THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN OCCUPATIONAL STRESS AND ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT IN NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS OF PAKISTAN The purpose of this research was to extend the existing body of knowledge on the relationship between occupational stress and employees’ organizational commitment into the context of non-governmental organizations of Pakistan, as little research have been conducted on this relationship in Pakistan. It was a descriptive correlational study in which scientific methodology was used to answer the research questions. Based upon the review of the recent literature available on the subject, a conceptual framework was developed to study the relationship between occupational stress and organizational commitment in the NGO sector in Pakistan. The framework illustrates three dimensions of occupational stress including occupational role stress, personal strain and coping resources and their hypothesized relationship with organizational commitment, as well as the influence of some major demographic factors including age, experience, job position, gender, qualification, income and marital status on the relationship between occupational stress and organizational commitment. Occupational stress inventory-Revised Edition and Organizational Commitment Questionnaire were used to collect data. The overall response rate from the NGO employees was 64%. Several statistical techniques, including arithmetic mean, standard deviation, correlation analysis, percentile analysis and analysis of variance-ANOVA were used to test the hypotheses of the study. Consistent with prior research, an inverse relationship was found between occupational stress and organizational commitment. The level of occupational stress experienced by NGO employees was found to be high. The occupational roles that employees play were reported as the main source of stress. The level of employees’ organizational commitment was generally moderate but with a tendency towards high. Normative commitment was reported as the strongest form of commitment. Demographic variables of age, experience, job position and income as well as gender significantly influenced the relationship between occupational stress and organizational commitment. This study is significant because of the insights it provides for the NGO managers to better understand the occupational stressors inherent in the functions of their workforce. Furthermore, this study develops an understanding of the commitment process and its relationship with occupational stress to promote commitment among employees and help them achieve their organizational goals effectively. NGO management can utilize the research findings to formulate appropriate strategies to address the stress related problems of their employees.
This article is an attempt to elaborate the phenomenon of equilibrium prevailing everywhere in the microcosmic and macrocosmic systems associated with universal stability and rhythm. It has been accentuated what is beautifully illuminated in the beginning verses of Sūrah Al-Rahmān successively regarding balance that invites one’s thought towards the well controlled cosmic system as well as with the concept of balance by means of different manners as identified by exegetes and scholars concerning daily life i.e. From simple and common to that of complex issues and intricacies. Qualitative method has been employed for this research while some aspects have also been handled in accordance with quantitative approach. Article also emphasized the series of cause and effect nexus may be declared as self explanatory episode an indication towards a Supreme Force whose widespread control and interference can’t be denied rationally. Sūrah beautifully pictured the physical and metaphysical sketch of balance having many dimensions from man to universe and vice versa as well as from both towards Ultimate Reality whose dominion is limitless where one has to follow peaceful living and to put oneself aside indulging any disruption from ordinary clash to that of nuclear war to be waged.
Thesis Title: English Language Teaching: Implementing Collaborative Language Learning Approach in Federal Colleges of Pakistan Most of the college students in Pakistan, irrespective of their gender cannot communicate effectively and confidently in English. Despite the fact that they are taught English as a second language from an early stage of their educational life, they never develop communicative command on English. This incompetency of learners is largely attributed to faulty language teaching system in Pakistan. Keeping in view the effectiveness of sociocultural language learning framework, this research set out to implement collaborative language learning environment in our colleges. The main objective was to analyze whether collaborative language learning will help the learners to improve their listening and speaking skills or not. It also aimed to find out that how successfully collaborative language learning can be implemented within our context as well as to highlight the hurdles which may impede its implementation. To achieve the said purpose, this experimental research was divided into three phases mainly: pre-test, experimental study and post-test. The pre-test assessed the learners’ existing competency level at the beginning of the study. Subsequently, the experimental study was applied following the sociocultural paradigm to assist the learners towards gaining communicative competency by working collaboratively. The post-test, held at the end of the experimental study period, helped to critically evaluate if the collaborative language learning approach had actually supported the learners to enhance their conversational or communicative efficiency in English. As revealed by the findings of the study, the experimental groups performed comparatively better than the controlled groups during the post-test. The participants of experimental study demonstrated better understanding of the ideas, messages and information offered in English, as far as listening skill was concerned. The study also discovered that the experimental performed better in speaking skill tasks registering significant enhancement in their oral proficiency. These findings are quite important as they ascertain the fact that collaborative language learning paradigm can effectively facilitate the learners to enhance their communicative skills a great deal, if implemented carefully and systematically within our context, without bringing about major changes within the existing infrastructure. However, the study suggests that the teachers should be trained, textbooks be revised adding speaking and listening skill focused tasks and assessment system should include communicative skills evaluation so that the teaching of English as a collaborative endeavour can be facilitated and implemented effectively.