Business Management Program Research Articles

Resource cell for juvenile justice: challenges of motivation of social workers

Learning outcomes The learning outcomes are as follows: understanding issues involved in the employee motivation, particularly those engaged in social change and development in emerging economies; develop insights into how to motivate team members by drawing on relevant theories of motivation; and orient students towards the application of these theories in the organization. Case overview/synopsis Resource cell for juvenile justice (RCJJ) was initiated as a field action project at the centre for criminology and justice, Tata Institute of Social Sciences with the objective of working on issues of children with a special focus on juveniles in conflict with law (JCL). RCJJ aimed at highlighting the socio-legal issues of juvenile children who were in conflict of law providing aid to these children and their families, and working towards their eventual social reintegration. RCJJ also trained stakeholders in the juvenile justice system and facilitated rehabilitation and social integration of JCLs as directed by the juvenile justice boards (JJBs). RCJJ had teams at six places within India. These teams worked with various government institutions, parents and JCLs to eventually effect change in the conditions of JCLs. The social workers engaged by RCJJ had a challenging task of facilitating social integration of the children, in coordination with the police, JJBs, families and lawyers. They had to actively manage help desks at the judicial observation homes where JCLs were housed. The social workers were under great stress because of antagonism from lawyers and police. The JJBs were prejudiced against them for being “outside watchdogs”. This resulted in high demotivation and attrition among employees. Jyoti Mhatre, project manager, interviewed past and present field workers to gauge the extent and reasons for demotivation. This intervention highlighted the positive and negative aspects of the organizational culture and the stress points that were causing demotivation. The situation was alarming and Jyoti had to develop an action plan to improve the motivation of the social workers to bring down the attrition. Complexity academic level Courses in human resource management, organizational behaviour and general management as part of masters-level programmes in business administration and management, and executive development programmes on employee motivation for middle/senior management. Supplementary materials Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Subject code CSS 6: Human resource management.

A reference model in BPMN for conceptual modelling of master planning schedule

Companies are progressively investing in practices aimed at improving the quality of management, with the main purpose of enabling them to operate competitively in the present market. For this, it is necessary to document the activities and information of the existing business processes in the organization, aiming at reducing time and cost in the elaboration of the particular model. In this context, the objective of this work is to develop a reference model of the Master Production Schedule (MPS) processes, an important module of production planning and control (PPC). The research methodology used in this work was divided into the following stages: study of MPS and business process modeling, definition of reference model processes, choice of methodology and process modeling tool, development of reference model and prototype of the software and, finally, analysis of results. The modeling notation used was the BPMN, since it is considered a standard language in the field of process modeling. The prototype was developed through the Delphi interface in order to apply the model to support the implementation of business management programs. As results, from a formal documentation, the model proved to be a useful mechanism in the understanding of the processes raised and appropriate in the support to the implantation of production management tools.

The Role of Using Case Studies Method in Improving Students' Critical Thinking Skills in Higher Education

Investigating the use of case studies as a teaching strategy to enhance the critical thinking skills of the students is the basic objective of this study. By discovering content and procedural issues, best practices are investigated and ways are discovered to foster critical thinking, as a result of which the students tend to develop the ability to think critically. This research employed mixed research methods and used the SPSS program for data analysis. The participants in this research are 42 students from the business management program of leadership and group dynamics course in applied sciences university (ASU) in the kingdom of Bahrain. Based on the research findings, the critical thinking skills of the students have been a consequence of the case study method. The findings of this research may have significant value for other higher education institutions in the wider Gulf region. If the case studies method is used in teaching, it will greatly contribute to the leadership and group dynamics educators in nurturing active learning. Additionally, it is likely to inculcate critical thinking skills, which are highly significant to develop leadership capabilities.

On the Cutting Edge or the Chopping Block? Fostering a Digital Mindset and Tech Literacy in Business Management Education

We are on the precipice of significant change in industry. Some have called it industry 4.0, and without significant attention, business management educators will be unfamiliar and underprepared—and as a result, they will not adequately equip their students for change. This essay explores the need for a digital mindset and tech literacy in business management education. The essay begins by examining why the need exists and continues by discussing some of the critical concepts that must be integrated into a business management program to better prepare students for the future of work. The essay concludes by sharing several pedagogical applications that can be incorporated into the material in the undergraduate or graduate classroom.

