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Leadership management strategies and organisational practices with respect to the hotel sector of rainbow tourism group limited
This was a research exercise which sought to explore leadership management strategies and organisational practices taking place in the hotel sector of Rainbow Tourism Group Limited (RTGL). RTGL is one of Zimbabwe s biggest hotel and tourism sector. The hotel portfolio are comprised of Rainbow Towers and Conference Centre, Bulawayo Rainbow, Victoria Falls Rainbow, Kadoma Rainbow and Conference Centre, A Zambezi River Lodge and Ambassador Hotel. The six hotels have a combined total of 886 rooms, with the largest number of 304 rooms being in the five star hotel, Rainbow Towers and Conference Centre and while the rest in the three star group hotels. Other operations outside Zimbabwe are Hotel Edinburg, the Savoy Hotel and a hotel in Mozambique. The problem statement of the research study was to examine the role of organisational culture in shaping the leadership strategies in hotel and catering sector, organizational leadership and their effectiveness in helping to achieve organizational objectives. The following was newlinethe set of objectives that the research sought to achieve. Firstly, the research sought to determine and analyze the different types of leadership strategies adapted by the hotel sector of Rainbow Tourism Group Limited in the hotel sector a Case Study. The second newlineobjective was to determine the environment forces affecting the acceptance and newlineassimilation of the mentioned strategies. Thirdly the research sought to ascertain the newlineefficacy of mentioned strategies in attaining these organisational strategies in the hotel newlinesector of RTGL. The fourth objective was to suggest if any alternate strategies will be newlinerequired to enhance leadership effectiveness in Hotel Sector of the RTGL. Finally the newlineresearch sought to develop a Leadership Model that can be used in the hotel industry. -
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Migration to bangalore : A study of return migration of IT professionals
Bengaluru, Karnataka, is widely known as India s Silicon Valley and an important centre for Information Technology (IT). It is also one of the fastest growing cities in India. Migration to the city has contributed to its growth and this study has focussed on the phenomenon of return migration with specific reference to the return migration of IT professionals to Bengaluru. The main newlineobjectives of the study were to explore some of the factors underlying return migration in general and return migration to Bengaluru in particular, to examine the reasons underlying the decision to migrate, to examine the process of return migration, to describe transnationalism in the context of this return migration and to observe the experience of being back home This study used mixed methods and adopted concurrent triangulation to analyse and interpret the data in the study of the research problem. The framework adopted by Lee was also used to understand the factors that influence the decision to migrate within a broader theoretical framework to study return migration. The researcher explored the factors that influenced the decision to return which were an outcome of the push factors operating from the place of origin and the pull factors operating in the place of destination, India and Bengaluru in this case, both sets of which relate to the socio-cultural, economic and political realms. The newlineresearcher examined the factors that operated as push factors in the host country as well as those that operated as pull factors upon professionals working in the IT sector in the context of return migration to Bengaluru.According to the study, the pull factors being exercised from the city of newlineBengaluru were more relevant in terms of the forces underlying the decision to move. Bengaluru s reputation as a technopole or a high tech cluster has contributed largely to the way in which the migrants have been drawn to the city. -
Changing representation of women in recent bollywood cinema /
For almost a century, popular Hindi films rarely dealt with women issues and if it all it attempted to do so, the role of a women was restricted to be either that of nurturer or the epitome of sacrifice and forgiveness. Films like Mother India or Bandini glorified woman’s ability to give up her choices and even life for the sake of her family and dear ones. But post LPG (Liberalization, Privatization and Globalization) this scenario has gradually changed. Today, we come across films where a woman not only expresses her choice but she is also unapologetic about herself. Cinema very interesting deals with gender representation in a consensually problematic manner where the provider of the image as well as the receiver of the medium believes that the space is designed to give women her place only in a particular way. -
Discrimination and Coping of Old Settlers in Sikkim
