Research Newsletter

July 2006
Dear Reader,

Chairperson
(FPM & Research)

We bring you the third issue of XLRI Research Newsletter, a quarterly brief on the research output of faculty and doctoral students at XLRI, Jamshedpur.

E S Srinivas srinivas@xlri.ac.in

The present issue has abstracts from 3 books, 14 papers/articles and 1 poster presentation from 10 faculty members and 3 doctoral students. Hope this effort helps the members of the research community to interact with each other in their interest areas and share and further develop the existing knowledge base.

FPM Officer B Jagan Rao bjaganrao@xlri.ac.in

We will appreciate the suggestions from the readers so that we can enhance the quality of the news letter to serve its purpose.

Niharika Rai Editor

Editor Niharika Rai p04f66@astra.xlri.ac.in

XLRI Research Newsletter

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Investments

Zvi Bodie zbodie@bu.edu

Alex Kane akane@ucsd.edu

Alan J Marcus alan.marcus@bc.edu

Pitabas Mohanty pitabasm@xlri.ac.in

This Special Indian Edition (SIE) of Investments is intended primarily as a textbook for courses in investment analysis and is written with students and practitioners in India in mind. Our guiding principle has been to present the material in a framework that is organized by a central core of consistent fundamental principles. We have made every attempt to strip away unnecessary mathematical and technical detail, and we have concentrated on providing the intuition that may guide students and practitioners as they confront new ideas and challenges in their professional lives. This text will introduce you to major issues currently of concern to all investors. It can give you the skills to conduct a sophisticated assessment of current issues and debates covered by both the popular media as well as more-specialized finance journals. Whether you plan to become an investment professional, or simply a sophisticated individual investor, you will find these skills essential. Our primary goal is to present material of practical value, but all of us are active researchers in the science of financial economics and find virtually all of the material in this book to be of great intellectual interest. Fortunately, we think, there is no contradiction in the field of investments between the pursuit of truth and the pursuit of money. Quite the opposite. The capital asset pricing model, the arbitrage pricing model, the efficient markets hypothesis, the option-pricing model, and the other centerpieces of modern financial research are as much intellectually satisfying subjects of scientific inquiry as they are of immense practical importance for the sophisticated investor. In this SIB, we have further extended our systematic collection of Excel spreadsheets that give tools to explore concepts more deeply than was previously possible. These spreadsheets are available on the website for this text (http://highered.mcgrawhill.com/sites/OO70600872), and provide a taste of the sophisticated analytic tools available to professional investors. Bodie, Z*.; Kane, A*.; Marcus, A. J*. & Mohanty, P*. 2006. Investments (Sixth Edition), Tata McGraw Hill, New Delhi. ------------------------------------------*Prof. Zvi Bodie is from Boston University, Prof. Alex Kane is from University of California, Prof. Alan J Marcus is from Boston College and Prof. Pitabas Mohanty is from XLRI, India. This book has been specially designed for the Indian audience.

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Emotion Regulation and the Adjustment of Expatriates

S Ct E S Srinivas srinivas@xlri.ac.in

S M Toh

This paper broadens the horizons of the emotional labor literature by examining the use of deep acting as a strategy for expatriate adjustment. In addition to examining emotional labor in a new context (U.A.E.), this paper demonstrates that perceived social support of host country nationals is a key moderator of the effects of deep acting on expatriate adjustment. This result highlights the complexity of emotional labor by demonstrating conditions under which a key emotion regulation strategy will have beneficial effects. This study represents an example of the importance of context in examining emotional labor. This paper examines how expatriates emotion regulation interacts with host country nationals (HCNs) social support to predict expatriates adjustment. We integrate research on emotion regulation and expatriate adjustment to: (1) establish a positive relationship between expatriate emotion regulation and adjustment, (2) elucidate how HCN social support moderates the association between emotion regulation and adjustment, and (3) highlight the importance of a proactive role for expatriates and the behavior of HCNs in the expatriate adjustment process. Using a sample of three-hundred and fifty-four expatriate employees, we found a positive association between the emotion regulation and the adjustment of expatriates. We also found that this association decreases as the social support provided by a HCN co-worker increases. Ct, S., Srinivas, E. S., & Toh, S. M., 2006. Emotion Regulation and the Adjustment of Expatriates in E. Richard & J. C. Wallace (Chairs), New Directions in Emotional Labor Research, presented at the meeting of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP), Dallas, TX (2006 May). Managerial Economics Suma Damodaran suma@xlri.ac.in

