Organisational Behaviour and HR Basics Questions and Answers

Answer: B

Neoteny means being youthful, curious, playful, fearless, warm and energetic.

Warren Bennis and Robert Thomas, in Geeks and Geezers (2002), found that leaders of all ages shared neoteny, a biological term for the retention of youthful traits into adulthood. Older leaders who remained effective kept the curiosity, playfulness, openness and energy of youth.

Calm predictability under stress, encouraging dissent and empathy, and ambition and moral strength are other leadership qualities, but they are not what neoteny means.

Answer: C

Buzz sessions help in (c) and (d).

In a buzz session a large conference or class is broken into small groups that discuss a question for a few minutes and then report back. Small groups draw in people who would otherwise sit silent through the session (c), and they stimulate discussion and participation from members of each group (d).

Buzz sessions are a discussion technique; they do not by themselves make workers versatile (a) or more skilled and hardworking (b), which are aims of job rotation and skill training. So every option with (a) or (b) is wrong.

Answer: C

It is a Knowledge based system of pay.

In a knowledge-based (or skill-based) pay system, employees are paid for the range and depth of knowledge and skills they acquire, rather than for the job they currently hold. Learning new skills, for example being certified on additional machines, earns a pay increase.

Time-based and measured-day-work systems pay for hours worked or a standard output per hour. Profit sharing pays employees a share of the organisation's profits. None rewards learning.

Answer: D

The wrong ones are (c) and (d): the 'need theory' and the 'friendship theory'.

The recognised theories of labour welfare in Indian industrial relations texts include the policing theory, religion theory, philanthropic theory, trusteeship (paternalistic) theory, placating theory, public relations theory, functional (efficiency) theory and social theory. Trusteeship, placating, public relations and functional theory therefore appear in the list.

Neither a 'need theory' nor a 'friendship theory' is among them, so every option that names (a), (b), (e) or (f) as wrong is itself wrong.

Answer: B

The definition is given by Neil W Chamberlain.

Neil W. Chamberlain, in his work on collective bargaining, distinguished a relationship of 'conjunction', in which each party offers only the minimum needed to keep the relationship from breaking, from one of 'cooperation', in which both work to give their best. Conjunctive bargaining divides a fixed set of gains, while cooperative bargaining increases them.

Selig Perlman developed a theory of the labour movement based on job consciousness, Francis Walker wrote on wages, and Ian Clegg is not associated with this definition either.

Answer: D

The key places Robert Hoxie's theory in the Capitalist perspective.

Robert F. Hoxie, in Trade Unionism in the United States (1917), classified unions by function, with business unionism the dominant type: unions that accept the capitalist system and bargain within it for better wages and conditions for their members. His analysis treats unionism as a response of groups of workers within a capitalist economy, not as a step towards replacing it.

The communist and socialist perspectives, such as Marx's, see unions as instruments of class struggle against capitalism, and trusteeship is Gandhi's idea of industrial relations. None of these describes Hoxie's approach.

Answer: D

Organisation confrontation is also known as the Confrontation meeting.

The confrontation meeting is an organisation development intervention developed by Richard Beckhard (1967). In a one-day meeting the whole management group of an organisation identifies its problems, sets priorities and plans action, so that the organisation can 'confront' its problems quickly.

'Confrontation arrangement', 'confrontation discussion' and 'confrontation conference' are not the name of this technique.

Answer: A

The model was proposed by Rabi Kanungo and Sahi B. Mishra (Sasi Misra).

Rabindra Kanungo and Sasi Misra (1992) described managerial resourcefulness in terms of three kinds of competence: affective competence (managing emotions and relationships), intellectual competence (thinking and problem solving) and action-oriented competence (getting things done).

Robert Katz proposed technical, human and conceptual skills; Henry Mintzberg described managerial roles; and Thomas Durand proposed a knowledge, know-how and attitudes model of competence. None of them used this three-way classification.

Answer: D

International Obligations are not a direct source of industrial jurisprudence in India.

Industrial jurisprudence in India draws directly on the Constitution (its fundamental rights and directive principles), on legislative enactments such as the Industrial Disputes Act and the labour codes, and on judicial decisions of courts and tribunals, along with awards and settlements.

International obligations, such as ILO conventions India has ratified, influence Indian labour law, but they do not operate directly in the domestic courts until they are given effect through legislation. That makes them an indirect source.

Answer: D

The technique is Mind mapping.

A mind map puts the central topic in the middle of the page and lets related ideas branch outward from it in a radial, expanding pattern, with keywords, links and sub-branches added as the discussion develops. Used in a classroom, it turns the central point of the lesson into a dynamic picture of how the ideas connect.

Systemisation means arranging material into a fixed system, problem-orientation means organising teaching around problems to be solved, and 'idea protocol' is not an established technique. None of them starts from a central point and branches outward.