The emerging labor movement in 20th century had embraced very different views of possibility of democracy at work (Hyman, 2016). Despite being present in the scholarly and industrial research since decades, understanding on organizational democracy was limited (Lee and Edmondson, 2018). Majority of studies on this construct are qualitative, narrow in scope and have generalizability issues (specifically outside Europe and USA).Since the last two decades, academic and industrial researchers have shown greater interest in it, but the concept is still in need of more clarity, as well as theoretical and empirical support (Han and Garg, 2018; Battilana et al., 2016). In continuation of these efforts, this research develops the construct of organizational democracy which is “a system of organizational governance based on the principles of autonomy and freedom giving employees equal rights to participate, share, involve and contribute in organizational affairs directly or indirectly for attaining overall objectives and goals of organization”. Using extensive literature review, this research thoroughly examines how this centuries old multi-disciplinary, multi-dimensional and multi-facet concept came into the management literature. The review also includes a comprehensive discussion on what organizational democracy is, what impacts it can have on the organizations, empirical facts, and industrial practitioner’s efforts in flourishing this idea. Using several qualitative tools (literature review, focus groups, netnography, expert In-depth interviews and field survey), the research develops a construct on organizational democracy, differentiating feature being its comprehensiveness as compared to the already existing one. The qualitative information obtained through all sources was processed through quantitative content analysis using KH Coder. The findings of KH coder and learnings from American civic centre of education three components (liberalism, constitutionalism and functionalism), ten dimensions (freedom, fairness, integrity, tolerance, shared responsibility, structure, transparency, knowledge sharing, accountability and learning environment) were identified that led to development of conceptual framework for organizational democracy. By adopting established scale development procedures (DeVellis, 2017; Hinkin, 1998; Spector, 1992), the organizational democracy scale was developed, refined and validated. The new organizational democracy scale consists of 45-items, consistent with theory three components and ten dimensions. The new dimensions were verified by exploratory factor analysis x (EFA) using a sample of 287 respondents obtained from different educational institutes. The dimensions were further validated by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) using a separate sample of 304 respondents obtained from various industries. All the major goodness-of-fit indices indicated the model’s good fit (χ2/df = 1.52; CFI = 0.96; NFI = 0.90; TLI = 0.95; RMSEA = 0.041; SRMR = 0.06). Finally, statistically significant figures (AVE and CR) for convergent and discriminant validities were obtained along with correlation values for each dimension not exceeding the criterion of 0.70 (Stevens, 2009) suggesting negligible multicollinearity. The development of organizational democracy scale is a valuable contribution in management, Organizational Behavior and Human Resource literature, especially in the Asian context. The newly developed measures will assist future researchers and industrial practitioners in deeper exploration of this important organizational construct. In addition, organizational managers and supervisors can use this scale for establishing, assessing and improving democratic practices at their workplaces. The testing of organizational democracy scale under different situations, settings and designs (sample size, contextual boundaries, methodology) in future, will further add to its authentication, validation and applicability.
آزادی ایک نعمت عظیم ہے صبحِ آزادی کا سورج جسم و جاں پہ قرض ہے اس کی کِرنوں کی حفاظت اب تمھارا فرض ہے آزادی خدا کی بہت بڑی نعمت ہے اور اس نعمت کا شکر ادا کرنا بہت بڑی سعادت ہے۔ شکر در اصل نعمت کی فراوانی کا سبب ہوا کرتا ہے اور کفرانِ نعمت زوال کا باعث بنتا ہے۔ شاکرین کے در پرنعمتیں مسلسل دستک دیتی رہتی ہیں۔ آج ہم اپنے گریبان میں منہ ڈال کر جھانکیں کہ ہم نے آزادی کی نعمت کا کس حد تک شکر ادا کیا ہے اور خدا اورمخلوقِ خدا سے جو وعدے کیے تھے انہیں کہاں تک پورا کیا ہے؟ ہم نے نعرہ لگایا تھا کہ’’ ہم پاکستان میں قرآن کا قانون جاری کریں گے۔ نبی کریم صلی اللہ علیہ و آلہٖ وسلم کی سنت کی روشنی میں زندگی کا سفر طے کریں گے۔ نیکی کا عَلم بلند کریں گے اور بدی کو سرنگوں کر کے چھوڑیں گے ، گناہوں کی اندھیری رات میں نیکی کے دیئے جلائیں گے اور شبِ تیرہ کی تیرگی کا جنازہ نکال کر دم لیں گے۔ جبر و استبدادکی کالی گھٹائیں چھٹ جائیںگی۔ عدل وانصاف کا قاضی محمودو ایاز کو ایک صف میں کھڑا کر دے گا۔ غربت کے مہیب سائے رخصت ہو جائیں گے۔ تنگدستی او محتاجی کے عفریت کو منہ کی کھانی پڑے گی۔ خوشحالی کا آفتاب طلوع ہوگا اور افلاس زدہ انسان امن و عافیت کے گہوارے میں خوشی کے نغمے گاتے ہوئے زندگی بسر کریں گے۔ یہ تھے وہ مقاصد جن کے حصول کے لیے برصغیر کے لاکھوں بلکہ کروڑوں انسانوں نے ناقابلِ فراموش قربانیاں دیں۔ اسی ارض پاک کے لیے ہمیں آگ اور خون کے دریاؤں سے گزرنا پڑا۔ یہ پاکستان نہ تو حسینوں کی اداؤںسے بنا اور نہ ہی یہ مغنّیہ کی صداؤں سے بنا اور نہ ہی...
