Search results for: employees productivity

Authors: Hooman Torabifard

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In the last few years, with the progress of technology and computers and artificial intelligence entry into all kinds of scientific and industrial fields, the lifestyles of human life have changed and in general, the way of humans live on earth has many changes and development. Until now, some of the changes has occurred in the context of digital images and image processing and still continues. However, besides all the benefits, there have been disadvantages. One of these disadvantages is the multiplicity of images with high volume and data; the focus of this paper is on improving and developing a method for summarizing and enhancing the productivity of these images. The general method used for this purpose in this paper consists of a set of methods based on data obtained from image processing and using the PSO (Particle swarm optimization) algorithm. In the remainder of this paper, the method used is elaborated in detail.

Keywords: image summarization, particle swarm optimization, image threshold, image processing

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Authors: S. Thongchai

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Result of the study on knowledge management systems in businesses was shown that the most of these businesses provide internet accessibility for their employees in order to study new knowledge via internet, corporate website, electronic mail, and electronic learning system. These business organizations use information technology application for knowledge management because of convenience, time saving, ease of use, accuracy of information and knowledge usefulness. The result indicated prominent improvements for corporate knowledge management systems as the following; 1) administrations must support corporate knowledge management system 2) the goal of corporate knowledge management must be clear 3) corporate culture should facilitate the exchange and sharing of knowledge within the organization 4) cooperation of personnel of all levels must be obtained 5) information technology infrastructure must be provided 6) they must develop the system regularly and constantly.

Keywords: business organizations, information technology application, knowledge management systems, prominent improvements

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Authors: Ipek Goktepe, Israa Elnemr, Hammad Asim, Hao Feng, Mosbah Kushad, Hee Park, Sheikha Alzeyara, Mohammad Alhajri

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Food safety management in Qatar is under the shared oversight of multiple agencies in two government ministries (Ministry of Public Health and Ministry of Municipality and Environment). Despite the increasing number and diversity of the food service establishments, no systematic food surveillance system is in place in the country, which creates a gap in terms of determining the food safety attitudes and practices applied in the food service operations. Therefore, this study seeks to partially address this gap through determination of food safety knowledge among food handlers, specifically with respect to food preparation and handling practices, and sanitation methods applied in food service providers (FSPs) and a major market in Doha, Qatar. The study covered a sample of 53 FSPs randomly selected out of 200 FSPs. Face-to-face interviews with managers at participating FSPs were conducted using a 40-questions survey. Additionally, 120 produce handlers who are in direct contact with fresh produce at the major produce market in Doha were surveyed using a questionnaire containing 21 questions. A written informed consent was obtained from each survey participant. The survey data were analyzed using the chi-square test and correlation test. The significance was evaluated at p ˂ 0.05. The results from the FSPs surveys indicated that the average age of FSPs was 11 years, with the oldest and newest being established in 1982 and 2015, respectively. Most managers (66%) had college degree and 68% of them were trained on the food safety management system known as HACCP. These surveys revealed that FSP managers’ training and education level were highly correlated with the probability of their employees receiving food safety training while managers with lower education level had no formal training on food safety for themselves nor for their employees. Casual sit-in and fine dine-in restaurants consistently kept records (100%), followed by fast food (36%), and catering establishments (14%). The produce handlers’ survey results showed that none of the workers had any training on safe produce handling practices. The majority of the workers were in the age range of 31-40 years (37%) and only 38% of them had high-school degree. Over 64% of produce handlers claimed to wash their hands 4-5 times per day but field observations pointed limited handwashing as there was soap in the settings. This observation suggests potential food safety risks since a significant correlation (p ˂ 0.01) between the educational level and the hand-washing practices was determined. This assessment on food safety culture through determination of food and produce handlers' level of knowledge and practices, the first of its kind in Qatar, demonstrated that training and education are important factors which directly impact the food safety culture in FSPs and produce markets. These findings should help in identifying the need for on-site training of food handlers for effective food safety practices in food establishments in Qatar.

Keywords: food safety, food safety culture, food service providers, food handlers

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Authors: Ivana Tadic, Snjezana Pivac

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Although human resources are recognized as the crucial companies’ resources and their positive influence on companies’ performances has been confirmed through different researches, scientists are still debating it. In order to contribute this debate, this paper firstly discusses the most important human resource management elements and practices and its influence on companies’ success. Afterwards it defines human resource “bundles” – interrelated and internally consistent human resource practices, complementary to each other, or the most important human resource practices and elements regarding Croatian companies and its human resource management activities. Finally, the paper provides empirical results; more precisely it reveals the relation of the level of development of human resource management function (“bundles”) and companies’ financial performances (using profitability ratios, liquidity ratios, solvency ratios and a group of additional ratios related to employees’ indicators).

