PhD

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://repository.cuilahore.edu.pk/handle/123456789/47

This collection archives the complete set of theses produced by students of the COMSATS University Islamabad, Lahore Campus.

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Mediating Role of Workplace Spirituality and Protean Career in Modeling the Employee Career Success through Spiritual Leadership
(Library Information Services, COMSATS University Islamabad, Lahore Campus, 2018) Huma Ali; SP11-PMS-001; Dr. Mahmood Ahmad Bodla; LHR TP 5292
Career success, though a subjective construct, has always been the most cherished goal of all employees. The present study focuses on the role of spiritual leadership in attaining the career success while workplace spirituality and protean career acts as catalyst to enhance the underlying psychological processes. Subjective evaluation of career success may include life, career and job satisfaction which can be enhanced through spiritual leadership. Workplace spirituality is the very essence for prevalence of spiritual leaders which can boost up the morale of employees and help meet their personal as well as organizational objectives by nourishing different streams of their careers. A protean career employee generally focuses on personal development of his skills and competencies at his own in order to attain career success instead of being dependent on organizational career arrangements. However, enabling work environment in the presence of work place spirituality and spiritual leaders will augment this process. There exists significant literature how workplace spirituality affects the performance of employees in the organization, but this study is a prime effort to investigate how workplace spirituality and protean career can be used to explain the relationship between spiritual leadership and subjective career success of employees. Current stream of research that calls for pragmatism philosophy, which is being used in present research, dwells the need for testing framework through qualitative as well as quantitative perspectives which is known as mix-method research design. This design helps to overcome the weaknesses/shortcomings of quantitative and qualitative studies. Using structured questionnaire and interview guide, data were collected from x faculty members of universities, doctors of hospitals and officer grade employees of banking industry from five major cities of Punjab, Pakistan. Service sector industries have been chosen because of its major contribution to the national GDP (more than 60%). Respondents were selected through convenience sampling and sample size was 1920. Different statistical tools such as correlation analysis, confirmatory factor analy sis, structural equation modeling and hierarchical regression analysis have been applied for analyzing the data which provided significant support for the hypothesized relation ships. Results showed that spiritual leadership positively impact subjective career suc cess of employees. Similarly, workplace spirituality and protean career act as the cata lysts between spiritual leadership and subjective career success of employees. This study open new horizons for future research. The study in hand will provide guidelines and applications for researchers as well as practitioners.
Perceptions of Organizational Politics and Employees’ Performance; An Integrative Model of Pakistani Worksites
(Library Information Services, COMSATS University Islamabad, Lahore Campus, 2018) Rizwan Qaiser Danish; SP09-PMS-002; Prof. Dr. Mahmood A. Bodla; LHR TP 5288
Organizational Politics is an integral part of every organization whether small or large, public or private. This phenomenon varies in the degrees of its use from person to person and context to context. Thus perceptions of reality are more important than reality itself. The study in hand is an effort to investigate what affects do these perceptions have on different employees’ outcomes in Pakistani organizations. This is prime effort to investigate the relationship of perceived organizational politics with various outcomes through mixed method design and focusing on mechanisms or processes rather than bivariate relationships. The data was collected from nationwide sample through self administered questionnaires in quantitative phase and semi structured interviews in qualitative phase concurrently. Self administered questionnaires were distributed to part time management students who were working in different organizations of Pakistan during their day schedule and take their classes in evening. Overall 1360 questionnaires were distributed from which 1163 working surveys were received which make about response rate equals to 85.51%. Qualitative data were collected through semi structured interviews from six executives working in different industries. Participation in survey and interview was voluntary while confidentiality and anonymity were ensured. For analysis purpose, quantitative data were coded and entered into SPSS 20 and interviews were transcribed in NVivo 10. Structural Equation Modeling was applied for measurement model and structural model for the purpose of hypotheses testing in AMOS 18. Supplemental tests for mediation and interactions were run for cross validation in SPSS 20 through regression analysis. The results strongly supported the proposed model and hypotheses thus establishing evidence from comparatively very large national level sample. There were also some exploratory findings which have been discussed in details. Guidelines for future research are also provided.
