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3558 items in total found

Working Papers | 1986

OB for Social Development: A Position Paper

Khandwalla P N

The thesis of the paper is that OB can contribute richly to socio-economic development of poor Third World societies. It can do so through research on OB-related problems of the strategic organizations of these societies and on the strategic individuals and groups in these organizations. The concept of the strategic organization, individual, and team is expounded. Interesting OB research questions pertaining to strategic organizations are delineated in the areas of motivation and control, coordination and collaboration, boundary management, management of growth, institution building, innovation and change, and sickness and revitalization.

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Working Papers | 1986

Contingency Theory: A Third World View

Khandwalla P N

Contingency theory is viewed as an outcome of social transition. The evolution and development of contingency organization theory in the West and in India is reviewed. Its extensions, implications, and limitations are noted, and an assessment of its usefulness to the author as researcher and consultant is made.

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Working Papers | 1986

The Definition and Measurement of Family Involvement

Misra Sasi B, Ghose Ratna, and Kanungo R N

This paper reports on the development of a new and standardized measure of family involvement. The family involvement construct is operationalized on the basis of the motivational formulation of involvement and alienation (Kanungo, 1979) and studied in a binational setting. Data collected and analyzed from heterogeneous samples of 269 Indian and 168 Canadian employees reveal that the eight-item family involvement scale has satisfactory psychometric properties. The scale passes the tests of internal consistency, unidimensionality, and construct validity in samples from both the countries. The utility of the scale for research and professional work are discussed.

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Working Papers | 1986

Life Performance = Motivation x Ability x Opportunity: Individual Differences in Predictive Models

Singh Ramadhar

Previous research showed that prediction of life performance from information about motivation and ability follows the multiplying rule. The present experiment added a third supposedly multiplying factor, external opportunity, and tested the plausibility of the three-factor multiplying model. There was no evidence for the hypothesized model in either group or individual subject level analysis. Subjects (n = 72) employed as many as 11 different models. These models indicated that the opportunity information multiplied one of the two internal factors, either motivation or ability. Moreover, when it played an additive role, the relationship between motivation and ability was generally additive. Two rival hypotheses, differences in social theories about how the three factors determine life performance and differences in information valuation due to presence of separate initial opinions of motivation, ability, and opportunity in the subjects, were suggested to account for the individual differences in predictive models.

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Working Papers | 1986

Emergence of Pioneering - Innovative Entrepreneurship: A Psychological Model

Manimala Mathew

A review of literature on entrepreneurship reveals that most researchers adopt a uni-dimensional approach to explain the phenomenon. This approach, however, has failed to offer consistent explanation of the phenomenon, especially of pioneering-innovative (PI) entrepreneurship. This paper attempts to build a psychological model for the emergence of PI entrepreneurship so as to fill the existing theory-gap. It is a multi-dimensional model based on the following variables : (1) desire for autonomy, (2) optimism, (3) PI motive, (4) creative ability, (5) availability/adequacy of resources and opportunities, (6) achievement motive and (7) managerial skills. The sensitivity of these variables within the model is demonstrated and propositions are made about the critical variables required for the start-up and successful management of different types of ventures, namely, PI ventures, import-substitution ventures, imitative ventures and 'self-employment' ventures.

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Working Papers | 1986

Prediction of Exam Performance by Children: Evidence for Utilization of Four Pieces of Information

Srivastava Prabha and Singh Ramadhar

Kindergarten through fourth grade children (n = 120) predicted exam performance of stimulus students from information about their current motivation and ability. Each kind of information came from two independent sources and so children had to integrate four opinions. Contrary to the previous finding that kindergarten through second graders lack capacity to utilize three or four pieces of information, all children of the present research did remarkably well in integrating opinion of four sources. Non-significant main effects in individual child analyses of the past research appeared to be attributable to memory constraints in stimulus presentation, low motivation of subjects, insensitivity of statistical tests, and/or irrelevance of information for judgment and not necessarily to integrational incapability in children. Results also showed that children in India average information about motivation and ability in prediction of exam performance in much the same way as do adults.

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Working Papers | 1986

Trysem System

Girja Sharan and Agrawal B D

TRYSEM program is viewed as system with definite goal and an environmental of its own. The content of monitored information is analysed. It is suggested that the diagnostic value of the monitored data is low. The concurrent corrective actions can be formulated better if the format of monitored data is expanded to include additional items, which have been identified.

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Working Papers | 1986

Generators of Pioneering-Innovative Management: Some Indian Evidence

Khandwalla P N

Based on questionnaire data on a sample of Indian organizations, the paper identifies some of the internal and environmental generators of a vigorous mode of management labelled the pioneering-innovative (PI) mode. The internal generators-top management goals and policies-appear to be stronger shapers of PI than environmental variables. The primary generators appear to be management commitment to attracting talented, creative staff; operating autonomy for managers; striving for greater efficiency; opportunistic diversification; and preference for marketing novel products/services. An opportunity-rich environment, a strong stakeholder orientation, commitment to the organization operating in frontier areas, and a mixture of organic and professionalist administrative policies seem to be significant secondary generators of PI. Several implications of the findings for socially engineering PI are developed, and several hypotheses are stated to stimulate further research.

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Working Papers | 1986

Safety at the Work Place: A Behavioural Approach

Chhokar J S

The most common and popular approaches to safety have been technologically and engineering oriented. Recent resarch, however, indicates that it is possible to develop an effective approach to occupational safety based on the behavioural and social sciences. The paper demonstrates the practical applicability of such a behavioural approahc to safety by reviewing some empirical studies which have used this approach to reduce accidents and enhance safety in existing organizations. An appropriate combination of the behavioural approach with the engineering and technologically based approaches is suggested as the most effective strategy for improvement of safety at the work place.

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Working Papers | 1986

Management of International Technology Transfer

Chaudhari Shekhar

The significant liberalization of the Indian government's policies towards foreign collaboration and industry in general has led to an upsurge in the annual number of tie-ups between Indian and foreign firms in industrially developed countries. While this development augers well for the technological upgradation of Indian industry it may pose enormous challenges for the technology purchasers. This paper highlights some of the problems faced by firms in Indian industry assimilating foreign technology and illustrates how they were overcome. A conceptual framework in the form of four organizational stages in the process of acquiring and assimilating foreign technology is presented, which is then illustrated with the help of two case studies. Finally, this paper also draws some implications for technology buyers in developing countries and MNCs and other technology sellers in industrially advanced nations.

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