University of Wollongong in Dubai - Working Paper Series

Towards a profound sense of professionalism: teaching ethics to IT and business university students

G. al Qaimari — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 23:52:40 PDT

The boom in technology has taken over every sector of private and public life. From hospitals to banks, military to schools and even stores, all indulge in the use of some form of technology. A by-product of this boom has been the immense amount of data that is divulged to strangers every single day. So how do customers of these services know that the people, who are serving them and taking down their personal data, have the sense of professionalism to ensure privacy and security? How do organizations ensure they are hiring the people with the ability to respect and maintain this privacy? In doing so, how do managers of these organizations ensure they do not cross the line themselves while using surveillance technology to monitor their own employees? In this paper, we discuss a survey study that clearly demonstrates how ethics education leads to a profound sense of professionalism, a building block in ensuring employees and managers have the knowledge and understanding to execute confidentiality or scrunity without compromising privacy or security. We end this paper by identifying topics that, we believe, should be taught in an ethics course to IT and business university students based on the experience of the first author to help shape future employees and managers with a profound sense of professionalism.

Destination brand components

M. S. Balakrishnan — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 23:10:35 PDT

Destination branding is a complex subject; not just because of its overlap between service, corporate and product branding but also because of the multiplicity of stakeholders, diverse customer base and product offerings. This exploratory study aims to study destination brand components and simplify the concepts and relative importance of each of the components. Through a detailed literature review a conceptual model is presented with taxonomy and brand components. This is followed by a quantitative study that tries to find the relationship between destination brand components to the tourist motives and the stage of decision making. Further research avenues are discussed.

E-learning and blended learning in the Gulf region

S. M. Biju — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 22:40:25 PDT

In today's ultra modern world the traditional face to face (F2F) teaching has been replaced by e-learning or online learning. Companies find this method very effective to train their employees without using up work hours. E-learning has been implemented by many educational institutions at undergraduate and graduate levels in the Gulf region. Blended learning is e-learning along with online support. This paper will discuss different modes of e-learning, assignment design techniques and e-learning trends in the Gulf region.

Baby you can drive my car. Using primary target customers to develop your marketing communications

A. Epps — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 22:22:49 PDT

This paper details a live case study that is a three-way collaboration between a leading automobile manufacturer (the client), a group of sixty two final year marketing students in groups of fours and fives (the agencies); and a leading international university in Dubai, UAE (the liaison). The client is introducing a new model and has commissioned the fourteen competitive marketing communication agencies to pitch for the role of launch management team. The results suggest a win, win, win situation; whereby the client gets a suite of creative ideas from their primary target market, the agencies gain experience of working for one of the world's most reputed brands and the liaison enhances its links with the international business community.

Multi-factor estimation of stock index movement: a case analysis of NIFTY 50, National Stock Exchange of India

T. P. Ghosh — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 21:59:09 PDT

Multi-index research in investtment management attempted to predict change in share price based on market index, industry index and variables. This model can be extended for predicting movements in the secondary capital market. It has been studied in this paper whether Nifty can be predicted using bond index, future price of NYMEX Light Sweet Crude, US$ / INR exchange rate, Nikkei 225, benchmark index of Japanese capital market which captures US market sentiment and offers early morning market cues in Asian trading, S&500, benchmark index of the US market. Observing the trend of betas, it is concluded that appreciation of Indian currency against US$ has not affected the market growth; and also crude prices (although high crude price would affect national GDP) and stock index are not inversely related. Indian stock index is also influenced by the US market cues.

A model of predictors of managers performance

P. Hosie — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 23:05:01 PDT

The 'happy-productive worker' thesis is a commonsense theory evolved into the 'performing-managers' proposition. This paper summarises the research that was conducted to develop a Parial Model of managers' affective wellbeing, intrinsic job satisfaction and performance. This lays the groundwork for developing a more comprehensive model of predictors of managers' performance. This represents a far more complete and sopfisticated conceptualisation of the predictors of managers' performance than what is currently available in the literature. Job characteristics, role conflict, role overload, role ambiguity, organisational commitment and extrinsic job satisfaction are introduced as logical extensions to the Partial Model, and are rendered suitable for future verification.

