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Working Papers | 2007

Dynamics of Team Teaching and Research in a Management School: Learning and Imperatives

Sunil Kumar Maheshwari, M. R. Dixit, A. K. Jain, and Bhat Ramesh

This paper discusses the experience of team teaching to address the issues of integration of academic inputs by bringing multi-disciplinary perspective together and thereby enhance learning experience of participants. The paper delves on the process, events and outcome of team teaching by four faculty members at IIM Ahmedabad who collaborated in teaching, writing cases, and doing research for a period of more than three years. The experience has been summarized using the following dimensions: need for team-teaching, existing mechanisms and barriers, opportunities and potential, imperatives, fall-outs and challenges experienced in the process. The cohesion, trust and mutual respect are key imperatives. The other factors contributing to the success of team-teaching are strong felt need by the members for integration in programmes, complementary skills and experiences of team members, frequent programmes with integrated components that provided continuous opportunities for learning, co-location of the instructors, and off-site programmes that provided opportunities for close get-togethers. The autonomy granted by the institution to instructors and co-coordinators to design and execute learning opportunities was also instrumental in the success. In an environment where the rule of the game is individualism, forming teams creates fears of loss of importance and recognition. The experience shows that the competency of the members and the overall effectiveness of the tasks are strengthened if the team believes in "reciprocating interdependence". This can be possible only if members allow themselves opportunities to experiment, improvise and review

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Working Papers | 2007

A Study of Factors Affecting the Renewal of Health Insurance Policy

Bhat Ramesh and Jain Nishant

Health insurance policies are generally one-year policies and to remain part of the insurance poll, policyholders are required to renew their policies each year. Understanding the factors that affect the demand and renewal decisions to continue in health insurance programme is imperative for future growth and development of the insurance sector. We extend our previous work on factors affecting the decision to purchase health insurance to understand the factors affecting the renewal of insurance policy. We find the factors affecting health insurance renewal are not the same as factors affecting health insurance purchase decision. This has implications for insurance providers. The study also suggests customer satisfaction as an important factor influencing the renewal decision of policyholder.

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Working Papers | 2007

Involving Private Healthcare Providers to Reduce Maternal Mortality in India: A Simulation Study to Understand Implications on Provider Incentives

Bhat Ramesh, Pankaj Chandra, and Mukherjee Shantanu

Gujarat State has implemented the "Chiranjeevi Yojana" to improve access to institutional delivery with an objective to reduce maternal mortality and at the same time providing financial protection to poor families. The scheme involves private providers in provision of maternity services through contracting-out and use of voucher type of mechanism. Five districts covered by this scheme have population of about 10.5 million of which 43 per cent are below poverty line having about 110,000 deliveries per annum. The scheme during first year of its implementation has covered 31,641 deliveries. Of the total 217 providers in these districts 133 (61 per cent) have been empanelled in this scheme. This paper mainly examines two things, one, the revenue distribution a private provider would have experienced if the provider was not part of the Chiranjeevi Scheme and second, does the financial package provided in the scheme provides adequate incentives to the private provider to join the scheme. Further, given the number of providers empanelled in each district, does number of providers contracted-out in the scheme make any difference in revenue distribution of private provider? We use Monte Carlo simulation method to examine these issues. The simulation results suggest that the average revenue is Rs. 1416 per delivery. This is less than what the provider is being reimbursed by the government on capitation fee basis, which is Rs. 1445 (Rs. 1795 less Rs. 350 towards reimbursement for food, transport and Dai). By joining this scheme, the provider's additional margin on an average is 2 per cent. This is over and above the profits included in the average revenue earned if the provider was not part of the scheme. The results further suggest that revenue distribution is scattered asymmetrically indicating significant risk in revenues to the provider. By joining in the Chiranjeevi Scheme, the provider is able to reduce the overall risk in revenue. In addition to this, the increased volume of services will spread the fixed cost of the provider and increase overall profitability further. Since the provider is paid up-front advance for delivering services under the scheme, there is no transaction cost of bureaucratic delays in payments. The provider in the absence of this scheme can maximise the revenue by doing more cesarean cases. The scheme has embedded incentive to minimise the cesarian cases to maximise the revenue and this produces larger indirect benefits from health systems point of view. The study identifies other issues that need further investigation.

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Working Papers | 2006

What Emotional Labor is: A Review of Literature

Sushanta Kumar Mishra

The dominance of customer over the production/service employee, and as a result of this, increasing use of emotional labor in the workplace furthers the need to understand what emotional labor is. In this regard, the present paper reviews the literature to explain the concept 'emotional labor'. In explaining emotional labor and its nomological network, the paper discusses the factors that affect and are affected by it. This paper contributes to the existing literature by assimilating different works done in this domain and providing a comprehensive understanding of emotional labor. This paper focuses on some of the critical issues, about which, the existing literature on emotional labor is silent and thus, providing a platform for further research.

