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KIIT School of Management, KIIT UniversityBhubaneswar - India

KIIT Journal of Management

ISSN 0974-2808

V o l u m e - 11 (II) July - Dec, 2015Parikalpana

In this issue

Training E�ectiveness : A Study among NursesD. Rajan

Financial soundness of Reality Industry in India: An Investigation Aravind. M

E�ectiveness of Promotional O�er Strategies andCustomer Satisfaction at BigbazaarK. Venkateswara Raju, D. Prasanna Kumar

Competency Mapping of the Correctional O�cers of West Bengal Correctional ServiceRita Basu

Equity Investors Perception about Process Involvedin Merger DealsP. Praveen Kumar, R. Kasilingam

Growth and Pattern of Deposit Mobilization by Assam Gramin Vikash Bank – A StudyPinkumoni Kashyap, Kingshuk Adhikari, Nikhil Bhusan Dey

Interpersonal Competencies of Executives in Service OrganizationsT. Rajmohan

Talent Management at Tesco: A Case Study Rabinarayan Samantara, Nidhi Sharma

Gender Sensitivity among Employees in NGO Sector : A Case StudyRicha Awasthy, Nisha Sahai

Learning Statistics Made Easy ThroughWIKI- A Web-2 ToolSulakshana Sen

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Parikalpana:KIIT Journal of Management

[ISSN – 0974-2808]

Board of AdvisorsProf. N.L. Mitra

Chancellor, KIIT UniversityProf. P.P. Mathur

Vice Chancellor, KIIT UniversityProf. Anil Bajpai

Director, KIIT School of Management, KIIT University

Members of Journal Committee, KSOM, KIIT University

Ashok Kumar Sar Ipseeta Satpathy BCM Patnaik Snigdha Tripathy Biswajit Das Pooja Mohanty

Editorial Board Artatrana Ratha, St Cloud State University, USA Ashish Dwivedi, Hull University Business School, Hull, UK B. K. Mohanty, Indian Institute of Management Lucknow, India Badar Alam Iqbal, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India Colin C Williams, She�eld University Management School, University of She�eld Damodar Suar, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur – India Hemanta Kumar Baruah, Vice-Chancellor, Bodoland University Kokrajhar-Assam Rajen K Gupta, M.D.I. Gurgaon, India Sailabala Debi, KIIT School of Management, KIIT University, Bhubaneswar, India Saswata Narayana Biswas, Institute of Rural Management (IRMA), Anand, India Sushanta Mallick, School of Bus. & Management, Queen Mary, University of London Vinit Parida, Luleå University of Technology , Sweden Wee Yu Ghee, University Malaysia Kelantan, Malaysia

EditorR. N. Subudhi

(Professor, KIIT School of Management, KIIT University)e-Mail: [email protected]

© KIIT School of Management, KIIT University, BhubaneswarPublished by Director, KIIT School of Management, KIIT University, Bhubaneswar.Printed at: Print-Tech O�set Pvt. Ltd.,

Disclaimer: The publisher and or editors cannot be held responsible for errors or any consequences arising out from the use of information contained in this journal. The views and opinions expressed do not necessarily re�ect those of the publisher and editors.

Parikalpana(KIIT Journal of Management)

Vol-11 (II) July-Dec., 2015

CONTENTS Training Effectiveness : A Study among Nurses 1-12

D. Rajan

Financial soundness of Reality Industry in India: 13-26An InvestigationAravind. M

Effectiveness of Promotional Offer Strategies and 27-41Customer Satisfaction at BigbazaarK. Venkateswara Raju, D. Prasanna Kumar

Competency Mapping of the Correctional Officers of 42-52West Bengal Correctional ServiceRita Basu

Equity Investors Perception about Process Involved in 53-63Merger DealsP. Praveen Kumar, R. Kasilingam

Growth and Pattern of Deposit Mobilization by 64-74Assam Gramin Vikash Bank – A StudyPinkumoni Kashyap, Kingshuk Adhikari, Nikhil Bhusan Dey

Interpersonal Competencies of Executives in 75-94Service OrganizationsThamaraiselvi Rajmohan

- Case Study Section

Talent Management at Tesco: A Case Study 95-106Rabinarayan Samantara, Nidhi Sharma

Gender Sensitivity among Employees in NGO Sector : 107-126A Case StudyRicha Awasthy, Nisha Sahai

- Critical Review : Teaching-aid Technology Learning Statistics Made Easy Through 127-134

WIKI- A Web-2 ToolSulakshana Sen

Counting Countless CrowdLet’s call a large gathering at any ticket-less event, planned or accidental as the

countless crowd, for which stake-holders would be interested to count. Planned eventslike festivals or sports extravaganza or the planned protest rallies by political parties orcivil societies. Un-planned could be flash-mob, gathering spontaneously, say at the outbreakof news of demise of a very popular leader.

For crowd management, administration should be interested to estimate the size ofthe (countless) crowd. Very historic gatherings like ‘Million-Man-March’ in USA(Washington DC, October 1995), where the organisers claimed the gathering to be 1million, but administration (estimated by National Park Service) disputed the claimedfigure and calculated it to be only 0.4 million (4 lakh). Protest-gathering of Tiananmensquare (Beijing, China), where protesters were fired at killed by army, was estimated byvarious agencies to be 1.5 million, but was disputed by administration (who estimated itat 0.7 million). Egyptian protest against Mohammed Morsi Government was reported asa total gathering/ participation of over 30 million. Close home, in Odisha, world famousRatha-yatra (Car Festival) is reported to be attended by over 1 million people. Whenthere is very large such gathering, there is always stampede like situations. So, the localadministration is supposed to know the estimated size, so as to make necessaryarrangements.

So how the crowd-size is estimated?

The age-old Jacob’s method (due to Herbert Jacob, who first used this simplemethod in 1960’s, to count the number of student protesters, protesting against Vietnam-War policy of USA). It adopted the rule of first counting people standing in a small area(say, 10 square feet/ meter) then multiplying it to the total area, covered by the crowd.With the availability of advanced technology, GPS, Google-Earth, satellite-footage orspecial aerial recording devices are now used to have a quick estimate.

Total figure, a measurable quantitative variable, has to be estimated with moreprecision. Challenge comes when it is an accidental, flash-mob type gathering. But it isan interesting research topic where specific studies have been carried out. It is alsoextended to deep-sea or large lake estimation of fish-statistics or animals in large denseforest. For fishes in sea, in the traditional method, first from a specific small area allfishes are caught and coloured/ marked; then let free back into the sea; then again aftera few weeks fishes of small area are caught. From the total catch, the proportion ofcoloured fishes to other fresh fishes would give idea about the total fishes in the sea, aswe multiply the total area.

We need to know the most precise status and state of such resources, be it in sea orin forest. It has, thus, very practical utility too.

- Rabi N Subudhi,KIIT University Bhubaneswar, India

Parikalpana - KIIT Journal of Management142

1Parikalpana - KIIT Journal of Management, Vol-11(II), July-Dec.,2015

Training Effectiveness : A Study among Nurses

D. RajanLecturer, Department of Management Studies,

DMI - St. John the Baptist University, Mangochi, Malawi, Central [email protected]

ABSTRACTThis survey based descriptive study has been undertaken in Tirunelveli city, Tamilnadu,India with the objective of understanding the effectiveness of training among nurses.The nurses working in private multi-specialty hospitals with the qualification ofDiploma in General Nursing and Midwifery (DGNM) and Bachelor of Science inNursing (B.Sc Nursing) courses and have undergone three on the job training havebeen chosen for this study. The study has sampled 100 respondents using purposiveand judgment sampling techniques. The primary data have been collected usingstructured questionnaire constructed by the researcher. The questionnaire was madeup of three point scales namely high, medium and low. The discussion was also donewith the respondents to collect primary data. The secondary data have been collectedfrom books, journals and websites to add significant to the study. The result foundthat the training had low effect on the factors, self motivation, positive attitude, abilityto carry out multiple works at the same time and ability of applying knowledgegained from subject in the work. Suitable suggestions have been given to improve theeffectiveness of training programme.

Key words: Nursing, Training Effectiveness, Private hospital

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

Training is an important part in HumanResource Management. It is deliberatelybecoming an inevitable function of allorganizations. All business sectorsirrespective of nature of business are inneed of improving the knowledge, skillsand attitudes of their employees so as tocompete with rapidly growingtechnological, economical, cultural andeducational advancement. Besides,training not only coincide objectives of

both management and employees, but alsoshapes the personality of the employeespositively by means of enriching theirknowledge, skills and attitudes.

Respecting rules and regulations ofthe organization, cooperating with otheremployees, obeying higher officers,respecting seniors, other employees andcustomers, tolerating criticism of the higherofficers as well as customers,understanding the feeling of otheremployees and customers and actaccordingly, considering the resources ofthe hospitals as our own property and


protecting them carefully, self motivation,positive attitude, showing keen interest inthe work are some of the important factorsdeciding not only commitment and moraleof the employees, but also influencesatisfaction level of the customers andthereby decides goodwill of theorganization. It cannot be expected thatall these factors are fully vested withemployees who are joining newly. At thesame time, all these factors can beeducated among the employees throughtraining programme. Therefore, it isessential for the hospital management toprovide training to all categories ofemployees on these areas regularly andanalyse its effectiveness so as to makenecessary changes in future trainingprogrammes.

Among all categories of employees,training programme is found vital fornurses, the important paramedical groupof employees. They look after the patientcare activities including handling medicines,assisting surgeons for pre operative, onsurgery and post operative care.Therefore, it is essential for them to possessadequate knowledge in terms of theirprofession and various soft skills to dealwith different nature of the patients. Lackof soft skills will affect satisfaction of thepatients and lack of knowledge about thefunctional areas of the nursing professionwill threaten the safety of patients. Hence,it is important to provide nurses thecontinuous training in terms of bothbehavioural as well as functional areas. Itis not only important to provide training at

continuous interval, but it is also importantto measure its impact at frequent intervalsso as to ensure the effectiveness of trainingprogramme.

In the second tier city, like Tirunelveli,the providing of continuous training andmeasuring its effectiveness at frequentintervals seems to be very essential. Thecity has attained significant growth in healthcare area. But, still the practice of humanresource management remainsundeveloped in almost all hospitals. Poorwelfare facilities, lack of careerdevelopment, long working hours, poorgrievance settlement procedure, rigidleadership practice, poor communicationsystem and inadequate training anddevelopment system are found in manyhospitals. Very few hospitals are providingtraining programmes for their employees.Hence, it remains important making themawareness about the importance of trainingprogramme on growth of career ofemployees, safety of the patients andreputation of the hospitals. Therefore, thepresent study has been undertaken in thestudy area to exclusively analyse theeffectiveness of training among nurses.

1.2 Need for the Study

High competition among alloccupations has compelled them tostrengthen training programme for theiremployees so as to retain them for longperiod and attract new customers andthereby enhance their profit. Now a day,organizations spend huge amount fortraining and development programmes to

3Training Effectiveness : A Study among Nurses

strengthen the knowledge, skills andattitude of their employees. It should bethe major concern for them to monitor theeffect of training and developmentprogramme provided. The monitoring ofthe training and development programmeafter the completion, will be useful to knownot only the productivity, but also to identifythe strength and weakness of the resourcesused for training and developmentprogramme.

1.3 Scope of the Study

The study has focused private multispeciality hospitals in Tirunelveli city,Tamilnadu. The nurses who have beenqualified with Diploma in General Nursingand Midwifery (DGNM) and Bachelor ofScience in Nursing courses and undergonethree on the job training programmes havebeen covered.

1.4 Significance of the Study

The study has analysed theeffectiveness of training on various areasrelated to work and behavioural aspectsof the nurses. The result of this study willbe helpful for the nurses to understand towhat extent they have improved in termsof their knowledge, skills and attitudes.The results of the study will also be helpfulfor the hospital management and otherorganisations which are offering similarservices to know about the learningcapacity of nurses through training andanalyse strength and weakness in terms ofselecting resources for training programme.The present study will serve as secondarydata for future research scholars.

1.5 Profile of the Study Area

The study area, Tirunelveli city, thecapital city of the Tirunelveli District islocated in southern part of Tamil Nadu.The district consists of 11 taluks and19 blocks. The total population of thedistrict census is 3072880 of whichmale population are 1518595 andfemale are 1554285 (source: senses,2011). There are five colleges offeringDGNM course and eight collegesoffering B.Sc Nursing course. There are482 government hospitals includingprimary health centres and sub centresand 221 private hospitals includingnursing homes and clinics (source:office of Deputy Director of Health,Tirunelveli district, Biomedical wastemanagement department).

1.6 Research Objectives

The objectives of the study are tounderstand perception of nurses towardseffectiveness of training and to offersuitable suggestions to improve training.

2 REVIEW OF LITERATURE

2.1 Training

Training is the process of impartingknowledge, skills and abilities toemployees. It is considered as a technicalskill enhancement program of employees.Training is defined as a planned learningexperience designed to bring aboutpermanent change in an individual‘sknowledge, attitudes, or skills.(Campbekl, et al., 1970).


Training is a change interventiondesigned to influence learning and behaviorchange. (Huse, 1975). It acts as anintervention to improve quality of productsand services of an organization in stiffcompetition by improvements in technicalskills of employees. (Manju S, Suresh,BH, 2011)

Training is widely understood as acommunication directed at a definedpopulation for the purpose of developingskills, modifying behaviour, and increasingcompetence. Generally, training focusesexclusively on what needs to be known.The objectives of training are to: providethe skills, knowledge and aptitudesnecessary to undertake required jobefficiently develop the workers so that ifhe has the potentials, he may progress,increase efficiency by reducing spoilt work,misuse of machines and lessening physicalrisks. (Pitfield, 1982).

2.2 Training Effectiveness

Training effectiveness is a study ofcharacteristics of the individual, training andorganizational that affects trainingprocesses, before, during and after training(Alvarez et al., 2004). It focuses on thelearning system as a whole thus providinga macro view of training outcomes.(Alvarez et al. 2004).

2.3 Previous Studies Related toEffectiveness of Training

Ciccio L (2010) evaluated therelevance and effectiveness of trainingactivities in Northern Uganda. The study

focused on trained work force in NorthernUganda. The study sampled 104paramedics. The result found that amongthe health workers sampled, 71% werestill deployed at the original work site atthe time of the interview and 87% reportedthey found the training event atte3nded tobe useful. 40% of the respondentsreported that they were not provided anyform of follow up. 25% reported havingattended another similar training event onthe same topic at same point in time.

Palo and Padhi (2003) examined therole of training and measured itseffectiveness in successful total qualitymanagement implementation. The findingsof the study indicated that there existed apositive and highly significant correlationbetween training and awareness andperformance monitoring and feedbacksystem. There was a positive andsignificant correlation between training andteam work, commitment of quality, policyand strategy, skill development andresource allocation and a positive andinsignificant relationship between trainingand customer satisfaction. The relationshipbetween training with occupational stressand communication was negative andinsignificant i.e., training has not decreasedthe stress level of employees.

Mani A and Joy PY (2012)compared the effectiveness of trainingamong bank employees of selected publicand private sector banks in India. Theobjectives of the study were to study thetraining system of public and private

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sector banks in India and to analyse theeffectiveness of training system towardsselected public and private sector banksin India. The results of the study showedthat training facilities, learning motivation,other facilities and cost had occupied thehighest rank among the public sectorbank followed by expectation,organizational factors hindering orfacilitating use of training, preparation,and organizational support. Conversely,cost, training facilities, learning motivation,organizational factors hindering orfacilitating use of training had occupiedthe highest mean scores. Whilst,preparation, organizational support andexpectations had occupied the lowestmean score.

Ramadevei V and Nagurvali Shaik,(2012) evaluated training and developmenteffectiveness and concluded thatorganization train and develop theiremployees to the fullest advantage in orderto enhance their effectiveness. Theysuggested that conducting a trainingprogramme is not just sufficient. Properevaluation is the base to effective trainingand the training programme should be aregular system.

Rosmah Mohamed and Arni AriyaniSarlis Alias (2012) evaluated theeffectiveness of a training program usingthe four level Kirkpatric model in thebanking sector in Malaysia. The studyspecifically examined the reactions ofemployees to the training programme, thelevel of employees learning and the

employee’s transfer of training. Thefindings showed that most of therespondents were happy with the contentof the module, the speaker’s style offacilitating, the overall effectiveness andthe knowledge gained. They weresatisfied and convinced with the learningactivities provided in the training andperceived that there activities hadmotivated and made them interested tolearn. The findings also showed someevidence that respondents had improvedtheir knowledge level and sere able toapply the knowledge and skills learnedin the training to their job.

Srinivas KT (2012) studied theeffectiveness of training and developmentprogrammes adopted by KPCL,Bangalore. The result of the studyindicated that almost all the employees hadpositive impact on employees’ jobs invarious ways like increase in efficiency,lesser error and high involvement. Mostof the employees required training in theareas like personality development,technical training and job oriented trainingprograms in order to perform moreeffectively and efficiently. Increasedefficiency, updated knowledge, improvedinterpersonal relation and careerdevelopment were the outcome of thetraining and development programme.Besides, communication, subject orientedand timing problems were the problemsfaced by the employees. The content ofthe training programme was met only tothe considerable extent.



Table 1: Profile of the Respondents

3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The sample of this research is nursewho has undergone three on the jobtraining. The nurses working in privatemulti specialty hospitals with thequalification of Diploma in General Nursingand Midwifery (DGNM) and Bachelor ofScience in Nursing (B.Sc Nursing) coursesand have undergone three on the jobtraining have been chosen for this presentstudy. Thus, a total of 100 nurses havebeen sampled from the study area usingpurposive and judgment samplingtechniques.

The primary data have been collectedfrom the selected respondents using

structured questionnaire constructed by theresearcher. Personal discussion withrespondents, nursing in-charge and humanresource manager has also been done tocollect primary data. The questionnaireused to collect primary data consists oftwo sections: Section A that deal with profileof the respondents and section B thattalked about the effectiveness of training.The questionnaire had been constructedusing three points scale, namely high,medium and low.

The secondary data have beencollected from the books, journals andwebsites to add appropriate significancefor the study. The percentage analysis hasbeen employed to find the results.

S.No. Measure Item Frequency Percentage1 Sex Male 14 14

Female 86 862 Age Below 22 years 16 16

Between 22 and 26 years 32 32Between 26 and 30 years 29 29Above 30 years 23 23

3 Marital Status Married 48 48Unmarried 52 52

4 Educational Qualification B.Sc - Nursing 30 30DGNM 70 70

5 Year of working experience Below 2 year 18 18Between 2 and 4 years 45 45Between 4 and 6 years 24 24Above 6 years 13 13

6 Salary Below 5000 36 36Between 5000 and 7000 40 40Between 7000 and 9000 16 16Above 9000 08 08

Source: Primary Data


4 ANALYSIS AND RESULTS

It would be understood from Table1 that among the respondents 14% weremale and 86% were female. Of them, 16%were below 22years of age, 32% between22 and 26 years, 29% between 26 and 30years and 23% were above 30 years of age.

Furthermore, among them, 48% weremarried and 52% were unmarried. Ofthem, 30% were qualified with Bachelorof Science in Nursing and 70% were

qualified with Diploma in General Nursingand Midwifery courses.

In all, 18% had below 2 years ofwork experience, 45% between 2 and 4years, 24% between 4 and 6 years and13% had above 5 years of workexperience. Among them, 36% weredrawing below Rs. 5000 of salary, 40%between Rs. 5000 and 7000, 16%between Rs. 7000 and 9000 and 8%were drawing above Rs. 9000 salaries.

Table 4.2: Perception towards Effectiveness of TrainingS. Statement Before Training (%) After Training (%)No. High Medium Low High Medium Low1 Conflict with others 48 32 20 28 62 102 Extending cooperation to others in own 22 40 38 46 41 13

department and other department3 Involvement in team work 17 35 48 48 39 134 Respecting rules and regulations of 88 12 0 100 0 0

department as well as hospital5 Taking care of resources of the hospital 80 20 0 90 10 06 Respecting seniors in own department 70 30 0 92 8 0

and other department7 Obedient to the manager and other 97 3 0 100 0 0

higher authorities8 Exhibiting irritation and angry on patients 47 35 18 30 55 159 Work speed 08 54 38 42 50 0810 Ability of understanding patients’ 12 50 38 39 48 13

situations and feelings (e.g. angry,difficulties, emotionally imbalancedpatients) and behaving accordingly

11 Ability to finish work completely 12 36 52 32 44 2412 Ability of aligning the materials in order 8 39 53 40 44 16

so that the work can be done easily andcomfortably

13 Discipline (e.g. punctuality, wearing 78 22 0 96 04 0uniform)

14 Wastage of resources (time and materials) 10 54 36 6 28 66


It could be known from table 4.2 thatconflict with others, respecting rules andregulations of department as well ashospital, taking care of resources of thehospital, respecting seniors in owndepartment and other department,obedient to the manager and other higherauthorities, exhibiting irritation and angryon patients, discipline (e.g. punctuality,

wearing uniform), fear to deal withemotionally unstable patients, requiringassistance to operate equipments, fear todeal with emergency situations and workstress have been perceived at high levelbefore undergoing training.

The factors, extending cooperation toothers in own department and otherdepartment, work speed, ability of

15 Efficiency in the work 18 48 34 48 40 1216 Skills of dividing the work and delegate 19 40 41 20 73 07

it to the juniors, nursing assistants andother supporting staffs according to thenature of work

17 Committing mistakes in the work 40 50 10 35 44 21processes

18 Patience towards patients and their 14 48 38 28 60 12relatives

19 Self motivation 8 12 80 14 26 6020 Positive attitude 10 14 76 16 20 6421 Criticism tolerance 12 36 52 14 54 3222 Fear to deal with emotionally unstable 71 23 6 63 26 11

patients23 Requiring assistance to operate 54 38 08 49 38 13

equipments24 Fear to deal with emergency situations 60 34 6 54 42 1425 Planning and doing job systematically 20 65 15 35 55 1026 Work stress 80 18 2 76 20 427 Interest in the work 40 50 10 50 44 628 Lack of interest to participate in decision 18 69 13 35 55 10

making process and share the ideasvoluntarily

29 Ability to carry out multiple work 08 13 79 13 20 67(e.g. attending doctors rounds,answering patients queries, attendingemergency) at the same time

30 Ability of applying knowledge gained 02 04 94 03 05 92from subject in the work

Source: Primary data


understanding patients’ situations andfeelings (e.g. angry, difficulties, emotionallyimbalanced patients) and behavingaccordingly, wastage of resources (timeand materials), efficiency in the work, skillsof dividing the work and delegate it to thejuniors, nursing assistants and othersupporting staffs according to the natureof work, committing mistakes in the workprocesses, patience towards patients andtheir relatives, planning and doing jobsystematically, interest in the work and lackof interest to participate in decision makingprocess and share the ideas voluntarilyhave been perceived at medium level bymajority of the respondents beforeundergoing training.

Involvement in team work, ability tofinish work completely, ability of aligningthe materials in order so that the work canbe done easily and comfortably, skills ofdividing the work and delegate it to thejuniors, nursing assistants and othersupporting staffs according to the natureof work, and self motivation, positiveattitude, criticism tolerance, ability to carryout multiple work (e.g. attending doctorsrounds, answering patients queries,attending emergency) at the same time andability of applying knowledge gained fromsubject in the work have been perceivedat low level by majority of the respondentsbefore undergoing training.

It would be observed from table 4.2that the factors, extending cooperation toothers in own department and otherdepartment, involvement in team work,respecting rules and regulations of

department as well as hospital, taking careof resources of the hospital, respectingseniors in own department and otherdepartment, obedient to the manager andother higher authorities, discipline (e.g.punctuality, wearing uniform), efficiency inthe work, committing mistakes in the workprocesses, fear to deal with emotionallyunstable patients, fear to deal withemergency situations, work stress andinterest in the work have been perceivedat high level by majority of the respondentsafter undergoing training.

Conflict with others, exhibitingirritation and angry on patients, ability ofunderstanding patients’ situations andfeelings (e.g. angry, difficulties, emotionallyimbalanced patients) and behavingaccordingly, skills of dividing the work anddelegate it to the juniors, nursing assistantsand other supporting staffs according tothe nature of work, patience towardspatients and their relatives, planning anddoing job systematically and lack of interestto participate in decision making processand share the ideas voluntarily have beenperceived at medium level by majority ofthe respondents after undergoing training.

Self motivation, positive attitude,ability to carry out multiple works (e.g.attending doctors’ rounds, answeringpatients’ queries, and attendingemergency) at the same time and ability ofapplying knowledge gained from subjectin the work have been perceived at lowlevel by majority of the respondents afterundergoing training.


It could also be understood fromtable 4.2 that training had high effect onthe factors such as conflict with others,extending cooperation to others in owndepartment and other department,involvement in team work, respecting rulesand regulations of department as well ashospital, taking care of resources of thehospital, respecting seniors in owndepartment and other department, workspeed, ability of understanding patients’situations and feelings (e.g. angry,difficulties, emotionally imbalancedpatients) and behaving accordingly, abilityto finish work completely, ability of aligningthe materials in order so that the work canbe done easily and comfortably, discipline(e.g. punctuality, wearing uniform),wastage of resources (time and materials)and efficiency in the work.

On the other hand, training mademedium impact on the following factors:exhibiting irritation and angry on patients,committing mistakes in the workprocesses, patience towards patients andtheir relatives, planning and doing jobsystematically, interest in the work andlack of interest to participate in decisionmaking process and share the ideasvoluntarily.

At the same time the training havecaused low effect on the following factors:skills of dividing the work and delegate itto the juniors, nursing assistants and othersupporting staffs according to the natureof work, self motivation, positive attitude,criticism tolerance, fear to deal with

emotionally unstable patients, requiringassistance to operate equipment, fear todeal with emergency situations, workstress, ability to carry out multiple work(e.g. attending doctors rounds, answeringpatients queries, attending emergency) atthe same time and ability of applyingknowledge gained from subject in thework have attained very poor effect afterthe training. Besides, these factors havenot obtained any major changes afterundergone training.

5. SUGGESTION ANDCONCLUSION

5.1 Suggestions

The result found that training has notmade marked effect on the followingfactors: conflict, irritation and angry, workspeed, ability of understanding patients’situations and feelings, skills of dividing thework and delegate it, patience, planningand doing job systematically, lack ofinterest to participate in decision makingprocess, self motivation, positive attitude,ability to carry out multiple works at thesame time and ability of applyingknowledge gained from subject in thework. Hence, it is suggested that thehospital management should concentratehugely on methodological part of thetraining. The process of training needanalysis should be strengthened.According to the need the resourceperson, training aids, training methods andtraining places should be found and trainingshould be delivered.

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5.2 Limitations of the study

The study has focused the nursesqualified with Diploma in General Nursingand Midwifery and Bachelor of Sciencein Nursing. It has not covered the nursingemployees qualified with Diploma inNursing Assistants (DNA), FemaleNursing Assistants (FNA) and Master ofScience in nursing (M.Sc Nursing).Besides, the nurses working in private multispecialty hospitals have been focused. Thenurses working in single specialty hospitals,government hospitals and any other healthcare institutions have not been focused inthis study.

Another limitation of this study is itscoverage area. The study has been limitedto Tirunelveli city only. It has not coveredentire district. Another limitation is thesampling method used in this research. Thestudy has applied both purposive andjudgment sampling techniques.

As a result of these limitations,precautions are required to generalise theresults of this study into single specialityhospitals, government hospitals and otherhealth care institutions. Moreover, thecaution is also required when generalisingthe results of the study into entire districtor other district as the training policy maydiffer from one kind of organization toother.

5.3 Directions for Further Research

The future research can beundertaken as a comparative studycovering other paramedical groups such

as pharmacists, medical laboratorytechnicians and radiographers. The futureresearch can also be undertaken in such away that the effectiveness of trainingmethods on job performance and theimpact of training on job satisfaction.

5.4 Conclusion

The objective of this study was tounderstand the effectiveness of trainingamong nurses. The nurses working inprivate multi speciality hospitals with thequalification of Diploma in General Nursingand Midwifery (DGNM) and Bachelor ofScience in Nursing (B.Sc Nursing) coursesand have undergone three on the jobtraining were chosen for this study usingpurposive and judgment samplingtechniques. The result found that traininghad high effect on conflict, cooperation,involvement in team work, respecting rulesand regulation, taking care of resources,respecting seniors, work speed, ability ofunderstanding patients’ situations andfeelings, ability to finish work completely,ability of aligning the materials in orderdiscipline, wastage of resources andefficiency in the work. The result also foundthat training had medium effect exhibitingirritation and angry on patients, committingmistakes in the work processes, patiencetowards patients and their relatives,planning and doing job systematically,interest in the work and lack of interest toparticipate in decision making process andshare the ideas voluntarily. Moreover, thetraining had low effect on self motivation,positive attitude, ability to carry out multiple



works at the same time and ability ofapplying knowledge gained from subjectin the work.

It is the responsibility of theemployees to actively participate in trainingprogramme and apply the knowledge andskills gained from training programme intheir work as huge amount are allocatedfor training programme. Similarly it is alsothe responsibility of the hospitalmanagement to provide employees trainingregularly so as to develop the career ofthe employees as well as safety of thepatients.

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C. M. (2004). “An Integrated Model ofTraining Evaluation and Effectiveness”,Human Resource Development Review,Vol. 3, pp. 385–407.

Campbell, J.P., Dunnette, M.D.,Lawler, E.E. III and Weick, K.R., Jr.(1970). “Managerial Behaviour,Performance and Effectiveness”, NewYork: McGraw-Hill. Quoted in Noe ARaymond (1996), Trainees’ Attributes andAttitudes: Neglected Influences on TrainingEffectiveness, Academy of ManagementReview, Vol. 11, No. 4, pp 736-749.

Ciccio, L., Makumbi, M., and Sera, D.(2010). “An Evaluation Study on theRelevance and Effectiveness of TrainingActivities in Northern Uganda”. TheInternational Electronic Journal of Ruraland Remote Health Research, Education,Practice and Policy, 10: 1250, 1-10.

Mani, A and Joy, P. Y. (2012).“Effectiveness of Training among BankEmployees: A Comparative Study ofSelected Public and Private Sector Banksin India”. International Journal ofResearch in Management, Economicsand Commerce, Vol. 2, No. 7, pp. 42-58.

Manju, S and Suresh, B. H. (2011).“Training Design Interventions and Implicationsfor the productivity Effectiveness”.Synergy, Vol. 9, No. 1, pp. 52-68.

