Cross Cultural Variations in Corporate Social Responsibility

The aim of this study is to examine the fundamental factors that affect the understanding level of corporate social responsibility (CSR) across South Asian countries. CSR was measured by seven dimensions defined by ISO26000 and number of other indicators (e.g., education, religion, region) were employed to figure out cross-cultural impact. This research unveiled the basic but general trends about the concept of CSR. Majority of the respondents prioritized accountability, transparency and respect for stakeholder interests. Overall trends regarding every CSR dimension are leaded by master students and followed by doctoral students. On average scale, the followers of all the 3 leading religions (Buddhism, Hinduism and slam) in the region have similar inclination towards CSR concept; however, Christianity shows incomparable results. Bhutan is the only country where most educated people (PhD students) has given less importance to CSR actions as compare to other students’ groups. Overall, this study explores no perceptible discrepancies in the trends and pattern of CSR within South Asian region. This research presents the ground level understandings from the potential workforce (students) about the widespread concept of CSR. These results affirm the claims that educational institutes and course contents taught in South Asian region are still lagging behind in the race of literacy. Academia should not only upgrade their teaching method but also the course content in order to build the capacity of their potential workforce to resolve any problem in future. The results of this study are also important for international agencies, government and non-governmental organizations and other relevant institutions to understand the basic ‘know how’ of customized CSR approach across the countries.

Analysis of Sports Anxiety Levels among Experienced and Inexperienced Collegiate Athletes

The study examined to analyze the different levels of pre-competitive anxiety for inexperienced and inexperienced athletes. The pre-competitive anxiety factors were evaluated with the help of competitive state anxiety inventory – 2 (Urdu version). CSAI-2 questionnaire is composed of twenty-seven items having three subscales e.g. cognitive anxiety, somatic anxiety, and self-confidence. A sample of 360 athletes was taken through a stratified sampling technique for the examination of pre-competitive anxiety levels. The data of 360 athletes were further stratified into two sets of 180 experienced and 180 inexperienced athletes between the ages of 16 to 27 years. The questionnaire was distributed one hour before the start of the competition. T-test has been used to assess the data collected for investigation. The results displayed a significant difference in somatic, cognitive aspects of anxiety and self-confidence among the college-level experienced and inexperienced athletes.

Sleep Disturbance and its Associated Risk Factors among Pakistani Athletes

Sleep is increasingly being an integral part of a training routine rather than a stagnant state of inactivity, and as a controllable factor that can modify performance for elite athletes. Athletes report high rates of sleep disturbance especially during intense workloads which directly affects athletic performance and may predispose individuals to injury. This study aimed to evaluate the quality of sleep and the various risk factors associated with it among Pakistani athletes. From February to April 2020, a cross-sectional, multi-center study was conducted involving athletes aged 18 and up, of either gender, from various cities in Pakistan... A validated Urdu version of the Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI) instrument was used to identify sleep quality. Out of 205 participants, n=84 athletes were bad sleepers based on PSQI score. Of whom, the majority were males n=75 (89.3%), and having age group of 18-30 years n=71 (84.5%). Binary logistic regression demonstrated no statistically significant association between any of the factor and PSQI score. The study found a disturbing quality of sleep in a considerable number of athletes. Therefore, interventions should be done to improve sleep quality so that the performance of the athletes can be improved.

First Aid Training and its Impact on the Management Skills of Injuries in Sports at Secondary Schools

The First Aid Training among society has a huge effect in limiting the proportion of injuries. The pupil's dynamic in sports is practically on the danger of having wounds due to a pool of fundamental information to oversee sports wounds. This exploration study was led to determine the capability of the program on first aid training of the Pupils of schools. Seventy volunteer students were chosen arbitrarily for First Aid Training from government model secondary school Bhakkar, Punjab-Pakistan. At first, the medical aid information and abilities of the students have evaluated arbitrarily 70 game dynamic students. After that fourteen-day, First Aid Training was directed, through proficient Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) for those school students. After the fruition of First Aid Training, an overview was directed to know the adequacy of Training through a survey. The gathered information was dissected on (SPSS) rendition 20 the frequencies, rates, and t-test was performed. This examination demonstrated that First Aid Training improves the abilities and information on the students about First Aid.

Traces of American English in Pakistani English: A Comparative Multi-dimensional Study of Press Editorials

This study explores the linguistic variation of periodized data of Pakistani press editorials in comparison with American press editorials. Most of the previous research studies conducted on Pakistani English, in general, and press editorial, in particular, compare Pakistani English with British English. No study compares Pakistani press editorials from a period to American press editorials. To trace the influence of American English on Pakistani English, this study explores the phases of Pakistani press editorials that resemble or differ from American press editorials. Biber’s (1988) multi-dimensional modal was used as a theoretical framework for this study. It exploited a diachronic corpus of Pakistani press editorials which was divided into three temporally distanced phases: 1947-1951, 1971-1975, and 2012- 2016. The Biber tagger was employed to annotate grammatical features. To draw a comparison, Nini’s (2015) MAT results of the American (Brown) corpus were utilized. The regression method was used for the computation of factor scores and analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to draw a comparison between the diachronic data of Pakistani press editorials and American press editorials. The findings indicate that phase 3 of Pakistani press editorials is the closest to American press editorials in producing informational and explicit discourse. Phase 1 of Pakistani press editorials and American press editorials are quite close in non-narrative and abstract style in their discourse production. Moreover, phase 2 of Pakistani press editorials and American press editorials with a small difference in mean scores produce overt expression of persuasion.

