Abstract

Objectives: To explore whether the biological and social contexts have a bearing on the work-performance of the workers in an urban non-manual setting (and which among the two has a predominant impact).

Methods/Statistical analysis: The study uses primary data collected from the faculty members of Utkal University, Bhubaneswar, India. Descriptive statistics and Karl Pearson correlation coefficient have been adopted for profiling and study of the linkages between indicators of work performance and those of biological and social aspects; Independent sample t-tests have been conducted to study the significance of the differences in work performance between the groups as per social and biological stratification.

Findings: Conventional economics associates work performance with factors such as technology, physical and human capital, and quality of materials used in the production process. However, some recent studies highlight the influence of socio-psychological aspects and biological differences among workers as a defining feature of performance diversity. The present study establishes that in case of non-manual work environment like academics, socio-psychological factors such as gender, caste, etc. have a greater bearing (than biological factors like body mass index, some other health anomalies, biologically determined sex, etc.) on work performance.

Application/Improvements: The understanding of these linkages could pave way towards organizations taking care to create good social ambience at work place and the people in their public and private lives in general, which could lead to optimum utilization of individual capacity and collective efforts at the workplace.

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