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KINDLER
THE JOURNAL OF ARMY INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT KOLKATA (FORMERLY NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT CALCUTTA) VOLUME X K NUMBER 2 K ISSN 0973-0486 K JULY-DECEMBER 2010 Page No. EDITOR'S NOTE RESEARCH CONTRIBUTIONS Green Marketing for Sustainable Development : Issues, Challenges and Strategies in Indian and Global Perspectives Dr. Tapas Kumar Bose and Dr. Suman Kumar Dawn Role of Cross-Cultural Dynamics in the Process of Strategic Alliances and Coalition Formation in the Perspective of Inter-Organizational Dynamics An Analytical Study Dr. Debdas Ganguly and Dr. Rakhee Banerjee The Implications of Select Antecedents of Work Life Conflict of Women Employees in Information Technology Sector in India Aiswarya Ramasundaram and Dr. S. S. Rao Employee Value Proposition: A Paradigm shift in the Role of HR from Back Room to Board Room Dr. Suchi Priya STUDENTS CONTRIBUTIONS Article : Food Inflation in India Abhishek Biswas Role of Infrastructure in Developing India Aashish Dhar, Anup Aggarwal, Anurag Singh, Ashok Singh, Abhishek Biswas, Jyoti Shukla, Krishnanand Belwal 65 61 49 31 19 7 3
Page No. BOOK REVIEW Knowledge Management in Organizations Donald Hislop Derivatives and Risk Management Rajiv Srivastava Computer Fundamentals Dr Anita Goel 83 79 75
Editor's Note
It is very rightly said that the competitive advantage that any company can have over others is through its people [Bartlett, C. A., and Ghoshal, S. (2002), Building Competitive Advantage Through People. MIT Sloan Management Review, 43( 2) pp. 34-41]. Moreover, there is a paradigm shift in the role of Human Resource Management (HRM) from its administrative role to a strategic one in the corporate sector. It gives me immense pleasure to present the current issue, celebrating the talent and capability of human power in its new avatar. The articles covered include an analytical study on the Role of Cross-Cultural Dynamics in the Process of Strategic Alliances and Coalition Formation in the Perspective of InterOrganizational Dynamics, Employee Value Proposition : A Paradigm Shift in the Role of HR from Backroom to Board Room and another one showcasing the current dilemma of working female employees, titled The Implications of Select Antecedents of Work Life Conflict of Women Employees In Information Technology Sector In India. The only article in the field of marketing is on a relatively new concept green marketing covering both Indian and global perspectives. The students section is focussed on economics covering food inflation in India and role of infrastructure in developing India. I would like to extend a warm welcome to Dr. Rohit Vishal Kumar (Associate Professor, XISS, Ranchi) and our very own Dr. Malini Majumder (Associate Professor, Army Institute of Management, Kolkata) to our Editorial Advisory Board. I am confident that Kindler will be enriched with their active involvement and concrete suggestions.
Parveen Ahmed Alam Editor, Kindler
RESEARCH CONTRIBUTIONS
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Green Marketing for Sustainable Development : Issues, Challenges and Strategies in Indian and Global Perspectives
Dr. Tapas Kumar Bose* and Dr. Suman Kumar Dawn** ABSTRACT
World-wide evidence indicates that people are becoming concerned about the environment and are changing their thinking and behaviour accordingly. As a result, there is a growing market for sustainable and socially responsible products and services. Many firms are beginning to realize that they are members of the wider community, and, therefore, must behave in environmentally responsible fashion. This translates into values and beliefs that firms must work for environmental objectives as well as profit-related objectives. As a consequence, environmental issues are being integrated into the firms corporate culture and, hence, the concept of green marketing has evolved. Green marketing refers to the efforts companies make to produce goods and services in ways which are compatible with the requirements of society, industry and ecology. This ultimately boils down to the businesss triple bottom line of caring for people, planet and profit. In this context, this paper seeks to: 1) introduce the terms and concepts of green marketing; 2) discuss about the evolution of green marketing; 3) examine some of the reasons why organisations are adopting green marketing philosophy; 4) discuss about the major issues in green marketing; 5) formulate suitable green marketing strategies for sustainable industrial development; and finally 6) highlight the scenario of green marketing in India and the world.
INTRODUCTION TO GREEN MARKETING AND ITS CONCEDPTUAL FOUNDATION The concept of green marketing has arisen from human consciousness about the need to protect and preserve the natural environment of the earth for the survival of human kind. It refers to the marketing policies and practices that reflect the concern of consumers and the public for the preservation of the natural environment (Coddington, 1993). According to Banerjee (1999), green marketing can be defined as the formulation and implementation of marketing programmes directed to meet the need of the environmentally-conscious market segments and protecting the nature. The concept is fully consistent with the businesss triple bottom-line of caring for people, planet and profit (3Ps).
* **
Professor - Deptt. of Commerce, The University of Burdwan, Golapbag, Burdwan, West Bengal - 713104, India. E-mail : tbosebu@yahoo.com Asst. Professor in Marketing, Centre for Management Studies, JIS College of Engineering, Block A, Phase III, Kalyani, Nadia - 741235, West Bengal, India. E-mail: skd_hooghly@yahoo.co.in
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Fuller (1999), another authority of green marketing has defined the concept in a comprehensive way. According to him, green marketing is the process of planning, implementing and controlling the pricing, promotion and distribution of products in a manner that satisfies three criteria. The criteria are: (i) customer needs are met, (ii) organisational goals are attained, and (iii) the process is compatible with eco-systems of the earth. The above definitions make it abundantly clear that green marketing is a holistic concept that includes production, marketing consumption and disposal of goods and services in ways that are much more environment-friendly than the traditional processes. With growing awareness about the dangers of global warming, accumulation of non-biodegradable solid waste, soil degeneration and increasing air and water pollution, both marketers and consumers are becoming increasingly sensitive to the need for a switch over to green products and services. While the shift to green may appear to be expensive in the short term, it will definitely prove to be unavoidable in the long run as the laws are becoming harder everywhere to make environment protection a sacred duty for all. EVOLUTION OF GREEN MARKETING Green marketing is not a fad. It has evolved over a period of time. According to Peattie (1999), the evolution of green marketing has three phases. First phase was termed as ecological green marketing, and during this period, marketing activities were geared to help environment problems and provide remedies for environmental damages. Second phase was styled as environmental green marketing and the focus shifted to using clean technology that reduced environment pollution by changing production technology and designing new products which were eco-friendly in consumption and waste disposal. The third phase was sustainable green marketing. It came into prominence in the late 1990s and early 2000. During this phase, the emphasis is on using the earths limited resources in a way that integrates the interests of business with the broader objectives of socioeconomic development, including the well-being of future generations. This is the current phase of green marketing which is receiving overwhelming support from all quarters worldwide. The reason is that the earth with its complex eco-system and amazing biodiversity is a wonderful gift of nature. Perhaps, in the vast universe it is the only planet with a unique physical environment of air, water and land that supports and sustains man, animal and planet (Bose, 2007). To our knowledge, there is no other habitable planet in the universe that can be alternative to the earth. The existing marketing concept of sustainable green marketing is based on using the earths resources and systems in an unsustainable manner to meet the companies unending greed for higher profitability. The traditional view of business argues that the companys managers and directors are only responsible to the owners of the firm for maximizing profit. It started changing in the early nineties to include a responsibility not only to the owners and employees but also to all other stakeholders including the community, nature and animal (Klonoski, 1991) for sustainable growth of business. Peattie (1999) further argues that governments of all countries must take positive actions to change the environmental policies of businesses for conservation and development of the earths
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limited resources. Companies must make greening an integral part of their business strategy and invest in the programmes for the protection of the natural environment as they are doing for other aspects of their business (Polonski & Rosenberger, 2001). Simintiras et al. (1994) observe that there is an increasing consensus that the direction of green marketing has finally shifted to sustainable factors involved in the overall marketing efforts and its main focus is now on socio-economic and environmental issues of business. REASONS FOR ADOPTING GREEN MARKETING As resources are limited and human wants are unlimited, it is important for the marketers to utilise the resources efficiently without waste in tune with the organisations social responsibility of protecting the environment. There is also a growing interest among the consumers all over the world regarding the protection of environment. Global evidence indicates that people are concerned about the environment and are changing their attitudes fast. As a result, green marketing is going the whole hogg to take advantage of the growing market for sustainable and socially responsible products and services. Acceding to Keller (1987) and others, there are five possible reasons for growing importance of green marketing: a) b) c) d) e) Organisations perceive green marketing to be an opportunity that can be used to achieve its objectives. Organisations believe they have a moral obligation to be more socially and ethically responsible. Competitors environmental activities bring pressure on firms to change their environmental policies and go for green marketing. Cost factors associated with waste disposal or reductions in materials usage force firms to modify their behaviour in favor of green marketing. . Governmental bodies, environmental activists and international groups are forcing firms to become more socially responsible and environment friendly.
CHALLENGES IN GREEN MARKETING Environmental protection is the need of the hour. There is a growing national and international pressure on the industries to cut down pollutions and minimize damage to the environment in the interest of sustainable development. Obviously, green marketing is a step in the right direction. Companies are also eager to adopt it as a business strategy. But there are a number of challenges which are standing on the way of its successful implementation. To our mind, there is an urgent need for government, industry and public to act in a concerted manner for the protection of the environment. The first major problem of green marketing is that the industrial products and services which are more environmentally safe cost more in many a case. Though consumers say that they are willing to pay 7 to 20 % more for green products (Darymple and Parsons 2002), but in reality they are not willing to do this for expensive product items where the price differential between green and non-green brands is more. If consumers show
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preference for non-green brands which are cheaper, marketing managers are constrained to pursue the policy of green marketing in a big way. Secondly, consumers may not like the performance or quality of green products. For example, green tissue paper may not be as soft as the traditional counterpart. Thirdly, if firms make the packaging of their brands in an economical way, they may be at a disadvantage because of the reduced visibility of their brands on retail shelves. In addition, smaller packaging may be perceived as items of reduced quantity and they will occupy a smaller surface that goes against the promotional message. Lastly, the present green initiatives are based on the current level of scientific knowledge about the final impact of various actions. Thus, it transpires that with more researches and fresh discoveries, the base of scientific knowledge is changing. As a result, what may be seen as more eco-friendly today may actually turn out to be more harmful in the long run. Using the green platform for marketing in such cases may sometimes end up with a backlash for the organizations involved. For example, the aerosol industry which has switched from CFCs (chloro-fluoro-carbons) to HFCs (hydro-fluoro-carbons) is now being told that HFCs is also a greenhouse gas. Some firms now use DME (dimethyl ether) as an aerosol propellant, which may also harm the ozone layer. Given the limited scientific knowledge at any point in time, it may be impossible for a firm to be certain they have made the correct decisions regarding green marketing. STRATEGIES FOR GREEN MARKETING The process of green marketing begins with the formulation of green marketing strategies and promotion of the consumption of green products. At the highest level, the companies must adopt creativity and be committed to the development of environment-friendly products. For the promotion of green marketing, they should adopt the following strategies: Green marketing mix Eco-labelling Green marketing audit GREEN MARKETING MIX When companies come up with new innovations like eco-friendly products, they should access new markets to enhance their market share and increase profits. Like conventional marketing, green marketing also has the four Ps of marketing process. All the strategies will have to be formulated and implemented using the basic concept of green marketing. An outline of such strategies is provided here for ready use of marketing managers. It is well known that there are four types of major marketing strategies. For green marketing, these basic marketing strategies need to be redesigned and integrated with the core business strategies. Accordingly, there are four green marketing strategies which constitute, in our view, the green marketing mix as shown in Figure 1.
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Figure 1: Green Marketing Mix Green Marketing Strategies
Product Strategies
Price Strategies
Place Strategies
Promotion Strategies
A) Product Strategy for Green Marketing The products have to be developed according to the needs of customers, environmental policies of the country and the social activities of the organization. Green products not only save water, energy and money, but also reduce harmful effects on the environment. The marketers role in the emerging scenario of green marketing will be to: Identify customers environmental preferences and develop products to address these preferences. Develop environmentally safer products than competitors. Give preference to products that can be recycled. Emphasise environmentally efficient products, which save water, energy or gasoline, save money and reduce pollution. Understand that many consumers are prepared to pay a premium for organic products which are environment-friendly and superior in quality. To our mind, electronics, electrical and automobile sectors provide sufficient space for using green marketing in order to attract new customers. For example, in the electronics sector, Hewlett-Packard promised to cut its global energy use by 20 percent by the year 2010. (http://www.csrwire.com/News/7982.html). To do so, the company announced plans to deliver energy-efficient products and services and institute energy-efficient operating practices in its facilities worldwide. In the electrical sector, Philips first attempt to develop a standalone compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulb was termed as the Earth Light. As the estimated cost of such bulb was $15 each versus 75 cents for an incandescent bulb, the company faced enormous difficulty in marketing CFL bulbs. As a result, Philips re-launched the product as Marathon, underscoring its new super long life bulb with the promise of saving $26 in energy costs over its five-year lifetime (http://www.ccrane.com/lights/home-garden-lighting/ philips-marathon-60-cfl-light bulb.aspx).
In another example, Toyota, the major car maker in the world, is trying to introduce gas/electric-driven cars to reduce pollution and save fossil fuel. It is also making the single largest R&D investment in the ever-elusive hydrogen car and promoting itself as the first eco-friendly car company. B) Price Strategy for Green Marketing Pricing is a critical element of the marketing mix. Most customers will only be prepared to pay a premium if there is a perception of additional product value. This value may be improved performance, function, design, visual appeal or taste. Environmental benefits are usually considered an added bonus but may not be the sole deciding factor between products of equal value and quality. Environmental friendly products, however, are often less expensive when product life cycle costs are taken into consideration. For example, fuel-efficient vehicles, water-efficient printing and nonhazardous products instantly appeal to consumers. Green pricing takes into consideration the interests of people, planet and profit in a way that takes care of the health of employees and communities, ensures profit for companies and makes the world a better place to live in. C) Place Strategy for Green Marketing In green marketing, place is about managing logistics to cut down on transportation emissions, which aims at reducing the carbon footprints. For example, instead of marketing an imported fruit juice to India, it can be licensed for local production. This avoids shipping of the products form distant places, thus, reducing pollution by ships and other modes of transport. D) Promotion Strategy for Green Marketing Promoting products and services to target markets includes paid advertising, public relations, sales promotions, direct marketing and on-site promotions. Green promotion may take many forms. Some of which are :(i) telling investors about the companys opportunities and performance, (ii) reminding people about how the company plays an important role in community development, (iii) telling customers about additional goods and services that can help them with their lives and business, and (iv) introducing smart solutions to many. New generation of green marketers will be able to reinforce environmental credibility by using sustainable marketing and communications tools and practices. For example, many companies in the financial industry are providing electronic statements by email. E-marketing is rapidly replacing more traditional marketing methods, and printed materials can be produced using recycled materials and efficient processes. The Statesman of Kolkata has been using recycled newsprint for years in deference to environmental issues. Retailers, for example, are recognising the value of alliances with other companies, environmental groups and research organisations when promoting their environmental commitment. Indian Tobacco Company (ITC) has introduced environmental-friendly papers and boards, which are free of elemental chlorine. Recently, eco-labeling has emerged as a powerful tool for promoting green marketing.
ECO-LABELLING It is an important strategy of green marketing. It has developed in response to the growing demand from consumers for products that do less harm to the environment. This is reflected in the emergence of products such as non-toxic household cleaning agents, chlorine-free paper, recycled oil, and mercury-free batteries. Eco-labels or green stickers are used for marketing food and consumer products and they have emerged as one of the main tools of green marketing (Rex and Baumann, 2007). They convey important information about environmental protection for consumer awareness (Bruce and Laroiya, 2007).Eco-labelling enjoys wide support from voluntary and governmental agencies as well as many international groups. As a resource protection tool, eco-labels ensure that concise and specific measures have been taken for certain product in order to avoid or limit undesirable externalities on the eco-system and the environment (Charles, 2009). GREEN MARKETING AUDIT The green marketing audit is designed to determine how effectively the organization is currently pursuing its environmental credentials with regard to both internal and external stakeholders. It covers all aspects of green marketing strategies activities from formulation to implementation. The audit identifies those areas where green marketing is strong as well as those where improvements could be made, with recommendations as to how these could be addressed. SCENARIO OF GREEN MARKETING IN INDIA There is a growing awareness among the Indian consumers regarding the protection of the environment in which they live and work. They are also interested in green marketing and sustainable development so that the future generations may live happily and prosper. For the last few years, Indian economy has been growing at nearly 9% annually and it is expected to double its energy consumption by 2030. The governments are under tremendous pressure to take action for providing clean environment for future generations to come. Many Indian companies have come forward for the cause of environmental concerns like global warming, water and air pollution, etc. Studies show that in India, around 25% of the consumers prefer environmental-friendly products, and around 28% are more health conscious. Therefore, there is a sizeable untapped segment in India which green marketers can serve through offering eco-friendly products for ensuring profitability and survival in the fiercely competitive world. (http://e-articles.info/e/a/title/GreenMarketing/). Mahindra Group, for example, has formally announced the launch of project Mahindra Hariyali in which 1 million trees will be planted nation-wide by Mahindra employees and other stakeholders, including customers, vendors, dealers and others. Of these, 1,50,000 trees have already been planted by Mahindra employees since September 2007 (www.mahindra.com/.../socialinit_environment.html). Nokias environmental work is based on life cycle thinking. The aim is to minimize the environmental impact of our products through a series of operations, beginning with the
extraction of raw materials and ending with recycling, treatment of waste, and recovery of used materials. India is a world leader in green IT potential, according to a recently released global enterprise survey. Indian respondents scored over respondents from 10 other countries in expecting to pay 5% or more for green technology if its benefits for the environment and return on investment (ROI) are proven. The survey was conducted by Green Factor, which researches and highlights green marketing opportunities. According to company reports, HCL is duty bound to manufacture environmentally responsible products and comply with environment management processes right from the time products are sourced, manufactured, bought by customers, recovered at their end-of-life and recycled (http://earticles.info/e/a/title/Green-Marketing). Other companies are also moving in the same direction. NTPC is devising ways to utilize coal-ash that has been a major source of air and water pollution (www.scribd.com/doc/28380577/Green-Marketing-Assignment). IOC has taken steps for restricting air and water pollutions through adoption of green technologies on the one hand and tree plantation on the other. Hindustan Unilever which requires good quality water for the manufacture of its food products has been improving the quality of water in many communities. Companies like Cadbury India, Glaxo and Richardson Hindustan are helping farmers to grow crops which serve as raw materials for them. Lipton India, a leading packaged tea maker, announced the launch of Lipton Clear Green tea. This variant of tea is a natural source of anti-oxidants. Lipton Clear Green combines the goodness of the green teas antioxidants (AOX) with the purifying effect of water to help cleanse the body naturally (http://www.business- standard.com/india/news/lipton-launcheslipton-clear-green-tea). British Gas (which sells compressed natural gas to India) has recently started teaching unemployed youngsters how to become mechanics for gasbased auto rickshaws in Delhi. Indian Oil also aims at developing techno-economically viable and environment-friendly products and services for the benefit of millions of its consumers, while at the same time ensuring the highest standards of safety and environment protection in its operations (www.iocl.com/AboutUs/environment(GFA aspx). In India the metro cities were being polluted at a very fast pace until Supreme Court of India forced a change to alternative fuels. In 2002, a directive was issued by the apex court to completely adopt CNG in all public transport systems to curb pollution as early as possible (Green marketing. https://www.prnewswire.co.uk). GLOBAL SCENARIO OF GREEN MARKETING There are clear indications that green consciousness has been increasing among the companies and consumers in the developed countries. As in India, the high cost of green products remains the biggest challenge to the popularity of green marketing worldwide. According to a reputed market researcher, Mintel, about 12% of the U.S. population can be identified as true greens where consumers seek out and regularly buy the green products. Another 68% can be classified as light greens where consumers buy green sometimes. According to a report released by The Brattle Group and Trilemma UK, the Green Package sets targets that represent a marked change in the energy market. The
targets are to : save 20% of energy, increase the share of renewable energy to 20%, and cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 20%, all by 2020 (http://www.mintel.com/presscentre/press-releases/675/consumer-interest-in-green-services-doubled-from-2008-10). According to another Mintels report, 66% of consumers in United States do not buy green products because of high cost, while 34% say there is lack of availability of green products in the market. This shows the huge potential for untapped market and customer demand and requirement for eco-friendly products which the companies can exploit for capturing the market share and thereby enhancing the profitability and sustainability of the organisation in the global competitive scenario (http://e-articles.info/e/a/title/Green-Marketing/). To achieve sustainable development many multinational companies (MNCs) have adopted greening and green marketing strategies. For example, Federal Express, a global company has taken up several initiatives that help to protect the environment including greenhouse gas reduction, renewable energy and noise reduction, recycling and using alternative fuels in its own transportation fleet for increasing their accountability towards the environment and the society as a whole. Businesses have an impact on the environment as a whole. Plantation and cultivation activities taken up by Intel is an example of socially responsible firms contributing to preservation of environment. Recycling used products also acts as a step towards minimizing wastes (http://www.environmentalleader.com/2011/02/18/fedexopens-first-green-data-center/). Otis Elevators Gen2 elevator systems feature regenerative drives that reduce energy consumption by up to 75 percent compared to conventional systems. The Gen2-coated steel belts and machines require no additional lubrication, and light-emitting diode (LED) illumination is standard, lasting up to 10 times longer than conventional fluorescent lamps. An automatic switch-off mode saves up to 80 percent wasted energy. Otis escalators and moving walkways reduce energy consumption by up to 60 percent, an efficient, automatic lubrication system reduces annual oil usage by up to 98 percent versus conventional systems, and LED lighting options are up to 30 percent more energy efficient (http:// aznow.biz/green/otis-elevator-company-shows-way-green). International Business Machines (IBM) changed the way it applies acoustic foam to its computer panels by discontinuing the use of chemical-based adhesives and replacing them with dart-shaped connectors that hold the foam in place. This change not only helped IBM reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emissions in the production process through the elimination of the adhesive, it also provided for ease in recycling when the product reached the end of its lifecycle (http://www-07.ibm.com/systems/includes/ content/dynamicinfrastructure/news/announcements/20090428/downloads/ case_study_081119.pdf.) CONCLUSION Green marketing should not be considered as just one more approach to marketing, but has to be seen in a holistic way since it has public policy implementation with environmental and social dimensions. With the threat of global warming looming large on us like never before, it is extremely important that green marketing becomes the norm rather than an
exception. Recycling of paper, metals, plastics, etc. in a safe and environmentally harmless manner should become much more common and universal. Marketers need to understand the implications of green marketing for long-term profitability and sustainable development. To make green marketing a success, organizations, government and people must make concerted efforts to minimize the negative effects to their activities and products on the environment. Green marketing assumes even more importance and relevance in developing countries like India. Today, Indian consumers are becoming more and more conscious about the environment and are also becoming socially responsible. As a result, more Indian companies are showing interest in producing environmentally less damaging or neutral products. Most of them feel that environment-friendly products have a bright future. It has also been observed that Indian manufacturing companies are paying increasing attention to green marketing by producing and selling eco-friendly products and services. They are also constructing the green buildings which are efficient in their use of energy, water and construction materials, and which also reduce the impact of pollution on human health and the environment through better design, operation, maintenance and waste disposal. The Indian government, too, has developed a framework of legislations to reduce the production of harmful goods and by-products. These reduce the industrys production and consumers consumption of harmful goods, including those detrimental to health and environment. The ban on plastic bags in Mumbai and other places, prohibition of smoking in public areas and closure of heavily polluting industries in cities serve to underline the importance of green marketing as a tool for environment protection and sustainable development. REFERENCES
1. Banerjee, S.B. (1999), Corporate environmentalism and the greening of strategic marketing: Implication of marketing theory and practice, : In Charter M., & Polonosky, M.J. (Eds.), Greener Marketing: A global perspectives on greener marketing practice, Sheffield; Greenleaf Publishing Limited, pp. 16-41 Bose, T.K. (2007), Environmental Responsibility of Business, Journal of Commerce & Trade, 1(2), pp.13-16 Bruce, C. and Laroiya, A. (2007), The Production of Eco-labels, DOI 10.1007/s10640-0069028-9. Environmental and Resource Economics, 36, pp.275-293 Charles, E. (2009), Eco-labelling: A new deal for a more durable fishery management, Ocean Coastal Management, 52, pp. 250-257 Coddington, W. (1993), Environmental Marketing, New York: McGraw- Hill Dalrymple, D.J. and Parsons L.J. (2002), Marketing Management: Text and Cases, 7th ed., John Wiley & Sons, pp.18-20 Fuller, D.A.(1999), Sustainable Marketing : Managerial-ecological Issues, Thousand Oaks , CA: SAGE Publications Keller, G.M. (1987), Industry and the Environment: Towards a new philosophy, Vital Speeches, 54, pp. 154-157 Klonsoki, R.J. (1991), Foundational considerations in the corporate, social responsibility debate, Business Horizons, 34(4), pp. 9-18 Kindler Vol. X No. 2 July-December 2010
2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.
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10. Ottman, J.A. (2006), Avoiding Green Marketing Myopia, Environment, 48, June 11. Peattie, K.(1999), Rethinking marketing: Shifting to a greener paradigm, In Charter M., and Polonosky, M.J. (Eds.), Greener Marketing: A global perspectives on greener marketing practice, Sheffield; Greenleaf Publishing Limited, pp. 57-70 12. Polonosky, M.J. and Rosenberger, P.J. (2001), Revaluating green marketing: A strategic approach, Business Horizons, 44(5), pp. 21-30 13. Rex, E. and Baumann, H. (2007), Beyond Ecolabels: What green marketing can learn from conventional marketing, J. Clean Prod., 15, 567-576 14. Simintiras, A.C., Schlegelmilch, B.B. and Diamantopoulos, A. (1994), Greening the marketing mix: a review of the literature and an agenda for future research, In: McDonagh P, and Prothero A, (Eds.), Green management a reader, London: The Dryden Press, pp. 413-434
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1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. http://e-articles.info/e/a/title/Green-Marketing/ last accessed on 12.06.2010 http://www.bcg.com/publications/files/BCG_Studie03_2009.pdf/ last accessesd on 14.06.2010 www.epa.qld.gov.au/sustainable_ industries/last accessed on 14.06.2010 www.greenmarketing.net/stratergic.html/ last accessed on 15.06.2010 www.wmin.ac.uk/marketing research/marketing/greenmix.html/last accessed on 16.06.2010 www.mahindra.com/.../socialinit_environment.html/ last accessed on 15.06.2010 www.oppapers.com/subjects/green-marketing-strategies-and-issues-in-india-age1.html/last accessed on 16.06.2010 http://www.business- standard.com/india/news/lipton-launches-lipton-clear-green-tea/last accessed on 20.06.2010 (www.iocl.com/AboutUs/environment(GFA).aspx/ last accessed on 21.06.2010
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Role of Cross-Cultural Dynamics in the Process of Strategic Alliances and Coalition Formation in the Perspective of InterOrganizational Dynamics An Analytical Study
Dr. Debdas Ganguly*, Dr. Rakhee Banerjee**
ABSTRACT
The turbulent global situations faced by the business organization make the internal dynamics of organisations in a state which is very much away from its position of steadiness. Situation in India is not an exception in this respect. It is always in the process of kinematics state of existence. No organisation presently can be isolated from the global scenario. Organisations in present day are globally associated with each other and because of steady change in global scenario, the internal situation of organisation are steadily changing. It can be concluded that the internal organizational dynamics results change in organizational culture (OC) of an organisation. Organizations, as situations demand, occasionally need to go for strategic alliance and strategic coalition with different organizations, national and international. In many cases these strategic alliance and coalition become successful leading to growth and development of the concerned organizations. Sometimes these alliances do not become successful. In this work, an approach has been taken to study analytically, to identify the role of organisational culture upon the effectiveness of this strategic alliance. Also it has been tried to see how durable the alliances are and how significantly the organisational culture plays its role in these processes of strategic alliances between different organisations
INTRODUCTION A new phenomenon in the study of organizational behaviour needs to be considered once this is related to organizations of developing or developed countries. Such organizations use highly specified technological, HR, and market-related practices and procedures and tailor-made financial approaches. Each, after prolong R & D work as well as long field study and practice, develop their own suitable and useable methods which optimize their
Professor & Head, Department of Management & Social Science, Haldia Institute of Technology, P.O.: HIT Campus, Hatiberia, ICARE Complex, Haldia, District Midnapore (East), PIN-721657, West Bengal. Email: debdas-hit@indiatimes.com Asst. Professor, Department of Management & Social Science, Haldia Institute of Technology, P.O.: HIT Campus, Hatiberia, ICARE Complex, Haldia, District Midnapore (East), PIN-721657, West Bengal. E-mail:drrakheeb6@gmail.com
**
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organizational activities towards achievement of organizational goals and objectives. Also, these need to be very carefully designed and structured so that these can significantly outweigh the competitors of the organization. Accordingly, the departments or systems of any organization, because of highly specified activity systems, are very much compartmentalized and separated from each other. But for the purpose of achievement of optimum overall goal and objective of the organization, there needs to be coordination and cooperation of the prevalent best of the systems. In the days of globalisation where the globe is considered to be the village, confrontation develops over the concept of encapsulation or compartmentalisation of organizations. This new concept of globalisation enforces the organizations, being so long shielded its own organisational culture boundary, fare a very critical organizational dynamics. The equilibrium position needs to be maintained between creativity and conformity between individualisation and collectionism, between individual organizational culture and global organizational culture. The equilibrium positions needs to be maintained between creativity and conformity, between individualism and collectivism, between individual organizational culture and global organizational culture. Cross cultural dynamics in an organization emphasizes on establishing the concept of culture and its impact on various surroundings discussing the key dimensions of culture. It also emphasizes on the converging cultures, myths and forces against convergences. It also asserts how culture turns to be a source of competition and also in the process of this inter-organizational dynamics when there develops situation leading to clash of culture, how that can be managed towards inter-organizational unanimity towards its achievement than diversity. As discussed, the inter-organizational unanimity is required to be maintained in the midst of existing dynamics of desired and undesired diversities. It is desired that effort should be made to identify the constructs of strategic alliance which is required for industrially developing countries, especially for countries like India. It requires analyzing in details the tenets of strategic alliance, how essential it is to form these and how these formations can be expedited and the rupture can be prevented with the fabrics of bondage of the dimensions of organizational culture in the background of this interorganizational dynamics. CONCEPT OF CULTURE AND ITS ROLE What Is Culture? The term culture has been adopted from the Latin word cultura and in broadest sense it means the result of human action. According to Schneider and Hall (1972), culture is the pattern of taken-for-granted assumptions about how a given collection of people should think, act, and feel as they go about their daily affairs. Several organizational scientists have defined culture in terms of different traits of human characteristics like Common values
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Common beliefs Common attitudes Common behaviour Common norms Heroes Morals
Customs Rituals Ceremonies Assumptions Perceptions
Hofstede (1980) describes culture as collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from another. There is a diffuse range of elements involved in cultural programming, these are: Language Economics Religion Politics Values Attitude Manners Customs Materialistic possessions Aesthetics Education Social institutions, Social status or classes and family structure
It is culture that creates unique identity for group of people bearing that particular culture. Each society, each group, possesses unique culture because of unique nature of constructs. Organisational Culture (OC) As each society or group is having their own individual culture, which may be said to be societal culture, each organization is having its own organizational culture which gives the organization its unique identity. As defined by Georgopoulus (1965) OC is a normative structure of attitudes and behavioural standards which provide a basis for interpreting the situations and act as a source of pressure for directing activities. Litwin and Stinger (1968) define OC as a set of measurable properties of the work environment, perceived directly or indirectly by the people who live and work in that environment, which influences their motivation and behaviour. According to Harrison et al. (1992) culture is to an organization what personality is to an individual. It is that distinctive constellation of beliefs, values, work styles and relationships that distinguish one organization from another. What an organization does, how differently the organization does that from other organizations, the performance level and achievement level, etc. are all outcome of that organizational culture. Each organizational culture has some critical dimensions which may be called to be key dimensions of OC and these dimensions become the cause of unique identity of the organization in form of its activities, policies, etc.
Key Dimensions of Culture Schneider and Barsoux (1997) discussed several key dimensions of culture that are frequently used by management scholars: Schein Relationship with nature Human activity Human nature Time Truth & reality Trompenaars Relationship with nature Relationship with people Universalism vs. Particularism Individualism vs. Collectivism Activity Diffuse vs. Specific Achievement vs. Ascription Relationship with time
Kluckhohn Strodtbeck Relationship with time Human activity Human nature Time Relationship with people time
Adler Relationship with nature Human activity (being/doing) Human nature Time (past/present/future) Individualism vs. Collectivism
Hall Space: personal/physical Human activity Human nature Time: monochromatic/polychromatic Language: high context/low context
Hofstede Uncertainty Avoidance Power Distance Individualism vs. Collectivism Masculinity vs. Feminity
Culture as a Shared Solution of External and Internal Integration As observed by Schneider and Barsoux (1997), culture has been seen as a shared solution to the problems of external and internal integration. They also suggest that time, space, and languages are related as linking assumptions between these two.
EXTERNAL ADAPTATION Relationship with nature control Uncertainty avoidance Nature of human activity Achievement vs. ascription Nature of reality & truth
INTERNAL INTEGRATION Human nature:Basically good or evil Nature of human relationship: Social vs. task orientation Particularism vs. universalism Individualism vs. collectivism
LINKING ASSUMPTION Space personal and physical Language high-low context Time monochromatic, polychromatic past, present & future
Primary Characteristics of OC and Related Functions There are seven primary characteristics that, collectively, succeed in representing the essence of culture of an organization. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Innovation and Risk-taking The degree to which employees are encouraged to be innovative and take risks. Attention to Details - The degree to which employees are encouraged to be innovative and take risk. Outcome Orientation - The degree to which management focuses on results or outcomes rather than on techniques and processes used to achieve these outcomes. People Orientation -The degree to which management decisions takes into considerations the effect of outcome on people within the organization. Team Orientation - The degree to which work activities are organized around teams rather than individuals.
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Aggressiveness - The degree to which people are aggressive and competitive rather than easy going. Stability - The degree to which organizational activities emphasize maintaining status quo in contrast to growth.
In this respect Pareek (2006) stated that political culture should generate a process of decision making at various levels in society what may be called differentiation of social functions and which is often termed decentralisation (a term which has been used so often to connote such different meaning). The schedule of formation of organizational culture is:
Top Managers Selection criteria Socialization Organizational Culture
Philosophy of organizational leader
Some of the functions of organizational culture are as below: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Culture has a boundarydefining role It communicates a sense of quality for organizational members Culture promotes the generations of commitment to do something for the sake of the organization to a larger extent than ones self-interest. Culture imparts social system consistency. Culture in the objective helps the organization and the employees what they commit to do in the organization. Culture can promote sensemaking and controlling mechanism which in turn shapes the attitude and behaviour of the employees.
Again according to Pareek (2002 b), a conductive ultimate, transformational leadership and empowerment can promote organizational learning, correlation of organizational learning and diagnostics indicator scores with ultimate variables suggest that climate and ethos are very important in the implement phase, the trust and extension climate play very positive role and dependency climate is detrimental to organizational learning diagnostics. Cross-Cultural Study Sinha (1977) reviewed more than 300 publications related to industrial and organizational psychology and management in India. These articles were published between 1971 and 1976. This study was related with cross-cultural study. It has been established that there are several aims and objectives of cross-cultural studies. i) ii) Cross-cultural study helps to understand the systematic co-variation between cultural and behavioural variables. Cross-cultural study can also reveal the total range of the variability and every possible difference which exists in human social behaviour.
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Consequently the utility of cross-cultural study are as follows; i) The utility of cross-cultural study is to examine the psychological laws. The crosscultural study relates to both culture general and culture specific. In fact, it is only within the context of similarities that one can understand the differences. (Campbell,1970). Culture constitutes different aspects of psychological functioning. The planning can be less developed as a characteristic response. The planners are less employed to value planning to enjoy planning and to support one another. (Mukherjee 1969).
ii)
STRATEGIC ALLIANCE AND COALITION FORMATION Strategic Alliance and Its Nature Strategic alliances are cooperative arrangements between organizations belonging to some country or different parts of the world or different ends of supply chain. These alliances represent connection between otherwise independent organizations. That can take many forms and contain the potential for additional collaboration, which are more than just the deal. These are mutual agreements to continue to get together to avail of stream of opportunities. Business alliances have come to be recognized in the business world since the early 1970s as prominent tool to derive synergistic benefits, combat competitive threats, access to latest technology, wider market base, strengthen financial position and above all to achieve competitive edge on a suitable basis. Alliances are a response to uncertainty and provide comfort that the firm is taking action. These are tools for extending or reinforcing competitive advantage. The alliances open up possibilities that could not have existed for either partner acting alone. There are variety of arrangements for joint developments and alliances. Some may be much formalized inter-organizational relationships; at the other extreme there can be very loose arrangements of cooperation between organizations, with no shareholding or ownership involved. The reasons why these different forms of alliances might occur are varied, but they are likely to be conceived with assets involved in the alliance or identical nature of the cross-cultural constructs existing in the alliance. Khandwalla (1992 a) commented that when a change is accepted by the organization, and it is made a part of the regular working of the organization, we call it institutionalisation. If the innovation is to survive, after sometime special treatment may be withdrawn and the innovation should become part of the regular organizational functioning. Then its get institutionalised. Coalition Formation The alliance may take the form of networks of opportunistic alliances, sub-contracting licenses and franchise, consortia, joint ventures and acquisition and mergers. Joint ventures are typically thought of arrangements where organizations remain independent but set up a newly created organization jointly owned by the parent organizations.