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Financial soundness of Reality Industry in India:An Investigation

Aravind. MAssistant Professor, TKM Institute of Management

Musaliar Hills, Karuvelil P.O Kollam District, [email protected]

ABSTRACTThe reality sectors across the global economies were blamed to be the cause whichcreated the bubbles leading to recession in 2008. The impact of downturn across theworld economies adversely hits in India also. Logically it is interesting to check thefinancial performance of reality industry in India during recession. To get moreaccurate result an extensive study for the past decade was conducted, and the studyperiod was classified in to pre- recession, recession and post-recession phases. Onlythe performance of organized reality sector studied and companies having a marketcapitalization of Rs.10 billion or more were considered for the study purpose. Thedata so collected was mainly processed with Altman’s Z score to examine the finan-cial soundness. The result shows that the Indian Reality sector is not much influ-enced by the global recession and it exhibits a steady performance throughout thestudy period.

Key words: Reality Sector, Altman Z score, Three Phase Investigation

1. Introduction

The growth in Indian reality sector canbe considered as a bye-product ofurbanization arises due to labor migrationfrom rest of the part in the country. Severalother factors like growth in population,rising nuclear families, easy availability ofcredit etc. have positively contributes tothe boom in this sector. Initially this sectorwas totally unorganized and remained asan untapped are of business for severalyears. Now we have players fromorganized as well as unorganized sectorsand reports say that this sector is growingat a pace of 30% every year. Afterwitnessing the phenomenal growth in initial

year the reality sector began to attract hugefund in the form of foreign investment andduly invested in various real estate funds,SEZ’s, hospitality industry, building upcommercial as well as residential space etc.The investment in reality sector is openedto all kind of investors ranging from smallindividual investors to large corporatehouses, and it extensively coversinvestment in the form of small propertyagreement to purchase of stocks of playersthose who are operating in this sector.

A report from CRISIL states that thereality sector is highly influenced by thepulse from global economy. And owing tothe global meltdown the residential real


estate market in India witnessed anastounding fall in demand and capitalvalues, between first half of 2008 and firsthalf of 2009.Even though the marketshows the signal of recovery in early 2010some factors still pulling back the housingreality sector in India. The growth incommercial reality sector has been largelydriven by the service sector and during theperiod of recession (2008-2009) thecommercial lease rental largely decreased.From the above we can easily summarizethat the up and down movements in realitysector in India are highly subject to globaleconomic conditions. The reality industryhere refers corporate functioning in theorganized sector; and their performancestatistics during pre-recession, period ofrecession and post-recession phases wereconsidered for the purpose of study.

2. Review of Literature

A research work by Koti Reddy(2013) examines the progress of realitysector in India; Starting from a baseline ofless than $1 billion in 1990, a recentUNCTAD survey projected India as thesecond most important FDI destination(after China) for transnational corporationsduring 2010–2012. He says it is estimatedthat Indian real estate is presently growingat 30 % per annum and the propertyindustry boasts of a wide range of productsthat includes property prices which couldsuit even the people of the low-incomegroup. Indian real estate industry isexpected to grow beyond $100 billion inthe near future.

The above work reports that afterwitnessing strong growth in 2010, thesector witnessed a deceleration in growthin the year 2011 due to the globaleconomic scenario, a slowdown in thedomestic economic conditions, andescalation in input costs including interestcosts and controversies over landacquisition. The year 2012 has begun ona sluggish note for the Indian economy, withthe GDP expanding by 5.3 per cent inMarch 2012, the lowest in nine years.

Based on a report published by JLL(2013) argues prior to the Global FinancialCrisis (GFC) in 2008, the macroeconomicscenario was extremely robust leading allindicators northwards; be it propertyprices or space absorption. However, theperiod coinciding with the GFC and post-GFC absorption levels and property pricesshowed a marked correction across allmajor real estate markets in India. Therecovery led by the residential sector, wasalso startlingly quick, with property pricesrecovering lost ground. However, thedemand levels have shown only a gradualrecovery in the office sector.

Prasad and Reddy (2009) explainsIndian economy is worst affected by thespill-over effects of global sub-prime crisis.Great savings habits among people, strongfundamentals, strong conservative andregulatory regime have saved Indianeconomy from going out of gear. Theabove article also strongly pointing towardsthe decline happens to real estate businessduring the period of recession. Owing to

15

the amendment in real estate prices andre-aligning of business strategy, as per theongoing business environment, has resultedin some signs of revival in the Indian realestate sector, in the recent past.

Manoj (2014) examines therelevance and significance of Real EstateInvestment Trusts and Real Estate Funds.He exclaims investments in REFs or REITscan offer significantly higher returns in Indiaas against similar investment in developednations. Accordingly, if properly developedREFs or REITs can significantly supportthe growth of residential real estate sectorin India by attracting greater investmentinto this sector.

Mishra and Goel (2014) discussed onthe legislation aspect for real estate sectorin India. Their article examines the need fora real estate bill in India for ensuring betterregulation on this sector. They also pointthat the proposed bill on The Real Estate(Regulation and Development) 2013, whichwas lapsed in Rajya sabha (upper houseof Parliament)was a great loss as far as thepeople in the country is concerned and whilecomparing with other countries India scoreslow on the regulatory index due to lack ofproper enforcement mechanism in the realestate sector.

This industry is constrained by archaiclaws as well as government policies bothat the central and state levels. There aremore than 100 laws governing differentaspects of this sector and most of theseare dating back to the 19th century. E.g.the Land Acquisition Act 1894, Indian

Contract Act 1872, Transfer of PropertyAct 1882, Registration Act 1908, TheIndian Evidence Act 1872, etc. The statesstill exercise control through a variety oflaws such as Rent Control Act and UrbanLand Ceiling and Regulation Act.(Sebastian Morris; 2010)

3. Research Gap

The available literature will provide abetter understanding on beginning, growthand development of reality sector in India.Several working papers really helped ingathering relevant statistical informationrelated to demand and supply conditionof reality products across various sectors.But seldom research works were foundrelated to the financial soundness aspectof reality sector in India. Moreover theabove studies failed to give a detailedunderstanding on various companiesoperating in the real estate industry andtheir performance status. This researchpaper intends to provide a better outlookon Indian reality industry by analyzingperformance of various players in theindustry and their financial position duringrecession, pre-recession and post-recession phase.

4. Objectives

To observe the financial performanceof major players in the Indian RealitySector.

To investigate the financial soundnessof Indian Reality Industry during theperiods of recession, pre-recessionand post-recession phases.

Financial soundness of Reality Industry in India: An Investigation


5. Methodology

This empirical work is focusing on theperformance of reality sector in India forthe last decade. For getting a better outlookon the performance of this sector the studyperiod were divided in to three phases’viz. pre-recession phase, recession phaseand post- recession phase. The majorreason for selecting reality sector as a studytopic was because of the fact that thissector was criticized as a reason for sub-prime crisis. And the impact of the samehits at its worst all over the world. Such adetailed study will give a betterunderstanding on the actual performanceof real estate companies as well as thereality sector in India during variousphases; and we can have a reasonable lookon whether the world spill-over effectadversely hits the performance of realitycompanies in India.

Even though organized as well asunorganized sector in reality industry willform part of the total population of study;the financial soundness of bodies inunorganized sector cannot be measured asthis sector is widely spread and difficulty inobtaining relevant financial data. So thisstudy is only limited with top listedcompanies those who are operating in Indianreality sector. The sample consists of 15reality companies having a marketcapitalization not less than Rs. 10 billion;and only top listed companies were selectedto analyses the performance of realityindustry as they accounts major portion ofmarket share in the organized sector. Thefinancial data spread across from 2004-05to 2013-14 have been considered for thestudy purpose. Table 1 express the list ofcompanies selected for representing realitysector and their respective marketcapitalization as on December 2014.

Table 1: Market Capitalization of Reality Companies

Sl . No Company Market Capitalization(Rs. In Billion)

1 DLF 263.102 Prestige Estate Projects 104.793 Oberoi Reality 103.214 Godrej Properties 59.705 HDIL 46.926 Sobha Developers 44.997 Indiabulls Real Estate 33.998 Omaxe 23.639 DB Reality 20.0010 Puravankara Projects 18.9111 Suntech Reality 18.26

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6. Data Analysis and Discussions

The collected data was processedwith different financial ratios and thefinancial soundness of reality industry wasmeasured by using Altman Z score. TheZ-score formula for predicting bankruptcywas developed by Edward I. Altman, whowas an Assistant Professor of Finance atNew York University in the year 1968. Theformula can be used to predict probabilitythat a firm will go into bankruptcy within ashort span of time. The Z-score usesmultiple corporate income and balancesheet values to measure the financial healthof a company. Altman’s model is basedon analyzing the financial strength of acompany using five ratios built on keynumbers mainly taken from a firm’s balancesheet, along with a few from the profit andloss account. The basic ratios used formeasuring financial health consist of;T1 = Working Capital/Total Assets (1)T2 = Retained Earnings/Total Assets (2)

T3 = Earnings Before Interest & Taxes /Total Assets (3)

T4 = Book Value of Equity /TotalLiabilities (4)

T5= Sales/ Total Assets (5)

6.1. Working Capital to Total Assets(T1)

Working capital of a company refersthe difference between its current assetsand current liabilities; used to measures acompany’s efficiency and its short-termfinancial health. Positive working capitalmeans that the company is able to meet itsshort-term obligations. Negative workingcapital means that a company’s currentassets cannot meet its short-term liabilities;it could have problems paying backcreditors in the short term, ultimatelyforcing it into bankruptcy. Working capitalto Total assets will measure how muchfund out of Total assets is devoted formeeting day to day operations.

12 Brigade Enterprises 17.5013 Kolte-Patil Developers 16.1814 Anant-Raj 13.64

15 Parsvanth Developers 11.42Source: www.moneycontrol.com

Table 2: Working Capital to Total Assets (T1)Sl. Company Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3No 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011- 2012 2013

-05 -06 -07 -08 -09 -10 -11 12 -13 -141 DLF 0.36 0.47 0.76 0.74 0.71 0.61 0.62 0.58 0.55 0.592 Prestige Estate Projects 0.00 0.12 0.31 0.16 0.33 0.46 0.59 0.60 0.61 0.613 Oberoi Reality 0.00 0.42 0.87 0.44 0.47 0.30 0.61 0.46 0.48 0.51



Table 2 will gives a betterunderstanding on the amount devoted forworking capital by various companiesduring various phases of the economy.While taking the industrial averageworking capital to total assets ratiosduring pre-recession stage was 0.5123and during recession phase 0.0574 andin post-recession period 0.6023reported respectively. It shows that theindustry began to spend more forworking capital their projects afterrecession stage. While conducting aclose examination on company wiseinterestingly it found that some top giantslike Godrej properties, DLF, HDIL,Soba Developers etc. spent moreworking capital during Phase 2 andPhase 3. But some other players likeOberoi Reality; Omaxe exhibits a stableallocation of working capital during all3 phases. Form this we can easily saythat there exists a disparity across

companies in allocation of workingcapital during different phases of theeconomy.

6.2. Retained earnings to Total Assets(T2)

The retained earnings of a companyare the percentage of net earnings notpaid out as dividends; they are“retained” to be reinvested in the firmor used to pay down debt. The ratio ofretained earnings total assets helpsmeasure the extent to which a companyrelies on debt, or leverage. If the ratio ishigher it indicates that the company isfinancially stable. And the company canuse its own fund for financing its assetsrather than borrowing from outside. Thelower the ratio, the more a company isfunding assets by borrowing which,again, increases the risk of bankruptcyif the firm cannot meet its debtobligations. (Refer Table 3)

4 Godrej Properties 0.98 0.84 0.94 0.88 0.92 0.80 0.95 0.87 0.89 0.875 HDIL 0.62 0.55 0.75 0.79 0.77 0.81 0.92 0.88 0.92 0.926 Sobha Developers 0.81 0.16 0.19 0.32 0.91 0.92 0.92 0.80 0.82 0.827 Indiabulls Real Estate 0.00 0.98 0.43 0.58 0.52 0.47 0.65 0.40 0.35 0.358 Omaxe 0.91 0.95 0.95 0.09 0.90 0.90 0.89 0.86 0.82 0.839 DB Reality 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.78 0.60 0.48 0.63 0.38 0.45 0.3210 Puravankara Projects 0.93 0.85 -0.05 0.94 0.95 0.44 0.56 0.95 0.96 0.9611 Suntech Reality 0.83 0.98 0.10 0.50 0.19 0.22 0.62 0.49 0.63 0.3412 Brigade Enterprises 0.64 -0.41 0.68 0.25 0.40 0.36 0.37 0.25 0.29 0.2313 Kolte-Patil Developers 1.08 0.60 0.29 0.21 0.50 0.35 0.36 0.43 0.40 0.5214 Anant-Raj 0.05 0.29 0.13 0.45 0.39 0.39 0.48 0.53 0.54 0.51

15 Parsvanth Developers 0.90 0.87 0.92 0.91 0.89 0.85 -0.78 0.73 0.73 0.71

Source: Analysis of Secondary Data

19

For the above if the ratio is higher itis better. While examining acrosscompanies in the reality sector Oberoi,Suntech, Godrej properties, Indiabulls,Kotle-Patil, Anat-Raj etc. reports thehighest ratios throughout the study periodas their respective mean scores are 0.72,0.74, 0.68, 0.68, 0.64 &0.74. Majorityof the companies under study maintaineda highest retained earnings ratio duringpost-recession period as the industrialaverage is 0.72. Added to this the retainedearnings to total assets ratio of reality sectorshows an increasing trend from phase tophase as it obtained results of 0.32,0.61and 0.72 (mean scores) respectively during

pre-recession, recession and post-recession phase. It shows that initially thissector has to highly depend on borrowedfunds for financing their assets. As timepasses the earnings of this industryboosted up and become more self-reliantwith their increased retention of profit.

6.3. EBIT to Total Assets (T3)

This is a variation on return on assets,which is net income divided by total assets.This ratio assesses a firm’s ability togenerate profits from its assets beforededucting interest and taxes. If the ratio ishigh it is better as the firm is obtainingmaximum profit.

Table 3: Retained Earnings to Total Assets (T2)Sl. Company Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3No 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011- 2012 2013

-05 -06 -07 -08 -09 -10 -11 12 -13 -141 DLF 0.37 0.17 0.05 0.56 0.55 0.49 0.47 0.53 0.56 0.622 Prestige Estate Projects 0.00 0.23 0.18 0.33 0.35 0.19 0.56 0.55 0.56 0.553 Oberoi Reality 0.00 0.51 0.81 0.88 0.93 0.65 0.82 0.85 0.87 0.884 Godrej Properties 0.41 0.75 0.27 0.37 0.32 0.59 0.48 2.55 0.60 0.515 HDIL 0.38 0.35 0.50 0.51 0.49 0.60 0.65 0.77 0.78 0.836 Sobha Developers 0.12 0.19 0.53 0.33 0.34 0.51 0.57 0.86 0.63 0.647 Indiabulls Real Estate 0.00 0.53 0.59 0.84 0.66 0.97 0.77 0.86 0.92 0.758 Omaxe 0.19 0.23 0.13 0.34 0.38 0.41 0.46 0.61 0.61 0.579 DB Reality 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.65 0.53 0.84 0.88 0.91 0.88 0.8710 Puravankara Projects 0.30 0.38 0.13 0.61 0.59 0.60 0.53 0.56 0.48 0.5511 Suntech Reality 0.58 0.59 0.44 0.78 0.82 0.86 0.96 0.75 0.70 0.8812 Brigade Enterprises 0.21 0.29 0.31 0.67 0.62 0.54 0.53 0.57 0.52 0.6013 Kolte-Patil Developers 0.27 0.14 0.47 0.76 0.78 0.82 0.84 0.84 0.75 0.7314 Anant-Raj 0.09 0.59 0.74 0.96 0.95 0.95 0.79 0.78 0.76 0.8115 Parsvanth Developers 0.42 0.23 0.52 0.46 0.46 0.53 0.58 0.62 0.63 0.62

Source: Secondary Data Analysis



While examining across variouscompanies in this sector Godrej propertiesand HDIL reports the greater amount ofearning with respect to their total assetsas average ratios of 0.22 and 0.20obtained. An examination was conductedacross the industry during various phasesto identify the earnings generated by thisindustry out of total assets; it found thatthe earnings generated out of total assetsare decreasing with average ratios of 0.19,0.12 & 0.095 reported respectively. Inother words we can say that during pre-recession period maximum earnings weregenerated out of total assets by the reality

sector with a decent ratio of 19%. And inpost-recession period the ratio of earningsgenerated to total assets drastically felldown to 9.5%.

6.4. Book Value of Equity to Liabilities(T4)

It examines the proportion of equitycomprises to total liabilities of a company.In other words, the capitalization of a firmis an indication of the market’s confidencein a company’s financial position. Generallyhigher the capitalization of a company,better the likelihood that the firm cansurvive. (Refer Table 5).

Table 4: EBIT to Total Assets (T3)Sl. Company Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3No 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011- 2012 2013

-05 -06 -07 -08 -09 -10 -11 12 -13 -141 DLF 0.13 0.14 0.13 0.18 0.13 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.05 0.052 Prestige Estate Projects 0.00 0.18 0.14 0.13 0.15 0.19 0.16 0.09 0.12 0.143 Oberoi Reality 0.00 0.32 0.07 0.10 0.05 0.04 0.13 0.16 0.19 0.164 Godrej Properties 0.19 0.47 0.31 0.29 0.21 0.18 0.12 0.34 0.10 0.075 HDIL 0.21 0.38 0.61 0.26 0.16 0.11 0.08 0.08 0.06 0.066 Sobha Developers 0.23 0.25 0.19 0.13 0.10 0.08 0.10 0.20 0.15 0.157 Indiabulls Real Estate 0.00 0.00 0.02 0.21 0.02 0.01 0.02 0.02 0.08 0.048 Omaxe 0.12 0.31 0.23 0.23 0.07 0.06 0.07 0.10 0.10 0.099 DB Reality 0.00 0.00 0.00 -0.01 0.16 0.08 0.09 0.02 0.01 0.0010 Puravankara Projects 0.30 0.33 0.16 0.17 0.12 0.12 0.09 0.11 0.13 0.1111 Suntech Reality 0.02 0.02 0.05 0.02 0.05 0.03 0.03 0.05 0.04 0.2712 Brigade Enterprises 0.20 0.34 0.34 0.13 0.14 0.09 0.13 0.12 0.11 0.1413 Kolte-Patil Developers 0.07 0.07 0.42 0.27 0.16 0.06 0.11 0.06 0.11 0.0914 Anant-Raj 0.11 0.37 0.11 0.19 0.13 0.09 0.06 0.04 0.03 0.0315 Parsvanth Developers 0.34 0.35 0.15 0.19 0.11 0.11 0.08 0.10 0.10 0.05


21

While examining across the firmsin reality sector Suntech Reality andKotle-Patil developers found to beless levered as their total financialstructure consists of 13.45% and11.03% owned fund on an averagewhile comparing with that of theircompetitors. Examining from theindustrial point of view; during the pre-recession stage around 9.8% of totalliabilities forms parts in the form ofequity. And during progression stagethe industry is more reliant onborrowed funds rather than ownedfund. The above argument will stronglysupport the analytical results as the

average book value of equity to thefinancial structure during recession andpost-recession phase were merely 5%and 5.1%.

6.5. Sales to Total Assets (T5)

The ratio of sales to total assets,more commonly referred to as assetturnover ratio, measures the amount ofsales generated by a company to itsassets. Asset turnover is an indicationof how efficiently a company is as usingits assets to generate sales. The higherthe ratio the better the result; the fall inasset turnover can signals failure by thecompany to expand its market share.

Table 5: Book Value of Equity to Total Liabilities (T4)Sl. Company Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3No 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011- 2012 2013

-05 -06 -07 -08 -09 -10 -11 12 -13 -141 DLF 0.00 0.01 0.04 0.02 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.012 Prestige Estate Projects 0.00 0.04 0.02 0.01 0.01 0.14 0.11 0.10 0.08 0.073 Oberoi Reality 0.00 0.02 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.31 0.16 0.15 0.13 0.124 Godrej Properties 0.08 0.12 0.03 0.12 0.08 0.05 0.04 0.03 0.04 0.035 HDIL 0.06 0.13 0.16 0.03 0.03 0.03 0.03 0.03 0.03 0.036 Sobha Developers 0.07 0.04 0.05 0.03 0.02 0.03 0.03 0.04 0.03 0.037 Indiabulls Real Estate 0.00 0.02 0.04 0.02 0.00 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.018 Omaxe 0.04 0.13 0.13 0.06 0.06 0.06 0.06 0.08 0.08 0.079 DB Reality 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.01 0.01 0.07 0.07 0.07 0.07 0.0710 PuravankaraProjects 0.05 0.03 0.11 0.06 0.05 0.05 0.04 0.04 0.01 0.0411 Suntech Reality 0.42 0.42 0.28 0.02 0.06 0.03 0.04 0.03 0.02 0.0212 Brigade Enterprises 0.07 0.15 0.07 0.09 0.08 0.07 0.06 0.06 0.06 0.0613 Kolte-Patil Developers 0.14 0.06 0.21 0.12 0.10 0.11 0.10 0.10 0.08 0.0814 Anant-Raj 0.62 0.20 0.03 0.02 0.02 0.02 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.0115 Parsvanth Developers 0.04 0.23 0.07 0.05 0.05 0.05 0.05 0.06 0.06 0.05




The various companies across theindustry generate an average sales volumeof 57.8% during the study period. As faras the reality sector is concerned the abovefigure can be considered to be reasonable.But in reality the major portion of theturnover is accounted during pre-recessionphase (66%). And further results showsthat the sales volume to total assets aredecreasing with relatively low ratios of27% and 26% obtained during recessionand post-recession phases.

6.5. Measuring Financial Soundnessof Reality Sector

The financial soundness of realitysector was measured by using ‘Z’scoremodel propagated by Edward Altman. TheZ score can be computed by using thebelow formula:

Z score= 1.2*T1+ 1.4*T2 + 3.3*T3 +0.6*T4 + 1.0*T5 (6)

Table 6: Sales to Total Assets (T5)Sl. Company Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3No 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011- 2012 2013



23

The above table (Table 7) shows theZ score obtained by various companiesduring the study period. And the inferenceof the same is enlisted as under;

If the ‘Z’score is below 1.8 it indicatesthe firm is in distress zone.

If the ‘Z’ score is in between 1.8-2.99 indicates grey zone.

If the ‘Z’ score is above 3 indicatesthat the firm is in safe zone.

While considering the average ‘Z’score for the past 10 years only GodrejProperties falling in to safe zone with anaverage ‘Z’ Score of 3.27. But whileconsidering the performance in the light

of various phases of economy Goderejproperties fell in to grey zone during theperiod of recession with an average Zscore of 2.67. Irrespective of that phasethey were in to safe zone during otherphases with scores of 3.70 and 3.37respectively. And none of the companieswere really falling in to the distress zoneduring the study period, and irrespectiveof the exceptional performance by Godrejproperties all other firms in reality sectorconsistently maintained their positionunder grey zone. If a company is in greyzone that indicates that the company isfinancially healthy but the chance of failureis greater.

Table 7: Z’ Score StatusSl. Company Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3No 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011- 2012 2013





The average ‘Z’ score obtained bythe reality sector in India during 2004-05was 2.16 with a standard deviation of 1.47.In 2005-06 and in 2006-07 the industryobtained scores of 2.72 and 2.30respectively. Even during recession phasethe industry maintained sustainable scoresof 2.43,2.20 and 2.11. Out of which2007-09 was a period were almost alleconomies suffered from the down trend;but even in 2008-09 the industrymaintained their position in grey zone witha mean score of 2.20 and with a minorstandard deviation of 0.71. In post-recession period also reality industryobtained an average mean score of 2.31to hold their position in the grey zone. Tosummarize we can easily say that the

waves of global recession not that muchinfluenced reality companies in India. Atthe same time this sector in India can bestill positioned among infant stage as noneof the companies could obtain the positionof ‘safe zone’ during the study period.

7. Key Findings

Irrespective of life cycle of theeconomy, the Indian reality sector isconstantly maintaining its positionstable for the past decade. From theanalysis it found that throughout thestudy period this sector maintainedits position under grey zone. Thatmeans for the time being their financialposition is good but have to putadequate care. And none of the

In order to bring the above in theperspective of reality industry in India;mean ‘Z’ score obtained in various

phase of economy were calculatedwith the standard deviation. (ReferTable 8).

Table 8: Financial Soundness of Reality IndustryPhase Year Mean S.DPhase 1 (Pre- Recession) 2004-05 2.16 1.47

2005-06 2.72 1.222006-07 2.30 1.20

Phase 2 (During Recession) 2007-08 2.43 0.492008-09 2.20 0.712009-10 2.11 0.83

Phase 3 (Post- Recession) 2010-11 2.18 0.902011-12 2.56 1.872012-13 2.32 2.062013-14 2.30 2.26

Source: Data Analysis

25

companies in reality industry werereally falling in to the distress zoneduring the study period

While examining the working capitalposition to total assets interestingly itfound that some top giants like Godrejproperties, DLF, HDIL, SobaDevelopers etc. spent more workingcapital during Phase 2 and Phase 3. Butsome other players like Oberoi Reality;Omaxe exhibits a stable allocation ofworking capital during all 3 phases.Form this we can easily say that thereexists a disparity across companies inallocation of working capital duringdifferent phases of the economy.

Majority of the companies understudy maintained a highest retainedearnings ratio during post-recessionperiod as the industrial average is0.72. The general trend exhibits thatthe retained earnings to total assetsare increasing and the companies inIndian reality sector will generatesufficient fund internally to finance itsfuture projects rather than going forexternal borrowings.

During pre-recession periodmaximum earnings were generatedout of total assets by the reality sectorwith a decent ratio of 19%. And inpost-recession period the ratio ofearnings generated to total assetsdrastically fell down to 9.5%.

The major portion of the turnover ofthis sector is accounted during pre-recession phase (66%). And further

results shows that the sales volumeto total assets are decreasing withrelatively low ratios of 27% and 26%obtained during recession and post-recession phases.

8. Conclusion

Indian reality sector is growing butwe cannot say that growth is extremelygood; because the major players are notable to achieve their financial position to acomfort zone. At the same time they arenot performing too badly. They were ableto maintain a momentum for the pastdecade and successfully withstand thebreakers witnessed by the world duringrecession. But this was not the story ofreality sector in other nation; during theperiod of downturn they drasticallycollapsed. This was mainly because theIndian reality sector is highly focusing onphysical exchange market rather than sub-prime market. More than that the role ofinvestment bankers are limited in Indiancondition, there by the bubbles in the realestate price are controlled to a certainextent. Again we should not forget the factthat we are lacking a strong regulatorymechanism to control real estate business.From investment point of view isconcerned this sector is capable ofgenerating vast opportunities in future also.

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Effectiveness of Promotional Offer Strategies andCustomer Satisfaction at Bigbazaar

K. Venkateswara RajuResearch Scholar, K L U Business School, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, India

D. Prasanna KumarAssociate Professor, K L U Business School, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, India

ABSTRACTBig Bazaar is the brain child of Kishore Biyani and is one of the pioneers in Indianretail industry. It was able to multiply its market share due to good word of mouthpublicity of customers. Many researchers attribute its success to the promotional anddiscount offers it provides through continuous innovation. The objective of study is toknow the role of promotional strategies and their effectiveness at BIG BAZAAR inAndhra Pradesh and know the Loyalty attributes that accrue from it. Promotioninvolves providing trial experience and incentives to customers for achieving greatersales. Doing Promotions for goods and services is a very useful to marketers whencompared to doing advertisements and maintaining a sales force and it can be shortterm or long term. A Survey was conducted for the purpose of Knowing the customerattributes and perceptions of service provided and it concentrated on the promo-tional strategies of the managers there as well as the customer’s reaction to them.Survey of customer perceptions was done using questionnaires while strategies of themanagers were noted using schedules.

Key words: Big Bazaar, Promotion, Retail, Format, Footfall, Marketing

INTRODUCTION

Organized Retail had already madestrong inroads into Tier-I cities and nowthe competition shifted to Tier-II cities.Growth of Organized retailing in India canbe expected because of following reasons:1. Organized retailing concept is new.2. Affordable real estate prices.3. Increase in disposable income and

customer aspirations.4. Growth in demand for luxury items.5. Increase in young working

population.

6. Increasing pay packets, metro-savvynuclear families.

Promotions are a very effective toolwhen it comes to marketing brands. Theircontribution in increasing footfalls will bevery high if they are used properly and willhelp marketers to increase their share ofthe market. Short term promotions helpretailers to increase their sales and in thelong run will increase their customer base.Promotions are offered to customers whenthe brands quality is not in par withcompetition or in cases where advertisingthe brand is hollow or for introducing a


new branded product. People in SouthIndia are experiencing new trends inshopping and Big Bazaar is pioneer in retailknown for its discounts and promotions.

The main use of promotion isaccelerating the action of various activitiesof marketing and acts as a catalyst inspeeding the purchase decisions onconsumer side and it acts as a supplementsand it is not a substitute to advertising asalso other selling efforts by changing theprice – value relationships and enhancesthe equity of the created in the consumer.In most cases lowering the price is theprimary reason for the success ofpromotions. A varying degree ofpromotional emphasis is suited at everystage in the brand’s life cycle.

Product promotion is needed whenwe want to create awareness about thebrand in prospective customers. Thereare many ways when it comes topromoting a product or service. Commonamong them are

1. Contests-This is the most frequentlyused strategy for promotion andmany contests won’t involve anypurchase. The purpose here is topromote the brand and make thelogo known to more consumers andnot to earn money from campaigningsales and they would always likewinning free prizes and pay moreattention to the brand later on.

2. Social Media-Networking websiteslike Face book offer companies easyway when it comes to promoting

products and services in mass scaleand without any difficulty and takesthe concept of direct marketing to thepeak connecting them with millionsof prospective customers who it fromvarious perspectives and allows themto be in touch with them at in depthpersonal levels helping to lessening thespace between companies andbuyers and create a more appealingimage.

3. Mail Order Marketing-OldCustomers who should not beoverlooked as they already decidedto purchase our product and they willbe of help in getting personalinformation about it. We can enticethem by offering free products/services for exchanging informationas they are already familiar with thecompany as also represent our targetmarket.

