2017

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Browsing 2017 by Author "Sidra Rafique"

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    Exploring Perspectives on Role of Human Resource Department in Managing Unethical Issues in Supervision Process of PhD Programs in Business Schools of Pakistan
    (UMT.Lahore, 2017) Sidra Rafique
    PhD, despite being most prestigious academic degree program, is faced by serious challenging issues, especially at dissertation phase, leading to 50-70% failure worldwide. Among these, effective and fair supervision is a major and frequently reported challenge. Either the supervisor or the supervisee crosses the limit of ethical boundaries, do injustice with his/her position and try to take selfish advantage during degree research work that exploits its successful completion. Three dynamics of effective supervisor-student association: personality, knowledge and skills, and communication with professional behavior from both sides have been proved essential which are missed in such cases. To eliminate this issue, institutes develop a committee comprised of responsible members for understanding and resolving reported issues. Unfortunately, the members of committee for PhD program concerns are either supervisors themselves or have close linkages with their fellow members or supervisors. In such challenging scenario, most ethical issues are either not reported or justified fairly. This critically calls for an external third party to intervene into the matter and answer it principally. Higher education institutions are also organizations, with HR department having evident and enhanced contributions for its development and progressive growth. The evolutionary role of HR department as ‘Strategic partner’ for an organization has offered it to play twofold role. Besides its traditional roles, HR department in educational institutes also facilitates effective educational program delivery. Therefore, the impact of HR unit in managing unethical issues in PhD supervision process is prominent and yet understudied area, especially in the context of Pakistan. The objective of this study was to fill in the conceptual and practical gap related to HRM functioning in higher education institutions. It also contributes towards this research agenda by outlining the perspectives of its key stakeholders related to the means and ways through which HR can adopt for this purpose. The current study has used phenomenology method and qualitative data was collected from four leading universities of Pakistan, offering doctoral degree program in business studies. The respondents of this study were supervisors, supervisees, PhD committee members and HR practioners, considered as its stakeholders. The information was gathered through in-depth 14 interviews and analyzed though NVivo 11 software for coding themes and sub-themes, and developing project and mind-maps. The outcomes of this research have incorporated in offering the bottom line for practically managing this issue at administrative level of academic institutions. It demands for new and unique HRM with specially designed procedures and policies for managing unethical PhD supervision issues of higher education institutions of Pakistan.