Performance on Readiness of UNITEN Postgraduate Students for MOOC-based Learning

This paper presents a study on the readiness of UNITEN postgraduate students for Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) based learning. A survey was conducted, involving 123 respondents consisted of a good mix of PhD and master by research, mixed mode and coursework programmes in engineering, IT and business management. The results show that UNITEN postgraduate students in general have excellent readiness for MOOC-based learning in terms of technology access, online communication skills, independent learning, online content delivery, online discussion and awareness. This study concluded that UNITEN postgraduate students welcomed MOOC-based learning. It’s therefore recommended to proceed for the implementation phase of MOOC-based learning.

Business Management Education for 21st Century: Integrating People and Planet with Profits

Many questions clutter our horizon in 21st century. The way business is passing through impulsive and unremitting changes; the new business management norms are created every day. The business management education should follow the suit; rather provide lead to the business. We argue that the business management program curricula must emphasize the content and pedagogy design to equip students who are capable to run business successfully on each of three parameters; economic, social and environment profit. We propose conceptual framework and a model to support our arguments. Business environment is changing very fast. Visibly the technological disruptions, social expectations and rapid globalization demands better understanding of its impacts on economy, society and environment in terms of the costs, and benefits. The business can only survive if it’s economic, social and environmental benefits are higher than the cost. This paper constructs argument emphasizing on core principle of business management education that any course delivery should integrate with triple bottom line. The key questions business school should address revolves around the curricula, the subjects that should be included in syllabus, content of the courses, teaching pedagogy or learning mechanism and recruiting students with right aptitude, attitude and temperament. Business schools attempts to address one or all those ingredients. The more important missing element in business management education is integration of course delivery with the triple bottom line. The existence of business is economic or accounting profit. To be a sustainable business; social and environmental performance of business cannot be ignored. Each course included in the syllabus has a purpose; to help business to enhance the triple bottom line.

Why Design Thinking in IT Business Management Program?

The purpose of this research is to explain the goals and process of administering a design thinking course in management education with particular reference to MBA-Information Technology Business Management (ITBM) stream. The study is unique and contributes to the existing body of knowledge in two significant ways. First, from a qualitative perspective, it presents a detailed narration about the planning and execution of the design thinking course to techno-management students which is a rare find in the existing literature. Second, from a quantitative perspective, the design thinking learning experiences from multiple dimensions are presented through an empirical study administered to the students. We applied exploratory factor analysis to identify certain key influencers (constructs) for learning design thinking, namely adoption willingness, empathy, collaboration, ideation, holistic learning and problem-solving.

Leadership curricula in UAE business and education management programmes

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate leadership curricula in UAE business and education management programmes and examine the extent to which they are derived from and linked to students’ cultural and Islamic values using Habermas’ critical theory.Design/methodology/approachThe study employs a mixed methods approach that takes classical pragmatism as its philosophical foundation and critical theory as a theoretical lens. Data are collected in four sequential phases using critical discourse analysis of course materials, class observations, student survey and faculty interviews. Results are integrated at the interpretative level and abductive reasoning is used as the logic of justification.FindingsResults show that despite the increasing efforts to incorporate cultural and Islamic values into the curriculum, it is still mainly dominated by Western theories and models of leadership, especially in the leadership courses offered by business schools, mainly because of accreditation requirements and the lack of English resources and theories on UAE and Islamic models of leadership.Research limitations/implicationsThe study is limited to leadership curricula in the UAE. Researchers may extend and broaden the scope of the study by investigating leadership curricula in the Gulf and/or the Middle East. Future studies may also look at other theoretical frameworks recommended by other management scholars such as Mezirow’s transformational learning and the socio-constructivist approach (Hotho and Dowling, 2010). This study aims to open an ongoing debate and further investigation on the topic.Practical implicationsThe results of the current study may inspire faculty members and programme coordinators to develop critical and culturally relevant curricula that are informed by Habermas’ critical theory and best teaching practices.Originality/valueThe study adds to the current knowledge base through its research design and approach that address an under-investigated topic. None of the current studies empirically investigated leadership curricula in the UAE. The theoretical framework and research findings can be used to develop culturally relevant and value-oriented leadership curricula that reflect indigenous and Western perspectives of leadership.