The study was conducted to explore the existence and manifestation of discrimination in Sikkim. In the Indian context, race-based discrimination has been extensively studied from the point of view of the northeasterners residing in mainland India. An important reason for this is the differences in race, culture, language, and minority status of the northeasterners in mainland India. However, within the northeastern states all of the above mentioned aspects are reversed newlineand the minority is the mainland Indian community, race-based discrimination has not been studied. Sikkim was considered as the region for study as it is part of the sister states of the northeastern region and the Rajya Sabha Committee on Petitions has acknowledged that discrimination has been practiced in the state. An exploratory sequential mixed design was adopted for the newlinestudy. Eleven telephonic semi-structured interviews were conducted for the qualitative phase with members of the old settlers of Sikkim. A survey was conducted for the quantitative phase. Thematic analysis revealed two global theme, five organizing themes and 44 basic themes. Survey method revealed that 51% of old settlers felt discriminated daily in Sikkim. The results newlinerevealed that race based discrimination does exist in Sikkim with it being purported at newlineinstitutional and interpersonal levels. -
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Echo mapping of active galactic nuclei
Active galactic nuclei (AGN) are the persistent high luminosity sources powered by accretion of matter onto super massive black holes (SMBHs) at their centres. They are known to show flux variation and this property can be used as an effective tool to map the extent of the broad line region (BLR) and the dusty torus that surrounds the central SMBH. Though the mass of the SMBH (MBH) can be directly measured using the dynamics
of stars that are close to the SMBH, this method is limited to objects in the low redshift Universe (z < 0.1). On the other hand, the technique of reverberation mapping (RM) can provide MBH estimate over a range of redshifts. RM is based on the light travel time delayed response of the line emitting gas as well as the re-processed torus emission to changes in the continuum emission from the accretion disk. As of now, MBH measurements are available for more than 100 sources based on RM. The obtained
BLR sizes (RBLR) are found to be correlated with the optical luminosity (L5100) at wavelength 5100 Å. This relationship is obtained based on measurements of AGN available over a limited range of luminosity. Moreover, many of these measurements also have larger error bars. Therefore, there
is an urgent need to increase RM measurements with small errors on more AGN covering a wide range of redshifts to better constrain the RBLR − L5100 relation. -
Echo mapping of active galacticn nuclei
Active galactic nuclei (AGN) are the persistent high luminosity sources powered by accretion of matter onto super massive black holes (SMBHs) at their centres. They are known to show flux variation and this property can be used as an effective tool to map the extent of the broad line region (BLR) and the dusty torus that surrounds the central SMBH. Though the mass of the SMBH (MBH) can be directly measured using the dynamics of stars that are close to the SMBH, this method is limited to objects in the low redshift Universe (z < 0.1). On the other hand, the technique of reverberation mapping (RM) can provide MBH estimate over a range of redshifts. RM is based on the light travel time delayed response of the line emitting gas as well as the re-processed torus emission to changes in the continuum emission from the accretion disk. As of now, MBH measure-ments are available for more than 100 sources based on RM. The obtained BLR sizes (RBLR) are found to be correlated with the optical luminosity (L5100) at wavelength 5100 This relationship is obtained based on mea-surements of AGN available over a limited range of luminosity. Moreover, many of these measurements also have larger error bars. Therefore, there is an urgent need to increase RM measurements with small errors on more AGN covering a wide range of redshifts to better constrain the RBLR ? L5100 relation. We have carried out photometric reverberation observa- tions on the AGN Mrk 590. Using both broad band (that overlaps with the continuum) and narrow band (that overlaps with the H? emission line) observations, we found the BLR size to be 21.44+1.49 ?2.11 days, which is equiv- alent to 0.018+0.001 ?0.002 pc. Using this measured BLR size and the full width at half maximum of the H? line measured from the newly acquired Subaru spectrum we found a black hole mass of 1.96+0.15 ?0.21 108 M , using virial relationship and adopting a scale factor of 1.12. Similar to BLR reverberation mapping, the extent of the dusty torus in AGN can also be measured using dust reverberation mapping (DRM) based on the delayed response of the near infrared (NIR) flux from the torus to the ionizing UV/optical continuum coming from the accretion disk. From these observations too, a strong correlation is known to exist between the torus size (Rdust) and the optical luminosity (LV). Based on the Rdust ?LV relation, it is also possible to use AGN as standard candle to con- strain the Hubble constant (H0) and other cosmological parameters. But for that, a large number of DRM observations are needed at different red- shifts. As of today, very few NIR interferometric observations are avail-able, but measurements of the torus size via such direct imaging observa-tions are again limited to very near and bright AGN. Moreover, there is a large discrepancy in the size of the torus obtained via the direct imaging method through interferometry and that obtained from DRM. From long term monitoring in the optical and infra-red, we found the inner edge of the dust torus in H0507+164 and Z229?15 to lie at a distance of 0.029+0.010 ?0.008 pc and 0.017+0.005 ?0.005 pc, respectively, from the central optical continuum source. These two new measurements are also found to lie closely on the known Rdust ? LV relation line. Also, by modeling the available BLR RM data in the literature, it is possible to constrain the size, structure and kinemat-ics of the BLR using Bayesian approach. This approach is adopted several times to study the BLR morphology by different ways but is not applied to a large number of sources in an homogeneous manner. From an analysis of the RM data for a total of 57 sources following a Bayesian approach, we could constrain the structure of the BLR in them as well as derive other properties of BLR. -
