pmr

of 67

Vol. XLVI No. 4 Fourth Quarter 2010

PAKISTAN

MANAGEMENT

REVIEW

Summary of Articles

Relevance of Strategic Management in New Era:

(with reference to) Strategic Control and

Evaluation

Prof. Naila Iqbal

The Contemporary Approach to Pay Total

Rewards - A Strategy to Attracting, Retaining

and Motivating Talent

Shandana Shuaib

Self-Organized Executive Control Functions Michail Maniadakis, Panos

Trahanias and Jun Tani

Internationalization of Technology Development

in India

Alok Chakrabarti &

Pradip K. Bhaumik

Towards Organizational Effectiveness Through

the Greater Use of Human Resource Practice in

Public Healthcare Organizations

Zia Ullah

Examples of How Leaders of Leaders Differ

from Leaders of Followers

By Herb Rubenstein

Pakistan Institute of Management

PPRROOGGRREESSSS TTHHRROOUUGGHH BBEETTTTEERR MMAANNAAGGEEMMEENNTT

Pakistan Management Review

Vol. XLVI No. 4 Fourth Quarter 2010

Contents

Summary of Articles

Relevance of Strategic Management in

New Era:

(with reference to) Strategic Control and

Evaluation

Prof. Naila Iqbal

The Contemporary Approach to Pay

Total Rewards - A Strategy to Attracting,

Retaining and Motivating Talent

Shandana Shuaib

Self-Organized Executive Control

Functions

Michail Maniadakis, Panos

Trahanias and Jun Tani

Internationalization of Technology

Development in India

Alok Chakrabarti &

Pradip K. Bhaumik

Towards Organizational Effectiveness

Through the Greater Use of Human

Resource Practice in Public Healthcare

Organizations

Zia Ullah

Examples of How Leaders of Leaders

Differ from Leaders of Followers

By Herb Rubenstein

Notes for Contributors

1. Manuscripts of articles, notes, review-articles, comments, rejoinders, and book

reviews—in English only—should be sent in to the Editor, The Pakistan

Management Review, Clifton, Karachi-75600, Pakistan by e-mail

[email protected]

2. So far as possible, all articles and research notes should be organised into the

following sections: (i) Introduction, (ii) Basic Hypotheses, (iii) Methodological

Issues involved, (iv) Basic Results, (v) Limitations of Analysis, (vi) Policy

Implications, and (vii) Conclusions. Sub-sections should carry clear and distinct sub-

headings.

3. The first page of the manuscript should contain: the title of the paper, the name(s) of

author(s), and a footnote giving the current affiliation of the author(s) and any

acknowledgements. Each article will be prefaced by a short abstract of about 250

words. The abstract should state the theme and structure of the article and the

approach(es) taken.

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5. Footnotes should be numbered consecutively. Each appendix and each table should

have a separate set of footnotes.

6. All references used in the text should be listed in the alphabetical order of the

authors‘ surnames at the end of the text. References in the text should include the

name(s) of author(s) with the year of publication in parentheses. In all cases, the

submissions should conform to the style used in this issue.

7. The author(s) of each article will receive two copies of the Pakistan Management

Review in which their article is published.

mailto:[email protected]

Pakistan

Management

Review

Editorial Advisory Board

Chairman PIM Board and

Secretary, Ministry of

Industries and Production

Government of Pakistan

Zarrar R. Zubair

Director, PIM

Mohammad Aslam Mustafa

General Manager, PIM

Muhammad Syed ul Haque

General Manager, PIM

Owais Malick

Acting General Manager, PIM

Muhammad Abid Hussain

Dy. General Manager, PIM

Editor Iqbal A. Qazi

The Pakistan Management Review is a quarterly journal of the

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on contemporary management practices.

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ISBN No.969-8027


Summary of Articles

Relevance of Strategic Management in New Era:

(with reference to) Strategic Control and Evaluation

PROF. NAILA IQBAL

The purpose of the paper is to explain the extent to which stress at work produces a

degree of psychological impairment has become a central issue in the current debate on

the quality of working life. Various analyses of alienation as a result of paced assembly

lines and other forms of mass production have spawned a range of possible initiatives to

mitigate that condition: job enrichment, autonomous work groups and versions of

industrial democracy being some of the best known.

The paper is to describe the increase in concern about stress and the methods used to

combat it. Examines the perceived and actual causes, and argues that a new and different

approach is needed. Describes a training programme which helps people to change their

attitudes to stress and feel better about themselves.

This paper also explains that the Stress is a key issue facing many organizations yet,

despite the increasing awareness of how it impacts on business, many companies are

unsure of the best way to fulfill their duty of care towards their employees. This article

looks at how training can have a positive impact on tackling stress in the workplace –

helping employees become more resilient towards stress, and enabling them to tackle the

root causes of any problems. It highlights the importance of providing additional training

for managers who not only need to manage their own stress levels, but have

responsibility for their direct reports.

The Contemporary Approach to Pay Total Rewards - A Strategy to

Attracting, Retaining and Motivating Talent

SHANDANA SHUAIB

The paper focuses to finding out an appropriate model for Total Rewards which can be

adopted and implemented by organizations to achieve the three things attract, retain and

motivate employees in general and talented people in particular. A thorough literature

review has been conducted which reveals that different experts in human resource

management and specifically in compensation management have given their views and

developed their models regarding compensation of talented people in the organization.

After studying all these models and theories it can be concluded that there is no universal

model that can satisfy the need of all organizations. Every organization has come up with

their unique model for compensation which has been developed in the light of

organizational values, vision, mission and strategies. The same has been supported by

some compensation specialists also. In the end all the elements given by different experts

have been integrated. Organizations will pick up elements of their choice and then

develop a model in accordance to their organizational needs.

Self-Organized Executive Control Functions

MICHAIL MANIADAKIS, PANOS TRAHANIAS AND JUN TANI

Executive control incorporates cognitive functions involved in the control and

management of other cognitive processes. Such high-level skills are hard to be explored

with brain imaging studies because they require complex and persistent experimental

procedures. Alternatively, computational modeling may provide a new way to indirectly

explore executive control mechanisms. The current work adopts this latter approach to

explore possible characteristics of executive control, focusing particularly on behavioral

rule switching and confidence neurodynamics in artificial agents. To this end, our study

explores a robotic version of the classical Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, incorporating

also the option of betting. Our ability to perform multiple and statistically independent

computational experiments together with the in-depth study of the mechanisms created in

the artificial cognitive systems, provides suggestions for the executive control aspects of

the human brain.

Internationalization of Technology Development in India

ALOK CHAKRABARTI

&

PRADIP K. BHAUMIK

The purpose of this paper is to study the internationalization of technology development

in India. The internationalization of research and development (R&D) has not been a

recent phenomenon. Large multinational companies increased their R&D investment in

various host countries during the past years. While the US and the countries in Western

Europe have been the traditional locus of R&D, China and India have emerged lately as

the destinations for R&D. The changes in geopolitical systems of trade and intellectual

property protection couples with the advances in information and communication

technology have helped globalize the R&D activities.

The results of this study indicated that there were three phases of technological

development in India. Intensity of patenting, role of the different institutions in

technology development, and the focus of technology characterize each phase. By

examining the co-inventors, the authors see how the international cooperation among

scientists has shaped. While government laboratories under the aegis of the council of

scientific and industrial research had a high number of patents, their role has gone

through significant shifts among the three phases. The authors also find that the

multinational companies from the US have driven the recent growth in Indian patenting

and are using more of all-Indian teams for patentable research. This indicates maturation

the skills of technical personnel in India in terms of developing patentable technology.

The study also points out the fact that despite the growth of the Indian corporations in the

IT sector, they lack in building their own intellectual property. If India wants to maintain

the momentum of growth in corporate R&D, it faces the challenge of upgrading its higher

education in producing technical graduates at masters and doctoral levels.

The study should be useful in identifying the sectors where India has developed strengths

and the areas where it needs to improve. Also, by examining the ownership pattern of the

intellectual property in these sectors, one can postulate the technological independence of

Indian organizations.

Towards Organizational Effectiveness Through the Greater Use of Human

Resource Practice in Public Healthcare Organizations

ZIA ULLAH

Healthcare being a basic public need, healthcare organizations are responsible to provide

effective healthcare service to the public at affordable cost. The public sector hospital in

developing countries and particularly in Pakistan are perceived no to provide the desired

quality services. Prior surveys identified certain issues that impede healthcare

organizations to provide quality services. Healthcare providers are handled on the

traditional personnel management lines and this resource is, however, overlooked and

underutilized. Based on the premise that greater use of human resource practices bears

positive impact on organizational effectiveness, the paper in hand provides conceptual

model that suggest possible solutions of the problems through better use of human

resource practices. The paper also emphasizes extensive empirical look into healthcare

workforce to find out the practice that ensure effective use of human resources. The paper

concludes that timely availability of quality treatment through responsive employees

using stat-of-the-art technology will cast positive impact on health outcomes



BY HERB RUBENSTEIN

In this article the author gives examples of world class leaders of leaders. This article

should stimulate your thinking in three ways. First, being a leader is a good thing. Being

a leader of leaders is a much better thing. This article gives you a glimpse of a path you

can blaze to becoming a leader of leaders in your own lifetime, starting now and never

giving up.

Relevance of Strategic Management in

New Era: (with reference to)

Strategic Control and Evaluation

PROF. NAILA IQBAL

Faculty, Department of Management

Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology, Bhopal

Introduction

Implementation and control of organization are the two last phases in the strategic

management process. Strategy formulation and strategy implementation - which is how

strategy is put into action - are two side of the coin called strategic management. No

matter how creative the formulated strategy, the organization will not benefit if it is

incorrectly implemented. Moreover, organizations that formulate and implement

strategies better than competitors can expect competitive advantages.

The purpose of implementation is ensuring that the planned results of the strategic

decisions are realized. Implementation involves several tasks - doing what must be done

to make the strategy successful. Execution must be controlled and evaluated if the

strategy is to be successfully implemented. Strategic control focuses on two questions: Is

the strategy being implemented as planned? And is it producing the intended

results? Therefore, strategic control: monitoring strategic progress, evaluating deviations

and taking corrective action is also very important the key tasks in strategy

implementation. The Evaluation and Control of Organizational Strategy presents an

overview of the strategic control process. It deals with the decisions needed to evaluate

and control the strategic plan and corporate performance of a company.

Essentially, controlling involves the measurement and correction of activities of

subordinates to make sure that objectives and plans to achieve them are being

accomplished. Control Systems and Techniques discusses various control systems and

techniques. It presents the elements of controlling, production and financial control,

human resource control, and organizational change and development. This paper

emphasizes the importance of developing an integrated control system which enables

managers to monitor the performance of all resources devoted to the achievement of

organizational performance.

Strategic Evaluation and Control

Strategic evaluation and control is related to that aspect of strategic management through

which an organization ensures whether it is achieving its objectives Contemplated in the

strategic action. If not, what corrective actions are required for strategic effectiveness?

There are two aspects in this phase of strategic management evaluation which emphasizes

measurement of results of a strategic action and control which emphasizes on taking

necessary actions in the light of gap that exists between intended results and actual results

in the strategic action. However, because of on-going nature of strategic evaluation and

control process both these are intertwined. In practice, the term control is used in a broad

sense which includes evaluative aspect too because unless the results of an action are

known, control actions cannot be taken.

Defination of Strategic Evaluation

―Evaluation of strategy is that phase of the strategic management process in which the top

managers determine whether their strategic choice as implemented is meeting the

objectives of the enterprise‖.

Nature of Strategic Evaluation

To test the effectiveness of strategy.

To achieve a set of objectives.

To implement the strategy.

Importance of Strategic Evaluation

Ability to coordinate the tasks performed by managers.

The need for feedback

Appraisal and reward

Check on the validity of strategic choice

Congruence between decisions and intended strategy

Successful culmination of the strategic management process

Creating inputs for new strategic planning.

Barriers in Evaluation

1) Limits of controls

2) Difficulties in measurement

3) Resistance to evaluation

4) Short –terms

5) Relying on efficiency versus effectiveness

Strategic Control

Strategic control are the changing assumptions that determine a strategy, continually

evaluate the strategy as it is being implemented, and take the necessary step to adjust the

strategy to the new requirements.

The four basic types of strategic controls are:

1) Premise control

2) Implementation control

3) Strategic surveillance

4) Special alert control

Brief explanation

Premise Control

Premise control is necessary to identify the key assumptions, and key track of any

change in them so as to assess their impact on strategy and its implementation.

Implementation Control

Implementation control is aimed at evaluating whether the plans, programmes, and

projects are actually guiding the organization towards its predetermined objectives or

not.

Strategic Surveillance

Strategic surveillance is aimed at a more generalized and overarching control

designed to monitor a broad range of events inside and outside the company that are

likely to threaten the course of a firm‘s strategy.

Special Alert Control

Special alert control can be exercised through the formulation of contingency

strategies and assigning the responsibility of handling unforeseen events to crisis

management teams.

Operational Control

Operational control is aimed at the allocation and use of organizational resources through

an evaluation of the performance of organizational units to assess their contribution to the

achievement of the objectives.

Process of Evaluation

The process of evaluation basically deals with four steps:

1) Setting standards of performance

2) Measurement of performance

3) Analyzing variances

4) Taking corrective action

Setting Standards of Performance

Standard setting dealing with three questions that is:

1. What standards to set?

2. How to set these standards?

3. In what terms do we express these standards?

Measurement of Performance

The evaluation process operates at the performance level as action takes place. Standards

of performance act as the benchmark against which the actual performance is to be

compared. It is important to understand how the measurement of performance takes

place.

The other important aspects of measurement relate to:

• Difficulties in measurement

• Timing in measurement

• Periodicity in measurement

Analyzing Variances

The measurement of actual performance and its comparison with standard performance

leads to an analysis of variance.

The following three situations arise:

1. The actual performance matches the budgeted performance.

2. The actual performance deviates positively over the budgeted performance.

3. The actual performance deviates negatively from the budgeted performance.

Taking Corrective Action

It suggests three courses for corrective action:

1. Checking of performance

2. Checking of standards

3. Reformulating strategies, plans and objectives.

Difference between Strategic and Operational Control

Attributes Strategic control Operational control

1. Basic question Are we moving in right

direction? How are we performing?