Keywords: companies’ performances, human resource bundles, multivariate statistical analysis, marketing

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Authors: Jihede Haj Messaoud, Hamdi Omar, Hela Fakhfakh Ben Jemia, Chokri Yaich

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The Upper Lutetian alternating marl–limestone succession of Reineche Member was deposited over a warm shallow carbonate platform that permits Nummulites proliferation. High-resolution studies of 30 meters thick Nummulites-bearing Reineche Member, cropping out in Central Tunisia (Jebel Siouf), have been undertaken, regarding pronounced cyclical sedimentary sequences, in order to investigate the periodicity of cycles and their related orbital-scale oceanic and climatic changes. The palaeoenvironmental and palaeoclimatic data are preserved in several proxies obtainable through high-resolution sampling and laboratories measurement and analysis as magnetic susceptibility (MS) and carbonates contents in conjunction with a wireline logging tools. The time series analysis of proxies permits to establish cyclicity orders present in the studied intervals which could be linked to the orbital cycles. MS records provide high-resolution proxies for relative sea level change in Late Lutetian strata. The spectral analysis of MS fluctuations confirmed the orbital forcing by the presence of the complete suite of orbital frequencies in the precession of 23 ka, the obliquity of 41 ka, and notably the two modes of eccentricity of 100 and 405 ka. Regarding the two periodic sedimentary cycles detected by wavelet analysis of proxy fluctuations which coincide with the long-term 405 ka eccentricity cycle, the Reineche Member spanned 0,8 Myr. Wireline logging tools as gamma ray and sonic were used as a proxies to decipher cyclicity and trends in sedimentation and contribute to identifying and correlate units. There are used to constraint the highest frequency cyclicity modulated by a long term wavelength cycling apparently controlled by clay content. Interpreted as a result of variations in carbonate productivity, it has been suggested that the marl-limestone couplets, represent the sedimentary response to the orbital forcing. The calculation of cycle durations through Reineche Member, is used as a geochronometer and permit the astronomical calibration of the geologic time scale. Furthermore, MS coupled with carbonate contents, and fossil occurrences provide strong evidence for combined detrital inputs and marine surface carbonate productivity cycles. These two synchronous processes were driven by the precession index and ‘fingerprinted’ in the basic marl–limestone couplets, modulated by orbital eccentricity.

Keywords: magnetic susceptibility, cyclostratigraphy, orbital forcing, spectral analysis, Lutetian

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Authors: Ali Asghar Asad Sangabi, Afsaneh Aeen, Mohammad Behroozi

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Knowledge management is vital in today's world as one of the most valuable intangible assets regarded by companies. This study aimed to identify factors that affect the application of knowledge management in the Iranian Oil Terminals Company in 2022. In this study, 12 of the factors affecting the application of knowledge management have been studied, and implement practical solutions, and reuse has been studied. This study is descriptive data from the questionnaire factors affecting knowledge management application used by Cronbach's Coefficient Alpha equal to 0.85. The population of this study consisted of 1500 IOTC employees. The sample is determined by the Cochran formula sample; the results of this study showed that between the application of knowledge management and factors, there is a significant correlation. Among the factors that have been studied, valuable teamwork and organizational culture were the most effective, and the infrastructure of information systems had the least impact on Knowledge management.

Keywords: knowledge management, knowledge-based organization, Iranian Oil Terminals

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Authors: Rupan Preet Kaur

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This article reviewed the potential of artificial intelligence in the field of identity and access management (IAM) and identity governance and administration (IGA), the most critical pillars of any organization. The power of leveraging AI in the most complex and huge user base environment was outlined by simplifying and streamlining the user access approvals and re-certifications without any impact on the user productivity and at the same time strengthening the overall compliance of IAM landscape. Certain challenges encountered in the current state were detailed where majority of organizations are still lacking maturity in the data integrity aspect. Finally, this paper concluded that within the realm of possibility, users and application owners can reap the benefits of unified approach provided by AI to improve the user experience, improve overall efficiency, and strengthen the risk posture.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, machine learning, user access review, access approval

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Authors: Mehraj Udin Ganaie, Mohammad Israrul Haque

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The purpose of this paper is to enhance the theoretical and conceptual understanding of human talent management (HTM). With the help of extensive review of existing literature, we proposed a conceptual framework and few propositions to elucidate the influential relationship of competency focus, talent pooling, talent investment, and talenting orientation with value creation of a firm. It is believed that human talent management model will enhance the understanding of talent management orientation among practitioners and academicians. Practitioners will be able to align HTM orientation with business strategy wisely to yield better value for business (Shareholders, Employees, Owners, Customers, agents, and other stakeholders). Future research directions will explain how human talent management researchers will work on the integration of relationship and contribute towards the maturity of talent management by further exploring and validating the model empirically to enhance the body of knowledge.

