Advances In Management

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Advances In Management






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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