Vol. 4(5) May 2011
Research Articles:
Production Research via Decision Markets
Ray Russ
This paper examines the recent innovation of “decision markets” and
how such markets can be utilized to support production research of all types. A
comprehensive study of these markets concluded that decision markets possess an
“uncannily accurate” ability to predict future events in business, economics,
financial markets science, technology, politics, war, catastrophes and virtually
every other realm of human and natural activity. As a decision-support system, knowing
the probability of an event happening significantly facilitates the production research
and planning associated with that event.
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General Articles:
Service Sector in India: Performance, Problems and Prospects
Raiyani Jagadish R. and Joshi Nilesh K.
As a consequence of the adoption of the New Economic Policy (NEP) of 1991, the growth
rate of the Indian economy which stood at 3.5 per cent per annum during 1951-79,
5.0 percent per annum during 1980-91, in fact accelerated to 6.1 per cent per annum
during 1992-2000. The economy has moved on from the ‘Hindu Rate of Growth’
of 3.5% per annum of yesteryears to ‘unstoppable India’ at 9 % per annum
at present. India emerged as one of the fastest growing economies of the world during
the 1990s. The remarkable performance of India’s economy is attributable in
significant part to the spectacular dynamism shown by the services sector. Against
this background, it would be appropriate if we try to find out: What are the constituents
of service sector in India? How this sector performed on growth and employment fronts?
What happened to service sector productivity in post 1980 period? What are the policies
adopted by the Government of India to promote the services sector? what are the
problems or challenges ahead in this sector? and what are the prospects /potential
for growth in this sector?
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Case Study:
A Casual Model Depicting the Influence of Spiritual Leadership and some Organizational
and Individual Variables on Workplace Spirituality
Rahman Nooralizad*, Nadergholi Ghorchian and Parivash Jaafari
This article specifies a comprehensive model for workplace spirituality facilitation
that integrates various views from the existing research on workplace spirituality
facilitation and development and validation of an instrument to measure spirituality
in organization. In the first part of the study a workplace Spirituality Inventory
is developed and validated. Four hundred faculty members of Islamic Azad University
responded to a 102 item instrument assessing aspects of spirit at work. Factor analyses
revealed 3 distinct factors. These factors were related to interpersonal, intrapersonal
and super personal aspects of workplace spirituality. Using the results of item
analyses and factor analyses, 23 items were selected to constitute the new scale.
Value of Cronbach’s alpha was 0.86 indicating the reliability of the scale a. In
the later part, hypothesis of positive impact of some organizational, individual
and leadership variables on workplace spirituality is examined. There was no relationship
among organizational variables, individual variable and spiritual values. Within
the effect investigating among leadership, organizational variables, individual
variables, spiritual values and workplace spirituality, we find a significantly
positive relationship among these variables..
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Critical Success Factors of Shared Service Projects - Results
of an Empirical Study
Wenderoth Martin
Following the “Management Tools 2009” study of Bain & Company, 12,
17 cost cutting is still the number one topic for organizations, especially consid-ering
the recent financial and economic crisis. As such it is not surprising, that management
tools such as benchmarking, outsourcing or the shared service con-cept climb up
the ranks and are becoming more im-portant than in the past. In this paper, those
factors mentioned in literature as critical success factors of shared services are
subject to an empirical study in which 84 managers and consultants experienced with
shared services, participated. The majority of the sur-vey participants (87%) came
from Central Europe (Germany, Austria and Switzerland). The results showed a clear
ranking of the success factors and emphasised the high importance of change manage-ment
within a shared service project. In the first in-stance, the results of the empirical
study are ad-dressed to the scientific society as they should con-tribute to the
comprehensive scientific analysis of shared services and its imminent success factors
and detect the critical success factors in shared service projects. Furthermore,
the results are addressed to practitioners considering the implementation of shared
services. For all these, the results of the em-pirical study provide a clear and
precise decision support network. The knowledge about the critical success factors
provides information on how to plan, organise, transform and operate shared services.
