beSMART

THE SIMILARITIES IN JOB SATISFACTIONACROSS CULTURES

BASSEM E. MAAMARI (DBA)

In a globalized work environment, the heated discussion on performance and the role of job satisfaction of employees is leaping forward as the options of these human assets are expanding more and more through the electronic social media. The labor market today is no more delimited by the geographical boundaries or cultural differences. As a result, job satisfaction and career orientation are hot topics on today’s human resources managers’ agenda. These managers need to plan for career paths, talent retention as well as continuous development of their people. Moreover, research has clearly indicated that job satisfaction decreases turnover, improves productivity while decreasing operating cost as well as recruiting and training costs in both time and money.
This study was conducted for the purpose of analyzing the similarities in job satisfaction patterns across five different nations with different cultural backgrounds, and that span around the globe, using a common research tool.
The results of the study indicate a comparative total satisfaction that differentiates each setting while also revealing a number of similarities, thus allowing managers a certain level of formalization and uniformity.

Job Satisfaction, Similarities in nations, Managing human resources

RISK ANALYSIS OVER THE ENTREPRENEURIAL LIFE CYCLE OF WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS IN GALLE DISTRICT, SRI LANKA

RANJIKA LALANI PERERA

In the last few decades, there is a tendency among Sri Lankan women to break the traditionally inactive economic position by starting up their own business ventures. Gradually, the number of women has emerged in local entrepreneurial environment which is still dominated by men. Whatever the motive which encourages the women to initiate the business, survival of those women leading business ventures is crucial for the benefit of the individuals and as well as of the community. This research is an empirical study about the risks, face by women entrepreneurs in Galle district, Sri Lanka. Further, an analysis of the impact and probability of occurrence of the risks at each stage of entrepreneurial life cycle was conducted. Moreover, relationship between risk and the entrepreneurial life cycle stage was studied. Finally, mitigation strategies were suggested to minimize the impact of risks on business performance of women entrepreneurs at each stage of entrepreneurial life cycle after benchmarking the success models.

Entrepreneurial life cycle, Galle district, Mitigation plan, Risks, Women entrepreneurs

DEVELOPMENT OF THE COMPETENCE OF "ELEMENTARY SKILLS ON INFORMATICS", BY USING INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES IN THE TEACHING-LEARNING PROCESS OF THE NUMERICAL METHODS

S. PÉREZ-CÁCERES, M. GONZÁLEZ-LEE, E. MORALES-MENDOZA, L. J. MORALES-MENDOZA, C. RODRÍGUEZ-FLORES, R. VÁZQUEZ-BAUTISTA AND R. VARGUEZ-FERNÁNDEZ

In this work, results of a qualitative research based upon action research method are presented; Information and Communication Technologies were used during the teaching-learning process of the numerical methods. Using WebQuest as a tool for development competences this research, three student sets were considered as the main study corpus, during three different periods. Results show favorable outcomes from student’s perspective; they perceived a better learning experience and development of competences. Regarding of the development of competence of "Elementary Skills on Informatics", the students agreed to say that their competence developed between "enough" and "much", whilst the teacher researcher and the expert group argued that the development of the competence was slightly below "enough"

Information and Communication Technologies, WebQuest, development of competences, teaching-learning process, evaluation matrix, numerical methods.

APPLICATION OF SIX SIGMA AND SUPPLY CHAIN STRATEGIES TOWARD E-TRANSFORMATION IN THE COMMERCIAL BANKING INDUSTRY OF SRI LANKA

Poongothai Selvarajan

This research aimed to investigate the application of the concepts of Six Sigma and Supply Chain Strategies toward E-Transformation in the Commercial Banking industry of Sri Lanka. Two pioneered Public Sector Banks and Two Private Sector Banks have been selected by using the purposive sampling method in order to increase the validity of the research. An Interpretive Case Study method has been followed and through the in-depth interview, the applications were understood. Findings show, though the concepts of Six Sigma and Supply Chain Strategies are unique and more relevant to manufacturing organizations, they could be practiced to service organizations as well. Further, the application of these two concepts by the Sri Lankan Banking Industry is remarkably observed and comparatively higher in the Private Banking Sector. It is also found that their applications contribute to the successful E-Transformation which leads to gain competitive advantage by the banks in the Industry.

Banking Industry of Sri Lanka, Competitive Advantage, E-Transformation, Six Sigma, Supply Chain Strategies.

SEARCH UPON THE PARTICIPATION OF TEACHERS TO THE PHASE OF STRATEGIC GUIDANCE; AN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL EXAMPLE

UYGUR A., TENGILIMOĞLU E.

