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Demographic Variables Influence on Work Engagement of Nurses and Doctors in Hospitals.
It has been foreseen that the healthcare sector in India will be at par with the IT services as well as education in terms of revenue, and would largely contribute to the countrys economy. The health-care industry is presently worth $ 7 Billion dollars (USD), and is predicted to grow at the rate of 13% every year. At this pace, work levels in hospitals have increased, and an employees contribution towards work has decreased. The psychological connection of employees towards their work has gained critical importance; as organizations find that their employees are not giving their best in these times when the demand is on its rise. Work engagement is a positive-fulfilling work-related state of mind characterized by vigor, dedication and absorption, where vigor being high energy levels and mental resilience, dedication being a state of mind where an individual is strongly involved in ones work, and absorption is characterized by engrossment and concentration towards ones work. Literature review on work engagement from the last decade has focused on the relationship of engagement with job satisfaction, employee turnover, performance, and other human resource related constructs. A sample of 372 respondents comprising of doctors and nurses form 20 hospitals (corporate, government and private/trust) of 150 beds and above. Respondents were chosen by using judgmental sampling technique. The variables under investigation were Work engagement and eight demographic characteristics of the respondents. Utrecht Work engagement scale (UWES), by Wilmar Schaufeli and Arnold Baker, (2003), and based on the objectives the eight demographics were included. Fourteen hypotheses were tested and the major findings were that the overall work engagement for doctors was significantly high, and for nurses it was found to be moderate. Significant difference on work engagement levels on doctors was found across gender, educational qualification, age of the respondents, marital status, number of children, and types of hospitals. No significant difference on work engagement levels was found across work experience for doctors. Significant difference on work engagement levels on nurses was found across educational qualification, age of the respondents, work experience, marital status, number of children, and type of hospitals for nurses. No significant difference on work engagement levels was found across gender for nurses. Implications suggested that hospitals develop a flexible training, and therapeutic program for men and women to manage stress customized to their requirement. Focus should be given on encouraging employees to continue higher education. Younger and less experienced employees should be encouraged to interact with senior staff as their sharing of ideas and thoughts would be beneficial to both older and younger employees. Hospitals should imbibe values and ethics which are based on compassion, love for mankind and development of society through good leadership which would inspire them to go that extra mile. Key words: Work engagement, Demographic influence, Doctors, Nurses. -
Unlocking Credit Default Swaps to the Retail Investors to Boost Liquidity and Risk Diversification
Credit Default Swaps, is one of the significant contributors to the 2008 financial crash due to raise of illiquidity and its limited space to mitigate the risk, the market is dictated by few institutions across the globe. Hence the research investigates realistically by probing the credit default swaps role and contribution in the financial crash, existing gaps and current mechanism of the credit default swaps, as a result we anticipate the outcome might force us restructure the existing mechanism or possible innovative alternate models in order to boost the liquidity and to establish robust platform which helps to minimize the counterparty risk. Financial tsunami in the year 2008, alarmed researchers, regulators, economists, sovereigns and financial institutions across the globe to emphasize on the need of strong liquidity and risk mitigation or diversification model(s) for credit default swaps market reformation and the development along with creating superior confidence levels in the market. The literature review of the research acknowledged that the existing financial institutions and researchers analyzed and articulated the need of the retail investors participation in the credit default swaps market to create a strong liquidity and to mitigate counterparty risk. The anticipated restructuring or possible innovative alternate models may help to reform and to maintain the development of the credit default swaps market and also provoke superior confidence levels to boost strong liquidity and options to diversify the associated risk. The outcome of this research may also motivate the investments in the debt market which helps to enhance the debt capital markets and economies around the globe. Finally we verify the liquidity strength and degree of risk with the help of research proxies; the proxies are width of the bid and ask spread of the research outcome, as we strongly believe bid and ask spread have self illustrative power to explain the degree of liquidity and risk mathematically and statistically, the research assume multiple regression model to establish relationship between dependent variable and independent variables. Keywords: Unlocking, Credit Default Swaps (CDS), Retail Investors, Liquidity and Risk Diversification. JEL Classification: L810, G320 -
