|
Executives'
Quality of Life and Yoga
-- N
Panchanatham and S Pragadeeswaran
In
this era, executives are struggling with their work in the
world of knowledge and technology explosion. The motto of
modern executives is not politics or progress but high stress,
high growth, speed, accuracy, and remaining number one rather
than becoming number one. As a result, executives don't find
enough time to spend with their family and friends. These
factors significantly influence their personal, family and
social lives. Therefore, maintaining quality of life has become
a challenging task in this hi-tech world. Quality of life
is operationally defined as freedom from discomposure, psychological
boredom and stress, having satisfaction and happiness pertaining
to material, physical, psychological and spiritual aspects
of life. According to the literature review, it was identified
that the practice of yoga significantly increases the physical,
mental and social values of the individual thereby promoting
quality of life. Hence, an attempt was made in this study
to explore the relationship between yoga practices and quality
of life. With this objective, a survey was conducted on the
executives working in co-operatives and large-scale public
sector organizations. Fifteen executives from co-operative
sugar mills were selected and trained in yoga practices. Their
quality of life was measured through quality of life inventory
as propounded by Gloriea Noriega (1997). Apart from that,
334 executives from a large-scale public sector organization
were also selected at random to assess their quality of life
(Out of the 334 executives, 167 were practicing yoga). From
the experimental method, it was found that yoga practices
improve the quality of life. It was also observed that the
employees of large-scale organizations practicing yoga had
better quality of life than their counterparts. Further, the
study revealed that the quality of life decreased when the
age increased for the non-yoga practitioners, whereas the
quality of life could be maintained by the yoga practitioners.
The implications of the study are discussed in this paper.
©
2006 IUP . All Rights Reserved.
The
Principles of Motivational Leadership
--
S S Kaptan and Latha S K Murthy
A
military axiom, `It is the man behind the machine that matters',
has come to focus in the organizations nowadays. In keeping
with modern technology and organizational behavior, the value
of Human Resource Development (HRD) remains vital. The importance
of achieving motivational levels right from the top to grass
roots level is essential for success and remains imperative
for sustainability of the organization. This can only be achieved
by inspired and dedicated leadership at all levels. Ten principles
for such a leadership have been postulated and elaborated.
The study concludes that for good management, a motivating
and constructive environment must prevail which would then
cater for achieving both individual and organizational development
needs.
©
2006 IUP . All Rights Reserved.
Impact
of Quality of Work Life on Job Performance: A Study of Print
Media Employees
-- Rishu Roy
Managing
people by talents and improving quality of work life seem
to be the new mantra on the Indian corporate landscape. Every
organization has an invisible qualitya certain style, a certain
mode or way of performing things. This invisible quality decides
how effective the organization is in the market place. Achieving
heights in today's cut-throat competition, when businesses
are trying to occupy the prime condition in the market place,
quality of work life have emerged as an elucidation for the
performance in the job. Performance can neither be achieved
by external motivation nor by financial and non-financial
rewards, rather it comes from the "Workers' and their
total working environment". The focus is not only on
how people can do better work, but also how work may cause
people to do better. This article reports the impact of "Quality
of Work Life" (QWL) on "Job Performance". The
pressures in the free economy, the breakdown of trade barriers
and globalization are making enormous demands on today's corporations
to compete in every domain. The performance naturally tops
out of all the critical items in the Indian industries and,
therefore, it becomes imperative to understand how the job
performance is influenced by the above mentioned factor. This
idea is illustrated by doing a survey of 50 employees who
were selected from different press media on a random sampling
basis which showed good Quality of Work Life has a significant
positive correlation with job performance.
©
2006 IUP . All Rights Reserved.
Stress
in the Organizational Context
--
Mandira Bhattacharya (Sen) and S S Jha
This
paper attempts to study the effects of anticipated and retrospected
fits in explaining additional variance in various stress-strain
relationships. A self-report questionnaire was administered
on 370 men and women working in eight different occupations.
The resultant data has been analyzed through step-wise regression
method. The results show that retrospected fit indeed explains
stress-strain relationships better in a wider range of variables,
while anticipated fit has a rather restricted effect on the
variables considered.
©
2006 IUP . All Rights Reserved.
Impact
of Emotional Intelligence on Ego-gram: An Exploration
-- R Rani Geetha Priyadarshini,
Sumathi Annamalai and L Parvathy
An
individual, both in his career as well as in personal life,
takes up different psychological roles. These roles, as per
Eric Berne's Transactional Analysis paradigm, are labeled
as distinctive ego-states. An individual uses any of the six
ego-states in the day-to-day activities, which form the base
for interpersonal relationship. A variety of factors, classified
as internal and external factors, influence the usage of any
ego-state. In the internal factors arena, an individual's
Emotional Intelligence is one of the prominent factors that
influence the selection of a particular ego-state. The present
paper attempts to study the impact of Emotional Intelligence
on the ego-gram of individuals by comparing the Emotional
Intelligence with six distinct ego-states: nurturing parent,
critical parent, adult, natural child, little professor and
adaptive child. An attempt has been made to explore the linkage
between Emotional Intelligence and the ego-gram.
