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3552 items in total found

Working Papers | 2001

Slow Pace of Modernization in Fresh Produce Postharvest Systems in Ahmedabad Region

Rawale Kishore and Girja Sharan

In this paper we present a profile of the post harvest system prevailing in Ahmedabad region. Normally the path followed by fresh produce is: farm-APMC market-sub-wholesalers-retailers-consumers. Observations relate to each segment with tomato dealt with more closely. It is argued that considerable detailed engineering work is needed to modernize the system.

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Working Papers | 2001

Building a World Class Organization: Challenges and Opportunities

Parikh Indira J

This paper was presented by the author at the "World HRD Congress" held in January 2001 at Mumbai. The paper reflects upon past, present and future of Indian organizations. Indian organizations have not been able to keep pace with internal and external change in the environment. The liberalisation of the Indian economy in the 1990s has made it imperative that to become "World Class" and remain competitive, organizations need to incorporate many changes. They need to adopt good management practices, policies, strategic perspective and people processes but also new technology. They also need to have superb leaders. Those Indian organizations that have introduced state-of-the-art technology and made structural changes however have found that simultaneous and multiple initiatives has generated anxieties in the minds of the people involved. The role of the leaders in organizations have moved from Phase I (when the organization or leader has direct interaction with most employees), to Phase II, (where the organization become more task focused and formulated some long term strategies), to Phase III (when the organization has expanded, has professionals focused on tasks, quality and excellence), and a synergy is brought about amongst various functions. This paper then defines the concept, "Organizational Excellence" and gives a few examples of Indian CEO's who have attained "World Class" status for themselves and their organization. Finally, the paper has taken an in-depth view of one Indian organization-namely Mahindra & Mahindra, Farm Equipment Sector, (FES) and has studied the organization how over a time period of almost five years. The FES has adopted BPR and refocused on core areas thus, transforming themselves from being a traditional organization to moving toward a "World Class" organization. The role of the corporate team, the leadership and the employees are the critical factors. There are many lessons to be learnt from the FES experience, the author has identified the following: 1.Incremental excellence versus multiple and simultaneous initiatives; 2. Leadership commitment versus collective commitment to change; 3. Internally directed change versus consultant facilitated change; 4. Introduction and implementation versus sustainability and enduring change; 5. Organization and individual excellence versus work ethos and work culture; 6. Challenges and opportunities for the organization versus giving shape to the institution; 7. Building new traditions and creating pride in the product, organization and the country; 8. Self discipline collective discipline and systemic discipline.

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Working Papers | 2001

A Study of Organizational Role Stress in relation to Job Burnout among University Teachers

Azeem Syed Mohd and Pestonjee D M

The present study investigates the relationships between organizational role stress and job burnout among university teachers. The sample consisted of (N=300) university teachers, which has been classified into three groups of 100 each. The results of the study indicate that organizational role stress is highly correlated with job burnout among all the three groups of teachers (Lecturers, Readers and Professors). Lecturers have higher level of role stress as compared to other two counterparts and are found to be significantly different from Readers and professors on demographic variables and their level of role stress and emotional exhaustion. Readers are found to be significantly different on Role Erosion, Role Overload, Self-Role Distance, Resource Inadequacy and Total ORS from the Professors but not found to be significantly different on the level of job burnout. Professors are found to have least amount of the level of stress and burnout as compared to Readers and Lecturers. Stepwise multiple regression analyses suggested that Total ORS, Role Erosion, Role Overload, Resource Inadequacy, Role Isolation, and Role Ambiguity are common Significant predictors of job burnout among all these three groups.

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Working Papers | 2001

A Preliminary Study of Psychological Aftereffects of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD Caused by Earthquake: The Ahmedabad Experience

Pandey Satish C and Pestonjee D M

The present study is a preliminary study intended to investigate a various psychological symptoms related to post-traumatic stress caused by an earthquake of severe magnitude. The main objective of this study was to investigate psychological symptoms, which appeared in earthquake-affected people's behavior. Because this study was a preliminary study, so, no hypothesis was tested in this case. Another objective of this study is to collect information about psychological symptoms that may be used in developing a psychometric tool to measure Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (Earthquake-specific). This study was conducted on a small sample of 54 people (Males = 34, Females = 20), selected by incidental sampling method. The age range of the sample varies from 18 to 62 yrs (average age = approximately 35 yrs.). The sample includes students, professionals, employees of educational institution, doctors and older people, too. These people were interviewed by a semi-structured interview schedule, intended to explore their feelings after the earthquake experience. Most of the people included in this study were residents of single-storied to ten-storied buildings. Apart from interview, the findings of this study are also supported by the researcher's observation of people's verbal and non-verbal behavior, as observed during the interview process. The interviews conducted in this study varied from 10 to 30 minutes, depending upon the interviewees' cooperation to the researcher. The findings of this study has identified anxiety reactions, phobic reactions, hyperarousal, hypervigilance and overalertness, psychosomatic disorders related to nightmares, insomania, loss of appetite, eating disorders, high or low B.P., shivering of various body parts and hypertension, depression, and frustration and anger, as major psychological aftereffects of earthquake-induced post-traumatic stress disorder. Being a qualitative research, the researchers advise to generalize findings of this study carefully.

