Post-Independence Colonial Impacts on the Political Development of Pakistan: The Bureaucracy

The ethos of every postcolonial country was shaped by the way in which it secured its independence, therefore in analyzing the political development of Pakistan from its creation one must consider the related development of India prior to Partition, exploring the nature of colonial rule and it’s far reaching impacts on the political development of Pakistan after independence. While India has seen innumerable kingdoms rise and fall and many waves of invasions, the British encroachment in India from the 18th century onwards, particularly the direct incorporation of India as the jewel of the British Empire in 1857, was unique in that it wrenched the locus of political and economic control away from the Subcontinent to Europe. However, many British residents in India ‘went native’, by adopting local religion and culture. The British loved India, whether residents such as Rudyard Kipling or the ruling elite in Britain (e.g. Queen Victoria had Indian servants and companions). The British cultivated an elite group of administrators from the powerful indigenous landowners and middle-class professionals (the latter of whom were mainly from Hindu castes), which helped the British to consolidate their vested interests to strengthen their rule in India. The amalgamated British army consisted of Indian and British soldiers under the command of British officers. This paper discusses in detail the impacts of British colonial rule in the Subcontinent with special reference to post-independence Pakistan drawing on archival records and other written materials on the subject.

Workplaces That Work: Examining the Relationships Between Conflict, Subjective Well Being, Employee Performance and Turnover Intentions

Conflict is an inherent part of organizational life and it has been recognized to affect work behaviors in substantial ways. The conflict research abounds with studies on the direct relationships of conflict types and work behaviors with few exceptions whereas underlying psychological mechanisms linking these direct relationships have not been explored. Furthermore, little is known about whether western findings regarding the effects of task conflict and relationship conflict still hold across nonwestern cultures. This thesis offers insights regarding the consequences of task conflict and relationship conflict among employees in terms of their task performance, contextual performance and turnover intentions. The study proposed and tested two underlying mechanisms linking task/relationship conflict and work behaviors. More specifically, utilizing a resource investment/acquisition approach and related corollary of gain spirals in the backdrop of Conservation of Resources (COR) theory, it was suggested that work engagement and job satisfaction distinctively mediate the link between task conflict and work behaviors. Furthermore, guided by the resource depletion approach and related corollary of loss spirals of the COR theory, it was proposed that the three dimensions of burnout (exhaustion, cynicism and interpersonal strain) play a mediating role in influencing the linkages between relationship conflict and outcomes. Data was collected from 508 telecom engineers and their supervisors and analyzed using structural equation modeling to test the interrelationships among the study constructs. The results reveal that task conflict in non-routine complex jobs acts as a resource and facilitates task performance and contextual performance and reduces turnover intentions through work engagement as well as job satisfaction. With respect to relationship conflict results indicated that relationship conflict is negatively related to task performance, contextual performance and turnover intentions, and that the three dimensions of job burnout i.e., exhaustion, cynicism and interpersonal strain at work, distinctively mediate the linkages between relationship conflict, task and contextual performance and turnover intentions. The current study contributes to the conflict literature by delineating a resource investment/acquisition process in the backdrop of the Conservation of Resources (COR) theory whereby task conflict (an exchange of cognitive resources) leads to resource gain (work engagement), which in turn lead to positive outcomes in individuals. It also adds valuable knowledge by suggesting and validating resource depletion process which explicates how relationship conflict transmits its effect to job performance and turnover intentions through mediation of burnout. All in all, the findings have important practical as well as theoretical implications for managers and academicians alike.