Employment system and stock options in Japan

"March 2007"Thesis (Ph. D. in Finance)--University of Tsukuba, (A), no. 4270, 2007.3.23Includes bibliographical references (leaves 155-162

Returns to Facilitating Farmers’ Organisations for Distributary Maintenance: Empirical Results from a Pilot Project in Southern Punjab

Institutional reforms currently underway in Pakistan’s irrigation and drainage sector require that farmers take over the operation and maintenance responsibilities of their secondary canals. However, the farmers need to be organised first, for which investments are a prerequisite. A great deal of skepticism about the farmers’ collective ability and willingness to undertake the needed tasks exists, even now when they are actually organised. This skepticism originates from past experiences when direct subsidies were offered to induce collective action. Theoretically, collective action can be more sustainable if investments are made in capacity building for the tasks that the farmers have to perform to improve the service delivery. Farmers are being organised for distributary operation and maintenance. So far, the delay in formulation of an appropriate legal framework has prevented the irrigation departments from formally transferring the operation and maintenance responsibilities to farmers. Self-help-based maintenance has been the only avenue for farmers to participate in the management of the irrigation system. The paper uses data pertaining to the cost of facilitation and estimates the amount of resources mobilised for two successive years from a pilot project. The analysis shows that investments made for facilitation do pay off. Investment in facilitation returns 69 percent higher than the actual investment per year during the initial years. In the short-run, the returns to facilitation indicate an increasing trend. The paper argues that when compared to previous approaches adopted in Pakistan, investments for facilitation and capacity building have a greater chance of prompting sustainable collective action for irrigation and drainage management.

INVESTIGATING THE LEVEL OF BURNOUT AND INFLUENCING FACTORS ON IT AMONG THE WORKERS: CASE STUDY THE PETROCHEMICAL INDUSTRIES NATIONAL COMPANY

This study is done with the purpose of investigation the level of burnout and influencing factors on it. The method used is measuring or filed-finding, descriptive studies type and the statistic society is made of the entire official and non-official workers in the petrochemical industries national company in the year (2009) including 6901people in the main office and 12 subsidiary companies who are working. The estimation of the sample volume is made using the cochran formula by the volume of 1742 people and the accidental class and the domesticated form of the Maslach Burn Out Inventory has been used for gathering the dependant variant data of the study. In this study the relevance or effect of 20 independent variables on the burnout and its constituents was investigated. In the two variable tests, the emotional commitment had a reverse relation with burnout. So that with the increase of the interest and bind of the workers to the organization, the level of burnout decreased. In analyzing the step by step regression of the burnout according to the expected variables, 41percent of the explained burnout (R 2 =41%), and ranking the amount of the standard coefficient, the main elements like the nature of the job, emotional commitment, work environment, job security, coworkers, education, job type, salary and the premium and job independence in the remaining regression equation and on the burnout variable have been influencing.burnout, emotional commitment, job satisfaction, job motivation, job content.

Using information engineering to understand the impact of train positioning uncertainties on railway subsystems

Many studies propose new advanced railway subsystems, such as Driver Advisory System (DAS), Automatic Door Operation (ADO) and Traffic Management System (TMS), designed to improve the overall performance of current railway systems. Real time train positioning information is one of the key pieces of input data for most of these new subsystems. Many studies presenting and examining the effectiveness of such subsystems assume the availability of very accurate train positioning data in real time. However, providing and using high accuracy positioning data may not always be the most cost-effective solution, nor is it always available. The accuracy of train position information is varied, based on the technological complexity of the positioning systems and the methods that are used. In reality, different subsystems, henceforth referred to as ‘applications’, need different minimum resolutions of train positioning data to work effectively, and uncertainty or inaccuracy in this data may reduce the effectiveness of the new applications. However, the trade-off between the accuracy of the positioning data and the required effectiveness of the proposed applications is so far not clear. A framework for assessing the impact of uncertainties in train positions against application performance has been developed. The required performance of the application is assessed based on the characteristics of the railway system, consisting of the infrastructure, rolling stock and operational data. The uncertainty in the train positioning data is considered based on the characteristics of the positioning system. The framework is applied to determine the impact of the positioning uncertainty on the application’s outcome. So, in that way, the desired position resolution associated with acceptable application performance can be characterised. In this thesis, the framework described above is implemented for DAS and TMS applications to understand the influence of positioning uncertainty on their fundamental functions compared to base case with high accuracy (actual position). A DAS system is modelled and implemented with uncertainty characteristic of a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS). The train energy consumption and journey time are used as performance measures to evaluate the impact of these uncertainties compared to a base case. A TMS is modelled and implemented with the uncertainties of an on-board low-cost low-accuracy positioning system. The impact of positioning uncertainty on the modelled TMS is evaluated in terms of arrival punctuality for different levels of capacity consumption. The implementation of the framework for DAS and TMS applications determines the following: • which of the application functions are influenced by positioning uncertainty; • how positioning uncertainty influences the application output variables; • how the impact of positioning uncertainties can be identified, through the application output variables, whilst considering the impact of other railway uncertainties; • what is the impact of the underperforming application, due to positioning uncertainty, on the whole railway system in terms of energy, punctuality and capacity

