UNDERSTANDING NARCISSISTS’ KNOWLEDGE HIDING BEHAVIOUR: A MORAL DISENGAGEMENT MECHANISM PERSPECTIVE

Purpose:  Narcissistic people have a strong desire to hold focus only around themselves. Their self-love triggers them to create their monopoly and involve in deviant behavioral outcomes such as knowledge hiding. This study was aimed to examine narcissistic employees’ tendency of knowledge hiding behavior in the presence of underlying mechanisms: moral disengagement as mediator.   Methodology:  The Data were collected from banking sector professionals using a Likert scale questionnaire based on time-lagged (three rounds, one month apart) survey. Data were analyzed via Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) using an advanced version of Smart PLS 3.9 and SPSS 21.  Findings:   Results revealed that narcissism has a significant positive relation with knowledge hiding and also established moral disengagement as an underlying mechanism between the positive association of narcissism and knowledge hiding. The results provide important recommendations for managers to handle narcissistic personalities and knowledge hiding issues in the banking sector of Pakistan.   Conclusion:  Despite the limitations, the present study enhanced the current knowledge on narcissistic personality features through the moral disengagement perspective with knowledge hiding and enriching the validation of the social cognitive theory. The study results conclude that the banking sector of Pakistan must consider the narcissistic personality of employees behind their issue of knowledge hiding

Quality and Audit Fees: Evidence from Pakistan

Audit quality has been in the limelight for researchers over the last two to three decades. Researchers have endeavored to find out the factors that impact the quality of audit conducted by the auditors. The recent financial crises and financial scandals have further enhanced the importance of this topic. Although it is an empirically established fact that auditor’s performance is impeded by a number of factors that curb its independence however sudden surge in the emoluments of auditors during the last decades has actuated the researchers to study audit quality in context of compensation fee paid to the auditors. The results of studies differ as some are of the view that audit quality improves with the payment of excess fee while the rest are of the opposite view. Unluckily, Pakistan has been less explored in this regard and not even a single study has addressed the issue of audit quality in Pakistan. This study has attempted to analyze audit quality in context of abnormal or extra fee paid to auditor. Audit conducted without independence of auditor is futile and results in impairment of audit quality. Independence of auditor is usually curbed by extra fee paid to him, and auditor in fear of losing a lucrative fee does not report the misrepresentations of financial statements in his audit report. This study uses discretionary accruals as surrogate of audit quality which are computed by Cross-sectional Modified Jones Model (1995). The results are fortunately good for Pakistan and study has observed that auditors in Pakistan do not compromise on their standards and honesty when paid extra fee. In Pakistan, the quality of audit is not impaired when auditors are paid extra fee and the auditors work with diligence and exert extra effort to improve the audit quality. Therefore, the assertion that audit quality is impaired when high fee is paid to auditors does not hold well in Pakistan. Keywords: Audit fee, Audit Qualit

Perceived Organizational Support, Workplace Loneliness, and Creativity: Mediating Role of Workplace Loneliness, and Moderating Role of Proactive Personality

Purpose: Workplace loneliness is not something we often hear in organizations. Being a pervasive issue and having adverse effects, little attention has been devoted to understanding its relationships. To address the gap, the present study was employed to investigate perceived organization support as antecedent and creativity as a consequence outcome of workplace loneliness among managerial level employees. Proactive personality was used as a moderator to test workplace loneliness relationships with antecedent and outcome for significance. Methodology: The research was conducted by adopting a cross-sectional design, where data was collected in dyads by using two separate questionnaires for manager-subordinate relationships. The sample population (N=348) were individuals in a dyadic relationship working at managerial and subordination levels from the banking, education, manufacturing, and pharmaceutical sectors. By using CFA measurement model was accessed and hierarchical regression analysis was adopted to test the curvilinear relationship between perceived organizational support and workplace loneliness. Hays process macros were used for testing moderating effects. Finding& Conclusion: Results revealed a negative (-) relationship of workplace loneliness with its antecedent and outcome. This study also indicated that high proactive individuals are less likely to exhibit workplace loneliness when support is high. It also indicated that highly proactive individuals in the presence of workplace loneliness represent creative behavior as compared to low proactive individuals.