2 Aim

Proactive, continuous

questioning of the basic direction

of strategy

Allocation and use of

resources

Organizational resources

3.Main concern Steering the future direction of

the organization

Action control

4. Focus External environment Internal organization

5. Time horizon Long-term Short-term

Attributes Strategic control Operational control

6. Exercise of

control

Exclusively by top

management, may be through

lower-level support

Mainly by executive or middle

management or the direction of

top management

7. Main techniques

Environmental scanning,

information gathering,

questioning and review

Budgets, schedules and MBO

Techniques of Strategic Evaluation and Control

Techniques of strategic evaluation and control in order to make a choice from among the

many available alternatives and to use those.

It is divided into two:

1. Evaluation techniques for strategic control.

2. Evaluation techniques for operational control.

Evaluation Techniques for Strategic Control

1) Strategic momentum control

• Responsibility control centers

• The underlying success factors

• The generic strategies

2) Strategic leap control

• Strategic issue management

• Strategic field analysis

• Systems modeling

• Scenarios

Evaluation Techniques for Operational Control

1) Internal Analysis

• Value chain analysis

• Quantitative analysis

• Qualitative analysis

2) Comparative analysis

• Historical analysis

• Industry norms

• Benchmarking

3) Comprehensive analysis

• Balanced scorecard

• Key factor rating

Conclusion

Strategic Evaluation and control deals with tools and techniques that have been used

successfully in a wide range of business settings.

Strategic Decision Making Aids, reviews several commonly accepted tools and

concepts available for planning and decision making.

Finance for Strategic Management, examines the various financial tools and

gives managers into how identical figures can be presented and interpreted to

offer widely divergent picture of the company.

Business Forecasting contains explanation of a range of forecasting techniques

sufficiently broad to deal with the most business forecasting problems.

Bibliography

Canales, James E.; Kibble, Barbara D.; Terk, Natasha. "One Step Beyond Strategic Planning." Foundation News & Commentary, Vol.41 Issue 5 Sep/Oct. 2000.

Carrigan, Linda. "Braking for Growth." (2000) http://www.echoinggreen.org/resource/orgdev/carr1.htm. Organizational Development

Collett, Stacey. "SWOT Analysis." Computerworld, Vol.33 Issue 29, Jul.19, 1999.

Hay, Robert D. Strategic management in non-profit organizations, Westport: Greenwood Press, 1990.

Stone, Melissa, Bigelow, Barbara, & Crittenden, William. "Research on Strategic Management in Non-Profit Organizations." Administration and Society, 1999.

Polyack, Jolene. "Nonprofit Organizations Need Marketing Strategies To Meet Goals." Business Journal — Serving Fresno & the Central San Joaquin Valley, Issue 322490, Aug.2, 1999.

http://www.echoinggreen.org/resource/orgdev/carr1.htm

The Contemporary Approach to

Pay Total Rewards - A Strategy to

Attracting, Retaining and Motivating Talent

SHANDANA SHUAIB

Institute of Management Sciences, Peshawar

Introduction

The word reward is a part of our every day life. As we all know it refers to some sort of

pay back for some thing done. In the organizational context in means the extrinsic and

intrinsic pay back to the employees for their physical and mental efforts given to the

organization in order to carry out the organizational its activities for completion of its

goals and objectives and achievement of its mission. This paper aims at amplification of

the concept -Total Rewards into much detail, in order to see what are its key components

and why is it becoming more popular tool in today‘s organizations for motivating talent.

In addition it will try to prove that how talent can be retained by the organizations in

future. The same has been proved through the survey conducted by Watson Wyatt

regarding ―Total Reward” .During June and July 2004, in which more than 200

employers and nearly 3,000 employees were surveyed about the design and delivery of

their organizations‘ reward program.

According to (Watson Wyatt, 2004) research tells us that 40 per cent of employees are

actively considering leaving their organisation in the coming 12 months. Obviously, not

all of these employees will actually leave, but it does reinforce the theme that the

continued focus on retaining key/top performing employees will be a priority for

organisations in the future‖13.

A holistic approach to rewards has been taken by Rumpel Steven, Medcof, John W, 2006

which goes beyond the strong focus on pay and benefits which has been the hallmark of

traditional compensation practice. A total reward considers all the rewards available in

the workplace, including opportunities for learning and development, and quality work

environment. Because these rewards are a high priority for technical workers, as shown

in the research reviewed in this article, total rewards offers an opportunity to tap the

unrealized potential of the organization. Effectively managed rewards will ease the

critical attraction, retention and motivation challenges faced by high-technology firms."1

In common parlance the word reward, compensation and pay are used interchangeably as

they refer to one and the same thing which means remuneration by the employer to the

employees for the work done for the organization. Again reward is something which is

also used as a motivational tool besides other tools by the organization to motivate its

employees for superior performances.

The Two Approaches to Reward

Reward has two approaches; the traditional approach and the contemporary approach.

The traditional approach is suitable for static, bureaucratic and or mechanistic

organizations. The traditional approach includes the very basic components such as cash

(base pay) and benefits depending upon the employment contract. These may be may be

given to the employee based on what he has achieved or it may be negotiated with the

employee.

The other approach is the one which is suitable for today‘s modern organizations such as

the learning organizations, the boundryless organizations, the networking organizations

in short the organic structures. The traditional pay system is becoming a thing of the past.

Today‘s organizations as opposed to orthodox mechanistic are more flexible structures

which continuously adjust itself to the dynamic environment-(the learning organizations).

The employees working in learning organizations are different form the traditional

employees employed in the mechanistic structures and are known as knowledge workers.

Knowledge workers are considered indispensable and are the competitive edge of any

modern organization. Knowledge workers are also referred to as talented workers. These

talented employees require something more than the pay offered under the traditional

approach. They require not just rewards BUT ―Total Rewards".

Professional Association for Compensation, Benefits and Total Rewards has made a

comparison between the traditional and contemporary rewards by stating that, companies

built employment packages around compensation and benefits, creating a single, one-

size-fits-all plan for everyone. Over the past decade, this concept has given way to a

―total rewards‖ approach that makes room for other important aspects of the work

experience. 10

Total reward is becoming a more preferred way to pay management that endeavors to

arrest the complete potential and value of the employees by wholly mobilizing and

tapping the employee worth thus using human resource more competitively. It has

confirmed to be worth while. According to WorldatWork, Professional Association for

Compensation, Benefits and Total Rewards, Total Rewards combines the separate

activities of pay, benefits and career development etc into a single integrated system.

Previously the administration of pay and benefits were carried out under different heads

by the Human Resource department but now the contemporary pay has engulfed all these

scattered components into the ―Total Rewards‖. The fast growing bio-tech company

offered a sweet package: higher pay, a move up the corporate ladder, and great career

building opportunities. But Bill MacGowan, senior vice president of human resources at

Sun Microsystems, said it still wasn‘t enough to land one of his key employees.‖9

Another feature of the traditional pay is that the employees are paid in a similar manner

which means that the pay system is homogenous. Although there are differentials on the

basis of different levels and length of service but other wise for pay calculation the same

formula is used. This system ignores the separate needs of the employees at different

levels in the organization.

A survey was conducted by Watson Wyatt, 2004. The results revealed that most

organisations’ reward programmes are fragmented. Typically, they have evolved in a

piecemeal fashion over a period of time with limited consideration being given as to how

the various elements of the package fit together and reinforce each other. 6.

The Total Rewords Association affirmed that in the earliest years that the fields of

compensation and benefits were recognized as professions, practice was based largely on

formulas that served the entire employee population in an organization. Salary structures

were just that -- rigid and highly controlled -- and benefits programs were designed as a

one-size-fits-all answer to a homogenous work force. In the 1970s and 1980s,

organizations recognized that strategically designed compensation and benefits programs

could give them the edge in a rapidly changing environment. ‖14

Paradigm Shift in Rewards

―Over the last decade there has been a growing debate around the importance of a

strategic approach towards Human Resource Management towards business performance

and success (e.g. Gratton and Truss,2003; Guest 1997,Schuler and Jackson,2005;

Sparrow,1998) . These include Talent Management (e.g. Conference Board,2005;

Higgs,2006(b));Employee Commitment (e.g. Allen and Meyer,1990);Employee

Engagement (e.g. McBain,2006; Buckhingham and Coffman,1999); the impact of HR on

the bottom line of a business (e.g. Guest,1997;Ulrich and Brockbank,2005;) and

Employer Bran/ Employer of Choice (e.g. Higgs 2005;2006(b)).20

In the coming future organizations will be made up of three basic components such as

financial, capital and intellectual. The third element which is the intellectual element is

possessed by the employees in the form of knowledge. Such workers are known as

knowledge workers. But the challenge will be how to attract, retain and motivate these

people on which the organization success will be mainly dependent. Such talented people

will require something more than the traditional approach to compensation management;

they will look towards ‗total rewards‘.

Forces are infact redrawing the work model, Anne Ruddy, president of WorldatWork, a

non-profit professional association that focuses on total rewards and the discipline

associated with attracting, motivating and retaining a talented workforce. It recently

adopted a new model that puts work life, performance, and recognition, and career

development on the same plane as compensation and benefits,‖ says Ruddy, noting that

there is a new significant give-and-take between companies and their employees,

allowing greater individualization of everything.

The traditional model based on company loyalty, working your way up the ladder, and

paying your dues is totally yesterday, says Bruce Tulgan, author of HOT management

(HRD Press) and expert on generational issues in the workforce. ―People are constantly

looking around too see what they will be offered today, tomorrow, and next week,‖ says

Tulgan. Now the employment package has become a moving target. He adds companies

are fining they need to construct plans that are nimble enough to respond to continuing

changes in the workplace.

And employees are getting savvier everyday, says Andrew Richter, VP of compensation

and benefits at NBC Universal, which means his biggest challenge is staying ahead of the

curve.‖ We have to accept the fact that what was an awfully good offering yesterday

won‘t work next week,‖ he says.‖ We have to earn our employees loyalty everyday.‖26.

―The pressure on organizations to add value, achieve sustained competitive advantage,

and respond and adapt quickly and flexibility to new challenges and opportunities are

rentless. The responses to these pressures have taken many forms including new forms of

organizations- ‗lean‘, delayered, flexible, process-or project –based, increasing reliance

on technology, and emphasis on continuous improvement in terms of performance,

quality, and customer service. The quality of human or intellectual capital possessed by

organizations is seen generally as a key factor in differentiating them from rivals and

achieving superior results. ------ As a result a significant changes in the ways in which

pay systems are developed and managed are taking place.‖21

Total Rewards; is a pay system which has both the features of traditional pay-

homogeneity as well as contemporary pay-heterogeneity such as, within a homogenous

pay system there is heterogeneity. Heterogeneity caters for the different needs of the

employees at different levels and also individual requirements. The different components

of the Total Rewards complement each other creating a synergy in the pay system. .

Synergy means the interaction of two or more agents or forces so that their combined

effect is greater than the sum of their individual effects This is one of the reason that

Total Rewards is used as a tool by the management to attract, motivate and retain talent

in organizations. This is what Dr. Paul R. Dorf has also talked about in his research paper

―Compensation in the Context of Total Rewards‖ about this synergetic affect.

"Each component of the Total Rewards Package must be viewed as not only based on its

own virtues, but also in the context of a big picture, Paul R. Dorf, Managing Director of

CRI. He furtehr says that ultimately, the "whole" should be bigger than the sum of its

parts, and it is the totality of the Total Rewards Package that will make a difference and

meet both the company’s objectives, as well as, the employees’ needs. "5

The newest “buzz phrase” according to Paul R. Dorf, Managing Director of CRI in the

compensation world is “Total Rewards.” It includes the traditional elements of pay in

Total Rewards, but it also recognizes that people want to enjoy their work and, when they

finish the day’s work, they want a life from which they get pleasure. As employers, there

is only so much we can do about employees’ after- work experiences, but we can and

should do a lot to enhance the day-to-day work experience. The efforts we make in this

area will pay big dividends by enhancing an employee's desire to remain with the

company and be motivated to perform at his/ her peak level."3 Both the systems have its

pros and cons. Traditional rewards are easy to administer but at the cost of employee

satisfaction whereas, the Total Rewards are complex in nature but the pros outweigh the

cons. "In order to achieve these objectives, companies must design and implement the

“right plans” as part of their Total Rewards Package (Paul R. Dorf, Managing Director

of CRI.). For example, if an organization provides a costly but phenomenal benefit

package, this will help to attract and retain staff. But to maximize its return, the company

must communicate the value of this program to employees and their families."4 Total

Rewards is becoming the accepted way of compensation in many reputable organizations

such as: Symantec Corp, Microsoft, Johnson & Johnson, IBM, and AstraZeneca etc. The

employees feel the Total Rewards as an employee friendly system, which acknowledges

their needs not only in the short term but also in the longer term.

Motivating Talent through “Total Rewards”

Motivating knowledge workers as said by Peter Druker is one the greatest challenge of

this century. Using the Total Rewards for such workers cannot cent percent guarantee-

and of course can, but can to a greater extent overcome this challenge?

The Motivation to contribute knowledge is an intangible key success factor for any

knowledge management activity ( Daven port, De Long ans Beers, 1998). Yet for this to

happen there needs to be a degree of trust between the individual and the organization as

part of the psychological contract. 22

―Peter Drucker has argued often that improving knowledge worker productivity is the

most important task of the century. Yet we have few measures or management

interventions to make such improvement possible. Most organizations simply hire smart

people, and leave them alone. During this program, Tom Davenport will present six

interventions for improving knowledge worker productivity, each with a set of

approaches, examples, and cautions. The interventions combine roles for technology,

organizational culture and behavior, and the physical work environment as tools for

enhancing performance.‖23

The elements of reward which have the greatest influence on employee commitment

levels are career development/promotion opportunities, increased flexibility and a pay-

for-performance culture. Watson Wyatt, 2004 .Employee commitment, in turn, positively

influences certain people-based business performance indicators such as improved

productivity and customer service. 7

These forces are in fact redrawing the work model, says Anne Ruddy, president of

WorldatWork, a non-profit professional association that focuses on the total rewards and

the discipline associated with attracting, motivating , and retaining talented workforce.It

recently has adopted a new model that puts work-life, performance and recognition,

career development on the same plane as compensation benefits.” It has become a

transactional relationship,” says Ruddy, noting that there is now significant give-and-

take between companies and their employee, allowing greater individualization of

everything. The traditional model based on the company’s loyalty, working your way up

the ladder, and paying your dues is totally yesterday, says Bruce Tulgan, author of HOT

Management ( HRD Press) and expert on generational issues in the workforce. “ people

are constantly looking around to see what they will be offered today, tomorrow and next

week,” says Tulgan. Now the employment package has become a moving target, he adds,

companies are finding that they need to construct plans that are nimble enough to

respond to continuing changes in the workplace.12 Thus Total Rewards and employee

motivation, especially motivation of knowledge workers are conjoined twins which seem

difficult to separate even through the best surgical procedures.

