Unit 7: Extension Management & Organizational Behaviour
Running an extension organisation: management functions, structure, supervision, motivation, leadership and conflict.
What this unit covers
Unit 7 covers both halves of running an extension organisation: the management functions on one side, and the human behaviour inside the organisation on the other. ATMA and the KVK system sit here, and both are asked so often that a descriptive answer alone will not score. What separates a good answer is the critical part: vacancies, nominal participation, activity-count targets and weak convergence are the criticisms an examiner is waiting to see.
The unit is broken into 10 syllabus areas, listed below. ASRB has set 16 descriptive questions from it that are on record, and there are 105 practice questions for it on this site.
Syllabus areas in this unit
- Management concepts and functions: planning, organising, staffing, directing, controlling
- Organisational structure, span of control, delegation and decentralisation
- Extension administration in India: state departments, ATMA, KVKs, SAUs, ICAR
- Supervision, monitoring and performance appraisal of extension staff
- Leadership theories and leadership styles in extension
- Motivation theories: Maslow, Herzberg, McGregor, McClelland
- Communication and coordination within organisations
- Group dynamics, team building and conflict management
- Organisational climate, culture and change management
- Decision making and management by objectives
Key concepts
ATMA. The Agricultural Technology Management Agency, a registered society at district level that coordinates extension across line departments under a decentralised, bottom-up planning model.
Span of control. The number of subordinates one supervisor can effectively manage. In field extension it is constrained by distance as much as by numbers.
Herzberg's two-factor theory. Separates hygiene factors, whose absence causes dissatisfaction, from motivators, whose presence causes satisfaction.
Previous year questions from Unit 7
Descriptive questions ASRB has actually set from this unit, with the year in brackets.
- McClelland's need theory (2014)
- Explain about Maslow hierarchy (2021)
- Explain Neo-Classical theory of management? (2023)
- Write notes on organizational climate (2016)
- Team building types (2014)
- Write limitations for local leaders (2021)
- What is leadership and different leadership style? (2023)
- Define Decision making. Tools in Decision making (2014)
16 previous year questions from this unit in total. The full list is on the PYQ page.
Practice for this unit
- 105 descriptive practice questions across 5, 10 and 15 marks, in the Mains section.
- Objective practice for this unit in the MCQ section, with ASRB marking and full analysis.
- Full-length tests that draw on this unit alongside the other nine, in the mock tests.
The other units
- Unit 1: Fundamentals of Extension Education & Communication
- Unit 2: Extension Methods & Agricultural Journalism
- Unit 3: Information Communication Technologies
- Unit 4: Training & Human Resource Development
- Unit 5: Research Methodology in Extension Education
- Unit 6: Programme Planning, Evaluation & Impact Assessment
- Unit 7: Extension Management & Organizational Behaviour (this page)
- Unit 8: Entrepreneurial Development
- Unit 9: Agricultural Innovation System & Extension Approaches
- Unit 10: Gender Sensitization & Empowerment