RAYLEIGH B??NARD - CONVECTION IN MICROPOLAR FLUID SATURATED POROUS MEDIA WITH MAXWELL - CATTANEO LAW
In this paper we find the effects of saturated porous media on the onset of Rayleigh-Benard convection in a micropolar fluid with Maxwell-Cattaneo law. We have done a linear study of the problem and the Rayleigh number has been arrived at using Galerkian method. The critical Rayleigh number has been found for different boundary conditions and graphs have been plotted for the same. -
Synthesis and Characterization of Vanadyl Complexes of Heterocyclic Acid Hydrazones
Two acid hydrazones, Furan-2-carbaldehyde nicotinic hydrazone and Furan-2-carbaldehyde benzhydrazone have been synthesised and they are characterized by elemental analysis, IR, NMR and UV spectral analysis. Vanadyl complexes of these two hydrazones were synthesised and characterised by elemental analysis, IR, UV, EPR, molar conductivity and magnetic susceptibility measurements. Spectral data indicates the square pyramidal geometry for the monomeric ve coordinated oxovanadium (IV) complexes with the general formula [VO(L)(OCH3 )].The vanadium complex of the acid hydrazone was studied for its catalytic activity. The complex was found to be a good catalyst in quinoxaline synthesis. -
Parental Attention of Full-time Dual Earning Couples and Its Impact on Children
As dual-earner families became the normative household type over the 21st century, the question of how families cope with and negotiate new work and family role responsibilities became the topic of much research and scholarly debate. Both parents working are inevitable in the current scenario. The purpose of this study is to understand the magnitude and quality of the parental attention of full-time dual earning couples and its relation to different chosen variables such as Recreation, Health, Socialization and Self-esteem, Moral development and Academic performance of their children. Data was collected from 50 respondents of full-time dual earning couples from various professionals in urban Bangalore region by administering a self-designed structured questionnaire. It has been found that most of the parents spent their valuable time with their children as they understood that would enhance physical, behavioural, personal and academic development of the children. The null findings in the present study indicate that the life style of full-time dual earning couples does not affect the normal development of their children, rather children are accustomed to parent work timings and are able to adapt to the changes in their parents work and responsibility. -
Exploring the Professional Problems Faced by Beginning Counsellors
Counselling Education at a Post-graduate level is of recent origin in India. Every year a number of students who complete their Post-graduate studies (M.Sc.) in Counselling get employed in various settings. As trainees their issues related to practice of counseling get addressed in training sessions, in supervision and through other means like personal therapy. Nothing is conclusively known about their status as beginning counselors. The aim and objectives of the study were exploring the professional problems faced by beginning counselors and the ways in which they are coping with them and their suggestions to cope as individuals and the ways in which the training institutes could help them to cope. The study was done by conducting two focus group discussions (FGD) of six beginning counselors and personal in-depth interviews of three beginning counselors who were working in different settings like Clinical-rehab, School and Employee Assistance Programme (EAP). While three school counsellors, two counsellors working in clinical-rehab settings and one EAP counsellor formed the participants of FGD, one counsellor from each of these settings who was not part of FGD was interviewed personally. While for the FGDs, the researcher used the self-constructed guide, for the interviews, the findings of FGD data which formed the Interview Schedule. Both the FGDs and the interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed and analyzed with conventional content analysis. Data from both the FGDs and interviews were included to form the Results. The findings show the various professional problems faced by the beginning counselors and the coping strategies used by them and their suggestions for coping with their professional problems at an individual level and at an institutional level. Implications for professional development, training of counsellors and scope for future research are presented. Key Words: Beginning Counsellors, Professional Problems, Coping, Professional Development. -
Meaning in Life as Constructed by Male Adolescents of Alcoholic Parents