The Relationship Between Corporate Governance and Firm Value: Role of Discretionary Earnings Management
(Library Information Services, COMSATS University Islamabad, Lahore Campus, 2018) Sajid Nazir; FA10-PMS-001; Dr. Talat Afza; LHR TP 5287
Corporate governance practices help in enhancing firm value by effectively monitoring the managerial decisions as well as reducing the level of information asymmetry and agency problem between empowered managers and dispersed minority shareholders. The present study investigates the relationship between corporate governance and firm value for the developing economy of Pakistan. The study has also taken into consideration the moderating role of discretionary earnings management in corporate governance-firm value relationship, which is considered to be a relatively ignored research issue in corporate finance literature. In addition to focusing on individual mechanisms of corporate governance (i.e. audit, board, compensation, ownership), the present study has also constructed a composite corporate governance index to investigate the role of effective corporate governance in mitigating earnings management and enhancing firm value. The data of 208 firms listed at Karachi Stock Exchange for a time period of 2004 2011 has been used for analysis and accounting, market and economic measures of performance have been used as firm value. The study finds that corporate governance plays a vital role in enhancing firm value in long as well as short run. Constitution of internal audit committees as an effective internal audit system is essential for the enriched progress of a firm. The monetary incentives and compensation paid to the top executives motivates them to work in the best interests of the company which increases not only short term accounting value of firm but also long term market and economic value. The findings reveal that discretionary earnings management practices by corporate managers damage the firm value in long term and it could be mitigated by effective corporate governance mechanisms. Moreover, this value damaging role of discretionary earnings management negatively moderates between effective corporate governance and firm value. Firms with earnings manipulation weakens the impact of effectiveness of governance system and leads to lower firm value. Finally, the study suggests some practical implications based upon the findings for investors, policy makers and manager.
Antecedents and Consequences of Sales Force Intrinsic Motivation: An Integrated Model
(Library Information Services, COMSATS University Islamabad, Lahore Campus, 2018) Basharat Naeem; SP09-PMS-001; Dr. Mahmood Ahmad Bodla; LHR TP 5291
How can sales force be motivated for superior sales productivity? This question has consistently been asked by sales management since long. While sales quota based compensation are frequently used to improve performance, critics highlight potential dark side of such schemes resulting into extrinsic motivation of poor quality as it would not be sustainable and bring counter-productive work behaviors. Numerous practicing managers and academics recite now-familiar motivational mantra that motivation comes from the self, not from desire for money. Although intrinsic motivation has long been theorized as strong predictor of performance particularly for the jobs requiring creativity, yet empirical evidence does not seem to converge. Moreover, knowledge is strikingly limited of how informal controls intrinsically motivate sales force to perform their job in creative fashion to be star performers. It provides strong stimulus to address the research question of how sales force intrinsic motivation is influenced by largely ignored informal sales force controls (antecedents) such as optimistic sub cultural control (workgroup level context) and spirit at work based control (job level context) which, in turn, drive sales performance directly and indirectly by sales force creativity (consequences). Moreover, it is advocated that if indeed different selling situations exist, then there will be high likelihood that each type of sales force, for example trade (Fast Moving Consumer Goods; hereinafter FMCG) and missionary (Pharmaceutical) sales force of this study, may respond differently to contextual factors, such as informal sales force controls of this study, resulting into differential influence on motivation, behavior and performance. Surprisingly, knowledge regarding the effect of the type of sales force selling situations for critical sales force outcomes is limited at best. This issue provided thrust for this study to address important research question of whether or not effectiveness of newly introduced informal sales force controls is contingent upon selling situations of trade (FMCG) and missionary (Pharmaceutical) sales force. An integrated conceptual model is proposed by uniquely merging complementary insights from conceptual logic of informal controls, componential theory of creativity and self-determination theory. Mixed method sequential explanatory research design is used to empirically test the proposed model by employing structural equation model. In focal quantitative phase, data is collected by structured survey questionnaire from 1065 frontline field sales force, both sales persons and sales managers, of 60 sales organizations of FMCG and Pharmaceutical industries in Pakistan. In follow-up qualitative phase, eleven semi-structured interviews of the survey respondents are used to interpret and corroborate key quantitative findings. Findings indicate that intrinsic motivation does not automatically translate into improved sales performance. Actually, sales force intrinsic motivation first stimulates their creative performance of selling job which, in turn, improves their sales performance. Analysis clarifies the role of intrinsic motivation that it is contextually influenced attitudinal state cultivated by both informal sales force controls. Spirit at work based control has important role in nurturing sales force creativity, which consequently improves their sales performance, over and above that is mediated by intrinsic motivation. Whereas optimistic sub cultural control stimulates sales force creativity, by cultivating intrinsic motivation, which results into their improved sales performance. Interestingly, these relationships do not differ significantly across selling situations of trade and missionary sales force disconfirming the assumption of heterogeneity of such selling situations. This thesis provides potential aid to theoreticians and practitioners to appreciate and understand complex mechanism of effectively designing informal sales force control levers by highlighting the importance of intermediary markers of sales force intrinsic motivation and creativity for developing high performing sales force operative in highly competitive FMCG and Pharmaceutical industries, characterized by cut-throat competition, challenging sales quotas and escalating customer demands, in the context of developing country of Pakistan. From practical stand point, this thesis enriches sales management understanding that trade and missionary selling situations are not sufficiently diverse to cause differential perceptions of informal sales force controls.
