Impact of Knowledge Management Infrastructure on Organizational Performance with Moderating Role of KM Performance: An Empirical Study on Banking Sector of Pakistan

From the last decade, Knowledge Management (KM) performs outstanding while implemented correctly not only to enhance the internal strength of the organizations but also to boost the external competitiveness. The current study investigated the impact of KM infrastructure (technology and culture) on organizational performance (OP) and how KM performance moderates the relationship between KM infrastructure and organizational performance.A total of 400 managerial employees of banking sector of Pakistan have been selected to get responses and 363 respondents returned valid questionnaires that are used for final analysis through SPSS 21 by using multiple regression analysis and Barron and Kenny (1986) moderation test. Results of the current study revealed that there is significant positive impact of KM infrastructure on the OP and KM performance partially strengthen the relationship and these results are in line with the results of the previous studies mentioned in the literature. The results of the current study have so many managerial implications for organizations. If banks in Pakistan want to increase performance, they must have to work on maintaining the efficient KM infrastructure. When organizations have efficient KM infrastructure, these ultimately increase performance and organizations will remain competitive in the industry. Keywords: Knowledge Management, KM Infrastructure, Organizational Performance, Banking Sector of Pakista

Economic and Strategic Implications of Privatization in Pakistan: Case Study of Pakistan Steel Mill

Privatization started in the 1980s in Pakistan, but it failed to turn state-owned enterprises into profitable entities, improve efficiency, ensure better governance, retire debt, and fix the fiscal balancing problem. Privatization in Pakistan seems to be politically conditioned and externally imposed rather than fulfilling domestic economic needs. This study aims to evaluate the privatization process in Pakistan descriptively; hence, the economic, political, and strategic implications of privatization in Pakistan are discussed. Pakistan Steel is an important entity in the engineering industry, significant in its economic, social, and strategic contributions. This study also explains the after-privatization implications of the Pakistan Steel Mill, Pakistan’s economic and strategic asset

Factors Affecting job satisfaction of employees in Pakistani banking sector

The job satisfaction has got tremendous attention in organizational research. The focus of this study is to determine the impact of various human resource management practices like job autonomy, team work environment and leadership behavior on job satisfaction. It also investigates the major determinants of job satisfaction in Pakistani banking sector. This study further evaluates the level of difference in job satisfaction among male and female employees. The sample of the study consisted of 450 employees working in different banks of Rawalpindi, Islamabad and Lahore through the questionnaire, of which 295 were returned and processed. SPSS was used to analyze the data, using Independent Sample T Test, Correlation and regression analysis. There is a positive and significant link between job satisfaction and human recourse management practices like team work environment, job autonomy and behavior of leadership. From the findings of the study, it is also inferred that male and female workers have significantly different level of job satisfaction.Human resource management practices, job satisfaction, employees, banking sector

