Management and Labour Studies

The global economic slowdown has necessitated strategies such as downsizing, restructuring, etc. This has widely affected the employees, whether they are the victims or survivors. While the victims have always been a matter of concern, the present paper examines the psychological status of the survivors. The review of literature takes into account recent empirical findings on dimensions such as motivation, commitment, etc of the survivors. Along with interpretation of existing dimension we present the possible impact on behavioral outcomes as communication, leadership, etc. These empirical studies have shown evidences contrary to commonsense rationale and linkages. While workforce reduction has become inevitable, if certain processes are taken care of, the transition becomes smoother or else the whole exercise of cutting costs might backfire.

The present paper intends to study the effect of progressive muscle relaxation on executives with coronary heart disease. The main objectives of the study were to compare the job stress level, coping strategies and personality type of public sector senior executives with and without CHD. The Sample for the study consisted of 70 senior executives from B.H.E.L, Bhopal. To have a comparative study of the variables, matched group design was opted. The findings reveal that there is significant difference in the stress levels, coping strategies and personality type among executives with and without CHD. Executives with CHD had more job stress, ineffective coping strategies and type A personality in comparison to the executives without CHD. Further, the practice of progressive muscle relaxation brings significant reduction in the stress levels of CHD patients.

This study investigated relative uses of computer programming job characteristics across different organizations and effects of different demographic variables on job analysis ratings. Data were collected from 201 computer programers of 6 different organizations through checklist. Principal component analysis noted four mostly used job characteristics as program writing and testing, human relations, data analysis and user satisfaction. Of them only data analysis differed among different organizations significantly. No significant main and interaction effects of the demographic variables on job analysis ratings were noted. Results were explained in terms of different human resource program design.

The increasing potential hazards to health resulting from unsafe occupational environment are creating an alarming situation and promotion of occupational health and well being has become an issue of great concern.

In recent years, there has been a growing multinational awareness of, and interest in matters of individual physical/psychosocial occupational environment. With the advancements in technological process, physical and chemical hazards in the working environment have been controlled to some extent resulting in reduced occupational diseases and accidents but on the other side, there is an out-spurt of psycho-social stress which has not so far been seriously taken care of. The present paper attempts to draw the attention of occupational health professionals in the field of psychosocial stress and its role in overall organizational health and well being. Several health promoting strategies (individual/organizational) have also been suggested with special reference to the sense of coherence model, consideration of psychological requirements of personnel, bio-feedback and relaxation technique.

Employee relations are the medium through which both employees and the company mutually co-operate for the maximum satisfaction of the economic, social and psychological wants of all people. The objectives of the study are: (1) to analyse the employee relations climate existing at various levels and (2) to identify the various employee attitudes which determines the employee relations in an organised public sector company. It is concluded that Working conditions, Level of supervision, Communication, worker participation, inter personal relationship etc., induce the employee relation climate in the organisation. By improving these factors, a conducive climate can be achieved. Effective and frequent Counseling for the employees and frequent meetings in all levels of the organisation would also influence the climate, which would result in improved climate and productivity.

Today, organizations are facing threat of survival and growth. They can be successful by collective effort and commitment of all employees. An empirical study was conducted to identify determinants of organizational commitment including organizational and individual characteristics. Organization structure, and communication were taken as organizational characteristics, Age, work experience, educational qualification, and locus of control were considered as individual characteristics. Data have been collected from public sector, private sector and multinational corporations. Senior and middle level executives participated in the study. Among all independent variables, organizational structure, communication and educational qualification were found, as significant predictor of organizational commitment. Independent variables explained 27.05% of variance. Implications of the findings have been discussed for developing human resource policies.

Any attempt at teaching Ethics in disciplines other than Philosophy should be well justified. One justification is that through ethics teaching across the curriculum, pre-professionals and professionals get well equipped to apply ethical theories to resolve moral crises in practical life. One example is popular enough, i.e., through ethical teaching we prepare competent professionals in our business schools, who may further apply this knowledge in their field as well as assume the role of ethics consultants to resolve moral crisis in the field of management. I have tried to show why such a justification is completely unfounded. A critique of this justification leads us to know what applying ethics consists in and, in what sense teaching ethics across the curriculum, for instance, in business management curriculum may be useful.