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Working Papers | 2006

A general method for constructing a test of multivariate normality

Desai Tejas A

We present a general method of constructing a test of multivariate normality using any given test of univariate normality of complete or randomly incomplete data. A simulation study considers multivariate tests constructed using the univariate versions of the Shapiro-Wilk, Kolmogorov-Smirnov, Cramer-Von-Mises, and Anderson-Darling tests.

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Working Papers | 2006

Cropping in Arid Area Greenhouse

G Sharan and Jethava Kamlesh

In hot, arid regions, yields are low and unstable, growing season limited to one. Greenhouses can stabilize and improve yields and extend seasons. But their adoption is impeded by the requirement of large amount of water for (evaporative) cooling. Arid Area Greenhouse (AAG) is being developed to reduce or eliminate this need by employing earth-tube-heat-exchanger (ETHE). A prototype AAG was installed in the year 2002 at village Kothara (ƒÚ 23¢X 14 N, ƒÜ 68¢X 45 E, at 21 m a.s.l.). AAG is of 20 X 6 X 3.5 m size. ETHE is buried 3m deep and coupled to AAG in closed-loop. ETHE provides 20 air changes per hour. There is provision of closable vents - two along the base of long sides and one along the ridge. A retractable shading curtain is provided over the roof. By now five rounds of cropping have been done. ETHE was able to heat the greenhouse from 9¢X C to 22-23¢X C in half hour in the cold winter nights. Static ventilation along with shading was effective for day time control till early March. Subsequently ETHE was operated. It limited the greenhouse temperature gain to just 2.5¢X C. Yield of tomato was 1.5 to 2 times, water used 44% of that in open-field. Water used was mostly for plants, only a small part was for foggers which were some times needed as supplement. ETHE and natural ventilation hold promise as environmental control devices for greenhouses in hot arid regions.

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Working Papers | 2006

Does the Emotional Labor of the Service Employee Affect the Self-concept of the Consumer in Service Organization?

Sushanta Kumar Mishra

In service interactions the management of service employee's emotion through emotional labor has gained prominence and is becoming an active method to affect consumer's behavior. Several researches have indicated that self-concept of the consumer affects their buying behavior. However there is not much research to evaluate the effect of emotional labor of the service employee on the self-concept of the consumer. Based on review of literature, this paper tries to answer whether emotional labor of the service employee affects the self-concept of the consumer.

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Working Papers | 2006

Methods for the Study of Downsizing: A Review

Richa Saxena

There has been a world-wide increase in the incidences of downsizing practice across economies and across organizations. This has been considered as the basis for coping with increasing competition. The present paper looks into some studies on downsizing. The focus of the paper is majorly on the research methodology used in these studies. This paper analyses the methods used for the study of downsizing and suggests the ideal methods of study for: a) organizational outcomes, and b) individual outcomes, which include the victims, the survivors and the implementers. The suggestion is to have context specific and issue specific studies with more emphasis towards the triangulation of qualitative and quantitative methods to increase the soundness of the study.

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Working Papers | 2006

Success: An Exploration

Parvinder Gupta

Success, in a worldly sense or by societal yardstick, is mostly evaluated in terms of money, status, recognition, fame, promotions, awards, rewards, and similar criteria. The purpose of this study was to explore the concept of success as viewed by people who were considered successful in their respective fields by societal yardstick or in a worldly sense. Further, the study aimed at exploring what led to their success. Six successful people from varied fields such as dance, architecture, sports, industry, academics, and medicine were included in the sample. They were interviewed to explore their concept of success, background, struggles, and factors that led to their success. The findings revealed that success was viewed differently by different people. Whatever their field, these successful people had a few things in common. The implications of the study were discussed.

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Working Papers | 2006

Corporate Farming in India: Is it must for Agricultural Development?

Sukhpal Singh

Indian agriculture is under policy reforms for some time now. One of the issues it faces is that of lack of viability of smallholdings and lack of international competitiveness of its produce. In this regard, new initiatives of reorganizaing the production systems are being attempted in the form of contract farming and corporate farming. At the state level, laws are being amended to facilitate the practice of contract farming and corporate farming. Where contract farming means working with small growers most of the time and therefore, high costs for agribusinesses, the alternative of corporate farming is being seen to resolve this problem. For facilitating this, prime agricultural land and wastelands are being allowed to be bought or leased in by corporate agribusiness houses, the latter (wastelands) being given away by the state on nominal lease. This paper profiles cases of corporate farming practice and examines the rationale for allowing corporate farming in India in the context of its agriculture and rural sector. It points out that the rationale is weak and not supported by international evidence on corporate farming. It rather argues for other alternatives, like consolidation of land holdings and contract farming, for making better use of corporate resources for agricultural development.

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