Scope of Total Rewards

Experts on compensation/rewards have come up with their own models regarding Total

Rewards. One such model has been given by Michael Armstrong and Duncan Brown, in

their book ―New Dimensions in Pay Management‖ which gives the reader a

comprehensive insight of the concept of Total Rewards.

http://www.ask.com/web?q=Michael+Armstrong+and+Duncan+Brown%2C+New+Dimensions+in+Pay+Management%2CCIPD%2C2001&qsrc=19&o=13156&l=dis


The Secret to Motivating Talent-the Total

Rewards

Michael Armstrong and Duncan Brown, New Dimensions in Pay

Management,CIPD,2001 24

Total Rewards is not just a concept of a contemporary way of payment, it is infact a

system integrating and coordinating the activities of HRM in an articulated and

orchestrated way. In a global competition total competition might prove a cutting-edge

for the companies by providing comprehensive pay systems to keep tem a step ahead of

their competitors. No doubt corporate sector is all about competition and earning a name

in the comity of companies. It might be the master key to unleash the much needed

motivation of the employees.

―It is important for an employer to create a brand to differentiate itself from other

employers. A Total Reward Package can be means of achieving this----― 16 ―Employees

are getting smarter every day, says Andrew Richter, vice president of compensation and

benefits at NBC Universal, which means his biggest challenge is simply staying ahead of

the curve. We have to accept the fact that what was an awfully good offering yesterday

won‘t work next week,‖ he says we have to earn our employees loyalty every day.‖24.

Looking at the above discussion and views of the experts the significance of Total

Rewards might have some what become clear to the reader but what is the appropriate

model for this approach still remains a question mark and it will remain a question mark

as acknowledged by the FORTUNE magazine after getting the opinions of several HR

and compensation experts on this topic. It states that there is no single model to be

followed. Each company has to develop its own unique model keeping in view its culture,

nature of business, employees needs, management polices regarding compensation and so

many other related aspects.



Elements for Developing a Model for „Total Rewards‟

Thus it can be concluded that the scope of Total Rewards is very wide. It covers almost

anything and every thing with which an employee might come in contact or might some

be related to them either directly or indirectly. The elements which are included in the

models given by experts include the following:

Fixed Pay ( Base Pay)

Variable pay

Short term incentives and long term incentives

Gain sharing

Benefits

Allowances

Quality and quantity of work

Work environment

Work-life balance

Non-financial rewards

Leadership style

Organizational values and culture

Equity

Training and Development (career/professional)

Participation in decision making

Holidays and Leave

Challenging work

Communication

Employment security

Opportunities for achievement

Freedom and autonomy at work

Management support and encouragement

Performance management

Even further elements can be added to the existing scope of ―total rewards‖.

Conclusion:

To conclude it can be said rightly that based on the scope of total rewards different

organizations can come with their own model for rewarding their talented employees-

knowledge workers, as no single model can be suitable for all organizations. The reason

for suggesting different models for organizations is that no two organizations is exactly

similar to another in philosophy, values, culture, environment, nature of business,

motives etc. That is why organizations have to develop models which are exclusive to

their needs and which can serve their goals and objectives in the best interest of that

particular organization. But no matter what model is developed for a company ―cash

reward‖ no doubt will remains the core element and the remaining elements are

dependent upon the employees‘ motivational urge and organizational needs.

In the opinion of the Worldwork Professional Association for Compensation, Benefits

and Total Rewards one company can‘t simply adopt another firm‘s program wholesale.

Each need, to think through its own specific needs and find the unique answer that work

for its particular workforce.For example Amgen Inc; biotech firm, added flexibility,

portability, and increased paid time off to its benefit package.‖25.

Total Rewards include other non-cash rewards that employees truly distinguish

themselves in the labor market from the competition and earn employee commitment

according to Anne C. Ruddy, CCP,CPCU,President, WorldatWork is a matter of

focusing the employment compact on the rewards that matter to the workforce you are

trying to create, not on the cash elements traditionally measured by companies.

Organizations spend a lot of time measuring Total Remuneration. But what matters to

employees is the total package-the Total Rewards. 27 ―Defining Total Rewards and a

Reward Strategy begins with the broadest view and understanding of the concept of ―total

rewards‖. The term includes all types of rewards- indirect as well as direct and intrinsic

as well as extrinsic. From an employee‘s perspective, it is every thing that an employee

takes away from his or her relationship with an employer.Todd M Manas and Michael

Dennis Graham says that people have different tastes; variety responds to those

differences. The more broadly rewards are the more likely you are to touch upon what

motivates the broad constituencies represented by your employees. But if rewards are not

defined as broadly as possible, the range of alternative reward strategies and satisfied

organizations will be very limited. Besides, our data suggest that a more limited view of

rewards is also more costly view, as organizations may tend to respond to every situation

with cash. 19.

References:

* Watson Wyatt ( 2004) Total Rewards Survey

* Rumpel, Steven,Medcof, John W (2006 ), TOTAL REWARDS: GOOD FIT FOR TECH

WORKERS, Publication: Research Technology Management

* ibid

* WorldatWork, Professional Association for Compensation, Benefits and TotalRewards.

FORTUNE

* Watson Wyatt (2004 )Total Rewards Survey

* Professor Malcolm Higgs(2006 04), The Emerging Significance of Total Rewrd Management

as a Strategy for Building Employee Engagement, , HRN, Henely Management College

Greenlands,Henely-on-Thames, Oxford shire RG9 3AU, UK.

* The Total Rewords Association, Total Rewards Compensation Benefits Work life

* WorldatWork, Professional Association for Compensation, Benefits and Total Rewards.

FORTUNE

* ibid

* Michael Armstrong and Duncan Brown, (2001) CIPD, New Dimension in Pay Management,

by, Cromwell Press, Trowbridge, Wiltshire.

http://www.allbusiness.com/research-technology-management/10535482-1.html

* Paul R. Dorf, Managing Director of CRI. (Compensation in the Context of Total Rewards,

APD, Compensation Resources, Inc.,HGExperts.com, Legal Experts Dictionary)

* John P Wilson, Allan Cattel,( page 123). Knowledge Management 23.LPCUBE Aware -

Personal Knowledge Management (PKM).h Linkage, Inc_ - Distance Learning - Tony

Schwartz.htm

* Paul R. Dorf, Managing Director of CRI. (Compensation in the Context of Total Rewards,

APD, Compensation Resources, Inc.HGExperts.com, Legal Experts Dictionary)

* ibid

* Total Reward, www.Hay Group.com


FORTUNE

* Anne C. Ruddy, CCP,CPCU,President, WorldatWork Handbook of Compenstaion, Benefits and

Total Rewards,. Published by John Wiley and Sars,Inc; Hoboken, New Jersey,

* Todd M Manas and Michael Dennis Graham) (Chap1, page 1) Creating a Total Rewards

Strategy ,Defining Total Rewards and a Reward Strategy


FORTUNE

http://www.hgexperts.com/expert-witness.asp?id=63009

http://www.hgexperts.com/expert-witness.asp?id=63009

http://www.hay/

Self-Organized Executive Control Functions MICHAIL MANIADAKIS, PANOS TRAHANIAS AND JUN TANI

I. Introduction

Executive control functions refer to our ability to monitor and control our own thoughts

and behaviors. This type of high level cognitive functions that involve working memory,

planning and conflict monitoring are believed to be processed in prefrontal cortex.

However, many aspects of this high level cognitive skill remain unknown.

A common way to investigate executive control functions is by using the well known

Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) [1], [2], [3]. According to the WSCT experimental

scenario, subjects are invited to repeatedly discover, apply and re-discover a given card

sorting rule that is unpredictably changed by the experimenter, based on reward and

punishment feedback. The ordinary WCST can be further enriched with the option of

betting on behavioral outcomes (i.e., success or failure of sorting) testing the capacity of

subjects to implement confidence on the currently adopted sorting rule [4]. Therefore, the

WCST-with-betting (WSCTB) is appropriate for investigating complex cognitive

processes that include self-monitoring.

The current work explores a robotic version of WCSTB investigating the development of

high level cognition in artificial agents. Our task is based on the well known sample

response paradigm. The experimental procedure investigates robot responses for a

sequence of trials in order to explore robot‘s ability to follow and switch along different

sample response rules, as well as to develop confidence about the correctness of the

currently adopted rule.

More specifically, a Continuous Time Recurrent Neural Network (CTRNN) [5], [6]

implements the artificial brain of a simulated mobile robot [7]. We use an evolutionary

procedure to systematically explore CTRNN controllers with rule switching and betting

capacity. The exploration of self organized executive control mechanisms in artificial

agents, is expected to provide possible explanations for the cortical neuron dynamics

supporting natural executive control functionality [8].

Michail Maniadakis is a researcher in the Computational Vision and Robotics Laboratory, Institute of Computer Science, Foundation for Research and Technology – Hellas (FORTH), Crete, Greece. Additionally, he is a visiting researcher in the Laboratory for Behavior and Dynamic Cognition, RIKEN Brain Science Institute, Wako-shi, Saitama Japan. (email: [email protected]).

Panos Trahanias is head of the Computational Vision and Robotics Laboratory, Institute of Computer Science, Foundation for Research and Technology – Hellas (FORTH), Crete, Greece. (email: [email protected]).

Jun Tani is head of the Laboratory for Behavior and Dynamic Cognition, RIKEN Brain Science Institute, Wako-shi, Saitama Japan. (email: [email protected]).



In short, our experiments revealed more than one mechanisms capable of executive

control. Furthermore, these mechanisms are highly correlated to the different

interpretations one may give on the investigated task. Therefore, the findings of the

present study suggest that when different subjects understand a given problem in different

ways, then it is likely to develop different cognitive mechanisms to solve that problem.

This type of personalized cognitive mechanisms are more likely for high-level cognitive

functions that rely on knowledge abstraction and prior experiences rather than the lower

level skills involved in processing the sensory-motor details of behavior.

Our work clearly distinguishes from previous computational modeling studies addressing

rule switching mechanisms, e.g. [9], [10], [11], [12], This is because earlier studies: (i)

interpret computationally human hypothesis by hand coding the relevant mechanisms in

the model (rather than letting these mechanisms self-organize) (ii) work in a pure

theoretical level without being embodied in a robotic agent to interact with the

environment. (iii) explore the simple version of the WCST task without considering the

option of betting.

The rest of the paper is structured as follows. In section II we describe the CTRNN

models used in the current study.

In section III we describe the investigated task providing the details of our experimental

setup. Then we present the evolutionary procedure used to explore the space of CTRNN

solutions. In section V we present the results obtained by the independent evolutionary

procedures, and the common characteristics self-organized in all successful solutions.

Finally, in section VI we discuss how our findings may apply to biological cognitive

processes formulating suggestions about executive control mechanisms in the cortex.

II. CTRNN-Based Cognitive Model

We use Continuous Time Recurrent Neural Network (CTRNN) models [6] to investigate

how rule switching and confidence mechanisms self-organize in neural dynamics.

Fig. 1. Schematic representation of the bottleneck CTRNN used in the current study.

In the current implementation, all neurons are governed by the standard leaky integrator

equations described in previous studies [13], [7].

Interestingly this type of networks can adequately capture the continuous nature of

biological cognition in the cortex. Therefore, in our experimental setup, the neuronal state

is initialized only once in the beginning of the first trial, and then neuronal dynamics

continue across trials and phases without resetting. In this manner, CTRNNs contextual

memory is implicitly represented by internal neuron dynamics. We speculate that

dynamical states will emerge for representing the rule stored in working memory, while

confidence mechanisms will also interact with these representations to decide the amount

of betting.

Following our previous study [14] showing that bottleneck configurations [15] are more

effective in rule switching tasks compared to fully connected CTRNNs, the current work

focuses only on the bottleneck architecture. As shown in Fig 1, we use two bottleneck

neurons to separate CTRNN in two levels. The bottleneck neurons loosely segregate

information processing in two layers, maintaining minimum interactions between them.

In order to investigate embodied rule switching, we employ a two wheeled simulated

robotic agent equipped with 8 uniformly distributed distance, light and reward sensors.

The experiments discussed here have been carried out using YAKS1 a simulated version

of the real Khepera miniature mobile robot. The simulator has been slightly modified for

the needs of the present study (e.g. by integrating a new sensor-type that supports feeling

the special environmental signals simulating negative rewards). To comply with the basic

anatomical characteristics of the brain, the lower layer of the CTRNN is linked to

the sensors and motors accounting for environmental interaction (this is similar to

primary sensory and motor cortices), while the higher layer of the network accepts

reward information (that is similar to prefrontal cortex accepting reward from VTA), as it

is shown in Fig 1.

Fig. 2. A graphical interpretation of the three sample-response rules used in our

experiments. Each box explains one sample-response rule. In each box, the first line

shows correct robot response when light appears to the left side of the robot, while the

second line shows correct response when light appears to the right.

1The simulator has been developed in the University of Skovde, Sweden, and can be downloaded at http://www.his.se/iki/yaks

III. The Robotic WCSTB Experimental Setup

The current study is an extension of our previous work [14] that also addresses rule

switching dynamics in a mobilerobot. In the current work, we have incorporated in the

experimental setup the option of betting similar to [ ], in order to explore the mechanisms

involved in confidence development.

A. Mobile Robot Rule Switching Task The task used in the current study is inspired by

the rat version of WCST used to investigate the rule switching capacity of rodents based

on the sample-response paradigm [16].

