3673 research outputs found
Sort by
Is CSR benefiting firm or society?
No full textA Newspaper article by Scott Bellows, an Assistant Professor in the Chandaria School of Business at USIU-AfricaFamed University of Chicago faculty and Nobel Prize winner Milton Freidman ferociously claimed in 1970 that the sole purpose of a firm revolved around making money for its shareholders.
His powerful article defined a generation of debate surrounding the role of a company in society. Hundreds of public intellectuals since have lent their voice to commend, contradict, or expand Freidman’s pivotal work.
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) exists in stark contrast to Freidman’s view of the role that corporations should play. CSR specifically means business practices that aid society.
It may include cash donations, gifts-in-kind, and employee time to charity. CSR also comprises workplace initiatives to include more employee diversity, more fair hiring processes, improving how products and services help customers, or reducing pollution by changing to more green business operations
Kenya’s beauty that should guide poll
No full textA Newspaper article by Scott Bellows, an Assistant Professor in the Chandaria School of Business at USIU-AfricaKenya, land of the hopeful, nation of dreamers, country of doers, cradle of innovators, and humour capital of the world; we stand out unique among people around the world. We balance between traditional and modern, African and Western, analog and digital. Let us not excuse what we see in the news by saying “this is Kenya”. Let us define the Kenya we want, the Kenya we deserve. Let us reframe what we say about ourselves and what we expect. Do not get into what researchers call a negativity spiral where we only feel pessimism leading up to our General Election next week.
Carrying out a massive election with deep-seated vested interests, ethnic consciousness, and a burgeoning youth population pose a challenge to any nation with similar demographics. Certain newsworthy tragedies do pull at our hearts and dampen our enthusiasm for our homeland. Much to our cultural credit, acts of tyranny do shock our collective consciousness. We are not numb to pain and suffering.
Let us peer through the fog of uncertainty, fear, and anxiety and see the promised land that our children and grandchildren will proudly inherit.
I have travelled to 67 countries and I never arrive in any realm whereby I would prefer to live other than Kenya. In my 17 years in this great nation, I see Kenya as full of possibilities. Our capital boasts a stunning building boom with glittering new structures rivalling architectural gem cities such as Chicago. Millions of Kenyans pull themselves out of poverty every decade in the past 30 years. Our phenomenally high literacy rates compare favourably to even the most developed of nations
Investment banks on predictability
No full textA Newspaper article by Scott Bellows, an Assistant Professor in the Chandaria School of Business at USIU-AfricaFollowing our just completed General Election, let us investigate what local and international markets view about the results by peering into the Kenya shilling exchange rate against other currencies and what we can expect going forward.
The United States dollar decreased considerably over the past four months against the euro, British pound, and Swiss franc and slightly against the Japanese yen. The greenback’s decline stands in marked contrast with its rapid appreciation in 2016 into 2017.
The flood of demand for the dollar made it difficult for many central banks to shore up their own currencies. While the Kenyan shilling depreciated markedly against the dollar in prior years, our shilling did better than many other continental currencies during the 2016 into 2017 dollar strengthening as the dollar appreciated only slightly against the Kenyan Shilling in the same period.
Now, the US unemployment rate continues to decline, their equities markets hold at record levels, and GDP growth continues slowly but unabated
How women can negotiate for pay rise
No full textA Newspaper article by Scott Bellows, an Assistant Professor in the Chandaria School of Business at USIU-AfricaFollowing millennia of hyper-defined gender roles and painful explicit bias against women in the official and public space, women since World War II count numerous cultural and professional successes towards breaking down gender barriers and baseless ceilings.
While around the world and right here in Kenya, women hold senior government positions and sit on corporate boards in ways unthinkable a generation ago, they are still disproportionately represented compared to men.
