Management & Change

Management & Change The Journal of the IILM Institute for Higher Education (Listed in Cabell’s Directory of Publishing Opportunities, Texas, USA)

Editor Dr. K.M. Mital Professor of Strategic Management IILM Institute for Higher Education management.change@iilm.edu

EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD Agrawal, L. Mohan Professor, Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow.

Ahmed, Abad Ex-Pro-Vice Chancellor, University of Delhi, Delhi.

Balachandran, V. Bala Distinguished Professor, J.K. Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois.

Baxi, Chetan Dean, Research, Management Development Institute, Gurgaon.

Bhattacharyya, B. Distinguished Professor and Vice - Chairman, IILM Institute for Higher Education, New Delhi & Former Dean, Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, New Delhi.

Chatterjee, N.R. Dean Emeritus, IILM Institute for Higher Education, New Delhi.

Coree, Joseph Professor, Robert Morris College, Pittsburgh, USA. Ghosh, Avijit Professor, Stern School of Business, New York University, USA. Jain, P.K. Professor of Finance, Dept. of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi; and President, Global Institute of Flexible Systems Management (GIFT).

Joshi, J. Rama Professor, Shri Ram Centre for Industrial Relations, New Delhi.

Khan, M.Y. Ex-Professor, Dept. of Financial Studies, University of Delhi, Delhi.

Mamkoottam, K. Professor, Faculty of Management Studies, University of Delhi, Delhi.

Mukherji, Badal Former Director General and Principal, IILM Institute for Higher Education, Gurgaon & Former Director, Delhi School of Economics, Delhi.

Nair, N.K. Former Director-Research, National Productivity Council, New Delhi.

Panchmukhi, V.R. Ex-Chairman, Indian Council of Social Science Research.

Pandey, I.M. Director, Pearl School of Business, Sector 32, Gurgaon.

Pandit, V.N. Ex-Professor, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi, Delhi.

Sheth, N.R. Ex-Director, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

Singh, J.D. Director, Jaipuria Institute of Management, Noida.

Szell, Gyorgy Professor, University of Osnabruck, Germany.

Vrat, Prem Vice-Chancllor, U.P. Technical University, Lucknow and Former Director, IIT Roorkee.

Manuscript Submission Contributions are invited in diverse areas of management from interested authors. In each issue of the journal it is normally planned to include research papers, case studies, original conceptual papers/perspectives, short communications, management cases and book reviews. For contributors guidelines, authors may refer to the inside back cover. Enquiries should be electronically made to the Editor, Management & Change, IILM Institute for Higher Education at E-mail (management.change@iilm.edu).

Editorial Coordinator: Arun Thomas Frequency and Subscriptions Management & Change is published bi-annually i.e. twice a year (No.1: Summer; No.2: Winter).

Annual subscription rates are as follows: Within India – Institutional : Rs. 500; Individual : Rs. 300 Overseas – Asian Countries : $50; Other Countries : $150 (Air mail) Demand Draft should be drawn in favour of IILM Institute for Higher Education, payable at New Delhi.

Advertisement rates full page Rs. 20,000 ; half page Rs. 10,000.

Editorial/Subscription Information For editorial queries, please write to the Editor, Management & Change, IILM Institute for Higher Education, Tel: 91-11-30934302, Fax: 91-11-30934339, E-mail: management.change@iilm.edu. For subscription and advertisement related queries please contact Editorial Coorinator (arun.thomas@iilm.edu). Journal is also available online for which you my visit info@indianjournals.com for subscription details and other information.

Management & Change, its Editor or any members of the Editorial Advisory Board including the Publisher, IILM Institute for Higher Education, disclaim any responsibility and liability for any statement of fact or opinion made by the contributors in any of its issues.

Copyright @ 2009 IILM Institute for Higher Education. All Rights Reserved.

Guidelines for Contributors Management & Change invites original articles, research-based papers, perspectives, short communications and management cases on topics of current interest practically in all areas of management. While sending contributions following ‘guidelines’ may be adhered to failing which they may not be considered for publication.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

17.

Manuscripts should normally be of up to 10,000 words (20 to 40 A-4 size pages, typed double space with adequate margins on all sides and giving page numbers). Manuscripts should be submitted in duplicate with the cover page bearing only the title of the paper and authors’ names, designations, official addresses, e-mail IDs and telephone/fax numbers.

Abstract: Submit an abstract of about 150 words.

Tables and Figures. These should be accurately made with proper centering, alignment, etc., (readers may see recent issues for guidance). Their location in the text should be indicated as follows: Table 1 around here Endnotes. All notes should be indicated by serial numbers in the text and literatures cited should be detailed under Notes at the end of the paper bearing corresponding numbers before the references.

References. Place the references at the end of the manuscript following the endnotes. The list should mention only those sources actually cited in the text or notes. Author’s name should be the same as in the original source. For example: Verma, A., T. Kochan and R.D. Lansbury (ed.) (1995) Growing Asia: Changing Trends in Employment and Industrial Relations. London: Routledge.

Rangnekar, Sharu (1996) In the World of Corporate Managers. New Delhi: Vikas.

Sheth, N.R. (1997) “Some Reflections on Management and Change,” Management & Change, 1(1):5-12.

Gupta, Amitabh (1991) “An Empirical Study of Weak Level Efficiency in India.” M.Phil. Dissertation, University of Delhi, Delhi.

For more than one publication by the same author, list them in chronological order, with the older item first. For more than one publication in one year by the same author, use small (lower case) letters to distinguish them (e.g. 1980a, 1980b).

Follow British spellings throughout (programme, not program).

Universal ‘z’ in ‘ize’ ‘ization’ words.

Use of numerals: One to twelve in words, thirteen and above in figures, unless the reference is to percentages (5 percent), distance (5 km), or age (10 years old). Use 1900s and 19th century.

No stops after abbreviations (JK, MBA). Use stops after initials (K.S. Singh).

Use double quotes throughout. The use of single quotes to be restricted for use within double quotes, e.g., “In the words of Szell, the ‘economic question’ is today…” Quotations in excess of 45 words should be separated from the text with a line space above and below and indented on the left. Quotes should be cited accurately from the original source should not be edited, and should give the page numbers of the original publication.

Italicization and use of diacriticals is left to the contributors, but must be consistent when not using diatricals English spelling should be followed.

Capitalization should be kept to the minimum and should be consistent.

An author will receive a complementary copy of the issue in which his/her paper appears.

Book reviews/place of publication/publisher/year of publication/number of pages, in Roman and Arabic figures to include preliminary pages/and price, with binding specifications as such as paperback or hardback. For example: Udai Pareek, Training Instruments for Human Resources Development. New Delhi: Tata-Mcgraw Hill, 1997, xi+625pp. Rs. 595 hardbound.

Authors, apart from hardcopy, should also send a copy of the contribution in MS word, Times New Roman Font by e-mail to: management.change@iilm.edu. The hard copy and electronic files must match exactly.

Manuscripts not considered for publication will not be sent back. Acceptance of papers for publication shall be informed through e-mail or through normal mail. Those submitting papers should also certify that the paper has not been published or submitted for publication elsewhere.

Manuscripts and all editorial correspondence should be made electronically to the Editor, Management & Change, IILM Institute for Higher Education.

Tel: 91-11-30934302, Fax:91-11-30934339, e-mail: management.change@iilm.edu

Management & Change VOLUME 13

Contributors

NUMBER 1

2009

Prof. B. Bhattacharyya

Distinguished Professor and Vice-Chairman, IILM Institute for Higher Education;Tel : 30934335, Fax : 30934369

Viqar Ali Baig

Assistant Professor, Lingaya’s niversity, Faridabad Haryana,, Address 13, G Street, Old IIT Campus, IIT Delhi, New Delhi 110016; Mob: 09313130465 E-mail: viqarbaig@gmail.com

Dr. Samia L. Jones

Senior Associate Professor, Texas A&M University at Qatar.

Dr. Omprakash K. Gupta

Editor-in-Chief, International Journal of Operations & Quantitative Management, College of Business, MMBA320 North Main Street, Suite B-467, University of Houston, Downtown, Houston, TX 77002, USA.

Dr. Tripti Pande Desai

Professor, IILM Institute for Higher Education, 3, Lodhi Institutional Area, New Delhi 110003.

E-mail: tripti.pande@iilm.edu

Ms. Rupanjali Nath

Research Scholar, Dept of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Vishwakarma Bhawan, Shaheed Jeet Singh Marg, New Delhi, 110016; E-mail:rupanjali_n@yahoo.com, Mob: 981812186.

Dr. Kanika T. Bhal

Professor, Dept of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Vishwakarma Bhawan, Shaheed Jeet Singh Marg, New Delhi 110016.

MANAGEMENT CASES Bring Education to Children of Lesser Gods: Bharti Foundation’s Satya Bharti School Programme.

B. Bhattacharyya

Case Analysis I Case Analysis II

K. M. Mital Vineeta Dutta Roy

ARTICLES Working Capital Management as a Key for Value Creation Case Study of Agribusiness Private Dairy Firms

Viqar Ali Baig

Pattern Recognition in Virtual World

Samia L. Jones Omprakash K. Gupta

Examining Gender Differences in Coping with the Organizational Stress among the Dual Career Couples: A Sample in India

Tripti Pande Desai

Exploring Factors for Effective Implementation: A Case Study of Indian Banks

Rupanjali Nath Kanika T. Bhal

Information Processing of Print Advertisement

by Young Urban Women of India

Tuhin Chattopadhyay

Role of Analytical CRM in CRM Systems: Importance and Benefits

Jayanthi Ranjan

SHORT COMMUNICATIONS Overcoming Challenges of Changing Retail Scenario in India to Gain Competitive Advantage

Jyotsna D. Mehta

BOOK REVIEWS William H. Marquard, Wal Smart: What it really takes to Profit in a Wal-Mart world, reviewed by B. Bhttacharyya.

Sanal Kumar Velayudhan and Guda Sridhar (eds.), Marketing to Rural Consumers: Understanding and Tapping Rural Market Potential, reviewed by Sapna Popli.

Mousumi S. Bhattacharya and Nilanjan Sengupta, Compensation Management, reviewed by Kailash Tuli.

William J. Stevenson, Operations Management (Ninth Edition), reviewed by S.S. Yadav.

A.C. Fernando, Business Ethics: An Indian Perspective; Ronald D. Francis and Mukti Mishra, Business Ethics: An Indian Perspective; & Azhar Kazmi, Business Policy and Strategic Management (Second Edition), reviewed by K.M. Mital.

Prof. Tuhin Chattopadhyay Faculty, Department of Marketing, IILM Academy of Higher Learning, Greater Noida. Contact adress K 2089 (second floor), Chittaranjan Park, New Delhi 110019; Mob.: 9250674214.

E-mail: proftchattopadhyay@rediffmail.com Dr. Jayanthi Ranjan

Professor of Systems and IT, Institute of Management Technology, Raj Nagar, Ghaziabad, U.P., E-mail: jranjan@imt.edu

Dr. Jyotsna D. Mehta

Assistant Professor, Subodh Institute of Management & Career Studies, Jaipur Contact address SP1, Bhabha Marg, Tilak Nagar, Jaipur 302004; Mob. : 9414051736.

E-mail: jyotsnadmehta@yahoo.com

From the Editor’s Desk EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICE AND PRIORITY QUEUING SYSTEMS

One of very challenging tasks in hospitals is attending an emergency case involving critical care, which needs quick assessment, prompt action and often administering advanced medical procedures for saving a patient's life.

In fact, critical care is fast emerging as a specialty in its own right, which involves immediate protection of the patient's breathing and blood circulation, two functions that mainly contribute towards one's living. An emergent critical care situation that requires immediate attention is cardiac arrest which occurs due to blockage in arteries. Cardiac arrest is however reversible if it is addressed within a few minutes of its occurrence with a process known as defibrillation that involves application of electric shocks to heart for restoring normal heartbeats. This is done by implanting devices similar to pacemakers called defibrillators, which are placed under the skin for treating abnormal rhythms. A victim's chance of survival may reduce by 7 to 10 per cent with every passing minute if the patient is not provided with CPR and defibrillation facilities. Often life threatening emergency medical service is very critically important service in a hospital.

Two standards of effectiveness of emergency medical service are response time and service time. Response time refers to the time between the notification of an emergency and the arrival of an ambulance at the scene. Response time is time elapsed from the dispatch of an ambulance and the arrival of an emergency vehicle at the emergency scene. Service time is defined as the total time between notification of an accident and delivery of the patient to the hospital. Service time is the time from the dispatch of the ambulance to the arrival of the patient at a hospital. While the former standard emphasizes a rapid response of vehicle and trained crew to an emergency situation, the latter indicator specifies rapid transport of patient to a more fully equipped hospital emergency room.

Whereas public hospitals send an ambulance free of charge, private ambulance service providers commonly charge a basic amount per call, a kilometerage rate, and a charge for incidentals (e.g., linens, bandages, oxygen, splints, resuscitators, etc.). Charges typically include fixed charges in rupees per call, fixed charges for incidentals, and transportation charges between demand point and hospital. v

General private ambulance service providers make no distinction between patient transfers and emergency calls. Private ambulance service providers generally find the service financially unattractive except in heavily populated areas or where ambulance services are a secondary activity. Government thus need to compensate by offering subsidy to private service providers.

[Daberkow, S.G. and King, G.A., Rural Emergency Medical Facilities, American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 465-477 (1977)].

Queues are a common sight in number of service situations such as a ticket counter, a bank counter, a milk booth or a service provider in hospital.

Queues may involve from short to excessive waits often leading to annoyance, and in hospital emergencies waits may impact on one's life and death. In business waits invariably cause low performance levels and persistent delays due to inadequate service providers may adversely affect competitive advantage. Facility planners thus need to weigh consequences of excessive wait and cost of providing a given level of service, a field of study, which over the past five decades has sufficiently matured into a body of literature known as queuing theory. Benefits of reducing congestion needs to be balanced against the costs of achieving it.

A queue always involves some distinctive features, namely, arrival pattern of customers, service pattern of servers, queue discipline, system capacity, number of service channels, traffic intensity or utilization and various service stages. A number of service patterns are possible, single server, multiple servers, in series or parallel and combination of these. Arrival pattern of customers is expressed in terms of arrival rate or the inter-arrival time. In some cases customers arrive in batches or blocks (e.g., the arrival of stock at a warehouse). Service pattern can be specified by the service rate or the service time. It is common for the service rate to increase during peak periods or over time periods when there is pressure to return home early.

Evolution of queuing theory started from the seminal work of Danish telecom professional A.K.Erlang. While mathematics of queuing theory is fairly complex, but applications have become much simpler following availability of IT softwares. In design of hospital system, it is important to ensure availability of service providers in all its business units wherever queues build up, be it, out-patient services, in-patient services, emergency services, or laboratory services.

Space has to be provided not only for stationing service providers, but also for accommodating from small to long queues that are common sight in most large hospitals. System capacity is the maximum number of customers vi

including those being served as well as those waiting in the queue permitted in the system. When a customer arrives at a system which is full, he is not allowed to wait but has to leave without receiving service. A system with no limit on the number of customers has infinite capacity, otherwise it has finite capacity. Efficiency of a system can be improved by training servers, using better machinery or by increasing the number of servers.

priority queuing approach, when an ambulance service provider receives a call for dispatching ambulance, based on preliminary discussion with the caller on phone, he will decide whether the ambulance is to be sent immediately if according to him it is an emergency case, or caller can be made to wait little more till number of ambulances at his end reach the predetermined cut-off level.

A number of terms are linked with queuing systems such as balking, reneging and jockeying. When the customer does not enter the system when the queue is very long is called balking. Reneging refers to a case when the customer in the queue leaves without service as his waiting time has exceeded a certain limit. Jockeying refers to a phenomenon when in multiple queuing situations, a customer may move from one queue to a queue with a shorter length or faster service rate.

In the same manner as in ambulance service, priority queuing concepts can be applied in resource planning for elective-surgeries cases by accommodating few such cases in ICUs (intensive care units). While beds have to be reserved for treating emergency cases in the first priority for which ICUs primarily exist, but when emergency load is limited and some beds up to a threshold limit are anyway reserved, it is sensible to admit few cases of elective surgeries in ICUs, with a view to avoid risk of their turning away to other hospitals. A flexible policy can be made to admit selective surgery cases in ICU units when normal ICU load is less up to a limit based on past hospital data. Flexible bed priotization policies of this nature can be designed using simulation and queuing analysis on the hospital data.

Queuing models which are part of broad domain of operations research are developed on the basis that individuals shall be served on first-comefirst-served basis. However, models will change when this rule is changed to other options such as last-come-first-served, service in random order, service by priority, etc. A number of real-life situations involve priority considerations.

Application of queuing theory of which 'priority queuing' is a special topic is very relevant in resource planning for hospital services particularly emergency services. Priority queues are generally more difficult to model than first-comefirst-served based (Gross, D. and Harris, C.M., Fundamentals of Queuing Theory, John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1974, p.178).

In priority queuing systems, customers with the higher priorities are served first, independent of their time of arrival into the system. Application of priority queuing concept is based on the premise that when high priority calls are served faster at the expense of little extra waiting for low priority calls (but not inordinate delay), both high priority and low priority streams can be served fairly rapidly though at differential rates, achieving high performance standards but keeping the overall service costs low. In other words, low priority calls have to wait marginally extra with corresponding faster service to high priority calls. This enables estimates of critical resources based on priority reservation policy whereby low priority cases have to be served only when resources (servers) more than a specified cut-off value are available.

Policy of accommodating elective surgery patients in ICUs is practiced in many hospitals as often they need same monitoring facilities as needed by emergency patients and if they are denied admission for long due to bed shortages, a corporate hospital runs the risk of losing some elective-surgery patients, who may turn away to other hospital following non-availability of beds. This is more so when elective-surgeries also need high degree of intensive care which ICUs provide, but who can be admitted in ICUs under the policy of more than the required number of beds available therein, otherwise they will be made to wait till the condition of cut-off limit is achieved.

EMRI (Emergency Medicine and Research Institute) is a comprehensive emergency response ambulance service which is available in all areas of Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Uttarkhand, Goa and Meghalaya and is being introduced in several other states including Rajasthan, Karnataka, Assam, Madhya Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu. There is provision under the National Rural Health Mission (NHRM) for financing such schemes, for which the states are availing this option. EMRI ambulance is well-equipped with several emergency facilities. It has disposable syringes and anti-snake venom, and equipment to deal with emergencies like drowning and poisoning.

Estimation of ambulance fleet size, determination of number of beds or other key resources in critical care units are common examples of priority models in emergency service. While estimating ambulance requirement using

EMRI in Gujarat handles about 2000 emergencies a day. The emergency medical service is absolutely free and the ambulances take patients only to

vii

viii

hospitals, which have signed an MOU with EMRI for receiving patients and handling emergencies. The cost of this ambulance service varies from Rs. 10 lakh to Rs. 16 lakh depending on whether the ambulance is equipped with Basic Life Support (BLS) or Advanced Life Support (ALS) equipment.

When there is a medical emergency in a village, the villagers call 108, which is a toll free number. The call center directs the nearest ambulance to reach the village. It has an Automatic Vehicle Location and Tracking System (AVLTS). The call centre physician decides whether to dispatch a BLS or an ALS to site. On reaching the site, the ambulance crew gets down to their task. Whenever necessary, the EMT calls the call centre, gets on line with a doctor and seeks his advice. He also arranges a conference call of a friend or relative of the patient with the doctor, so that everybody is in loop with regard to the nature of the emergency and the course of treatment suggested by the doctor.

The running cost for the fleet in Gujarat is around Rs. 60 crore a year based on running cost expenditure norm of Rs. 1.25 lakh per ambulance per month. BLS ambulances have oxygen cylinders, suction pumps, cervical collars for immobilization of the patient, drips and measuring instruments to analyze oxygen level in the blood, blood sugar, etc. In Gujarat in 2008 EMRI handled 4.25 lakh cases, out of which 1.21 lakh cases related to pregnant women, who were required to be rushed to the hospital.

ALS ambulances on the other hand have ventilators and defibrillators fitted to it. They can take an ECG and transmit the same to the call centre where physicians work round the clock and advise the Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) in the hospital on pre-hospitalization medication to be given to the patient. Medical opinion of the doctor in call centre and the patient's ECG are dispatched to the hospital in advance so that treatment and procedures can begin soon after on arrival.

scheme is firmly in saddle. In Andhra Pradesh, EMRI is linked with Arrogyasri, the health insurance scheme. Ambulance crew is provided with digital camera for obtaining photographic evidence in medico-legal cases.

This information is often required to be passed on to police. All calls to the crew and from them are recorded and made available in medico-legal cases to investigators and courts (Prakash, S., Miracle called 108 Emergency Medical Service, Sunday Pioneer, April 5, 2009).

EMRI plans to increase its fleet to 4000 ambulances in 11 states eventually, which is planned to go up to 10000 by 2010. The organization is however facing some financial problems which are likely to be overcome following a proposed value chain partnership with Piramal Healthcare, which will also provide impetus to R&D (The Times of India, Hyderabad, May 21, 2009) Successive governments at the center have been promising higher public expenditure on health to the tune of between two and three per cent of the GDP, but actual spending (a statistic inflated by including spending on social determinants such as drinking water and nutrition) was a mere 1.39 per cent during 2007-08. Much remains to be done in improving healthcare infrastructure particularly in rural India though National Rural Health Mission has planned extending services to far-flung populations. These measures, however, do not address the unaffordable cost of managing chronic ailments arising out of longevity or social circumstances, and of emergency medical care.

Ambulances are serviced regularly and the tyres changed after the mandatory mileage. EMRI has helped bring down Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) and Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) in Gujarat where this facility is linked with the Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY), which incentivizes expectant mothers to deliver their babies in civil hospitals or primary health centers.

An expanded, free, healthcare system and improved publicly funded health infrastructure could have benefited millions of people who did not avail healthcare in view of high medical costs and more so within the backdrop of global meltdown. Much of the country's population is constrained to spend on healthcare out-of-pocket. The National Commission on Macroeconomics and Health, using new methodologies, estimated in 2005 that households were obliged to use their own resources for 68.8 per cent of the aggregate national spending on health, while the share of the central and state governments together was 21.6 per cent (the rest was accounted for by public sector, private, and charitable sources). Government investment in health has positive externalities in the form of reduced social costs of morbidity and removal of inequality. Price subsidies or availability of effective direct public health services will encourage more people to avail it.

Assessment of helpful attitude is an important criterion for selection of EMRI staff. EMRI has currently over 12000 employees all over India but more concentrated in states like Gujarat, Uttarkhand and A.P., where the

Need for massive public investment in healthcare is overriding as this sector cannot be left to market forces that largely serve upper income group families only. Even in the United States, this need for effective public

ix

x

healthcare service has received government priority for government-funded health insurance scheme for promoting universal healthcare. In consonance with such policies of Obama Administration India also needs to come-out with a comprehensive plan to reduce out-of-pocket expenditure for all citizens, build first-class primary health care, and widen access to tertiary care through public facilities(The Hindu, Financing Health, Editorial, April 6, 2009, p.8).

A special funding mechanism to create access to and underwrite treatment costs for chronic ailments, such as cardiovascular conditions, diabetes, kidney disease, cancer, and emergencies of all kinds should be accorded high priority as compared to other areas. This investment by government is very necessary for preventing countrymen from becoming poor on account of huge expenditure on such ailments when they hit individuals.

IILM Institute for Higher Education

K.M.Mital

Turning Events MAULANA AZAD: A GREAT INDIAN LEADER AND CHAMPION OF NATIONAL UNITY Abul Kalam Azad was born on November 11, 1888 in the holy city of Mecca to an Indian 'Pir' scholar Maulana Kairuddin and Arabian lady, whose ancestors hailed from Herat, a holy city in Afghanistan. In 1890, his family moved to Calcutta where it settled. He adopted his pen name 'Azad' to project his freedom from traditional orthodoxy ways of those times. In 1912, Abul Kalam started his weekly Al-Hilal to arouse conscience of Islamic brethren for adopting lofty Islamic values and participating in India's freedom movement. The pluralist society saw in him a scholarly voice of India's composite culture representing India's different faiths. Bharat Kokila (Nightingale of India) Sarojini Naidu used to say: "Do not talk of Azad's Age. He was fifty the day he was born."

Turning event of his life began the day he severely criticized Partition of Bengal.

His political career began when he opposed partition of Bengal in the beginning of the 20th century when he met some well-known Indians of those times such as Aurobindo Ghose, Lala Har Dayal, and Shyam Sunder Chakravarthy, who supported him for his opposition to Bengal partition. Maulana Azad's meeting with Mahatma Gandhi in January 1920 at the residence of Hakim Ajmal Khan in the august presence of Lokmanya Tilak and Ali Brothers, became a major turning event in his public life.

Initially Khilafat movement, and later on non-cooperation movement launched by Gandhiji, provided a broader platform to Azad's political career. Hindu-Muslim unity visualized by Mahatma Gandhi channelized Khilafat Movement into nationalist movement.

Between 1915 and 1920 he was greatly drawn towards Gandhian ideologies.

In 1920, Abul Kalam participated, along with large number of followers in Civil Disobedience Movement launched by Mahatma Gandhi. He first became President of Indian National Congress when he was barely 35 years and he was again the

xi

Congress President in the year of India's independence. In 1945, he attended the Simla Conference and interfaced with the Cripps Mission involving the visit of Sir Stafford Cripps to India in 1946 relating to the transfer of power to the Indian subcontinent.

Maulana Azad's standing as a distinguished scholar of oriental learning was demonstrated in shaping country's educational system in the post-independence era. He set up the University Education Commission in 1948. In free India, after first general elections (1952), he became country's first Education Minister, and continued till his demise in 1958. As Education Minister, Maulana Azad reorganized the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and the Secondary Education Commission in 1952.

Maulana Azad was also instrumental in establishing the Indian Council for Cultural Relations and when he became its first President, while welcoming a Pakistani delegate attending the ICCR meeting for the first time, Maulana Azad said, "We have separated on political grounds but we have been one people and our cultural life is such that it cannot be divided without the loss of both."

Maulana Azad was largely responsible in setting up three academies - Sangeet Natak Akademi, Sahitya Akademi, and Lalit Kala Akademi - to promote music, literature and art. He extended full support to Pt. Nehru in setting up the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research and a chain of laboratories under its control. He also played noted role in setting up India International Centre at Lodhi Road (New Delhi) and WUS Health Centre at Delhi University. On his initiative, the budgetary allocation for education was raised to fifteenfold between 1947 and 1958.

After independence he wrote the book, 'India Wins Freedom', which provided a very authoritative account of India's freedom movement. He was deeply upset with country's partition and the book provided ample evidence of his deep pain and anguish of this unfortunate development linked with India's freedom. He breathed his last on February 22, 1958. While condoling his death, Pt. Nehru said: "Passed a great man, a man of luminous intelligence and a mighty intellect with an amazing capacity to pierce through a problem to its core". At the time of his burial near Jama Masjid in Delhi, a very huge gathering of countrymen had collected to bid emotion-packed farewell to country's one of the greatest sons and freedom fighters, which included a tear from Pt. Nehru's eyes as well, which trickled down from his cheeks and rolled down into Maulana Azad's grave.

As a mark of respect to the country's one of the greatest leaders, a number of organizations and educational institutions in the country are named after him including Delhi's famous Maulana Azad College of Medical Sciences, and the Maulana Azad Education Foundation, which receives partial financial support from the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.

-- Editor

REFERENCES Bhatnagar, R.K., Maulana Abul Kalam Azad: A Pioneering Educationist, Bhavan'Journal, 51 (20), May 31, 2005.

Bhatnagar, R.K., Maulana Azad: A Man of Luminous Personality, Bhavan's Journal, 55 (16), March 31, 2009, p.67-70.

xii

Management Case BRINGING EDUCATION TO CHILDREN OF LESSER GODS Bharti Foundation's Satya Bharti School Programme B Bhattacharyya Quality education is the fulcrum of social development. Guided by his firm beliefs, Sunil Bharti Mittal set up Bharti Foundation to provide and expand creating quality education in the country.

According to him, "Bharti Enterprises, in particular through Bharti Foundation, has taken upon itself the mandate to take quality education to the rural hinterland. Additionally, it imparts quality education and training to the youth to realize their true potential and become an important contributor to economic growth. This 'cause' is shared across all the Bharti Group Companies through acts of volunteering, mentoring and donation." Bharti Foundation's CSR is more governed by lofty ideals of improvement in elementary education for supplementing government efforts, which is inspired by its founder's firm belief that it is the quality education which holds key to alleviating society's all problems. The case pertains to the activities of Bharti Foundation for promoting elementary education as a positive force for country's social development.

Keywords: CSR, Bharti Foundation, Satya Bharti School Programme.

INTRODUCTION A teacher who imparts his knowledge is more highly esteemed than a silent sage. A generous individual is far superior to a miserly wealthy person.

- Rigveda 10.117.7.

Indian economic reforms initiated in mid 1980s and accelerated since 1991 gave birth to a new generation of entrepreneurs. The earliest phase of industrialization was in the pre-independence India when the Houses of Tatas and Birlas started steel and textiles industries, following accumulation of wealth from trading activities.

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009) Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009) Š 2009 IILM Institute for Higher Education.

All Rights Reserved.

2 Bringing Education to Children of Lesser Gods

These and several other business families prospered during the stateled planned industrialization programme, in a macro-economic setting which was highly regulated. The economic reforms created space for new entrepreneurs to enter the market, seeking and exploiting opportunities which the liberalization-induced growth provided for the first time. One such very successful entrepreneur is Sunil Bharti Mittal, who made corporate history by creating a large business empire in telecom sector, which hitherto had been the exclusive preserve of the state sector.

Indian business has a long history of philanthropy. In the earlier days, corporate philanthropy was essentially driven by the personal vision and commitment of a particular entrepreneur. Historically in India, the focus of corporate philanthropy had been religious and social sector, especially education and health.1. The Indian ethos, starting from the Vedic period has emphasized the importance of sharing one's own wealth.

"Those of who have attained higher, middle or lower status in your respective fields of work, enjoy the wealth thus gained together as one.

With the resources for the production of material goods at your disposal, dedicate your life to eradicate the evils of society and strive at all times for the well-being of the people" - Rigveda 5-60.6 In the best tradition of Indian business leaders, Sunil Mittal, after consolidating the business empire of Bharti Enterprises, paused for a while and thought that it was now payback time. That was 2000 when Bharti Foundation was born.

Milton Friedman's maxim that the only social responsibility of business is to make profits has not found much favour in India. However, the new wave entrepreneurs are more favourably disposed to Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), a relatively new concept which at its most basic form suggests that CSR activities of a firm in some ways help support the long term institutional interests and are also sustainable.2,3 The philosophy 1.

Dadabhoy, B.K. (2008) Sugar in Milk: Lives of Prominent Parsees. New Delhi: Rupa & Co. Ltd.

2.

D Mangion, Corporate Social Responsibility across Disciplines: FindingCommon Ground. (Smile. VUW.ac.nz 8081/WWW ANZMAC 2006/ documents /mangion-Donna.pdf).

Bhattacharyya, B.(2005) Enigma of Corporate Social Responsibility, The Edge, (IILM Magazine) Jan.–Mar., pp. 8-9.

3.

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

B Bhattacharyya 3

of strategic CSR is, therefore, substantially different from the traditional Indian corporate philanthropic model.

Bharti Foundation went for a middle path. No strategic advantages were sought but adequate care was taken to ensure sustainability. And at the same, it ensured that best management practices are followed. It obviously believes in what G D Birla once remarked in connection with his own huge philanthropic contribution to India: 'It is easy to make money but difficult to spend it well.'

At the heart of the Bharti Foundation lies the firm belief of Sunil B. Mittal that if India has to take advantage of its demographic dividends quality education must be accessible to all. The most potent leveler in the socioeconomic sphere is nothing but quality education. It is not only education per se but 'quality education' that is the focus of Bharti Foundation. And since, in a country of India's size, to make an appreciable impact requires an appropriate scale, Bharti Foundation has to work out collaborative implementation models. Further, such models must be fully inclusive, so that ownership is created at the level of the ultimate beneficiaries.

This is what Sunil B Mittal, Chairman, Bharti Foundation, wrote in his message to the organization.

"We must recognize that – to create a sustainable change – there is a need to create collaborative models, like public-private partnerships (PPPs). While 'public' and 'private' continue to be two important stakeholders in these models, people have emerged as another equally strong stakeholder. At Bharti Foundation, we have witnessed real life situations where local communities have extended tremendous support to our programme. Their belief, that our initiative is for the good of their future generations, has been responsible for the successful implementation of our programme in their village.

Bharti Enterprises, in particular through Bharti Foundation, has taken upon itself the mandate to take quality education to the rural hinterland.

Additionally, it imparts quality education and training to the youth to realize their true potential and become an important contributor to economic growth.

This 'cause' is shared across all the Bharti Group Companies through acts of volunteering, mentoring and donation."

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

4 Bringing Education to Children of Lesser Gods

BHARTI FOUNDATION The vision and mission statements are clear and focused, both with respect to the intended beneficiaries as well as the associated instrumentalities.

Vision To help under privileged children and young people of our country realize their potential.

Mission Committed to creating and supporting programmes that bring about sustainable changes though education and use of technology.

Board of Governors To guide the activities of the Bharti Foundation, a Governing Board with multi-disciplinary expertise has been set up. The current composition of the Board is at Annexure I. Activities Bharti Foundation has developed a number of tailored activities to achieve specified targeted objectives, all of which are clearly anchored to the mission as stated above. Principal among these are, (i) Satya Bharti School Programmeme, (ii) Satya Bharti Senior Secondary School Programmeme, (iii) Bharti Library and Activity Centres, (iv) Bharti Computer Centers, (v) Bharti School of Telecommunication Technology & Management , IIT Delhi, (vi) Bharti Centre for Communication , IIT Bombay; and (vii) Bharti Centre for Entrepreneurial Initiatives Jt. Initiative with Entrepreneurial Development Institute (EDI) Recognition For its work in the area of education, Bharti Foundation has been awarded the prestigious Golden Peacock Award for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in 2006 for the NGO category. The award was instituted to encourage initiatives in CSR by the Centre for Social Responsibility supported by Institute of Directors (IOD), Centre for Corporate Governance (CFCG) and the World Council for Corporate Governance (WCFCG). It has also been Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

B Bhattacharyya 5

awarded the Asian CSR Award for Support and Improvement in Education, 2008 (awarded by the Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility, Intel Corporation and Asian Institute of Management); and the Social and Corporate Governance Award for Best Corporate Social responsibility Practice 2008 ( awarded by Bombay Stock Exchange, Nasscomm Foundation and Times Foundation).

SATYA BHARTI SCHOOL PROGRAMME (SBSP) Among all these programmes, the one that is most ambitious and potentially the most enriching and definitely the must (most?) challenging, is the Satya Bharti School programme which is focused on elementary education for disadvantaged social groups in relatively more inaccessible rural areas. When asked, how this focus got developed, a senior executive of the Bharti Foundation explained its corporate philosophy as follows: "At Bharti Enterprises, there is a belief that the inherent potential among individuals can help them make a place for themselves to bring about a positive impact on society. And that education and the use of technology are two key triggers to unleash this inherent potential to bring about a true revolution. Thus while Bharti Enterprises has made its mark through technology, establishing itself as one of the largest telecom players in the country, it is through education that we desire to bring about a sea of social change and alleviate India of the peril of illiteracy.

We believe that high quality education can be achieved through a synergistic amalgamation of various building blocks of education like good quality teachers, comprehensive teacher training programmes, scientifically designed teaching modules, innovative curriculum, creative teaching learning processes, quality management procedures, a conducive school environment and intense community involvement. All these components need to be dovetailed to achieve a sustainable model of quality education.

At Bharti Foundation, we are attempting to do just that. While our programme is a catalyst for educational reform in the country, it can help educate only a fraction of the millions of children in the country.

However, these initiatives can set establish a holistic model of education which is replicable and sustainable and thereby create an educational revolution in the country.

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

6 Bringing Education to Children of Lesser Gods

In this context we chose to work in worst case situations. We went to remote and rural parts of the country where we were faced with the most challenges. With most children being first generation learners from the bottom of the pyramid (drop-outs, etc.), the learning levels were found to be abysmally low. Local youth are hired as teachers for the schools, generating employment as well as community involvement.

The teachers are put through intensive teacher training programmes to help enhance the quality of teaching. Our belief is that if we can ensure children achieving desired learning levels in these challenging conditions, the model will work with ease elsewhere and hence, would be replicable at a larger scale."

One of the crucial feature(s) of the Satya Bharti School Programme is the conscious effort to create ownership of the beneficiaries in the project.

Keeping in view the importance of land in the traditional psyche of rural India, it was felt that the community ownership of the school project would be best served if the Gram Panchyats donate the required land. Satya Bharti School Programme has been very successful in getting the concept accepted. By the end of 2008, about 240 Gram Panchyats have passed resolutions in Panchyat Meetings offering ½ to 1 acre land pieces to Bharti Foundation for setting up the schools. Panchyats have also sent their strong recommendations to their respective state governments to support SBSP. As a result, about 234 land pieces have been allocated to Bharti Foundation by the governments of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu for setting up Satya Bharti Schools.

Though Satya Bharti School Programme has an ambitious pan - India footprints, it launched the programme on a pilot project basis in Rajasthan, Punjab, UP and Haryana. When asked the rationale behind the choice of these states, the spokesperson explained: "The focus of the Satya Bharti School Programme has been North India state-centric so far and we are operating in the states of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan & UP. The reasons are: a. Language: Since we are at the 'pilot' stage for the programme, we wanted to work in areas where we would not face language issues.

We presently have our curriculum in 2 models: 2 languages Model (English & Hindi) and 3 languages Model (English, Hindi & Punjabi) for the state of Punjab.

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

B Bhattacharyya 7

8 Bringing Education to Children of Lesser Gods

b. Administration: Since we are at the 'pilot' stage, close monitoring of the programmes is required. Also, Bharti Foundation's Head Office is located in Delhi; hence administration of project is more effective due to proximity."

SCALING UP: A TWO TRACK MODEL

Sustainability of the Programme While the schools set up by the Foundation will help educate only a fraction of the millions of children who do not have access to education or quality education, the Satya Bharti School Programme will establish a holistic model of quality education which is replicable, scalable and sustainable.

Towards this end the Foundation has chosen to work in the worst case situations and has decided to set up schools in the farthest and poorest pockets of the country. Schools are being set up in areas where the Foundation has faced challenges of infrastructure, human resources, first generation learners and communities with no exposure to quality education. With most children being first generation learners from the bottom of the pyramid (dropouts, etc.), the learning levels were found to be abysmally low, teachers required very special and extensive trainings to reach our quality standards.

Setting up schools in such areas, the Foundation believes that the Satya Bharti Schools will provide a highly replicable and scalable model to the country to provide quality education leading to employability of the youth.

Needless to mention, Bharti Foundation is committed to running this programme in perpetuity. We are operating a school model which will provide free education of high quality in a cost effective manner and in perpetuity. It continues to be our effort to reduce costs and direct as much resources as possible towards these children and their education.

In delivering this we are not only mobilizing infrastructural resources, but also looking at individuals and organizations sharing the cost of educating these children. We hope to build sustainable relationships with partners who share our vision.

The programme is also built on principles of community partnership.

Involving the community in various ways like recruitment of local teachers, setting up of schools on land pieces donated by community members, and identifying vendors for the school from the local community, etc. allows for community participation and instills a sense of ownership among community members.

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Bharti Foundation has adopted a two track model to ramp up the scale of SBSP within a short period. Joining hands with the state governments provided the Foundation an opportunity not only to scale up faster but also to replicate the learning model it has developed in the government – run institutions to raise the quality of education provided by them. SBSP has the following two models : Self-Constructed Satya Bharti Schools As explained above, as a methodology of community participation or a standard public-private participatory model, Bharti Foundation seeks panchyat lands or government land for constructing the school infrastructure.

Bharti Foundation takes the responsibility of constructing, running and managing the Satya Bharti Schools.

Adopted Government Schools This model involves taking responsibility of running existing government schools where there is scope for enhancing the quality of education being provided. The concerned state government hands over the responsibility of running these schools to Bharti Foundation which then runs these exactly in the same manner as those set up by the Foundation. The teachers in these schools are provided by Bharti Foundation and the existing government teachers are transferred to nearby government schools upon mutual consent of the teachers.

Common to both the models is the involvement of the local community to provide on-going support to the schools . These have taken the following forms : • Monitoring the functioning of the schools by monitoring the performance of schools staff and the pupil's performance.

• Volunteering in imparting knowledge and skills to the students of the schools.

• Volunteering in functions and events held in schools.

• Donating / contributing resources to the schools (labour, materials , mid day meals, etc).

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

B Bhattacharyya 9

PROGRASS AND FUTURE TARGETS SBSP was launched in 2006. To achieve a threshold impact level, Bharti Foundation will set up 500 primary schools and 50 senior secondary schools under the public-private partnership model reaching out to over 2,00,000 children. Of this 236 primary schools and 24 senior secondary schools will be set up in the first phase of implementation. A total of 158 primary schools are already operational, reaching out to over 17,000 children. A total of 78 more schools will be operational by April 2009, increasing the total enrollment to over 50,000 children in Phase I.

10 Bringing Education to Children of Lesser Gods

According to a spokesperson, in addition to what is disclosed in the financial data, there are other available resources which are both qualitatively and quantitatively important.

"Internally, the Bharti Enterprises and its associates have committed a corpus grant of Rs. 200 crores. Bharti also encourages its employees to volunteer their time, skills, knowledge and money towards the school programme. All monetary donations made by the employees are matched by the group company."

ACT

As of January 2009, the number of schools set up or run along with student's population are : • Operational Satya Bharti Primary Schools Number of students • Govt. Schools under Satya Bharti School Programme Number of students • Total number of schools • Total number of students

109 11,853 49 5,372 158 17,225

Financial resources for the targets of 236 primary schools and 24 senior secondary schools for FY 09-10 were made available by Bharti Foundation.

The budget was formulated as under: 236 Primary Schools: • CAPEX : Rs 38.73 crores • OPEX : Rs 29.15 crores 24 Senior Secondary Schools: • CAPEX : Rs 20.49 crores • OPEX : Rs 2.56 crores Bharti Enterprises group companies have contributed to create a corpus, which is the major source of income of the Foundation. The details are in Annexure II. Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

ACT- A caring touch is Bharti Group Employee's philanthropy programme where employees as well as their families are encouraged to donate their time, skills, knowledge, materials and money to either Bharti Foundation or any other charity empanelled with ACT. All monetary donations are matched by the company.

YTD January 2009, 1912 employees participated in ACT by contributing a part of their salary. Bharti Airtel employees constitute 73.2 per cent (1401 employees) of employee strength.

Bharti employees also came forward to support SBSP by donating material. Employees contributed towards stationery, kitchen equipment and other items required in the Satya Bharti Schools to ensure quality education for under- privileged children.

"Bharti Foundation works in close association and partnerships with several corporate foundations, NGOs and organizations working in the field of education to adopt best practices for the SBSP and also to build capacity.

While corporate houses like IBM, Microsoft and Oracle provide support in terms of computers and software, eminent foundations such as Azim Premzi Foundation lend their support to educational content for the schools. The Foundation has partnered with other organizations and NGOs like Discovery, Pratham, etc. to adopt their expertise in terms of books, curriculum content and even mathematic labs for children."

"Bharti Foundation is also working towards a school model that will provide quality education in a cost - effective manner, and to deliver the same, we are trying to build sustainable relationships with partners who share our vision. We are building a movement where we are hoping to have Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

B Bhattacharyya 11

like-minded organizations who believe in the cause of education partner us.

A large number of corporate houses like Microsoft, Ortem, Wipro, Nokia, Hindustan Unilever Ltd, and many more have come forward to support our schools by offering their products free of cost or at marginal cost. A few corporates have even come forward to adopt schools by sharing the operational cost of schools with Bharti Foundation as well as encouraging their employees to volunteer in the programme."

Satya Bharti Senior Secondary Schools Bharti Foundation plans to set up 50 Satya Bharti Senior Secondary Schools under the public-private partnership model. Of this 24 senior secondary schools will be set up in Phase I of operations, with 10 schools being set up in partnership with the Punjab Government under the Adarsh Model. Apart from providing quality education, the senior secondary schools will also provide vocational training programmes to children to help them acquire professional skills for future employment opportunities.

Land Availability to SBSP In the operational model adopted by SBSP, the crucial first step is allocation of land by the individual, community or the state governments for the school building. The progress on this front since the launch of SBSP has been very encouraging. Bharti Foundation has received 35 land donations from individuals in only the State of Rajasthan. More significantly, to reach the target of 500 Satya Bharti Primary Schools, Bharti Foundation has partnered with the State Governments of Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana and Tamil Nadu.

Land allocation in these states, (YTD January '09), numbered 234 (Punjab 118, Haryana 78, Rajasthan 30 and Tamil Nadu 8).

Human Resources Since the basic philosophy of Satya Bharti School Programme goes much beyond the standard rendering of a state determined curricula, getting properly trained and motivated teachers, that too in the remote rural locations, is the key to the success of the programme as well as the principal constraint.

The task becomes even more difficult, as Bharti Foundation has laid down the principle of recruiting teachers from the local community. This policy has several advantages it generates employment locally, attrition rate becomes lower, community ownership of the school gets strengthened. However, against such perceived advantages is the issue of availability from a fairly constrained geographical area, e.g. a village / cluster of villages.

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

12 Bringing Education to Children of Lesser Gods

Beyond a State Determined Curricula When we embarked upon the Satya Bharti School journey last year, the challenges lay in matching and exceeding public school standards through a specialized curriculum. Our mandate was to create a synergy between the state's curriculum and our expectations of implementing a consciously crafted Bharti Curricula. Since we had decided to follow the state curricula, we went through an intensive exercise to map the Bharti curricula in accordance with the curricula of all states to ensure that there were no gaps in the structure.

Thus, the Bharti curriculum, is an amalgamation of thoughts and ideas and is a well crafted methodology that is based on minimum learning levels and addresses all domains appropriate to the development level of the child.

Source: Bharti Foundation , Annual Report 2007-08 Exploring the educational philosophy further and the implementation model supporting the philosophy, the spokesperson of Bharti Foundation elaborated as follows: Characteristics of a Satya Bharti Teachers A Satya Bharti teacher would possess a certain degree of emotional intelligence and dedication to the cause they were supporting; be confident and would display a passion that would help them handle any kind of situation with ease; be well trained with an excellent degree of skill and expertise; be ideal role models for the students; have a sense of responsibility which would extend far beyond the hours of their duty or the four walls of the school; have an instilled sense of pride; realize that they are part of a large movement of imparting education to the underprivileged and understanding their role extremely well and live up to it at every point of times while interacting with the children or the community at large.

It is self evident that organizing and continuously upgrading a cadre of such teachers is a complex and massive task. Bharti Foundation has worked out a comprehensive methodology for selection and continuous training of the teachers recruited. A three stage recruitment process is followed which comprises a written test, a mock teaching session and an interview.

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

B Bhattacharyya 13

14 Bringing Education to Children of Lesser Gods

The candidates are assessed for their intelligence level, numerical and pedagogical skills through the written test. The mock teaching session tests the candidate's knowledge and understanding of the topic, instructional and classroom management and transaction skills. During the personal interview, the panel which consists of renowned educationists and senior teaching professionals from the locality appraises candidates on the quality of their professional experience and level of motivation. In addition, a different category of 'mobile' teachers is also recruited. Mobile teachers cater to a group of 3-4 schools and facilitate teaching /learning processes wherever required. They also get involved in the preparation of teaching / learning materials.

In addition, Cluster Coordinators, who receive intense training as trainers are responsible to provide approximately 100 hours of classroom pedagogical support to each school. This is done to handhold the teachers to incorporate prescribed measures aimed at enhancing students learning and instilling life skills.

Bharti Foundation has also put in place a comprehensive system for continuous training of teachers already recruited as well as other stakeholders such as parents and programme staff. In the words of The Foundation,

After every phase of training to gauze their key learning's from the training programme, an on-going assessment of teaching practice is also followed as a continuous improvement measure. After the end of one complete year of teaching, the teachers undertake the end-line assessment to evaluate the impact of the training and support in their overall understanding, attitude and skills.

"We follow a cascading model of training where in all training is deployed by a team of mobile trainers, cluster coordinators and a central training team. The training enables each members maximize her potential, encompassing all aspects of personal, professional and managerial competencies."

Bharti Foundation's progress in terms of schools established, teachers recruited and students enrolled are as follows.

Status of SBSP as on January 2009 No. of operational schools No. of students enrolled No. of teachers Percent of girl students Average student enrollment per school Average student - teacher ratio

158 17,225 589 48 109 31:1

Training of Teachers and Stakeholders The team of trainers is selected keeping in mind key parameters like their experience in the field of education, their ability to think critically and creatively and most important, their passion to bring transformation in education. All trainers undergo a rigorous training of 300 hours spread over two months. The training programme help trainers to think laterally, analyze, take decisions and become effective change agents.

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

In addition to this, Cluster Coordinators train the school guardians in their role and responsibility towards the maintenance and upkeep of the school building and its surroundings. They also work closely with the mobile trainers to impart computer education to teachers.

Constant monitoring and evaluation of teacher performance is central to the Satya Bharti School Programme administration. All teachers are tested on their knowledge and skills through a baseline assessment inventory at the entry level. They also undertake a post-training evaluation after each phase of training to appreciate their key learning's from the training programme. An ongoing assessment of teaching practice is also carried out as a tool for continual improvement. As an annual exercise, teachers undertake the end-line assessment to evaluate the impact of the training and support towards overall understanding, attitude and skills.