4. Product Giveaways-It is a conceptthat allows potential customers to givefree samples of the product and is acommon method used very often bycompanies when it comes tointroduce new unknown food as wellas household products and theysponsor promotions in-store bygiving away samples product and willmake customers to try newlyintroduced items.

5. Promoting the Product at Point-of-Sale - The idea here is that ofconvenience and creating impulse inmind of the customers. The end cap

29

products will be present at end ofaisles in the store, and will featureproducts that need to be promotedand move quickly and are easilyaccessible. Point-of-sale items will beplaced nearer to checkout counterand are bought impulsively.

6. Customer Referral IncentiveProgram-Here incentives are given toregular customers who refer theirfriends and acquaintances to BigBazaar and this can successfullyaccomplished by giving samples forfree, discounted products and cashprizes to them. Here the loyalcustomers can be leveraged as thesalesmen.

7. Social Causes and Charitable image-Promotion of the product at the timeof giving support to a social cause isa very successful promotionalstrategy. Creating a feeling ofbelongingness and ability to associatethe product sale to support a socialcause that too with products that areindispensable or which cannot beignored will create a sense of pridein the minds of customers as well asa felling of help for a social cause andgives a socially conscious image tothe company and common way to dothis is giving a part of the profit tovarious causes the company iscommitted.

8. Branded Promotional Gifts-A freebranded gift like a T-Shirt having theloge of the company on it, a free

luggage bag with the Brand name onit, a keychain bearing the companyname, a free coupon or a voucher fordoing free shopping at anothersubsidiary of the group are havingmore effect than simply presenting acostly business card. Sometimes wesee companies giving free pens andkey chains with the name of theirbrand on it. These are better thangiving gifts which will be kept in drawor stored inside racks.

9. Customer Appreciation Events-Conducting a indoor game or eventgiving appreciation to the customersgiving free refreshment during thecourse and simple prizes will drawold as well as new customers to thestore and here the emphasis shouldbe on giving a gift or make him feelsomething special without him makingany purchase. We can make the eventmore attractive by giving freechocolates, Biscuits, Pizza’s, drinksand hot dogs. Product displays atconvenient places at pre-launch,during the event will make theproducts to be promoted more visibleand will gain them brand recognition.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Future Group is a leading corporatehouse in the country with major presenceretail, and also in consumer finance, assetmanagement, retail media, retail spacesand logistics insurance. The group’s flagshipdivision, Pantaloon Retail (India) Limitedis India’s leading retailer and operates

Effectiveness of Promotional Offer Strategies and Customer Satisfaction at Bigbazaar


various retail formats that serve value andlifestyle segments. Leading formatsinclude, Big Bazaar, a hypermarket chain,Pantaloons operating in fashion, FoodBazaar, a chain of supermarket, Depot,Shoe Factory, Brand Factory, Blue Sky,Fashion Station etc.

In 2011, to commemorate theoccasion of completion of ten Big Bazaarintroduced a brand new logo for itselfalong with a new tag line: ‘Naye India KaBazaar’ (Market for New India). Theprevious tagline was: ‘Isse Sasta Aur acchaKahin Nahin’ (Nothing is Cheaper andgood than Here).WednesdayBazaar(Cheapest Day of the Week)usually called as ‘Hafte Ka Sabse SastaDin’ was a promotional scheme aimed atdrawing customers to stores onWednesdays, as it was observed that onthis day of the week consumer shoppingis generally lower when compared to otherdays and aimed of at giving housewivesthe option of maximum savings. It was firstinitiated in Jan 2007. ‘Maha Bachat’ calledas Mega Saving in English is started during2006 is a single day promotional offeracross the country in all the companyoutlets and had grown to become a six-day biannual campaign during which offersare available at Big Bazaar as also the othervalue formats of FUTURE group.In ‘TheGreat Exchange Offer’ customers will havethe option to exchange their old goodiesto get Big Bazaar coupons in lieu of theirvalue and they can redeem them to buybrand new goods at Big Bazaar. It wasfirst initiated in Feb 2009.

Future group set up a 600 sq ft storecalled Big Bazaar Best Deals in Mumbra,a suburb of Thane in Maharashtra, andstarted offering deals—in store, through acatalogue and via online retailing. Fiveyears later it was changed to Big BazaarDirect, a new concept which mixes thereach of the neighbor store with the equityof the Big Bazaar brand alongside theconvenience of technology to home delivergoods and discounts was aimed at takingall the promotional and discount dealsoffered by Big Bazaar, their flagship retailstore into areas not serviced by organizedretail.

Seven P’s of Marketing are seen atBig Bazaar: They are

1. Product Mix: A wide variety andassortment of Products right fromclothing Apparel to vegetables, shoes,Steel Cookery, grocery, furniture,toys, kids wear, electronic goods ofdifferent brands like Lawman, PepeJeans, Panasonic and other in housebrands like Koryo are made availableat Big Bazaar and this will enable theprospective customers to search andbuy their weekend or monthlyrequirements under the same roof. Sothey prefer to shop here for savingtime and money.

2. Pricing: The pricing strategies of BigBazaar enabled it to garner thebiggest market share in its initial daysdue to its Value Pricing concept aswell as Every Day – Low Pricingmechanism. Wednesday Bazaar

31

enabled it to differentiate pricingduring peak and non-peak periodsof shopping. Also Big Bazaar startedto sell combo packs and giving highdiscounts for promoting the brand.Examples are:

a) Four Britannia Biscuit packetsat Rs.80(Each individual packprice is Rs.22)

b) Ten Kilo Sugar +Ten KiloWheat +Five Liter Sunfloweroil for Rs.1200

c) Free mug with Bucketd) Introductory offer for Koryo

Electronic Rice Cooker pricedat Rs.1500.

3. Place: Three Store Formats are seenat Big Bazaar. Super Centers havean area of above 100K square feet,hypermarkets with are of 40K-45Ksquare feet and smallest Expressformat with 15K-20K square feet.The Tier-II city stores are also doingBig business and footfall is high dueto good Word of Mouth Publicity.

4. Promotion : Various strategies usedby Big Bazaar to promote itself are

a) Advertisements through Paper,TVs and Hoardings

b) Exchange Offers,c) Wednesday Bazaard) Celebrity Brand Endorsements

by Cinema stars and SportsPersons

e) Membership cards

5. People: Big Bazaar employs verywell trained staff who will be able toguide the customers across the storeto find the right products and alsoexplain the various promotionalschemes on offer. Neat dressinguniformity by employees at the storeincreases its ambience. For takingquick decisions the tool used by BigBazaar is scenario-planning. Wellmaintained security at the entranceand exit, nice storage facility forcustomer belongings, more numberof payment counters to reduce thecheck-out time all along with acustomer-friendly atmosphere areseen across the stores.

6. Process: The best practices andprocesses are in implementation atBig Bazaar like a very highly efficientsupply chain, CRM, special teams topurchase goods from low costdestinations and producers andhaving tie-ups with various brands foroffering some discounts to attractcustomers and creating a win-winsituation for their suppliers. Steeltrolleys are used by customers tokeep the goods they want topurchase and move hassle freeacross the store and reducing theweights on their hands. Billing systemuses scanners to scan the tags ongoods ans this automatically reducesthe manual work. There is freedelivery service for productpurchased above thousand rupees.



7. Physical Display: Products are keptin racks and there is clear assortmentand demarcation between variouscategories like apparel section,Grocery section, Furniture sectionetc. Proper display of promotions aswell as name of goods and theirprices is seen at the stores.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY:1. Test the effectiveness of the

communication about Promotionaloffers to the consumers.

2. To know the level of awarenessamong general public with respect tooffers of Big Bazaar.

3. To assess if the offers at Big Bazaarare attractive enough to customers.

4. To find if there is competitiveadvantage to Big Bazaar whencompared to its competitors.

5. To see if promotional strategies aresuccessful in converting consumersinto customers.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Survey and questionnaires method

Survey method is used for collectingdata from customers at various Big Bazaar

Retail outlets. We requested allrespondents to fill in the questionnaire, byself after explaining the various aspectsmentioned in it. It contained both open andclosed ended questions in a structuredformat very easy to understand on the firstlook. A convenient sample (non –probability sampling method) of 110customers was collected for the currentstudy in which respondent of the study wasrequest to complete the questionnaire onvoluntary basis. Frequencies and crosstabulation have been calculated for theresponses of the respondents. Chi –Square test analysis was conducted on thedata of part II in questionnaire.

ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

From the below table, we infer that110 of the total respondents 43 are menand 67 women. On further classificationaccording to age group, we find that ofall the respondents 19 are below 18Years, 31 are 19-30 Years old, 33 are ofthe age group 31-40, and 27 are of theage group of than 40 years. On the basisof household income 41 are having it lessthan 15,000 Rs, 42 are having 15,000-35,000, 27 are having it more than35000.

TABLE: 1 - GENERAL PROFILE OF THE RESPONDENTS

33

TABLE: 2 - RESPONSES OF THE RESPONDENTS

FIGURE: 1 - RESPONDENTS VIEWS ABOUT PROMOTIONAL OFFERSAT BIG BAZAAR



TABLE: 3 – SATISFACTION LEVELS OF THE RESPONDENTS

CHI-SQUARE TEST

1. Relation between INCOME OF RESPONDENT and his AVERAGEMONTHLY PURCHASE VALUE at BIG BAZAAR.

TABLE-4

CHI-SQUARE:

35

TABLE-5

2. Relation between AGE OF RESPONDENT and SERVICE he is experienc-ing from PROFIT CLUB CARD

CHI-SQUARE:

TABLE-6



3. Relation between AWARENESS LEVELS OF RESPONDENT ABOUT PRO-MOTIONAL OFFERS at BIG BAZAAR and his FREQUENCY OF VISITSto their stores.

CHI-SQUARE:

TABLE-7

4. Relation between GENDER OF RESPONDENT and THE EFFECTIVE-NESS OF BIG BAZAARA’S PROMOTIONAL OFFERS.

37

CHI-SQUARE:

TABLE-8

5. Relation between SATISFACTION OF RESPONDENT TOWARDS PRO-MOTIONAL OFFERS AT BIG BAZAAR and THEIR ABILITY TO MAKEHIM VIST IT AGAIN.

CHI-SQUARE:



TABLE-9

FINDINGS1. Most Customers are having good

awareness about the frequentPromotional Sales offered at BigBazaar.

2. Most of the customers told that theyrecall about Big Bazaar first whenthinking or discussing about going toretail store.

3. Most of the respondents felt that BigBazaar provides good service at itsstores.

4. Customers feel that Big Bazaar givesthem a better bet in Promotionaloffers vis-a-vis the other retailers.

5. Customers perceived that Big Bazaaroffers the widest product range incomparison to its competitors.

6. Most Customers felt that thecompelling reason to purchase at BigBazaar is the frequent offers that areavailed to them on wide range ofvarious products.

7. In terms of Purchases customerslisted groceries, clothing, electronicitems and furniture as their preferreditem to purchase at Big Bazaar.

8. Customers are satisfied with theirinteraction with sales executives thereand get good amount of informationregarding offers from them.

9. The benefits of promotional offers arebeing availed by most of Big Bazaarcustomers.

10. Most of Big Bazaar customers visit itonce a fortnight preferably onweekends, and some visit once amonth and the rest as and whenrequired, that too when they hearabout promotional sales.

11. Most of Big Bazaar customers availDiscount offers regularly.

12. Most Respondents told that theycompare and differentiate Offers andDiscounts provided by Big Bazaarwith other retailers before and aftermaking any buy.

13. Customers feel that product pricingis better when compared with otherretailers.

14. In terms of Quality of the Products,Customers feel that it is comparablysame with other retailers.

39

15. The people who availed promotional/discount sales felt that gotcommunication through Newspapernext by hoardings and then TVadvertisements.

16. Most of customers told that theycome to know about Promotionaloffers only when they entered thestore.

17. Most of the Big Bazaar customers docommunicate about promotionaloffers to their friends, relatives as wellas hear from them regarding thesame.

18. From Table - 5, we infer that thatthere is a highly significant relationbetween income of respondent andhis average monthly purchase valueat Big Bazaar.

19. From Table - 6, we infer that thatthere is no relation between Relationbetween age of respondent andservice he is experiencing from profitclub card.

20. From Table - 7, we infer that thatthere is a Relation betweenawareness levels of respondent aboutpromotional offers at Big Bazaar andhis frequency of visits to their stores.

21. From Table - 8, we infer that thatthere is a highly significant Relationbetween gender of respondent andthe effectiveness of Big Bazaar’spromotional offers in inducing themto make the purchase.

22. From Table - 9, we infer that thatthere is Relation between satisfaction

of respondent towards promotionaloffers at Big Bazaar and their abilityto make him vist it again.

SUGGESTIONS1. Big Bazaar should be concentrating

on Big Bazaar direct, its onlineservice to compete with online portalslike Flip Kart and Amazon as it is thelatest trend in shopping now a days.

2. It should advertise more on onlineportals, Social media, News Papers,Television Serials and Cinemas as theyare emotionally connected with women.

3. It should have more tie ups withvarious brands to offer discounts andoffers like the ones it already had withTata Tele for free talk time.

4. Sponsor events having publicimportance across various categorieslike sports and entertainment.

5. It should create awareness in publicabout the discount and promotionaloffers at its stores.

6. Establish more teams that focus ondoing purchases at lowest prices.

7. Tie-ups with more credit cardproviders in order to offer EMI andcash back schemes.

8. Can establish much smaller storeformats to improve its reach tocustomers.

9. Conduct frequent surveys oncustomer satisfaction towards itspromotional and discount offers andimprove on suggestions fromcustomers.



10. Introduce more Premium Brands toattract HNI customers.

11. Conduct indoor games and contestsfor housewives and senior citizenswhich will help in creating awarenessabout the brand.

12. More in house brands should beproduced and free sample of thesame can be given to regularcustomers to increase their sales.

13. Threshold amount of Free Homedelivery should be reduced fromthousand rupees to Seven Fiftyrupees.

14. Free service should be provided forin-house electronics brands.

15. Catalogues with promotions anddiscounts should be mailed tocustomers.

16. The efficiency of Supply chain shouldbe improved.

17. Stores should be located nearresidential areas and not in outskirtsas senn in some cases.

18. Should acquire some otherinternational retail chains or form Jointventures to source products on biggerscale and reduce costs.

19. Offer free snacks and biscuits andrest rooms if possible to shopperswho purchase large volumes ofgoods.

20. Store personnel should bemotivated by giving incentives asthey also form an important part ofthe retail store.

21. Ambience should be improved alongwith visibility of Product Displays andtheir MRP’s

22. Gift vouchers should be given for largepurchases which can be redeemableat other sister concerns of Futuregroup.

23. More Product Bundling can be optedfor increasing sales.

24. As Smart phone revolution isspreading Big Bazaar shouldintroduce it own mobile apps inorder to enable the customer toknow the categories and assortmentsof goods and their prices acrosscategories.

25. Small Local music bands and miniconcerts can be introduced at largestores to enhance weekendshopping of customers and entertainthem.

CONCLUSION1. The importance of Promotional offers

in increasing sales of retailers.2. People in Andhra want new trends in

shopping and are creating newpatterns.

3. The customer buying behaviour haschanged after the introduction of BigBazaar.

4. There is a high footfall level at BigBazaar.

5. Customers are getting exposure tonew brands and are becomingbrand savvy.

41

Many customers felt that they getvalue for money products at Big Bazaarand it lives up to the taglines on lowestprices. They are able to get most of theproducts under the same roof but stillmiss certain goods and felt that as somestores are located at a distance itnullifies the savings due to the high fuelcosts on travel

REFERENCES

Ailawadi, K. L., Neslin, S. A., &Gedenk, K. (2001). Pursuing the valueconscious consumer: store brands versusNational brand promotions. Journal ofMarketing, 65, 71–89.

Blattberg, Robert C., & Scott Neslin.(1995). Sales Promotion: concepts,methods, strategies. New York: Simon &Schuster.

Bunish, Christine. (1999, May 1).Sales: expanded use of collateral material,catalogs boosts sales promotion. BusinessMarketing.

LaRonca, Frank. (1996, December16). Dismantling the wall betweenstrategies, execution. Brand Week.

Top Ten Promotional Strategies-CarlHose, Demand Media retrieved fromsmallbusiness.chron.com.top-ten-promotional-strategies-10193.

Schultx, Don E., William, A.Robinson, & Lisa, A. Petrison. (1998).Sales promotion essentials (3rd ed.).Lincolnwood,IL: NTC Business Books.

Kotler, Philip, & Gary, Armstrong.(1990). Marketing: an introduction (2nded.). New Jersey: EnglewoodCliffs,Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Kim, B. D., Srinivasan, K., &Wilcox, R. T. (1999). Identifying pricesensitive consumers: the relative merits ofDemographic vs. purchase patterninformation. Journal of Retailing, 75 (2),173–193.



Competency Mapping of the CorrectionalOfficers of West Bengal Correctional Service

Rita BasuAssociate Professor, Institute of Business Management

Kolkata – 700032, West Bengal (India)[email protected]

ABSTRACTCompetency is strategic factor determinant for organizational development. A num-ber of Indian organizations have attempted to use competency modeling as a part ofhuman resource management function in the last three decades. The emphasis of thisresearch is on designing a model to assist for the determination of the competencyfactors and formulation of training for the Correctional Officers of West Bengal Cor-rectional Service. For the purpose of the study, a tailor made, close-ended question-naire with Likert five point scales was prepared. Data were collected from 110 Cor-rectional Officers on the basis of stratified random sampling method where eachexperienced group consists with at least 30 respondents, on their self-perceptionabout the factors of job itself and environment of the correctional home. Data analysisrevealed that with the variation of experience Managerial Skills and Team Relation-ship vary significantly.

Key words: Competency, Correctional Officers of West Bengal, Managerial Skills, TeamRelationship

Introduction

Competency is a combination ofmotive, traits, skills, aspects of ones self-image or social roles or a body of relevantknowledge. Competency management isbased on managing the requiredknowledge, skills and the attitude. It actsas a major ingredient in handlingknowledge, helps in identifying the desiredcompetencies for a particular level of theemployees, also focuses on managing anddeveloping the required competencies.Competency has been well recognized asextremely important for the achievementof company goals, complimentary to, for

instance, core business processes,customer relationships, financial issues andso on (Hamel & Prahalad, 1994;Norton,1996). So competency is strategicfactor determinant for organizationaldevelopment.

Boyatzis (1982), has emphasized thatcompetency is the characteristics of peopleand it indicates ‘ways of behaving orthinking generalizing across situations andenduring for a reasonably long period oftime. Hence the proper identification of thecompetency and its level can help inaccurate ways of behaving or thinkingacross a particular organization with long

43Competency Mapping of the Correctional Officers of West Bengal Correctional Service

period of endurance. Garrett, (2007) hasexplained competency map as a tool,which defines the job demands. Acompetency map is a list of an individual’scompetencies that represent the factorsmost critical to success in given jobs,departments, organizations or industriesthat are part of the individual’s currentcareer plan (DACEE, 2008). Thereforecompetency mapping is a process to identifyand describe competencies of an individualthat are critical to success in a work situationor work role. Consequently competencymodel is a behavioral job description thatmust be defined by each occupationalfunction and each job (Fogg, 1999).

Utility of the study

A number of Indian organisationshave attempted to use competencymodelling as a part of human resourcemanagement function in the last threedecades. There is often disagreementbetween the process and the terms usedto define competencies. It has seen thatmanufacturers are able to manage theiremployees with attractive pay packages,fringe benefits and production incentives.Employees are also motivated by thecorporate image and corporate culture.But this may be a problem with any servicesector government organization in India,specially the correctional home where thejobs are not only challenging and risky butalso full of blemish without any positivereturn on investment. So, attracting talentsare major problems. Even if they are ableto attract talents, retention becomes acrucial issue. Many of them are left with

frustration, stress and lack of recognition.With the passage of time, most of theemployees lose their creativity andinnovativeness. This makes the employeesdull and less concentrated to their work.This acts as a major cause for affectingthe development and growth of theorganization. There is a clear need forrejuvenating the employees, which will actas a key to the organization’s performanceand growth. Hence, considering‘Competency Mapping’ as a strategicdeterminant, this study has beenconducted for Correctional Officers ofWest Bengal Correctional Services ofIndia. Competency mapping has beenused as tool to identify the required corecompetencies of the correctional officersof West Bengal.

Literature Review

Vathanophas and Thai-ngam (2007),worked on OCSC model an identified anextensive list of 23 competencies in Thaipublic sector, Thailand Office of CivilService Commission. This indicates thatcompetency mapping deals with theidentification of the number of factors.

Berio and Harzallah (2005),developed the CRAI (CompetencyResource Aspect Individual) model whichprovides a formal representation ofindividual competencies, both acquiredand required for a job. This study pointsout that competency can be developed.

Miner et al (2005), established thatthe competencies can be used to fulfil boththe infrastructure and the workforce needs.


So the study specifies that competencymapping help to determine man-environment interface.

Palan (2003), through the outcomeof his research has explained the varioustypes of competencies through the RomanPavilion framework. He has also explainedthat the framework is a term given to thecomplete collection of clusters andcompetencies with performanceindicators. This work identifies thepredictive role of competency mapping.

Shippman et. al. (2000), found thatdepending on the work and organizationalenvironment, a group of 7 to 9 totalcompetencies are usually required of aparticular job and depicted in acompetency model.

Yu (1999), suggested that whenevernew required competencies are unknown,a goal oriented modelling may beenvisioned. Goal oriented modellingfocuses on the reasons of a competence.In this research, a goal oriented vision hasbeen used to develop a competencymapping based model.

The objectives of the study:

To develop the competency modelof the Correctional Officers in West BengalCorrectional Services.

Methodology

Nature of the Study:

The present study is exploratory innature with following independent anddependent variables.

i) Independent Variables:Components of job itself.

ii) Dependent Variable: Numberof years in present service ielevel of retention

Sampling Plan

i) Sampling Unit: Officers ofCorrectional Services in WestBengal, whose experience withthe present job varies from twoyear to more than 15 years.

ii) Sampling Method: Thesample for the study wasselected on the basis of stratifiedrandom sampling method whereeach experienced groupconsists with at least 30respondents.

iii) Sample Size: 110

Data Collection:

i) Secondary Data: For thedevelopment of questionnairefor the collection of primary datathe literature survey wasconducted and probablerelevant factors were identified.

ii) Instruments for PrimaryData Collection: For thepurpose of study, a tailor made,close ended questionnaire withLikert five point scales wasprepared with the informationreceived through literaturesurvey and was used to collectthe data on self perception

45

(officers) about the factors ofjob itself and environment of thecorrectional home.

iii) Procedure for DataCollection: Face to faceinterviews were conducted withthe help of a structured close-ended questionnaire to collectthe data.

iv) Ethical Consideration:Employees were allowed toanswer all the questions of thequestionnaire without posing anykind of pressure on them andthey were allowed to answerfreely to all the questionsaccording to their convenience.They were also assured that theinformation, which they areproviding, would not bedisclosed to media and it isabsolutely confidential.

Data Analysis:

i) To identify various conducivecomponents of job and itsenvironment, mean scores ofthe components werecalculated.

ii) To identify the major factors forcompetency of CorrectionalOfficers of West Bengal, thedata were processed for thefactor analysis.

iii) The factors were processed tofind out their collinearity with therespective components.

iv) To identify the significantdifferences of the conducivefactors of job age wise,experience wise and qualificationwise Analysis of Variance wereconducted for conclusion.

Result

The mean scores (Table I) of all thecomponents are high in nature, whichindicates the possibilities of the requirementand importance of all the components fortheir job competency.

To identify the major components forcompetency of Correctional Officers ofWest Bengal, the data were furtherprocessed for the factor analysis (Table II)

Table II indicates three majorcomponents viz, Managerial Skills,Developmental Skills and TeamRelationship. The nomenclatures weremade on the basis of the group of factorsloading at different components. Thefactors for

1. Managerial skills: Responsibility,Organizing and Planning, ProblemSolving and Decision Making,Attitude, Leadership, InterpersonalRelation and Learning Attitude.

2. Developmental Skills:Communication, and AnalyticalAbility.

3. Team Relationship: Team Hence itcan be said that there exist particularcompetency components forCorrectional Officers of West Bengal.

Competency Mapping of the Correctional Officers of West Bengal Correctional Service


To identify the effect of age,qualification and experience ofCorrectional Officers of West Bengal ontheir job competency first thecomponents for Managerial skills andthe components for Developmental Skillswere processed to find out theircollinearity of the factors (table III andtable IV, Fig 1.1 to Fig1.6 and Fig 2.1to 2.3 respectively) with the respectivecomponents.

In Table III and Fig 1.1 to Fig1.6,partial correlation and colinearity toleranceindicate that, the components of the factorManagerial skills ie Responsibility,Organizing and Planning, Problem Solvingand Decision Making, Attitude,Interpersonal Relation and LearningAttitude are in linear form. So, additiveproperty is applicable for thesecomponents.

Hence Corrected Managerial Skill(SMS) can be find out with the followingregression equation

SMS= 0 + 0.32 Int + 0.28 PSDM+ 0.18 Learatt + 0.28 Att +0.31Res + 0.17OrgPla ……(1)

In Table IV, and Fig 2.1 to 2.3 partialcorrelation and colinearity toleranceindicate that, all the components of thefactor factors for Developmental Skills ieCommunication, and Analytical Ability arein linear form. So, additive property isapplicable.

Hence Corrected DevelopmentalSkill (SDS) can be find out with thefollowing regression equation

SDS = 0. 0 + 0.65 Anab + 0.51Comm……………………(2)

With the help of equation 1 andequation 2, the components ManagerialSkills(SMS) and Developmental Skills(SDS) were calculated .

To identify the importance ofcomponents with variation of age,experience and qualification Analysis ofVariation were done and shown in tableV, VI and VII respectively.

Analysis of Variance (table V, VI andVII) indicates that with the variation ofexperience in the present job ManagerialSkills and Team Relationship varysignificantly. So these two componentsmay be considered as core competencycomponents for the correctional officersof West Bengal Correctional service. Italso implies that ‘experience’ may changethe correctional officers, more competentin respect to managing the task andmaintaining the team relations.

Conclusion

Proper training does motivate manyemployees to achieve excellence in hisperformance. Competence managementsystem is able to help the organizations todecide and plan the proper training andlead to personal development along withprofessional development leading toorganizational development.

47

Table I: Mean Scores of the components of Competencies of CorrectionalOfficers of West Bengal Correctional Home (N=110)

Sl. No Components Mean1 Responsibility 3.662 Team Work 3.883 Communication 3.894 Organizing and Planning 3.535 Problem Solving techniques and decision making 3.326 Analytical Abilities 3.767 General or Overall Attitude 3.558 Leadership skills 4.069 Interpersonal skills 3.7010 Learning Attitude 3.70

Table III: To Identify the Collinearity of Factors of Managerial SkillsModel Unstandardized Standardized t Sig. Correlations Collinearity

Coefficients Coefficients StatisticsB Std. Beta Zero- Partial Part Toler- VIF

Error order ance1 (Constant) 2.144 .126 17.035 .000 Int .387 .034 .743 11.547 .000 .743 .743 .743 1.000 1.0002 (Constant) 1.352 .114 11.884 .000 Int .338 .024 .650 14.307 .000 .743 .810 .638 .964 1.037 PSDM .293 .027 .493 10.856 .000 .616 .724 .484 .964 1.037

Table II: Result of Factor Analysis of the Competency FactorsFactors Components

Managerial Developmental Team Relation-Skills (MS) Skills (DS) ship(Team)

Responsibility (Res) .619 -.209 .357Team .573 -.217 .664Communication (Comm.) .371 .633 .204Organizing and Planning (OrgPla) .416 -.190 -.637Problem Solving and Decision Making (PSDM) .451 -.701 .272Analytical Ability (Anaab) .477 .685 .119Attitude (Att) .573 -.479 -.463Leadership (Led) .502 .449 -.266Interpersonal Relation (Int) .781 .030 -.089Learning Attitude (Learatt) .785 .145 -.157

Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis a. 3 components extracted.



3 (Constant) .611 .124 4.940 .000 Int .260 .021 .498 12.657 .000 .743 .776 .437 .768 1.302 PSDM .255 .021 .429 11.924 .000 .616 .757 .412 .922 1.085 Learatt .313 .037 .343 8.531 .000 .697 .638 .294 .738 1.3564 (Constant) .320 .095 3.362 .001 Int .201 .016 .385 12.396 .000 .743 .771 .313 .659 1.517 PSDM .205 .016 .345 12.450 .000 .616 .772 .314 .831 1.204 Learatt .291 .027 .319 10.803 .000 .697 .726 .273 .732 1.365 Att .213 .022 .295 9.649 .000 .718 .686 .244 .682 1.4665 (Constant) .279 .051 5.479 .000 Int .161 .009 .309 17.931 .000 .743 .869 .241 .610 1.639 PSDM .165 .009 .279 18.203 .000 .616 .872 .245 .772 1.295 Learatt .218 .015 .238 14.466 .000 .697 .817 .195 .667 1.500 Att .230 .012 .319 19.507 .000 .718 .886 .262 .677 1.478 Res .145 .009 .268 16.312 .000 .690 .848 .219 .669 1.4946 (Constant) 1.827E-15 .000 .000 1.000 Int .167 .000 .320 1.161E8 .000 .743 1.000 .249 .607 1.646 PSDM .167 .000 .281 1.147E8 .000 .616 1.000 .247 .772 1.295 Learatt .167 .000 .182 6.576E7 .000 .697 1.000 .141 .600 1.666 Att .167 .000 .231 7.808E7 .000 .718 1.000 .168 .529 1.891 Res .167 .000 .308 1.140E8 .000 .690 1.000 .245 .634 1.577 OrgPla .167 .000 .172 6.381E7 .000 .488 1.000 .137 .634 1.578

a. Dependent Variable MS

Fig 1.2Fig 1.1

49

Fig 1.3 Fig 1.4

Table IV: To identify the Collinearity of the Factors of Developmental skills

Fig 1.5 Fig 1.6

Model Unstandardized Standardized t Sig. Correlations CollinearityCoefficients Coefficients StatisticsB Std. Beta Zero- Partial Part Toler- VIF

Error order ance

1 (Constant) 1.223 .125 9.784 .000

Anaab .691 .033 .896 20.957 .000 .896 .896 .896 1.000 1.000

2 (Constant) -1.803E-15 .000 . .