Keywords: talent management orientation, competency focus, talent pooling, talent investment, talenting orientation

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Authors: Sung Ham, Chanho Song, Jiabin Wu

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Employees are commonly incentivized on both quantity and quality performance and much of the extant literature focuses on demonstrating that multitasking incentives lead to tradeoffs. Alternatively, we consider potential solutions to the tradeoff problem from both a theoretical and an experimental perspective. Across two field experiments from a call center, we find that tradeoffs can be mitigated when incentives are jointly enhanced across tasks, where previous research has suggested that incentives be reduced instead of enhanced. In addition, we also propose and test, in a laboratory setting, the implications of revising the metric used to assess quality. Our results indicate that metrics can be adjusted to align quality and quantity more efficiently. Thus, this alignment has the potential to thwart the classic tradeoff problem. Finally, we validate our findings with an economic experiment that verifies that effort is largely consistent with our theoretical predictions.

Keywords: incentives, multitasking, field experiment, experimental economics

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Authors: Fhatuwani Herman Nndwambi, P. W. Mashela

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Salinity is a major constraint limiting crop productivity. It has been predicted that by the year 2050, more than 50% of the arable land will be affected by salinity. Two similar salinity experiments were conducted in two seasons under greenhouse condition. Six levels of salinity plus control (viz; control, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 and 64 % NaCl and CaCl2 at 3:1 ratio) were applied in a form of irrigation water in a single factor experiment arranged in a complete block design with 20 replications. Plant growth and yield were negatively affected by salinity treatments especially at the high levels of salinity. For example, our results suggest that the 32 and 64% of NaCl and CaCl2 treatment were too much for the plant to withstand as determined by reduced dry shoot mass, stem diameter and plant height in both seasons. On the other hand, stomatal conductance and chlorophyll content increased with an increased level of salinity.

Keywords: growth, salinity, season, yield

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Authors: Chad A. Roberts

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In the digitally connected world, global virtual teams are increasingly becoming the norm at large, multinational companies. Marketing managers see the positives of virtual teams. They also see the negatives. Employees who work from home may feel isolated, unorganized, and distracted by homelife. These complexities create a phenomenon that leaves virtual team members feeling burnout, a significant issue for marketing leaders and their team members. This paper examines remote worker burnout in global virtual marketing team settings. It provides an overview of the benefits and downsides to remote working marketing teams. The paper presents the literature on remote work stress and burnout, discusses ways marketing leaders can help prevent virtual employee burnout and suggests future research studies.

Keywords: burnout, COVID-19 pandemic, leadership, marketing, remote work, virtual team

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Authors: Katherine Denise Queri

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Around the world, there are many corporations and other business organizations who promote the welfare of the society. They are found inside the communities where they naturally perform work. Their aim is to maximize their respective returns on investment while measuring the impact of their activities on the environment. The Senate in the Philippines formed a bill that seeks to foster sustainable economic and environment development and environment protection, among other things, by institutionalizing the corporate responsibility of corporations, whether domestic and foreign, partnership and other establishment performing business in the country. Under the Senate Bill 1239 or an act institutionalizing corporate social responsibility, providing incentives therefor, and for other purposes, all business organizations are mandated to consider the interest of society by taking responsibility for the impact of their activities on customers, employees, shareholders communities and environment. In return, businesses shall comply with the mandate of this proposed measure shall be entitled to full deductions of the expenses incurred in connection thereto.