Project Administration A teacher centric, technology oriented, constantly updated open learning curricula to be offered at 500 rural schools requires an optimum mix of centralization and delegation. Currently, the headquarters at Gurgaon run a direct and comprehensive control system. The methodology involves two crucial elements: (a) setting up key monitoring data on performance, and (b) direct interface between and among the players at various level of project implementation at specified time intervals.

Bharti Foundation has identified the key monitoring data requirements and put in place a reporting mechanism involving periodic reports and feedback mechanisms.

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

B Bhattacharyya 15

Bharti Foundation representative provided details of its activities.

Monitoring and impact evaluation process, frequency and formats are decided through participatory approach for every individual project. Monitoring has a top-down approach where the objectives are broken into smaller attainable deliverables at the grassroots. Employee participation through visits and audits of these projects on a regular basis is a big initiative towards these projects. Monitoring of any project is done with the basic objective of tracking the changes from baseline conditions to desired outcomes.

Every project is initiated with defined impact parameters, and monitoring of project is normally done for tracking changes among all the stakeholder population, which covers: Direct beneficiaries: With this target group the Foundation aims to measure impact in terms of parameters such as learning level, awareness level, empowerment, increase in economic level, accessibility to a certain commodity or service, etc.

Indirect beneficiaries: It normally covers community, parents, government institutions, etc.

Project execution: Foundation monitors partnership dynamics, reporting and documentation, timeliness of project delivery and tries to measure impact of project. To ensure high quality standards, regular monitoring and evaluation of the programmematic interventions is critical. To measure the effectiveness of the programme, feedback is taken from key stakeholders: Programme specific monitoring and evaluation tools have been devised based on the purpose of the feedback and the stakeholder group that is being approached. The quality assessment of Satya Bharti School programme is done at students, teachers and parents levels. The programme progress at grass root levels is monitored with Monthly Information System (MIS) in place as shown as Annexure III. School Management and Administration School management under Satya Bharti School Programme is decentralized which is made feasible due to the close monitoring system in place. While teachers are responsible for the development of lesson plans and have the complete freedom to experiment with teaching modules within a prescribed framework, parents and community members also contribute to various Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

16 Bringing Education to Children of Lesser Gods

processes in school operations. Sarpanch of the village is encouraged to visit the school at any time and conduct surprise checks.

An important pillar of Bharti Foundation team is the team of Cluster Coordinators. Their involvement extends beyond their functional roles and responsibilities. They are customer centric change agents for the schools, and are instrumental in creating a strong bridge between the community and the school. Cluster Coordinators are also responsible in ensuring process compliance in all Satya Bharti Schools. They receive special training to closely monitor effective deployment of policies pertaining to admissions, student excursions, mid-day meals and conducting parent-teacher meetings, among other things.

Cluster Coordinators look after all administrative and other requirements at schools. This allows teachers to concentrate and engage solely in teaching activities.

Cluster Coordinators are also responsible for identifying resource people at the ground level who can support schools in conducting outdoor project works. They mobilize contributions from villages and all stakeholders. While these contributions take care of a considerable amount of operational costs, it also builds in the community a sense of ownership of the school.

Community contributions act as a parameter of school effectiveness.

"We believe that the Satya Bharti School teachers play the most important role in delivering quality education. It is to uphold these standards of quality, both in terms of education delivery and performance, that Bharti Foundation recruits young and dynamic individuals from the local community as teachers.

Extensive care is taken during the recruitment process to enroll young individuals who, in addition to being inspiring teachers, will also serve as guides and mentors to the students."

Managing and Controlling SBSP from Headquarter Delegation of authority for school management, simultaneously ensuring quality assurance across the entire school universe under the programme requires a multilevel interface structure. The model which is currently in usage at Bharti Foundation is through face to face meetings at predetermined periodicity for different hierarchical levels. The details are given in Annexure IV. Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

B Bhattacharyya 17

Key Constraints Bharti Foundation's targets for schools to be set up and students' enrollment as on January 2009 were 158 schools and 17,225 enrollments as against 500 schools and 2,00,000 enrollments planed.

When enquired about key constraints that were perceived for meeting targets, these were conveyed as: quality of ground staff; quality of teachers and constant training to get them to benchmark quality; importance and respect of data and reporting; current learning levels of students below the required threshold levels; infrastructure, electricity, drinking water; current learning levels very low - dedicated efforts needed to bring these at par with desired standards; parental learning levels near zero no backend support to enhance classroom teaching; and rural grade teacher quality - needs immense bolstering to bring at par with our desired quality.

In government schools adopted by the Foundation, block and cluster level government officials were conditioned by governmental thinking i.e. unable to reconcile with our way of working.

The attrition rate for teachers as on December, 2008 was 23 per cent annually.

Exit interviews were always conducted and follow-up action taken. Three major reasons for teacher's high attrition rates were health related, long distance from school, and lucrative government jobs; for which the action taken included pre-employment health check-ups, taking care of transport needs, and removing the age bar limit for teachers of 35 years for teachers selection in order to recruit more teachers.

When asked how the teacher quality and motivation are being managed operationally, after the teachers have been recruited, the Foundation representative informed that every teacher was needed to undergo twelve days intensive training on Bharti's induction programme. Bharti Foundation has a very structured and attractive 'reward & recognition' policy for its teachers by way of bi-annual awards (gold & silver), annual award (platinum), best school in state award, school excellence award, and instant reward & recognition programme (spot the hero), etc. The Bharti Foundation also pursues employee engagement and welfare policies for its teachers such as, birthday celebration, wedding gift, professional development programme, computer advance, higher education, voluntary saving scheme, and voluntary benevolent scheme, and holding competitions like slogan writing, etc.

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

18 Bringing Education to Children of Lesser Gods

When asked whether the current organizational structure involving extensive multilevel personal interactions will continue to be appropriate when the project gets scaled up, the response was: "We firmly believe that to achieve efficiency in a large scale, geographically wide spread project, empowering the field staff is critical.

Having said that, we also believe that, there needs to be a central control to make sure that the project does not fall apart. In this context we are laying down certain standardized processes and systems to ensure uniformity and implementation as per the strategic plan. We are also laying down systems to ensure accountability and to monitor performance".

For example a standardized operations process manual is being developed.

This will be available at every level from Head Office at Gurgaon to each school in the village and serve as a ready reckoner for day-to-day implementation at ground level. The Quick School software is being set up across all locations to ensure regular feedback to the HO so that performance can be measured and course correction can be introduced in a timely manner.

Additionally, the structure of the organization is currently under review to ensure optimum delegation of authority at various levels. Current organizational structure are included in Annexure V-VII.

Acknowledgement The author wishes to acknowledge his gratitude to Mr. Rakesh Bharti Mittal for his all-out support in making this case study possible. Thanks are also due to Ms. Mamta Saikia and Ms. Anisha Singh of Bharti Foundation for the time and effort they devoted to provide substantive inputs that have gone into this case study.

The case study will be used only for academic purposes and does not in any way reflect on either the programme or the processes involved.

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

B Bhattacharyya 19

20 Bringing Education to Children of Lesser Gods

Annexure II

Annexure I Financial Statement

BHARTI FOUNDATION-GOVERNING BOARD Mr. Sunil Bharti Mittal Mr. Rakesh Bharti Mittal Mr. Rajan Bharti Mittal Mr. Analjit Singh Mr. Anil Kumar Mr. Anil Nayar Mr. Badri Agarwal Mr. K.N. Memani

Mrs. Manju Bharat Ram Mr. Niranjan Ajwani Mr. Sunil Kant Munjal Mrs. Syeda Imam Mr. Vinod Dhall

Prof. V. S. Raju Mr. V. V. Ranganathan

Chairman and Group CEO, Bharti Enterprises.

Vice-Chairman and Managing Director, Bharti Enterprises.

Vice Chairman & Managing Director, Bharti Enterprises.

Chairman, Max Group of Companies.

Director, McKinsey & Company Inc., USA. Managing Director, Prerna Centre for Learning and Development Pvt. Ltd. President, Bharti Foundation.

Chairman, KNM Advisory Pvt. Ltd (Former Chairman and CEO Ernst & Young, India).

Chairperson, The Shri Ram School.

Group Leader, Ajwani Group of Companies.

Chairman, Hero Corporate Service Limited.

Executive Vice President - Creative, Contract Advertising (India) Pvt. Ltd. Former Member and Acting Chairman, Competition Commission of India, Former Secretary, Govt. of India, Former Consultant, United Nations Organisations.

Former Director, IIT Delhi and Professor IIT, Madras.

Founder and Chairman, Pinnacle Opportunities (Formerly Senior Partner, Country Head, Strategic Growth Markets - Ernst & Young, India).

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

As on 31.3.08

Rs. (Millions)

Corpus

1246

Investement

1537

For the year Income form Donation & Investements

422

Capital Expenditure

100

Revenue Expenditure

70

Total Expenditure

170

Knowledge Ethos in Indian Culture KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT Managing knowledge is an important objective in any organization. In Indian culture, all ceremonies are begun by lighting lamp, with light symbolizing knowledge as dispeller of darkness (ignorance). The oil represents vasanas or negative tendencies, and wick represents ego.

Following enlightenment with knowledge, evil tendencies and ego vanish.

The flame of the lamp always burns upward signifying that knowledge should lead to higher ideals and growth. An enlightened person can brighten lives of many individuals just as a single lamp can lighten many lamps without losing its own light.

Accordingly in a popular Sanskrit verse the importance of knowledge is duly highlighted linking knowledge acquisition with tendencies to serve others. Knowledge brings modesty, worthiness comes from modesty, worthiness leads to wealth, and charity (CSR) comes from wealth, which (service) in turn is the source of real happiness. (Vidya dadati vinayam vinayaadyaati paatrataam paatratvaaddhanamaapnoti dhanaadddhrmastatah sukham). (Ntyaneeti-167).

- Editor Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Particulars

Particulars

Year Target / (YTD Target)

Year Target / (YTD Target)

Previous Month

Previous Month

This Month

This Month

Reasons for Variance

Reasons for Variance

Remarks

Remarks

Annexure III

B Bhattacharyya 21

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

22 Bringing Education to Children of Lesser Gods

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

School Meeting

1.

Meeting Name Meeting Name

Cluster Meeting

2.

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

S.No. S.No.

(a) HTs of all schools (b) SA (c) AC

Main Paarticipants

Monthly

Frequency of Meeting

Fortnightly

(a) Teachers (b) HT (c) SA or AC

Previous Month

Frequency of Meeting

Year Target / (YTD Target)

Main Paarticipants

School Cluster Level Meetings

Meeting Name Meeting Name

S.No. S.No.

School Level Meetings

Particulars

1. District State Coordinator, 2. AC 3. SA 4. Specific invitees (HR/Accounts/ Finance/Quality

SA

Organizers

HT

Organizers

Reasons for Variance

Other Participants

SA or AC

Other Participants

This Month

School

Venue

School

Venue

24 Bringing Education to Children of Lesser Gods4

1. Curriculum Related 2. Teacher Training 3. Student performance 4. Administration 5. Other issues

Agenda

1. Student Performance 2. Community/ Parent Related 3. Training 4. Administration

Agenda

Annexure - IV

Remarks

B Bhattacharyya 23

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Fortnightly

Quarterly

(a) Head Teachers (of the District) (c) District

(a) SA (b) AC (c) District Coordinator

Frequency of Meeting

Main Paarticipants

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

b) State Heads b) Departmental Heads of Operations

c) Operations Team

State & GO Operations Coordination Meeting

GO Operations Team Coordination Meeting

7

8

9

AC HT

head Teacher

Academic Coordinator

School Administrator

a) State Heads b) Functional Heads

State & GO Coordination Meeting

SA

Main Participants

Monthly

Monthly

Monthly

Frequency of Meeting

State Heads & Coordinators

Meeting Name

Key

Organizers

District

District

Venue

By Invitation

By Invitation

Functional Heads : Construction HR, Quality Finance, Operations

Participants

District Coordinator

(a) SA(s) (b) AC(s) District (c) Other district Coordinator staff as

Other Participants

S. No.

Gurgaon Office (GO) Meetings

District Coordination Meeting

District Meeting of HTS

3.

4.

Meeting Name Meeting Name

S.No. S.No.

District level Meetings

1. School Operation 2. District team Performance 3. Community Participation 4. Reporting & Documenting

1. Curriculum Related 2. Teacher Training 3. Student performance 4. Reports Other issues

Agenda

B Bhattacharyya 25 26 Bringing Education to Children of Lesser Gods

B Bhattacharyya 27

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

28 Bringing Education to Children of Lesser Gods

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

B Bhattacharyya 29

30 Bringing Education to Children of Lesser Gods

BE FEARLESS Young men, pursuing studies, are afraid of hard discipline and well-planned persistence; and yet they want good careers and feel frustrated because they fear that may not secure them.

A farmer is afraid to part with his crops cheaply but demands cheap cloth and cement; a merchant is afraid to pay income-tax, but claims soaring profits; a politician fears the loss of his position or office, but demands that others should accept him as a leader, his word as law, his outlook as truth.

In order to provide against this widespread fear we want things to be made safe and easy. We want cheap degrees and easy careers, a home which is not a heaven of mutual understanding but a temple of pleasure with no responsibility.

We want the State to provide cheap food, good profits, provident funds, old age pensions, equality enforced by courts of law, justice regulated by parliamentary majorities, and peace with armaments to provide against the fear of aggression.

So obsessed are we with fear all over the world that instead of meeting it squarely, we invite a mighty collective fear to secure for us freedom from fear.

We undermine inner strength in the interest of an external strength of a social order in which only materialistic resources are taken into account.

The result is that fear destroys the moral and spiritual foundations of life, which only come from a fearless habit of mind.

– Dr. K.M.Munshi

Source: Bhavan's Journal, April 30, 2009.

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Case Diagnoses BRINGING EDUCATION TO CHILDREN OF LESSER GODS: Bharti Foundation's Satya Bharti School Programme

CASE ANALYSIS I Dr. K.M.Mital Professor, Strategy and CSR, IILM Institute for Higher Education, 3, Lodhi Institutional Area, New Delhi - 110 003 E-mail: krishna.mital@iilm.edu Issue 1: Taxonomy of Bharti Foundation's CSR A question often posed is why business should be socially responsible.

Reasons could be several, but some prominent ones (taxonomy of business responsibilities) include : business ethics, legal compliance, philanthropy and community investment, environment management, sustainability, animal rights, human rights, worker rights and welfare, market relations, corruption and corporate governance (Blowfield &Murray, 2008). A very basic company responsibility is to stay within law by sticking to legal compliance. However, not all companies choose to comply with this requirement. CSR is far beyond legal compliance and involves fair amount of philanthropy but which unlike legal compliance is discretionary and voluntary. CSR is traditionally seen as a discretionary responsibility involving giving back to society a portion of surplus wealth through philanthropic donations.

In the 1990s, companies increasingly began to take a more strategic view of philanthropy by working for social causes that were also aligned with their business objectives, which Michael Porter, the famous strategic management guru, named as strategic CSR. According to Michael Porter, CSR initiatives can be divided as 'generic CSR', 'responsive CSR' and 'strategic CSR'. Based on Indian ethos, CSR activities can be divided into three broad groups sattvick CSR (generic CSR), rajsick CSR (strategic CSR) and tamsick CSR (ignoble CSR). While responsive CSR refers to socially useful activities carried out by responsible corporate citizen and addressing every social harm the business creates, strategic CSR is far more selective. ITC's much publicized experiment of e-Choupal, is perhaps Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009) Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009) © 2009 IILM Institute for Higher Education.

All Rights Reserved.

32 Bringing Education to Children of Lesser Gods

first major 'strategic CSR' initiative in India, which benefitted both the company and concerned farming community.

Strategic CSR refers to such pursuits which impact value chain on sustained basis, while at the same time benefiting its service providers.

Strategic CSR involves both inside-out and outside-in dimensions working in tandem. Strategic CSR helps impact value chain on sustained basis, as it enhances ‘shares value’ by investing in social projects that strengthen company’s competitiveness. It develops mutually beneficial relationship between the company and community. Company growth and societal growth are connected to one another in positive feedback loop. The more closely tied is a social issue is to the company's business, the greater is opportunity to leverage the firms resources and capabilities that benefit society. When value chain practices and social investments move in tandem, it becomes difficult to distinguish between CSR and day-to-day business of the company (Porter and Kramer, 2006).

Responsive CSR occurs in two types of situations, one - when societal problems are none of the company's creations, and two - when the societal problems are company's creations, when anyway it is obligatory by it to mitigate impact of its operations. In both the cases business needs to respond as a responsible corporate citizen. Mitigating the harm caused by a firm's value chain activities is an operational requirement which no company can afford to ignore on moral grounds. Union Carbide plant tragedy in Bhopal in 1984 is a case-in-point i.e. had on time the company acted proactively and mitigated the risks posed by the methyl iso-cynate, dreadful gas used in making pesticides, the industry's worst disaster could have been averted.

Government of India over the years has sought to universalize education through the government school system by setting up large number of schools in urban and rural areas. However, government schools in many states still lack desired standards of quality teaching and necessary infrastructure in view of country's vastness and resource crunch. This is often reflected in poor academic results and high drop-out rates. To fill the gap in elementary education, a number of private schools have come as education providers, but they are also not having adequate infrastructure and quality teachers.

Thus, both government and private schools need additional inputs for quality education and capacity building in elementary education. India's capability wealth has made significant strides that enabled country launch satellite into outer space, and make noted contributions in computer science and software development, but at the same time it could not make similar claims in providing Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

B Bhattacharyya 33

quality elementary education and primary health care facilities to its citizens.

CSR initiatives of Bharti Foundation and Azim Premji Foundation are anyway very timely in a very vital area -- quality elementary education. Bharti Foundation and Azim Premji Foundation could not have chosen better field than advancement of quality elementary education in significant manner across the length and breadth of the country. The need for improving elementary education and primary healthcare facilities in India has been highlighted by no other than but Prof. Amartya Sen, India's Nobel Laureate in Economics (1998). According to him, one field in which India has done less than even the average of other poorest countries in the world is elementary education. Due to resource crunch, successive governments could not spend enough on elementary education. The problem is equally severe for raising general literacy levels of male and female adults. Adult literacy rate could barely touch 50 per cent as against 78 per cent in China, which is even lower than the average figure of 55 per cent in early nineties for all 'low-income economies' excluding China and India. India on this front in his writings of early nineties was rated even lower than other nations such as Ghana, Indonesia, Kenya, Myanmar, Philippines, Zimbabwe, and Zambia, though these nations had not done as remarkable in science and technology as India did.

Initiatives of Bharti Foundation and Azim Premji Foundation can be appropriately classified as 'generic CSR' or as sattvick CSR, as those are seemingly not inspired to promote any business interest but more by sense of service to the nation and supplementing government efforts in elementary education. Education is not the area of core competence of either Bharti Enterprises or Wipro which were founded by very well-known business leaders, Sunil Bharti Mital and Azim Premji, respectively. On the other hand if one considers ICICI Bank providing loan assistance for elementary education projects in rural areas, and considering that providing loan facility is a bank's core business activity, it will be more appropriate to categorize it as strategic CSR as it promotes both social development and its business interests. Similarly, if Bharti Enterprises at any stage in future ventures into rural banking sector, it will be appropriate to call it strategic CSR as on one hand it will further its business interests and on the other hand it will create banking facilities in huge proportions of unbanked areas in the country (Arun, 2009).

Issue 2: Prospects of Bharti Foundation Meeting its CSR Targets Bharti Foundation works in partnerships with several corporate foundations, Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

34 Bringing Education to Children of Lesser Gods

NGOs and organizations that are active in elementary education field. While some IT majors such as IBM, Microsoft and Oracle provide IT software and hardware support, well-known foundations such as Azim Premji Foundation based on its rich experience in elementary education provides, among others, necessary inputs for improving the subject contents and making them more IT oriented. Bharti Foundation also partners with other NGOs of the like 'Discovery' and 'Pratham' in activities like choice of text books, curriculum planning, and developing mathematics and science labs that develops creativity among students.

Satya Bharti School Programme (SBSB) was launched as a pilot programme in northern region comprising Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and UP, with active participation of community in several ways such as recruitment of local teachers, setting up of schools on land pieces donated by community members, identifying vendors for the school from local community, etc. A record 158 primary schools are reportedly operational, reaching out to over 17,000 children. This included fully operational 109 Satya Bharti Primary Schools with 11,853 children and 49 as existing government schools that were run under Satya Bharti School Programme, with 5372 children. A further 78 schools were expected to be added by April 2009, with a view to increase total enrollment to over 50,000 children in Phase I. The targets are thus very ambitious for a corporate house to embark upon.

It will not be incongruous at this stage to compare these targets with those of Azim Premji Foundation, which works in partnership with government on a scale that is necessary to impact on a very large elementary education system in India. The Azim Premji Foundation later on begged the Economic Times Corporate Excellence Award for CSR in 2006 for its contributions in elementary education, with support of various state government agencies and officials. The Azim Premji Foundation till 2006 had touched nearly 20,000 schools, 60,000 teachers and three million children. With over 250 professionals and over 1000 paid field volunteers, its vision is to 'significantly contribute to achieving quality universal education to facilitate a just, equitable and humane society.' The Foundation aims to deliver quality universal education across the country by bringing systemic changes in partnership with the government agencies and not merely develop smaller 'islands of excellence'. The Foundation has also set up training institutes for school teachers as it believes in improving school performance by improving quality of teachers and school infrastructure (Premji, 2006).

The Economic Times vide its Annual Corporate Excellence Awards for Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

B Bhattacharyya 35

2005-06 honoured the 'Azim Premji Foundation' as the 'Corporate Citizen of the Year'. The Economic Times Jury noted that the contributions of the Foundation in realizing the dream of a more equitable society in India is commendable. This is a story that cannot be measured by numbers, as the task that the Foundation has undertaken is both massive and complex. It is the story of providing hope and opportunity and helping unlock the potential of millions of young minds. It is the story of the unflinching dedication of hundreds of anonymous dreamers, who have given up more comfortable alternatives to pursue a great cause (The Economic Times, Awards for Corporate Excellence, September 11, 2006).

When Azim Premji Foundation can make such a spectacular success in meeting its goals, the reviewer sees no reason why the Bharti Foundation will also not achieve splendid success under an equally dynamic leader as theirs, especially when the former is guiding the Bharti's activities in elementary education.

Issue 3: Financing of Bharti's Wide ranging CSR Programme ICICI Bank, a premier private bank in the country, as part of its strategic CSR initiatives, provides loan facility for expanding school infrastructure and capacity, making school purchases, including investments on innovative measures and teachers' training. It also offers loan facilities to poor students including issuance of loan vouchers that allow low income families to access education of their choice, whether public or private. The ICICI Bank's such 'strategic CSR' initiatives, can be utilized to finance Bharti Foundation programmes, if so required. A partnership between Bharti Enterprises or more specifically Bharti Foundation with banks such as the ICICI Bank, which are already into the business of financing school education projects, can part finance the Foundation' school programme partially or entirely on agreed terms, depending on such needs. Bharti Enterprises otherwise itself is a mighty and financially strong corporate entity that may not require any financial support.

A partnership between the two can go a long way in improving quality and coverage of school education already done on a scale not heard before as a corporate initiative except by Azim Premji Foundation. Precedence of such large scale generic CSR initiatives have already been set by the Azim Premji Foundation. Partnership with the likes of ICICI Bank for meeting financing needs can be one of the potential options in the event of fund shortages. Such partnerships can go a long way in raising the standards Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

36 Bringing Education to Children of Lesser Gods

and coverage of elementary education across the length and breadth of the country for which ICICI Bank is already very much experienced in such matters.

Addressing social issues by creating shared value will lead to selfsustaining solutions that do not depend on private or government subsidies.

When a well run business applies its vast resources, expertise and management talent to problems that it understands and in which it has a stake, it can have greater impact on social good than any other institution or philanthropic organization (Porter and Kramer, 2006). The reviewer thus sees no financing difficulties when financially strong enterprises like Bharti Enterprises or its Foundation are at helm, and numerous options for partnerships with institutions like ICICI Bank are available.

Issue 4: Centralization versus Decentralization Issues in Bharti Foundation Bharti Foundation's initiative for improving standards and coverage of elementary education on a significant scale in the country is very similar to that of Azim Premji Foundation, except that while the former is more north India centric (Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan) though it is also in Tamil Nadu; the latter was initially more focused in south India but later on extended to several other regions covering later virtually whole of India. Azim Foundation is active in Himachal Pradesh, Uttrakhand, Punjab, Delhi, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Pondicherry and Tamil Nadu.

Nature of activities of Bharti Enterprises in telecom sector are countrywide and the organization has sufficient expertise in dealing with centralized versus decentralized issues. It is this expertise of parent organization that can be gainfully utilized in resolving any problems of Bharti Foundation in spreading quality elementary education countrywide. Its professed philosophy has been one of centralized policy making and decentralized administration, which always proves handy when spread and control due to wide dispersal becomes unwieldy.

Issue 5: Impact Assessment of Foundation's CSR Programme Interdependence of a company and society can be analyzed with the same tools used to analyze competitive position and develop strategy. By proceeding systematically, the company can set an affirmative CSR agenda that produces Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

B Bhattacharyya 37

maximum social benefit as well as economic gains for the business (Porter and Kramer, 2006).

Companies are called on to address hundreds of social issues, but only a few represent opportunities to make a real difference to society or to confer a competitive advantage. A company may choose a checklist approach, for short-listing applicable factors from standardized lists of social, education and healthcare outcomes resulting from CSR activities.

Analysts can use value chain to identify social impacts of different factors and then rank them according to attainment of the intended objectives. The Global Reporting Initiative, which is rapidly becoming a standard for CSR reporting, has enumerated a list of 141 CSR issues, supplemented by auxiliary lists for different industries. These lists can serve as a valuable starting point but eventually a company should develop its own set of evaluation factors to which it more relates, as companies prefer to adhere to a more proactive and internal processes tailored to its specific needs.

Issue 6: Teacher's Learning Model for Bharti's Elementary Education Activities Area of sustainable environment and livelihood security is of increasing importance to business schools in India and world at large. Accordingly, need of the future would be more CSR managers and school faculty. There is a growing need for qualified and trained CSR managers, who can deliver competitive business advantage, and contribute towards climate-friendly energy future which is a formidable task. Several business schools in India are focusing on triple bottom line approach, namely, simultaneous pursuit of business objectives, corporate social and environmental responsibility.

Gurgaon-based IILM Institute for Higher Education is currently teaching CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) as a core subject for promoting CSR as a core business philosophy. New Delhi Institute of Management at Okhla is teaching courses on business ethics in which significance of corporate citizenship and triple bottom line involving business objectives, social and environmental concerns, are duly covered. Large number of management schools also conduct management development programmes on human values and business ethics that deal with triple bottom line themes.

Bharti Foundation should focus on institutional delivery mechanisms, capacity building for teachers, administrators, create demand for quality Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

38 Bringing Education to Children of Lesser Gods

education, and improve quality of education imparted. The Foundation can play major role in supplementing government initiatives as well as supporting NGOs interventions in several areas including teachers training as only then it can achieve the goal of quality education.

Being a CSR initiative of a telecom company, Bharti Foundation can employ ICT (information & communication technology) to focus on universal access, gender parity and quality education. ICT can enable 'single-window, ondemand' best quality educational resources, information and knowledge at all locations and time according to the convenience of learners both for faculty and students. It can address problems relating to dropouts, low female literacy, shortage of teachers, etc and can make teaching and learning process more attractive, thus enabling India to move closer to the Millennium Development Goals.

Concluding Remarks In view of vastness of the country and growing population, government alone cannot do everything for social development, and accordingly corporate entities, members of civil society organizations have to come forward in extending helping hand. Initiatives such as Bharti Foundation and Azim Premji Foundation by country's eminent corporate leaders, Sunil Bharti Mittal and Azim Premji in providing quality education, on a large scale as a positive force of development, are thus very timely and appropriate. CSR can be a competitive advantage if in the first instance it focuses on activities which affect its business directly or indirectly. A generic and responsive CSR howsoever sincere and well-intentioned it may be, can make only limited impact depending on the level of involvement and it is only strategic CSR which can make a sustained impact on ongoing basis as positive force of development. When CSR leads to competitive advantage, the activity is likely to continue unabated.

As earning profit is a legitimate business activity, business should be free to pursue a course which is beneficial for both. In any case it will be unfair to expect that business should address only societal problems. Apart from a 'generic' CSR initiative of promoting quality education through Bharti Foundation, Bharti Enterprises as its 'strategic CSR' initiative could also think of diversifying into rural banking. Given the demographic profile and fast economic growth, large number of people will be entering into workforce and need bank accounts (Arun, 2009). Existing commercial and private banks perhaps may not be enough to meet country's growing banking needs Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

B Bhattacharyya 39

as there exists large areas which are still unbanked. Helping hand by corporate entities in reducing unbanked areas subject to RBI concurrence should be a welcome proposition as their strategic CSR initiative amounting to 'concentric' or 'conglomerate' diversification as long as it addresses India's rapidly growing socio-economic needs.

REFERENCES Arun, T.K. (2009) Banking, the Next Big Thing for Bharti, The Economic Times, October 8, p.12.

Blowfield, M. & Allan Murray Murray (2008) Corporate Responsibility: A Critical Introduction, Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP. Charski, M. (2008) Business Schools Teach Environmental Studies,US News and World Report, March 26, 2008. Accessed on September 17, 2009 (www.usnews.com).

Clench, Callum (2009) Environmental Management and Business Policy, School of Management and Business Policy, University of London, Birkback. Accessed on September 17, 2009. (www.bbk.ac.uk).

Porter, M.E. and Kramer, M.R.(2002) The Competitive Advantage of Corporate Philanthropy, Harvard Business Review, 80 (12), pp.56-68.

Porter, M.E. and Kramer, M.R.(2006) Strategy and Society: Link between Competitive Advantage and Corporate Social Responsibility, Harvard Business Review, 84 (12), pp.78-92.

Premji, A.H. (2006) Corporates are Socio-Economic Citizens, Outlook Business, August 20, 2006, p.38-40.

NATURE AND ENVIRONMENT The environment is much more than a policy position to me; it is a profoundly moral obligation. We only have one earth. And if we do not keep it healthy and safe, every other gift we leave our children will be meaningless.

- Al Gore, former US Vice-President and Nobel Laureate Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

40 Bringing Education to Children of Lesser Gods

CASE ANALYSIS II Dr. Vineeta Dutta Roy Assistant Professor, Birla Institute of Management Technology, Greater Noida E-mail: vineeta.roy@bimtech.ac.in The case study is appropriate in that it documents an initiative of a business house relevant to community development. The detailed information provided helps comprehend the philosophy behind the initiative while at the same time also facilitating one to assess the sustainability of the programme.

Issue 1: Satya Bharti School Program (SBSP): An Example of Classical Philanthropy Model versus Strategic CSR Philanthropy when practiced as pure charity by businesses would involve donation of business resources to aid some group of people in society. These donations may assume different forms like emergency humanitarian relief during disasters, cash, products or services, company equipment or technology, provision of company personnel for consultation, training, management, or product/system implementation assistance.

Sustainable commitment to philanthropy is needed for social improvements, while wealth generation is required for owners to commit to sustained philanthropy. An approach to philanthropy that links social benefits more directly to business benefits would mitigate the risks of sustainability and increase benefits to all stakeholders, an approach envisioned in strategic CSR. Moreover, there are several strategic linkages between CSR and company profitability even though they may not be deliberately pursued.

Cultivation of company character and good reputation requires a long time for stakeholders to take cognizance of it but once attained it is rewarded: (i) by loyalty, trust, and commitment from stakeholders which can reduce costs associated with contracting and regulation, as also enabling companies to take more risks and to persevere through tough times; (ii) may enable companies to capitalize on a market niche overlooked by profit-only competitors; and (iii) may help avert market-based punishments such as boycotts better than non - CSR companies.

Hence, Bharti Foundation's approach for CSR may succeed in delivering Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

B Bhattacharyya 41

42 Bringing Education to Children of Lesser Gods

strategic advantages to the organization in the long run.

financial sustainability of the current model.

Issue 2: Likelihood for Meeting SBSP Targets

Issue 4: SBSP Management Structure and Practices

Targets for SBSP by 2010 included setting up 500 primary schools and 50 senior secondary schools under the public private partnership model reaching out to 2,00,000 children. Earlier targets set by April, 2009 i.e. end of the Phase I covered setting up 236 primary schools and 24 senior secondary schools benefiting 50,000 children representing approximately 50 per cent of the target set. Progress achieved till January, 2009 involved setting up158 primary schools that were operational benefiting approximately 17,000 children. Thus, 60 per cent of the target of the Phase I of the programme has been achieved with three months time still available.

The present structure is adequate as when the programme has been rolled out for North India with Head quarters at Delhi offering much needed central co-ordination and control and the various state heads co-ordinating with functional heads and functional heads in turn being assisted by staff at various levels. The feedback flow could be expected to be logical, tightly regulated and easy to monitor.

Apart from the constraints of infrastructure, human resources and reaching out to extremely disadvantaged sections of the society, the Foundation is expected to see major challenge in the enrollment of children since the data on target and progress shows that although there has been an achievement of nearly 60 per cent of the Phase I target for programme implementation, there has been only 34 per cent progress in achieving the targets laid out for achieving student enrollments.

The scalability may bring in problems of geographic dispersion but there are reasons to believe that this organizational structure replicated in different zones in India like East, West or South may be able to provide an effective scale to the programme.

Issue 5: SBSP Socio-economic Impact Assessment Socio-economic impact assessment examines how a proposed development will change the lives of current and future residents of a community. The indicators used to measure the potential socio-economic impacts of a development include the following:

Issue 3: SBSP Financial Sustainability The case lacks information on the plans of the Foundation to fund and sustain its growth. Based on the figures for the year 2008, the Foundation will need to add to its income in order to sustain its operational expenditure for its targeted level of operations. However, in the absence of budgeted figures for the next 5 to 10 years, it is difficult to comment on the viability of the current model. Some issues that the Foundation may need to address are: the size and sustainability of income from donations, optimizing return on investments and managing the risks therein, addition to the current corpus, sustainability of earnings to fund capital expenditure and ability to fund operational expenditure through earnings.

A second challenge to sustainability is the low enrollment level (per school). Since the objective of the Foundation is to maximize reach of education to deprived sections, a low level of enrollment strikes at the very heart of the vision. The question then changes from that of financial sustainability to whether the current model of school based education will deliver the required results. This is a greater question than that of pure Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

• • • • •

Changes in community demographics: Results of retail/service and housing market analyses; Demand for public services; Changes in employment and income levels; and Changes in the aesthetic quality of the community.

Quantitative measurement of such factors is an important component of the socio-economic impact assessment. At the same time, the perceptions of community members about how a proposed development will affect their lives are a critical part of the assessment and should contribute to any decision to move ahead with a project. In fact, gaining an understanding of community values and concerns is an important first step in conducting a socio-economic impact assessment.

The socio-economic impacts of a proposed development on a community may actually begin the day the project is proposed. Changes in social structure and inter-actions among community members may occur once the new development is proposed to the community. In addition, real, measurable Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

B Bhattacharyya 43

and often significant effects on the human environment can begin to take place as soon as there are changes in social or economic conditions. From the time of the earliest announcement of a pending policy change or development project, attitudes towards the project are formed, interest groups and other coalitions prepare strategises, speculators may lock up potentially important properties, and politicians can maneuver for position.

Issues 6: SBSP's HR solutions for Recruiting, Training and Retaining Teachers Recruitment The principle of recruiting teachers from the local community to enhance community participation and instil a sense of ownership shall be extremely challenging because of (1) observed difficulty of obtaining teachers from the village/ cluster of villages and (2) obtaining teachers with desirable attributes.

The problem may be alleviated by setting up mechanisms to ensure that (i) adequate awareness prevails regarding these job opportunities; (ii) all those who may be interested to avail themselves of the opportunity are facilitated to apply ( travel, lodging, and application assistance); (iii) all those who may be interested but have reservations (socio-economic/cultural) may be encouraged to apply; and (iv) teachers are encouraged to suggest potential candidates from their own/nearby villages for these posts.

Training Although the training programme envisioned and put in place by the Foundation is adequate and comprehensive, feedback of participating teachers is crucial to determine its efficacy. Since the teachers are not simply expected to deliver job functions for remuneration but also to garner sensitivity to the cause, have a sense of pride and believe wholeheartedly in the cause that their enthusiasm levels and satisfaction from their jobs also needs to be kept tab of.

Retention Employee motivation at work may throw up several factors to be monitored and addressed like health, hygiene and safety conditions at work, pride, self development and career growth opportunities available, job security and retirement benefits, etc. The ones most relevant to the teachers at the schools may be seriously taken care of to alleviate attrition problem.

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

44 Bringing Education to Children of Lesser Gods LIGHT FOR LIFE There is no religion higher than Truth and Righteousness. Scriptures cannot transcend reason and truth, They are intended to purify reason and illuminate truth. It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than without a heart. Man is the maker of his won destiny in the sense that he has the freedom of the choice as to the manner in which he uses his freedom. But he is no controller of results. Goodness must be joined with knowledge. Mere goodness is not of much use. One must retain the fine discriminating quality which goes with spiritual courage and character.

In matter of conscience the law of of majority has no place - Mahatma Gandhi

GODDESS SARASWATI The term Saraswati indicates the free flow of though ans spread of knowledge everywhere (Sarh prasaranam Sarvatrasteeti Saraswati). In Hindu mythology, Saraswati is the muse, the source of inspiration and she is the power presiding over vak or speech (Vagadhistatri). She is the Reality manifesting Herself in the form of words and though. She represents the Sattvic from of Devi.

Saraswati is also known as Mahavidya (the repository of spiritual knowledge), Mahavanee (the deity who presides over the faculty of speech), Arya (one who is respected) Brami (the spouse of Brahma), Kamadhenu (the cow of plenty), Vedagarbha (the very embodiment gives other synonyms of Vedas or knowledge, Dhi (intellect) and Iswari.

Amaraimha gives other synonyms in his kosa (Brahmee tu bharatee Bhasha girvagvanee saraswatee). She is Bharati, because she descended down to the earth along with the Sage Bharata. She is Bhasha, because she serves as the vehicle of expression i.e., language (Bhasyata iti Bhasha). She is gee or that which is spoken. She is vak or world (Bhasha vyktayam vaci), Saraswati propounds desired effect can only be realized by the observance of Karma in the of kratus (karma yajnah phalam tasam).

Apavarga on the proper accentuation at the time of reciting the Vedic hymns.

Saraswati is worshiped during the Sarannavaratri season (Dasara).

Special services are offered in the bright half of the month Aswina when the moon moves between the lunar mansions Moola and Sravana. As She is worshipped in the autumnal season (Saratkala), she is styled SARADA. Source : Bahvan's Journal, October 4, 1959.

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

46 Working Capital Management as a Key for Value Creation:...

WORKING CAPITAL MANAGEMENT AS A KEY FOR VALUE CREATION: CASE STUDY OF AGRIBUSINESS PRIVATE DAIRY FIRMS Viqar Ali Baig Working capital is just like the heart of business. If it becomes weak, the business can hardly prosper and survive. Previous research findings related to working capital management practices indicated that if the financial management practices, especially working capital management, of the agribusiness firms, generally small in size, could be significantly improved, then few firms would fail, and therefore proper working capital management practices are extremely important for these firms.

In order to improve the working capital management practices, it is essential for the finance managers to adopt a proper approach of working capital decisions making to drive their respective firms towards success in order to generate the value for the shareholders.

Therefore, the main purpose of this paper is to report findings of a survey of working capital management practices of agribusiness (private dairy) firms as a part of my thesis conducted in July 2008. Working capital management practices of private dairy firms are analyzed with the help of a two dimensional approach for working capital decision making, developed as a part of my thesis, in order to analyze the improvements in the working capital management practices.

This approach is based on optimising the cash flows, for shareholder value creation, through the management of current assets, current liabilities, sales and purchase operations as well as relationship with the customers and suppliers. A sample of three private dairy firms is taken for the study in which Mother Dairy Food Processing Ltd is selected as main firm for study and Kwality Dairy and VRS Foods are selected for making a comparative study. These findings provide deeper insights into working capital management practices and provide suggestions for improvements.

Key words: Working capital management, two dimensional approach: inernally, externally, private dairy firms.

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009) Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009) Š 2009 IILM Institute for Higher Education.

All Rights Reserved.

INTRODUCTION In firms of all sizes, a basic aim of management accounting routines is to control vital areas and to monitor, and hopefully improve, performance (Emmanuel et al., 1990; Dent, 1996). Agribusiness firms generally small in size need to particularly control and monitor their working capital. This is because they are generally associated with a higher proportion of current assets (up to 60per cent) relative to large firms, less liquidity, volatile cash flows, and a reliance on short-term debt (Peel et al., 2000). Evidence suggests that mostly these firms practice ad hoc or subjective working capital decisionmaking rather than modern approach for creating the value for the firm (Nayak and Greenfield, 1994; Khoury et al., 1999). Peel and Wilson (1996) assert that these firms should adopt proper working capital management practices in order to reduce the probability of business closure, as well as to enhance business performance.

Knowledge and understanding of the working capital management practices of Agribusiness firms is currently inadequate. Research in this area is determined by absence of an agreed framework for model development and hypothesis formulation. Little theoretical justification has been provided for the lower take-up of working capital management practices by agribusiness firms (Pike and Pass, 1987; Mitchell et al., 1998). Most empirical studies simply describe the characteristics of their sampled firms and the proportion of firms reporting the utilization of specific working capital management techniques (Peel and Wilson, 1996; Maxwell et al., 1998). The factors associated with the adoption of working capital management practices have generally been explored within a univariate statistical framework (Kim and Chung, 1990; Mian and Smith, 1992; Ng et al., 1999).

Therefore, the main purpose of this paper is to report findings of a survey of working capital management practices of agribusiness (private dairy) firms as a part of my thesis conducted in July 2008. Working capital management practices of private dairy firms are analyzed with the help of a two dimensional approach for working capital decision making, developed as a part of my thesis, in order to analyze the improvements in the working capital management practices. This approach is based on optimising the cash flows, for shareholder value creation, through the management of current assets, current liabilities, sales and purchase operations as well as relationship with the customers and suppliers.

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

ZEAL It is difficult to achieve highest aim without zeal.

- Emerson Nothing is difficult in this world for a person possessing zeal.

- Valmiki Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Fig. 1 Two-Dimensional Approach for Working Capital Management

Management of firm’s relation with their customers Management of level of current assets

It is attempted to classify functions of managing working capital internally, the first dimension, into the management of level of current assets, current liabilities and management of operations that affect the balances of current assets and liabilities as well as the management of activities of cash payments and cash receipts (Fig. 1). As for working capital management on operations, it focuses on operations of purchases and sales and related activities of cash payments and cash receipts.

Management of operations of purchase and sales

Functions of two-dimensional approach used

Managing working capital internally (First dimension)

Methodology used of this paper is a two-dimensional approach - internal and external. This approach is developed as part of author's doctoral work.

Internally, it takes care of the management of level of investment in current assets and short-term financing as well as management of operations (that affect the balances of current assets and liabilities) and therefore maximises benefits and minimizes cost of the working capital assets and short-term financing (short-term debts) by taking care of internally generated problems.

Externally, it manages firm-supplier and firm-customer cooperation and thus minimizes costs of inter-firm transactional relations and thereby resulting in synergy effects on firm value by taking care of externally generated problems.

This is achieved by reducing inter-firm transaction costs and creates firm value in a win-win condition (Rubin and Alvarez, 1998).

Working capital management

METHODOLOGY USED FOR STUDYING WCM PRACTICES

Management of activities of cash payment and cash receipts

Managing working capital externally (Second dimension)

This paper is divided into five sections; second section covers introduction of approached used for studying the working capital management practices, research methodology is a part of section third and empirical findings of dairy firms, are discussed in section four, and section five concludes the paper findings.

Management of firm’s relation with their suppliers

48 Working Capital Management as a Key for Value Creation:...

Management of level of current liabilities

Viqar Ali Baig 47

Viqar Ali Baig 49

If a firm can effectively design purchasing and sales policies, it would have other direct effect in a firm's external value chain as credit purchasing and payment as well as credit selling and collection policies have. For instance, a policy of speeding-up collections and slowing down payments may have negative effects in the value chain and on the confidence and trust building with transaction partners. In the management of the activities of cash payment, the firm has to slow-down cash payments and pay debts as late as it is reliable with maintaining its credit standing with suppliers so that it can make the most efficient use of the money it already has. According to Scherr (1989), methods used to slow-down cash disbursements may include: control of disbursements, using payable through drafts, zero base account, and managing payroll and dividend disbursements and playing the float. In the management of the activities of cash receipt, the firm has to speed-up and control cash collection. A firm has to speed-up the collection of sales so that it earns income and uses the money sooner, for investment or paying bills and save future expenses. The methods that can be used to speed cash collection process include earlier billing, a lock-box system and concentration banking. For purposes of managing working capital internally refers only to the levels and operations, which are directly, connected with the firms external linkages (that its suppliers and customers). This paper does not refer to internal operations such as production operations and other internally performed administrative activities.

It is attempted to classify function of managing working capital externally, second dimension, as the management of relations (cooperation) of firms with their forward linkages (Customers) and backward linkages (suppliers) (Fig. 1). As not a single firm can survive in isolation, it has to make transactions with the other firms e.g. suppliers, customer. Every transaction between the two firms has costs, which can only be minimized, for both, by mutual co-operation. It, therefore, originates need for development of an appropriate inter-firm managerial control pattern. With the help of which transaction costs for both the firms may decrease. It may cause to increase in value of the firm. Two types of costs are associated with each transaction, one is of working capital balances (change in the balances of current assets and liabilities caused by the transaction) and other originates from the inter-firm transactional relationship. Therefore total cost of a transaction is aggregate of these two costs. Cost of working capital balances is subjected to control in managing working capital internally. Here, our issue of discussion is the second component of transaction cost. The volume and spread of inter-firm Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

50 Working Capital Management as a Key for Value Creation:...

transactional relationship cost depend upon the transacting characteristics existing between the transacting firms. Aggregate cost of transaction of a firm may increase if both the firms in transaction seek to maximize their own benefits without considering the effects of their actions on other transaction firm. But there are some costs, under the head of inter-firm relationship costs, which can be avoided if the two transacting parties coordinate their common operations (Williamson, 1985). It can be achieved if firms can assess their transaction and decide on the appropriate inter-firm managerial control pattern. It will possibly reduce the aggregate costs of firms to a level below the sum total of costs of both firms without cooperation. Therefore the environment of cooperation (inter firm managerial control pattern) between transacting parties may result at a concomitant benefit of creating value to both firms by reducing inter-firm transactional relationship cost.

Inter-firm cooperation has become important as a result of specialization and globalisation. Number of inter-firm transactions will rapidly increase in numbers as the firms are specializing in few of their operations and leaving the rest to other firms. Inter-firm cooperation will also decrease cost of working capital balances within the firm. Proper inter-firm cooperation decreases the need to hold extra balances of cash, receivables and inventories within the firm. Another factor that generates the need of inter-firm cooperation is globalisation of firms due to cost and market factors. When a firm goes global it is forced to depend on the cooperation of other firms, which are accustomed to the new environment in terms of business culture, social culture and regulatory requirements. This inter-firm cooperation creates value chain (Porte, 1985), which is inter-connected with value network (Rappaport, 1986). However, firms have to establish a workable inter-firm control patterns (Van Der Meer Kooistra and Vosselman, 2000). Table 2 indicates working capital management approach expectations of our theoretical model in a summary form.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY A qualitative approach with the emphasis on case study method of research correctly suits for the approach used for studying the working capital management practices. Though it has an input of the exploratory case study, the study has basically focused on the descriptive and explanatory case study approach. In this paper a brief review is made for the approach used Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Viqar Ali Baig 51

for working capital management - internally and externally. Internally, study relates to the value creating characteristics of working capital. Externally, business to business cooperation is assessed. After that, description is on what working capital approaches - internally and externally private dairy firms use. Finally a comparison is made among the practices of the dairy firms. Accordingly, research sub-divided the design of the case research into overall case study, the field research or data collection, data analysis and criteria used to ensure the credibility of the findings.

52 Working Capital Management as a Key for Value Creation:...

Suppliers: The suppliers of whose responses have been studied include Simbhaoli Sugars Ltd. for Mother Dairy, Anirudh Foods Ltd. for Kwality Dairy, Parag Dairy - supplier of VRS foods.

Customers The customers of the for private dairy firm from customer point of view, wholesalers are taken located in the vicinity of Delhi and their name are not mentioned as per their choice.

Table 3 The data base - Firm, Suppliers, Customer

Both the qualitative and quantitative data analysis is used. WCM approach requires using the qualitative data analysis, which according to Miles and Huberman (1994), refers to essences of people, objects and situations and is expressed in terms of words based on observations, interviews and documents. Quantitative data analysis refers to the evaluation of working capital decisions using financial performance ratios. Out of the sources of data collection for case study, archival records, interviews and questionnaires are selected to be used, because of their relevance to the research. Focused and open-ended interviews are conducted with the respondents (managers of firm, its supplier and customer). Interviews would enable to target directly at the case study topic and to perceive casual inferences. Questionnaires are also personally administered and collected from the firms' managers. As archival records, the audited (as much as it is possible) financial statements of the firms for five years (2003 to 2007) are collected and are used in this research. Taking audited financial data of five consecutive years has the advantage of retrievability, unbiased selectivity (by both researcher and provider) and accessibility.