Impact of microfinance in socio economic development evidence from south India
The role and impact of microfinance in the socio economic development of the low income people who are not credit worthy has been assessing and exploring by researchers for its sustainable operation and the development of formal financial system. The study explores the socio economic development of microfinance in South India. The objectives are based on variables like financial inclusion, employment and earning opportunities, social inclusion, economic development. social development, personal development. family relationship, economic newlineresilience, social capital, and well-being. The scope of the study is limited to the newlinebeneficiaries of microfinance in four states, namely Andhra Pradesh (undivided),Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. The sampling method used in the study is non probability sampling technique of purposive sampling. Both primary and secondary data are used and it is found that microfinance has contributed to financial inclusion, social inclusion and employment and earning opportunities. Besides it has supported substantially social developinent and moderately economic development of the beneficiaries. Further it is noted that it has positive effect on personal development, and family development. Thus it has contributed to develop economic resilience and social capital among low income people which ultimately sustain their well-being, The major findings of the study are: is found that social inclusion, employment and earning opportunity and newlinefinancial inclusion have a significant influence on social development. It is explored that the financial inclusion and employment and earning opportunity can predict the economic development. It is concluded that the financial inclusion and employment and earning opportunity have a significant influence on the family relationship. It is found that the financial inclusion, employment and earning opportunity newlinecan predict the Personal development. It is observed that the personal development newlineand social development can predict the social capital. -
Impact of microfinance on socio economic development-evidence from South India
The role and impact of microfinance in the socio economic development of the low income people who are not credit worthy has been assessing and exploring by researchers for its sustainable operation and the development of formal financial system. The study explores the socio economic development of microfinance in South India. The objectives are based on variables like financial inclusion, employment and earning opportunities, social capital, and well-being. -
Determinants of Charitable Giving of Employees in the Organized Sector: A Case Study in Bengaluru Urban District.
The study aims at identifying the determinants of charitable giving among working professionals who are into white collar jobs in the organized sector in Bengaluru urban district. The study also tries to understand the effect of Income and Non-Income factors that could affect decisions made by individuals towards charitable donations. The study captures charity donations in terms of money, time and gifts, based on its objectives; the focus is on monetary donations. Thus, based on the various available models based on demographic variables and attitudinal factors, the study has developed a comprehensive function that that includes both demographic and attitude related factors that could predict the charity behavior of an individual and in this case it is the working professional. The population includes all the white collar jobs and the sample size was 132 respondents. This includes both charity givers and non-givers. The sampling technique used was purposive random sampling and data was collected through questionnaire method and the questionnaire begins with an introductory question seeking if the respondent have made any donations in the last 12 months and based on their answer they are directed towards the three sections such as section A, B and C for those who said yes to the question and B and c for those who said no to the question. Section A is about the charity activities of the respondents, B is about the demographic details and C measures altruism, prestige, care and other attitude related factors using a 5 point Liker scale. Factor analysis was made used for the purpose of model testing. However, prior to the model testing, bi-variate and multi-variate exploratory analysis was done using cross tabulation in SPSS and python to understand the association between variables used in the study. To further clarify and conclude the relationship and strength of association between variables, Pearson???s Chi square was conducted. Based on these results most of the demographic variables seem to have positive relationship with charitable giving and few had partially negative relation with the incidence of giving. For example Gender, where being male have less chance of making charitable donations. Religion has no impact on the likelihood of making donations. viii Certain other variables such as age, education level and income have a positive relationship with charity giving. In other words as age, income, level of education are higher, the chances of making monetary donations increases. From the results of exploratory bi -variate analysis, certain variables were removed and were not part of factor analysis towards testing the model. The results of factor analysis shows that charitable giving (monetary) is the function of three factors namely benevolence, socioeconomic status and warm glow giving and thus it proves the model developed by the study. Thus the major determinants or predictors of charitable giving (monetary) are benevolent behaviour, socioeconomic status and warm glow giving. -
