Culture,
Education and Kazakhstan: Kazakhstan Riding High on Learning
and Earning
-- Patrick Low
Kim Cheng
The
paper is based on a qualitative study on Kazakhstan's national
culture. Series of interviews were held to identify the cultural
traits within the nation, which show that it has a strong
leaning towards learning and education. It has implications
on learning within businesses, organizations and the nation.
The paper also explores how Kazakhstan can learn from the
Asian Tigers, particularly from Singapore.
©
2005 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
Quantification
of Quality of Work-life in Machining Industry in Indian Scenario
-- Sarang S Bhola
This
article is the outcome of an exploratory research, carried
out to quantify the quality of work-life in the machining
industry in India. A quantification model has been developed
which can be easily understood and implemented by entrepreneurs.
The basic concept of quality of work-life (QWL)a methodology
adopted for quantification has been discussed in detail. The
article concludes with the explanation of the model used to
implement QWL in an organization.
©
2005 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
The
Role of Trust in a Leader-Follower Relationship
--
Leela Vedantam and Trideep Raj Bhandari
In
this competitive age, trust plays an important role for the
smooth functioning of an organization. Things are totally
different these days. Instead of traditional bureaucratic
organizations, we have more flexible and informal organizations.
Also, team-based organizations are giving better results in
the present scenario. In this kind of environment, the trust
factor has become more relevant and important. Though trust
has always been seen as one of the essential ingredients of
a social life, now within an organization it has been recently
looked upon due to its increasing importance. This paper highlights
the role of trust between a leader and his followers. Leadership
and trust go together and leadership cannot exist without
a requisite amount of trust.
©
2005 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
Role
Stress Across Management Levels in an Organization
-- Avinash Kumar Srivastav
Organizational
role stressthe stress caused by the occupation of an organizational
roledepends on an individual's perception about situations,
constraints, opportunities or threats encountered during role
performance. Individuals at different management (hierarchical)
levels have different perspectives, focus and thrust and hence,
their perceptions differ. Therefore, it can be hypothesized
that there are significant differences in the role stress
experienced across management levels. Ten types of role stress
were measured across management levels (junior, middle and
senior) in a public sector organization, using the Organizational
Role Stress (ORS) Scale, involving 453 randomly selected executives.
Statistical analysis has revealed significant differences
in the perception of role stress across the management levels
in the organization, even though Role Erosion is the most
predominant stress across the three management levels. Role
Stagnation, Role Erosion and Total Role Stress are weaker
at the senior management level as compared to junior and middle
management levels. Personal Inadequacy is stronger at the
junior management level as compared to middle and senior management
levels. Self-Role Distance is stronger at the junior management
level as compared to the senior management level.
©
2005 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
Understanding
Organizational Culture: A Research Perspective
--
Gitika Dutta
The
concept of organizational culture has received increasing
attention in recent years both from academies and practitioners.
Culture needs to be defined and analyzed properly if it has
to be used in the field of organizational psychology to understand
organizational behavior and the cultural changes taking place.
©
2005 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
Role
of Vertical and Horizontal Communication as Related to Productivity
in Public and Private Sector Enterprises
--
Babita Dosajh
An
attempt has been made in the present study to measure the
flow of communication that is horizontal and verticaldownward
for managers and upward for workers in public and private
enterprises. It is quite surprising that till today, no one
has applied a planned strategy to measure the flow of communication
in an organization and its resultant effect on productivity.
It becomes more relevant in today's world where more and more
emphasis is laid upon interpersonal communication, which may
have a bearing effect on productivity.
©
2005 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
Challenges
of HRM and HRD-Emerging Paradigm
--
V N Srivastava and K Ghosh
After
more than a decade of the changed economic environment, a
large number of high performing enterprises have become low
performing; many of them have been struggling to survive and
some have faced closure also. The arrival of many world class
organizations with higher order experience levels has severely
threatened many of the so-called high performing Indian organizations
with lower order experience levels and has put their total
survival at stake. The state of affairs in state government
departments also has not been very sound. Widespread frustrations
and demoralizations have been found among the state employees.
Today, the organizations are looking towards HR to make them
more competitive and come out of the red by successfully meeting
the challenge. State government departments also undertook
HRD planning and implementations at the instance of the World
Bank in the World Bank funded projects in the health, forestry
and other social development sectors. The paper discusses
the HR needs in the present context, the HR perspective, some
experiences of developing HRD plan in the forest departments
in two states in India, the critical business areas and a
few HR challenges that can really help achieving transformations.
©
2005 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
Book
Review
Spirituality,
Ethics, and the Meaning of Work A Philosophical Perspective
-- Albert Allan Anderson
The
book is divided into 8 chapters and each chapter highlights
different issues related to ethics. The author tries to emphasize
that workplaces, in general, have lost their real meaning
and have become a dismal place. He quotes Hegel's three divisions
of spirit: Art, Religion and Philosophy; where he prefers
to focus on philosophy, and which is deciphered by him as
the `love of wisdom'. The book cites various incidences like
the Bhopal gas tragedy, which raises ethical issues at workplaces.
©
2005 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
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