Anaab .500 .000 .648 . . .896 1.000 .566 .762 1.312

Comm .500 .000 .509 . . .825 1.000 .444 .762 1.312

a Dependent Variable: DS

Competency Mapping of the Correctional Officers of West Bengal Correctional ServiceCompetency Mapping of the Correctional Officers of West Bengal Correctional Service


Fig 2.2Fig 2.1

Fig 2.3

Table V: To Identify the significant variation of the Components ofCompetency By ANOVA with the Variation of Age

Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig.

SMS Between Groups 1.227 2 .613 2.361 .099

Within Groups 27.795 107 .260

Total 29.022 109

SDS Between Groups 1.528 2 .764 4.423 .014


Total 20.012 109

Team Between Groups 2.417 2 1.208 4.413 .014


Total 31.719 109

51

Table VI: To Identify The Significant Variation Of The Components OfCompetency By ANOVA With The Variation Of Experience


SMS Between Groups 5.039 3 1.680 7.423 .000


Total 29.022 109

SDS Between Groups 1.002 3 .334 1.862 .141


Total 20.012 109

Team Between Groups 7.869 3 2.623 11.658 .000


Total 31.719 109

Table VII: To Identify The Significant Variation Of The Components OfCompetency By ANOVA With The Variation Of Qualification


SMS Between Groups 1.135 3 .378 1.438 .236


Total 29.022 109

SDS Between Groups .821 3 .274 1.511 .216


Total 20.012 109

Team Between Groups 2.473 3 .824 2.988 .034


Total 31.719 109

References

Berio, G. and Harzallah, M. 2005.“Knowledge Management forCompetence Management”, Journal ofUniversal Knowledge Management,Proceedings of I-KNOW ’05Graz, June29 - July 1, 2005, Know-Center and

Graz University of Technology, Austria :154 -161

Boyatzis, R. (1982). TheCompetent Manager, A Model ForEffective Performance. John Wiley,New York, NY



Fogg, C. D. (1999). ImplementingYour Strategic Plan: How To Turn“Intent” Into Effective Action ForSustainable Change. AmericanManagement Association, New York

Hamel, G. and Prahalad, C.K.(1994). Competing For The Future.Harvard Business School Press, Boston.

Norton, D.P. and Kaplan, R.S. (1996).The Balance Scorecard: TranslatingStrategy Into Action. Harvard BusinessSchool Press, Boston, MA.

Yu, E. (1999). Strategic ModelingFor Enterprise Integration. InProceedings Of The 14th WorldCongress of International Federation ofAutomatic Control (IFAS’99), Beijing,China, Elsevier Sciences. pp 127-132.

DACEE (2008). CompetencyMapping, University Of MumbaiDepartment Of Adult And ContinuingEducation And Extension CompetencyMapping. Retrieved November 25, 2013from http://www.mudacee.ac.in/Competancy_Mapping.htm

Garrett, S. (2007). CompetencyMapping: What Is It and How It Can BeDone by Individuals. Career Planning andAdult Development. Network Journal.18(4), pp 43–59.

Miner, K. et al. (2005). The MACHmodel: From Competencies to Instructionand Performance of Public HealthWorkforce. Public Health Reports,120(Supplement 1), pp 9-15.

Palan, K. (2003). CompetencyManagement - A Practitioner’s Guide,Specialist Management Resources,Utama, pp. 115-116.

Shippman, J. S., Ash, R. A., Battista,M., Carr, L., Eyde, L. D., Hesketh, B.,Kehoe, J. Pearlman, K. & Sanchez, J. I.(2000). The Practice Of CompetencyModelling. Personnel Psychology, 53, pp703-740.

Vathanophas & Thai-ngam, (2007).Competency Requirements For EffectiveJob Performance In The Thai PublicSector. Contemporary ManagementResearch, 3(1), pp 45-70.


Equity Investors Perception about ProcessInvolved in Merger Deals

P. Praveen KumarDepartment of Management Studies,

Pondicherry University, Kalapet, Pondicherry-605 [email protected]

R. KasilingamAssociate Professor, Department of Management Studies,

Pondicherry University, Kalapet, Pondicherry-605 [email protected]

ABSTRACTThis proposed study tries to find the investors perception about process of mergers.This study also tries to find the influence of profile of investors on their perceptionabout process of mergers. This study is fully based on primary data. Data have beencollected from 513 equity investors in Chennai and Puducherry. The statistical toolsof simple mean, cluster analysis, discriminant analysis, chi-square test, correspon-dence analysis, ANOVA, post-hoc analysis and canonical correlation have beenadopted to analyse the data. This study finds that the equity investors feel that SEBI iseffectively controlling the process of M&A. This study also finds that the profile ofinvestors is not influencing their perception about process of mergers.

Key words: Investor perception, canonical correlation, ANOVA

Introduction

Corporate strategies are approachescharted out and implemented by businessentities to accomplish their desiredoutcomes. Business firms may operate withnumerous objectives other thanmaximisation of profits. These objectivescan be accomplished only through effectivestrategies. Strategies are usually crafted foreither long-term or medium-term. Shortrange planning will not come under strategy.Corporates formulate unique strategies tocounter challenges or threats emergingfrom the external business environment.During the past, strategy formulation was

associated only with big corporates.However, current business environmenthas warranted all enterprises, irrespectiveof their size and business, to craft andimplement effective strategies. Hence,strategies have become part and parcel ofbusiness. Merger is an importantcorporate strategy implemented bybusiness entities in recent times.

Merger deals in India are regulatedby the SEBI (Securities and ExchangeBoard of India). Parties to merger dealshave to strictly comply with theseguidelines, rules and regulations framed bySEBI. One such important guidelines


formulated by SEBI is the SEBI’sSubstantial Acquisition of Shares andTake-overs (SAST) regulations, 1997,which were aimed at ensuring transparencyin take-over processes so that interests ofminority shareholders is protected.

Review of Literature

Ferrer (2012) investigated the impactof M&A deals on payables turnover ratioand asset turnover ratio of companies.Results of the study establish negativerelationship between M&A and firmsactivity ratios.

Singh & Mogla (2010) haveexamined the profitability performance of153 acquiring companies since theacquisition process was completed. Thestudy has used the variables of operatingprofit margin (OPM), net profit margin(NPM), return on net capital employed(ROCE), return on net worth (RONW)and assets turnover ratio (ATR) to denotefinancial performance of the companies.The study reveals that 55 percent of thecompany’s profitability position hasdeclined during the post-acquisition phase.

Uddin & Boateng (2009) haveanalysed the short-run gains resulting toshareholders of British acquirer companiesacquiring foreign entities during 1994 to2003 and the nature of impact exerted byfactors such as deal size and other firmrelated factors on performance. The studyhas used the event study methodology (10days before and after announcements) andmarket model to assess shareholderswealth. 337 acquisitions were covered in

this study. The study has revealed thatshareholders of acquiring companies donot gain in short-run.

Hassan, Patro, Tuckman & Wang(2007) have studied the effect of M&Adeals on shareholders wealth of USpharmaceutical industry. The study hasanalysed 405 M&A deals struck during1981-2004 and applied market model toassess abnormal returns. The study hasfound that acquisition deals resulted inabnormal returns to shareholders.

Kiymaz (2006) has analysed theimpact of sell-off announcements made by205 divesting firms and 185 acquiring firmsduring 1989-2002. The study appliedmarket model to estimate AR and crosssectional regression analysis to arrive atthe determinants of CAR. Results revealthat both divesting and acquiring firms areearning wealth. Furthermore, CAR isinfluenced by motives behind merger deals.

Research Methodology

Descriptive research explains thecharacteristics of the population. This studytries to find the investors perception aboutprocess of mergers. Hence, this study isdescriptive in nature. This study is basedon primary data. Primary data have beengathered from 513 equity investors throughadministering a well-structured interviewschedule. Chennai and Puducherry weretaken as sample fame for this research. Theinterview schedule has been started witheducating the equity investors about thepurpose of this research. The statisticaltools of simple mean, cluster analysis,

55Equity Investors Perception about Process Involved in Merger Deals

discriminant analysis, chi-square test,correspondence analysis, ANOVA, post-hoc analysis and canonical correlation havebeen adopted to analyse the data.

Investors Perception about Process ofMergers

The perception of equity investorsabout legal procedures involved in mergerdeals such as investment managers,transparency in M&A process, insidertrading, rules and regulations, SEBI controland public announcements related tomergers has been collected using Likert’sfive-point scale.

Mean analysis reveals that thatinvestors are of the opinion that insidertrading is taking place during theexecution of merger deals though SEBIis appropriately regulating mergerdeals.

Segmentation of Investors

Perception about process of mergerswill vary among investors. Investors arecategorized based on their perceptiontowards process of mergers by using K-means cluster analysis. Table 1 displaysresults of cluster analysis.

Table 1: Final Cluster Centers and ANOVA

Final Cluster Centers ANOVA1 2 3 F Sig.

Investment managers 3 4 3 76.242 0.000Transparency 3 4 3 60.116 0.000No insider trading 2 3 1 83.532 0.000Rules and regulations 2 3 4 141.327 0.000SEBI 2 4 3 180.390 0.000Public announcements 3 4 2 185.787 0.000Cases 178 196 139

Table 1 shows mean scores, numberof investors in every group and ANOVAresults. The first group has been labeledas “Moderate” because mean in respectof all the items for this group is less thanfour. This group encompasses 178investors who have modest perceptionabout the process of mergers. The secondgroup has been designated as “Adequacyof control” because the mean in respectof majority of the items for this group aregreater than three. This group engulfs 196

investors who feel the existence ofadequate control over process ofmergers. The third group has beenbranded as “Rules and regulation”because the mean in respect of rules andregulations for this segment hover aroundthe four mark. This group consists of 139investors who are of the perception thatadequate rules and regulations are presentto govern the merger process. It canfurther be inferred from the table that theF Value in respect of public


announcements item is the highest(185.787), followed by SEBI (180.390),rules and regulations (141.327), noinsider trading (83.532), investmentmanagers (76.242) and transparency(60.116). All the values are significant atone percent level. Hence, all the itemssignificantly contribute to thesegmentation process, though themaximum contribution comes from thepublic announcements item.

Reliability of Segmentation

Proceeding further, consistency ofsegmentation has been examined usingdiscriminant analysis. The items ofinvestment managers, transparency, noinsider trading, rules and regulations, SEBIand public announcements are consideredas independent variables while clustermembership scores of investorsperception about process of mergers hasbeen taken as grouping variable.

Table 2: Eigen Value and Wilks’ Lambda

Function Eigenvalue Canonical Wilks’ Chi-square Sig.Correlation Lambda

1 1.795 0.801 0.161 927.409 0.0002 1.224 0.742 0.450 405.695 0.000

Table 2 indicates that Eigen values ofthe two functions are 1.795 and 1.224,which exceed the unity. The first functionconveys maximum spread of group means.Canonical correlation of function one is0.801 while that of the second function is0.742, which suggests the existence ofsignificant relationship between itemsrelated to perception about process ofmergers and the two functions. Wilks’lambda value of function one is 0.161 whilethat of the second function is 0.450,indicating good distance between the twofunctions. The values are significant at onepercent level. Hence, the segmentationprocess has been done with fair degree ofconsistency.

Table 3: Structure Matrix

Function1 2

Public announcements 0.575* 0.332SEBI 0.569* -0.320Investment managers 0.376* 0.191Transparency 0.362* -0.002Rules and regulations 0.352 -0.520*

No insider trading 0.245 0.424*

Table 3 shows standardized betavalues which explain characteristics ofpopulation. The two functions formed are

Z1 = 0.575 * Public announcements+ 0.569 * SEBI + 0.376 * Investmentmanagers + 0.362 * Transparency

Z2 = -0.520 * Rules and regulations+ 0.424 * No insider trading

57

Figure 1 shows group centroids inrespect of the three clusters. All thethree group centroids are located in

Fig. 1: Group Centroids

different areas. This confirms thatinvestors have been pertinentlygrouped.

Table 4: Extent of Correct Classification

Perception about Predicted Group Membership TotalProcess of Moderate Adequacy Rules andMergers of control regulations

Count Moderate 176 1 1 178Adequacy of control 8 186 2 196Rules and regulations 12 4 123 139

% Moderate 98.9 0.6 0.6 100.0Adequacy of control 4.1 94.9 1.0 100.0Rules and regulations 8.6 2.9 88.5 100.0

Table 4 displays that 98.9 percent ofinvestors have been correctly groupedunder moderate group, while 94.9 percent

of investors have been correctly groupedunder adequacy of control cluster and88.5 percent of investors have been

Equity Investors Perception about Process Involved in Merger Deals


correctly grouped under rules andregulations cluster. Hence, it can beconcluded that the segmentation has beenconducted with fair degree of accuracy.

Relationship between Profile ofInvestors and Perception aboutProcess of Mergers

Table 5: Association between Personal Profile and Perception about Process of Mergers

It can be inferred from Table 5 thatsix profile variables have significant valueof less than 0.05. Hence, there is an

association between investors’ perceptionabout process of merger and majority oftheir profile variables.

Table 6: Association between Personal Profile and Perception about Process of Mergers

Moderate Adequacy of Control Rules and RegulationEducational Qualification HSC - -Occupation Self Employed - Employed-private sectorMonthly Income - - Rs. 45,001-60,000Family Members - <3 -Dependents - - -Income Earning Members - 1 3

Relationship between profile ofinvestors and their perception aboutprocess of mergers has been analyzedusing chi-square test, ANOVA andindependent samples t-test. Table 5portrays the results of chi-squareAnalysis.

The results of correspondenceanalysis have been compiled in Table6. Table suggests that investors with

monthly income of Rs. 45,001-60,000, employment in private sectorand those having three income earning

Process of MergersValue Sig.

Gender 5.399 0.067Age 10.866 0.093Educational qualification 16.864 0.032Occupation 23.680 0.050Monthly income 15.786 0.046Family members 37.640 0.000Dependents 20.429 0.025Income earning members 13.845 0.031Family members in share market 3.173 0.787Savings 12.297 0.138

59

members in their family have theperception that there is adequate rulesand regulation to govern the processof mergers. Investors with school leveleducat ion and those with self-employment have moderate viewabout process of mergers. Investorsare having less than three familymembers and one income earningmember have the perception thatadequate control exists behind the

process of mergers. Hence, thenumber of income earning members infamily of investors is c loselyassociated with their perception aboutthe process of merger.

The profile variables which lackedassociation with investors’ perceptionabout process of merger were tested forthe presence of significant relationshipusing ANOVA and the results have beendisplayed in Table 7.

Table 7: Relationship between Personal Profile and Perception about Process of Mergers

1 2 3 4 5 6F (Sig.) F (Sig.) F (Sig.) F (Sig.) F (Sig.) F (Sig.)

Gender 0.145 0.676 -0.782 0.126 0.583 -1.379(0.884)# (0.499)# (0.44)# (0.9)# (0.563)# (0.177)#

Age 0.189 0.427 2.629 1.469 1.682 0.107(0.904) (0.734) (0.05) (0.222) (0.17) (0.956)

Educational 1.113 0.17 0.387 0.864 1.214 0.263qualification (0.35) (0.954) (0.818) (0.485) (0.304) (0.902)Occupation 1.351 1.381 1.871 0.943 1.362 0.554

(0.224) (0.211) (0.072) (0.473) (0.219) (0.793)Family members in 0.133 0.261 0.589 0.397 0.422 0.977share market (0.94) (0.854) (0.622) (0.755) (0.738) (0.403)Savings 1.112 0.505 4.118 1.143 0.439 1.021

(0.35) (0.732) (0.003) (0.335) (0.781) (0.396)

# indicates t value and its significant level.Where, 1 - Investment Managers; 2 - Transparency; 3 - No Insider Trading;

4 - Rules and Regulations; 5 - SEBI; 6 - Public Announcements;

Table 7 displays that significancevalues in respect of age and saving are lessthan 0.05, suggesting that investors’perception about insider trading isinfluenced by age and savings.

It can be observed from Table 8 thatinvestors with savings of 16-20 percenthave moderate view about insider trading.

Table 8: Post Hoc Analysis

Savings No Insider Trading1 2

10-15 1.9421-25 1.97<10 2.18 2.18>25 2.33 2.3316-20 2.55



Table 9: Association between Investment-Related Factors and Perception about Process of Mergers

Process of MergersValue Sig.

Investment avenues 24.777 0.000Period of investments 13.396 0.037Equity investment avenues 21.799 0.005Money in equity 12.301 0.138

Table 9 indicates that three of the fourinvestment-related factors have signifi-cance value of less than 0.05. Hence, there

is association between investment-relatedfactors and investors perception aboutprocess of mergers.

Table 10: Association between Investment-Related Factors and Perception about Process of Mergers

Moderate Adequacy of Control Rules and RegulationInvestment Avenues High financial Low financial Medium financial

maturity maturity maturityPeriod of Investment <5 years - 5-10 yearsEquity Investment Equity and Purely equity in Equity, derivativesAvenues mutual funds secondary market and mutual funds

The results of correspondenceanalysis have been compiled in Table 10.Table highlights that investors with highdegree of financial maturity, those havingless than five years’ experience in sharemarket and those who have invested inequity and mutual funds have moderateview about process of mergers. Investorswith low degree of financial maturity andthose who have invested purely insecondary market possess the perceptionthat there is adequacy of control over the

process of mergers. Investors withmedium level of financial maturity, thosewith 5-10 years of experience in sharemarket and those who have invested inequity, derivatives and mutual funds holdthe perception that there are adequate rulesand regulations to regulate the process ofmergers. Hence, it can be said that degreeof financial maturity possessed byinvestors and avenues of equity investmentare closely associated with their perceptionabout the process of mergers.

Table 11: Relationship between Investment-Related Factors and Investors Perception aboutProcess of Mergers

Investment Transparency No Insider Rules and SEBI PublicManagers Trading Regulations Announcements

F (Sig.) F (Sig.) F (Sig.) F (Sig.) F (Sig.) F (Sig.)Money in 0.597 0.872 0.634 0.574 0.614 1.348equity (0.665) (0.481) (0.639) (0.682) (0.653) (0.251)

61

Table 11 indicates that the significancevalue in respect of money invested in equityis greater than the threshold limit of 0.05,suggesting that this variable has failed toinfluence investors’ perception aboutprocess of mergers.

Influence of Profile of Investors onPerception about Process of Mergers

Chi-square test, independentsamples t-test and ANOVA haverevealed the prevalence of significantrelationship between investors perceptionabout the process of mergers and 11

profile variables of age, educationalqualification, occupation, monthlyincome, number of family members,number of dependents, number of incomeearning members, savings, investmentavenues, period of investments and equityinvestment avenues. Canonicalcorrelation has been employed to unearththe most influencing variable of these 11variables. Canonical correlation measuresrelationship between two sets. Clusterscore has been considered as set onewhile the 11 profile variables have beentaken as set two.

Table 12: Canonical Correlation

Table 12 shows canonical correlationvalue of 20 percent, which is significant atfive percent level. Further, it is observedthat all the variables have significance value

of more than 0.05 suggesting that both thepersonal and investment profile variablesare not influencing investors’ perceptionabout process of mergers.



Conclusion

This study finds that the investors areof the opinion that SEBI is effectivelycontrolling the process of M&A in Indiaand that adequate investment managers areavailable to take care of merger process.Based on their perception about theprocess of mergers, investors have beengrouped into three categories of moderate,adequacy of control and rules andregulations. Existence of significantrelationship between investors perceptionabout process of merger and the profilecharacteristics of age, educationalqualification, occupation, monthly income,number of family members, number ofdependents, number of income earningmembers, savings, investment avenues,period of investments and equityinvestment avenues has been established.

Investors with monthly income of Rs.45,001-60,000, employment in privatesector, those having three income earningmembers in their family, medium level offinancial maturity, those with 5-10 yearsof experience in share market and thosewho have invested in equity, derivativesand mutual funds hold the perception thatthere are adequate rules and regulationsto regulate the process of mergers.Investors with school level education,those with self-employment, high degreeof financial maturity, those having less thanfive years’ experience in share market andthose who have invested in equity andmutual funds have moderate view aboutprocess of mergers. Investors are having

less than three family members, oneincome earning member, low degree offinancial maturity and those who haveinvested purely in secondary marketpossess the perception that there isadequacy of control over the process ofmergers. Investors with savings of 16-20percent have moderate view about insidertrading. This study also finds that the profileof investors is not strongly influencing theirperception about process of mergers.

References

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Hassan, M., Patro, D. K., Tuckman,H., & Wang, X. (2007). Do mergers andacquisitions create shareholder wealth inthe pharmaceutical industry? InternationalJournal of Pharmaceutical andHealthcare Marketing, 1(1), 58–78.

Kiymaz, H. (2006). The Impact ofAnnounced Motives , Financial Distress ,and Industry Affiliation on Shareholders’Wealth/ : Evidence from Large Sell-offs.Quarterly Journal of Business &Economics, 45(3&4), 69–90.

Singh, F., & Mogla, M. (2008).Impact of Mergers on Profitability ofAcquiring Companies. The IcfaiUniversity Journal of Mergers &Acquisitions, 5(2), 60–76.

Uddin, M., & Boateng, A. (2009).An analysis of short-run performance ofcross-border mergers and acquisitions:Evidence from the UK acquiring firms.Review of Accounting and Finance,8(4), 431–453.



Growth and Pattern of Deposit Mobilization byAssam Gramin Vikash Bank – A Study

Pinkumoni KashyapResearch Scholar, Department of Commerce,

Assam University (A Central University), Silchar, IndiaEmail: [email protected]

Kingshuk AdhikariAssistant Professor, Department of Commerce,

Assam University, Silchar, IndiaEmail: [email protected]

Nikhil Bhusan DeyProfessor, Department of Commerce,

Dean, Mahatma Gandhi School of Economics and CommerceEmail: [email protected]

ABSTRACTThe present paper makes a modest attempt to study the growth of deposit mobilized byRegional Rural Banks in India vis-a-vis Assam Gramin Vikash Bank (AGVB) from theyear 2006 to 2013. Interpretations of data have been made by employing CompoundAnnual Growth Rate, t-test, and least square regression model. The growth of totaldeposits of AGVB is found to be higher as compared to the growth of total deposit ofall Regional Rural Banks in India. However, the proportion of low cost stable depos-its is much higher as compared to other categories of deposits in AGVB during thestudy period.

Key words: Mobilization, Growth Pattern, Deposit

Introduction

The Banking Commission in its reportin 1972 mooted the idea of setting up ofrural banks in order to provide creditfacilities, mobilize rural savings and spreadbanking habits among the rural people. Inthe year 1975 the Working Group headedby M. Narashimhan Rao approved theproposal and Central Government decidedto set up Regional Rural Banks in differentparts of the country. Accordingly, firstRegional Rural Bank was established on 2nd

October 1975 (Desai, 1979). Depositmobilization is a vital activity for bankinginstitution and it determines the working andviability of a bank to a great extent(Hosamani, 2002). Therefore, depositmobilized by the RRBs plays a key role asan instrument for promoting savings andbanking habit among the rural people.However, it depends upon the savingcapacity and saving habit of the people ofthe areas where the bank have been offeringits service. Thus, quantum of deposit has a

65Growth and Pattern of Deposit Mobilization by Assam Gramin Vikash Bank – A Study

great significance not only for the RegionalRural Banks, but also for the developmentof the rural economy (Sonara, 1998).

Assam Gramin Vikash Bank is oneof the Regional Rural Bank of Assam andit has been operating through its widenetwork of branches scattered over 25districts out of the total of 27 districts inAssam. This bank has come into existenceon 12 January, 2006 after the merger offour Regional Rural Banks of Assam. Atpresent the bank has 374 numbers ofbranches with seven Regional (Controlling)Offices (Annual Report, 2012-13).Assam Gramin Vikash Bank mobilizesdeposit from rural people through CurrentAccount, Savings Bank Account and TermDeposit to explore the hidden resourcesof the rural areas of the states. Apart fromthat, the bank also offers other specialcustomized deposit schemes to theircustomers, such as, Lakhpati DepositScheme, Re-investment Plan Certificate,Asomi Siddhidata Scheme, Asomi FlexiDeposit Scheme, and Asomi Tax SaversTerm Deposit Scheme etc1.

Brief Review of Literature

Over the years various studies havebeen conducted on different aspects ofRegional Rural Banks in India as well ason individual institutions but the findings ofthose research works cannot begeneralized as they are related to differenttime periods and geographical locations.However, relevant literatures have been

reviewed in order to understand the gapin the existing literature. Balamohandaset.al. (1991) opined that there has beensignificant growth in terms of total depositand deposit per branch of Regional RuralBanks in India and Sri Visakha GrameenaBank of Andhra Pradesh during 1976 to1983. Another study made by Sonara(1998) also found that there wasphenomenal growth of total deposit anddeposit per branch of Regional RuralBanks in Gujarat during 1991 to 1985.The study identified that Savings BankDeposit has contributed maximum portionto total deposits and proportion of CurrentAccount Deposit was insignificant. Again,findings of the study made by Uddin(2003) revealed that Regional Rural Banksof Uttarakhand have made significantprogress in the sphere of depositmobilization during 1991 to 1996. Thestudy also found that the position ofRegional Rural Banks of Uttarakhand interms of deposit per branch is notsatisfactory. However, Rathore (2004)concluded that growth pattern of depositof Avadh Gramin Bank was notsatisfactory during 1991 to 2003. Butdeposit per branch and deposit peremployee has improved significantly duringthe study period. Hadi & Bagchi (2006)revealed that growth of total deposits,deposit per bank and deposit per branchof Regional Rural Banks in West Bengalwas higher as compared to Regional RuralBanks in India during 1985 to 2001. Kaye(2006) highlighted that Arunachal Pradesh

1 http://www.agvbank.co.in/deposit_schemes.php


Rural Bank has made significant growth intotal deposits during 1992 to 2002.However, proportion of both SavingDeposit and Term Deposit has shownmixed trend.

Dey & Adhikari (2010) studieddeposit mobilization by Regional RuralBanks in India and Cachar Gramin Bankfrom 1991 to 2004 and found that growthrate of deposit of Cachar Gramin Bankwas higher as compared to the growth rateof deposit of all RRBs in India. Moreover,they conducted field survey on 200respondents in order to assess theperception of depositors and concludedthat respondents were not satisfied withthe quality of service received from thebank. Chakrabarti (2011) found that therewas significant improvement in terms ofgrowth of deposit, per capita deposit anddeposit per branch of Regional RuralBanks in West Bengal during 1991 to2005. Thus, the review of related literatureindicates that growth of total deposit,deposit per branch and deposit per RRBsof respective bank was by and largesignificant. Hence, total deposit, depositper branch, deposit per employee anddifferent categories of deposit accounts ofAssam Gramin Vikash Bank have beenconsidered for the present study.

Objectives of the study

1. To compare the growth of depositsof Regional Rural Banks in India vis-a-vis Assam Gramin Vikash Bankfrom the year 2006 to 2013.

2. To analyze the pattern of deposit mixof Assam Gramin Vikash Bank duringthe period under consideration.

Method of study

The study is based on secondary data.Key Statistics of Regional Rural Banks,NABARD and Annual Reports of AssamGramin Viaksh Bank of the entire studyperiod (from March 2006 to March 2013)has been used for analysis and interpretationof data. The data so collected have beentabulated and analysed with the help ofstatistical techniques like, CompoundAnnual Growth Rate (CAGR), Index,Mean, Range and Standard Deviation,Skewness. The significance of thecomparative growth has been tested usingt statistic. Moreover, the straight line trendequations have also been fitted.

Analysis and Interpretation

Deposit is one of the most importantsources of the bank for enlarging theirresources. Table 1 show that total depositsof Regional Rural Banks in India has beenincreasing over the years. Total depositsof RRBs were 713288.33 crore in 2006that has increased to 2064610 crore in2013. Similarly, total deposit of AssamGramin Vikash Bank was 1710.73 crorein 2006 that has increased to 5531.28crore in 2013. RRBs of India and AGVBhave registered Compound AnnualGrowth Rate of 16.40 percent and 18.25percent respectively. Thus, it is found thatCAGR of AGVB is higher as comparedto RRBs in India during the study period.

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Table 1: Deposits of Regional Rural Banks in India vis-à-vis Assam Gramin Vikash Bank

Year RRBs in India Index Assam Gramin Vikash Index(as on 31st March) ( in crore) (%) Bank ( in crore) (%)

2006 713288.33 100 1710.73 1002007 831435.53 116.56 1964.71 114.852008 990934.64 119.18 2366.91 120.472009 1201889.01 121.29 2881.52 121.742010 1450349.45 120.67 3462.34 120.162011 1662323.41 114.62 4376.38 126.402012 1863360.71 112.09 4883.17 111.582013 2064610.00 110.80 5531.28 113.27

CAGR (%) 16.40 18.25t- value 8.3215*

Critical value 2.18SD 493810.08 1411.63

*Significant at 5% level Source: Compiled from Key Statistics of Regional Rural Banks, NABARD Annual Report, Assam Gramin Vikash Bank, 2006-2013

Moreover, RRBs have attainedhighest growth index in 2009. Afterwardsthe growth index of deposit of RRBs inIndia has declined to 110.80 percent in2013. Similarly, growth index of depositmobilized by AGVB is the highest in theyear 2011. Again, the value of t statisticalso shows that there is significantdifference in the growth of depositmobilized by RRBs in India and AGVBduring the study period. The value ofstandard deviation of deposit mobilizationby RRBs in India and AGVB from 2006to 2013 are 493810.08 crore and1411.63 crore. Thus, the variation is lessin growth of deposits of AGVB ascompared to the RRBs in India during theperiod of study. Again, two trend equationshave been fitted for growth of totaldeposits of RRBs in India vis-a-vis AGVB.

Deposits of RRBs in India = 200970x -402502523.4 with R² = 0.9938

Deposits of AGVB = 570.78x -1143581.931 with R² = 0.9809

The above equations show the growthof deposits of RRBs in India as well asAGVB during the study period. The valueof R² of deposits of RRBs in India is0.9938, which implies that more than 99percent growth deposits can be explainedwith time factor. Coefficient ofdetermination (R2) of AGVB is 0.9809;meaning thereby more than 98 percentgrowth on deposit of AGVB can beexplained with the time factor.