Firm and ownership group 2. Private Dairy Firms Mother Dairy Fruit & Vegetable Pvt. Ltd., Kwality Dairy (India) Ltd., V R S Foods Ltd.,

Supplier

Simbhaoli Sugars Ltd Anirudh Foods Ltd. Parag Dairy

Customer

Wholesaler Wholesaler Wholesaler

Main Case: Researcher has selected a Mother Dairy as a main case for the detail study. Mother Dairy Pvt. Ltd is presented for managing working capital internally, its supplier linkage with Simbhaoli Sugars Ltd. and its customer linkage with wholesaler. A comparison is then made between the management of working capital levels and operations -internally and externally of Mother Dairy Fruit & Vegetable Pvt. Ltd and the other two private dairy firms namely - Kwality Dairy (India) Ltd. and V R S Foods Ltd. EMPIRICAL FINDINGS

Questions were referred on overall working capital management to the firms' general managers, questions on levels of investment in current assets and short-term financing to financial managers and the questions on operations to commercial managers.

Selected Cases: Main Firms and their Supplier and Customer Linkages Main Firms: The firms that this paper concentrates on are three main firms along with one supplier and one customer for each firm (Table 3). The main firms include three private dairy firms - Mother Dairy Fruit & Vegetable Pvt. Ltd., Kwality Dairy (India) Ltd., V R S Foods Ltd. Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

A. Overall Working Capital Management Historical Background of the main firm: Mother Dairy - Delhi was set up in 1974 under the Operation Flood Program. It is now a wholly owned company of the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB). Mother Dairy markets & sells dairy products under the Mother Dairy brand (like Liquid Milk, Dahi, Ice creams, Cheese and Butter), Dhara range of edible oils and the Safal range of fresh fruits & vegetables, frozen vegetables and fruit juices at a national level through its sales and distribution networks for marketing food items. With a view to separating the commercial activities from developmental activities, the NDDB merged Mother Dairy and the Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Viqar Ali Baig 53

Fruit & Vegetable project into a wholly owned company named Mother Dairy Fruit & Vegetable Ltd (MDFVL) in Feb 2003.This becomes the holding company of Mother Dairy India Ltd (MDIL)-a marketing company and Mother Dairy Foods Processing Ltd (MDFPL)-a processing company.

MDFPL is a multiunit company, with units at various locations in India.

Mother Dairy, Delhi is one of the units of MDFPL "Mother Dairy" is the single largest brand of milk in India as well as in Asia, marketing about 2.2 million litres of milk per day. Mother Dairy commands 40per cent market share in the organized sector in and around Delhi, primarily because of consistent quality and service whatever be the crisis-floods, transport strike, curfew etc. Mother Dairy, Patparganj, Delhi, is presently manufacturing & selling around 8.5 lakh litres of toned milk through bulk vending shops.

Organizational structure: Its organizational structure includes the general manager, financial manager and a commercial manager. According to the general manager's opinion, he is fully empowered to make decisions regarding working capital levels of investments and financing, as well as operations of production, purchasing and sales. The financial manager controls the firm's financial operations and reports to the general manager periodically.

Commercial manager is responsible to investigate and assess the market and apply an appropriate marketing strategy. The general manager reports to the owners' annual general meeting.

Firm's policies and constraints: According to the opinion of the firm's financial manager, the main objectives of working capital management include the increase of sales, the decrease of costs and to remain liquid as well as to keep operations smooth but not to generate profit. The firm manages its working capital in such a way that it buys its materials on credit and sells its goods to customers on a monthly credit basis and uses cash collected from operations to finance its working capital investments and daily activities. It pays its suppliers and collects from customers in the first 10 days following the months of purchases and sales. It does not keep raw materials and finished goods inventory in the store because production starts immediately when the materials are received and the sales is directly after production.

During the interview conducted with the firm's finance manager, he said that: "our short-term aim is to maintain current production and sales capacity while in the long-term; we have a plan to diversify our products". The financial Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

54 Working Capital Management as a Key for Value Creation:...

manager believes that the factors that determine working capital levels include mostly seasonality of sales, sales growth, and credit policy. However, price levels of inputs, availability of credit and operating efficiency do not influence the levels of working capital. On the constraints in achieving short and longterm objectives the manager said that: "We have no constraints to achieve short-term objectives at all, however how efficiently we achieve our long-term objectives will depend on the availability of capital".

According to the finance manager, the factors that hinder the firm from achieving its objectives are working capital investment and financing.

However, production capacity and markets are not problems. According to the opinion of the general manager, there are no government regulations that affect management's decisions. Similarly, there are no cultural issues, which seriously affect the sales of the firm's products. The two religions dominantly followed in India are Hinduism and Islam, and followers of both are comfortable with the products.

Working capital management and value creation: On the role of working capital management in promoting the firm's objectives on value creation, the finance manager said that: "Managing working capital investments and short-term financing has a major role to play in promoting our short-term and log-term objectives. Our planned capacity expansion and product diversification will depend upon how successfully we performed the current working capital investments and financing, because future success can only be extension of current success". The firm's financial manager also believes that overall working capital management has a pivotal role to play in value creation, particularly in increasing sales and decreasing costs of purchases, production and inventory. He believes that managing cash, receivables, inventory, receivables, purchase and sales of materials and trade payables can achieve these objectives.

A .2. Overall Working Capital Management Issues : Comparison of Private Firms Here objective of study is if three private firms make known similarity or have a major difference on the overall working capital management, mainly the policy of management of working capital, the constraints in achieving firm objectives and the factors determining firm objectives.

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Viqar Ali Baig 55

Historical Background of VRS and Kwality Dairy VRS Food Ltd Paras history reflects back to 1960, when the procurement of milk started with 60 liters of milk. The only fundamental that worked right from day one is the quality, which got reinforced in every day of progress. Chairman Vedram, the founder and promoter of company is one of the connoisseurs in the dairy farm industry. Ved Ram & Sons started as partnership company in 1987 under company's name VRS foods limited and since then in tune with the rapidly changing technology, production units are well armed with the latest equipment. These facilities enable to cater the needs of the clients by selling over 250000 liters of milk per day in Delhi Metro.

At the heart of the entire network of the Paras are hundreds of village level collection centers covering 5000 villages across Western UP. Haryana, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Gujrat, from where milk is collected every day. The farmers are not only helped in finance but also in buying cattle, feed, providing veterinary services and other infrastructure support. The trust of the farmer has grown stronger and so has the network. VRS's large manufacturing capacity at five different locations across most part of India is backed by an impressive distribution network, to ensure that our products find their way to every household in India.

56 Working Capital Management as a Key for Value Creation:...

group loosely referred to as the Kwality group. In 1999 Kwality Dairy India a subsidiary of Kwality Ice creams India unveils a range of dairy products under the brand name KreamKountry.

Firm policies and constraints: The financial managers of the private firms responded that their working capital management policy is tailored towards increasing sales, decreasing costs and thereby generating profit but only VRS Foods ltd responded that it also aims at smooth operations and remain liquid. On the constraints in achieving firm objectives, the managers of Mother Dairy, Kwality Dairy and VRS Foods believe that the factors, which are constraining firm objectives, include working capital investment and financing.

Mother Dairy and Kwality Dairy also have sometimes a lack of production capacity, product demand and markets. Similarly VRS Foods have sometimes lack of production capacity and market.

Role of working capital management in value creation: Financial managers of all the three private firms believe that working capital management has an important role in value creation. The managers' response denote that working capital management is important for the purpose of increasing sales by managing cash, trade receivables, inventory, trade payable, sales of finished goods and purchase of materials. They also believe that working capital management can be used to decrease costs by managing purchase of materials, inventory, cash and receivables, but not payables, bank loans or liquidity.

Kwality Dairy India Ltd B. Working Capital Management - Internally The Company was incorporated as a Public Limited Company on August 21, 1992 and registered with the Registrar of Companies (West Bengal) at Calcutta. The Company obtained a Certificate of Commencement of Business on 7th July, 1993. The Company is setting up a new project with an installed capacity of 3600 tpa for manufacture of Ice Cream Mix Powder.

The said project would require about 43,700 litres of milk to be processed every day to achieve its peak production of 10 tpd of Ice Cream Milk Powder.

In addition to Ice Cream Milk Powder, the Company will also be producing small quantities of Skimmed Milk Powder (SMP), Ghee and Casein out of its unused Solid Non Fat (SNF)/White Butter (WB) and sour milk. The project is being set up to primarily act as a captive supplier of Ice Cream Mix Powder to various ice-cream manufacturing companies in the Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

This section covers working capital management - internally of Mother Dairy Food Processing Ltd,, which is divided into levels of investment (4.B.1.) and financing (4.B.2.) as well as operations of purchasing (4.B.3.) and selling (4.B.4).

B.1. Managing Working Capital Investments In this section, discussion is on the manager's responses to questions on how the Mother Dairy Food Processing Ltd, manages working capital investments of cash, receivables and inventories. The objective is to find out if Mother Dairy Food Processing Ltd, applies value-creating methods of managing working capital levels of investment.

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Viqar Ali Baig 57

B.1.1. Management of Cash Motives for holding cash: According to the firm's financial manager, the main purpose for holding cash in the firm is for transaction purposes - to make regular predetermined payments. The firm rarely keeps any cash for making for unforeseen transactions (precautionary purpose) and it does not keep cash opportunity (speculative purpose) to pay or as a guarantee for bank loans.

Cash budgeting and control: The factory's management prepares cash budgets mainly to plan for short and long-term cash needs to control liquidity, cash payments and receipts. The primary bases used to forecast the cash budget are past experience, opinion of the management and forecasted sales levels. Mother Dairy Food Processing Ltd, prepares cash flow statements using the receipts and disbursements method, which it uses to improve its future cash forecasts as well as to control cash payments and receipts.

Management of cash payment and collection: The firm has a petty cash fund with a maximum balance of Rs 20000. It uses this petty cash fund to pay for expenses less than Rs.5000, payments above this amount are made using checks approved by the general and financial managers. Collections from lager customers (from the point of sales volume) are made mostly using customer checks. The firm purchases only on credit without discount, which it considers as a policy of slowing-down cash payments and the cash sales to smaller customers is considered as a means of speeding-up the cash collection. The Mother Dairy Food Processing Ltd, controls its cash payments using a petty cash system, voucher system, using checks sequentially numbered, which are controlled and accounted regularly. It controls cash collections by making customer pay at the bank account.

B.1.2. Management of Inventory Management of finished goods inventory: According to the financial manager, the firm produce varieties of product - Butter, Dahi, Ghee, Cheese, UHT Milk, Lassi & Flavored Milk. The production process takes only one day, so there is no work-in-process. The cost of holding, of finished goods inventory, includes mainly the opportunity cost of capital, cost of physical deterioration and handling. Finished goods inventory is valued on the basis Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

58 Working Capital Management as a Key for Value Creation:...

of lower of average cost or market cost. According to the firm's financial managers the factory minimizes finished goods holding and ordering costs using the "just-in-time" approach of inventory management, establish longterm customer relations, and making customer pay the costs. Holding costs of finished goods inventory is minimized by agreeing with customers to use its own transportation to take the goods to the place of customers on a daily basis. Ordering costs are minimized by making a contract agreement only once, where customers indicate the supply of products that they want on a daily basis. Mother Dairy Food Processing Ltd, uses the average cost approach to determine the cost and value of cost of goods sold and remaining in inventory.

Material inventory management: According to financial manager Mother Dairy Food Processing Ltd,, the firm's materials inventory is mostly raw milk, sugar, or plastic cases, which are used to pack the processed products.

Main objective of Mother Dairy Food Processing Ltd, in managing these inventories of materials is to reduce holding and ordering costs as well as to safeguard against shortages and to keep the production running. The firm's major cost of holding inventory of materials is the costs of handling, power and opportunity cost of capital. The firm minimizes materials holding and ordering costs using the "just-in-time" approach of inventory management and tries to keep only the minimum required. Ordering costs are minimized by making a contract agreement only once. The factory uses the average cost approach to determine the cost of materials issued to production and remaining in inventory and these inventories are presented in the balance sheet as such.

B.1.3. Management of Receivables Credit policy and management of receivables: Mother Dairy Food Processing Ltd, sells to larger customers on the basis of a monthly credit without discounts and these customers generally pay within the first 10 days of the month after sales. However, the financial manager believes that the firm does not have problem of managing receivables. The main source of information for screening credit applicants is the size of the customer's proposed purchase, firm's prior experience and the customer's payment history. Customers who order large daily purchases are preferred for credit sales. The firm uses an open account with no discount for those who buy on credit. The 5 C's (capital, character, collateral, capacity, conditions), one Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Viqar Ali Baig 59

time sale approach are used to evaluate any future credit application. In order to collect overdue receivables the firm makes telephone calls, send reminder and extends credit periods. However, it never employs a collection agent or takes legal action. Mother Dairy Food Processing Ltd, reduces the levels of receivables by making customer pay outstanding debts. If the level of receivables is too high the firm does not have a control mechanism.

B.1.4. Managing Working Capital Investment: Comparison of Private Firm Here the purpose is to know if the private firms reveal similarities or differences in the management of their working capital levels of investment, particularly cash, inventories and receivables.

Management of cash: The purpose of cash planning for all the private firms is the transaction purpose of making regular pre-determined payments.

The financial manager of VRS Foods and Kwality Dairy also reported that the firm's cash management has the objective of bank compensating. These two private firms also reported that they do not manage cash for the purposes of speculative or precautionary reasons mainly because they have no opportunity to make cash investments with a profit motive. Mother Dairy forecasts cash in order to control cash payments, collections and levels as well as, to plan short-term and long-term cash needs using past experience, management opinion and forecasted sales as bases. The other two private firms also forecast cash requirements and make hedges against cash shortages.

However, all firms prepare cash flow statements by using the receipts and disbursements approach and they use it to control cash payments and collections. All the three private firms experience cash surpluses that it deposits at its bank checking account. VRS Foods and Kwality Dairy control cash payments by using a voucher system, checks, and a petty cash system.

All the three firms collect cash at sales and in the ten days after the month of sale. The firms consider the cash sale as means of speeding-up cash collection, which they control by making customer pay at the bank account.

Management of finish goods inventory: The financial managers of VRS Foods and Kwality Dairy firms reported that they hold finished goods inventory to satisfy regular customer demands, and to keep safety stock, Mother Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

60 Working Capital Management as a Key for Value Creation:...

Dairy has its objective in meeting seasonal high demand along with satisfy customer demand. For VRS Foods and Kwality Dairy the opportunity costs of capital invested in the materials inventory, deterioration of material and the costs of handlings are considered relevant costs, similarly to Mother Dairy, of finished goods inventory. Mother Dairy use only the technique of holding the minimum level required in managing the costs of holding finished goods inventory, otherwise all three are common in using just in time and long-term customer relations. VRS Foods and Kwality Dairy use first-infirst-out method for finished goods inventory, while Mother Dairy uses average costing method. For valuation of finished goods inventory both Mother Dairy and VRS Foods use lower of average cost or market cost, while Kwality Dairy uses average cost method for finished goods inventory valuation. All three private firms selectively control the physical safety of the finished goods on the basis of average costs and usage rate.

Management of material inventory: Materials inventory policy of all three private firms is tailored strongly towards minimizing inventory holding and ordering costs as well as safeguarding against inventory shortages and to keep production running. They apply inventory management approaches like holding the minimum level required, just in time but not economic order quantity. They all selectively control the physical safety of their materials inventory on the basis of average cost and usage rate. Mother Dairy also control on the basis of criticality in case of shortage in the market. Whereas, Kwality Dairy also controls on the basis of scarcity of material in the market.

They use only the average cost technique to determine the value and cost of materials used in production and left in the inventory. For Kwality Dairy and VRS Foods the opportunity costs of capital invested in the materials inventory and the costs of deterioration and handling are considered relevant costs of materials inventory. Whereas, VRS Foods also consider cost of power as part of holding cost of material inventory like Mother Dairy.

However, the overall cost of material inventory management is not relevant with all the firms, because the possibility and duration of material inventory is small.

Management of receivables: The private firms have different sales policies depending on whether the customer is large or small and a government firm or a private firm. The cash sales refer to smaller private firms while the credit sales refer to larger private and all government firms. With regard to their private credit customers they apply credit standards based on a one Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Viqar Ali Baig 61

time sale approach and five C's (capital, character, collateral capacity and conditions) while VRS Foods and Kwality Dairy also use the same standards to screen credit applicants. In order to collect overdue receivables they all send reminder, make telephone calls and extend credit periods, and none of them employs collection agents or takes legal action. However, the risk of bad debt is very low and none of them makes allowances for it.

B.2. Management of Working Capital Finances Sources, costs and influences of working capital financing: Mother Dairy Food Processing Ltd, uses the cash earned from operations and deposited in its bank's current account as a source of working capital financing. The response of the finance manager indicated that, the firm's cash balance is not excessive, but enough to pay for the working capital needs. Mother Dairy Food Processing Ltd, also considers retained earnings, bank overdraft, trade creditors, and accruals as sources of financing its working capital investments. According to the financial manager, price levels of inputs, operating efficiency, seasonality of sales, the firm's credit policy and availability of credit do not influence the levels of short-term financing.

Management of Working Capital Finances : Comparison of Private Firms Sources, costs and influences of working capital financing: All three private firms (Mother Dairy, Kwality Dairy and VRS Foods) use cash collected from operations to finance their short-term financing needs.

However, Kwality Dairy and VRS Foods also use short-term debt, bank overdraft, retained earnings and accruals. Only Mother Dairy reported that its operations result at cash surplus so it does not have any external cost of financing its working capital investments. However, the other two firms Kwality Dairy and VRS Foods use bank overdraft loan with annual interest costs of around 9.5per cent to finance their short-term investments in working capital assets. According to the financial managers of Kwality Dairy and VRS Foods, the main factors that influence the levels of financing of working capital levels are price levels of inputs and sales growth. On the other hand, the financial managers of the three-private firms believe that seasonality of sales (except VRS Foods), credit policy and availability of credit do not determine the levels short-term financing for working capital investments.

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

62 Working Capital Management as a Key for Value Creation:...

B.3 Management of Working Capital Operations B.3.1. Management of Purchase Operation Purchase policies: In order to study the firm-supplier cooperation on purchase operations, a sugar supplier is chosen from the firm concern. As sugar, after milk, is one of the main ingredients for many products, therefore, firm's relations with sugar supplier are of importance for management. Out of many sugar suppliers, a private supplier is chosen, because in case of government supplier many things are not in control of firm.

Mother Dairy Food Processing Ltd, purchases its materials on a credit basis with a policy geared towards smoothing out production during normal periods of supply, to take care of seasonal fluctuations in demand and production requirements, to meet market demand and to keep production uninterrupted. According to the commercial manager, the firm's purchase policy is also to decrease inventory holding and ordering costs, but not as a sole objective. The firm forecasts its materials purchase requirements in order to establish the quantity on hand and on order during lead time and to meet its production demands. The base that the firm uses to estimate materials purchase requirement is mainly its past experience, forecasted sales volume, and management opinion.

Contacting, contracting and controlling of suppliers: Mother Dairy Food Processing Ltd, makes efforts to find suppliers by getting in contact and describing the materials to potential suppliers. According to the commercial manager, the costs of the efforts made to find suppliers are significant and therefore relevant for the management. When entering into contract with a potential supplier the firm evaluates the proposal and negotiates the agreement and the manager believes that the costs are relevant to attract managerial attention. Overall, according to the commercial manager, the costs of contacting, contracting and controlling suppliers are relevant to the management. Therefore, management uses approaches like choosing the cheapest channel of communication, making its terms of agreement known to its suppliers in advance, developing long lasting relationships, managing by trust and routine contract agreements.

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Viqar Ali Baig 63

B.3.2. Management of Sales Operations Sales Policy: According to the firm's commercial manager, Mother Dairy Food Processing Ltd, sells its dairy products through its outlets all over India. Some products it sells through wholesaler, dealer and retailer network.

According to the commercial manager, Mother Dairy Food Processing Ltd,'s approach to find markets for its products is by getting directly in contact with potential customers. The firm sells on cash basis to small customers and on credit basis (using the 5 Cs) to the larger customers and government firms. According to the commercial manager, the reason why it makes preferential customer treatment is because of the trust factor. He says: "the larger private firms and all government firms are highly trusted and will not fail to pay back their debt, while the small retail buyers buy small amounts whose collection cost and efforts does not warrant the credit selling and may not pay back on time". Its sales objective is to take care of regular customer demands. In interview with the commercial manager, it is understand that the firm's other sales objective is to decrease inventory holding costs. It forecasts its sales requirements in order to forecast future demand and inventory usage. The firm uses statistically forecasted sales as a base to plan the sales volume along with past experience and management opinion but not the opinion of the sales staff.

Contacting, contracting and controlling customers: Mother Dairy Food Processing Ltd, contacts its customer by directly approaching potential customers. It also negotiates the sales agreement with potential customers, including the terms of sale and evaluates the proposed purchase terms of its customer. However, the firm does not sign the agreements. Mother Dairy Food Processing Ltd, also relies on the commitment and trust of its customers.

Moreover, he believes that the overall costs of contacting, contracting and controlling customers are not relevant to the management.

B.3.3. Management of Working Capital Operations : Comparison of Private Firms Management of purchase operation: The managers of Kwality Dairy and VRS food reported that they purchase materials mainly to meet market demand, and to keep production running. These firms rarely use purchase policy to decrease inventory holding and purchase ordering costs. They all forecast the purchase of materials based on past experience and forecasted sales volume; however, Kwality Dairy and Mother Dairy also use management opinion. All the three firms purchase on both cash and credit Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

64 Working Capital Management as a Key for Value Creation:...

terms. The costs of the efforts made to contact, contract and control suppliers are relevant only to Mother Dairy. Moreover, the commercial managers of all firms replied that they use approaches such as choosing the cheapest channel of communication and making terms of agreement known in advance to contact suppliers as well as having routine contract agreement with terms known in advance during contracting. They install routine control procedures with terms known in advance to both partners as control measures. However, none of them employs lawyers or purchase agents to manage the costs of contact, contract and control of suppliers.

Management of sales operation: All private firms sell their products to the local market while Mother Dairy also exports. The commercial managers of all private firms said that the objective of their sales policy is to satisfy customer demands and expand market. The objectives of sales policy, to decrease inventory holding and ordering costs and meeting seasonal sales requirements are rare for all the firms. All three private firms forecast sales based on past experience and also use statistical forecasts while Mother Dairy also use management opinion. Only VRS Foods use the opinion of its sales staff to forecast its sales. Kwality Dairy and VRS Foods forecast sales in order to estimate future demand, while Kwality Dairy also has the objective of forecast quantity on hand and on order.

The private firms produce for the general market as well as they also produce by the order of specific customers. Kwality Dairy and VRS Foods ensure that their customers do not back down from their agreement by having a written contract. The firms reported from their experience that there is no probability of customers backing down from their agreement and the difficulty of getting another customer is small (except VRS Foods). All the private firms choose the cheapest channel of communication to contact customers and they enter into routine contract agreements with terms known in advance of transaction to get into contract and control customers. All firms do not employ sales agents or lawyers to facilitate the contacting, contracting and controlling customers.

B.4. Performance Evaluation of Working Capital Decision Evaluation of the result of their decisions is also done as it is reflected in the firms' five years (2003 - 2007) financial statements. For this, various types of financial performance indicators are applied using the approach of ratio analyses.

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Viqar Ali Baig 65

Performance measurement and evaluation criteria: According to the firm's financial manager, Mother Dairy Food Processing Ltd, evaluates the performance of its working capital decisions by comparing the performance of its past with the present, the actual with the expected and comparing inter-firm benchmarks. Moreover, the firm uses customer satisfaction criteria particularly on quality of products by decreasing defect rates, maintaining higher customer retention rates as well as providing higher customer's perceived value of goods. Firm improves communication with customer by following the policy of fast delivery and response time. The evaluation of Mother Dairy Food Processing Ltd,'s financial performance is divided into three sections. First, it is studied the investment composition using asset structure ratios. Second, the liquidity and short-term financing composition ratios are used to evaluate efficiency of the firm's working capital financing and liquidity position. Third, activity and profitability ratios are used to study the firms overall efficiency in turning over the working capital assets and generating profit.

B.4.1. Performance Evaluation of Working Capital Investment Working capital investment composition: In order to find Mother Dairy Food Processing Ltd,'s investment composition, researcher evaluated its financial statement data using asset structure ratios. The main asset structure ratio relevant to the study is working capital to total assets and its breakdowns, particularly cash, receivables and inventory to working capital ratios.

Working capital to total asset ratio: is expressed in percentages and may indicate the extent that the firm uses working capital assets. It can also be used to study if such a composition is sound given the nature of the activities the firm is in. Asset structure ratios of Mother Dairy Food Processing Ltd, for the ten years studied indicate that, on the average 76.53per cent of total investment is in current assets. Taking the global norm of 50per cent into consideration, this working capital to total assets investment ratio is very high. This is a reflection of the absence of investments in fixed assets. This working capital to total assets investment ratio has increased from a percentage 69per cent in 2003 to as high as 82.3per cent in 2004 and than decreasing onward. (See figure 4.A). Normally, this is at the expense of expanding production capacity by investing in more productive fixed assets in the long-term. Therefore, the low production capacity and profit margins experienced by Mother Dairy Food Processing Ltd, may also be due to this high current asset investment. Researcher also computed inventory to working capital, receivables to working capital and cash to working capital, Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

66 Working Capital Management as a Key for Value Creation:...

which on average accounted to 41.2per cent, 25per cent and 32.8per cent respectively.

A reference to Figure 4.B reveals that the firm's major working capital investment is on inventory, which has moderately increased till 2005 and then decreasing, which normally implies a warning on the policy of working capital management particularly with respect to inventory management.

Increase in the component of cash is also the signal of bad liquidity management. As profitability of Mother Dairy Food Processing Ltd, was found suffering, so it can be concluded that increase in cash and receivables component were affecting profitability.

B.4.2. Performance Evaluation of Working Capital Financing Liquidity position: The ability to pay debts as they fall due and the degree of certainty and ease with which an asset is converted into cash is measured using liquidity ratios. The liquidity position is analyzed using the current ratio and the quick ratio, which for the years averaged 1.4 and 0.8 respectively.

Which is below the global norm of 2.0 and 1.0 respectively? As figure 4.C shows, during the study period, the Mother Dairy Food Processing Ltd, has maintained a more or less constant below the global norm current ratio and quick ratio and therefore can be concluded that it does not has satisfactory liquidity position. Liquidity ratios were found lowest in 2005.

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Viqar Ali Baig 67

Short-term financing composition: As it is indicated in Figure (4.D) shortterm financing of Mother Dairy Food Processing Ltd, is composed mainly of trade creditors which accounted on the average 61.3per cent of the total short-term financing. The remaining short-term financing includes other sources, particularly provision for taxation amounting to 36per cent on the average. The factory does not use short-term bank loans, however it uses bank overdraft and accruals to finance its working capital investments. Use of creditors as a source of short-term financing is in increasing mode.

B.4.3. Performance Evaluation of Working Capital Operations Activity and profitability ratios are used to study how efficient and profitable Mother Dairy Food Processing Ltd,'s investments and operations are managed.

Operational efficiencies of working capital activities: It was targeted to know how efficient the management of Mother Dairy Food Processing Ltd, turns over each type of working capital element. The operational efficiency of working capital activities is measured using activity ratios including inventory turnover, receivables turnover and overall working capital turnover.

Inventory turnover of Mother Dairy Food Processing Ltd, for the study years indicates that annual cost of goods sold is on the average 8.5 times average inventory. This implies inventories were held an average of 51 days. Receivables turnover measures the number of times credit sales or receivables is turned over to cash. The firm's average receivables indicate that an annual sale was 13.8 times average receivables or 31 days accounts receivable held uncollected. Overall working capital turnover measures the capacity of working capital to generate sales volume and was 3.2 times average current assets. As Figure 4.E clearly shows the firm's working capital turnovers are increasing during the years of study. All the turnovers are found satisfactory and according to the global norms of agribusiness industry, this indicates the efficient management of the working capital activities of the Mother Dairy Food Processing Ltd,. In 2005, inventory turnover improved, however, receivables and working capital turnover decreased. It indicates that cash collection efficiency of Mother Dairy Food Processing Ltd, reduced in 2005, however, production efficiency improved.

68 Working Capital Management as a Key for Value Creation:...

relate the firm's operating and net profits to sales as well as net profits to total assets and respectively include, operating profit margin, net profit margin and return on total assets. As Figure 4.F shows, the firm's average operating profit margin amounted to 0.78per cent, net profit margin was -0.3per cent and the return on assets -0.76per cent. On the other hand, the firm has the ability to purchase raw materials at favorable terms, efficient utilization of plant and machinery and lowering cost of production. The firm's relatively more efficient management of its backward linkages could have also contributed for high profitability. One of the reasons for the low or negative profitability for the Mother Dairy Food Processing Ltd, was that during 2003, it was putted in expansion and divided into two firms, due to which cash out flows of large volumes took place. Moreover, a reference to Figure 7.F indicates that the profitability ratios have been decreased sharply during 2004.

Cash flow analysis It can be observed from table 4.A that the net cash inflows of Mother Dairy Food Processing Ltd, except for 2004 ended at positive balance. It can moreover also be observed that the changes in working capital assets (stocks) had an average negative impact on the net cash flow and while the changes in debtors and creditors had positive effect.

The fact that the overall net cash flow ended up at a positive average implies also that the major sources of cash for the firm were items other than, debtors and creditors, implying that these items did not make much contribution to the net cash inflows of the firm. Maximum annual percentage effect on net cash flows was of inventory and other items.

PROMISE VERSUS PERFORMANCE Those who are quick to promise are generally slow to perform.

Overall profitability: the profitability ratios analyzed, in order to assess the profitability of Mother Dairy Food Processing Ltd,'s operations. These ratios Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

- Charles Haddon Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Viqar Ali Baig 69 Table 4 A Cash Flow Analysis - Mother Dairy Food Processing Ltd, Pvt Ltd. (Figures in Crores) Indicator

Dec-03 Dec-04 Dec-05 Dec-06 Average

A. Annual Net Cash Flow

142.07

-46.3

3.84

36.46

34.0175

B. Net Cash Flow to Total Assets

28.80 -10.2795 0.70816 8.210787 6.859982

C. Annual Changes Increase (-), Decrease: Stock*

-47.46

-115.54 162.23

70 Working Capital Management as a Key for Value Creation:...

Investment: Here research compares asset structure ratios of the three private firms. The average composition of current assets to total assets revealed 76.5per cent for Mother Dairy, 42.5per cent for Kwality Dairy, 56.1per cent for VRS Foods. The average working capital investment composition on inventories, receivables and cash respectively shows 41.2per cent, 24.9per cent and 32.9per cent for Mother Dairy, 48.6per cent, 44.6per cent and 1.8per cent for Kwality Dairy, and 48.6per cent, 43.9per cent and 7.4per cent for VRS Foods.

-0.25667

Increase (-), Decrease: Debtors*

-26.02

48.95

-13.2

3.243333

Increase, Decrease (-): Creditors**

29.14

7.8

-13.46

7.826667

Increase (-), Decrease: Stock*

-33.40 249.5464 4224.74

1480.293

Increase (-), Decrease: Debtors*

-18.31 -105.724 -343.75

-155.929

Increase, Decrease (-): Creditors**

20.51 -16.8467 -350.521

-115.619

Others

31.20 -126.976 -3530.47

-1208.75

D. Annual Percentage Effect on NCF

*(Year1-Year2), **(Year2-Year1)

B.4.4. Working Capital Performance : Comparison of Private Dairy Firms In order to study the impact of management's decisions on the private firms' investments, financing and operations, relevant ratios have been computed from the firms' financial statements.

Performance measurement and evaluation criteria: According to their financial managers, the private firms evaluate their performance of working capital investment decision by using a comparative analysis of past versus present, actual versus expected and using inter-firm bench marks. Moreover, all the firms reported that they uses almost all the accounting and customer satisfaction measures of performance other than minimizing cost. The computation of the firms' accounting based performance evaluation reveals the following results.

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

It could be observed from the above information on current assets to total assets and working capital investment composition that Mother Dairy has the highest (76.5per cent) current asset composition, 41.2per cent of which is invested in inventories. The second to Mother Dairy current asset composition is VRS Foods with 56.1per cent of total assets invested in current assets out of which 48.6per cent is on inventories. Maximum composition for inventory is for Kwality Dairy and VRS Foods, for receivables is Kwality Dairy and for cash is Mother Dairy.

Financing: the overall financing management of the private firms is analyzed using liquidity ratios, particularly current and quick ratios. The current and quick ratio positions respectively for the private firms show an average of 1.4 and 0.8 for Kwality Dairy 1.2 and 0.55 for VRS Foods, 2.1 and 0.98. As it was mentioned earlier in this chapter the current and quick ratios for Mother Dairy were respectively 1.5 and 0.786. Kwality Dairy has recorded the lowest liquidity position while VRS Foods is the most liquid private firm and the only firm meeting global standards.

The average working capital financing composition of trade creditors, short-term bank loans, bank overdrafts and others accruals respectively shows 61.3per cent, 38.6per cent, for Mother Dairy, 60.3per cent, 39.6per cent, for Kwality Dairy and 70.8per cent, 29.2per cent for VRS Foods.

Trade creditors (which includes credits to related firms) is observed to be the main source of finance while the short-term bank loans is then least used in all the private firms.

Operations: Profitability and activity ratios are used to study a firms' efficiency of its overall operations. The average activity ratios - inventory, receivables and working capital turnovers respectively revealed 15.7, 19.6 and 3.9 for Kwality Dairy, and 13.3, 11.3 and 4.9 for VRS Foods. As it has Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Viqar Ali Baig 71

72 Working Capital Management as a Key for Value Creation:...

been indicated earlier the inventory, receivables and working capital turnovers for Mother Dairy were 8.5, 13.8 and 3.23 respectively. The inventory and receivables turnovers for Kwality Dairy indicates highest ratio. Otherwise, VRS Foods scored the highest while the other two private firms have relatively low working capital turnovers.

The implication of this is that the firms are holding their inventories and receivables for a short period, which is a sign of efficiency in working capital management. As for the profitability ratios, two out of the three firms reveal that they experienced losses and ended up at a negative return on assets during the study years.

Profitability: (operating profit, net profit and return on assets) ratios for the study years averaged respectively -13.4per cent, -17.05per cent and -11.11per cent for Kwality Dairy, 3.8per cent, 1.7per cent and 4.9per cent for VRS Foods. The operating profit, net profit and return on assets for Mother Dairy were 0.77per cent, -3.16per cent and -0.765per cent respectively. VRS Foods is found to be the most profitable firm during the study years. The other two private firms reported average negative returns for the years of study.

C. Managing Working Capital Externally : Supplier and Customer Linkages

Cash flow analysis: Comparison of net cash flows of the three private firms revealed that all had experienced positive net cash flows on the average during the years because both the working capital assets have showed an increasing trend. The largest impact on net cash flows for Kwality Dairy was by debtors followed by creditors, and for VRS Foods was by the stocks followed by debtors and creditors.

Reflections: Comparing the private firms' average composition of current assets in the total assets with the global norm of 50per cent gives a clear indication that their major investment is in current assets. As, researcher has understood from the interviews with the firms' managers this is because of the nature of the output products of the industry. More than 48per cent of the investment in working capital for all the firms, (except for Mother Dairy) is on inventories. Mother Dairy has the highest current asset to total asset ratio (76.5per cent).

The liquidity ratios indicate that all transition firms except VRS Food face liquidity problems because both current and quick ratios are well below the acceptable global norm of 2 for current ratio and 1 for quick ratio. It is also observed that Kwality Dairy, which has the lowest current to total asset ratio, has also the lowest current and quick ratios. This implies that the excessive current asset investment is financed with long-term liabilities and that the firm may not face liquidity problems in short period. The analyses of the working capital activities indicate that all the firms have good inventory, receivables and overall working capital turnovers.

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

This section explores if the Mother Dairy Food Processing Ltd, has proper inter-firm cooperation on the primary activities on both the supplier side and the customer side. With this objective in mind firm's financial and commercial manager are asked if and how they co-operate with their supplier and customer linkages on the primary activities as well as on purchase and inventory management. Then it is asked what benefits they get as a result of their cooperation or why they do not co-operate.

C.1. Cooperation between Firm-supplier C.1.1 Response of the Main Firm : Mother Dairy Food Processing Ltd. The objective of studying firm-supplier cooperation in this section is to know if Mother Dairy Food Processing Ltd, creates value by co-operating with its suppliers so that it decreases costs of inter-firm transaction relation by managing supplier linkages. Firm's managers are asked if and how they cooperate on primary activities including purchase and materials inventory management and what benefits they get as a result of their cooperation or why they do not co-operate.

Firm-Supplier Cooperation on Primary Activities According to the commercial manager, the primary activities that Mother Dairy Food Processing Ltd, strongly coordinates with its supplier include, inbound activities (shipment, storing and material handling), and production operation (product testing, facility operations and timely availability of raw material). However, it has weak suppliers' cooperation with its suppliers on activities related to marketing and sales (except value evaluation of delivery of inputs) and after sale services (product adjustment).

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Viqar Ali Baig 73

Firm-Supplier Cooperation on Purchase and Inventory Management Mother Dairy Food Processing Ltd, coordinates its materials purchase and inventory management with suppliers by specifically agreeing on the quality and quantity of materials to be purchased, the terms of transportation as well as supplying the materials purchased just in time for production.

However, the firm's cooperation policy is only with selective suppliers because the commercial manager believes it is not beneficial to co-operate with all suppliers. In addition to this some suppliers also lack the willingness to cooperate. Moreover, the financial manager does not believe that this cooperation reduces the cost of inventory ordering and carrying, the time and cost of purchasing materials but it helps in creating firm-supplier trust.

Moreover, according to the commercial manager, this results in a mutual benefit and two way cooperation between Mother Dairy Food Processing Ltd, and its suppliers. As milk suppliers of Mother Dairy Food Processing Ltd, are cooperatives that come under the supervision of NDDB as well as Mother Dairy Food Processing Ltd,. As both are linked to each other through NDDB, it helps them in maintaining cooperation with each other.

C.1.2 Firm-Supplier Cooperation : Comparison of Private Firms Firm-supplier cooperation on primary activities: Mother Dairy, Kwality Dairy and VRS Foods replied positively to firm-supplier cooperation on primary activities. They reported that they co-operate with their suppliers on inbound activities (shipment, storing and material handling) and production operations (product testing, facility operations and timely availability of raw material).

However, all private firms have weak suppliers' cooperation with its suppliers on activities related to marketing and sales (except value evaluation of delivery of inputs) and after sale services (product adjustment).

Firm-Supplier Cooperation on Purchase and Inventory Management Mother Dairy, Kwality Dairy and VRS Foods coordinate their materials purchase and inventory management with suppliers by specifically agreeing on the quality and quantity of materials to be purchased as well as supplying the materials purchased just in time for production. Moreover, the commercial managers of the entire private firms also believe that the firms co-operate with their suppliers on Quality and quantity of materials, Time (just on time basis) and the terms of transportation. However, as a result of its cooperation Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

74 Working Capital Management as a Key for Value Creation:...

kwality Dairy and VRS Foods replied that they gets benefits such as decrease cost ordering materials, decrease the time needed to purchase materials and costs of ordering and purchase as well as in creating interfirm trust.

Where the firms are not co-operating with their suppliers they replied that it is because the firms themselves do not have the specific policy and their suppliers have not developed the business culture of co-operation. The commercial managers of kwality Dairy and VRS Foods reported that they have selective policy because they do not see the benefit of co-operating with all their suppliers.

Concluding remark: It is concluded from the findings of the private firms' management of working capital operations and levels that it takes time for private firms to fully develop the efficiency and supplier linkages exemplified by private firms. It is observed that all the private firms do not have any specific policy regarding cooperation with suppliers. Firms co-operate with the suppliers in their transactions, but some time it is the due the nature of operations of dairy industry. For some specific transactions particularly in case of milk procurement firms have no option but to co-operate on certain grounds. Firms are not experiencing large benefits of cooperation due to its unplanned nature. But it is the feeling of all that firms can gain benefits by working on this dimension.

C.1.3. Response of Supplier Firm-supplier cooperation was evaluated on primary activities and on sales and inventory management as well as related benefits or the reasons for non co-operation. Supplier evaluation of firm efficiency is also studied. So, researcher approached the commercial manager of a sugar company, who is not bound to supply to Mother Dairy Food Processing Ltd, by any contract but by mutual concern they have agreement to supply sugar to Mother Dairy Food Processing Ltd,. Study of an independent supplier is targeted to know the actual status of cooperation with firm.

Firm-supplier cooperation on primary activities: The commercial manager of sugar company believes that the two firms do not co-operate on the primary activities like production operations, outbound activities, marketing/ sales and after sales service. But he agrees that two firms co-operate on Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Viqar Ali Baig 75

order processing as a part of outbound activities. Firm-supplier cooperation is also observed product adjustment in after sale services. Moreover, the firm manager is not satisfied with the purchasing system of Mother Dairy Food Processing Ltd,. He says that: "Mother Dairy Food Processing Ltd,'s buying price is low and does not give transportation services, like other firms."

Firm-supplier cooperation on sales and inventory management: The supplier of Mother Dairy Food Processing Ltd, does not believe that it efficiently co-operates its sales and inventory management with its customer.

The only cooperation reported is on credit transactions without discount and in providing goods when just needed. The commercial manager is therefore not satisfied with the purchase, shipment and transportation system of Mother Dairy Food Processing Ltd,. The manager believes that this lack of coordination is mainly because Mother Dairy Food Processing Ltd, has not developed the business culture of coordinating its inventory and purchase activities. However, he is of the opinion that, it is not because the sugar company does not have the specific policy on customer cooperation or that it does not see the benefit of closely co-operating with a specific customer.

Moreover, the limited cooperation helps in decreasing the time need to sell and the costs of selling goods, but it does not help to minimize the costs of transportation.

Supplier assessment of firm efficiency: The manager's opinion is that Mother Dairy Food Processing Ltd, is efficient in its payment habits.

However, it is less efficient in its marketing approach and purchase order processing. The Sugar Company and Mother Dairy Food Processing Ltd, exchange special services most frequently on product quality and less frequently on employee training. Generally, the sugar manager believes that the cooperation between the two firms is not good mainly because Mother Dairy Food Processing Ltd, is inefficient in providing transportation, storage and customer treatment.

C.1.4. Firm-supplier Cooperation : Comparison of Suppliers of Privatized Firms In order to get a comparative response of firm-supplier linkages, researcher approached the suppliers of the Kwality Dairy and VRS Foods. Selection of the suppliers is done with the main firm opinion but it should be independent Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

76 Working Capital Management as a Key for Value Creation:...

in supplying and should not bind to supply by any board or law. These suppliers include Kwality dairy supplier - supplier of Kwality dairy and supplier of VRS foods - supplier of VRS foods.

Firm-supplier co-ordination on primary activities: Only the supplier of Kwality Dairy replied that the two firms co-operate on outbound activities particularly, order processing and delivery vehicle operations. VRS Food's supplier stated that two firm co-operate on order processing only. Otherwise, both suppliers replied that they do not co-operate on other primary activities such as outbound activities, production operations or after sale service (Except product adjustment).

Firm-supplier cooperation on sales and inventory management: The suppliers of private firms do not believe that they co-operate their sales and inventory management with their customers. The only cooperation reported is on credit transactions without discount and providing with goods when just needed by the customer but not on exchanging skilled staff. The suppliers believe that this lack of co-ordination is mainly because the private firms do not co-operate. However, their opinion is that, it is not because they do not have the specific policy on customer cooperation or that they do not see the benefit but each firm want to maximize own profit without considering the role of the other firm in its operations. Therefore, there are problems due to lack of co-ordination. Moreover, the limited cooperation helps them to decrease the time needed to sell and the cost of selling goods and carrying inventory as well as it assists in creating inter-firm trust.

Supplier assessment of firm efficiency: Both suppliers of Kwality Dairy and VRS Foods agree that the firms are efficient on their processing purchase orders, bilateral communication, and payment habits. However, it is only the supplier of Mother Dairy who believes that the firm is efficient in using the supplier services also.

Reflections: As a result of the interviews conducted and questionnaire responses received from the suppliers of the Kwality Dairy and VRS foods, it is concluded that the firms have differing policy on firm-supplier cooperation. Mother Dairy keeps its firm-supplier linkages using adversarial strategy, a typical character of a government or monopoly firm. While, Kwality Dairy co-operates with its supplier on an equal footing using collaborative tactics. Therefore, the supplier of Kwality Dairy is much more Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Viqar Ali Baig 77

satisfied and willing to co-operate in the future compared to the supplier of Mother Dairy. A clear indication is found that the firm-supplier linkage of Mother Dairy is temporary because of Mother Dairy's non cooperation on providing transportation, storage and customer treatment.

78 Working Capital Management as a Key for Value Creation:...

on the quality of its products and services by allowing them to return any product with inferior quality and making strict quality control at the production floor. But it does not make periodic assessments on customer opinion.

C.2.2. Firm-Customer Cooperation : Comparison of Private Firms

C.2. Firm-Customer Linkages In order to study how efficient private firms manage their customer linkages researcher asked their commercial managers about what and how they cooperate on primary activities, sales operations and inventory management.

It was also inquired on the benefits the private firms get as result of their cooperation or why they do not co-operate and whether the firms assess their customers' opinion.

C.2.1. Responses of the Central Firms - Mother Dairy Food Processing Ltd.

Firm-customer cooperation on primary activities: The managers of Mother Dairy, Kwality Dairy and VRS Foods responded that they strongly co-operate with customers on production operations (particularly - packaging, assembly product testing and facility operations) as well as on outbound activities (such as materials handling, delivery vehicle operations and finished goods warehousing). Kwality Dairy and VRS Foods co-operates on the after sales services particularly with respect to product adjustment. The private firms have weak cooperation with customers in all activities related to marketing and after sale service.

This section deals with the firm-customer cooperation from the point of view of Mother Dairy Food Processing Ltd Firm-customer cooperation on primary activities: According to the commercial manager, the primary activities that Mother Dairy Food Processing Ltd, strongly coordinates with its customers include, production operations (packaging, assembling, product testing and facility operations), outbound activities (delivery vehicle operations, materials handling and order processing as well as finished goods warehousing). Its customer cooperation also includes on marketing and sales particularly with respect to the advertising, promotion and sales channel selection but not with respect to sales force. The factory has weak inter-firm cooperation with its customers in all activities related to after sale service (other than product adjustment).

Firm-customer cooperation on sales and inventory management: According to the commercial managers of Mother Dairy and Kwality Dairy and VRS Foods, they cooperate with their customers on sales and inventory management. They specifically have mutual agreements on the transportation terms, quality and quantity of goods to be produced and sold on the basis of just in time. According to their financial managers the benefit that the firms get is increasing sales but the cooperation does not help to minimizing the cost of transportation or the cost of carrying inventories. According to the commercial manager of private firms the weak firm-customer co-operation, where it is, is because the firm does not have the policy and because it does not see any benefit in co-operating with a specific customer. In addition to this customers have not developed the business culture of coordinating their management with suppliers.

Firm-customer cooperation on sales and inventory management: According to the commercial manager of Mother Dairy Food Processing Ltd,, the firm coordinates its sales and inventory management with customers by specifically agreeing on the transportation terms, quality and quantity of goods to be produced and sold on the basis of just in time. According to the financial manager the benefits that the firm gets is increasing sales and create trust of your supplier but the cooperation does not help in minimizing the cost of transportation or the cost of carrying inventories.

Customer assessment: The firm gets the feedback of customer's opinion

Customer assessment: All three private firms get the feedback of their customers' opinion on the quality of products and services by allowing their customers to return any product with inferior quality and making strict quality control at the production floor. Kwality Dairy and VRS Foods reported that they also make periodic assessments of their customer opinion. However, none of the private firms allow its customers to pay only if the products are as per their expectation.

Reflections: Comparatively, Kwality Dairy and VRS Foods have numerous

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Viqar Ali Baig 79

competitors, so both have demonstrated remarkable signs of competition to satisfy the demand of their customers by developing firm-customer linkages.

The managers of both firms believe that they co-operate with their customers on the primary operations particularly, outbound activities and in some areas of production operation like packaging. However, Mother Dairy is the biggest milk producing company in the country this has enabled it to dominate the market as a result of which it does not bother to create strong firm-customer co-operation.

C.2.3. Response of Customer In this section researcher study the firm-customer cooperation of Mother Dairy Food Processing Ltd, from the point of view of one of its main customers - Wholesaler of Mother Dairy Food Processing Ltd,. Search is for specific cooperation on the customer's primary activities, purchase operations and inventory management. It will also be tried to review the customers' opinion on the benefit that they get as a result of their cooperation with the private firms or the reasons why they do not co-operate. Finally, it is to study the customer evaluation of firm efficiency. For detailed supporting information.

Firm customer cooperation on primary activities: According to the Wholesaler, Mother Dairy Food Processing Ltd, co-operates only on inbound activities particularly order processing, materials handling and delivery vehicle operation or transportation. Moreover, there is a cooperation on advertising, and promotion, while no cooperation on after sales service (except for product adjustment).

Firm-customer cooperation on purchase and inventory management: According to the Wholesaler, the only purchase related cooperation is on credit transaction without discount and providing goods when just needed.