Keywords: ateneo, corporate social responsibility (CSR), industrial relations, marketing, up

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Authors: Mamman Jimoh Ahmadu, Sanusi Abubakar Sadiq, Eldah Ephraim Buba

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In modern societies, stress has become a widespread phenomenon and therefore an issue of major concern to employees, organizations, and the state. As senior management of an organization, executives are not immune to this problem because they carry out lots of activities while on duty. This paper is centered on the benefits of Tourism, Leisure and Recreation to the management of executive stress. Executives work has always been considered to be stressful. The key objective of the research is to gain a better understanding of the causes of stress among executives and to find out how tourism, leisure, and recreational activities could be used as a means to managing stress. Interview and observation data were analyzed using SPSS. The major finding revealed that that human system has specific limitations and nature cannot be cheated. It is recommended that executives should take regular and mandatory vacation of least forty days in a year. The only answer then is rest. The research recommends that a break tends to improves and relaxes, refreshes the mind and enhances performance.

Keywords: executive, recreation, stress, tourism

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Authors: Adeyemi Oluremi Olubusuyi

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In most of the developed countries, entrepreneurship education has been and will continue to be, a great economic stimulator. Entrepreneurship advantages cannot be overemphasized in any society that desires sustainable national development because it creates new technologies, production and services; which in turn encourage improved productivity and rapid economic growth. Economic growth will invariably have positive influences on the health, thereby leading to sound body systems, increase in the lifespan, improvement in social status and standard condition of living. Promoting an effective application of entrepreneurship education principle will, in no small measure, propel Nigeria to the much desired enviable national development level which the country is currently yearning for. The focus of this paper is to discuss entrepreneurship education with reference to its concept, nature, objectives and development approaches.

Keywords: entreprenuership, entrepreneurship education, national development, tertiary institutions

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Authors: Tony Mann

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This paper sets out the case for involving and engaging employees/workers/stakeholders/staff in any significant change that is being considered by the senior executives of the organization. It establishes the rationale, the approach, the methodology of engagement and the benefits of a participative approach. It challenges the new norm of imposing change for fear of resistance and instead suggests that involving people has better outcomes and a longer-lasting impact. Various strategic models are introduced and illustrated to explain how the process can be most effective. The paper highlights one model in particular (the Process Iceberg® Organizational Change model) that has proven to be instrumental in developing effective change. Its use is demonstrated in its various forms and explains why so much change fails to address the key elements and how we can be more productive in managing change. ‘Participation’ in change is too often seen as negative, expensive and unwieldy. The paper aims to show that another model: UIA=O+E, can offset the difficulties and, in fact, produce much more positive and effective change.

Keywords: facilitation, stakeholders, buy-in, digital workshops

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Authors: Katarina Ott, Velibor Mačkić, Mihaela Bronić, Branko Stanić

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The determinants of national budget transparency have been widely discussed in the literature, while research on determinants of local budget transparency are scarce and empirically inconclusive, particularly in the new, fiscally centralised, EU member states. To fill the gap, we combine two strands of the literature: that concerned with public administration and public finance, shedding light on the economic and financial determinants of local budget transparency, and that on the political economy of transparency (principal agent theory), covering the relationships among politicians and between politicians and voters. Our main hypothesis states that variables describing residents’ capacity have a greater impact on local budget transparency than variables indicating the institutional capacity of local government units (LGUs). Additional subhypotheses test the impact of each variable analysed on local budget transparency. We address the determinants of local budget transparency in Croatia, measured by the number of key local budget documents published on the LGUs’ websites. By using a data set of 128 cities and 428 municipalities over the 2015-2017 period and by applying panel data analysis based on Poisson and negative binomial distribution, we test our main hypothesis and sub-hypotheses empirically. We measure different characteristics of institutional and residents’ capacity for each LGU. Age, education and ideology of the mayor/municipality head, political competition indicators, number of employees, current budget revenues and direct debt per capita have been used as a measure of the institutional capacity of LGU. Residents’ capacity in each LGU has been measured through the numbers of citizens and their average age as well as by average income per capita. The most important determinant of local budget transparency is average residents' income per capita at both city and municipality level. The results are in line with most previous research results in fiscally decentralised countries. In the context of a fiscally centralised country with numerous small LGUs, most of whom have low administrative and fiscal capacity, this has a theoretical rationale in the legitimacy and principal-agent theory (opportunistic motives of the incumbent). The result is robust and significant, but because of the various other results that change between city and municipality levels (e.g. ideology and political competition), there is a need for further research (both on identifying other determinates and/or methods of analysis). Since in Croatia the fiscal capacity of a LGU depends heavily on the income of its residents, units with higher per capita incomes in many cases have also higher budget revenues allowing them to engage more employees and resources. In addition, residents’ incomes might be also positively associated with local budget transparency because of higher citizen demand for such transparency. Residents with higher incomes expect more public services and have more access to and experience in using the Internet, and will thus typically demand more budget information on the LGUs’ websites.