Consortia may well involve two or more organizations in a joint venture arrangement and would typically be more focused on a particular venture or project. In joint ventures and consortia, the inter-organizational relationships are likely to be formalized in the form either of shareholding or agreements specifying assets sharing and distribution of projects. As against joint ventures and consortia, networks are arrangements whereby two or more organizations work in collaboration with not any formal relationships, but through mechanisms of mutual advantage trust and advantage. Again Khandwalla (1992 b) pointed out organizational learning mechanisms seem to facilitate organisational excellence. Organizational learning mechanisms statistically correlated for most of the indicators of organizational performance. There may exist several arrangements in between the formal and informal ones, such as franchising, licensing and sub-contracting. In franchising, the franchiser hold specific activities such as manufacturing, distribution or selling but the franchise are responsible for the brand name, marketing and probably training. In licensing, right to manufacture a patented product is granted for a fee. In sub-contracting, a company chooses to subcontract particular services or part of the process to other companies. The Catalytic Role of Culture on Strategic Alliance and Coalition Formation - The Technology Involved The world is full of confrontations between people, groups and nations. They feel, think, and act differently. At the same time these people, groups, and nations carry on within themselves indelible patterns or problems which demand cooperation for their solution. Ecological, economical, military, hygienic, and methodological developments do not stop at regional or national borders. Understanding the difference in the ways the leaders and their followers think, feel, and act in search of solutions to wide ranging problems and issues is a condition for bringing about worldwide solutions. Despite the fact that people differ in their thinking, feeling, and acting, there is a structure in this variety which can serve as a basis for mutual understanding; this structure of mind or as Hofstede (1980) calls it Software of the mind or mental programs have their origin within the social program in which one grew up and collected ones life experience. The mental software is customarily the culture. Culture, as discussed earlier in this work, is always a collective phenomenon because it is shared with people who live or lived within same social environment as it is in case of societal culture or organizational culture. Culture, as has been observed in the previous discussion is learned, not inherited. It derives from ones social environment, not from ones genes. Culture should be distinguished from human nature on one side and from an individuals personality on the other.
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Personality
Culture
Human Nature
LAYERS OF CULTURE Almost every one belongs to a number of different groups and categories of people at the same time, people unavoidably carry several layers to mental programming within themselves corresponding to different levels of culture. For example: appreciate the value a national level according to ones country (or countries for people who migrated during their life time) a regional and/or ethnic and/or religious and/or linguistic affiliation level as most nations are composed of culturally different religions, ethnic groups, or language groups a gender level, according to whether a person was born as a boy or girl a social class level, associated with educational opportunities and with occupation and profession of parent for those who are employed, an organizational or corporate level according to the way employees have been socialized by their work organisation. In this connection, in one of his book, Pareek (2006) expressed that political culture should generate a process of decision making at various levels in society, what may be called differentiation of social functions, and which is often termed decentralisation (a term which has been used so often to connote such different meaning). OBSERVATION The organizational culture school rejects the assumptions of the modern structural and systems schools. Instead, it assumes that many organizational behaviours and decisions are almost pre-determined by the patterns of basic assumptions existing in the organizations. These patterns of assumptions have continued to exist and influence behaviours because they have repeatedly led people to make decisions that usually worked for the organization.
From the organizational culture perspectives, the personal preferences of organization members are not restrained by systems of formal rules, authority, and norms of rational behaviour. Instead, they are controlled by cultural norms, values, beliefs, and assumptions. In order to understand or predict how an organization will behave under different circumstances one must know what its patterns of basic assumptions are its organizational culture. Hence, the basic considerations in the process of strategic alliance and its successful acceptability by organizational leaders and its members are cultural approach and its compatibility from the perspective of organizational culture. As worked out in this study, if the constructs of organizational culture of the parties with whom the coalition is formed becomes compatible with the coalition forming organizations, it becomes a successful alliance. CONCLUSION What an organization is, how it is different from other organizations, how unique is its identity this all is because of how the organizational culture of the organization is. As it is analyzed in this work, like individual, each society possesses its own culture which is called societal culture and each organization also possesses its own culture which is called organizational culture. Organizational culture possesses its own constructs which are, in fact, the dimensions of organizational culture of that particular organization. How the strategic alliance will be formulated, what will be the role and structure of the alliance, which all will be the parties in the alliance and what will be organizational policy that will be guidelines of this alliance and coalitions should be in match with the perceived constructs of the organizational culture. These constructs are its value sense, norms, attitude, knowledge and so many others, as discussed earlier. It has been observed that with the changing dynamics of global economic, societal, and environmental conditions, there are continuous changes in organizational dynamics. These changing organizational dynamics also cause changes in the constructs of organizational culture. Also, along with changing organizational situation there is continuous state of affair of change in process of organizational strategic alliance. Hence, there is need to have equilibrium in the process of change of organizational culture and process of organizational strategic alliance and its coalition formation. Organizational leaders need to analyze the constructs of organizational culture and see that these constructs are flexible enough to accept the alliance and subsequent coalition and only then become a long standing successful bonding of OC with suitable alliance in the organization under the turbulence of inter-organizational dynamics. Some of the strategic alliances and coalitions on national and international basics are observed to be very much successful and give the desired growth to both the acquisitioner and the acquisitioned and also same satisfaction in case of merger also. But sometimes it is observed that strategic alliance does not become successful. A general analysis of such situation shows that when major constructs of organizational culture for the organizations forming alliances are
identical, they form a homogeneous OC after coalition and that adds to stability. Examples of merger and acquisition of several organizations like ASEA Brown Boveri, etc. can be taken for consideration. But for some organisations like National Textile Corporation (NTC) which took over textile mills from their private entrepreneurs, this acquisition was not at all successful since nowhere the previous OC had been in match with OC of present owners. Most of the mills who could not make themselves fit to match with the present owners OC had developed an heterogeneous post-alliance culture that had been critical for survival of the organization. REFERENCES
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Campbell, J.P. (1970), Managing Behaviour, Performance and Effectiveness, McGraw-Hill, New York Gergopoulos, B. (1965), Normative Structure Variables and Organizational Behaviour, Human Relations, 18, pp. 115-170 Harrison, R .and Stokes, H. (1992), Diagonising Organisational Culture. Pfeiffer & Co., San Diego Hofstede, G. (1980), Cultures Consequences: International Differences in Work-related Value, Sage, Beverly Hills, CA Khandwalla, P.N. (1992, a), Innovative Corporate Turnaround, Sage Publication. New Delhi Khandwalla, P.N. (1992, b), Organisational Design for Excellence, Tata McGraw-Hill, New Delhi Litwin, G.N. and Stringer, R.H. (1968), Motivation and Organizational Climate,, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass Mukherjee, P. B. (1969), Social Responsibility of Business: Report of Study Group of the Calcutta Seminar, Oxford and IBH Publishing Company, Calcutta Pareek, U. (2002, a) Effective Organisation, Oxford & IBH, New Delhi
10. Pareek, U. (2002, b) Training Instruments for HRD and OD, Tata Mc Graw Hill, New Delhi 11. Pareek, U. (2006), Organisational Leadership and Power, Hyderabad: The ICFAI University Press 12. Schneider, B. and Barsoux, J. L. (1997), Managing Across Culture, Prentice Hall, Paris 13. Schneider, B. and Hall, P.T. (1972),Toward specifying the concept of work climate: A study of Roman Catholic Diocesan Priests, Journal of Applied Psychology, 56, pp. 447-455 14. Sinha, J.B.P. (1977), Organizational Dynamics, In S. K. Mitra (Ed). A Survey of Research in Psychology: 1971-1976, ICSSR Report, New Delhi
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The Implications of Select Antecedents of Work Life Conflict of Women Employees in Information Technology Sector in India
Aiswarya Ramasundaram*, Dr. S. S. Rao**
ABSTRACT
The growth rate for women entering the workforce is expected to be greater than for men. Therefore, it is possible that the financial well-being of the family may no longer fall on the male (Duxbury and Higgins, 1991); it may be shared between the two partners or may be the sole responsibility of a single parent. These trends potentially increase the chance that work could interfere with family (WIF) or that family could interfere with work (FIW).The study is conducted to test the impact of organizational commitment, job autonomy, job involvement and climate as moderating variables on work-family conflict of employed women in India. The sample size of 598 is identified, and, with the application of statistical tools, the relationship among the said variables are estimated and its role on the work family conflict is studied, quantitatively.
INTRODUCTION There has been a growing interest in work and family conflict [Carlson and Williams (2000); Frone, Yardley, Markel, (1997b) and Greenhaus and Beutall (1985); Kossek and Ozeki (1998)]. These trends potentially increase the chance that work could interfere with family (WIF) or that family could interfere with work (FIW).Work and family has been shown to have a negative impact on organizational family and personal outcomes. Therefore, efforts to reduce work and family conflict by addressing significant antecedents may be beneficial to organizations. Work and family is defined as a form of inter role conflict in which the role pressures from the work and family domains are mutually incompatible in some respect(Greenhaus and Beutall, 1985).The more time individuals allocate to one arena, the less they have to allocate to the other (Moen, 2002). When individuals feel that too many demands of one domain are unmet they experience work family conflict, which is consistent with a conflict. With changes in societal demographics including a growing number of dual career and single parent families, there has been much discussion in the popular press about work family conflict. Even with a growing number of companies insisting on work life * **
Assistant Professor, Department of Management Studies, Sathyabama University, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. E-mail: aiswaryagr@yahoo.com Registrar, Sathyabama University, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. E-mail: ssrau@rediffmail.com
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benefits very little research has been done on the outcomes of such benefits in the work place. The literature on work family conflict has continued to evolve over the past two decades, focusing primarily on defining the construct and exploring its antecedents and consequences. Three recent meta analysis in work family conflict [Allen, Herst, Bruck, and Sutton, (2000); Kossek and Ozeki (1998, 1999)] indicated that few exceptions including Grover and Crooker (1995); Lambert (2000); ODriscoll, lgen, and Hildreth (1992) and Wiley (1987). An important issue facing our society is the changing work and family roles of Indian women. Because so many women occupy both work and family roles their experiences as paid workers wives, and mothers represent primary social contexts for examining womens lives (McBride,1990). With so many women engaged in multiple roles, the effect that these social roles have on womens well being is worth examining (Repetti,1998a; Russo,1990). Members of dual earner families and families with young children are more likely to experience work family conflict [Kelly and Voydanoff,(1985); Voydanoff,(1988)] Important shifts in family structure and accompanying demands need to be considered (Voydanoff, 1988). The vast majority of this research has focused on family in the domain of nonwork examining the specific types of work/non-work conflict; work/family conflict. Work family conflict occurs when work pressures and family pressures occur at the same time such that compliance with pressures in one domain (e.g., work) makes it more difficult to comply with pressures in another domain (e.g. family). Most work family conflict research to date developed and tested antecedents and out comes of work/family conflict [Frone et al., (1992); Frone et al., (1997); Grandey and Cropanzano,(1999); Greenhaus and Beutall (1985); Kopelman et al., (1983)]. Kopelman et al (1983) were among the first to systematically examine the construct of work family conflict. They began by defining three role conflict variables-work conflict, family conflict and inter-role conflict. Work conflict is the extent to which one experiences incompatible role pressures with regard to family. Inter-role conflict occurs when one experiences pressures of one role that are discordant with pressures in another role. Greenhaus and Beutall (1985) articulated three potential sources of work family conflict time-based conflict, strain-based conflict, and behavior-based conflict. Profound social and demographic trends are elevating the need to understand and manage the interface between work and family. Researchers and practioners have attempted to understand the nature of these changes, discover their implications for work, families and individuals and policies to address associated problems. In addition, several models have also been developed that incorporate antecedents and consequences of conflict between work and non-work activities [Kopelman, Greenhaus and Connolly (1983); Bedeian, Burke, and Moffett (1988)]. SIGNIFIICANCE Work and family are very important areas to most people. An increasing percentage is experiencing what researchers call spill-over between the two domains (i.e. work and
family) that result in work and family conflict. In order to hone in on the potential causes of wand FC, this research would examine dimensions related to both work and family domains in identifying determinants of work and family conflict. Thus, this research could improve researchers ability in detecting levels of work and family conflict and diagnosing key causes. The dearth of research and the proliferation of work family conflict has led to several calls for research on work life benefits and their relationship with work family conflict [Allen et al., (2000); Kossek and Ozeki (1998, 1999); Lambert (2000)]. Following their first meta analysis on work family conflict, Kossek and Ozeki (1998) concluded that the synthesis of role conflict and HR policy research offers strong potential for advancing future research (p.140). This research investigates the possible relationship of WFC on Moderators (social support, spousal support, co-workers, Superior). LITERATURE JOB AUTONOMY Autonomy is defined as The degree to which the job provides substantial freedom independence and discretion to the individual in scheduling the work and in determining the procedure to be used in carrying it out. (Ilgen and Hollenbeck., 1992). Autonomy can also be defined as a person having the qualities of self determination, independence and the ability to regulate his or her own behavior from within. A negative definition of autonomy is a person who is concerned about the expectations and evaluation of others. In its most general form, job autonomy influences employees perception of their authority to initiate, perform and complete tasks. (Kaldenberg and Becker 1992; Xie and Johns 1995), Work Family Conflict in a way makes sense personally for them, given the personal constraints. Thomas and Gangster (1995) studied health care professionals and found higher autonomy was associated with lower levels of Work Family Conflict. That the job autonomy and job satisfaction are positively related is in line with Hackman and Oldmans (1976) Job Characteristics Model and is supported by much research as well (Adams and Jex, 1999). Ettner and Grzywacz (2001) noted that respondents who reported being self employed working part time or having greater autonomy expressed more positive health effects. Autonomous jobs allow individual to make more decisions on their own, control the speed of their work and have more freedom (Schwalbe 1985). Schwalbe (1985) asserts that in many work place culture, having a job that is autonomous is a badge of status an indicator of a jobs skill and responsibility of demands and perhaps most important a reward for reliable and competent performance (p. 577). Individuals in such work roles may feel particularly a strong sense of commitment to and identity with their work (Bielby and Bielby, 1989). Workers whose jobs provide autonomy may be better able to balance the demands of work and family-both because of the instrumental value of increased scheduling flexibility and because of the psychological enrichment and gratification it provides (Aryee, 1992). Job autonomy should help alleviate time and
strain-based conflict stemming from both work and home as increased autonomy may allow workers the discretion to schedule around work and home demands. ORGANIZATIONAL CLIMATE An organizational climate is a relatively new concept and refers to the extent to which work environment is supportive with regards to employees work family needs [Allen, (2001); Kinnunen, Mauno, Geurts and Dikkers (2005); Thomas and Ganster (1995); Thompson, Beauvais and Lyness (1999)]. The most important issue is whether employees experience or perceive their working organization as family supportive response. Defined through supportiveness, the concept of work family climate also resemble the construct of perceived organization support .Researchers have rarely been interested in work family climate for its own sake. (Kinnunen et al., 2005). However, work family climate refers to a specific form of organization support which is also measured as a separate phenomenon [Allen (2001); Behson (2002); Jahn and Thompson et al. (1999)]. It should also be mentioned that researchers have occasionally used the concept of work family culture [e.g., Kinnumen et al. (2005); Mauno, Kinnunen and Pitulainen (2005a); Mauno , Kinnunen and Pyykko (2005b); Thompson et al. (1999)] in reference to this very same phenomenon. Reviewing the work family climate and culture literature also shows that indirect associations between work family climate and out comes have rarely been examined. However, it has been suggested that such relationship could also be indirect, that is to say, mediated or moderated by several factors [e.g. Casper and Buffardi (2004); Casper, Buffardi, Erdwins, and Martin (2002); Mauno et al. (2005)]. ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT Organizational Commitment refers to the extent to which employees like and feel a part of the organization for which they work for. Work life balance is positively associated with Organizational Commitment. This finding is consistent with research on Work Family conflicts that found that employees who experience excess Work-to Family-conflict and Family-to-Work conflict will be less committed to their work organization (Allen et al., 2000). Organizational Commitment is the relative strength of an individuals identification with and involvement in a particular organization (Mowday et al., 1982).Supportive organization has been found to be associated with increased Organizational Commitment (Scandura and Lankau, 1993). The strength of an individuals identification with and involvement in a particular organization is studied by Meyer and Allen, (1991). Recent research indicates that workers use different types of behavior and attitudes to repay the organization than they do to repay coworkers or superiors [Moorman (1991), Setton, Bennett and Liden (1996), Wayne, Shore, and Liden (1997)]. Kossek and Ozeki (1999) identified the relationship between a particular type of work life benefits and Organizational Commitment. Organizational Commitment is the extent to which one is involved and identifies with ones organization (Mowday et al, 1982).When employees feel committed to an organization they are likely to stay with the organization [Cotton and Tuttle (1986), Igbaria and Greenhaus
(1992); Mobley et al., (1979)]. Some studies report that Work Life Conflict but not Family Work Conflict is negatively related to Job Satisfaction (Noor, 2002) and Organizational Commitment (Greenhaus, Parasuraman and Collins,2001). WORK INVOLVEMENT The Work Involvement construct represented the degree to which the individuals job is central to his/her self concept and identity. In their study of the bi-directional nature of work family Frone, Russell, and Cooper (1992) found that job involvement was positively related to the frequency of work interferences with family . Brett and Yogev (1988) concluded that women who reported high levels of work involvement did less restructuring than those whose work involvement was low. Karambayya and Reilly (1992) also concluded that work involvement negatively correlated with restructuring for both men and women. In the literature on work family conflict, the conceptualization and operationalisation of job Involvement has been consistent. Brown and Leigh (1996) measured Job Involvement which was for their purposes defined as identification with ones job. Specifically, Adams et al. (1996) found that when Job Involvement was high, perception of work interfering with family was greater. Work Involvement means consequences for both the organization and the worker. High work involvement creates a willingness to invest time and energy into the work role resulting in positive work experiences, a rewarding role assumes greater prominence in ones height of identities (Kanungo,1982). RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Research methodology is the frame work of any research work that explains as to the research design, the data used, sampling technique applied, tools used for analysis and so on. RESEARCH DESIGN The design applied in this study is conclusive type of descriptive research design. It is appropriate to use this method as this research describes the relationship between different variables and concludes as such. It tries to understand the behavioral differences of respondents. Besides, the view of researcher is not having any role in the conclusion of the study. DATA Both primary and secondary data are used in this study to attain the objectives. The primary data of this study are first hand information collected from respondents regarding demographic background, like education, marital status, number of children, and dependents, income level and designation. The secondary data are information about previous studies in role conflict of women across the world, among various sectors like nursing, academics, and other industries particularly in India, Tamil Nadu and Chennai. Indicators have been gathered from journals and magazines. Structured questionnaire is used for gathering information from respondents that has been drawn on objectives of
study and finally drafted based on pilot study. For testing the reliability, pilot study has been conducted by distributing questionnaires among 50 respondents. On the basis of their views and reliability of scales, questions have been modified and questionnaire has been so re-drafted as to meet minimum value of reliability which has been tested further through survey among another 50 respondents. QUESTIONNAIRE Set of questions pertaining to the objectives of the study is prepared with the help of previous studies conducted with reference to variables. Questionnaire consists of both qualitative and quantitative items. Moreover, apart from multiple choice questions, different types of scales are used to measure the respective variables. SAMPLING Since the population size is very large, sampling technique is applied to select sample unit. In this study, random sampling technique is adopted for selecting the various IT firms. For selecting respondents, judgment sampling technique is applied through mal intercept method. Sample unit of this study is only women - both married and unmarried employed in IT industry in Chennai city. Totally 1000 questionnaires have been distributed to respondents but only 755 have been received after continuous follow-up. Among collected filled questionnaires, only 598 are in usable condition. VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY Reliability of scales is tested with cron bach alpha. The following are the alpha values for respective scales that have satisfied the minimum requirement of 0.7 Organizational Commitment Job Autonomy Job Involvement Organizational Climate Work Family Conflict Variables F WFC Time WFC Strain WFC Behavior Work Life Conflict 3.945 1.471 2.161 3.000 Age Sig .020* .231 .116 .050* : : : : 0. 851 0. 7628 0. 847 0. 923 Family Income F 2.912 3.366 7.690 5.496 Sig .021* .010* .000* .000*
:: 0. 609
Personal Income F 5.241 3.580 3.541 4.106 Sig .001* .014* .015* .007*
Content validity is also called as face validity which is addressed in this study through review of literature. All the scales adapted in this study are already used
in previous research which includes Organizational Commitment (Tsuiet al .1997), Job Autonomy (Beehr, 1976), Job Involvement (Lodahl and Kejner,1965), Organizational Climate (Richard Brisbois, 2002), Work Family Conflict (Carlson, Kacmar and Williams, 2000). Null hypothesis There will not be significant m difference among the age group, personal income of women employed in IT Sector in terms of role conflict. AGE AND WORK LIFE CONFLICT *SIGNIFICANT AT .05 One way ANOVA test is conducted for the purpose of understanding the role of age, personal income and family income of respondents in work family conflicts among respondents. Work family conflict of respondent is classified into four categories as work family conflict due to time, work family conflict resulting from strain, work family conflict arising from behavior and overall work family conflict. Result of ANOVA test reveals that age of respondents has significant influence on work family conflict due to time and overall work family conflict; personal income and family income of respondent have significant impact on all four categories of work family conflict. Age and Work Family Conflict Age of Respondents 20-30 31-40 41-50 N 1 471 119 8 3.29 3.25 WFC Time 2 4.04 Work Life Conflict 1 3.18 3.12 2 3.73
Though both work family conflict due to time and overall work family conflict have significant mean difference between age groups of respondents, F values indicates more mean difference in work family conflict due to time than overall work family conflict. To get further insight, Duncan post hoc analysis is used. The Duncan post hoc concludes that the age group of 20-30 and 30-40 do not show much difference and can be grouped as one where as 41-50 fall in the separate category. The total work life conflict also show a similar categorization of age as that of time, in a manner age 20-30 and 31-40 are grouped into one category and 41-50 show a significant variation and fall as a separate category grouped in to two homogeneous sub-sets. First set consists of mean value of 20-30 ages. But the mean values of all age segments in overall work family conflict are slightly less than that of work family conflict due to time.
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Personal income and Work Family Conflict Personal Income in Rupees N WFC Time 1 Less <20,000 20,000-40,000 40,001-60,000 >60,000 166 355 50 27 3.09 3.36 3.35 2 3.36 3.35 3.45 WFC Strain 1 2.92 3.14 2.87 3.09 WFC Behavior 1 3.04 3.21 3.16 2 3.21 3.38 3.16 WFC 1 3.01 3.24 3.20 3.23
There is significant mean difference between various personal income segments of respondents in all four categories of work family conflict. Nonetheless, the extent of difference differs from category to category. The ANOVA table depicts that the mean difference is relatively higher for work family conflict due to time (5.241) and overall work family conflict (4.106) than other two categories of work family conflict. For more understanding, Duncan post hoc analysis is adopted. It is observed from the above table that though there are two homogeneity groups are present in work family conflict due to time, the significant difference exists only between less than Rs. 20,000 per month income segment and more than Rs. 60,000 income per month segment. It clearly shows that the higher income people have more work family conflict due to time, which means among the three dimensions of work family conflict namely time strain and behavior, higher income groups suffer conflict in managing the time and, hence, the spillover from work to family than the lower income people. Duncan post hoc analysis illustrates single homogeneity set for mean values of work family conflict resulting from strain in spite of significant F value in ANOVA table. The mean values in this category explain that the highest level of average work family conflict is found among respondents earning personal monthly income of Rs 20,000-40,000 followed by respondents earning monthly income of more than Rs. 60,000. By contrast, other two income segments have scored the mean values of less than three that explain non existence of work family conflict. With reference to work family conflict arising from behavior of respondents, the least level of conflict is observed among the respondents with personal income of less than Rs. 20,000 per month and the highest level is among the respondents with personal income of Rs. 40,001-60,000 per month. Other two income segments such as Rs. 20,001-40,000 and above Rs. 60000 are in homogeneity with both the subsets. Not withstanding the significant difference between the mean values of overall work family conflict of various income groups, Duncan post hoc output presents all mean values in one set. However, the average level of work family conflict is comparatively very less among respondents with personal income of less than Rs. 20,000 per month. Other three income segments have more or less the same mean values of overall work family conflict.
Family Income and Work Family Conflict Family Income (in Lakhs) <0.5 0.5-1.0 1.01-1.50 1.51-2.0 >2.0 N WFC T 1 130 168 90 37 173 3.10 2 WFC S 1 2.83 2 1 2.90 WFC B 2 3 WFC 1 2.94 3.20 3.16 3.33 3.29 2
3.30 3.30 3.07 3.07
3.23 3.23 3.36 3.33
3.31 3.31 3.07 3.07 3.10 3.10 3.45 3.37 3.18 3.16 -
The F values imply that all categories of work family conflict have significant mean difference between various family income segments. But the mean difference is higher in the case of overall work family conflict and work family conflict arising from behavior than in the case of other two categories of work family conflict. Duncan post hoc analysis is applied to get an insight. Regarding work family conflict due to time, all categories without exception witness work family conflict. Yet, the mean value of respondent with less than 0.5 lakh income is significantly less than that of respondents with family income Rs 1.512 lakh and above Rs 2 lakh. Other two segments have not shown significant difference with any other segments. The same pattern is illustrated in work family conflict resulting from strain but less than Rs .5 lakh family income group has no work family conflict from strain because the mean value is less than 3. With reference to work family conflict arising from behavior of respondents, mean values of family income groups are classified in to three subsets. The first homogeneity set consisting of less than Rs. 5 lakh family income and Rs 1.01-1.05 lakh family income reveals negligible level of conflict, whereas, the average level of work family conflict arising from behavior is significantly more. In the case of overall work family conflict, except respondents with less than Rs .5 lakh family income, all other family income group are homogeneous. Moreover, the mean value of less than Rs. 5 lakh family income is significantly less and exhibits no conflict. IMPACT OF DESIGNATION, DEPENDENTS AND EDUCATION ON WORK FAMILY CONFLICTS There is no significant difference among the designation, number of dependents and education of women employed in IT Sector in terms of role conflict. Designation F WFC Time WFC Strain WFC Behavior Work Life Conflict
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Dependents F 4.973 4.661 4.882 5.818 Sig .001* .001* .001* .000*
Education F 5.856 4.274 5.755 6.261 Sig .001* .005* .001* .000*
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Sig .235 .047* .012* .031*
1.451 3.079 4.454 3.506
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One way ANOVA test is employed to ascertain whether work family conflict is significantly influenced by designation and education of respondents. It is elicited from F values in the above table that designation has significant influence on work family conflict resulting from strain, work family conflict arising from behaviour and overall conflict. Among them, work family conflict arising from behaviour is influenced more than others. As far as influence of education is concerned, it is found on all categories of work family conflict. The level of mean difference between respondents with different education levels is significantly very high as well. For further understanding, Duncan post hoc analysis is used. DESIGNATION AND WORK FAMILY CONFLICT Despite significant difference between segments based on designations in terms of average level of work family conflict, all three categories show mean values of all designations are homogeneous. However, it is noticeable that average levels of work family conflict are different for different designations in three categories. Designation Lower level Middle Level Upper level N 193 375 30 WFCS 2.94 3.12 2.97 WFCB 3.05 3.24 3.23 WFC 3.06 3.23 3.18
The above table depicts that the highest level of conflict is found among middle level employees whereas the least level of conflict has appeared among the lower level employees. Moreover, except middle level employees, other two levels of employees do not confront work family conflict due to strain. The difference between mean value of middle level and upper level is also very less and negligible. EDUCATION AND WORK FAMILY CONFLICT The mean values of work family conflict due to time are grouped in to two homogeneous sets. The first has only other qualification and its mean value reveals no conflict while other three qualifications form second set and score the mean values of more than three exhibiting conflict. Educational Qualification School Graduate Post-Graduate Others N WFC T 1 34 338 212 14 2.69 2 3.07 3.38 3.22 WFC S 1 2.52 2 3.05 3.14 2.95 WFC B 1 2.89 3.09 2.80 2 3.27 3.09 1 2.67 WFC 2 3.00 3.26 3.09 -
The same pattern has appeared in the case of work family conflict owing to strain. But there is no work family conflict among post-graduates on an average. The overall work
family conflict also seem to be similar to work family conflict due to time. In this case, school educated has expressed indifferent level on an average. By contrast, mean values of work family conflict arising from behavior indicate homogeneity among school educated and others. Besides, both have no work family conflict in terms of behavior. By and large, it is clearly evident that graduates face the highest level of conflict in all categories and others have no conflict at all. Regression Weights Estimate Orgcom4 Orgcom3 Orgcom2 Orgcom1 Jobatmy4 Jobatmy3 Jobatmy2 Jobatmy1 JobInv1 JobInv2 JobInv3 JobInv4 OrgCli1 OrgCli2 OrgCli3 OrgCli4 Orgcom5 FmyInv5 OrgCli5 WFC WFC WFC WFC <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<F1 F1 F1 F1 F2 F2 F2 F2 F3 F3 F3 F3 F4 F4 F4 F4 F1 F3 F4 F2 F4 F1 F3 1.000 .952 .953 .621 1.000 .980 1.054 .646 1.000 .977 .444 .472 1.000 1.492 1.557 1.273 .790 .604 1.070 .218 -.123 -.139 .242 .096 .099 .087 .046 .070 .082 .065 .092 .064 .061 15.565 15.716 14.713 17.179 8.662 13.093 3.339 -1.328 -2.158 3.964 *** *** *** *** *** *** *** .184 .031 *** .065 .050 .050 14.938 8.828 9.435 *** *** *** .065 .070 .059 14.974 15.022 10.943 *** *** *** .047 .050 .043 20.340 19.013 14.567 *** *** *** S.E. C.R. P Label
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Covariances Estimate F1 F1 F3 F2 F1 F2 <> <> <> <> <> <> F3 F2 F4 F3 F4 F4 .319 .333 .258 .285 .262 .253 S.E. .035 .035 .029 .036 .027 .028 C.R. 9.092 9.528 8.894 7.908 9.683 8.937 P *** *** *** *** *** *** Label
Computation of degrees of freedom (Default model) Number of distinct sample moments: Number of distinct parameters to be estimated: Degrees of freedom (210 - 49): Goodness of fit Model Default model Saturated model Independence model RMR .051 .000 .278 GFI .882 1.000 .335 .265 .303 AGFI .846 PGFI .676 210 49 161
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Structural Equation Modelling RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The four variables taken for the study are Job Autonomy, Job Involvement, Organizational Climate and Organizational Commitment. The Model is a recursive model and the sample size is 598. From the model the F1 is taken as organizational commitment, F2 as job autonomy, F3 as job involvement, F4 as organizational climate. The estimates of the regression weights were found to be I.0 and close to one, which signifies the statements meant the reliability of the variables. The P values show the regression weights are significantly different for all the above said four variables. The regression weights of the variables with work life conflict denoting the organizational commitment (F1), organizational climate (F4), shows a negative value and is not significantly related at 0.05 level, where as job autonomy (F2), job involvement (F3), are significantly different with a positive value. The above values interpret that as the job autonomy (F2) and job involvement (F3), increases, the work life conflict decreases, and for the organizational commitment (F1), as organizational climate (F4) increases work life conflict increases. The covariances between the four variables are estimated as follows. The highest covariance of 0.333 is found between Organizational Commitment and Job Autonomy, followed by Organizational Commitment and Job Involvement with 0.319. The least estimate of 0.253 is between Job Autonomy (F2), Organizational Climate (F4). The root mean square (RMR) residual by which the sample variances and co-variance differ from their estimates obtained under the assumption that the model is fit. The RMR is .05 which is closer to Zero, and hence could be accepted for fit. Consequently, the Goodness of Fit (GFI) value is closer to one, hence confirming the model is fit. From the study we can conclude that work life conflict can be reduced in the organization only when the organization provides autonomy in the job to its employees. This will naturally instigate a level of involvement of the employees towards their job and also towards the organization. This form of involvement in the job in the long run becomes the employees organization commitment with an added advantage of a good and conducive working environment and policies which is termed in the study as organization climate. These above mentioned factors influence the women employees by way of either increase or decrease of work life conflict. A proper handling of this mentioned factor will lead to the growth of the organization. REFERENCES
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Employee Value Proposition: A Paradigm shift in the Role of HR from Back Room to Board Room
Dr Suchi Priya*
ABSTRACT
There is a radical shift in fundamentals of how business is conducted. Corporates are moving from labor-based business to knowledge-based business. They are trying to capitalize on their intellectual assets i.e. the employees rather than their infrastructure. Todays businesses are positioning themselves within the new economic realities. Global Markets, technological assignments, competitive pressures and developing employees through Employee Value Proposition or Employer branding seems to be the best way to gain competitive advantage. On one hand, many organizations have initiated a range of practices on developing new applications of information technology . But on the other hand, only few organizations believe that the most valuable assets are their employees. Employer branding, at its simplest is about how an employer sells itself to current and future employees. In Indian organizations, where products are getting commoditized, EVP is the factor that can distinguish companies. The firms Employee Value Proposition is becoming the prime source of competitive advantage. Organizations are realizing that they should adopt internal branding strategies to leverage upon the employees. Major changes have made it imperative for corporations to do deep introspection as how to meet the challenges of competition and adopt appropriate employee driven strategies to create and sustain corporate advantage. The role of Employee Value Proposition has to be examined in this context.
INTRODUCTION Employer branding, the latest buzzword to describe perceptions of an organization as an employer is being heralded, in areas of the press, is the answer to attracting and retaining the right talent in an increasingly competitive environment. It is not a logo, letterhead or a clever advertisement but rather the communication of an organizations personality and unwritten promises about its culture to potential hires. It is the combination of factors that differentiate the organization as an employer and shape the perceptions of past, current and future employees. Brands are among a firms most valuable assets and as a result brand management is a key activity in many organizations. Although organizations commonly focus their branding efforts towards developing product and corporate brands, branding can also be used in the area of human resource management. The application
Faculty, Jaipuria Institute of Management, Noida, India. E-mail: spriya@jimnoida.ac.in
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of branding principles to human resource management has been termed as Employer Branding. Increasingly firms are using employer branding to attract recruits and assure that current employees are engaged in the culture and strategy of the organization. Employer branding is defined as a targeted, long term strategy to manage the awareness and perceptions of employees and related stakeholders with regards to a particular firm (Sullivan 2004). The employer brand puts forth an image showing the organization as a good place to work (Sullivan, 2004). Minchington (2005) defines Employer brand as the image of your organization as a great place to work in the mind of current employees and key stakeholders in the external market(active and passive candidates, clients, customers and other key stakeholders).The art and science of Employer branding is therefore concerned with the attraction ,engagement and retention initiatives targeted at enhancing your companys employer brand. It communicates the identity of an organization to others. It is the essence of what the organization stands for and should typify the fundamental nature of the organization. Essentially, it is the process of placing an image of being a great place to work in the minds of existing and prospective employees. At the heart of the Employment branding is the Employee Value Proposition (EVP). EVP is influenced by the organizations values, culture, leadership, environment, talent and reward programs. Employer branding is internally and externally promoting a clear view of what makes a firm different and desirable as an employer (Lievens, 2007). According to Estis.R (2008), goals for Employer branding for attracting and retaining Generation Next are: 1. 2. 3. 4. Establish an image of the employment experience. Create synergy with consumer brand, align promise to customer with promise to employee. Clearly state whats in it for me to potential applicants. Entice the right candidates to apply for the job.
According to Berthon, P.Ewing.M and Hah, L.L (2005) Captivating company: dimensions of attractiveness in Employer branding, International Journal of Advertising, 24(2), 151172. Employer Attractiveness Dimensions are 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Interest Value: The extent to which an individual is attracted to an Employer because of the excitement and creativity of the work environment. Social Value: Attraction based on a collegial work environment with good team atmosphere. Economic Value: Attraction based on salary and benefits. Development Value: Based on recognition of work and career enhancing opportunities Application Value: The employees ability to value what they have learnt to teach others and interact with customers in a way that is positive and humanitarian.
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AIMS OF THE STUDY Employer branding is a compelling reality and not a fad. Its principles have always been in existence and practiced by successful organizations over the years. Through the papers I shall explore the ways the IT companies in India have formally embraced the idea of Employer branding and have embarked on the journey to deploy it.The study shall further reveal the transformation in the role of HR for building a strong Employer brand. It shall highlight the role of I i.e. individual, (Employees) in the acronym IT rather than the role of T Technology in knowledge-based organizations. The study shall further explore the role of knowledge-sharing culture, open and transparent communication to gain an organizational position in the minds of internal customers. EMPLOYEE VALUE PROPOSITION AMONG IT FIRMS IN INDIA : A WINNING COMBINATION RE ALIGNED THE ROLE OF HR IN INDIAN IT FIRMS (ACCORDING TO NASSCOM REPORT 2010 : FIGURE1, FIGURE2, FIGURE3) ACCORDING TO NASSCOM REPORT 2010 FIGURE 1 : HR Heads respond to statements related to business Series1: completely agree, series2: somewhat agree, series3: neither agree nor disagree, series4:somewhat disagree, series5: completely disagree
100%
3.60%
I spend significant time in Business strategy related Discussions
I am regularly involved in decisions relating to my organization Growth.
I play a key role in 9.60% building organizations intangibles like brand, 15.70% culture 80%
1.90% 3.80% 3.80% I am invited to 1.90% 5.80%
mentor senior managers / 17.30% leaders in 25.00% organization
If I list down my top 5 1.90% priorities, top line growth for my company 16.10% and customer 23.10% satisfaction will figure in there.
0.00% 7.00%
1.90% 3.80%
60%
28.80%
32.70%
42.30%
Series 5 Series 4 Series 3 Series 2 Series 1
40% 67.30% 69.30%
20%
42.30%
40.00%
34.60%
0% 1 2 3 4 5
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ACCORDING TO NASSCOM REPORT 2010 FIGURE 2 : HR Heads respond to statements related to business Series1: completely agree, series2:somewhat agree, series3:neither agree nor disagree, series4:somewhat disagree, series5: completely disagree
100% 21.10% 80% 13.50% 60% 15.40%
3.80% 7.70% 14.50%
0.00% 9.60% 15.40%
0.00% 8.00%
31.40% 28.00% Series 5 30.80% Series 4 Series 3 Series 2
40% 34.60% 51.00% 20% 15.40% 0% 1