On the micro level, the gap between male and female salaries in the workplace has also reduced dramatically, but has not disappeared entirely. Depending on the industry, women still earn between 50 per cent and 80 per cent that of men who do the exact same job. June O’Neill’s research shows that even when women join unions, stay committed to an organisation longer, obtain more training, and show more loyalty, they still earn less than men.
Unfortunately, part of the wage disparity originates from women displaying lower negotiating effectiveness. Women in the workplace show, on average, less tendency towards aggressive self-serving negotiating positions and are more accommodating to the needs of other parties. Biologically, women’s bodies produce only a fraction of the aggression-causing testosterone hormone which may appear to observers as outwardly politer. Then cultural upbringing and socialisation develop steep unconscious bias in our brains that relegate women to certain psychological categories
Time up for companies violating labour rules
No full textA Newspaper article by Scott Bellows, an Assistant Professor in the Chandaria School of Business at USIU-AfricaGovernments around the world set workplace rules that employers must follow to protect workers’ rights. However, despite the clarity shown in labour regulations, many employers fail to comply with even the most minimum standards set.
Researcher Erin Kelly breaks down labour law noncompliance into two distinct types of employers. The first grouping of employers fails to update institutional policies to keep up with changing labour laws.
Employers in the first category neglect to keep abreast of updated NHIF, KRA, minimum wage, leave days, maximum working hours per day, required benefits, and numbers of days off according to labour regulations. Often such firms do not notice their noncompliance until an audit or a lawsuit. These companies do not value innovation and fail to prioritise their work force.
The second type involves companies who practice outright noncompliance. These organisations fall under rational choice theory that explains their intentional deviant organisational culture. Some industries famously lobby legislators to form exceptions for their sectors in labour laws
Why we fail to achieve our new year Resolutions
No full textA Newspaper article by Scott Bellows, an Assistant Professor in the Chandaria School of Business at USIU-AfricaAs we gather with family to celebrate the end of a turbulent 2017 and usher in optimism for 2018, many of us will ponder New Year’s resolutions in hopes of changing to become better people.
Thousands of us may decide to lose weight, become better bosses, harder workers, or read more often. Among our myriad of personal life goals, humans survive generally as positive and forward looking.
We implore ourselves to improve. We aim to advance. We strive to succeed. So why do so few of us achieve our annual determinations? Psychologist Joseph Luciani predicts that 80 per cent of New Year’s resolutions will fail.
Unfortunately, some resolutions could become a matter between life and death such as eating healthy or driving slower or stop bribing traffic officials, and yet we do not achieve them. Nobel Laureate Richard Thaler delineated in his ground-breaking research on nudge behavioural theory that humans tend to compartmentalise their lives into different metaphorical boxes in their heads
Why young Employees are more likely to lie at the workplace than older ones
No full textWe hear between 10 and 200 lies daily depending on the number of people we closely interact with.
As children grow older and go to school and later university, they often do not know that cheating and plagiarism are actually dishonest behaviours.
Men lie eight times more about themselves than they do about other people.
Women lie more to protect other people and married individuals lie on average once for every 10 comments.
Deception, lies, and cheating all represent dishonest behaviour detested by society. Humans lie with their conscious mind while trying to also cover it up consciously, but our subconscious betrays us by displaying more honesty than we desire. By watching for another person’s subconscious clues, the careful observer may uncover dishonest behaviour in his or her homes or workplaces.Laurence Fiddick and colleagues’ research in 2016 taught us that cheaters are not reckless people at all, but rather intentional deceivers.
Last week, Business Talk explored dishonesty in workplaces and how supervisors could clamp down on the practice. This week, we explore the psychology and demography of lying.
