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3548 items in total found

Working Papers | 2018

Leadership and Management of Public Sector Undertakings in an Emerging Economy

Vishal Gupta, Swanand Kulkarni, and Naresh Khatri

Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) contribute significantly to the growth and economic development of any country. This study explores the key managerial challenges faced by the leaders and managers of public sector organizations. We interviewed 42 senior managers of PSUs from various industries representing 12 Indian states representing all the regions of India. Specifically, three key managerial challenges emerged in our study: political interference and lack of autonomy, rigid rules and HR practices, and lack of employee motivation. Positive leader personality, communication skills, change- and relation-oriented behaviors, HR skills, and decision-making emerged as top leader qualities. Staffing, training and development and performance management emerged as the top priorities of HR departments of PSUs. Public-service motivation, job security and work environment were the top reasons for continuing to work in PSUs for Indian leaders. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

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Working Papers | 2018

Is the Past Still Holding Us Back? A Study on Intergenerational Education Mobility in India (revised as on 26.09.18)

Kishan P K V

This paper explores various aspects of, and factors affecting intergenerational education mobility in India. We employ IHDS-II (2011-12) and prepare a representative dataset that goes beyond 'co-resident only' son-father pairs by utilizing the retrospective information conveying the educational attainment of the father of the male household head. From the resulting sample of 44,532 son-father pairs and appropriate cohort analysis, we find that there is still a high degree of intergenerational persistence in education, although the same is decreasing steadily over time. Through quantile regressions, we detect a non-linearity in the relationship between fathers' and sons' schooling outcomes along the education distribution. Moreover, the mobility gap between the historically advantaged subgroups (urban population, upper castes, Hindus, etc.) and the others (rural population, lower castes, Muslim, etc.) increasingly widens along the middle and upper quantiles of the distribution. Finally, "Higher Inequality (during fathers' generation) à Lesser Mobility" nexus in education plays out for the Indian scenario and thus corroborates the 'Great Gatsby Curve'. Other macro variables, economic growth and public expenditure in education, bear a positive association with education mobility.

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Working Papers | 2018

Indian Antecedents to Modern Economic Thought

Satish Y. Deodhar

The history of economic thought begins with salutations to Greek writings of Aristotle and Plato. While the fourth century BCE Greek writings may have been the fount of modern economic thought that emerged in Europe starting 18th century CE, there has been a general unawareness of the economic thinking that emanated from the Indian subcontinent. Pre-classical thoughts that had appeared in Vedas dating a millennium prior to the Greek writings had culminated in their comprehensive coverage in the treatise Arthashastra by Kautilya in the fourth century BCE. In this context, the paper outlines various ancient Indian texts and the economic thoughts expressed therein, delves on the reasons why they have gone unnoticed, brings to the fore the economic policies laid down by Kautilya, shows how these policies exemplify pragmatic application of the modern economic principles, and brings out in bold relief, the contribution of this Pre-Classical literature in the history of economic thought.

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Working Papers | 2018

Marketplace Options in an Emerging Economy Local Food Marketing System- Producers' Choices, Choice Determinants and Requirements

Aashish Argade and A. K. Laha

One of the important objectives of reforms in Indian agricultural marketing was to stimulate competition in the local food marketing system dominated by the state-regulated APMC marketplaces. This study was taken up to understand the different kinds of marketplaces that were available to producers besides the APMCs. Based on survey conducted in one of the pioneering states that introduced reforms, it was found that APMC and farm-gate emerged as the dominant marketplace options. The factors influencing choice of marketplaces were identified using binary logistic regression. Perishability of the produce, and services such as grading, storage and transport provided by buyers were found to be significant determinants of marketplace choice. A post-hoc survey was conducted to gauge farmers' expectations of services and facilities of a marketplace by presenting four scenarios. Even as farmers seem to expect a full-fledged APMC with wide-ranging facilities, warehousing seemed to be their major requirement. Willingness to pay for facilities and services was an important takeaway from the findings. The study has important implications for policy design and implementation, and scope for private sector participation

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Journal Articles | 2017

Using narratives in creativity research: Handling the subjective nature of creative process

Saikat Chakraborty

The Qualitative Report

For most of us, creative processes are those which can produce outcomes that are capable of being judged as creative. The outcome-centric recognition of creativity has heavily downplayed the process-perspective of creativity in organizations. Influenced significantly by individual and social subjectivities, creative processes are difficult to enquire on the basis of positivist approaches presently dominating creativity research. Use of narrative methodology in creativity research is proposed as a strategy for not just handling the subjectivities but also for making meaning from them as well as from participants' emotions. Antenarratives can help to enrich the narrated storyline, and personal narratives of the researcher allows to tie back the subjectivities through co-created meanings. The article aspires to invigorate attention towards the foundations of creativity research that has offered little scope for research paradigms that are beyond the objective-positivist tradition. Consequently, it urges the research community to seek suitable methodologies like the narrative which promises to explore the process-perspective of creativity and enlarge our organizational understanding of creativity.