Little research has been done to understand the experiences of male adolescent living with an alcoholic parent. This qualitative phenomenological study was used to explore and understand how the sons of an alcoholic parent living in South India find meaning in their situation. Alcoholism occurs in India as it does in all nations, but here there is a greater sense of shame attached to it and it is less mentioned than in Western countries. The sample in the study is selected according to the non-probability and purposive sampling technique. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews in which the researcher interacted with the participants. Five boys were interviewed between the ages of seventeen and twenty; three attend a prestigious college while the other two were no longer at school. Some from wealthy families while others were sons of day labourers. All were keen to advance in their chosen careers, some through gaining degrees. Sports and recreation were important to them and it provided a sense of achievement and a release from the stresses of a dysfunctional family. There were supporting features in the lives of the boys; support coming from mothers, older siblings, sports coaches and some teachers. Other ways of gaining a sense of value was by having a personal faith in God and by helping younger disadvantaged children. The counter to this was that some teachers did not understand and were critical of the boys while in most cases members of the extended families like uncles, aunts and cousins interacted in negative way. The exceptions were grandparents who either were able to control their alcoholic son or could provide time and support to their grandson. The negative influences added to the stresses of living with an alcoholic father. What was surprising was the degree of maturity of the boys; they accepted that alcoholism was a disease and that it was not their fathers fault, and they remained loyal to their parent. This study shows that the school sports coaches have a more positive influence than teachers. This may be because coaches have a more holistic approach than teachers. It highlights the need for schools and colleges to adopt a more proactive approach to at risk students by identifying such students and for training of teachers in how to deal with these students. Thematic network approach to data analysis was used. This involved organising the data into three levels of themes reflecting salient themes i.e. basic, organising and global themes (Attride-Stirling, 2001). Attride-Stirling describes six stages in analyses involving thematic networks involving devising a coding framework, identify themes, refine the themes, constructing the thematic network, describing, exploring and summarising the networks and interpreting the patterns. Five global themes emerged from the analysis. The male adolescent need for praise, building self-esteem, helps, belief, being misunderstood by others. Recommendations are presented to create conditions necessary for the male adolescent. This involves education and creation of supportive environments for the male adolescent and his family. Key words: Adolescent of alcoholic parents, Meaning in life, Alcoholic, Thematic network, Logotherapy. -
Growth and Characterization of Indium Monotelluride Crystals
Semiconductors have become an inevitable part of human life. The beginning of the modern electronic technology goes back to the invention and elaboration of the semiconductor-based transistor by Bardeen, Brattain and Shockley in 1948. Thereafter, electronics industry has grown and become one of the worlds largest commercial establishments. The increasing demands for smaller electronic devices with improved performance at lower costs drive the conventional silicon-based technology to its limits. To satisfy the requirements from the industry and to extend the applications of semiconductor devices, new materials and fabrication techniques have to be used. The development, specification and quality control of these materials often require a very delicate crystal growth process and specific characterizations, which will be critical to a successful design of an electronic device. The knowledge of structural, electrical and mechanical properties of materials is essential for making use of them in various electronic devices. The operating abilities of a large part of modern technological hardware are based on active and/or passive crystalline core pieces. The fabrication of such crystals is normally connected with the well established growth methods such as Bridgman, Czochralski, Verneuil, zone melting, top seeded solution growth (TSSG), re-crystallization techniques, etc. Bulk crystal growth techniques are used to grow large crystals from which substrates are sliced. Substrate availability is a critical component in the success of a technology. Hence, even in this era of thin films and epitaxial layers, bulk crystal growth from melt still upholds its significance and plays an important role in the development of semiconductor-based technologies. Solar cell technology, as a sustainable source of energy, has shown a tremendous growth in recent years. The most widely used commercial solar cells are made from single crystalline silicon and have efficiencies up to 26.5%. However, such single crystalline solar cells are relatively expensive with the silicon itself making up to 20-40% of the final cost. In the search for low-cost alternatives to crystalline silicon, a great deal of work is being carried out in tailoring the applicability of compound semiconductor materials, which offer advantages over silicon. Indium monotelluride (InTe) is a III-VI layered semiconductor, which is particularly suitable for photovoltaic use, because of its suitable band gap (1.16 eV), optical and transport properties. In addition, its cleaved surfaces do not need any additional treatment for p??n junction formation and are chemically inert under ambient conditions. The crystal structure of InTe is tetragonal with lattice parameters, a = b = 8.454 ??, and c = 7.152 ??. The direct nature of transition supports the maximum efficiency of the InTe based opto-electronic devices. Indium monotelluride (InTe) crystals