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..
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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