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The purpose of this paper is to explore leader flexibility in the manufacturing sector. The objectives are to understand the nature of uncertainties that leaders face and how their personal attributes facilitate them in responding to uncertain situations.

A total of 20 middle- and senior-level executives were interviewed, using seven semi-structured questions, from four states in India. Responses were analyzed using thematic analysis.

In this paper, two themes were identified: the need for flexibility and competencies. The need for flexibility included the factors that warrant adaptability and the performance requirements, such as changes in external environment, reconciling opposing demands, unpredictability of human resources and day-to-day contingencies. Performance requirements included monitoring the environment, anticipating changes, creating shared meanings, developing adaptability in human resources, understanding contradictions and generating alternate solutions. Competencies included balancing different values, roles, and behaviors, coaching and team building skills, planning skills, systems thinking, social skills, conflict management skills and openness to learning.

Interviews were conducted with only executives; interviewing their subordinates may have revealed different perspectives. With the accounts being retrospective, few details may have been missed or exaggerated.

The findings can be used to apprise leaders of the challenges they may face and develop competencies required for leader flexibility.

Leadership research in the manufacturing sector is mostly focused on leaders’ responses to environmental uncertainties. This research identifies the task demands associated with unpredictability of human factors and daily contingencies, and the competencies used to respond.

Purpose – This study investigates the sociodemographics, late entry to antiretroviral therapy (ART), and clinical markers associated with AIDS-related mortality.

Methodology/Approach – Applying retrospective cohort design, 960 medical records of people who died of AIDS, from October 2006 to December 2014, were accessed from the ART center at tertiary health care center of Ranchi (India).

Findings – With useable data from 889 medical records revealed that the majority of people who died of AIDS consisted of married males in the age group of 19–40 years who were truck drivers, migrant laborers, and of rural origins. The median survival period was below 3 months following the ART. Males and people on the pre-ART group had a shorter survival period than their counterparts. Early mortality was associated with lower CD4+ T cell counts, the third or fourth clinical stage, ambulatory or bed-ridden functional status, and poor medication adherence.

Research limitations/implications – This study was limited to the analysis of AIDS deceased people only; it did not compare the survival duration with living people on ART. The lower CD4+ T cell counts and medication adherence, being strong predictors of mortality, can be addressed to attain higher survival rates of people who have AIDS.

Originality/Value of Paper – This is the first study conducted in the tribal-populated region, covering a large sample of 889 cases. Unique findings of this study update the existing data on AIDS-related mortality.

This study is a part of two sequential studies (quantitative and qualitative) carried out to study the impact of managerial communication on employees’ attitudes and behaviours. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

Using the critical incident technique, this study explores the effects of managerial communication practices on employees’ happiness, job performance, commitment, absenteeism, and turnover intentions. Totally, 101 employees in three manufacturing organisations in eastern India narrated critical incidents related to happiness and superior performance, unhappiness and inferior performance, absenteeism, and the desire to stay or quit. The incidents were further content-analysed.

Results revealed that collaborative approach, respect and recognition, flexible working arrangements, trust, clear direction, autonomous and challenging tasks are important indicators to make employees happy and drive them towards superior performance. Contrarily, the dominant nature of the superior and more bossism than required, humiliation, biased approach, and lack of flexible working arrangements are detrimental to employees’ performance. Collaborative approach, respect/recognition, person-job match, autonomous and challenging tasks, flexible working arrangements, brand image, and location near hometown are the propellers for continuing service in organisations. Contrarily, hierarchical/dominant approach, humiliation, lack of respect and recognition, biased approach – different rules for different people, monotonous and boring assignments, and uncompetitive pay are the propellers for not continuing service in organisations. Humiliation, lack of flexible arrangements, and overwork are the causes for employees’ absenteeism.

This study is not without limitations. First, there were some critical incidents with apparent overlapping content areas. To overcome this situation, the authors decided to give preference to the primary theme emerging out of an incident. Second, the observations made in this study were limited to descriptions of what happened in only three organisations. This limits the ability to generalise the results.

Organisations can train supervisors to develop people-centric communication practices, communicate with respect and recognition, implement flexible working arrangements, improve job design, involve employees in important decisions, offer them with autonomous and challenging tasks, so that employees realise their full potential and become happy contributors to their organisations.

The study attempted to capture employees’ lived experiences and provided them with narrations of situations that are commonly and uniquely experienced.

The purpose of this paper is to develop and validate an instrument/scale to assess the performance of Indian software professionals (SPs).

Data were collected from 441 software and senior software engineers from eight Indian software firms. The team leaders assessed the performance of software and senior software engineers on 16 items. The software engineers self‐reported their experience, need for achievement, and need for social power. The financial performance (FP) of the software firms where the software engineers were working was procured from secondary sources.

The exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses of scores on 16 items of the instrument suggest six dimensions of performance. They are work‐efficiency, personal resourcefulness, inter‐ and intra‐personal sensitivity, productivity orientation, timeliness, and business intelligence. The dimensions have reliability and high convergent validity. SPs having more years of experience, higher need for achievement, and higher need for social power are high performers. The (low) high performing SPs are from firms that have (lower) higher FP.

Human resource managers can evaluate the performance of SPs holistically on six dimensions for training, reward administration, job rotation, and promotion decisions.

This paper develops a behavioural instrument to assess the performance of Indian SPs.

This study aims to examine whether salience towards natural environment influences the corporate responsibility towards natural environment. It further aims to test whether the corporate responsibility towards environment impacts the financial performance of firms.

The sample comprises 150 listed and non‐listed Indian manufacturing companies. Salience and corporate responsibility towards environment were assessed with the help of standard instruments and the data on financial performance of companies were procured from secondary sources. The study used hybrid models to analyze the data. In the measurement model, the convergent validity of salience and corporate responsibility towards natural environment were ascertained through confirmatory factor analysis. In the structural model, the hypotheses were tested.

Controlling the confounding effects of listing status of companies in stock exchanges, findings suggest that higher the salience of the environment, the more favorable is the corporate responsibility towards the environment. The favorable corporate responsibility towards environment increases the financial performance of firms.

By according salience to the natural environment and adopting responsible environment practices, Indian companies can improve their financial performance.

This study is the first of its kind in India to establish the link among salience of natural environment, corporate responsibility towards natural environment, and financial performance of firms. It reveals that salience accorded to natural environment leads to responsible business practices with respect to the environment that boosts the bottom line of firms.

The aim of this study is to report on the results of an empirical investigation of the various factors which have significant impacts on the Internet user’s ability to correctly identify a phishing website.

The research participants were Internet users who have had at least some experience of financial transactions over the Internet. This study conducted a quantitative research with the help of a structured survey questionnaire along with three experimental tasks. A total of 621 valid samples were collected and the multiple regression analysis technique was used to deduce the answers to the research question.

The results show that the model is useful and has explanatory power. And adjusted R2 computed as 0.927, means that 92.7 per cent of the variations in the Internet user’s ability to identify phishing website can be explained by the predictors selected for the model.

Future research should account for the Internet user’s general security practices and behaviour, attitude towards online financial activity, risk-taking ability or risk behaviour and their potential effects on Internet users' ability to identify a phishing website.

The implications of this study provide the foundation for future research on the areas that intend to explain the Internet user’s necessity to take protection or avoid risky behaviour while performing financial transaction over the Internet.

This study provides the body of knowledge with an empirical analysis of impact of various factors on an Internet user’s ability to identify phishing websites. The results of this study can help practitioners create a more successful research model and help researchers better understand user behaviour on the Internet.

Through the lens of social exchange theory and organisation support theory, the purpose of this paper is to examine the passive, aggressive, and assertive styles of managers/supervisors that influence perceived supervisory support and to test whether the support increases employees’ satisfaction with the communication of supervisors and their organisation‐based self‐esteem. It also assesses whether employees’ communication satisfaction and their self‐esteem influence employees’ performance, commitment and absenteeism.

In total, 400 employees from ten manufacturing firms in India were studied through questionnaire survey. Standard instruments were used to assess the constructs. A scale was developed to measure the communication style of managers and a single item to assess absenteeism.

Results revealed that assertive style of communication lends maximum support to employees. Perceived supervisory support at the workplace enhances employees’ satisfaction with communication of supervisors and organisation‐based self‐esteem. Satisfaction with communication fosters a strong emotional bond with organisations and the emotional bond with organisations reduces employees’ absenteeism.

The paper shows that employees’ organisation‐based self‐esteem increases their job performance. Organisations can conduct training programs to develop an assertive communication style in their managers/supervisors to increase the support to subordinates; thereby its positive consequences will follow in increasing employees’ performance and commitment and reducing absenteeism.

This study aims to examine whether strategy towards primary stakeholders and their salience influence corporate social responsibility towards the corresponding stakeholders.

Data were collected through a questionnaire from 150 senior level managers including CEOs. The stakeholder management strategy, salience, and corporate social responsibility were assessed in the context of employees, customers, investors, community, natural environment, and suppliers.

The favorable strategy towards stakeholders increases the corresponding corporate social responsibility towards them. The salience of all stakeholder groups also enhances the corresponding corporate social responsibility. When salience and strategy are considered, the salience of a particular stakeholder group suppresses the effect of strategy fully or partially on corporate social responsibility.

The salience of a stakeholder is a potent antecedent of corporate social responsibility compared with strategy towards that stakeholder.

A questionnaire is developed to assess corporate social responsibility in the Indian context, and the link between strategy, salience, and corporate social responsibility is established.