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

The Joint Management Council was to be composed of not more than twelve members consisting of equal number of representatives of management and employees.

In case of small undertakings, the number of the members of the Joint Management Council was reduced to six, subject to the provision that the quorum should be four, two on each side and the decision was expected to be taken unanimously.

The trade union was authorised to nominate the employees representatives to the Joint Management Council. But where more than one union existed, the representation was to be made on the basis of the agreement among the unions.

There was to be no bar to the members of the supervisory and technical staff to be nominated as employees' representatives, but in case of non-employee representatives, it was provided that the trade union could appoint to the extent of 25 per cent of its quota.

The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry was founded in 1927 by G.D. Birla and Purushottam Takkar on the advice of Mahatma Gandhi. Till the establishment of the AIOIE in 1932, its industrial relations function. was confined mainly to nominating employers' delegates to the International Labour Conference and taking up labour matters with the government occasionally.

In view of the ILO's objection to the FICCI being considered by the government of India as the most representative employers' organization authorized to nominate their delegates, the FICCI announced the establishment of the AIOIE for the purpose.

Presently, the FICCI has membership of about 1,500 corporates and 500 Chambers of Commerce and business houses. The organization is now concerned with economic, financial and business interests of its members and takes up industrial relations and labour matters only occasionally.

The Industrial Policy Resolution of 1956 had as its objective the acceleration of the rate of economic growth and the speeding up of industrialisation as a means of achieving a socialist pattern of society. In 1956, capital was scarce and the base of entrepreneurship not very strong.

Hence, the 1956 Industrial Policy Resolution gave primacy to the role of the state to assume a predominant and direct responsibility for industrial development. The main provisions of the 1956 Resolution were:

(i) New Classification of Industries: The resolution laid down three categories which bear a close resemblance to the earlier classification, but were more sharply defined and were broader in coverage as to the role of the State. These categories were:

(a) Schedule A : Those which were to be an exclusive responsibility of the State;

(b) Schedule B: Those which were to be progressively state-owned and in which the state would generally set up new enterprises, but in which private enterprise would be expected only to supplement the effort of the State; and

(c) Schedule C: All the remaining industries and their future development would, in general, be left to the initiative and enterprise of the private sector.

(ii) Fair and non-discriminatory treatment for the private sector: In order to ensure that the private sector feels confident and functions efficiently the State was to facilitate and encourage the development of industries in the private sector by ensuring the development of transport, power and other services, and by appropriate fiscal and other measures. When there exist both private and publicly owned units in the same industry, it would continued to be the policy of the State to give full and nondiscriminatory treatment to both of them.

(iii) Encouragement to village and smallscale enterprises: The State would support cottage, village and small-scale enterprises by restricting volume of production in the large-scale sector, by differential taxation, or by direct subsidies.

(iv) Removing regional disparities : The Resolution stressed the necessity of reducing the regional disparities in levels of development in order that industrialisation may benefit the country as a whole.

(v) The need for the provision of amenities of labour: The Resolution also recognised that in a socialist democracy, labour is a partner in the common task of development. So it should participate in it with enthusiasm and for this the maintenance of industrial peace is one of the essential conditions.

(vi) Attitude towards foreign capital: The Resolution made it quite clear, "that as a rule, the major interest in ownership and effective control, should always be in Indian hands. In all cases, however, the training of suitable Indian personnel for the purpose of eventually replacing foreign experts will be insisted upon." While recognising the need for foreign capital in the industrialisation of the economy, the Government insisted upon the progressive Indianisation of foreign concerns (through equity dilution).

Contingency Approach: It is concerned with the analysis of interaction of specific organizations with their external environment and the adoption of structure to meet the requirements of the situation. This approach suggests that there is no one best way to handle any of the management problems and there is no best organizational structure to suit all situations.

(i) Contingency approach is an improvement over the systems and other approaches. It suggests that managerial actions and organizational design must be appropriate to the given situation.

(ii) Contingency approach is action-oriented as it is directed towards the application of systems concepts and the knowledge gained from other approaches. Contingency views are ultimately directed toward suggesting organizational designs and managerial actions most appropriate for specific situations.

(iii) Managerial action is contingent upon external environment. There is no one best approach for all situations. What a manager does depends upon a given situation and there is an active interrelationship between the variables in a situation and the managerial action.

Contingency theory attempts to analyse and understand interrelationships with a view towards taking the specific managerial actions necessary to deal with the issue. This approach is both analytical and situational with the purpose of developing a practical answer to the question at hand.

Feed Forward or Pre-Control: The feed forward or pre-control system of control involves evaluation of inputs and taking corrective action before a particular sequence of operations is completed. In this system of control problems are anticipated which the management may be likely to encounter in the future.

It identifies the steps to be taken for the purpose of overcoming these obstacles. It is an attempt to anticipate deviations in advance of the occurrence and attempts corrective actions to be initiated in advance of the problem. Thus, it is also called Predictive Control. It is based on timely and accurate information regarding changes in the environment.