I interact with my organazations Customers on a regular basis
60.60% 44.20%
Series 1
0.00% 2
I get enough budget and investment for people Development in my company.
4
My CEO regularly reviews the Capabilities of HR personnel
5
My CEO and other key business leaders believe and articulatethe importance of people function.
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ACCORDING TO NASSCOM REPORT 2010 FIGURE 3 : CXO s respond to statements relating to HRs contribution to business Series1: completely agree, series2: somewhat agree, series3: neither agree nor disagree, series4:somewhat disagree, series5: completely disagree
1 1
0 2 4
1 2 3
1 1 3
0 1 4
13 Series 4 Series 3 21 12 21 22 21 Series 2 Series 1
1
My HR Head has a good Understanding of our business, Our competition, our market and our customers
2
My HR Head is a permanent member of our companys top leadership/ management team
4
In our regular top management business reviews, HR/People matters constitute a regular agenda item
5
My business leaders and I look upto HR as key stakeholders in running the business operations I consult my HR Head regularly on hiring, promoting and rewarding senior executives.
HR professionals first, themselves, have internalized the philosophy of branding. EVP has become their vision. They have transferred their role from a HR manager to a Employer branding professional. HR professionals on their journey to Employer branding has transcended themselves into dynamic role of analyst. They have identified the most important agenda i.e. build organization as a resource and learning centre for its people. Traditional HR seems to be inflexible but the demand on the role of HR has changed dramatically to understand the business and become a branding force in the organization. To make a successful transformation, the HR function has shed its traditional administrative compliance and has adopted a new branding role concerned with developing the organization. They have become the architects of learning organization and ensure sustained capability through nurturing the capability through nurturing the culture of openness and transparency. Employment branding starts right from the recruitment process, the recruitment process needs to reflect the brand. Every step of the recruitment process shapes the impression a potential employee has of the organization. Keeping this in mind,
Intel has built a unique selection process that ensures that each candidate goes through the Hiring for Integrity process with detailed probes for ethics and integrity. Behaviorally, suitable candidates are identified through stringent assessment methodologies and self select-out based on lack of match between candidates values/attitudes and the organizations expectations. Hiring Managers at the organizations are trained on the various techniques used for this purpose. The organization ensures that the employees that are hired are equipped to maintain its quality standards. The organization also focuses on innovative hiring practices like : Employee Referral Programs, Intern Care Programs to ensure the inflow of quality talent. Intern Care Program is a structured internship process that helps expose the talented college students under the guidance of senior Managersbased on whose assessment the interns performance as well as their ability to align with organization values are judged and the interns are extended offers to work with the organization. Talent acquisition and retention is among the biggest challenges faced by modern business organizations- especially when the company is operating in technology driven environment in which HR are the main ingredients for the business. To beat this challenge, HR professionals has taken many initiatives as part of its HR policies including training and skill development, building a sense of company ownership in each employee. One of the IT firms Financial Technologies has introduced a unique scheme called DOST included to impart same comfort level of new entrants. D.O.S.T. is an acronym that stands for Dedicated to On boarding Support and Training. The scheme begins with the entry of a newcomer and facilitates his or her effective and quick integration into the organization. On entry he/she is provided with a companion/ friend labeled DOST who would help the newcomer to get acclimatized with the organization, its system and culture, values, policies and procedures in a systematic manner. Quick integration of employees into the organization contributes to growth and productivity. This scheme in the organization has added value in developing an EVP in the organization. HCL Technologies has given birth to a unique path breaking philosophy-Employee first, customer second. This approach puts employees on the top of the pyramid based on the belief that if the employees are delighted, they will in turn delight the customers. An employee would deliver value only when he is given an environment which is conducive to growth and encourages him to develop his skills. The companys approach to employee development focuses on giving people whatever they need to succeed, be it a virtual assistant or latent transformation sabbaticals ; expert guidance or fast track growth or democratic empowerment. It democratizes the companies functions and its ways of working by putting employees first at the forefront. It is realized that the real value gets created in the interface of customer and employee, it is the employee who is the closest to the customers and knows most about their ground realities. In order to deliver incremental value to the customer, it becomes important that the employee is empowered and this happens only when the traditional manager pyramid is inverted, placing employees at the top.
The Indian IT firms have realized that the employees are the strongest brand advocates. They should live and breathe the brand, understand what the brand stands for. The EVP has to be communicated, understood and embedded internally before taking the brand to the market. There is no point spending millions on marketing campaigns or infrastructure for a potential customer if the internal employees are not delighted. The strongest and most thought-out brand identity shall slip into oblivion unless it is kept alive by the employees. True Employee Engagement will only happen if the brand is embedded into the culture of the organization. BUILDING BRAND CULTURE Organization culture is increasingly recognized as a major driver to leverage upon Employer branding. Culture is not only intangible and illusive but it can also be observed at multiple levels . Culture is reflected in values, norms and practices. Values are often difficult to articulate and even more difficult to change. Their impact on creating a brand should never be underestimated in Buckman labs. Employees are regularly engaged with the customers in the belief that directly interacting with the market is the key to brand building. Visiting customers and suppliers is a standard practice for employees at all levels. Cultures that encourage people to directly experience sources of problems, threats and opportunities are more likely to build a strong employer branding. The IT organization has become more open and direct and promotes a challenging work environment where people work as a team and respect and trust each other.The achievements of the employees are celebrated in a big way. The events like Osmosis and Neuron at Mind Tree are effectively providing a knowledge sharing and creating platform to the employees where they brainstorm and share their ideas. This is one of the collaborative ways of knowledge creation and sharing. As Norris has stated when people get together to share knowledge and give each other ideas, they are actually creating value. Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995) proposes the model: Knowledge Creation Continuous innovation Competitive Advantage Competitive Advantage Looking outward / inward Continuous churning of ideas
According to NASSCOM Survey (2010) Mahindra Satyam had taken the initiatives like Lets talk that enables the leadership and HR connect sessions with off-shore and outside employees. There are CEO Blogs to communicate with employees which seek ideas or views and opinions on various topics. There is a social platform named Ozone where employees can raise a concern or provide constructive suggestions on key processes.The organization has also initiated Investment Councils- a forum which evaluates and invests in new ideas. Through Shadow Boards young leaders are encouraged to give innovative ideas by getting them involved in strategic planning. The IT organization Dell has launched a unique people care initiative called REACH that largely focuses on positive participatory culture in the company. It proffers effective feedback dialogue between leadership and associates and engages associates through an active communication forum. Such invitation has promoted and created transparency through
continuous communication. The other initiatives included focus group discussions, dash boards, customer accolades etc. whether it is a grievance, an appreciatory note, an idea or ongoing feedback the company imbibes the culture of transparency in everything it does. Open and direct communication often is the essence of great workplace. Intel has quite a few good measures that enable employees to be open and direct like the CEO and Senior Executive blogs, listening forums, reach out sessions, a Manager / leader feedback tool among others. There is a SAM Lite Survey which is a self assessment methodology to identify gaps in the systems and methods on a continuous basis. The initiatives taken at HCL aim at creating a culture of transparency inverting the organizational pyramid, and reversing accountability by making the management accountable to employees and decentralizing decision-making. The 360 degree feedback is a unique way of bringing transparency and creating an environment of trust. CONSISTENCY Effective Employer building relies on a consistency of message and delivery which should not change due to weak economic climate or internal instability. A well thought-out Employer brand strategy looks to the long term objectives and is built upon a clear understanding of whom to attract and retain. HCL has realized the role of employees as more crucial. The loyalty and commitment is important to help business get through the temporary phase. The company has realized that a perturbed employee with no peace of mind and the fear of losing his job needs motivation. It is then upto the organization to stand by its employees. HCL believes there is no bigger motivation for an employee than hearing from the senior management in a transparent manner about the companys vision and policies. To this end, HCL has started U2I forum to ensure that the senior leadership is accessible to all employees, which gives them the opportunity to share their anxieties and raise questions on any issue that concerns them. U2I is a microsite on HCL Intranet that empowers employees to pose questions and raise concerns directly with the senior management. EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES Employment opportunities for diverse sections of society : 1. 2. 3. According to NASSCOM survey, 58% of IT workforce is from Tier2 or Tier3 cities. 37% women employees account for 45% of fresh intake out of which 26% of female employees are chief wage earners. 5% of IT workforce is from economically backward sections and 60% of companies provide employment to differently abled people.
NURTURING LEADERS According to NASSCOM survey (2010), Mphasis started an employee leadership capability program- AARAMBH in 2008. The program was aimed at identifying high potential employees at the entry level and junior cadre and groom them for leadership at the
middle management level . The program was supported by learning deliverables, mandatory learning courses, knowledge sharing sessions etc. The benefits that the company enjoyed was Employee retention , increased Employee productivity and engagement. Infosys has initiated several programs to develop their employees e.g. Long Cycle Program for freshers with non-IT background, fast track program for freshers with IT background, Just-in-time training, Higher education schemes, Campus Connect , where the organization has partnership with over 470 colleges for providing training in technical and soft skills. There are E-learning programs which enables the individuals to do a self-study of a course on their own e.g. CBT (Computer Based Tutorials) . HCL Technologies has initiated Career Power - a comprehensive career planning and development program portal which provides a framework where each employee is empowered to plan a desired career path or option. The Indian IT organizations are securing the best talent by offering a clearly defined career plan which maps out expectations of the individual and what can be expected from the organization throughout the employees career. CONCLUSION Most HR professionals had heard of Employer branding but many are yet to understand its applications. The companies which are beginning to dip their toes into the Employer branding pool need to be very careful to not oversell their companies. The organization need to have evidence that they do what they say they do. That means rhetoric has to match the reality and the organization cannot have the talk without the walk because people are not always gullible. Employer branding is a new approach toward recruiting and retaining the best talent within an employment environment that is becoming increasingly competitive. The value of the employer branding concept for management scholars parallels the value it has for managers. The employer branding concept can be especially valuable in the search for an organizing framework for strategic human resource management. REFERENCES
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Bhattacharya Prasenjit (2009) Living by Values available at www.humancapitalonline.com/ accessed on 1.7.2010 Career Inovation (2004), Unilever : Developing an employer brand, available at www.careerinnovation.com/employers/index.cfm?articleid=297/ accessed on 5.7.2010 Chaudhuri, A. and Holbrook, M.B.(2001), The chain of effects from brand trust and brand effect to brand performance: the role of brand loyalty, Journal of Marketing, 65, pp.81-93 Delivering excellent service : Lessons from the best firms, California Management Review, 44(1), pp.39-56 Ewing, M.T., Pitt, L.F., DE Bussy, N.M. and Berthon, P. (2002), Employment branding in the knowledge economy, International Journal of Advertising, 21, pp.3-22 Hutton, P. (2001), Aligning the organization around the brand, Paper presented at the Partnership Conference on Developing and Building a Successful Strategy for Brand Communication, February, available at: www.mori.com/pubinfo/pfh/aligning-the-organization.pdf No. 2 July-December 2010 57
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Lievens, F. (2007), Employer Branding in Belgian Army: The importance of instrumental and symbolic beliefs for potential applicants, actual applicants and military employees; Human Resource Management, 46, pp. 51-69 Minchington, B. (2005), Employer Brand Leadership - A Global Perspective, Collective Learning, Australia. Stamler, B. (2001), Companies are developing brand messages as a way to inspire loyalty among employees, New York Times, July, 5, p.5
8. 9.
10. Schneider, L. (2003), What is branding and how is it important to your marketing strategy?, available at http://marketing.about.com/cs/brandmktg/a/ whatisbranding.htm/accessed on 10.7.2010 11. Sullivan,J. (2004) Eight elements of a successful employment brand, ER Daily, 23 February, available at : www.erexchange.com/articles/db/52CB45FDADFAA 4CD2BBC366659E26892A.asp./accessed on 12.7.2010
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Food Inflation in India

