The impact of human resource management practices in innovation culture Case Study: Bank of Palestine in Gaza strip

The purpose of this study is to determine the degree of correlation between HRM practices and innovation culture and the degree of the impact of each HRM practice on the innovation culture. Data of this study are obtained from Bank Of Palestine (BoP), triangulation mixed method is used in this study, by using quantitative and qualitative analysis in order to get three points upon the factors being studied through questionnaires distributed to BoPs' employees in different branches in Gaza strip, and interview with the HR manager of BoP and a focus group with BoP's HR team. The results of this study concluded that there is a correlation between HRM practices and innovation culture. The HRM practices, which include staffing process, compensation, employee and labor relations, training and development, safety and health and communication, and participation, should be implemented in a holistic system and not in isolation in order to best stimulate innovation culture. The study recommended the pre-evaluation tests should be changed to better measure employees' creativity, flexibility and ability to take risks which all lead to a better innovation culture

Understanding new religion-compliant product adoption (NRCPA) in Islamic markets

This study examines the relationships between religious beliefs, brand personality, and new religion-compliant product adoption (NRCPA) in Islamic markets. Findings confirm that religious consumers tend to behave in accordance with a society or group that follows the same beliefs, and that these consumers’ behavior and lifestyle are influenced by similar religious groups and social relationships. In addition, the more religious the consumer, the more likely they will adopt or favour/disfavour a new product in accordance with his/her religious beliefs. Finally, the three constructs–relative advantages, compatibility and complexity–are found to partially mediate the influential relationship between religious beliefs and new religion-compliant product adoption. International firms that target Muslim markets, with an aim to profit and fit in these markets, must take into account the Islamic values, standards and guidelines

Cone Penetration Testing For Field Density Prediction

This paper summarizes an experimental program for developing a pilot procedure to check and predict field densities of compacted soils using static cone penetration tests. Three sandy soils were tested. The testing program included both laboratory and field tests. On the basis of laboratory tests, density prediction curves were developed while field results were used to find a correlation to predict densities on the basis of measured penetration resistances. The results are rather encouraging and promising. It is anticipated that the presented methodology would be very effective for compaction quality control in large areas of sandy soils because it is fast, simple and causes minimum disturbance to the compacted soil

Proceedings of the Salford Postgraduate Annual Research Conference (SPARC) 2011

These proceedings bring together a selection of papers from the 2011 Salford Postgraduate Annual Research Conference(SPARC). It includes papers from PhD students in the arts and social sciences, business, computing, science and engineering, education, environment, built environment and health sciences. Contributions from Salford researchers are published here alongside papers from students at the Universities of Anglia Ruskin, Birmingham City, Chester,De Montfort, Exeter, Leeds, Liverpool, Liverpool John Moores and Manchester

Determination of storage volume required in a sub-surface stormwater detention/retention system

A new sub-surface detention/retention system, called the Storage–Infiltration Block (SIB) system, has been developed for the purposes of reduction of volume and flow rate of stormwater runoff and recharging groundwater. This paper presents a method in the determination of the maximum storage volume and maximum surface area required for the system. The method is based on the determination of the maximum difference between the volume of stormwater runoff entering the system and the volume released from the system by the infiltration process. The stormwater runoff inflow volume is determined using the Rational formula. The rainfall intensities were calculated based on the rainfall IDF relationships published by the Department of Irrigation and Drainage, Malaysia. An example is also included in this paper to demonstrate the calculation procedure. The example shows that the prediction of the maximum storage volume using this method is fast and accurate

The Emergence of New Islamic Economic and Business Moralities

This article aims to explore the sources of the observed transformation in the embeddedness of economic, business, and financial practices of Muslim individuals in comparison to premodern period Muslims. It argues that the predomination of instrumental reasoning in modern times, as opposed to substantive morality in everyday practice, is one of the main reasons behind the transformation of embeddedness of Muslim individuals. Instrumental reasoning, being the dominant methodology, leads to diminished submergence in social relations; that is not limited to interpersonal relationships, but further extended to the core religious acts. How such an emergent economic and business morality is reconciled with the Islamic substantive morality is examined. It is argued that “transformation of exception into norm” is the main method used to reconcile instrumental reasoning with Islamic law in fulfilling religious obligations, at least in terms of fulfilling the form and in complying with the necessities of modern life. This has led to the emergence of new economic and business moralities

Theodicy and End-of-Life Care

Acknowledgments The section on Islamic perspective is contributed by information provided by Imranali Panjwani, Tutor in Theology & Religious Studies, King's College London.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Modeling work practices under socio-technical systems for sustainable manufacturing performance

In light of the overwhelming consumption of resources by the manufacturing sector, this paper examined three key subsystems that are critical in greening the sector. Whereas the extant literature has focused on technological development to reduce environmental damage, it has not analyzed profoundly how manufacturing processes can be greened effectively. Hence, using carefully gathered data of 299 respondents and structural equation modeling, this paper sought to investigate the mediating effect of social, environmental, and technical subsystems on the relationship between management support and sustainable manufacturing performance. The results show that management support has a positive relationship with sustainable manufacturing performance (p < 0.005), while social, environmental, and technical subsystems partially mediate this relationship. Hence, efforts must be taken to encourage management of manufacturing firms to support sustainable management performance, while at the same time supporting them to introduce innovative social, environmental, and technical practices

Genetic diversity of the Nubian ibex in Oman as revealed by mitochondrial DNA

The Nubian ibex (Capra nubiana) is patchily distributed across parts of Africa and Arabia. In Oman, it is one of the few free-ranging wild mammals found in the central and southern regions. Its population is declining due to habitat degradation, human expansion, poaching and fragmentation. Here, we investigated the population's genetic diversity using mitochondrial DNA (D-loop 186 bp and cytochrome b 487 bp). We found that the Nubian ibex in the southern region of Oman was more diverse (D-loop HD; 0.838) compared with the central region (0.511) and gene flow between them was restricted. We compared the genetic profiles of wild Nubian ibex from Oman with captive ibex. A Bayesian phylogenetic tree showed that wild Nubian ibex form a distinct clade independent from captive animals. This divergence was supported by high mean distances (D-loop 0.126, cytochrome b 0.0528) and high FST statistics (D-loop 0.725, cytochrome b 0.968). These results indicate that captive ibex are highly unlikely to have originated from the wild population in Oman and the considerable divergence suggests that the wild population in Oman should be treated as a distinct taxonomic unit. Further nuclear genetic work will be required to fully elucidate the degree of global taxonomic divergence of Nubian ibex populations