have been crystallized using directional freezing technique by employing a two zone horizontal furnace. The compound charge used for the growth was synthesised from its constituent elements (In and Te). The structural and chemical investigations of the grown samples were performed using powder x-ray diffraction (XRD) technique and energy dispersive analysis by x-rays (EDAX). The dielectric constant, loss factor, AC conductivity and optical band gap of the grown InTe crystals were estimated from the capacitance measurements in the temperature range, 35-140??C. The frequency dependence of these dielectric parameters has been studied to understand the mechanism behind conduction. The mechanical strength of the cleaved samples of indium monotelluride was investigated using Vickers microhardness tester in the load range, 5-50 g, and the results obtained are discussed. The present research work titled ??Growth and characterization of indium monotelluride crystals has been organized into four chapters. Chapter 1 gives a brief introduction about the concepts of nucleation with regard to the crystal growth of semiconducting materials. The effects of thermodynamical parameters on the growth of crystals are explained. The theories of crystal growth along with the factors affecting the crystallization phenomenon are described in chapter 2. The principle behind the different crystal growth processes is outlined. An account on the various crystal growth techniques highlighting their special features is also given. A review of the present national / international status on the growth and characterization of InTe is presented. The description of directional freezing method, experimental procedure and the various characterization techniques used for the study are presented in chapter 3. Chapter 4 covers the results and discussions of the research findings. It ends with a reference section, wherein the literature reviews used are listed as per the international standards and the order of its appearance in the text. -
Measurement of Profitability under IFRS and IGAAP Among Selected Indian Companies
Globalization has resulted in expansion of Indian companies across the world. There arouse a need for a common set of accounting standard for harmonization of financial statements. The six Indian companies listed on Bombay Stock Exchange and National Stock Exchange has converged to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) from the financial year 2007-2008. The consolidated financial statements are prepared under both Indian Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (IGAAP) and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). Therefore, this study focused on measurement of profitability under IFRS and IGAAP for the six companies which have adopted IFRS voluntarily. There are differences in treatment of items under IGAAP and IFRS like revenue recognition, foreign currency transactions and translations, fixed asset valuation, depreciation and impairment losses, etc. The analysis showed that there is gradual increase in profitability ratios under IFRS and there may be increase observed in future. Since, this study analyses results on six Indian listed companies until financial year 2011-2012. The reasons for the differences in profitability ratios are also discussed. There are many Indian companies which have not converged into IFRS. Therefore, the challenges faced by Indian companies and measures taken by ICAI to adopt IFRS are also studied from auditors. This showed that the companies are facing difficulty to converge into IFRS due to mainly fair value accounting, new method of presentation, tax liability and transparency in disclosure of items. The companies have to incur cost for valuation of fixed assets because an auditor is not an expert in valuation. This study concludes stating that there is need for sufficient training for the management and all users of financial information, which may gear up the companies to adopt IFRS in near future. Keywords: Harmonization, IGAAP, IFRS, fair value accounting -
The Role of Gender in the Experience of Intimacy: Narratives of Young Married Couples
Intimacy is a phenomenon in human relationships that usually develops in the context most love relationships. Gender refers to the social categories of men and women. The two are interwoven with each other and influence each other. Gender roles dictate how men and women should experience and express intimacy. This research study focuses on the gender differences in the experience of intimacy. Data was collected using a semi-structured interview and the narratives of were analysed to identify themes that indicated commonalities in the experience of intimacy for men and women. However, differences in the experience of intimacy for men and women were also identified. Another focus of the study on the experience of intimacy is the gender differences after the birth of children. Gender differences were identified in the experience of intimacy after the birth of children. The findings also indicated that with the progression of time, marital relationships change from an emphasis on physical experience and expression of intimacy during the initial stages to an emotional emphasis with increase in familiarity between them and the birth of children. Keywords: Intimacy, Parenthood, Gender -
The Experience of Meditation among Long Term Sahaja Yoga Practitioners and its Role in Facilitating Well Being and Managing Stress
