The impact of HRM bundles and organisational commitment on managers turnover intentions

A thesis submitted to the University of Bedfordshire, in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.Despite the significance of understanding the reasons under which talented individuals are more likely or less likely to quit, the nature of the relationship between Human Resource Management Practices (HRMPs) and turnover intentions has proven to be unclear. Prior studies suggest that talented employees’ turnover imposes significant negative impact on organisational performance, e.g. decrease in productivity, profitability, innovation, serviceability and morale of remaining employees. Likewise, a serious talented Frontline Managers (FLMs) turnover is observed in the private banks of Pakistan. The corresponding reason identified is their dissatisfaction with existing conventional HRMPs, which are typically bureaucratic in nature with no provision of training and development, and lack appreciation, seniority-based pay and promotions. Owing to these factors, FLMs are switching towards reputable government and multinational organisations. In fact, FLMs play an important role in the development and success of banks. To investigate this issue, the present study elaborates an examination of the use of synergistic HRMPs in an on-going effort to control the talented FLMs’ turnover intentions. Precisely, it examines the impact of two formative bundles, namely, skills-enhancing practices (SEPs, i.e. training and development) and motivation-enhancing practices (MEPs, i.e. pay, promotion, recognition and job security) on FLMs’ turnover intentions through organisational commitment. The research methodology employs a positivist philosophy, deductive approach and a quantitative method followed by a survey-based research design. A total of 500 questionnaires were distributed through random sampling technique; 344 questionnaires were finalised for analysis. PLS-SEM was used to test the research hypotheses. Contrary to conventional wisdom, the findings of this study indicate that both SEPs and MEPs demonstrate no significant direct impact on talented FLMs’ turnover intentions. However, organisational commitment (OC) has been found to fully mediate the relationships between both HRM bundles and FLMs’ turnover intentions. This research contributes to HRM literature particularly in the area of HRMPs—Turnover relationships. Furthermore, this study reveals that socio-economic relationships can be used to influence FLMs’ OC and turnover intentions. The findings further suggest that adoption of effective SEPs and MEPs in local banks enhance talented FLMs’ skills and motivation which eventually reduce their turnover intentions. Additionally, this study highlights the important and critical role of OC in HRMPs—turnover relationships, particularly in the Pakistani banking sector and further recommends management to review their HRMPs, which not only tend to reduce turnover but also lead to FLMs’ enhanced enthusiasm to serve

Investigating the Impact of Resilience on Learners’ Motivated Behavior of L2 and Proficiency in English of University Students at Karachi, Pakistan

This research article investigates the resilience and its various constituting factors and their subsequent relation with Motivated L2 Learning Behavior and English Proficiency among the first year students of two public sector universities of Pakistan. For this quantitative and variables oriented study 260 students were conveniently selected who participated in the study, out of which 152 and 108 were males and females respectively. For data collection of this quantitative study, a five point likert scale Questionnaire ranging from Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree was employed. The questionnaire comprised 31 items which were further distributed in five dimensions of Resilience (Perceived Happiness, Empathy, Sociability, Persistence and Self Regulation) and Motivated L2 Learning Behaviour as 26 and 05 respectively in order to determine the students’ resilience and L2 Motivated Behaviour. Michigan English Language Assessment Battery (MELAB) test was also conducted in order to measure the English proficiency skills of the students. Moreover, the correlation among the independent and dependent variables and the impact of resilience factors on Motivated L2 Behaviour and English Proficiency was analyzed with the help of standard regression analysis.   The results revealed that the four dimensions of resilience significantly influenced Motivated L2 Learning Behaviour whereas; three factors of resilience affected English Proficiency as well. The study can help in understanding the concept of resilience and can be applied to other academic disciplines

Uncertainty Management for Rule-Based Decision Support Systems

We present an uncertainty management scheme in rule-based systems for decision making in the domain of urban infrastructure. Our aim is to help end users make informed decisions. Human reasoning is prone to a certain degree of uncertainty but domain experts frequently find it difficult to quantify this precisely, and thus prefer to use qualitative (rather than quantitative) confidence levels to support their reasoning. Secondly, there is uncertainty in data when it is not currently available (missing). In order to incorporate human-like reasoning within rule-based systems we use qualitative confidence levels chosen by domain experts in urban infrastructure. We introduce a mechanism for the representation of confidence of input facts and inference rules, and for the computation of confidence in the inferred facts. We also present a mechanism for computing inferences in the presence of missing facts, and their effect on the confidence of inferred facts