Abhishek Biswas*
ABSTRACT
Food Inflation continues to be in double digits which is a matter of great concern. RBI continues to monitor this situation and keeps increasing its key rates to keep it under control. Yet food inflation continues to grow unabated. There are several bottlenecks from the food supply side and this need to be looked into. With ever growing population, food security in India is very important and such high food inflation rate doesnt augur well for the country.In a developing country like India, growth and inflation go hand in hand and government must find long-term feasible solutions to control this high inflation rate.
INTRODUCTION This food inflation is man-made is a statement made by M S Swaminathan who is the harbinger of the Green Revolution in the country. He was referring to the to the sky rocketing food prices of India. As Indian economy grows by some 9% a year, food prices are soaring. In late December the commerce ministry judged that food inflation had reached 18.3%, with pricey vegetables most to blame.As India continues to trace the path of growth, well on its way to becoming a superpower,it brings along with it rising commodity prices. A slew of measures were made to tackle this inflation like scrapping import taxes for onions, banning their export and ordering low-priced sales at government-run shops. But to no avail. December 2010 saw again food inflation raise its ugly head with figures showing 18.32%. Although economists are saying that the rate is showing a easing trend on a weekly basis. Yet inflation is not fully under control. Indias central bank, which raised interest rates six times in 2010 but monetary policy is generally regarded as ineffective in tackling supply led inflation in food. Reserve Bank of India governor D. Subbarao spoke out candidly about the central banks inability to cool the surging inflation. Fuel prices were dictated by global factors. But more importantly, surging food prices had to do with supply side constraints ranging from low production to defective supply chain. And food prices had been rising relentlessly for two years. Unless deep structural reforms were carried out, nothing that the central bank did would help cool the food price inflation.
Student, MBA-14 (2010 12), Army Institute of Management, Kolkata
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REASONS Illegal hoarding and losses due to lack of proper storage and warehouse facilities have been blamed for such a situation.As much as 30 per cent of the countrys vegetable and fruits are estimated to be wasted before reaching the consumer.Trader cartels, encouraged by an inept government, are mainly responsible for this. Assured of inaction, hoarders are creating artificial shortages and fleecing people from time to time. Our agriculture is in a crisis. We are not producing enough to meet the needs of a growing population. The peasantry continues to be in distress, with 2.5 lakh farmers committing suicide over the past 15 years. State intervention in raising agricultural productivity has been weakened. The government is more interested in handing over this role to big agribusinesses and retail giants like Wal-Mart and Monsanto in the name of a second green revolution. That will further marginalize the small peasants. Much of the food inflation over the past six months has not been created by grain or pulse shortages the traditional causes for India but by soaring prices of vegetables, milk products, poultry, etc. And because the government is focused only on managing shortfalls and prices of grains, oils and pulses, it was caught unawares when vegetable prices started rising. STEPS TO CONTROL The biggest problems are structural. Food producers, hampered by land restrictions, archaic retail networks and bad infrastructure, fail to meet extra demand from consumers. The influence of private corporates and traders in the food economy needs to be curbed. For this it is essential for the central government to take the state governments on board and coordinate measures against hoarding and black-marketing. In this regard, it is also important to prohibit commodity futures trading in food articles, because such trading facilitates speculation on food prices. The government is dithering on the food security legislation. The food security act should be passed without further delay, which must ensure universal food security. The government is currently holding stocks of nearly 50 million tonnes of rice and wheat, which is way above the buffer norms. 35 kgs of food grains per month should be supplied through a universalized PDS at Rs 2 per kg and not limited to the arbitrarily determined BPL families. Moreover, other essential commodities like sugar, pulses and edible oils should be supplied at fixed rates across the country through the PDS. Finally, the costs of agricultural inputs like fuel and fertilizers have to be controlled by the government. Deregulation of fuel and fertilizer prices will raise agricultural costs and contribute to food inflation. The government must continue to subsidize fuel and fertilizer and rationalize the taxes on petroleum products. The decision to deregulate petrol prices needs to be reversed. CONCLUSION As rightly pointed out by many economists India is developing country its people are getting prosperous day by day .So people will tend to spend more. But supply side growth
should also be there especially in agriculture as our yield per hectare is still very low as compared world over. Supply side food price inflation is here to stay as it and double digit food Inflation will continue to hurt Indias growth story. The only way to stop this is removing all the bottlenecks stymieing the system including low agricultural output .Government needs to address all this problems head front starting immediately and only in the long term will it be able to tackle inflation. REFERENCES
1. 2. 3. 4. Businessworld, Economy, (16 December, 2010) The Economics Times, Budget 2011, (13 January, 2011) TheHindu, Food Inflation, (10 February, 2011) The Economist, Indian Inflation, (6 January, 2011)
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Role of Infrastructure in Developing India

