Day: October 31, 2021

JOB CHARACTERISTIC MODEL

In the 1960’s, a research conducted by industrial psychologists and management theorists stated that repetitive tasks given to employees were leading to demotivation in them and the mundane technique of production line work was resulting in lesser productivity among the workforce. Hackman and Oldham, designed a corporate psychology model named – The Job Characteristics Model, based on this research. These two psychologists proclaimed that job tasks are itself a motivation for the employees. Their theory also approved the fact that, monotonous job work causes dissatisfaction among people, whereas a challenging job enhances motivation. The Job Characteristics Model incorporates five core constituents – Skill Variety, Task Identity, Task Significance, Autonomy and Feedback.

  • SKILL VARIETY – It incorporates questions related to, job variety, if the job is challenging enough and whether the job profile monotonous and too easy for the employee. Generally, an employee does perceive a benefit if he/she gets a job profile consisting of various skills sets. A variety in skills at a workplace helps one to work better, learn more, create a happier corporate environment and also encourages one to get creative while tackling different situations.

For Instance – A construction site painter has a lesser skill variety than a corporate event planner who regularly gets in touch with new people, plans and executes several events.

  • TASK IDENTITY – Being able to identify with the work given and taking pride in outcome of the work completed, is essential to build a satisfied employee. Rather than constantly rendering employees with a single portion of a project, allowing them to handle the entire project, results in a happier employee. The degree of noticeable work completed by a single employee and him being identified by it, is an essential component of Task Identity.

For Instance – The Aston Martin cars designed by Ford Motors in England, has its every engine handmade and autographed by a single craftsman after 16 weeks of completion of the model.

  • TASK SIGNIFICANCE – It refers to the degree to which a worker feels his/her job contributes to the overall efforts of the organization and to the world at large. The workers perceive their job as meaningful when the significance of the task performed by them is high and vice versa. Research explains how increasing task significance is connected to enhancement of job performance.

For Instance – A web designer who curates a corporate web profile for XYZ firm single handedly, experiences a greater task significance than a worker working in a product assembly line.

  • AUTONOMY – It is associated with the freedom that a worker gets in an organization. The independence to plan the workday and set up new procedures that one would like to follow, increases the sense of responsibility in employee, which in turn contributes to a greater motivational force. Allowing the employees to decide their pace of work, order of task completion or even letting them have a greater control over their tasks encourages them to work better. So, as long as the standards of work are met and the work gets completed within the stipulated period of time, it is upto the individual employee to decide how the work can be carried out.

For Instance – The firm ‘Google’ is known for the autonomy that it provides to the staff. This has helped them to foster a happier work environment by ensuring that the staff feels valued.

  • FEEDBACK – It is a constructive method to ensure a steady development in the work. Effective feedback given by seniors is essential for employees to understand their current level of performance, provides a sense of engagement and activity and lets them know what can be done by them to reach a higher level. It helps promote positive changes, set new bars for the team, and gives an individual an overall realistic view of the happenings in the firm.

For Instance – Employing Positive, Negative or Corrective forms of feedback is said to create a clear and honest flow of communication between various levels of employees.

Several companies face the issues of employee absenteeism, higher rates of employee turnover, late marks and at times lower levels of employee productivity. The only modus operandi of tackling these issues is – ‘Employee Satisfaction’. Job Satisfaction helps the employees to work passionately, deliver their level best and stick to the organization even in the worst case scenarios. Doug Conant has rightly said, “To win in the marketplace, you must first win in the workplace”.

The Unknown

What is the unknown and why is one so afraid of it?

We humans are usually afraid of the dark, of what we cannot see and in the physical world tend to set boundaries and limitations. We often have second thoughts about things before we do or perform them, subconsciously making our mind think twice whether it would be a right decision or not. This is where most of us are often wrong because sometimes there are no right or wrong. They say ‘take a leap’ or ‘you never know until you try’ because life really is unpredictable. Some things that you thought would be difficult might not always be. But how would you know if you never give it a try?

If you ask an old aged man about his life he will probably tell you he doesn’t know how he get there but he sure is happy of all his experiences. To paint a bigger picture, Who are you? And what do you want in life? Can you be 100% sure of what your life would be in 10years? Can you guarantee that your love life will straight up perfect, a lovely family with beautiful little children?  

You need to understand and accept the fact that nobody is perfect in life. Or else you would have a miserable life, a lemon that you make yourself take.

One should never be too hard on himself and blame himself for the regretful things he have done. Nay, do away with what is called ‘regret’. Life is to go on and you gotta carry on living it. Don’t make it complicated for yourself

Teal Swan, a well  known mental and spiritual counselor once said “You don’t feel the unknown”. Its true, one cannot touch or know the feeling of what is not known. Its human nature that some days we don’t feel confident. Some days we isolate ourselves because we think nobody understands us and some days we become aggressive to everything that we came into contact with. And I understand some days we feel that all the ones around us don’t care about our feelings. But “The unknown is unknown, its nothing” she says. One should not be afraid to take the first step and not be afraid if people are gonna take advantage of you or not. This is life, we need to learn how to bypass the pangs of life, hold no grudge for others.