Table 2 shows that deposit perbranch of RRBs in India has increasedfrom 49.21 crore in 2006 to 121.55 crore

Growth and Pattern of Deposit Mobilization by Assam Gramin Vikash Bank – A Study


in 2013. At the same time, deposit perbranch of AGVB stood at 14.79 crore in2013 against 4.82 crore in 2006. AssamGramin Vikash Bank registered highestCompound Annual Growth Rate of 17.37percent against 13.79 percent CAGR ofRegional Rural Banks in India. The value

of t statistic also shows that there issignificant difference in growth of depositper branch of RRBs in India and AGVBduring the study period. Moreover, twoseparate straight line regression have beenfitted for growth of deposit per branch ofRegional RRBs vis-a-vis AGVB.

Table 2: Deposit per Branch of Regional Rural Banks in Indiavis-à-vis Assam Gramin Vikash Bank


2006 49.21 100 4.82 1002007 57.26 116.36 5.53 114.732008 67.13 117.24 6.67 120.612009 79.17 117.94 8.12 121.742010 93.69 118.34 9.73 119.832011 103.89 110.89 11.92 122.512012 110.20 106.07 13.23 110.992013 121.55 110.30 14.79 111.79

CAGR (%) 13.79 17.37t- value 8.9470*

Critical value 2.18

*Significant at 5% level Source: Complied form Key Statistics of Regional Rural Banks, NABARD

Annual Report, Assam Gramin Vikash Bank, 2006-2013

Deposit per branch of RRBs in India =10.665x -21346.5 with R² = 0.9939

Deposit per branch of AGVB = 1.4958x- 2996.5 with R² = 0.9871

It may be noted that deposit perbranch of Regional Rural Banks in India,value of R2 is 0.9939, which implies thatmore than 99 percent of growth of depositper branch of RRBs in India can beexplained with the help of time only. Again,

coefficient of determination (R2) of depositper branch of AGVB is 0.9871 meaningthereby almost 98 percent change indeposit per branch can be explained withthe help of time factor.

Table 3 depicts deposit peremployee of RRBs in India and AGVBfrom 2006-2013. Deposit per employeewas 10.39 crore as on 31st March 2006but it has increased to 27.53 crore in

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2013. However, deposit per employeeof AGVB was only 0.97 crore as on 31st

March 2006 but the same has increasedto 2.94 crore as at 31st March 2013.

Further, Compound Annual Growth Rateof Assam Gramin Vikash Bank is highercompared to that of Regional Rural Banksin India.

Table 3: Deposit per Employee of Regional Rural Banks in India vis-à-vis AssamGramin Vikash Bank


2006 10.39 100 0.97 1002007 12.18 117.23 1.11 114.432008 14.57 119.62 1.36 122.522009 17.54 120.38 1.68 123.532010 21.01 119.78 2.04 121.432011 23.70 112.80 2.53 124.022012 25.08 105.82 2.79 110.282013 27.53 109.77 2.94 105.38

CAGR (%) 14.93 17.20t- value 8.3962*

Critical value 2.18

*Significant at 5% level Source: Complied form Key Statistics of Regional Rural Banks, NABARD

Annual Report, Assam Gramin Vikash Bank, 2006-2013

The calculated value of t is higher thanthat of critical value. Thus, there is significantdifference in growth of deposit per employeeof RRBs in India vis-à-vis AGVB duringthe study period. Furthermore, two straightline equations have been fitted for growthof deposit per employee of RRBs in Indiavis-a-vis AGVB.

Deposit per employee of RRBs in India= 2.5636x -5132.5 with R² = 0.992

Deposit per employee of AGVB =0.3102x - 621.5 with R² = 0.9828

The coefficient of determination ofdeposit per branch of Regional RuralBanks in India is 0.992, which implies thatmore than 99 percent of growth can beexplained with the help of time only.Further, R² of deposit per employee ofAssam Gramin Vikash Bank is 0.9828.Thus, it may be inferred that more than98 percent of the growth of deposit peremployee is influenced by time factoronly.



Table 4: Category wise classification of Deposits of Assam Gramin Vikash Bank

Year Current Saving Bank Term Total(as on Deposits Deposits Deposits Deposits

31st March) ( in crore) ( in crore) ( in crore) ( in crore)2006 69.73(4.08) 943.68(55.16) 697.32(40.76) 1710.73(100)2007 122.89(6.25) 1116.79(56.84) 725.03(36.90) 1964.71(100)2008 217.26(9.18) 1369.75(57.87) 779.9(32.95) 2366.91(100)2009 209.23(7.26) 1751.62(60.79) 920.67(31.95) 2881.52(100)2010 303.94(8.78) 2126.27(61.41) 1032.13(29.81) 3462.34(100)2011 384.7(8.79) 2764.34(63.16) 1227.34(28.04) 4376.38(100)2012 463.98(9.50) 2991.24(61.26) 1427.95(29.24) 4883.17(100)2013 385.51(6.97) 3268.15(59.08) 1877.62(33.95) 5531.28(100)

Incremental Deposit 315.78 2324.47 1180.3 3820.55CAGR (%) 27.67 19.42 15.49 18.25

t- value 5.523* 6.495* 7.517* 6.807*

*Significant at 5% level (2- tailed) Note: Figures in parenthesis indicate share of different categories of deposits to the total deposit Source: Compiled from Annual Report, Assam Gramin Vikash Bank, 2006-2013

Table 4 shows the category wisedeposits of Assam Gramin Vikash Bank,namely, Current Account Deposits, SavingBank Deposits and Term Deposits.Current Deposits of AGVB has increasedfrom 69.73 crore in 2006 to 385.51crore in 2013. At the same time SavingBank Deposits has also increased from943.68 crore in 2006 to 3268.15 crorein 2013. Again, Term Deposits hasincreased from 697.32 crore in 2006 to1877.62 crore in 2013. The relative shareof Savings Bank Deposits to total depositsof AGVB is higher compare to othercategory. The relative share of SavingsBank Deposits has been decreasing from2012 onwards. Again, share of Termdeposits has shown decreasing trend andCurrent Deposits has shown mixed trend.

Savings Bank Deposits has highest growthin terms of absolute figure and CurrentDeposits has recorded least growth. It isalso found that there is negative growthCurrent Deposits in two years i.e., 2009and 2013 Moreover, Current Deposits hasregistered highest Compound AnnualGrowth Rate of 27.67 percent and TermDeposits has least Compound AnnualGrowth Rate of 15.49 percent among allthe category of deposit. Current Depositshas records highest growth index of176.79 percent in 2008. However, thesame has declined to 83.09 percent in2013. Again, Savings Bank Deposits hasregistered highest growth index of 130.01percent in 2011. Further, Term depositshas recorded highest growth index of131.49 percent in 2013.

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The calculated value of one sample t-test statistics for growth of current deposits,savings bank deposits, term deposits andtotal deposits of AGVB found statisticallysignificant as the respective p- values areless than 0.05. Moreover, four straight lineequations have been fitted for growth ofdifferent categories of deposits of AssamGramin Vikash Bank.

Current Deposits of AGVB = 53.725x– 107692 with R² = 0.9081

Savings Bank Deposits of AGVB=359.55x –720469 with R² = 0.9815

Term Deposits of AGVB = 157.51x –315422 with R² = 0.8914

Total Deposits of AGVB = 570.78x -1143581.931 with R² = 0.9809

The regression coefficients ofdifferent categories of deposits of AssamGramin Vikash Bank are found to bepositive, which imply that deposits of allthe categories of account have beengrowing with the passage of time. Thevalue of coefficient of determination is

highest in Savings Bank Deposits (R2 =0.9815) accounts which implies that morethan 98 percent of growth of deposits canbe explained with the help of time only.The regression coefficient of CurrentAccount Deposits is much higher thanTerm Deposits that indicates that thecategory of account is more influenced bytime factor. The coefficient ofdetermination of Current Deposits R2 is0.9081, which indicates that more than 90percent of the growth of deposits can beexplained with the time factor only. Further,in case of Term Deposits, value of R2 is0.8914, which imply explanatory variablehas least influence on the growth of TermDeposits over the study period. Thus it canbe said that 89 percent of the growth ofTerm Deposits can be explained with time.The explanatory variable has more influencein growth of total deposits of AGVB overthe period of study. The coefficient ofdetermination of total deposits of AGVB is0.9809 which means almost 98 percentchange in total deposit can be explained withthe help of time factor only.

Table 5: Descriptive Statistics of Deposits of AGVB

Parameters Current Account Savings Bank Term TotalDeposits Deposits Deposits Deposits

Mean 269.65 2041.48 1085.99 3397.13Standard Deviation 138.10 888.97 408.63 1411.63

Range 394.25 2324.47 1180.30 3820.55Skewness -0.077 0.173 1.116 0.337

Note: Based on Annual Report, Assam Gramin Vikash Bank, 2006-2013

Table 5 provides that during the studyperiod the AGVB has average totaldeposits of 3397.13 crore in which

Savings deposits has largest share with2041.48 crore followed by Term depositswith 1085.99 crore and the balance



amount is Current account deposits whichis least in share. In regard to the deviationfrom the mean value, there is a highestdeviation in case of Savings bankdeposits with 888.97 crore followed byTerm deposit with 408.634 crore whileit is least in Current account depositfigured by 138.10 crore and thusresulted to total deviation of 1411.63crore in Total deposits. The range ishighest in Savings bank deposit with2324.47 crore followed by Term

deposits with 1180.30 crore and least

in Current account deposits with 394.25crore resulting range of 3820.55 crorein case of Total deposits. Thus, the abovesummary statistics implies that duringstudy period, Savings deposits among theother categories of deposits has largestshare in Total deposits of AGVB alongwith highest deviation followed by Termdeposits and least by Current deposits.Further, the Total deposits as well asSavings and Term deposits are positivelyskewed while Current account depositsare negatively skewed.

Table 6: Growth of Demand and Term deposits of AGVB

Year (as on 31st March) Demand Deposits(in %) Term Deposits (in %)2007 22.33 3.972008 28.02 7.572009 23.56 18.052010 23.94 12.112011 29.58 18.912012 9.72 16.352013 5.74 31.49

t- value 1.019**p- value 0.328

*Insignificant at 5% level Note: Based on Annual Report, Assam Gramin Vikash Bank, 2006-2013

Table 6 shows the Year on Yeargrowth of demand and term deposits ofAssam Gramin Vikash Bank during theperiod under consideration. Growth ofDemand deposits of AGVB has risen from22.33 percent to 29.58 percent in 2011.Afterwards the growth of demand depos-its has declined to 5.75 percent in 2013.At the same time, growth of Term De-posits has also increased from 3.97 per-

cent to 18.05 percent in 2009. Further,the growth of Term Deposits has shownmixed increase trend and stood at 31.49percent in 2013. Regarding the differencebetween the growths of the two types ofdeposits, the analysis shows that yearlygrowth of Demand deposits is muchhigher than the Term deposits in each sub-sequent year except in last two years ofthe study period. Further, the result of

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independent two sample t- test provesthat the difference between the growthof the two types of deposits of AGVB is

statistically insignificant as the p value isgreater than the level of significance (á)i.e. 0.05.

Table 7: Growth of Demand Deposits of AGVB

Year (as on 31st March) Current Deposit (in %) Savings Deposit (in %)2007 76.24 18.342008 76.79 22.652009 -3.70 27.882010 45.27 21.392011 26.57 30.012012 20.61 8.212013 -16.91 9.26

t- value .881**p- value .409

*Insignificant at 5% level Note: Based on Annual Report, Assam Gramin Vikash Bank, 2006-2013

Table 7 depicts the Year on Yeargrowth of current and savings deposits ofAGVB during the study period. Growthof Current account deposits has showndecreasing trend from 76.24 percent tothe negative growth of 16.91 percent in2013. Savings deposits have increasedfrom 18.34 percent to 30.01 percent in2011. Further, the same has declined to9.26 percent in 2013. The independenttwo sample t- test shows that thedifference between the current and savingsdeposits is not statistically significant as thep value is greater than 0.05.

Conclusion

To conclude, the growth of AssamGramin Vikash Bank in the sphere ofdeposit mobilization is found satisfactory.The growth of deposit mobilization of

Assam Gramin Vikash Bank in terms ofCompound Annual Growth Rate is higheras compared to Regional Rural Banks inIndia during the study period. Further,result of t test shows that there is significantdifference in growth of total deposit ofAGVB and Regional Rural Banks in Indiaduring the study period. It is also noticedthat growth of deposit per branch anddeposit per employee of Assam GraminVikash Bank found better than nationallevel, which indicates there exist significantdifference in the growth deposit per branchand deposit per employee of RegionalRural Banks in India and AGVB duringthe period under consideration. Moreover,time has influenced the growth of totaldeposits, deposit per branch, and depositper employee of Regional Rural Banks inIndia more than growth of AGVB. Further,



Current Deposits of Assam Gramin VikashBank has recorded highest growth andTerm Deposits has least among othercategories of deposit accounts. However,proportion of Savings Bank Deposits tototal deposits is much higher than all othercategory of account. The, explanatoryvariable has influenced more in the growthof Saving Bank Deposits account ascompared to other categories of depositof AGVB. Further, the range of variationof growth of deposit is found highest incase of savings bank deposits with positiveskewness. The results of independent twosample t- test shows that year over yeargrowth of demand deposit and termdeposit is statistically insignificant. At thesame time difference in growth of currentand savings deposits are statistically notsignificant. Thus, it is pertinent to note thatthe AGVB has able to mobilize theunexplored financial resources andinculcate saving habits among the ruralpeople of Assam. However, analysis of thereasons for the recent trends in the growthand pattern of deposit mobilization byAssam Gramin Vikash Bank is a vital issueand there remain ample opportunities forfuture research in this direction.

ReferencesAssam Gramin Vikash Bank. Annual

Report, (Various Issues). Guwahati: Assam.Balamohandas, V, Rao, J.V.P., & Rao,

P.H. (1991). Rural Banks and RuralCredit. New Delhi: Discovery PublishingHouse.

Chakrabarti, M. (2011). RuralBanking in India. New Delhi: NewCentury Publication.

Dey, N.B., & Adhikari, K. (2010).Deposit Mobilization by Regional RuralBanks. Kangleipak Business Review,3(1), 48-54.

Desai, S. S.M. (1979). RuralBanking in India. Mumbai: HimalayaPublishing House.

Deposit Schemes of Assam GraminVikash Bank: http://www.agvbank.co.in/deposit_schemes.php (accessed on 05/10/2013)

Hadi, A. & Bagchi, K.K. (2006).Performance of Regional Rural Banksin West Bengal. New Delhi: SerialsPublications.

Hosamani, S.B. (2002). Performanceof Regional Rural Banks. New Delhi:Anmol Publications Pvt. Ltd.

Kaye, T. (2006). Role of RegionalRural Banks in Economic Development.Delhi: Abhijeet Publications.

Ram J. K. & Subudhi R. N. (2014).Customer Perception on performance ofRRBs of Odisha. Parikalpana, Vol.10(1),P.37-50.

Rathore, S.S. (2004). Rural Bankingin India with special reference to AndhraGramin Bank. Lacknow: New Royal BookCompany.

Sonara, C.K. (1998). Regional RuralBanks in India. New Delhi: AnmolPublications Pvt. Ltd.

Uddin, N. (2003). Regional RuralBanks and Development. New Delhi:Mittal Publication.

75

Interpersonal Competencies of Executives inService Organizations

Thamaraiselvi RajmohanSVP International School of Textile & Management,

Coimbatore-4 (TN)[email protected]

ABSTRACTInterpersonal competency is highly essential for today’s managers to perform con-structive interactions with mutual benefits. This paper assesses the interpersonalcompetencies of Executives in service industry, which is considered to be one of thepeople-oriented sectors and also comprises of complex business activities. An empiri-cal research was undertaken in the state of Tamil Nadu, India, which finds that womenare relatively poor with respect to their interpersonal competency than men and theexecutives working in different type of Service organizations may work for similarorganizational goals but vary in their interpersonal capabilities.

Introduction

Every organization in the globalarena is in search of ways and means ofimproving interpersonal relationshipsamong their employees. Positive andsound work relationships will certainlypromote successful teams to achieve theorganizational goals. Moreover thesuccess of the external communicationwith the outside members of theorganization likes suppliers, customers,competitors etc. mainly depends on thesmooth flow of communication in theinternal network. Hence, InterpersonalCompetencies need to be strenuouslycultivated among members of theOrganizations and carefully nurtured forbuilding trust in relationships.Interpersonal Competency of an

individual can be referred as the abilityto effectively relate with people in anorganizational setting. However, thediversities in knowledge, culture andtechnology in the workforce has madepeople skills as the most crucial techniqueand thereby, understanding others topersuade or to obtain the desired resultis one of the commonly felt organizationalbarriers. So the interpersonalcompetency is highly essential for today’smanagers to perform constructiveinteractions with mutual benefits. Aninitiative was taken to assess theinterpersonal competencies of Executivesin service industry, which is consideredto be one of the people-oriented sectorsand also comprises of complex businessactivities.

Parikalpana - KIIT Journal of Management, Vol-11(II), July-Dec.,2015


Theoretical Framework:

A ‘Competency’ may be referred asa behavior or set of behaviors which isthe outcome of knowledge, skill andattitude including traits, motives, valuesand beliefs that enables superiorperformance in a particular work context.Necmi Avkiran (2000) has described‘Competence’ as those areas of amanager’s work where he or she iscapable of performing the task effectivelyand ‘Interpersonal Competence’ as theperson-related behavioral dimensions thatunderlie competent performance.Further, Avkiran and Turner (1996),‘Interpersonal Skills’, being sensitive inhandling critical incidents andimplementing executive decisions, refer tothe ability to respond to staff’s needspositively, fostering a non-discriminatorywork environment where staff candevelop to their full personal potentialsand delegating authority.

In addition to this research, Goffee(1996) has reported through his study onbank managers about the significance ofInterpersonal Skills in acquiring managerialcapability in the professional firm and alsoproves that it is one of the competencyfactors for Sub-ordinate appraisal of high-performance managerial competencies.

Many researchers (Gupta 1993,Francis 1989, Barton 1990, Brody 2000)have identified that poor communicationskills and inadequate communicationsystems within the organizations suffersgreat interpersonal challenges. The success

of an enterprise depends on how itspeople communicate and co-ordinateamong themselves. Stephen Covey(1990), the renowned author has alsoexpressed that effectiveness incommunication is the life-blood ofsuccessful interpersonal relationships. Itmeans higher the level of communicationamong professionals and more effective willbe their interpersonal competencies.

However, ‘EffectiveCommunication’ is indispensable toenable the people for building successfulOrganizations and prosperous Societies.Joseph and Vohra (2002) have conducteda research on effective communicatorsamong the Middle and Senior Middlelevel Managers working in IndianOrganizations. They have consideredseventeen characteristics of effectivecommunication for measuring thecommunicative competence of Managersand have proved that these attributes areduly contributing to develop EffectiveCommunicators. Some of the importantcharacteristics are clarity in speech, goodlistening, concern for others, open tofeedback, proper non-verbalcommunication, and appropriate tone ofvoice, trustworthy and emotionalmaturity. While Frank Miyamoto et al(1995) that examined the Communicationbehavior in small discussion groups andidentified that Communicators behavebased on their verbal, non-verbal andlistening abilities. They concluded that tofacilitate optimum communication withinthe groups there must be strong

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communication responses with a blend ofgood speaking and effective listeningaccompanied by understandable non-verbal cues.

A research in Northern Ireland wasconducted among the Professionals inPrivate and Public Sectors (Dickson et al,2003) describing Internal Communicationand workplace relationships. The resultsreveal that Communication is more thanmere information exchange andrelationship management dealing withemotions are the key parts of its multi -dimensionality that cannot afford to beoverlooked.

It concludes that poor interpersonalrelations derived from factional conflictmay strongly affect the Corporate identityand also found that people in Privatecompanies were identified to be moreflexible, open-ended nature and with anelement of creativity than people in Publicenterprises. Further, there is an empiricalevidence about the communication gapexisting in a Public sector organization(Raina & Ningtourjam, 2005) narrates thecomplex problems at Managerial levelsare found to mainly due to the roots in lackof understanding. They convey thatthrough communication the Executives canmould the attitudes of people within theOrganization for coordinating theorganizational activities effectively. Theyalso prove that the employees in Publicsector lack openness, not committed towork and not really bothered aboutCompany’s progress. According to

Andres S. Grove, “How well wecommunicate is determined not by howwell we say things but how well weunderstood”. Henceforth, Self-awarenesscan be also considered as one of thecomponents for enhancing interpersonalcompetencies.

Glenice Wood (2003) wrote thatGender differences in perceptions ofworkplace attributes were found amongMiddle and Senior Middle levelManagers. Additionally, Brenda Hall-Taylor (1997) observed that Men andWomen perceived differently in themanagement skills and workplacebehavior. It implies that gender alsoinfluences the interpersonal relationship atworkplace.

According to Robert M Krauss andSusan R Fussel, the eminent psychologists,both verbal and non-verbal messagessignificantly contribute to the interpersonalprocess and also perceive from the socio-psychological aspects that thecommunicators’ competency can affect therelationships. Few Researchers from theUniversity of Houston (2002) have writtenthat Interpersonal Communication involveseffective listening, appropriate self-disclosure, and effective verbal andnonverbal messages. Based on thesediscussions, it can be stated thatCommunication skills, inclusive of verbal,non-verbal and listening abilities and Self-awareness have a major stake in enhancingthe Interpersonal Competencies ofManagers (Fig 1).

Interpersonal Competencies of Executives in Service Organizations


Fig. 1: showing the variables of Interpersonal Competencies and its impacton Individuals & the Organization

Objectives:

The main aim of the research is to studythe interpersonal competencies in the dyadiccommunication process among Executivesof middle and senior middle levels workingin Government owned service-centeredorganizations during the time period March2007-2008. This empirical research wasundertaken in the State of Tamilnadu,which is one of the largest in Southernregion of India. Coimbatore is a well-known developed City located in the Stateof Tamilnadu with culturally diversifiedpeople and hence the respondents of thisresearch were chosen to be one amongthem. In order to have a good insight thefollowing specific objectives were framedto conduct the study:

• To assess the communication skills ofthe Executives as a contributing factorto interpersonal effectiveness

• To ascertain self-awareness ascontributing factor to interpersonalcapabilities among the respondents

• To compare the interpersonalcompetencies of Executives workingin each sector

• To find out the inter-relationshipexisting among variables in theinterpersonal process

• To compare the interpersonalcharacteristics of Men and WomenExecutives in service organizations

Research Design:

A Descriptive research work wasundertaken to study the interpersonaleffectiveness of men and women employedin the middle level and senior middle levelof authority in the Government-ownedservice organizations in Coimbatore.

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Fig. 2: showing the sectoral distribution of the respondents for the study.

A predetermined structuredquestionnaire with a five point Likert scalewas used for collecting the primary data.The organizations with the service motivewere grouped into six segments (Fig. 2) forthe communication survey, based on natureof services provided to the society. Namely,(1) Finance (2) Education (3) Health (4)Public Utility (5) Transport and (6)Communication. Non-probability Quotasampling method was adopted to collectthe samples at convenience for pursuing thecommunication research. A highly reputedenterprise in each segment was selected asone unit to obtain the responses ofExecutives. Three hundred and sixgovernment employees gave theirresponses through self-assessmentquestions relating to their personal details,self-awareness, listening, verbal and non-verbal capabilities pertaining tocommunicative situations in professional

settings. The data was analyzed usingCorrelation, Regression, t test and one wayAnova using SPSS software. KarlPearson’s Correlation was adopted to findthe association between the interpersonalvariables. To compare the men and womenrespondents based on their interpersonalcompetencies and also to test the significantdifference between the groups t- test wasutilized during the analytical process.

1. Data Analysis:

The following are the statements ofanalysis with interpretations relating toresearch conducted among Executives:

a. Assess the Communication skillsof Executives:

The verbal, non-verbal and listeningabilities of the respondents were noted inorder to assess their communication skillsrelating to dyadic workplace interactions



(Table 1). As a result, the mean score valuefor Verbal skills is 2.73, which is relativelylower than Non-verbal and Listening skills(3.55). Likewise, in each of the sector,the mean score values for verbal abilitiesare lesser than the values for Non-verbaland Listening abilities. Then, the scores forverbal ability are highest with the Transportsector (2.84) and lowest with financialservice providers (2.56). The values forNon-verbal & listening are high among therespondents in utility services (3.75) andlowest for teaching professionals (3.41).Ultimately, the communication skills ofmiddle and senior middle level Executivesworking in Public Utility is 3.29, which isthe highest and in Finance sector it is 3.03,which is the lowest of all.

b. Ascertain the level of Self-awareness among respondents:

According to Table 1, the score forself-awareness is the maximum for Health

professionals with a value 4.04 and with aminimum of 3.57 for people working inTelecommunication and Broadcastingsectors. Individuals in Education (3.92)and Transport (3.97) found to be withsimilar scores for their level of self-awareness. Financial sector respondentshave a score of 4.03, which is moderatelyhigher than the score of 3.89 with PublicUtility services sector.

c. Compare the Interpersonalcompetencies of Executivesworking in each Sector:

Both communication skills and self-awareness were considered as the mainvariables to compute the interpersonalcapabilities of the service sectorExecutives. With reference to Table 1,respondents in finance sector have arelatively higher score for Self-awareness(4.03) than for their Communication skills(3.03).

Table 1: Showing the Interpersonal Effectiveness of Executives in each SectorFactors Sector-wise Mean scores Average

Finance Education Health Pub.Utlty Transport Commun( 58) (62) (37) (73) (31) (45)

Verbal 2.5670 2.6864 2.6787 2.8417 2.8459 2.7778 2.7329Nonverbal 3.5027 3.4117 3.5468 3.7555 3.5459 3.5966 3.5598&ListeningCommn. 3.0348 3.0490 3.1127 3.2986 3.1959 3.1872 3.1463Skills(Total)Self- 4.0302 3.9294 4.0473 3.8990 3.9718 3.5778 3.9092awarenessIPC 3.5325 3.4892 3.5800 3.5988 3.5838 3.3825 4.6980(Total)

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The scores for teaching professionalsare 3.04 for their Communication skills and3.9294 against their Self-awarenessshowing the need for skill development.Respondents of Health sector possessmore of Self-awareness (4.04) thanCommunication skills (3.11). Individualsworking in electricity, water and policeservices have 3.29 as the score for theirCommunication skills which is slightly lowerthan 3.89 towards their Self-awareness. Inthe transport sector, Executives havesecured 3.19 for their Communication skillswhich is relatively lower than level of Self-awareness 3.97. The Communication skillvalues (3.18) are moderately lower thanthe values of Self-awareness (3.57) amongthe respondents of communication sector.When the overall interpersonal competenciesof Executives in each sector are compared,there is a significantly higher value for therespondents working in public utilityservices with 3.59 and significantly lowervalue for the respondents in communicationsector with 3.38 as the scores.

People in other sectors have the meanvalues as – Education 3.48, Finance 3.53,Health 3.58 and Transport 3.58 in anascending order. In total, people workingin service organizations, inclusive of all thesix type of services, at middle and seniormiddle level have a relatively lower valueof 2.73 for verbal skills than 3.55 for Non-verbal and Listening skills. Similarly, theyhave a higher score of 3.90 for Self-awareness than 3.14 for theirCommunication skills.

d. Relationship prevailing amongthe Interpersonal variables:

The Communication skills and Self-awareness were considered as twoIndependent variables in the process withInterpersonal Competencies as theDependent variable for finding therelationship existing among them. Verbal,Non-verbal and Listening wereconsidered as the three sub-variables ofCommunication Skills.

Table 2: Showing the relationship existing between variables in the interpersonal process

Variables IPC SW VB NVB&LIST

IPC Pearson Correlation 1 0.444** 0.606** 0.806**

Sig. - 0.000 0.000 0.000

SW Pearson Correlation 0.444** 1 -0.091 0.252**

Sig. 0.000 - 0.112 0.000

VB Pearson Correlation 0.606** -0.091 1 0.137*

Sig. 0.000 0.112 - 0.017

NVB & Pearson Correlation 0.806** 0.252** 0.137* 1

LIST Sig. 0.000 0.000 0.017 -



Karl Pearson Correlation methodwas adopted to execute the two-tailedtest and Table 2 shows that Correlationis significant between Self-awarenessand Interpersonal Competencies at0.444, between Verbal skills andInterpersonal Competencies at 0.606,between Non-verbal and Listening skillsand Interpersonal Competencies at0.806. Table also reveals that is apositive relationship existing betweenSelf-awareness and Non-verbal andListening skills at 0.252, whereas thereis a negative relationship existingbetween Self-awareness and Verbalskills. Verbal, Non-verbal and Listeningare found to be inter-related at 0.137.Comparing the interpersonal variables,Self-awareness and Communicationskills, it is identified with a value of0.706 for Communication skills, whichis relatively more than the value 0.444against Self-awareness in terms ofassociation with each other.

e. Compare the Interpersonalcharacteristics of Men andWomen in service organizations:

Gender comparison based onInterpersonal characteristics were madebetween the two groups male and femalerespondents working as Executives inmiddle and senior middle levels ofService type of Organizations. Toconduct the data analysis, the verbal,non-verbal and listening factors wereconsidered for ascertainingcommunication skills and however,

communication skills with self-awarenesstogether was computed for ascertainingthe Interpersonal competency ofindividuals. Table 3 reveals that amongthe men, verbal abilities have a lower valueof 2.83 than 3.56 towards their non-verbal and listening abilities. Also theypossess a score of 3.19 for thecommunication skills, which is relativelylower than the self-awareness of 3.91.Likewise, among the women, verbalabilities score is 2.60, which is lower thanthe non-verbal and listening abilities of3.57. Their scores for communicationskills are 3.09 and for self-awareness are3.91.

Between men and womenexecutives, there is a significantdifference found for communicationskills, especially verbal modes at 0.009,which is less than 0.05 with 2.619 asthe ‘t’ value. The overall score forcommunication skill is comparativelyhigh with men (3.1988) than withwomen (3.0902). Men have a value of3.9053 for self-awareness, which isalmost the same as Women with a valueof 3.9113 and significant value of0.9210, which is more than 0.05. Hencethere is no significant difference betweengenders with regard to their self-awareness. Ultimately, the Interpersonalcapabilities score is 3.5520 for men and3.5007 for women, which also has nosignificant difference because thesignificant value is 0.885, which is morethan 0.05.