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Journal Articles | 2017

This place is not the same anymore; temps are coming in

Saikat Chakraborty

Business Review India

As organisations increasingly rely on temporary work arrangements, there is a significant rise in the proportion of workers in part-time, contractual, fixed tenure, and other such labour engagements. Due to the difference between the employment relationships of temporary and permanent workers, corporations often design separate control mechanisms for these two worker groups. This paper argues that organisational control of workers extensively shapes their organisational communication. Communication as constitutive of organisation (CCO) research says that the interaction between members and objects plays a vital role in constructing ‘communication yielding organising.’ The emergent organisation rests on the negotiations of conversations and texts which carry the ongoing organisational communication. Workplaces in which the workforce composition is shifting from permanent workers to a mixture of permanent and temporary workers gradually realise pertinent changes in their conversations and texts, which as carriers of organisational communication constitutes how the organisation emerges as well.

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Journal Articles | 2017

How Costly is the Deliberate Disinflation in India? – Estimating the Sacrifice Ratio

Ravindra H. Dholakia and Kadiyala Sri Virinchi

Journal of Quantitative Economics

Methods followed in earlier studies for estimating the sacrifice ratio or the real cost of deliberate disinflation have focused only on aggregate supply side ignoring aggregate demand. The present study considers the adjustment path obtained as a locus of short run equilibria to arrive at a theoretically acceptable sacrifice ratio. The study uses quarterly data from the period between 1996-97Q1–2013-14Q4 in India and employs both the regression as well as the direct methods to estimate the ratio. The results have revealed a sacrifice ratio ranging from 1.7 to 3.8 depending on the method and the measure of inflation used. Such a magnitude of the real cost of disinflation in India, also relevant in the medium to long run, clearly contradicts the dominant view among policymakers that the trade-off, if any, is negligible. Deliberate disinflation policy needs to consider the real cost of sacrificing output and employment particularly when its magnitude is substantial.

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Journal Articles | 2017

Critique of recent revisions with base year change for estimation of state income in India

Ravindra H. Dholakia and Manish B. Pandya

Journal of Indian School of Political Economy

In the present paper, we have critiqued recent revisions made in the estimation of state income in India consequent upon the change in the base year of the National Accounts from 2004-05 to the new base of 2011-12. We have pointed out 10 major limitations of the whole exercise. The revisions associated with the new base 2011-12 series have serious implications on national and regional accounts estimation compared to the past. We have argued with concrete illustrations drawn from the experience of the Gujarat state that most of these impacts are negative on the quality, reliability, valid usage, interpretation and meaningful analysis of long term trends of sectors and the economy at the state level in the country. These revisions areperhaps not well thought out, carefuland consistent with the fundamental desirable characteristics of descriptive statistics and estimation of aggregates. In some cases they seem to be carried out hurriedly without paying attention to their likely impact on the whole system, processes and personnel involved in collection, compilation and generation of critical estimates at regional level. Our final recommendation is that the recent revisions associated with the new base of 2011-12 series should be abandoned for implementation at the state and district levels in the country till further revision of the base year takes place. In the interim period, let the old base of 2004-05 with the methodology continue at the state level.

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Journal Articles | 2017

High-performance work systems and creativity implementation: the role of psychological capital and psychological safety

Promila Agarwal and Elaine Farndale

Human Resource Management

Unimplemented creative ideas are potentially wasted opportunities for organisations. Although it is largely understood how to encourage creativity among employees, how to ensure this creativity is implemented remains underexplored. The objective of the current study is to identify the underlying mechanisms that explain the relationship between high-performance work systems and creativity implementation. Drawing from the job demands–resources model, we explore a model of psychological capital and psychological safety as mediators in the relationship between high-performance work systems and creativity implementation. Based on 505 employee survey responses, the findings show support for the mediating relationships, highlighting the importance of psychological mechanisms. The study has important implications for HRM, uncovering how people management practices can encourage creativity implementation in the workplace.

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Journal Articles | 2017

Rehabilitation myths? How transaction costs reduce farmer welfare after land acquisition.

Vikram Patil and Ranjan Kumar Ghosh

Journal of South Asian Development

In this article, we show how transaction costs lead to farmer marginalization as displaced farmers embark on the process of acquiring new land. Existing studies have focused on the links between monetary compensation and landowners’ investment decisions, but before new land is acquired. However, the post-displacement scenario and the investment decisions of land owners to restore income have not been carefully examined. We use a transaction cost framework to suggest that local specificities related to land characteristics, uncertainties in search for alternatives and information constraints may impose high non-monetary costs on displaced farmers and force them to settle for inferior new land. The article concludes with a preliminary assessment of whether the newly enacted land acquisition framework, the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (RFCTLARR) Act 2013, promises to minimize these ex-post transaction costs that farmers face.

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