Trends in Absolute Poverty in Pakistan: 1990-91 and 2001

Poverty, defined comprehensively as absence of options to shape one’s life according to one’s own preferences, comes closer to the concept of human development as presented in UNDP’s Human Development Reports. Absolute poverty, on the contrary, defines poverty in terms of satisfaction of minimum physical needs of food and non-food items to enable people at the lower end of income distribution to engage in economic activity. From the vantage point of the policy-maker concerned with alleviation of poverty, it is crucial to know the magnitude of the existing level of poverty and identify the policy determinants of poverty as well as constraints standing in the way of an effective attack on the worst forms of absolute poverty. In Pakistan, like many other developing countries, poverty has emerged as a core issue on the policy agenda. The traditional measures of poverty—headcount, severity and poverty gap indicate that the incidence of poverty during the previous decade have shown no sign of poverty abatement despite numerous policy and institutional initiatives undertaken by the government. The debate on trends in poverty during the 1990s—an era of stabilisation and structural adjustment has been wide-ranging in Pakistan. However, there is no consensus on the poverty outcomes from the policy and institutional reforms. Primarily due to non-availability of basic data, the last year for which poverty estimates are available is 1998-99. In view of the need to monitor poverty trends and continuously evaluate the efficacy of policies adopted by the government under the poverty reduction strategy, it is important to evolve a consensus on the use of a consistent poverty line, sources of data and data adjustments for measuring poverty. It is this policy context that has guided us to use a consistent definition of poverty line.

Landlessness and Rural Poverty in Pakistan

Although reducing rural poverty has been the key agenda of economic reforms in Pakistan, the rural poverty continued to rise during the 1990s. The causes of rural poverty are complex and multidimensional. The rural poor are quite diverse both in the problems they face, and the possible solutions to these problems are also different. The paper uses the most recent household data set available—PIHS 2001-02—to examine the causes of rural poverty, as to what accounts for its persistence and what policy measures should be taken to alleviate it. Poverty estimates using official poverty line suggest the high prevalence of rural poverty ranging from 39 percent to 48 percent in all provinces. Rural poverty is found to be strongly correlated with lack of asset in rural areas. The unequal land ownership in the country is found to be one of the major causes of rural poverty, as poverty level was the highest among the landless households followed by non-agriculture households. The incidence of landlessness is common in rural areas. About 67 percent households own no land in the country. Unusually, just 0.3 percent households own 55 and above acres of land across the country, suggesting a highly skewed landownership pattern. Gini Coefficient of landholding suggests that Punjab has the most unequal landownership pattern, followed by the NWFP, Sindh, and Balochistan. The highly unequal land distribution seems to have resulted in tenancy arrangements such as sharecropping, resulting in high prevalence of absolute poverty particularly in Sindh. A broad-based land reform programme, including land redistribution and fair and enforceable tenancy contracts together with rural public works programmes and access to credit, is critical to reducing rural poverty in Pakistan.Poverty, Pakistan

Employee imagination and its implication for entrepreneurs : inspiration from Chinese business enterprises

Purpose: In 2015 the European Group of Organisation Studies released a call for papers highlighting poor knowledge of employee imagination in organisations. To address this need, the current study hypothesises employee imagination consisting of seven conditions common to the organisational experience of Chinese Entrepreneurs. Design/methodology/approach: The current paper reviews the Chinese enterprising context. Cases from China are used to illustrate the effects of proposed conditions and their value for entrepreneurs and innovators in businesses undergoing change. Findings: Employee imagination underpins and conditions how Chinese employees make sense of their organisations and better understand the process of organisational change. From the viewpoint of human resource management, coaching and developing imagination enables businesses to stay competitive and adapt to environmental demands such as lack of information, too much information, or the need for new information. Research limitations/implications: The proposed conditions apply to the Chinese context, however, their application to wider contexts is suggested and requires attention. Originality/Value: Theoretically, our research adds new insights to knowledge of a poorly understood organisational behaviour topic – employee imagination. Practically, the research findings provide mangers with knowledge of conditions, which could be adopted as powerful tools in facilitating organisational change management