Investigating the Relationship between Change Order Determinants and Project Performance: An evidence from educational building projects in KPK province, Pakistan
(Library Information Services, COMSATS University Islamabad, Lahore Campus, 2018) Sami Ur Rehman; FA16-RPM-011; Dr. Summaira Malik; LHR TP 5213
Construction projects are difficult to complete without having changes to the original scope. Change orders are very common in modern construction projects and are often generated from different sources which can create complications for the project performance. Good educational infrastructure has a great impact on the achievement of better education. However, many research studies have identified the critical role of project complexity between change orders and project performance but there is hardly any study which has empirically tested these relationships on educational building projects in case of Pakistan. Thus this study aims to identify the main factors causing change orders and to analyze their potential effects on project performance, and to develop recommendations for the effective control of these change orders specifically in the context of educational building projects in KPK Province, Pakistan where variation orders are considered more common due to lack of research and development in this region of the country. This study also explores the mediating role of project complexity between change order and project performance. Primary data collected through a standardized questionnaire from the construction professionals involved in 25 completed educational building projects in KPK. Results of this study reveal that there exists a significant relationship between change orders and project performance and project complexity significantly mediates the relationship between change orders and project performance. Hence it is concluded that change orders have directly an adverse impact on project performance as well as the determinants of change orders create complexity in project which leads undesirable results in project performance. To improve project performance, the construction professionals must pay attention to minimize the adverse effects of change orders by handling the project complexity in an effective manner.
Corporate Derivatives as a Tool for Risk Management: A Comparative Analysis of Pakistan and Malaysia
(Library Information Services, COMSATS University Islamabad, Lahore Campus, 2018) Atia Alam; FA10-PMS-003; Dr. Talat Afza; LHR TP 5290
The growing usage of derivatives since the last few decades has increased academic concerns regarding the value relevance of derivatives. Hedging theorists state that considering market imperfections, use of derivatives enhances firm value by minimizing risk. The existing literature has mostly examined the direct effect of derivative usage on firm risk and value, but empirical evidence on ‘how’ and ‘when’ use of derivatives enhances firm value is still missing. Present study primarily adds to the existing literature by identifying ‘how’ and ‘when’ derivative usage increases firm value by using moderated mediation techniques through a bootstrap technique of Hayes (2015). In addition, the current study explores the empirical literature by comparatively analyzing the countries where derivative markets are still in development phase like Pakistan and Malaysia. The sample consists of 167 Pakistani and 266 Malaysian firms for the period of 2004-2010. Findings demonstrate that derivatives play a significant risk management role in both Pakistan and Malaysia, though the effectiveness of the moderating role of derivative usage on the relationship between risk and value is limited in Pakistani non-financial firms. Results on the basis of firm’s types of derivative instruments show no moderating mediating role of a firm’s risk on the relationship of derivative usage and Malaysian firm’s value as they are mostly involved in operational hedging. Whereas, Pakistani firms have high value enhancing benefits of foreign currency derivative usage in case of no ER exposure as firms might have exposed due to imports and other commodity prices. In case of interest rate derivative usage, Malaysian firms use fewer interest rate derivatives in times of low IR exposure as they have more access to external financing at lower costs because of developed capital market.
