Prospects for IT-Enabled Services Under a Indo-US FTA

ITES/BPO services is an important and growing component of Indias trade in services with the US. While the Indian government has implemented several measures to support the growth of this sector, Indian companies face various barriers in the US market such as anti-outsourcing regulations, restrictive visa/work permit regime and concerns relating to protection of sensitive data. Multilateral negotiations would have been the best route to address many of these barriers, but with the recent suspension of the Doha Round of talks, it has become important for countries to evaluate alternative routes such as bilateral Free Trade Agreements. In fact, after the suspension of the multilateral negotiations, both India and the US have refocused on bilateral agreements. In this context, this study discusses the current and potential trade between India and the US in ITES/BPO services, identifies barriers to trade and explores how an FTA can enhance bilateral trade in this sector. The study shows that the US-FTAs have achieved a higher level of liberalization than in the WTO. It suggests various negotiating strategies for India such as a negative list approach, signing mutual recognition agreements in key professional services, asking for a H1B1 type of visa, pushing for removal of domestic regulation-related barriers, among others which would enhance market access for Indian companies in the US. It also points out that Indo-US collaborations for data protection, skill development and raising awareness of the advantages of outsourcing in the US would be mutually beneficial. The study discusses regulatory and other reforms which will improve the productivity, efficiency and global competitiveness of this sector and enable the country to gain from the FTA.Indo-US FTA, GATS, bilateral agreements, Business Process Outsourcing, IT-enabled services

Do Human Resource Practices, Employee Remuneration And Employee Benefits Have Significant Influence On The Retention Of Childcare Teachers In The Childcare Service Industry?

This study investigates the impact of human resource practices, employee remuneration and employee benefits on childcare teachers' intentions to stay in the Singaporean workforce. This mixed methods study focuses on current qualified childcare teachers, their perspectives on human resource practices, employee remuneration and employee benefits in their workplaces and their intentions regarding whether to continue working in the childcare sector in Singapore. In the first phase of the study, which was qualitative, in-depth interviews were conducted with 21 current qualified childcare teachers. In the second phase of the study, which was quantitative, 202 current qualified childcare teachers in Singapore participated in a paper-based and web-based survey. The findings indicate that childcare teachers in Singapore want to be rewarded with fair human resource practices and employee wages are not the only dominant factor on the retention of childcare teachers in the Singaporean childcare industry. This study addresses a knowledge gap about childcare teacher retention in the childcare service industry in Singapore

Race to the Top: Colorado May Be Used to High Altitudes But Can It Compete in Race to the Top?

Outlines expected requirements for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act's funding to the states for education reform. Offers strategies for improving teacher quality in Colorado, as well as data infrastructure, low-performing schools, and standards

Understanding turnover intentions and behavior of Indian information systems professionals: A study of organizational justice, job satisfaction and social norms

Despite the phenomenal growth projected for the Indian information technology (IT) industry, one of the biggest challenges it faces is the high rate of turnover in offshore Indian-based supplier firms (Everest Research Group 2011). In this dissertation, we explored the following determinants of turnover intentions—social norms job attributes, job satisfaction, organizational alternatives, first order supervisory justice dimensions (distributive, procedural, interpersonal and informational justice) and second-order organizational justice measured by the first order justice dimensions. The research design was longitudinal to assess turnover behavior and its relationship with turnover intentions. Telephonic interviews were conducted with 75 Indian IS professionals based in India. Ten months later the respondents were contacted again to determine their actual turnover behavior. Data was quantitatively analyzed using PLS graph. Qualitative analysis using content analysis was also performed to gain deeper insights. Seven out of the 11 hypothesized relationships were supported. Three out of 4 dimensions of justice were found to be significantly and negatively related to turnover intentions- distributive, procedural and informational justice. Also, the second-order latent construct of overall organizational justice was found to be negatively related to turnover intentions. The hypothesized relationships between social norms and turnover intentions and between organizational alternatives and turnover intentions were not supported. Job attributes for tasks not involving client interaction (programming, testing and project management tasks) was found to be negatively related to job satisfaction. Finally, turnover intentions was found to positively relate to turnover behavior. We made important contributions to the literature of turnover by being one of the few studies actually measuring turnover behavior. Also, we addressed a gap in the literature of IS turnover of studying IS populations across different nations. We contributed to theory by testing a model of turnover that had new constructs not tested before, like overall organizational justice (second-order) and supervisory focused four first-order justice dimensions, and social norms. For future research, revised model of turnover relevant for Indian IS professionals is proposed-this involved adding new constructs like work life balance, stress, organizational satisfaction and removing constructs that did not find support in Indian contexts like organizational alternatives and social norms

