UGC NET COMMERCE December 2018 Q34
- Option : C
- Explanation : Managerial Skills and Competencies: Skills of managers have now become an important factor to address global competitiveness both at organizational and national level. However, because of the problem of quantification of benefits, imparting skills through training and development is yet not recognized as an important initiative at organizational level for problem of quantification of benefits. Skill is defined as a coordinated series of actions that serves to attain some goal or accomplish a particular task. Operationally, skills are defined widely as overt responses and controlled stimulation. Overt responses may be verbal, motor or perceptual. Verbal response typically stresses on speaking (which requires memorization of words); motor response stresses on movements of limbs and body, whereas, perceptual responses stress on understanding of sensory response. Controlled stimulation, on the other hand, are energy inputs to the workers, which we express in units of frequency, length, time and weight. Technological change and skill requirements have been made a subject of investigation in enormous studies across the world. There is a general consensus that a technological change alters the job but the observations differ in its nature and form. The Neo-c1assical Economic Theory advocated technological changes that require broader variety of skills and higher than average skills from the workers. New forms of skill and responsibility along with technological changes have been studied in Continuous Process Industry and Chemical Manufacturing Units, Petroleum Refining, Metal Working Industries, Banking Operations and in many other industries. Another school of thought advocates that technology is instrumental in fractionating and de-skilling of jobs. Redesigning of jobs subsequent to technological change separates the planning and the concept of job in its totality from the execution aspect of work. De-skilling and skill downgrading also occur due to differential growth of higher-versus low-skill occupations and industries. The focal point of this hypothesis is that the technology induces differential point of growth for different sectors of the economy and produces skill polarization by eventual occupational shift to skilled jobs in some industries and unskilled jobs in many others. These phenomena are especially evident in India. From the 1981 Census Reports onwards, we find a major occupational shift of workers from primary sector to secondary sector and from secondary sector to tertiary sector. Simultaneous structural change in occupational pattern is also evident, as the number of blue-collar workers has been drastically reduced while the number of white-collar workers has significantly increased.