As the globalization of the markets and the competition conditions of today’s world forcing the enterprises to change, the dynamic social structure too is forcing the classical school management approach to change. The imposed obligation applied upon public enterprises to make strategic planning is an effective step taken in the last years in our country. But the lack of experience of public enterprises over the issue has brought the problems and the searches about those problems with itself. In general the searches show that the strategic planning is not implemented as effective as in the public enterprises which are done in private sector. It is hard to mention that the strategic planning is applied as purposed in schools that are forced to fit the strategic planning in 2010. In this study, the phase of strategic guidance and the mission, vision and the purpose and targets which are applied in schools have been observed where people’s interaction in specific periods, the establishment of social structure included. The participation level of teachers is tried to be determined to this phase by their own opinions. In the search result, it is understood that the sufficient participant consideration is not adopted and the participation of teachers to this phase has been low. It is indicated by the several researchers that to talk about strategic planning every section has to participate that will be effected by the plan which is prepared.

Strategic Guidance, Vision, Mission, Purpose and Targets, Strategic Planning in Education.

COMPARATIVE RESEARCH OF HAAR AND DAUBECHIES WAVELET IN DENOISING DIGITAL IMAGE OF SEMARANG DISTRICT REGION’S MAP

MUCH AZIZ MUSLIM1 AND TRI WIDYASTUTI2

The objective of this research was to build digital image denoising system with Haar and Daubechies (Db3) Wavelet using Matlab R2009a and compare the effectiveness of the Haar and Daubechies (Db3) Wavelet in performing digital image denoising using parameters Mean Square Error (MSE) and Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR). A simulation of denoising system using software MATLAB R2009a was made to facilitate this research. The method used to construct simulation of denoising system is linear sequential model. Digital image data used in this simulation is digital image of Semarang District Region’s map. From the result of simulation, the method that has the best effectiveness in denoising digital image which generated with Gaussian noise and Speckle noise is the Daubechies (Db3) Wavelet, whereas for digital image which generated by Salt & Pepper noise is the Haar Wavelet.

daubechies wavelet, denoising, digital image, haar wavelet

HOP REACTION IN CONGESTION CONTROL OF COMPUTER NETWORKS

SHAIKH SHARIFUL HABIB

We can’t imagine without computer network in this modern civilization. But in the network, congestion plays an important role in degrading the performance of the network. So it is important to detect and control the congestion to improve the performance of the computer network. There exists a different factor for congestion. One of the main important factors is buffer overflow or managing the buffer to hold the packets by hop or router from the source. There may have different techniques in this respect. This paper only gives some idea of how to allow the packets for receiving and giving the warning message by hop or router to avoid the congestion for passing the packets to the outgoing line smoothly. Actually based on the measured value how the router adapts the data rate for transmission to control the congestion is expressed in this paper.

packet buffering, congestion detection, congestion control, controlling threshold

FILIPINO- MARANAO BI-DIRECTIONAL LANGUAGE TRANSLATOR
WITH TEXT-TO SPEECH SYNTHESIZER

JAYSON Q. FALLAN, MOHAMMAD AMMAR T. RASUMAN, APRIL V. SACIL AND ISRAEL JAMILAN
ILUMINADA VIVIEN R. DOMINGO, DBA (POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES)

Many people want to be understood by others and/or one to understand others many had involved themselves into development of machine translation—even Filipinos. According to researchers’ study many were being involved in producing today’s generation translator but unfortunately, only a few has ever tried to translate domestic dialects into the national language which was understood by many—Filipino language. Because of this phenomenon, the researchers have decided to make a language translator using one of our Philippine dialects—Maranao language. The researchers chose Maranao because Muslim’s population here in the Philippines is continuously growing and most of them (almost 2/3) are using Maranao. The researchers also included a speech synthesizer which will allow the user to listen to the translated words read by itself.

Machine Translation, Source
Language, Target Language, Maranao, Spech Synthesis

THE IMPACT OF EARNINGS FORECASTS IN EUROPEAN NATIONS

RONALD A. STUNDA,

This study provides empirical evidence regarding the credibility of management forecasts of earnings during differing economic cycles, namely, economic expansion, and economic contraction for a sample of firms from nine European countries. Past research on earnings forecasts assess the forecast over time periods which do not consider the effects of the economic cycle on the forecast. In addition, these studies focus almost entirely on U.S. firm forecasts. This study is the first to attempt to assess any possible distinction between U.S. and European firm forecasts. Bias results indicate that during periods of economic expansion and contraction, European managers exert greater downwards earnings management on the forecast (relative to actual earnings) Information content results indicate the presence of information content in management forecasts during both economic expansion and contraction periods. European firms’ forecasts tend to exhibit a positive enhancing signal to users during both times of economic expansion and economic contraction.

