Earticle

The present study highlights the conflict management levels in Indian manufacturing and Information Technology (IT) sectors. Nearly 110 samples from different organizations of manufacturing and IT have been collected using convenient sampling technique. Standardised scale on Organisational Conflict developed by Dhar U. and Dhar S. [2003] has been used which consists of twenty items on a four point scale. The study has shown that miscommunication at organizational level has been a reason for conflict in manufacturing organizations whereas intrinsic motivation at organizational as well as individual level has been found a reason for conflict in IT sector. The study bears implications for HR managers to develop policies and conflict management strategies so as to deal with the situations constructively at a particular level of conflict.

Material selection is a complex problem in the design and development of products for diverse engineering applications. This paper is aimed to present a fuzzy decision‐making approach to deal with the material selection in engineering design problems. A fuzzy multi criteria decision‐making model is proposed for solving the material selection problem. The proposed model makes use of fuzzy TOPSIS (Technique for Order reference by Similarity to Ideal Solution) with trapezoidal numbers for evaluating the criteria and ranking the alternatives. And result is compared with fuzzy VIKOR (VlseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje in Serbian, means Multi criteria Optimisation and Compromise Solution) which is proposed by Jeya Girubha and Vinodh [2012]. The present paper is aimed to also improve literature of fuzzy decision making for material selection problem.

As the dependence on information is increasing, the protection of personal information (PI) becomes a critical issue for the organizations, causing not only financial loss but also negative impacts on corporate images and reputations. To date, academic research in this area is scarce. This study analyzes the factors affecting the establishment and/or implementation of Personal Information Management System (PIMS) and provides direction for the practice. In this study, we assume that PIMS is one of the new technology adopted by organizations, and Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model is selected as a base model for the study. Using structural equation modeling technique, both measurement and structural models are validated, and hypotheses are tested. Major findings of the study include (1) the major driver of the organizations attempting to adopt PIMS seems to be the improvement of the business outcomes, (2) organizational capability and resource are important in the establishment of PIMS, and (3) the perceived difficulty of the establishment of PIMS is not affecting the intention to adopt PIMS. Since the importance of personal information security is high, establishment of PIMS is becoming one of the critical issues in the organizations. The establishment of PIMS should be encouraged to strengthen the competitiveness of businesses and to enhance the security level of the entire nation. It is expected that this study may contribute to developing plans and policies for establishment of PIMS in practice, and to providing a foundation for further research in this area.

M&A (Merger and Acquisitions) is a standard corporate strategy frequently used by companies seeking to secure new growth engines and gain a solid foothold in their markets in order to become more globally competitive. To achieve the original goals of M&A, the two involved parties need to invest significant time and resources in integrating all aspects of the companies. A well-planned post- merger integration of information technology (IT PMI) by the two M&A parties is considered a crucial and difficult process because IT provides a fundamental infrastructure for integration. Considering various internal and external factors, the two parties normally formulate an IT PMI strategy. The many IT PMI strategies can be categorized into four major types: Renewal, Takeover, Standardization, and Synchronization. This study aims to develop a decision making model to help merger company and IT managers select the proper IT PMI strategy. More specifically, we identify key determinants that need to be considered when selecting a proper IT PMI strategy. The relative importance of each determinant is defined by analytic hierarchy process (AHP) analysis. Finally, this study evaluates each IT integration strategy under the identified determinants.

A web site focused on a specific product brand so called product-brand web site has become one major marketing tool as such product-brand web site provides chances for customers to experience the detailed information of the specific brand as well as emphatic the image of the brand. The purpose of this research is to examine the influence of the product-brand web site on the formation of attitude toward the product brand. Subjects of this study are users of two web sites of leading sanitary product brands. The result shows that not only emotion, playfulness and convenience perceived from the web site but also existing attitude toward the brand influence the attitude toward the web site. Further, the attitude toward the web site in turn affects attitude toward the image of the brand. The importance of this study is in its conceptualization and empirical verification of the relationship between the product-brand web site and the reputation of a brand.