Imagination in entrepreneurship : an inspiration from Heidegger

Entrepreneur's imagination has crucial implication on business success and management. Despite its espoused importance, imagination is still undervalued and deserves more academic attention. The current article aims to provide a novel perspective on imagination informed by Heidegger (1889-1976; widely acknowledged to be one of the most original philosophers of the 20th century). Specifically, the article has clarified the definition of imagination in entrepreneurship and risen constructs align with the proposed conception. Under the microscope of Heidegger’s theory, entrepreneur’s imagination co-operates ventures successfully by incorporating notions of webs of significance, authenticity, spontaneity, heroes and moods, which guide opportunity identification and exploration in markets. The article has offered new insights to the knowledge of entrepreneur's imagination. From a pragmatic viewpoint, inferential leaps are possible because entrepreneurs practice against a background of webs of significance they own - which they relationally, linguistically and pragmatically - share across institutional frames. Implications of the findings on management are discussed. Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Heidegger; Imagination; Instability; Unpredictability; Spontaneity

Trends in Absolute Poverty in Pakistan: 1990-91 and 2001

Poverty, defined comprehensively as absence of options to shape one’s life according to one’s own preferences, comes closer to the concept of human development as presented in UNDP’s Human Development Reports. Absolute poverty, on the contrary, defines poverty in terms of satisfaction of minimum physical needs of food and non-food items to enable people at the lower end of income distribution to engage in economic activity. From the vantage point of the policy-maker concerned with alleviation of poverty, it is crucial to know the magnitude of the existing level of poverty and identify the policy determinants of poverty as well as constraints standing in the way of an effective attack on the worst forms of absolute poverty. In Pakistan, like many other developing countries, poverty has emerged as a core issue on the policy agenda. The traditional measures of poverty—headcount, severity and poverty gap indicate that the incidence of poverty during the previous decade have shown no sign of poverty abatement despite numerous policy and institutional initiatives undertaken by the government. The debate on trends in poverty during the 1990s—an era of stabilisation and structural adjustment has been wide-ranging in Pakistan. However, there is no consensus on the poverty outcomes from the policy and institutional reforms. Primarily due to non-availability of basic data, the last year for which poverty estimates are available is 1998-99

Decision and intuition during organizational change : an evolutionary critique of dual process theory

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to review intuition in the context of organizational change. We argue that intuition as a concept requires attention and its formulation is necessary prior to its application in organizations. The paper provides a critique of Dual Process Theory and highlights shortcomings in organization theorizing of intuition. Design/methodology/approach: The paper is conceptual and provides in-depth theoretical discussions by drawing from the literature on decision and intuition in the context of organizational change. Findings: Investigating whether Dual Process Theory is sufficiently clear, we found ambiguity. Specifically, the current definition provided by Dane and Pratt is not clear in terms of its four sections: (1) The consciousness of non-conscious processing, (2) involving holistic associations, (3) that are produced rapidly, which (4) result in affectively charged judgments. Finally, we note that the Evolutionary perspective is missing and we provide foundational concepts for such a perspective, including the discussion of information templates, memes and genes, as argued by research, condition intuition. Originality/value: The paper finds that an evolutionary perspective develops a picture of intuition as an adaptive resource. This evolutionary perspective is currently absent in research and we provide foundational concepts for such a perspective. We propose specific arguments to highlight the evolutionary perspective

C and S induces changes in the electronic and geometric structure of Pd(533) and Pd(320)

