The Business Review

School of Business Studies

University of Kashmir

ISSN: 0972-8384

The primary objective of the present paper is to analyze and compare the level of Job satisfaction of academic and administrative employees working in different higher education institutions. The Job satisfaction of employees is measured using Spector’s (1994) Job Satisfaction Survey (JSS). JSS is a 36 item, nine facet scale to assess employee attitudes about the job and aspects of the job. The satisfaction levels of the academic and administrative on different facets of their jobs are compared using Independent samples test. Among the two groups of employees surveyed in the present study, administrative staff reported comparatively higher satisfaction with their jobs as compared to the academic staff.

It was in early April, 2014, when a local shopkeeper Umesh Chandra from Barabanki, Uttar Pradesh (UP - the most populated state of India) was raided by Lucknow Food & Drug Administration department and samples of Maggi, the most successful noodles brand of the FMCG giant – Nestle, were taken and sent to the laboratory for testing. Just a few weeks later, a ground breaking report taking every one by surprise came from the Gorakhpur lab. Maggi noodles had tested positive for MSG (Monosodium Glutamate), a highly suspicious ingredient believed to be causing fatal reactions in the body. The reports also suggested that Maggi contained excess amounts of lead than permissible limits. Nestlé India’s 30% revenue maker (Maggi) was for the first time caught in what turned out to be a major controversy. This case discusses how the minor headache that could just have been averted by paying affordable fine for violating norms turned into a public relations nightmare for one of the world’s best known companies. It focuses on importance for a business to understand the legal and political environment of a country. In broad terms the case discusses how strict a company has to be about the quality dimensions of the product. A small drift from quality benchmarks can ruin the decades of product value. The case study draws its inputs from the secondary data readily available online and in print. Further, the sources consulted are authentic and unambiguous primarily meant for the knowledge purposes. The most frequently accessed sources include FSSAI.gov.in, Nestle.in, Fortune.com and Indian Express online. The noodles controversy as it has been presented in this reading can be used as a live example to understand the practical application of concepts like Managing public relations, Business environment (Legal), Business Ethics, Strategic decision making, Quality Management, Brand Equity and Corporate Governance. Moreover, the comprehensive nature of this paper makes it apt to be discussed both at under graduate and post graduate levels.

In the recent past, the world economy has witnessed a paradigm shift having moved away from isolated national economies constrained by barriers to cross-border trade and investment towards an interdependent global economic system. Due to such transformation, there has been a surge in foreign direct investment (FDI) flows across the globe. Over the last three decades, there has been a huge increase in both the flow and stock of FDI in the world economy. The fastest growing BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) economies have played a remarkable role in the changing global investment landscape. The BRICS countries are considered as the fastest emerging economies whose markets are developing significantly. The spectacular rise in FDI flows in BRICS group of countries, projecting these economies as the significant players in the foreign investment scene has motivated the current study. The present research focuses on analyzing the trend and sectoral pattern of foreign direct investment in BRICS nations. An overall rising trend is observed in both FDI inflows as well as outflows during the period 1990-2017, while the sectoral pattern of FDI inflows has witnessed a substantial change over the years in these emerging economies with services sector having emerged as the most favoured FDI destination.

The work environment is an important area of management research, which plays an important role for the employees in the organisation to determine the working condition. Work environment affects the employee morale, productivity and engagement - both positively and negatively. The employees working in the poor work environment are prone to stress, which reduces employee’s performance. Hence, performance is affected badly due to the work environment. Establishing a better work environment is essential, in which the employees are productive in raising the profits for the organisation, corporation as well as small business. The present study is to determine the impact of work environment on the performance of the employees. The paper also highlights some of the key elements of work environment and their relative impact on the employee performance. It is the responsibility of the management to understand and recognize changing work preferences of employees and address them cordially in order to retain and develop them properly. So, the organizations must build up such work environments that are conducive and should meet the dynamic need of the employees. It will help the organization in reducing job dissatisfaction, employee’s turnover and absenteeism, and will increase their performance.

The housing in India varies from tiny huts in far flung areas to concrete horizontal structures to the modern apartment buildings in big cities. The horizontal structures are costly and consume more land than that of vertical housing structures. The trend in the valley of Kashmir is to construct the horizontal houses which have not only led to shrinkage of non agricultural land but to the shrinkage of paddy fields as well. There is an immediate need to look into the matter as is directly concerned with the non renewable resources. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the feasibility of vertical housing structures for sustainability. The paper looks into various loopholes that have worked as impediments for evolving a thought system that would nurture a culture of preferring vertical housing structures.

Human Resource Development is the process of equipping the human resource with knowledge and skill enabling the person to take up the job and profession commensurate to the acquired knowledge and skill with ability and competence. Developing human resource is not a one- time affair but is required time and again for manning the new projects as well as for replacement of the old and aged personnel. Human resources play the most vital and considerable role in achieving organizational goals in healthcare industry. Healthcare sector is the backbone of our society which deals with humans. However the proficiency of the human resources can only be maximized by implementing human resource strategies pertinent to the healthcare sector. Therefore, organizations have to set a favorable working environment, where in employees can contribute for the overall growth of an organization. The present study is focused on the overall Climate of the health care sector taking into consideration two hospitals i.e. Govt. Medical College, Jammu(GMC) and Asharya Shri Chandar College of Medical Science, Jammu, (ASCOMS).

One of the hot debates from last few years that had been not only in academia but also in nonacedamic circles very viral is digital currencies (Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum). Bitcoin as the most popular of the digital currencies which is used and distributed electronically is an innovative internet protocol created by the japanese pseudonymous « Satoshi Nakamoto » in October 2008, it is a new form of decentralized electronic currency system, it stands for an IT innovation based on advancement in peer-to-peer networks and cryptographic protocols, it has low processing fees and trustworthy. The digital currency is based on the IT innovation so having the assocation and dependence on internet access. So in this back drop this paper makes an attempt to understand the relashionship between the Bitcoin prices (BTC) and search queries on Google Trends as a measure of the interest in the currency in the world. The relationship will be examined by using weekly data for the 2013-2018. Make use of time series models to develop and understand the relationship in scientific way.Our preliminary results conclude that there exists a strong and significant relationship between Bitcoin price movements and the queries in Google Trends by investment professionals in Bitcoins. The paper will conclude with some suggestive remarks.

Book Review