Managerial Economics is a comprehensive textbook specially designed to meet the needs of management students. It explores the core concepts of managerial economics and supplements them with relevant managerial examples, caselets, and detailed case studies. It provides in-depth coverage of the four key components of managerial economics: the household and the firm, price and output decisions in product markets, market failures, and the macroeconomic environment. Beginning with an overview of managerial economics, the book discusses in detail the household and the consumer, demand analysis, demand estimation and forecasting techniques, the firm as a producer, the production function, and costs. It goes on to discuss the competitive and monopoly model monopolistic competition

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and oligopoly, special pricing practices, markets for factor inputs, externalities and public goods, and long-term investment and risk analysis. Finally, it discusses macroeconomic aggregates and provides insights into fiscal and monetary policies. Users would find this book highly useful for its coverage of the key concepts of managerial economics explained through caselets, numerical examples, illustrations, and tables. Key Features examines the challenges faced by business organizations in economic decisionmaking explores emerging issues in managerial economics such as the economics of information and the new economy contains cases and examples from key areas of managerial economics provides chapter-end concept review questions, numerical problems, critical thinking exercises, and interesting classroom and field projects Damodaran, S. 2006. Managerial Economics, Oxford University Press. Does Management Education Make Students Better Actors? A Longitudinal Study of Change in Values and Self-Monitoring Venkat R Krishnan venkat@xlri.ac.in The study used a sample of 138 fulltime MBA students over 3 years to show that management education enhances self-monitoring and importance of self-oriented values and reduces the importance of other-oriented values. The effect on both sets of values remains significant even after controlling for self-monitoring. Krishnan, V. R., 2006. "Does management education make students better actors? A longitudinal study of change in values and self-monitoring." Proceedings of the Annual conference of the Administrative Sciences Association of Canada, Banff (Alberta). Change in Information Quality in the Context of ERP Implementation P V S N Murthy murthypathi@gmail.com Sanjay Kumar skumar@xlri.ac.in

This paper reports the results of a study undertaken to estimate the change in information quality in the context of ERP implementation. Information quality has been defined in terms of the characteristics of information like relevance, accuracy, timeliness, completeness, coherence, format, accessibility, compatibility, security and validity. The relative utility of the different characteristics of information quality was estimated using pair wise comparisons by user managers, as per the perceived utility of the characteristic for decision making, and the Analytic Hierarchy Process was used to convert this relative, pair wise utility to a priority matrix. This priority matrix was used to integrate the different dimensions of information quality into an integrative, normalized information quality measure. The effects of change due to ERP implementation in information quality were

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studied for groups of managers with and without prior IT experience (defined as experience with an integrative online information system or with a batch processing type MRP II system). The concept of absorptive capacity was used to explain the observed results. Kumar, S., & Murthy, P.V.S.N., 2006. Change In Information Quality In The Context Of ERP Implementation, Decision Science Institutes Annual Conference, San Francisco. Practices for Competitiveness of Indian Firms P Basu Smitu Malholta smitu@xlri.ac.in

Liberalization in the Indian Economy had its early beginning in the middle of the 1980s, but gathered momentum since 1991. It had a varying impact on the functioning, performance and adaptability of Indian firms, particularly in coping up with stiff competition from international players. In this study, an attempt has been made to highlight the relative change in firms emphasis on practices for competitiveness in trying to adapt to the pressures of globalization. Each variable, identified as important for competitiveness, was measured by multi- item scales, of the five point Likert type. This study was carried out with reference to two time periods - the period immediately preceding liberalization which we call the transition period (that is from 1985-86 to 1990-91) and post liberalization period (1998-99). Data was collected for 33 firms belonging to different industries (scattered over steel, manufacturing, engineering, chemicals etc.). However, overall these variables have not received adequate attention of the firms in general. Analysis of data revealed that practices for competitiveness, specially the proactive factor or future oriented variables, do have a positive and significant impact on profitability. The executive level analyses reveal that there has been an increase in emphasis on all the variables of competitiveness in general, however it is the variable of global orientation (marketing) that has received utmost emphasis followed by the variables of marketing intelligence, customer service and product mix etc. Malhotra, S. & Basu, P., 2006. Practices for Competitiveness of Indian Firms: with special reference to Globalization, presented at National Seminar on Corporate Reincarnations: Reaching New Horizons (Feb 24- 25), organized by School of Management & Information Science, Rourkela, Orissa. Emotional Intelligence and Helping Behaviors : The Role of Self-Other Agreement (Empirical Study) Zubin Mulla zubin.mulla@gmail.com The relationship between emotional intelligence and helping behaviors was investigated through two studies. The first study on 72 executives found that emotional intelligence was related to self-report helping behaviors. The second study on 56 students introduced self-other agreement on emotional intelligence as a variable to predict helping behaviors. Based on whether the self-rating on emotional intelligence was more than, same as, or less than peer's rating of emotional intelligence, dyads were classified into three categoriesoverestimation, agreement, and