Cryptovirology Ransomware: A Review of Dissemination and Mitigation Techniques

Digital assets are generally regarded as one of the most valuable assets for an organization. When they are captured for ransom purposes, a serious problem arises, and ransomware is responsible for this. When ransomware gets onto a computer or other electronic device, the data on it is encrypted, made inaccessible, or taken away until a ransom is paid. The culprits behind these activities release and disseminate new and sophisticated variants of illicit wealth and notorious practices. Hardware and antivirus software that detect intrusions are not a permanent solution, as hackers can bypass them easily. After ransomware has been executed on an electronic device, it is extremely difficult or nearly impossible to recover the data, and now is the time to draw attention to this threat. In this study, various aspects of ransomware’s propagation, encryption, and mitigation techniques are discussed. We have also used the RanSim simulator to detect malware in a system, and details of the experiment are presented in the later sections. The methodology used for this study can be classified as exploratory research to explore the recent literature on the topic. This study contributes by highlighting recent trends in ransomware, their consequences, and prevention and mitigation techniques. Keywords: RanSim, Ransomware, Ransomware Threats and Mitigation, System Implications of Ransomware, Trusted Computing. Digital assets are generally regarded as one of the most valuable assets for an organization. When they are captured for ransom purposes, a serious problem arises, and ransomware is responsible for this. When ransomware gets onto a computer or other electronic device, the data on it is encrypted, made inaccessible, or taken away until a ransom is paid. The culprits behind these activities release and disseminate new and sophisticated variants of illicit wealth and notorious practices. Hardware and antivirus software that detect intrusions are not a permanent solution, as hackers can bypass them easily. After ransomware has been executed on an electronic device, it is extremely difficult or nearly impossible to recover the data, and now is the time to draw attention to this threat. In this study, various aspects of ransomware’s propagation, encryption, and mitigation techniques are discussed. We have also used the RanSim simulator to detect malware in a system, and details of the experiment are presented in the later sections. The methodology used for this study can be classified as exploratory research to explore the recent literature on the topic. This study contributes by highlighting recent trends in ransomware, their consequences, and prevention and mitigation techniques

Workplace Ostracism and Employee Reactions among University Teachers in Pakistan

This study investigated the positive and negative behavioral outcomes resulting from the pragmatic and psychological impacts of workplace ostracism experienced by university teachers in Pakistan. Using a qualitative and phenomenological approach, the data were gathered from 20 ostracized teachers working in public and private sector higher educational institutions in Pakistan. The results revealed that participants faced both the psychological and pragmatic impacts of workplace ostracism. Most of the ostracized teachers indicated positive behavioral outcomes due to being collectivist and placing a high value on social relations. Ostracized teachers used resource investment strategies by improving in-role and extra-role performance that reflect their re-inclusion expectations and less chronic prevalence of workplace ostracism. But participants showed their intention to engage in negative behaviors such as withdrawal, decreased performance, and resignation if they constantly face ostracism in future. The results of this study can be used by the university administration to develop an inclusive and non-discriminatory culture and policies to minimize the occurrence of workplace ostracism

ORGANIZATIONAL POLITICS AND PERFORMANCE OUTCOMES: INVESTIGATING THE BUFFERING EFFECT OF ORGANIZATIONAL JUSTICE

In current study, it was theorized that perceived fairness reduces the detrimental effects of perception of organizational politics on performance outcomes of organizations i.e. organizational commitment, managerial effectiveness and organizational performance. To test this exposition, data of 243 managerial employees of banking sector have been obtained and used to find out the moderating effect of organizational justice on perception of organizational politics and performance outcomes. The findings reached at the conclusion that distributive and procedural dimensions of the organizational justice safeguard the damaging effects of perception of organizational politics on performance but interactional justice has not verified as moderator. This study extends the fairness theory and recommends management to flourish fairness culture in organizations to reduce the injurious effects of organizational politics in the workplace

Implications of advanced wastewater treatment: Electrocoagulation and electroflocculation of effluent discharged from a wastewater treatment plant

In this research, wastewater treatment was inspected on a pilot-scale wastewater treatment plant by electrochemical techniques, electrocoagulation (EC), electroflotation (EF) and electrophoretic deposition (EPD). The wastewater samples have been characterised by applying different parameters to determine optimum working conditions of the electrocoagulation reactor. Two electrodes have been tested separately with an outflow coming from primary and secondary sedimentation tank. The outflows from these tanks are introduced in EC reactor then EC reactor efficacy is determined for the removal of chemical oxygen demand (COD), suspended solids, micropollutants and amount of coagulants in agglomerates at different current densities. The amounts of suspended solids (SS) in influent and effluent streams were determined by the membrane filtration technique. The operational applied current values range from 1–4 A in the case of COD removal by Fe and Al. While for SS aggregation the applied current ranges from 0.5–3 A and inflow rate was tested from 250 to 500 L/h. The pH of outflows increased by increasing applied current and both of these parameters were found a positive increase in the amount of SS aggregations after EC treatment. Furthermore, the COD removal efficiency was found to be 56–57 % and 12–18 % in case Fe and Al electrode respectively after EC treatment. The results showed that applied current is the most effective parameter, whereas the aluminium electrodes have produced more amounts of flocs and bubbles in comparison to iron electrodes at similar amount of current density