Keywords: budget transparency, count data, Croatia, local government, political economy

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Authors: Mahmood Iqbal, Khalid Nawab, Tachibana Satoshi

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Farmer Field School (FFS) is constantly aims to assist farmers to determine and learn about field ecology and integrated crop management. The study was conducted to examine the change in productivity of tomato crop in the study area; to determine increase in per acre yield of the crop, and find out reduction in per acre input cost. A study of tomato crop was conducted in ten villages namely Jabban, Bijligar Colony, Palonow, Heroshah, Zara Maira, Deghar Ghar, Sidra Jour, Anar Thangi, Miangano Korona and Wartair of district Malakand. From each village 15 respondents were selected randomly on the basis of identical allocation making sample size of 150 respondents. The research was based on primary as well as secondary data. Primary data was collected from farmers while secondary data were taken from Agriculture Extension Department Dargai, District Malakand. Interview schedule was planned and each farmer was interviewed personally. The study was based on comparison of cost, yield and income of tomato before and after FFS. Paired t-test and Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used for analysis; outcome of the study show that integrated pest management project has brought a positive change in the attitude of farmers of the project area through FFS approach. In district Malakand 66.0% of the respondents were between the age group of 31-50 years, 11.3% of respondents had primary level of education, 12.7% of middle level, 28.7% metric level, 3.3% of intermediate level and 2.0% of graduate level of education while 42.0% of respondents were illiterate and have no education. Average land holding size of farmers was 6.47 acres, cost of seed, crop protection from insect pest and crop protection from diseases was reduced by Rs. 210.67, Rs. 2584.43 and Rs. 3044.16 respectively, the cost of fertilizers and cost of farm yard manure was increased by Rs.1548.87 and Rs. 1151.40 respectively while tomato yield was increased by 1585.03 kg/acre from 7663.87 to 9248.90 kg/acre. The role of FFS initiate by integrated pest management project through department of agriculture extension for the development of agriculture was worth mentioning. It has brought enhancement in crop yield of tomato and their income through FFS approach. On the basis of results of the research studies, integrated pest management project should spread their developmental activities for maximum participation of the complete rural masses through participatory FFS approach.

Keywords: agriculture, Farmers field schools, extension education, tomato

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Authors: Besa Muthuri

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This paper examines the correlation between the organization's human resources (HR) and marketing entities and reviews the literature on customer acquisition and loyalty retention and the various aspects of employer branding. It will also explore how these concepts can be applied to the marketing and human resources departments. HR and marketing teams in the organization function to educate, attract and retain the attention and interests of the modern talent market. While the teams' target products, personas, or services tend to differ, their execution, desired results, and implementation of the respective activities are closely related. Therefore, promoting collaboration between HR and marketing enables the company to enhance business branding and recruitment of top-tier talents that will drive the much-needed change in the organization and promote a higher employee and customer retention rate. To achieve the ultimate HR and marketing relationship, organizations should build their external and internal awareness, track their performance and programs, and promote in-house meetings among employees from all interfacing departments.

Keywords: branding, employee retention, human resources, marketing

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Authors: Mehrdad Nouri Khajavi, Gollamhassan Payganeh, Mohsen Fallah Tafti

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Fault diagnosis is an important aspect of maintaining rotating machinery health and increasing productivity. Many researches has been done in this regards. Many faults such as unbalance, misalignment, looseness, bearing faults, etc. have been considered and diagnosed with different techniques. Most of the researches in fault diagnosis of rotating machinery deal with single fault. Where as in reality faults usually occur simultaneously and it is, therefore, necessary to recognize them at the same time. In this research, two of the most common faults namely unbalance and misalignment have been considered simultaneously with different intensity and then identified and classified with the use of Multi-Layer Perception Neural Network (MLPNN). Processed Vibration signals are used as the input to the MLPNN, and the class of mixed unbalancy, and misalignment is the output of the NN.

Keywords: unbalance, parallel misalignment, combined faults, vibration signals

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Authors: Ronaldo Seroa Da Motta, Gabriela Santiago

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The main contribution of this study is the identification of the factors influencing the environmental licensing process of infrastructure projects in Brazil. These factors will be those that reflect the technical characteristics of the project, the corporate governance of the entrepreneur, and the institutional and regulatory governance of the environmental agency, including the number of interventions by non-licensing agencies. The model conditions these variables to the licensing processing time of 34 infrastructure projects. Our results indicated that the conditions would be more sensitive to the type of enterprise, complexity as in gas pipelines and hydroelectric plants in the most vulnerable biome with a greater value of the enterprise or the entrepreneur's assets, together with the number of employees of the licensing agency. The number of external interventions by other non-licensing institutions does not affect the licensing time. Such results challenge the current criticism that environmental licensing has been often pointed out as a barrier to speed up investments in infrastructure projects in Brazil due to the participation of civil society and other non-licensing institutions.