This article reports the wash-back of formative assessment on what students learn, how they learn and the depth of their learning in Saudi higher education context. Previous research indicates that assessment methods affect different aspects of learning either positively or negatively depending on the nature of assessment tasks. Observations indicate a clear association between Saudi students’ learning and how their learning is assessed; so this research was needed to determine how exactly the correlation looked like—positive or negative. The data in this study were collected from Saudi undergraduates by employing a student survey and semi-structured interviews. The survey included Likert scale items of agreement regarding research assignments, quizzes and midterm examinations administered to 250 English-major students. To validate the survey results, sixteen students from different levels with GPA 3 and above were interviewed. The results showed that formative assessment narrowed down the scope of learning materials. The students mostly adopted surface level learning strategies to prepare for formative assessment tasks. Higher order thinking skills were not tested in any of the formative assessment methods. Therefore, it is suggested that assessments tasks should be subjected to thorough validation and moderation. Sound assessment practices should be put in place and practiced judiciously. To achieve these objectives, sustained institutional and departmental professional backing is a prerequisite.
Cadmium (Cd) is extremely toxic metal which usually causes reduction in plant growth and inhibits native biota. The toxic effects of Cd on plant growth and bacterial community may decrease with the help of different bacterial and organic amendments (bacteria, compost, biogas slurry). Bacterial and organic amendments (BOA) may stabilize Cd in soil and alleviate Cd stress on plants. A series of experiments in controlled and natural environments were conducted to achieve these objectives. Cadmium toxicity may reduce seed germination and seedling growth of wheat and maize. These cereals were exposed to various levels of Cd (0, 5, 20, 50 and 80 mg L-1) to evaluate its effect on seed germination and seedling growth of four wheat and three maize cultivars. Wheat cultivars Sehar-06 and Inqlab-91 whereas maize cultivars SH-919 and PH-3068 was found tolerant and sensitive, respectively to Cd stress. The sensitive cultivars of wheat and maize were further used in successive experiments. The different levels (0, 5, 10, 15 Mg ha-1) each of compost and biogas slurry used to deterimine their effect on growth of sensitive cultivars exposed to different levels of Cd (0, 5, 20, 50, 80 mg kg-1 soil). Compost applied at the rate of 10 and 15 Mg ha-1 significantly increased seedling growth, fresh and dry weight of wheat and maize, respectively, whereas biogas slurry at the rate of 15 Mg ha-1 increased seedling growth, fresh and dry weight of both cereals under Cd stress. Thirty bacterial strains were isolated based on morphology through enrichment technique. Minimum inhibitory concentration of these strains ranged from 200 to 500 mg Cd L-1 on LB plates and out of 30 only 11 strains showed tolerance to 80 mg Cd L-1 in LB broth which were further evaluated for plant growth promoting activity under various Cd levels. Cadmium stress limits plant growth but CTB strains significantly increased wheat and maize growth in normal and Cd contaminated soils. On the basis of maximum point scoring CTB strains CIK-502 and CIK-517Y in wheat whereas CIK-502 and CIK-512 in maize were found most effective in improving growth and biomass of both cereals in normal and Cd contaminated soils. The evaluation of selected BOA based on previous experiments were further assessed in sole and combination for improving wheat and maize productivity, physiology, antioxidant and Cd uptake in Cd contaminated soils (0, 20, 40 mg Cd kg-1) in natural conditions. Growth, yield and physiology of both cereals were rigorously affected by the exogenous application of Cd, however, performance of wheat and maize improved with the application of different BOA under non-stressed and Cd stressed conditions. Application of compost in combination with CIK-502 had maximum increase in growth, yield and physiology of wheat and maize compared to other amendments. The increased physiology, relative water content and water use efficiency whereas decreased electrolyte leakage with the application of BOA conferred their positive role in mitigating Cd stress on both cereals. On the other hand osmolytes and antioxidants increased significantly with the exogenous application of Cd. However, the combined application of different BOA significantly increased osmolytes accumulation especially compost and CIK-502 in both cereals but the activities of CAT, APX and GR greatly differed to Cd stress. The application of different BOA in general decreased CAT, APX, GR and MDA activities. It was observed that Cd accumulated in soil and plant tissues with its increasing exogenous application in soil however BOA significantly reduced its available fraction in soil, and subsequent uptake in root, shoot, grainand total plant of wheat and maize. Cadmium concentration in total plant, root, shoot and grains of wheat and maize decreased with the addition of compost along with CIK-502 and it was the function of AB-DTPA extractable Cd in soil. The BOA was more effectively decreased AB-DTPA extractable Cd in soil in the absence of plants. CTB strains were positive for inodle acetic acid, polyhydroxy butyric acid, P-solubilization, exopolysacharide, NH3-production, ACC-deamianse, catalase and oxidase activities. The complete 16S rRNA gene based identification showed their similarity with genera Klebsiella, Stenotrophomonas, Bacillus and Serratia.