Vascular cognitive impairment in first ever ischemic stroke survivors

Stroke and transient ischemic attacks (TIA) are highly prevalent in Pakistan. Post stroke dementia (PSD) is one of the main causes of dependency in survivors and includes any dementia after a stroke, irrespective of its cause, which includes vascular, degenerative, or mixed. Many Independent survivors have residual physical or cognitive deficits, or behavioral changes which can affect family life and have professional consequences. Study design: Cross sectional study at Department of Neurology CMC Hospital Larkana from Aug-2014 to Jan-2015 to find out frequency of dementia in first ever ischemic stroke patients, its severity and outcome. Methods: Study approved from ethical review committee of the institute. Patients 30-60 years of age, of either gender, previously non-demented with first episode of ischemic stroke were included in this study after informed consent. Patients of Hemorrhagic stroke, Parkinson’s disease, Terminal cancers and those on steroids were excluded. Stroke confirmed by CT scan brain/ MRI showing new infarcts. Dementia was defined as per MMSE dementia interview at baseline and 3 months of follow up. Score of \u3c23 indicated cognitive impairment. Activity of daily living was assessed by AD8 screening interview. Score \u3e2 indicated impairment in activity of daily living. Results: 120 patients were included in the study during 6 month period with mean age of 54(±3.4) years. Among them 74 were males and 46 were females. 52 (43.33%) patients had a lacunar stroke, 43(35.8%) a MCA infarct, 13(10.83%) with ACA infarct, 12 (10%) a posterior circulation stroke. Among vascular risk factors hypertension present in 32 (26%), diabetes in 22(18.3%), atrial fibrillation in 11(9.16%), previous myocardial infarction 10( 8.33%) and history of transient ischemic attack 34(28.33%). Their medical history, neurological deficit, activity of daily living, a blood screen and extent of vascular territory of the stroke were recorded. MMSE at 3 month of stroke follow up performed which revealed \u3c23 score among 33(26%) patients. The activity of daily living was impaired among the demented patients. Recall, language and attention was impaired more than registration and orientation. Discussion: Patients with PSD have high mortality rates and are likely to be functionally impaired. The progressive decline of recall and forgetfulness observed in our study severely affect the activity of daily living. The best way to prevent dementia is preventing vascular risk factors and the stroke by medications and follow up. Conclusion: Stroke patients should be assessed with dementia and monitored regularly with structured MMSE and activity of daily living as part of routine check up to prevent mortality and morbidity in stroke survivors

TOUCHLESS RESIZING OBJECT IN AUGMENTED REALITY

Teknologi Augmented reality dan teknologi human computer interaction sangat erat kaitannya satu sama lain. Augmented reality adalah teknik untuk menambahkan atau melengkapi konten digital melalui dunia nyata menggunakan komputer. Selama dekade terakhir teknologi ini sangat popular bagi peneliti dan perusahaan-perusahaan teknologi besar di seluruh dunia karena potensinya untuk menjadi teknologi yang memudahkan manusia dimasa yang akan datang. Seiring perkembangan inovasi dan kebutuhan manusia, teknologi Augmented reality saat ini sering dikombinasikan dengan teknologi yang lain demi memikat pasar yang ada saat ini. Pada Tugas Akhir ini dibuat sistem Augmented reality dengan kombinasi touchless resizing object yang dapat menambah inovasi teknologi image processing. Augmented reality tersebut dibuat dengan gabungan dari algoritma SURF (Speeded Up Robust Feature) dan algoritma kanade lucas tracker yang dipilih karena memiliki keandalan dalam mendeteksi dan mentracking marker dari segi ketahanan terhadap transformasi marker, seperti rotasi, perubahan skala, perubahan sudut pandang yang relative kecil, dan dapat mendeskripsikan fitur-fitur yang terdeteksi secara unik. Dan juga akan dibuat sistem yang dapat membangun interaksi antara manusia dengan komputer dengan metode blob analysis untuk melakukan resizing objek yang ada pada sistem Augmented reality. Hasil yang diperoleh dari perancangan sistem pada Tugas Akhir ini adalah dengan menggunakan algoritma tersebut, dengan jarak sebesar 80 cm dan dilakukan rotasi mulai dari 0 hingga 180 sistem mampu mendeteksi marker dengan persentase akurasi sebesar 100% dan 80% saat marker dirusak. Dan jarak maksimal interaksi terbaik antara manusia dengan objek pada sitem Augmented reality sebesar 60 cm dengan persentase akurasi diatas 80%

Adsorptive Stripping Voltammetric Determination of Hydroquinone using an Electrochemically Pretreated Glassy Carbon Electrode

A simple and efficient adsorptive stripping voltammetric (AdSV) method was developed for the determination of hydroquinone at an electrochemically pretreated glassy carbon (GC) electrode in waste water. Various parameters such as solvent system, accumulation potential, accumulation time and scan rate were optimized. The electrochemically pretreated GC electrode showed good response towards hydroquinone determination by using AdSV. Under the optimized conditions the peak current showed good linear relationship with the hydroquinone concentration in the range of 0.5-4.0mg L-1 and 5-30mg L-1. The 60/40 methanol/water composition was found to be the best solvent system and 0.05mol L-1 H2SO4 was found as useful supporting electrolyte concentration. The accumulation time was 60 s and the detection limit was 50µg L-1. The developed method was successfully applied for the determination of hydroquinone in polymeric industrial discharge samples waste photographic developer solution and cream sample without any significant effect of surface fouling