Accounting, Forecasts, Security Markets

D-VEND: AN AUTOMATED VENDING MACHINE FOR MEDICINES

RAYMOND CALDERON, GABITAN, KRISTEL, GARCIA, MARIE SHEZEL, LOPEZ, NOELLE AND
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR ILUMINADA VIVIEN R. DOMINGO, DBA

The D-VEND is an automated vending machine for medicines. In the Philippines, the demand for OTC (Over-the-Counter) medicines is high. This leads to long piles of people buying medicines from drugstores and pharmacies, which in turn brings hassle to almost everyone. This pursues with the main purpose of sending OTC medicines closer to people’s homes.[1]
This study focused on how the costumers will have convenience in buying OTC medicines by implementing the use of an automated medicine vending machine. Based upon the results of the implementation, the researchers concluded that for the students, the machine is positively dispensing the right medicine requested by the user.[2] Apart from this, it is also said to be capable of storing medicines safely with correct and updateable information. It is therefore considered reliable, because it ensures the reliability of the medicines that it sells. Accuracy wise, the machine is correctly recognizing the coins inputted. [3] The warning system installed in the device gave the users the assurance that the medicines stored in the machine can be safely stored. It is therefore suggesting that this machine can be very marketable in terms of customer and medicine security.
As this research have proved that there is a significant difference between the assessments of the students and the pharmacists, a proposal for implementation to the general public would be very appropriate. Since this machine is just a prototype and is subjected for small population testing only, it would be very advisable if the future researchers would implement the machine in a larger population sample.[

D-Vend, Machine, Vending Machine, Automation, Over-the-Counter Medicines

THE ROLE OF ACADEMIC LIBRARIES IN COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT: ISSUES AND STRATEGIES

Itsekor, Victoria O. , Asaolu, Aderonke O. , Osinulu, Ifeakachuku

Academic libraries are institutions that are trustworthy knowledge providers. With the proliferation of information, academic libraries can help the communities develop. This study is a social survey research aimed at proffering solutions to the gap experienced between the academic communities, and that of their immediate surroundings. The data for the study were collected through the use of questionnaire and interview methods. The questionnaire was administered to academic librarians with higher qualifications in five higher institutions around Lagos and Ogun States. However from this research finding, it can be observed that the libraries have not had much impact on the towns/communities where the academic libraries had been established. Only the staff and students and the university community have been impacted immensely. Recommendations are for Academic libraries to organize programmes that will sanitize the communities to get users aware of the importance of libraries.

information communication technology (ICT), community development, knowledge community, knowledge management, social
computing

STREAMLINING COLLABORATIVE SOFTWARE PROJECT DEVELOPMENT: THE CONCEPT OF THE MEETINGS-FLOW

Chung-Yang Chen, Ph.D.

In today’s integrated software and business project environment, managing stakeholders’ involvement has been challenging. To help address this issue, this paper draws an attention on project meetings, and propose the meetings-flow (MF) concept for streamlining the stakeholder involvement. This paper serves as an introductory part of the entire MF research in software development and collaborative project development. In this paper, we primarily focuses on reviewing the role of meetings in software development, and presenting a software company’s case to demonstrate the usage of MF, in particular for modeling the critical group proceeding of the collaborative software development.

software process modeling, collaboration, meetings-flow

THE INFLUENCES OF EMPLOYEES’ SERVICE QUALITY AND ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT ON FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE AS EXEMPLIFIED BY TAIWAN-LISTED INTERNATIONAL TOURIST HOTELS

MEI-HSIEN HUANG, YU-JE LEE

In response to the increasing growth in tourism, the government has made related policies less and less restrictive to facilitate the development of tourism in Taiwan. How international tourist hotel employees improve the quality of their service is closely associated with the sustainability of hotel businesses. In particular, whether the frontline employees who deal with customers face to face have the right market-oriented work attitude and behavior will have a direct effect on the quality of customer service or customer satisfaction. In turn, the financial performance of the organization will also be affected. The main purpose of this study is to examine the influence of employees’ service quality and organization commitment on financial performance in Taiwan-listed international tourist hotels by using customer satisfaction as the dual mediator. Simple random sampling is applied to select study samples from among section chiefs and managers in Taiwan-listed international tourist hotels and then they are interviewed. Linear structural equation modeling (SEM) is used to verify the goodness of fit of the overall model adopted in this study, including the structural model and the measurement model. Subsequently, the Sobel test, bootstrapping and Mackinnon PRODCLIN2 are performed to examine the effect of the dual mediator. The results indicate that in Taiwan-listed international tourist hotels, (1) employees’ service quality has positively significant influence on customer satisfaction; (2) employees’ service quality also has direct, positive and significant influence on financial performance; (3) customer satisfaction has positively significant influence on financial performance; (4) organizational commitment has positively significant influence on customer satisfaction; and (5) organizational commitment has direct, positive and significant influence on financial performance. These results show that “customer satisfaction” has “double” mediating effects and this implies that customer satisfaction can serve as an important bridge in financial performance promotion. However, this by no means suggests that promotion of financial performance can entirely rely on customer satisfaction. Efforts must be invested through other channels as well. It is hoped that the results of this study can serve as references for the managerial departments of Taiwan-listed international hotels in their choice of using employees’ service quality, organizational commitment or satisfaction as the strategy for financial performance improvement.

Employees’ Service Quality, Organizational Commitment, Customer Satisfaction,   Financial Performance, Dual Mediation Effects