Vol. 5(2) February 2012
Research Articles:
The Rising Hispanic Workforce
Erickson Sadie, Falzon Rachel, Mishra Jitendra and Mishra Bharat
The Hispanic American population is the fastest growing segment in the United States.
As such, it is becoming an increasingly important segment of the labor force as
well. In order for American businesses to attract the growing Hispanic workers,
they must adapt their business practices and managing techniques. Some companies
such as McDonald’s, Microsoft, Bank of America and AFLAC, have already implemented
certain techniques in order to attract and retain Hispanic employees. Other businesses
however, should take note of the five recommendations described here.
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Features of talent-Branding in the Light of Empirical Research
Farkasné Kurucz Zsuzsanna and Balogh Gábor
Higher Education Institutes, students and employers together are united in the sense
that all three search for talented individuals, even if, in other respects, their
motives, goals and methods differ. In this study we analyse features of student
‘self-branding’. One necessary feature of a company is to act as a ‘talent-magnet’
and so companies should aim to attract skilled employees using the best marketing
tools. Study is based on questionnaires referring to experience in professional
practice (2009-2011). The data apply to a total of 737 students. One of the most
important features of the study was to emphasise regional characteristics, the result
of which was that the most recent data focus strongly on Pécs (a major university
city in Hungary) and Budapest (the capital of Hungary). Significant differences
in students’ skills in the two cities, these being most visible as basic methodological
skills, professional concepts, discipline and response-bility were found.
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The Association between Unemployment, Mortgage Rates and House Prices: Granger
Causality Test of Local, State and National Data
Dheeriya Prakash L.
There have been several studies relating housing prices to mortgage rates, unemployment
and other macroeconomic factors. Very few studies have conducted analysis of these
factors like micro and macro factors simultaneously. This paper uses the three step
Granger causality testing procedure to determine if there is any association between
unemployment, mortgage rate and median home prices at local, state and national
levels. Typical empirical studies in housing literature use macro indices to test
out Granger Causality at the macro level only. We find that unemployment at the
local, state and national levels is more significant than mortgage rates in explaining
house prices at those levels. We also find that the mortgage rate is not as influential
in explaining house prices at any level.
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Case Study:
Global Practices of Financial Services with Reference to Banking in India
Suriyamurthi S., Karthik R. and Mahalakshmi V.
The Indian banking and finance system will be globally competitive. For this the
market players will have to be financially strong and operationally efficient. Capital
would be a key factor in building a successful institution. The banking and finance
system will improve competitiveness through a process of consoli-dation, either
through mergers and acquisitions through strategic alliances. Technology would be
the key to the competitiveness of banking and finance system. Indian players will
keep pace with global leaders in the use of banking technology. In such a scenario,
on-line accessibility will be available to the customers from any part of the globe;
‘Anywhere’ and ‘Anytime’ banking will be realized truly
and fully. At the same time ‘brick and mortar’ banking will co-exist
with ‘on-line’ bank-ing to cater to the specific needs of different
customers.
Indian Banking system has played a crucial role in the socio-economic development
of the country. The system is expected to continue to be sensitive to the growth
and development needs of all the segments of the society. The banking system that
will evolve will be transparent in its dealings and adopt global best practices
in accounting and disclosures driven by the motto of value enhancement for all stakeholders.
Indian banking sector has emerged as one of the strongest drivers of India’s economic
growth. Positive changes witnessed in the last two decades have impacted every aspect
of banking, ranging from regulatory standards to customer management. Indian banks
adapting to the changing landscape along with the vision of the regulator and the
Government in shaping the future growth of banking were two of the noteworthy features
of this transition. The banks evolved their strategies in response to increasing
competition and changing customer requirements, the regulator guided its growth
with policies of gradual liberalization and benchmarking the domestic system with
the best in the world, even if it appeared conservative at times. As the world recovers
from the global financial crisis, Indian banking has remained resilient while continuing
to provide growth opportunities. With the increased participation of new private
sector and foreign banks, the Indian banking industry has become fiercely compe-titive.