Science knows quite a lot about the mental physiology and demographics of dishonesty. Lying proves a complex psychological construct since we both hate it as well as use it ourselves. In humans, we know that the younger the person, the greater the likelihood that they lie. Pamela Meyer’s research delineates how babies cry, then stop and look to see who else is listening or coming towards them, then continue crying. By five years old, the human brain develops outright lies to other people through flattery. Nine-year-olds can even cover-up actions
Watch out for these Machiavellian attributes among your employees
No full textA Newspaper article in the Business Daily Newspaper written by Scott Bellows an Assistant Professor in the Chandaria School of Business at USIU AfricaNiccolo Machiavelli argued that leaders should utilise harsh tactics with their followers in order to achieve expediency of goal achievement.
Research from Delroy Paulhus and many others show that Machiavellianism employees are more likely to steal from their employers and customers.
The theory of the firm states that the objective of a company entails maximising shareholding wealth. As firms plot and prod to move towards achieving their objectives, sometimes organisations trample others in illegal or amoral ways in order to either save money or earn more revenues for shareholders.
Banks might overcharge customers with illegal fees, an audit company could issue an unqualified opinion on an unworthy client’s financial statements in order to retain the customer’s business, a real estate firm might land grab from the less fortunate, universities could become reluctant to fail students and therefore reduce their client-base, or chemical companies might spill waste products into the water supply instead of paying to clean and process chemical excess.
Do the ends justify the means? Niccolo Machiavelli famously posed such questions in his landmark book The Prince in the early 16th century. He argued that leaders should utilise harsh tactics with their followers in order to achieve expediency of goal achievement. Does shareholder wealth justify any means to gain it? How about political victory justifying any means to triumph? Or on an individual who bashes colleagues’ reputations in order to gain promotion
Strategies Affecting Performance of Health Insurance Companies in Kenya: A Case of Jubilee Insurance Company in Nairobi
No full textA Research Project Report Submitted to the School of Business in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirement for the Degree of Masters in Business Administration (MBA)The general purpose of the study was to determine strategies affecting performance of Health Insurance Companies with focus on jubilee insurance. The study was guided by the below research questions: How does cost strategy affect performance in Health Insurance? How does differentiation strategy affect performance in Health Insurance? How does the focus strategy affect performance in Health Insurance?
The study utilized a descriptive research design where both quantitative and qualitative research were used to gain a better understanding of the results. The primary population of study selected for this research was limited to Jubilee Insurance Company of Kenya Limited. Non-probability sampling, specifically judgment and convenience was applied in the sample selection and out of a total population of sixty-six employees; only fifty-seven operational staff were considered for the study. Primary data was collected by administering open and close-ended questionnaire to the respondents. The descriptive statistical tool, Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and excel applications were utilized to undertake descriptive analysis by use of means, standard deviations, and frequencies. The quantitative data collected on the other hand were analysed using Anova and regression analysis to determine the relation between the performance and other variables and results was displayed by use of tables.
The findings based on the first research question revealed that most of the firms are in constant pursuit of cost reduction and offer outstanding customer service. It was also established that the company’s affordable prices influence market share while cost reduction has led to a benefit from economies of scale. A regression analysis revealed that eighty nine percent of the variation in profitability was caused by the variation in the cost strategy. The findings based on the second research question revealed that most of the firms undertakes new product development, have unique products in the market and hence the unique products and services created value for consumers. The findings based on the third research question revealed that most of the firms have improved efficiency through specialization, and targeting special segment hence affecting firms’ profitability. As a result, this has enabled easy penetration into new markets as well as attracts customer attention products and service.
The study concluded that for a firm to be able to perform better there is a need for organization to undertake a vigorous pursuit of cost reduction and have an operational total quality control unit. Organization should undertake new product development and value creation for consumers, specialization in special market segments, targets low priced segments, offer outstanding customer service and targeting only special segment that have potential for profitability. For further studies, the study recommends that a similar but comparative study could be considered especially between Jubilee Insurance and other insurance firms in Kenya. It is also a fact that most firms use either generic strategies as outlined by porter or a hybrid strategy, there is therefore a need to determine the impact of hybrid strategy on the firm performance and alternatively undertake a comparative analysis between the hybrid and generic strategy and how they influence performance