Evaluation of Modified Non-Normal Process Capability Index and Its Bootstrap Confidence Intervals

Process capability index (PCI) is used to quantify the process performance and is becoming an attracted area of research. A variability measure plays an important role in PCI. The interquartile range (IQR) or the median absolute deviation (MAD) is commonly used for a variability measure in estimating PCI when a process follows a non-normal distribution In this paper, the efficacy of the IQR and MAD-based PCIs was evaluated under low, moderate, and high asymmetric behavior of the Weibull distribution using different sample sizes through three different bootstrap confidence intervals. The result reveals that MAD performs better than IQR, because the former produced less bias and mean square error. Also, the percentile bootstrap confidence interval is recommended for use, because it has less average width and high coverage probability.11Ysciescopu

SERVICE QUALITY DIMENSIONS AND ITS IMPACT ON CUSTOMER’S BEHAVIORAL INTENTIONS

The market of life Insurance has obtained considerabledevelopment with respect to awareness about insurance, terrorism,target killing, and uncertainty in world. In 2014-15, the growth ratewas 29% that showed life Insurance market has a key contribution inPakistan’s economy. The core rationale of this research is toinvestigate the services quality aspects and its influence on corporatecustomer’s behavioral intentions. This research has two objectivesfirst; determine the perceptions of corporate customers concerningthe quality service of group life insurance. Second, is to examine thebehavioral intentions of corporate customers with respect to numerousaspects of service quality. About 218 responses from corporatecustomers are gathered with the help of structured questionnairesand by using simple random sampling method. The major antecedents’of behavioral intentions are personalized competence and planning.Conversely, in this study, assurance is not found as a predictor ofbehavioral intention of corporate customers. This is first study in theperspective of group life insurance in Asia as well as in the context ofdeveloping country

Patterns Of HRCT In Patients with Pulmonary Tuberculosis At A Tertiary Care Hospital

Abstract: Background: With the advancement in biomedical engineering and imaging technology, HRCT scan has emerged as more effective tool than standard1computed tomography scan & traditional chest radiography in detecting pulmonary pathologies including pulmonary tuberculosis. Objective: To determine different patterns of HRCT in patients with pulmonary tuberculosis. Study Design: Retrospective observational study. Setting: Department of Pulmonology & Internal Medicine, University of Lahore Teaching Hospital, Lahore. Methodology:          Total of 76 patients were included in the study based on inclusion & exclusion criteria, selected by non-probability consecutive sampling. Demographic information, signs & symptoms and results from high-resolution tomography scans were noted. Data analysis was performed on SPSS 23 & reported by descriptive statistics. Results: Total 76 patients were included. The mean age was 46.18+20.27 years ranging from 8 to 86 years. There were 43(56.6%) males and 33(43.4%) females. 36 (47.37%) patients were up to 45 years of age and 40 (52.63%) patients were above 45 years. Signs and symptoms of pulmonary TB were cough 60 (78.9%), sputum 21(27.6%), fever 43(55.3%), night sweats 23(30.3%) & weight loss 36(47.4%). Most common HRCT pattern observed was ill defined nodules (77.6% cases) while atelactasis was the least common HRCT pattern observed (22.4% cases). There was no statistically significant difference (P <0.05) observed between different patterns of HRCT and positive sputum smear. Conclusion: Our study concluded that a HRCT scan is helpful in the identification of the disease and its accompanying spectrum in patients with pulmonary tuberculosis with nodules being the most prevalent HRCT pattern. Key Words: Tuberculosis (TB), High resolution computerized tomography (HRCT