Aashish Dhar*, Anup Aggarwal*, Anurag Singh*, Ashok Singh*, Abhishek Biswas*, Jyoti Shukla*, Krishnanand Belwal*
ABSTRACT
Infrastructure has played a significant role in the development of economy. The major changes in the Indian Infrastructure came under British rule; they brought the new technology and new ideology. Since independence government devoted more time developing heavy industries. Recently we have seen remarkable changes in Indias infrastructure story like Infra bonds, PPP, infrastructure themed funds etc. India is second largest growing economy in the world and so it has become imperative to develop a world class infrastructure that will boost economy further. This change should not only be centered to urban parts of country but also to rural country where the largest part of population resides. Still there are many factors that is hampering our infrastructure growth story. We need to identify and remove them as soon as possible to keep Indias growth story intact.
INTRODUCTION A nations infrastructure development plays a significant role in its economic growth. A fast growing economy warrants an even faster development of infrastructure. Infrastructure is the capital stock that provides public goods and services. It produces various effects, including those on production activities and quality of life for the households, which thus permeate the entire society. Public services provided by infrastructure may reduce disparities in income. Any discussion about Indias infrastructure has to briefly cover the planning carried out for the countrys economic growth, since Independence. HISTORY OF INDIAS ECONOMY AND INFRASTRUCTURE Indias economic history can be categorized into three eras, beginning with the precolonial period lasting up to the 17th century. Secondly, the British rule in India starting in the 18th century and ending with Indias independence in 1947. And, at last the post independence period after 1947. The pre-colonial period comprised of the Indus Valley civilization, a predominantly urban settlement that flourished between 2800 BC and 1800 BC. The people practiced agriculture, domesticated animals, made tools and weapons, and traded with other cities. Evidence of well planned streets, drainage systems and water supply reveals their knowledge of urban planning, which included the worlds first urban sanitation systems.
Student, MBA-14 (2010 12), Army Institute of Management, Kolkata
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The British colonial rule brought developed systems like the railways and telegraphs. The lords that were sent to rule India from London brought the idea of bureaucracy. One of the most significant contributions by the British to India was the language of English, which introduced India to todays global business language. Along with all these quantitative contributions, the British also taught the Indians on how not to govern a country. The British governance in India was very unjust and favoured the British rather than the Indian people. Learning from the British, India took an opposite approach after independence and established a more protectionist type of government. The country aimed at distributing the power and hence formed an administration which comprised of a central and a state government. The state government was given the power to intervene in the labour and financial matters of the state. Infrastructural developments like the road, power, airways, and railways were part of a large public sector. But with time, these large public sectors became ineffective and created an economic crisis in India. In 1991, the government of India took a decision to liberalize the economy which ended the long held public sector monopoly in many sectors. Since then there has been a lot of private investment in these sectors of the economy of India. CURRENT STATE OF INDIAS INFRASTRUCTURE Infrastructure problems in India range from the poor condition of the roads to shortage of electricity. The shipping ports of India need to be upgraded to meet international standards. As Indias population grows and moves to the urban cities, there is a greater demand for electricity. Over the past decade, electricity generation has grown at a compound annual rate of 5.5%, but the demand has grown even faster. Peak demand exceeded supply by 12.1% in 2005.
The condition of the roads is poor; the speed limit on most of the highways is a mere 40 mph as compared to 65 mph in the United States. Low speed limits and traffic congestion on these highways are a major cause for the delays on the roads of India. If a consign66 Kindler Vol. X No. 2 July-December 2010
ment has to take 7 days to cross 1,400 kilometres, it is a misuse of resources, said the India Head of Chinese appliance maker Haier Electronics Group Ltd., T.K. Banerjee. These poor conditions of the roads drastically affect the business transactions across the country and need an overall repair. The international trade in India is adversely affected by inefficient ports which are congested and expensive. According to Morgan Stanley, freight as a percentage of total import value is about 11 percent in India, compared with a 6 percent global average and 5 percent for developed countries. There is also a higher lead-time for trade: 6 to 12 weeks for Indias trade with the United States, compared with Chinas 2 to 3 weeks. ROLE OF INFRASTRUCTURE IN DEVELOPMENT It is now well recognized that a countrys development is strongly linked to its infrastructure strength. Infrastructure helps determine a countrys ability to expand trade, cope with population growth, reduce poverty and a host of other factors that define economic and human development. Good infrastructure raises productivity and lowers production cost, but must also expand fast enough to accommodate growth. For low-income countries basic infrastructure such as water, irrigation and to a lesser extent transportation are more important. As the economies transform into a middle-income category, their share of demand for power and telecommunications in the infrastructure and investment increases. An estimate however shows that a 1% increase in infrastructure stock is positively associated with a corresponding growth in GDP across countries.
Infrastructure is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for growth. Adequate complements of other resources must be present as well. In developing countries like India, infrastructure
development and financing has largely been the prerogative of the government. Since infrastructure is typically a natural monopoly, the government considered it necessary to keep control of the same, in public interest. The success and failure of infrastructure to meet the needs of the people is largely a story of the governments performance. The simple truth is that public money is no longer sufficient to meet the burgeoning needs of the nation in line with its economic aspirations. Reluctantly, therefore the government has to throw open the doors to private participation in infrastructure. IMPACT OF INFRASTRUCTURE ON EXTERNAL TRADE AND PRODUCTION Reliable and adequate quantity of infrastructure is a key factor in the ability of countries to compete globally. In particular, the competition for new export markets is specially dependant on high quality infrastructure. There is an increasing trend not only in terms of greater globalisation of trade but also in terms of globalization of production. It is possible for companies located in different parts of the globe to produce components. In the recent years India has been used as a base for sourcing by a host of companies such as Sony, Toyota, ABB and the like for their raw materials as well as for components. To be able to fulfil the requirements of sourcing MNCs world-class infrastructure facilities including appropriate logistical support and multi-modal transport facilities are essential. RURAL INFRASTRUCTURE AND GROWTH: AN OVERVIEW Rural infrastructure is crucial for agriculture, agro-industries and overall economic development of rural areas. It also, incidentally, provides basic amenities that improve the quality of life. However, infrastructure projects, including those in rural sector, involve huge initial investments, long gestation periods, high incremental capital output ratio, high risk and low rate of returns on investment. All these factors are not conducive for private sector entry into infrastructure. As a result of this, infrastructure services, the world over, are largely provided by the public sector. Rural infrastructure development is a complex phenomena, due to the many attributes of infrastructure that make it difficult for individuals to design, construct, operate and maintain these services effectively and efficiently. Some problems stem simply from the fact that infrastructure facilities by nature have potentially long, useful lives during which the circumstances of users may change. Thus, decisions concerning their initial design and subsequent maintenance are extremely difficult to perfect. Even greater problems arise as sustainability of the bulk of the rural infrastructure in the developing world is influenced greatly by public sector decision-making. INFRASTRUCTURE FOR AGRICULTURE AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT The models of development which focus on agriculture also bring about the role that infrastructure plays in agricultural development in particular. The spread of technology in agriculture depends critically on both physical and institutional infrastructure. It is also indicated that infrastructure plays a strategic role in producing large multiplier effects in
the economy with agricultural growth. Rural infrastructure leads to agricultural expansion by increasing yields, farmers access to markets and availability of institutional finance. The kind of infrastructure put in place also determines whether growth does all that it can to reduce poverty. Most of the poor are in rural areas, and the growth of farm productivity and non-farm rural employment is linked closely to infrastructure provision (World Bank, 1994) The importance of infrastructure in agriculture and rural development is well documented. It is estimated that 15 percent of crop produce is lost between the farm gate and the consumer because of poor roads and inappropriate storage facilities alone, adversely influencing the income of farmers. Strengthening rural infrastructure can help to lower production costs which can further augment agricultural output and income for rural farming community. Rural infrastructure has its impact on attitudes and values of rural households as well. The most profound effect of infrastructure development could be on the values of rural households. Development of transport and communication infrastructure enhances the mobility of people and information through reduction in cost and time. The resulting increase in interaction contributes to changes in attitudes and human capital development (Ahmad, 1996) Rural infrastructure plays a key role in reaching the large mass of rural poor. When rural infrastructure has deteriorated or is nonexistent, the cost of marketing farm produce can be prohibitive for poor farmers. Poor rural infrastructure also limits the ability of traders to travel to and communicate with remote farming areas, limiting market access from these areas and eliminating competition for their produce. Construction of rural roads almost inevitably leads to increases in agricultural production and productivity by bringing in new land into cultivation or by intensifying existing land use to take advantage of expanded market opportunities. In addition to facilitating agricultural commercialization and diversification, rural infrastructure, particularly roads, consolidates the links between agricultural and nonagricultural activities within rural areas and between rural and urban areas (IFAD, 1995). GROWTH OF RURAL INFRASTRUCTURE IN INDIA SINCE INDEPENDENCE The investment pressure from infrastructure being the major source of investment demand in the Indian context, at the stage of development the country is in, a productive or input type infrastructure, i.e. power, irrigation, transport, telecommunication, banking etc will have to expand at the rate of at least corresponding growth rate of the economy.
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Government has traditionally been well aware of the fact that the availability of adequate infrastructure facilities is vital for the acceleration of economic development of a country. At the time of independence, the government has accepted the crucial role played by infrastructure in the development process of the country and also realised that given the long gestation of infrastructure projects and their generally low profitability, private capital is unlikely to flow into the infrastructure sectors and hence the responsibility was shouldered by the public sector and infrastructure development became the domain of the state. Consequently, in the Five Year Plans, priority was accorded to investments in sectors such as power, transport, communication etc. IMPACT OF INVESTMENTS IN RURAL INFRASTRUCTURE In order to further analyse the effects of public infrastructure on rural development and rural poverty, it is necessary to distinguish between direct and indirect effects. The former occur when an increase in public infrastructure is accompanied by an increase in production, shifting the production frontier and marginal cost curve, and also increasing the rate of return for private investment in rural activities. The latter takes place as the access to public infrastructure permits a reduction in the transaction costs that small producers face when they integrate into the supply and factor markets. These lower transaction costs change the structure of relative prices significantly for the producer, stimulating changes in the methods of cultivation and breeding, possibly inducing such changes as transition in the allocation of the labour force between agriculture and non-agricultural uses. Adequate access to public infrastructure will also
have a positive effect on whether or not technical changes that elevate productivity are achieved, for both agricultural and non-agricultural rural activities.
A number of microeconomic-level studies have investigated how a greater investment in infrastructure raises agricultural productivity. But infrastructure investments have many effects. As long as the majority of rural households are dedicated to more than one income activity, whether salaried or non-salaried, agricultural or non-agricultural, it is not abnormal that the access to public infrastructure will also affect household labour assignments (diversifying livelihoods). FACTORS IMPEDING THE DEVELOPMENT OF INDIAS INFRASTRUCTURE The chief reason affecting the development of Infrastructure in India is the poor judicial system. All other reasons stem from this main reason. The decision made by a court in India can be challenged in a higher court of law. Even the decision of the President of India can be questioned in the court. This process of re-appeal prolongs the time frame of the case. India has the second largest population in the world and has a huge number of court cases filed every year. The judicial system in India has a huge backlog of court cases which add to the amount of time taken to reach a verdict. Ashok Kheny an engineer-builder, who ran a successful business in Philadelphia, returned to India in 1994 to build a 106-mile, $525 million expressway between Bangalore and Mysore. In the decade since, Khenys Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprises Ltd. has been harried by no fewer than 336 lawsuits from farmers, other landowners, and government allies trying to prevent the builders from gobbling up their land. The expressway, now seven years
behind schedule, is expected to be completed by December, 2007. The bulk of the projects in India are getting delayed because it is not easy to acquire land in India. The owners of the land have the right to go to court and contest the governments decision of enforcing the law of eminent domain. This leads to court hearings which delay the process of acquiring land for building of public utilities. In the case of the expressway mentioned above, the project was delayed by seven years which is a very long span of time considering the growth and needs of India. REFERENCES
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_history_of_India/accessed on 12/6/2011 Canning, D. and Pedroni, P. (2004), The Effect of Infrastructure on Long Run Economic Growth, Williamstown, MA: Williams College, Mimeo http://www.chillibreeze.com/articles/Infrastructure-Development-and-Economic-Growth.asp/ accessed on 12/6/2011 Infrastructure for Development (1994), World, Development Report, World Bank Lall, R. and Rastogi, A. (2007), The Political Economy of Infrastructure Development in PostIndependence India, IDFC Occasional Paper Series 2007/1 Majeed, M. T. and Ahmad, E. (2008), Human Capital Development and FDI in Developing Countries, Journal of Economic Cooperation, 29 (3), pp. 79-104 Rahman, A. (1995), The State of World Rural Poverty - A Profile of Asia, International Fund for Agricultural Development.
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July-December 2010
Knowledge Management in Organizations