Trends, gaps and alignments in professional education in the United Arab Emirates: implications for strategic growth

P. Jayshree — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 20:04:06 PDT

This is an exploratory study that seeks to identify the trends in professional education and labour market demands and point out whether these synchronize with the objectives of the strategic plan of Dubai. The study is based on a survey of programs of accredited universities in the UAE and uses labour market trends published by the government of Dubai in its statistical yearbook for 2005. The study makes a pioneering attempt at reviewing the professional courses and has important implications for universities and colleges in development of courses to meet the demand of the labour market.

Materialism in Malaysia

P. Vel — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 22:48:11 PDT

Development of materialistic attitudes and values in different cultural settings has become a relevant discussion in consumer behaviour. Accordingly, a study to analyse the development of materialism in Malaysia was initiated. Specifically, the paper first presents the general conceptual life course paradigm that serves as a blue print for discussing and reporting consumer research on materialism. Next, hypotheses derived from life course perspectives were tested with a survey in Malaysia. The findings suggest that the amount of television viewing and peer communication about consumption during adolescent years contribute to the development of materialistic values.

The effect of OPEC production allocations on oil prices

J. Simpson — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 22:17:10 PDT

This paper provides an analysis of oil pricing and supply through an examination of production allocations in conjuction with an investigation of unlagged and optimally lagged relationships between key weekly (reported daily) crude oil price series interacting with OPEC prices and price changes. With crude oil prices at record highs, high inflation in developing countries and the onset of systematic risk in global financial markets, the major global players should well remember the impact of oil supply interference of the late 1980s early 1990s on global financial stability.

An exploration of gender stereotypes in perception and practice of leadership

A. Sikdar — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 23:39:40 PDT

Gender-role stereotypes i.e. characteristics of jobs being defined in terms of gender are common in society. In this study we examine the role of socially constructed gender stereotypes in leadership and their influence on leadership behaviour of people. Based on literature the study has hypothesized society perceives leadership to have predominantly masculine characteristics, such that those who see themselves as having more masculine characteristics would be more willing to assume leadership roles. Further, gender identification of individuals would explain their leadership behaviour rather than their biological sex.

Using marking criteria to improve learning: an evaluation of student perceptions

S. Koshy — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 20:53:54 PDT

This paper is an exploratory study on the use of Marking Criteria in the offshore campus of an Australian university in the Middle East. The purpose of the study is to analyse student attitudes to the use of Marking Criteria with a view to maximizing its use. Most educators agree that assessment plays a key role in education and the use of Marking Criteria helps to streamline assessment.

A case of miscommunication? Obstacles to effective implementation of a plagiarism detection system in a multicultural university

S. Koshy — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 18:17:36 PDT

The issue of plagiarism has besieged universities worldwide and proactive preventive measures im plemented include the use of plagiarism detection systems like Turnitin. This paper explores the use and potential misuse of Turnitin by the students of a Western University in the Middle East that hosts a diverse academic community comprising 70 different nationalities. Preliminary findings show that the use of Turnitin.com has generated a whole new approach to plagiarism. Student interviews revealed that they seem to have developed a false sense of competence based solely on Turnitin results. Text matching was often misinterpreted to mean plagiarism and the focus of students when submitting assignments was preventing text matching on Turnitin. These and other similar findings led to the conclusion that there has been a lack of accurate communication about plagiarism and Turnitin.

Professionalism and ethics: is education the bridge?

Z. Khan — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 23:08:16 PDT

In today's fast-paced world, where more and more emphasis is being placed on ethics and ethical behavior in the workplace, the IT industry remains such an area where little or no evidence has been presented to sustain claims by employees on whether pre-conceived notions of ethics lead to professionalism among employees. To this effect this chapter tests the knowledge of IT professionals on ethical issues such as usage of email, net surfing, net privacy, copy rights and others as recognized by professional societies such as ACM, IEEE and ACS. The study further investigates the root cause of unethical behavior at workplaces as pre-knowledge, or knowledge gained through high school and university education.

Socio-demographic factors as a predictor of the college-choice process in international universities: some data from the United Arab Emerites

G. Rodgigues — Wed, 20 May 2009 20:31:31 PDT

This is an explanatory study that seeks to identify socio-demographic factors that influence students' choice of college and college majors. The study was based on a survey of freshman students in a premier University based in Dubai, UAE.