Ethics in competency models: A framework towards developing ethical behaviour in organisations

Competency models describe desired behaviours, skills, and attributes to facilitate organisational goals' achievement. The primary focus of a competency model is to align individual behaviours to organisationally expected behaviours. Given that employees’ ethical behaviour has become the sine qua non for organisations, it is surprising to see the absence of ethical competency in organisations’ competency models. Based on two separate studies with the heads of HR in Indian and South-East Asian organisations, the present study identified three core reasons for the absence of ethics in competency models (i.e., ideation, conceptualisation, and implementation challenges). Also, the study proposes a framework for fostering ethical behaviour amongst employees. Implications of the research for theory and practice are discussed

Income Distribution Dependence of Poverty Measure: A Theoretical Analysis

With a new deprivation (or poverty) function, in this paper, we theoretically study the changes in poverty with respect to the `global' mean and variance of the income distribution using Indian survey data. We show that when the income obeys a log-normal distribution, a rising mean income generally indicates a reduction in poverty while an increase in the variance of the income distribution increases poverty. This altruistic view for a developing economy, however, is not tenable anymore once the poverty index is found to follow a pareto distribution. Here although a rising mean income indicates a reduction in poverty, due to the presence of an inflexion point in the poverty function, there is a critical value of the variance below which poverty decreases with increasing variance while beyond this value, poverty undergoes a steep increase followed by a decrease with respect to higher variance. Following these results, we make quantitative predictions to correlate a developing with a developed economy.Comment: 13 pages in single spaced latex, 4 figures, submitted to 'Econometrica

The right to be free: is media freedom good news for women's rights?

Using an extensive dataset covering 187 countries during 1993-2011, this paper explores the impact of media freedom from government control on women's rights. To measure women's rights, we consider economic, political and social rights that capture the extent of government's respect for these rights at country level over time. A free press improves government's accountability to the society and leads to better governance. In the context of women's rights, a free press can enhance positive rights by helping women raise voices and gain recognition, and thereby making the government create a more conducive environment for women's empowerment. Further, higher press freedom can reduce the infringement of negative rights by calling for greater public accountability. Yet, a free media, while necessary, may not be sufficient in enhancing such rights, and other institutional factors related to a country's development might be essential to reap the benefit of a free media. Our estimated marginal impacts show that greater access of media (in the form of internet and mobile users) and countries with greater democratic capital enhance the impact of media freedom on women's economic and social rights, with little effect on political rights

Chatting with the CEO’s Virtual Assistant: Impact on Climate for Trust, Fairness, Employee Satisfaction, and Engagement

How employees perceive the climate for trust and fairness of practices in an organization is a critical factor that drives employee satisfaction and engagement and contributes to sustained performance and growth. Communication between employees and top leadership is an essential mechanism that bridges the differences and helps align employees towards organizational goals. Technological innovations, such as artificial intelligence (AI)-based virtual assistants, can help leaders provide personalized interactions. Though scholars have argued the importance of AI, they have conducted relatively little work to explain its relevance in managing human resources. This study draws on social exchange theory and social response theory to investigate virtual assistants’ impact on positive organizational outcomes. Based on a time-lagged, rigorous field study, we investigated virtual assistants’ impact on creating a climate for trust, fairness, and employee outcomes, namely, their engagement and satisfaction. We also discuss the impact and implications of AI- based virtual assistants for enhancing employee outcomes

Gender-specific human capital, openness and growth: exploring the linkages for South Asia

Using data covering 1970-2008 for South Asia, this study investigates the influence of human capital disaggregated by gender, on economic growth. We use an extended version of the Solow growth model with per capita gross domestic product (GDP) a function of the key variables, viz. physical capital accumulation, human capital accumulation, trade openness and capital flows, fiscal policy and financial development. The key contribution of this study is to show that openness when interacted with the human capital stock disaggregated by gender, has differential impacts on economic growth. While the positive impact of male secondary schooling captures the direct skill effect relative to primary schooling, the marginal influence of female primary/secondary schooling fails to show a positive impact on growth at higher levels of openness. An implication stemming from this study is that educational opportunities for females at the secondary level should be increased for South Asia

Trade openness and labor force participation in Africa: the role of political institutions*