Bhushan Steel: a creditworthy company turned insolvent

Learning outcomes The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how a well-performing company can turn into a loss-making company on account of adverse industry cycle and poor management of risks in the business. The importance of factors like optimal level of leveraging, the ability of the management to deal with external and internal risks, and importance of corporate governance in the process of credit appraisal is understood from this case. Case overview/synopsis The case relates to the credit appraisal by the banks of a prominent steel company in India. The company, Bhushan Steel Limited, was doing very well. The banks lent aggressively to the company, based on their credit appraisal. However, the company soon turned insolvent on account of poor assessment of risks and deteriorating external factors. While this case may be analysed and studied through the eyes of both the Management and the lenders, the focus is currently on the latter. In a real-world scenario, the challenge for the lender is to sieve through the financial as well as non-financial data and make a valid conclusion on the level of credit worthiness of the borrowing company. This includes the topics of operational efficiency and synergies, commodity price cycles, external credit ratings, operating and financial leverage, regulatory risks and corporate governance. Complexity academic level Post graduate business management programmes – Finance specialisation. Supplementary materials Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes. Subject code CSS 1: Accounting and Finance

Mapping industry standards and integration opportunities in business management curricula

Industry standards have a significant impact on business. Despite the importance of standards, they are not universally integrated into the college and university curricula. Given the widespread use of standards in business, a study was undertaken by four academic librarians to explore the use and potential integration of standards in undergraduate business management curricula. This was accomplished through curriculum mapping of two top-ranked undergraduate business management programs. This study found that few undergraduate business management courses specifically taught or used standards based on the syllabi, but considerable potential exists for the integration of standards into undergraduate business management courses.

Interpretivist Entrepreneurial Research on Indian Millennial: An R/R-QDA Based Approach

Research on entrepreneurship domain and its different dimensions is not new. This paper explores entrepreneurial orientation of Indian millennial and their motivations using open source R/RQDA packages through a qualitative paradigm. The sociological method called “interpretivism” uses qualitative approach which is humanistic as opposed to scientific methods followed by “positivism”. This study uses qualitative data generation techniques e.g. participant observation, focus group discussion, and unstructured interviews, with an emphatic understanding of individual accounts. It applies thematic coding and categorization of the participants’ narratives on a computer assisted platform for grounding it into a theoretical model. Individuals in Indian millennial cohort, don’t just positively react to external positive stimuli to pursue an entrepreneurial career, they possess values e.g. altruism and societal orientation. Narratives from individual accounts manifest different perspectives on singular objective reality as would be broadly construed as social constructionism of Indian milieu. The computing environment of R/RQDA (Source: CRAN) for data coding, aggregation, plotting and theorization on personal narratives drawn from limited accounts in a group setting asserts on the findings that are most appropriate in recent cultural shift witnessing India such as unleashing individual potential or cooperative capitalism toward social change. Identifying a group of budding entrepreneurs currently pursuing business management program and looking for a near future objective realization of an entrepreneurial career was a part of the sampling. Data triangulation is a natural improvement for generalization of the findings to make it a more relevant outcome, and is a limitation of the current study.

Thinking critically about critical thinking: Assessing critical thinking of business students using multiple measures

Critical thinking is a skill that potential employers expect all graduates to possess. Hence, most business management programs consider critical thinking as an important student learning goal. Unfortunately, there is ambiguity about how to best assess critical thinking, both as a skill and a learning outcome. The authors empirically demonstrate how they measure the critical thinking ability of their students in different settings, and how their critical thinking ability improves as they progress through the business program.

The Muktangan story (Part A): an organizational study and The Muktangan story (Part B): winds of change

Subject area The subject areas are organizational management, organizational behaviour and human resource management. Study level/applicability The study is applicable for courses in human resource management and organizational behaviour as part of masters-level programmes in business administration and management, executive development programmes on organization design and development for middle/senior management. Case overview In 2003, Elizabeth and Sunil Mehta had founded a voluntary organization, “Muktangan”, focussed on child-centric education through innovative pedagogy for the community of the urban poor. Elizabeth, an educationist, and Sunil, a highly successful business person, joined hands to contribute to the well-being of urban poor to make a difference to their lives. Elizabeth and Sunil presented a proposal to impart education for “the children of the community, by the teachers drawn from the community” to the residents of the slums in central Mumbai. With a humble beginning of running a small pre-school, Muktangan now manages seven schools with 3,400 children and 500 teachers, and a teachers’ training centre with a capacity to train 100 teachers a year. Muktangan won acclaim for its unique pedagogy and a very effective child-to-teacher ratio. Over the years, Elizabeth and Sunil led Muktangan with a strong passion and a “hands-on” approach. Of late, Elizabeth and Sunil faced questions from their donors about the sustainability of Muktangan with respect to leadership and management succession. Elizabeth and Sunil had a vision for Muktangan for self-directed growth with an empowered team. Muktangan embarked on the journey to create a leadership for self-directed growth. Sunil, Elizabeth and team Muktangan conceptualized and implemented a change management intervention with help from an external consultant to build the desired organization. Expected learning outcomes Outcomes are understanding issues involved in the leadership, organization design and management of change, particularly of those organizations engaged in social change and development in developing societies. Supplementary materials The Muktangan Story: Part A – An Organizational Study; The Muktangan Story Part B – Winds of Change; Teaching Note;