Brain drain to Singapore: A case study of Malaysian accounting professionals

Fierce competition for skilled labour between countries is the indirect result of globalization and this has led to intense labour mobility worldwide. Most fre-quently observed is the outflow of professionals from developing countries to the developed nations. More often this happens at the expense of the developing countries. Malaysia is one developing country that is not spared from this phenomenon. This is damaging to the country’s economy. This research was motivated by the increasing number of Malaysian professionals fleeing the home country to serve in foreign lands. This study addresses the need of these experts in the home country to improve the nation’s economy in order to achieve the high income status by 2020. Thus, the present study examined the relationship between the variables and Brain Drain. The sample population is accounting professionals based in Kuala Lumpur and Penang because these are the urban areas that contain offices where accounting personnel can be found. This research constitutes an empirical study which utilizes a cross-sectional research design. The present study has employed both the questionnaire approach and the face-to-face interviews to enhance the value of the research. Questionnaires were administered via drop off/pick up method, email and snowball. The Partial Least Squared (PLS) Method was used to analyse the data collected from the survey. The findings of the study show that Better Perks and Benefits, Quality Work Life, Ease of Immigration Procedures, International Exposure, Greater Job Availability, and Social Network have a significant impact on Brain Drain and that the Big 5 Personality and Proactive Personality moderate the relationship between the main variables and Brain Drain. This study reveals that besides money, job satisfaction should also be an area where employers should focus since without job satisfaction, people are compelled to leave. The government should also mobilise their officials abroad to ensure that Malaysians abroad are always in touch with the home country and that relationship is not severed. Host countries also could assist in collecting taxes on behalf of Malaysia. Thus it is recommended that Malaysia take proactive measures in order to curb the Brain Drain phenomenon

Education Workforce Initiative: Initial Research

The purpose of this initial research is to offer evidenced possibilities in the key areas of education workforce roles, recruitment, training, deployment and leadership, along with suggested areas for further research to inform innovation in the design and strengthening of the public sector education workforce. The examples described were identified through the process outlined in the methodology section of this report, whilst we recognise that separation of examples from their context is problematic – effective innovations are highly sensitive to context and uncritical transfer of initiatives is rarely successful. The research aims to support the Education Workforce Initiative (EWI) in moving forward with engaging education leaders and other key actors in radical thinking around the design and strengthening of the education workforce to meet the demands of the 21st century. EWI policy recommendations will be drawn from a number of country level workforce reform activities and research activity associated with the production of an Education Workforce Report (EWR). This research has informed the key questions, approach and structure of the EWR as outlined in the Education Workforce Report Proposal. Issues pertaining to teaching and learning in primary and secondary education are at the centre of the research reported here; the focus is on moving towards schools as safe places where all children/ young people are able to engage in meaningful activity. The majority of the evidence shared here relates to teachers and school leaders; evidence on learning support staff, district officials and the wider education workforce is scant. Many of the issues examined are also pertinent to the early childhood care and education sector but these are being examined in depth by the Early Childhood Workforce Initiative. Resourcing for the Education Workforce was out of scope of this initial research but the EC recognises, as outlined in the Learning Generation Report, that provision of additional finance is a critical factor in achieving a sustainable, strong and well-motivated education workforce, particularly but not exclusively, in low and middle income countries. The next stage of EWI work will consider the relative costs of current initiatives and modelling of the cost implications of proposed reforms. EWI aims to complement the work on teacher policy design and teacher career frameworks (including salary structures) being undertaken by other bodies and institutions such as Education International, the International Task Force on Teachers for 2030 and the Teachers’ Alliance, most particularly by bringing a focus on school and district leadership, the role of Education Support Professionals (ESPs) and inter-agency working

