Search results

The purpose of the paper is to evaluate what caused the debates and confusion in articulating a gender-equal inheritance policy in Bangladesh, and to identify the socio-political drivers and nature of the political power play that thwarted the policy’s adoption.

The research undergirding this paper is based on a qualitative approach involving a case study with in-depth semi-structured interviews, focus-group discussions, and secondary data analysis. The interviews were conducted with policy makers, officials, lawyers, women activists, Muslim religious scholars, Hindu priests, academics and researchers, and women representing Hindu and Muslim religions.

The findings illustrate that the controversies between the Islamic religion and national and international policies led to serious debates and confusion about gender-equal rights of inheritance in Bangladesh. The failure to formulate and adopt a gender-equal inheritance policy was influenced by several socio-political phenomena and gender-biased institutional settings. This kind of policy is deeply political, and cultural compatibility is necessary to formulate it, especially when the policy affects religious sentiments. Religious sentiments and beliefs, which are associated with religion-based personal law, therefore influence both the formulation or non-formulation of a gender-equal policy. To move forward with the fundamental idea of women’s inclusion, there is a strong need to identify the socio-cultural and political drivers behind formulating, non-formulating, as well as implementing a gender-equal policy.

The paper will be beneficial to scholars and policy makers who seek to explore the epicenter of challenges and opposition to formulating a gender-equal policy in the context of a developing country with a Muslim majority.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate, firstly, to what extent has Nepal’s bureaucracy become representative in terms of reflecting the country’s demographic composition, and secondly, has the bureaucracy become more responsive to citizens since the implementation of a quota policy in 2007.

This paper relies on factual and perceptual data in analysis. In order to analyze and interpret representative bureaucracy, this paper adopts factual data derived from the secondary sources, especially data generated by the Government of Nepal. Second, the perceptual set of data was collected through two rounds (2008, 2014) of a country-representative survey in Nepal.

The findings suggest that in terms of representativeness, the bureaucracy is still dominated by high-caste Hindus, while other ethnic communities, except the Newars, are utterly under-represented. Surprisingly, Dalits are represented in higher posts as per their percentage in the population, but they are still underrepresented in the civil service in general. Women’s representation has also increased through participation in the civil service, but they still mostly hold junior or non-gazetted posts. Citizens’ evaluations regarding responsiveness and processes of service provision are also mixed.

This paper is a unique attempt to understand the aspects of representativeness and responsiveness in relation to Nepalese Civil Service.

Theoretically, both democ/ratic legitimacy and government capacity are necessary for successful crisis management, like the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors argue that there are important variations for pandemic management in the developed and democratic world. However, are these equally needed in the developing world where democracy and capacity are present in varying degrees and in some countries with a vast deficit? This article analyzes how legitimacy and capacity affect citizens' satisfaction with the pandemic management in South Asia.

The study is based on a survey of 3,423 randomly selected respondents from Facebook users in South Asia. The survey data are presented and discussed along with information derived from secondary sources to put the data in the broader context of the South Asian countries. The authors apply ordinary linear regression for statistical analysis.

The findings suggest that citizens are content with the performance of government institutions in COVID-19 management. They emphasize material well-being, such as relief provisions and financial incentives during the crisis period. They are, however, less concerned about the legitimacy dimension, although democracy in South Asia is flawed with excessive restrictions on public freedom during the pandemic. The contradictory findings may be due to the public orientation towards authoritarian culture and their preference for strongman rule in crisis management.

The governments in South Asia may systematically use army and police forces to manage crises as people are more satisfied with their performance during COVID-19 management.

This is the first time data across South Asia have been collected and analyzed about crisis management.

Therefore, this research study investigates the impact of business environment on the performance of the business organizations. (1) To understand the importance the environment in the success of the business entrepreneurship. (2) To explore the environmental factors that can affect the success of business entrepreneurship in Pakistan. (3) To establish relationship between the environmental factors and the sustained organizational performance of business entrepreneurships in Pakistan.

Drawing from the person–environment fit (PE fit) and the self-determination theory literature, this survey research study seeks to determine the impact of organizational environment upon sustained organizational economic performance. The main independent variable of the study encompasses its main three dimensions, i.e. leadership capacity, organizational culture and organizational politics. The dependent variable comprises the sustained economic performance of the organization. The research study hypothesized and tested a model in which the organizational environment (organizational culture, organizational politics and leadership) interplays with the organizational sustained performance.

Keeping in view the outcomes of this research work the following implications can be drawn. A leader can yield maximum productivity of employees, if he/she has leadership capacity to provide directions, skilled to minimize the stress level of the employees and able to motivate them in achieving organizational goals. Therefore, capacity of leader to handle difficult situations and develop PE fit is the key to organizational success in current scenario. The study also revealed a positive effect of organizational culture on organizational performance. The culture of the organizations provides an environment of openness to think, share and contribute toward goals of the organization. It enables employees to express themselves, develop person-organization common goals with self-determination. The PE fit provides a platform to feel free, express their feelings and opinions, and contribute in the decision-making process of organizations. The involvement in organizational activities provide a sense of responsibility, ownership and motivation to produce better results for the organizations.

PE fit perspective postulates that matching individual psychological needs and environmental supplies (provided by organization and society) generates positive attitudes and behaviors (Tepper et al., 2018). The effect between individuals and their environment is inherently reciprocal rather than a one-way effect (Goetz et al., 2021). The fundamental postulation support that the fit certainly improves performance, commitment and satisfaction of individuals in the context of organizations (De Cooman et al., 2019; Rau vola et al., 2020). Moreover, self-determination theory (SDT) is another perspective that emphasizes the attainment of autonomy, competence and relatedness in employees to outperform (Deci and Ryan, (2010). The self-determination theory revolves around the social-contextual conditions that support or obstruct the integral courses of self-motivation and psychological development, which will contribute toward organizational performance (Nazir et al., 2021).