MODEL EVALUASI PEMBELAJARAN STAIN KUDUS (STUDI KASUS SISTEM EVALUASI PEMBELAJARAN DOSEN PRODI MANAJEMEN BISNIS SYARI’AH STAIN KUDUS)

<p><em>The evaluation system is an important part of the curriculum component used to measure achievement of learning objectives. In learning at STAIN Kudus, each lecturer has different models and forms of learning evaluation. This study aims to examine the model of learning evaluation conducted by lecturers in Sharia Business Management Program (MBS) in 2014. As a result, the evaluation system consists of two types, test and non test. In the type of evaluation the test consists of written tests, oral and deeds. In the written test, there is an objective test form and a description test. While non-tests can be done through observation, portfolio, attitude instruments and so on. Evaluation system used by lecturers on MBS STAIN Kudus Prodi in general is a form of written test type description. Although there are some lecturers who use objective writing tests and oral tests.</em></p>

Diagnóstico de los programas educación en consumo sostenible y mercados verdes de la política de producción sostenible del distrito capital

El presente artículo contiene los resultados del diagnóstico de los Programas Educación en Consumo Sostenible y Mercados Verdes de la Estrategia Promoción al Consumo Sostenible de la Política de Producción Sostenible del Distrito Capital (1) para el Sector empresarial. El diagnóstico permitió evidenciar que desde las acciones priorizadas propuestas en el Plan de acción 2004 de la Política de Producción Sostenible del Distrito Capital hubo cumplimiento del Programa de Educación en Consumo Sostenible pero no para el Programa de Mercados Verdes, a pesar que hay otras acciones que permiten la identificación de resultados relacionados. A su vez, se sugiere el desarrollo de indicadores a mediano y largo plazo de los programas, dar a conocer la Política de Producción Sostenible del Distrito Capital desde el Programa de Gestión Ambiental Empresarial (2), y el fomento de la cultura del Consumo Sostenible y los Mercados Verdes.

An Exploratory Study on the Application of Multiple Intelligences to MBA Andragogy with Particular Reference to ERP-Controlling Configuration Course

The purpose of this study is to elicit the application of Multiple Intelligences (MI) theory to a course taught in the MBA Andragogy. Administered to a sample of 47 students of the first year MBA Information Technology Business Management (ITBM) program at a private university in India the study brought out certain interesting implications. Foremost, the written report, prescribed a clear route map for the preparation and planning of the MI activities to become the SAP ERP-Controlling Configuration course in the MBA (ITBM) program. Second, the administration of the MI Andragogy to the target sample by applying three well-defined tools. Foremost, the MI profile of the students, second, the most preferred MI activity of the student and third, the observation schedule with the instructor. The statistically significant pre and post test scores validated the strength of the work. The third implication is the triangulation of the three tools to ensure the credibility and validity of the results. It was found that a little over 50 percent of the sample resulted in complete corroboration and the balance partially corroborated. Overall the research extends and enhances the scope and application of MI theory to MBA Andragogy and serves every bit a broad citation to the MBA teaching ecosystem.

Collaborative Approach in Software Engineering Education: An Interdisciplinary Case