Linking Personal Demands and Personal Resources with Job Performance: Mediating Role of Basic Need Satisfaction and Work Engagement and Burnout
(Library Information Services, COMSATS University Islamabad, Lahore Campus, 2020) Muhammad Waqas; FA12-PMS-005; Dr. Zafar-Uz-Zaman Anjum; LHR TP 5938
Purpose- This study aims to examine the function of personal demands and personal resources on job performance through the mediating effects of basic need satisfaction (BNS), work engagement, and burnout by integrating the self determination theory. This study postulates that personal demands and personal resources impact work engagement and burnout through basic need satisfaction (BNS) which further help to impact employee performance. Design/methodology/approach – By using judgmental sampling data was collected from sales employees and their supervisors of 8 insurance companies operating in Pakistan. These companies are listed on the security and exchange commission of Pakistan (SECP). Structural equation modeling technique was used to test the model of this study. Investigator used the phantom modeling technique to test the mediating effects. Findings – This study explains the indirect effects in two steps in order to handle the issues of parsimony. In the first step study reveals that personal demands and personal resources have an indirect effect on work engagement and burnout. Personal demands-resources have positive effect on the work engagement through basic need satisfaction but negative on the burnout through basic need satisfaction. In the second step serial mediation analysis suggests that BNS, and work engagement fully mediated the relationship of personal demands- resources and employees in-role performance. However, no mediation exists between personal demands-resources and employees’ in-role performance via BNS and burnout. Originality/value – This research is unique in a way that it has explored the effect of personal demands and personal resources on employees’ work engagement and burnout through BNS. Moreover, this research has found the serial mediation between personal demands-resources and employees’ in-role performance through BNS and work engagement and burnout.
Prediction and Indirect Costs of Bankruptcy: A Multi-Stage Approach to Financial Distress
(Library Information Services, COMSATS University Islamabad, Lahore Campus, 2020) Umar Farooq; FA12-PMS-009; Dr. Muhammad Ali Jibran Qamar; LHR TP 5948
This dissertation investigates corporate failure from three perspectives using a sample of non-financial firms listed at Pakistan Stock Exchange. First, the dynamic behaviour of different stages of financial distress were explored. Second, a prediction model of multistage financial distress was developed. Third, impact size and determinants of indirect cost of financial distress were studied. To investigate these three perspectives, the data of 321 on going and 91 delisted non-financial firms is extracted from annual publications of State Bank of Pakistan during 2002-2015. This research starts with the proposed dynamic framework of multistage financial distress showing multiple adverse heterogeneous events leading a healthy firm closer to bankruptcy progressively. It is found that initially healthy firms face profitability problems or mild liquidity issues. While continuity of both the problems leads to severe liquidity that results in bankruptcy. This research also developed a machine learning model to forecast such profitability problem, mild liquidity and severe liquidity. In doing so, criticisms on prior prediction models particularly regarding sampling, feature selection and model selection are explored using Systematic Literature Review. This research contributes by applying recommended solutions of such criticisms to obtain more accurate multistage financial distress prediction model. Results showed that the proposed model predicted multistage financial distress with 84.06% accuracy. This accuracy increased to 89.57% when relevant cut-off values were applied. Furthermore, the indirect cost of financial distress was studied using the sample of on going firms that were healthy in the previous year and documented positive gross profit. To measure indirect cost, appropriate measure of distress, receivable and inventory management are used based on the recommendations of Systematic Literature Review. Results showed that healthy firms do not lose their market share when faced with profitability problems or mild liquidity issues. Conversely, leverage showed a nonlinear relation with indirect cost. It was also found that healthy firms that remain healthy should increase their receivables and inventory to capture more market share. However, results revealed that firms facing profitability problems should follow industry averages for receivables management and hold more inventory x to recover from profitability problems. Conversely, healthy firms that face mild liquidity issues can decrease their receivables and inventory to enhance their liquidity position without affecting market share. This dissertation provides useful practical implications for managers to respond during financial distress. The results will help stakeholders to recognize intensity of financial problems earlier in order to respond accordingly. Moreover, this dissertation provides useful insight that how managers can minimize the adverse effects of indirect cost of financial distress in terms of loss of opportunistic market share.
