JEE Journal of Extension Education Vol. 27 No. 4, 2015 The current day challenges in agriculture is focusing on higher profit by effective resource utilisation. The government’s interventions also remained focused to achieve this major goal and provide technological support to farmers through extension services, provide inputs and make them entrepreneurs. One such measure taken by government of Tamilnadu is restructuring the State Department of Agriculture (SDA) to give more emphasis to block level extension. A study was conducted with an objective to study the association and contribution of profile characteristics of block level officials and their role performance in reorganized extension system. Association and Contribution of Profile Characteristics of Block Level Officials and Their Role Performance in the Reorganized Extension System S. Parthasarathi1 and R. Ganesan2 ABSTRACT Reorganisation of extension system as per the advances in the farming system is inevitable. The changes should meet the challenges of farmers and also should address the extension system. A study was conducted in Cuddalore district of Tamilnadu to assess the association and contribution of seven selected profile characteristics of block level officials viz., Assistant Director of Agriculture, Agricultural Officers and Assistant Agricultural Officers and their role performance in the reorganized extension system which focuses on block level. The profile charactersistics such as experience, workload perception, job involvement and time management were found to have positive and significant relationship with the role performance of the ADA. Organizational climate and experience were found to have positive and significant relationship for AOs and experience and job involvement were found significant for AAOs. METHODOLOGY The study was conducted in Cuddalore District which has different farming situations. The 62 extension officials available in the 13 blocks of Cuddalore district were taken as whole. The block extension officials include 13 Assistant Directors of Agriculture (ADAs), 21 Agriculture/ Deputy Agriculture Officers (AOs / Dy. AOs) and 28 Assistant Agriculture Officers (AAOs). The questionnaire was finalized based on focus group discussion, discussion with extension scientists and officials of SDA. The information about the duties and responsibilities of ADAs, AOs / Dy. AOs and AAOs were collected from the job charts as 1-Assistant Professor, PAJANCOA & RI, Karaikal, Puducherry and 2 - Former Dean, AC &RI, Killikulam, Thoothukudi District, Tamil Nadu. Received : 13 Jan, 2016; Accepted : 12 Apr, 2016 5565Association and Contribution of Profile Characteristics of Block Level Officials and Their Role Performance in the Reorganized Extension System prescribed by the government. Role performance, was operationalised as the extent to which an extension worker is able to effectively carry out his roles prescribed in the job chart. In order to assess the role performance self-rating method was followed. Correlation and regression analysis were employed to find out the association and relationship between role performance and independent variables. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION The findings of the association and contribution of role performance with the profile characteristics of officials is discussed below. Association and contribution of profile characteristics of ADAs and their role performance The correlation analysis indicated the variable organizational climate to be significantly associated with role performance at one per cent level of probability. The variables viz., experience, workload perception, job involvement and time management were found to have positive and significant relationship with the role performance of the ADAs at five per cent level of probability as shown in Table 1. The guidance and supervision, interpersonal relations, team work and proposed facilities Table 1. Association and Contribution between Profile of the ADAs and Their Role Performance to be established in the BAECs, made them to realize conducive organizational climate might have resulted in the positive contribution of this variable with the role performance of the ADAs. By virtue of experience at various cadre and effective in managing their time towards various activities would also have resulted a positive relationship with the role performance. Further, the ‘F’ value was 1.665, which was positive, and significantly influence at one per cent level. The regression analysis indicated that all the independent variables taken together explained a significant amount of variation on role performance. The R2 value reveals that all the seven independent variables explained to the extent of 85.00 per cent of variation in role performance of ADAs. (n=12) R2 =0.850 ** - Significant at 0.01 level ; F =1.665* - Significant at 0.05 level; Standard Error = 1.086 NS- Non significant Sl.No. Variables ‘r’ value Partial regression Standard error ‘t’ value co-efficient 1. Age 0.544 NS 0.240 1.314 0.183 NS 2. Experience 0.786* -0.558 1.014 2.550* 3. Workload Perception 0.532* -0.120 0.806 -0.149 NS 4. Job Involvement 0.346* -0.012 0.092 1.135 NS 5. Job Stress -0.327 NS 0.393 0.895 -0.136 NS 6. Time Management 0.538* -0.311 0.807 2.386* 7. Organizational Climate 0.748** 0.085 0.187 2.454* Journal of Extension Education5566 The variables viz., time management and organizational climate exhibited positive and significant contribution towards the role performance of ADAs. This indicates that an increase in organizational climate by one unit would increase the level of ADAs role performance. Similar is the case with the other variable time