Hence the Wholesaler believes that there are no benefits such as the decrease in the time and cost of purchasing or decrease in the holding costs of inventory. He also believes that this lack of inter-firm cooperation does not enhance the creation on inter-firm trust. According to the Wholesaler, the weak inter-firm cooperation is because Mother Dairy Food Processing Ltd, has not developed the business culture of co-ordinating its management policy with its customers. However, it is not because Customer does not have the specific policy or that it does not see the benefit of closely working Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

80 Working Capital Management as a Key for Value Creation:...

with a specific supplier. The owner-manager of Customer says that: "Mother Dairy Food Processing Ltd, was cooperative developed by NDDB in 1974 under operation flood and it has been and also presently major milk processing firm so most of the firm dealing with milk products were/are its customer".

Customer assessment of firm-efficiency: The manager of Customer of rates Mother Dairy Food Processing Ltd, as very efficient in its cash collection habits, in sales processing, impartiality with other buyers, explanation to inquiries and delivery. She has also rated the factory as efficient in product quality and bilateral communication. However, the manager believes and that the factory is less efficient in minimizing the costs of its products, in using customer services and in its marketing approach.

C.2.4. Firm-Customer Cooperation : Comparison of Customers of Private irms Firm-customer cooperation on primary activities: According to the opinion of their customers the private firms co-operate on the inbound activities particularly on order processing and delivery vehicle operation. Customers of Kwality Dairy and VRS Foods stated that firm co-operate on storing also as inbound activities. It is only Mother Dairy, which according to the opinion of its customer, that co-operates on materials handling also. There is no cooperation on primary activities such inbound activities (other than those mentioned above), production operations (other than packaging, product testing and facility operation). Customer of all private firms mention the cooperation marketing (Advertising, promotion and sales force) but not in sales or after sales services (except product adjustment). Customer of Kwality Dairy and VRS Foods also mentioned the cooperation in Sales/ purchase channel selection in marketing.

Firm-customer cooperation on purchase and inventory management: According to the opinion of the customers, the only activity related to purchases that all private firms co-operate with their customers is in granting credit without discount and providing goods when just needed. The customers also believe the cause for the weak inter-firm cooperation is that the private firms have no policy of co-operating their management policies with that of their customers.

Customer evaluation of firm efficiency: The customers believe that the Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Viqar Ali Baig 81

firms are efficient in their cash collection (other than Kwality Dairy), delivery, product quality, impartiality with other buyers and bilateral communication.

The customer of Kwality and VRS Foods also believe that the firm is efficient in sales processing and explanations to enquiries (other than VRS Foods), while the customer of Kwality Dairy believes that its supplier is efficient in its familiarity with customers' needs. However, customers agree that the firms are less efficient in their marketing approaches (other than Mother Dairy) and in using customer services.

Reflections: Overall, the customers reported that the firm-customer coordination of the private firms is limited only to the inbound activities, which includes order processing, materials handling and transportation.

Moreover, the customers revealed that they are not satisfied with the way the private firms are handling their firm-customer relations. Main reason found for this is that Mother Dairy has been transferred from a cooperative monopoly to a private monopoly, which has motivated the firms not to have sufficient interest in their firm-customer linkages.

CONCLUSIONS This paper presented the empirical data analysis of managing working capital internally of Mother Dairy's, its supplier linkage with supplier of Mother Dairy and its customer linkage with Customer of Mother dairy. A comparative data analysis of working capital management is also made among the three private firms - Mother Dairy, Kwality Dairy and VRS Foods.

The role of working capital management: The managers of Mother Dairy and Kwality Dairy believe that managing working capital levels and operations can have a major role in the creation of firm value. As a result they reported that it takes a lion share of their time for which they are fully empowered. The private firms have more or less identified their policy on how to manage their working capital levels and operations, which they all claim is tailored towards generating profit by increasing sales and decreasing costs. However, problems are still observed in the speed by which the private firms adapt to the culture of cooperative business management.

Working capital investment and financing: It is find that the private firms have no very clear and specific policy of managing the levels of working capital investment and financing. As a result all firms except VRS Foods Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

82 Working Capital Management as a Key for Value Creation:...

are in a serious problem of liquidity. They all have negative net cash flows that they finance with a bank overdraft, the annual interest cost of which is a sizable proportion of their total costs. Given that Mother Dairy and Kwality Dairy made losses and the other firms made marginal profits, it would have been a good signal for them to change the management of their working capital levels and operations, which they did not. Their level of receivables is increasing mainly because of the slow paying related (government) enterprises, while inventory balance is increasing due to mainly low sales.

The cumulative effect of this lack of policy is the increase of both bank overdraft and creditors. Management has fewer motives for reducing the investments in working capital levels or minimizing the cost of short-term financing. This has greatly affected the efficiency of the firms in managing internal working capital levels of investment in cash, receivables and inventories. The objective of cash management of all the private firms is to take care of routine transactions. They are not having excess liquidity (other than Mother Dairy) for working capital purposes and therefore, investment capacity is not available at large. As a result, they don't have very large finished goods inventory in order to bother about its costs. They credit only to its larger customers. In the absence of financing capacity for both working capital and fixed capital investment, managers are concentrating on controlling the costs and physical safety of their existing investments and financing sources.

Working capital operations: The management of the firms working capital operations was restricted to the application of clerical procedures of purchasing and selling. Analysis of purchase and sales operations however showed that there is no mechanism of enhancing the contact, contract and control aspects of purchase and sales operations.

Evaluation of managing working capital internally: Study of performance evaluation has indicated that most private firms evaluate their performance by comparing their past with the present and actual with the expected.

However, they neither compare their performance with their competitors nor do they use inter-firm benchmarks to compare their performance with other firms in their industry. They apply communication based particularly having the policy of fast delivery time and fast response time to satisfy their customers. All private firms have a policy to improve the quality of their products. Kwality Dairy and VRS Foods evaluate their liquidity, working capital activity and investment composition as well as their profitability. All Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Viqar Ali Baig 83

the firms have the policy of customer satisfaction based, accounting based performance evaluation and determinants of firm's performance.

84 Working Capital Management as a Key for Value Creation:...

culture of co-ordinating their management policies with their customers.

Financial analysis showed that the firms have differing liquidity position.

Kwality Dairy has liquidity problems; Mother Dairy is marginally liquid while VRS Foods has no problem of liquidity. Investment in current assets is modest for Kwality Dairy and VRS Foods, but excessive for Mother Dairy.

All profitability ratios (operating profit, net profit and return on assets) for VRS Foods are positive while that of Kwality Dairy and Mother Dairy shows negative levels except for operating profit margin.

Moreover, the empirical findings show that the business practices of private firms are not completely differentiated from government firms. The internal management of their working capital levels and operations as well as external management of supplier and customer linkages closely resemble that of government firms. Main reason for this is lack of tough competition in dairy sector so that the private firms should think on this dimension. In addition to this, the government policy on market liberalization has not encouraged for new entrants in the market.

Inter-firm cooperation: The management of working capital externally of private firms' on supplier linkages showed that Mother Dairy controls its supply market and keeps its suppliers by controlling their supply line. Kwality Dairy and VRS Foods have a very competitive supply market and is establishing closer firm-supplier linkages. The private firms' customer linkages show that Mother Dairy still dominated their local market while Kwality Dairy and VRS Foods are facing competition. All the firms have small customers as well as specific and big customers. While Mother Dairy also exports.

The private firms' supplier and customer cooperation is very unsatisfactory from their supplier and customer points of view. Both linkages reported that there are few activities that the firms coordinate in their suppliercustomer linkages. Moreover, the customers revealed that they are not satisfied with the way the private firms are handling their firm-customer relations. Main reason found for this is that Mother Dairy has been transferred from a cooperative monopoly to a private monopoly, which has motivated the firms not to have sufficient interest in their firm-customer linkages.

The responses of suppliers and customers are also obtained to study how they perceive the private firms' management of working capital operations and levels externally. Mother Dairy keeps its firm-supplier linkages using adversarial strategy, a typical character of a government or monopoly firm. While, Kwality Dairy co-operates with its supplier on an equal footing using collaborative tactics. Therefore, the supplier of Kwality Dairy is much more satisfied and willing to co-operate in the future compared to the supplier of Mother Dairy. A clear indication is found that the firm-supplier linkage of Mother Dairy is temporary because of Mother Dairy's non cooperation on providing transportation, storage and customer treatment.

Overall findings reveal that the private firms are improving their working capital management. Employing management with academic and practical experience, the use of proper technology and enhancing market competition determine the firms' efficiency and value creation.

The supplier of the Kwality Dairy reported that he is happy with regard to the inter-firm cooperation on transportation of the products but that he had reservations on other issues such as cooperation on credit facilities and inventory storage. Researcher also approached customers and they responded that their inter-firm cooperation with the private firms on their primary operations is weak. The customers believe that the cause for not co-operating is because the private firms have not developed the business Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

REFERENCES Emmanuel, C., D. Otley & K. Merchant (1990) Accounting for Management Control (Second edition). London: Chapman & Hall.

Kim, Y.H. & K.H Chung (1990) "An Integrated Evaluation of Investment in Inventory and Credit: A Cash Flow Approach", Journal of Business Finance and Accounting, 17 (3): 381-390.

Maxwell, C.E., L.J. Gitman & S.A.M. Smith (1998) 'Working Capital Management and Financial-Service Consumption Preferences of US and Foreign Firms", Financial Practice and Education, Fall/Winter, 46-52.

Mian, S.L. &&C.W. Smith (1992) "Accounts Receivable Management Policy: Management Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Viqar Ali Baig 85

Theory and Evidence", Journal of Finance, 47: 169-200.

Mitchell, F., G. Reid & J. Smith (1998) "A Case for Researching Management Accounting in SMEs", Management Accounting (UK), 76 (9): 30-34.

Nayak, A. & S. Greenfield (1994) The Use of Management Accounting Information for Managing Micro Businesses. In Hughes, A., & D.J. Storey (eds.) Finance and The Small Firm. London : Routledge.

86 Working Capital Management as a Key for Value Creation:...

New Tool for Competitive Advantage. New York: The Free Press.

Van der Meer-Kooistra, J. & G.J. Vosselman (2000) "Management Control of Inter-firm Transactional Relationships: The Case of Industrial Renovation and Maintenance", Accounting Organizations and Society, 25: 51-77.

Williamson, O. E. (1985) The Economic Institutions of Capitalism, Firms, Markets and Relational Contracting. New York, The Free Press.

Ng, C.K., J. Kiholm-Smith & R.L. Smith (1999) "Evidence on the Determinants of Credit Terms Used in Interfirm Trade", Journal of Finance, 41 (3): 1109-1129.

Peel, M.J., N. Wilson (1996) "Working Capital and Financial Management Practices in the Small Firm Sector", International Small Business Journal, 14 (2) : 52-68.

Peel, M.J., N. Wilson, C.A. Howorth (2000) "Late Payment and Credit Management in the Small Firm Sector: Some Empirical Evidence", International Small Business Journal, 18 (2): 17-37.

Pike, R.H. & C. Pass (1987) "Management Working Capital: A Neglected Subject", Management Decision, 25 (1).

Porter, M. E. (1980) Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analysis Industries and Competitor. New York: The Free Press.

Porter, M. E. (1985) Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance. New York: The Free Press.

Rappaport, A. (1986) Creating Shareholder Value: The New Standard for Business Performance. New York: The Free Press.

Rubin, R. E., A. Alvarez (1998) Business LINC: Business to Business Relationship that Increases the Economic Competitiveness of Firms, A report to the then Vice President Al Gore.

Scherr, F. C. (1989) Modern Working Capital Management, Text and Cases. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall International Editions.

Shank, J. K. & V. Govindarajan (1993) Strategic Management: The Management & Change, Cost Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

ROLE OF WOMEN WRITERS We the women writers belonging to different language groups can come together and exchange ideas. Gujarati-speaking women by and large, do not know who are the writers in other languages and what type of literature they produce. Similar may be the case with the writers of other language groups who may not know about their sister writers in languages other than their own. Our first attempt will be to know each other and to know about the literature that is being produced in every language, The next step could be to meet each other, and if this contact develops we may even attempt to translate good works of each other specially the child literature. This also may result in acquainting the world with the special point of view of women writers. Life is reflected in literature. At the same time, literature shapes life. The refreshing, invigorating breeze of new ideas can only come through literature.

Ideas as well as ideologies - both good and bad - are available through printed words. If we women writers could be harbingers to spread ideas which make our children healthy and our generation hate-free, we would have achieved something.

- Lilavati Munshi Source : Bahvan's Journal, October 4, 1959.

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Perspectives

88 A Pattern Recognition in a Virtual World

A PATTERN RECOGNITION IN A VIRTUAL WORLD Samia L. Jones

Omprakash K. Gupta

Learning is perceived as a gateway to understanding the problem of intelligence. As seeing is intelligence, learning is also becoming a key to the study of artificial vision. Thus, instead of building a machine or computer program to solve a specific visual task, computer vision and pattern recognition is used to develop systems that can be trained with examples and visual tasks. Vision systems that 'learn and adapt' represent one of the most important directions in computer vision and pattern recognition research. This paper presents a learning system simulator without prior knowledge about the users in advanced.

The users will play the game not against each other but to complement each other. The users will be in teams to solve game problems with strategy that may differ every time and the sitting is in virtual world.

Key words: Pattern recognition, reinforcement learning, computer vision, second life.

INTRODUCTION Increasing automation and demands for quality mean inspection by human beings becomes impractical, driving the continuing development of new machine vision applications. The cameras and computers that make up a machine vision system don't get tired, make mistakes or subjective decisions; they work with constant precision at the pace of the production process. A machine vision system consists of computer hardware and software working together with cameras and lighting to capture images of objects for the purpose of making a quality control decision (Ghosh & Pal, 2005). When the image is captured and stored in memory, it is algorithmically compared to a predefined image or quality standard in an effort to detect defects. This machine vision technology can be applied in a number of different applications. They are programmed to perform narrowly defined tasks such as counting objects or searching for surface defects. They are capable of processing images consistently however they are typically designed to perform single, repetitive tasks. Moreover no machine vision or computer Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009) Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009) Š 2009 IILM Institute for Higher Education.

All Rights Reserved.

vision system can yet match some capabilities of human vision in terms of image comprehension.

Thus, machine vision typically replaces random sampling techniques or human vision inspection techniques as a means of monitoring users and their behaviors in different situations. A study by Machine vision trends and technologies in the December 2008, Control Engineering North American print edition Product Research article, revels that slightly more than a third (38 per cent) said they currently use an integrator. Of the 63 per cent who do not now use an integrator, nearly 22 per cent said that they plan to do so in the next 12 months.

Reinforcement Learning (RL) is a Machine Learning technique, which has become very popular in recent days. The technique has been applied to a variety of artificial domains, such as game playing, as well as real-world problems. In principle, a Reinforcement Learning agent learns from its experience by interacting with the environment. The agent is not told how to behave and is allowed to explore the environment freely. However once it has taken its actions, the agent is rewarded if its actions were good and punished if they were bad. This system of rewards and punishments teaches the agent which actions to take in the future, and guides it towards a better outcome.

In Reinforcement Learning (RL) the agent learns from its experience, and learns which moves lead to a winning situation and which moves should be avoided. RL algorithms do not require a complete model of the situation, but only its rules and final outcomes. A popular RL algorithm is Temporal Difference (TD) learning. In TD, the estimated value of the current solution is updated based on the immediate reward and the estimated value of the subsequent solution. In the case of a deterministic solution like mathematics problems, RL algorithms can be extended to learn the values of subsequent states (after states), instead of the usual state-action values. If n states lead to the same after state then by visiting just one of those states, the agent can assign correct values to all n states (Sutton & Barto 1998).

RL algorithms have been extensively applied to games. The most successful application was in Backgammon (Tesauro 1992, 1994, 1995), where a program (TDGammon) trained via self-play was able to match top human players. Other applications include: Chess (Beal & Smith 2000; Dazeley 2001; Thrun 1995), Connect Four (Ghory 2004), Go (Schraudolph, et al., 2000), Othello (Tournavitis, 2003; Walker, et al., 1994; Pal, 2006; & Pal and Mitra, 2004), and Shogi (Beal & Smith, 1999).

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Samia L. Jones and Omprakash K. Gupta 89

REINFORCEMENT LEARNING GENERAL MODEL In Reinforcement Learning the agent's surroundings are called the environment. The agent interacts with the environment at each discrete time step t = 0, 1, 2, 3, … At each time step the agent receives the environment's representation of the state st from a set of possible states S. Based on state st, the agent selects an appropriate action at from a set of available actions for that state A(st). As seen in Fig 1 the consequence of the action at, the agent receives a reward rt+1 and finds itself at a new state st+1 one time step later (Sutton & Barto 1998).

90 A Pattern Recognition in a Virtual World

Similarly, given any current state s , action a and any next state s’ , the expected value of the next reward is :

{

R a = E r s = s, a = a, s = s' ss' t +1 t t t +1

}

A state-value function is a function that estimates the quality of a given state. The quality of a state is defined in terms of the future rewards that can be expected from that state. Given that the expected rewards depend on the actions taken by the agent, the state-value function is defined in terms of the policy used (Sutton& Barto 1998). The value of a state under s the policy π is denoted by Vπ (s) and defined as: V π (s) = E {R s = s} π t t

Where Eπ denotes the expected value given that the agent follows policy π .

Fig. 1 The Agent-Environment Interaction in Reinforcement Learning The basic reinforcement learning model, as applied to Markov decision Process (MDP), consists of: " A set of states S, " A set of actions A, " A reward function R.S. A, and " A state transition function T : S × A → Π (S).T(s,a,s ' ) gives the probability of making a transition from state s to state

s’

a

using action .

From the above list we can see that MDPs are important since they can describe the majority of Reinforcement Learning problems (Sutton & Barto, 1998). Given any state s and action a , the probability of each possible next state s’ is given y: P a = Pr ss'

{st +1 = s'

In each time step, we use the value function from next state to estimate the value of current state. In this way, the reinforcement learning algorithm learns by iteratively reducing the discrepancy between value function estimates for adjacent states.

This is called Temporal Difference learning (TD) (Kaelbling, et al., 1996; Sutton, 1988; Sutton & Barto, 1998) which is an error-driven method that is without doubt the most central idea of Reinforcement Learning.

The TD method uses its experience with policy π to update the estimate of V π . The method updates the estimate of V(s t )

based on what

happens after its visit to state s t . The update can occur immediately at time t + 1 , when the method can form a target based on the observed reward

rt +1 and the estimate V(s t +1 ) . Once the target is formed the error term can be calculated and the estimate of V(s t ) updated (Sutton & Barto, 1998):

st = s, a t = a}

As follows: Step 1: t arg et ← rt +1 +

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

γ V(st +1 )

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Samia L. Jones and Omprakash K. Gupta 91

Step 2:

error ← t arg et − V( st )

Step 3: . V ( st ) ← V ( st ) + α . error In the above, α is the learning rate and γ is the discount factor. The learning rate determines how much V(s t ) is updated after each time step: it is set between 0 and 1.

So the process goes like this: Initialise V(s)with random values For each learning episode Initialize state s For each step of episode Execute action a given by π for s Observe reward r and the next state s' V(s) ← V(s)+α ⎡⎣ r + γV(s' ) − V(s)⎤⎦ s ← s' Until s is terminal RESEARCH OBJECTIVES The basic goal of this paper is the visual perception of the ability to "understand" the environment visually. It is an ever-changing environment with lots of different information which is essential to the core goal.

92 A Pattern Recognition in a Virtual World

5. A synchronizing sensor for part detection (often an optical or magnetic sensor) to trigger image acquisition and processing.

In this research Camtasia software was used to capture the session and create a digital input output file to be used in the reinforcement learning program using matlab and a PC. At the appointed time for the session, all the users with their virtual names will be joining the recorded session and participate in the environment while they are being observed and recorded.

On another different time the same process is repeated with different groups to study the patterns of behaviours while doing the same tasks.

After all data collected is analyzed the same way. This was repeated twenty seven (27) times with each time a group of ten (10) users.

MATHEMATICS SIMULATION SYSTEM THE ENVIRONMENT MODEL This method is simple. The user will be represented by two variables: knowing or guessing. So, we need only to know if the user close to the right answer at all time. Guessing user status may be changing all the time. At each time step, the user only need to know how is he close to answer a (Fig. 2). Each solution consists of number of segments/steps. All the segments can be divided into 3 categories: right, wrong, or go back.

Users will sign on their second life virtual space with their virtual names and join a study session whereas computer vision is mainly focused on their images processing machine vision digital input/output that will be fed to computer networks to observe the behavior in the different situations.

In order to provide this information to the user, we must first find out which segment of the problem he/she is in. In other words, we need to know at any time step whether the user is right at the current segment to allow entered the next one. Then, we execute different equations to solve the problem, with respect to different types of the segments. By tracking the user's steps/segments, we can evaluate the progress of the user and how close to the right solution.

Most machine vision system consists of the following:

Segments for Sample Tasks

In this research, computer vision used is as follows:

1. A camera for acquiring images as well as digitizing images "frame grabber" 2. A processor (PC) 3. Input/ output hardware (e.g. network connection to report results) 4. A program to process images and detect relevant features Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

• • • • •

Identify all variables that change with time Write an equation that relates the variables identified Take the derivative, with respect to time "t" .

Substitute known rates and values into the differentiated equation Solve for the derivative, to get the desired answer.

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Samia L. Jones and Omprakash K. Gupta 93

Reward Function

94 A Pattern Recognition in a Virtual World

Sample problem:

There are two types of situations where the user should be given a negative reward. One is when the user is far away from the suggested answer and the other when it is clear that the user is guessing. When either one of these situation is happening, the use will receive a ( -1) reward and then restarts from the beginning of the segment/step. Otherwise he will get a value of 1.

An Airplane is climbing at a 45 degree angle at the speed of 300 miles per hour. How fast is the altitude increasing (in miles per hour and feet per second? Â

Value Function The value function is to learn the long run reward to state-action pair of each time step given the immediate reward above. Then the optimal policy can be constructed based on this value function. Here we use a decision tree to find out the current state and the corresponding action to take, as in Fig. 2.

Second Life Environment Second Life is a 3-D virtual world developed by Linden Lab on 2003 and is accessible free via the Internet by downloading a client program called the Second Life Viewer. It enables its users, called Residents, to interact with each other through avatars. Residents can explore, meet other residents, socialize, participate in individual and group activities.

From the moment a user enter the World he/she will discover a vast digital continent, teeming with people. He/she will also be surrounded by the Creations of other fellow Residents.

Users are organized in second life to discuss the current set of questions.

The time of these meetings, typically in the evening and usually adjusted to maximize user access. The assessments will specifically analyze the ability of avatar-based learning environments to address best way of learning, gender, cultural, and racial issues in the classroom.

Fig. 2 Simulation Model, Decision Tree Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Samia L. Jones and Omprakash K. Gupta 95

The pattern of users is studied and their behavior to a certain step is graphed as a liner profile. The graph is analyzed to find known patterns. A matrix with true and false values is created for every case. All these matrices compared against database full of such matrices for getting the popular trend of the users. At the end the system is trained and able to give advise to users with similar behaviors as studied and were given valuable advise to help them carry the task in almost half the time they could have spend without the couching of the system. Users' comments were very positive and encouraging to continue the same experiment with new tasks.

96 A Pattern Recognition in a Virtual World

Kaelbling, L.P., M.L. Littman & A.W. Moore (1996) "Reinforcement Learning: A Survey", Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research, 4 :237-85.

Pal, P (2006) Advances in Pattern Recognition. New York : World Scientific Publication Com. Inc. Pal, S.K. & P. Mitra (2004) Pattern Recognition Algorithms for Data Mining. London : Chapman & Hall.

CONCLUSION Users finished the tasks within 48% less time which almost half time. They were happier by the end of the task and had a positive experience. Most (98%) did recommend using similar methods for other subjects and tasks because they though it made them happy that someone intelligent (the machine) understand them and assist them their way!

Schraudolph, N.N., P. Dayan, & T.J. Sejnowski (2000) "Learning to Evaluate Go Positions Via Temporal Difference Methods". In Jain, L.C. & N. Baba (eds.) Soft Computing Techniques in Game Playing. Berlin: Springer Verlag, Sutton, R.S. (1988) "Learning to Predict by the Method of Temporal Differences", Machine Learning, 3: 9-44.

REFERENCES Beal, D.F. & M.C. Smith (1999) "First Results from Using Temporal Difference Learning in Shogi", Computers and Games, . 1558: 113-25.

Beal, D.F. & M.C. Smith (2000) "Temporal Difference Learning for Heuristic Search and Game Playing", Information Sciences, 122 (1): 3-21.

Control Engineering Staff (2008) Machine Vision: Trends and Technologies, North American Print Edition Product Research Article, December 11, 2008. (http://www.controleng.com/article/276139/ Machine_vision_product_research_positive_attitudes_outlooks_new products.php) Dazeley, R. (2001) "Investigations into Playing Chess Endgames Using Reinforcement Learning", Honours Thesis, University of Tasmania.

Sutton, R.S. & A.G. Barto (1998) Reinforcement Learning: An Introduction. Boston: MIT Press.

Tesauro, G. (1992) "Practical Issues in Temporal Difference Learning", Machine Learning, 8.(3 & 4): 257-277.

Tesauro, G. (1994) "TD-Gammon, a Self-Teaching Backgammon Program, Achieves Master-Level Play", Neural Computation, 6 (2): 215-9.

Tesauro, G. (1995) "Temporal Difference Learning and TD-Gammon", Communications of the ACM, 38 (3): 58-68.

Thrun, S. (1995) "Learning to Play the Game of Chess", Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems, 7:1069-76.

Ghory, I. (2004) "Reinforcement Learning in Board Games", Masters thesis, University of Bristol, UK.

Tournavitis, K. (2003) 'MOUSE(mu): a Self Teaching Algorithm that Achieved Master Strength at Othello', Computers and Games, 2883: 11-28.

Ghosh, A. & S.K. Pal (2005) Pattern Recognition and Machine Intelligence.

In Proceedings First International Conference PReMI 2005, Kolkata December 20-22.

Walker, S., R. Lister & T Downs (1994) “A Noisy Temporal Difference Approach to Learning Othello: A Deterministic Board Game�, ACNN, 5: 113-7.

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

98 Examining Gender Difference in Coping with Organizational ....

EXAMINING GENDER DIFFRENCES IN COPING WITH ORGANIZATIONAL STRESS AMONG DUALCAREER COUPLES: A SAMPLE IN INDIA Tripti P. Desai Dual career couples are a relatively new addition to the Indian workforce. In a country where women from urban educated India are increasingly joining the professional workforce, the socio-psychological profile is changing. With the economic boom and liberalization, the middle class in India has swollen to large proportions, bringing with it more prosperity and availability of resources. With both spouses working towards an increasing pay check, there is a proportional increase in their stressors and strains. To reduce stress these career couples try to cope.

This paper aims to identify whether there are any gender differences in coping styles of these dual career couples. It looks at gender differences from the perspective of work family life cycle (WFLC), assuming that each stage of the work family life cycle brings in different stressors, which may lead to different styles for coping stress. Thus, the paper also attempts to answer a pertinent question to analyze if there are gender differences and at what stage of the WLFC these operate.

Key words: Work family conflict, work stress, dual career, gender issues.

INTRODUCTION Last two decades have seen many formidable change in India such as increasing consumerism, international brands, increased literacy, more exchange between rural and urban India; far reaching changes in information and communication technology, advent of Internet, etc. With growing consumerism, women in India are more conscious of their rights as buyers.

They have turned to professional work, not as a pastime, but as a need. This has added another concept in contemporary urban India - the 'working woman' and thus dual career couples!

have been mostly confined to their homes. The reasons are many. In the first place they were not educated enough to work. Secondly, even if they were educated, the reason for employment was to be gainfully occupied till they got married; they were not allowed by their new family to work, because working implied that the husband was not capable enough to look after his family. Thus, many educated and intelligent women were forced to stay at home and indulge in unpaid work.

However, things are changing today. Women have started coming out and started working and even gone one step further - they have graduated from being an earner to following a definite career path. With the women joining the career bandwagon, India is witnessing the rise of the middle class and the main contributor to this rise is the working woman - thus a parallel rise of the dual career couple is also taking place.

A career basically refers to a sequence of employment-related positions, roles, activities and experiences underwent by an individual (Greenhouse & Callanan, 1994). A sequence means 'more than one'. Instead of looking at a person's present job in isolation, it is of interest to see how it relates to his or her past and future. Reference to experiences indicate that careers are both subjective and objective. Careers are not confined to job oriented positions only, nor to 'conventional' career paths involving increasing seniority within a single occupation and/or organization. Career as opposed to a job requires a high level commitment and continuous developmental character (Rapoport & Rapoport, 1971).

Dual career couples are characterized by several factors such as and thus they are further elucidated: increasing workload for individuals, both in terms of hours worked per week, and the intensity of effort required during each working hour; organizational changes, particularly the elimination of layers of management (delayering and reductions in the number of people employed, downsizing); more global competition, which means that organizations in western countries need to control costs and also make maximum use of employees' skills and ideas; and more team-based work, where individuals with different types of expertise are brought together for a limited period to work on a specific project with clear goals, such as development of a new product (Rapoport & Rapoport, 1971).

Women from the lower strata of society and rural India have always worked for wages in this country. However, those from the upper classes

Dual career couples are also involved with more short-term contracts, where length of a person's employment is specified at the outset; frequent changes in the skills required in the workforce, following continuous

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009) Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009) Š 2009 IILM Institute for Higher Education.

All Rights Reserved.

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Tripti P Desai 99

development of new technologies; more part-time jobs following emergence of flexible work options such as telecommuting. flexi-timing, etc.; changing profile of workforce following emergence of growing cross culture issues in wake of globalization; and increasing reliance on occupational and employer-based pension schemes following ageing population and more mobility among occupations and organizations (Rapoport & Rapoport, 1971).

In view of such far reaching changes constantly occurring both at work place and work pattern, performing a job creates high level of mental and physical stress. Given this background, a need was felt to study stress and coping mechanism relating to dual career couples, who are particularly affected.

In India while some dual career couples are quite happy and satisfied, some others are not. Dual career couples in India, focusing on the two working partners as a single unit, have been studied only succinctly. As compared to West fewer studies have been carried out in India. Promilla Kapur (1970) made a pioneering study of working women in India. Ananth, et al.(1986) comprehensively surveyed studies on problems of working women. According to Kapur, a married woman's work in itself does not affect her marital adjustment negatively, but it is the nature of marital adjustment prior to employment that leads to continuing disharmony while in some cases woman employment further aggregates the situation.

As a corollary, one can add that more work was done on study of working women - her aspirations, conflicts, problems at home and workplace, etc. Research efforts in India are very limited and more studies have been carried out in areas such as women empowerment. However, the role of the man vis-a-vis working wife has been scantily reviewed. In fact, the man with the working wife works altogether under different parameters than the man with the wife who stays at home. Strain can occur when an adult takes over a new role for which he has not been prepared as a child, particularly if the prestige of this new assignment is not equal to that of the former role.

The new division of labour in the nuclear urban family, is thus, probably harder for the men of the family, than it is for women. As women's tasks in all societies have less prestige than those of men, women taking over 'male' business or professions, are moving to a higher level of job prestige, while men are moving to lower work levels (Ross, 1961). This shows that it is important for working wives to make efforts to achieve marital adjustment during this phase of men finding it more difficult to adapt to the changing functions of the family. Some studies have found that men with working wives are happier and more satisfied with their lot. Conversely some studies Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

100 Examining Gender Difference in Coping with Organizational ....

have found that this is not so. Apparently, there are several aspects that need to be examined for arriving at definitive solution to such problems.

Much of the research to date on dual career couples has been problems centered and descriptive, focusing on the special problems of stress and coping and conflicts of dual career couples. As dual career couples constitute a special workforce who balance out work and family life simultaneously; they are generally under greater stress, both at home and workplace. Thus, the study of stress of dual career couples is an area that needs detailed investigations. The present study focuses on study of stress and coping mechanism in the organizational life of dual career couples. The study also tries to investigate gender differences in coping with organizational stress.

It examines whether stress remains same over a period of time or whether individuals stick to the same style of coping through out their lives.

STRESS AT WORK Stress is seen as a force that pushes a psychological or physical factor beyond its range of stability, producing a strain within the individual (Cooper, 1996). Knowledge that stress is likely to occur constitutes a threat to the individual. A threat can cause a strain depending on what it signifies to the person. Newer and more complete theories of stress emphasize the interaction between a person and his or her environment. This is the closest definition which fits the cohort that the current study is looking at. By looking at stress as a result of a misfit between an individual and his or her particular environment, one can begin to understand why one person seems to flourish in a certain setting, while another suffers.

Sources of stress at work are manifold: five major categories of work stress (Cooper, et al., 1988) are common to all jobs; these factors vary in the degree to which they are found to be causally linked to stress in each job. They include: factors intrinsic to the job, role in the organization, relationships at work, career development, and organizational structure and climate. Fogarty, Rapoport, and Rapoport (1981) highlighted five dilemmas confronted by couples in dual career families. (i) Overload of work which is a function of at least four factors, viz., degree to which having children and family is salient, the degree to which the couple aspire to upgrade their domestic wing, the degree to which satisfactory arrangement for reallocation of tasks in the household is possible and finally the degree to which the sheer physical Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Tripti P Desai 101

strain is enhanced by psychological strain. (ii) Dilemma arising from the discrepancy between personal and social norms. (iii) Dilemma arising from the need to maintain personal identity and self esteem despite maintaining activity at both work and family fronts. (iv) Social network dilemma arising from the fact that they tend to make their network of relationships on a 'couple' basis rather than on individual basis. Thus they have a larger network as it includes both 'husbands' and 'wives' acquaintances. (v) 'Role cycling' dilemma which arises from conflicts between roles that may be variable in their demands at different points or periods of time, e.g., marital role demands vary in relation to work demands of each partner at different points in the life cycle.

Dual career couples can experience stress due to the interaction of their own roles with their partners, which create particular stresses that are unique to dual career couples and other working people. Individuals and organizations cannot remain in a continuous state of tension. Even if a deliberate and well thought out strategy is not adopted to deal with stress, some method is adopted to deal with stress. It could be simply to leave the conflict and stress to take care of 'itself'. Thus the individual is trying to deal with the stress he is facing, in effect coping with stress.

102 Examining Gender Difference in Coping with Organizational ....

Coping can have an effect on three arenas, psychological, social and physiological. From the psychological perspective, coping can have an effect on the psychological morale i.e., the way one feels about oneself and one's life. Emotional reaction, e.g., level of depression or anxiety, or the balance between positive and negative toned feelings will affect (Bradburn, 1969), incidents of psychiatric disorders and even performance. From a social perspective one can measure its impact on functioning effectiveness, such as employability, community involvement and sociability (Renne, 1974).

Effectiveness of interpersonal relationships and degree to which useful social roles are filled also fall in the 'social' domain. From a physiological perspective, outcome includes short term consequences such as the development and progression of a particular disease. Pareek (1983c) has proposed two types of coping strategies which people generally use in order to handle stress, i.e., dysfunctional and functional coping styles. Lazarus and Folkman (1984b) has suggested a classification of coping processes which emphasizes two major categories, namely, direct actions and palliative modes. Direct action includes behaviour or actions which when performed by the organism in the face of a stressful situation is expected to bring about a change in stress causing environment. The palliative mode of coping refers to those thoughts or actions whose purpose is to relieve the organism of any emotional impact of stress. Thus, broadly speaking there are two coping strategies, avoidance and approach. There is no clear consensus as to which coping strategies or modes of coping are most effective.

COPING WITH STRESS Investigators in the area of psychoanalytic and personality psychology have long been concerned with various forms of adjustment including coping up mechanism. From this area and literature, coping is typically defined in terms of 'realistic thoughts and actions which solve problems confronting the individual'. This method of adjustment is contrasted with more primitive means, such as repression, displacement, denial of reality, etc.

Attempt to identify coping style or disposition is assessed by personality tests and not by actual observations of what the person says or does in a particular stress situation. Emphasis on process distinguishes it from other approaches which are trait specific. Most psychologists identify two major ways in which people cope with stress. In the first approach the person may decide to suffer or deny the experienced stress. This is the passive approach. Conversely, a person may decide to face the realities or experience stress and clarify the problem through negotiations with other individuals.

This is the active approach.

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Voydanoff (1987) refers to a traditional and simultaneous work family life cycle. In this traditional work family life cycle the early stage of the career intersects with the childless couple stage of the family, the middle stage of the career intersects the expansion stage of the family and the late stage of the career coincides with the contraction or late stage of the family.

The perspective from which the research studies coping mechanisms of dual career couples in response to organizational stress, is from a work family life cycle(WFLC) point of view. It is felt that the stress that couples face in organizations and at home do not remain the same throughout their lives. They change in the early, middle and late career stage in organisations, and similarly on the domestic front, their problems change with being in the early married stage, to having children and rearing them, to a time when the children are grown up and don't need them on a day-to-day basis. Thus it is assumed that there is a difference in organizational stress and coping in the three different work family life cycles, and a need was felt to study and compare dual career couples on a life cycle basis.

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Tripti P Desai 103

RELATED LITERARTURE REVIEW Sehgal (1997) studied a sample consisting of 222 executives belonging to junior, middle and senior level in a large public sector organisation. Avoidance style of coping was used more frequently than approach style of coping.

Also a significant negative correlation was observed between approach style of coping and total organizational role stress.

Kaur and Murthy (1986) studied coping strategies of managerial personnel at different organizational levels in a public enterprise. The results indicated a significant difference in coping strategy adopted by individuals working at different organizational levels. Avoidance strategies were predominant at junior level and approach strategies were predominant at senior level. A defensive style was used maximum junior levels, impunitive by the middle level and intropersistive by the senior management levels.

There was a positive and significant relationship between 'role stress' and 'avoidance strategies', between 'role stress' and 'externality' and between 'externality' and 'avoidance' strategies. 'Organizational role stress' was negatively and significantly associated with approach strategies.

To investigate dominant coping strategies Sharma and Acharya (1991) studied a sample of 150 male electrical engineers (age 30-44 years) working in a state electricity board with reference to their dealing with their job hierarchy, and job anxiety. Results indicated that job hierarchy did not significantly determine nature of dominant mode of stress coping. Irrespective of job hierarchy subjects with higher anxiety showed a greater tendency to use 'avoidance' coping strategy vis-Ă -vis the total coping efforts.

The effects of 'avoidance' and 'approach' mode of coping in relation to organizational stress and mental health was studied by Srivastava (1991).

The main findings of the study were that 'role stress' was positively related to 'mental illness'. Stress from 'role ambiguity' and 'role stagnation' correlated intensively with 'mental illness'. Also the 'approach' group experienced more 'role stress' than the 'avoidance' group but scored lower on the mental health questionnaire than the avoidance group.

The present study found that 'approach' coping strategy contributed to immediate perceived stress, but in the long run reduces tension and anxiety.

On the other hand 'avoidance' strategies might reduce immediate stress, but in the long run contributed to higher tension and anxiety.

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

104 Examining Gender Difference in Coping with Organizational ....

Parasuraman and Cleek (1984) studied to identify managerial coping behaviours and determine their influence in modifying individual's affective reactions to 'role stresses' in terms of felt stress and job satisfaction. The study also sought to assess role of individual differences, both in influencing coping behaviours and in moderating stressor outcome relationships. The results showed, in general, that male adaptive coping served to tighten the level of stress experienced in response to 'role ambiguity', 'quantitative overload' and 'qualitative overload'. In case of high quantitative overload in particular, high male adaptive behaviours greatly exacerbated the degree of felt stress. As expected, male adaptive coping in conjunction with role ambiguity and quantitative overload contributed to lower job satisfaction.

Wide a study on 'role stress' with actual and desired modes of conflict resolution, Mittal (1995) studied a sample of 116 managers employed in industry, banks, research and development organisation. Modes of coping resolution identified for the study included: 'withdrawal' implying refraining or retreating from an argument; 'smoothing' playing down differences by emphasing common interest; 'compromise' indicated splitting the difference or searching for an intermediate position which usually achieved only a temporary resolution; 'forcing' implied casting the situation as a win/lose situation; where participants were antagonists, creating a feeling of victor and vanquished; and 'collaborating' indicating a problem solving approach where open exchange of information takes place.

The study showed that by and large Indian managers expressed their preference for confrontation as a most desirable mode of conflict resolution.

It is followed by smoothing, withdrawing, compromise with forcing as a least desirable mode. The ORS (organizational role stress) scores for the whole group when correlated with the desirable and actual mode of conflict resolution showed near zero correlations for all dimensions. The only exception was the desirable mode of smoothing which showed a little correlation with 'role ambiguity'. The study concluded that 'role stress' the managers face is unrelated to conflict resolution style they wish to adopt, except in 'role ambiguity' where they show a preference for handling the stress by smoothing down differences.

Paden and Buehler (1995) studied coping mechanism for dual income lifestyle. They looked at five coping mechanisms that dual income couples tended to use: (i) planning, which involves organising one's work and all home activities by setting priorities; (ii) talking, i.e., conversing with others who can understand one's situation and talking concerns out to relieve stress; Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Tripti P Desai 105

(iii) withdrawing which involves moving away from stress producing activities and jobs for a short time; (iv) cognitive restructuring, trying to change the way one looks at the negative situation, so one can find things about the situation that are positive or at least make it neutral; and (v) withdrawing, i.e., limiting job responsibilities, reducing amount of time or energy that one puts into one's job temporarily.

The result showed that 'role overload' and conflict could lead to deleterious effect on emotional well being of both spouses in dual income families. However, they have different impact on male and female spouses.

For women, the strongest effect was between the role conflict and negative emotions. For men, 'role overload' shows a stronger relationship with negative emotions. Coping strategies moderate the association between the 'role overload', 'role conflict' and physical and emotional effects. Strategies that are most effective differed somewhat for men and women. For women cognitive restructuring and planning creates a positive effect on the relationship between the 'role overload' and conflict and physical and emotional issues. 'Cognitive restructuring' also creates a positive effect on the relationship between 'role conflict' and the development of physical symptoms in husbands. The relationship between the 'role overload' and the development of physical symptoms is buffered by withdrawing in men. For men, seeking support by talking increases the negative effects of 'role overload'.

Long, Kahn, and Schutz (1992) tried to establish a causal model of stress and coping in women managers. They felt that women employed in male dominated careers have to cope with different employment stresses, e.g., gender role stereotypes and occupational sex discrimination (Terborg, 1985). By applying a model of stress and coping to women in management positions, the authors' tried to understand women's employment experience and the effects of women's appraisal of stress and coping responses, on their well-being. Previous investigations have shown that people generally use multiple forms of coping in virtually every type of encounter. Thus, in addition to appraisals and coping strategies the authors included environmental constraints and resources (Work demands, control and support) as well as daily hassles and type of stresses. The results of the final model tested indicate, that Lazarus's (1966) as well as Lazarus and Folkman's (1985), theory of psychological stress and coping is useful in understanding managerial women's responses to occupational stress. The study found that because the appraisal of work stress and coping efforts are central to the experience of daily hassles and psychosomatic health, work stress experienced by women in non-traditional careers is an important career issue. Furthermore, Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

106 Examining Gender Difference in Coping with Organizational ....

sex role attitude and agentic traits, characteristics that are associated with the development of a non-traditional career orientation also predict the appraisal of work stress and coping efforts. The results indicated that women managers who maintain traditional lifestyles (married with children) and traditional beliefs appraise occupational stressors as less threatening. Career theory would suggest that these women are less invested in their careers and consequently may have less at stake in stressful events at work when the stresses are perceived to be related to occupational goals or achievements.

In a study done by Long (1990) on a comparison of male and female managers in their coping strategies in relation to sex type traits and environmental characteristics, the results showed that women compared with men were more likely to use avoidance and problem-focused appraisal coping whereas there are no gender difference with regard to active problem solving coping. Multiple regression analysis showed that sex-type traits, the work environment and episode importance were significant predictors of coping after the effects of sex were removed. Also, contrary to the findings for other coping strategies, no sex differences emerged in the prediction of active coping strategies. This was found to be consistent with the findings of Folkman, Lazarus, Plimley, and Novacek (1987) that there are no gender differences in two major problem-focused forms of coping, viz., confrontive coping and plan full problem solving.

Stress and coping strategies amongst executive technocrats was studied

by Ahmad, et al. (1990) and data was collected to examine whether there is any difference in the coping styles of male and female technocrats using 'Role PICS'. The sample consisted of 100 executive technocrats, 60 males and 40 females. The results indicated that the total sample scores were higher for the 'approach' style than for the 'avoidance' style. Executive technocrats used 'intropersistive' style as a dominant style for coping, followed by 'defensive' and 'extrapersistive' styles. A significant difference was observed in the coping styles of male and female technocrats. While men used 'defensive' style more often than women, females largely used the 'approach' style for coping. They also found that none of the demographic variables - age, number of dependents, income, drinking/smoking habits, health of individuals have significant bearing on the strategies used for coping with stress.

Rajadhyaksha (1996) studied stress levels of dual career couples to investigate their work-family conflict across the WFLC. She found that conflict between work and family was highest during the early stages of the Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Tripti P Desai 107

work family life cycle. For women, the set of individual and support related antecedent variables explained the maximum variation in work-family conflict, while for men, the set of work-related antecedent variables explained the maximum variation in work to family conflict. The work family conflict of wives was significantly related to the personal attitudes and expectations of the husbands towards the work and family roles, while the work family cycle of the husbands was significantly related to the work experience of the wife.

Although there were no significant differences in the extent of overall work family conflict experienced by men and women, an examination across the different work family life cycle stages revealed gender differences, viz., men had greater difficulty in managing their job and spousal roles, while women had greater difficulty in managing their job and home maker roles.

The work family conflict of the husband and wife together, i.e., as a dual career couple, depended on their 'type A' personality, working hours, work 'role overload', job variety, career stage, social support from the boss, marital role reward value and parental role commitment and family type.

In the area of Work Family Life Cycle, as can be seen, very little research has been done, specially in India, and more for from the perspective of dual career couples. This is an important area for inquiry as stress is a dynamic concept and it will be useful to study how it changes over a life cycle while interacting with the work/career cycle.

108 Examining Gender Difference in Coping with Organizational ....

As very few studies involving both partners of dual career couples have been done, no ready sample was available for survey purposes. To generate the sample for this study, it was decided to use the 'snowballing' technique (Green Tull, & Albaum, 1995).

This technique is mainly used to estimate various characteristics that are rare in a total population. In 'snowball' sampling technique the mutual respondents are selected randomly, and additional respondents are obtained from referrals or by other information provided by these mutual respondents.

Consequently, these respondents would exhibit demographic profiles that are more similar to the persons referring them than would be expected by chance (Green-Tull, & Albaum, 1995).

Each couple was given a set of three questionnaires, one for each spouse, and both the partners were requested to fill in their responses without consulting each other. All the questionnaires were personally delivered to and collected from the respondents.

KEY DIMENSIONS AND TOOLS OF THE STUDY According to Voydanoff's (1987), WFLC which forms part of this study is intersection or simultaneous interaction of work and family careers of an individual.

STUDY OBJECTIVES Work Family Life Cycle (WFLC) The present study aimed to: • To identify stress coping mechanisms for dual career couples; • To investigate differences in coping mechanisms of the sample along the work family life cycle; and • To identify gender differences, if any, among husbands and wives of the dual career couples, in coping mechanisms in the complete sample and WFLC wise.

Methodology Data for the study required a sample of dual career couples belonging to different age groups. Approximately 40 couples were administered the questionnaires in each stage of the WFLC. However, only 25 completed questionnaires of couples in the WFLC-III were actually used, 26 couples in the child-rearing, child bearing stage, i.e., WFLC II & 27 in the early married stage, i.e., WFLC I. Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

In this study, the WFLC is divided into three stages (Rodgers, 1964). Early stage, when the dual career persons are newly married and yet to become parents. The second or middle stage, involves families having infant, preschool aged, school-aged, and teenaged children. It is the stage in which the family is 'new' or 'young', i.e, where the age of the youngest child in the family is less than fourteen years. The third stage of the WFLC is the late or mature family stage. During this stage children are in their late teens or young adults, i.e., the youngest child in the family is older than fourteen years of age.

Dual Career Couples Dual career couples for sample consisted of couples who are professionally qualified and have a specific career path ahead of them. Distinction is drawn between dual career couples and dual earner couples. Organizational Role Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Tripti P Desai 109

Stress (ORS) was also measured (Pareek, 1983b) though it is not used directly in this study.

Coping: To measure the coping patterns of these dual career couples, Role PICS (Projective Instrument for Coping with Stress) questionnaires, developed and standardized by Pareek (1983c) was used. This is a semi projective instrument for assessment of styles or strategies used by respondents to cope with role stress. The respondent is required to write down how the person to whom a statement has been made, would respond.

It is presumed that the responses will be a projective expression of the way the respondent would himself cope with the particular stress. he Role Pics is a semi projective technique. The responses can be scored by using a system of categorization. For categorizing the responses, the system suggested here is 2 x 2 x 2, having three dimensions as follows (Pareek, Devi & Rosenweig, 1968; Rosenweig, 1978).

Externality: The feeling that the external factors are responsible for the role stress resulting in aggression and blame on such external factors. It may also indicate the tendency to expect and get solution for the stress from external sources. Externality may be high or low.

Internality: It is opposite to externality. The respondent may perceive himself or herself responsible for the stress and may therefore express aggression towards the self or may blame self. Similarly, the respondent may expect solutions for the stress from himself or herself. Internality may be high or low.