Keywords: environmental licensing, condionants, Brazil, timing process

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Authors: Kamran Taghizadeh

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This study was aimed at evaluating the effect of IMS including occupational health system, environmental management system, and safety and health system on the social responsibility (case study of NISOC`s oil and gas production companies). This study`s objectives include evaluating the IMS situation and its effect on social responsibility in addition of providing appropriate solutions based on the study`s hypotheses as a basis for future. Data collection was carried out by library and field studies as well as a questionnaire. The stratified random method was the sampling method and a sample of 285 employees in addition to the collected data (from the questionnaire) were analyzed by inferential statistics methods using SPSS software. Finally, results of regression and fitted model at a significance level of 5% confirmed all hypotheses meaning that IMS and its items have a significant effect on social responsibility.

Keywords: social responsibility, integrated management, oil and gas production companies, regression

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Authors: Finda A. Mahardika, Niken Aristyawati, Retno W. Damayanti

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Improvement technology needed to increase productivity of home industry that make herbal medicine is ginger washer tool. To solve this case, the writers develop existing technologies to create a tool that serves as a wash of ginger. This washer uses pedal tools to help the brush washer move. This tool is expected to produce ginger with good quality. In addition, this tool is also expected to be able to save time as well as water used when conducting the process of leaching. This tool is based on the size of the anthropometri people of Indonesia for the results of an ergonomic. The activities carried out by conducting a study of theory, experiment based on existing theories and make modifications based on the results obtained.

Keywords: ginger, ginger washer, technology, pedal

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Authors: Muhammad Waiz, Rana Maruf Tahir, Fatima Javaid

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Technology in the recent times is available for everyone in the world that no one is left behind. After getting technology into our daily routine, there is a need to study the different factors regarding online shopping. This study examines the impact of online reviews, mobile shopping and computer literacy on online purchasing intention. The sample size was 200 from which 167 complete questionnaires were collected from students and employees of twin cities. SPSS programming software was used to analyze the impact of different factors on purchasing intention. The results of this study showed that those websites which have good ratings and have online shopping application will attract more customers towards them whereas the results showed that the computer literacy has no impact on online purchasing intention. Findings may help for those who want to increase their sales or to start a new online business. Future research, limitations, and implications are discussed.

Keywords: computer literacy, mobile shopping, online purchase intention, online reviews, theory of planned behavior

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Authors: Marndarath Suksanga

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The purposes and policies applied to sabbatical leave, along with the cost of using sabbatical leave. The potential benefits of the use of sabbatical leave to enhance organizational commitment are then examined. The focuses on the role of the sabbatical leave in the development, satisfaction, and productivity of faculty in institutions. An examination of the origin, definition, purposes, and outcomes of sabbatical leaves reviewed in the literature clarifies the role and benefits of the sabbatical leave. The result of this review can be used to determine the need for further study of how sabbatical leave might be used in higher education in universities level to the benefit of the faculty, students and organizations. The result of this review can be used to determine the need for further study of how sabbatical leave might be used in professional-technical and community colleges to the benefit of the faculty, students and organizations.

Keywords: return on investment, ROI, sabbatical leave, higher education

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Authors: Maria Amaia Iza Padilla, Ibai Ostolozaga

