AN INCLUSIVE MODEL FOR ASSESSING THE QUALITY OF SERVICE IN PUBLIC SECTOR TERTIARY HOSPITALS

Quality has taken central stage in contemporary organizations and is one of the key areas of competition. Healthcare organizations, in particular, strive to provide better quality services to their patients in order to gain competitive advantage. Researchers and academicians have yet to agree on how to define and measure quality of service. Attempts have been made to develop standards and measurements to determine the degree of quality of services. However, the literature does not contain a model or standards to measure the quality of health care services. The paper in question presents an inclusive model to measure the quality of service of healthcare organizations. In addition to healthcare services (cure and care) the model encompasses teaching aspect of hospitals as well. This model was developed on the basis of an in-depth and careful study of a large (2400 bedded) public sector teaching hospital spread over a period of two years.  Data was collected from 400 patients, 250 employees, 200 general public, and 250 students through questionnaire followed by in-depth interviews. In addition to all this, various processes and interactions among individuals in the hospital were closely observed. Hospital records were studied. Anything that possibly could contribute to the quality of service in hospital was placed under one of the three dimensions of the model. Since the model has been inductively developed through data triangulation, it can safely be used to measure the quality of health care services with a good deal of accuracy

HRM in the South Asian Context: A Comparison of HRM in India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka

A recurring question in contemporary organizations is how to deal with HRM (human resource management) in the wake of globalization and an emerging knowledge economy. Many research studies have been conducted to examine the extent to which HRM practices converge and diverge in different socio-cultural contexts. National institutions and local cultures are cited as the major stumbling blocks for HRM convergence. However, it is also true that regional clusters have many things in common (cultural similarity, level of economic development, and geographical proximity etc.) make conditions that ultimately lead to isomorphism in HRM. The study in question attempts to look at the extent of convergence and divergence of HRM in India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka that constitute one cluster. The study specifically examines various HRM practices including training, compensation, and employees’ safety in the light of recommendations of International Labor Organization (ILO). The goal of this study is to develop a model of HRM which best describes the situation in the three countries for guiding effective employment, deployment, and development of human resources

IS PRIVATIZATION A PANACEA? PRE AND POST PRIVATIZATION ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE

The aim of this study is to examine the impact of privatization of state-owned enterprise on financial performance, employees’ satisfaction and customer satisfaction.  Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) was taken as the organization for analysis. Five years pre and post-privatization financial figures were analyzed to compare the return on asset, return on equity, earning per share, net profit margin, and dividend payout. To know customer satisfaction level, the questionnaire was personally administered and 102 questionnaires complete from all respects were included for analysis. A semi-structured interview was conducted with 25 employees to determine the satisfaction level of employees. Findings of the study confirmed adverse financial performance after privatization followed by the high level of employees’ dissatisfaction. However, customer satisfaction level was high after privatizatio

The Choice of Governing Mechanism: An Organization Economics Perspective

Organization economics, with its two main strands of transaction cost economics and agency theory, primarily deals with the question of how organizations emerge and survive. It focuses on the analysis of competition within hierarchies (organizations) rather than markets and addresses questions such as why organizations exist, how they are managed, why some perform better than others, and why they tend to cooperate. This study attempts to juxtapose other relevant perspectives and organization theories to bear on the same questions. The purpose is to understand where and how organization economics and other perspectives converge and diverge. The study depends on the work of famous scholars contributing to various perspectives for drawing conclusions

A novel test configuration design method for inverse identification of in-plane moduli of a composite plate under the PFEUM framework

We propose a novel sensitivity based approach that predicts and explains the accuracy of material parameter identification for a composite plate using the Projected Finite Element Update Method. A typical experiment using the Projected Finite Element Update Method technique involves a plate specimen held at 3 or 4 supports and bent under the application of a point load. Two‐Dimensional Digital Image Correlation is used to measure the pseudo displacements resulting from the projection of out‐of‐plane deflection of the plate onto the image plane. A cost function relating the projected numerical and experimental displacement fields is then minimised to obtain the material parameters. It is shown that the contribution of a specific material parameter in the observed displacement field influences the accuracy of its identification. The contributions from material parameters are first quantified in terms of sensitivity criterion that may be tailored by changing the elements of test configuration such as location of supports, the load application point, and the specimen geometry. Several test configurations are designed by maximising the sensitivities corresponding to individual material parameters. The relevance of proposed sensitivity criterion in these configurations is then validated through material identification in simulated experiments with added Gaussian noise. Finally, a thin CFRP plate is tested under these configurations to demonstrate the practical use of this approach. The proposed approach helps in robust estimation of the in‐plane elastic moduli from a bent composite plate with a simple Two‐Dimensional Digital Image Correlation setup without requiring measurement of the actual plate deflection or curvatures