Perception of Justice and Trust in Software Industry of Pakistan

The present study concentrates on how organizational justice influences trust and performance of employees in an organization. Trust level of employees is affected by how employees perceive justice in organizations and hence, it also affects the performance of the organization. It may be inferred that trust is a vital component in mediating the connection of organizational justice and organizational performance. The industry used for the present research is the software industry of Pakistan. A structured questionnaire was sent to 350 employees, randomly selected, working in various software firms in Punjab, Pakistan. Structural Equation Modeling - AMOS was applied for analyzing the data. The findings from the research revealed that trust played a strong mediating relationship between fairness and performance of the organization. The results provide useful insights for organizations, particularly the software firms of Pakistan since this study considers factors other than economic gain that may be more important to the employees in improving the performance of the organization

Effect of COVID-19 Fear on Worker’s Well-being: A Hope Intervention Approach for Services Sector

The current study has investigated the mechanism of COVID-19 deteriorating workplace well-being. The study detemines that people confronting a surge in fear of COVID-19 start losing hope resulting in damaged well-being. The workplace well-being scale as developed by Bartels et al., (2019) was amended to meet the requirements of the current context. Hence, the authors added a phrase before items (during current COVID-19, and remote working need) to relate the scale with the current study. The study found a significant relationship between fear of coronavirus and the workplace well-being of remote workers. A significant mediation was observed through the hope construct. Hence, established that COVID-19 is damaging workplace well-being. The study also has certain limitations, as COVID-19 is a recent pandemic not much literature is present to support the phenomenon. Future researchers might go for a greater data set for generalizing the phenomenon. A cross-country analysis could present great insights into the model. It is a timely decision for policymakers, politicians, managers, academicians, and practitioners to devise strategies to control the phenomenon

Mitos dan legenda sebagai produk pelancongan di Malaysia: kajian kes Lembah Lenggong

Setiap tempat mempunyai legenda dan mitos yang tersendiri. Ada yang menarik dan terus disebarkan, namun ada juga yang sudah dilupakan. Unsur mitos dan legenda yang menarik, jika dipakejkan berupaya menambah daya saing sesuatu destinasi pelancongan. Artikel ini membincangkan kesesuaian membangunkan unsur mitos dan kisah legenda setempat sebagai produk pelancongan budaya menggunakan Lembah Lenggong sebagai kes kajian. Lembah Lenggong yang telah diiktiraf sebagai tapak warisan dunia oleh UNESCO memiliki beberapa mitos dan legenda yang berupaya menjadi tarikan pelancong. Menggunakan data sekunder dan primer yang diperolehi melalui pemerhatian dan temu bual berstruktur, mitos dan legenda Lembah Lenggong telah dikenal pasti dan dianalisis. Antaranya termasuklah kisah Gua Puteri, Batu Puteri @ Batu Gajah dan asal usul nama Lenggong. Mitos dan legenda ini berserta empat mitos daripada komuniti Orang Asli suku Lanoh didapati berpotensi untuk dipakejkan menjadi produk pelancongan di Lembah Lenggong. Langkah membangunkan unsur mitos dan legenda tersebut melalui usaha pemeliharaan artifak, pendokumentasian dan menganimasikan wajar dilakukan segera agar ia dapat kekal menjadi tarikan pelancong di Lembah Lenggong pada masa hadapan