Diversity in the Workplace and the Impact of Work Values on the Effectiveness of Multi-Generational Teams

Vol. 10  Issue 3
Year:2016
Issue:Dec-Feb
Title:Diversity in the Workplace and the Impact of Work Values on the Effectiveness of Multi-Generational Teams
Author Name:Deb S. Lawton and Carlos Tasso E. De Aquino
Synopsis:
Companies and organizations that want to become or remain successful in the 21 century face a constant challenge of dealing with the great diversity existing in the world. That diversity presents itself in many dimensions such as gender, race and ethnicity, sexual orientation, culture, thinking, among many others. The diversity found in the workforce of most companies and organizations, including different generational cohorts of workers (Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Generation Y or Millennials) represent a great challenge to them, and a better understanding of that can lead to better outcomes. Facing diversity instead of avoiding it, is the beacon for a path towards success. This paper will discuss the impact of different generations in the workforce and how understanding and embracing different work values can lead to build effective and efficient multi-generational teams

The Impact of the Gulf War Immigration on Jordan's Economy and its Information Technology (IT) Sector

Vol. 10  Issue 3
Year:2016
Issue:Dec-Feb
Title:The Impact of the Gulf War Immigration on Jordan's Economy and its Information Technology (IT) Sector
Author Name:Kaled Naser 
Synopsis:
Since its inception, Jordan has experienced large-scale and diverse immigration waves from neighboring countries. The research focuses on the wave that took place during and after the Gulf War of 1991, which left a lasting impact on the country's economy, social fabric, and in particular on the IT industry. The research used a field survey of 37 local companies as well as the analysis and synthesis of various data, and relevant government laws and regulations to probe the impact of that wave. It concluded that, the immigrants caused a boom in all sectors of the economy, as evidenced by the phenomenal 16% growth in the economy in 1992. They created new businesses and competition in the IT industry, and brought technical skills and managerial expertise, that gave a boost to the IT sector and forced the acceleration of local market concepts such as consulting, specialization, and marketing. The Jordanian Government played a passive role at best through its laws, regulations, and practices. During the following decade, few Jordanian IT companies reaped the benefits of the revamped IT sector and attained international fame, when for example, Maktoob portal was acquired by Yahoo. It is hopeful that other countries can benefit from the Jordanian experience in dealing with the ongoing immigration waves and the diversity they bring with them.

A Brief History of Competency-Based Learning in the United States

Vol. 10  Issue 3
Year:2016
Issue:Dec-Feb
Title:A Brief History of Competency-Based Learning in the United States
Author Name:Jennifer Cunningham and Carlos Tasso E. De Aquino 
Synopsis:

The environment of online business education has blossomed in the last decade in the United States, as well as in the rest of the world. Many different approaches have been used to provide students with a more convenient, still very high quality education that can help them to acquire the knowledge and to develop the necessary competencies to achieve success in their careers.

Competency-based education has emerged recently as an alternative, targeting a specific audience of learners, that have developed skills prior to getting a formal education in those areas. By being able to assess those competencies, competency-based programs can recognize the “learning-by-doing” that students have formerly been exposed to, therefore accelerating the completion of degrees and guaranteeing that students can bridge the gap between the knowledge acquired and the actions employers expect to have, when hiring the graduates.

Competency-based education, however, is not new to the United States or the educational system; it has been used for years in corporate training as well as trade schools. With that in mind, this review of literature will examine the history of competency education and the current trends in best practices.

A Study on Purchasing Pattern and Behaviour towards Jewellery in Erode City

Vol. 10  Issue 2
Year:2015
Issue:Sep-Nov
Title:A Study on Purchasing Pattern and Behaviour towards Jewellery in Erode City
Author Name:P. Karthikeyan 
Synopsis:
This research is done with the objective of analyzing consumer buying behaviour while searching for purchasing of Jewellery, service and quality that they have to satisfy their customer needs. It attempts to understand the buyer’s decision making process, both individually and in groups. It studies characteristics of individual consumer such as demography, psychographics and behavioural variables in an attempt to understand people's wants. This study also tries to assess influence on the consumer from groups such as family, friends, reference group, and society in general. The research design used for the study is descriptive research. Here, survey was made with 200 customers in the Jewellery retail store premises. Through the research it was evident that, factors such as price, brand image, collections, advertisement, free gift, quality, discount, ambience of the store, making charges and wastage determines the consumer buying behaviour.

Financial Inclusion through Commercial Banks: A Road Map towards Future Growth (With Reference to Krishna District: Andhra Pradesh)

Vol. 10  Issue 2
Year:2015
Issue:Sep-Nov
Title:Financial Inclusion through Commercial Banks: A Road Map towards Future Growth (With Reference to Krishna District: Andhra Pradesh)
Author Name:P. Raja Babu
Synopsis:
The financial sector reforms have been remarkable in progress and their performance has become a major concern for planners' and policymakers in India. The development of an economy depends on how efficiently the financial sector performs and links up with the function of financial intermediation. In India, the financial market and banks have to play a predominant role and they are taking a number of initiatives in order to expand financial services towards weaker sections of the society. Financial inclusion is the delivery of formal banking services to the vast sections of lower income groups at an affordable cost. As stated by Mr. Arun Jaitley (2014), at present, more than 40 per cent of Indian households do not have access to banking services. In developed countries, financial inclusion is a burning issue. In USA, 9 per cent of the population do not have any bank account (Mohan, 2006) whereas, in Sweden and Germany, this is about 2 per cent and 3 per cent of adults who do not have an account. Countries with high level of inequity record higher levels of banking exclusion. The Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi launched the 'Financial Inclusion Mission' on Independence Day. The main objective is to ensure that every household in India has access to banking services such as savings accounts, credit, remittances, insurance and pension.

A Study on the Causal Relationship between CNX Nifty and the Index of Industrial Production

Vol. 10  Issue 2
Year:2015
Issue:Sep-Nov
Title:A Study on the Causal Relationship between CNX Nifty and the Index of Industrial Production
Author Name:Pavan Kumar Chandrappa, Venugopal Santhosh Kumar and Triveni 
Synopsis:
The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) is an important indicator of economic trends and investors, therefore assume that it has a bearing on the index. This study seeks to address the question as to whether changes in the Index of Industrial Production has a bearing on the movement of the index. The CNX Nifty has been taken as the market index for the purposes of this study. The study covers data for the period between 1990 and 2015.The augmented dickey fuller test has been used to test for stationarity and the data has been found to be stationary after first differencing. Causality and direction of causality is studied using the Granger Causality test. The findings were surprising as the causality was seen to be from CNX Nifty to IIP, which is contrary to what many investors assume. The key finding is that the markets are informationally efficient and investors have access to data well before they are published.

An Approach to the Management of the Sustainable Issues in Mobile Phone Design and Manufacturing

Vol. 10  Issue 2
Year:2015
Issue:Sep-Nov
Title:An Approach to the Management of the Sustainable Issues in Mobile Phone Design and Manufacturing
Author Name:Tom Page
Synopsis:
As the desire for more consumer electronics continuously grows, the demand for rare earth materials used to make such products increases. The linear method by which a majority of the world currently manufactures is not a long-term sustainable solution and these current product cycles will have to be replaced, with more circular business models, in order to adjust to these consumer demands. The aim of this research is to investigate sustainability issues in the whole life cycle of mobile phones. The objectives of this research comprised identifying key sustainable design factors, applying a theoretical framework based on the Circular Economy (CE) to the development, use and disposal of mobile phone products. This work has a wider implication for other such type of electronic products and sub-assemblies and the materials that they are made from.