Bart’s Syndrome Associated Corpus Callosum Agenesis and Choanal Atresia

How to Cite This Article: Saeed M, Haq A, Qadir Kh.Bart’s Syndrome Associated Corpus Callosum Agenesis and Choanal Atresia. Iran J Child Neurol. 2014 Autumn;8(4): 76-79.AbstractObjectiveBart’s syndrome is defined as congenital localized absence of skin, and associated with epidermolysis bullosa. A newborn with Bart’s syndrome is reported because it is a very rare condition, especially when associated with corpus callosum agenesis and concomitant choanal atresia. Clinically it is characterized by raw beefy areas of denuded skin mainly on hands and feet.We report a rare case of a term female newborn born to non-consanguineous parents who presented with congenital absence of skin in, face, trunk and extremities. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report presenting a case of Bart’s syndrome associated with corpus callosum agenesis.ReferencesBart BJ, Garlin RJ, Anderson VE, Lynch FW. Congenital localized absence of skin and associated abnormalities resembling epidermolysis bullosa. A new syndrome. Arch Dermatol 1966; 93: 296-304.Bart BJ. Epidermolysis bullosa and congenital localized absence of skin. Arch Dermatol 1970; 101: 78-81.Skoven I, Drzewiecki KT. Congenital localized skin defect and epidermolysis bullosa hereditaria letalis. Acta Derm Venereol 1979; 59: 533-537.Wojnarowska FT, Eady RA, Wells RS. Dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa presenting with congenital localized absence of skin: report of four cases. Br J Dermatol 1983; 108: 477-483.Kanzler MH, Smoller B, Woodley DT. Congenital localized absence of the skin as a manifestation of epidermolysis bullosa. Arch Dermatol 1992; 128:1087-90.Maman E, Maor E, Kachko L, Carmi R. Epidermolysis bullosa, pyloric atresia, aplasia cutis congenita: histopathological delineation of an autosomal recessive disease. Am J Med Genet 1998; 78: 127-133.McCarthy MA, Clarke T, Powell FC. Epidermolysis bullosa and aplasia cutis. Int J Derm 1991; 30: 481-484.Puvabanditsin S, Garrow E, Daeun K. Junctional epidermolysis bullosa associated with congenital localized absence of skin. J AM Acad Dermatol 2001; 44: 330-335.Joensen HD. Epidermolysis bullosa dystrophica dominans in two families in the Faroe Islands. Acta Derm Venereol 1973; 53: 53-60.Skoven I, Drzewiecki KT. Congenital localized skin defect and epidermolysis bullosa hereditaria letalis. Acta Derm Venereol 1979; 59: 533-7.Birnbaum RY, Landau D, Elbedour K, Ofir R, Birk OS, Carmi R. Deletion of the first pair of fibronectin type III repeats of the integrin beta-4 gene is associated with epidermolysis bullosa, pyloric atresia and aplasia cutis congenita in the original Carmi syndrome patients. Am J Med Genet 2008; 146A: 1063-1066.Rajpal A, Mishra R, Hajirnis K, Shah M, Nagpur N. Bart’s syndrome. Indian J Dermatol 2008; 53: 88-90.Zelickson B, Matsumara K, Kist D, Epstein EH, Jr, Bart BJ: Bart’s syndrome. Ultrastructure and genetic linkage. Arch Dermatol 1995;131:663–668.Christinano AM, Bart BJ, Epstein EH Jr, Uitto J: Genetic basis of Bart’s syndrome: A glycine substitution mutation in the type VII collagen gene. Invest Dermatol 1996;106: 1340–1342.

Conceptualizing Employee Empowerment through Flexible Working

This paper analysis and reports the empowerment through flexible working options in organizations.  Paper examines the relationship between flexible working schedules and empowerment among employees, looks at how flexible working are source of empowerment. Empowering employees to participate in organizational decision making and their day to day activities can improve organizations performance, quality and quantity of work, team working, Job satisfaction and reduce turnover. Flexible working improves the life and well-being of employees as Flexible working provides opportunity to make their working schedules.  Any form of empowerment results in taking on workers more responsibilities and flexible working is one of the intentions of empowerment and encouragements. In many organizations managers and owners are trying to answer a question how to empower the employees. Flexible working is the most common and powerful tool through which managers can empower the employees within organizations.  This paper concludes how different flexible working options might have effect on employee empowerment. Access to flexible working is the key to empowerment, self-confident and dignity of the employees. Keywords: Flexible Working, Empowerment, Employee