Meditation is increasingly becoming a popular practice and is used as a strategy for stress management, coping with illness and spiritual growth. It is estimated that meditation is being practiced by a hundreds of millions worldwide (Deurr, 2004). However, results of the published studies on meditation have often been interpreted to be inconsistent (Shear, 2007). This could be attributed to the modification and westernisation of the original ancient meditation practice (Manocha,2008). Also, it is not clearly understood how the experience of meditation leads to stress management and well being. Hence, Sahaja yoga which is based on the classical understanding of meditation and begins with Self realization or Kundalini awakening was chosen for investigation for the present study. The present study aims to understand the experience of meditation among long term meditators and understand its role in facilitating well-being and management of stress. To achieve this 6 long term meditators were interviewed using a semi-structured interview guide and were also requested to make diary entries of their daily meditation experience. All the participants were full time working adults. Interpretative phenemonological analysis was used to analyse the interview transcripts. The results of the study indicate that Sahaja yoga meditation practice aids its practitioners to attain thoughtless awareness and experience ??Sahaja and ??witness states which is accompanied by experience of indescribable bliss and peace. These states were found to create a sense of well-being among the practitioners and also had a significant role in facilitating physical, psychological, social and spiritual well-being and helped in the management of stress as well. Since, participants found it easy to balance it with work and family responsibilities it can be recommended for working adults. Key words: meditation, Sahaja yoga, stress, well-being. -
Intention to Stay in Relation to Organisational Socialisation Processes
Attrition is significant in an organisation as replacing human capital bears a significant cost. This study focuses on the effect of organisational socialisation processes, followed in Indian and Multinational BPO organisations on an employees intention to stay within that organisation. A field research with 395 samples was steered using a standardised 21 item questionnaire, to capture the four constructs of Organisational Socialisation and Intention to stay. Results show that there a significant relationship is prevalent between Intention to Stay and Organisational Socialisation in BPOs. Also, amongst the dimensions of organisational socialisation, future prospects and understanding of the role were associated significantly with intention to stay. It is acknowledged that higher organisational socialisation leads to greater intention to stay among employees. The critical purpose in employee retention includes keeping the organisation relevant to the employees by carefully creating their career development plans, helping them manage their work-life balance, and providing timely recognition of talent and then rewarding them. This is imperative to the HR Management as a remedy to soaring attrition rates which is also due to Future prospects and Understanding of the role, as per the findings. Keywords: organisational socialisation, intention to stay, business process outsourcing, attrition, turnover intention -
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A Study on the Factors Influencing Online Buying in Fast Moving Consumer Goods with Particular Reference to Household Items
Internet impact on retailing has been tremendous and it has provided the retailers another channel through which to reach customers situated far away. The internet penetration in the country is 11.4 % as per the latest figures. The E ??commerce space is growing by 47 % to more than $460 billion in 2011 ( IAMAI) The online buying has provided huge benefits to customers like 24/7 convenience shopping, saving time, discounts, more choice and assortment of goods, and price comparisons across brands. At present the online retail Industry is Rs 2500 crores and growing at 35 % annually. It is expected to reach Rs 7000 cr by 2015 ( Assocham 2011 ) In this study attempt has been made to identify factors responsible for buying online and also factors impacting customers for not buying through online household essentials. In the study demographic profile of the customers were looked into. The study is limited to Bangalore city only. Based on the literature survey, hypotheses have been developed. Out of 500 questionnaires distributed across Bangalore city, about 362 fully filled questionnaires were got and this was used for the study. The respondents profile and descriptive statistics has been analysed for online and non ?? online respondents. . Factor analysis has been done to find out the minimum factors involved in the online and non online buying decision. Hypotheses testing have been done using relevant tests. Some recommendations have been made on the strategies which Online retailers can adopt to attract more online buyers by taking care of some of their concerns. Some of the key findings of the study are:-- o Non - Online buyers feel there is lack of security of transactions in online shopping. o Non - Online buyers feel Touch and feel is important for buying household essentials. o One of the Reasons for Non ?? Online buyers not adopting online buying is they consider it is difficult to return goods. o Non ?? online buyers who are in the age group (36 -55yrs) are reluctant to switch to online buying. -