The overall task consists of a sequence of trials investigating the capacity of the agent to

flexibly manipulate sample response rules. In the onset of each trial, the robotic agent is

located at the bottom of a T-maze environment where it observes a light source turning

on, either on its left or right side (see Fig 2). The robot should navigate in the T-maze,

responding to the side of the light sample as it is indicated by three sample-response

rules. The first is the same-side (SS) rule, implying that the robotic agent should turn left

if the light source appeared at its left side, and it should turn right if the light source

appeared at its right side. The second rule is the opposite-side (OS), implying that the

robot should turn to the side opposite to the light (i.e. right if the light appears to the left

side, and left if the light appears to the right). The third is the no-response (NR) rule

asking the agent to stay close to the starting position regardless of what the sample signal

was.

At any given time, only one of the three available rules is correct. This is specified by the

experimenter by properly positioning positive and negative reward signals. As a result,

when the agent adopts the right rule giving a correct response in a given trial, it acquires a

positive reward. However, in case that the response is not correct the agent receives a

punishment. In order to evaluate the capacity of the agent to adopt and successfully

follow a given rule, the overall task is split into several trials. The agent is required to

find the correct rule (that is specified by the experimenter) and respond according to that

rule, in order to be repeatedly rewarded in the sequence of trials.

Turning now to rule switching, the experimenter at a random time (unknown to the

robotic agent) changes the rule that is considered correct. This means that the

experimenter re-positions positive and negative rewards according to the new sample-

response rule. The task for the agent now is to discover this rule change, and switch its

response strategy adopting the new rule.

Moreover in the onset of each trial the agent bets for the success of its response in the

given trial. Depending on the correctness of the response, the agent gains (or losses) the

amount of reward (or punishment) received, multiplied by the amount of betting. Clearly

the agent should reduce the betting amount during the rule switching period, and increase

betting when the correct rule is successfully followed.

B. Experimental Details

The overall task is structured into P 2 f1:::10g phases, each one consisting of Tp trials.

The number of trials Tp 2 f14; 16; 18; 20; 22; 24g is randomly specified, so that the

agent can not predict the end of a phase. The experimenter randomly assigns different

correct rules in each phase, which means that during a phase p, the agent must follow the

assigned response rule for all Tp trials. Let‘s assume for example that it should follow the

SS rule. In a sequence of trials we test the response of the robot after light sample

appearance at its left or right side (their order is randomly chosen). When a trial starts, the

robot is sensing the light and stays at the initial position for five simulation steps

formulating its response decision and betting for the success of the underlying trial. Then

the agent is allowed to move freely in the T-maze, responding to the aforementioned light

sample. According to the SS rule, the response is correct when the robot navigates to the

end of the corridor and then turns towards the side of the light sample. If the robot makes

the correct choice, it drives close to the target location where positive reward exists. In

case that the robot turning is not correct, it will drive to a punishment area receiving

negative reward indicating that the currently adopted rule is not correct and it should be

switched. Depending on the success of the trial the agent gains (or losses) the amount of

reward (or punishment) multiplied by the amount of betting. During phase p, the robot is

given 10 free of charge exploratory trials to discover what is the correct rule. In the

remaining Tp10 trials the performance of the robotic agent is evaluated in terms of

following the desired response rule.

If phase p is completed successfully, the robot moves to phase p+1, where the response

rule is changed, let assume to OS. This means that the punishment and reward signals are

moved and -for the sake of our example- they are now positioned according to the OS

rule. However, the agent is not informed about the rule change and thus, in the first trials

of the current phase it will continue responding according to the previous rule. In that

case, the agent will drive to a punishment area indicating it is not following the correct

rule.

Ideally, the agent will realize that the rule has changed and being less confident about the

forthcoming response, it will lower its bet in the next trial. In order to avoid punishments

in the forthcoming trials, the robot must reconsider its rule choice, exploring alternative

response rules, until switching to OS. After that, the agent should increase the amount of

betting, in order to acquire more gains. In phase p + 1, the robot is given again 10 free

exploratory trials to discover the new correct rule. In the remaining Tp+1 10 trials

agent‘s responses are evaluated according to the currently correct rule.

If phase p+1 is completed successfully, the robot moves to phase p + 2, where the

response rule is changed again let say to NR, for our example and a similar

experimental procedure is repeated. Rules are changed in a random order, so that the

agent cannot predict their sequence. Overall, the task evaluates agent‘s switching

behavior for a maximum of P phases.

we 2In the current study, the evolutionary procedure aims at exploring the domain of solutions of the

underlying problem, and does not represent an artificial counterpart of biological evolution

IV. Evolutionary Procedure

In order to explore the self-organization of executive control dynamics in CTRNNs, we

use Genetic Algorithms 2. We are interested in the broader set of mechanisms with the

capacity to develop rule switching and self-monitoring, and thus, we do not explicitly

specify any internal mechanisms in the model. The network is allowed to self-organize in

any appropriate way, developing partial functionalities to accomplish the robotic WCSTB

task.

Incremental Evolution. Due to the complexity of the investigated task, it is difficult for

the evolutionary process to converge successfully when examining from the very

beginning all the details of the problem. In order to support the success of the

evolutionary procedure we follow an incremental approach similar to [7], investigating

gradually more complex versions of the rule switching task. This is summarized in Table

I. In the first generations, the evolutionary procedure aims at CTRNN controllers capable

of adopting separately each one of the SS, OS and NR rules. In the forthcoming set of

generations, we are interested in exploring all possible switching combinations and thus

we explore 6 tasks in total (two tasks per rule). The accomplishment of all six tasks

implies that the agent can successfully follow the three available rules, giving successful

responses for a long sequence of trials. We note that the very same CTRNN model is

evaluated six times (one for each task). At the beginning of each task, the states of all

CTRNN neurons are set to zero (i.e. the robot is in a neutral state, without following any

rule). The robot explores the environment in order to discover the rule that must be

adopted for the successful completion of the single-phase task.

In the next set of generations, the tasks are getting more complex, searching for

controllers capable of switching between rules. Specifically, during generations 201-700,

TABLE I

THE INCREMENTALLY MORE COMPLEX TASKS EXPLORED IN DIFFERENT

PARTS OF THE EVOLUTIONARY PROCEDURE.

explore tasks consisting of two phases, asking for controllers capable of making one rule-

switching step, and additionally bet successfully for the given responses (i.e. reduce

betting during the transition period, but increase betting when the rules are successfully

followed). Note in Table 3, that each task examines a different switching combination

among rules. For all six tasks, properly positioned reward and punishment signals

indicate the response strategy that the agent should adopt in each trial. The state of

CTRNN neurons is reset to zero only once, at the beginning of each task. For all the

subsequent steps neural states are kept continuous.

This means that special memory pathways have to develop in order to support rule

switching. Finally, during generations 701-1200, we explore the stability of rule

switching mechanism. In particular, we investigate the performance of CTRNN

controllers under multiple and unpredictable changes of the correct rule as well as the

capacity of the agent to reduce betting during rule transition periods, but increase it when

rules are correctly followed. All tasks consist of a ten-phase sequence. Rules are

randomly assigned to the phases, while the number of trials in each phase is also

specified in a random manner. The performance of the agent is evaluated on phase p only

if it has adopted the correct rule in phase p-1. Similarly to previous generations, CTRNN

is reset to zero at the beginning of each task, and then keeps continuous neural state when

passing from one phase to the other.

Fitness Measure. To evaluate the successful accomplishment of the task, we consider two

main aspects of robot performance. The first aspect regards rule following and the second

the success of betting strategy. In order to evaluate that rules are switched properly and

the correct rule is followed at a given trial, target positions are appropriately exloited (see

Fig 2). This approach is followed because it is necessary to have a continuous measure

for the success of trials (either successful or not). Let‘s assume that D is the distance

between the starting position of the robot and the target. Then, the minimum distance

between the target and the robot route can be used for measuring the success of a given

robot response. The target positions are specified according to (i) the current rule, and (ii)

the side of the light sample, as it is described in Fig 2. Therefore, the changing of rules

when we pass from one phase to the other will specify a varying set of target positions.

Overall, the ability of the agent to switch (SW) between rules during the p phases of a

task i, is measured by:

The evaluation starts from trial t = 11 because the first ten trials of each phase are

exploratory and they are not considered in evaluation.

Furthermore, we evaluate agent‘s ability to bet correctly during a sequence of trials. Let

us assume that in a given trial t, the agent bets the amount Bt 2 [0; 1], while after giving

the underlying response the maximum punishment received was Pt 2 [0; 1], and the

maximum reward received was Rt 2 [0; 1]. Then the correctness of agent‘s betting choice

(CB) in trial t is defined by:

We assume that the agent is willing to bet if Bt is larger than 0.5, while it avoids betting if

Bt is less than 0.5. The first line of eq (2), examines the case that the agent bets (i.e. Bt >

0:5). If the agent is rewarded (i.e. Rt is high) it gains a profit, while if the agent is

punished (i.e. Pt is high) it has a loss.

High values of Rt imply low values of Pt and vice versa. The weighting coefficient for

punishment is set to the relatively large value of c = 6:0 making the agent to reduce

betting during the rule transition period. Low values of the weighting coefficient (e.g. c =

1) make the agent develop an ―alwaysbet‖ strategy. In the second part of eq (6) we

examine the case of avoiding betting (i.e. Bt _ 0:5). When the response given by the agent

is incorrect (Pt is high), the no-betting choice was right, and the agent makes profit.

However, if the response given by the robot was correct (Rt is high), then ―avoid-betting‖

choice was incorrect, and the agent has a loss of possible profit. Overall, for a task i

described by a sequence of p phases, the capacity of the agent to bet efficiently (BET) is

evaluated by the partial fitness measure:

The overall success of the agent on accomplishing the task i 2 f1; 2; : : : 6g, is obtained

by the multiplication of SWi and BETi with a weighting coefficient d:

In the first stage of incremental evolution (i.e. generations 1-200) we use d=0,

emphasizing the acquisition of rules. In the second stage of evolution (i.e. generations

201-700) d=0.5 making the agent to consider both rule switching and betting. In the last

stage, (i.e. generations 701-1200) we use d=2.0, which makes evaluation focus on

betting, considering

Fig. 3. The behavior of the agent in a sequence of trials. The line on top of each trial

demostrates the current amount of betting. Light is depicted with a double circle, goal

position is depicted with an _, punishment area is depicted with a gray circle, while robot

path is depicted with a black line starting from the bottom of the T-maze. In the present

figure we follow a more compact representation of a sample-response trial than the one

shown in Fig 2, in order to demonstrate an adequately large number of robot trials. also

that the rule switching capacity of the agent must be preserved.

All individuals encoding CTRNN controllers are tested on the incrementally more

complex versions of Task1, Task2, Task3, Task4, Task5, and Task6 described above. The

accomplishment of each task is evaluated separately according to eq (4). Then, the total

fitness of the individual is estimated by:

The multiplication operator favors individuals that can accomplish (at least partly) all

tasks, distinguishing them from those that fail in any one of them.

V. Results

In order to explore possible neuronal mechanisms accounting for executive control

functions related to rule switching and confidence development, we have conducted 14

statistically independent runs of the evolutionary procedure described above. Six of these

procedures converged successfully, producing robot controllers that can effectively

switch rules and bet correctly accomplishing the WCSTB task. An example sequence of

robot trials together with the rule changes made by the experimenter is shown in Fig 3. In

the first five trials the agent successfully follows the SS rule receiving rewards. The agent

bets maximally with full confidence on its rule-choice. Then in the 6th trial, the

experimenter changes the rule to NR. The robot that is not aware of this change responds

according to the SS rule and is punished. Immediately after that, the amount of betting

decreases, implying weakening of agent‘s confidence about the currently correct rule.

After two explorative trials, the agent finds that NR is now the correct rule, receiving

positive reward (in trial 8). Subsequently, its confidence to the currently adopted rule is

strengthened, and thus the amount of betting increases. The agent follows the NR rule for

some more trials giving successful responses. Then in trial 15, the rule is unexpectedly

changed again, and the agent gives a wrong response which makes the amount of betting

to fall down. The agent identifies the correct rule receiving a positive reward at trial 18.

Then its confidence increases, and in the next trial it bets high. In subsequent trials, the

agent responds following the OS rule, receiving rewards. The experimenter changes the

rule again in trial 27. It takes two more trials to the agent to identify that now SS is the

correct rule. In the following trials, the agent increased adequately the amount of betting,

responding successfully according to SS rule. Overall, the figure shows that the robot

successfully adapts the response strategy to the rules specified by the experimenter, after

a short transition period of erroneous responses.

We have investigated the internal dynamics of the CTRNN solutions in order to obtain

insight into the cognitive mechanisms self-organized in the successfully evolved models.

We found that artificial evolution generated two broad categories of networks in which

self-organized neural dynamics are qualitatively different (see below). For the sake of

clarity of the current presentation, we will refer to these CTRNN categories as ―Type-A‖

and ―Type-B‖3.

A. Layered functionality

Initially we studied the functional differences of CTRNN layers in order to determine

their functionality in the global network. In particular, we performed Principal

Component Analysis (PCA) to highlight the main characteristics of neural activity in

each layer. The first principal component of high and low layer neural activation for the

two types of solutions is shown in Fig 4 where different rules are depicted in different

colors (i.e. red:SS, green:OS, blue:NR).

We observe that the activity of the higher layer is much more stationary compared to low

layer activation. This difference suggests the specialized functionality of each layer. In

particular, the rather fast fluctuation of the low layer suggests it is dealing with the

sensory-motor issues arising from real-time environment interaction, while the higher

part of the CTRNN is probably involved in encoding the currently adopted rule as well as

in estimating the confidence of the agent in order to decide betting.

3We note that our findings do not exclude the possibility that more solution types may exist for the underlying problem.

B. Rule Encoding

One more observation form Fig 4 is that neural activity in the higher layer encodes rule

NR by using nearly constant and distinct values, while the representation of rules SS and

OS are less differentiated. To explore further this issue, we have taken the phase plots of

the first two principal components of high layer activity, shown in Fig 5. We see three

trajectories of quasi-attractors to appear, each one encoding one of the available rules.

Fig. 4. The unfolding of the first Principal Component of neural activity in the high and

low layer of the CTRNN for 4 consequtive trials (i.e. 680 simulation steps). Different

colours correspond to neural activity when the agent is successfully following different

rules. In particular, the principal component of neural activity for rule SS is shown in red,

for rule OS is shown in green, while for rule NR is shown in blue.