If the correct information is not available on time, this system of control will be imperfect. It follows the same principle that an organisation is not stronger than its weakest link. If a machine is not functioning properly in an organisation, its operator should look for the problematic areas. The same logic is applied in feed forward control.

It is essential to determine and monitor critical inputs in any operating system. An example of this system of control is preventive maintenance programmes. They employed to prevent breakdown of machinery. This control system can also be applied regarding a policy on absenteeism which may be communicated to employees when they arc appointed so that they do not take leaves of absence without permission.

It is the more aggressive approach to control because corrections can be made before the system output is affected This system of control is expensive.

It attempts to remove a lime lag which occurs in taking corrective action. It can be a success if the following guidelines are followed:

(1) Total planning and analysis should be conducted.

(2) While selection of input variables, careful discrimination must be applied.

(3) There should be regular collection and assessment of data on input variables.

(4) The feed forward control system should be dynamic.

(5) If feed forward control system suggests any corrective action, it should be taken immediately.

Specialization: Taylor advocated functional foremanship for achieving specialization. This technique was developed to improve the quality of work as single supervisor may not be an expert in all the aspects of the work. Therefore workers are to be supervised by several specialists (foremen).

This means that subordinates receives orders from several specialists, managers working above them. Taylor suggested eight functional foremen under his scheme of functional foremanship. This is because one foreman cannot be an expert in all the functions.

Different Schools of Thought on Conflict: The traditional view of conflict believes that conflict of all kinds is harmful and must be avoided. According to this school of thought, conflict serves no useful purpose because it distracts managers' attention and diverts their energy and resources. Therefore, conflict should be avoided.

It views conflict as a dysfunctional outcome resulting from poor communication, a lack of openness and trust between people, and the failure of managers to be responsive to the needs and aspirations of their employees. Since all conflicts are bad, efforts should be made to find out the causes of conflict and correct them in order to improve group and organizational performance.

This view of conflict prevailed during 1930s and 1940s. The human relations view of conflict believes that conflict is natural and is an inevitable outcome in any group. It should be accepted as a reality. Sometimes, conflict leads to improvement in group performance and it can be a desirable state.

Successful management of conflict does not mean total elimination of conflict rather it involves both sustaining a target level of conflict and selecting a conflict-reduction strategy to handle conflict when it disrupts performance or interpersonal relations. This view dominated conflict theory from the late 1940s through the mid-1970s.

The interactionist view of conflict believes that conflict is not only a positive force in a group but also it is absolutely necessary for a group to perform effectively. It is based on the belief that a harmonious, peaceful, tranquil and cooperative group is prone to become static, apathetic and non-responsive to the need for change and innovation.

In situations that call for creativity and when discussion of alternatives are needed (as when resisting a tendency towards groupthink), the stimulation of conflict is one of the solutions to handle the situation. Managers can purposely create conflict to keep the group viable, self-critical and creative.

In fact, Porter and Lawler's theory is an improvement over Vroom's expectancy theory. They posit that motivation does not equal satisfaction or performance. The model suggested by them encounters some of the simplistic traditional assumptions made about the positive relationship between satisfaction and performance.

They proposed a multivariate model to explain the complex relationship that exists between satisfaction and performance. What is the main point in Porter and Lawler's model is that effort or motivation does not lead directly to performance.

It is, in fact, mediated by abilities and traits and by role perceptions. Ultimately, performance leads to satisfaction. The same is depicted in the below Fig. There are three main elements in this model. Let us briefly discuss these one by one.

Effort: Effort refers to the amount of energy an employee exerts on a given task. How much effort an employee will put in a task is determined by two factors-(i) value of reward and (ii) perception of effort-reward probability.

Performance: One's effort leads to his/her performance. Both may be equal or may not be. However, the amount of performance is determined by the amount of labour and the ability and role perception of the employee. Thus, if an employee possesses less ability and/or makes wrong role perception, his/her performance may be low in spite of his putting in great efforts.

Satisfaction: Performance leads to satisfaction. The level of satisfaction depends upon the amount of rewards one achieves. If the amount of actual rewards meet or exceed perceived equitable rewards, the employee will feel satisfied. On the country, if actual rewards fall short of perceived ones, he/she will be dissatisfied.

There is no denying of the fact that the motivation model proposed by Porter and Lawler is quite complex than other models of motivation. In fact, motivation itself is not a simple cause-effect relationship rather it is a complex phenomenon. Porter and Lawler have attempted to measures variables such as the values of possible rewards, the perception of effort-rewards probabilities, and role perceptions in deriving satisfaction.

They recommended that the managers should carefully reassess their reward system and structure. The effort-performance-rewardsatisfaction should be made integral to the entire system of managing men in organisation.

Fiedler's Contingency Leadership: A situational theory that has been influential in the leadership literature is Fiedler's contingency leadership theory (1967). This theory identified contingencies in terms of situational favourableness (i.e., the degree a situation enables a leader to exert influence over a group).

Fiedler focused on three key factors: (1) leader-member relations: the degree to which the employees accept the leader; (2) task structure: the degree to which subordinates' jobs are described in detail; and (3) position power: the amount of formal authority the leader possesses by virtue of his or her position in the organization.