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Table 3: Showing the significance between men and women based on interpersonal skills

Factors Men Women ‘t’ Sig(N=165) (N=141)

Verbal 2.8364 2.6044 2.6190 0.009

Nb & List 3.5613 3.5761 -0.2020 0.840

CS (Total) 3.1988 3.0902 1.2085 0.4245

SW 3.9053 3.9113 -0.0990 0.9210

IPC (Total) 3.5520 3.5007 0.5547 0.885

Discussions: The following are thefindings of the study that are discussedbased on the research objectives in detail:

• Respondents working for serviceorganizations are relatively better innon-verbal and listening skills thanverbal communication – From Table 1,it can be understood that the Executivesworking in middle and senior middle levelsof service type of organizations seem tobe using effective body language in theirinternal communication and also seem tobe possessing good listening abilities duringthe interactions. But they are found to berelatively poor in their verbal modes ofinterpersonal communication and thiscould be due to the culturally diversifiedwork teams that lead them to semanticbarriers like poor vocabulary or languageproblems or mispronunciations or usageof slangs or jargons or lack of coherence.Additionally, they may face somepsychological blocks like fear, status quo,ego levels, low self-esteem or lack ofconfidence during oral communication. Insuch a situation, respondents may generallylisten well to others and tend to avoidspeaking to others or may even try to

speak with more of facial expressions,gestures and actions.

• Transport sector respondents arecomparatively good in their verbalexpressions then the respondents inFinance sector – It can be understoodfrom Table 1, that the respondentsproviding services relating to airways andrailways seem to possess relatively betterverbal abilities than the respondentsindulged in banking and insurance kind ofservices. This may be due to the differencein working styles or type of colleagues ornature of communicative messages or thetechnologies used for organizationalinteractions. In general, financial executivesspeak less and read and write more towork effectively; it is because they do nothave time and opportunity for verbalcommunication and also tend to workindependently without a need for talkingto others. Unlikely, the respondents inother sector have to interact with otherduring working others for information,enquiry, persuasion or feedback andexecute their responsibilities effectively andthey may not have a requirement foractionable expressions. It could also be



that they are trained to speak clearly tomake the receiver understandable or evenduring unmanageable situations they mayenhance their speaking skills to makeinterpersonal communication effective.

• Body language and listeningskills are found to be relatively soundamong the respondents in public utilityservices than the academicians – Withreference to Table 1, it is understood thatrespondents working for water, electricityand police departments possess goodskills to listen to others and also to speaknon-verbally with others. It could be thattheir nature of work induces them to adoptlively gestures, give out feelings throughtheir face or trained to listen to theircounter-parts for information gathering andto coordinate the team work. On the otherhand, teaching professionals seem to belacking in listening and non-verbal abilities.This could be because they are not awareof the non-verbal cues or maybe they areless confident while using body languageand poor listening may be due to lack oftrust in receiver or distractions whilelistening to others or have preconceivedideas during the listening process.

• Public utility sector respondentshave been identified to be goodcommunicators and financial sectorrespondents as poor communicators –It can be inferred from Table 1 that in thenon-verbal and listening aspects ofcommunication, the respondents of water,electricity and police departments seemedto be better than others.

In spite of being moderate in theirverbal modes, they are soundcommunicators because of their effectivenon-verbal and listening skills. Whereas,the respondents working for banks andinsurance companies seem to be relativelyineffective in workplace communicationsand this is may be because they are foundto possess inadequate skills both in verbal,non-verbal and listening too. There couldbe causes like environment, culture,workplace emotions or semantics for theirinability to communicate effectively throughverbal and non-verbal styles andexperience impatience, irritation ordistraction in their listening process.

• Self-awareness pertaining toInterpersonal Competencies of therespondents seemed to becomparatively more among individualsin Health sector than inCommunication sector – Table 1 revealsthat Academicians and Transport serviceproviders are found to feel high about theirability to create interpersonal relationshipswith their superiors, colleagues and sub-ordinates. However, the FinancialExecutives seemed to be relatively betterthan the public utility respondents in termsof Self-awareness. But the Healthprofessionals are identifies to be moreaware of themselves than the individualsinvolved in communicative services. Thiscould be owing to the difference in theirprofessional characteristics like theexpertise knowledge or speciallydeveloped traits or the service motiveswhich vary according to the type of their

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Organizations. There are no sufficientopportunities for the individuals workingin Broadcasting and Telecommunicationservices to increase their knowledgebandwidth and also their monotonousworking conditions can be a greathindrance for their self-development.

- All the Respondents are foundto be relatively better in Self-awareness aspects than inCommunication skills – Self-awarenessand Communication skills togethercontribute to the InterpersonalCompetencies of the respondents. Basedon the Table 1 values, it is understood that,in spite of differences in type ofOrganization and nature of services, all therespondents seem to be similar in terms ofSelf-awareness. Their perception abouttheir knowledge relating to developinggood relationships with others is higher thantheir ability to communicate with others.They more confident about theirknowledge and less confident about theirsoft skills needed for their professionaldevelopment. The reasons may be theyare technical sound with adequateexperience in their professional area, butthe need and time spent on skilldevelopment may be inadequate during thecareer.

• A Positive Relationship foundbetween the Interpersonal variables –From Table 2, it can be inferred that thereexists an association between Self-awareness and Interpersonalcompetencies and similarly with

Communication skills and Interpersonalcompetencies. It could be that anindividual’s ability to influence othersthrough interactions tends to be soundwhen they possess adequate knowledgeabout themselves and thereby increases thelevel of self-confidence to communicateeffectively during negotiations, discussionsand meetings in an organizationalcommunication network.

• Communication skill as a variableis comparatively contributing more tothe Interpersonal competenciesvariable than the Self-awarenessvariable - As shown in Table 2, the abilityto communicate successfully with otherindividuals within the organization highlydepends on speaking styles, tone ofconveying the message, emotional maturityin speech, listening habits and effective useof gestures and so even a slight variationin this skill-set can cause a great impacton the ability to build rapport with otherindividuals. Even though Self-awarenessis also essential for achieving excellence inthe process, it seems to be relatively lesssignificant than communicating abilities.Respondents may have adequateknowledge with confidence during theinterpersonal process but if their skill levelsare inadequate they may not create asustainable interpersonal association withother members in the organization.

• The Sub-variables ofCommunication skills are inter-relatedwith each other – With reference to Table2, verbal, nonverbal and listening seemed



to have a good relationship with thevariable, Communication skill and this canbe because these skills are requiredtogether for executing effectivecommunication with others. When therespondents try to convey messages toothers they need to make them understandto the best of their ability using goodlanguage, appropriate tone of speech,appealing style, voice modulation, suitablegestures, positive postures, consciousexpressions and also adapting activelistening methods. Any kind of variationhappening in any one of the sub-variables,it may create a change in understandingthe message and ultimately delays inattaining consensus between sender andreceiver.

• Self-awareness found to bepositive with Non-verbal and listeningaspects but negative with Verbalcommunication – It can be understoodwith the help of Table 2 that there exists apositive relationship between Self-awareness and Non-verbal and Listeningvariables. Whereas, a negative associationis significantly identified between thevariables Self-awareness and Verbal skills.Bodily expressions are highly related toSelf-awareness because, the actionablelanguage always arises based on theiracquired level of knowledge persistent intheir minds. Moreover, unspokenexpressions are spontaneous that theycannot be hidden or modified duringinteractions rather expressions can beintentionally modified according to thesituation. Likewise, more effective listening

can be experienced during professionalcommunication when there is immensesatisfaction of their knowledge levels andit can certainly boost their self-confidencewith a relative improvement in trust. Moreof Self-awareness seem to reduce theability to speak effectively because therecan arise over-confidence, less trust inrelationship or with preconceived notionsin the process.

• Both Men and Women are foundto be better in Non-verbal andListening abilities than verbal formsof communication – With the help ofTable 3, it can be inferred that theExecutives working in middle and seniormiddle levels of any service organizationstry to convey messages with more ofgestures and expressions in order to makethe receiver understand quickly. Moreover,they also tend to listen carefully during theformal interactions so that the process iseffective.

But they are identified to be lackingin speaking modes of communication andthis may be due to lack of trust with thereceiver or because of high self-esteem.In service enterprises, employees find lesstime to talk with each other rather spendmore time on speaking through actions andalso by listening to others.

• More of Self-awareness and lessof Communicating abilities similarlyidentified among the Genders – Table3 reveals that respondents seemed toperceive positively about awareness abouttheir interpersonal abilities and believe that

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their communication skills are lacking tomeet their level of awareness. They couldhave been better in competencies if theirskill levels were at par with the extent ofawareness. Meeting different kind ofpeople, working with diversified teams andperforming multi-tasking have paved wayfor the respondents to gain strength in theform of self-awareness. On the otherhand, factors like variety of responsibilities,busy schedule, massive groups, workpressure, etc. can be reasons for thecommunication bottlenecks.

• There is a significant differencebetween the genders in VerbalCommunication – Men seem to be betterin communicating verbally than Women asper Table 3 and this is could be due to thedifference in their skill capabilities andemotional maturity while communicatinginterpersonally. Men and Women seem toperceive differently and hence theirperceptions about their communicationskills also vary. Women tend to lose theiremotional balance during workplaceinteractions and this may cause a significantimpact in style and tone of communication.Men rather do not let out their feelings toothers, especially in workplace. Incommunicative situations, men and womenbehave in a different manner owing to waysof conveying message or may be the abilityto make the receiver understand varieswith the voice, pitch and volume variations.

• Men seem to be comparativelygood communicators than Women inService organizations – Since men are

more effective in verbal abilities thanwomen as shown in Table 3, it adds to thesuccess of their communication andunlikely, women lack in verbalcommunication skills that may lead tomiscommunication. Even though theirperceptions about self-awareness aresimilar, they may vary in speaking modesowing to psychological barriers like fear,anxiety, anger, irritation etc.

In the Interpersonal process, verbalskills contribute mainly for the smooth andsuccessful flow of communication.Therefore if there is any hindrance in verbalcommunication process then in spite ofgood non-verbal cues there may becommunication gap created betweensender and receiver. What womencommunicate is not so essentially damagingthe process but maybe it is due to howthey convey the messages in theorganization.

• There is no significant differencebetween men and women in Self-awareness aspects – As per Table 3, itcan be understood that men and womenperceive similarly with regard to their levelof self-awareness about interpersonalcompetencies. This may be because bothare indulged in providing services to publicin different forms and above all, theorganizational goals that may be similartend to drive them in having the similarlevels of knowledge and self-confidence.Since them equally aware of theircompetencies, their interactions may notcause distortions due to knowledge



variance but may be confrontations canhappen in communication aspects.

• Male respondents found to berelatively more capable ofcommunicating interpersonally thanfemale respondents – From Table 3, itcan be interpreted that since men possessbetter skills to communicate verbally whencompared to women and so their overallcommunication skills are also relativelygood. Henceforth, they seemed to possessbetter competencies to communicateinterpersonally than the WomenExecutives. As verbal aspects contributemainly to the organizational communicationprocess and as communication skills aresignificant for honing interpersonalcompetencies in professional context, malerespondents are identified to be successfulin maintaining good workplacerelationships and female respondentsseemed to be relatively incompetent ininterpersonal skills.

2. Implications of the Research:

• Educational Implications: In thechanging workforce, InterpersonalCommunication between professionalsoccurs in a variety of forms like telephone,electronic mail, videoconferencing etc.however this research focuses on the faceto face interactions of people in theireveryday lives. It highlights the genderdifferences in the interpersonal motivesprevailing among the senior middle andmiddle level Government employees.Professional Communicators canunderstand the cause and effect of

communication disorders that tend tohappen within the organization andrecommended suggestions can facilitatethem to develop suitable conversationalstyles. The study reveals some dark areasof effective communication, which can beconsidered and the communicationperspective of interpersonal relationshipsin the workplace can be felt to create highlyperforming groups.

• Societal Implications: Researchreveals that in terms of verbal, nonverbaland listening skills, professionals workingin any service sector Organization seemto behave similarly but in terms of Self-awareness the people working inTelecommunication and BroadcastingCenters are found to be deficient than theothers. The Government can have aninsight about the perception levels ofpeople relating to their interpersonalcompetencies in different types of servicesand can reframe their strategies to meetcommunication challenges. Additionally,the Service Organizations mustindependently realize the need of the hourand gear up immediately for fosteringexcellent communications skills andachieving dyadic co-orientation amongpeople.

3. Suggestions:

The following are some of the feasibleideas derived from the research findingsthat can be suggested for the Executivesto enhance their workplace competenciesand recommended to the Government forrejuvenating their enterprises:

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To the Individuals:

a) Men and Women shouldunderstand the gender gap in the levels ofperception, communication styles and theinterpersonal capabilities that are usuallyfound in the workplace. They may usesuitable words in the formal conversations,adopt professional speaking styles, takecare of their tone of the communicationbased on the situation and ultimately followcoherence while conveying messages.

b) People providing Informationrelated services in Telecommunication andthe Broadcasting Centers must takeinterest to improve their self-awarenessthrough exercises, exposures, interactions,wide reading, and effective listening. Thiscan help them to improve their perceptionsand develop good rapport with theircounterparts.

c) In order to improve interpersonalcompetencies, individuals can try topossess adequate self-awareness andcommunication skills that are essential fortheir work styles. Effective communicationmay be achieved through sound verbalinteractions, clear non verbal actions andgood listening abilities.

d) Communicators must learn to filterthe unclear or biased ideas for managingtheir workplace emotions, specificallyduring formal interactions like, meetings,discussions, negotiations and presentationsfor a healthy and prosperous work life.This can prevent conflict and encouragequick consensus in communication.

e) Professionals can consider thecommunication challenges positively andcan try enhancing their interpersonalcompetencies for creating goodimpression, building professional image andultimately attain career growth.

f) The study reveals some darkareas of effective communication and thecommunication perspective ofinterpersonal relationships in theworkplace which can be reformed by therespondents through a series ofinterpersonal training to create highlyperforming working groups.

g) In terms of verbal, nonverbal andlistening skills, professionals working inany service organization seem to behavesimilarly but in terms of Self-awareness thepeople working in Telecommunication andBroadcasting Centers are found to bedeficient than the others. Professionalsmust realize the need of the hour and useinterpersonal skill as a handy tool forappraisal and revalidation in theirorganizations.

h) Interpersonal competencies aresaid to be growing in importance in thefinancial sector (Goffee 1996). Despite thissituation, research findings show that theExecutives employed in Governmentsector and engaged in banking andinsurance services lack in people skills. Inthis context, they must take immediate stepsto improve their interpersonal efficiency byhoning effective oral skills and also learningto use appropriate body language withgood listening in conversations. This can



help them to attain outstanding performancein the competitive environment and alsomeet their targets effectively.

i) Teaching as a profession involvesthe cultivation of positive personalrelationships with pupils to provide qualityservices in the Learning Organizations.There are researchers (Carr David 2005,Baker et al 2004) who emphasizeinterpersonal competencies as one of thekey components to optimal careersuccess. Whereas, respondents of thisresearch working for Educationalinstitutions were found to be poorinterpersonal skills and this can become agreat barrier for climbing the academicladder in their organizations. SoAcademicians may realize the power ofCommunication and can develop soundverbal skills, good non-verbal cues andalso create a mind-set to listen keenly forfostering educational justice.

j) People in health-care servicestend to struggle for managing theiremotions at work place and this happenswhen they are unable to balance theirpublic and private lives (Mark 2005). It issuggested that Health Professionals ratherexplore their emotional barriers ininterpersonal process not to allow themto influence their public services.

They can try to develop highlyeffective interpersonal orientation in verticaland horizontal lines by way of transformingtheir speaking styles, voice modulation andempathetic listening for reachingprofessional success.

k) Executives working forbroadcasting and telecommunicationservices must show a reasonable increasein their interpersonal efficiency with asignificant and positive change in theirspeaking abilities. They can visualize agood image for themselves in theprofessions through enhancement ofinterpersonal skills.

To the Organizations:

a) Opportunities must be provided tothe service professionals for improving theirSelf-awareness, verbal, non-verbal andlistening skills through effective trainingmodules at every level of organization.More often, the individuals may beallowed to appear for behavior tests andtheir interpersonal competencies can beassessed in order to improve the existingskill levels (Mercer, 1993).

b) In fact, people possessing self-awareness but found to be poor in humancommunication may cause disasters in theirorganizations. Especially, the currentresearch has observed that individualsworking as Doctors and Nurses are havingadequate Self-concept with relatively poorcommunication skills. Amit Banerjee(2004) has observed through his researchthat in hospitals, during the emergencysituations, effective communication isindispensable and also plays a crucial roleto its members. The emergency wouldturn out into a crisis if the emotional factorin the interpersonal process is notcontrolled. Consistency, co-ordinationand timeliness are such a climate can be

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achieved by filtering the emotional barriersin the process and overcoming by effectivecommunication.

c) Necmi Avkiran (2000) hasidentified through a research thatInterpersonal Competencies of BankManagers in Australia are highly influencingtheir work effectiveness and thereby affectthe viability of the branches in the sector.Similarly, the outcomes of this researchstate that respondents working in banksand insurance companies are poor in theirinterpersonal skills. As a result, the financialinstitutions should motivate their Executivesto improve verbal communication skills soas to contribute their services efficientlyand provide the organizational support forenhancing their lacking areas.

d) The Telecommunication Companiesand the radio media may create successfulpolicies to improve their perception levelsand initiate to maintain strong workingteams and orient its employees by coachingthem towards attaining the targets.

e) Educational institutions arerecommended to create a platform for theacademicians to boost up theircommunication skills, especially listeningand non-verbal skills, which are highlyessential for achieving excellence indeveloping their campus.

Because, there is a research evidenceto prove that in academic organizations,the behavioral style and communicationorientation can influence the relationshipsexisting in the upward line of hierarchy(Darling et al, 2005).

f) Since men are bettercommunicators than women in services,the companies must encourage the WomenExecutives to perform better through upgradation of skills and also by emotionalmanagement strategies. This will uplift theorganization in terms of service quality,target setting and harmonious workingculture.

g) To bridge the gendercommunication gap, Men and Womenworking together in teams can beselectively determined based on theirinterpersonal competencies. Thus it canhelp the management to avoidmiscommunication and confrontations inthe work place.

h) Service Organizations should getinto a strong mind-set to beat the stiffcompetition through effectivecommunicative strategies within themembers and enjoy a long lastingcorporate image with globally recognizedreputation.

i) The Government can have aninsight about the perception levels ofpeople relating to their interpersonalcompetencies in different types of servicesand can reframe their strategies to meetcommunication challenges.

j) The service-centered Governmententerprises must take steps to vitalize theircommunication skills, especially the verbalstyles of communication and therebyincrease their productivity through highemployee morale.



k) Companies may introduce newcommunication strategies in the internalnetwork and install a feasible monitoringsystem for its employees to maximizeeffective interpersonal communication. Bystrengthening the system confrontationscan be mitigated at intra departmental andinter departmental levels.

l) The Service Organizations mustunderstand the implications in theinterpersonal relationships caused by thework teams and gear up immediately forfostering excellent communications skillsand achieving dyadic co-orientation amongpeople.

m) Conducting effective trainingprograms in the areas of Interpersonalbehavior and also evaluating the impact ofan interpersonal training and developmentintervention on the quality of the serviceprovided by the individuals are feasibleideas that can be advised to the serviceproviding institutions.

Conclusion:

The service professionals shouldbelieve that apart from their technical skillsin their fields like medicine, education,investments, transport or public services,these non-technical skills are also highlyimperative. They need to essentially buildupsustainable perceptions, trustworthiness andconsciousness of time, environment, gender,messages, channel etc. for achieving careerdevelopment in the forthcoming years.Interpersonal effectiveness at workplacerelates to understand others’ feelings and

speaking appropriately; listening skillfully topeople in the workplace and react;evaluating individuals based on theirknowledge, verbal abilities and also theirexpressions for cordial team work;communicating according to the changingsituations; mastering the art of gettingfeedback from others and learn to give timelyresponses to others. Executives working fora common goal in an Organization areexpected to avoid criticisms, complaints andconfrontations. Rather indulge intocompromising, harmonizing, clarifying andsummarizing for the benefit of formingpowerful task-oriented groups. Toconclude, Women are relatively poor withrespect to their interpersonal competencythan men and the Executives working indifferent type of Service organizations maywork for similar organizational goals butvary in their interpersonal capabilities. Thefindings of the study can help professionalsto understand the roadblocks in constructingeffective workplace relationships and theycan reinvent strategies to develop goodattitude, upgrade the skills and increase theknowledge bandwidth.

The service organizations engaged indifferent type of public services can realizethe importance for enhancing thecommunication skills of their employeesand may adopt suitable policies at top mostlevel to formulate successful teams. Bothindividuals and the organizations can followthe research guidelines to fine tune thehuman communication for developing highperformance working teams and improvetheir service quality to the society.

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Talent Management at Tesco:A Case Study

Rabinarayan SamantaraAssociate Professor in Commerce, Shivaji College, University of Delhi

Nidhi SharmaAssistant Professor in Commerce, Shivaji College, University of Delhi

ABSTRACTLeadership development is a key aspect of talent management programs and pro-cesses in organizations. In a competitive business environment, organizations seekcost efficient ways to develop talent and are continually looking to identify leader-ship qualities that will help them focus energy on the right people. This article ex-plores the diversity of opinion on leadership ability and how emotional maturity isintrinsic to leadership ability. A case study of talent management practices at TescoHindustan Service Center, Bangalore, corroborates this view.

Introduction

In the realm of OrganizationalBehaviour (OB), the subject of ‘TalentManagement’ has received considerableresearch attention in recent years. Thisphenomenon has been primarily due to ahighly competitive business environmentcharacterized by shrinking product lifecycles, multitude of products and servicesavailable in the market, increasing productdifferentiation, adoption of competitivemarketing strategies, etc. The only way thatorganizations can survive such cut-throatcompetition is through the attainment of‘competitive advantage’ (Barney, 1991;Iles, 1997; Tucker, Kao & Verma, 2005)that is crucially dependent on the qualityof an organization’s leadership ability,which has led to a virtual “war for talent”(Axelrod et al., 2001). In fact, the CEOs

and the senior leadership of organizationsnow spend considerable portion of theirtime in identifying and managing talent -the future leaders for their organizations(Martin & Schmidt, 2010; Stahl et al.,2012; Conaty & Charan, 2011). Talent isbelieved to provide the ‘strategicadvantage’ (Becker & Huselid, 1998,2006; Gelens et al., 2013), and the abilityto use human talent – attracting, finding,motivating, energizing and retaining – is thekey to an organization’s success, and toachieving the organization’s goal (Cheeseet al., 2008).

Organization theorists have providedmany definitions of talent and talentmanagement adding to the ‘richness’ of thesubject that must not only be ‘appreciatedand nurtured’ (Boudreau, 2013) but also‘embraced’ differentially to suit situations

Case Study-I


and context (Gelens et al., 2013;McDonnell, Collings & Burgess, 2012;Tansley, Kirk & Tietze, 2013; Thunnissenet al., 2013). Many organizations are oftenconfused and do not know how to goabout managing talent (Conaty & Charan,2011). Organizations need to decidewhether they should develop everyone(Stahl et al., 2012; Buckingham &Vosburgh, 2001; Walker & Larocco,2002) or adopt a more selective approach(Axelrod, Handfield-Jones, & Michaels,2002; Michaels, Handfield-Jones, &Axelrod, 2001; Smart, 1999). Theselective approach focuses on feweremployees with “high potential” (Silzer &Church, 2009) who can take on leadershiproles in the future (Cope, 1998) and ismore cost efficient (Williamson, 1981;Lepak and Snell, 1999; Morton, 2005;Collings & Mellahi, 2009).

Irrespective of the talent managementapproach adopted by organizations, thekey task of management is to adopt well-defined programmes and processes foridentifying and developing future leadersand for putting the ‘right people on the rightjobs’ (Jackson & Schuler, 1990) so thatthey can sustain the organizations’ growth.In the present paper, an attempt has beenmade to explore the relationship betweenemotional intelligence and the process ofleadership development in organizationsthrough talent management programmes.More specifically, the present researchviews leadership development as beingcrucial to an organization’s competitivestrength, recognizes the significance of

emotional intelligence among leaders, andseeks to emphasise upon a cost- effectiveapproach to developing leadership abilityby focussing talent managementprogrammes selectively on people withemotional maturity or emotionalintelligence.

Talent Management and LeadershipAbility

Effective managers or leaders thinkof leadership development as a ‘culturalevent’ (Ready, Hill & Conger, 2008) withinorganizations that can help retain talent. Aspart of their talent management programs,therefore, organizations assess leadershipqualities before developing mentoringprograms for their employees (Stahl et al.,2012). Different authors and theorists havelooked at leadership from differentperspectives. While some focus on thequalities of leaders, others view their styles,and still others focus on what the leadersdo. In the midst of a competitive businessand economic environment and theemerging workforce with varying levels ofskills and aspirations, a business leader issurely to be called upon to adoptleadership styles that are contextual(Hooper, 2006) or relevant to situationalvariables including people, desiredobjectives, and the need for deliveringbetter business performance. In otherwords, the talent management practicesshould focus on developing leadershipability within organizations withconsiderable degree of flexibility. Thissituational approach to leadership has

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evolved with the contributions of leadingmanagement theorists such as Blake andMouton’s (1964) Managerial Grid,Fiedler’s (1967) Contingency Theory ofLeadership Effectiveness, RobertTannenbaum and Warren Schmidt’s(1957) Continuum of Leadership Styles,etc. Research on this situational approachor contingency approach to leadershipeffectiveness has continued unabated inview of the ever-increasing role ofleadership in enhancing an organization’scompetitive strength and innovativeabilities. It must be emphasized thatirrespective of how different theoristsdescribe or categorize leadership, there isan underlying ‘relationship’ element ofvarying proportions in most of theleadership theories that underpins theability to relate at an emotional level as akey success factor. It is thereforeworthwhile to explore the significance ofemotional maturity from businessleadership point of view.

Emotional Maturity and LeadershipAbility

As the study is intended to explorethe relationship between emotional maturityor intelligence and leadership developmentwithin organizations, it would be desirable,in the first place, to define emotionalmaturity as well as its different aspects inan integrated manner. Emotional maturityhas been variously defined by differentauthors and theorists. Terms like emotionalintelligence, social intelligence andemotional maturity are often used

interchangeably. Emotional intelligence hasturned out to be a very emotive subjectand theorists explain it differently. The factthat the same theorists have refined theirunderstanding of the term over subsequentyears also indicates that we are still tryingto come to terms with the subject.However, the ultimate sense and importof all these definitions and explanations isessentially the same – the sensitivity torespond to different situations and peoplein a manner that creates positive vibrationsand a desire among people to work happilytogether to deliver results.

“Social intelligence comprises ofinterpersonal and intrapersonal intelligence(Thorndike, 1920; Gardner, 1993).” Theformer relates to one’s ability to understandothers’ sensitivities, motivations, workstyles so that one is able to work effectivelywith them while the latter relates to one’sability to understand oneself – i.e. to beaware of one’s own sensitivities,motivations, likes and dislikes so that onecan “operate” effectively in life. Socialintelligence relates substantially to dealingwith emotions which may have promptedSalovey & Mayer (1990) and some othersto coin the term “emotional intelligence”which some consider to be the same associal intelligence while others consider itas a subset of the latter. According toGoleman (2000), emotional intelligence isabout being self-aware so that one is ableto manage oneself, as well as being sociallyaware and empathetic so that one relatesbetter to others. Both types ofcompetencies were believed to facilitate

Talent Management at Tesco: A Case Study


better performance. Goleman (1995)adopted Salovey and Mayer’s definitionof emotional intelligence and furtherexpanded on the idea to include abilitiesthat enable people to apply self-restraint,maintain a clear thought process and beever hopeful in the face of adversity. Thisis what results in exceptionalachievement. As the tasks become morecomplicated, it is emotional intelligencerather than technical skills that help explaindelivery of superior performance. Thesequalities differentiate the winners from thelosers even though both may be equallyintelligent.

Mayer & Salovey (1997) havefurther refined the definition of emotionalintelligence to include related skills whichare more situational in nature but the basicsremain the same. In that sense, it involvesthe application of the basic tenets ofemotional intelligence in different situationsthat call for opportunities to either conductone-self more effectively or interact moreproductively with others. The element ofcontrol may be considered as a keyelement of the expanded proposition whichhas linkages with cause and effectphenomenon relating to our responses toothers based on our understanding of theiremotions and that of ours.

“Hughes & Terrell (2007) stated thatthe seven skills needed for emotional andsocial intelligence are: team identity,motivation, emotional awareness,communication, stress tolerance, conflictresolution, and positive mood.” A leadercan use these to generate the four

collaborative results- empathy, trust,loyalty, and better decisions.

In regard to the relationship betweenemotional maturity and leadership ability,we would now explore what authors andtheorists say about emotional maturitywhen they talk about leadership ability. Wefound support for the role of socialintelligence in organizational leadership(Zaccaro 1996, 1999, and 2001)especially as people move up the ladderto senior level positions. Skills likemanaging conflict, influencing and beingflexible are considered as key elements forpeople in leadership roles. Bass (1997)and Bar-On (1997) echoed similarsentiments attributing a transformationalleader’s superior performance and abilityto achieve higher levels of success to highemotional quotient scores. While there isno doubt regarding the importance ofintellect in running businesses effectively,(Goleman, Boyatzis & McKee 2002) oneneeds more than intellect to be a leader.The ability to listen, guide and persuade,motivate and inspire, and create resonanceare key tenets of effective leadership.According to Goleman (2000), theleadership style exhibited will depend onthe competencies associated withemotional intelligence.


In the light of the above review ofliterature on talent management practiceswithin organisations vis-à-vis theirimplications for emotional maturity as wellas the process of leadership development,

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an empirical study was conducted atTesco HSC that was established in 2004in Bangalore with a view to providingtechnology and operations support toTesco in UK. Since then Tesco HSC hasbeen growing tremendously in terms of itsoperations and presently, it is supportingTesco operations in other countries too,including Ireland, US and Central &Eastern Europe. The support areas includeInformation Technology (IT), Finance,Property, Commercial and a variety ofother business services. Questionnaire datawere collected from 100 managersoperating at various levels of theorganizational hierarchy, on a Likert- typescale with its values ranging from 1 to 4.For the reasons of anonymity, the identitiesof individual respondents were keptconfidential and they were asked toindicate their value judgments on fourdifferent aspects of emotional maturity(including self- awareness, socialawareness, self-management and socialskills represented by 8, 4, 7 and 6questionnaire items respectively) as wellas five aspects or dimensions of leadershipbehaviour (that included challenging,inspiring, enabling, modelling andencouraging represented by 6,6,6,6 and6 items respectively). In fact, differentaspects of emotional maturity andleadership behaviour were chosen forpurposes of the present study on the basisof a review of literature. It was expectedthat the research study would revealmeaningful information regarding thehypothetical relationship between

emotional maturity or intelligence andleadership development within theorganization and thereby suggestappropriate measures to help theemployees with high emotional maturity todevelop leadership capabilities or abilitiesand then occupy key managerial positions.