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Employee Challenges and its Solutions in Virtual Information Technology Industry
This study aimed at identifying the challenges faced by the employee working in virtual environment, to further propose a conceptual model and to explore the enabling factors required to provide sustainable solutions to these challenges. An organizations precursors are a must to mitigate the identified challenges by adopting the suggested solutions. In this era of IT and ICT, it is inevitable to understand what are those challenges, issues or problems employee of a virtual team faces and how do they resolve them or behave in that particular scenario. Radically changing work environment impacts the workforce productivity. In this ICT environment, it is unavoidable to expect challenges emerged out of such working conditions. Further, to study challenges becomes crucial for a better work environment. The qualitative grounded theory method approach has been used to identify challenges of 20 cases through in-depth interview techniques. The interviews have been then transcribed, coded and categorized. The conceptual model is the final outcome of this research work that depicts the challenges, the precursors ?? a company must have and last but not the least the recommended solutions to mitigate challenges. Keywords ?? IT (Information Technology), ICT (Information and Communication Technology), Challenges (A challenge is a general term referring to things that are imbued with a sense of difficulty and victory). -
Relationship between Corporate Governance and Value Based Financial Performance Measures: Evidence from India
The concept of corporate governance is gaining momentum because of changing business environment and various other factors as well as. The EEC, GATT and WTO regulations have also contributed to raise the awareness and are compelling us to think in terms of adhering to the good governance practices. In recent years, value-added relationship between management and stakeholders is considered a requirement for corporate success. The performance measures of corporations have been transformed and value-based financial performance measures like Economic value added (EVA), Market value added (MVA) has been developed.Empirical studies in corporate governance focus on the link between corporate governance and firms performance. There are limited number of studies using performance measures such as EVA and MVA, etc. hence the current study is based on relationship between corporate governance and value based financial performance measures like EVA and MVA, the study focuses on Information technology sector in India. Independent Variables included in the study were CEO Duality, Size of the Board, Management Equity Ownership, Foreign Ownership, Number of Board Meetings, Leverage ratio andSize of the firm. LLC t-test and the IPS w-test were conducted to check the stationarity of series and results are analyzed by multiple panel regression models. Results indicate that EVA, MVA has significant relationship with Corporate Governance variables. SOTB has significant negative relationship with MVA, CEO Duality has positive relationship with the Market value added (MVA) of the firms, the study further indicates there is a significant relationship between Size of the firm and EVA and as the Firm size increases EVA is also increased for the firms. However foreign ownership is found to increase the performance in terms of MVA. Manager ownership is not found to be an important variable in increasing corporate performance with the context of value based management. The study concluded that corporate governance has significance influence on the financial performance of the Information technology firms in India. Keywords: Corporate Governance, EVA, MVA, Correlation, Panel Unit Root. -
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A Study on Retirement Preparedness of Information Technology and Education Sector Employees in relation to Attitude and Knowledge
Retirement planning is a process of analysing the current financial situation, identifying the future financial need of the person upon retirement, investing on a disciplined basis through appropriate instruments and deriving benefits out of it when the need arises. With changing socio-economic factors, there is a great interest among academicians and practitioners alike, to find answers for inevitable post retirement survival crisis. This study is primarily based on a problem How well prepared are IT and Education sector employees to take up the post retirement financial survival? The objectives of the study are - to know the association between attitude, knowledge and retirement preparedness and whether attitude and knowledge has any relationship with the retirement preparedness. This study is based on primary data collected from 400 respondents (200 IT sector employees and 200 Education sector employees) using questionnaire. This study takes Attitude and Knowledge as independent variables and Retirement preparedness as dependent variable. With the help of statistical tools like Chi-square tests, ANOVA and Canonical Correlation, the association and relationship were tested. This study reveals that Attitude and Knowledge has relationship with retirement preparedness. The result is of great significance for government in policy making, for media and personal financial planners in pro actively influencing investment decisions of investors.