How does occupational stress affect individuals employed in textiles? An exploratory study from Pakistan

Occupational stress among the employees has become a major concern for the organizations without exemption for the textile and clothing industry, a major manufacturing industry of the developing countries. In Pakistan, it contributes 8.5% to the GDP and is a source of employment for 30% of the workforce. This research aims at exploring the effects of job stress amongst the individuals employed in textiles. For the purpose, data was collected from 1212 textile industry employees. Deployment of exploratory factor analysis (EFA) on the information collected resulted four stress impact factors, namely psychological, behavioural, performance and effectiveness, and physical. The factors described an overall accumulative variance of 60.87%, with psychological as the most significant, explaining 40% of the total. Results of this work disclose that how Occupational Stress affect the employees of textile and clothing industry. There is a need to understand the complexity of stress phenomenon so that the stress management intervention strategies could be designed and implemented accordingly. Findings of this research may be helpful in unfolding the complexity of stress phenomenon and these can be used as a guideline for the design and promotion of more acceptable and viable approaches or strategies for real-time benefits realization at individual and organizational level in terms of higher job satisfaction, motivation and productivity.

The introduction of electronic prescribing in the Orchard clinic-a QI project

AimsHospital Electronic Prescribing and Medicines Administration (HEPMA) system successfully rolled out in July, 2020 at the Orchard clinic as the first site in NHS Lothian. The initial aim was to collect some “pre-HEPMA” and “post-HEPMA” data to look at “staff's attitudes to a new IT system, and does that change with successful implementation of it?” in the form of a survey. In the light of the findings of the pre-HEPMA staff survey, it became the QI project (as above).This aimed to look at both qualitative data; in the form of a staff attitudes survey towards a new IT system and quantitative data; to measure benefits of its implementation and to address issues raised by staff in the survey in the form of an audit in both pre and post HEPMA cycles.MethodTwo cycles were completed as follows:1. Pre-HEPMA cycle in March, 2020:Survey: Questionnaires asking question re- own IT skills, preparation and expectations of outcome of its implementation.Audit: Measured time taken to write and re-write paper prescriptions. Proforma filled by staff to measure time taken to log on and other IT related issues.2. Post-HEPMA cycle in October, 2020:Survey: Replicated above questions re-own IT skills, support during and after launch, disaster recovery and views about actual outcome of its implementation.Audit: Replicated to measure time taken to complete electronic prescriptions.Result24 staff questionnaires returned in both cycles. Staff felt more confident in their own IT skills, training and hence competence to use HEPMA; more supported, more confident about contingency plans and HEPMA to be more beneficial than initially anticipated. Overall, actual perceived success of (91%) compared to anticipated success (71%).The majority issues raised via the first survey were felt to be addressed. Time to log was on averageThe audit showed a clear benefit in terms of clinical time saving, e.g. daily clinical time spent writing prescription reduced from an average 45 to 6 minutes with HEPMA.The quality of documentation on the prescriptions remained unchanged.ConclusionStaff's attitude towards IT does change after successful implementation of a new IT system. But IT issues make the whole process laborious.There was evident benefits realization with an electronic prescribing system compared to paper prescriptions.I was awarded “Employee of the month” for this project which I also presented at the NHS Lothian grand round (>150 attendees) for dissemination and future replication.

Investigating the Nature of Expectations and Its Influence on Attitudes Towards Malaysian Government E-Services

This paper investigates the nature of expectations and its influence on attitudes towards government electronic services (e-services) in Malaysia. Based on a discussion of findings from in-depth focus group studies with government providers and users of e-services in Malaysia, a conceptual model is devised which explores both the extrinsic and intrinsic forces (in the form of e-government stimuli) influencing the articulation and actualization of stakeholder expectations, which can sway attitudes toward e-services. Key contributing factors (e.g., technological issues, managerial/institutional challenges, resource constraints, user needs), which have inhibited the extent of benefits realization when using e-services are explored. The model also introduces the concept of situational context—the importance of considering e-services in relation to its specific setting or circumstances at play.