Results of Data Analysis

The mean values and standarddeviations for different aspects ofemotional maturity as well as leadershipbehaviour have been presented in Table1. The relatively low standard deviationvalues for both emotional intelligence andleadership aspects (ranging from aminimum of 0.37 to a maximum of 0.54)indicate the reliability of the researchfindings obtained. As it can be seen fromthe table, the manager respondents tendedto be high on components of emotionalmaturity while their mean scores on socialawareness and social skills werecomparatively low. These findings point tothe fact that the managers are not onlyaware of the inner aspects of theirpersonality, their sensitivities, likes anddislikes etc. but also make positive effortsto maintain self- direction and self – controlin the face of work – related challenges,problems or obstacles. However, there isa need for managers to enhance their socialawareness and social skills. While themanagers need to understand others’feelings, emotions or expectations, thereis also a need for them to improve theirsocial skills or inter – personal skills indealing with significant people in the work



environment. As far as leadershipbehaviour is concerned, the managersappear to be high on enabling, modellingand encouraging aspects with their meanscores being comparatively lower on thechallenging and inspiring aspects ordimensions of leadership. Thus themanagers try to cultivate meaningful,cooperative relationships with others

while at the same time setting goodexamples of work ethics or philosophybefore the work group and alsoinfluencing or motivating group membersto achieve the stated goals through ademocratic or participative approach.However, the managers’ innovative skillsas well as inspirational abilities need tobe enhanced further.

Table 1 : Emotional Maturity and Leadership Aspects or Dimensions a

Emotional Mean Standard Leadership Mean StandardMaturity Aspects Deviation Behaviour Aspects DeviationSelf-awareness 3.35(1) 0.37 1. Challenging 3.19(4) 0.46Social awareness 3.10(3) 0.51 2. Inspiring 3.07(5) 0.54Self-management 3.32(2) 0.39 3. Enabling 3.44(1) 0.34Social skills 3.09(4) 0.45 4. Modelling 3.36(2) 0.38

5. Encouraging 3.34(3) 0.46a N= 100 for all measures

Table 2 shows that correlationcoefficients calculated for various aspectsof emotional maturity and leadershipbehaviour of managers. It can be seen thatall the correlation coefficient values aresignificant at 0.01 level of confidence,indicating a positive, significant relationshipamong the variables studied. Regarding thefour aspects of emotional intelligencestudied, it was found that all the fourvariables were positively and significantlyrelated to one another. These findingssignify that emotional maturity aspects areprimarily centred on the relationshipcomponent of the job and are thereforecommonly related to one another. It wasfurther noted that self – awareness and self– management are closely related to eachother (indicated by a high correlation

coefficient of 0.63), pointing to a possiblecause – and – effect relationship betweenthe two variables. Similar positive, intimaterelationship was observed between socialawareness and social skills as indicated bya high correlation coefficient of 0.68. Inaddition, it was found that all the fivecomponents of leadership behaviour werepositively related to one another.

The research data revealed that eachaspect of emotional intelligence waspositively related to different aspects ordimensions of leadership behaviour. Thisparticular finding strengthens the argumentthat through selective talent managementprogrammes, it is possible to developleadership qualities in individuals andthereby enable them to occupy

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successively higher -level managerialpositions in the organisational hierarchy.For this purpose, employees with ‘high

potential for leadership abilities’ may beidentified or selected as indicated by theirhigher emotional intelligence level.

Table 2 : Intercorrelations among the four Emotional Maturity Aspects and thefive Leadership Aspects a

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Emotional MaturityAspects

1. Self-awareness 0.48* 0.63* 0.50* 0.44* 0.45* 0.48* 0.49* 0.40*

2. Social awareness 0.47* 0.68* 0.41* 0.43* 0.49* 0.53* 0.34*

3. Self-management 0.39* 0.56* 0.50* 0.51* 0.54* 0.36*

4. Social skills 0.32* 0.47* 0.35* 0.44* 0.40*

Leadership Aspects

5. Challenging 0.74* 0.55* 0.65* 0.41*

6. Inspiring 0.58* 0.70* 0.42*

7. Enabling 0.72* 0.51*

8. Modelling 0.62*

9. Encouraginga N= 100 for all correlations; *p < 0.01

Talent Management Practices atTesco HSC

In addition to the empirical researchstudy conducted within Tesco HSC asdescribed above, the talent managementpractices at Tesco HSC were alsocarefully studied. It was observed that thetalent management practices at TescoHSC were quite in consonance with thefindings of the empirical study that indicatedthat it is possible to develop leadershipqualities in individuals with high emotionalintelligence or emotional maturity andthereby enable them to occupy significant

positions in the organisational hierarchy. Infact, Tesco has a fairly evolved selective,cost – efficient talent management practicewith strong emphasis on evaluation ofemotional maturity for developingleadership ability. Tesco invests heavily ondeveloping people – both in terms offunctional and leadership skills.

In Tesco, the processes for identifyingand developing talent are institutionalizedthrough a well-defined framework calledthe Leadership Framework. Theleadership framework revolves around theelements of Me, Us, and IT. “Me” is all



about me, the leader living the values. Itinvolves one’s personal approach, integrity,drive and commitment. Leadership startswith the individual, his vision, mindset androle modeling. “Us” is about taking peoplealong. It involves working through others,building teams, gaining commitment,building relationships and supportingindividuals and teams to achieve their fullpotential. “It” is about the business context.It involves customer focus, maximizingcontribution to business, decision making,change management and overcomingbarriers. Tesco has identifiedcollaboration, empathy, responsiveness,resilience and innovation as theleadership skills that colleagues mustdemonstrate. This clearly indicates thatit views emotional maturity as integralto leadership ability.

The leadership at Tesco activelyengages in identifying and developingtalent through the year through variousprogrammes. The ‘5-5-5’ program isdesigned for Directors. Each of theminvests in 5 days of training for himself, 5days in training others and takes on theresponsibility of 5 mentees. “Options” isTesco’s flagship program for developingfuture leaders. Every year, the leadershipteam gets together to shortlist colleaguesfrom among the high potential and highperforming colleagues identified through atalent spotting process. The shortlistedcandidates are put through a rigorousassessment process, and those who qualifythen go through a developmentprogramme that readies them to take up

larger roles. Another programme initiatedby Tesco is the Global ManagementProgram (GMP) - a fast track programmethrough which it identifies bright youngstersacross the group with the potential to scaleup to senior leadership positions within aspan of five years. These colleagues gothrough fast paced learning programmesthat involve class room training, projects,and experiential learning throughassignments in a variety of businessfunctions and geographies. Tescounderstands that providing promotionalopportunities may have its limitations. Ithas, therefore, devised a Talent Planningprogramme through which it explores bothpromotional and lateral opportunities toretain its high performing, high potentialtalent. This is one way in which Tescoseeks to enhance the colleagues’ breadthof experience and prepare them tosucceed in larger roles.

Summary and Conclusion

In OB literature, the subject of‘Talent management’ has receivedconsiderable research attention in recentyears on account of its importance fromthe standpoint of an organisation’sleadership process, innovative skills as wellas sustainable development. In view of thepractical significance of the subject, anempirical study was conducted at TescoHSC, Bangalore, with a view to exploringthe relationship between emotionalintelligence and leadership developmentwithin the organisational context that isviewed as being crucial to an organisation’s

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competitive strength. More specifically,the present study emphasises upon a cost– effective approach towards developingleadership ability by focusing talentmanagement programmes selectively onpeople with emotional maturity andemotional intelligence.

For purposes of the research study,questionnaire data were collected from asmany as 100 managers operating atdifferent levels of the organisationalhierarchy on a Likert – type Scale, on fourdifferent aspects of emotional maturityincluding self awareness, social awareness,self management and social skills as wellas five aspects or dimensions of leadershipbehaviour that included challenging,inspiring, enabling, modelling andencouraging. The questionnaire items usedto measure the above mentioned aspectsof emotional maturity and leadershipbehaviour were selected through a carefulreview of literature. An analysis of datarevealed that the manager – respondentstended to be high on self awareness andself management aspects of emotionalmaturity while their mean scores on socialawareness and social skills werecomparatively low. In regard to leadershipbehaviour, the managers appeared to behigh on enabling, modelling andencouraging aspects with their meanscores being comparatively lower onchallenging and inspiring aspects ordimensions of leadership behaviour. Thedata analysis further indicated that all thefour aspects of emotional intelligence weresignificantly related to one another as all

these aspects are primarily centred on therelationship component of the job. Similarpositive, significant relationships were alsonoted among all the five components ofleadership behaviour. More significantly,the research data revealed that each aspectof emotional intelligence was positivelyrelated to different aspects or dimensionsof leadership behaviour.

On the whole, it can be concludedthat the present research has been quiteuseful in that it has highlighted some of thesignificant relationships between emotionalmaturity or intelligence and leadershipdevelopment within the organisationalcontext. This particular finding strengthensthe argument that through selective talentmanagement programmes, it is possible todevelop leadership qualities in individualemployees or executives (with highemotional intelligence or maturity) andthereby enable them to occupysuccessively higher – level managerialpositions in the organisational hierarchy. Asit has been observed earlier, the managers’social awareness and social skills seem tobe comparatively low. Thus, there is a needfor practising managers to enhance theirinter-personal and social networking skillsthrough appropriate training programmeswhile at the same time keeping abreast ofthe ongoing human relationships at thework situation. It is further suggested thatthe managers need to improve theirinnovative skills and inspirational abilitiesin dealing with their subordinates as wellas other significant people in the workenvironment in order to ensure unity of



action in the attainment of organisationalor subunit goals. In the end, it must bepointed out that the findings of the presentstudy may be regarded as somewhattentative in nature. In fact, the researchersneed to conduct similar studies acrossorganisations or even industries beforesome generalisations can be made.

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Gender Sensitivity among Employees inNGO Sector : A Case Study

Richa AwasthyAssistant Professor, International Management Institute, New Delhi.

[email protected] [email protected]

Nisha SahaiInternational Management Institute, New Delhi

[email protected]

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this paper is to examine the gender sensitivity issues prevalent amongemployees of an NGO and to identify performance indicators of gender sensitivebehaviours to be exemplified by the employees working in this sector. This study usesa qualitative case study approach to describe the gender mainstreaming issues fromthe perspective of the employees. Analysis of the interview data indicated that thereexists ambiguity within the core and the field team on the impact of gender sensitivebehaviours on performance appraisal, need to define the term gender as presently itseems to exclude men, Absence of any metrics to measure gender related challenges orachievements, perception among male staff that organization favours women, fear ofbacklash on making gender related complaints along with other issues like rigidworking hours and transport, to mention a few. The study draws lessons on how tobring about gender sensitivity within an organization’s culture along with identifyingthe performance indicators of Gender Sensitivity within an NGO context.

Introduction

The Indian economy has undergonesignificant transformation in the recentyears and a fundamental characteristic ofthis change has been the increase in thenumber of female employees, especiallyin the service industry (Verma, etal. 2012).As per the 2001 Census report publishedby the Government Of India, femaleworkers constituted 25.63% of the totalworking population and during the year2010, women applicants constituted 33.3%

of the total applicants on the live register ofjob seekers. This data clearly indicates thatthere are a significant proportion of womenparticipating in the labour market and theworkforce today is becoming more genderdiverse. Therefore we see an emerging needto develop work place policies andpractices that are gender sensitive andsupport equal opportunities for all theemployees irrespective of their gender.

The Non Governmental Organizationsector in India, engages around 1.9 million

Case Study-II


persons as volunteers and employees.Ever since mid 1980s, there has been anincreasing involvement of the NGOs inbroader social justice programs with sharpfocus on empowerment of marginalisedwomen. By the middle of 1990s, womenempowerment had become a part of thelexicon and all NGOs had begunsubscribing to it (Kilby 2011). India isestimated to have had around 2 millionNGOs in 2009. According to a surveydone by Society for participatoryResearch in Asia (PRIA) in 2002, with anincreasing emphasis on upliftment ofmarginalised women, role of femaleemployees in the NGO sector has beengaining significance.

Around 73.4% of the NGOs haveone or no paid staff and NGOs facemore resource crunch that the traditionalfor profit organizations (Goel and Kumar2005). Hence, these organizationscannot use external payoffs to motivatetheir employees and volunteers and theircommitment towards the organizationhas to be intrinsically driven as higherlevels of organizational commitmentamong its workforce is likely to enhancethe NGO effectiveness (Shiva and Suar2010).

The increasing demand of womenemployees in the NGO sector and theheavy dependence on intrinsic factors foremployee engagement, calls for an analysisof the gender mainstreaming issuesprevalent among the employees workingin this sector.

This paper looks at the SM SehgalFoundation as a case study forunderstanding the gender sensitivity issuesprevalent among employees working in theNGO sector.

Literature Review

According to Thege and Welpe(2002), ‘gender’ refers to the socially andculturally determined roles, rights, duties,resources, and interests of men andwomen. On similar lines, Internationallabour organization in its guidelines forgender sensitive employment (2008),refers to gender as the social attributes andopportunities associated with being a maleor a female while the biological differencesbetween males and females that they areborn with is referred to as sex. While theimplications of gender vary in differentsociety, the implication of biologicaldifferences of sex is universal. Theguidelines also talks about the use of‘gender disaggregated data’, i.e.,representing information on the basis ofgenders which provides importantindicators of gender needs, as a means ofachieving gender equality. The term‘Gender Equality’ has been described asequal rights and responsibilities for menand women. It doesn’t mean that men andwomen will become the same but theirrights, responsibilities and opportunitieswill not depend on whether they are bornmale or female.

Kaur (2013) calls the workplace asone of the chief arenas for gender inequalitywhich has given rise to problems like

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occupational segregation based on gender,gender based wage discrimination, etc.Gender is one of the most visible socialcategories within an organization (Eaglyand Karau 2002). People are oftenclassified on the basis of their gender whichsignificantly determines our behaviourstowards them (Allport 1954; Ito andUrland 2003). Underrepresentation ofwomen in variety of jobs or positions oftenmakes them ‘tokens’ in many places ofwork ( Farr and Cortina 2013) whichincreases the likelihood of them beingstereotyped, mistreated and roleentrapment (Kanter 1977). This does notimply that men do not face problems infeminine fields. They also face issues likeworkplace aggression (Andrews etal.2012) as well as perceptions ofincompetence and suspicion (Sargent2004). Gender Sensitivity is not aboutpitting women against men but instead ithelps to generate respect for individualsof the respective genders and do awaywith the gender based assumptions andstereotypes generalizations (Surana2013).

According to Rittenhofer and Gatrell(2012) Gender equality in any organizationis the outcome of gender sensitiveorganizational practices, which comesthrough: Gender mainstreaming andcompetence. Gender Mainstreaming,defined as the process by which theagenda of reducing the gaps in thedevelopment opportunities available tomen and women and working towardsachieving equality between them becomes

an integral part of the organization’sstrategy and policies and the focus of itsefforts to seek excellence. GenderCompetence, defined as the ability ofpeople to recognize gender perspectivesin their work and policy fields whileconcentrating on them to achieve the goalof gender equality. Gender competence isa prerequisite for successful GenderMainstreaming but at the same time, newgender competence is produced throughthe implementation of GenderMainstreaming

Clancy (2012) mentions 3 aspects toevaluate the organizational practices withrespect to gender, namely the existence ofcapacity building programmes, managerialsupport and staff performance incentivesfor using gender sensitive approaches. Shealso mentions that in order to implementgender responsive policies, an organizationshould have the capacity to work with thegender mainstreaming strategy in all itsoperations and this capacity can be gaugedthrough ‘Gender OrganizationalAssessment’, which would assess theexisting policies related to gender,interviews and focused group discussion.It can provide the baseline data that mighthelp in identifying the training needs andmonitoring the progress of any initiative toraise gender sensitivity levels in theorganization.

According to a study done in 2009by Gender and Social Fund, establishedby the Canadian InternationalDevelopment Agency gender inequality in

Gender Sensitivity among Employees in NGO Sector : A Case Study


organizations is an outcome of 2 mainfactors:

1. External factors like the legal, socialand cultural framework

2. Internal factors like corporate culture,values and human resources structure

The study also recommends that toachieve gender sensitivity in work placeactions need to be undertaken to affectand influence mental models and informalculture by protecting and encouragingwomen in the workplace, undertakingtrainings on employee diversity, awarenessof employee rights, training on handlingconflict, sexual harassment and complaints,etc. Organizations also need to overcomejob segregation and stereotyping byencouraging its employees to take up non-traditional posts and establish andimplement proper policies and practices.

While doing the literature review wefound that there are limited studies donein the development sector, which focus ongender issues such as Rajaraman andGupta (2012) examined the impact ofgender quotas for elected posts to localgovernment councils (panchayats) inIndia. However there is dearth of studiesdone in the domain of gender sensitivity inNGOs, where women have significantrepresentation. The current study intendsto fill this gap.

Conceptual Framework

Based on the findings of Clancy(2012) that the gender aspect oforganizational practices can be evaluated

at 3 levels, namely, the existence ofcapacity building programmes, managerialsupport and staff performance incentivesfor using gender sensitive approaches, andthe gender policy of S M SehgalFoundation, which is defined at 2 levels:institutional and programmatic, thefollowing conceptual framework wasdeveloped. Based on this conceptualframework further research, analyses andrecommendations were done.

There are 3 aspects of gendersensitivity in an organization, namelyInstitutional Aspects, ProgrammaticAspects and Attitudinal Aspects. They arediscussed below in detail:

1. Institutional Aspects: Theseinclude factors which are within the controlof the organization. They primarilycomprise of (Refer Figure 1) performancerewards, capacity building and managerialsupport.

Figure 1: Institutional Aspects

Staff Performance rewards forusing Gender Aware Approaches

Performance evaluation criteria Recognition Promotions and Increments

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Existence of Capacity buildingprograms

Trainings Communication Awareness Building Managerial Support Policy Framework ( Gender Policy

and vision, gender in objectives,activities, budget, etc)

Recruitment Criteria Gender Balance of Staff Availability of resources/ facilities

based on gender Reporting of gender disaggregated

data

2. Programmatic Aspects: Theseinclude factors which help study whetheror not the organization is including genderconsiderations in its programdevelopment, design and practice. Atprogrammatic or output level, theorganization needs to ensure that benefitsof the program that accrue to the differentgenders within a society, are contributingto reducing the gender disparity throughtheir equitable distribution.

3. Attitudinal Aspects: Organizationscannot directly influence these aspects.These include factors which are influencedby the socio- economic conditions. Tobring about any change in the attitude ofthe employees, corresponding changesneed to be brought about in the InstitutionalLevel factors (by creating an enablingenvironment, providing positive/ negativereinforcements, etc). along with reinforcing

the organzation’s gender stance through itsinitiatives at the programmatic level ( byundertaking projects that promote genderequality in the society) (Refer Figure 2).

Figure 2: Changes in Institutional Factorsdrive attitudinal change

The above conceptual frame workwas used to design, carry out and analysethe primary research that followed.

The following section will present thebrief profile of the SM Sehgal Foundation.

Organization Profile

The S M Sehgal Foundation, registeredas a trust since 1999, works for the wellbeingof rural communities in India in the areas ofnatural resource management, incomeenhancement (primarily small-scaleagriculture), education, health and sanitation,capacity building, and rural governance toimprove the current conditions and futureprospects for the rural communities. It alsoconducts rural research as a premierknowledge institute for rural development andpoverty reduction in India. It is currently



working in the Mewat District in Haryanaand has recently expanded into the AlwarDistrict in Rajasthan.

S M Sehgal Foundation’s operationalmodel is based on self sustainableprinciples, i.e., it believes in empoweringthe people rather than doing plain simplecharity. It works to create an enablingenvironment for the community it worksfor by focussing on skill building,knowledge sharing and leadershipdevelopment so that with time, thecommunity members cease needing theorganization’s support.

The Foundation has employeestrength of around 120 and the existinggender ratio is presently tilted towards themales (especially among the field teammembers). This is due to the lack ofavailability of female candidates who arewilling to work with the organization asmost of the field team members are localresidents of the Mewat region, which isan extremely closed one where women donot enjoy many liberties. The Foundationis working to provide all the support itcan to its female employees and create aconducive environment for women towork as this will help them to attract moreand more female employees. S M SehgalFoundation, as an organization, aims tobuild a gender neutral culture, by imbibingin all its employees, irrespective of theirgender, sensitivity, understanding,appreciation and respect towards theother genders. For this reason, it wants tointroduce gender sensitivity as acompetence requirement in all its

employees and integrate this competencein all its major HR processes likerecruitments, appraisals, trainings etc. Theorganization has been holding severaltrainings on the gender sensitivity issues atthe field as well as the core team level andalso has a dedicated Gender Committee,headed directly by the CEO. Hence, as anext step, the organization wants to identifyindicators of the gender sensitivebehaviours and chalk out a process toamalgamate these behaviours with theprevalent organization culture.

About Mewat RegionMewat District is a district in

Haryana, located in the vicinity of theGurgaon District. The district comprisesof 431 villages and 297 panchayats. Theprimary occupation of the inhabitants ofthis district is agriculture and related agrobased activities with animal husbandry asthe secondary source of income. Theregion has a healthy sex ratio of 906females per 1000 males. The villages inthe Mewat district are mostly populatedby the Meo Muslims. They were originallyRajputs and Kshatriyas who embracedIslam during the Muslim invasions.

The region has remained socially andeconomically backward over the yearsand has not seen much development sinceindependence.


Research Objectives

The main objective of this exploratorystudy was to understand the existing level

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of gender sensitivity that exists among theemployees working with the S M SehgalFoundation and to identify performanceindicators of gender sensitive behavioursrelevant for the Foundation.

Qualitative approach

Since the issues pertaining to thegender policies, stance and practices ofan organization are usually not acomfortable area of discussion for theemployees; to get honest responses fromthem a qualitative approach was adopted.Semi Structured interview (Rubin andRubin 2011) was found to be the mostuseful in this regard as going into the fieldto have direct contact with persons understudy in their natural environment helps tobuild closeness, empathy and trust andhence gain more candid responses. It alsoallows asking of open ended questions tobe able to capture the others’ point of viewand participant observation whichincreases the richness of the collected data(Patton 2001).

Data Collection

Data was collected through semistructured interviews with 27 employeesof the S M Sehgal Foundation out of which8 employees belonged to the core team inGurgaon Office and 19 employeesbelonged to the field team working in thevillages of the Mewat District. The ratioof Male: Female was 16:11. Conveniencesampling was done but care was taken toensure fair representation of the employeesfrom all work division. The work placeinteractions were observed and the

employees were encouraged to sharecritical incidents. Each interview lasted forabout 30 to 45 minutes.

Two different interview protocols wereused: one for interviewing the field teamemployees and the other for interviewingthe core team employees. This was donebecause there exists a difference in thebackground, socio- economic conditions,education levels, roles and responsibilitiesbetween the field team and the core teammembers. The field team employees aremostly local residents of the Mewat districtand therefore, their attitudes areconsiderably influenced by the existingsocio- economic conditions of the area.Hence, while in the core team, all the 3aspects of gender sensitivity, i.e.,institutional, attitudinal and programmaticwere analysed, in the field team more stresswas laid on the attitudinal aspects.

The face validity of the tools used wasestablished by having them approved bythe HR Head and the head of the GenderCommittee. The interview protocols canbe found in the Annexure 1 (Field StaffInterview Protocol) and Annexure 2 (CoreTeam Interview Protocol).

Data Analysis

Qualitative content analysis was donewhich is “a research method for thesubjective interpretation of the content ofthe text data, through the systematicclassification process of coding andidentifying themes or patterns” (Hsieh andShannon 2005). The interview transcriptswere analyzed using the content analysis



technique (Weber 1985), a quasi-statistical approach that turns textualresponses into quantitative data forstatistical testing. The themes and patternsthat emerged from the data were identifiedand then checked with the actual instancesin the interview transcripts. Contentanalysis was done to convert data intopercentages with respect to employeeperception on institutional factors. Eachinterview transcript was analysed andfindings from all the transcripts werecollectively reconciled.

Findings

In this section the findings from thecontent analysis of the interviews with theCore Team and the Field Team has beenpresented separately. This is because theirworking conditions, job responsibilities,education levels, etc. differ considerablyand hence a general conclusion would havenot done justice.

Core Team Analysis Results

Performance Rewards: There isambiguity in the core team on how genderissues affect appraisal. There is absenceof any formal system defined for the same.However, they believe that now there isrevised focus. There is also a view thatsome supervisors may give not as goodappraisals to those female employees whoare reluctant to spend long times on field.

Managerial Support: There isgeneral awareness about gender policy.However, some feel that the policies arebiased towards women and hence there

is a need to make it gender neutral. Theterm gender needs to be defined; presentlyit seems to exclude men. Priority is givento women during recruitment. Organizationtries to gauge gender sensitivity (no formalmechanism for the same) during fieldrecruitment. During new employeeorientation, new joiners are only introducedto the gender policy and the complaint box,and there is no formal module on thegender sensitivity issue. Thus duringorientation it is somewhat covered but lackssubstantial emphasis on the issue of gendersensitivity. There exists no compulsion ormandate to report gender related challengesor data. It is important only from donor pointof view. There is absence of any metric tomeasure gender related challenges orachievements. It is considered an additionalthing which is not a must.

There seems to be a little insensitivitytowards the constraints of femaleemployees as for e.g., if a femaleemployee is asked to stay over in the fieldor prolong her stay in the field on a veryshort notice, then this creates a littleproblem for her as well as her family asmost female employees usually need toseek permission and make someprovisions from/ for their family membersbefore such overnight stays. Ratio offemale employees is less but that is due toless availability of female candidates.There is some stereotyping, such as mencan do outside work better than womenand hence contribute better. Overall,organization is looked at as favouringwomen and not as gender neutral.

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Capability Building: Mostlyemployees are satisfied with the trainings/workshops organized on the gender issue.However, some even feel that too much isbeing done. Core team members are ofthe view that more number of such trainingscan be organized for field staff. There existsno regular or direct communication (in theform of periodical mailers, newsletters,posters, etc) on gender issues. Flow ofinformation on gender related issuesprimarily happens through conferencesand workshops.

Programmatic Level: At theprogrammatic level, there are no specificindicators or metrics to gauge thebenefits accrued to the women/ menthrough these programs. However,employees are of the view that programsare designed as per the needs of the areaand may benefit both males and females.Their focus is not always gender. Focusis more on rural population. But thereare some programs designed especiallyto benefit women.

Attitudinal Level: Employees don’thave problems working with the oppositegender. They feel the organizationprovides them with full support. Some maleemployees feel that they have someconstraints in working with femaleemployees with regards to: Sending themfor field work; Arranging conveyance andTiming Constraints. Male employees aremore flexible with timings and are moresuited for field work. Hence, some amountof stereotyping exists.

Field Team Analysis findings

Attitude towards Working with theOpposite Gender: It was found thatmostly employees don’t have any problemin interacting with male and femalecolleagues; they respect and cooperatewith each other. Male employeesexperience challenge in interacting withfemale members of the communitybecause of stereotypical view ofcommunity. Male workers need to beaccompanied by female workers to reachout to community women. However,communication with the communitymembers and building trust and credibilityhelps them to resolve this issue. There aresome societal issues in working withopposite gender but employees can verywell handle it at their level and with timethis is no longer remains a major concernfor them. Overall employees supportwomen inclusion in all activities forcomplete growth.

Attitude towards GenderEquality: All employees believe in GenderEquality but also accept that society aswell as family members do not supportwomen participation. All employeescontribute in women inclusion andempowerment during the course of theirfield work by educating them about govtschemes (Widow pension, Anganwadi,Ladli Yojna) and helping them avail thesame, encouraging them to educate theirchildren, talking to men about their rights,giving them forefront roles, awarding highperforming female employees and sharing



their stories as role models, organizingevents like Mahila Gram Sabha anddisseminating information through radio.

All of them are disturbed by acts ofdiscrimination against women. While someactively and strongly oppose it bycomplaining at women helpline, taking astand against it, educating the communitymembers of the repercussions of their actsof discrimination, there are others whodon’t know how they can help as they can’tgo against the societal norms.

Institutional factors: Within theconstruct of managerial support, the StaffPolicies, Recruitment Process, Involvementin Decision making and Promotion Criteriawere examined. Based on the responsesof the 19 field interviewees, following pie-charts have been designed:

Figure 3: Employee Perception on StaffPolicies

From the pie charts we can see that74% of the respondents in the fieldinterview said that, the staff policies areneutral but 16% said that they favouredwomen (Refer Figure 3). With regards to

promotions, while 28% said that it wasneutral, 26 % felt that it was pro men and16 % said that they believed that itfavoured women (Refer Figure 4). Hence,we can see lack of clarity here. While maleemployees feel that female employees arefavoured during promotions, some femaleemployees feel that men have an advantageover them. 63% of the respondents saidthat the recruitment process was neutralbut 32% also felt that the process was alittle biased towards women (Refer Figure5). Some male employees have thisperception that undue advantage is givento female candidates during recruitmentsand some good male candidates withcredible qualifications are overlooked soas to employ a female candidate. They feelthat sometimes female candidates arebeing employed only because of theirgender which is unfair. The decisionmaking practice in the organization had awhopping 95% of the respondents sayingthat it involves both men and women andis not biased towards any one (ReferFigure 6).

Performance Appraisal: There isambiguity on how and till what extentgender sensitivity in behavior affectsemployee appraisals. Some feel, althoughnegative behavior is punished but gendersensitive behaviour, is not appropriatelyrewarded in appraisals.

Trainings: Very Positive feedbackwas received on gender training.

Transport Issue: Women face lotsof issues looking for transport due to which

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they have to work harder and spend moretime doing the same work as comparedto male employees but they feel in spite oftheir extra efforts, supervisors find maleemployees more efficient. They feel menhave an advantage due to their owning avehicle which helps them to do theirpersonal work too during work hours.Supervisors seem insensitive to thetransport problem. Due to this issue,women get late to work which createsinconvenience for male team membersespecially when a team activity isscheduled.