©
2006 IUP . All Rights Reserved.
Work
Motivation and Occupational Stress among Executives from Software
and Manufacturing Industries: An Empirical Study
--
M P Ganesh
The
present research studies the effect of work motivation on
occupational stress among executives from manufacturing and
software industries. Work motivation (Agarwal, 1988) and occupational
stress (McWilliams, 1984) questionnaires were administered
to a sample of 80 male executives (40 from software and 40
from manufacturing). Results showed a significant difference
between the two groups in all the dimensions of the occupational
stress and work motivation questionnaires, except for negative
stress coping in the occupational stress scale. Further analysis
led to the following findings: (1) Manufacturing executives
with low motivational organization orientation had significantly
higher stress symptoms than executives with moderate and high
motivational organizational orientation (2) Software executives
with moderate motivational organization orientation had significantly
higher negative stress-coping mechanisms than executives with
high organization orientation (3) Software executives with
moderate motivational job situation are significantly higher
stress producers than executives with low and high motivational
job situation.
©
2006 IUP . All Rights Reserved.
Management
of Call CenterBoredom, Employee Attrition and Retention
-- Anupama D Raina
The
growth of attrition rates has been a major concern for the
last couple of decades. Many experts believe that attrition
rates can be lowered through effective hiring systems, while
others believe that the problem lies with the nature of the
organization's system. The main objective of this research
was to know the problems and effects of attrition on call
centers. Another objective of the research was to study the
retention measures adopted by the call centers to retain employees,
and in the end, develop a module for the call center, which
can help in curbing the existing problems faced by them. The
research analysis shows a gradual increase in the attrition
rate. It was also found that attrition was more common between
the age group of 20-25 years and within three months of joining
the organization. Qualification-wise, the employees leave
the organization for career growth and higher studies. Further
analyses show that attritions in call centers occur because
of lack of social interaction, personal problems, slow growth
prospects, odd shifts and monotony of work. Keeping in mind
the causes of attrition, various employee retention strategies
have been recommended.
©
2006 IUP . All Rights Reserved.
A
Study on Organizational Commitment and Stress among Information
Technology Professionals
-- V
Vanitha,
M Vasanthi,
T J Kamalanabhan and T A Sivasubramanian
The
article analyzes the organizational commitment and stress
among the information technology (IT) professionals. Some
of the demographic variables and sex differences between the
male and female IT professionals on organizational commitment
and stress were also examined. An Analysis of Variance (Anova)
test was used to analyze the data which consisted of 76 IT
professionals. Results, based on the study of various variables,
revealed that there was no significant difference between
the male and female IT professionals.
©
2006 IUP . All Rights Reserved.
Motivation,
the Chinese Leadership Way in Singapore's Small and Medium
Companies
-- Patrick Low Kim
Cheng
Through
literature review and a series of interviews with a number
of Chinese employees working in several small and medium companies,
this article discusses the Chinese leadership approach on
motivating employees. The key sources of motivation among
Chinese employees in Singapore's small and medium companies
are also analyzed.
©
2006 IUP . All Rights Reserved.
Working
in Teams
-- Colonel V R K
Prasad
The
dawn of the new millennium and the fast pace of globalization
have brought in a new dynamism to the workplace. `Working
in teams', a concept with its origin in Japan in 1950s, gained
a new momentum in the present-day multicultural business environment.Teams
generate synergy among the members and achieve a superior
performance, which is greater than the sum of their individual
contributions.
©
2006 IUP . All Rights Reserved.
Book
Review
Stress:
From Burnout to Balance
--
Vinay Joshi
This
book explores the reasons behind maladaptive response of the
body and the mind to stress and many of its consequences.
Emotional turmoil, psychological disorders, one's place in
society and the cultures of that society play a definite role
in the morbidity of physical events and diseases like diabetes,
hypertension, ulcers, etc. Stress Physiology is a study of
these events that could range from problems at the workplace,
in one's marital and family life, and lack of time for human
contact and understanding. The author explains the disastrous
physiological consequences of sustained and extended periods
of mental stress. Then he elucidates some methods of choosing
the most appropriate techniques to improve health by correct
stress management. The Chapter devoted to `Depression' is
particularly very useful, as it is written with a clarity
that makes sense to both the victim of depression and the
caregiver or confidant, whatever the case may be.
©
2005 Vinay Joshi. All Rights Reserved. IUP holds the copyright for the review.
Organization
Culture-Global Perspectives and Cases
--
V V Ramani
A
well-defined corporate culture can create an environment that
leads the organization towards success. Adapting the cultural
change, based on the competition, will make the organization
sustain even in difficult times. Culture is all about attitudes,
behaviors, technology, economy, laws, rules and regulations
in a community or other conditions that influence an individual
or a group. An organizational culture is based on the corporate
vision, mission, values, goals, and by the actions of that
organization. Values and norms, once established by a founder
or leader will be transmitted within the organization and
later based on its performance in the global economy, the
best practices will be transmitted globally. Corporate culture
reflects the personality of an organization. The culture of
the organization provides the meaning, direction and clarity
that drive the business to achieve its goals. It is necessary
to change the culture of an organization to make sure that
it fits the environment in which the organization operates.
To become great from good, the organizations should follow
the winning culture. The winning organizations create healthier
environment, high performance culture and align the strategy,
structure and focus on desired individual behaviors like fulfillment
in their professional and personal lives.
©
2006 IUP . All Rights Reserved.
|