Mode of Coping: Coping may either take the form avoiding the situation (reactive strategy), or confronting and approaching the problem (proactive strategy).

110 Examining Gender Difference in Coping with Organizational ....

Extrapunitive (E) is categorized by low internality, high externality and avoidance. Both Rosenweig's extrapeditive (the presence of the frustrating obstacle is insistently pointed out) and extrapunitive (blame hostility, etc., are turned against some person or thing in the environment) are included here. Both irritation with the situation and aggression for outside factors and persons are scored E. Defensive (D) is categorized by high internality, high externality and avoidance. With involvement of both self and others but having avoidance mode, the respondent avoids aggression or blame by use of defence mechanisms. Rosenweig used defense response variants of intropunitive category. The assumption here is that with the high involvement of the self and others in the stress, the super-ego becomes more active and therefore defensive behavior is stimulated.

D is scored for both denial of stress, for rationalization of stressful situations, and for benefits pointed out for the stress.

Impersistive (m) is categorized by low internality, low externality and approach. Rosenweig's impersistive category relates to "expression given to the hope that time or normally expected circumstances will bring about solution for the problem; patience and conformity are characterized". This interpretation is used to score responses as (m).

Intropersistive (i) is categorized by high internality, low externality and approach. Statement showing that the respondent himself will take action in relation to stress is scored (i).

Different styles could be one of the following

Extrapersistive (e) is categorized by low internality, high externality and approach. Statements of requests made to someone to solve the problem or indicating expectations of the solution would come from other people are scored (e).

Impunitive (M) has a mode of coping combination of low internality, low externality and avoidance. This is a fatalistic attitude. It is similar to what Rosenzwig has called impunitive (blame for the frustration is evaded altogether, the situation being regarded as unavoidable).

Interpersistive (n) is categorized by high internality, high externality and approach. It is opposite of the Defensive Style (D). This style is indicated in statements suggesting joint effort by the respondents and some others to deal with stress.

Intropunitive (I) is categorized by high internality, low externality and avoidance. Blame and aggression is directed by the respondent to himself.

Responses showing self-blame, remorse or guilt are scored I.

Statements can be scored under two or three categories. In such cases usually a statement is scored under two categories and each category is given .5 score.

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

others

PG &

(N=156)

100

12.8 20

100

07.7

16.7

< 50 10.9

14.1

40 - 50

10

06.4

Professional

36

(N=156)

100

23.1

20.5 32 Graduate 21.8 34 30 - 40 21.8

32.7 51 PG 23.7 37 20 - 30 23.1

37 Graduate

Frequency Category

Education

%

35.3 55 > 20 05.8

Tomorrow's India will be what we make it by today's labours. It has no doubt that India will progress industrially and otherwise; that she will advance in science and technology; that our people's standards will rise; that education will spread and that health conditions will be better and that art and culture will enrich people's lives. We have started on this pilgrimage with strong purpose and good heart, and we shall reach the end of the journey, however long that might be.

Frequency

INDIA TODAY AND TOMORROW

Category

Aspects like size of family, age, general satisfaction with life, need for more help from spouse are also looked into.(Table 2)

%

Demographic and personal data of the respondents were taken to see whether any of these variables contributed to the prediction of organizational stress or coping style. (Table 1).

Table 1 Demographic Details: Age, Income & Education

PERSONAL DETAILS

%

Dominant coping style (DCS) is the style which gets the highest score amongst each styles. A respondent uses this style most of the time and it is his characteristic style. The style having the next highest score is called the Backup Coping Style (BCS). When an individual is under stress or is working in emergency situation or has pressure of time, he tends to use the BCS ore than the Dominant style. Thus, BCS is also important. It was also attempted to determine individual mode of coping - 'approach' or 'avoidance' style, which is determined from score totals; and adding 'avoidance' and 'approach' scores. The one which is higher is the coping mode followed by the respondent.

23.7

112 Examining Gender Difference in Coping with Organizational ....

Income (Rs. thousands)

Tripti P Desai 111

09

36

34

22

17

26

12

> 25

25 - 29

30 - 34

35 - 39

40 - 44

45 - 49

< 50

(N=156)

Frequency Category

Source: Nehru, J.L., India Today and Tomorrow, Bhavan's Journal, March 31, 2009.

Age (Years)

- Jawaharlal Nehru

Bite off more than you can chew, then chew it. Plan more than you can do it and then do it.

- Anonymous Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Total

STRATEGY FOR GREAT ACHIEVEMENTS

100

114 Examining Gender Difference in Coping with Organizational ....

SYNERGY

100 N=156 Total

SILENCE IS GOLDEN

< 25

26.9

Aligning business strategies of two or more business units may provide a corporation significant advantage by reducing inter-unit competition and developing a coordinated response to common competitors.Combined units often benefit from sharing knowledge or skills following leveraging of core competencies. Exchanging knowledge and skills can facilitate new products or services to be developed.

42

N=156

100

From Table 3 depicting frequencies of the Dominant Coping styles of respondents of the three work family life cycle stages, one observes that in all three stages, the 'D' style, i.e., Defensive style, characterized by high internality, high externality and avoidance is the highest. This is followed closely by 'i', i.e., Intropersistive style, characterized by high internality, low externality and approach mode. Thus, the style of coping doesn't really change as the WFLC progresses. In the back-up coping style, which is used in an emergency, both the defensive style and extrapersistive (e) are used. This style is characterized by low internality, high externality and approach mode of coping. One may perhaps conclude that in an emergency mode the sample becomes more dependent, ready to ask for help, and hope that solutions will come from others. In their day to day style they feel confident, partly due to their education, status, and monetary comfort brought in by high salaries; so their coping mechanism includes rationalization, or pointing out the benefits of stress.

That is why synergy makes its innocuous presence in a verse in Rigveda (10-199). Oh men! Go together harmoniously, speak together, understand each others' minds; just as Gods from ancient times, having known each others' minds did the job come to their lot, religiously, so you too act. (Sangacchaddhvam samvadadwam sam vo manansi jaanataam devaa bhaagam yatha poorve sanjaanaanaa upaasate).

20-25

3 3 07.1 11 16-20

N=156

03.8 6 7

02.6 4 6

10.9 17 5 1.90

39.1 46 11-15

20

12.8

2

61 4 29.5

23.7 53 6-10

34

21.8

1

37 3 34.0

19.9 54 49 >5

31.4

0

31 2 34.6

Frequency Category % Frequency Category % Frequency Category

Size of Family No. of Children Years of Marriage (Yrs)

Table 2 Personal Details: Years of Marriage, Number of Children & Size of Family

%

Tripti P Desai 113

Over-eloquence generates contempt. Silence generates esteem. The noisy anklet is fixed at the feet while the silent jewel adorns the neck.(Maukharya laghavkaram maunmunnatikarkam; mukhram nupuram pade kanthe haro virajate).

- Nitya Neeti (165)

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

2 1 26 19 6 54

M I E D M i.

E N Total Frequency

100

35.2 11.1 -

2.7 1.9 48.1

%

52

19 3 -

4 4 22

Frequency

WFLC II

100

36.5 5.8 -

7.7 7.7 42.3

%

50

2 20 3 -

2 1 22

Frequency

WFLC III

100

4.0 40.0 6.0 -

4.0 2.0 44.0

%

156

2 58 12 -

6 7 1 70

Frequency

Total Sample

100

1.3 37.2 7.7 -

3.8 4.5 0.6 44.9

%

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Frequency 6 1 3 10 2 15 14 3 54

M I E D M i.

E N Total Frequency

WFLC I

Backup Coping Style

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

100

52

6 14 2

15

18.5 3.7 27.8 25.9 5.6

7 2 6

Frequency 11.1 1.9 5.6

%

WFLC II

100

11.5 26.9 3.8

28.8

13.5 3.8 11.5

%

50

2 11 7 1

11

7 5 6

Frequency

WFLC III

100

4 22 14 2

22

14 10 12

%

156

4 32 35 6

36

20 8 15

Frequency

12.8 5.1 9.6

%

100

2.6 20.5 22.4 3.8

23.1

Total Sample

Table 4 Frequency of Backup Coping Style of Respondents in the Three Stages of Work Family Life Cycles

From Table 4 showing frequencies of the backup coping style of the respondents in the three different stages, the styles are more spread out and less concentrated at 'D' and 'i'.

Frequency

WFLC I

Dominant Coping Style

Table 3 Frequency of Dominant Coping Style of Respondents in Three Stages of Work Family Life Cycles

Tripti P Desai 115 116 Examining Gender Difference in Coping with Organizational ....

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

2.22

5.44

1.86

4.58

2.28

4.61

2.10

4.16

1.91

4.32

2.27

No significant difference between any group.

4.89

B SD A

SD

C

SD

D

SD

E

SD

F

SD

Test Outcome WFLC III (W) WFLC III (H) WFLC II (W) WFLC II (H) WFLC I (W) WFLC I (H)

Table 6 Comparison between Husbands of Work Family Life Cycles I, II & III and Wives of Work Family Life Cycle I, II & III for 'Back-up Coping Style (BCS)'

1.41

4.54

1.36

4.50

1.94

4.88

1.54

4.84

1.25

No significant difference between any group.

Outcome WRITING F SD E SD D SD C SD

WFLC III (W) WFLC III (H) WFLC II (W)

Note: A. B, C, D, E & F refer to measures of concerned variables and SD refers to their standard deviation

I cannot say what to preach, but I can say that a life of service and utmost simplicity is the best preaching. (Truth is God, Navjivan Trust, p.72).

- M.K.Gandhi

5.00

â&#x20AC;˘

1.22

An ounce of practice is more than tons of preaching (Young India, June 25, 1931).

4.89

â&#x20AC;˘

B

PREACHING

SD

One is asked to take a les son from the trees, which themselves suffer the fierce rays of the sun and give shade to those who take shelter under them. To those who throw stones at them, they respond by dropping fruit. That is true philanthropy (Harijan, May 26, 1946).

A

PHILANTHROPY

WFLC II (H)

We should not mistake humility for good manners. One might bow down before another having his heart full of hatred and contempt, this is not humility but hypocrisy. One might repeat the name of God (Rama) or say rosaries the whole day long, but if he is selfish, he is not truly humble. One can measure truth and love, but not humility. Humility is limitless.

WFLC I (W)

HUMILITY

WFLC I (H)

On looking at gender differences, no significant difference has been found in the DCS and BCS of husbands and wives, amongst themselves, that is, within their own WFLC, and amongst different WFLC's (Table 5 & 6).

This is perhaps because the husbands and wives in this sample are career persons in their own right, equally qualified and with developmental career paths in mind. Thus to cope with the organizational stresses they probably use similar coping mechanisms to handle these stresses. This is similar to a finding by Sen (1981) wherein no significant sex differences were found in coping. Perhaps these styles may differ if one were to study their coping mechanisms of general life stresses or domestic conflicts.

118 Examining Gender Difference in Coping with Organizational ....

Table 5 Comparison between Husbands of Work Family Life Cycles I, II & III and Wives of Work Family Life Cycle-I, II & III for 'Dominant Coping Style (DCS)'

Tripti P Desai 117

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

FLEXIBLE ATTITUDE

*Significant at .05 level

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

- M.K.Gandhi

It seems to me that people, who admit they are wrong, go a lot further than people who prove they are right.

1.64 0.51 1.48 0.54 1.54 0.49 1.65 0.47 1.30 0.51 1.52

SD

0.49

B vs C* & B vs F* Significant at 0.05 level SD

C

SD

D

SD

E

SD

F

SD

Test Outcome WFLC III (W) WFLC III (H) WFLC II (W)

B

Source : Bahvan’s Journal, September 20, 1959.

A

- Rabindranath Tagore

WFLC II (H)

My religion is essentially a poet’s religion. Its touch comes to me through the same unseen and trackless channels as does the inspiration of my music. My religious life has followed the same mysterious line of growth as has my poetical life. Somehow they are wedded to each other, and though their betrothal has a long period of ceremony, it was kept secret from me. I have already confessed that my religion is a poet’s religion; all that feels about it, is from vision and not from knowledge. I cannot satisfactorily answer questions about the problem of evil, or about what happens after death, And yet I am sure that there have come moments when my soul has touched the infinite and has become intensely conscious of it through the illumination of joy. Our mind and our words come away baffled from the supreme Truth, but he who know That, is saved from all doubts and fears,

WFLC I (W)

RELIGION OF A POET

WFLC I (H)

When one refines the statistics for gender differences, significant difference has been found in the mode of coping between wives of WFLC I and husbands of WFLC II. Wives of WFLC I prefer the 'approach' mode of coping whereas the husbands of WFLC II are using the dysfunctional style of coping of avoidance. Men as a rule prefer avoiding a problem rather than taking it head on at this stage of their mid career and mid family life.

Also, wives of WFLC I are significantly different from wives of WFLC III. Here once again, the difference is similar to the earlier one, i.e., wives of WFLC III become 'avoidance' oriented as compared to the wives of WFLC I. The reason perhaps could be that as the wives get older, careerwise and homewise, they realise that 'avoidance' can handle stress well too, and thus do not 'approach' all problems but avoid some of them which may take care of themselves (Table 7).

120 Examining Gender Difference in Coping with Organizational ....

Table 7 Comparison between Husbands of Work Family Life Cycles I, II & III and Wives of Work Family Life Cycle I, II & III for 'Mode Copying (Approach /Avoidance)'

Tripti P Desai 119

Tripti P Desai 121

In the coping mechanisms (Table 8 & 9), there are differing relationships between husbands and wives. In the 'desire for help from the spouse', husbands show an inverse relationship with backup coping styles while wives show an inverse relationship with the dominant coping style. Thus, for husbands, when their 'desire for help from their spouse' increases, their backup style veers towards the approach style; a similar relationship is seen for wives for their dominant coping style. So when husbands desire help, their coping style which they use in emergencies and time constraints, becomes approach oriented; the same trend occurs for wives for their dayto-day coping, i.e., DCS. Table 8 Correlation between Dependent and Independent Variables for Wives (Pearson's r) (N=78) Independent Variables Age Life Cycle Yearsof marriage Income Present Status Desire for Help from Spouse Generally Satisfied Desire for Change in Career

DC

BCOP

CS

–0.01 –0.04 –0.04 0.29 0.02 –0.28* 0.05 –0.08

–0.18 –0.22 –0.08 0.21 0.06 0.02 0.07 –0.01

0.25* 0.28* 0.14 –0.16 –0.10 0.22* –0.17 0.19

As for WFLC, no significant differences work found between the WFLC's except in the BCS, where couples of WFLC III are more 'avoidance' oriented than couples of WFLC II. With increasing age in India one may conclude that 'avoidance' becomes a preferred mode of coping.

Table 9 Correlation between Dependent and Independent Variables for Husbands (Pearson's r) (N =78) Independent Variables Age Life Cycle Yearsof marriage Income Present Status Desire for Help from Spouse Generally Satisfied Desire for Change in Career

DC

BCOP

CS

–0.00 –0.00 0.10 –0.01 –0.04 0.07 –0.12 0.00

–0.10 –0.13 –0.12 0.04 –0.05 0.25* 0.07 0.14

–0.03 –0.02 –0.09 –0.05 –0.01 0.02 –0.02 –0.03

* Significant at .05 level Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

122 Examining Gender Difference in Coping with Organizational ....

LIMITATIONS OF THE PRESENT STUDY Limitations are inherent in all research investigations. One of the limitations of the current study is that the sample is too heterogeneous and as this is a study on organizational stress and coping, the sample should have been perhaps industry specific, since each organization and consequently industry have their own specific stresses and stressors.

The career stage models used are models that have been defined largely on samples of men. There has been evidence in recent time that the career stages for women may be quite different from those of men, e.g., women's careers instead of plateauing during middle age, is characterized by a heavier investment in the work role as compared to men (Galloos, 1989). Future studies can differently define career stages.

As always the sample could have been larger for more robust data analysis. Last, but not the least, a little more emphasis on the domestic aspect by the couples could be added to the framework, to be able to get more insight into their work family conflict.

IMPLICATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH The current study is one of the few studies done in India on identifying aspects of organizational stress and their coping styles along the work family life cycle of a sample of dual career couples. Some of the findings are as expected. However, some of them have been contrary to expectation, for example, it came as a surprise that there is no significant difference in the stress felt by husbands and wives in organizations and even more so that there is no significant difference in their coping styles.

Thus, study has revealed and given us some more insight in dual career couples, which will be of interest to those who are involved in the counseling of dual career couples, viz., family sociologists and psychologists, marriage and family counselors and of course organizational behavioural scientists in the area of stress. Unfortunately, for Indians going to counsellor or a psychiatrists is still it taboos and thus while stress keeps building coping mechanisms remain unchanged.

Needless to say, much more research is required in this special sample of dual career couples, a population which is rising by the day in cosmopolitan Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Tripti P Desai 123

cities of India. The current study is a small attempt to study their stress and coping styles. The implications then, for organizations is to become more family friendly for this population keeping in mind their responsibilities in both domestic and work life. Couples need to be encouraged to seek help from professionals and organizations must keep trained psychologists in their workforce.

The results of the study can provide some directions for the areas in which dual career people can realign or adjust their expectations and attitudes to reduce their own stress and adjust their coping mechanisms both in the organisation, and in their domestic life along the work-family life cycle.

Men may have to learn to contribute more towards the domestic front, as well as handle their stress arising out of the conflicting demands of parenthood and employment. Women may have to minimize conflict between work and family roles by learning to take on fewer role demands both at work and at home, by making certain decisions with regard to what is essential and not essential on the job, by seeking support from not only their spouses but also their children. In other words wives may have to move from 'role overload' to 'role reduction' (Pestonjee, 1992). The husbands on the other hand may have to overcome the erosion in their roles as 'sole breadwinners', by taking on other family responsibilities, i.e., they may have to move from role erosion to role enrichment (Pestonjee, 1992) to manage their work and family roles better.

From the results of the study dealing with the relationships of personal variables and dual career couples, it is encouraging to see that a lot of stress reduction lies in the hands of the couples, and with the right kind of counseling and understanding, better management of work and family roles, and handling the demographic characteristics of their family, their stress levels can be brought down.

The implications for organizations, to handle these particular set of employees, who are bright, professionally qualified and have the ability to deliver the goods are many. They must develop a corporate policy to help this sample cope with the stress these employees feel while working in their organisation, which will consequently benefit the organization by increasing their profits, by lowering health related absenteeism and increase their motivation by reducing their tension related to work-family conflicts.

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

124 Examining Gender Difference in Coping with Organizational ....

REFERENCES Ananth, S., S.V. Rao, & K. Kapur (1986) Women at Work: A Bibliography.

New Delhi: Sage.

Ahmad, S., D. Bhatt, & H. Ahmad (1990) Stress and Coping strategies among Executive Technocrats. Unpublished manuscript, AMU. Bradburn, N. (1969) The Structure of Well-Being. Chicago: Aldine.

Cooper, C.L. (1996) Handbook of Stress, Medicine & Health. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.

Cooper, C.L., R.D. Cooper, & L.H. Eaker (1988). Living with Stress.

Hammondsworth: Penguin.

Cumming, T., & Cooper, C.L. (1979) "A Cybernetic Framework for the Study of Occupational Stress", Human Relations, 32: 395-419.

Elman, M.R., & L.A. Gilbert (1984) "Coping Strategies for Role Conflict in Married Professional Women with Children", Family Relations, 33: 317327.

Fogarty, M. P., R. Rapoport & R.N. Rapoport (1981) Sex, Career and Family. London: George Allen & Unwin.

Folkman, S., R. Lazarus, S. Plimley & J. Novacek (1987) "Age Differences in Stress and Coping Processes". Psychology and Aging, 2:171-184.

Gallos, J. V. (1989) Exploring Women's Development: Implications for Career Theory, Practice & Research. In Arthur, M.B., D.T. Hall, & B.S. Lawrence (eds.), Handbook of Career Theory (pp. 110-132). Cambridge: University Press.

Green, P.E., D.S.Tull & G.Albaum(1995) Research for Marketing Decisions.New Delhi: Prentice Hall Greenhaus, J. H., & G.A. Callanan (1994) Career Management (second edition). Orlando, FL: Harcourt Brace.

Kapur, P. (1970) Marriage and the Working Women in India. New Delhi: Vikas Publication House Pvt. Ltd. Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Tripti P Desai 125

Kaur, G., & V.N. Murthy (1986) Organizational Role Stress, Coping Strategies and Locus of Control in a Major Public Sector Industrial Organisation.

Unpublished manuscript.DU

126 Examining Gender Difference in Coping with Organizational ....

Pestonjee, D.M. (1992) Stress and Coping: The Indian Experience. New Delhi: Sage

Lazarus, R.S., & S. Folkman (1984b) Stress, Coping and Adaptation. New York: Springer.

Rajyadhaksha, U. (1996) Work Family Conflict Across the Work-Family Life Cycle: A Study of Dual Career Couples. Fellow Programme Thesis (Equivalent to a Ph.D Dissertation.) IIM, Ahmedabad.

Lazarus, R.S. (1966). Psychological Stress and the Coping Process. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Rapoport, R.N. & R. Rapoport (1971) Working Couples. New York: Harper & Row.

Long, B. C. (1990) "Relation between Coping Strategies, Sex-typed Traits, and Environmental Characteristics: A Comparison of Male and Female Managers". Journal of Counseling Psychology. 32: 185-194.

Renne, K.S. (1974) "Measurement of Social Health in a General Population Survey", Social Science Research, 3: 25-44.

Long, B.C., S.E. Kahn & R.W. Schutz (1992) "Causal Model of Stress and Coping: Women in Management", Journal of Counselling Psychology, 39: 227-239.

Mittal, P. (1995) "Role Stress with its Actual and Desired Modes of Conflict Resolution", Indian Journal of Industrial Relation, 30(2), Moos, R.A., & A.G. Billings (1982) "Conceptualizing and Measuring Coping Resources and Processes. In Goldberger, L & S. Breznitz (eds.), Handbook of Stress: Theoretical and Clinical Aspects.New York: Free Press.

Paden, S.L., & C. Buehler (1995) "Coping with the Dual Income Lifestyle", Journal of Marriage and the Family, 57: 101-110.

Parasuraman, S., & M.A. Cleek (1984) "Coping Behaviours and Managing Affective Reactions to Role Stressors", Journal of Vocational Behaviour, 24: 179-193.

Pareek U. (1983b) Role Stress Scale: ORS Scale Booklet, Answer Sheet, and Manual. Ahmedabad: Naven Publications Pareek,U.(1983c) Organizational Role Pics.(ROLE PICS) Role Pics booklet, Answer Sheet and Manual.Ahmedabad: Naven Publications Pareek, U., R.S. Devi & S. Rosenweig (1968) Manual of the Indian Adaptation of the Rosenweig Picture-Frustration Study, Adult Form.

Varanasi: Rupa Psychological Corporation.

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Rodgers, R.H. (1964) "Towards a Theory of Family Development", Journal of Marriage and the Family, 26: 262-270.

Rosenweig, S. (1978) Aggressive Behaviour and the Rosenweig Picture: Frustration Study. New York: Praeger.

Ross, E. (1961) The Hindu Family in it's Urban Setting. Toronto. The University of Toronto Press.

Sehgal, P. (1997) "Role Stress, Coping and Job Involvement". In Pestonjee, D.M & U. Pareek (eds.) Studies in Organizational Role Stress and Coping. Jaipur/New Delhi: Rawat Publications Sen, P.C. (1981) "A Study of Personal and Organizational Correlates of Role Stress and Coping Strategies in Some Public Sector Banks".

Ph.D. Thesis, Gujarat University, Ahmedabad.

Sharma, S., & T. Acharya (1991) "Coping Strategies and Job Anxiety".

Psychological Studies, 36: 112-117.

Srivastava, A.K. (1991) "Moderating Effect of Mode of Coping on the Relationship between Occupational Stress and Performance", Journal of the Indian Academy of Applied Psychology, 17: 93-98.

Terborg, J.R. (1985) "Working Women and Stress". In T.A. Beehr & R.S.Bhagat (eds.) Hman Stress and Cognition in Organisations (pp.

245-286). New York :Wiley Voydanoff, P. (1987) Work and Family Life. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

128 Exploring the Factors for Effective IT Implementation ....

EXPLORING THE FACTORS FOR EFFECTIVE IT IMPLEMENTATION: A CASE STUDY OF INDIAN BANKS Rupanjali Nath

Kanika T. Bhal

This paper explores organizational diagnostic factors which are based on people's perception to plan for better Information Technology performance in financial industry. The paper analyzes different organizational factors that are based on people's perception as causes of success or failure of IT implementation task on an organizational perspective. The findings suggest that the problems in IT implementation are not always of technological nature but may rather be attributed to organizational factors, its upshot on the existing relevant factors coordination for the project to be a success or bare minimum success. Extending the results of an in-depth case study of IT adoption, this paper discusses different organizational factors impacting effective IT implementation.

The data collection was based on semi-structured qualitative interviews with 18 bank professional of India and it was supplemented with literature studies. The collected data were analyzed using the grounded theory methodology. Limitations and direction for future research are also discussed.

Key words: IT implementation, grounded theory.

INTRODUCTION The implementation of information technology (IT) is a common feature of organizational contexts now-a-days. The effective implementation of any technology affects productivity growth at the industry and national levels.

Therefore, application and successful implementation of technology becomes highly relevant from the policy and practice point of view.Since, the 1990s the Financial Services (FS) sector has undergone a revolution in their traditional markets, which has been largely driven by the challenges of globalization, consolidation and new competition and e-commerce developments. However, in spite of the huge investments in online banking, consumer take-up has been slower than anticipated (Wang, et al. 2003). If online provision of FS is to fulfill its potential, FS providers need to have a Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009) Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009) Š 2009 IILM Institute for Higher Education.

All Rights Reserved.

better understanding of factors influencing consumer acceptance of technology of financial innovation. Although the use of IT in banking operation has been increasing, there seem to be inhibition, both on the part of bank employees as well as customers to use IT to gain maximum advantage.

Banking operations are inherently risky and sometimes of difficult nature, therefore it is important to explore different external and internal organizational factors that may be accepted by users' individual view as facilitator for the use of IT and related technologies in this sector.

A review of literature shows that relatively sparse attention has been paid to the adopter level personal belief for understanding how individual beliefs foresee different factors to be accountable for success or failure in the process of IT implementation. This study focuses on identifying different issues which have been considered by individual beliefs as accountable for making IT implementation as a best possible level success or a bare minimum success. The study explores these responsible issues by using semi structured, in-depth interviews and grounded theory to identify their own outlook instead of asking the respondents to decide from a known set.

LITERATURE REVIEW The potential impact of IT on organizational effectiveness is considerable.

Yet, due to numerous obstacles during IT development and implementation, ultimate organizational impact of IT often is compromised. Reasons for information systems implementation failure may be known to be features of the information system, development process, and aspects of the IT environment (Lyytinen and Hirschheim, 1987). Mensah and Przasnyski (1991) found that more than 65% of IT projects are abandoned in the development and implementation stages. The ability of an organization to execute and deliver on IT represents the implementation stage in the life cycle of IT, and success in this stage leads to the actualization of benefits from IT. Human and management issues play a critical role in the ability of an organization to lead a technology project to success. Innovation adoption is the process of gaining targeted organizational members' proper and committed utilization of an innovation. It is a decision, usually made by senior organizational managers, that employees within the organization will use the innovation in their work.

In the premise of OB the image of the individual in organizational and Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Rupanjali Nath and Kanika T. Bhal 129

management processes, is assumed as a ''holistic entity'' studied in the context of organization. As individuals operate in the context of organizational processes, they become part of the various formal structural mechanisms in organizations (e.g., departments, teams, and committees). The processes, policies, and models through which organizations manage individuals (and the structures in which individuals participate) form the basis for human resource management (HRM) (Vadapalli and Mone, 2000). As recent literature suggests, organizations can adopt different models of HRM, based either on hard models, i.e., attempting to ''fit and match'' HR strategies to organizational strategies or, alternately, soft models based on commitment, flexibility and quality (e.g., Truss, et al., 1997). With this outlook we sought to explore the soft model through the individual sight of users to be used specifically for IT implementation and management project as a best possible or a bare minimum success.

130 Exploring the Factors for Effective IT Implementation ....

interviews around an area in advance, and data is gathered on that area. In this research Strauss and Corbin's approach have been followed as there was a specific agenda for the study. Deriving theories and concepts from the data is a multi-step process. As Corbin and Strauss (1990, p. 7) state, ''Theories can't be built with actual incidents or activities as observed or reported; that is, from ''raw data.'' The incidents, events, happenings are taken as, or analyzed as, potential indicators of phenomena, which are thereby given conceptual labels.''

Surfacing theory from data involves open coding the data at different levels. The purpose of open coding is to open the data material. This is done by looking for different meanings in the statements and classifying partstatements with labels to explain the meanings of the different parts. The result is a range of different codes and concepts comprising thoughts, ideas and meanings of the text.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY: In view of the background and the corresponding literature review, this study incorporates the following objectives: â&#x20AC;˘ To identify the organizational drivers motivating and influencing the coordination of technology adoption. â&#x20AC;˘ To identify the key success factors and the barriers in managing technology adoption

The second aspect of grounded theory is axial coding. The purpose of axial coding is to find the categories into which the discovered codes/concepts can be classified. The meanings behind the concepts are compared and categorized in main and subcategories or concepts, which together present patterns or a set of axes to explain the data material and relationships between the concepts. Thus, the located axes reflect the parameters that are important for the study's subject. Axial coding gives raise to the discovery and specification of the differences and similarities with-in the categories (Baskerville and Pries-Heje, 1999).

METHODOLOGY Grounded theory approach The objective of our research was to look at the factors important for effective implementation of the technology within an organizational context, therefore instead of asking them to decide from a set of options, the grounded theory approach was used to ascertain the people's perception for different factors and their interrelationship. This method does not begin with constructs and their interlinkages and then seek proof; instead, it begins with an area of study and allows them to emerge from that area of study (Corbin and Strauss, 1990). In Grounded theory approach the theory generates from the data itself. Broadly, there have been two approaches to grounded theory. Glaser's approach (1992) believes in identification and specification of the research issues entirely upon the perception of the participant. In Corbin and Strauss's (1990) approach, researcher has the flexibility to choose the focus, of the Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Based on the axes categories, the third element of grounded theory is selective coding which indicate generalized relationships between a category and its concepts and among different categories. The purpose of selective coding is to explain relationships and contexts to refine the overall explanation into a coherent picture of our observations (Bhal and Leekha, 2008). The overall picture is based on central categories and represents a complete framework of explanations for the field in focus.

Organizational sample, data collection and respondents The data was collected through interviews of managerial and staff level bank employees from two different places viz New Delhi and Guwahati in India. Those were initiated through interviews of a total of 18 respondents across nine organizations. It is to be mentioned here that such in-depth case studies require long interviews and extensive data, in fewer than four cases, Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Rupanjali Nath and Kanika T. Bhal 131

it is difficult to generate theory from that data and with large numbers, the volume of data is often difficult to cope with (Eisenhardt, 1989). Authors conducted open-ended, in-depth interviews for exploring the individual reliance on different factors to lead for better IT performance and for this purpose a sample size of 18 may be considered large enough to address the issues.

Similar study protocol in all the organizations and for all the interviews were prevailed for reliability and consistency as desired by Ashill, et al.

(2003).The procedure for the interviews was similar for all respondents, for that authors first sought permission from branch manager that was the first contact point in every organization. The same sequence of interview questions was also followed for all the respondents in order to maintain the data reliability. Each interview, in the first round, lasted 20-30 minutes. All the interviews were started by explaining the concept of various factors which affects on IT implementation. Then seven sets of questions were asked in the same sequence. However, each interview could be completed in not less then three sittings as the officials were unable to complete all seven sets of answers in one sitting due to their busy schedule. Yet out of 24, 18 individuals only could complete answering our all seven sets of questions. Immediately after the interview, authors cross checked the facts, and noted down their own personal perceptions and impressions.

The profile of the respondents follows. Of the 18 respondents, 17 (94.4%) were males and 1 was female (.05.0%). Seven respondents each were in the age ranges of 51-57 years and, there were 4 respondents in the age group of41-50 years and 7 were in the age range of 35-40 years and all having work experience ranging from 12 to 30 years. The age and gender profile is given herein to familiarize the reader with the constitution of the sample. Small number of females in the sample precluded gender-wise analysis of the data. The respondents worked for banks involved in activities of core banking like RTGS (Real Time Gross Settlement), etc. Most of the respondents were chief managers or managers and one or two respondents were from staff cadre. All the managers had came across the implementation stage of core banking process The sample was fairly homogenous in terms of their familiarity and experience with IT in general and software in particular.

Coding and content analysis ''Within -case'' analysis was done as the data was open ended which typically involves detailed interview write-up for each interview. These write-ups are pure depiction of interview which are central to generate insights. The Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

132 Exploring the Factors for Effective IT Implementation ....

above mentioned steps were followed in the coding process. For open coding, interviews were broken into thought units, which sometimes consisted of a phrase and at other times of 1-2 sentences. Codes that we identified for our work are as follows, Q was used for question; 1, 2, 3 â&#x20AC;Ś 4 was the question number. R was used for respondents and 1, 2, 3â&#x20AC;Śwas the respondent number and C was used for code 1, 2, 3â&#x20AC;Ś.was labeled for different codes extracted from interview transcripts of each respondent. Thus, Q1R1C1 meant the code 1 of the answer to the question no 1 by respondent 1. Similarly, for Q1R1C2, Q2R1C1, etc.

For the next two levels, two authors along with two experts one from the field of management and other from IT (Research Scholars) categorized the data and identified the linkages. Data analysis requires identification of factual and theoretical commonness in the data to club it under different categories. In grounded theory, since the data is open-ended and vast, it is important that the issue at hand is well expressed and categorization is done accordingly. Since the focus of the study was on technology implementation (information technology), it was important that the management of various forms obstacles concerning IT development and implementation is kept paramount in identification of the categories. It may be mentioned here that all the experts were familiar with literature on technology implementation.

They were asked to look for the individual perception used for management of implementation structure. This provided a common base for the exploration of the results and identification of categories. Axial coding was done through a two step process. The four experts first independently coded the items into categories; all those categories (along with the items) were accepted at this stage where at least three of the four experts converged. For the categories where there was divergence the individual expert was asked to explain the judgment, if all the experts agreed with the reason that category was accepted. Finally to identify the causal connections the experts analyzed the connectors and looked for input phrases like 'impact on, leads to, results in, causes, follows, along with etc.

ANALYSIS AND RESULTS The observance of the interview patterns allowed us to draw inferences regarding the factors which characterize responders' perceptions for considering IT implementation as a best possible success or limited success.

Responders were seen to foresee the factors by perceiving common ground through construing the experiences at different stage of implementing.

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Organizational Readiness

Younger Workforce

Management's Role Awareness theme

Adequate physical facility

This is an embracing of three prime construct of adequate infrastructure, management's role and knowledge for the need for successful IT implementation.

Software Customization

Organizational readiness

Knowledge up Gradation

After identifying the open codes, the process outlined above were followed. Accordingly, it was attempted to group these open statements into categories and subcategories. The paper presents the categories individually and then their interlinkages (propositions).

Precise training

Factors for considering IT management structure as a 'best possible level success'.

Changed Mindset

Almost all the respondents have tried to explain success as the results of the link among IT infrastructure, value creation, and obtaining and maintaining competitive advantage. It could be observed that on one hand some respondents had centered their view on scarceness of different factors which have led to bare minimum success of the project and on the other hand, some had focused on accessibility of similar and some other factors which lead to success of the implementation project to optimal level. Therefore two different models viz Figure 1 and Figure 2 have surfaced with eight different constructs for each and have been identified as linkage from the analysis where one resulted with optimal level success and the other with bare minimum success respectively.

134 Exploring the Factors for Effective IT Implementation ....

Organization's coordination

Rupanjali Nath and Kanika T. Bhal 133

ACHIEVEMENTS NEED GREAT DETERMINATION BUT NOT GREAT ABILLITIES You don't have to be a fantastic hero to do certain things; to compete. you can be just an ordinary person, sufficiently motivated to reach challenging goals. The intense effort, the giving of everything you have got, is a very pleasant bonus.

- Edmund Hillary Natural ability without education has more often attained to glory and virtue than education without natural ability.

- Ciecero Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Optimal Level Success

The availability of adequate infrastructure, proper managerial support with good policies and concern for IT benefits like making the staff and the customers aware about the importance of application of IT for competitive advantage plays an active role to achieve the success.

Fig. 1 Linkages among different factors considering IT implementation as a best possible level success Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Rupanjali Nath and Kanika T. Bhal 135

136 Exploring the Factors for Effective IT Implementation ....

Adequate physical facility

Organization's coordination

The first set of responses was labeled as adequate infrastructure. The managers have viewed this construct to be the prime requirement for initiating IT adoption.

The next few responses have been contoured as the organization's coordination. Two prime constructs where one has effect on the other viz, 'Younger Workforce' and 'Changed Mindset' are discussed here.

Few responses in this category are as follows:

Younger workforce

• • • •

Correct infrastructure is a must requirement at the starting point.

Good infrastructure support from organization.

Appropriate infrastructure.

Supply of the required inputs such as continuous supply of power/ internet speed along with the general infrastructure.

Management's role • This set of responses highlights the role of the management to be supportive to make the staff as well as customers interested for accepting IT for progress.

• Systematic planning of the procedure for implementation.

• However as a branch head they have to persuade / guide them to do the work effectively.

• Revising industrial environment with revised and strict rules/policies.

Awareness theme These responses show that apart from having infrastructural and managerial support an organization should make mass awareness of many other information, knowledge and facilities which make the innovation acceptance as a success.

Different responses are as follows: • It is important to make the mass awareness of the situation and need for IT use.

• Better connectivity and awareness of various interrelated factors i.e.

IT with banking.

• Popularizing the e-technology.

• When we use IT very effectively - we can convince our customer up to their expectation.

• Eagerness to meet customer expectation.

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Different responses centered on the concept that IT implementation project get success when it is practiced by younger group of workforce.

Typical responses in this category are as follows: • Require staff with less age to train for the innovation as they can learn faster.

• Young staffs are more efficient and eager to accomplish in a better way and sometime even press on the management for some better policy of implementation.

• Age-younger the better to set the mindset to perform such work.

Changed mindset These responses reveals that the staff's willingness to adopt a new technology depend on the mindset of the users. Prevailing state of the mind should be adjusted to accept the change.

• Willingness to adopt the IT with changed mindset after being trained.

• Mentally prepared to adopt new or latest Technology.

• Different policies and plans helped to shape the workforce mindset.

• Changed mindset of people staff & customer.

Apart from organizational readiness and better organization's coordination, some additional constructs have also resulted as responsible for the outcome.

Precise training skill Responders have cited the need for proper precise skill of the training facility to render required skill to the staff and also to motivate them towards innovation.

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Rupanjali Nath and Kanika T. Bhal 137

• Non-awareness of various interrelated factors i.e. IT with banking creates problem. So, training of employees was done knowledgewise and attitudewise.

• Proper IT training for the beginners to banks.

• Updated training (motivational and technical) will lead to change the mind set.

• Training (Technical and managerial for motivating employees to accept changes).

Software customization This group of responses mentioned about time-to-time customization of the software used for the banking operation.

• Software development to be further customized.

• Supply of the required software.

• System serviced should be analyzed and use it according to our customers needs.

• System load should be time to time analyzed.

Knowledge up gradation Knowledge updates were found to be the main issue for this construct of responses. Responders tried to stress on regular revising of the existing source of information.

• Continuous upgradation of knowledge for successful process establishment.

• Regular training regarding updates.

• The banking staff must be given facility for updation of knowledge.

Factors for considering IT implementation as a 'bare minimum success'.

138 Exploring the Factors for Effective IT Implementation ....

Insufficient infrastructure Almost all the responders have cited together about the unavailability of required infrastructure for the success to be fullest. Following are few responses: • • • • •

Not having good infrastructure.

Lack of basic infrastructure viz continuous flow of electricity.

Infrastructure facility not yet available to the fullest extent.

Absence of facilities which enhances the effective use of IT. Infrastructure is the main constraint.

Inaccurate managerial strategy In this set of response they have mentioned their dissatisfaction with managerial support and policies for the acceptance of the innovation.

• There were no plans to center on the younger group to trigger the project.

• Improper guidance/ organizational policy.

• Policy should be raised to shed off the older employees to recruit younger in due course of time so that they may cope with the change.

Rigid union policy Responders were found to disclose about different obstruction that appeared from employees union and their rigid rules.

• Resistance from employee association/union.

• Union problem (initially work force don't allow).

• Rigidity and resistance in rules and procedures against adoption of IT. Deficient basic competence

In this case too, the various categories that respondents had tried to explain as only cause for partial success were tried to dig out.

Different constructs were again embraced with the term as Organizational readiness and organization' coordination. Different factors within the contour are considered as responsible for the result.

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Responders have found to mean through their responses about having no basic knowledge at the time of beginning. Typical responses follow: • The main problem to implementation of successfully is lack of proper and basic knowledge of computer. ‘We are not able to use IT effectively because we don't know the basic knowledge of IT.’ Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Rupanjali Nath and Kanika T. Bhal 139

140 Exploring the Factors for Effective IT Implementation ....

• Non-awareness of various interrelated factors i.e. IT with banking.

• They may not be having banking knowledge entirely.

Inaccurate managerial approach

Organizational Readiness

Inappropriate training facility

Deficient Basic Competence (Knowledge Base)

Insufficient Infrastructure (Physical)

• Attitude of the older group of staff to not move to a new situation.

• The training rendered was not sufficient to shape the outlook of the people.

• Old people prefer to disregard the need for change.

• Not willing to change the prevailing attitude as older employees prefer to stick to the existing technique.

Lack of competency

In this construct responders reported about the ignoring attitude of the users for several reasons like improper training, older age of employees, etc

Older employees

Ignoring attitude

Ignoring attitude

• Ignoring approach of the user due to older age and improper training.

• People of older age(employees) are less able to dig out the expertise required.

• Old inexperienced computer/IT literate staff creates lot of obstructions.

• Reluctance amongst older generation against use of IT.

Organization's coordination

Responders cited about the older employees attitude for sticking to the previous procedure.

Rigid union policy

Older employees

Inappropriate training facility

• • • •

Training the manpower with the existing facility is the main constraint.

Without getting proper training one can't gain the full effective picture.

The training rendered was not able to shape the mindset of the people.

For not giving proper training to the staff to gain the expertise.

Lack of competency This category of responses was directly linked as the outcome of all lacking facilities. It appeared to have happened due to all defective organizational arrangements culture. Few responses follow: Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Bare Minimum Success

All the responses centered on the meaning that training facility was not sufficient to gain the skill.

Fig. 2 Linkages among different factors considering IT implementation as bare minimum success.

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Rupanjali Nath and Kanika T. Bhal 141

• • • •

Connectivity failures due to providers are unskilled.

No expert in hardware and software.

No expert in electrical wiring system Non-availability of trained manpower.

Organization's readiness and organization's coordination for different factors in organizational context may lead the outcome a best possible success or limited success. Attempt is made to study linkage among the various factors.

The willingness to change is based on individual and organizational readiness (Pennington, 2003).Therefore organization's readiness affect the organization's attitude to embrace change. Management's role, adequate infrastructure and awareness theme for effective IT implementation have been identified to be successfully impacting on organization's coordination for successful actions. Responders were found to believe persistently that employees of less age are more effective to learn and practice the new scheme as they are freshly educated with recent courses and therefore they seem to have better personal competence. Adequate infrastructure and other organizational factors have facilitated the younger group of employees to adapt to changed mind set for the innovation acceptance.

Sufficient managerial hold to make the mass awareness of the situation and need for IT use with revised rules and policies would aid to the organization's coordination to adapt to a change. This changed facet would reciprocate its impact on organizational factors for far superior effort to achieve renovation.

However organizational readiness have been expected to initiate a direct impact on the precise training facility unit which would result in competent staff with upgraded knowledge assets. Another factor, software customization leads to enhance the knowledge assets for greater competency.

Figure 1 shows that the association of all these issues would lead to best possible success level of the renovation.

The other surface of the data (Fig. 2) have come out with bare minimum level of success. Organizational readiness embracing three components like insufficient infrastructure, deficient basic competence and lack of management support have found to be the determinant for the organization's coordination of different factors to adapt to a change. Absence of organizational policy and plan to take apart younger group of workforce to trigger project may lead to ignoring attitude of user and that might result in incompetent skill level, hence limited success. Rigid union policy that resulted from slack hold of managerial control over employees may also have its Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

142 Exploring the Factors for Effective IT Implementation ....

own effect for stiff organizational coordination for the innovation.

Generally sparse organizational readiness is liable for inappropriate facility for training. Deficient basic competence and inappropriate training unit would output-less skilled users accountable for bare minimum success.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS Before proceeding with the discussion of the results, it is important to restate here that though the study is done on Indian professionals, given the universal nature of the issue of IT implementation, authors expect that their findings would find support across samples from different cultures.

In this study, authors have tried to visualize success of technology adoption and implementation, through users' perceptions pertaining to a particular situation of an organization. The study throws light on several issues related to IT adoption. First, most of the respondents did say that implementation of IT would result with success if it is provided with sufficient organizational readiness to start with. Organizational readiness embraces the availability of managerial support, awareness theme and physical IS resources for the use of IT for competitive advantage. From Fig.1, an unique factor has come out as "Awareness theme". It is the potential adopter's awareness that a novelty exists .This type of knowledge is described in the adoption process by Rogers and Shoemaker (1971, p. 105) as commencing when the individual is exposed to the innovation's existence and gains some understanding of how it functions. Awareness-knowledge is conceptualized as occurring due to random or non-purposive activities by the individual (Rogers and Shoemaker, 1971, p. 106). Therefore, awareness of IB, as defined by Sathye (1999), is to understand whether the customer is aware or not aware of the service itself and its benefits. In this manner, a customer's awareness-knowledge of new technology is one of the more important factors influencing the adoption or acceptance of any innovative service or product. Awareness-knowledge, based on Rogers and Shoemaker (1971, p.106), is a particular experience in which individuals tend to expose themselves to those ideas, which are in keeping with their interests, needs or existing attitudes. Consequently, it implies that if individuals have the capabilities needed for selective IT exposure, they will be more ready for implementing internet-based systems.

Parasuraman (2000) has defined technology readiness as a state of mind that affected ''people's propensity to embrace and use new technologies for accomplishing goals''. He argued that this related to the degree of Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Rupanjali Nath and Kanika T. Bhal 143

144 Exploring the Factors for Effective IT Implementation ....

readiness that the individual felt in using a technology. The technologically ready individual was more likely to see it as easy to use. This would boost up the attitude for behavioural intention as well as the usage behaviour (Taylor and Todd, 1995). However, this attitude towards the usage behaviour has seen to reciprocate its effect, on organizational readiness through proper coordination for the result to be best possible level success. This reveals that for the former situation (Fig.1) organizational readiness and coordination both have vibrant effect on each other; furthermore act as determining factor for technology to be optimally exploited. However, for the other situation (Fig. 2); where technology has found to be resulted in bare minimum success, "organizational readiness" affected its coordination of different factors with no counter effect on it. This has outcome as ignoring attitude towards the behavioural intention as well as the actual behaviour in practice (Taylor and Todd, 1995) and bare minimum success as consequence.

user's attitude towards the behavioural intention and the usage behaviour (DTPB) (Taylor and Todd, 1995) for IT implementation to be successful at best possible level.

According to Ajzen ( 1991), Ajzen and Madden (1986), perceived behavioural control refers to people's perception of the ease or difficulty of performing the behaviour of interest and this reflects beliefs regarding access to the resources and opportunities needed to perform a behaviour, or alternatively, to the internal and external factors that may impede performance of the behaviour. This notion encompasses two components.

The first component is "facilitating conditions"(Triandts, 1977), which reflects the availability of resources needed to engage in a behaviour, such as time, money or other specialized resources. The second component is perceived personal competence (self-efficacy); that is an individual's self-confidence in his/her ability to perform a behaviour (Bandura 1977, 1982). People learning through better training facility seems to be more competence to perform better in any activity as self efficacy directly causes one's perceived behavioural control limitations and thereby results in better or worse in behavioural intention to an activity(TPB)(Ajzen, 1991) . Our analysis of both the situations reveals that people use perceptions for "organizational readiness" and "organizational coordination" to adapt change; achieving those they appear to be more willing to try out a system with better competence.

Lack of all such facility would lessen their competence as well as perceived behavioural control (confidence on the ability to perform) over the activity and therefore minimum usage of the behaviour.

Though the results of this study are significant, they need to be seen in light of the possible limitations of the study. Firstly, as is true with most exploratory studies of this kind, the sample size is small; hence the findings need to be tested on a larger sample. However, qualitative studies that require large data sets usually have small sample sizes and are followed by more structured studies which are conducted on larger samples.

Our analysis from Fig. 1 also reveals that IT that does not offer sufficient advantage in exclusion of updating the technology (customization) according to the demand of the user group. Customization increases the perceived usefulness of the technology and this notion of usefulness increases the Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Our study has implications for both research as well as practice. For the researchers, the results have revealed the peoples' perceptions and their inter-linkages. One of the outputs of grounded theory is prepositions, i.e., the proposed relationship among various categories (Glaser and Strauss, 1967; Whetten, 1989). Our research also identifies various prepositions through the interrelationships among various categories (Figures 1&2). The interrelationships among different factors that people use are some prepositions that could be explored further in subsequent research. Future research may explore the issues of how the different factors are used in combination; how and when those factors becomes operational.