Clearly, in the case of Type-A solution there is a partial overlap between the trajectories

encoding SS and OS rules (i.e. trajectories shown in red and green) while NR is

represented by a distinct attractor (i.e. blue trajectory).

However, in the case of Type-B solution phase plot reveals attractors akin to three

different fixed points with a clearly separate representation of each rule. We note that the

afore mentioned distinction characterizes the obtained CTRNN solutions as Type-A (i.e.

with SS, OS overlap) or Type-B (i.e without overlap). In the totally 6 successful

evolutionary runs, solutions of Type-A appeared 4 times, while solutions of Type-B

appeared 2 times. The overlap of SS and OS attractors in the case of Type-A solution (see

Fig 5) suggests that these rules are organized as subclusters of a larger cluster separating

them from NR. This organization is reasonable since SS and OS exhibit common

characteristcs when they are both contrasted to NR. In particular, both SS and OS ask the

agent to travel along the corridor and turn left or right, while NR asks the agent to ignore

sample stimulus and stay close to the starting position (see Fig 2). As a result, the

approach followed by the agent in the case of Type-A solution focusing on the

differences of SS and OS to NR, is particularly appropriate for the investigated problem.

On the contrary, the plot corresponding to Type-B solution (Fig 5), shows a clearly

distinct representations for all three available rules. We would like to emphasize that this

organization is also reasonable, since each of the three rules is actually standalone and

may exists without the others.

The completely separate representation of rules SS and OS highlights their independent

nature, while at the same time they both remain separate from NR.

In summary, the representations of rules self-organized in Type-A and Type-B solutions

reflect the different interpretations one can give to the rule-switching problem

investigated in the present work by either focusing on the relation of SS and OS

compared to NR, or the unique identity of each rule.

C. Rule Switching

Next we examine the rule transition mechanisms developed in each type of the obtained

solutions. To this end, we consider neural activation in the early part of trials. This is a

context-rich period, because at that time the agent decides its response according to the

currently adopted rule and additionally decides the amount of betting for the underlying

trial.

We have estimated the average, over the first 15 simulation steps of a trial, for the first

two principal components of neural activity in the higher layer of CTRNNs. A 2-D plot

of the estimated averages for 68 trials is shown in Fig 6, both for Type-A and Type-B

solutions. In this sequence the agent starts by following rule SS, then adopts NR and

finally OS.

In the trials that the agent successfully follows a given rule, the 2-D plot illustrates points

in red, green and blue colors (depending on the rule). During the transition trials where

the agent gives erroneous responses (trying to identify the correct rule), the points arising

from the principal component averages are illustrated in black. Interestingly, we observe

that different transition mechanisms are developed for the Type-A and Type-B solution.

In the case of Type-A solution we see that a common rule transition area is

formulated that corresponds to the ‘unknown rule‘ state. When the experimenter

unpredictably changes the (currently correct) rule, the agent that is not aware of

this change gives erroneous responses and thus it is punished. The punishment received

Fig. 5. Phase plot of higher level neural activity when the agent follows (a) the SS rule

and (b) the OS rule. Neural activities stabilize to attractors having distinct shapes for each

case.

Fig. 6. The averages of the first two principal components in the begining of trials. The

plots associated to type-A and type-B solutions correspond to a sequence of trials

investigating rule transitions from SS to NR and then to OS.

causes an instability in the high layer of the CTRNN which makes neural activity move

in the ‘unknown rule‘ area. From this state, the agent randomly selects a rule to be

applied in the next trial (a rule might be selected more than one times even if it is not

correct). If the rule choice proves to be successful, the agent adopts it for the forthcoming

trials. However, if the selected rule is incorrect then the network remains in the ‘unknown

rule‘ state, selecting a new rule in the next trial. As an example, Fig 6 shows SS!NR and

NR!OS switchings.

In addition, after testing every possible combinations of rule switching, we observed that

all transitions always pass through the unknown rule area.

In the case of Type B solution, a different transition mechanism is self-organized in

CTRNN as it is shown in Fig 6. For the given example investigating SS!NR!OS, when

the agent is successfully following rule SS and the experimenter is unpredictably

changing the rule, the instability caused by punishment signals makes the adopted rule

jump to OS. However, it happens that rule OS is not correct. Then in the next trial the

robot is punished again, which makes CTRNN rule state jump to NR, that is the correct

rule. A similar procedure is also observed when the experimenter changes the rule to OS.

The punishments provided to the agent make the rule state jump first to SS and then to

OS.

Overall, we observe that in the case of Type B solutions there are direct transitions from

one rule to the other, following a circular organization. We note that additinal expriments

revealed that circular transitions apply for all possible rule switching combinations).

D. Betting Mechanism

Finally, we have investigated confidence mechanisms providing agent the capacity to bet

successfully while switching among sample-response rules. Our findings suggest

different betting strategies for the two types of solutions. In particular, for Type-A

solution, when the agent is in a rule exploration mode (i.e. unknown rule state in Fig 6)

its betting choice is always the same without any correlation to the rule currently tested.

This is summarized in the second column of Table II showing betting amounts during

rule testing. When the agent receives a reward approving a rule, then betting strategy

differentiates depending on rule as it is illustrated in the third column of Table II.

However, for the Type-B solution that is based on direct transitions among rules, the

betting strategy shows different characteristics. In particular, when rules are assessed to

determine their correctness the agent needs to minimize betting in order to avoid the loss

of gains. For Type-B solution, during these testing trials, the agent differentiates betting

depending on the rule assessed. This is summarized in the fourth column of Table II,

listing the amounts of betting during rule testing. When the agent receives reward

approving a rule, the betting strategy remains differentiated as it is illustrated in the fifth

column of Table II.

TABLE II

THE RANGE OF BETING AMOUNTS WHEN THE AGENT TESTS OR FOLLOWS

EACH RULE, FOR THE TWO TYPES OF OBTAINED SOLUTIONS.

Overal, our observations indicate that confidence interpretation in the CTRNN is directly

correlated to the possible views that may be developed on a given problem, as well as the

characteristics of the neural mechanisms supporting the solution of the problem.

VI. Discussion

In the current work we investigate executive control functions putting them in the context

of artificial agents. Our study follows a minimum constraint approach that avoids

assigning predefined roles at different parts of the artificial cognitive system. Examining

the internal neurodynamics of CTRNNs we found two different types of solutions

selforganized in the models.

Interestingly, we observed that a loose segregation of system components by means of

bottleneck architectures facilitates the emergence of different roles in each part of the

system, and the self-organization of functional hierarchies. In the obtained results, higher

layer is involved in the manipulation of sample-response rules, while the lower part takes

care of environment interaction issues. The evolutionary self-organization of CTRNNs

revealed two possible mechanisms accounting for high level executive control in

WCSTB. The relevant mechanisms arise from two different interpretations one may give

to the problem investigated in the current study (i.e. according to the similarity of SS and

OS when compared to NR, or, according to the standalone nature of the three rules).

Therefore, our findings suggest for biological cognitive systems that the way a task is

understood by a human subject is likely to affect the development of the relevant

dynamics in his brain. In other words, when two subjects understand a given problem in

different ways, then they may use cortical resources in different ways when solving the

problem. This is a novel way to approach high level executive control functions in the

cortex that is rarely considered in neuroscientific studies.

We note that we have also explored how the low layer of CTRNNs specialize for Type-A

and Type-B solutions. However, we have been unable to identify clear specialized

characteristics. Therefore, our experiments suggest that high level cognitive functions are

more likely to differentiate among subjects than low level processes. Intuitively this view

is supported by the fact that low level processes are less plastic because they are linked to

the phylogeneticaly hard coded characteristics of the sensory-motor system, while high

level cognition has enough freedom to flexibly self-organize in the cortex considering

prior experiences and knowledge. Our suggestion is further supported by the argument

that high level cortical areas far from the primary cortices show increased flexibility

when adopting their functionality [17].

VII. Conclusions

We have adopted an evolutionary robotics approach to explore posible characteristics of

executive control functions. Our findings suggest that the mechanisms involved in

excutive control may depend on the interpretations that humans may give to a particular

problem.

In the future we will investigate further the betting mechanisms self-organized in

CTRNNs in order to obtain better insight on the possible slf-monitoring mechanisms of

the human brain.

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Internationalization of Technology

Development in India

ALOK CHAKRABARTI

Tampere University of Technology, Tampere, Finland,

&

PRADIP K. BHAUMIK

International Management Institute, New Delhi, India

Introduction

he geopolitical and economic systems have been transformed after 1990 globally.

Changes in information and communication technology (ICT) have accelerated

changes in the traditional business models of many industries. The codification of

information makes it possible to open up the value chain of a business and to parse it to

different partners (Mann, 2005).

In a recent study, by McKinsey Global Institute (2005), it has been estimated that global

outsourcing will increase significantly in different industries. The drivers for outsourcing

are different by the industry sector characteristics and dynamics. Organizational,

technical and operational factors such as needed for a global presence, suitability of

process to support global outsourcing, and the scale of business process are also

important determinants of outsourcing. Inhibitors for outsourcing are need for physical

proximity, importance of local knowledge, and complex interaction in the business

process. However, these factors have different levels of impact on the outsourcing

decisions.

Dossani and Kenney (2004) explored the potential of outsourcing of various types of

business services to India. Their comprehensive analysis of the business conditions in

India predicts a continuation of the growing trend of outsourcing of various services to

India. As some of the vendors are moving up the value chain, one can expect a higher

level of off shoring of higher skilled jobs. These of course, raised issues related to

political economy of relocation of service jobs.

Discussions about outsourcing both in academic and popular media are anchored either

on the economics of outsourcing or on the political economy of the result of outsourcing

from the perspective of the countries of the customers. Economists and management

scholars have based their theories and normative statements primarily on the transaction

cost economics. Most of the discussions in this area have been on how to get the

advantage of the differences in the factor prices, primarily the wages, to attain operational

efficiency of business services. In some instances, the management scholars are exploring

the possibilities of some value added services from the vendors in the outsourcing

context.

The political debate in the context of outsourcing is primarily about the job loss and the

changing nature of job composition in the USA. The trade policy of the USA has been

T

singled out as the cause of the job loss through outsourcing. Even web sites have been

developed by opponents of outsourcing to single out the companies involved in

outsourcing and thus create political pressure against them.

Outsourcing is a controversial topic that needs to be examined more carefully to

understand its impact on both the customer and the vendor and their respective societal

contexts.

Bhagwati et al. (2004) have pointed out the problem of confusion due to inconsistent

definition of outsourcing. They commented:

When many politicians, journalists and even some economists start discussing

―outsourcing‖, they soon leap beyond purchases of offshore arm‘s length services to

include, without analytical clarity, phenomena such as purchase of manufactured

components and even direct foreign investment by firms.

Bhagwati et al. (2004) accepted the World Trade Organization (WTO) classification of

outsourcing as follows:

Mode 1 is the trade in services at arm‘s length supply with the supplier and the

buyer remaining in their respective locations.

The Mode 2 services are provided by moving the recipient of services to the

location of the service provider.

In Mode 3, the service provider establishes a commercial presence in another

country requiring a modest level of direct investment.

In Mode 4, the service provider moves to the location of the service buyers.

According to Bhagwati et al. (2004) most political controversies are related to the Mode

1 outsourcing ignoring the other types of outsourcing.

The literature has not recognized the complexity of the process. This has led to the

confusion and conflicting statements about the impact of outsourcing. The WTO

definition is restricted to the location of the different parties and focuses too much on the

offshore outsourcing.

The benefits from outsourcing generally are cost savings. This is due to the differences in

wage levels in different countries. As Dossani and Kenney (2004) pointed out, there is a

significant cost advantage in locating the activities in a low-wage country like India.

Agilent Technologies, a spin-off of Hewlett Packard lowered its processing cost of

financial transaction to approximately one tenth of its original cost. There were other

gains in productivity that became attractive to Agilent.

The political debate against outsourcing is rooted in the fact that it is easy to ascertain the

benefits accrued due to the operational efficiency achieved by a company. How much of

that benefit can be externalized or appropriated by others is the key question. In other

words, suppose company X achieves a cost saving of a million dollars by outsourcing

some activities to another country and eliminates 100 jobs. The question is then how

those people laid off are better off?

Baily and Lawrence (2004) raised a caution in attributing cause of the job loss to

outsourcing. They commented:

First, some of the tasks that moved to India would have been performed by

automated IT hardware and software in the US; hence jobs would have been lost in

any case. Second, because services being provided from India are cheaper than

equivalent services provided from within the United States, it is likely that greater

quantities of these services are sold than if Indian off shoring were not available, and

that these services are performed in a more labour-intensive fashion.

One of the main arguments put forth by Baily and Lawrence (2004) is that it is the

weakness of the US exports and not the strength of imports that was responsible for the

job loss. Their argument is that macroeconomic policy determines the employment level

while trade policy affects the composition of jobs.

Our study examines how India has performed in the higher end of the value chain in

outsourcing, namely technology generation.

Globalization of R&D

The internationalization of research and development (R&D) has not been a recent

phenomenon. Large multinational companies increased their R&D investment in various

host countries during the past years. Doz et al. (2006) have found that the multinational

companies increased their R&D expenditure in various host countries from 45 per cent in

1975 to 66 per cent in 2006. The most significant factor in this trend is the emergence of

China and India as major destinations of R&D since the mid-1990s. Multinational

companies mostly setup their own R&D centres in China and India and occasionally

utilize third parties.

India adopted the policy of economic liberalization and opened up the economy for

foreign direct investment. Coupled with the advent of the WTO trade was harmonized

and new regimes of intellectual property were initiated. This has changed the patent

system in India and the importance of patent was recognized to protect the competitive

position. According to the survey done by a UK based firm, Ocomonitor, 25 per cent of

all foreign direct investment in R&D projects are directed to India, China being the

second with 12 per cent.

In a detailed study of a large panel of manufacturing firms in India for the period of

1992-1999, Kumar and Aggarwal (2005) observed that the overall R&D intensity of

enterprises in India declined over the post-liberalization era; the foreign subsidiaries

increased their R&D effort, while local firms decreased theirs. Indian firms focused on

―absorption of knowledge embodied in imported capital goods‖. Their conclusion was

that the firms had to seek international markets and required to develop in-house

technological capability to support their global strategy.

