated as the register of adult workers in that factory [Section 62 (1)].

(iv) No adult worker shall be required or allowed to work in any factory unless his name and other particulars have been entered in the register of adult workers [Section 62 (1-A)].

(v) The State Government may prescribe the form of the register of adult workers, the manner in which it shall be maintained and the period for which it shall be preserved [Section 62 (2)]. Further no adult worker shall be required or allowed to work in any factory otherwise than in accordance with the notice of periods of work for adults displayed in the factory and the entries made beforehand against his name in the register of adult workers of the factory (Section 63).

Protective Labour Legislations: Under this category come those legislations whose primary purpose is to protect labour standards and improve the working conditions.

Laws laying down the minimem labour standards in the areas of hours of work, supply, employment of children and women etc. in the factories, mines, plantations, transport, shops and other establishments are included in this category. Some of the Acts falling under this category are:

• The Factories Act, 1948
• The Mines Act, 1952
• The Plantations Labour Act, 1951
• The Motor Transport Workers Act, 1961
• The Shops and Establishments Acts passed by various States The Beedi and Cigar Workers Act, 1966

The Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996-This act came to force on the 1st March, 1996.

It aims to regulate the employment and conditions of service of building and other construction workers and to provide for their safety, health and welfare measures and for other matters connected there with.

It is applicable to every establishment which employees ten or more building workers in any building or other construction work.

Articles 36 to 51: deal with the provisions of the Directive Principles which arc contained in Part IV of the Constitution. This novel feature of the Constitution has been adopted from the Constitution of the Ireland.

Article 38(i): The State shall strive to promote the welfare of the people by securing and protecting as effectively as it may a social order in which justice, social, economic and political, shall inform all the institutions of the national life.

The Heckscher-Ohlin model (H-O model) is a general equilibrium mathematical model of international trade, developed by Eli Heckscher and Bertil Ohlin at the Stockholm School of Economics.

It builds on David Ricardo's theory of comparative advantage by predicting patterns of trade and production based on the factor endowments of a trading region.

The model essentially says that countries will export products that utilize their abundant factor(s) of production und import products that utilize the countries' scarce factor(s).

According to Armstrong, 'Performance management is a means of getting better results from the organization, teams and individuals by understanding and managing performance within an agreed framework of planned goals, standards and competence requirements.

It is a process for establishing shared understanding about what is to be achieved and an approach to managing and developing people in a way that increases the probability that it will be achieved in the short and longer term'.

Human Resource Audit: An audit is a means by which an organization can measure where it currently stands and determine what it has to accomplish to improve its human resource function. It involves systematically reviewing all aspects of human resources, usually in a check list fashion, ensuring that government regulations and company policies are being adhered to. Human resource audit is a systematic assessment of the strengths, limitations and developmental needs of its existing human resources in the context of organizational performance.