It is widely acknowledged that there is no alternative to the presence of women in the development process and this needs to be carried forward in various forms. A new McKinsey Global Institute report also finds that $12 tn could be added to global GDP by 2025 by advancing women’s equality. The public, private, and social sectors will need to act to close gender gaps in work and society. There is a strong view that if women—who account for half the world’s working population (age-wise)—do not achieve their full economic potential, the global economy will suffer and as such debates are focusing on the power of parity. Consequently, many research studies are underway, especially in the context of working women and the changing frontiers of their performance not confined to the traditional sectors. The present issue has some research papers relating to women workforce and their emotional and functional capacities leading to organizational transformation.

The overseas assignments have revolutionized the thought process of working women and their repatriation phase of work life has certainly been influenced by the experiences held by them. Many studies found that the expatriation and repatriation episodes are not standalone events, but have more inter-linked issues causing a significant change in the organizational performance as well. Looking at the things from the cost angle, the effective management of repatriates after successful expatriation is found to be on the top of agenda for most of the management echelons. Especially, the women workforce needs to be focused in this context as suggested by the paper, “An Empirical Study on the Organizational Commitment of Repatriated Female Employees”, by B R Santosh and Krishnaveni Muthiah. The study found that the phenomenon of organizational commitment among women in IT companies is more of affective commitment. It further suggests that strong policy measures should be the order of the day for strengthening the intentions of women to work with firms.

Considering the experiences of successful family management by women, the possible outcomes of women participation in the financial sector would be another interesting topic for research by management scholars. Noticing the fact that there is a sea change in the attitudes of women with respect to wealth management of households, one needs to understand that the presence of women in capital markets is still far away from the expected levels. As such, some observations are made based on the investment patterns in Indian stock markets that give rise to lopsided interpretations of growth of Indian economy. Tina Vohra and Mandeep Kaur, in their paper, “Awareness and Stock Market Participation of Women: A Comparative Study of Stock Investors and Non-Investors”, on the behavioral tendencies relating to women investors, show that mere lack of financial awareness among women is responsible for the insignificant levels of their participation in stock trading, but other factors like social learning and interactions also hinder their advancement in the financial decision making of households. The paper further endorses the view that the governmental regulatory bodies should step into the field for encouraging financial literacy among women through various means which would further widen the horizons of knowledge.

The evolution of technology in the realm of medical treatment is an achievement of modern times and the repercussions of consumers’ changing perceptions are a pointer for further augmentation of health resources. The corporatization of healthcare industry, precisely in the context of advanced technology penetration, has a significant impact on the public perception about the medical treatment. Despite the fact that there is an increased awareness of non-allopathic treatments for some of the prolonged ailments in recent times, most of the consumers are still dependent on technology-driven medical treatment right from day-to-day illness to chronic diseases. There is no specific study on the impact of consumer’s changing preferences on medical treatment options for various reasons. The next paper, “Consumer Predilections for Medical Treatment: A Predictive Study in Selected Areas of Pune Region, Maharashtra”, by Swapnil Mackasare, is an attempt in the direction. Shedding light on issues like cost and quality of treatment that have a tremendous bearing on the choices made by the consumers, the paper also investigates the role of doctor’s popularity and image in deciding the options of medical treatment.

The growing dependency of training for the effective delivery of performance by modern workers is a reality. Any attempt to further improve the levels of performance in modern times inevitably demands HR intervention through a systematic process called ‘Training and Development’ for which significant amounts of funds are devoted by many firms. But several studies reveal that achieving the set objectives through training mechanisms has been a failure in most of the firms. As such, the issue of examining the impact of training practices in various industries is identified as the foremost necessity. Neelima Rashmi Lakra, in her paper, “Assessment of Employee Training: The Case of Steel Industry in India”, speaks at length on the adoption of sophisticated processes for training evaluation which leads to more scientifically designed programs in the direction. In this context, the element Return on Investment (ROI) also needs special mention, showing the way forward in academic research.

--Radha Mohan Chebolu
Consulting Editor