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underestimation. Findings show that helping behaviors are least for overestimation. Implications for measurement of emotional intelligence are discussed. Mulla, Z., 2006. Emotional Intelligence and Helping Behaviors: The Role of Self-Other Agreement (Empirical Study), presented at the Eastern Academy of Management Conference Saratoga Springs, New York. Understanding Cultures: Analysis of Scriptures Using the Universal Values Framework (Qualitative Study) Zubin Mulla zubin.mulla@gmail.com

This study proposes a novel methodology to objectively identify the core values prescribed by a sacred text. Using a set of 58 universal values, the study validates a process of defining and comparing religious scriptures depending on the relative importance given to the different values. A group of three students analyzed the content of each of the 423 stanzas of the Dhammapada. Each stanza was coded on the basis of the values proposed or condemned by the text. Summation of the value codes for each stanza gave the value code for the entire scripture. The findings of the students analysis was then compared to experts' understanding of the Dhammapada. Our study showed that the process of content analysis was internally and externally valid. Three independent coders who performed the content analysis identified similar sets of values. Results of the content analysis were also found to be congruent with experts' views of the message of the Dhammapada. The central values of the Dhammapada as revealed by our study are wisdom, inner harmony, and self-discipline. Mulla, Z. 2006. Understanding Cultures: Analysis of Scriptures Using the Universal Values Framework (Qualitative Study), Poster presentation at The Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues Convention, Long Beach, California. A Teaching Case - GURGAON BRANCH

Abinash Panda abinashp@yahoo.com

Satish K Kalra skkalra@mdi.ac.in

Rajen K Gupta rgupta@mdi.ac.in

Synopsis: Gurgaon Branch was a branch of a leading public sector bank in India. Though the bank was financially sound, there seemed to be a leadership crisis in this branch. The aggregate deposit had been consistently falling over the past three years. The branch had not been able to disburse fresh advances or recover outstanding advances. Moreover, the employees were unhappy with both the branch head and the accountant. This case is concerned with transforming the culture of a public sector bank's branch that has been plagued with officers-staff conflict, inter-union rivalry and bureaucratic culture and consequently, poor financial performance, weak customer orientation and poor customers' satisfaction. This case provides a useful basis for discussing the issues and issues and challenges involved in the process of transforming highly politicized culture to a desirable team-oriented customer-centric performing culture. Panda, A.; Gupta, R. K. & Kalra, S. K. A Teaching Case Gurgaon Branch, Asian Case Research Journal, Vol. 10, No. 1, pp.103-142.

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Staying Competitive in the Globalized Environment: Issues for Indian Management Institutions Ashis K Pani akpani@xlri.ac.in B Bandyopadhyaya

