PURUSHARTHA - A journal of Management, Ethics and Spirituality

Bhagavad Gita for Minimizing Dark Side of Leadership

Shailesh Rastogi, Sunaina Kuknor, Satyendra P. Singh — Tue, 26 Dec 2023 15:47:45 +0530

The Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) leadership theory emphasizes the dynamic relationship between leaders and followers. Further, LMX differentiation proposes that leaders divide their teams into in-groups and out-groups based on the quality of the relationship. In this process, the criteria for selecting in-group members are majorly based on personal preferences rather than objectivity. Further, the in-group members build confidence in the leader to minimize leader insecurity in the workplace. The out-group members bear the brunch of such an understanding between the leader and in-group members. This situation can be referred to as the Dark side of leadership, where followers are given differential treatment. This study takes insights from ancient scriptures of the Bhagavad Gita (BG), where the leader is seen as a trustee, to reduce this differentiation and increase leader security. The paper attempts to explore and extract the concepts from BG and apply them to leadership theory and practice. It is found that the BG provides solutions to reduce leadership deficit (LD) and have a conducive work environment (CWE), and it does not ask for any financial investments. The paper’s findings facilitate business leaders in reducing in-group and out-group categorizing and leader insecurity leading to effective leadership for better business results.

Mediating Role of Organisational Commitment in the Relationship between Job Involvement and Organizational Citizenship Behaviour

Shweta Tripathi, Ajay Kumar Singh — Tue, 26 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0530

The basic idea behind this study was to assess how job involvement affects self-report measures of organizational citizenship behaviours. We made use of mediation model to measure the impact of job involvement and organizational commitment on employees’ citizenship behaviours. For this purpose data was collected in Delhi NCR region from 170 employees from 4 IT companies and 5 BPO companies. Job involvement was measured by asking respondents to reveal their degree of agreement on the extent to which their job behaviour is depicted by each of the 10 items. Respondents’ perception of OCB was measured using 5 dimensions: Altruism, Civic Virtue, conscientiousness, Sportsmanship, and Courtesy. Outcomes of the analysis reveal that positive relationship of Job involvement with organizational commitment and OCB. Further, organizational commitment impeccably intervene association between job involvement and organizational citizenship behaviour. Thus, nurturing high commitment levels through enhancing job involvement level can be an effective tool to enhance citizenship behaviours on the part of employees. Lastly, theoretical and practical impacts of the findings are discussed.

Strategic Managerial Shift at Retail Stores to Boost Positivity Among Employees in Post-Pandemic Scenario

Pritha Ghosh, Rabin Mazumder, Saikat Chakrabarti — Tue, 26 Dec 2023 16:16:36 +0530

Retail is one of the most severely impacted sectors by the COVID-19 pandemic. The end of a pandemic is no relief for managers as the recovery phase is all the more challenging. In the 'new normal,' consumers' reluctance to visit stores adds to retail store managers' global challenges. Store managers had to rethink their business plans to innovate for sustenance. The article demonstrates a novel approach to discovering the strategic shift of the managers of the retail stores for apparel to boost positivity from the employees' subjective perspective in the post-pandemic era. Dynamic, ingenious, and morally stable leadership styles help to draw insights for exploring the mechanism with which the managers of the retail stores of apparel brands induce positive organizational behavior—the links of the constructs of a theoretical model frame into hypotheses. The sample is of 300 employees in apparel retail stores. Structural equation modeling empirically validated the approaches. The findings revealed that only an ingenious leadership style could induce positivity among the current employees in apparel retail stores. The study will give valuable insights into the applications of store managers to implement novel strategic decisions in their leadership styles.

Dumped Weapons & Underwater Arms Race: Analysis of India’s Survival Strength with the Existing Legal Framework

Anu B., Sanskriti Mishra — Tue, 26 Dec 2023 16:23:51 +0530

India’s role in maritime trade dates back to 1500s as it is bordered with Indian Ocean which is open sea. But it gradually declined when the state was invaded by colonial powers and made forced participation in the World Wars. During the wars Indian Ocean catered as major maritime trade route and hence a lot of warships sank, seized weapons were dumped in the ocean. The dumped weapons include non-deactivated biological and chemical weapons that pose perpetual threat to India and other coastal states. Since Cold War, there was a rise in militarization in the seabed which eventually led to arms race. With digitalization, the facility of remote access has further geared up the arms race in the seabed. There are bundle of laws in the global parlance to regulate the same but the increasing arms race in the seabed creates doubt with respect to the effectiveness. In this outset, it is important to analyze whether India being a coastal state be able to survive the consequences from such arms race and dumped weapons in the seabed with its existing legal framework. For this study, this research paper makes conceptual understanding along with historic analysis of dumping of weapons ad arms race in the seabed. Further the paper conducts thorough study on the existing international legal framework and the territorial laws of India in this regard. The paper also analyses the present trends in seabed arms race in the seabed and put forth suggestions for the state’s better future and security of its people.