Networking Ability and Subjective Career Success: Moderating Role of Career Insight

The aim of the current study was to investigate the influence of networking ability on employees’ subjective career success. Moderating role of career insight in the relationship between networking ability and subjective career success was also probed. Respondents of the study were the faculty members of the public sector universities in Pakistan (N= 335). The findings revealed that networking ability positively influences the subjective career success of the faculty members. Career insight proved to positively moderate the relationship between networking ability and subjective career success. Research implications, limitations of the study, and prospects for future research are discussed. Keywords: Networking ability, Subjective career success, Career insight, academia and Pakistan

Outcomes of Employees’ Reactions towards the Characteristics of Performance Appraisal System: A Case of a Commercial Bank in Pakistan

The purpose of this paper is to explore the four key characteristics (fairness perception, fulfillment of training and development needs, feedback and grievance mechanism) of the performance appraisal system and to know the relationship of these attributes with three outcome variables including overall performance appraisal satisfaction, work motivation and turnover intention. Respondents were the employees of a commercial bank in Pakistan and data was collected through questionnaire. Results of the stepwise multiple regression reveals that fairness perception and grievance mechanism are the most important predictors of overall performance appraisal satisfaction and turnover intention. Fulfillment of training and development needs and feedback were the important predictors of work motivation. The paper highlights the importance of an effective performance appraisal system and the outcomes associated with it. The findings may help the management in devising an effective performance appraisal system. Keywords: Bank employees, Performance Appraisal, Turnover intention, work motivation, Pakistan

Assessing the Academic integrity among University Students in Pakistan

The principal objective of this research was to assess the academic integrity among Pakistani university students. Qualitative data were obtained from 3 Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) with students from different universities. Mixed Methods Research was applied at the individual and group level and data were analyzed with the help of content analysis. The analysis unveiled four key themes including teacher's behavior in the classroom, teacher’s evaluation method in Examinations, the influence of peer pressure, and the popularity of the memorization method among students. Students' level of satisfaction with teachers’ behavior in the classroom and at the time of assessment of examination remained low and they considered it as the main reason behind their low level of academic integrity. Rote learning, inconsistencies in the examination evaluation method, and the effect of peer pressure were also identified as the central reasons behind their academic misconduct behavior. It is concluded that in the coming few years, academic misconduct is going to become a popular culture in Pakistani universities and it is a dire need to stop this behavior. Suggestions to overcome this problem are to trained students as well as teachers. The teacher's professional and moral training can directly effect on the training and moral values of students. This study was conducted in Pakistan, but the findings can be observed and replicated in higher education systems in many developing nations.&nbsp

Grade Inflation and Human Capital Accumulation among Pakistani University Students

The central objective of current study was exploring the level of school acquired human capital. To understand the human capital and grade inflation, 2 Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) were conducted. To measure school based human capital students were asked to write an essay on a given topic. These essays, FGDs and a brief questionnaire about background constituted the data for this study. This data was analyzed using mixed-methods content analysis. Data analysis generated four important themes related to human capital that are Grade inflation and quality of learning, General Knowledge abilities, Presentation and coherence and Writing skills. It was found that performance of students with CGPA more than group mean perform like those below the group mean. The mean values of group CGPA were also high as 3.46 for Punjab University and 3.77 for Government college University Faisalabad.  The content analysis disclosed that similar mistakes are made by students in both categories. This raised serious reservations on the human capital of the students. This also shows the problem of grade inflation. In order to overcome these problems assessment systems, need reforms where actual capabilities of the students can be measured.&nbsp

Effect of time pressure and human judgment on decision making in three public sector organizations of Pakistan

This study attempts to widen the effect of time pressure and human judgment on decision making. A census of three organizations named Project Management Organization (PMO), Accountant General Pakistan Revenues (AGPR) and Controller General of Accountant (CGA) was occupied. To demeanor this study a questionnaire tagged Decision Making, Time Pressure and Human Judgment was used for the assortment of data. The questionnaire was predominantly designed to accomplish the objectives of the study. The total number of observations was eighty two and the Arithmetic Mean Score of decision making, time pressure and human judgment were 2.532, 2.527 and 2.395 respectively. The significance level of the model was 0.000 which illustrates maximum significant level. As p-value is less than .05 so it can be assumed that the variables elected for the study are decidedly significant