International Journal of Academic Research in Management

13

Authors: Fapohunda, Tinuke. M.

The factors affecting quality of work life have substantial roles to play in satiating the needs of the employees. It is about how people can do their work better and also how the work can motivate them to do better. This study evaluates the perceptions and experiences of quality of work life in Nigeria using fifteen indicators of quality of work life and 300 employees in four establishments in Lagos Nigeria. The survey instrument was a questionnaire administered in a field survey spanning two months between July and August 2013. The response rate was 280 (93.3%) of which 152 (54%) were men and 128 (46%) were women. The results indicate that most of the workers do not give highly positive ratings though some of the indicators had more positive assessments. For some indicators, there were significant gender gaps while others had similar levels of agreement or satisfaction. Organizations must maintain and improve the quality of work life in their establishments. There must be more commitment to investing in human resources who contribute significantly to sustained organization performance. To gain competitive advantage in organizations must be concerned about their human resources who are their most important assets and take consistent and steadfast measures to improve them and employ high-quality work-life experiences.

15

Authors: Mba Okechukwu Agwu

The paper discussed conflict management and employees performance in Julius Berger Nigeria Plc. Bonny Island. It views organizational conflict as a dispute that occurs when interests, goals or values of different individuals or groups are incompatible with each other. It assumes that integration of all stakeholders’ interests will go a long way in reducing conflicts in organizations and enhancing employees’ performance. It is based on the democratic conflict management strategy. The research question addressed the extent of the relationship between conflict management strategies and employees’ performance and employees/management perception of the effectiveness of conflict management strategies in Julius Berger Nigeria Plc. Bonny Island. The place of study is Julius Berger Nigeria Plc. Bonny Island while the duration of study is between August, 2012 and September, 2013. A descriptive research design was used in executing the study using 50 purposively selected sample respondents consisting of 25 managerial employees and 25 non-managerial employees of Julius Berger Nigeria Plc. Bonny Island. The core aspect of the study is the use of cross sectional survey research design in generating the required primary data. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Results from the data analysis indicated that significant relationship exists between conflict management strategies and employees’ performance and no differences exist between managerial and non-managerial employees’ perception of the effectiveness of conflict management strategies. The research therefore recommends among others: promotion of industrial democracy, regular management/employees meetings, and strict implementation of collective agreements and regular review of personnel policies.

15

Authors: V.N.Vukolov

Nowadays it can be considered that the initial phase of tourism industry development in the Republic of Kazakhstan is already over. Even permanent skeptics have no doubts about necessary development of this important segment of economy and the social sphere. Therefore, it is time to move from unreasonable attempts to earn (who can) money for arranging travel to the creation of methodologically and theoretically meaningful tourism industry. The main part of this comprehending process is training the specialists in tourism industry at management level, carried out at universities. Under the methodological ground of the process we understand the bearing on philosophical laws and principles which define the positive component of tourist activity. In our opinion, the leading philosophical law of this activity is the law of the unity and struggle of opposites. It is believed that in tourist activity there are three major players (participants): tourist (client); tour operator (author of tourist programs), travel agent (seller of tourist programs). They are all united in tourist activity, but in practical purpose they are opposite. Therefore, the research process of tourist activity (based on the philosophical law of unity and struggle of opposites) should focus on the following issues: a) to identify the contents of the most attractive tourist and social impact of tourism programs, b) to formulate the content of the basic training of tour operators and travel agents so that they can satisfy positive desire of tourists in socially effective way, realize their business goals and eliminate the contradictions between the participants of the tourist activity. Methodological basis of the content of training the future managers of tourism enterprises should be real (as far as possible complex) tourist programs. Transcontinental tourist multipurpose trip can be used as such a program. During the last seven years the global tourist program "Seven Summits" has been used as a methodological basic in training students on «Tourism» specialty.

12

Authors: Ahmad Reza Shecarchizadeh , Mohammah Hosein Moshref Javadi , Zeynab Faraji Majareh

In the contemporary management, the participation of employee in the process of decision making has always attracted the attention of theorists of this field; in addition, different ways and mechanisms have been offered in order to use their comments in organizations. However, one of the problems faced by organizations is the problem of human power and inability to use the potential ability of employees. Also the existence of traditional organization structures will make the personnel participation in organizational affairs difficult. For this reason, a study was done about the administration of cooperative management plans and organizational factors in Sepah bank in Ardebil region. The independent variable consisted of components of clear objectives, evaluation of performance, organizational structure, training of employees, rewarding system, and access of employees to resources. The dependent variable was cooperative management. The goal of this study was to establish cooperative programs in the direction of improvement of organizational factors, particularly among employees that increase the amount of effectiveness of employees as the main resources of the organization, and reduce additional costs. This research was done in the form of descriptive survey with the aim of studying the advantages of administration of cooperative management programs and their relationship with improvement of organizational factors in Sepah bank of Ardebil province. Standardized questionnaires of Whetten & Camera were used with slight changes. 172 questionnaires were distributed among employees from which 120 were answered and returned. Correlative coefficient of Pierson was used in this research because there was a relationship between dependent and independent variables, and the components of independent variable were ordinal. The findings indicated that there was a meaningful relationship between dependent and independent variables. In other words, there is a direct relationship between organizational factors and cooperative programs. Therefore, we can use cooperative management programs in banks and other government offices that have traditional structures with dictated programs in order to present more awareness to employees and create a cooperative atmosphere in organizations and also improve organizational structures along with an ideal and effective performance.

9

Authors: Samira Rahmani-Moghadam , Samane Karimi-Ghartemani , Nazhat Abbaspoor , Ahmadrea Shekarchizade

Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) has been a very popular non-parametric technique for measuring and benchmarking relative efficiency of Decision Making Units (DMUs) with multiple input and outputs. In fact, in a real evaluation problem input and output data of things evaluated often fluctuate. These fluctuating data can be represented as linguistic variables characterized by fuzzy numbers for reflecting a kind of general feeling or experience of experts. Based on the fundamental CCR model, a fuzzy DEA model is proposed to deal with the efficiency evaluation problem with the given fuzzy input and output data. Furthermore, an extension of the fuzzy DEA model to a more general form is also proposed with considering the relationship between DEA and GR (Goal Programing).