Does Executive MBA Deliver? Exploration of Developmental Outcomes and Participants’ Perceptions of Delivery Effectiveness

Critics of the value of the Executive MBA program have not adequately considered the perceptions of Executive MBA students. This paper evaluates performance of an Executive MBA program by exploring students’ preferred developmental outcomes and perceptions about the effectiveness of their Executive MBA program towards delivering the targeted outcomes. Interviews, focus groups and survey were conducted with program’s directors, staff, and current and graduated students in a large privately run university in Punjab province of Pakistan. As a result of a rigorous process, the study identified twenty-seven critical outcomes under two categories namely “personal outcomes” and “professional outcomes” which students consider important and urge their Executive MBA program to deliver. On the whole students appear to be satisfied with their Executive MBA program; however, the effectiveness of their program is below their expectations. Identification of the exact outcomes in this study provide directions for Executive MBA administrators to make their curriculum and pedagogical/andragogical techniques more relevant and value-oriented for their students. Based on these findings, it is inferred that Executive MBA programs’ planning should consider students as the protagonist of their programs’ planning process

Evaluation of Executive Education Programs to Enhance Mid-Career Employees Role-based Performance: Organizational Perspective

This study intends to investigate the organizational perspective on improvement in role-based performance of mid-career professionals because of their Executive MBA education. More specifically the study includes the identification of critical roles, which organizations consider important for the performance evaluation of mid-career professionals, and organizations’ perception of how effectively EMBA graduates perform those roles at workplace. The study collected data through a structured self-administered questionnaire from 140 EMBA professionals of 99 sponsoring organizations in Pakistan. Results revealed that organizations consider the work-related role as the most important aspect of evaluation, followed by team related, career related, innovation related and organization citizenship related roles. Results on the efficacy of EMBA programs against these role-based performance indicators showed that though by and large organizations were satisfied, there existed a gap between each of the required roles

Evaluating Result Based Management (RBM) and the need for complexity aware management approach for international development agencies

Result Based Management (RBM) is a widelyused management approach in international development agencies. During the lasttwo decades, there have been growing concerns regarding the rigidity of this approach; and both the scholars and practitioners have been calling for an alternate complexity aware adaptive approach. However, there remains a lackof empirical evidence to support this criticism. The objective of this study is to contribute towards this end by undertaking an empirical evaluation of the efficacy of the RBM approach and assessing the need for a flexible and adaptive approach. Since the toolto measure the implementationof RBM is not available, we at first developed and validated a toolfor measuring the implementationof RBM. Subsequently, by collecting data from 206 middle and senior levels employees of development agencies, the relationshipbetween RBM and theabilityof agencies to adapt has been tested. The validity of the instrument was established through exploratory factor analysis and hypotheses were tested by regression analysis. The findings showed that RBM negatively affects the adaptability of development agencies and hence calls for developing an alternate flexible and adaptive approach hold merit

Nuclear magnetic double resonance of a single spin ½ system

The results of proton double resonance experiments on CHCl<SUB>3</SUB>, performed to verify the density matrix theory of double resonance and test the validity of Bloch approximation for the single spin &#189;, case are presented

Congruence of market orientation and organizational learning: Performance perspective

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between market orientation, organizational learning and organizational performance. The study follows quantitative research strategy and cross-sectional survey design to collect data from manufacturing firms operating in Pakistan. Regression analysis and structural equation modeling techniques are used to analyze data. Results indicate that both market orientation and organizational learning significantly affect organizational performance. Additionally, customer orientation and inter-functional coordination are also positively related with all dimensions of organizational learning. Competitor orientation is significantly related with only knowledge interpretation dimension of organizational learning. This research explains how customer knowledge and competitor knowledge is instrumental towards an organization's learning behavior. This research is valuable to practitioners as they can learn how customer knowledge can provide them with multiple opportunities to create superior value. Similarly, competitor related knowledge is instrumental in drawing a competitive strategy to win customers. This paper is novel as it confirms market orientation as an antecedent of organizational learning. Furthermore, the paper explores significant implications of components of market orientation for organizational learning sub-processes

Real-world effectiveness of amlodipine/valsartan and amlodipine/valsartan/hydrochlorothiazide in high-risk patients and other subgroups

Samir Helmy Assaad-Khalil,1 Robert Najem,2 Jorge Sison,3 Asad Riaz Kitchlew,4 Belong Cho,5 Kwo-Chang Ueng,6 Shelley DiTommaso,7 Abhijit Shete7 1Department of Diabetology, Lipidology and Metabolism, Alexandria Faculty of Medicine, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt; 2Lebanese University Hospital, Beirut, Lebanon; 3Medical Center Manila, Manila, Philippines; 4Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, Islamabad, Pakistan; 5Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea; 6Chung Shan Medical University Hospital, Taichung City, Taiwan; 7Novartis Pharma AG, Basel, SwitzerlandBackground: The clinical EXCITE (EXperienCe of amlodIpine and valsarTan in hypErtension) study reported clinically relevant blood pressure (BP) reductions across all doses of amlodipine/valsartan (Aml/Val) and Aml/Val/hydrochlorothiazide (HCT) single-pill combinations. The study prospectively observed a multiethnic population of hypertensive patients for 26 weeks who were treated according to routine clinical practice. Here, we present the results in high-risk subgroups including the elderly, obese patients, and patients with diabetes or isolated systolic hypertension. In addition, we present a post hoc analysis as per prior antihypertensive monotherapy and dual therapy.Methods: Patients prescribed Aml/Val or Aml/Val/HCT were assessed in this 26&plusmn;8 week, noninterventional, multicenter study across 13 countries in the Middle East and Asia. Changes in mean sitting systolic BP, mean sitting diastolic BP, and overall safety were assessed.Results: Of a total of 9,794 patients analyzed, 8,603 and 1,191 patients were prescribed Aml/Val and Aml/Val/HCT, respectively. Among these, 15.5% were elderly, 32.5% were obese, 31.3% had diabetes, and 9.8% had isolated systolic hypertension. Both Aml/Val and Aml/Val/HCT single-pill combinations, respectively, were associated with clinically relevant and significant mean sitting systolic/diastolic BP reductions across all subgroups: elderly patients (&minus;32.2/&minus;14.3 mmHg and &minus;38.5/&minus;16.5 mmHg), obese patients (&minus;32.2/&minus;17.9 mmHg and &minus;38.5/&minus;18.4 mmHg), diabetic patients (&minus;30.3/&minus;16.1 mmHg and &minus;34.4/&minus;16.6 mmHg), and patients with isolated systolic hypertension (&minus;25.5/&minus;4.1 mmHg and &minus;30.2/&minus;5.9 mmHg). Incremental BP reductions with Aml/Val or Aml/Val/HCT single-pill combinations were also observed in patients receiving prior monotherapy or dual therapy for hypertension. Overall, both Aml/Val and Aml/Val/HCT were generally well tolerated.Conclusion: This large, multiethnic study supports the evidence that Aml/Val and Aml/Val/HCT single-pill combinations are effective in diverse and clinically important subgroups of patients with hypertension.Keywords: amlodipine, hydrochlorothiazide, single-pill combinations, real world, valsarta