The inclusion of education on the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) has evoked mixed responses on the global level. This paper delineates the issues, risks and opportunities for Indian Management Institutes subsequent to GATS. It emphasizes the importance of ensuring uniform world class quality standards for management graduates to ensure their acceptability in the global marketplace; and suggests the development of a robust quality assurance mechanism for institutions to ensure their sustained competitiveness. Pani, A. K. & Bandyopadhyaya, B., 2006. Staying Competitive in the Globalized Environment: Issues for Indian Management Institutions, Productivity, vol.46. Understanding the Conundrum of Assessment Centre Construct Validity Using Social Cognition Models Manavi Pathak manavi24@yahoo.com The paper presents a description of a typical Assessment Center procedure that has been used for selection and development purposes. Most of the research on Assessment center has focused on the validity issues. The Content and the Criterion-related validity have been well established. The research evidence for Construct Validity has not been very promising. The general conclusion is that within exercises the distinction between dimensions is blurred. Researchers have attributed this to the procedural and design related factors. More explanation has come from way Assessors evaluate a candidate in an Assessment Center. Using models of social Cognition this paper critically examines the dynamics that operate when observing and evaluating behavior of the assessee in simulated exercises. The influence of schema in different phases of Assessment Center has been examined. Positive and negative influence of schema-driven approach has been discussed. Finally, there are suggestions of how to leverage on the schema driven approach. Pathak, M., 2006. Understanding the Conundrum of Assessment Centre Construct Validity Using Social Cognition Models, Annual Conference of Hong Kong Psychological Society (June). Occupational Stress and Gender: Implications for Womens Occupational Well-Being Manavi Pathak manavi24@yahoo.com Chandraprabha Pathak Chandraprabha29@yahoo.co.in

The purpose of this paper is to examine the implications of work for womens psychological well-being, and particularly their occupational well-being. With increasing numbers of women holding multiple roles, including employee, wife, mother and daughter, it is important to examine the impact of those roles on womens health. Considerable research indicates that multiple roles have positive effects on womens well-being. At the

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same time, research indicates that role conflict is more likely to occur when women hold multiple roles. The conflict between work and family roles has received considerable research attention. Data indicates psychological consequences of role conflict for both men and women. As women and men increasingly share employment responsibilities, they may also begin to share more family related stress. Research findings compare role conflict in women and men, the stress it engenders and the way in which men and women deal with it. The implications of research findings for occupational well-being and their health in general are examined in this paper.
Pathak, M. & Pathak, C., 2006. Occupational Stress and Mental Health: Implications for Womens Occupational Well-Being, National Seminar on Stress and Gender, organized by Dept of Psychology, Jamshedpur Women's College, sponsored by UGC, held at SNTI, Jamshedpur (July).

Transformational Leadership and Altruism: Role of Power Distance in a High Power Distance Culture A Punj Ankush.Punj@Unilever.com Venkat R Krishnan venkat@xlri.ac.in

Using a sample of 105 manager-subordinate dyads from a high power distance culture, the effects of power distance and transformational leadership on follower altruism were studied. Findings show a significant positive relationship between power distance and transformational leadership and between transformational leadership and follower altruism. Punj, A., & Krishnan, V. R., 2006. "Transformational Leadership and Altruism: Role of Power Distance in a High Power Distance Culture", proceedings of the Annual Conference of the Administrative Sciences Association of Canada, Banff (Alberta). Tacit Knowledge & Innovation: Setting the Link in Practice Niharika Rai p04f66@astra.xlri.ac.in Avijit Shashi avijit_y@yahoo.co.uk

The paper is divided in two parts. The first part involves a literature review on Tacit Knowledge to define and characterize Tacit Knowledge in order to explore the crucial role it plays in the present organizations Knowledge Management systems and identify the shortcomings of todays knowledge management systems in this context. The second half of this part attempts to emphasize the importance of Innovation as prime contributor to growth in todays organizations. Subsequently, a conceptual link Innovation and Tacit Knowledge has been established. It has been proved that Tacit Knowledge is a prerequisite not just to conceive innovative ideas but also to get them implemented in the organization. The paper attempts to set the above mentioned link between Innovation and Tacit Knowledge in practice. Performance appraisal has been identified the tool to set this link in practice. Described subsequently are the prerequisites for establishing the Performance Appraisal system, the basic structure of this system, the special roles and processes that need to be put in place for the system to function smoothly and the technologies required. Furthermore, Application of this system in Training has been described. Finally, the challenges before implementing this system have been enlisted. Rai, N. & Shastri, A., 2006. Tacit Knowledge & Innovation: Setting the Link in Practice, presented at 9 Annual Convention of Strategic Management Forum, IIM, Kozhikhode.