This pattern of behaviour is consistent with the model proposed by the United Nations

Committee on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). UNCTAD identified four types of

technical efforts that firms are engaged in based on the hierarchy of complexity: basic

production, significant adaptation, technology improvement and monitoring, and frontier

innovation. As the technical prowess of a country develops, it will engage in higher level

of activity. Sturgeon (2003) subscribes to the hierarchy of technical activities in terms of

complexity and consequent stickiness in specific locations. However, a locality can

progress to more complex activities with development.

Amsden and Tschang (2003) provide a broader categorization of R&D activities by

combining the OECD‘s Frascati manual and the US Department of Defense terminology.

They identify five activities based on the objectives and skills necessary to undertake the

tasks as follows: pure science, basic research, applied research, exploratory development

and advanced development. The effectiveness of the last two types of activities can be

tested through market success while the first three can generate intellectual property in

the form of patents and publications.

To understand the innovation capability of these countries, we use the innovation

capability index developed by the UNCTAD (2005). This index consists of two indices,

technological activity index and human capital index. The technological activity index is

measured by R&D personnel per million, US patents per million, and scientific

publications per million. Human capital index consists of literacy rate, secondary school

enrolment, and tertiary education enrolment as per cent of respective age group. India

scores low in the innovation capability index and it has not changed from 1995 to 2001.

Although India and China scored low on the innovation capability index, they have been

able to attract great attention due to the sheer size of their technical and scientific

personnel as well as the market potential. India provides an added benefit with its

proficiency in the English language due to its colonial past. Both China and India have

developed their universities to world standard. Huggins et al. (2007) estimated that 25.6

per cent of all foreign direct investment in R&D projects was directed to India in 2006.

China was the second most popular destination for R&D projects. The major players in

this are the US multinational companies (MNC), Intel, IBM, Motorola and Microsoft.

Performance of R&D Organizations in India

International R&D activities entail many risks. Based on the experience of Japanese

pharmaceutical firms, Penner-Hahn and Shaver (2005) found that internationalization of

R&D increased the patent rate. However, only firms that had developed internal cap

capability in certain technical fields, benefited from their global effort. Their conclusion

was that internationalization was no panacea for lack of internal capability.

As we have observed the surge of outsourcing of various types of business processes

including R&D and design activities to India, we examined the performance of these

organizations by focusing on the US patents granted to inventors in India. Since many

patents will have co-inventors from either India or abroad, we searched for the patents in

which at least one inventor was from India.

Patents have been used as a metric to measure the level of innovative output for

comparing the competitiveness of nations (Atun et al., 2006). Bhattacharyya and Nath

(2002) used US patents as index of performance in their comparison of China and India

as they found this to be a consistent and valid measure. They also noted that firms often

take US patents as the US represents the largest market.

Global Trends in Patents

Before focusing on India, we examined the general global trends in patents. In 2007, the

US Patent and Trademark Office (2008) granted 182930 patents of which 51.21 per cent

were of US origin. This has been consistent for a long time. During the period 1994 to

2007, there has been a 3.45 per cent cumulative annual growth rate in patents granted.

However, foreign organizations exhibited 4.32 per cent growth rate per annum while the

growth rate of US originated patents has been only 2.72 per cent per annum. The top ten

foreign countries granted US patents are Japan, Germany, the UK, France, Taiwan,

Canada, South Korea, Italy, Switzerland and Sweden. The shift in patents issued to

countries in Asia is perceptible, but slow. Patents granted to India (578 in 2007) are

negligible in the global perspective. South Korea has shown a remarkable high-growth

rate of 15.2 per cent per annum. While the total number of patents to India is negligible,

its growth rate is about 24 per cent per annum during 1994-1997. Our study is not

focused on patents granted to India but on patents granted with Indian inventors.

Corporations in the US and abroad were dominant in patenting technology. The negative

growth rates of US Government and US Individual patents were noticed. US Corporation

patents showed a positive growth rate of 3.70 per cent while foreign corporations

registered a still higher growth rate of 4.93 per cent p.a. Foreign government patents

showed a steep negative growth rate of29.34 per cent. The role of governments in

patenting activity is disappearing globally while that of individuals is weakening.

Corporations remain the driving force for R&D in the foreseeable future and India needs

to actively encourage corporate R&D.

The top corporations in patents are Samsung, IBM, Matsushita, Canon, Sony, Toshiba,

Hitachi, General Electric, NEC and Mitsubishi. It is interesting to note that of the ten

corporations, seven are Japanese and only two are Americans. Samsung has made a

remarkable progress in this and in 2007 replaced IBM that has been the leader in US

patents for many years till then.

Trends in Patent with Indian Inventors

Until 1990, the number of patents originating from India has remained negligible for all

practical purposes. The situation has changed since 1990 after the liberalization of the

Indian economy and changes in the geopolitical environment – at first slowly and then

dramatically. We have carried out an exhaustive study of all the patents granted by

USPTO from 1992 to 2007, where at least one of the inventors was a resident of India. In

1992, there were just 44 patents while by 2007 it went up to 779. These are the patents

with at least one inventor from India.

We find that this growth has taken place in three sequential phases: the first phase was

from 1992 to 1997, the second phase from 1997 to 2002 and the third phase from 2003 to

2007. During the first phase the rate of growth in patents has been 12.2 per cent per

annum, this increased to a staggering 36.1 per cent per annum in the second phase and

rebounded to a decent 18.0 per cent per annum in the third phase. The slow rate of

growth in the first phase is perhaps due to the bootstrapping effect and is the result of

enhanced awareness and acceptance of a culture of patenting one‘s intellectual property.

The second stage shows a very high rate of growth, probably the inventors pursued

patents for technologies on the shelf. The third stage shows a growth rate that is pretty

high and we expect it to be stabilized at this rate in the near future.

Nature and Ownership Pattern of Patents with Indian Inventors

Our analysis was focused on the following issues:

residence status of the inventors;

patterns of patents by industry sectors; and

ownership patterns of the patents.

Figure 1 shows our conceptual map for analysis. Our presentation is built around this

conceptual map of the process of patenting. The output of the process is the award of

patents to different assignee countries. The research inputs are provided by individual

researchers residing in different countries. These researchers are organized into different

researching entities like companies, institutes, etc. The researchers work in different

sectors where the inputs are converted into patent outputs – these are analogous to

processes. We study the whole process on a time line captured by year or by phase.

Most patents are issued either to India alone or to some foreign country(ies). Very few

are jointly assigned to India and another country. This suggests very little collaborative

work between research entities. However, there could still be collaboration among

researchers – Indian and non-Indian, say from the same MNC, i.e. with a single assignee.

This aspect will be studied later.

Figure 2 shows that patents granted to foreign countries are growing at a faster rate than

those granted to India. As a result, 2005 onwards more patents are granted to other

countries than to India. In the third phase, the growth of patents with India as an assignee

country has fallen and that has made the difference between the two sharper just three

years after the crossover.

This aspect is further elaborated in Figure 3, which shows that Indian patents increased

4.40 times from between Phases I and II while Foreign patents increased 3.10 times

between Phases II and III. The same is reflected in the composition of patents – Indian

patents constituted 41 per cent of all patents in Phase I; this increased to 55 per cent

during Phase II, but fell to 44 per cent in Phase III as Foreign patents grew 3.10 times

during Phase III.

Sectoral Distribution of Patents

We classified all patents granted into 16 sectors. However, only six sectors had active

patenting viz. biotechnology (59 in 2007), electronics and telecom (149), industrial

chemicals (52), information technology (252), instrumentation (51) and pharmaceuticals

(103). We further reduced sectors to four broad categories: ICT, food and chemicals,

biotechnology and pharmaceuticals and others.

Figure 4 shows the distribution of patents in four broad categories of sectors in three

different phases. In Phase II, the first two sector clusters viz. biotech and pharma and

food and chemicals grew faster than the other sector clusters, while in Phase III, only ICT

grew faster than the remaining three sector clusters. The result is that in Phase III 42 per

cent of all patents were ICT patents.

On further analysis a pattern can be identified from Phase II onward. Indian patents were

mostly in the first two sector clusters viz. biotech and pharma and food and chemicals

while foreign patents were largely in ICT. Although a few ICT patents were granted to

India in Phase III, the earlier trend continued in Phase III as well.

Ownership Pattern of Patents with Indian Inventors

We identified the following classes of ownership: individual inventor, Indian companies,

foreign companies and public research institutes. Individual inventors accounted for

negligible number of patents. Corporate organizations and public research institutions,

notably the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research are the major players in this.

There is a distinct difference in technological focus between Indian organizations, and

foreign corporations. The research institutions have focused on two sectors:

(1). Biotechnology and pharmaceuticals; and

(2). Food and chemicals.

Indian companies do not show any proclivity to any particular sector.

Foreign companies have focused on the ICT sector and they dominate it. The major

players are well-known companies such as IBM, General Electric, Texas Instrument,

Hewlett Packard and Microsoft.

In Phase I total patenting activity was low, largely carried out by foreign companies. The

largest number of patents in a particular year was 43 in the whole of Phase I and was in

the pharmaceutical sector.

In phase II, public research institutes in India received many patents particularly in

biotechnology (71), industrial chemicals (131) and a fewer 58 in pharmaceuticals. It is

interesting to note that Indian pharmaceutical companies accelerated their patent rate and

received 89 patents in Phase II (vs only ten in phase I). Foreign companies were active in

electronics and telecom (132 patents) and information technology (54 patents).

The same trend continued in third phase – foreign companies intensified their patenting

effort in ICT. As in pharmaceutical sector earlier, Indian companies followed foreign

companies and made a modest beginning in ICT patents. Indian companies are slowly

getting active in other sectors as well like in biotechnology, industrial chemicals and

petrochemicals while they successfully overcame the dominance of foreign companies in

pharmaceuticals. The growth rate of patents from Indian institutes seems to have slowed

in the third phase vis-a` -vis the second phase.

Inventor Background

The background of the inventors can be categorized as follows:

Indian inventors working alone.

Indian inventors working with other Indian inventors.

Indian inventors working in collaboration with foreign inventors.

Our data show that there are only two dominant categories of researchers:

(1). Indian residents working alone or only with other fellow Indian residents.

(2). Indian residents working with US residents (with or without residents of any

other country).

In other words, most researcher collaboration is with US resident researchers – many of

these may still be of Indian origin and ethnicity but US residents.

In 1992, in less than 50 per cent of the patents granted, Indian researchers were working

alone or with fellow Indian residents; in majority of the patents the Indian researchers

were working in collaboration with non-Indian residents as shown in Figure 5. In the

second phase (or late first phase) onwards, Indians working alone gathered momentum.

We know this was due to the thrust provided by the CSIR institutes. Even in the third

phase when corporate patenting has grown faster than institute patenting, this trend

continues. This is because even foreign companies are using only Indian research teams

more frequently.

When Indian residents collaborated with others, most (95-96 per cent) of the patents were

granted to foreign countries. On the other hand, when Indians work alone, bulk (66-82

per cent) of the patents are granted to India alone. In phase III, this ratio has come down

to 66 per cent suggesting that even in many MNC projects, more and more all-Indian

teams are being used.

Collaboration of Indian and non-Indian researchers is used only by foreign companies,

while Indian companies as well as Indian institutes do not use much collaboration.

Foreign companies have also increased the use of all-Indian teams in the third phase. This

suggests the maturing of Indian researchers particularly in the ICT sector cluster.

Figure 6 shows patterns of collaboration with technical personnel in foreign countries.

Percentage of ICT patents is growing in both collaborated and non-collaborated projects.

In collaborated projects, this trend is consistent across all three phases. In non-

collaborated projects, ICT patents started growing only in third phase. This may largely

be due to MNCs using more of all-Indian teams for their ICT projects.

Percentage of ICT patents is growing in both collaborated and non-collaborated projects.

In collaborated projects, this trend is consistent across all three phases. In non-

collaborated projects, ICT patents started growing only in third phase. This may largely

be due to MNCs using more of all-Indian teams for their ICT projects.

Conclusions

In both Indian companies and Indian institutes, Indian researchers were working alone in

Phases I and II. In Phase III, we note the initiation of collaborative R&D with foreign

nationals by Indian organizations.

About 2.4 per cent of the Indian company patents involved collaborative work during

Phase III. Foreign institutes and universities receiving patents using Indian researchers

have been very few, just about 15 in each of the three phases and that is a small number

to draw any meaningful conclusions. However, the most striking change is noticed in the

case of foreign companies. For these patents owned by foreign companies, only 17.1 per

cent of the patents in Phase I involved only Indian team members. This increased to 25.7

per cent in Phase II and peaked to 41.4 per cent in Phase III. This happened just as the

total number of patents obtained by foreign companies increased from 146 in Phase I

through 382 in Phase II to 1,488 in Phase III. This shows two trends – one is the clear

increase in patents obtained by foreign companies using Indian researchers. We have

noticed this change earlier as well. The second trend is the greater reliance on all-Indian

research teams. This suggests the maturing of Indian research teams. They have learnt in

the earlier phases and are in a position to take more and more of the responsibilities

themselves without depending on non-Indians.

Both are advantageous trends for the host country – India. Its researchers are getting

more competitive as judged by the MNCs. Simultaneously, its companies are learning to

take advantage of non-Indians perhaps in niche research areas.

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Towards Organizational Effectiveness

Through the Greater Use of Human Resource

Practice in Public Healthcare Organizations

ZIA ULLAH

Institute of Administrative Sciences

University of the Punjab Lahore

Introduction

The desire of human resource (HR) practitioners to demonstrate the value of what they do

for the rest of the organization has a long history (Wright, Gardner, Moynihan, Allen,

2005). Drucker (1954) referred to personnel manager as constantly worrying about their

inability to prove that they are making a contribution to the enterprise. This has been

echoed more recently by Stewart, (1996) who described HR leaders as being unable to

describe their contribution to value added except in trendy, unquantifiable and wannabe

terms. In response to these longstanding and repeated criticism that HR does not add

value to organization, the past ten years has seen a burgeoning of research attempting to

demonstrate that progressive HR practices result in higher organizational performance

(Wright, at el. 2005). Huselid‘s (1995) groundbreaking study demonstrated that a set of

HR practices he referred to as High Performance Work System (HPWS) were related to

turnover, accounting profits, and firm market value.