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An Analysis of the Impact of the Sarbanes- Oxley Act on Earnings
Management
Liu Caixing and Yang David
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOA) is expected to deter financial frauds and improve financial
reporting quality. Prior studies have demonstrated that earnings management significantly
influences financial reporting quality. This study examines whether SOA mitigates
earnings management and therefore improves financial reporting quality. By examining
the change of discretionary accruals, this study finds evidence that SOA significantly
mitigates earnings management. This study also finds that SOA mitigates income-increasing
earnings management more significantly than income-decreasing earnings management
and affects high-discretionary accrual firms more than low-discretionary accrual
firms. These results hold when different discretionary model is used to estimate
discretionary accruals.
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The Impact of Moral Intensity on Accountants’ Intentions to
Whistleblow Externally
Clements Lynn H. and Shawver Tara J.
Fraud is abounding. But where are the whistle-blowers? The ability to exercise judgment
and interpret GAAP provides opportunities for earnings management - one of the most
important ethical issues affecting the accounting profession. There are many pressures
on the internal accountants and officers to manage earnings, but accountants have
a level of knowledge about properly measuring and reporting earnings and a code
of ethics to report on the fairness of financial statements. If earnings are managed
unethically, improperly and/or illegally, will the accountants recognize it? If
so, will they blow the whistle?
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Patient Satisfaction and Service Quality Dimensions
Desai V. V.
The issues surrounding the expectations of patients and relatives from hospitals
and provisions of qualitative service are becoming very important now days. This
research study aims to apply the SERVQUAL measurement instrument in five hospitals
of Kolhapur city. The study involved adopting the SERVQUAL instrument to the service
quality dimensions and asking a sample of patients to complete the questionnaire.
Patient’s opinions on the basis of service quality dimensions were obtained. Later,
the relationship between service quality provided at hospitals and patient satisfaction
is analyzed. The geographical scope of the study was the Kolhapur city. The periodical
scope extends to the existing situation when the empirical data was collected. The
SERVQUAL instrument has played a diagnostic role in assessing and monitoring service
quality in hospitals. It has enabled to identify where improvements are needed from
the patients perspective. But as the SERVQUAL instrument can be used to measure
the gaps between perception, service provided and expectation, the above research
study is not including the gap measurement. The study is confined to general hospitals
based at Kolhapur city only.
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A Study of Quality of Work Life in Pondicherry University Puducherry
Natarajan P. and Annamalai C.
The term Quality of Work Life is one of the most discussed terms in Human Resource
Management and is getting its space in the HR discussions. Maintaining organizational
health as well as the employee’s satisfaction on a regular basis is one of key factor
for achieving organizational success and also for the organizational sustainability.
If quality of life at work could be improved, it would benefit and reward the individual
employee and the organization, its employees and society as a whole. In order to
ensure excellence in action, universities have to work for creating congenial QWL
and induce the work force both teaching and non-teaching to deliver their best for
the betterment of the organization. This will pave the way for making an university
into World Class University.
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Financing of Small Entrepreneurs through SHGs in India
Shiralashetti A.S.
The economic growth and development of India depends on the overall growth of rural
and urban area. The small entrepreneurs have been contributing lot to the growth
of the nation by providing employment to many unemployed youths. The economic position
of small entrepreneurs has improved due to undertaking entrepreneurial activities.
The present study focused on analyzing the financing of small entrepreneurs through
SHG in India. The study is based on the secondary data collected from the website
of the NABARD and books and journals. It concludes by highlighting the need of financing
right amount at right time and creating awareness among the small entrepreneurs
about the significance of entrepreneurial activities.
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Measuring Financial Health of Kothari Sugars Limited using
‘Z’ Score Model
Velavan M.
Going global, Survival of the business in the modern world is the driving force
to do better than others. In order to survive and continue to be in business it
is essential that an organization successfully manages its finance which requires
more attention and care. Ineffective management is one of the important factors
causing industrial sickness. Many variables are available to indicate the business
sickness. Therefore, it is important to monitor the financial position and health
of company through its financial statements which throw light on the operational
efficiency and financial position of the company. The principle objective of this
research is to ascertain the financial health of Kothari Sugars Limited and consistency
of financial performance for ten years from 1998-99 to 2007-08. The research findings
are that the company does not maintain good financial performance / health throughout
the study period.
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