Predictive method of inventory optimization in industrial manufacturer performance

Strong collaboration in supply chain at B2B market may improve operational and financial performance of both suppliers and clients. Need for collaboration benefits realization is especially actual for supplying manufacturers with huge investments in inventory as well as high ordering and carrying costs. Traditional stock level optimization models rely on historic data which makes them inefficient when supply if influenced by changing customized demand of key B2B clients. Strong collaboration with key clients, synchronization of planning process through the whole supply chain up to the end user and a forward-looking demand adjustment (ΔD, %) to the forecasting model are suggested to improve efficiency of planning. The model is validated at the B2B industrial manufacturer with positive effect. Application of the demand adjustment reorients the whole inventory planning practices towards a proactive approach that lead to a higher operational and financial efficiency.

Comparative Analysis of Effective Project Governance Practices and Benefit Realization Management for the Successful Execution of Projects in NGO Industry

Purpose: This study has examined the influence/control of effectiveproject governance practices on the accomplishments of the different projects those were carried out by the Non-Government Organizations (NGO) sector in Pakistan. This study has also analyzed the significance of benefits realization management as moderation between project governance and project success in order to achieve the organizational strategic goals and objectives. Design/Methodology/Approach:Quantitative research methodology has been used in this research in which survey questionnaires have been conducted from the project management staff of the selected NGOs which have their head-offices in twins cities Rawalpindi and Islamabad. A total of 305 responses as per the simple random sampling of the project management staff of selected NGOs have been used to draw the results of this research using Smartpls software version 3 to analyze the data in order to prove the hypothesis of this research. Findings: After through examining/securitization of the data, it was clearly seen that there were positive/momentous effects on the efficiency of the projects, benefits of the organizations, impact of the projects & its future perspective to be more successful. Moreover, the moderating effect of benefits realization management in the relationbetween project governance and organizational benefits,projectimpact,project efficiency alsostakeholder satisfactionis positive and significant.However,benefits realization management insignificantly moderate relation between project governance and future potential.

Enterprise Architecture: A Business Value Realization Model

Today, as organizations face constant change, they must rapidly adapt their strategies and operations. This involves continuous business transformation. However, guiding and managing such transformation can be an intimidating task because of organizational complexity. Hence, organizations resort to Enterprise Architecture (EA) to address this complexity and achieve their transformation goals. Nonetheless, there is a lack of research on EA benefits realization and a dearth of conclusive evidence on how EA enables business transformation and delivers value to organizations. Therefore, this research uses a case study method to explore how EA investment is converted into organizational value. This research makes two contributions. The first of these is the development of an EA value realization model, which comprises three iterative and interrelated processes: the EA conversion process, the EA use process, and the EA competitive process. The second contribution is the identification of factors that may influence the value realization process.

Enterprise Architecture and Organizational Benefits: A Case Study

Enterprise architecture (EA) is a framework that consists of multiple processes to align business strategies with information technology (IT) architecture. It helps the organization standardize business operations and incorporate systems in different layers to achieve business goals and organizational benefits. This study focuses on identifying organizational benefits that can be achieved through EA implementation. The study comprises three main phases: (i) benefits realization (from literature review), (ii) benefits reconfirmation (from EA experts), and (iii) benefits validation (through a case study). Specifically, the benefits considered in this study are related to EA products, services, and strategies are known as: (i) business agility, (ii) creating competitive advantage, and (iii) increasing value. The study covers a vast literature review to define the current status of EA and organizational benefits. In addition, the study incorporates a number of measuring factors for each EA benefits with the help of a literature review. The initial findings reconfirmed and modified based on the experts’ opinions collected through interview sessions. The research applied the grounded theory and qualitative approach to analyze the interview sessions. Accordingly, using the experts’ advice, we proposed a model to show the steps and guidelines for assessing EA organizational benefits using corresponding measuring factors and sub-criteria. Finally, the proposed model validated through an in-depth case study to get final confirmation and see the model fits reality. Overall, this research highlight the potential benefits an organization can achieve from EA framework implementation. The proposed framework can assist EA decision-makers to understand and realize the EA benefits and its assessment process.