Donald Hislop Oxford University Press (USA) 2nd Edition, 2009 pp 310 Richa Chaudhary* and Santosh Rangnekar** ABOUT THE AUTHOR Donald Hislop is Senior Lecturer in Organizational Behaviour and Human Resource Management at Loughborough University, United Kingdom. Before this Donald Hislop has worked as a lecturer in the Management School at the University of Sheffield. Prior to this he worked as both a lecturer in Sheffield Business School at Sheffield Hallam University, and as a researcher at Warwick Business School. His current research interests are in the nature of organizational knowledge, the limits to managing knowledge, and debates on how new forms of work organization are changing the experience of work. Knowledge management has become vital for organizations in information/service economy of 21st century characterized by an increasingly competitive marketplace with a rising rate of innovation. It is the knowledge that has become the most important source of competitive advantage for the organizations in the current times. To reap the benefits of knowledge management the organizations should have a clear understanding of the underlying concepts and issues surrounding the subject. Realizing this need of the organizations the author, Donald Hislop has tried to provide a comprehensive and a sound overview of the subject of knowledge management and all the organizational issues relating to the topic. The book has given a conceptual introduction and a complete understanding of the various issues crucial for the successful implementation of knowledge management in the organizations. This second edition is a definite improvement over the previous edition by filling the previously missing links with the inclusion of three new chapters making the book even more complete and coherent. The book is broadly divided into four parts, each focused around a particular theme. The Chapter1, which is given in addition to above mentioned four parts, highlights the importance of knowledge and knowledge management in contemporary times. It describes the knowledge as the key asset for the organizations to manage to achieve competitive advantage. It provides an overview of various perspectives on knowledge and knowledge management that exist in the academic literature. Part 1 of the book is composed of two chapters and describes the way knowledge is conceptualized in the knowledge management literature. It discusses the two competing philosophies (called as epistemologies) of knowledge. Chapter 2 is completely devoted to the objective based perspective (epistemology of duality) on knowledge and Chapter 3 deals with practice based perspective (epistemology of dualism).These chapters examine how knowledge is conceptualized within each perspective and its implication for sharing
and management of knowledge. The debate between the two perspectives is beautifully presented along with the managerial implications for the management of knowledge. Rather than assuming any prior knowledge like any other book on knowledge management, the author has made an attempt to describe what is knowledge in this part of the book. Part 2, the most important part of the book elaborates some key concepts and is organized into three chapters. Following from part1, Chapter 4 attempts to answer what is knowledge management by describing three different knowledge management typologies. The chapter also presents various factors that influence the organizations approach to knowledge management. The focus of Chapter 5 shifts to describing the debate existing over defining the related concepts of knowledge work, knowledge workers and knowledge intensive firms. It highlights the importance of knowledge workers and knowledge intensive firms in the contemporary knowledge society. Chapter 6, the final chapter in part 2 engages with the concepts of learning and learning organizations and how these concepts relate to knowledge management. It presents the contrasting viewpoints on learning organizations existing in knowledge management literature. This chapter superbly links the concepts of power and politics to learning. Part 3 of the book, rather than dealing with the topic of knowledge management in general deals specifically with particular types of knowledge processes. While chapter 7 deals with processes of knowledge creation, chapter 8 entirely focuses on organizational processes of forgetting and unlearning. The reason given by author for examining these knowledge processes is the dynamic business environment which mandates the ability to create new knowledge and give up the old ways in order to remain competitive. Chapter 7 critically evaluates Nonakas work on knowledge creation. This is the chapter which we liked the most in this book. This is because author here has made a novel effort to list the limitation of Nonakas work on knowledge creation unlike any other book on knowledge management which blindly recommend Nonakas framework for universal application without looking at the limitations. Chapter 8 is a commendable effort by author to bring into light the significance of processes of forgetting and unlearning which has often been neglected in knowledge management literature. It discusses various forms of forgetting and the problems associated with unlearning of the established practices in the organizations. Part 4, we would say, the heart of the book, deals with the social and cultural factors critical to the organizations efforts to manage knowledge successfully. The failure of the organizations to take adequate account of these factors has been shown to be the most important cause of failure of knowledge management efforts by many organizations. This is the largest section of the book and is divided into seven chapters i.e. chapter 9, 10, 11,12,13,14 and 15. Chapter 9 gives an outline of how various socio-cultural factors shape the dynamics of organizational knowledge management processes. It has been shown that these factors have significant influence on willingness of the workers to participate in knowledge management initiatives. This chapter acts as a facilitator to the rest of the chapters in this section as it has touched the key issues which are examined in detail in the coming chapters. Chapter 10 deals with dynamics of knowledge sharing
in homogeneous groups. It pictures communities of practices as valuable vehicles for knowledge sharing and also presents the potential dark side of communities of practice taking into account the issues of power and politics involved which is a novel attempt by author. In continuation with this chapter next chapter (Chapter 11) focuses on intercommunity knowledge sharing processes. It highlights the complexities and difficulties involved in cross community knowledge sharing. It also describes the importance of trust and boundary objects in facilitating inter-community knowledge sharing processes. Chapter 12 takes into account the topics of power, politics and conflict which are still relatively ignored and are not often written in knowledge management literature. The chapter highlights the importance of taking account of power to have a clear understanding of organizational knowledge processes because of close inter-relationship of knowledge and power. The chapter gives this inter-relatedness of power and knowledge to be the underlying cause of intergroup or inter-personal conflict in knowledge processes. Chapter 13 describes the contrasting perspectives on the role that IT can play in knowledge management processes and in describing so beautifully connects it to the epistemology and definitions of knowledge given in chapter 2 and 3. While discussing the importance of ICT the chapter also pointed towards the importance of socio-cultural factors in ICT enabled knowledge management. Chapter 14 highlights the importance culture management and HRM practices can play in shaping the knowledge behaviors of the employees for the organizations. Culture and specific HRM practices like reward system are shown to be of utmost importance in shaping the attitudes and willingness of the workers to participate in knowledge management initiatives. However for these practices to be most effective the need for linking them to business and knowledge management strategy is clearly highlighted. Chapter 15, the final chapter in part 4, focuses on describing the link between leadership and knowledge management processes. The chapter first distinguishes leadership from management and then briefly explains the most extensively used concept of transformational leadership in knowledge management literature. The chapter along with excellently presenting the literature on knowledge management and leadership also provides a critical review of the same. Chapter 16, the concluding chapter of the book critically examines knowledge management literature. In general it describes the features, rational consistency and the rigidity of writings on knowledge management. It also deals with the question of whether knowledge management is a fad. The chapter finally describes the way the knowledge on knowledge management is produced, consumed and by whom. The flow of the contents from one chapter to another is reasonably outstanding. The theoretical viewpoints are fully supported by the examples from the practice. The book is full of illustrations for the better understanding of the theoretical concepts. The book is well indexed with references clearly presented at the end. Each chapter contains an excellent outline at the beginning and concise summary at the end along with review and discussion questions. The suggestions for further reading and online resource centre given at the end of each chapter are extremely useful resource for in depth and comprehensive study of the subject. The book has been written in an unfussy and lucid
language. It provides basic understanding of the concepts of knowledge management. Each chapter in the book contains definition boxes to highlight the important definitions which add to the easy understanding of the important concepts. The cases given at the end of each chapter make the text even more meaningful to the readers. It is a very useful addition to the existing library of KM literature. It is a clearly written, well organized, step-by-step handbook for basic understanding of all KM concepts for the students. The book has provided a complete theoretical background along with different viewpoints existing in the literature on various knowledge management concepts. This book serves as a base book for anyone new in the field. But for the practitioners who are to implement the knowledge management practically in the organizations the book provides little support. Without reservations we recommend this book to both undergraduate, postgraduate students of knowledge management and the researchers working in the area of knowledge management. REFERENCES
Hislop D., (2005), Knowledge Management in Organizations: A Critical Introduction. Oxford university press, USA. Hislop D., (2009), Knowledge Management in Organizations. Oxford university press, USA.
Reviewed By:
Richa Chaudhary* Dr. Santosh Rangnekar** * Research Scholar, IIT Roorkee, Uttarakhand. E-mail: richa.chaudhary18@gmail.com ** Associate Professor, Department of Management Studies, IIT Roorkee, Uttarakhand. E-mail: srangnekar1@gmail.com
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No. 2
July-December 2010
Derivatives and Risk Management