Women employees in the field alsohave problem with the compulsion toremain in the field till 5 PM and rigidworking hours. This is primarily becausepost 5 PM when they go out looking fortransport, it become difficult to find oneand even if they find one since it is mostlya shared transport, it takes a lot of time toget fully occupied since almost all the govtofficials and teachers who work in thevillages leave by 3 to 3:30 PM. As a resultit takes them a few hours before they reachback to their homes. Also women fieldemployees face problems looking for aplace or house to sit and spend time till 5PM once their work is over. In villages,women start preparing for evening mealsby 3. Then it becomes awkward to sit andwait.

Some other Issues andsuggestions (As brought up by theInterviewees): According to somegender complaint box is only for women.

Employees refrain from using thecomplaint box for the fear of backlash fromthe supervisor. Mistakes are not discussedwith the employees before taking itforward. Some female employees find itunsafe and intimidating to visit thecommunity unaccompanied as they feelthey will be jeered and mocked at by thecommunity people. Employee’s area ofinterest is not considered before allocatingwork to him. Some employees feel thateducational qualifications are notconsidered for promotions; hence theyperceive lack of a career trajectory. Thereis also a view that if a male complainsagainst a female employee, he is less likelyto be listened to.

During interviews employees pointedout the need to bring changes in theorganizational policies and practices toenhance gender sensitivity. Those were:Introduce flexible work timings for femaleemployees; Provide transportation supportto drop off female employees their villages;Employ more women to balance thegender ratio and avoid sending womenemployees alone to the community.

Some Good Practices being followedby a few employees

Below are some good practices beingfollowed by a few employees in the fieldwhich can be made a norm throughout theorganization:

• 50% Principle: Target equalparticipation by women in every fieldproject



• Recognizing high performing womenemployees and highlighting theirsuccess stories to inspire otherwomen in the community.

• Guiding female colleagues with worklike writing reports, bills, etc. and notdoing it completely for them so thatthey can become self reliant.

• Reporting violence or discriminationinstances against women on womenhelp lines.

• Women are given villages near themain road to partially ease the travelissues.

• Escort is being provided to femalestaff members if they have to stayback in villages for late hours.

Four Indicators of Gender SensitivityBased on the needs of the S M

Sehgal Foundation, as identified during thecourse of this study, the following 4behaviours have been recommended asthe pillars of gender sensitive culture withinthe organization, which are expected to bedemonstrated in the behaviours of allemployees. The behavioural indicators foreach of the 4 pillars of gender sensitivityhave been described in the table-1.

Table -1: The behavioural indicators for each of the 4 pillars of gender sensitivity

Pillar 1: Respect

• Treats people willdignity andrespect,irrespective oftheir gender

• Ensures coherentintegration ofgender equalityinto all theprogrammeprocedures

• Understands howcontributions ofmen and womenboth inside andoutside the familyis important

Pillar 2: Responsive

• Demonstratestolerance andflexibility ininterpersonal andgroup situations

• Recognizesothers’ limitationsand offersappropriatesupport

• Developsstrategies toovercome anygender relatedchallenges toachieveorganizationalgoals

Pillar 3: Enabling

• Assists in thedevelopment ofteam members

• Helps buildawareness ongender sensitivebehaviours

• Proactivelyworks to changethe views ofthose who areintoleranttowards theopposite gender.

Pillar 4: Evolving

• Uses feedbackfrom co workersconstructively toimprove workbehaviour.

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• Applies GenderFair Language inworkplacemeeting anddiscussion

• Demonstratesattitudebehaviours andskills thatcontribute toeliminatinggender bias andstereotyping

• Ensures staff andvolunteerconditions makereasonableprovision for familyresponsibilitiesand the needs ofwomen staff andvolunteers

• Identifies andremovesbarriers towomen’sparticipation inmeetings, fieldvisits and trainingactivities as partof projectplanning andreview process

• Enables andencourages teammembers tofreely voice theiropinions andconcerns.

• Developsopportunities forwomen to hearabout, participatein, and benefitfrom projectactivities.

• Examines ownbiases andbehaviours toavoidstereotypicalresponses.

1. Respect for all Genders: Accordingto Caza and Cortina (2007) work placeincivility in the form of mildermistreatments like a condescending remarkor a rude gesture can lead to an individualoutcomes like anger, fear, damaged socialidentity and perceived interactionalinjustice. Violation of implicit norms ofrespectful interpersonal interaction maycause the targets to hold the organizationresponsible for allowing the disrespectfulbehaviour to take place and theorganization may therefore appear unjustin their eyes (Caza and Cortina 2007;Pearson and Porath 2000). Injusticeperceptions lead to dissatisfaction with theorganization (Aquino, etal. 1997) whileemployees who perceive fairness

experience higher job satisfaction levels(Donovan et al. 1998). Psychological orphysical disengagement from theorganization would in turn cause theemployee performance in that context tosuffer (Wood and Bandura 1989).

2. Responsive to the needs of the co-workers: Social support among the coworkers in the form of tangible help suchas providing services and materialassistance or providing information andadvice or any kind of emotional supporthelps to improve the working relationamong them (Sias 2008) and higher qualityof peer relations among employeespositively influences their job satisfactionand commitment (Bottger and Chew



1986). A responsive co-worker tends tobe more successful as he is able to buildbonds of respect and trust with thosearound him. According to Bascal (1998),responsiveness is a critical component formanagement success.

3. Creates an Enabling Environment:Knowledge sharing is crucial for anyorganization looking to increase value anddevelop skills and competencies (Grant1996) and according to Orlikowski(2002), knowledge is “inseparable fromaction because it is constituted throughsuch action”. Gender sensitivity is a culturethat needs to be built through tacit andexplicit knowledge sharing on its need andbenefits. Hence, a gender sensitiveemployee not only needs to demonstratethe requisite behaviours for his ownbetterment but also needs to ensure thatthose around him are also aware andpracticing such behaviours. Surana(2013), Chief Mentor and FounderQuantum, India recommends that in agender neutral organization members of allgenders should be encouraged to identifywith the positive representations, theycarry with them. This helps to propel thebelief that both men and women arecapable enough to go beyond thethresholds of the traditional stereotypes.

4. Evolving continuously to improve:Gender Stereotyping in work place isdetrimental to the work performance aswell as psychological wellbeing of theemployees (Alagappar, etal. 2012). Tobuild a gender sensitive work place, there

is need for a corresponding cultural identitywhich according to Hall (1989) is a matterof becoming as well as being. Hence,development of a gender sensitive cultureis not only dependent on past activities butalso on future activities. It needs to becontinuous transformation process. Agender sensitive employee shouldcontribute to his self development throughcontinuously examining his biases andbreaking the gender stereotypes (Kumar2011).

Discussion

The findings of the primary researchpointed towards the gaps, concerns andgood practices prevalent within theorganization with respect to the gendersensitivity issue.

These issues appear to revolvearound the ambiguity associated with theterm gender and the gender stance of theorganization. Employees of both the coreand the field team are of the view that thereexists an imminent need to communicateto the employees the gender stance of theorganization; is it pro- women, or a genderneutral organization, what are therespective rights and facilities available toits male and female employees. Kaur(2013) recommends that organizationsneed to develop and communicate explicitorganizational policy statement thatprohibits gender discrimination to promoteemployee awareness and gender specificaccountability measures. Collective actionin the form of clearly communicating the

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gender specific policies and supportingprojects and programmes that promotegender equality and women empowermentwith the aim to reduce gender disparitiesin the society (taking care of genderconsiderations at the programmatic level),will further help the organization toreinforce its gender stance among itsemployees. It can also integrate genderbased analyses, strategies and measuresinto the organization policies, programmes,communications and systems and hencesend out a message on how muchimportance it places upon the genderissues.

Kaur (2013) also advocates takingappropriate actions to change the presentmental models of the employees so as toenable them shift from the informal culturecharacterised by the traditionalstereotypes. The literature reveals that thecorporate culture and values directlyimpact the gender dynamics in anorganization through the mental models,informal culture and organizational policies(Gender and Social Fund 2009). As thegender stance of the organization is clarifiedand resolved, the organization should seekto ensure that employees know and find iteasy to behave in the desired gendersensitive manner. The management of thesame appears to need some seriousinterventions like communicating to theemployees the kind of behavioursexpected from them by sharing with themthe behavioural indicators for gendersensitivity and also integrating thesebehaviours in the recruitment policy of the

organization as well as making it an integralpart of new employee orientation process.

The recruitment policy of anorganization considerably influences themental models which dictate the role ofgender in the workplace (Gender andSocial Fund 2009). Therefore, includinggender competence as a requirement injob specifications and recruitment policywill help the organization to reinforce itsgender stance. The 50% principle, i.e.,ensuring that at least 50% of theparticipating employees in the field projectsare women, currently being practiced bya few supervisors of the organization isperhaps a fine way of ensuring genderdiversity and a healthy gender mix. Withrespect to gender ratio, a major problemfaced by the organization is the nonavailability of female candidates willing towork with the organization. This indicatestowards the need for undertaking a morevigorous positive action to encouragewomen to apply for such jobs andproviding the necessary support structurefor women in the workplace, perhaps, aspointed out by the interviewees, in the formof flexible working hours, transportassistance and trusted accomplices duringfiled visits.

It is often noted that policies do noteffectively transform into practices andhence Gender and Social Fund (2009)recommends utmost transparency in policyexecution. In the case under consideration,the participants are of the view that theymay face backlash if they resort to makingany complains or bring forth any gender



related grievances. Even though the genderrelated complaints are directly accessedby the head of the gender committee ofthe organization and the supervisors haveno access to them but the employees stillfeel that their supervisor might penalisethem for such complaints. Theorganization’s gender committee shouldeducate the employees about thecomplaint handling procedure so as toremove any fear of backlash. The non-involvement of the immediate supervisorsand the neutrality of the entire process haveto be clarified to the employees and theirconfidence in the complaint handlingprocess needs to be gained so that theycan come up fearlessly with their concerns.

The role of the social conditioning ofthe employees needs to be carefullyexamined. Imposed values often tend toleave the employees indifferent and theinertia of routine action dilutes theconsequences of the new course of action(Grosser 2011). According to Gherardi(1995), the values and actions may bebrought to coherence by the use ofsymbolic actions or tokens that producedifferent insights to the recommendedcourse of action. A series of positivereinforcements can serve as these tokens,motivating the employees to demonstratethe desired behaviours. It is crucial for theorganization to highlight the manyadvantages that can come out of suchbehaviours by sharing with the employeesthat how will such behaviours improve theirwork life. It appeared from the discussionswith the interviewees, that although a few

feel that gender sensitive behaviourssomewhat impacts their performanceappraisals, almost all are unsure about howare the gender sensitive behavioursevaluated and till what extent it affects theappraisals. It was also pointed out that theemployees who demonstrate the desiredbehaviours are not adequately recognized.Such ambiguities and concerns tend toaffect the perception of organizationaljustice and need to be addressed to ensurethat employees are comfortable in theirworkplace through equal and fairtreatment. The organization can hold mid-year peer reviews and feedbacks, so thatif there are some instances of certain kindof behaviours demonstrated by fewemployees (positive or negative) which thesupervisor is not aware of, is brought tolight. Also it was pointed out that there is aneed to award and recognize employeeswho demonstrate Gender SensitiveBehaviours so as to inspire otheremployees to behave in the same way andcreate a success story out of their lives,which might also help to inspire thecommunity members.

Trainings often have a key influencein raising awareness and providing theemployees with the tools to manage thenecessary changes. The S M SehgalFoundation seems to be well harnessingthis fact as indicated by a high level ofemployee satisfaction from the interviewdata.

To improve sustainability of thegender policy and the consequent

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workplace behaviours, the organizationhas to make gender sensitivity a permanentpart of its culture. Subtle reminders in theform of posters, mailers, newsletter storieshighlighting the achievements of theemployees who have been awarded fordemonstrating gender sensitive behaviours,mandatory reporting of genderdisaggregated data and use of genderrelated metrics are a few steps towardsgender mainstreaming and embedding thegender sensitive behaviours into theworkplace routine.

Conclusion

Thus we see that the term gender hasextreme social connotations which are notuniversal but region and society specific.The historical, religious and economicbackgrounds significantly influence theattitude of the people towards the othergenders. In the context of S M SehgalFoundation, there is a high need forperception of gender fairness, both inprocedural and distributive terms, becausethe organization not only wants to maintaina healthy working environment for itsemployees and have high employeeengagement levels but it also aims toreduce the gender disparity that exists inthe society. Hence, it is only imperative forit to practice what it preaches and throughits organizational practices inspire othersocietal members to strive for genderequality.

The findings of this study may beuseful in identifying the gender stereotypingand mainstreaming issues as well as in

assisting the development of gendersensitivity guidelines and associatedpolicies and practices in organizations,where gender diversity and a healthy genderbalance is a predominant requirement. Italso touches upon issues related todevelopment sector, where employees haveto visit community in rural areas.

This case study highlights thecomplexities of translating the policies onpaper into organization wide practice andembedding it into the informal culture ofthe workplace. This study also elucidatesthe role of having unambiguous and wellcommunicated organization wideconnotation of the word gender andperformance indicators of the gendersensitive behaviours.

Acknowledgment

The authors would like toacknowledge the cooperation of S MSehgal Foundation personnel.

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Learning Statistics Made Easy ThroughWIKI- A Web-2 Tool

Sulakshana SenAssociate Professor of Mathematics & Statistics

Bethune Cookman University, USA641 Mary McLeod Bethune Boulevard

Daytona Beach, FL 32114E-mail: [email protected]

ABSTRACTWiki technology- a major component of Web-2 tool was used to teach Business Statis-tics class of a semester. This pilot research study was applied to the experimentalgroup of students enrolled for the first course in statistics education. University Built-in Blackboard was used to access the Wiki space. Students were actively involvedinteracting with each other’s assignments by posting questions and comments ontheir Wiki pages. The Instructor had access to all Wiki pages of all the students andthe Wiki work was live throughout the semester. The Wiki project of the experimentalgroup reflected that the students’ understanding of statistics education was betterand deep. These students’ year-end performance was superior when compared to thecontrol group. The active-learning Wiki research would be repeated in the next se-mester by the same instructor to different groups of students to see the result of statis-tics study if improved the same way.

Literature Review:

Social software has emerged as amajor component of the Web 2.0movement. Connectivity between a groupof Web projects and services led to newname “social software” that identifiesBlogs, Wikis, podcasting and various socialnetworking such as MySpace, and Facebook. Wikis are all about user modificationwhere streams of conversation, revision,amendment, and truncation can be freelyadopted (Alexander, 2006). Wiki is amajor component of Web 2.0, and a

“system that allows one or more peopleto build up a corpus of knowledge in a setof interlinked Web pages, using a processof creating and editing pages according toFranklin and Van Hermelen (as cited inCole, 2009, p.142). Renee’ Fountain(2005) provided a clear vision about Wikiand its suitability in higher education as ateaching and learning tool. Wiki technologymaximizes democratic interplay, createpublic documents in real time, which canbe evaluated by the peers and receivefeedback immediately, and providing

Critical Review:Teaching-aid Technology


authorship to each contributor. As Wikitechnology uses open authorship andediting capabilities, an inherent instrumentis embedded that records each individualchanges, detect any malicious intent ofvandalism, inaccurate materials posted,which can be eliminated, and rollback toprevious versions (Parker & Chao, 2007).

Students entering higher educationnow have a wide range of background andskills than previous generations. Presentgeneration of students are growing upthrough Web 2.0 technology commonlyknown as social software, and they expectthat new learning experiences should becomplemented by technology. Prensky(2001) recognized this attribute of presentgeneration, and coined a term “digitalnatives” to them. Because of the lack ofutilization of social media software in theclassrooms, the teachers on the other handare called “digital immigrants”. The stateof education is undergoing a paradigm shiftwhere student- centered learning is favoredover the traditional teacher-centeredlearning modalities. There is a gap betweentech savvy learners, who are fluent in thedigital language of computers, videogames, Internet, and the purveyor ofknowledge- the teachers, who still retainan “accent” because they are tied up withthe past (Prensky, 2005). This generationevolved into a mindset where social mediaguide their daily activities; learning only bydoing it, multitasking is preferable way ofdoing everything. According to Frand(2000), “we need to think in terms oftransforming the educational experience so

that it is meaningful to the information-agelearners” (p.24). By using different toolsof Technology, the gap can be closedeffectively. A review of various models oflearning modalities is discussed to supportthe suitability of Wiki technology inStatistics education.

Literature Review: Students learnin different ways. Many theories have beenproposed, and one of the most populartheories with educators deals with threesensory modes of learning: visual, auditory,and kinesthetic. The visual learners preferlearning through visual methods, kinestheticlearners learn by working hands on, andauditory learners learn better with listening.Most students use all three sensory modesof learning, however one mode of learningusually act as a dominant trait andpreferred from other modes of sensorylearning.

Constructivist idea promotesscaffolding of knowledge to be built, sothat new knowledge can be constructedto enhance the process of knowledgebuilding. According to Alavi (1994), activelearning and knowledge construction,cooperation, team work, and problemsolving need to be incorporated foreffective learning to occur. To enhanceknowledge construction, learners mustengage in new possibilities, look foralternative ideas/ hypothesis or solution,collaborate with their peers, and synthesizetheir best solution they could derive fromall these experiences (O’Loughlin, 1992).Parker and Chao (2007) noted thatconstructivist learning has been

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“approached from a variety ofperspectives in Wiki research, including

reflective activity and communal or socialconstructivism” (p.59).

Fig. 1. Dale’s cone of experience model (1969).

Collaborative learning helps betterretention of the information among thecooperative group members and enhanceshigher levels of thought process (Johnson&Johnson, 1986). According to Vygotsky(1978) students perform at higherintellectual levels when workedcollaboratively because group diversity inknowledge and experiences collectivelyenhance the learning process. Bruner(1985) reported that diversity within agroup bring various possible interpretationof a given situation, which results in a higherintellectual output and enhance a greaterlevel of problem solving skills and criticalthinking abilities.

Advantages of Wiki as a learning tool:

Wiki technology is considered aversatile and effective learning tool, Themulti-faceted tool Wiki enhancesknowledge, allows progressive problemsolving and problem redefinition, explainincreasingly diverse and contrary ideas aswell as examining the relatedness of ideasfrom diverse contexts that add bothnuance and complexity to concepts in agiven field through systematic engagement,and collaboration (Fountain, 2005).According to (Knight, 2010), Wikifacilitates social learning, peer assessmentformative feedback, individual and groupreflection on the learning experiences.

Learning Statistics Made Easy Through WIKI- A Web-2 Tool


Studies have shown that Wiki technologyenhances students’ engagement, deepenstheir learning experiences and improve theiroverall academic achievement (Hemmi,Bayne, & Laud 2009). Wiki facilitates awide variety of authentic, collaborative andreflective learning activities (Davies,Pantzoulos & Gray, 2011).

Use of Wiki technology maximizesthe advantages of reflection, reviewing,publication, and observing cumulativewritten results in most of the non-sciencefields. Unfortunately, very little researchhas been done on the use of Wiki inscientific fields. Ben-Zvi (2007) argued thatWiki cam be used successfully in statisticseducation. Group learning in statisticsenhance learning in statistics (Giraud,1997; Keeler & Steinhorst, 1995).However, Rick and Guzdial (2006)reported that Co Web, a Wiki-relatedformat, facilitated learning in Englishcomposition but not effective in sciences,and mathematics classes. Neumann andHood (2009) reported that Wiki approachin a university statistics course resultedgreater interaction among students, highercognitive engagement and higher classattendance than Individual approach. Inbiology, medicine and health sciences Wikihas been used effectively to tie up diversebiomedical communities to collaborateand synthesize Information together toconstruct new knowledge and disseminateit. For example, one of the key challengesin biomedical research is to understand therelationship between genes, environmentand disease. To tackle this complex

problem one requires coordination ofinformation emerging from biological, bio-physical and biomedical communities(Huss et al., 2010). However, Wikitechnology was used to collect datacollaboratively and synthesize the meaningof the data then transmit it to the publicbut it did not directly engage in the processof learning among students in these studies.

METHODS

Blackboard is used in the universityas the main platform for information sharingthroughout the university. Blackboard hasbuilt in Wiki pages, where both studentsand instructors can have active roles ascontributors and editors. In this study, theinstructor assigned each student of aBusiness Statistics class to apply theirunderstanding of the lessons through acollaborative project. After each chapter/topic covered, they were given instructionto create their own Wiki page in theBlackboard. The students could accessthe formula sheet, the math or stat symbolsthat can be used from the browser of theWiki page directly, and PowerPointpresentation that was uploaded toBlackboard so that they can access anytime for quick reference. Five chapterswere covered; students had to write at leastfive pages by providing detail analysis ofthe concepts through examples andproblem solving. They could interact andadd comments in each other pages andthe whole class was actively involved inthe process to improve the contents of eachpage. The teacher’s comment on student’s

131

page helped them to rewrite, add/deletematerials to the assignments. Thecomparative study was done with anotherstatistics without Wiki taught by the sameteacher. The research project wasapproved by University IRB committee.

RESULTS:

The analysis showed that the classtaught through Wiki performed better thanthe class without Wiki. The students whoused Wiki received better scores at theend of the semester (Table 1.) The successrate was higher in learning the concepts ofstatistics and applying in the lessons.

Semester A B C D FGrades

With 9 7 11 2 1WIKIN=30

Without 4 5 9 7 4WIKIN=29

Table 1. Grade distribution of Wiki-userscompared with none Wiki users

DISCUSSIONS

Final examination and course gradesin statistics courses are usually used bymost educators as evidence of statisticalknowledge gained by the students butmany studies dispute this claim as a validindicator of statistical knowledge orreasoning (Chance & Garfield, 2002;Konold, 1995). However through thestudy, it was observed that Wiki-users inthe classroom did well in the end of thecourse examination in compared to otherclasses without Wiki. Fifty-three percent

Wiki-user students scored 80% or abovein compared to Thirty-one percent of thenon-Wiki-users in the final comprehensiveexamination. Students showed interest indoing Wiki assignments, and all studentsparticipated in the project. Studentsshowed less anxiety during test taking time,because they realized that finalexamination is not the only means ofevaluating their performance in theStatistics class. This finding concurs wellwith the findings of Lissitz & Schafer, 2002;Reys et al., 2006, where they haveobserved that test anxieties can bedecreased by using more non-traditionaltypes of assessments such as studentprojects and portfolios. Wiki projectreflected a major component of studentportfolio. In this study we compared thestudent performance in the courseoutcome with previous statistics classeswhere Wiki projects were not used, andwe have found overall performances of thestudents exhibited a greater positiveoutcome on learning statistics.

Assignments in Wiki helped studentsdeveloped positive attitude towardsworking together in gathering information,analyzing and understanding specific topicsof statistical concepts that were coveredin the class. The active learning modelowered their anxiety and most of thestudents performed well in the finalcomprehensive examination. Wikiassignments also helped students todevelop a positive attitude towards theStatistics course and the improved self-efficacy that influenced their performance.



Reports indicated that self-efficacyconcerning Statistics plays an importantrole about students’ attitude and it alsoinfluences their performance (Finney &Schraw, 2003). Similarly, Onwuegbuzieand Wilson (2003) reported that anxietyand negative feeling elicited by Statisticscourse among the students directlyinfluence their performances on statisticsrelated tasks.

In one-to-one Interview, studentscommented positively about the classclimate, and felt a part of the coursecommunity, which was absent in studentsfrom previous years of classes. Thehomework assignments using Wikireflected their positive attitude in doing thework on time. Few studies observed thatstudents failed to turn in their wiki reportsbecause they felt that is not an importantpart of the course work and participantschose not to post their work. However, asignificant level of curiosity expressed bystudents that indicated the fault lay not withtechnology but with an unattractive coursedesign (Cole, 2009).

The students were motivated andinspired in the active learning process asthey felt that they are directly involved intheir own learning and a part of their ownintellectual development. Studentsmotivated to surf the Internet to gatherinformation for the concept, definition oreven explanation of the topics covered inthe class that they did not understandclearly. This process of inquiry empoweredthem to analyze critically the conceptswhich enhanced their learning,

understanding and retention. At the endof the semester they created a littleresource/review book for each other, soeach can access the knowledge of theStatistics lessons condensed through thecollaborative project. Wiki technologyimproved student’s grades, betterunderstanding of concepts, retention andlowered anxiety levels.

LIMITATIONS:

The pilot study was conducted in onesection of statistics course and there wereonly thirty students enrolled in the class. Thecompared class without Wiki had twenty-nine students. Some of the students hadbetter mathematics background than theother students in the class using Wiki. Thesemester-end performance was reflected intheir work. Other schools and otherteachers should use the Wiki method instatistics class to see the validity of the study.

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Notes to Contributors

The journal will include thematic and empirical research papers in the field of BusinessManagement and allied areas, with emphasis on pragmatic orientation.

Before submitting the paper for publication, please ensure that this paper has not beensent for publication or published elsewhere, until you receive a communication from ourside. Once a manuscript is submitted for publication, it will be screened by the editorialboard to check:1.fitness of the paper for publication in the journal, & 2.originality/ plagiarism(through software).

After the preliminary screening it will then be blind-reviewed by two independent national/international reviewers, for the scientific merit, readability and interest. Unacceptedmanuscript will not be returned; however, you will be communicated accordingly.

Accepted authors will be given one hard-copy of the journal and one soft-copy.

The manuscript should be neatly typed in double space on an A-4 sheet with 1 inch spaceon all sides in 12 Times Roman size font. The manuscript should be of maximum up to5500 words, or 20 pages.

The references, as illustrated below, should be in American Psychological Association(APA) format, 5th Edition:

Reference from Journal:Alkaike, H. (1987). Factor analysis and AIC. Psychometrica, 52, 317-332.

Reference from Edited book:Browne, M. W. & Cudeck, R. (1999). Effects of Organizational Climate and CitizenshipBehavior on Organizational Effectiveness. In K.A. Bollen & J.S. Long (Eds.) HumanResource Management (pp. 136-147). Newsbury Park, CA: Sage.

Reference from Book:Luthans, F. (2002). Organisational Behaviour. New Delhi: McGraw-Hill International.Booth, W. C., Colomb, G. G., & Williams, J. M. (1995). The craft of research. Chicago:University of Chicago Press.

Reference from online resources:Hacker, D. (1997). Research and documentation in the electronic age. Boston: BedfordBooks. Retrieved October 6, 1998, from http://www.bedfordbooks.com/index.htmlMorse, S. S. (1995). Factors in the emergence of infectious diseases. Emerging InfectiousDiseases, 1(1). Retrieved October 10, 1998, from http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/eid.htm

Smith, E. E. (2001). Internet term paper mills: The case for mandatory expulsion[Electronic version]. Journal of Crime and Punishment, 6, 123–139.

Newspaper ArticleGoleman, D. (1991, October 24). Battle of insurers vs. therapists: Cost control pittedagainst proper care. New York Times, pp. D1, D9.

Newspaper Article (Online)Markoff, J. (1996, June 5). Voluntary rules proposed to help insure privacy for Internetusers. New York Times. Retrieved April 1, 1996, from http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/yo5dat.html

Newspaper Article (No Author)Undisclosed settlement reached out of court in Michigan Biodyne civil suit. (1992, March1). Psychiatric Times, p. 16.

Conference Paper (Published):Kuroda, S. Y. (1988). Whether we agree or not: A comparative syntax of English andJapanese. In W. J. Poser (Ed.), Papers from the second international workshop onJapanese syntax (pp. 103–143). Stanford, CA: CSLI.

Dissertation:Downey, D. B. (1992). Family structure, parental resources, and educational outcomes.Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Sociology, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN.

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Parikalpana:KIIT Journal of Management

[ISSN – 0974-2808]

Board of AdvisorsProf. N.L. Mitra

Chancellor, KIIT UniversityProf. P.P. Mathur

Vice Chancellor, KIIT UniversityProf. Anil Bajpai

Director, KIIT School of Management, KIIT University

Members of Journal Committee, KSOM, KIIT University

Ashok Kumar Sar Ipseeta Satpathy BCM Patnaik Snigdha Tripathy Biswajit Das Pooja Mohanty

Editorial Board Artatrana Ratha, St Cloud State University, USA Ashish Dwivedi, Hull University Business School, Hull, UK B. K. Mohanty, Indian Institute of Management Lucknow, India Badar Alam Iqbal, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India Colin C Williams, She�eld University Management School, University of She�eld Damodar Suar, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur – India Hemanta Kumar Baruah, Vice-Chancellor, Bodoland University Kokrajhar-Assam Rajen K Gupta, M.D.I. Gurgaon, India Sailabala Debi, KIIT School of Management, KIIT University, Bhubaneswar, India Saswata Narayana Biswas, Institute of Rural Management (IRMA), Anand, India Sushanta Mallick, School of Bus. & Management, Queen Mary, University of London Vinit Parida, Luleå University of Technology , Sweden Wee Yu Ghee, University Malaysia Kelantan, Malaysia

EditorR. N. Subudhi

(Professor, KIIT School of Management, KIIT University)e-Mail: [email protected]

© KIIT School of Management, KIIT University, BhubaneswarPublished by Director, KIIT School of Management, KIIT University, Bhubaneswar.Printed at: Print-Tech O�set Pvt. Ltd.,

Disclaimer: The publisher and or editors cannot be held responsible for errors or any consequences arising out from the use of information contained in this journal. The views and opinions expressed do not necessarily re�ect those of the publisher and editors.

KIIT School of Management KIIT University

Campus-7, Bhubaneswar-751024, Odisha, India Tel: 0674 – 2725 713, Tel (Fax): 0674 – 2725 278

Email: [email protected] Website: www.ksom.ac.in

About the School:

KIIT School of Management, KIIT University is a constituent unit of the KIIT University, established under section 3 of the UGC Act, 1956. This is the 23rd year of its existence. In these years, the school has made rapid progress to attain a position of eminence in the field of management education. In several prestigious rankings – this includes those by Outlook, Career 360, Open C-Fore – KSOM has been consistently ranked among the top B-Schools in India and as one of the finest in Eastern India. It has been rated in A Grade by National Accreditation and Assessment Council (NAAC). The school has tie-ups with world leaders such as SAP and Dassault Systems for offering highly industry-focused Technology Management courses. The school now offers BBA, MBA & Ph.D. programmes.

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