Difficulties in the Applications of Tenses Faced by ESL Learners

Tenses are one of the vital essentials of grammar. Command over the English language demands a thorough understanding of tenses. Although much research has been conducted on the teaching of the English language in the context of Pakistan, little has been dug out about the problems faced by students regarding the applications of tenses. This paper investigates the perceptions of both students and teachers of the difficulties in the applications of tenses facing ESL learners. Data were collected from 150 students and 30 teachers of government high schools through a structured questionnaire. The results of the study showed that the students are confronted with many difficulties in the application of tenses consisting of using future indefinite tense instead of the simple present tense regarding its use for scheduled future activities, using present continuous tense instead of a simple present for the permanent situation in the present, using future indefinite tense for planned future activities and so on. The results also indicated that the difficulties were caused by inappropriate teaching methodology, lack of speaking environment inside the classroom, translations from the mother tongue into English and vice versa, much focus on rules and teaching sentences and expressions as isolated units rather than an integral part of the discourse. In the light of the results, it is recommended that while teaching tenses, teachers should focus both on rules and applications of tenses. English should be taught more as a language than as a mere body of rules. Moreover, teachers should be properly trained in teaching tenses.

Breakdown in Monitoring Project Performance to Reduce Transaction Cost in Public Sector Construction Projects: A Case Study from Pakistan

The purpose of this research is to break down the monitoring process to explore the problems which impede cost efficiency in contract monitoring in a developing country, such as Pakistan. This research investigated the issues and challenges to the cost-efficient and effective implementation of project monitoring systems in public sector construction projects in Pakistan. This study uses the transaction cost economics (TCE) lens, to explore the project monitoring process of construction projects, 25 interviews with Engineers and Associate engineers were conducted from public sector construction projects. Qualitative research was performed, and thick qualitative data has been coded, categorized, analyzed, and concluded. The study concluded that in principle, project monitoring contributes to reduced transaction costs, depending on how efficiently governance arrangements are made. Hurdles related to weak governance in the organization significantly increase the post-contract transaction cost (TC). As a result of the analysis, multiple issues have been identified from the study such as Political realities, capacity building, resource constraints, administrative issues, mutual dependency, and department coordination has a direct influence on the TCs in construction projects. The result of this study provides a deeper understanding and clear roadmap of the ongoing monitoring practices and processes in the public sector construction projects. It identifies the problems and issues of the monitoring process in the construction industry of developing countries which potentially causes to increase in the total project cost.

Literary Text and Language Learning Behaviour of ESL Learners

This study exploits John Milton's poems "On His Blindness, and "Methought I Saw My Late Espoused Saint" for teaching speaking skills to ESL learners. The study utilized a quasi-experimental design consisting of a treatment group (TG) and a comparison group (CG). CG was taught through conventional language text whereas TG was treated with the aforementioned poems. The main focus of the study was to observe the language learning behavior of the students of both TG and CG during language learning activities. The study therefore employed observation field notes beside the speaking type pretest and posttest as tools of data collection. The thematic analysis of the observation field notes indicated that the students of TG were confident, motivated, involved in, and excited about the language learning activities. On the contrary, the students of the CG were found to be hesitant, passive, and demotivated during the language learning venture. Consequently, the students of TG performed significantly better than that of CG on the posttest. The study recommends that poetry should be utilized for teaching the English language in general and speaking skills in particular.

Elite School Students’ Perceptions of Human Rights: An Interview Study

Since independence, Pakistan has been struggling to deal with its two focal phenomena. One is the culture of elite governance whereby precious chosen few can influence all societal and administrative segments of the country, and the second related to the issues in the realization of human rights. The realization of fundamental, social, cultural, and political rights depends upon how the ruling elites perceive it. Keeping in view the scenario, this qualitative study was set to explore the perceptions of elite students regarding status and issues in the realization of human rights in Pakistan. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with five purposely selected students from elite schools. Thematic analysis revealed that most students have a superficial understanding of human rights. Though they believed that hierarchies, corruption, religious extremism, and nepotism should come to an end for the beginning of a just society, their discourse held class interest. Transparency, accountability, and good governance were not stressed. A society with equal human rights requires participation by elites which is characterized by a greater sense of social justice, humanity, responsibility, and accountability.

Dwelling Possibilities: Career Perceptions of Single Women at Mid-Career in Education Sector of Pakistan

This research study explores the perceptions of single women at their mid-career stage in the education sector of Pakistan. The Kaleidoscope Career Model (KCM) has been used as a theoretical framework to interpret the research data gathered through semi-structured interviews with five participants (single women) working in public and private sector educational institutes in Pakistan. The interviews covered four main aspects, out of which three aspects were borrowed from KCM (Balance, Authenticity, and Challenge) and an additional aspect of Perceived Organizational Support (POS). The result of the study supported all four aspects. Data gathered on these four aspects reflect five major themes (satisfaction, balance, challenge, development, and support) that were common in the responses of all participants. This research provides useful insights and an in-depth understanding of single women’s mid-career perceptions in Pakistan’s education sector in a male-dominated society.