Defining Ethics in a Changing Society

-- V Raghunathan

This is a moment of great personal emotion as well as honor and pride for me. The moment is emotional because Yasaswy was among my closest friends for the last three decades. Together we had spent many a holiday and enjoyed many a dinner. In the last few years, there was hardly a fortnight when we did not meet over a quiet evening. My wife and I always looked forward to spending time with Yasaswy and his family. An evening with Yasaswy was like reading a good book or two. With his quick silver mind, Yasaswy, a great scholar and a great conversationalist, could keep us spellbound for hours. His many achievements in themselves are impressive, not the least of which is the ICFAI legacy. But even more impressive was his deep and rare scholarship and his insights into life’s larger questions.

© 2013 IUP. All Rights Reserved.

A Conceptual Framework for Key Success Factors in Microbial Biotechnology Firms in Iran

--Alireza Azimi

Biotechnology firms require resources to involve in the innovation cycles of their societies. Like other technology-based companies, these firms face some challenges on their way to success. Therefore, it is vital for them to be aware of their key success factors in order to achieve their goals and accomplish their missions. This paper tries to identify those key success factors and proposes a conceptual framework. About 14 experts from 12 companies were interviewed, and coding approach was used to elaborate the conceptual model.

© 2013 IUP. All Rights Reserved.

Mental Workload and Cognitive Fatigue: A Study

--Malini Subramanyam, Prajwal Muralidhara and Pooja M

In this study, we have attempted to find out the usefulness of assessing mental workload of motivated employees. The functional state of brain and cognitive functions of motivated employees for varying levels of mental workloads were analyzed by measuring biosignals. Behavioral and electrophysiological studies of motivated employees were conducted. Our studies indicated that with mental work overload cognitive fatigue sets in. Cognitive fatigue affects the working memory which is critical for maintaining attention, processing of information and resolving conflict. The mental workload should be properly distributed throughout the day and kept at a manageable level to avoid both overload or underload situations.

© 2013 IUP. All Rights Reserved.

A Generalized State-of-the-Art e-Readiness Framework

--Lopamudra Pradhan

In this paper, a generalized state-of-the-art framework for measuring e-readiness of a nation is proposed. The framework is based on eight factors like macroeconomy, digital infrastructure, knowledgeable citizens, competitiveness, access to skilled workforce, culture, ability to invest, and cost of living and pricing. These factors are quantified using 52 indicators. Further, a set of computational steps in pseudocode form is described to measure the overall e-readiness index of a nation. The effectiveness of the proposed framework is demonstrated using the data contributed by different world organizations on these matrices for 10 East Asian and G7 countries for providing e-readiness assessments and in making national strategic decisions on infrastructure that is conducive to the new economy.

© 2013 IUP. All Rights Reserved.

Research Note: Role of Affect in the Acceptance of Human Resource Information Systems

-- David Jawahar and K Nitin Harindran

In the last two decades, globalization, rapid technological advancement, advent of knowledge economy and a lot of other factors have changed the face of modern organization, and consequently, the Human Resource (HR) function is changing rapidly (Park et al., 2004). This scenario in turn has put pressure on the HR professional to provide faster service, of better quality, which is seamlessly linked (Pfeffer, 1997). The enabling technologies provided by Information Technology (IT) help the HR professionals to provide efficient and effective service (Hendrickson, 2003).

© 2013 IUP. All Rights Reserved.

Book Review: A Saint in the Board Room