Second Wave of COVID-19 in Pakistan: Our Responsibilities and Challenges as A Nation

The Corona virus (SARS-CoV2) pandemic initiated in late December 2019 in Wuhan city of Hubei, China, which has rapidly progressedinvolving more than 215 countries of the world. It was caused by novel SARS-COV2 coronavirus with Huanan seafood wholesale market as the possible point of origin. In past two decades, coronaviruses epidemic of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-COV) had 37% mortality rate and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-COV) had 10% affecting more than 10,000 population together. World Health Organization (WHO) declared it as the sixth Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) on January 30, 2020 and later on March 11, 2020, the WHO labeledit as a pandemic. The first case of COVID-19 from Pakistan was reported on 26th February, 2020 and has affected over 354,000 people with a mortality of over 7000 patients. Many countries of the world have seen second wave of this pandemic. Government ofPakistan has also declared a second waveon October 28, 2020, after the rise in cases from 500 to 750 per day. Now it has crossed 2000 cases. The data released by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) shows that the current percent positivity rate is close to 3 compared to the previous figure of lesser than 2 making it a bigger challenge than first wave in Pakistan. The patients now presenting in hospitals are all in critical condition. Lack of a specific vaccine or antiviral drug and non-compliance to the standard preventive measures is the major reason of initiation of a second wave of this viral infection in Pakistan. Being a nation we need to be responsible. Our country may go into economic crisis & our health facilities may choke. We have to understand how to live with this virus till the availability of vaccine or Curative antiviral drug. TheGovernment of Pakistan is creating awareness in the public for the second wave as the situation of pandemic is getting worse. Smart lock downs are being implementedbut people are not following preventive measures that are leading to infection spread at a very alarming speed. At the moment preventive measures are the only way to stop the spread of disease. Preventive measures should be adopted to contain this deadly disease. Wearing masks, using hand sanitizers, washing hands with soap for 20 sec, keeping social distance of 6 feet are mandatory preventive strategies. Social, political, business, recreationaland religious gatherings, should be avoided. Educational institutesshould follow strict standard operating procedures. Most of the people in Pakistan are not considering this disease as a matter of serious concern due to unawareness, poverty, beliefs and lack of resources. People should ignore such disbeliefs and should start considering it as a great health concern. They should follow the preventive measures in true sense.

Antecendents of Psychological Contract and its Impact on Attitudinal and Behavioral Responses of Employees

Employees are very important part of any organization. Their attitudes and behaviors at work can either enable organizations to cultivate and accomplish superior performance or close it operations. So, understanding those attitudes and behaviors of employees and what factors affect them is very crucial for any organization. Better understanding of attitudinal and behavioral issues will help resolve problems of low commitment, less job satisfaction, turnover intentions and many more managerial dilemmas. This thesis examines the impact of Psychological Contract on and attitudinal and behavioral responses of employees. This thesis also investigates the Antecedents of psychological contract included personality, organizational culture and work- family conflict. Attitudes and behaviors of the study include organizational citizenship behavior, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, job insecurity, stress, turnover intentions and knowledge sharing. Close - ended questionnaires were distributed among 600 males and females of public and private banks, universities and hospitals of Hyderabad and Jamshoro districts. The data was analyzed through multivariate analysis of variance and hierarchical regression. The findings showed that older employees formulate relational whereas, young employees formulate transactional psychological contract. It was established in this study that personality is a predictor of the psychological contract and psychological contract fulfillment. Organizational culture is also a significant contributor of the psychological contract and psychological is contract fulfillment. The empirical findings confirmed that conflict among work and family responsibilities can be very harmful for relational and transactional psychological contract. Psychological contract fulfillment also decreases as a result of clash in work and family responsibilities. Relational psychological contract, transactional psychological contract and psychological contract all had impact on attitudes (organizational citizenship behavior, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, job insecurity and stress) and behaviors (turnover intentions and knowledge sharing) of employees. No difference in formulation of relational psychological contract among male and female employees was found. Relational psychological contract was more persistent in public sector employees as compared to private sector employees. This study will help managers resolve attitudinal and behavioral problems of low commitment, less job satisfaction, turnover intentions and many more managerial dilemmas in the context of psychological contract. This study will assist in solving these problems and will help managers to modify and upgrade their selection and appraisal procedures to hire employees who form ‘relational psychological contract, who show attitudes (i.e. be more commitment, more satisfaction) and behaviors (i.e. lower turnover intentions) that are beneficial for organizations as they increase overall organizational performance.