Rajiv Srivastava Published by: Oxford University Press First published in India-2010 ABOUT THE AUTHOR Rajiv Srivastava is presently Professor (Finance) at the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, New Delhi. He holds an MBA (International Finance) degree from the University of Pittsburgh, USA and MBA (Finance), degree from the University of Delhi. His research interest includes International Financial & Forex Management, Derivatives and Risk Management, Security Analysis and Portfolio Management, Corporate Finance. He has 35 years experience in Banking and Corporate Finance at Senior Positions and have served with State Bank of India for 14 years where he was involved with credit appraisal, consultancy, monitoring, disbursement, loan syndication, public issue management, treasury management and training of bankers and industrialists. He held several positions in corporate finance with leading companies in India including as Vice President (Finance) with Rajasthan Breweries Limited, Head of Finance with CMC Limited, and General Manager (Finance) with Flex Industries Limited (now known as Uflex Ltd.). He has written a book titled Financial Management published by Oxford University Press, 2008. An important landmark in the capital market was the introduction of derivates. The developments of futures and options on stocks and indices since June 2000 have been fast paced. The introduction of commodity derivates in 2003 on a large number of agricultural and industrial products to manage the price risk on these commodities was welcomed. In August 2008 India launched currency derivates that enabled exporters and importers to cover foreign exchange risk and led to the integration of foreign exchange markets and free determination of exchange rates based on global factors. In August 2009 the interest rate futures were launched in the modified form to permit financial sector to hedge against interest rate fluctuations. The acceptance of the derivatives instrument as tools of hedging and other applications has been increasing but they are difficult to comprehend in terms of their usage and pricing. The increasing number of instruments, the complexities, interrelationships and applications need to be understood for which upgradation of knowledge is essential. The book has made an attempt to cover the conceptual framework on how derivatives work and what goes into pricing of such instruments. There is proper blend of theory and practice, description and mathematics. There are 16 chapters in the book. Chapter 1 provides the readers an understanding of different kinds of risk and different ways of managing them along with the types of business risk. It also elaborates on classification, functions, uses and misuses of derivates along with the role of the participants in the derivatives market.
In Chapter 2 the readers will be familiar with the forward contract and their operational mechanism. The similarities and differences between forward and futures, their pricing, principle of convergence along with cash-and-carry and reverse cash-and-carry arbitrage have been discussed. Chapter 3 elaborates on commodity futures, their differences with financial futures, pricing and use of commodity futures for hedging long and short position. Along with it the basis risk, perfect and imperfect hedge, cross-hedge and hedge ratio and hedging for gross profit margin have been covered. In Chapter 4 the readers will be acquainted with stock and index futures, their trading and settlement as well as hedging for long and short position of portfolios. The chapter also features applications of stock and index futures in eliminating the market risk and controlling the beta of the portfolio. Apart from other applications of index futures, speculation and identification of arbitrage opportunities in the futures market is also detailed. Chapter 5 aims at providing inputs for understanding the foreign exchange rates and markets. The hedging mechanism through forwards and futures for managing exposures in foreign currency is discussed in this chapter. The chapter discusses an intermediate product between forward and futures mainly non-deliverable forward (NDF), their evolution, need and relevance. In Chapter 6 Forward rate agreements (FRAs), along with futures contract based on Tbills and Eurodollar deposits is elaborated. The distinctive features of interest rate futures, concepts such as conversion factor, along with Treasury bond futures, their pricing and cheapest-to-deliver bonds is discussed. After going through Chapter 7 the readers would understand the basic concepts of swaps, distinguish between different types of interest rates and currency swaps. This is followed by a detailed discussion on the currency swaps used for hedging exposures to foreign currency as well as the evolution of swaps. This chapter also features valuation of swaps, which is used in cancellation of existing swaps. In Chapter 8 the basic concepts of an option, the working of call and put options and their payoffs is discussed. The chapter provides an understanding of the various terms and quotations used while discussing options. The trading and settlement mechanism of options and how options are different from futures and forwards is also elaborated. In Chapter 9 the readers will be acquainted with the option pricing, the meaning of intrinsic and time value of an option and the boundary conditions of option pricing. A few preliminary concepts of pricing options based on arbitrage, relationship of call and put prices for stocks, currencies and dividend paying stock is touched upon. This Chapter 10 deals with Binomial model and Balck-Scholes model of option pricing. In the end a discussion on volatility, how to measure it and details of implied volatility is done. Chapter 11 discusses the behaviour and sensitivity of option value with respect to each
of its determinants. The concept of delta, theta, gamma, vega and rho and the importance of delta hedging and gamma neutrality is also enumerated. Chapter 12 is devoted to explaining the various applications of options, basics of hedging, specially various kinds of trading strategies and the combinations of options such as straddles, strangles and spreads. Along with these the chapter also contains synthetic positions in basic instruments of stocks, bonds, calls and put option. Chapter 13 is aimed at describing some non-conventional exotic options, which are generally not traded but are dealt over-the-counter. The features and valuations of some of the popular exotic forms, such as forward start options, binary options, barrier options and average (Asian) options are discussed along with the binomial method for valuing barrier options. Chapter 14 is aimed at providing an introduction to credit risk and credit derivatives namely credit default swaps (CDS), total return swaps (TRS), credit linked notes (CLN) and collateralized debt obligations (CDO). Chapter 15 deals with complex options such as options on futures (future options), interest rate options, options on bonds as well as options on swaps (swaptions). Along with these the chapter provides preliminaries on weather-based derivatives and energy derivatives that are gaining importance. In Chapter 16 an attempt is made to discuss the accounting for derivatives and its complexities. The Accounting standard 30 is discussed with suitable examples to highlight accounting for derivatives under different circumstances. At the end of each chapter there is a summary of the chapter, followed by key terms and review questions. The book would be useful and interesting for students, investors and market participants with its elaborate and sufficiently large number of numerical examples to illustrate usage of derivatives and applications in Indian context. One positive point about the book is that its simple language and minimum use of complex mathematics, which will be helpful to the student and provide them a better understanding of the subject. However one feels that few illustrations relating to the products available in Indian market would have helped readers in understanding the present position of Indian derivative market. Overall this book will serve as a comprehensive textbook and is a welcome addition in this field.
Reviewed by: Mousumi Bhattacharya Lecturer (Accounting and Finance) Army Institute of Management Judges Court Road Alipore, Kolkata-700027 E-mail: mbhattacharya9@gmail.com
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Kindler Vol. X
No. 2
July-December 2010
Computer Fundamentals
Dr Anita Goel Published by: Pearson First Printing, 2010
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Dr Anita Goel is Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science, Dyal Singh College, University of Delhi. She has been teaching over two decades. She is guiding several students for their doctoral studies, and has several national and international research publications. She has been appointed as Fellow for Computer Science, Institute of Life Long Learning (ILLL) at the University of Delhi.
Now-a-days personal computer (PC) has become an integrated part of life. It has become one of the essential gadgets that a manager uses in his/her daily routine. From simple letter drafting to a very complex data analysis, everywhere the computer is being used. This book has been written for all those who use a computer without having basic knowledge of its functioning. This book is also targeted towards students studying Computers or Information Technology without having prior knowledge of computer functionality. The book has been written effectively in a very lucid language that makes it easier for a reader to understand the concepts. The chapters are organised in a very logical manner that maintains the integrity and essence of the context throughout the book. While explaining hardware components, relevant photographs have been used that makes it easier for the readers to understand them better, especially those which are not available nowadays such as vacuum tubes, transistors, etc. Various concepts have also been explained using relevant diagrams such as network topology, OSI model, memory hierarchy, etc. This book has been divided into 4 major units
a. Basics of Computer (Chapters 1 5) b. User-Computer Interface (Chapters 6 10) c. Applications and Security (Chapters 11 14) d. Computer Practicals (Chapters 15 21)
Chapter 1 describes the Generation of Computers covering their hardware technology, software technology, computing characteristics, physical appearance and applications. The major hardware components of each generation those are available today have been described through proper photographs. In the later part of this chapter, the Classification of Computers has been described in a very concise manner with photographs.
In Chapter 2, the internal architecture of a computer consisting of memory unit, control processing unit, instruction sets, instruction cycle and the interconnection between these units have been described very lucidly through diagrams. The author has also successfully discussed the functions and the orientation of the hardware components inside the computer cabinet in this chapter. Chapter 3 exclusively describes the Memory Management of a computer. The memory hierarchy has been described explaining each of its components separately. The Primary and Secondary memory has been discussed covering the concepts of tacks and sectors in various storage media. The author has well explained all Input and Output devices covering latest components such as Touch Screen monitor, Flat Bed Scanner in Chapter 4. On the other hand she has also discussed the primitive devices such as Daisy Wheel Printer. Chapter 5 is about the fundamental Number System (Decimal, Binary, Octal, and Hexadecimal) that are used in computer science. Special focus has been given on Binary Number System. Logic Gates are also discussed here. To learn computer system one has to understand the functioning of the User-Machine interface (the software). Chapter 6 has covered overview of different types of computer languages for developing such interfaces. The author has explained types of language translators Assembler, Compiler, Interpreter, Loader, and Linker used to translated codes written in high level computer languages to computer understandable codes and the marginal differences between those translators. The working of an Operating System has been discussed in Chapter 7. The author has nicely covered the topics (a) Process Management, (b) Process Synchronization, (c) CPU Scheduling, (d) Process Deadlock, (e) Paging, (f) Device Management, (g) File Management, and (h) Concept of Virtual Memory with respect to an Operating System of a computer. The programming techniques such as preparing Flowcharts, writing Pseudo codes, and writing Algorithms have been discussed in Chapter 8. The next chapter (Chapter 9) is about Networking and Data Communication. Here in this chapter, the author has successfully described the Topologies used in a Computer Network and the Network devices used thereon. The types of Computer Network like LAN, MAN, WAN, WLAN, WWAN are also discussed here. The Data Communication part has been discussed extensively starting with OSI Model, fundamental theories like ModulationDemodulation of signal, Synchronous-Asynchronous way of data transmission, upto Packet switching-Circuit switching of data. The latest data transfer technique via Bluetooth has also been discussed here. The concepts of Internet connectivity including ADSL have been described in Chapter 10. The concept of DNS and URL is also described here. Chapter 11 focuses on the systems responsible for the information flow between various
layers of management. It covers Operations Support System (TPS & OAS), Management Support System (MIS, DSS, & EIS), Expert System, ERP, and E-Commerce System. The database concepts and definitions, database models, and database architecture have been successfully described in Chapter 12. Chapter 13 describes how the layers of our creative thinking can be represented using computer. The application of Audio, Video, Graphics, and Animation have been described in this chapter. The computer applications like Word Art in MS Office, Adobe Photoshop, Windows Media Player, Audacity Audio Editor, Windows Movie Maker, and Video Streaming over Internet have been discussed successfully. The use of such Multimedia application in reality is also discussed through examples. The most challenging part of computer application the Computer Security, has been described in Chapter 14. A very clear picture of threats due to Viruses, Worms, Trojan Horses, and Computer Hacking is given in this chapter. A concise discussion about the technologies used in Security Mechanism such as Cryptography, Digital Signature and Firewall is also available here. The concepts of latest security systems like Smart Card Technology and Biometric Technology are also discussed in this chapter. The features of Windows XP and the improvements in the subsequent versions like Windows Vista and Windows 7 have been described successfully in Chapter 15. Chapter 16-19 describes basic features of Microsoft Office 2007 covering MS Word, MS Excel, MS PowerPoint and MS Access. The concluding part - Configuring Network and Internet in Windows XP has been described in Chapter 20. It covers practical approach towards establishing a computer over a wired or wireless network. This chapter explains how to establish an Internet connection for a PC by creating the Internet profile and also explain the method of sharing files over a computer network. The entire chapter is covered with various screen shots that makes the reader comfortable with the actual system. Finally, in Chapter 21, the basic commands for creating documents in LaTeX have been described. Solved examples are also given to help beginners. The introduction of Chapter 21 is very appreciable because coverage of LaTeX is rare in such kind of books. Computer assembling is also mentioned in Appendix D of this book which is again very appreciable. Moreover, at the end of each chapter one can find the summary and keywords with their page numbers as ready reckoner. The overall coverage of this book is very nice. Beside all merits discussed above, I suppose, incorporation of the following few points would have enriched its content specially for students of BCA, MCA, B.Sc (IT), and M.Sc (IT): Chapter 1 Time line chart of computer generations showing Cost, Performance, and Storage Capacity.
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Chapter 7 Basic commands of DOS and LINUX. Chapter 9 A little discussion about IEEE standards and concept of Mesh Topology. Chapter 10 IP addressing method discussing its address classes. Chapter 12 The concept of Cardinality and Modality in E-R Model. I also think that author would have included at least one chapter for Computer Based Accounting System (viz Tally) to make this book a complete package for the students of B.Com.
Reviewed by: Rajeev Karmakar Army Institute of Management Kolkata Email: rajeevkarmakar@gmail.com
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KINDLER

