Advances In Management

Indexed in SCOPUS, Chemical Abstracts Services, UGC, NAAS and Indian Citation Index etc.



Advances In Management






Vol. 4(4) April 2011

Research Articles:
Technology of Integral Transformational Yoga for Leadership
Manuscript for Advances in Management

Nandram Sharda S.

In management there is a need for holistic concepts to offer new perspective to leaders. Many management journals pay attention to this need by publishing articles on spirituality but most of them concentrate on defining spirituality. Yoga and meditation as spiritual tools become more and more accepted in the business community. This paper proposes a model for leaders to deepen their spiritual path in their leadership challenges. The model is based on integral transformational yoga which has been derived from the work of the philosopher Sri Aurobindo. The technology of yoga offers the possibility to unite materialistic and ideal perspectives of leading a business. Therefore it can be used as management control tool and a motivation tool at the same time while often leadership models only focus at one of these tools. It facilitates the interaction between the leader and the employees, it focuses on internal and external input as well, it gives room for assessing inter-subjectivity, it offers a holistic view, it stimulates harmony between facets that usually are treated solely like mental activities and emotional activities, it gives room to the leader to really participate in transforming the organization and it recognizes that there are unconscious aspects involved as well and which the technology of yoga aims to awake..

Full Text

Implementing total Quality Management in Professional Educational Institutes in India

Agarwal P.K.*, Pradeep Kumar, Gupta Swati and Tyagi A.K.

One of the emerging philosophies in quality and management concepts is Total Quality Management, (TQM). TQM has been applied to business and industry and recently has been experimented and implemented in professional education institutions to provide high quality and standards for both industry and professional education institutes. Total quality management (TQM) is a management strategy which is aimed to embed quality awareness in all the organizational processes.

Principles of Total Quality Management (TQM) have been successfully adopted and applied in the field of professional education by developed countries such as Japan, USA and UK. In India, TQM has been successfully implemented in some Professional Education Institutions (HEIs) and it has improved the quality of professional education in those institutions. TQM has become the most important concept because the quality of the student makes the difference between success and failure of any institution. TQM can serve as a paradigm for improving every aspect of collegiate functioning from fiscal administration to classroom instruction.

Full Text

General Articles:
A Couple of Capital Budgeting Techniques using Microsoft Excel

Mason John O. Jr. CPA

Microsoft Excel has two functions that can be extremely valuable in capital budgeting. One is the NPV function, the other is the IRR function. The NPV function, which Excel refers to as the Net Present Value function, computes the present value of a series of periodic cash flows that are not necessarily the same amount each period. The IRR function computes the internal rate of return of an investment project.

Full Text

Achieving Organizational Effectiveness through Health Management and Ergonomics

Naidu Munirathinam T. and Ramesh G.

Today, organizational effectiveness and employees’ performance will be disrupted even by relatively low level of health problems. The way organizations design their health programmes is an important determinant on how much performance they extract from employees.The physical environment can influence the interface between individuals and organizations. Technology and advancements in the workplaces have their negative impact on the physical environment. Employees see their jobs increasingly becoming dehumanized and result in alienation and frustration. In order to keep them motivated, organizations should start looking after the human needs at workplaces. Efforts must be made at improving working conditions and their attendant conditions like safety, security and benefits which legitimately qualify as quality of work life activity. For this to happen, the work environment should be made free from hazards or other factors detrimental to the health and safety of employees. Health management is the systematic process of making adequate provisions for the health of employees at work place and enables them to work more and to stay healthy in the organizations. Management of health is a pre-requisite for employees’ efficiency. A safe and healthy work environment that ensures better working conditions and minimizes the risk of illness at workstations should be created in organisations. Ergonomics is concerned with designing jobs by integrating socio-technical factors of the job and characteristics of job holder. It is the science of balancing between employees and the work they do. It provides a safer and comfortable workplace solution for increased efficiency and enhanced productivity. The principles of ergonomics are being used to improve man-machine system so that an employee can perform the job effectively. Good ergonomics in the workplace results in less absenteeism.

Full Text

Case Study:
Gender Differences in the Use of Management Information Systems:
An Exploratory Study

Naranjo-Gil David* and Álvarez-Dardet Concepción

Now that cooperation, flexibility and adaptability are considered increasingly important, hospitals need to give up traditional and hierarchical styles of using information management and adopt more open and participative styles. Gender has been demonstrated to be a key variable in the ways by which managers lead and manage organizations. This study analyzes differences between male and female managers in the use of management information systems. The results show that the introduction of women in management posts helps hospitals to use management information systems in a more interactive and participative way.

Full Text

Supplier Selection in Retail Industry using Vikor Method

Karthik Saravana Raja G.1, Mahesh B. and Sivakumaran S.

Supplier selection is a continuous and never ending process for acquiring the necessary raw materials and components to support the final output of business organization. The aim of the study is developing a decision model to select appropriate suppliers for Retail industry by subjective judgments of decision makers into consideration. Proposed approach is based on Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and VIKOR method. AHP method is used in determining the weights of criteria by decision makers and then rankings of the suppliers are determined by VIKOR method. In this context, a real time example is cited to illustrate the applicability and potentiality of the methods mentioned above.

Full Text

Dividend Payment Versus Ploughing Back Profits: An Exploration with reference to Information Technology Industries

Thomas James and Mohideen Mohamed M.

Finance literature has provided many theories of why firms pay dividend. One suggests that dividend represents firm’s effort to signal these values. Another suggestion is that return in the form of dividend suffers from double taxation as such investors prefer to plough back profits. Finally, the investment opportunity theory play significant role in dividend.

Full Text

Linking Organizational Culture to lean Implementation in
the Malaysian Electrical and Electronics Industry:
A Conceptual Framework

Wong W.P.* and Cheah C.H.

This paper examines the relationship and role of organizational culture in the implementation of lean manufacturing. This paper provides a framework that identifies a comprehensive set of relevant organiza-tional culture attributes that have the potential to impact lean implementation in manufacturing industries. It is expected that through this framework, a step forward could be made toward culture as a useful explanatory concept in lean research. The framework is expected to be tested empirically using data from manufacturing firms in Malaysia. This paper contri-butes to the theories about the role of culture in lean implementation by developing a framework to investigate a more comprehensive but relevant set of cultural attributes, that would help manufacturers achieve greater success in their lean transformation initiative.

Full Text

Re-Engineering a Tanker Ship Management System

Bhardwaj Suresh

The paper explores how technology, including Information Communication Technology, can be effectively used as the interface between the shore based tanker ship management and the shipboard management for performance optimization and how tanker operations and maintenance processes may be reengineered using suited new technology in order to make operations more effective and efficient. A Management Systems and Process approach is utilized to identify the processes and reengineer them to increasing effectiveness and efficiency. First, modelling of the business processes has been undertaken in order to understand and communicate about the existing processes. The modelling is also the basis for optimization by re-engineering of the processes. Focus group interviews have been conducted in the Mumbai-based ship management companies. Here, the most radical reengineering opportunity was perceived to be the sub-process of “Monitoring of Ship’s Fuel and Machinery Performance”, which was then taken up as the area of main subsequent focus. This sub-process was then modelled and mapped out, the technological intervention needed was studied and applied and the reengineered process was defined with its potential for increased efficiency and effectiveness. The reengineered process was then sought validated through review, verification and critical scrutiny for any weaknesses or blind spots at the same companies that participated in the focus group interviews.

Full Text