A critical analysis of the zimbabwean political leadership in the practice of justice
Political leadership is a fundamental philosophical issue influencing governance newlineof states and the success of every state is directly or indirectly linked to the newlineleadership ideology of its political leaders. This study investigated the nature and newlinecharacter of political leaders in Zimbabwe by assessing their political philosophy in the context of the major historical events since 1890 masked by three eras namely the pre-colonial era, (characterised by little political activities) followed by the colonial era (dominated by socio-political system that weakened the African culture and governance) and lastly, the post-independence era (characterised by failure to uphold the constitution by the ruling party leadership). newlineThe scope of this study is based on benchmarking the concepts of the Zimbabwean political philosophy with political ideas from renown philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle and Gandhi. More specifically, the Gandhian philosophy was selected and conceptually applied to the Zimbabwean political situation in an attempt to develop an ideal political philosophy because of its illustrious wisdom with regards to good governance principles. A hermeneutics and newlinephilosophical analytic models were used to interpret relevant literature and leadership responsibilities as provided for in the Zimbabwe Constitution. Study findings revealed challenges in the current political leadership that calls for developing a new Zimbabwean political leadership philosophy. These include but not limited to partisan politics, political violence, unbridled favouritism and nepotism, ethnicity in leadership, state capture of key institutions, negative use of power by the state, political violence, poor electoral systems flouted with impunity and rampant corruption. These political challenges militate against democratic principles of common good that fight human oppression, repression and suppression. -
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Social networking- A comparative study on the new google + project and facebook /
This research project set out to study the new Google + Project, a new social network by Google. The dissertation looks at the social network as compared to already existing social networks especially Facebook, what the sight possesses that other social networks may not have and how successful the site will be in the years to come and if there is a need for a new social network after what is already there. The researcher went out to find out from users of the social networks, how popular Google plus and Facebook are and how frequently the sites are and what possible future the sites have. The researcher found out that Google plus isnt as popular as Facebook just yet but in years to come if they can learn from the mistakes that the already existing social network have made and develop on that to make the site more user friendly. -
Models for load forecasting and demand response /
Increasing pressure on the utilities to accommodate energy efficiency, load management and progress in advanced technology has led to transformations of existing grids into smarter grids. With the development of Smart Grid Technology and the integration of smart meters it is possible to control the equipment installed at the consumer site. Creating awareness among the end users to participate in load management programs instead of capacity addition is the best solution for maintaining the stability in the grid. Utilities can also encourage consumer participation in load control activities. They can ensure that power is given to a consumer during his priority time. For this, loads have to be categorized, prioritized and then considered for load shedding so that revenue loss and social impacts of load shedding are minimized. It would be beneficial if a consumer's load is not completely shed during load shedding. Amount of power that is shed from a consumer can be limited and consumers can be allowed to adjust their loads based on the availability of power and get incentives from the utilities for their change in load pattern. Consumers are also benefited with the reduced energy charges on the consumed energy during these periods. -
Models for load forecasting and demand response