Secondly, the study is conducted on professionals who are mostly form management group. They understand the business and technical aspects (knowledge of and familiarity with the issue is more) and they are involved in business growth and may relate personally with it. Hence, for the purposes of generalizability, it is important that the study is conducted on different samples with different levels of experience and concern with the issue.

REFERENCES Ajzen, I. (1991) "The Theory of Planned Behaviour", Organizational Behaviour and Human Decision Processes, 50: 179-211.

Ajzen, I. & T.J. Madden (1986) "Prediction of Goal-Directed Behaviour: Attitudes, Intentions, and Perceived Behavioural Control", Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 22: 453-74.

Ashill, N., J. Davies & M. Frederikson (2003) "Strategic Marketing Planning: A Grounded Investigation", European Journal of Marketing, 37: 430460.

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Rupanjali Nath and Kanika T. Bhal 145

146 Exploring the Factors for Effective IT Implementation ....

Bandura, A. (1977) "Self-Efficacy: Toward a Unifying Theory of Behavioural Change", Psychological Review, 84:191-215.

A Cross Cultural Approach. (Second Edition). New York & London: The Free Press (Division of Macmillan Publishing Co., Collier Macmillan).

Bandura, A. (1982) "Self-Efficacy Mechanism in Human Agency", American Psychologist, 37: 122-147.

Sathye, M. (1999) "Adoption of Internet Banking by Australian Consumers: An Empirical Investigation", The International Journal of Bank Marketing, 17 (7): 324-34.

Baskerville, R. L., J. Pries-Heje (1999) "Grounded Action Research: A Method for Understanding IT in Practice", Accounting, Management and Information Technologies, 9(1): 1-23.

Bhal,K.T.& N.D. Leekha (2008) "Exploring Cognitive Moral Logics Using Grounded Theory: The Case of Software Piracy", Journal of Business Ethics, 81:635-646.

Corbin, J. & A. Strauss (1990) "Grounded Theory Research: Procedures, Canons, and Evaluative Criteria", Qualitative Sociology, 13: 3-21.

Eisenhardt, K. (1989) "Building Theories from Case Study Research", Academy of Management Review, 14: 532-550.

Taylor, S. and P.A. Todd (1995) "Understanding Information Technology Usage: A Test of Competing Models", Information Systems Research, 6 ( 2) :144-76.

Truss, C., L. Gratton, V. Hope-Hailey, P. McGovern, & P. Stiles (1997) "Soft and Hard Models of Human Resource Management: A Reappraisal", Journal of Management Studies, 34 (1): 53-73.

Triandis, H. C. (1977) Interpersonal Behaviour. Monterey, CA: Brooks/ Cole.

Glaser, B.G. (1992) Emergence vs. Forcing: Basics of Grounded Theory Analysis. Mill Valley,CA: Sociology Press.

Vadapalli,A. & M.A. Mone (2000) "Information Technology Project Outcomes: User Participation Structures and the Impact of Organization Behaviour and Human Resource Management Issues", Journal of Engineering Technology Management, 17: 127-151.

Glaser, B.G. & A.L. Strauss (1967) The Discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies for Qualitative Research. New York: Aldine.

Whetten, D. A. (1989) "What Constitutes a Theoretical Contribution", Academy of Management Review, 14: 490-495.

Lyytinen, K. & R. Hirschheim (1987) "Information Systems Failures: a Survey and Classification of Imperical Literature", Oxford University in Information Technology, 4: 257-309.

RESPECTING WOMEN: THE GREATEST ETHICS

Mensah, K.E. & Z.H. Przasnyski (1991) "On Information Systems Abandonment: An Exploratory Study of Organizational Practices", MIS Quarterly, 15 (1): 67-86.

Parasuraman, A. (2000) "Technology Readiness Index (TRI): A Multi-item Scale to Measure Readiness to Embrace New Technologies", Journal of Service Research, 2 (4): 307 -320.

Pennington, R.G. (2003) "Change Performance to Change the Culture", Industrial and Commercial Training, 35(6): 251-255.

Where women are respected, the Gods are pleased; but where they are not honoured, all the (sacred) rites do not yield rewards. (Yatra naaryastu poojyante ramante tatra devataah yatraitaastu na poojyante sarvaastatraafalaah kriyaah).

- Manusmriti 3-56

CAUSE FOR A SACRIFICE IS EQUALLY IMPORTANT It is the cause and not merely the death that makes the martyr.

- Napolean

Rogers, E.M. & F.F. Shoemaker (1971) Communication of Innovations: Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

148 The Information Processing of Print Advertisements ....

THE INFORMATION PROCESSING OF PRINT ADVERTISEMENTS BY YOUNG URBAN WOMEN OF INDIA Tuhin Chattopadhyay The study aims to suggest an effective print advertising strategy in terms of message strategy and execution framework for young women in India. Young women (n = 400) watched twenty advertisements in which message strategy and execution framework were manipulated in a 2Ă&#x2014;10 completely crossed factorial design and were asked to rate their attention, comprehension, retention, attitudes and purchase motivation with regard to these advertisements. Results suggest that affective message strategy along with dramatization as execution framework is most effective for young women.

Key words: Advertising strategy, message strategy, execution framework, information processing.

INTRODUCTION The field of consumer information processing has been an important area in communication research. As creative complexity and artistic expression continue to be the norm in contemporary print advertising, a further understanding of how consumers process advertisements can only enhance future advertising efforts (Lapidus, 1991). As the marketplace continues to become more competitive with hundreds, if not thousands, of advertisers competing for the consumers' attention (Webb and Ray 1979) marketers need develop a better understanding of the consumer if they are to reach their desired target audience efficiently and effectively. It is a fact universally acknowledged that matching ad format to a consumer's mode of information processing enhances advertising effectiveness. Most print ads utilize texts and pictures to communicate with consumers. Research has begun to examine how the processing of these texts and pictures are influenced by its structure e.g., whether it is in narrative format or presented as a list of attributes (Adaval & Wyer, 1998; Escalas, 1998). When ad format is compatible with processing mode, information processability is enhanced, making the message more persuasive and ad evaluations, brand evaluations, and purchase intentions more favourable than when ad format and processing mode are incompatible. It is a matter of study for the academicians to find out the most effective advertising strategy for the segmented target markets.

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009) Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009) Š 2009 IILM Institute for Higher Education.

All Rights Reserved.

In considering many and varied effects of advertising, a very central issue is how the information in an ad is processed, that is, how people understand and remember what an ad said: 'The consumer is constantly being bombarded with information which is potentially relevant for making choices. The consumer's reaction to that information, how that information is interpreted, and how it is combined or integrated with other information may have crucial impacts on choice. Hence, decisions on what information to provide to consumers, how much to provide, and how to provide that information require knowledge of how consumers process, interpret and integrate that information in making choices (Bettman, 1979).'

The way in which information is received, processed and recalled by the human mind is necessary to know if advertising is to be efficiently devised and created to elicit the highest possible effect. Information processing models generally gain their power when they are applied to make predictions regarding what types of information will and will not be recalled.

In an attempt to understand consumer choice in advertising, the approach taken is to focus on the information used by consumers and how that information is processed. "A clearer understanding of the stages of the processes involved in responding to advertisements would certainly have practical as well as theoretical importance (Harris, 1983)."

The basic approach for studying choice in advertising is to view consumer as a processor of information; that is the consumer is characterized as interacting with his or her choice environment, seeking and taking in information from various sources, processing this information, and then making a selection from among some alternatives. The purpose is to provide an integrated view of choice from an information processing perspective.

As the right message strategy and the right execution framework will be different for different target audiences, the present research has taken into consideration the young women and tries to explore the right combination of message strategy and execution framework which will be most effective for each of them. The present study on information processing has been carried out by treating print advertisements as information sources and young women as information processors.

STUDY OBJECTIVE This study is designed to extend knowledge of cognitive processing of advertising messages by young women in India.The objective of the research Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Tuhin Chattopadhyay 149

is to give the advertising industry a definite guideline while targeting the young women. The research tries to bring forward the most effective combination of message strategy and execution framework for the young women. The specific objectives of the research are as follows: i. To find whether advertisement elements like message strategy and execution framework influence processing and understanding of advertising messages by young women. ii. To explore the most appropriate strategies for creating print advertisements in terms of message strategy and execution framework while targeting towards the young women of India.

LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK Understanding of how mind processes and stores information is invaluable to advertisers as they plan for message strategy and execution framework in advertisements. If there is little to no understanding of the information processing skills of the consumers with whom one is working, it would be almost impossible to design advertisements that contributes to high levels of effectiveness. However, attempting to understand the myriad theories of information processing and cognitive development can be overwhelming and contradictory. There are means of structuring advertisements, though that can incorporate the best of all of these ideas, and in order to help consumers process the information from the advertisements in the right way, advertisers must draw from all of these theories.

Message Strategy Advertising message strategy is a well-researched topic in both the academic as well as practitioners community. Ray (1982) classifies commercials by "format," e.g. warmth, testimony, refutation, repetition and fear. Aaker and Myers (1987) used the term "message factors." Rothschild (1987) refers to classes of creative appeal (rational versus emotional) and execution style (slice of life, product comparison, problem/solution, music, sex and humour).

Belch and Belch (1990) used the term "Appeals" (rational, emotional and combinations) and "Execution Styles" (factual message, scientific/ technical evidence, demonstration, comparison, testimonial, slice of life, animation, personality symbol, fantasy, dramatization, humour and combinations).

Information Processing The quantity and quality of information retained by an individual depends Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

150 The Information Processing of Print Advertisements ....

largely on the perceptual and cognitive operations employed at the time of encoding (Benton, Glover & Bruning, 1983). In terms of historicity, it is now common knowledge that consumers seek and use information to assist them in decision processes in order to maximise utility, reduce levels of risk, or solve problems. In the nineteenth century, economists such as Alfred Marshall started to employ the concept of economic utility as a means to describe how people used information when they made judgements about available choices. As early as 1910, John Dewey had published the five stages in problem-solving activity still commonly used by marketers to define the information requirements of promotional efforts towards customer segments: problem recognition, search, evaluation, purchase decision, post-purchase evaluation (see Runyon & Stewart 1987). Cognitive psychologists hold that the consumers seek and use information to assist them in decision processes in order to maximise utility, reduce levels of risk, or solve problems. In 1960, McGuire suggested that the impact of persuasive communications could be understood in terms of three information-processing phases: (a) attention to the message, (b) comprehension of its contents, and (c) acceptance of its conclusions.

McGuire further extended the model into six steps which are as follows: i. Presentation: the message recipient must first be presented with the persuasive message. ii. Attention: the recipient must pay attention to the message in order for it to produce attitude change. iii. Comprehension: the overall position the message advocates and the arguments provided to support the position must be comprehended. iv. Yielding: the recipient must yield to, or agree with, the message content that has been comprehended if any attitude change is to be detectable. v. Retention: the recipient must retain, or store in memory, his changed attitude if this change is to persist over a period of time. vi. Behaviour: the recipient must behave on the basis of their changed mind.

McGuire's six-steps provide a stagewise overview of attitude change processes. Meanwhile, the literature concerning the importance of information processing in marketing has not remained static. In 2000, LeDoux and Damasio in the book Descartes' Error proposed that emotions cause attention to shift towards the stimulus that causes an emotion, as a result of the limbic system's autonomic reaction. In 2005, Erik du Plessis proposed that the emotional and rational are not two conflicting things in the brain, but work together towards the survival of the organism: emotions direct attention, so that the organism recognizes things it should avoid or approach.

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Tuhin Chattopadhyay 151

152 The Information Processing of Print Advertisements ....

DEVELOPING RESEARCH METHODOLOGY A large number of variables are involved in information processing, ranging from cultural variables to specific experiences, memory recall, personality traits, motivations and attitudes, mental capacity, situation-specific criteria, etc. It is therefore a complex task to model or codify the way the mind processes information when it constructs understanding and a sense of meaning. Complexities of elements within this subject, however, also encourage recognition of value of inductive modes of investigation when it comes to interpreting deviations and departures in character of processing mechanisms and the way these are interpreted and modelled. While most researchers try to find out how consumers process information by developing models and theories, fewer studies were carried out to find out the cognitive style of different segments differentiated by sex and age.

Hypotheses Initial encoding of the message by the advertiser is an area of research which might possibly receive the least amount of attention. Researchers have concentrated on information processing and associated behavioural response but have seemingly bypassed the structure (message strategy and execution framework) of the advertising stimulus. The hypotheses have been framed to bridge the existing gap in the previous research. In order to fulfill the proposed object, an experimental design was prepared, with two between-subject factors to be controlled, namely, message strategy and execution framework. The message strategy was divided into two treatments: cognitive or rational advertisements; and affective or emotional advertisements. The execution framework was divided into ten levels: animation, slice of life, testimonial, demonstration, fantasy, informative, scientific/ technical evidence, comparison, personality symbol and dramatization. The independent variables and their levels have been selected keeping in mind the seminal works of the academicians (Belch and Belch, 1990) on advertising format. As for the dependent variables, the five dependent variables have been identified in line with McGuire's Information Processing Theory. They include ability to gain attention, message comprehension, retention of the advertisement, attitude towards the advertisement and purchase motivation of the consumers by watching the advertisement. The hypotheses are as follows: Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

H1: The vectors of means (centroid) of young women's attention, message comprehension, attitude, retention and purchase motivation are statistically different across different levels of message strategies and execution framework. Historically, following a significant MANOVA with ANOVAs on each of the p variables was one of the first methods recommended for interpreting group differences (Cramer and Bock, 1966). Once a significant interaction effect has been found, the next step is to investigate the specific differences between groups.

As in ANOVA, this involves determining which groups are responsible for significant omnibus test. In addition, the follow-up analyses are used to evaluate which variables are important for group separation.

H2: There are significant main effects and interaction effect of message strategy and execution framework on young women's attention towards advertisements. Specifically, the first main effect is that the mean level of young women's attention towards advertisements remains the same for both two types of message strategies. The second main effect is that the mean level of young women's attention towards advertisements remains the same for all ten types of execution framework. The interaction effect is that the mean level of young women's attention towards advertisements remains the same for all combinations of message strategies and execution framework.

H3: There are significant main effects and interaction effect of message strategy and execution framework on young women's message comprehension from advertisements.

H4: There are significant main effects and interaction effect of message strategy and execution framework on young women's retention of the advertisements.

H5: There are significant main effects and interaction effect of message strategy and execution framework on young women's attitude towards advertisements.

H6: There are significant main effects and interaction effect of message strategy and execution framework on young women's purchase motivation from advertisements.

The explanation of main effects and interaction effect of hypothesis 3, 4, 5 and 6 are identical to that presented for hypothesis 2 Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Tuhin Chattopadhyay 153

Methodological Framework Advertisement treatment selection The 2Ă&#x2014;10 experimental design described requires the control of twenty different experimental treatments. Therefore, twenty different print ads need to be selected to show the members of the sample. The researcher took almost all print media advertisements (300) targeted towards young women published in India from 2005 to 2007 by the fifteen leading advertising agencies of India and for all practical purposes the collection has considered to be exhaustive. A panel of eight judges viewed over three hundred advertisements to select twenty advertisements, a number consistent with the 20 stimulus ads used by Childers and Houston (1984). The twenty advertisements for young women represented all permutations of two types of message strategy (Cognitive Message Strategy and Affective Message Strategy) and ten types of execution framework (Animation, Slice of life, Testimonial, Demonstration, Fantasy, Informative, Scientific/ technical evidence, Comparison, Personality symbol, Dramatization). Cognitive was defined as "appealing to the 'rationality' of the receiver" and Affective was defined as creating a mood and appealing to the emotions. The advertisements were "strong" representations of both types of appeals. All advertisements were familiar products or brands that might conceivably be purchased by the subjects. The entire selection is done through Quick-sort procedure to maintain objectivity in the research.

Subjects and design A total of 400 young women in the age group of twenty to thirty five years were chosen through area sampling from all over India. The sample was spread out among four different geographic areas in India, in order to ensure maximum representation: southern area (city of Kozhikode), western area (city of Ahmedabad), eastern area (city of Kolkata) and northern area (city of Delhi). The sample was equally divided among the four cities (100 individuals in each).

The 400 young women are shown the 20 advertisements with different combination of the two types of message strategy and ten types of execution framework. Questionnaires were also provided to them while watching the advertisements. The five dependent variables of the research namely attention, comprehension, attitude, retention and purchase motivation are measured on a five-point semantic differential scale for each of the twenty advertisements which represent the twenty combinations of message strategy and execution framework. A random ordering of twenty advertisements Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

154 The Information Processing of Print Advertisements ....

were assigned to the 400 young women in a 2 Ă&#x2014; 10 factorial design of message strategy (Cognitive Message Strategy and Affective Message Strategy) and execution framework (Animation, Slice of life, Testimonial, Demonstration, Fantasy, Informative, Scientific/ technical evidence, Comparison, Personality symbol, Dramatization).

ANALYSIS AND RESEARCH Reliability for scales with multiple items ranged from 0.84 to 0.93. The name of the advertised brand did not affect any of the measures (all p's > 0.27), so analyses were performed on aggregated data. Familiarity and involvement with the category and the perceived importance of product attributes did not differ across advertisements (all p's > 0.10).

To investigate the predicted interaction between message strategy and execution framework on the young women's attention, message comprehension, attitude, retention and purchase motivation an overall 2 (message strategy) Ă&#x2014; 10 (execution framework). Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was performed to control the overall alpha level at the desired level (0.05). There was a significant interaction between message strategy and execution framework (Wilks' lambda =0.93, F(45, 3.568 E4) = 13.9, p < 0.01). The result provides sufficient statistical evidence that the differences in young women's attention, comprehension, retention, attitude and purchase motivation between cognitive message strategies and affective message strategies depend on the execution frameworks, or, the differences among execution frameworks vary with message strategies with respect to young women's attention, comprehension, retention, attitude and purchase motivation. Thus, H1 was supported.

WRITING Memory is a very frail thing. The written word stands for ever (Young India, October 1, 1925).

- M.K.Gandhi IMMORTALITY If you would not be forgotten, as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write things worth reading or do things worth writing.

- Benjamin Franklin Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Tuhin Chattopadhyay 155

Fig.1 Message strategy by execution framework on young women's attention towards advertisement by taking message strategy in the horizontal axis ROADBLOCKS OF FRIENDSHIP Arguments, monetary dealings, expectations and demands, over-eloquence, borrowing material objects and hankering after positions, all lead to breaking friendship (vivado dhanasambandho yaachanam chaatibhaashanam aadaanmagratah sthaanam maitribhangasya hetavah).(Nitya Niti) Source: Bhavan's Journal, April 30, 2009.

SERVICE OF OTHERS ALWAYS DESIRABLE Do good to thy friend to keep him, to thine enemy to gain him.

- Benjamin Franklin Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

156 The Information Processing of Print Advertisements ....

Fig. 2 Execution framework by message strategy on young women's attention towards advertisement by taking execution framework in the horizontal axis Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to analyze the second hypothesis considering attention of the young women towards the advertisement ae dependent mea sure. All the main effect of message strategy (F(1, 7980) = 822.11 p < 0.01), and execution framework (F(9, 7980) = 172.7 p < 0.01), and the interaction effect between message strategy and execution framework (F(9, 7980) = 14.52 p < 0.01), are found to be significant. The significant main effect of message strategy refers to the difference between the marginal means of cognitive message strategy and affective message strategy. Further analyses revealed that affective message strategy (M = 2.97) leaves a greater impact on attention of the young women towards the advertisement than cognitive message strategy (M = 2.47). The significant main effect of execution framework refers to the differences between the ten marginal means associated with execution framework. Post hoc analysis with Tukey's honestly significant difference (HSD) method revealed that advertisements with dramatization as execution framework (M = 3.41) leave the highest impact on attention of the young women towards the advertisement Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Tuhin Chattopadhyay 157

158 The Information Processing of Print Advertisements ....

and the mean is also significantly different from the means of other levels of execution framework. A significant interaction between message strategy and execution framework has been illustrated in Fig. 1 which shows that how the young women's attention gets increased from cognitive message strategy to affective message strategy for each level of execution framework and it is highest for affective advertisements (M = 3.88) when the execution framework is dramatic. Fig. 2 also illustrates the interaction effect of execution framework and message strategy by showing how the mean values of young women's attention for cognitive and affective ads gets changed for each level of execution framework and it is highest for advertisements with dramatization as execution framework (M = 3.88) when the message strategy is affective. The results are supportive of H2.

Fig. 3 Message strategy by execution framework on young women's comprehension of the advertisement by taking message strategy in the horizontal axis

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Fig. 4 Execution framework by message strategy on young women's comprehension of the advertisement by taking execution framework in the horizontal axis To test the third hypothesis also, Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used considering comprehension of the advertisement by the young women as the dependent measure. All the main effect of message strategy (F(1, 7980) = 1.585E3 p < 0.01), and execution framework (F(9, 7980) = 148.97 p <0.01), and the interaction effect between message strategy and execution framework (F(9, 7980) = 20.8 p < 0.01), are found to be significant. The significant main effect of message strategy refers to the difference between the marginal means of cognitive message strategy and affective message strategy. Further analyses revealed that affective message strategy (M = 3.18) leaves a greater impact on comprehension of the young women towards the advertisement than cognitive message strategy (M = 2.50). The significant main effect of execution framework refers to the differences between the ten marginal means associated with execution framework.

Post hoc analysis with Tukey's honestly significant difference (HSD) method revealed that advertisements with dramatization as execution framework (M = 3.61) leave the highest impact on comprehension of the young women Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Tuhin Chattopadhyay 159

160 The Information Processing of Print Advertisements ....

towards the advertisement and the mean is also significantly different from the means of other levels of execution framework. A significant interaction between message strategy and execution framework has been illustrated in Fig. 3 which shows that how the young women's comprehension gets increased from cognitive message strategy to affective message strategy for each level of execution framework and it is highest for affective advertisements (M = 4.09) when the execution framework is dramatic. Fig. 4 also illustrates the interaction effect of execution framework and message strategy by showing how the mean values of young women's comprehension for cognitive and affective ads gets changed for each level of execution framework and it is highest for advertisements with dramatization as execution framework (M = 4.09) when the message strategy is affective.

The results are supportive of H3.

Fig. 6 Execution framework by message strategy on young women's retention of the advertisement by taking execution framework in the horizontal axis

Fig. 5 Message strategy by execution framework on young women's retention of the advertisement by taking message strategy in the horizontal axis Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to analyze the fourth hypothesis considering retention of the advertisement in memory as the dependent measure. All the main effect of message strategy (F(1, 7980) = 1.280E3 p < 0.01), and execution framework (F(9, 7980) = 207.17 p < 0.01), and the interaction effect between message strategy and execution framework (F(9, 7980) = 17.62 p < 0.01), are found to be significant. The significant main effect of message strategy refers to the difference between the marginal means of cognitive message strategy and affective message strategy. Further analyses revealed that affective message strategy (M = 3.04) leaves a greater impact on retention of the young women towards the advertisement than cognitive message strategy (M = 2.48). The significant main effect of execution framework refers to the differences between the ten marginal means associated with execution framework. Post hoc analysis with Tukey's honestly significant difference (HSD) method revealed that advertisements with dramatization as execution framework (M = 3.48) leave the highest impact on retention of the young women towards the advertisement and the mean is also significantly different from the means Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Tuhin Chattopadhyay 161

162 The Information Processing of Print Advertisements ....

of other levels of execution framework. A significant interaction between message strategy and execution framework has been illustrated in Fig. 5 which shows that how the young women's retention gets increased from cognitive message strategy to affective message strategy for each level of execution framework and it is highest for affective advertisements (M = 3.95) when the execution framework is dramatic. Fig. 6 also illustrates the interaction effect of execution framework and message strategy by showing how the mean values of young women's retention for cognitive and affective ads gets changed for each level of execution framework and it is highest for advertisements with dramatization as execution framework (M = 3.95) when the message strategy is affective. The results are supportive of H4.

To test the fifth hypothesis also, Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was

Fig. 8 Execution framework by message strategy on young women's attitude towards the advertisement by taking execution framework in the horizontal axis

Fig. 7 Message strategy by execution framework on young women's attitude towards the advertisement by taking message strategy in the horizontal axis

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

used considering attitude towards the advertisement by the young women as the dependent measure. All the main effect of message strategy (F(1, 7980) = 1.788E3 p < 0.01) and execution framework (F(9,7980) = 238.94 p < 0.01) and the interaction effect between message strategy and execution framework (F(9, 7980) = 18.16 p < 0.01) are found to be significant. The significant main effect of message strategy refers to the difference between the marginal means of cognitive message strategy and affective message strategy. Further analyses revealed that affective message strategy (M = 3) leaves a greater impact on attitude of the young women towards the advertisement than cognitive message strategy (M = 2.37). The significant main effect of Execution framework refers to the differences between the ten marginal means associated with Execution framework. Post hoc analysis with Tukey's honestly significant difference (HSD) method revealed that advertisements with dramatization as execution framework (M = 3.52) leave the highest impact on attitude of the young women towards the advertisement and the mean is also significantly different from the means of other levels of Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Tuhin Chattopadhyay 163

164 The Information Processing of Print Advertisements ....

execution framework. A significant interaction between message strategy and execution framework has been illustrated in Fig. 7 which shows that how the young women's attitude gets increased from cognitive message strategy to affective message strategy for each level of execution framework and it is highest for affective advertisements (M = 3.84) when the execution framework is dramatic. Fig. 8 also illustrates the interaction effect of execution framework and message strategy by showing how the mean values of young women's attitude for cognitive and affective ads gets changed for each level of execution framework and it is highest for advertisements with dramatization as execution framework (M = 3.84) when the message strategy is affective. Thus the results support H5.

Fig. 10 Execution framework by message strategy on young women's purchase motivation from the advertisement by taking execution framework in the horizontal axis

Fig. 9 Message strategy by execution framework on young women's purchase motivation from the advertisement by taking message strategy in the horizontal axis

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

A similar analysis was also conducted using purchase motivation as the dependent measure to test the sixth hypothesis. Again, all the main effects of message strategy (F(1, 7980) = 962.7 p < 0.01) and execution framework (F(9, 7980) = 166.65 p < 0.01) and the interaction effect between message strategy and execution framework (F(9, 7980) = 10.75 p < 0.01), are found to be significant. Further analyses revealed that affective message strategy (M = 2.95) leaves a greater impact on purchase motivation of the young women towards the advertisement than cognitive message strategy (M = 2.45). The significant main effect of execution framework refers to the differences between the ten marginal means associated with execution framework. Post hoc analysis with Tukey's honestly significant difference (HSD) method revealed that advertisements with dramatization as execution framework (M = 3.37) leave the highest impact on purchase motivation of the young women towards the advertisement and the mean is also significantly different from the means of other levels of execution framework.

A significant interaction between message strategy and execution framework has been illustrated in Fig. 9 which shows that how the young women's Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Tuhin Chattopadhyay 165

purchase motivation gets increased from cognitive message strategy to affective message strategy for each level of execution framework and it is highest for affective advertisements (M = 3.77) when the execution framework is dramatic. Fig. 10 also illustrates the interaction effect of execution framework and message strategy by showing how the mean values of young women's retention for cognitive and affective ads gets changed for each level of execution framework and it is highest for advertisements with dramatization as execution framework (M = 3.77) when the message strategy is affective. The results are supportive of H6.

CONCLUSIONS AND MANAGERIAL IMPLICATIONS From the present research, it can be inferred that advertisement elements like message strategy and execution framework influence processing and understanding of advertising messages by young women and advertisements with affective message strategy and dramatization as execution framework are most effective while targeting the young urban women. The study results provide support for the notion that female information processing is often characterized by an imaginative processing (Myers-Levy and Maheswaran, 1991). This is also supported by Gilligan's (1982) study of young females and their processing techniques. She observed that when faced with a moral dilemma the girls turn comprehensively through possible events and consider in great detail the possible agonies faced by each actor in the dilemma.

Several authors (McGuiness, 1976; Penelope and Wolfe, 1983; Smith, 1980) also characterize females as frequently "asking 'Why' questions [in order] ... to determine the specificities and intricacies of the situation" (McGuinness, 1976). The proclivity to request or embellish missing details, thus reconstructing hypothetical dilemmas, shifts the female information processing model away from the hierarchical and formal towards the imaginative, using the comprehensive analyses of specific points to provide an overall picture. These tendencies impact on females' creative processing technique. Anastasi and Foley (1949) indicate that in every sense females engage in greater mental imagery than males and have an increased capacity for comprehensive processing of a wide range of cues. This is confirmed

by Entwistle and Garvey (1972) as they suggest that females employ a more "imagery-laced" and creative interpretation of the cues presented.

These traits are consistent with a tendency to consider a wide array of information, which is not only highly available but also concealed and subjective. Because of such characteristics, Myers-Levy (1989b) proposed that the level of visual stimulation at which capacity is overloaded and processing productivity declines, is higher for females than males.

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

166The Information Processing of Print Advertisements ....

The tendency of the females to accept a large number of cues leads them to consider external world information in relatively equal measures with time spent on details relevant only to themselves (Myers-Levy and Maheswaran, 1991). Female's ego style is "autocentric" (Guttmann, 1970) implying "ego diffusion" or a lack of boundaries between the self and object.

This is consistent with the traditional view that females hold the submissive and more compliant position in society and so are more accommodating to the needs of others. A drama appeals more to subjective criteria and is processed empathically. Effective drama is hypothesized to influence beliefs by a path that evokes more expression of feelings and verisimilitude, less counterargument, and less direct elicitation of belief than occurs with effective argument. Speculation and empirical research in a wide variety of disciplines suggest that dramas work in quite different way than in other execution frameworks. Through dramatization the focus is on telling a short story with the product or service with suspense and excitement. The purpose of using drama is to draw the viewer into the action it portrays. When a drama is successful, the audience becomes "lost" in the story and experiences the concerns and feelings of the characters. Janeway (1980) confirmed this by proposing that females learn to survive by understanding and responding to others' states of mind.

Creating and producing effective advertising is one of the main aims pursued by publicists and advertising agencies, as well as being one of the major worries. In this task, both groups constantly search for new advertising strategies that will help get their message across to the public as effectively as possible. Affective message strategy relate to the young women's social and/or psychological needs for purchasing a product or service. Many young women' motives for their purchase decisions are emotional, and their feelings about a brand can be more important than knowledge of its features or attributes. Advertisers for many young women's products and services view rational, information based appeals as dull. Many advertisers believe that appeals to young women's emotions work better at selling brands that do not differ markedly from competing brands, since rational differentiation of them is difficult.

Thus the present research gives a guideline to the practitioners to use affective ads with dramatization as execution framework while targeting the young urban women of India.

LIMITATIONS AND DIRECTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH The premise of the study was examining how message strategy and execution Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Tuhin Chattopadhyay 167

framework influence the processing of advertisements by the young women.

As dependent measures, attention, comprehension, retention, attitude and purchase motivation were used to determine an ad's effectiveness. Other measures of effectiveness, especially the sales, warrant further research.

Further levels of message strategy and execution framework may also be incorporated in future studies. Additionally, other significant advertisement components (i.e. colour, bleed, location) need further looking into. Further objectivity can be brought into future research by measuring the cognitive functions of young women through brain scanning devices like fMRI, EEG and MEG while they watch the advertisements. The problem of the subjective measure used in the present study is that consumer is not capable of exactly expressing how long the ad attracted his attention, which means that the measurement's validity is not totally adequate (Pechmann and Stewart, 1990a). The future academic researcher may use eye-camera and pupilometer for objective measurements of attention. Another improvement of the present research can be done by pursuing further research on industry specific advertisements which could yield sector specific results. Last but not the least, besides gender and age, other parameters could also be employed as per the segmentation variable of that particular product or service.

REFERENCES Bettman, Jmaes R., (1979) An Information Processing Theory of Consumer Choice. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Pub. Co. Guttman, D. (1970), "Female Ego Style and Generational Conflict". In Bardwick, J.M., E. Douvan, M.S. Horner and D. Guttman (eds.)

Feminine Personality and Conflict, Brooks/Cole, Monterey, CA. Houston, Michael J., L.C. Terry, E. H. Susan (1987) "Picture-Word Consistency and the Elaborative Processing of Advertisements", Journal of Marketing Research, 24(4): 359-369.

168 The Information Processing of Print Advertisements ....

Process Brand Information from Ads", Journal of Marketing, 55(4):.32-53.

MacInnis, Deborah & Bernard Jaworski (1989) "Information Processing from Advertisements: Toward an Integrated Framework", Journal of Marketing, 53(4): 1-23.

McGuinness, D. (1976), "Sex Differences in the Organisation of Perception and Cognition". In Lloyd, B. and J. Archer (eds.) Exploring Sex Differences. London: Academic Press.

Meyers-Levy, J. (1989), "Gender differences in Information Processing: A Selectivity Interpretation". In P. Cafferata and Alice Tybout (ed.)

Cognitive and Affective Responses to Advertising. MA: Lexington Books, pp. 219-260.

Meyers-Levy, J. (1988) "The Influence of Sex Roles on Judgment", Journal of Consumer Research, 14 (March): 522-530.

Meyers-Levy, J., & D. Maheswaran (1991) "Exploring Differences in Males' and Females' Processing Strategies", Journal of Consumer Research, 18 (June): 63-70.

Plessis-Erik, Du. (2005) The Advertised Mind: Ground-Breaking Insights into How Our Brains Respond to Advertising, London: Kogan Page.

Penelope, S.J. & S.J. Wolfe (1983), "Consciousness as Style; Style as Aesthetic". In Lloyd, B., C. Kramarae & N. Henley (eds.) Language Gender and Society, , Rowley, MA: Newbury House.

STRATEGY FOR GREAT ACHIEVEMENTS Bite off more than you can chew, then chew it. Plan more than you can do it and then do it.

Janeway, E. (1980) Powers of the Weak. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf.

- Anonymous

Lamb, C.W., B.A. Pletcher & W.M. Pride (1979) "Print Readers' Perceptions of Various Advertising Formats", Journalism Quarterly, 56: 328-35.

NEED FOR ABILITY FAR EXCEEDS DEMAND Ability will never catch up with the demand for it.

MacInnis, D.J., C. Moorman, B.J. & Jaworski (1991) "Enhancing and Measuring Consumers' Motivation, Opportunity, and Ability to Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

- Malcolm Forbes Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

170 Role of Analytical CRM in CRM Systems ....

ROLE OF ANALYTICAL CRM IN CRM SYSTEMS: IMPORTANCE AND BENEFITS Jayanthi Ranjan This paper aims to examine how customer relationship management (CRM) systems are in place in firms in practice with a focus on the customer needs and requirements, i.e. how analytical CRM systems are used to support organizational decision making and how such a system can be integrated with CRM systems. The current practice of CRM application is based on research literature review on CRM, a-CRM and their applications. A conceptual analysis of an analytical CRM system in organization where CRM systems are already in place is developed based on the findings and literature review. The latest findings on CRM systems and a-ACRM systems and its application are reported, and an innovative analytical CRM system is proposed integrating with already existing CRM systems in organizations.

Key words: Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Analytical Customer Relationship Management (a-CRM), Customer, Marketing, customer behavior.

INTRODUCTION

across all as well as industry-specific solutions for industries such as retail, banking, health care, insurance, or manufacturing. These are referred to as vertical solutions.

Today for any company the mistakes will be more costly and the margin for error is slimmer. Without knowing what generates sustained growth in sales, market share, and profitability, the marketing function relies on imperfect metrics, anecdotes, and history that may have been a result of unusual occurrences unlikely to be repeated. Analytical CRM will address this problem.

Companies are under constant pressure to boost profits, reduce costs, and increase revenues. At the same time, high pressures require organizations to achieve competitive advantage to react faster to solve business issues and meet customer requirements. To satisfy these demands firms around the world must work smarter and be more to survive in this tough business climate. Working smarter means providing easy access to the business processes and information they need to make informed business decisions. Becoming more agile requires business information be delivered to customers in a timely manner, so that customers can react rapidly to business needs and requirements.

The objectives of this paper are to explain the importance of an integration of customer relationship management (CRM) and analytical CRM (a-CRM).

This integration helps sharing information among business users, customers, processes, and information in a cost-effective and timely manner, and to show how new and evolving technologies contained within such a integration enable an organization to work smarter and become more agile.

Innovation in Information Technology (IT) and data storage technology is now significantly outpacing progress in computer processing power, heralding a new era where creating vast pools of digital data is becoming the preferred solution.

As a result, big companies with superior tools offer a complete suite of analytic applications and data models that enable organizations to tap into the virtual treasure trove of information they already possess, and enable effective performance management on a scale broader than one can imagine. The tools provide easy access to corporate and enterprise wide data and also convert that data into useful and actionable information that is consistent across the organization-one coherent version of the truth.

The first section of the paper provides an overview of why CRM is essential for enabling the smart business. The second section explains the related research in CRM and a-CRM. The third section looks at requirements for smarter decision making through a-CRM and reviews recent innovations in information and collaboration technologies that support those requirements. The fourth section looks at how business process, information and collaboration technologies can be integrated through a-CRM. The fifth section explains the expected benefits of a-CRM in any firm. The sixth section concludes the paper.

The term 'market verticals', is the buzz over the last 5 years. The market has been evolving from wanting just business intelligence tools to wanting complete solutions. This includes customizable horizontal solutions that apply

The purpose of the paper is to provide roles of CRM and aCRM in firms and also to establish a framework for integrating both. The theoretical scope of the paper is to distinguish between CRM and aCRM to clarify the role and

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009) Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009) Š 2009 IILM Institute for Higher Education.

All Rights Reserved.

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Research Methodology

Jayanthi Ranjan 171

importance of each in business development environment. The mail aim is to share how aCRM can be integrated into CRM systems to achieve business excellence. The paper developed aCRM framework, aCRM patterns in customer database which basically may be used as guidelines/templates to create successful aCRM systems. Where ever data was discrepant and inadequate, logical justification is provided.

This paper is based on focused and dedicated study of the literature present on the aCRM, CRM systems. The author has contacted the organizations executives for informal discussions to gain an insight into the above said systems.

Based on the reflection of the above discussions, meeting with pellet developers, management educators, management consultants and management students the paper had come to a decision to provide the integration of aCRM with CRM and also provide effective framework for aCRM. The author had informal talks with the various key notes speakers of various international and national conferences, seminars and symposiums on aCRM and CRM systems and had collected various feedbacks from them.

Since the research goal was to demonstrate the importance of aCRM integration with CRM systems, the paper studied and followed the design science approach. A questionnaire based study was conducted for understanding the need of in aCRM in organizations. This led to formulate the understanding of aCRM systems in firms.

172 Role of Analytical CRM in CRM Systems ....

Analytical CRM (a-CRM) is a customer database marketing method that accomplishes in identifying, getting, keeping, and growing right and relevant customers. The main application of a-CRM is to maintain constant communication with customers, and also promote offers to targeted sales prospects. The other application is to place the customer or target prospect experience at the center of the organization's priorities and to ensure that incentive systems, processes, and information resources leverage the relationship by enhancing the experience. a-CRM helps attract new customers by first profiling existing customers and testing their responses to promotions, and then identifying sales prospects with similar characteristics.

Ahmed (2004) provided a model to use prediction and classification to discover the characteristics of customers who are likely to leave. (Ahn, et.al, 2003) developed the design of CRM model and examined analytical CRM on distributed data warehouse. (Bose and Sugumaran, 2003) stressed on the application of knowledge management in CRM. (Bose, 2002) examined CRM and found it as a key component for information technology success. (Cambell, 2003) explained customer knowledge creation and CRM. (Leverin and Liljander, 2006) emphasized on improving customer relationship, satisfaction and loyalty.Marcus (2001) showed segmentation as the effective way to achieve CRM in any firm. (Mukhopadhyay and Nath, 2001) proposed a model for measuring the efficiency of CRM systems

The research strategy adopted can be classified into four stages: â&#x20AC;˘ The importance of CRM was felt and realized through study of various literature and discussions. â&#x20AC;˘ The importance of aCRM in current business scenario was realized through study of various literature and discussions.

RELATED WORK ON ANALYTICAL CRM Customer Databases are mounting in organizations like call centers and other customer management systems and are overflowing with details about customers and contacts. The challenge is that raw data does not have value per se; it needs to be turned into useful information. That is where analytical technology comes into play. The term 'analytics', finds patterns in the randomness of data so that one can discover valuable information and gain useful business insights.

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

(Payne and Frow, 2005) defined strategic framework for CRM for taking effective business decisions. (Qiaohong, et.al, 2007), showed Analytical CRM design based on distributed data warehouse. (Rigby and Ledingham, 2004) suggested a model to calculate the cost of CRM in an organization. Rowley (2002) explained the importance of eight factors for customer knowledge management in e-business. Sap.com (2003) discussed the importance of analytical CRM in the business. (Smith, 2006) discussed whether CRM and customer service be viewed as strategic asset or corporate overhead. Thearling (1998) recommended a simple method to evaluate the benefit of a Data mining model for CRM applications. (Xu and Walton, 2005) explained the importance of customer knowledge through analytical CRM. Analytical CRM is the process of gathering, analyzing and exploiting information of a company's customer base. Information is typically obtained about customer existing and future needs, customer decision making processes, customer behavior and trends as well as using data about the competition, Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Jayanthi Ranjan 173

conditions in the industry, and general economic, technological, and cultural trends. This reveals the compelling strategies and practices behind today's success stories and provides a dynamic forum where thought leaders, business innovators and customer-focused executives can identify valuable opportunities.

Drawing on the perspectives and experiences of leading lights in the customer intelligence community, a-CRM demonstrates how intelligent analysis and action is setting the stage for the next economy.

TRANSFORMING FROM CRM TO A-CRM As already mentioned, the management strategists all agree that differentiation is a key to competitive advantage. The implication is clear: Profit growth for suppliers and service-providers will come from building intimate relationships with customers, and from providing more products and services to one's existing customer base. The works by Sweet (2001), Sweet (2002), and Sweet (2003), Sweet (2004) strongly emphasizes the new vistas in CRM and urges the firms to explore the need to do paradigm shift to CRM. All the firms have recognized one truth. That is earning customer loyalty, not just buying the loyalty; rather now for firms earning customer loyalty is now mandatory.

Consider the following business scenario. Not all companies will be able to give answers for this with their CRM systems along working in their organizations.

"A sales executive wants to see all the sales for the past five years where profitability has been greater than say x percent. He wishes to see it monthly.

Further, he wants to see whether the sales team has been in place during this period or whether there has been personnel turnover where the profitability percentages have been greater than y percent. He also wishes to see trends in profitability, where all sales by year have steadily increased for z percent at least two years in a row, he wishes to see the top five products ranked by profitability".

Let us consider again the some business scenarios where in CRM systems alone can't help.

• How much does the company spends in marketing to retain customers • Which type of customers should it spend more?

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

174 Role of Analytical CRM in CRM Systems ....

• Which marketing channel capacity or marketing activity should the firm spend more or less on?

• What tailored offer can it up-sell or cross-sell to a customer on an inbound call?

• How can it prioritize which customers should get which type of communication?

Not all organizations can answer the above questions. Estimating the return on investment (ROI) of purchasing equipment is near science. In contrast, determining the ROI of marketing is a wing and a prayer. Here where a-CRM plays safe.

The authors are not emphasizing that all firms around the world should implement a-CRM systems. But if the organization is growing and expanding, like banks, telecom, retail and insurance and if the numbers of customers are bundling to millions, then there is a need to understand the reports to keep track of the patterns, growth segments, market potentials and customer behavior changes. For forecasting and creating strategies, analysis of cross tabulated massive data is essential. Any strategy map visually aid in understanding a business to take from present (from present capability, organization and focus of the company) to future (the desired state of capabilities, organization and focus as laid out in the firm's mission, vision and strategy plan.

One thing is sure: Customers are always present in a world of uncertainty and changes. Firms should focus on creating value, not only for customers in the form of customer satisfaction but also for an organization's investors and owners in financial terms of economic value. However, the unchallenged belief that increasing sales volume is the only key can lead companies to depressed profitability just to sustain sales growth. Some customers are unprofitable to conduct business with. What matters is to shift mind-sets and thinking from sales volume at any cost to profitable sales volume.

The works by (chien et.al, 2003), Phelon, P. (2004) and (chien et.al, 2003a) strongly focus on implementing customer satisfaction. Hence customers really matter to organizations. A way for investors, shareholders, and a management team to think about measuring a company's promise for long-term economic value growth performance is to measure its customers. How many customers does it have? How much profit is it earning from each customer today and in the future? What types of customers are the best to up-sell? What kind of new customers are being added and what is the growth rate of additions? Here only comes the measurement of customer's life time value analysis. Since changes Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Jayanthi Ranjan 175

176 Role of Analytical CRM in CRM Systems ....

in customer behavior are usually not volatile, customer's life time value analysis may be useful to understand profit momentum. Customer's life time value analysis measures are not interrupted by one-time charges and other short-term but substantial financial statement surprises. Let's be clear that customers will always exist. However, customers have widely varying demands and their demands are increasing. Ideally, the cost-to-serve component of each customer's profit contribution should therefore be measured to provide economic visibility.

a-CRM

Internet-enabled e-commerce is irreversibly shifting power from the seller to the buyer. This power shift results from the buyer's access to so much more information for product education and comparison shopping. The result is the consumer will become king or queen. Customers have an abundance of options; and now they can get information about products or services that interest them in a much shorter amount of time than what today appear as the antiquated ways of the past. The customer is in control more than ever before. Consequently, from a supplier's perspective, customer retention becomes even more critical, and treating customers as a lifetime stream of revenues becomes paramount.

Greenberg (2004) defined analytical CRM to capture, store, extract, process, interpret and report customer data to end-user. (Jones and Ranchhod, 2007) argued on building marketing strategies in firms through customer interactions. (Kim and Hawamdeh, 2008) explored on leveraging customer knowledge in e-commerce based websites. (Kotorov, 2002) examined CRM efficiency on a 100 percent scale on customers in any business firm. (Kwok, et.al, 2007) examined the design of a generic customer relationship strategy management system.

As pointed out by Roscoe (2003) that the future of CRM definitely lies in customer demands, requirements, needs and most importantly business strategies. For instance, Zineldin (2000) suggests that IT tools should be used not only to provide relationship building credibility and opportunities but also to enable marketers to keep their fingers on the customer's pulse and respond to changing needs. Again, a-CRM comes here to rescue.

With e-commerce, each customer can express his or her unique desires and will increasingly search for customized goods and services. Technology is making this possible. As widely varying customization and tailoring for individuals becomes widespread, how will supply chain manufacturers and distributors distinguish their profitable customers from their unprofitable ones? However, the level of profitability is only one variable or factor for formulating a personalized marketing strategy. a-CRM involves as many variables as are relevant to keep buyers buying from firms. Other examples of variables may be geo-demographic or behavioral. Geo-demographic variables include gender, age, income level, family status (single, married with young children, empty nesters, retired, etc.), recent purchase history, or where they live. Behavioral variables may include customers being loyal, cautious, early adopters, and spendthrift, sophisticated, and so on. Analytic CRM examines combinations of these to maximize offer response rates.

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Analytical CRM is not same as direct marketing. Direct marketing refers to circumventing retailers or distributors and directly contacting customers by mail, telephone, or e-mail. Database marketing, which can include direct marketing as a channel, differs in that it requires an understanding of unique customer needs and then tailoring products and marketing campaigns to reach them.

As a matter of fact Swift (2001) rightly pointed out the need for relationship technologies in CRM. Hicks (2004) went a step further to explore business agility with CRM and service orientation. Zineldin (2000) gave a new dimension to relationship marketing as technologicalship marketing.

Choy, et.al, (2003) developed CRM based supplier relation system. Minna and Aino (2005) discussed competence based customer knowledge management.

Campbell (2003) discussed the importance of managing and creating customer knowledge for effective CRM. Hence the key to a-CRM is segmenting customers into logical groupings. a-CRM addresses the following issues.

• • • • • • •

Definition of segments and their key differences Predicting the characteristics of certain segments Customers movements from segment to segment Management of customer's migration proactively Identifying most profitable segments Identifying the difficult segments for longer term retaining.

Identifying the segments that respond to certain communication channels and types of marketing messages.

The firms should understand that the message from a-CRM is that the best way to outperform competitors is to focus on customers. Furthermore, it is generally accepted that it is substantially more expensive to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing one. The satisfied existing customers are not Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Jayanthi Ranjan 177

only likely to buy more but also to spread the word to others like a referral service. A company's interactions with a customer or sales target are the allimportant currency of a-CRM. Here the question is what does each interaction truly cost and what is its payback it any firm? Questions related to the ROI from marketing can be answered by integrating the performance management. a-CRM systems evolved as a result of advanced information technology and large databases used to refine marketing and sales efforts. The a-CRM tools enable companies to target individual customers or micro market segments with pinpoint accuracy and manage the dialogue and interactions. Early operational CRM focused on cost savings by automating business process work flows or lowering transaction costs, such as in call centers. Much has changed now. The emphasis since then is on growing revenues, not simply lowering costs. And today mainframes have migrated to the desk top. The concept of front offices and back offices has emerged. The Internet has taken customers a step further by blending computing and communications into a platformindependent, globally accessible, and universally usable medium to them. a-CRM, based on customer database marketing systems, has evolved as an important companion to operational CRM. For example, call center CRM tools may guide the telemarketer to make shorter calls to increase the number of calls, whereas a-CRM can increase the likelihood of acceptance of an offer during a call. A factor in deploying a-CRM is the marketing strategy that may be requiring a shift from increasing market share via more sales to increasing profit by better understanding customer profiles.