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Psychological Empowerment and Workplace Learning: An Empirical Study of Saudi
Telecom Company
Abdullah AL Zahrani
Learning in the workplace cannot take place in vacuum. Workplace learning, while
very important, requires an important requirement and conditions. Employees' psychological
empowerment is predicted to act as the most important antecedents for workplace
learning for 21st century workforce. Hence, this study aims at testing the impact
of psychological empowerment in particular on the workplace learning in the Saudi
Telecom Company (STC) in Saudi Arabia. Two instruments were included in this study:
psychological empowerment scales developed by Spreitzer76 and Workplace Adaptation
Questionnaire (WAQ) developed by Morton.48 A survey questionnaire was used to reflect
a simple model of the presumed relationships. A sample of 170 employees working
at STC has participated in the survey and data were collected and analyzed using
means, regressions and correlations to test such impact. Cronbach's alphas verified
the reliability of the overall instrument as well as the sections of the survey.
The study found that psychological empower-ment was positively related to workplace
learning. In particular, self-determination and workplace learning had the strongest
relationship. Based on these findings, the implications for Human Resource Development
(HRD) theory and practice and recommendations for future research were discussed.
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A Study of Inter and Intra Components Relationship of Brand
Equity using SEM
Natarajan P. and Thiripurasundari U.
Strong brands dramatically enhance revenue capabilities of product. It is this financial
approach of the brand that led to the concepts of equity. The present day competitive
business environment warrants business units to create and manage brand value on
a continuous basis. Brands are the new avatars for fighting completion and achieving
superiority and even dominance. Car buyers and users numbers are also increasing
geometrically. To identify the relationship between inter and intra components of
CBBE of Selected Car Firms in India. Specifically, maintaining brand equity requires
consistency both with and across marketing and financial aspects. Moreover, it is
also important that both the individual and firm levels should be consistent over
time. This sequential consistency is likely to ensure the clarity of the brand equity
position information provided and to enhance its further development.
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Training and Development in ITI Limited – Bangalore
Karthik R.
Human resource is the life blood of any organization. Only through well-trained
personnel, an organization can achieve its goals. Training is defined as learning
that is provided in order to improve performance on the present job. A person's
performance is improved by showing how to master a new or established technology.
The technology may be a piece of heavy machinery, a computer, a procedure for creating
a product or a method of providing a service. Training is provided for the present
job. This includes training new personnel to perform their jobs.
Training is mainly concerned with the meeting of two of these inputs -- people and
technology. That is, having people learn to master a given technology. The HR functioning
is changing with time and with this change, the relationship between the training
function and other management activity is also changing. The training and development
activities are now equally important with that of other HR functions. Gone are the
days, when training was considered to be futile, waste of time, resources and money.
Now-a-days, training is an investment because the departments such as, marketing
and sales, HR, production, finance etc. depend on training for its survival. If
training is not considered as a priority or not seen as a vital part in the organization,
then it is difficult to accept that such a company has effectively carried out HRM.
Training actually provides the opportunity to raise the profile development activities
in the organization.
To increase the commitment level of employees and growth in quality movement (concepts
of HRM), senior management team is now increasing the role of training. Such concepts
of HRM require careful planning as well as greater emphasis on employee development
and long term education. Training is now the important tool of Human Resource Management
to control the attrition rate because it helps in motivating employees, achieving
their professional and personal goals, increasing the level of job satisfaction
etc.
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Business Transformation Management- The Role of Talent Management with special
reference to Service Sectors
Rose Swapna and Raja K.G.
Business transformation is a key executive management initiative that attempts to
align an organization’s initiatives relating to people, process and technology more
closely with its business strategy and vision. In order to bring business transformation,
talent management is very much necessary. Talent management is identifying, recruiting,
hiring and developing people with strong potential to succeed in an organization.
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General Article:
Employee Engagement- A Corporate Boon 10 Ways for Effective Engagement
Kanaka Maha Lakshmi G.
Effective management of manpower can take place only if emerging paradigms like
employee engagement are properly understood by the top management and put into practice.
The key issues in employee engagement are: the changing spectrum of working environment
to knowledge based work, the difficulties in handling knowledge based workers and
obtaining optimum performances from knowledge based workers. Effective employee
engagement is the key component for improved organizational performance.
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