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Organizational Behavior and Strategic Management.

MBA, Management/Executive development programs.

This case study can be used effectively for understanding the nuances of employee loyalty, especially if there is a cost of employee loyalty. While Anand Finance is happy that its workforce has largely been loyal, the volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous times force it to chart new course of action. The newly appointed Business Head, Ashok Singh's challenges compound when he finds that there was not’t a single innovation or best practice adopted over the past three years. Given his mandate to make Anand Finance as the Walmart of financial services, can he aspire to rally the forces behind the new mission? This case study facilitates an interesting discussion on the significance of operational and strategic alignment at organizations in the backdrop of an interesting story of Anand Finance, one of the leading non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) in India. The non-alignment was noticed by Ashok Singh (Singh) who took over as the Business Head of Anand Finance. While the company boasted of long-standing employees, Singh was quick to notice that the company had been paying a cost for employee loyalty. What was the cost of employee loyalty? Singh could also sense that the company was in a state of active inertia. Expected to make Anand Finance Walmart for financial services by 2025, Singh had a big task at hand given the lack of strategic orientation of the employees. What would be the likely course of Singh's actions? As the case study deals with strategic dilemmas related to the organizational culture, it can be suitably used for organizational behavior and strategic management courses. This case study is meant highlight that even if an organization is operationally sound and successful, it cannot afford to be strategically disoriented, as its strengths may prove to be its weaknesses with changing business conditions.

At the end of this case discussion, the participants are expected to know the merits and demerits of employee loyalty and the implications of the same for organizational change; whether employees’ relatively longer stints at companies would contribute to active inertia (as defined by Donald N. Sull in Harvard Business Review article, “Why Good Companies Go Bad”); and the ways to align operational orientation with strategic mindset, especially in the case of employees who rose through the ranks and had been serving the company for relatively longer period.

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This paper aims to study previously prepared and fully characterized chitosan nanoparticles (CNPs) as a starting substrate and microwave initiation technique for grafting acrylic acid (AA). This was done to see the influence of both CNPs with respect to well-dispersed nanosized particles, large surface areas, biodegradability, biocompatibility and reactivity and microwave initiation technique with respect to reduction in organic solvents, toxic chemical initiator and exposer time on exploiting the graft yield % and enhancing water solubility and antibacterial properties.

For evaluating the best accurate standard metrological method for calculating the graft yield %, the grafting parameters were stated in terms of graft yield percent and measured gravimetrically (based on dry weight method) and titrimetrically (based on carboxyl content). Microwave power, AA and CNPs concentrations and reaction duration were shown to be the most important parameters influencing the grafting process.

The optimum reaction conditions were obtained when CNPs 1.5 g, AA 150 bows, microwave irradiation power 500 W and reaction duration 120 s were used. Various analytical methods were used to characterize CNPs and poly(AA)–CNPs graft copolymers. According to the findings, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy examination determines the attachment of carboxyl groups to CNPs chains. The thermogravimetric analysis revealed that the copolymers were more thermally stable than CNPs counterparts. Furthermore, the resulting copolymers were shown to have greater water solubility biodegradability resistance and antibacterial properties than CNPs counterpart. Finally, a preliminary mechanism demonstrating all occasions that occur during the polymerization reaction has been proposed.

The advancement addressed here is undertaken using previously prepared and fully characterized CNPs as a green bio-nanocompatible polymer and microwave initiation technique as green and efficient tool with respect to reduction in organic solvents toxic chemical initiator and exposer time for grafting AA.