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Working Papers | 2001

gTime, gDate, and a gCalendar

Singh J P

The emergence of a cuberconnected Global Village demonstrates the need for a universal time for global events. A professor at the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad argues that we need to delink the measurement of time from geography. Starting with a review of the Concept of Time in Philosophy, Physics, Biology and Psychology, the paper argues that the availability of Cyber-connectivity and the emergence of the Global Village have highlighted the need for a universal time frame for global events. It additionally argues that the need extends beyond a universal time and encompasses the issues of date and calendar. It further argues that introducing this change may require de-linking of the time measurement from the geo-link and may also raise doubts about the assumed time-space singularity. The paper suggests that the representatives of the world arrive at an agreement to introduce a new epoch that gives a single precise portrayal of the global events. This is essential, as the global events have moved beyond the scientific domain and come in to the social and legal domain.

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Working Papers | 2001

Inter-Firm Linkages in the IT Industry in India: A Case Study of Telecom Technologies

Pankaj Chandra and Rakesh Basant

Indian firms in the IT sector have entered into a variety of inter-firm alliances in recent years. Many of these alliances have been with foreign firms. There is growing evidence internationally that such linkages affect the development of new technologies. However, it is not very clear how inter-firm linkages mediate the process of development of technological capabilities that in turn affect the extent of technology development. In this paper we focus on the telecom segment of the IT sector with an objective to understand the nature and extent of inter-firm linkages in the industry, the role these linkages play in developing technological capabilities in participating firms, and the extent to which firms utilize these capabilities for growth and diversification. The study is based on a survey of large and small in the telecom sector and case studies of two interesting alliances-Nortel's alliances in India and China and technology development network in Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai. The survey data as well as the case studies suggest that inter-firm linkages have helped Indian firms build technological capabilities. This paper analysed inter-firms alliances and their role in capability building at different levels. Insights from published data were combined with results of a primary survey and case studies to identify the key processes at work. The survey findings and the case studies add to the growing evidence that technology alliances of developing country firms with other entities (multinational or domestic) having excellent manufacturing and/or technology development capabilities in areas where the technology gap is relatively narrow can potentially play a crucial role in upgrading capabilities of developing country firms. While the participating Indian companies have gained a lot through the multinational arrangements, it needs to be ascertained whether such linkages can result in significant spillover benefits for the rest of the sector/economy. The key policy challenge therefore is to create conditions that facilitate the emergence of such alliances. Policies that help create pools of skilled manpower are likely to achieve both these objectives.

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Working Papers | 2001

Strengths and Weaknesses of Family Business: The Indian Context

Parikh Indira J

The paper "Strengths and Weaknesses of Family Business: The Indian Context" was written and presented in CII, Family Business Meet at Jaipur. The paper examines the location and status of family businesses in the industrial context of India. Indian Family businesses shifted from trading and distribution to manufacturing. The shift demanded changes in leadership role, mindsets of people and the interfaces around leadership style. Indian family businesses are characterised by the following significant processes: • The entrepreneur is the hero idealised, glorified and respected by his people. • The employees are treated as family members and extended family. • The collective interest of the system and the group in upheld rather than the individual. • Competent and capable leadership manages the workforce through social structures and role processes. Similarly, there are weaknesses of the family businesses. These are unpreparedness for change, owner becomes larger than the organisation, decision-making is centralised, there are proxy sons in power position who erode structural authority and hierarchy, tolerance for mediocrity, tentativeness to formalise and professionalise and overall lack of strategic perspective. The paper then reflects on the future of Indian Family Businesses and New Paradigms of family businesses. The choice is to evoke in the collectivity the fire to deploy their potentials and collectively mobilize the talent for innovativeness, excellence and forging a new role for themselves. The choice is between a successful role model of an organization or to become heroes or villains individually. New giants may come but the resilience of the entrepreneurial spirit, the phoenix like quality of the families to rise from the ashes, and the core values can provide the family owned organizations discover the wherewithals to not only survive but build an institution which lasts for generations to come. Then, perhaps the family saga may begin. Once upon a time... and they created an empire... where people had dreams and nurtured and fostered them and make them happen that which everyone thought was impossible...

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Working Papers | 2001

Budget y2k1: An Irreverent View

Singh J P

Based on an analysis of the budget 2001, the paper highlights assumptions underlying the proposals that are expected to lead to national growth. It suggests that the budget should be evaluated in terms of the net outcome to the nation rather than on the promise it makes for the future. It further suggests that the future planning for development should be a result of an open debate with the government sharing with the nation its goals, priorities and means to achieve those goals.

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Working Papers | 2001

On Diversity and Freedom of Choice: A Technical Comment

Lahiri Somdeb

In this paper we show that the similarity based preference for freedom of choice defined by Pattanaik and Xu (2000), can be uniquely characterized by Indifference Between No-Choice Situation, Strong Monotonicity with respect to the similarity relation and Weak Composition with respect to the similarity relation.

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Working Papers | 2001

Values in Managing Gender Diversity

Parikh Indira J

Gender is a social concept that includes both women and men. Gender roles are deeply embedded in social organizations and are then carried into work organizations. This paper explores the movement of gender roles of yesterday to today and tomorrow. An event from the Mahabharata is taken to reflect the frozen monolith roles and systems. It is then related to processes occurring in organizations where gender diversity is increasingly becoming a reality. The paper also explores the journey of Indian organizations in terms of gender diversity through five phases of women's entry into organizations, their career paths and growth. The paper then identifies the policies organizations need to design and what roles women and men can play to create a vibrant and live organizations. The paper looks at the need to translate the potentials of both women and men into reality to enhance productivity. Simultaneously, the necessity of wholesomeness of life space and relationships has been stressed upon here. Gender diversity means that organizations need to take into account family space and social relationships to create an equilibrium between home and work.

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