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The Rise and Decline of Organizations: Can 'Intrapreneurs' Play a Saviour's Role? J Singh jittusingh@xlri.ac.in This paper deals with an intriguing phenomenon. Companies that once displayed remarkable enterprise, energy, and ingenuity in their attempt to gain industry leadership suddenly appear to lose their magic touch and fall in a 'tail-spin.' There is compelling evidence that these are not isolated cases but part of a universal trend. The life-span of companies has been shrinking inexorably all over the world. However, it is possible to escape this trend through timely interventions. Most important among them is unleashing the natural, innate creative abilities of 'intrapreneurial' employees. Given the opportunity and support, they would be capable of meeting and overcoming all the threatening challenges that emerge and often account for corporate downfall. An army of intrapreneurs can be quite invincible. This paper describes the essential conditions that must be created to encourage intrapreneurs to take up the challenge of continuous change and innovation. Singh, J. 2006 The Rise and Decline of Organizations: Can 'Intrapreneurs' Play a Saviour's Role?, Vilkalpa, Vol.31, No.1 (Jan-Mar). Transformational Leadership in India: Developing and Validating A New Scale Using Grounded Theory Approach Niti Singh niti.singh@gmail.com Venkat R Krishnan venkat@xlri.ac.in

This research developed and validated a measure of transformational leadership in India using three studies. We followed grounded theory approach for generating the initial itempool (n=250). In the second study (n=379) a six-factor model emerged after an exploratory as well as confirmatory factor analysis was done. The factors show support for both universal and unique cultural dimensions. In the third study (n=202; 101 dyads) we found support for sound psychometric properties for the new scale, including incremental validity. Singh, N., & Krishnan, V. R., 2006, "Transformational Leadership in India: Developing and Validating A New Scale Using Grounded Theory Approach", presented at the Annual Conference of the Administrative Sciences Association of Canada, Banff, Alberta (June). The Role of Positive Psychology in Resistance to Change: An Examination of Outcomes and Correlates in The Indian Context E S Srinivas srinivas@xlri.ac.in S Tyagi

Research on positive psychology demonstrates that specific individual dispositions are associated with more desirable outcomes. In this paper, we explored the role of resistance to change and its relationship with employee attitudes and performance. The study examined the relationship of resistance to change with variables like hope, optimism, perceived organizational support (POS), and task performance.

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The role of resistance to change in explaining variance in performance and other outcome variables is examined in comparison with organizational antecedents like POS. The role of positive psychology constructs (hope and optimism) in predicting resistance to change is explored. Data was collected from 94 executives and ratingsfrom their boss from different organizations in India using survey questionnaires. Most of the results were in the expected direction. Resistance to change was negatively correlated, with commitment, optimism, hope, perceived organizational support, and task performance, and positively correlated with turnover intentions and organizational cynicism. Regression analysis of resistance to change with POS yielded support for the contribution of resistance to change in explaining select outcome variables. We discuss the implications of these findings and highlight areas for future research involving resistance to change and positive psychology constructs. Srinivas, E. S., & Tyagi, S., 2006, The Role of Positive Psychology in Resistance to Change: An Examination of Outcomes and Correlates in the Indian Context. In S. Oreg (Chair), Resistance to Change: Definitions, Antecedents and Outcomes. Paper presented at the meeting of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP), Dallas, TX. Managing Your Sales Force: A Motivational Approach Pingali Venugopal pingali@xlri.ac.in Salespersons occupy a vital position in most organizations, yet they tend not to hold their profession in high esteem. According to the author of this book, unless salespersons take pride in their work, they are unlikely to perform to the best of their abilities. This, in turn, is bound to affect the organization in terms of both its growth and its profit. Pingali Venugopal approaches the sales management function from the motivational dimension in order to revive the lost vocational esteem in the sales profession. Divided into two sections, this book takes an integrated view of management decisions, both strategic and operational, and works out each as a motivator for the salespersons; emphasizes the need for managers to motivate salespersons, beyond the commonly used monetary incentives; highlights the importance of behavioural transactions that have to take place for a sale to be successful; develops a framework to integrate the sales management function with the marketing mix so that there are no overlaps; and stresses the need to devise appropriate training programmes for salespersons.

Containing several real-life examples, easy-to-apply frameworks and planning exercises, this book will be indispensable for all sales managers. It will also be extremely useful for professionals in the areas of marketing and sales and will serve as a supplementary reference for business school students. Venugopal, P., 2006. Managing Your Sales Force: A Motivational Approach, Sage Publications, New Delhi.

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