Water Quality Monitoring Infrastructure for Tackling Water-Borne Diseases in the State of Madhya Pradesh, India, and Its Implication on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

It is estimated that around 37.7 million Indians are affected by water-borne diseases annually, 1.5 million children are estimated to die of diarrhoea alone, and 73 million working days are lost due to water-borne disease each year. The resulting economic burden is estimated at $600 million a year. Owning the largest share, India has a significant role to play in achieving global Sustainable Development Goals. In such scenario, monitoring of drinking water quality and its improvement plays a significant role in ensuring public health and reducing economic burden. Taking cue from this, a study was designed to assess the efficiency of water quality laboratories established under the National Rural Drinking Water Programme in the State of Madhya Pradesh. In the state, which tops the list of states in the country with the highest infant mortality rate (IMR), the drinking water quality assessment infrastructure is not in a position to monitor the water quality in rural areas. The study assessed that none of the 56 laboratories was able to perform a minimum of 3000 tests per year (annual analysis load) in the state for monitoring water quality. This paper presents the findings of the statewide status of water quality in rural areas and also qualitative assessment of 56 water quality laboratories in 16 districts

Employer Branding: A Strategic Dimension for Employee Retention

Employer branding is a long term strategy to manage perception and awareness of employees, potential employees and related stakeholders in regards of a particular organization. Employee brand is an organizational image which is in the mind of the current employees as a ‘great place to work’. Now the Employer Brand is a brand management in HR perspective to attain, attract, engage and retain employees of the firm. Employer brand is a strategy which helps to retain the employees and try to minimize the employee attrition in the organization. Keywords:  Employer brand, organizations, Employee Retention, Attrition, Strategies

Retailer’s Service Quality & CSR as Antecedents of Retailer Personality & Customer Reactions: A Review

This research paper aims to assess the influence of Retail Service Quality and CSR as antecedents of Retailer Personality and Customer Reactions. Also, reviews were done for studies which implemented Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). The relationships and links were identified from a rigorous literature review. A conceptual model has been developed and proposed, with Retail Service Quality and CSR Policy of retailer as antecedents and Customer Reactions as consequences of Retailer Personality. Hypotheses were formulated, recommendations and Scope for future research were discussed

Service Quality Influence Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty

Study is aimed at measuring dimensions of Retail Service Quality that has an impact on Customer Satisfaction and Customer Loyalty in organized Food and Grocery Retail shoppers of Bhopal City in central India. Data was collected from 216 food and grocery customers using Convenience Sampling technique through Structured Questionnaire. IBM SPSS 16 software for Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Smart PLS 3.2.6 software for Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) were used to analyse and validate the Path Model. The SEM results reveal that three factors viz. Physical Aspects, Price and Payment do not have a significant positive influence on Customer Satisfaction. Also, Customer Satisfaction has significant positive influence on Customer Loyalty. The study offers opportunities to organized Food and Grocery Retailers in Central India to focus on these Service Quality Dimensions while formulating strategies for gaining competitive advantage, attracting new customer and at the same time retain old customers by enhancing Customer satisfaction and Customer Loyalty

A Framework to Assess the Impact of Employee Perceived Equality on Contextual Performance and Mediating Role of Affective Commitment to Enhance and Sustain Positive Work Behavior

Different employees working in a similar organization may have a different experience-based perception of workforce diversity and management. When employees perceive discrimination, it adversely affects them psychologically and negatively affects their behavior, while perceiving equality reinforces a positive mindset towards other members and management, resulting in healthy work culture. This study investigates the association between perceived equality, affective commitment, and contextual performance. Further, the differences in perception of various genders were examined. The data were collected from (n = 385) employees working in various private organizations in India and were analyzed using the structural equation modeling (SEM) and analysis of variance (ANOVA). The study’s novelty is that, unlike prior research, the study indicated a significant inverse relationship between perceived equality and contextual performance. Moreover, affective commitment mediated the positive relationship between perceived equality and contextual performance. Perceived equality showed a significant positive relationship with affective commitment. Unlike previous research, the analysis of variance demonstrated that both males and females indicated no significant differences regarding contextual performance. Thus, the current research provides a comprehensive model to assess the psychological and behavioral effect of organizational practices related to equal opportunities and representation to diverse employees

Assessing the Effect of Perceived Diversity Practices and Psychological Safety on Contextual Performance for Sustainable Workplace

Perceiving discrimination in workplace practices psychologically damages employees and affects their work performance. The current study aims to find differences in perceived diversity practices (i.e., equal representation and developmental opportunities and gender diversity promotion) and the psychological safety of diverse groups in the workplace. Further, the study investigates the relationship of equal representation and developmental opportunities, gender diversity promotion, and psychological safety with employee contextual performance. A sample size of (n = 536) respondents was collected from the private banking sector in India, and was further analyzed using statistical tools, such as factor analysis, correlations, analysis of variance, and regression analysis. The findings indicate differences in gender and tenure diversity regarding “equal representation and development opportunities”, and “gender diversity promotion.” Furthermore, “equal representation and development opportunities,” and “psychological safety” showed a significant negative relationship with the employee contextual performance. Further, no association between perceived “gender diversity promotion” practices and “contextual performance” was found. The novelty of the current research is unlike previous research; the study highlights that excess psychological safety, equality in representation, and development opportunities to have “workforce diversity” make employees aggressively explicit and disengage them from additional work behavior. The findings of the study and application of SPSS software for the analysis of the employee’s perception, behavior, and performance will aid managers and leaders in better decision making for employees; business growth; effective human resource and business management; and for building a healthy, collaborative, and sustainable work environment in the private banks and similar organizations