Parveen Ahmed Alam Editor, Kindler

Figure 1: Green Marketing Mix Green Marketing Strategies

Customs Rituals Ceremonies Assumptions Perceptions

Philosophy of organizational leader

3.30 3.30 3.07 3.07

3.23 3.23 3.36 3.33

Sig .235 .047* .012* .031*

1.451 3.079 4.454 3.506

I spend significant time in Business strategy related Discussions

I am regularly involved in decisions relating to my organization Growth.

1.90% 3.80% 3.80% I am invited to 1.90% 5.80%

mentor senior managers / 17.30% leaders in 25.00% organization

Series 5 Series 4 Series 3 Series 2 Series 1

40% 67.30% 69.30%

100% 21.10% 80% 13.50% 60% 15.40%

3.80% 7.70% 14.50%

0.00% 9.60% 15.40%

31.40% 28.00% Series 5 30.80% Series 4 Series 3 Series 2

40% 34.60% 51.00% 20% 15.40% 0% 1

13 Series 4 Series 3 21 12 21 22 21 Series 2 Series 1

Food Inflation in India

Student, MBA-14 (2010 12), Army Institute of Management, Kolkata

Role of Infrastructure in Developing India

Student, MBA-14 (2010 12), Army Institute of Management, Kolkata

Knowledge Management in Organizations

Derivatives and Risk Management

Kindler The Journal of Army Institute of Management Kolkata

Publishers Name Whether Citizen of India Address

Editors Name Whether Citizen of India Address

(Parveen Ahmed Alam)

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