Today most hospitals have human resource management policies which look very similar

to those in modern industries (Lentz, 1957). Hospital is a service oriented and labor

intensive organization. The effectiveness of a hospital is mostly dependent on the

effectiveness of its workforce. Therefore, among the most frustrating and fascinating

problems of hospital administration is that of integrating human resource management

policies and practices into its top management decision-making process.

Significance of the Study

Healthcare is a general public basic need and as such community expects the healthcare

organizations to provide healthcare services effectively and at affordable cost. The

hospital may be seen as a special kind of public utility designed to serve the total

community (Lentz, 1957). Like many industries and businesses today, healthcare

organizations are under mounting pressure to embrace new approaches to improve

quality. For many healthcare organizations over the past decade, it has become clear that

the sustainability of these organizations, whilst making them both modern and

dependable relies upon a new drive for quality (Zairi & Jarrar, 2001). Healthcare

organizations have to adopt a series of strategies to increase effectiveness and efficiency

in health service provision. These include reengineering organizational layout;

investment in human capital; decentralizing decision-making; restructuring hospital

services with an increased role for substitution between different levels of care;

strengthening primary healthcare services; increasing patient choice and participation in

health services; and improving outcomes through technology assessment and quality

development initiatives (EHR, 2002).

The hospital continues to be one of the most complex organizations in existence (Dawra,

2002). It does not lend itself to be defined precisely and objectively. Its different organs

are autonomous in one sense and controlled in the other, independent and at the same

time seriously dependent and complement one another. Patient is the major stakeholder

of a hospital and all the activities in hospital take place for the sake of welfare of patients.

All the employees of a healthcare center including physicians are expected to subordinate

their personal interest to the welfare of patients. Patients trust doctors, nurses, and other

employees with their lives and well being. Keeping in view the total dependence of the

patient on hospital employees especially on physicians, hospital administration should

ensure the greater use of human resource practices.

The public health sector in Pakistan is still weak and is suffering from considerable

deficiencies such as insufficient fund to meet the recurring expenditures and

mismanagement. The main causes of avoidable deaths in the country are malaria,

tuberculoses, childhood infection diseases, micro-nutrient deficiencies, unhygienic living

conditions and poor nutritional practices. Such bad health condition is reflected in the

very high rate of child mortality (110.3 per thousand), infant mortality rate (83.3 per

1000), and low life expectancy (63.0) (ESP 2003-04). However, in Pakistan, healthcare is

being provided to the public through a vast infrastructure of health facilities consisting of

hospitals, dispensaries, basic health units and maternity child health centers with

considerable number of doctors, dentists, nurses, lady health visitors and mid-wives. At

present there are about 97945 hospital beds in the country which give a population bed

ratio of 1490 persons per bed. The number of registered doctors is 96248 while the

number of available dentists is 4622 and that of nurses is 40114, and 5845 qualified

health visitors. There is one doctor for 1516 persons, one dentist for 31579 persons and

one nurse for 3639 persons. There is about 907 hospitals and 4625 dispensaries in the

country. The number of Basic Health Units (BHUs) is 5230 while the number of Rural

Health Centers (RHCs) is 541. Since the majority of doctors and hospitals are located in

cities and towns, the rural population has much lower standard of health facilities (ESP,

2003-04).

However, the paper in hand will focus on underlining the operational problems faced by a

patient, when he/she enters into a healthcare center with a view to get treatment. Based

on the premise that High Performance Work Practices (HR practices) increase

organizational effectiveness, the paper suggests to seek remedies for such problems in

these practices. A preliminary survey of different publicly owned hospitals highlighted

the following problems common in the most hospitals in Pakistan:

1. Patients who need surgery most often have to wait for a long time, mostly months,

for their turn to come. Thus unavailability of timely treatment causes death of

patients suffering from curable diseases.

2. Test results are less reliable and valid. A large number of patients as well as

physicians prefer to get the required tests done privately for relatively accurate and

better diagnosis.

3. The results of laboratory tests take considerable time and a patient has to wait for

months to have radiographic image like CT Scan, Angiography etc. Delay in

communication of diagnostic results produces difficulties for patients.

4. Medicines provided in public hospitals are purchased at the lowest price as per

government rule without considering their efficacy. This affects organizational

performance badly by either not working against the diseases or slowing down the

rate of recovery.

5. The number of beds in public hospitals is less as compared to the average number

of inpatients. Beds are informally distributed among physicians and surgeons.

Patients are admitted to wards at their will and medical officers even registrars of

wards have no authority to admit a patient needed to be observed continuously.

6. Admission to wards is relatively easy when a patient has already visited a physician

privately. Patients from out-patient department (OPD), needed to be admitted, find

less often the opportunity to be admitted.

7. Provision of medicines from OPD dispensary is well red tapped. A large number of

patients purchase medicines from outside market to avoid this cumbersome facility.

8. Physicians mostly focus only on clinical aspect of treatment and ignore

psychological side of it.

9. A large number of physicians prescribe medicines of low efficacy or high priced to

please sale representatives of pharmaceutical companies when substitute medicines

of high efficacy and low price are available.

10. Physicians are relatively independent and less accountable before their super-

ordinates. This high empowerment coupled with job security make them more

private practice oriented where the accessibility for the public at large is hard

because of economic reasons.

11. Tight control and centralization of power by regulating their private practices led

them to quit from their services. Thus public hospitals started to loose senior and

experienced physicians.

12. Senior physicians perceive the entry of young competent doctors a threat. So, they

try their best to create all possible hurdles in their way to entry to avoid

competition.

13. Physicians resist change and prefer status quo. As a result hospitals remain deprived

of technological developments and innovations that facilitate and authenticate

diagnosis and treatments.

14. The

position of Medical Superintendent and other top level management positions are

political ones. Such positions are filled vis-à-vis affiliation rather than competence.

15. The work of nurses and paramedical staff is always underestimated. They are not

given due importance neither by physicians and hospital administration nor by

patients and their caretakers. This results lack of work motivation and high turn

over rate among nurses and paramedics.

16. The service provided in OPD is less satisfactory as compared to wards and

emergency units. The activities in OPD are not properly systematized to facilitate

patients.

17. Hospitals are not kept clean. Odd smell is generally experienced and grimes are

seen everywhere.

The present study aims at developing a conceptual framework that exhibits possible

solution of these problems or at least a few of them in High Performance Work System

(HPWS).

Related Literature

The impact of human resource management (HRM) policies and practices on firms‘

performance is an important topic in the fields of human resource management, industrial

relations, and industrial and organizational psychology (Boundreau, 1991; Jones &

Wright, 1992; Kleiner, 1990; Huselid, 1995). An increasing body of work contains the

argument that the use of High Performance Work Practices, including comprehensive

employee recruitment and selection procedures, incentive compensation and performance

management systems, and extensive employee involvement and training , can improve

the knowledge, skills and abilities of a firm‘s current and potential employees, increase

their motivation, reduce shirking, and enhance retention of quality employees while

encouraging nonperformers to leave the firm (Jones & Wright, 1992; U.S. Department of

Labor, 1993). A firm‘s current and potential human resource are important considerations

in the development and execution of its strategic business plan and human resource

management practices can help create a source of sustained competitive advantage,

especially when they are aligned with a firms competitive strategy (Cappelli & Singh,

1992; Huselid, 1995).

Since then a number of studies have shown similar positive relationships between HR

practices and various measures of firm performance. For instance MacDuffie (1995)

found that bundles of HR practices were related to productivity and quality in his sample

of world wide auto assembly plants. Delery and Doty (1996) found significant

relationships between HR practices and accounting profits among a sample of banks.

Youndt, Snell, Dean, and Lepak (1996) found that among their sample of manufacturing

firms, certain combinations of HR practices were related to operational performance

indicators. Delaney (in press) found the widespread use of progressive human resource

management practices to have a strong and negative effect on organizational turnover in

the manufacturing sector. Ichniowski, Shaw, and Prennushi (1993) using longitudinal

data found the impact of cooperative and innovative HRM practices to have positive and

significant effect on organizational productivity. Similarly, Arthur (1994) found that

those with commitment, human resource systems, emphasizing the development of

employee commitment, had lower turnover and scrap rate and higher productivity than

firms with control system emphasizing efficiency and the reduction of labor cost.

The evidence presented by Boyne, Jenkins, & Poole (1999) suggests that, in the area of

HRM at least, organizational policies and practices in the public and private sectors

remain different in many important respects. In particular the traditional style of paternal,

standardized and collectivized HRM is more prevalent in public than private

organizations. Farnham and Horton (1996) identify a number of primary characteristics

of conventional HRM practices in the public sector. First, a paternalistic style of

management which purported to protect and promote the well-being of the workforce.

Secondly, standardized employment practices were adopted in each part of the public

sector (for example, civil services, local government, health service). This implied that

workers performing the same task had the same terms and conditions, both within

organizations and across organizations providing the same services regardless of their

geographical location. Such standardization provided full-time employment, job security

and life-time employment for large numbers of worker. Organizations may be driven to

emulate their private competitors. Similarly, public organizations with a large number of

new staff may follow private practices more closely (Boyne, Jenkins, & Poole, 1999).

The Theoretical and Research Framework

Most interpretations of the term Human Resource Management may be traced to the

definition of the ‗Harvard School‘ in which HRM is seen to involve all management

decisions that affect the relationship between the organization and employees—its human

resources (Beer et al. 1985). Delaney, Lewin, and Ichniowski (1989), demonstrated that

ten practices in the areas of personnel selection, performance appraisal, incentive

compensation, job design, grievances procedures, information sharing, attitude

assessment, and labor-management participation represented sophistication in human

resource management. Huselid (1995) added three practices widely found to affect a

firm‘s performance: the intensity of its recruiting efforts (selecting ratio), the average

number of hours of training per employee per year, and its promotion criteria (seniority

vs. merit).

Effectiveness has been defined in various ways by different scholars. Cameron (1983)

argues that there cannot be one universal model of organizational effectiveness.

However, there are many ways of measuring organization effectiveness (Au, C. 1996). In

non-profit human service organizations, which have ambiguous and amorphous goals,

and offer intangible services, it is even more difficult than with for-profit entities to

measure organizational effectiveness (Hasenfeld, 1992). Nonetheless, the literature

presents various approaches for measuring the effectiveness. According to Collins

(1999), effectiveness, relative to the criterion of goal accomplishment, is gauged by how

well the organization meets or exceeds its goals. Another criterion of gauging

organizational effectiveness is resource acquisition where an organization is deemed

effective in this regard if it acquires necessary factors of production such as materials,

human capital, managerial and technical expertise (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2001). Some refer

to another effectiveness criterion as the ―healthy system‖ approach. An organization is

said to be a healthy system if information flows smoothly and if employee loyalty,

commitment, job satisfaction and trust prevails (Ibid. p 633). Another and most

frequently used criterion is strategic constituency perspective or stakeholder approach.

This denotes any group of individuals who have some stake in the organization—for

example, resource provider, and user of the organization‘s product or service (Buxton,

1999).

As proposed by this paper the variable of primary interest is organizational effectiveness,

in which the variance will be attempted to be explained by a number of human resource

functions practiced in an organization. The study will suggest to establish a causal as well

as correlational relationship between HR practices and organizational effectiveness. In

this study HR practices include employee training, HR planning, selection, employee

empowerment, employee motivation, grievance registering, supervision and professional

ethics.

In this paper organizational effectiveness is defined as the absence or reduction in the

problems mentioned earlier resulting in elimination or reduction ailments, rehabilitation

and patient and attendant satisfaction. The HR practices may lead to five intervening

dimensions that further lead to organizational effectiveness. These dimensions are:

Availability of Treatment, Timely Treatment, Quality of Treatment, Responsiveness of

Employees including physicians, and Use of Technology. Quality treatment which is

available on timely basis through responsive employees using state of the art technology

will ensure eliminating or reducing patients‘ sufferings, rehabilitation of abnormal

persons while keeping patient satisfaction considerably high.

Availability of Treatment refers, firstly, to the availability of physicians. Physicians are

relatively independent and because of it they become more private practice oriented and

do not give ample time to their public practice. On the other hand tight control resulted in

high turn over of senior physicians and surgeons. Ensuring moderate empowerment—

neither giving freehand nor tight control—will remedy the problem. Secondly, beds are

informally distributed among physicians and surgeons of high rank and lower level

caregivers have no authority to admit patients needing admission. Maintaining balance of

power will also help check the personalization of wards and beds. Thirdly, patients have

objections for not being provided with admission in the hospital at first contact unless

they visit the concerned physician privately. Ensuring the practice of medical code of

ethics will negatively effect this behavior. Fourthly, the provision of medicines

particularly from OPD dispensary is not simple. Patients undergo a bureaucratic

procedure to obtain medicines. The empowerment of physicians by giving them the

authority to recommend deserving patients for such facility, and provision of medicine

solely on this recommendation will reduce the problem. Thus the following proposition

can be framed:

Proposition 1. There will be a positive association between

greater use of Human Resource Practices and the availability of

treatment.

Timely Treatment refers, firstly, to the provision of treatment at the first contact.

Patients needing surgery are to wait for a longer time for their turns to come. It is noticed

that considerable number of sanctioned posts of physicians and surgeons were laying

vacant in most of the hospitals. The practice of HR planning and selection ensuring

identification of crucial posts laying vacant and their timely fulfillment will minimize this

problem to a great extent. Employee motivation by positive reinforcement—rewarding

them for better performance—and negative reinforcement—removing difficulties as a

reward for better performance will also lead surgeons to operate more and more patients.

Secondly, patients have to wait for test results for a longer period. Imparting proper

training to laboratory technicians and use of state-of-the-art equipments in labs will bring

efficiency in laboratory performance. Thirdly, late admission and provision of medicines

also aggravate treatment. Ensuring availability of treatment will reduce this problem.

Keeping in view these logics the following proposition can be developed:


greater use of Human Resource Practices and the availability of

timely treatment.

Quality of Treatment refers to the validation of treatment. Firstly, test results are less

valid. Imparting proper training to laboratory technicians and use of state-of-the-art

equipments in labs will improve the validity of test results. Secondly, medicines are

purchased at lower rates without considering their efficacy. Empowering physicians with

the authority to reject medicines of low efficacy will enhance treatment quality.

