Search results

Racial affinities of Hindu & Muslim populations in India -- Western factor in Hindu-Muslim relationship -- Incidence of polygyny among Muslims & growth rate of their population -- Status of women in Islam -- Islam and terrorism -- Hindu participation in Muslim administration in medieval India -- Indian Muslims some myths & realities

Effective audit committees are the best guarantee of sound corporate governance (Levitt, 1999). Thus, the investigation of factors affecting audit committee effectiveness (ACE) is the main objective of this study. Specifically, it evaluates the impact of audit committee independence, financial literacy, authority, and diligence on ACE. A mixed method approach is adopted consisting of a fully crossed, within-subjects design to test the main and interactive weights of the four variables and eight in-depth interviews. The analysis of 55 survey‐based factorial experiments reveals that financial literacy has the greatest effect on the external auditor's decision to assess the effectiveness of audit committees followed by diligence, independence, and authority. Additionally, three significant interactions were found indicating that external auditors process decision-making information configurally, which means that external auditors consider the combined effects of the posited factors. The interviews provide constructive explanations of the effects of the four factors along with their interactive effects. The insights gained from this study are useful to the board of directors, professional bodies, and regulators charged with developing corporate governance seeking the optimal composition of audit committees. These results are vital because they reflect the viewpoint of the external auditors, who are the most communicative and interactive with the audit committees

This study aims at examining Jordan's political culture with specific reference to three dimensions. First, tribal dimension; second, national (Pan – Arab) dimension and finally Islamic dimension of Jordan's political culture. More specifically, the study raised two fundamental questions: first, what is the relationship between these different dimensions and "Jordanian Identity"? Second, do these dimensions hinder the possibility of an emerging democratic society? The "central region" of Jordan was selected as a target group for this survey. Reasons for that selection were provided in the study. The study was conducted using the descriptive analytical approach as a method for examining the findings of the survey. This study concluded that there is a strong correlation between various dimensions of Jordan's political culture and the issue of identity. However, there is no evidence to support the idea that Jordan's political culture may prohibit the process of democratization.

This study aims to explore the attitudes of a sample of members of civil societies in Jordan towards political participation, with respect to the actual presence of democratic indicators in the political scene in Jordan, major reasons behind political non-participation, and means to enhance political participation. It is, also, to investigate what effects demographic variables such as sex and party membership have on these attitudes. To achieve these objectives, a questionnaire was developed and distributed to a strata sample selected from all the twelve governorates in the country composed of (14675) cases, of which only (3553) cases were considered for this study since their respondents were members in civil societies. Appropriate statistical analyses showed positive correlation between the above mentioned variables and respondents' attitudes towards political participation. In general, the results revealed negative attitudes of respondents towards political participation, and their belief that the government of Jordan is not serious about countering corruption and repotism. It is also found that in spite of government attempts towards democratic reforms, people are still unwilling to participate in political activities due to many reasons, the most important of which are: fear from measures used by security forces, the concentration of political activities in the capital, the weak application of measures of equal opportunities, and the weak transparency of the transfer of power. In the light of its findings, the study offers a number of recommendations which might enhance political participation, the most important of which are: improving institutionalism, and the application of measures of equal opportunities in political and administrative recruitments. In addition, it is very important that the government assures the transparency of transfer of power, and establishes public relation programs capable of diminishing people's fear of measures used by security forces .

To strengthen social and behavior change communication (SBCC) capacity of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) of the Government of Bangladesh, BCCP/BKMI developed two eLearning courses providing opportunities for professional development of SBCC Program Managers who have no access to training or refreshers training. The two eLearning courses – Message and Material Development (MMD) and Monitoring and Evaluation (MandE) of SBCC programs – went online in September 2015, where all users could register their participation so results could be monitored. Methodology: To assess the uses of these courses a randomly selected sample was collected to run a pre and post-test analyses and a phone survey were conducted. Systematic random sampling was used to select a sample of 75 MandE and 25 MMD course participants from a sampling frame of 179 and 51 respectively. Results: As of September 2016, more than 179 learners have completed the MandE course, and 49 learners have completed the MMD course. The users of these courses are program managers, university faculty members, and students. Encouraging results were revealed from the analysis of pre and post-test scores and a phone survey three months after course completion. Test scores suggested a substantial increase in knowledge. The pre-test scores findings suggested that about 19% learners scored high on the MandE. The post-test scores finding indicated a high score (92%) of the sample across 4 modules of MandE. For MMD course in pre-test scoring, 30% of the learners scored high, and 100% scored high at the post-test. It was found that all the learners in the phone survey have discussed the courses. Most of the sharing occurred with colleagues and friends, usually through face to face (70%) interaction. The learners reported that they did recommend the two courses to concerned people. About 67% MandE and 76% MMD learners stated that the concepts that they had to learn during the course were put into practice in their work settings. The respondents for both MandE and ...

PurposeThis paper presents issues associated with the needs of collaborative supply chain management (CSCM) and proposes a planning stage of a CSCM framework.Design/methodology/approachThe proposed planning stage of a CSCM framework incorporates issues of organisation profile, internal functional strategy and supplier‐customer strategy. The gauging absence of prerequisites (GAP) analysis technique which embedded in the knowledge‐based system is proposed in the planning stage to analyse the gap between the current and the desirable position (benchmark) for an effective implementation in organisation.FindingsThe planning stage framework provides information specifically for designing a CSCM by focusing on the organisation capability and business processes and discussed the important issues in planning a CSCM for business organisations, specifically for a manufacturing environment.Research limitations/implicationsFurther research could be carried out to capitalise the framework for improving the CSCM.Practical implicationsThe proposed planning stage of a CSCM framework enables the chain members to identify key factors or issues for CSCM development.Originality/valueThe new aspects of the proposed CSCM are firstly, the proposed planning stage model is supported by a KBS approach. Secondly, the use of GAP analysis technique and finally, the planning stage framework provides information and issues for the design stage of CSCM framework.

This study provides a comprehensive view of the current practice of corporate governance (CG) in the emerging market, with a specific focus on Jordan. By using archival data, namely the academic literature, reports published by the main institutions, and financial reports published by listed companies, this study addresses the roles explored of main institutional forces, firms' characteristics, financial markets, and the Jordanian economic environment in reinforcing the current practices of CG in Jordan. Although Jordan aims for institutional development to reinforce practices toward consistency with international CG best practices, the results of this study show that there is a weak institutional environment, with a seeming lack of some external control instruments. The findings also indicate that unpredictable legal enforcement causes poor compliance by Jordanian companies. Therefore, current CG practices in Jordan are neither adequate nor comprehensive (Mansour et al., 2023). Therefore, the weakness of CG may lead to further financial crises at the company level in Jordan. This study represents the first attempt to explore whether institutional forces are essential to strengthen CG practices in developing nations, and the results of this article can serve as a prototype for other developing economies.