Trade liberalization is usually expected to lead to greater economic activity including higher labor force participation rates. Using data from forty-eight Sub-Saharan African countries over the period 1985–2012, we explore the impact of trade openness on labor force participation rates (LFPR), and examine how political institutions such as democracy, political rights, and civil liberties can play a role in driving this relationship in the above group of low-income countries. The estimated marginal impact of openness on LFPR shows that LFPR is increasing with the level of institutional quality. In particular, political institutions are critical in enhancing the benefit from openness. Our conclusions are similar for male and female participation rates although the magnitudes of the former are higher, thus confirming that improving institutions can generate greater labor market benefits from trade in poor countries

Does female human capital formation matter for the income effect of remittances? Evidence from developing countries

The existing literature has focussed extensively on the development outcomes resulting from international migrant remittances. Yet, the human capital channel promoting remittance effectiveness has received little attention. Given the multilateral policy drive to promote female literacy in recent decades, it is relevant to examine whether female human capital formation improves the effectiveness of remittances in terms of its impact on per capita income. Using a panel of 103 developing economies over the period 1970–2012, this paper attempts to answer this question empirically. The paper finds that female human capital affects the remittance-growth relationship differently according to whether it is the primary, secondary or tertiary level of human capital. Our estimates of the marginal impacts of remittances show that while higher levels of skilled human capital (secondary and tertiary enrolments) enhance the marginal impact of remittances on per capita income, low-skilled human capital (primary enrolments) fails to do so. Our conclusion stresses the need to encourage female human capital beyond the promotion of literacy rates in developing countries

Evaluation of antitumor efficacy and toxicity of novel 6-nitro-2-(3-chloropropyl)-1H-benz[de]isoquinoline-1,3-dione in vivo in mouse

Aim: This study was aimed to assess the in vivo anti-tumoral potency of the novel 6-nitro-2-(3-chloropropyl)-1H-benz[de]isoquinoline-1,3-dione [Compound 1] that has earlier demonstrated excellent cytotoxicity in 15 out of 17 human tumor cell lines tested. Materials and Methods: Two murine tumors namely Sarcoma-180 (S-180) and Ehrlich ascites carcinoma (EAC) were used to measure its in vivo anti-tumor activity through the increase in median survival times (MST) of drug treated (T) over untreated control (C) mice. Drug-induced toxicity in respect of hematological parameters, femoral bone marrow and splenic cellularity as well as biochemical parameters and histopathology of liver and kidney were assessed in vivo in normal and S-180 bearing mice sequentially on days 9, 14 and 19 following drug treatment at the optimum dose of 60 mg/kg administered from day 1 to 7. Results: Results revealed significant tumor regression effects in S-180 and EAC as T/C max values of 138 and 189 were obtained at its optimum dose of 60 mg/kg for QD 1-7 . Toxicity assay indicated no significant cardiotoxicity, hepatotoxicity or nephrotoxicity of the compound in normal and S-180 bearing mice. An initial hyposplenic cellularity and the femoral bone marrow suppression effect observed on day 9 reached normalcy by day 19. HPLC analysis revealed that it has appreciable stability (half-life ~ 3 h) in murine blood plasma in vitro. Conclusion: Above results justify potential candidature of the compound for further drug development

Effect of orientation on the wake of a square cylinder at low Reynolds numbers

447-459Experimental investigation of flow past a square cylinder at Reynolds numbers of 97 and 187 is reported. Cylinder orientations of 0 to 60o with respect to the mean flow have been considered. Two-component hotwire anemometry has been adopted for velocity measurements. The wake of the cylinder has been visualized using a pulsed laser sheet to understand the flow structure. Measurements have been carried out in the near wake, mid-wake and far wake of the cylinder. The effects of orientation and Reynolds number on Strouhal number, drag coefficient, time-average and rms velocity distributions, decay of velocity fluctuations and power spectra are of interest. There is a dominant peak of vortex shedding in the near wake velocity spectra over the range of Reynolds numbers studied. The Strouhal number and drag coefficient are correlated to the cylinder angle. A change in the cylinder orientation leads to an early appearance of quasi-periodicity and hence three-dimensionality, owing to the asymmetric nature of the wake. The shape of the mean velocity profiles, fluctuations and the rate of decay show a strong dependence on the cylinder orientation in the near wake, though the dependence weakens in the far wake. Among the angles studied, the wake of a cylinder whose orientation is 22.5o with respect to the incoming flow is surprisingly vigorous, and shows strong three-dimensionality. The data of the present work is useful for assessing flow interaction with cylindrical structures of square cross-section.</b