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The objective of this paper is to analyze how transportation costs between regions within a country can affect not only domestic trade but also the allocation of resources in a given region, aggregate productivity, and relative domestic prices (tradable versus non-tradable). On the one hand, there is a vast literature that analyzes the transportation costs faced by countries when trading with the rest of the world. However, this paper focuses on the effect of transportation costs on domestic trade. Countries differ in their domestic road infrastructure and transport quality. There is also some literature that focuses on the effect of road infrastructure on the price difference between regions but not on relative prices at the aggregate level. On the other hand, this work is also related to the literature on resource misallocation. Finally, the paper is also related to the literature analyzing the effect of trade on the development of the manufacturing sector. Using the World Bank Enterprise Survey database, it is observed cross-country differences in the proportion of firms that consider transportation as an obstacle. From the International Comparison Program, we obtain a significant negative correlation between GDP per worker and relative prices (manufacturing sector prices relative to the service sector). Furthermore, there is a significant negative correlation between a country’s transportation quality and the relative price of manufactured goods with respect to the price of services in that country. This is consistent with the empirical evidence of a negative correlation between transportation quality and GDP per worker, on the one hand, and the negative correlation between GDP per worker and domestic relative prices, on the other. It is also shown that in a country, the share of manufacturing firms whose main market is at the local (regional) level is negatively related to the quality of the transportation infrastructure within the country. Similarly, this index is positively related to the share of manufacturing firms whose main market is national or international. The data also shows that those countries with a higher proportion of manufacturing firms operating locally have higher relative prices. With this information in hand, the paper attempts to quantify the effects of the allocation of resources between and within sectors. The higher the trade barriers caused by transportation costs, the less efficient allocation, which causes lower aggregate productivity. Second, it is built a two-sector model where regions within a country trade with each other. On the one hand, it is found that with respect to the manufacturing sector, those countries with less trade between their regions will be characterized by a smaller variety of goods, less productive manufacturing firms on average, and higher relative prices for manufactured goods relative to service sector prices. Thus, the decline in the relative price of manufactured goods in more advanced countries could also be explained by the degree of trade between regions. This trade allows for efficient intra-industry allocation (traders are more productive, and resources are allocated more efficiently)).

Keywords: misallocation, relative prices, TFP, transportation cost

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Authors: Theresa Robinson Harris

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Small businesses are important to the United States economy, yet the majority struggle to remain relevant and close before their fifth year. This qualitative study explored small business failure by comparing the experiences of small-business owners to understand their involvement with leadership during the early stages of the business, and the impact of this on the firms’ ability to survive. Participants’ experiences from two groups were compared to glean an understanding of the leadership process, how leadership differs between the groups, and to see what themes or constructs emerged that could help to explain the high failure rate. Leadership was perceived to be important when envisioning a path for the future and when providing a platform for employees to succeed. Those who embraced leadership as a skillset were more likely to get through the challenges of the early developmental years while those ignoring the importance of leadership were more likely to close prematurely. These findings suggest a disconnect with regards to the understanding, role, and benefits of leadership in small organizations, particularly young organizations in the early stages of development.

Keywords: leadership, small business, entrepreneurship, success, failure

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Authors: Z. D. Mansor, C. P. Mun, B. S. Nurul Farhana, Wan Aisyah Nasuha Wan Mohamed Tarmizi

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The aim of this research is to determine the influence of transformation leadership style on employee engagement among Generation Y. The growing of Generation Y employees in Malaysia has raised concerns about how to engage and motivate this cohort. Transformation Leadership style is one of the key factors to increase employee engagement levels in the organization. This study has proven to be important for the researchers and the organization to properly understand the concept of employee engagement, transformation leadership style and their relationship. The samples in this study included 221 respondents of Generation Y who are currently working in Selangor and Klang Valley area in Malaysia. The data were collected using questionnaires and analyzed by using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS). The results show that there is a significant relationship between the dimension of intellectual stimulation, inspiration motivation and individual consideration on employee engagement. In contrast, the results have revealed that there is no significant relationship between idealized influences of a leader on employee engagement among Generation Y.

Keywords: employee engagement, transformational leadership styles, gen Y, survey

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Authors: Sulayman Adrees Mohammed, Ahmed Faraj Abd Alsameea

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The ongoing hindrance for Libyan oil and gas companies is the persistent challenge of eradicating maintenance program failures that result in exorbitant costs and production setbacks. Accordingly, this research is prompted to introduce the concept of lean philosophy in maintenance, which aims to eliminate waste and enhance productivity in maintenance procedures through the identification and differentiation of value-adding (VA) and non-value-adding (NVA) activities. The purpose of this paper was to explore and describe the benefits that can be gained by adopting the Lean philosophy towards the enhancement of maintenance programs' efficiency from theoretical perspectives. The oil industry maintenance community in Libya now has an introduced tool by which they can effectively evaluate their maintenance program functionality and reduce the areas of non-value added activities within maintenance, thereby enhancing the availability of the equipment and the capacity of the oil and gas facilities.