Identification And Recommendation Of Issues
(Library Information Services, COMSATS University Islamabad, Lahore Campus, 2020) Muhammad Zohaib; SP18-RBA-009; Kashif Luqman; LHR TP 5686
Textile industry in every economy plays a dominating role and responsible for generating huge volume of employment and GDP. In 2017 growth was seen specially in apparel exports with notable movements in china’s textile where consignments reached a new high record and representing Vietnam’s ongoing rise as a primary exporter. Behind this outstanding growth key intention was changing trends and patterns in apparel manufacturing (Lu, 2018). Total contribution of Pakistan textile industry in overall exports is 60 percent 9.6 billion dollar (Khan & Khan, 2010). Pakistan a 4th biggest manufacturer and producer of cotton in the whole world with intrinsic advantage of proving quality cotton. Every industry success depends on the availability of raw material in the local market specially when that raw material is produced in excessive amount. Pakistan with this advantage gives to textile manufacturing industries to reduce their input cost and increase profitability.
Impact of HRM Practices on Customer Service Outcome through Mediation of Emotional Performance and Moderation of Organizational Justice
(Library Information Services, COMSATS University Islamabad, Lahore Campus, 2020) Sara Azhar; FA11-PMS-004; Dr. Imran Haider Naqvi; LHR TP 5947
The economy worldwide has become increasingly service oriented and organizations are facing the challenge of providing exceptional customer service. Given the strong links established between employee‘s emotional performance and customer service outcome, there remains a need for clear understanding of the processes by which the employees comply with emotional demands at work. Scholars have developed an integrated conceptual framework highlighting how HR practices (related to three broad HR domains i.e. ability-enhancing HR practices, motivation-enhancing HR practices and opportunity-enhancing HR practices) should elevate emotional performance. The AMO framework suggested that ensuring the employee's discretionary effort needed three components: employees had to have the necessary skills, they needed appropriate motivation and employers had to offer them the opportunity to participate. To address this research gap in the literature, this research has examined the impact of those HR practices on customer service outcome in the banking sector of Punjab, Pakistan. This study also proposed and analyzed the mediating effect of emotional performance on the relationship between HR practices and the customer service outcome. Moreover, moderating effect of organizational justice was also examined on the above relationships. Furthermore in the domain of social exchange theory (SET), organizational justice is related with the standard of mutual social interaction between the employees and their organizations. The research used a quantitative method through survey instrument and 467 usable questionnaires were collected from the employees and same numbers of questionnaires were also collected from customers of banks of Punjab, Pakistan. Partial Least Squares (PLS) was employed to analyze the data. The results implied that motivation-enhancing HR practices and opportunity enhancing HR practices are linked with customer service outcome but ability-enhancing HR practices are not linked directly with customer service outcome. The results further suggested that emotional performance mediated the relationship of ability-enhancing HR practices and motivation enhancing HR practices with the customer service outcome. Emotional xi intelligence component of emotional performance mediated the relationship between opportunity-enhancing HR practices and customer service outcome but emotion regulation component of emotional performance did not mediate this relationship. Results also indicated that relationship between ability-enhancing HR practices and customer service outcome was not moderated by the organizational justice, but the relationship between opportunity and motivation-enhancing HR practices and customer service outcome was moderated by the organizational justice. By summarizing the results of this research and building a link to its useful applications, the study is also useful and important for policy makers, academicians and practitioners for further improving and developing the customer service outcome. The implications of this research may benefit all category of stakeholders; the academic community may have deeper insight that how AMO framework of HR practice with the help of emotional performance as mediator and organizational justice as moderator functions to have impacts on organizational performance; and also for HR managers to employ findings of this investigation for practical execution to achieve significant customer service outcome in the organizations especially those facing tough competition in the market. Findings of this research, if applied can manipulate the satisfaction and interest of customers of the banking sector of Pakistan.

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