Environmental Communication as a Mediator in the Relationship between Environmental Concern and Attitude Towards Green Services in a Sequential Mediation Model: Evidences from Restaurant Industry

Debdutta Choudhury, Anindo Bhattacharjee — Wed, 27 Dec 2023 11:18:43 +0530

Tourism is a major economic activity of a nation but also contributes to about 5% of global emissions. Hospitality industry, a major arm of tourism industry, has initiated several measures for green sustainable practices. This research aims to understand the linkages between an altruistic mindset, environmental concern, environmental communication, green service attitude, and behavioural intentions through a sequential moderation model in the restaurant industry.

A literature review was done to understand the theoretical construct of the proposed model and extant research for last 30 years to develop the consumer behaviour model. A modified model of Theory of Planned Behaviour was chosen as the base theory and through a review of the extant literature, a hypothetical model was created. A covariance-based structural equation model (CB SEM) was created to test the strength of relationships across the variables. The findings indicate that consumer environmental concern do not directly lead to positive attitude towards green services until it is mediated by environmental communication. This finding will help the green restaurants to adequately design suitable communication strategies to increase consumer awareness, positive attitudes and pro-environmental behavioural intentions.

Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI)- A Real Indicator of Economic Progress

Ashish Ranjan Sinha — Wed, 27 Dec 2023 11:26:09 +0530

Increase in Gross Domestic Product, Gross National Product etc. which are so highly advertised and publicized by media and other governmental and non-governmental organizations do not necessarily reflect the ground reality and status of well-being and development of the economy of a nation. It is quite conservative in its approach and hence another economic indicator namely Genuine Progress Indicator was proposed by the economic think tank of America to lay down a more scientific and realistic way. In contrast to GDP, the Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) lays great emphasis on long-term environmental problems and considers it as a cost that is subtracted from GDP to obtain GPI. Despite the warning by environmentalists that if the present state of fossil consumption, conversion of forest areas into habitats, the opening of poisonous chemical industries and establishment of new but very dangerous nuclear power reactors for energy production is continued, it is impossible for mankind or say whole living being to survive in near future. Humanity has already heavily suffered the tragedy of Union Carbide at Bhopal in India, the great Chornobyl tragedy of the USSR, the complete destruction of mankind at Hiroshima and Nagasaki and presently the Tsunami, earthquake, volcanic eruption and atomic reactor leakage, Covid-19 pandemic etc. which are just a few blatant blows to serve as eye openers for economists, technologists and scientists to understand and realize the seriousness and also repeated warnings by nature. Some developed countries have revised their economic analyses system by attaching significant importance to GPI instead of GDP. Environmental and social costs are considered in computation of GPI. Several studies have been done to measure GPI at the national level and sub-national levels. In this paper, attempts have been made to explain various outstanding characteristics of genuine progress indicator (GPI) and their relevance to socio-economic welfare in the present context. It is suggested that moral values, ethics and spirituality should be incorporated as a fourth factor in computation of GPI. This will certainly work as a tool to reduce socio-economic disparities and enhance overall wellbeing of society by adding spirituality and social ethics.

How are eWOM Credibility and Purchase Intention Inter- Related? A PLS-SEM Analysis

Ashwerya Gupta, Ubba Savita — Wed, 27 Dec 2023 11:35:19 +0530

Advanced technologies such as smart phones and 4G internet have created more opportunities for e-shopping. Individuals are switching their purchases from traditional to digital with the help of electronic commerce. The customer usually evaluates a product by reading other user recommendations on blogs, online sites, and some other social media platforms, commonly termed as eWOM (electronic word of mouth). Reviews and ratings on the internet influence a traveler's decision to reserve an accommodation. The research study examines the influence of eWOM credibility on the purchase intention. The research also examined the role of trust and perceived risk as mediating factors between eWOM credibility and purchase intention. The Questionnaire study was carried on 687 individuals over the age of 18. PLS-SEM was used to examine the data. The eWOM credibility significantly impacted traveler purchasing intentions. The mediator in the relationship between eWOM credibility and purchase intention was trust, not perceived risk. The study recommends that marketers validate the source of information and prioritise the reviews that are perceived as more credible and establish a favourable intention towards online booking.

