Management Arts

Competitive advantage enables maintaining and improving an organizational position relative to its competitors in the market. Reverse logistics is reportedly a tool for attaining and retaining competitive advantage for manufacturing businesses. In Pakistan different manufacturing industries have employed formalized practices of reverse logistics for cost effectiveness and process effectiveness. However, relevant literature is yet not been updated with facts how Pakistan’s industries have benefited through reverse logistics. This study therefore took initiative of taking reverse logistics as an independent variable to check its effect on competitive advantages that industries in Pakistan targeted. It hypothesized that formalized and standardized programs of reverse logistics were means to achieve cost and process effectiveness. Collecting and analyzing reliable data and needful regression and correlation tests, it discovered a positive relationship between its selected variables. Substantiating its hypothesis, the study contributed empirical findings that formalize programs of reverse logistics remained a key factor for gaining competitive advantages for industries in Pakistan. Thus it recommended encouraging formal reverse logistics programs for manufacturing industries.

The word “Bureaucracy” has been long applied in Iran, but its definitions and implications have been discussed in different forms. Most of its definitions are affected by individuals’ opinions and ideas and not by its real meaning. The importance is that unlike the current conception, bureaucracy in its real meaning is led to success although its improper use leads to poor performance of bureaucracy. In this article a scientific definition of bureaucracy is explained and its formation process in Iran is studied. Finally a solution is considered in order to optimum performance of bureaucracy in Iran. It seems that achieving the correct definition and adequate understanding of nature of bureaucracy are the best ways for planning and implementing a successful management with bureaucratic approach. Furthermore for coordinating bureaucracy with inside and outside environmental condition of the organization, this management method requires contingency and strategic approaches in order to apply it usefully and effectively in organizations with appropriate structures.

Recent advances in Operations Research (OR) and Information Technology (IT) have made it possible to integrate Operations Research techniques and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). This integration can be used for the development of Spatial Decision Support Systems (SDSS).There is an increasing need for incorporation of routing techniques into a Decision Support System (DSS) for making effective business decision making in transportation. GIS can be used to analyze the routes. Route analysis helps us to generate the most efficient route (best route / shortest route) that the vehicle should take between the company and it supply chain link. Alternative routes can also be generated and analyzed. Alternative routes help in rerouting of the supplies in case of problems (either man –made or natural) on one route. Travel speed is used as a proxy, to traffic data to calculate the time taken to reach from origin to destination by the shortest/best route. In this paper a spatial decision support system is developed for route generation.

This paper analyzes sustainability and efficiency of organizations committed to the exploitation’ activities of tule Thypha spp at the Zapotlán’s Lake taking into consideration the socioeconomic and environmental impact in the municipalities of Gómez Farías and Zapotlán el Grande. The initial hypothesis departs from the consideration of the scarce social capital of organizations that limits development’s sustainability. The research method employed is the ethnographic complemented with field work supported by informal interviews, documental and bibliographic research. The hypothesis of this research is proved empirically and confirms similar findings by the research conducted on the mainstream theory of social capital and its implications on economic development. The outcomes of the application demonstrate that the drama of economic efficiency and sustainable development of micro-business is tied to constrain of social capital. This finding has implications for the design and implementation of economic and social policies oriented towards the improvement of economic growth and sustainable development.

The objective of this paper is to investigate the relationship between individual’s absorptive capacity and innovative behavior among engineers in the electrical and electronic (E&E) sector in Malaysia. The study utilized survey method to collect the data. There were 305 responses for the survey. Partial least square (PLS) properties of structural equation modeling (SEM) were used to measure the relationships between the variables. The study found only partial support in absorptive capacity ability to influence innovative behavior.

The fact that attendance has a positive effect on the performance of students has been studied by many researchers. This paper provides some evidence on the assumption that the subject of finance requires more teacher-student interaction than the subject of management. Thus attendance and academic performance has more strong relationship for finance than for management subjects. The 170 responses collected from students were analyzed through OLS technique. A stronger positive relationship of attendance and performance was found for Finance as compared to Management. The findings can be applied for other subjects, keeping in view the technicality and non-technicality of the subjects. The limitation in the research has been the variability in the personality of teachers and also the students, which can be very difficult to measure correctly and thus the finding can be different in different scenarios.

This paper described the emerging issues in land administration an attempt by the Bauchi State Government to resettle the displaced people as a result of communal clashes within and outside Bauchi State. The sample of the study was the migrant household at Kafin Mu’azu village where a simple random sampling technique was adopted in administering the questionnaires to the respondents. Descriptive statistics was used to analyze the data obtained. Most information was obtained from allotees, all the beneficiaries of compensation. Informal interviews were also held with government officials and the result shows that both land allocation and compensation exercises were improperly done, in that the authorities involved in the exercises, especially the land allocation exercise were mixed with non-specialists, contrary to the provision of the land use of Act of 1978, the traditional rulers were involved in the allocation of plots/farm lands. It is therefore recommended that future land allocation and compensation should always be put under intensive observation as membership of both exercises has been a matter of self enrichment.

As our life becomes more complex, effective communication is vital in our life. In an organization, communication is an essence. Communication means transference and the understanding of meaning or an idea that is transmitted and understood by others. This paper seeks to understand how effective communication plays its role in an organization. The concept of 7Cs in communication which include completeness, conciseness, consideration, concreteness, clarity, courtesy and correctness are discussed and how this concept can be used to improve communication as well as productivity of an organization. By understanding the concept of 7Cs, it will be a good use for the managers to apply this concept in communicating with the employees thus improving the productivity of an organization.

Purpose- The primary aim of this research paper is to explore buyer-supplier relationships within telecom sector. Approach- To address the primary aim, both qualitative and quantitative approaches was utilized. A list of antecedents was prepared as discussed with telecom purchasing professionals who complemented with the schedule of enquiry for recording the impact of emphasis on these antecedents on the relationship between the buyer and suppliers of different categories from buyers’ perspective. Findings- The results of this research indicate that there are significant differences in the way relationship is maintained by the buyer with different suppliers thus making the buyer supplier management not a general but a specific and situational issue. Practical Implications- This research is of practical use to many organizations attempting to develop relationship orientation with their suppliers according to the importance in terms of profitability and options available of supply. Value- Not much has been written about the buyer supplier relationship in the Indian context and as such this paper provides an insight into various factors relating to management of relationship by the telecom buyers with different suppliers.

In many knowledge systems there are knowledge-acquisition (KA) techniques to help knowledge engineers and domain experts build and maintain the system’s knowledge base. These techniques can be classified in many ways. Some of this ways are kind of Knowledge which obtained, type of knowledge which captured, purpose of technique, tool type, out put and result of techniques. In this paper we compared different techniques according to above items, in a table. Also this table includes the description, strengths and weaknesses for each technique.