Keywords: efficiency, lean philosophy, Libyan oil and gas scenario, maintenance programs

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Authors: Kiran Kumar Gellaboina, Padmaja Kaja

Abstract:

Agricultural Education and Research in India needs a transformation to serve the needs of the farmers and that of the nation. The fact that Agriculture and allied activities act as main source of livelihood for more than 70% population of rural India reinforces its importance in administrative and policy arena. As per Census 2011 of India it provides employment to approximately 56.6 % of labour. India has achieved significant growth in agriculture, milk, fish, oilseeds and fruits and vegetables owing to green, white, blue and yellow revolutions which have brought prosperity to farmers. Many factors are responsible for these achievement viz conducive government policies, receptivity of the farmers and also establishment of higher agricultural education institutions. The new breed of skilled human resources were instrumental in generating new technologies, and in its assessment, refinement and finally its dissemination to the farming community through extension methods. In order to sustain, diversify and realize the potential of agriculture sectors, it is necessary to develop skilled human resources. Agricultural human resource development is a continuous process undertaken by agricultural universities. The Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE) coordinates and promotes agricultural research & education in India. In India, agricultural universities were established on ‘land grant’ pattern of USA which helped incorporation of a number of diverse subjects in the courses as also provision of hands-on practical exposure to the student. The State Agricultural Universities (SAUs) established through the legislative acts of the respective states and with major financial support from them leading to administrative and policy controls. It has been observed that pace and quality of technology generation and human resource development in many of the SAUs has gone down. The reason for this slackening are inadequate state funding, reduced faculty strength, inadequate faculty development programmes, lack of modern infrastructure for education and research etc. Establishment of new state agricultural universities and new faculties/colleges without providing necessary financial and faculty support has aggrieved the problem. The present work highlights some of the key issues affecting agricultural education and research in India and the impact it would have on farm productivity and sustainability. Secondary data pertaining to budgetary spend on agricultural education and research will be analyzed. This paper will study the trends in public spending on agricultural education and research and the per capita income of farmers in India. This paper tries to suggest that agricultural education and research has a key role in equipping the human resources for enhanced agricultural productivity and sustainable use of natural resources. Further, a total re-orientation of agricultural education with emphasis on other agricultural related social sciences is needed for effective agricultural policy research.

Keywords: agriculture, challenges, education, research

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Authors: L. C. Sánchez, L. C. Corrales, A. G. Lancheros, E. Castañeda, Y. Ariza, L. S. Fuentes, L. Sierra, J. L. Cuervo

Abstract:

The importance of environment friendly alternatives in agricultural processes is the reason why the research group Ceparium, the Colegio Mayor de Cundinamarca University, Colombia, investigated the genus Bacillus and its applicability for improving crops of economic importance in Colombia. In this investigation, we presented a study in which the genus Bacillus plays a leading role as beneficial microorganism. The objective was to identify the biochemical potential of three indigenous species of Bacillus, which were able to carry out actions for biological control against pathogens and pests or promoted growth to improve productivity of crops in Colombia. The procedures were performed in three phases: first, the production of biomass of an indigenous strain and a reference strain starting from culture media for production of spores and toxins were made. Spore count was done in a Neubauer chamber, concentrations of spores of Bacillus sphaericus were prepared and a bioassay was done at the Laboratory of Entomology at the University Jorge Tadeo Lozano of Plutella xylostella larvae, insect pest of crucifers in several Colombian regions. The second phase included the extraction in the liquid state fermentation, a secondary metabolite that has antibiosis action against fungi, call iturin B, and was obtained from strains of Bacillus subtilis. The molecule was identified using High Resolution Chromatography (HPLC) and its biocontrol effect on Fusarium sp fungus causes vascular wilt in economically important plant varieties, was confirmed using testing of antagonism in Petri dish. In the third phase, an initial procedure in that let recover and identify microorganisms of the genus Bacillus from the rhizosphere in two aromatic herbs, Rosmarinus officinalis and Thymus vulgaris L. was used. Subsequently, testing of antagonism against Fusarium sp were made and an assay was done under greenhouse conditions to observe biocontrol and growth promoting action by comparing growth in length and dry weight. In the first experiment, native Bacillus sphaericus was lethal to 92% Plutella xylostella larvae in 10 DDA. In the second experiment, iturin B was identified and biological control of Fusarium sp was demonstrated. In the third study, all strains demonstrated biological control and the B14 strain identified as Bacillus megaterium increased root length and productivity of the two plants in terms of weight. It was concluded that the native microorganisms of the genus Bacillus has a great biochemical potential that provides a beneficial interactions with plants, improve their growth and development and therefore a greater impact on production.

Keywords: genus bacillus, biological control, PGPRs, biochemical potential

Procedia PDF Downloads 425