The relationship between human resource management practices, organizational commitment, career concern, job stress and turnover intention

Any academic institution cannot survive and perform well without competent and committed academic staff. Therefore, it is important to address the issue of faculty turnover. It has been argued that faculty dissatisfaction with existing human resource practices such as no provision of equitable salary, performance appraisal, training and development, job stress and lack of career growth practices could lead to turnover. Hence, the focus of this study is to investigate the relationship between human resource practices, focusing specifically on examining the effect of salary, performance appraisal, training and development, and career growth (career goal progress, professional ability development, promotion speed, and remuneration growth) and employee’s turnover intention. This study also investigates the mediating role of organizational commitment on these relationships, as well as the moderating role of career concern and job stress on the relationships between organizational commitment and turnover intention. Using a cross sectional survey technique, this study gathers data from a sample of 270 full time faculty members of private universities in Pakistan. The Partial Least Square (PLS) two step path modeling was used to test the direct and indirect hypotheses. The results indicate that salary and performance appraisal are significantly and negatively related to turnover intention. Besides, it was found that out of four dimensions of career growth, only promotion speed and remuneration growth, have significant direct relationship with turnover intention. Nonetheless, with regard to mediated relationships, it was found that organizational commitment mediates the relationships between performance appraisal as well three dimensions of career growth (career goal progress, promotion speed, remuneration growth) and turnover intention. The results verify that these relationships are mediated by organizational commitment except salary. Nevertheless, the results also show that career concern plays an important role in moderating the relationship between organizational commitment and turnover intention. This finding suggests that to reduce turnover intention amongst employees, organizations must realize that the impact of organizational commitment in reducing turnover intention is enhanced whenever the employees are concerned about their career growth. Hence, employees’ career development should also be the concern of organizations

Career concern as predictor of turnover intention: Empirical evidence from education industry

Retaining the best employees is of high concern for most organizations and this issue has become a significant focus of attention for many researchers. For this reason, there is the necessity to investigate the factors which influence the employee turnover intention behavior in the organization, specifically to examine the effect of Career concern on turnover intention. Career concern was conceptualized by Adult Career Concern Inventory (ACCI) which used to measure and operationalized the Career concern variable. Data was collected to investigate the relationships in a sample of 270 full time faculty members employed in different private universities of Pakistan. The Finding of this paper indicated that career concern has been found as one of the most important predictor of employee turnover intention. This implies that, if employees are highly concerned about their career (i.e. the progression of their career) they are more likely to leave their current organization, especially if their prospect of advancing their career is not clear or non-existence

The Role of Organizational Strategies, Social Support, and Technological Capabilities in International Marketing Channel Performance

Information communication technologies increase the competitive intensity among organizations. The only way to get a sustainable competitive advantage is to focus on their resources, and capabilities to establish, and implement effective strategies to increase international marketing channel performance (IMCP). The target population of this study is the food industry in Pakistan, and the sample size is 400. Data has been collected through survey method based on an adapted questionnaire. Data has been analyzed through partial least square – structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) method. Results showed that validity and reliability of data, and organizational strategies (OS) focused on relationship strategies (RS) and marketing integration strategies (MIS) has positive and significant effect on IMCP. Whereas, technological capabilities (TC) has moderated and significant effect between OS and IMCP. Furthermore, social support (SS) has insignificant effect.  This study has theoretical and practical significance. Because this study opens the new horizons in literature and provide guidelines to align their strategies with their capabilities to gain sustainable competitive advantage, which will improve their IMCP.Â

The Role of Organizational Strategies, Social Support, and Technological Capabilities in International Marketing Channel Performance

Information communication technologies increase the competitive intensity among organizations. The only way to get a sustainable competitive advantage is to focus on their resources, and capabilities to establish, and implement effective strategies to increase international marketing channel performance (IMCP). The target population of this study is the food industry in Pakistan, and the sample size is 400. Data has been collected through survey method based on an adapted questionnaire. Data has been analyzed through partial least square – structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) method. Results showed that validity and reliability of data, and organizational strategies (OS) focused on relationship strategies (RS) and marketing integration strategies (MIS) has positive and significant effect on IMCP. Whereas, technological capabilities (TC) has moderated and significant effect between OS and IMCP. Furthermore, social support (SS) has insignificant effect.  This study has theoretical and practical significance. Because this study opens the new horizons in literature and provide guidelines to align their strategies with their capabilities to gain sustainable competitive advantage, which will improve their IMCP.