We have performed ab initio electronic structure calculations of C and S adsorption on two vicinal surfaces of Pd with different terrace geometry and width. We find both adsorbates to induce a significant perturbation of the surface electronic and geometric structure of Pd(533) and Pd(320). In particular C adsorbed at the bridge site at the edge of a Pd chain in Pd(320) is found to penetrate the surface to form a sub-surface structure. The adsorption energies show almost linear dependence on the number of adsorbate-metal bonds, and lie in the ranges of 5.31eV to 8.58eV for C and 2.89eV to 5.40eV for S. A strong hybridization between adsorbate and surface electronic states causes a large splitting of the bands leading to a drastic decrease in the local densities of electronic states at the Fermi-level for Pd surface atoms neighboring the adsorbate which may poison catalytic activity of the surface. Comparison of the results for Pd(533) with those obtained earlier for Pd(211) suggests the local character of the impact of the adsorbate on the geometric and electronic structures of Pd surfaces.Comment: 14 pages 9 figs, Accepted J. Phys: Conden

Transformational changes and sustainability : from the perspective of identity, trust, commitment, and withdrawal

Drawing upon the psychology of sustainability, effective organizations can create a sense of belongingness for people, and successfully facilitate growth and development activities for both individuals as well as the organization itself. Extending the recommendations of Zappala, Toscano, and Licciardello, the current study considers a range of variables. The role of overall justice judgements and change favorableness are taken as predictors of affective commitment to change and exit-based withdrawal. The relationship is mediated by organizational identification and moderated by trust in organization. Overall, the results support the hypothesized relationships. Specifically, findings showed that both change favorableness and overall justice judgements are positively related to affective commitment to change and negatively related to exit-based withdrawal. Organizational identification mediates the relationships between overall justice judgements−affective commitment to change, change favorableness−affective commitment to change, and change favorableness−exit-based withdrawal, whilst trust in organizations moderated the direct relationship between overall justice judgements−affective commitment to change, and change favorableness−exit-based withdrawal. Furthermore, the indirect effect of trust in organizations positively moderated the relationship of overall justice judgements and change favorableness with affective commitment to change, and at the same time, it negatively moderated the relationship between change favorableness and exit-based withdrawal via organizational identification. Crucially, for practitioners, this brings trust of employees as a key factor that should be managed to ensure sustainable change. Both trust and identity appear important in improving commitment and lowering the exit-based withdrawal behavior of employees. Future recommendations, implications, and limitations are discussed

Extended endoscopic endonasal transsphenoidal approach to the suprasellar area: Anatomic considerations - Part I

INTRODUCTION: Interest in using the extended endonasal transsphenoidal approach for management of suprasellar lesions, with either a microscopic or endoscopic technique, has increased in recent years. The most relevant benefit is that this median approach permits the exposure and removal of suprasellar lesions without the need for brain retraction. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Fifteen human cadaver heads were dissected to evaluate the surgical key steps and the advantages and limitations of the extended endoscopic endonasal transplanum sphenoidale approach. We compared this with the transcranial microsurgical view of the suprasellar area as explored using the bilateral subfrontal microsurgical approach, and with the anatomy of the same region as obtained through the endoscopic endonasal route. RESULTS: Some anatomic conditions can prevent or hinder use of the extended endonasal approach. These include a low level of sphenoid sinus pneumatization, a small sella size with small distance between the internal carotid arteries, a wide intercavernous sinus, and a thick tuberculum sellae. Compared with the subfrontal transcranial approach, the endoscopic endonasal approach offers advantages to visualizing the subchiasmatic, retrosellar, and third ventricle areas. CONCLUSION: The endoscopic endonasal transplanum sphenoidale technique is a straight, median approach to the midline areas around the sella that provides a multiangled, close-up view of all relevant neurovascular structures. Although a lack of adequate instrumentation makes it impossible to manage all structures that are visible with the endoscope, in selected cases, the extended endoscopic endonasal approach can be considered part of the armamentarium for surgical treatment of the suprasellar area

Structure of mouse IP-10, a chemokine

The structure of mouse IP-10 shows a novel tetrameric association