Exploring Wellbeing through Job Crafting and Meaningful Work to Promote Sustainability in the Backdrop of Indian Ancient Wisdom

Mitashree Tripathy, Saswati Tripathy, Itishree Mishra — Wed, 27 Dec 2023 11:45:47 +0530

Today, the nature of an ever-competitive business environment has become both dynamic and an essential characteristic of globalisation. Constant shift in processes, communication and interdependence, indeed, sustainability in the functioning of any organisation has become an ever-augmenting trend. Organisations although adopt several practices to achieve sustainability, the question is do they truly, achievesustainability? Studies claim sustainability at workplaces entails in reducing company’s ecological footprint, conserving natural resources and taking care of the employees. Surprisingly, in comparison to the former two, the later has been highly ignored. The modus operandi towards achieving productivity and performance may have been successful but the wellbeing of the employees in the organisations is still at stake. Many organisations around the world have implemented wellness programs for the well-being of their employees; however, whether every individual is benefitted through such programs is still a concern. One may assume that such programs do not serve any meaning specifically towards individual level development. Few studies also state that an employee’s well-being is always an outcome of job crafting and as an outcome variable, well-being leads to organisational excellence. However, the current study argues that well-being acts as a mediator between job crafting and sustainability. If employees get motivated to do beyond their job roles through job crafting, a lot of meaning can be derived out of their work leading to high performance and a sustainable environment and if well-being acts as a mediator between the two constructs, achieving sustainability will be faster and more convenient. Well-being of an employee is the most sought-after construct and certain for sustainability. Also mentioned in the Equality Act 2010 any deviation in the process of attaining wellbeing is subjected to disease or disability leading to a stigmatized society. Similar ideas are also mentioned in Indian ancient wisdom. Blending, the theories from philosophy, management, law and ancient wisdom through an interdisciplinary approach, the current paper proposes a conceptual model while establishing a relation between virtues, job crafting mediated by wellbeing and moderated by meaningful work to achieve sustainability.

New Economic Perspective on Relationship Marketing

Yasemin Ocal Atinc, Sonia Taneja — Tue, 09 Jan 2024 11:01:56 +0530

This study offers insights into the economic side of relationship marketing. The paper aims to present the view by placing Relationship Marketing and Service-Dominant Logic under the relational marketing economic side. This study also discusses the economic perspective focuses on financial outcomes. The non-economical perspective emphasizes building strong relationships with the customers that can help the firm increase customer loyalty and commitment to the firm as the non-financial perspective. Our paper discusses that the application of relationship marketing and service-dominant logic has these financial outcomes. We discussed the service-dominant logic mentality, which proposes everything to be service; relations happen to be the most critical success factors in today’s marketing practices that impact all firms and stakeholders.

Technical Indicators of Major Healthcare Companies: A Comprehensive Analysis

Rohit Mehta, Sofia Khan, Ashutosh Kumar Singh — Tue, 09 Jan 2024 11:15:02 +0530

This research aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of major healthcare stocks along with the nifty health care index within the healthcare sector. Employing technical indicators such as the Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD), Rate of Change (ROC) and Relative Strength Index (RSI) we conduct a detailed trend analysis to identify historical patterns and potential turning points in stock prices. Furthermore, advanced time series forecasting models and predictive analytics are utilized to forecast future share prices for the selected three companies, offering valuable insights for investors and market participants.

In addition, we investigate the relationship between the stock prices of Apollo Hospital, Fortis Healthcare & Narayana Hruda and the Nifty Healthcare Index. This analysis sheds light on how individual stock prices are influenced by broader sectoral performance. We also explore the impact of MACD, ROC, and RSI technical indicators on the prices of all healthcare stocks through rigorous statistical analysis. Our findings provide healthcare sector stakeholders with a deeper understanding of stock behaviour, potential future movements, correlations with market indices and risk assessment.

The results of this study enhance the decision-making process for investors and market participants in the healthcare sector. By examining historical trends, forecasting price dynamics, assessing sectoral correlations, evaluating technical indicator effects and risk measurement, this research contributes to a more comprehensive view of these stocks and their positioning within the healthcare industry.