Rowley (2002) defined customer knowledge as the knowledge that includes knowledge about potential customers, customer segments and individual customers and knowledge possessed by customers. Minna and Aino (2005) differentiated customer knowledge from customer data and customer information, and suggested that customer knowledge can be explicit, the structured customer information in databases, or in tacit customer knowledge - knowledge in mind of employees and customers Increasingly companies are realizing that improving their profitability requires more and better customer contact and more intimate customer relationships.

And indiscriminate mass marketing techniques are shifting to database marketing, this sometimes called relationship marketing. Although the marketing and sales functions clearly see the links between increasing customer satisfaction and generating higher revenues, the accountants have traditionally focused on encouraging cost reduction as a road to higher profits. The wise managers in firms must recognize that some of the best profit generating opportunities come Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

178 Role of Analytical CRM in CRM Systems ....

from improvements, such as attaining higher quality, that achieve both lower costs and higher revenues from increased customer satisfaction.

Today it is nearly impossible for a company to manage the growing number of communication channels in which a customer can and will interact with a business. These can include by phone, Internet web site, e-mail, letter mail, news letters, blogs, or in person.

What is even more problematic is ensuring consistent customer-facing behavior among all of the employees in an enterprise. The customer's interactions with the business are typically handled by a variety of employees in different roles and situations responding to the different channels. The employees may be unaware of tailored strategies or desired service levels for handling particular customer groups. Inconsistent experiences are likely being created for customers, who are acutely aware of them and will behave accordingly.

One lesson learned from the supply chain management discipline, at least from a materials management and new product development point of view, is 'companies should need to better know their customer's customers.' The objective of a-CRM is to offer and deliver the right product or service via the right channel to the right customer at the right time and to do this in a pleasurable way from the customer's point of view.

An emerging trend in a-CRM is the emphasis on maximizing the response from an inbound interaction, such as where the customer initiates calls to a customer service center, rather than scripting an outbound call intended to sell as much standard product as possible. Customers are getting saturated from a bombardment of outbound sales solicitations, and they have pain threshold limits.

A more profitable impact may come from a tailored up-sell or cross-sell offer at the moment a customer calls in based on what you know about them. This is a non-intrusive solution where an increased response rate is more likely. The higher impact results from having current and relevant customer data combined with a-CRM about which type of customer may be receptive to which type of offer. a-CRM provides understanding of customer preferences that can translate into purchases.

Alexander and Turner (2001) suggested that all customers are not equal in their future value to an organization and some customers may even affect a loss. Thus, organizations need to calculate and predict customer lifetime value and analyze the churn rate. Not all high volume customers are necessarily high lifetime value, and as such it is the high life value customers that must be the focus of customer retention efforts. Here a-CRM again comes into rescue.

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Jayanthi Ranjan 179

180 Role of Analytical CRM in CRM Systems ....

Figure 1 helps illustrate the differences between CRM and a-CRM. The author strongly feels that in organizations a-CRM has been referenced but not yet differentiated from customer relationship management. The organizations feel that if they have incorporated CRM systems then they will have miracle down the line. a-CRM is the internal, company-facing repository of data used to determine and analyze customer segments and then used to formulate strategies in order to satisfy and retain each customer segment. Analysis is the key word. a-CRM is an internal process for truly understanding who your customers are and what they want from you. a-CRM anticipates their needs. The results of a-CRM are then put into action by CRM. a-CRM leverages data warehousing and data mining tools for data extraction, reorganizing, and analysis. Operational CRM generates data that go as input to a-CRM as well as do other systems. a-CRM then converts this data into actionable business information that becomes the input to operational CRM for further customer interactions or communications.

An objective for operational CRM is to ensure that customers enjoy consistently good experiences to increase their loyalty and the likelihood that they will purchase again from the firms and possibly refers the business to others. That is, the goal is to forge long-term relationships with customers by consistently delivering exceptional service and tailored products for repeat business and referrals. Consistent treatment of customers is a key descriptor because customers can become finicky and impatient with one poor experience (i.e., below their ever-rising expectations), causing them to explore alternative providers that is competitors.

SERVICE BEST SPIRITUAL PRACTICE I feel that the essence of spiritual practice is your attitude towards others.

When you have a pure, sincere motivation, then you have right attitude towards others based on kindness, compassion, love and respect.

- His Holiness, The Dalai Lama

NO GAINS WITHOUT PAINS Nothing is achieved without hard labour (Shramapi bina na kimapi saadhyam).

- Nitya Niti Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Fig. 1 helps illustrate the differences between CRM and a-CRM. Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Jayanthi Ranjan 181

In fig. 1 the process starts with analyzing customer data to synthesize and distill patterns. After that, marketing analysts formulate strategies that are tailored to the various micro segments of customers and are obviously intended to motivate customers to continue purchasing the supplier's goods and services.

The next steps involve mobilizing the organization to execute the strategies; this can range from new product development programs to new value-added services that support existing products and service lines.

The process cycle next crosses into the CRM domain, where the customer data and feedback about their responses are collected. Powerful sales force automation, marketing automation, and customer service tools are applied. Sales automation helps manage the life cycle of every sales opportunity to its successful conclusion. It allows for managing the sales pipeline and funnels to better forecast when actual sales events will occur, remove administrative work by automating routine tasks, and empower a sales team with call-tracking history and relevant intelligence about prospects and customers. (Paiva et al, 2002) found that customers' information is the type of information that is most frequently updated, and the company focuses on specific customer information instead of general market information.

182 Role of Analytical CRM in CRM Systems ....

potentially with offers or incentives to purchase or act, can be immediately pushed back to the customer. Marketing automation tools go a step further by maximizing profit by balancing the customer's likeliness to purchase with the organization's ability to deliver, including its channel's capacity constraints or its operation's capacity or planned offer inventories. These tools are also foundational to customer loyalty programs in any service sector.

Call centers are today's factories for servicing customers. Everyone has received unsolicited marketing phone calls or toggled through an automated answering system to receive online help service from a person. With the addition analytical CRM tool, call center employees are enabled to not only interact more effectively with a customer, but to also expand their service call into a sales call raising the top line. As mentioned earlier, leveraging and finessing a customer-initiated inbound interaction to push a campaign message has been recognized by marketers as being substantially more effective than traditional outbound marketing campaign solicitations.

The enterprises collect enormous amount of data from various verticals like sales, marketing, inventory, service, etc. One may ask why to collect and store this as historical data. Historical data helps to make better decisions in the current scenario. The historical data could be in the form of charts, spreadsheets, graphs-to sum it up, that tells about the kind of decisions taken in the past. Each and every decision taken by the company is tossed for negative or positive outcome. For example, whenever there is any change in marketing strategy of any company, the sales are affected either by raising or falling stating market reaction for changed decision.

These tools, when combined, provide for interactions through all communication channels like e-mail, call centers, mailing brochures, advertisements, newsletters, and so on. These are all touch points with customers and prospects. Every channel can engage the customer with a dynamically personalized and compelling experience by leveraging marketing, sales, and customer support. Each interaction is an opportunity to gain knowledge about customer preferences and to strengthen the relationship. The problem is that each of the communication channels may unknowingly use their own customer intelligence data to interact with a customer without realizing that a different message may be being delivered to the same customer via another communication channel. A common a-CRM system provides the foundation to integrate with and feed all of an organization's different communication channels.

This then provides a consistent personalized message from the receiver's view consistent across all channels. The information and knowledge acquired from the analytical CRM will help develop appropriate marketing and promotion strategies. This type of CRM is referred by Kotorov (2002) as a 360° view of the customer. Technologies underpinning the analytical CRM system include CRM portals, data warehouses, predictive and analytical engines (Eckerson and Watson, 2001);

After a-CRM's formulated data has been collected, marketing automation tools then push out each campaign, survey, or contest to customers and prospects, as well as receive and analyze the responses. With advanced marketing automation tools, customer responses can be anticipated. Personalized messages,

With the analytical/operational CRM tools working in harmony, customers' responses triggered from marketing campaigns can be individually tracked and compared against their anticipated reactions. With e-mail or call center campaigns, the analysis of customer responses can be timely and so sophisticated

Again refer Fig 1. Marketing automation tools aid in profiling customers based on dozens of characteristics like preferences, buying behavior, purchasing frequency, recency of purchase, demographics etc. The tools are not based on marketing theory but rather on actual customer behavior, as research has demonstrated that good indicators of a customer's future behavior is their past behavior and their profile.

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Jayanthi Ranjan 183

that the marketing campaign itself, with all customer response traffic monitored on the supplier's computer servers or Web site, can be modified within hours or days following the start of the campaign.

By monitoring and analyzing customer behaviors, it becomes immediately apparent when any statistically sensitive deviations or changes from normal behavior take place. An example would be, customer inactivity which may signal attrition. When this event trigger technology is combined with intelligence derived from data mining, a company has powerful intelligence to use when interacting with a customer to re-alter their shopping behavior. The communication may be in real time, or it may be right time where a delay is more appropriate; and the customer interaction can be via any communication channel, possibly inbound or outbound. Additional event triggers may include lifetime events, such as marriages or school graduations that may be anticipated or reported from other sources. In short, a-CRM tools provide a single, unified view a comprehensive, cohesive, and centralized view of a customer that can dynamically adjust based on feedback. Good a-CRM tools help organizations make smarter decisions faster. In sum, a-CRM allows end-to-end functionality from sales lead management to order tracking potentially seamlessly. a-CRM includes data warehouses that are used by analytical applications that dissect the data and present it in a form that is useful.

EXPECTED BENEFITS WITH a-CRM. As suggested by (Ahn et al, 2003) the main concern in CRM systems is to understand and make practical use of customer information, and argue that with an enormous amount of data stored in databases and data warehouses, it is increasingly important to develop powerful tools for the analysis of such data and mining interesting knowledge from it. The biggest threat to CRM, as suggested by Bose (2002), is managements' focus on short-run profits rather than long-term vision.

Managing customers with a gut-feel based on intuition can lead toward assuming that increasing sales volume equates to success. Having a way to value different types of customers is a powerful tool to develop customercentric strategies and subsequently determine with what level of priority and effort to engage each customer segment. Based on customer analysis, CI/ CRM transforms customer expectations into personalized experiences to acquire, retain, and service customers and on a large scale. Real-time automated customer response analysis, regardless of the touch points, means quick yet tailored adjustments to marketing campaigns.

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

184 Role of Analytical CRM in CRM Systems ....

• Information on the level of absolute and relative profit contribution that the customer provides today and potentially in the future.

• Information on the actionable steps that can economically increase each customer's profit contribution margin layer for high payback • Information on what the companies are doing and what is important to companies.

• Information on deciding factors for direct marketing and customer planning worth it or not.

• Information on good customer profitability that leads to clearer thinking about where to allocate one's limited resources.

• To analyze the right kind of increased total revenues.

• Information on profitability measured by each customer or customer segments regardless of increase/decrease in sales and costs. By using customer profitability data, the demarcation lines for ROI cutoffs can be drawn, and the a-CRM systems can stop wasting employee time and the company's scarce resources on types of customers that are not worth the effort it takes to pursue them. This means, the analytical systems should be designed to send into the CRM systems from a-CRM the information derived from the profitability data.

• CRM systems are extremely customer-centric, whereas a-CRM is work and process -centric. CRM cares about customer feelings and preferences. A-CRM pays attention to how product and customer diversity both require and consume greater resources. The information available from these methods is essential to attain corporate goals and strategies and to increase profitability. The company can diagnose, understand, and alter its programs' costs. As a bonus from analyzing customer profitability, the costs of poorly designed internal processes can be highlighted with the likelihood of removing profit-harming effects otherwise undetected.

• a-CRM accomplishes in identifying, getting, keeping, and growing right and relevant customers.

• It maintains constant communication with customers, and also promotes offers to targeted sales prospects.

• It places the customer or target prospect experience at the center of the organization's priorities and to ensure that incentive systems, processes, and information resources leverage the relationship by enhancing the experience.

• a-CRM helps attract new customers by first profiling existing customers and testing their responses to promotions, and then identifying sales prospects with similar characteristics.

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Jayanthi Ranjan 185

CONCLUSION

186 Role of Analytical CRM in CRM Systems ....

Bose, R. & V. Sugumaran (2003) "Application of Knowledge Management Technology in CRM", Knowledge and Process Management, 10 (1):3-17.

As mentioned in introduction, the economic boom from 2000 in the world was fueled by a steady supply of relatively cheap capital. The economy was then investment-driven. However, going forward, the future economics will be demand-driven. It is for sure that customers, not capital, will generate the next wave of dynamic economic growth in the world. This paper aimed to examine how customer relationship management (CRM) systems are in place in firms in practice with a focus on the customer needs and requirements, i.e. how analytical CRM systems are used to support organizational decision making and how such a system can be integrated with CRM systems.

In short, a-CRM tools provide a single, unified view a comprehensive, cohesive, and centralized view of a customer that can dynamically adjust based on feedback. Good a-CRM tools help organizations make smarter decisions faster. In sum, a-CRM allows end-to-end functionality from sales lead management to order tracking potentially seamlessly. a-CRM includes data warehouses that are used by analytical applications that dissect the data and present it in a form that is useful.

The paper explained with a aim to examine the CRM systems in practice explored the ways of embracing CRM systems with a-CRM systems for strategic customer information provision. The significance of this investigation is to explore the potential of a-CRM systems and the ways that organizations can better use the system to unlock the wealth of customer information and deliver it, enterprise wide, to both internal and external users.

Campbell, A. (2003) "Creating Customer Knowledge: Managing Customer Relationship Management Programs Strategically", Industrial Marketing Management, 32 (5): 375-83.

Campell, A. (2003) "Creating Customer Knowledge Management Technology in Customer Relationship Management", Knowledge and Process Management, 10 (1): 3-17.

Chien, T., T. Chang, & C. Su (2003a) "Did Your Efforts Really Win Customers' Satisfaction?" Industrial Management & Data Systems, 103 (4): 253-62.

Chien, T., C. Su. & C. Su (2003) "Implementation of a Customer Satisfaction Program: A Case Study", Industrial Management & Data Systems, 102 (5): 252-9.

Choy, K.L., K.K Fan, & V. Lo (2003) "Development of an Intelligent Customer-Supplier Relationship Management System: Application of Case-based Reasoning", Industrial Management & Data Systems, 103 (4): 263-74.

Eckerson, W., & H. Watson (2001) "Harnessing Customer Information for Strategic Advantage: Technical Challenges and Business Solutions", Industry Study, The Data Warehousing Institute, Seattle, WA, pp.6.

REFERENCES Ahmed, S. R. (2004) Application of Data Mining in Retail Businesses.

Proceedings IEEE International Conference on Information Technology: Coding and Computing (ITCC'04), pp.44-55.

Ahn, J.Y., S.K. Kim & K.S Han (2003) "On the Design Concepts for CRM System", Industrial Management & Data Systems, 103(5): 324-31.

Alexander, D. & C. Turner (2001) The CRM Pocketbook. Alresford: Management Pocketbooks Ltd. Bose, R. (2002) â&#x20AC;&#x153;CRM: Key Components for IT Success,â&#x20AC;? Industrial Management and Data systems, 102(2) : 89-97.

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Greenberg, P. (2004), CRM at the Speed of Light: Essential Customer Strategies for the 21st Century (Third Edition), London & New York: McGraw-Hill.

Hicks, D. (2006) "Customer Focus Meets Business Agility: The Business Case for SOA", CRM Project Vol. 6. Retrieved on May 29 (www.crmproject.com).

Jones, S & A. Ranchhod (2007) "Marketing Strategies through Customer Attention: Beyond Technology-enabled CRM", International Journal of Electronic CRM, 1(3): 279-286.

Kim, Y.M. & S. Hawamdeh (2008) "Leveraging Customer Knowledge: A Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Jayanthi Ranjan 187

Comparative study of e-CRM Functionality and its Use in e-Commerce Websites", International Journal of Electronic CRM, 1(4): 327-340.

Kotorov, R. (2002), "Ubiquitous Organization: Organizational Design for eCRM", Business Process Management Journal, 8 (3): 218-32.

Kwok, K.C.M., K.L. Choy, H.C.W. Lau & S.K. Kwok (2007) "Design of a Generic Customer Relationship Strategy Management System", International Journal of Electronic CRM, 1 (2): 109-131.

Leverin, A. & V. Liljander (2006) "Does Relationship Marketing Improve Customer Relationship Satisfaction and Loyalty?" International Journal of Bank Marketing, 24 (4): 232-251.

Marcus, C. (2001) "Effective CRM Requires Sound Segmentation", Research notes, Gartner Research, retrieved on June 10, 2008 (www.gartner.com).

188Role of Analytical CRM in CRM Systems ....

Design Frame Based on Distributed Data Warehouse". In proceedings Second International IEEE Conference on Pervasive Computing and Applications, ICPCA 2007.

Rigby, D. K., D. Ledingham (2004) "CRM done Right", Harvard Business Review, 2-4.

Roscoe, D. (2003) "So what is the Future for CRM?" Journal of Customer Management, 42-43.

Rowley, J. (2002) "Eight Questions for Customer Knowledge Management in e-Business", Journal of Knowledge Management, 6 (5): 500-511.

Sap (2003) "SAP White Paper-Analytical CRM". Retrieved on January 20, 2008 (www.sap.com).

Smith, A. (2006) "CRM and Customer Service: Strategic Asset or Corporate Overhead?", Handbook of Business Strategy, 7 (1): 87-93.

Minna, R. & H. Aino (2005) "Customer Knowledge Management Competence: Towards a Theoretical Framework". In proceedings of Thirty-eighth Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, IEEE 0-7695-2268-8/05, Retrieved March 14 2007 (www.hiess.hawaii.edu/ home.htm).

Sweet, P. (2001) "CRM Purse Strings Tighten", Conspectus (The IT Report for Directors and Decision Makers), October, 2-4.

Mukhopadhyay, S & P. Nath (2001) Decision Metrics for CRM Solutions.

In proceedings International Conference on CRM: Emerging Concepts, Tools and Applications, New Delhi: Tata McGraw Hill Publishing Company Ltd., pp. 185-192.

Sweet, P. (2003) "New wave of CRM", Conspectus (The IT Report for Directors and Decision Makers), March, 2-4.

Sweet, P. (2002) "Users keep the faith", Conspectus (The IT Report for Directors and Decision Makers), October, 2-4.

Sweet, P. (2004) "Light at the End of CRM Tunnel", Conspectus (The IT Report for Directors and Decision Makers), March, 2-4.

Paiva, E.L., A.V. Roth & J.E. Fensterseifer (2002) "Focusing information in Manufacturing: A Knowledge Management Perspective", Industrial Management & Data Systems, 102 (7): 381-9.

Swift, R.S. (2001) Accelerating Customer Relationships: Using CRM and Relationship Technologies, Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Payne, A. & P. Frow (2005) "A Strategic Framework for CRM", Journal of Marketing, 69 (4): 167-176.

Thearling, K. (1998) "Data Mining and Privacy: A Conflict in the Making?".

Retrieved on October 20, 2007 (www.thearling.com/text/dsstar/ privacy.htm)

Phelon, P. (2004) "Destination CRM: Why Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty are not enough". Retrieved on May 29, 2006 (www.destinationcrm.com).

Xu M & J. Walton (2005) "Gaining Customer Knowledge through Analytical CRM", Industrial Management and Data Systems, 105 (7): 955-971.

Qiaohong, Z., C. Dingfang, C. Yu & Z. Min (2007) "An Analytical CRM

Zineldin, M. (2000) "Beyond Relationship Marketing: Technologicalship Marketing", Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 18 (1)

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Short Communications

190 Overcoming the Challenges of the Changing Retail ....

tandem, in order to achieve the competitive edge in the market.

OVERCOMING THE CHALLENGES OF THE CHANGING RETAIL SCENARIO IN INDIA TO GAIN COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE Jyotsna Diwan Mehta A retail revolution is underway in the country. It is driven by projections that the country will become the world's fifth largest consumer market in a couple of decades, corporate houses will pump in a huge $35 billion over the next five years to build networks of big retail chains, promising greater choice and savings for consumers, millions of jobs and most importantly an overhaul of the way India shops. This paper aims to identify challenges that confront retail revolution in the country as it is only after identifying the challenges that one can hope to counter them and achieve competitive advantage.

Key words: Retail revolution, inherent challenges, environmental challenges, competitive advantage; maintenance strategy; motivation strategy.

INTRODUCTION Retail marketing faces several challenges which can be broadly divided into two categories, i.e., (i) challenges which are a part of the retail marketing process itself and emerge from the process of retail marketing itself; and (ii) challenges that are result of changing external environment and current marketing scenario in the global, national and local marketplace. In order to gain competitive advantage retailer needs to develop strategies (for getting the focus right) leading towards effectiveness, which can be viewed as vital to setting us on the right track and can be identified as maintenance strategies.

Absence of such strategies can cause severe setbacks while their presence may not help the retailer stand out in face of competition. For achieving competitive advantage the retailer also needs to evolve strategies for achieving a higher level of performance and efficiency which can be viewed as motivating strategies, the absence of which may not show tangible setbacks but whose presence will provide the competitive edge. A combination of both the strategies will help retailer emerge as winner. This paper develops a model for retailers to combine and use both strategies in Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009) Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009) Š 2009 IILM Institute for Higher Education.

All Rights Reserved.

Traditionally, the word 'retailing' conjure up images of local grocery store with the small vendor giving instructions to his aids to bring specific items from different store shelves and bring for handing over to a waiting customer in front of him. A modern retail store is changing this traditional picture. A retail revolution is currently underway in country, which is driven by projections that the country will emerge as the world's fifth largest consumer market in few decades. As per some broad estimates, prominent retail chains may invest a sum of around $35 billion in next few years for building networks of big retail stores, promising greater choice and savings for consumers, millions of jobs and most importantly an overhaul of the way India shops. Thus, in contemporary scenario the relevance of completive advantage comes from emerging malls and modern format stores opening up, not only in the fast moving metros but also in the bustling smaller cities and towns which are far closer to what is the real India.

In simple terms retailing refers to a vendor selling to his products to consumers. The goods and services sold by person, mail, telephone, vending machine or internet; they may be sold in a store, on the street or in the consumer's home. This brings the entire gamut of retail formats - convenience stores, shopping malls, hyper markets, discount stores, supermarkets, department stores, specialty stores and branded stores.

In this conceptual paper it is attempted to identify retailers challenges in two broad groups, namely, 'inherent challenges' and 'external challenges' which a retailer comes across and develop strategies to face them under two broad groups, namely, maintenance and motivation strategies. The first group of strategies relates to challenges which the retail marketing process faces itself, and the second group of strategies relates to challenges faced on an account of external environment and the market scenario.

INHERENT CHALLENGES These are the challenges which are inherent in the process. Retailing is a part of marketing and thus the same rules are applicable. One therefore needs to have a look at dynamics of retailing and one can do within the process of retail marketing, for obtaining most effective results (Fig.1).

Knowledge of 'target market' helps determine focus and develop customer profile (Fig.1). This is particularly important for such retail Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Jyotsna Diwan Mehta 191 Challenges : What? Why? Where? When? How?

Promotion decision

Fig.1

These are challenges which emerge from external environment and current trends in global, national and local marketplace.

Procurement Sources, Policies & Practices

Service mix

Ambience : Point of Purchase

Promotion decision

These are the decisions that every retail business need to consider in order to stay focused in right direction. These are the decisions that no marketer can afford to overlook if they are determined to succeed.

ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES

Target Market-leads understanding of shopping expectation

Product Assortment

192 Overcoming the Challenges of the Changing Retail ....

Newer forms of retailing and their combinations: For example, the Rel-mart stores at Reliance petrol pumps were one such experimental format which was new to the Indian scenario when it was introduced. Many such examples of modern retail format are being introduced into the market and each of these has its own advantages and unique challenges.

Growth of intertype competition: Take the example of discount stores competing with department stores or specialty stores. For example, the Nike showroom competes with its own factory outlet or the local grocer competes with the supermarket.

Place Decision

A view of retail marketing process posing challenges to retailer at every stage.

businesses, which have entered the business by default. For example, Pantaloons entered retail business following diversification of textile manufacturing, or Shoppers Stop that was promoted by the real estate groupthe Raheja Property, which saw potential in organized retail as a strategy to promote existing properties at a time when real estate prices were low.

The next step for any retail business is to decide on depth and breadth of product assortment, for example, the BJN Group, opened up 36 types of multi-specialty restaurants, while, McDonalds concentrated on opening up more and more outlets with a fixed menu. A business needs to make related decisions in areas such as sourcing purchases, evolving policies and developing management practices. Such decisions have bearing on the service mix and the look, or ambience of the store outlet that also impact on pricing, promotion and placement decisions.

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Growth of giant retailers: Recent times have witnessed a growth in huge retail outlets varying in type, level of service they offer or positioning strategy they adopt. One possible example is that of category killers like 'Home Store', which kill the potential of the Home section of a large department store such as 'Shoppers Stop'.

Greater use of technology: Newer technology is constantly being invented and being put to use to tackle competition. For example, RFID (Radio Frequency Identification Device) tags are replacing bar code devices following availability of newer technology as it offers retailers a competitive advantage (Indian Management, 2005).

Global presence of major retailers: One can see how the McDonald brigade has pushed Indian Coffee House into a corner and how the forthcoming Bharti-Wal-Mart joint venture will impact the retail scenario.

Changing perceptions and attitudes of consumers: Retailing is being perceived more and more as an experience in entirety and not merely selling of goods and services. This will bring with it additional challenge of enhancing buying experience for the customer to stay in competition e.g. free cooking Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Jyotsna Diwan Mehta 193

194 Overcoming the Challenges of the Changing Retail ....

demo at crockery section, kid's zone to keep younger kids busy while parents shop, etc.

upon gaining economies of scale in trading. It is in this scenario that retailers must gain the competitive edge. The possible strategies could be as under:

Unique competition: This emerges between 'store based' and 'non -store based' retailers. This may also widen scope of competition, from retailing to E-tailing and may result in collaborations, for example, such as those between Wal-Mart with AOL (Business World, April 2, 2007).

Strategies for Gaining Effectiveness

Emergence of Value shopper: An Indian customer who was earlier perceived to be highly price sensitive is now increasingly showing signs of being value-sensitive. This means that they are willing to buy a product or brand if it delivers value. The average craze for premium goods has gone up considerably and sought buy to middle and upper-middle-class people.

Craze for indigenous items: While there has been a definite surge for items emanating from western world, at the same time items having tinge of local values, ideas and indeed language, is also simultaneously growing. A retailer should not ignore such needs if he hopes to catch the pulse of the people (Business Today, January 14, 2007).

Brand loyalty replaced by informed choice: Gone are the days when a family would stick to one brand or one provision store for ever. The Indian consumer is increasingly exhibiting a penchant for being adventurous and exploring new avenues, showing an increasing appetite for risk-taking and is willing to spend that little extra earlier reserved for a rainy day. The spending is not done in an arbitrary manner as a new-age consumer is much more informed and discerning in choice.

STRATEGIES FOR GAINING COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE Having identified the main challenges for retail business in Indian context both those inherent in the process and those emerging out of the challenges of the environment the next step is to develop strategies in order to gain a competitive edge. One can see that retailing has its own challenges and is highly competitive. It requires several ingredients to succeed - large investments, skill to manage a large workforce, technical skills in logistics and inventory management and speed to keep pace with consumer preferences which are fast changing (Pradhan, 2007). The retail business is also tough because margins are low. This is not only due to pressure of competition but also due to very essence of retail format, which is based Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

These are strategies to ensure that the retailer can maintain the interest of customers. If these strategies are practiced then the retailer can ensure a steady foot-fall .If these strategies are absent the interest of the consumer may not hold and he may move towards the competition. Let us examine this strategy:Know the customer mind: The retailer must understand the customer and his needs. He can do so through effective marketing research and through managers who understand the local culture Research actually needs to get closer to the 'moment of truth' or the moment of purchase in order to grasp the nuances of brand preferences and customer motivations. Big Bazaar has a live chakki for staples including masalas in its food bazaar because it has identified that Indian consumers associate fresh ingredients with maximization of aroma and flavor (Business India, September 7, 2008),.

Retailers must understand that for jewellery or a saree store customers may desire ambience or mood setting but in a grocery store a great ambience may be actually associated to price and end up having a negative impact.

Develop positioning strategy: An appropriate positioning strategy and product assortment decision in consonance with the customer profile needs to be created: The retail revolution is expanding at a blinding pace. The key word here is not only pace but also blinding - as entrepreneurs rush to join the retail revolution they often forget the most important aspect of what position they occupy in the minds of the customers.

Significance of ambience: A retailer needs to watch the look of the store, the ambience, the entire look of the outlet keeping in mind the customer profile and the positioning statement. A survey conducted in the retail sector shows that while the primary reasons why shoppers choose a store are convenience and merchandize, store ambience and service are secondary reasons. So while it is important to cater to the primary reasons they may not actually enthuse the customer to shop at the outlet. The secondary factors must therefore be tapped since they can actually covert the interest shown by the consumer into an actual buy decision! The secret is to strike a balance between both the aspects because both are needed to develop and sustain the interest and patronage of the consumer.

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Jyotsna Diwan Mehta 195

196Overcoming the Challenges of the Changing Retail ....

Retailers must pay attention to loyalty programs: It is necessary to retain their customers because in the dynamics scenario of retail, customer loyalty is fickle to say the least. The First Citizen programme of Shoppers Stop is an example of a loyalty programme but then every large retailer has come up with similar programme. Retailers must re-examine that once the excitement of free membership to the programme is over, how they can link these programme to actual advantage in the minds of the customer. Another technique that is being used is to link two reputed names together for advantage. The co-branded credit card programme of Big Bazaar with ICICI, or that of Indian Oil with ICICI is an example of the same. Follow up arrangements should be made to track non or low users of these card members, and devise ways to encourage regular usage of higher spending.

explore and use the best possible sources for the stock, both in terms of quality and price. Professionals such as buyers, merchandisers and designers are identified to do this task in larger concerns but even smaller retailers must not ignore this aspect. Practices should be transparent and clearly established so that there is a smooth flow. This will not only benefit the retailer but will also motivate employees by establishing goal and role clarity.

Integration with manufacturers, buyers, suppliers and financiers: Retailers need to build upon networks of customers, suppliers and bankers to meet challenges present in market scenario. An example is that when Coke wanted to introduce a diet soda called Coke Zero, Wal-Mart contributed by giving the idea that the drink should be based upon an artificial sweetener called splenda, that had been selling extremely well at Wal-Mart. The result was a Diet Coke with splenda content. This was an instant hit-to the advantage of both Coke and Wal-Mart. Another example of integration is that by recognizing that the customer is becoming more adventurous and retailers can take advantage of this to develop their own brands, thus cutting costs, and providing highly competitive rates to traditional 'product brands" and attracting the customer. Shoppers Stop, for example, has done this with its in-house brand Stop! The danger that one must guard against here, is to encourage the customer to associate the in-house brand with lower price and not lower quality.

Strategies for Gaining Efficiency

Using newer technology: Like in every other field, in retail also, the constant challenge is to use new technology in order to enhance store efficiency and improve back room operations like stock keeping. Companies like McDonald's and Procter and Gamble are experimenting with technologies that will deliver audio content that only an individual consumer in a store can hear (Outlook, December 31, 2007). While the ethical implications need to be examined, many such technologies may be in the offing!

Appropriate sourcing: One needs to identify the best source for one's stock, and establish appropriate procurement policies and practices.

Depending upon the product category that he identifies, the retailer must Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Choose appropriate format: As the retail revolution rolls on, entrepreneurs are experimenting with various formats. Every week one hears of the launch of a new mall, department store, or a hypermarket - there is no one best structure to be followed to succeed but one thing is clear -those who succeed are the ones who have planned their path to success.

These are the strategies to ensure that the retailer can motivate the customer to take an actual buy decision. If these strategies are practiced then the retailer can ensure customer loyalty. If these strategies are absent the consumer may not actually show a great degree of dissatisfaction but he will stay vulnerable to moving towards the competition. It can be achieved by pursuing the following strategies.

Invest in people and develop soft skills: In order to succeed, any organization operating in the present scenario must pay attention to the team of people that it garners to meet up with the challenge. At the end of the day it is the employees, the people who work for the retailer who become the recognizable face of the retail outlet (Nair, 2007). The organization must not spare any effort to recruit the right people, train them well and keep them motivated if it wishes to beat the competition. Along with the technical expertise it is also important to develop the soft skills of the people working in the organization as this will help them create a positive synergy for the retail team as well as create a rapport with the customer Depend on innovation: A retailer need to innovate to survive and grow as innovation is the key. The Future Group has led the retail sector in India by using innovations like queue managers in Pantaloons and vegetable cutting facilities(after studies had identified vegetable cutting as a task involving negative energy by housewives and were therefore willing to outsource it) at Big Bazaar (Indian Management, June, 2005). Not all ideas succeed, not all innovations show returns but eventually the one who succeeds is the one who has ventured to do something new and different.

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

198 Overcoming the Challenges of the Changing Retail ....

Be creative in the use of media and communications: Retailers need to stand out in the crowd and the one best way of doing so is to be creative to get ahead of the competition. This includes among other things creativity in communications and use of media channels. Retailers need to establish an ongoing dialogue with their customers so that they can arm themselves with the information that can help them in getting ahead.

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

The Challenges Emanating From the Changing Environment

The Inherent Challenge Emerging From The Process Of Read Marketing Itself

Developing

Retail revolution in India has given rice to several challenges. These can be divided into those that are an inherent part of the retailing process and those that are a result of the changing environment. In order to gain competitive advantage retailers need to develop and implement strategies that set the focus for the organization right, creating effectiveness and also use strategies for increasing the level of performance, thus increasing efficiency. The former can be viewed as vital to setting us on the right track and can be identified as maintenance strategies (The absence of which will cause severe setbacks but the presence may not help the retailer stand out). On the other hand, when we will combine these strategies with the second group of strategies which we can identify as motivating strategies (the absence of which may not show tangible setbacks but whose presence will provide the competitive edge), we will emerge as winners (Fig.2). The competitive edge will come from the ability to combine efforts in achieving both effectiveness as well as efficiency. This is because if one only concentrates on the former one risk the chance of being one among many, whereas if one only concentrates on the latter one may be moving in the wrong direction. Thus to gain competitive advantage one needs to first ensure that one is working in the right direction and maintain one's position of effective performance and then develop strategy to face competition boldly.

Strategic

Exhibit social responsibility: The impact that the image of being socially responsible can have on a consumer cannot be undermined in these times.

By showing an increasing sensitivity to social causes and establishing their concern and care, retailers can create a bond with consumers .This bond is strengthened if the consumer perceives a reflection of the exhibited social responsibility in the ethical practices of the retailer.

Challenges

Fig.2

Gaining competitive advantage by developing strategies for effectiveness and efficiency.

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Motiviating Strength

Maintenance Strategies

Know the peoples' pulse: Everyone is a customer and can translate into revenues. A customer should remains king even in your domain. A retailer needs to keep his eyes and ears open. This can help him spot the trends and achieve success.

Strategies (For Achieving A Higher Level of Performance) Leading Toward Effectiveness

Competitive Advantage

Strategies (For Getting the Focus Right) Leading Toward Effectiveness

Jyotsna Diwan Mehta 197

Jyotsna Diwan Mehta 199

CONCLUDING REMARKS The retail revolution has brought retail to a full circle in the world of marketing.

The retailer was once the king in the pre-marketing and branding revolution.

Remember how when one would go and ask for a particular brand at the local kirana store and come back with another, convinced by the retailer or dissuaded by him to buy the brand which one had gone looking for! This was followed by the branding revolution where the power shifted to the marketer, who was empowered by the pull of the brand. Once again the retailer is forging his way ahead, albeit in a transformed avatar, and emerging as a new marketing weapon. The challenge is to use this marketing weapon to the mutual advantage of both the consumer and the retailer, and thus creating a win-win-win situation - one in which the retailer wins, the customer wins and one in which the ultimate victory is that of the Indian Market.

REFERENCES

Gilbert, D. (2002) Retail Marketing Management, Pearson Education, New Delhi.

Indian Management (2005) Call of the Mall, June.

Business World (2007) Cracking the Consumer Code, April 2.

200 Overcoming the Challenges of the Changing Retail ....

DR. S. RADHAKRISHNAN ON BHAGAVD GITA The Bhagavad Gita which forms part of the Bhismaparva of the Mahabharata is the most popular religious poem of Sanskrit literature. It is "the most beautiful, perhaps the only true philosophical song existing in any known tongue."

It is book conveying lesson of philosophy, religion and ethics. Yet if the hold which a work has on the mind if man is any clue to its importance, then the Gita is the most influential work in Indian thought. Its message of deliverance is simple. While only the rich could buy off the goods by their sacrifices, and only the cultured could pursue the way of knowledge, the Gita teaches a method which is within the reach of all, that of Bhakti, or devotion to God. From the second chapter onwards we have a philosophical analysis.

The essential thing in man is not the body or the senses, but the changeless spirit. The mind of Arjuna is switched on to new path.

The life of the soul symbolised by the battlefield of Kurushetra, and the Kauravas are the enemies who impede the progress of the soul. The message of the Gita is universal in its scope. It is the philosophical basis of popular Hinduism. The Gita appeals to us not only by the force of thought and majesty of vision, but also by its fervour of devotion and sweetness of spiritual emotion.

The Gita attempts a spiritual synthesis which could support life and conduct on the basis of the Upanishadic truth, which it carries into the life-blood of the Indian people.

- Dr. S. Radhakrishnan

Business Today (2007) 15th Anniversary Issue, Jan 14.

Pradhan, S.(2007) Retailing Management, McGraw Hill Publishing Company Limited, New Delhi.

Business India (2008) Future Bright, Sept 7.

Outlook (2007) Is The Corner Store Under Threat? Dec 31.

Nair, S. (2007) Retail Management Himalaya Publishing House.

Indian Management (2005), Call of the Mall, June.

Source : Bahvanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Journal, September 20, 1959.

INCLUSIVENESS IN INDIAN CULTURE Indian culture creates space for diversity of opinions and beliefs and their coexistence. It is this ideology, which shapes all embracing and all pervasive Indian ethos and it is the essence of inclusive tradition. At the spiritual level, this found ample utterance in the very moving poetry of medieval India's saint poets, belonging to all religions. It was this tradition that maintained universal brotherhood and inclusiveness in Indian culture, which in 20th century was widely practiced and promoted by the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi.

Source: Bahvanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Journal, various issues.

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

202 Book Reviews

BOOK REVIEWS

simplest form, the productivity loop basically aims to reduce cost and increase profits; and reduce price and increase sales.

William H. Marquard, Wal Smart: What it really takes to profit in a Wal-Mart world. (Tata McGrow Hill Ltd.) XX + 258pp. Price 450 year not mentioned.

As this is the key to Marquard's understanding, it may be appropriate to know his view a directly:

McDonalidisation as a surrogate of American culture's global sway has entered the popular vocabulary quite some time back. Arguably, WalMartian can also be a good coinage to describe how only one firm by its sheer size can impact the way a very large part of global consumers spend their money.

That Wal-Mart is the biggest retailer in the world is practically known to all, though its ubiquitous presence will not be experienced by those where its footprints are still missing, India being one of them. But the author has put together some facts which put the scale of Wal-Mart in perspective.

Wal-Mart operations are mammoth considering that, in the United States, nearly 1 out of 100 workers belong to Wal- Mart, almost 9 out of 10 Americans shop at Wal-Mart, Wal-Mart revenues of $312 billion exceed the GDP of all but 21 countries in the world, Wal-Mart buys from 61,000 suppliers in 70 countries, spending $240 billion a year,, and it serves 176 million shoppers globally each week.

Wal-Mart influence extends directly to the 35 million people who work in retail, manufacturing and wholesaling businesses. Six million more work in industries threatened by its expansion - the travel, financial, and insurance industries. Thirty six million people work in industries that serve Wal-Mart, such as real estate, construction, utilities, waste management, and health care. All told, Wal-Mart affects roughly half the US workforce of 150 million and varying percentages elsewhere in the world (p. 22) .

The book is divided into two distinct parts. Part 1 is titled 'How did we end up in the Wal-Mart world? and basically attempts a comprehensive explanation of the factors and strategies which made what Wal Mart is today. Part II takes this analysis further and discusses 'What do we do now' which is, infact, how it is titled.

Marquard has an in-depth understanding of the inner working of WalMart. As a partner of Ernest and Young, he established and ran Wal-Mart's first strategic planning process. The author's perception is that the most important contributor to Wal-Mart's success is the productivity loop. In its Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

"In some ways, the loop is even simpler than it appears. Only the first two parts are inputs. The second two are outputs. Wal-Mart does the first two, customers respond by doing the rest. Wal-Mart intentionally cuts its costs and consciously invests the savings in lower prices. Customers respond to lower prices by buying more, boosting Wal-Mart's sales volume, and contributing to Wal-Mart's profit. (p. 48) .

Wal-Mart next invests some of the increased profits in, say, technology to better manage its truck fleet. The fleet management system allows multipoint routings so that a truck emptied at a Wal-Mart store goes first to the widget shampoo company five miles away. Then it picks up a trailer load of shampoo before returning to a Wal-Mart distribution centre. Such 'backhauling' and other transportation efficiencies drop shampoo costs. Wal Mart boldly announces a (further) roll back, another (price) reduction. Consumers respond, and weekly sales jump" (P 50).

Productivity loop implemented by Wal-Mart is dynamic, allowing a continuous churning: decreasing costs leading to still lower prices. Decreasing gross margin percentage and gross profit per unit, but increasing total gross profits.

This strategy makes sense because Wal-Mart has focused on a market segment which uses value for money as the principal proposition for purchase decisions. Data quoted by Marquard are revealing: "â&#x20AC;Ś..86 percent of Americans with household incomes of less than $25,000 (US median household income is $ 44,000) have shopped at WalMart in the last six months ..â&#x20AC;Ś Wal-Mart notched a 10 percentage point gain in the number of shoppers earning less than $25,000 who say they shopped more at Wal-Mart in the previous year. It notched no gain at all among shoppers with household incomes of over $100,000 (P 29).

In the post Wal-Mart world, where the Wal-Mart has re-written many of the conventional business rules, the author suggests a strategy which is Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Book Reviews 203

though broadly based on the Wal-Mart experience but also goes much beyond, may be successful for those firms looking for sustained growth. In a very basic form, the strategy has four pillars, each one having three sub pillars.

Competitor

Supplier

Employer

Community Member

Dominate

Diversify

Reward

Belong

Emulate

Invest

Grow

Align

Differentiate

Leverage

Impassion

Engage

The first two pillars have strong Porterian heritage. The last two are where, at least as per the present reviewer's perception, Wal-Mart is less than a demi-god. Despite its iconic status as the world's retailer, this is one company which many love to hate. Its employee policy has evoked strong resentment.

It has faced many law suits on alleged malpractices such as working off the clock, non-payment of overtime allowances, discrimination against women.

Similarly, some communities are active not to allow Wal Mart to open stores in their neighbourhoods.

At another level, Wal-Mart has not really made a spectacular success of its model abroad, even if, according to some estimates, it receives around one-third of its total revenues from outside the USA. Just consider its experience in Japan and the UK. However, this book is mostly silent on this.

Despite these, which are really comments on the firm and not the book, there is no doubt that Indian organized retail industry has a lot to learn from 'Wal-Mart. And this book can help in this regard B. Bhattacharyya, Distinguished Professor and Vice Chairman, IILM Institute for Higher Education.

Sanal Kumar Velayudhan & Guda Sridhar (eds.), Marketing to Rural Consumers: Understanding and Tapping Rural Market Potential.

New Delhi: Excel Books (A-45, Naraina, Phase I, New Delhi 110028), 2009, xiv + 365 pp. Rs. 400 paperback.

Rural Markets are emerging as critical area for marketers in all segments in view of market size and growth potential they offer. However, tapping these markets pose considerable challenge following diversity and vastness of Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

204 Book Reviews

markets and limited infrastructure to access them. Accordingly such markets have also aroused intellectual curiosity among academics for assessing their potential, scope and challenges they pose.

This book is an edited book that contains 28 selected and edited papers presented at the conference on "Marketing to Rural Consumers Understanding and Tapping the Rural Market Potential" held at Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode during April, 2008. The conference attracted about 90 insightful papers of which 28 papers are included in the book.

These papers deal with variety of issues on rural marketing that include boundaries of rural market, environment of rural consumers, agricultural developments issues and ICTs, the rural consumers, factor influencing rural consumer behaviour, communications and channels in rural markets and the rural consumer and implications for marketing strategy.

The book is divided into six parts entitled 'Boundaries of Rural Market', 'Environment of the Rural Consumer: Agricultural Development Issues and ICTs', 'The Rural Consumer', 'Factors influencing the Rural Consumer Behaviour', ' Communication and Channels in Rural Markets' and 'The Rural Consumer and Implication for Marketing Strategy'.

Part I has two papers entitled 'Executives' Representation of Rural Markets' and 'Definitional Issues of Rural and Rural Market Environment'.

Rural market potential in India is so huge that mere one percent increase in India's rural income translates to Rs. 100,000 million of buying power.

Economics uprising in rural markets has led to the speculation in the business community that rural and urban markets are now increasingly becoming homogeneous.

The first paper (Ch.1) attempts to understand the representation of rurality in rural markets of executives of selected product categories. In the first paper discussion revolves around rurality in rural markets followed by methodology, presentation of results, discussion and limitation. The second paper (Ch.2) underscores the need for the definition, environmental changes, and major issues and suggestions to resolve them in rural market environment.

NGOs and SHGs can play a vital role in rural marketing which can contribute towards social upliftment of villagers and raising standard of living of rural masses.

Part II has seven papers entitled 'Marketing Strategies of Agro Products in Rural India', 'Agribusiness Sectors in Rural India and Increasing Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Book Reviews 205

Opportunities of E-commerce', 'Developing a Marketing Strategy for a Leading Agrochemical Company: A Case Study on Adoption of Agrochemicals by the Vegetable Growers in Chhattisgarh', ' Organizing Local Markets in Vijrapukotturu Mandal', ' Empowering Farmers through Creation of a Rural Hub: A Case Study on Haryali Kissan Bazaar', 'Uzhavar Sandhais: A Boon or Bane for Rural Empowerment in Tamil Nadu' and 'eLearning - Potential Learning Solution for Rural India: A Critical Analysis.

India's agricultural production has shown a growth of 2.7 per cent over the last 40 years (Ch.5). Agriculture and the food supply chain in general possess a history of quick adoption and assimilation of new technologies, especially cost reduction technologies (Ch.4). Traders and middlemen have a deep knowledge of the markets, community representatives and NGOs office bearers need to develop same competencies for eliminating existing market intermediaries (Ch.6). For successful marketing of agro products in rural areas companies have to evolve appropriate strategies depending on product involved, sources of purchase, brand loyalty, customer preference, advertising appeal, etc. (Ch.3).

Emergence of organized retail in urban India offers tremendous opportunities to the company in future empowering the farmers. Direct procurement of farm products with the removal of multi-middlemen from the distribution network can translate into benefits for the farmer (Ch .7).

Marketing of fruits and vegetables is more complex than other rural produce due perishable nature of products, seasonality and bulkiness which needs a cold chain to handle (Ch.8). Villagers have to be imparted training for handling certain rural technologies foe which e-learning initiatives can prove particularly beneficial (Ch.9).

Part III contains six papers entitled 'A Comparative Study on Buying Behaviour of Rural and Urban Consumer on Mobile Phone in Jamnagar District', 'Rural Consumer's Behaviour and Decision Making Process for Acquiring Health Care Services: An Empirical Analysis with Special Reference to Uttar Pradesh', 'A study of Consumer Behaviour Aspects and Brand Preference in Rural India with Reference of FMCG Sector', 'Rural Marketing: Understanding the Consumer Behaviour and Decision Process', 'Tracking Consumer Decision Process for Successful Marketing to Rural Consumers' and 'Awareness and Consumption Pattern of Rural Consumers towards Home and Personal Care Products'.

Chapter 10 aims to examine the comparative buying behaviour of rural Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

206 Book Reviews

and urban counterparts towards the purchase of mobile phone. This paper is an attempt to explore the motivational factors for mobile purchase in view of the emergence of vast opportunities for rural markets. In order to utilize the immense potential of rural market in India, companies need to develop specific marketing strategies and action plans taking into account the complex set of factors that influence consumer's behaviour.

Chapter 11 deals with healthcare needs as a basic public service in rural areas and analyses it from a marketer's perspective especially for the rural and the poor population of Uttar Pradesh and looks into rural and the poor consumer's behaviour towards the healthcare services. The paper also analyses the decision making process of the concerned consumer for acquiring these services. Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) sector is very important for Indian economy which touches every aspect of human life. Chapter 12 deals with a study of consumer behaviour aspects and brand preference in rural India with reference of FMCG sector.

Increasing rural income, high penetration of mass media and improves literacy rates have brought about drastic changes in the consuming habits of the rural Indians (Ch13). Consumer behaviour analysis through tracking consumer decision process is an essential task for reaching potential rural consumers. The procedure use in the study to track the decision process of the consumers of provides an affective methodology for studying consumer behaviour (Ch.14). Chapter 15 relates to awareness and consumption pattern of rural consumers towards home and personal care products. This is an effort to study the awareness and consumption pattern of rural consumers towards select products in the category of home and personal care. It explodes the myth that only rich and well-educated consumers utilize the top national brands, and establishes that even low income level consumers in rural areas were equally interested in such brands. In fact, younger rural consumers have been found more variety seeking in comparison to their old aged counterparts.