ROLE OF BRAND LOYALTY IN BUILDING BRAN EQUITY: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF CONSUMER INVOLVEMENT LEVELS

Although the concept of brand loyalty and equity in recent times has evolved one of the dominant phenomena of brand management, yet the picture is incomplete without considering the role of consumer involvement levels. The purpose of this study is to investigate significant antecedents of brand loyalty, and its role in building brand equity, relationships are also measured by conducting comparative analysis of consumer involvement levels. The self-administered survey and regression analysis used to measure relationships of variables. The findings showed significant and positive relationship of perceived quality, brand trust, and customer satisfaction with brand loyalty, and highly significant and positive impact of brand loyalty is found in building brand equity. Significant differences are found between high and low involvement settings. This research will provide exceptional learning opportunities for brand managers and scholars alike, through empirical verifying the relationships of variables, by using two brands of different consumer involvement levels.Â

Studies On the Role of Fungal Strains in Bioremediation of Dyes Isolated from Textile Effluents

Fungal strains are widely used for the cleaning of soil, sediments, groundwater, surface water, and the ecosystem. The presence of extracellular enzymes in fungi facilitates the process of bioremediation of textile dyes. This study was conducted to observe the quality of water being released from textile dyes industries and also the capability of some fungal strains which can remediate these dyes by showing the tendency of their resistance. Samples of water were collected from the polluted area surrounding the textile dyeing industries in Lahore. In the process of isolation, Potato Dextrose Agar (PDA) medium was used to verify the fungal growth. Fungal strains were purified, and the morphological characterization of fungal strains was carried out at 10X and 100X by using a magnification microscope. The fungal strains, such as Aspergillus niger, Aspergillusoryzae, and Aspergillusflavus were identified. The stress of four types of dyes was given to each fungal strain. The results showed that Aspergillusoryzae was one of the most stable, non-toxic, and resistant fungal species against the high stress of dyes as compared to other specie

Pituitary stalk interruption syndrome presenting in a euthyroid adult with short stature

Pituitary stalk interruption syndrome (PSIS) is a distinct and rare clinical entity responsible for congenital hypopituitarism resulting in deficiency of pituitary hormones with deficiency of the growth hormone (100%) and gonadotropins (97.2%) being its most common presentation at the time of hospital encounter (Wang et al., 2015). Isolated sparing of thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) with deficiency of the remaining anterior pituitary hormones may be present in PSIS, as is true in our case. Therefore, it should be kept in mind at the time of examination in suspected cases of PSIS

The relationship between human resource development factors, career growth and turnover intention: the mediating role of organizational commitment

Retaining the best employees is of high concern for most organizations and this issue has become a significant focus of attention for many researchers. For this reason, this paper discusses different factors which influence the employee turnover intention-behavior in the organization, specifically to examine the effect of salary, performance appraisal, training & development and career growth on turnover intention. In addition, based on the social exchange theory this paper explains the mediating role of organizational commitment in the relationship between human resource development factors, career growth and turnover intention. A cross sectional, survey data study is undertaken to investigate the relationships in a sample of 270 full time faculty members employed in different private universities of Pakistan. Partial Least Square two step path modeling is used to test the direct and the indirect hypothesis of the study. The results of PLS (SEM) path modeling reveal that human resource development factors specially salary and performance appraisal were negatively associated with turnover intention. In addition, the results also indicate that career growth had significant relationships with turnover intention. Moreover, out of four dimensions of career growth, only two dimensions, namely promotion speed and remuneration growth, have strong influence on turnover intention. Finally, in terms of organizational commitment as mediating variable between the relationships of salary, performance appraisal, career growth and turnover intention, four out of six variables indicate partial mediation including career growth (career goal progress), career growth (promotion speed), career growth (remuneration growth) and performance appraisal

ROLE OF BRAND LOYALTY IN BUILDING BRAN EQUITY: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF CONSUMER INVOLVEMENT LEVELS

Although the concept of brand loyalty and equity in recent times has evolved one of the dominant phenomena of brand management, yet the picture is incomplete without considering the role of consumer involvement levels. The purpose of this study is to investigate significant antecedents of brand loyalty, and its role in building brand equity, relationships are also measured by conducting comparative analysis of consumer involvement levels. The self-administered survey and regression analysis used to measure relationships of variables. The findings showed significant and positive relationship of perceived quality, brand trust, and customer satisfaction with brand loyalty, and highly significant and positive impact of brand loyalty is found in building brand equity. Significant differences are found between high and low involvement settings. This research will provide exceptional learning opportunities for brand managers and scholars alike, through empirical verifying the relationships of variables, by using two brands of different consumer involvement levels.