Factors Influencing Employee Retention: An Integrated Perspective

Turnover is a big problem for many organizations. It is a misperception that all turnover is bad and must be avoided. But actually if an organization does not have a balanced level of turnover, it will result in monotonous system and that organization will not have access to new ideas, change, dynamism and creativity. Turn over influences profitability and customer satisfaction (Koys, 2001). Our concern is that the required turnover must exist but the unwanted voluntary turnover should be reduced or avoided. In today’s competitive environment employees leave their organization for various reasons. As the knowledge of employees have become highly important in gaining competitive advantage in today's business environment (Hall, 1993). The organizations are trying to retain the best employees. The Importance of HR and their retention is established. Initially because resources are scarce and secondly because the competition by businesses to have the best and most talented employees for their organization (Chambers et. Al., 1998) and finally because Turnover also destroys the customer confidence in the company (Koys, 2001). Customers don’t want to teach about their needs to the new employees. So it is better to retain employees that can retain customers. In the competitive environment, the retention of skilled employees is very difficult. Top management & HR department put in an extensive time, financial resources and effort in order to find out the way to retain their employees and gain competitive advantage (Bartlett & Ghoshal, 2013). Training efforts are also used to retain employees (Chen, 2014). That is why it is critical to understand what employee retention is? Employee retention means keeping the employee in and with your organization in lay man’s language. It involves taking actions that motivate and tempt employees to stay with the organization for the maximum period of time. It is a planned and organized effort. Which should result in catering the diverse needs of employees so that they remain employed in the organization. For the sake of our discussion we are going to define retention as a continuous and planned effort of taking all actions by the organization to retain the knowledgeable, skilled and competent employees selected. Now we may be clear on what is retention of employee but merely knowing it is not enough. Why is it important? If it is so simple to retain an employee through a contract, a bond or any other legal agreement for the long period of time. It is because in that process, the recruitment takes a lot of time and we may not be able to get the talent that we wanted. Also what will happen when the contract or the legal agreement expires? So we want to retain the employees because they want to stay not because they are forced to stay. But what are the factors that make them “Want to Stay”, what factors can cause retention. Many studies have identified different factors that if handled properly would result in employee retention. Some have studied retention from the employer’s perspective and some from employees'. Our concern is that employees' perspective is more important. So we want to know what an employee considers important to retain him in an organization. Many researchers have challenged the conventional wisdom of the people that good salary only keeps employees retained. But all different researchers have worked to analyze the impact or influence of one variable or few variables on employee retention. None of them has tried to identify an integrated set of variables or factors that, if handled properly will result in employee retention. The purpose of our study here is to fulfill this task. We have studied literature from 1947 to 2014 and ten papers were selected from each decade through google scholar to create a set of variables from the literature. In this way 60 or more papers were studied which identified work related and non-work related factors that cause employee retention. Monetary and non-monetary factors that were identified are pay, promotion, social environment, working conditions, relationship with immediate boss, respect, location of organization, organizational justice, organizational prestige, recognition, work-life balance, job satisfaction, job involvement, job content, training, job embeddedness, flexible work arrangements, status, career development, organizational values and beliefs, organization support, Job is not what worker expected, job and person mismatch, growth opportunities, appreciation, trust and support, stress from overwork, new job offer

Mitigating IT Professionals’ Turnover in Non-IT Organizations: An Organizational Identification Perspective

The turnover of IT professionals is a perpetual challenge for non-IT organizations. Based on self-categorization theory, this study proposes that IT employees’ turnover may be mitigated by fostering their identification with non-IT organizations, which can be done by meeting various facilitative conditions. Guided by intergroup contact theory, we identify IT employees’ perceived alignment between IT and the core business of an organization (business-IT alignment), the extent of boundary-spanning activities that IT employees engage in, and the closeness of the relationships between IT and non-IT employees as the drivers of their organizational identification. Using survey data collected from organizations in different industries, we obtained empirical evidence supporting the positive effects of the perceived business-IT alignment, the extent of boundary-spanning activities, and the relationship closeness between IT and non-IT employees on IT employees’ organizational identification. Additionally, there was a three-way interaction effect among the three drivers such that the relationship closeness between IT and non-IT employees reduced the positive effect of the extent of boundary-spanning activities on IT employees’ organizational identification when business-IT alignment was low. However, this negative moderating effect diminished when business-IT alignment increased. The findings of this research advance the literature and offer practical guidelines for non-IT organizations on how to enhance their IT employees’ organizational identification and how to mitigate their turnover intentions

Models of motivation in software engineering

Motivation in software engineering is recognized as a key success factor for software projects, but although there are many papers written about motivation in software engineering, the field lacks a comprehensive overview of the area. In particular, several models of motivation have been proposed, but they either rely heavily on one particular model (the job characteristics model), or are quite disparate and difficult to combine. Using the results from our previous systematic literature review (SLR), we constructed a new model of motivation in software engineering. We then compared this new model with existing models and refined it based on this comparison. This paper summarises the SLR results, presents the important existing models found in the literature and explains the development of our new model of motivation in software engineering

For the Public Good: Quality Preparation for Every Teacher

The goal is to ensure that teachers enter the profession ready for the demands of the 21st-century classroom. The first report from Bank Street College of Education's Sustainable Funding Project  looks at ways of reaching that goal through yearlong co-teaching experiences, commonly referred to as residencies, in classroom settings with experienced mentors.The report—"For the Public Good: Quality Preparation for Every Teacher"—also identifies public funding streams to support residency programs nationwide and outlines how teacher preparation providers and school districts can establish mutually beneficial partnerships to support high-quality teacher preparation