Update on Pakistan Polio Eradication Initiative

The global polio eradication initiative (GPEI) was established in 1988 as a result of the declaration of commitment by the World Health Assembly. In Pakistan, National Emergency Action Plan [NEAP] coined the strategies under government directives to play a pivotal role in line with international requirements to make poliomyelitis extinct. At the program’s initiation, there were around 350,000 cases of polio reported annually. The incidence has fallen by 99% due to the immunization of more than 2.5 billion children worldwide. Poliovirus has three serotypes; two have already been eradicated (the last case of poliovirus type 2 was reported in 1999 and of poliovirus type 3 in 2012). Poliovirus transmission has ceased with the exception of Pakistan and Afghanistan. In April 2022, two cases of acute flaccid paralysis due to poliovirus type 1 have been reported in KPK province. In this communication, insight is provided regarding the issues that have contributed to this wild poliovirus resurgence after a 15-month gap and the way forward.

Impacts of Leadership Styles on Personal and Job Outcomes Among Teaching Faculty of Public Sector Universities

This study is conceptualized on Full Range Leadership Theory (Bass & Avolio, 2006) which comprises of three leadership styles that includes transformational, transactional and laissez-faire leadership. It aims to investigate the impact of these leadership styles of heads of departments from a number of universities on personal related outcome (i.e. well-being) and job related outcomes (i.e. job satisfaction, job stress, organizational commitment, turnover intentions and 13 innovative work behavior) of their subordinate teaching staff (including lecturers, assistant professors, associate professors, and professors). The study also aimed to investigate the mediating role of job outcomes between leadership styles and well-being and the moderating role of job stress between laissez-faire leadership and organizational outcomes. Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (Bass & Avolio, 1990), Job satisfaction Scale (Guimaraes & Igbaria, 1992), Organizational Commitment Scale (Mowday, Porter, & Stear, 1982), Turnover Intention Scale (Seashore, Lawler, Mirvis, & Cammann, 1982), Innovative Work Behavior Scale (Jenesson (2000), job stress (Parker & De Cottis, 1983) and Warwick-Edinburg Mental WellBeing Scale (Tennant et al., 2007) were used in data collection. Sample comprised of 756 teachers (including 156 Head of Departments and 600 subordinates) based on purposive sampling technique. The present study was comprised of two phases. Phase-I was basically a pilot study carried out to establish psychometric properties of scales and questionnaires intended to be used in the main study. Phase-II was basically the main study. Initially, the normality of data was ensured, and then reliability and validity were established. All the scales have alpha coefficients ranging from .70 to .90, zero-order correlation was developed in the desired directions for addressing the construct validity issues. The normal distribution of data was confirmed with the values of kurtosis and skewness. Most of the findings of the phase-II were in the line of hypothesized assumptions. Results of Multiple Regression analysis demonstrated that transformational leadership style positively predicted well-being, job satisfaction and innovative work behavior. Laissez-faire and transactional leadership styles were predicted job stress. Laissez-faire leadership style negatively predicted organizational commitment. Transformational leadership style negatively predicted whereas transactional and laissez-faire leadership styles positively predicted turnover intentions of university teachers. Hierarchical regression analysis confirmed the mediating effect of work-related attitudes (job satisfaction, job commitment, turnover intentions and innovative work behavior) between leadership styles (transformat ional 14 and transactional) and well-being of teachers. However, work-related attitudes partially mediated. Analysis of Hierarchical Regression also confirmed that job stress significantly moderated the relationship between perceived laissez-faire leadership style and two outcomes including turnover intention and organizational commitment. Discussion of the key research findings and some directions for the future research were also provided. Important implementations of the present study in the field of organizational psychology were also discussed.