Part IV includes four papers entitled 'Attitude towards Women: A Study of two Villages in the State of Uttar Pradesh', 'The Influence of Opinion Leaders in the Rural Markets', 'Influence of Education on the Use of Informal Referent Groups as Information Source by Consumers in Rural Markets' and 'Rural Brand Preference Determinants in India's.

Households in India are in the midst of a myriad of changes in their composition, functions and form. It can be said that issues of gender are Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Book Reviews 207

central to understanding the changes taking place in households, be it, from a marketing perspective or broader sociological perspective. The results reveal that individual's biological sex does interact with their attitude towards women's role in society. Women are still perceived as having the primary responsibility for taking care of home and family. In this paper the author has examined contemporary nature of male dominance by studying gender role orientation in selected villages in UP and to determine if there are significant differences across villages. The paper also aims to analyze to range of factors that determine male dominance.

In rural market, influences of opinion leaders in decision making and purchasing the product is considerable. Promotion of brands in rural markets requires special measures and opinion leaders play an important message role in promoting the product in rural India. Chapter 17 aims to analyze the influence of opinion leaders in the rural markets. It was found that opinion leaders certainly impacted purchasing decision of products in rural markets.

Friends and relatives act as opinion leaders and affect purchase decisions.

It was also found that word of mouth was an important message carrier in rural areas. However, no perceptible difference in comparative roe of friends and relatives as opinion leader was found.

In rural markets, reach of the mass media in rural areas is lower compare to the urban markets and is thus a constraint in efficiently reaching the consumers. Rural markets present a challenge to marketers in promoting products and services. The information sourced used by consumers in rural markets differs from urban markets with greater influence of informal referent groups. The paper aims to analyze the impact of education on the use of informal referent groups among rural consumer. It was aimed to analyze information source used by rural consumers and to understand if education can explain this behaviour (Ch.18).

208 Book Reviews

Communication: A Study of the Rural Audience', 'BUZZ: A Spontaneous Marketing Tool in Rural Market for Financial Products', 'Design and Implementation of Communication Strategy in Rural Markets: A Case of Tata Shaktee GC Sheet Brand', 'Shopping Malls: Destination for Rural and Urban Consumers (A Comparative Study) and Substitutability of Haats and Retail Store in Rural Markets: A Study across the States in India'.

Credibility is organizational advertising is to high importance. The village women believed any communication from the government. For the men, a good company that has been selling products in the village for many years, and thus has proved its quality, is believed. With regard to low priced products, the villagers are high variety seekers. However, their variety seeking is restricted to variants under a single brand (Ch.20). Buzz group is the group wherein the members of the group casually talk or discuss about a thing.

The Buzz groups are even developed informally and automatically out of the casual talk, discussion, enquiring, watching or listening to something, which need not be subject the matter (Ch.21).

Chapter 22 deals with the brand development and rural communication strategies developed by the company for TATA Shaktee, A GC sheet brand in rural markets. It is concluded that communicating to rural consumer is always an uphill and constantly evolving task, which requires careful planning at each stage. One has to take help of local melas, haats, opinion leaders to communicate the right message with local benefits from product as the main theme than the product. The role of opinion leader is very important in rural communications.

Rural customers are fundamentally different from their urban counterparts, and different rural geographies display considerable heterogeneity, calling for rural-specific and region-specific strategies. In an urban family, the entire family is involved in making a purchase. In the village community, women have very little contact with the markets; the male makes the purchase decision. Community decision-making is quite common in a village because of strong caste and social structure and low literacy levels (Ch.19).

Shopping malls are the places where number of retail stores are present having parking areas and interconnecting ways. These malls provide food courts, cinemas, multiplexes, garment stores, etc. Malls are attracting both rural and urban consumers. They will be successful in future only when marketers formulate proper strategy according to the requirements of both rural and urban consumers (Ch.23). Chapter 24 examines the extent to which the fixed location retail stores and periodic markets (haats) substitute each other. The implication of this is that fixed location shops and haats are substitutable and an increase in fixed location village shops is detrimental to the continuation of haats, which are the feature of the Indian rural markets.

Research has shown that despite the same products being available in the village shop, a large segment of villagers prefer to buy these from a haat because of better price, quality and variety.

Part V comprises five papers entitled 'Processing of Product

Part VI consists of four papers, namely, 'Rural India: Exploring

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Book Reviews 209

Consumer Markets', 'Customization of Marketing Mix for Rural Markets', 'Rural Insurance Marketing Mix for Rural Markets', 'Rural insurance Markets: An Opportunity to Tap the Potential' and 'NATUReal's Growth Options: Rural or Urban Markets?'

There is a huge growing potential both for multinational and national companies to tap the hitherto neglected processed food market in the rural India. However, with the expected growth of food sector and large foreign investment into the markets and overseas joint venture, there could be excess supply over demand. Taste is the primary reason of consumption in most food products. Education has significant effect on awareness and consumption of selected food items. Climate conditions are also found to influence the consumption of some food items. Local manufacturer with numerous local brands cater populous segment and contribute considerably in the case of bread. This is evident from the fact that 53 per cent of respondent consumed local brands of bread (Ch.25).

Product, price, place and promotion constitute the 4Ps of marketing mix. However, rural markets for companies are beset with 4As, namely, availability, affordability, acceptances and awareness. Rural areas are not single homogenous markets. Based on level of development and availability of infrastructure, different rural markets have different level of potential for the durable products. Thus, segmentation of rural markets is key strategy for targeting the particular model of products. It is hard to see any big change in the retailing situation for the durable in rural India over the next few years. The organized retail format stores are still only few in number and in its infant and experimentation stage only (Ch.26).

In the area of life insurance, Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) has had a long history of selling life insurance policies in rural areas its vast agent network. With the opening up of the insurance sector for the private players and rural players and social sector business obligation imposed by Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA), the rural sector has seen a lunch of several individual and group insurance products by the private players, these products are characterized by low level of coverage and very low premium rates which the rural people can afford to pay. The major players in the life insurance segment in rural sector are LIC, Bajaj Allianz, ICICI Prudential, HDFC Standard, and SBI Life. It was reported 65 per cent of rural population still uninsured and among them 60 per cent people are ready to buy insurance policy if some appropriate policy is sold after satisfying their different queries. Most products being offered today to rural markets are Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

210 Book Reviews

very often urban products with only some minor changes (Ch.27).

Chapter 28 refers to a case pertaining to Gandhinagar based Brother's Food Pvt. Ltd. NATUREAL is a consumer brand for its products or subproducts. The case seeks to issues in brand management with a specific focus on rural marketing and covers the concepts of brand elements, brand extensions, brand positioning strategies, corporate/umbrella branding versus individual brand names and channel management issues. The case is positioned for use in courses such as introductory marketing management, brand management, rural marketing and integrated marketing communications.

Surge in the publications on rural marketing is an indicator of the interest in this emerging domain of knowledge. This book has largely succeeded in consolidating the surge in contribution in this potential area. However, papers and studies reported in this book are somewhat fragmented and there are some missing gaps which admittedly a compiled book of this kind cannot easily bridge. It is therefore necessary that apart from bringing out contributed books by different scholars, parallelly time to time books be written on different aspects of fast expanding rural markets by marketing professionals and practioners which can only provide continuity of ideas and comprehensive coverage which a contributed book cannot.

All the 28 papers in the book are well edited and addressed very pertinent and useful areas of rural markets. The book provides practical insides for rural marketing and consolidate large body of information on this vital subject.

The book is recommended for all business schools, colleges and other institutions that deal with rural consumers and marketing management in general.

Sapna Popli, Diretor and Executive Dean, IILM Institute for Higher Education.

Mousumi S. Bhattacharya and Nilanjan Sengupta, Compensation Management. New Delhi: Excel Books (A-45, Naraina, Phase I, New Delhi 110028), 2009, xvi + 196. Rs. 225 paperback.

In any business school Compensation Management is one very challenging paper in management curriculum, which entices many budding managers.

It is considered to be very balanced kind of discipline in which one's professionalism can be tested and toughened that how a "CM expert manager" pleases everybody and as such that is in itself a tough challenge.

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Book Reviews 211

It is not only an act of jugglery but it is very prudential methodology. In Government of India, since independence, "Pay Commissions" have done these remarkable things and always with bricks and bouquets. Those teachers who teach this and their students will get a rich account, somewhat introductory but also advanced at few places in this special book consisting of 13 well framed chapters.

To give an aerial view of this book, I will consider prudential to write the names of all chapters, which in all probability will tally with course curriculum of this paper. Chapters forming backbone of compensation management are: (1) Introduction to Compensation Management; (2) Theories related to Compensation Management; (3) Job Analysis; (4) Job Evaluation; (5) Performance Appraisal; (6) Performance-related Pay; (7) Person-based Compensation; (8) Wage Differentials; (9) Wage Fixation; (10) Pay Design and Pay Structure; (11) Executive Compensation; (12) International Compensation Management; and (13) Compensation Management: Strategic Perspective. The book is supported by two appendices providing valuable and pertinent information, namely, (a) Indian Laws related to Compensation and Employees Welfare and (b) Consumer Price Index Numbers.

Chapter 1 and 2 provide basic framework explaining all essential terminology such us human capital, bargaining theory, policy decision and pay models, micro and macro differentiation, etc. The book thus should serve as a valuable source book for students which apart from establishing their knowledge base, should help build students confidence in this fast growing subject, having learnt the meaning of key words.

Job analysis and evaluation are well covered in Chapter 3 and 4. One can learn difference among job, task, and duty. These chapters also deal with job analysis and procedural details, describing objectives, principles and methods of job evaluation. However, inclusion of some case could have improved quicker comprehension of the chapter contents.

Chapters 5 and 6 cover performance appraisal and performance-related pay, which forms the backbone of any HR department. The chapter provides moderate coverage of concepts, methods and appraisal techniques including description of some common performance appraisal error; and factors relating to individual and team appraisal.

Three Chapters 7 to 9 deal with person-based compensations, wage differentials and wage fixation. These chapters provide skill and competency Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

212 Book Reviews

based pay criterion. Process of collective bargaining and statutory wage fixation is included. These three chapters are rich with content and quite suitable for budding student managers.

Pay design and pay structure (Chapter 10) is a good chapter and especially it covers components of pay structure in India. Similarly, Chapter 11 on executive compensations covers components of executive compensation and includes suggestions for making executive compensations.

In this age of globalization, it is prudential on the parts of authors to write a chapter 'International Compensation Management'. Relatively this big chapter in the book covers compensation practices in India, USA, Russia, Japan, Saudi Arabia and China. Emerging issues in global compensation are also discussed. Many related topics like wages, taxation, social tax, etc. are appropriately dealt with.

Concluding Chapter 13 relates to 'Compensation Management: Strategic Perspective', discussing strategically relevant practices of competitiveness, internal structure, forms of pay, basis for increase, role of HR strategy and administrative style. A noted feature of the chapter is that it includes several case examples relating to companies like; NIIT Inc., Intel India, SAS, Aztecsoft, IBM, Infosys, Adobe India, etc.

All the thirteen chapters are duly supported by chapter summaries, key terms, multiple choice questions (MCQs), pertinent questions and references drawn from web, journals, books and news papers. These features make it an ideal textbook for students and they can always look up to this book for timely help for any examination.

On the whole the book is concise, handy and valuable source of information for post graduate students of business school in India. The book is equally valuable for teachers from class room teaching perspective. The book is also useful source book for business managers in organizations involved in salary administration which is a very important function of HR department. Overall, the book makes enjoyable reading for anyone interested to learn compensation management. Its comprehensive coverage and quality production serving the distinct assets.

Kailash Tuli, Professor, OB & HR Area, IILM Institute for Higher Education.1 Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Book Reviews 213

William J. Stevenson, Operations Management (Ninth Edition). Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Company Limited (7 West Patel Nagar, New Delhi), 2009, xvi + 908. (Price not given) paperback.

This book is intended as an introduction to the filed of operations management. The topics covered include both strategic issues and practical applications. Among the topics are forecasting, product and service design, capacity planning, management is quality and quantity control, inventory management, scheduling, supply chain management, and project management. The book deals with concepts, tools and applications of the field of operations management.

The book places emphasis on problem solving by including a number of case examples and solve problems illustrating solutions.

Chapter 1 entitled 'Introduction to Operations Management' introduces field of operations management. It describes the nature and scope of operations management and how operations management relates to other parts of the organization. Among the important topics it covers are a comparison of manufacturing and service operations, a brief history of operations management, and a list of trends business that relates to operations.

Chapters 2 entitled 'Competitiveness Strategy and Productivity' discusses operations management in a border context and presents the issues of competitions, strategy, and productivity. This chapter describes time-based strategies, which many organizations are now adopting as they seek to become more competitive and serve their customers more efficiently.

Chapter 3 entitled 'Forecasting' provides important insights on business forecasting as well as information on how to develop and monitor forecasts.

In fact, forecasts are basic inputs for many kinds of decisions in business organizations. Consequently, it is important for all managers to be able to understand and use forecasts. It also identifies major factors to consider when choosing a forecasting technique.

Chapter 4 entitled 'Product and Service Design' explains the strategic importance and identifies main objectives of product and service design. It discusses the importance of standardization; reviews importance of legal, ethical, and environmental issues, and lists characteristics of well-designed service systems.

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

214 Book Reviews

Chapter 5 entitled 'Strategic Capacity Planning for Products and Services' explains the importance of capacity planning, discusses ways of defining and measuring capacity, describes determinants of effective capacity, discusses major considerations related to developing capacity alternatives, and briefly describes approaches that are useful for evaluating capacity alternatives.

Chapter 6 entitled 'Process Selection and Facility Layout' explains the strategic importance and the influence that process selection has on organization. It also includes types of basic processing and reviews automated approaches to processing. It also describes advantages and disadvantages of product and process layouts.

Supplement to Chapter 6 entitled 'Linear Programming' describes types of problem that are amenable for solution using linear programming. Linear programming is a powerful quantitative tool used by operations mangers and other managers to obtain optimal solutions to problems that involve restrictions or limitations, such as budgets and available material, labour, and machine time.

These problems are referred to as constrained optimization problem.

Chapter 7 entitled 'Design of Work Systems' explains importance of work design involving job design, work measurement and the establishment of time standards, and worker motivation and compensation. Various topics described in this chapter all have an impact on productivity. It also reviews advantages and disadvantages of specialization and knowledge based pay.

The chapter covers a very comprehensive discussion on work study involving both method study and work measurement. Ergonomics is an important part of job design, which relates to incorporation of human factors in workplace design. Ergonomics helps minimize common workplace ailments that result in result in lower productivity, lost workdays, and increase in health premiums.

Supplement to Chapter 7 entitled 'Learning Curves' deals with concepts of learning curves highlighting relationship between illustrate the basic relationship between increasing repetitions and decreasing time per repetition.

This relationship is also referred to as an experience curve, a progress function, or an improvement function. Learning curve projections help managers to plan costs and labor, purchasing and inventory needs. As productivity increases higher efficiency levels enable usage of raw materials and purchase parts keep pace with output. Failure to account for learning effect may result in over estimate of labour needs an underestimates of the Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Book Reviews 215

rate of the material usage.

Chapter 8 entitled 'Location Planning and Analysis' deals with main reasons and explains why location decisions are important. Location decisions represent a key part of the strategic planning process of virtually every organization. This chapter examines locations analysis. It begins with a brief overview of the reason firms must make location decisions, the nature of these decisions, and a general procedure for developing and evaluating location alternatives.

Location decisions are closely tied to an organization's strategies. For example, a strategy of being a low-cost procedure might result in location where labour or materials costs are low, or locating near market share raw materials to reduce transportation costs. A strategy of increasing profile by increasing market share might result in locating in high-traffic areas, and a strategy that emphasizes convenience for the customer might result in having many locations where customers can transact their business or make purchases (e.g., branch banks, ATMs, service stations, fast-food outlets).

Location criteria can depend on where a business is in the supply chain.

For instance at the retail end of a chain, site selection tends to focus more on accessibility, consumer demographics (population density, age distribution, average buyer income), traffic pattern, and local custom. Businesses at the beginning of a supply chain, if they are involved in supplying raw materials, are often located near their markets, depending on a variety of circumstances.

For example, business involved in storing and distributing goods often choose a central location to minimize distribution costs. Web-based retail business are much less dependent on location decisions; they can exist just about anywhere.

Supplement to Chapter 8 entitled 'The Transportation Model' provides detailed account of the transportation method. The transportation problems involve finding the lowest-cost plan for distributing stocks of goods or supplies from multiple origins to multiple destinations that demand the goods. The transportation model can be used to determine how to allocate the supplies available from the various factories to the warehouses that stock or demand those goods, in such a way that total shipping cost is minimized (i.e., the optimal shipping plan). The transportation model can be used to compare location alternative in terms of their impact on the total distribution costs for a system. The procedure involves working through a separate problem for each location being considered and then comparing the resulting total costs.

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

216 Book Reviews

Chapter 9 entitled 'Management of Quality' covers evolution of quality management, the dimensions of product and service quality, philosophies of several quality "gurus", quality awards and quality certification, total quality management, and quality tools. Successful management of quality requires that managers have insights on various aspects of quality. These include defining quality in operational terms, understanding the costs and benefits of quality, recognizing the consequences of poor quality, and recognizing the need for ethical behaviour. The chapter includes a description of the key contributors to quality management, and its outline the ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 international standards.

One way to describe to quality is the degree to which performance of a product or service meets or exceeds customer expectations. Quality of design refers to the intention of designers to include or exclude certain feature in a product or service. 'Quality of the conformance' refers to the degree to which goods and services conform to (i.e., achieve) the intent of the designers. Failure to devote adequate attention to quality can damage a profit-oriented organization's reputation and lead a decreased share of the markets, or it can lead to increased criticism and/or controls for a government agency or nonprofit organization. Poor designs or defective or service can result on loss if business. It is important for management to recognize the different ways in which the quality of a firm's products or services can affect organization and to take these into account in developing and maintaining a quality assurance programme.

Total quality management is a never-ending pursuit of quality that involves everyone in an organization. The driving force is customer satisfaction; a key philosophy is continuous improvement. Training of managers and workers in quality concepts, tools, and procedures is an important aspects of the approach. Teams are an integral part of TQM. Two major aspects of the TQM approach are problem solving and process improvement. Six-sigma programme are a form of TQM. They emphasize the use of statistical and management science tools on selected projects to achieve business results.

Chapter 10 entitled 'Quality Control' explains the elements of the control process, and how control charts can be used to monitor processes in order that they are performing in an acceptable manner. Quality control is a process that measures output relative to a standard and takes corrective action when output does not meet standard. Inspection can be used as part of an effort to improve process yield. One measure of process yield is the ratio of output of good product to the total output.

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Book Reviews 217

Inspection at key points can help guide process improvement efforts to reduce the scrap rate and improve the overall process yield, and reduce or eliminate the need of inspection. In the service sector, inspection points are incoming purchased materials and supplies, personal, service, interfaces (e.g., service counter), and outgoing completed work. Sampling and corrective action are part of the control process.

In a nutshell, control achieved by checking a portion of the goods or services, comparing the result to a predetermined standard, evaluating departures from the standard, taking corrective action when necessary, and following up to ensure that problems have been corrected. Capability analysis is the determination of whether the variability inherent in the output of the process is within the acceptable range of variability allowed by the designed specification for the process output. Organization should continually seek to increase the capability of the processes they use, so that they can move from a position of using of using inspection or extensive use of control charts to achieve desired levels of quality to one where quality is built into products and processes, so that little or no efforts are needed to assure quality.

In supplement Chapter 10 entitled 'Acceptance Sampling' the author reviews the purpose acceptance sampling and contrasts it with process control. The chapter also compares and contrasts single and multiple sampling plans and discusses the concept of average outgoing quality level. A key element of acceptance sampling is the sampling plan. In the single plan, one random sample is drawn from each lot, and every item in the sample is examined and classified as either "good" or "defective". A double-sampling plan allows for the opportunity to take a second sample if the result of the initial sample are inconclusive. A multiple-sampling plan is similar to a doublesampling plan except that more than two samples may be required.

Chapter 11 entitled 'Supply Chain Management' deals with all important aspects of the subject including need and elements of supply chain management, bullwhip effect, global supply chain, role of outsourcing, logistics and reverse logistics, purchasing and SCM, infrastructure and SCM, etc.

The elements of supply chain management include customers, forecasting, product and service design, processing, inventory management, purchasing, supplier management, location decisions, and logistics. Logistics involves the movement of goods and materials in a supply chain. This includes incoming materials, movement within a facility, and outgoing goods. It also includes overseeing the two-way flow of information across the supply chain.

Purchasing the link between an organization and its suppliers. Purchasing Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

218 Book Reviews

involves selecting suppliers, negotiating contracts, forging alliances, and serving as a link between the organization and its suppliers.

Chapter 12 entitled 'Inventory Management and Scheduling' relates to the management and control of inventories, and scheduling, often key factors of operation management to achieve profit and/or cost objectives while satisfying customers. The basic issues are how to best manage resources to effectively match supply and demand. Inventory management is a core management activity, which has interface with marketing and finance functions. This is because when inventory management is carried out inefficiently it not only affects operations out also lowers customers satisfaction and enhances operating cost.

The material presented in the chapter focuses primarily on management of internal inventories. However, successful inventory management also must include management of external inventories (i.e., inventory in the supply chain). Sharing demand data throughout the supply chain can alleviate the unnecessary buildup of safety stock in the supply chain that occurs when information isn't shared. Manufacturers and suppliers can judge the timing of orders from customers, and customers can use information about supplier inventories to set reasonable lead time.

Chapter 13 entitled 'Aggregate Planning' deals with intermediate-range capacity planning that typically covers a tine horizon of 2 to 12 months, although in some companies it may extend to as much as 18 months. It is particularly useful for organizations that experience seasonal or other fluctuations in demand or capacity. The goal of aggregate planning is to achieve a production plan that will effectively utilize the organization's resources to satisfy expected demand.

After the aggregate plan has been developed it is disaggregated or broken down into specific products requirements. This leads to a master schedule, which indicates the planned quantities and timing of specific outputs. Inputs to the master schedule are on-hand inventory amounts, forecasts of demand, and customer orders. The outputs are projected production and inventory requirements, and the projected uncommitted inventory, which is referred to as available-to-promise (ATP) inventory.

Chapter 14 entitled 'MRP and ERP' describes material requirements planning (MRP), manufacturing resources planning (MRP II) and enterprise resource planning (ERP). MRP is planning and scheduling technique used Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Book Reviews 219

for batch production of assembled items. Primary inputs of MRP are a bill of materials, which indicates the composition of the finished product; a master schedule which indicates how much finished products is desired and when; and an inventory records file, which indicates how much inventory is on hand or an order. ERP represents an expanded effort to integrate standardized record keeping that will permit information sharing among different areas of the organization in order to manage the system more effectively. ERP is the third generation of manufacturing software that encompasses all business functions, including order entry and an option for financial management integrated with the manufacturing functions available in MRP II. Chapter 15 entitled ' JIT and Lean Operations' deal with operation system in which materials are moved through the system and services are delivered with precise timing so that they are delivered at each step of the process just as they are needed - hence the name just-in-time. Over the years the scope of JIT broadened and the term became synonym of lean operations.

Lean operation depends on having high-quality processes in place. Quality is an integral part of lean operation; without high process quality, lean operation cannot exist. A central theme of a true just-in-time approach is to work towards continual improvement of the system - reducing inventories, reducing setup cost and time, improving quality, increasing the output rate, and generally cutting waste and inefficiency.

Supplement to chapter 15 covers maintenance aspects in operations management. Maintaining the productivity capability of an organization is an important function. Maintenance includes all of the activities related to keeping facilities and equipment in good operating order and maintaining the appearance of building and grounds. The goal of maintenance is to minimize the total cost of keeping the facilities and equipments in good working order.

Maintenance decision typically reflects a trade-off between preventive maintenance, which seeks to reduce the incidence of breakdown and failure, and breakdown maintenance, which seeks to reduce the impact of breakdown when they occur.

Scheduling (Chapter 16) is important for every organization regardless of the nature of activities. Business farms need to develop schedules for workers, equipment, procurement, maintenance, etc. Hospitals need to schedule admissions, surgery, nursing assignment, and support services such as meal preparation, security, maintenance, and cleaning. Lawyers, doctors, dentists, hairdressers, and auto repair shops need to schedule appointments Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

220 Book Reviews

for their clients, patients and customers. In hospitals scheduling can save lives and improve patient care. In educational institutions scheduling can reduce the need for expansion of facilities. In business effective scheduling can lead to competitive advantage in terms of customer service (shorter wait time for their orders).

Chapter 17 entitled 'Project Management' deals with some behavioural and implementation aspects besides introducing the basic concepts of project management. Projects typically bring together people with diverse knowledge and skills, most of whom remain associated with the project for less than its full life. The project manager is overall in-charge for project implementation, who needs ability to adapt to changing circumstances that may involve changes to project goals, technical requirements, and project team composition. PERT and CPM are two commonly used technique for developing and monitoring projects.

Chapter 18 entitled 'Management of Waiting Lines' deals with waiting lines which commonly occur in all service systems. Management of queues is governed by a theory what has come to be known as 'queuing theory'.

Queuing theory is directly applicable to a wide range of service operations, including call centers, banks, post offices, restaurants, theme parks, telecommunications systems, and traffic management. In a queuing system customers enter a waiting line of service facility, receive service when their turn comes, and then leave the system. The number of customers in the system (awaiting service or being served) will vary randomly over time.

The goal of waiting-line management is essentially to minimize total costs comprising cost of waiting and cost of providing additional service.

Supplement to Chapter 18 deals with simulation in which a model of a process is developed and then experiments are conducted on the model to evaluate its behaviour under various conditions. Simulation enables decision makers to test their models that reasonably duplicates a real process.

Simulation models unable decision makers to experiments with alternative choices using policy experimentation by answering 'what if' type of questions.

Simulations have very wide range of application for instance, space engineers simulate space flights in laboratories to permit future astronauts to become accustomed to working in a weightless environment. Similarly, airline pilots often undergo extensive training with simulated landing and takeoffs before being allowed to try the real thing. Many video games are simulations, and universities use management games as a means of simulating business Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Book Reviews 221

222 Book Reviews

environments. Tire designers evaluate alternative tread designs using machine that simulate conditions that produce tire wear handling problems.

from them to business which is carried out through a motley group of institutions, technologies, transactions, pursuits and activities.

The book is indeed highly reader friendly, which appropriately introduces the entire filed of operations management. The topics covered include both strategic issues and practical applications. The author provides a very comprehensive coverage of topics in easy-to-learn manner. The author has done a good balancing act by including information from plethora of new developments, while facing the prazctical limits on the length of the book.

The author has placed considerable significance on problem solving.

The study of ethics has become an important ingredient of syllabus of business schools in India particularly in wake of growing cases of fraudulent practices in corporate sector. Business ethics is based on principle of integrity and fairness and focuses on benefits to stakeholders both internal and external. Stakeholders include those individuals and groups without which the organization does not have an existence. It includes shareholders, creditors, employees, customers, dealers, vendors, government, and the society at large. Once the underlying principles are learnt, one can proceed to discuss their implications for business. Such a study of business ethics is best served through a discussion of the basic framework of theories and principles that motivate and govern business behaviour.

The book covers all important topics on strategic issues and practical applications - productivity, forecasting, product/service design, capacity planning, quality management and control, etc. The book provides clearly written explanations of concepts as well as methods. It includes large number of solved problems, examples, questions, practice problems, and cases to facilitate 'learning by doing'. The text features recent concepts and applications and in the rapidly going field of operations management.

Inclusion of a number of chapter as supplement to existing chapters shows that authors has always accorded priority for its updation though it is very uphill task as developments in this field are really enormous. The book has all merit to be used as text book for courses on operations management in business schools both at under-graduate and post-graduate levels. The book is 'must' for libraries of all business schools wherever they are.

S.S Yadav, Professor of Operations Management, IILM Institute for Higher Education.

A.C. Fernando, Business Ethics: An Indian Perspective. New Delhi: Pearson Education (482, F.I.E., Patparganj, Delhi 110092), 2009, xviii + 514 (Price not given) paperback.

Ethics differentiates between right and wrong behaviour, i.e., when the actions are moral and when they are immoral. The word 'ethics' is derived from the Greek word ethikos meaning custom or character. Business ethics on the other hand are applications of ethical concepts to business behaviour.

Society expects only ethical business behaviour, which is conducive for social good and prevents it from indulging in unscrupulous conduct. Business ethics is applied ethics that studies moral standard and shows how these apply to the system and organization involved in business. Business ethics studies moral norms and values, and aims to apply the conclusions gleaned Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Real-life situation have shown that use of ethical practices in business does create high return for companies. There have been many empirical studies that have shown that companies that follow ethical practices are able to double their profit and show increased market capitalization compared to companies that do not adhere to ethics. In India, companies like Tata Steel and ACC have been discharging their social obligations even when the subject of social responsibility and business was not properly understood.

Ethics are important not only in business but also in all of life because it is an essential part of the foundation on which a civilized society is build. A businessman, as much as a society, that lacks ethical principles is bound to fail sooner than later.

Chapter 1 provides an overview of the subject matter; Chapter 2 discusses concepts and theories of business ethics; and Chapter 3 focuses on ethical dilemmas, their causes and possible resolutions. Chapter 4 and 5 discuss respectively the source and consequences of ethical dilemmas and how they are resolved, and ethical decision making in the business. A globalized business world throws up newer ethical challenges, issues and problems that are discussed in Chapter 5. Chapter 6 provides a framework of creating an ethical organization. Cases attached to this entire chapter illustrate how all such principles when put into practice are shown to impact business, sometimes positively, sometimes otherwise.

Ethics is applied to business in myriad ways and reflects in its diverse activities, either positively or adversely. Part II discusses business ethics in its multifaceted dimensions, both in good companies and in bad ones. Chapter Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Book Reviews 223

7 discusses ethical issues and problems that arise in public limited companies as an 'agency problem' and how corporate governance with international best practices squarely addressees this. Chapter 8 deals with one of the basic issues that hinders or facility long tern shareholder value: investor protection. Nothing reflects a company's commitment to ethical business than its adherence to corporate citizenship. Corporate social responsibility analyzed in the Chapter 9, is an inalienable constituent of such citizenship.

Chapter 10 discusses protection of consumers, the be-all and end-all of all corporate activities. Chapter 11 detailed with environmental issues and the role played by various agencies to ensure its protection. Most corporations follow ethical practices if they suit them, and dump them, if they do not.

Chapter 12 explains the role of the various external agencies in ensuring corporate ethics. Chapter 13, the last in this section, discusses a very important issue relating to the very little of this book: Business Ethics: An Indian Perspective. Cases attached to all these chapter exemplify how ethical or otherwise are organizations in matter pertaining to their business.

Part III discusses ethical issues in some functional areas of business management and suggests possible solutions to them. In this part, Chapter 14 goes into a detailed analysis of marketing ethics. Ethical issues and problems of human resource management are discussed in Chapter 15.

Chapter 16 presents an ethical perspective of the Information Technology industry. Chapter 17, the last chapter of the book, places in perspective from the ethical viewpoint, the functions of financial management - one of the fastest growing management functions in the business world. Cases and caselets attached to this fur chapter will provide readers to understand the ethical issues of these functional areas in their proper context.

The book it is indeed monumental work on a potential useful subject which acquires added significant in view of large number of corporate scams occurring these days. Thus, the role of business school in imparting valuebased business education in order to help students make ethical decisions based on sound principles cannot be undermined. The book is very authoritative and comprehensive and hardly misses any related idea anywhere. Professor Fernando has taken great trouble in providing relevant and contemporary case studies on business ethics from diverse functional areas of business, which will prove very useful while teaching the subject.

The book is recommended as a text book on business ethics and corporate social responsibility for teaching this important subject in business schools in India. The book will prove equally useful as a reference book for CSR managers in corporate houses. The has all merit to adorn book shelves of Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

224 Book Reviews

libraries in business schools, public and private enterprises, universities and professional colleges and government departments.

K.M Mital, Professor of Strategic Management, IILM Institute for Higher Education.

Ronald D. Francis & Mukti Mishra, Business Ethics: An Indian Perspective. New Delhi: Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Company Limited (7 West Patel Nagar, New Delhi 110008), 2009, xiv + 248 pp. Rs. 250 paperback.

This book aims to provide a concise guide and be a resource book for those interested in business ethics, frontiers of which have expanded very rapidly in recent years. Ethics involves employee issues such as fair wages, safe working conditions, work morale and industrial relations. It also involves shareholder and company issues such as a fair and reasonable return on invested capital, regularity and security of payment, and knowledge of honest dealing. It also covers company issues such as being a good neighbour, a patriot, and making proper and productive use of natural resources, quality of goods and services, honest advertising, fair pricing and safe products.

The book is divided into a total of 11 chapters. Chapter 1 on introduction apart from providing the purpose of this book, highlights why business ethics and ethical guidelines are necessary, summarizes evolution of business ethics, offers salient issues of ethical commerce, and discusses codes of ethics and their relevance to corporate governance. Ethical corporate governance requires strong ethical leadership. Following globalization, need for ethics in corporate governance is growing as organizations have to compete globally.

Good governance enhances stakeholder value, company morale and productivity. In short chapter 1 provides a broad justification for business ethics and its relevance in corporate world, which is essential both for social benefit as well as for establishing a stable base from which all business operate.

Chapter 2 reviews some fiscal issues involved in business ethics ranging from corruption, bribery and late payment of debts, etc. This chapter also deals with ethical investment and provides guidelines for ethical issues such as social an environmental accounting, privacy and freedom of information, balance between shareholder and stakeholders. Shareholders differ from stakeholders in that the former have a direct financial interest in the company.

Stakeholders are those that have a stake in the enterprises, but not of direct Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Book Reviews 225

financial and ownership nature. A balance needs to be stuck between the need to make a profit and the need to behave in a way that protect the legitimate interest of all stakeholders; including employees, shareholders and consumers. Shareholders may wish to support a policy of requiring investment to be only in ethical trusts. Managers of ethical trusts scrutinize companies for honesty, environmental safety and social responsibility.

Chapter 3 dealing with basic principles of ethics highlights organizational and social implications of ethics. One of the basic tenets of ethics is the principle of equity. It deals with issues of vulnerabilities and how codes might be an equitable aid to both prevention and resolution of ethical issues.

One of the basic problems of having a code of ethics and a code of conduct, either for business or for the public service is the reach of that code. An ideal code would be one that sets out the basic value (the code of ethics), and then moves to the code of conduct. Who is subject to which codes is a matter of great importance: who is the governed by which code is an essential consideration both of the expression of the codes themselves and the way in which codes are perceived both affected by them.

Chapter 4 deals with nature and theory of ethics. Ethics may be regarded as knowing what is right, doing what is right; morals and ethics share these concerns. The term ethics and morals are sometimes used interchangeable.

Although one can make distinction (the word 'ethics' from Greek, whereas the work 'morals' is from Latin). More commonly, 'moral' refers to the standards held by the community, often in a form not explicitly articulated.

'Ethics' on the other hand, concern explicit codes of conduct as well as value systems. It is to be noted that this working distinction is more in accordance with modern understanding than it is with the earlier European tradition of equating ethics to moral philosophy. Chapter discusses at length impact of Indian philosophical traditions on western thoughts and its consequent impact on nature and theory of ethics. According to the author pursuit of the excellence and ethics is largely a personal matter.

Chapter 5 deals with origins and evolution of ethics, and county specific explanations. In a large diverse and pluralistic society like India, origins and explanations of ethics are varied. Explanations could vary from the purely physical and physiological type of explanation to those of national differences, personal differences, personal predilections and to rational versus emotionally based approaches. One key issue that distinguishes Indian views from the Western thoughts is the more widespread belief in reincarnation. Dietary factors are also known to affect mood. These factors include vitamin Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

226 Book Reviews

deficiency, allergies, aberrant metabolism and the psychological destabilizing effect of some food additives (such as dyes and flavor enhancers). These days cross culture issues are fundamental importance in that they deal with differing value systems, a point that is at the core of ethical system.

Leadership has a far reaching impact on ethical foundation of an organization.

Chapter 6 entitled 'Legal Aspects of Ethics' discusses whole gamut of ethics and law but which often do not directly cross boundaries considering that many unethical issues may not be illegal. Cases which produces the rules may not be law, the real law is that set of principles which underline the rule produced in each of the cases, and reflects values deeply embedded in the community. It is not function of a code of ethics to be an alternative to the law. Writing ethical codes in the spirit of the law may be helpful. Although a code of business conduct is not legislation, the adoption of the adherence to, a code must carry some legal weight. Commitment and adherence to a code of ethics may be seen as a contact. Ethics and the law are complementary aspects of the same basic process of defining acceptable behaviour. Whereas the law commonly sets minimum standards and applies sanctions or restitution for breaches, ethics provides aspirational standards, which invite creative and quality insights and flexible solutions.

Chapter 7 relates to identification and 'reach' of ethical issues. There are three basic approaches to be adopted when confronting ethical dilemmas for resolving them. One is to consider them in relation to key principles such as the principles of equitability. A second way is to look at the dilemmas under the rubrics commonly used by the codes of the major societies such as accounting. The third way is to consider the specific issues such as under what conditions should a company do a product withdrawal. The three aspects of this process are identifying ethical dilemmas, confronting them and resolving them. In doing so substantial attention is to be paid to following specific processes. It is as important that this be done in ethics as commonly as is done in law. A decision tree is provided in order to facilitate the identification and resolution of dilemmas in a just and orderly fashion.

The order in which questions are asked and the provision of set criteria for judgment ensure the basic fairness of ethical inquiry.

Chapter 8 deals with ethical behaviour and its impact on boosting a company's business, which can be done by adhering to ethical codes. This can be done by using certain performance measures and imparting related training. For promoting ethical behaviour, it is important to have a clear code of business ethics, an ethics committee, encouragement to whistleblowers Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Book Reviews 227

and a positive organizational climate. Those who decide to inform a breach of ethical principle but loyalty to principle ahead of seeming loyalty to the organization and perhaps to some colleagues.

Chapter 9 deals with key principles of ethics relating to serious issues such as equitability and routine matters such as the conditions of avoidance of conflict of interest while making business decisions. Some universally held principles are truth, dignity, equitability, prudence, honesty, openness, goodwill and avoidance of suffering. The notion of ethics is linked with notion of the limit of boundaries, and what it means when they are violated.

In view of the power disparity between business and the stakeholder the boundaries need to be most clearly designed. Where such boundaries are transgressed there are significant negative consequence for the stakeholder, and the business.

Chapter 10 entitled 'Corporate Social Responsibility' which fall within the realm of business ethics. Corporations are playing increasing role in country's social development as part their ethical commitment. CSR is largely a voluntary initiative though societal expectations are growing. In vast country like India government alone can't do everything and all social entities including corporations need to extend helping hand. Companies that are well known for their socially responsible behaviour enjoy superior corporate image.

Chapter 11 provides a suggested 'code of conduct' for business in India specifying set of values for different stakeholders, which they should adhere to providing an agreed frame of value-reference. Organizations are advised to develop their own code of conduct based upon the overall framework given in the chapter.

The book deals with ethics in a manner which can prove useful to businesses in India. The authors have given ethical principles, along with their backgrounds and explanations, as well as small casa elucidating the methods of solving ethical problems. According to the authors, a distinctive feature of this book is its usefulness to student but also for business executives.

While the content coverage is impressive but the writing is done in very 'loose' manner which needs to be tightened in the next edition as seemingly copy editing has been done very poorly.

K.M Mital, Professor of Strategic Management, IILM Institute for Higher Education.

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

228 Book Reviews

Azhar Kazmi, Business Policy and Strategic Management (Second Edition). New Delhi: Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Company Limited (7 West Patel Nagar, New Delhi 110008), 2007, xxvi + 619 pp. Rs. 265 paperback.

The book is a blend of a theory of applications of strategic management.

Out of five parts into which the book is structured, part five is devoted entirely to the case method of learning strategic management. Each part begins with an introductory comment that clarifies the overall educational goals, and relates each successive part with the preceding parts. Each chapter similarly starts with an introductory paragraph that its states the learning objectives and the means adopted to achieve them. The reading matter in each chapter is divided into sections and sub-sections logically connected to each other. The textual matter is also liberally interspersed with cases and examples pertaining to strategic management applications. A summary at the end of each paper recapitulates the major issues covered and can serve as checklist of the points learnt.

A student can benefit from two sets of questions provided at the end of each chapter. Short-answer questions are intended for quick review of the concept discussed in a chapter and these could be used for quizzes and tests for students' evaluation for the ideas grasped. Discussion/ applications questions require more detailed answer and include conceptual as well as applications-oriented issues. These questions may be used for comprehensive, end-of-term examinations for students' evaluation. Notes and references at the end provide a list of further reading and comments on the matter covered in the chapter.

The book divided into five parts. Part I entitled 'Introduction to Business Policy and Strategic Management' includes two chapters, namely Chapter 1: 'Introduction to Business Policy' and Chapter 2: 'An Overview of Strategic Management'. In Chapter 1 students can directly relate to the objectives and see how they stand to benefit by strategic management. In Chapter 2 readers can see how differently the concept of strategy has been analyzed and understood and how the discipline of strategic management has evolved.

Part II entitled 'Strategic Intent' has six chapters, namely Chapter 3: 'Hierarchy of Strategic Intent', Chapter 4: 'Environmental Appraisal', Chapter 5: 'Organizational Appraisal', Chapter 6: 'Corporate-level Strategies', Chapter 7: 'Business-level Strategies' and Chapter 8: 'Strategic Analysis and Choice'.

Chapter 3 comprehensively deals with the elements of strategic intent: the Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Book Reviews 229

vision, mission business definition, and goals and objectives. Chapter 4 and 5 deal with SWOT analysis that enable organizations to achieve strategic advantage over their rival companies. Chapter 6 and 7 deal with numerous corporate and business strategies. Chapter 7 on strategic alternatives specifically described those strategies that are more commonly used for Indian companies. Chapter 8 deals with strategic analysis and choice that facilitate strategy formulation.

Part III entitled 'Strategy Implementation' has four chapters, namely, Chapter 9: 'Activating Strategies', Chapter 10: 'Structural Implementation', Chapter 11: 'Behavioural Implementation' and Chapter 12: 'Functional and Operational Implementation'. Chapter 9 to 12 deal with different accepts of strategic implementation. Chapter 11 dealing with behavioral issues of implementation addresses factors such as corporate culture, corporate politics and power, personal values and business ethics, and social responsibility.

These issues are increasingly becoming important as the application of the behavioral concepts to strategic management gains wider acceptance.

Chapter 12 deals with functional and operational issues of implementation such as productivity, processes, people and pace. Productivity is the measure of the relative amount of input needed to secure a given amount of output.

Processes are courses of action used for operational implementation. People are the stakeholders in the organizations. Pace is the speed of operational implementation and measured in terms of time.

Part IV entitled 'Strategy Evaluation' consists of a single chapter, namely, Chapter 13: 'Strategic Evaluation and Control'. Strategy evaluation is necessary to test effectiveness of strategies in achieving objectives. Through strategic and operational controls strategists set standards, measure performance, evaluate the strategy, and then initiate corrective action. The end result is adjustment of strategies, reformulation of objectives, or adaption of plans.

230 Book Reviews

An annexure included at the end of the book provides some useful sources of information on Internet regarding business policy and strategic management. This should prove to be a welcome feature for those learners who would like to access the net for more information on issues covered in this book. A bibliography in business policy and strategic management is provided at the end that should serve as good source of reference material for learners and researchers in the area.

K.M.Mital, Professor of Strategic Management, General Management Area, IILM Institute for Higher Education.

VITAL PURSUITS Welcome every morning with a smile. Look on the new day as another special gift from your Creator, another golden opportunity to complete what you were unable to finish yesterday. Be a self starter. Let your first hour set the theme of success and positive action that is certain to echo through your entire day. Today will never happen again. Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t waste it with a false start or no start at all. You were not born to fail.

- Og Mandino Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t waste life in doubts and fears; spend yourself on the work before you, well assured that the right performance of this hourâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s duties will be the best preparation for the hours and ages that will follow it.

- R.W.Emerson Do you remember the things you were worrying about a year ago? How did they work out? Did not most of them turn out all right after all?

- Dale Carnegie

Part V entitled 'Case Method and Case Studies' covers two sections, first section dealing with conceptual foundations of case method under the title 'Applying Strategic Management through the Case Method' and the second section provides details of 20 case studies under the title 'Synopses of Case Studies'. Each case study ends with a set of pertinent questions.

There are short and long cases: cases from different industries; case based manufacturing as well as service organizations; and cases that deal with a limited number of issues to cases that have a wider coverage.

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

I would rather lose in a cause that will some day win than win a cause that will some day lose.

- Woodrow T. Wilson

Source: The Times of India, Sacred Space, New Delhi, October 29, 2007 and December 4, 2007

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

Book Reviews 231

232 Book Reviews

His passion for clean environment is obvious when he wrote: 'Let the earth and the water, the air and the fruits of my country be sweet (banglar mati, banglar ja) '. In his works one can frequently come across references to tapovan (forest hermitage) and in one of his writings he noted: "Our tapovans, which were natural universities, were not isolated from life; and the spiritual education, which the students received there was a part of the spiritual life which included all life. Our centre of culture should not only be the centre of the intellectual life of India but of her economic life as well. Its very existence would depend on the success of its industrial ventures carried out on the cooperative principle, which would unite the teachers and students in a living bond (The Centre of Indian Culture)".

Tagore also expressed tender sentiments of a motherless child some time during the zenith of his writing career in the following lines:

In Sonar Tari (Golden Boat), one of his poetic works, he wrote 'gagane garaje megh ghanavarsha' (heavy rainclouds clap in the sky); and in Kshanik (For a While) 'My heart dances today like a peacock. My soul and the kadamba flowers blossom together. Rain-clouds wet my eyes with their blue collyrium.'.

In Balaka (Flight of Swans) looking at a flight of swans moving over the Jhelum, Tagore responded: "When like a scimitar the hill stream sheathed in evening gloom, suddenly a flock of birds passed overhead their laughing wings hurtling like an arrow among the stars. It awakens a passion for speed among the motionless things, in their bosom the hills leave with the anguish of storm clouds. The trees yearn to break away from their rooted shackles. The flight of the birds had rent the veil of stillness and revealed to me an immense movement in the deep silence. I see the hills and forests flying across time to the unknown and the darkness thrill into fire as the stars wing by. In my being I feel the rush of the sea-crossing birds leaving a way beyond the limits of life and death, while the migrant word cries out in a myriad voice - not here, not there, but in the bosom of the far-away."

No account of Tagore's poetry can be complete without a reference to Gitanjali which has crossed all limits of popularity and every educated Indian is at least familiar with such widely quoted lines as "where the mind is without fear and the head is held highâ&#x20AC;Ś" (p.130).

Tagore's love for nature also included children. As a writer he would never forget children. His concern for their need for joy, love and freedom, was genuine. He would often remind children: "Blessed I am that I was born in this land (sarthak janam amar janmechhiei deshe)".He noted (p.124):

"When I go from hence let this be my parting word, that what I have seen is unsurpassable. I have tasted of the hidden honey of this lotus that expands on the ocean of light, and thus am I blessed - let this be my parting word. In this playhouse of infinite forms I have had my play and here have I caught sight of Him that is formless. My whole body and my limbs have thrilled with His touch who is beyond touch; and if the end comes here, let it come - let this be my parting word (Gitanjali)."

"My real work has been to awaken, in nature's vast playground, the tender grace of childhood, its budding effort, the first rays of knowledge falling across its horizon. Otherwise I would have been swamped by the trivia of routine, statute and syllabus. My happiness, my fulfillment has been in trying to rouse the young ones to the Delight of the unseen Player, to set them in tune with the Dance of Life itself. It is not in me to be more serious than that.

The Master of Games has mercifully released me from the fetters of the mature and the elder. Those who try to set me on a pedestal I shall tell them that I was born with my seat below on the lap of the earth. In these trees and forests, the dust, earth and grass, have I poured out my life. T hose who are close to the spirit of the earth, those who are made and shaped by her, and who will find their final rest in her, of them all I am the friend. I am a poet, ami kavi (From the Seventieth Birthday Address)."

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)

"I cannot remember my mother, only sometime in the midst of play a tune seems to however my playthings, the tune of some song that she used to hum while rocking the cradle. I cannot remember my mother, but when in the early autumn morning the smell of the shiuli flower flats in the air, the scent of the morning service in the temple comes to me as the scent of my mother. I cannot remember my mother, only when from the bedroom window I send my eyes into the blue of the distant sky, I feel that the stillness of my mother's gaze on my face has spread all over the sky."

"Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high; where knowledge is free; where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls; where the words come out from the depth of truth; where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection; where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit; where the mind is led forward by thee into ever widening thought and action - Into that heaven of freedom, my father, let my country awake (Gitanjali)."

A mixed bag, Gitanjali has several compositions including touching expression for feelings of separation and parting (p.131)

Tagore thus had been a great writer, poet and artist par excellence whose contribution to Indian culture, nature and fine arts has hardly any parallel. His life will always be source of inspiration for writers and scholars, and for all others who like him might leave 'indelible footprints' on the sands of time.

- Editor Source: Ghose, S. (1986) Rabindranath Tagore. New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi (Rabindra Bhavan, 35 Ferozeshah Road, New Delhi 110001). p.131.

Management & Change, Volume 13, Number 1 (2009)