If people can do it, why can’t you?

nancytt58@gmail.com

Hobbies

The word ‘hobby’ is derived from “hobby horse”, which is a stick fitted with s wooden horse’s head, which children ride astride for their amusement. We still talk of man ‘riding’ his hobby. So a hobby is an amusement, properly it is an interesting pursuit, not our main business which we take up for our amusement in our leisure time. What is a business to a man may have gardening as his hobby; and a gardener may have photography as recreation.

Gardening

There are different kinds of hobbies. Many take the form of collecting in some form. Collecting postage stamps is a common hobby in England, not only with boys but with men too. Some make collections of wildflowers and ferns and press and mount their specimens. Others take an interest in geology and find much amusement in collecting fossils.

Other hobbies take the form of games and sports. Many take up open-air games, like golf, tennis, cricket or football, or indoor games such as chess, draughts, and cards as their hobbies while hunting or fishing or matching are the favorite recreations of others.

Fishing and having whale of a time.

Many people find great pleasure and interest in gardening; especially in cultivating some special flowers, like roses. And boys especially like keeping pets, such as dogs, rabbits, and fowls.

Everyone, young and old, should have a hobby of some sort for his leisure hours; for it adds to the pleasure of life. It is often an education in itself, and it fills our vacant hours with interest. It gives us also something to fall on when our business days are over in the leisure time at the end of life.

National Unity Day: As India pays tributes to Sardar Patel, know the history

Vallabhbhai Patel was dubbed “Sardar” (chief) for his leadership skills in leading the country through the struggle for independence and beyond, and most notably during the integration of the princely states and the India-Pakistan War of 1947.

India is celebrating October 31 as National Unity Day to pay tributes to veteran freedom fighter Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, who was also the country’s first home minister whose contribution in convincing many of the princely states to join the Union of India after Independence remains especially notable. As the country remains grateful for Patel’s crucial efforts leading to the integration of India, the day is celebrated as a homage to that “national unity”. The government in 2014 declared that Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel’s birth anniversary on October 31 will be celebrated as National Unity Day or Rashtriya Ekta Diwas.

History

Declaring in 2014 that India will henceforth celebrate National Unity Day on October 31, the central government said in an official statement that this occasion “will provide an opportunity to reaffirm the inherent strength and resilience of our nation to withstand the actual and potential threats to the unity, integrity, and security of our country.”

Vallabhbhai Patel was dubbed “Sardar” (chief) for his leadership skills in leading the country through the struggle for independence and beyond, and most notably during the integration of the princely states and the India-Pakistan War of 1947.

Sardar Patel achieved the incredible feat of persuading almost every single one of the 565 self-governing princely states, that had been released from British suzerainty, to accede to the Union of India. For his commitment to the national integration of the newly independent country, Sardar Patel earned the sobriquet “Iron Man of India”.

Significance

On National Unity Day, a pledge is read out in government offices:

“I solemnly pledge that I dedicate myself to preserve the unity, integrity, and security of the nation and also strive hard to spread this message among my fellow countrymen. I take this pledge in the spirit of unification of my country which was made possible by the vision and actions of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. I also solemnly resolve to make my own contribution to ensure the internal security of my country.”

By official order, all government offices, public sector undertakings (PSUs), and other public institutions are required to arrange the pledge-taking ceremony on October 31 to observe the Rashtriya Ekta Diwas.

The ministry of human resource development has also issued instructions to allow students of schools and colleges to be administered the Rashtriya Ekta Diwas pledge to motivate them to strive to maintain the unity and integrity of the country.

Right to Equality (Article 14-18)

As a citizen of India, we know that our constitution has endowed us with factual rights but very few of us know about it in the depth, can’t say if it is ignorance or lack of awareness among people. Let us know about Article 14

It says that the State shall not deny to any person equality before the law or the equal protection of the laws within the territory of India.

  • It is avalaible to any person including any legal person viz. statutory corporation, companies, etc
  • The cocept of equality before law is of British origin while the concept of equal protection of laws has been taken from the Constitution of USA.
  • The concept of rule of law is a negative concept while the concept of equal protection of laws is a positive concept.
  • The concept of equality before law is equivalent to the second element of the concept of the ‘rule of law’ propounded by A.D.Dicey, the British jurist. But certain exceptions to it arer, the President of India, State Governors, Public Servants, Judges, Foriegn Diplomats, etc., who enjoy immunities, protections and special priviledges.

Never give up

Failure is only opportunity  to begin again, this time more intelligently.            -Henry Ford
World is a movie of ups and downs, we all are its main characters  trying to make our way up to the top.
Only thing which makes the difference is our attitude, that do we push forward to overcome problems  or just simply  give up.
Never give up doesn’t mean to keep doing same thing in same way what we need is to analyze and be smart enough to change when needed.
A real life example of the physi. Of never give up is ” Japan ” a country which has faced nuclear bombings and still face tsunami  and earthquakes  from time to time. But still it bounce back.
Your life is in your hand you are its director, give it an ending  you like. Just have courage and stand up to the problems.
One thing you need is ” never give up”.