Organisational behaviour of farm workers as antecedent to the performance of pigs in organized farms

Abstract

The objective of the investigation was to study the relationship between organizational behaviour factors of farm workers and production performance parameters of pigs. The nine organized pig farms; seven under Kerala Animal Husbandry Department and the farms of Kerala Livestock Development Board and Kerala Agricultural University were the locale of the study. A total of 61 farm workers who actually involved with the animals on a daily basis and having a working experience of at least six months were the respondents. The data regarding the organizational behaviour factors viz. attitude towards the job, knowledge of pig keeping, skill in pig keeping and job satisfaction were collected from the respondents using structured interview schedule. Job performance and absenteeism were assessed through supervisory rating. The data on production parameters were collected from farm records. About two-third of the respondents were in the medium category for all the organizational behaviour factors. The respondents were satisfied the most with the job aspect 'opportunity for team work' and dissatisfied the most with 'scope to prove merit and excellence'. Intercorrelations of organizational behaviour factors were worked out using Kendall's tau-b rank order correlation. Significant positive correlations were observed between knowledge and skill; astitude and job satisfaction; knowledge and job satisfaction; knowledge and job performance and skill and job performance. Absenteeism had significant negative correlations with both job satisfaction and job performance. The relationship of organizational behaviour factors with production parameters was worked out using Spearman's rank order correlation. A significant negative correlation was found between attitude towards job and stillbirth per litter. Farm workers' knowledge and skill had significant negative correlations with

99 preweaning mortality. Skill had significant positive correlation with conception rate. Job satisfaction had significant negative correlations with weaning weight and weight gain of piglets. Absenteeism had significant positive correlations with preweaning mortality and mortality.