Job efficiency of panchayat level agricultural officers of department of agriculture in Kerala

Abstract

The study aimed to examine the job efficiency of Agricultural Officers of State Department of Agriculture. The study was conducted in three Agro climatic zones of Kerala State covering six districts, two each from the zones. The selected districts were Pathanamthitta, Kottayam, Ernakulam, Thrissur, Kozhikode and Kannur. From each district, one agricultural sub – division was randomly selected. Finally 154 Agricultural Officers were selected for the main study and analysis and interpretation were carried out with the responses obtained from 115 respondents. The job efficiency was measured with the help of a scale developed for the study and rated by the Assistant Directors of the selected Agricultural Officers. BARS technique was used to develop the job efficiency scale. A pilot study was conducted to screen independent variables and finally ten personal and situational related variables were selected. Data were collected through structured interview schedule and mailed questionnaire. The job dimension identified empirically were ‘planning’, ‘coordination’, ‘human relation’, office management’, ‘professional competency’ and ‘farmer development’. In general, more than half of the Agricultural officers had high job efficiency. Similarly, in the case of job dimensions majority of them fall under the category of high group except ‘office management’ dimension. There was no significant difference between overall job efficiency of the Agricultural officers among the three zones. At the same time, there was significant difference among the Agricultural Officers of the zone in the job dimensions namely, ‘coordination’, ‘office management’ and ‘professional competency’. The personal and situational related variables namely, attitude towards profession, self confidence, intrinsic motivation, job satisfaction, job involvement, technical competency, communication behaviour, organizational climate, guidance and supervision and facilities and resources put together contributed significantly to the efficiency of Agricultural Officers and explained 77 per cent of the variation in job efficiency. The best sub - set of variables for predicting the variation in job efficiency were communication behaviour, technical competency and self confidence. The ‘communication behaviour’ and ‘technical competency’ were the two variables influencing all the job efficiency dimensions to a substantial extent. Next to these two variables, ‘self confidence’ was found to be influencing all the dimensions except ‘human relation,. The variables like ‘organisational climate’, attitude towards profession’, ‘intrinsic motivation’ were also found to be important in this respect. The major constraints perceived by the Agricultural Officers were ‘more number of programmes’, ‘lack of sufficient knowledge about programmes of sister departments’, ‘lack of sufficient knowledge on personnel management’, ‘inadequate office facilities’, ‘lack of skill oriented trainings on viable technology’ and ‘administrative delay in disbursing subsidies and other benefits to farmers’.