Aim/Purpose: This study was aimed at enhancing students’ learning of software engineering methods. A collaboration between the Computer Science, Business Management, and Product Design programs was formed to work on actual projects with real clients. This interdisciplinary form of collaboration simulates the realities of a diverse Software Engineering team. Background: A collaborative approach implemented through projects has been the established pedagogy for introducing the Software Engineering course to undergraduate Computer Science students. The collaboration, however, is limited to collaboration among Computer Science students and their clients. This case study explored an enhancement to the collaborative approach to project development by integrating other related disciplines into the project development framework; hence, the Interdisciplinary Approach. Methodology: This study adopted the case method approach. An interdisciplinary service innovation activity was proposed to invite other disciplines in the learning process of the computer science students. The agile methodology Scrum was used as the software development approach during project development. Survey data were collected from the students to establish (a) their perception of the interdisciplinary approach to project development; (b) the factors that influenced success or failure of their team to deliver the project; and (c) the perceived skills or knowledge that they acquired from the interdisciplinary approach. Analysis of data followed a mixed method approach. Contribution: The study improved the current pedagogy for Software Engineering education by integrating other related disciplines into the software project development framework. Findings: Data collected showed that the students generally accepted the interdisciplinary approach to project development. Factors such as project relevance, teamwork, time and schedule, and administration support, among others, affect team performance towards project completion. In the case of the Computer Science students, results show that students have learned skills during the experience that, as literature reveal, can only be acquired or mastered in their future profession as software engineers. Recommendations for Practitioners: The active collaboration of the industry with the University and the involvement of the other related courses in teaching software engineering methods are critical to the development of the students, not only in learning the methodology but also as a working professional. Recommendation for Researchers: It is interesting to know and eventually understand the interactions between interdisciplinary team members in the conduct of Software Engineering practices while working on their projects. More specifically, what creative tensions arise and how do the interdisciplinary teams handle the discourse? Impact on Society: This study bridges the gap between how Software Engineering is taught in the university and how Software Engineering teams work in real life. Future Research: Future research is targeted at refining and elaborating the elements of the interdisciplinary framework presented in this paper towards an integrated course module for Software Engineering education.

Accreditation Effect on Quality of Education at Business Schools

Quality is considered as an instrument to achieve excellence in all areas more specifically in education. Academic excellence has been a central value in higher education. Accreditation is raised to develop and enhance the quality of education in academic world. Nowadays there are many accreditation bodies in all around the world. AACSB, EFMD and AMBA are highly integrated accreditation agencies specialized for business schools. General presumptions regarding the standards and quality of those institutions are to facilitate continuous quality improvement in education by assessing any business school or management program. Main purpose of this research paper is to investigate the relationship between quality of education and accreditation by exploring the effect and benefits of accreditations in higher education institutions. This research found out that accreditation agencies are encouraging business schools to make themselves accountable for improving and enhancing the quality of education by impactful and intellectual contribution and scholarly education. In order to achieve that accreditation bodies have to set specific standards and criteria, self-evaluation, peer review and consultation services that determine business schools to meet the standards. The paper also observed positive effects of accreditation on students, faculty members and public in general.

THE EFFECT OF GRAMMATICAL ACCURACY AND GENDER ON INTERLANGUAGE REQUEST STRATEGY

The present study was aimed at examining whether grammatical accuracy and gender were significant predictors of the use of request strategy (direct or indirect). Participants were 39 seventh semester students (29 males and 10 females) majoring in an International Business Management program at a public higher education institution in Bali. Their English proficiency levels ranged from pre-intermediate to intermediate. The participants were asked to write an e-mail based on a situation carefully designed so as to necessitate the use of indirect strategy. Grammatical accuracy was operationalized as an average score per T-unit. The head act of each request was coded as either direct or indirect, and the binary logistic regression was conducted on the data with significance level being set at p < .05. The results revealed that neither grammatical accuracy (Wald = 0.72, df = 1, p = 0.40) nor gender (Wald = 0.67, df = 1, p = 0.41) was a significant predictor of a request strategy use. The use of request strategy could not also be predicted from the interaction of grammatical accuracy and gender, Wald = 0.66, df = 1, p = 0.42. These results indicate that the odds for using indirect strategy are similar regardless of the level of grammatical accuracy and gender.

DEVELOPING MACROMEDIA FLASH FOR TEACHING SPEAKING MATERIALS FOR STUDENTS OF BUSINESS MANAGEMENT PROGRAM AT VOCATIONAL SCHOOL

The aim of this study is to develop macromedia flash as a learning media for teaching speaking materials for students of business management program at vocational school. Research and Development is used as the research method. Research Procedures are modified into four steps, they are: evaluation and need analysis, media design, validation and revision, and final production. The product has validated by expert validations (material and media). The media expert is an English lecturer of English literature Department, State University of Medan which approved by Faculty of Languages and Arts. The instrument for collecting data is by using questionnaire. The data are analyzed by descriptive technique. The result shows that macromedia flash is advisability to use with the total assessment by expert validations is 91 (Good). With the result that macromedia flash is good and eligible to use for teaching speaking for students of business management program at vocational school.Keywords