Increasing pressure on the utilities to accommodate energy efficiency, load management and progress in advanced technology has led to transformations of existing grids into smarter grids. With the development of Smart Grid Technology and the integration of smart meters it is possible to control the equipment installed at the consumer site. Creating awareness among the end- users to participate in load management programs instead of capacity addition is the best solution for maintaining the stability in the grid. Utilities can also encourage consumer participation in load control activities. They can ensure that power is given to a consumer during his priority time. For this, loads have to be categorized, prioritized and then considered for load shedding so that revenue loss and social impacts of load shedding are minimized. It would be beneficial if a consumer's load is not completely shed during load shedding. Amount of power that is shed from a consumer can be limited and consumers can be allowed to adjust their loads based on the availability of power and get incentives from the utilities for their change in load pattern. Consumers are also benefited with the reduced energy charges on the consumed energy during these periods. Review of the recent research work shows that demand response and load forecasting play an important role to relieve the power system from economic and environmental constraints. Various approaches have been used in the past for developing different demand response and forecasting methodologies including neural networks, fuzzy logic and statistical techniques. These methodologies fluctuate in complication, suppleness, and information necessity. In addition, statistical methods such as time series, regression, and state space methods have large numerical deviation in the predicted load series. In general, for accurate modeling of nonlinear and undecided type of load behavior, artificial intelligence-based techniques are employed. Also, these methods concentrate mainly on ordinary system conditions. However, proposing the possible Demand Response strategies to maintain power system security constraints in unpredicted turbulences pose a serious challenge. In the undertaken research, a novel load forecasting method using hybrid Genetic Algorithm Support Vector Regression model has been proposed. The forecast error is around 1-2%. The second part of the work focuses on formulation of demand response strategies based on time of the day and load prioritization. A Unique grading method has been proposed to prioritize the loads and load management during power deficiency by controlling the loads individually using different optimization techniques. The performance of three well recognized population based meta-heuristic algorithms such as Genetic Algorithm, Ant Colony Optimization and Particle Swarm Optimization, to solve load management at the consumer level in the Smart Grid environment were examined in terms of their efficiency, effectiveness and consistency in obtaining the optimal solution. In the last part of the work the Demand Response model for residential load is proposed to minimize the energy cost of the electricity usage by shifting the loads from peak period to off-peak period with the help of intelligent techniques such as Artificial Bee Colony Algorithm. -
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Road-Traffic Congestion in Bengaluru : Psychological and Social Consequences
The study investigated the commuting experiences of frequent travelers during congestion using a three-phase sequential exploratory design. Using semi-structured interviews, phase-1 explored the experiences of a sample of ten (4 women and 6 men) regular commuters on Bengaluru's congested roads. Thematic analysis revealed that psychological experiences due to travel adversities during congestion generated negative affect that narrowed thought-action repertoire of the commuters into fight or flight responses. Fight responses caused negative road occurrences that intensified travel adversities further, creating a vicious cycle showing a non-linear loop. Social consequences included challenges for personal time and activities, family time, health and health care activities, work, social, community, and recreational activities, increase of virtual socialization, and social Darwinism. In phase 2, a check-list of psychological consequences was developed based on the thematic analysis. Phase 3 statistically validated the vicious cycle in a sample of 190 (87 women and 103 men) commuters using structural equation modelling. The model substantiated the probability of the vicious cycle. Based on the model, a mathematical model was developed that could be used to test the non-linear relationship between the components of the vicious cycle. -
A Study on the Impact of Intervention Program for the Care Givers of People with Head and Neck Cancer
Head and neck cancer patients experienced profound psychosocial and functional abilities because of the location of the disease and treatment. It hampers their activities of daily living making them dependant on the caregivers. Subsequently caregivers have different needs especially during the initial phase of hospitalization because they are unfamiliar to the whole process, unprepared for the new task and new role and lack the necessary knowledge and skills in care giving. Thus they face a number of problems. Hence this study aimed to understand their needs, develop psycho educational intervention program based on it and assess its feasibility. It was taken up because of limited number of Indian studies and increase in the number of incidences owing to the changing life style. Quasi experimental research design and sequential mixed research design was used. The variables taken for the study were Caregiver burden and distress. Zarit burden interview schedule and Caregiver Self Assessment Questionnaire was used to collect data from 30 caregivers of head and neck cancer patient before and after the Psycho educational intervention program was delivered. Paired sample t test and Cohen s d tests were used for data analysis. The effect size for burden and distress was 2.01 and 1.91 respectively. Findings showed that the intervention program significantly reduced the level of burden