management. Association and contribution of profile characteristics of AOs / Dy. AOs and their role performance The variables viz., organizational climate, experience and workload perception, job involvement and time management were found to have positive and significant Sl.No. Variables ‘r’ value Partial regression Standard error ‘t’ value co-efficient 1. Age 0.348 NS 0.577 0.344 1.674 NS 2. Experience 0.674** -0.423 0.327 2.294* 3. Workload Perception 0.455* 0.337 0.399 0.845 NS 4. Job Involvement 0.582* -0.092 0.062 -1.476 NS 5. Job Stress -0.087 NS -0.051 0.139 -0.370 NS 6. Time Management 0.452* -0.264 0.373 -0.707 NS 7. Organizational Climate 0.540** 0.185 0.107 3.724** Table 2. Association and contribution of profile characteristics of AOs / Dy. AOs and their role performance (n=21) R2 =0.634 ** - Significant at 0.01 level; F =1.932 * - Significant at 0.05 level; Standard Error = 3.621 NS- Non significant relationship. The reorganized setup of the department would give them more focus in their activities. Thus the AOs / Dy. AOs feel a conducive organizational climate. The experience gained by them would also help to perform their role effectively. Effective time management, work commitment also make them to execute their role effectively as depicted in Table 2. The calculated ‘F’ value was found to have positive and significant influence at five per cent level of probability. The R2 value shows 63.40 per cent of contribution by the seven independent variables. Data in Table 2 show the contributed variables viz., organizational climate and experience found to have positive and significant at five per cent and one per cent level of probability of regression coefficient respectively. It could be inferred that the experience would pave way for better performance of their assigned role. The favourable organizational climate also paves a platform for them in delivery of role. It could be inferred that a unit increase in experience would lead to an increase in a unit of role performance of the AOs / Dy.AOs. Association and contribution of profile characteristics of AAOs and their role performance It could be observed from Table 3 that out of seven variables, organizational climate alone was found to have positive and significant association with the role 5567Association and Contribution of Profile Characteristics of Block Level Officials and Their Role Performance in the Reorganized Extension System Sl.No. Variables ‘r’ value Partial regression Standard error ‘t’ value co-efficient 1. Age 0.184 NS -0.136 0.316 2.430* 2. Experience 0.386* 0.196 0.338 0.579 NS 3. Workload Perception -0.135 NS -0.177 0.258 -0.686 NS 4. Job Involvement 0.287* 0.088 0.103 2.559* 5. Job Stress 0.087 NS 0.005 0.186 0.028 NS 6. Time Management -0.224 NS 0.376 0.558 0.674 NS 7. Organizational Climate 0.463** 0.227 0.129 2.755** Table 3. Association and Contribution of Profile Characteristics of AAOs and Their Role Performance (n=21) R2 =0.627 ** - Significant at 0.01 level ; F =1.971 * - Significant at 0.05 level; Standard Error = 4.821 NS- Non significant performance of AAOs at one per cent level of probability as well as experience and job involvement were found significant at five per cent level of probability. The new working environment under the restructuring would give ample scope for effective interaction with the officials at block level. The BAECs could help the line department officials to share the common problems also contribute a favorable organizational climate to perform the role effectively. The results of multiple regression analysis as explained in Table 3 reveals that all the independent variables taken together explained a significant amount of variation on effectiveness of role performance. The R2 value reveals that all the seven independent variables explained to the extent of 62.73 per cent of variation in the role performance of AAO. The variables viz., experience, job involvement and organizational climate showed positive and significant contribution towards the role performance. This indicates that an increase in experience by one unit would increase the level of role performance. Similar is the case with other two variables viz., job involvement and organizational climate. High experience in job would be helped the AAOs to be aware of their role and they may easily accommodate with the restructuring. CONCLUSION From the above findings the organizational climate, experience, job involvement were found to have positive and significant relationship with the role performance of the block level officials, whereas, organizational climate showed positive and significant contribution towards the role performance of ADAs and AOs. The variables viz., experience, job involvement and organizational climate showed positive and significant contribution towards the role performance of AAOs at block level. In all three cadres organizational climate was found to significantly contribute to the role performance of officials working in the reorganized extension system. Hence, the policy makers should give more focus in this aspect for better serving for farming community by the SDA. Journal of Extension Education5568 REFERENCES Ganesan, R. 1989. Participation Pattern of Officials, Farm Leaders and Farmer Beneficiaries in Agricultural Development Schemes - A Critical Analysis. Unpub. Ph.D. Thesis, TNAU, Coimbatore. Kalaivani, S. 1999. Managerial Competency, Job Perception, Job Performance of Extension Personnel in BBES. Unpub. Ph.D. Thesis, TNAU, Coimbatore. Mishra, P. and R.K. Talukdar. 1997. Role Perception and Role Performance of Teachers (Teaching Roles) in an Agricultural University. 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