Transformational Leadership, Organizational Culture, Organizational Effectiveness, and Programme Outcomes in Non-Governmental Organizations

This study examines whether transformational leadership influences organizational culture that furthers NGOs?? effectiveness. It also examines whether transformational leadership at the top directly influences NGOs?? effectiveness. Further, it tests whether NGO effectiveness improves the programme outcomes in terms of health, income, education, and happiness of villagers. Data were collected from 312 NGOs in Jharkhand state (India). Transformational leadership, organizational culture, and NGO effectiveness were assessed from NGO personnel using standard instruments, and programme outcomes on health, income, education, and happiness were evaluated from villagers using wooden cubes. Findings reveal that transformational leadership builds organizational culture that furthers NGO effectiveness. Transformational leadership does not influence directly NGO effectiveness but it enhances NGO effectiveness promoting organizational culture. Furthermore, NGO effectiveness improves the outcomes of programmes undertaken by NGOs in terms of better health, income, education, and happiness of beneficiaries.     

Development and Validation of TQM Implementation Constructs

The contemporary quality management (QM) literature prescribes various quality improvement strategies. However, it lacks scientifically developed and tested constructs that represent an integrative QM philosophy. Moreover, an impact of the prescribed QM strategies on a firm's product quality has not been analyzed. Through a detailed analysis of the literature, this research identifies 12 constructs of integrated QM strategies. Using a survey of 371 manufacturing firms, the constructs are then empirically tested and validated. LISREL 7 is used for this purpose. Finally, a framework to examine the effects of integrated QM strategies on a firm's product quality is suggested. Comparisons between this and two other comprehensive scales of TQM are made.     

Use of Dummy Variables in Testing for Equality between Sets of Coefficients in Two Linear Regressions: A Note

Elementary inductive proofs are presented for the binomial approximation to the hypergeometric distribution, the density of an order statistic, and the distribution of when X ₁, ···, X _n are a sample from N (μ, 1).     

HRM practices of Canadian and US manufacturing firms: An empirical investigation

This research investigates human resource management HRM practices of manufacturing firms in Ontario, Canada n = 141 , and midwestern United States n = 100 . Differences in sources of recruitment and selection instruments used by firms in the two countries are examined. The study also compares various training, compensation, and other HRM issues. We found major differences in HRM practices of manufacturing firms in the US and Canada.     

Supervisors' participation in quality efforts in large and small manufacturing firms

Supervisors' participation in quality efforts in large n = 77 and small n = 113 manufacturing firms in the motor vehicle parts and accessories industry SIC 3714 was examined. While a majority of the supervisors of both types of firms agreed that top management was committed to quality, less than 27 of the supervisors indicated that they were satisfied with management support for quality efforts. A majority of the supervisors of both firm types also stated that they were committed to the organization and did not work under a great deal of tension. Unlike supervisors of large firms, a majority of the supervisors of small firms reported that they received training in quality and that workers responded positively to supervisors' quality efforts. Compared to small firms, supervisors of large firms . felt a significantly higher workload p < 0 01 , significantly lower top management commitment p < 0.05 , and . received less encouragement p < 0 05 for their quality efforts.     

A decision support system for a third-party coordinator managing supply chain with demand uncertainty

Global supply chains reduce cost but increase lead times, complexities and uncertainties. Retailers in consumer products industry are getting shorter lead time to respond to market demand. To meet this challenge, many rely on third party supply chain managers (SCMs) for economically supplying required quantities of finished products quickly. However, due to shorter ‘time to market’, the SCM has to procure raw materials and start production process based on expected demand. Since SCM absorbs financial penalties associated with under- and over-estimation of demand from retailer, finding an optimal production lot size and product customisation strategy are essential to an SCM's operation. We develop a profit maximisation model and provide a close-form solution that allows an SCM to calculate optimal production lot size. The model is used to examine profitability of postponing product customisation. Finally, the effect of demand variation on SCM's profitability is explored.     

Economic analysis of demand uncertainty and delayed information sharing in a third-party managed supply chain

Designers and retailers in consumer products industry are faced with high demand volatility and potential loss of profit from design piracy. Many retailers rely on third-party supply chain managers (SCMs) to manage global supply chains. A SCM starts raw materials procurement and production process based on expected demand and takes financial risks associated with demand uncertainty. But a retailer often delays sharing product design information with SCM forcing it to expedite production and distribution processes incurring additional financial penalties. To analyse economic impact of delayed information sharing under uncertain demand, we develop a mathematical model. Our model indicates that higher demand volatility lessens the effect of penalty associated with delayed information sharing for retailers. The model also shows that for a given demand volatility, per-unit premium increases asymptotically for a retailer compared to marginal production cost increase for SCM. Such findings are not intuitive for SCMs or retailers.     

Characteristics for the Effectiveness of Women’s Self-Help Groups in Bihar

This study examines whether group heterogeneity and group structure and process predict the effectiveness of women’s self-help groups in terms of their financial performance, self-reliance of the group, members’ decision-making ability at the household level, and access to non-financial benefits. Data were collected using an interview schedule from 210 women’s self-help groups in six districts of Bihar and data were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling. The findings suggest that the group heterogeneity directly predicts the effectiveness of women’s self-help groups and it is fully transmitted through group structure and process to positively predict the effectiveness of the women’s self-help groups. The group structure and process is found to be a full mediator between group heterogeneity and group effectiveness. The predictive accuracy of the model is found to be high. The findings have implications to bring in more diversity in members castes, education, and their reasons for joining women’s self-help groups at the formation stage and variations in members’ skills and expertise at the performing stage of the groups. The members’ awareness on group norms and trust in financial transactions, and leadership styles together with cooperation and cohesion among members, transparency in financial transactions, group attendance, and networking with the bank and the federation foster the effectiveness of women’s self-help groups.     

Some properties of extreme stable laws and related infinitely divisible random variables

In the course of studying the moment sequence {nⁿ:n=0,1,…}$\{n^n:n=0,1,\dots \}$, Eaton et al. [1971. On extreme stable laws and some applications. J. Appl. Probab. 8, 794–801] have shown that this sequence, which is, indeed, the moment sequence of a log-extreme stable law with characteristic exponent γ=1$\gamma =1$, corresponds to a scale mixture of exponential distributions and hence to a distribution with decreasing failure rate. Following essentially the approach of Shanbhag et al. [1977. Some further results in infinite divisibility. Math. Proc. Cambridge Philos. Soc. 82, 289–295] we show that, under certain conditions, log-extreme stable laws with characteristic exponent γ∈[1,2)$\gamma \in [1,2)$ are scale mixtures of exponential distributions and hence are infinitely divisible and have decreasing failure rates. In addition, we study the moment problem associated with the log-extreme stable laws with characteristic exponent γ∈(0,2]$\gamma \in (0,2]$ and throw further light on the existing literature on the subject. As a by-product, we show that generalized Poisson and generalized negative binomial distributions are mixed Poisson distributions. Finally, we address some relevant questions on structural aspects of infinitely divisible distributions, and make new observations, including in particular that certain results appearing in Steutel and van Harn [2004. Infinite Divisibility of Probability Distributions on the Real Line. Marcel Dekker, New York] have links with the Wiener–Hopf factorization met in the theory of random walk.