Participation and interference of physicians and surgeons of all specialties in the process

of medicine procurement will minimize the chance of occurring this problem. Thirdly,

physicians mostly focus only on clinical aspect of treatment and ignore psychological

side of it. Through proper training the importance of the aspects of the treatment other

than clinical can be well highlighted. This will lead physicians to give proper weight to

the psychological side of treatment. Fourthly, senior physicians perceive the entry of

young and competent doctors a threat and create all possible hurdles in their way of entry.

Aggressive selection methods including increasing validity of test by strictly following

meritocracy and externalization of selection process will help solve this problem. This

will also help filling the position of medical superintendent with a suitable candidate.

Fifth, physicians resist change. As a result hospitals remain deprived of novel things that

can facilitate and authenticate diagnosis and treatments. A proper training can increase

their adaptability capacity by making them familiar with the new things causing change.

Sixth, the pathetic condition of cleanliness contributes to the development of unhygienic

environment inside the hospital. Close supervision coupled with intermittent rewards or

punishments will correct this problem. Thus the following proposition is developed:


greater use of Human Resource Practices and the quality of

treatment.

Responsiveness refers to how promptly physicians and nurses react to patients‘ needs.

Firstly, physicians are more private practice oriented and pay less attention to patients in

hospital. Ensuring the practice of code of medical ethics and proper grievance filing

system for patients will reduce the problem. Secondly, nurses and other lower staffs are

underestimated and harassed in different ways. This lack of recognition of their

contribution to the healthcare delivery system reduces their level of responsiveness.

Proper grievance registering system and timely settlement of such cases will enhance the

level of their responsiveness. Thus the proposition will be:


greater use of Human Resource Practices and the employee

responsiveness.

Use of Technology refers to the use of modern equipments available in market or used

by other hospitals particularly private ones. Test results are late and less authentic.

Introduction of modern technology will bring efficiency and accuracy in laboratory

performance. Use of modern equipments in operation theaters will assist surgeons to

increase the number of operations along with high accuracy. Computerization of records

will provide timely information thus facilitating decision making processes.

Computerization of patient registration in OPD will save the time of both patients and

employees. Installation of such equipments is not enough. Equipments provided to

different hospitals were found idle due to unavailability of skilled operators. Therefore,

relevant trainings of employees will ensure proper use of technology. So it is assumed

that:


greater use of Human Resource Practices and the greater use of

technology.

As the five areas which could be strengthened by greater and effective use of HR

practices will cast a direct and positive impact on health outcomes. Patients come to

hospitals with different levels of anxiety and expect healthcare organization to address

their needs on prompt basis in humanely ways. Addressing patients‘ needs and obtaining

their satisfaction are the ultimate justifications for the existence of healthcare

organizations. The five areas (availability of treatment, timely treatment, quality of

treatment, responsiveness of employees and use of technology) will have a positive

impact on health outcomes. So a proposition can be developed as:

Proposition 6. Timely availability of quality treatment through

responsive employees using state-of-the-art technology will cast

positive impact on health outcomes

Number of beds available in the hospital, existence of relevant treatment facility e.g. labs,

OTs, laboratory and surgical equipments, length of stay of patients, number of patients

needing admission, and pay level of nurses and other lower level staffs, who mostly quit

the organization, may also influence the effective of hospitals. Therefore, such variables

should be included as control variables.

Schematic View

Since all health care is ultimately delivered by people effective human resources

management will play a vital role in the success of healthcare organizations (Kabene et

al. 2006). HRM practices must be developed in order to find the appropriate ability to

use technology. A practitioner without adequate tools is as inefficient as having the tools

without the practitioner (Kabene et al. 2006). Workforce training is one of the important

issues. It is essential that human resources personnel consider the composition of the

health workforce in terms of both skill categories and training levels (WHO, 2000). New

options for ht education and in-service training of health care workers are required to

ensure that the workforce is aware of and prepared to meet a particular country‘s present

and future needs. A well trained and competent human resource is crucial to any

successful health care system. Studies showed how human resource initiatives aimed at

improving human resource capabilities had a significant and positive effect on the

efficiency and effectiveness of the hospitals studied (Kabene et al. 2006). Ultimately

healthcare services are delivered by people, so health care management can really be

considered people management. This is where human resource professionals must make a

positive contribution. Examining case studies makes it evident that human resource

management can and does play an essential role in the healthcare delivery system. The

practices policies and philosophies of human resources professionals are imperative in

developing and improving healthcare. The implication is that further research and studies

must be conducted in order to determine additional resource practice that can be

beneficial to all hospitals and patients (Kabene et al. 2006). The literature also stresses

that allowing some autonomy in personnel matters is an essential facilitative condition for

developing the organizational performance in healthcare system (Fritzen 2007). A review

of high-performing public organizations in developing counties found that they enjoyed

autonomy to identify positions, advertise for candidates, establish routines for hiring

people to fill positions, promote people on the basis of organizationally defined standards

and priorities, and punish those who did not meet these standards (Grindle 1997).

Conclusion

Since human resource management as a distinct department is yet awaited to be

recognized as a crucial resource for organizational success in developing countries

particularly in Pakistan, the focus on organizational development and effectiveness

through people is insignificant. Human resource management does not exist in its true

sense that is why human resource is the underutilized resource inside public sector

healthcare organizations. Validity and reliability of selection tests are not usually

ensured, trainings are not financed, bureaucratic procedures do keep authority

centralized, grievance filing systems are literally absent and reinforcement on ethical

issues is less often. Human resource activities are carried out without proper HR

planning. Workforce is handled on the traditional personnel management lines. Since all

health care is ultimately delivered by and to people, a strong understanding of the human

resource management issues is required to ensure the success of any healthcare program.

More extensive research must be conducted to bring about new human resource policies

and practices that will benefit patients around the world.

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BY HERB RUBENSTEIN

CEO of Growth Strategies. Inc

Introduction

n a related article I make the distinction between what a "leader" typically does in

organizations and what a "leader of leaders" does. Today, many leaders in America

are primarily problem solvers. "Leaders of leaders" have a different role. They

develop a platform upon which the organization and the organization's "leaders" set the

tone, ethic and direction of an organization as well as figure out the best answers to

systemic challenges and entire classes of problems an organization can face. This article

includes examples of what a typical leader would do in a situation and compares that to

what a leader of leaders would do in the same situation.

Example 1

A group of people travel long distances to resettle in an area where they were ousted

many years before. As we learn from sociology, while people are displaced and while

they travel back to their "homeland," there is usually little infighting. However, once they

get back to their homeland there is significant internal strife.

Leader: What a leader does in this situation is meet with the people, generate their trust,

declare that he or she will help the people live in peace and adjudicates their disputes one

at a time thus promoting a better life for the people.

Leader of Leaders: What a leader of leaders does is analyze the nature of the disputes,

writes a code of laws to cover as many situations as imaginable, recruits well respected,

honest and intelligent people in the community to become judges and establishes a

system to adjudicate all of the disputes.

Source: Exodus 18:13 through 18:27.

Example 2

A group of people are hired to "write up" a conference. Three people are assigned to the

job, with two to cover the room and one person to interview each speaker. Everyone

expects that all people at the conference will be in one room for the two days. There are

60 people attending. In the first session, a person suggests that the groups break up into

three rooms for most of the two days and that the number of speakers be tripled. This is

done.

I

There are no more than three people to cover this conference and write it up. They cover

the three rooms and the conference ends on Sunday and their report is due on Friday. At a

meeting on Monday with the three people and their boss, the three people tell the boss

about how big a challenge it will be to get anything written by Friday summarizing the

conference and ask for advice on how to integrate what was said in each of the three

rooms.

Leader: What a leader does in this situation is listen to all of the challenges that the

group faces to help them figure out what they can do and how the leader may be

supportive. A leader may also begin to ask, "So when do you think you could get the

report written and do you need more people to help you.

Leader of Leaders: A leader of leaders will say, we have a budget that only calls for

three people and we have a deadline on Friday. The leader of leaders will say that he

picked the three people on the team because he thought they could rise to whatever

challenge the conference raised and that they knew of the budget and deadline when they

took the assignment. The leader of leader will then ask the three, "Can you make the

deadline with an excellent product."

Source: W. Victor Rouse, American Institutes for Research

Example 3

There is significant evidence that early pregnancies, substantial illegal consumption of

alcohol and drugs among junior high and high school students is associated with negative

life outcomes including poverty, incarceration and longer than average spells of

unemployment.

Leader: What a leader does in this situation is join an organization or school as a teacher,

coach or administrator and participates daily with young people to teach them positive

work, social and cultural habits and to help give meaning to their lives.

Leader of Leaders: What a leader of leaders does is create an entirely new platform for

education, a new curriculum, a new message, a new organization and enrolls thousands of

people to help fund, support and run their organizations which teach character, education

and gives young people right after college the opportunity to teach for two years in public

schools in impoverished areas.

Sources: Elayne Bennett, Founder and CEO, Best Friends Foundation. Wendy Kopp,

Founder, Teach for America.

Example 4

Research shows that young people with poor communication skills, low self-esteem, poor

team building and few significant mentors or role models in their lives often do not do as

well as people who are better or more fortunate in these areas.

Leader: A leader volunteers in the community, in the schools, mentors and provides one

on one guidance to those in need to assist them along their way.

Leader of Leaders: A leader of leaders writes books that change the rules of games like

tennis and soccer to make them less competitive, more team oriented, where all players

can win, and injects communication exercises into fun filled sessions designed to

alleviate the deficiencies and lack of opportunity to gain these skills which these young

people face. Then he creates an international organization, with a world class board and

begins to offer these programs through Boys and Girls clubs, military bases, schools and

other outlets.

Source: Andrew Oser, Founder and CEO, Joy of Sports Foundation.

Example 5

In the early 1800's people interested in creating a better understanding of how societies

worked knew their ability to gather sufficient information (data) was very limited. And

the mathematical tools were getting stronger so that when data were generated

correlations and associations could be identified.

Leader: A leader faced with this situation would improve the theories of social science

since they were generally not trained or had the resources to gather accurate data for

proper analysis. The leader would expect that by creating a better theory it would guide

future social science leaders.

Leader of Leaders: A leader of leaders took one of the most private areas of life, suicide,

where there were accurate data, analyzed the data from the point of view as to figure out

what in society at large caused suicide rates to rise and fall and proved a strong

mathematical connection between social events at large and what most people thought at

the time was a purely private event.

Source: Emile Durkheim, father of modern sociology.

Example 6

In the late 1970's air transportation was expensive, had very uneven service between

differing cities and was completely regulated.

Leader: A leader would become a CEO of an airline and find new ways to economize, to

expand market share and to provide better service.

Leader of Leaders: A leader of leaders decided to push for the deregulation of the

airlines, allow and promote large scale innovation, price management by the airlines and

would direct the government on a successful course of action to greatly expand air travel

in the United States.

Source: Alfred Kahn, father of airline deregulation.

Example 7

For most of the nation's history, the United States did not have a national newspaper.

Leader: A leader would work within the larger dailies, like the NY Times, Wall Street

Journal and other similar newspapers or buy up as many local newspapers as he or she

could, profiting within and improving on the current system of how newspapers were

made and sold.

Leader of Leaders: In 1982, USA Today became the first national newspaper. Losing

millions in its first few years, the leadership of this paper listened to its customers and

cities, created new features and now is both profitable and gives the United States a

national newspaper.

Source: Allan H. Neuharth, Chairman, Gannett, Inc.

Example 8

Government programs are often criticized for not being customer responsive and not

being efficient.

Leader: A leader would get into a management position in the government, set standards

for efficiency, accountability and improve the operations of the agency where he or she

works.

Leader of Leaders: A leader of leaders would study all areas where government was

improving, catalogue them, find their common nucleus and develop a strong set of

publications that showed the government how to improve itself. Today, there are over 48

books with the term "Reinventing Government" after the first such book in the early

1990's that have contributed significantly to the improvement of government services,

especially at the local and state levels.

Sources: Gaebler and Osborne, co-authors, Reinventing Government and many related

titles.

Example 9

Under generally accepted accounting principles "people" (workers, advisors, board

members, etc.) are not listed on all financial records as "costs" or "assets" in any way

even though it is the people of an organization that are the ultimate source of its success.

Leader: A leader would work in an organization that has thousands of workers (or

possibly a union) and strive to get the management of the company to treat the workers

well and invest in their education, training and work conditions to improve the potential

for success for the organization.

Leader of Leaders: A leader of leaders would measure the actual statistical relationship

between a company investment in the education and training of its workers and the

company's future stock price, even though Wall Street does not even take into account

how much a company is spending on educating and training its workers as a factor in

evaluating a company's future expected stock price. This research and the proof of a

causal relationship between investing in workers and future financial performance of a

company will lead the accounting profession, kicking and screaming, to begin to list

people (human capital) as an asset rather than as a liability and change the entire way

companies invest in their workers.

Source: Dr. Laurie J. Bassi, Ph.D., Founder, Human Capital Capability, Inc. and

Knowledge Asset Management, Inc.

Example 10

In the 1960's African American citizens in Louisiana had to drink out of separate water

fountains, use separate bathrooms (and many times they were not even allowed to use

bathrooms in stores since they were for whites only). There were separate schools and no

admittance to whites only pools even when they were located right next to predominately

African American neighborhoods.

Leader: A leader, if he or she were white, would see that a fundamental injustice was

being perpetuated. This leader may set a personal example by drinking out of the water

fountain labeled "colored", would argue for changes in the United States so that all

Americans were treated equally and given equal access to "public" facilities like schools,

restaurants, pools and buses. A leader would work for African Americans running for

office and live life in an "integrated" manner.

Leader of Leaders: A leader of leaders would draw the nation and the world's attention

to the violence, atrocities, debasement and subjugation of African Americans throughout

the United States throughout its history through the 1960's. He or she would create a

message, a platform, communicate a vision of equality as being good for all Americans

and he or she would build the organizations supporting this idea to force the government

to change the laws, to prosecute the guilty and to make one standard, a nationwide

standard, requiring every state to fulfill the mandate of the United States Constitution.

Source: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Conclusion

These are examples of world class leaders of leaders. Among our midst there are

thousands of people who have created platforms, garnered and managed resources to

achieve a breakthrough in improving this world. This article should stimulate your

thinking in three ways. First, being a leader is a good thing. Being a leader of leaders is a

much better thing. This article gives you a glimpse of a path you can blaze to becoming a

leader of leaders in your own lifetime, starting now and never giving up.

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