Just as values are like beacons for an individual, so they are for a profession, especially for HRD—a value–based management profession. Given the sweeping changes taking place in the business environment, it is plausible that the value orientation of HRD professionals have also changed. In an attempt to understand this, the study being presented here identified 11 value orientations, with ethico–moral, customer and quality orientations the three top ranking value orientations of HRD professionals. The study also discusses respondents’ rating of (...) their organization on the encouragement provided to employees in their job to practice the values they consider as the ones guiding their professional life. It concludes that though: professionals still value strong humanistically–oriented values, business–oriented values seem to have taken priority over the same; organizations encourage practice of all the 11 value orientations, they have come a long way from the traditional welfare approach or paternalistic attitude. (shrink)

Free flow of culture is not always fair flow of culture. A recent spate of copyright suits by Hollywood against Bollywood accuses the latter of ruthlessly copying movie themes and scenes from America. But claims of cultural appropriation go far back, and travel in multiple directions. The revered American director, Steven Spielberg, has been accused of copying the idea for E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial from legendary Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray’s 1962 script, The Alien. Disney’s The Lion King bears striking similarities to (...) Osamu Tezuka’s Japanese anime series, Kimba the White Lion. Neither Ray nor Tezuka’s studio sued the American filmmakers and this Article is by no means an attempt to revive any particular legal case. Rather, this Article considers copyright’s role in promoting free cultural exchange, albeit on fair terms in a global marketplace of ideas marked by sharp differentials in power, wealth, and knowledge. (shrink)

The literature on the metaphysics of gender is partially marked by a tension between conceptions that understand gender categories as importantly at least partly self-determined identities and those that understand them as social or cultural categories imposed upon others as a tool of oppression. I argue that this tension can be mediated by understanding gender categories as essentially contested. I then draw on “radical functionalism” to argue that, while, divorced of context, competing conceptions can simultaneously explicate an essentially contested concept, (...) within context, some conceptions better meet background purposes underlying the use of the concept than others. (shrink)

Electronegativity is an important physico-chemical concept to study the chemical structure and reactivity. Although, the conundrum related to measurement of electronegativity still persists. In view of this fact, a simple yet rigorous scale of electronegativity, invoking an inverse relationship with atomic nucleophilicity index, has been proposed for 103 elements of the periodic table. The computed data follows periodicity distinctly satisfying all the sine qua non of a standard scale of electronegativity. Further, electronegativity values display a sound similarity with the standard (...) electronegativity scales validating the suitability of the proposed model. Molecular electronegativities of some polyatomic molecules have also been calculated using the proposed scale of electronegativity.Graphic. (shrink)

The paper discusses anumāna and its variety in general from the point of view of inferential cognition for the sake of oneself as well as for the sake of others; i.e. svārthānumāna and parārthānumāna as given in the Buddhist tradition of logic, especially with parārthānumāna, its nature and role. The paper argues that the Buddhist intent of division of anumāna into svārthānumāna and parārthānumāna was to bring Buddha-vacanas under the category of parārthānumāna and to save them from being classified under (...) śabda pramāṇa. It contends that such a division was not just an epistemological demand, but had a deeper philosophical significance in the Buddhist conceptual framework. Such a division is, therefore, intended to reject the role of śabda as an extra causal means or pramāṇa. The paper identifies the logical commitment in Buddhist tradition as hetu-centric commitment as it differs from the Nyāya tradition of vyāpti-centric one. (shrink)

The article reports findings of a study conducted to explore the cognitive moral logics used for considering software piracy as ethical or unethical. Since the objective was to elicit the moral logics from the respondents, semi-structured in-depth interviews of 38 software professionals of India were conducted. The content of the interviews was analyzed using the grounded theory framework which does not begin with constructs and their interlinkages and then seek proof instead it begins with an area of study and allows (...) them to emerge from that area of study. Given the objective of exploring moral logics, grounded theory seemed an appropriate choice. Results revealed that 21 respondents considered software piracy unethical whereas 17 did not. Though economic reasons formed the most fundamental logic in both the cases, an overall analysis revealed that the respondents mostly used moral justification (neutralization) for not considering software piracy unethical whereas those considering it unethical used normative (principled) logics. The interconnections among logics are analyzed and results are discussed along with the limitations of the study. (shrink)

Honor killings are graceless and ferocious murders by chauvinists with an antediluvian mind. These are categorized separately because these killings are committed for the prime reason of satisfying the ego of the people whom the victim trusts and always looks up to for support and protection. It is for this sole reason that honor killings demand strict and stern punishment, not only for the person who committed the murder but also for any person who contributed or was party to the (...) act. A positive change can occur with stricter legislation and changes in the ethos of the society we live in today. (shrink)

Package downsizing is a practice where the package content is reduced without changing the package or the price of the product. In a market that is defined by ‘hyper-competition,’ package downsizing is often practiced by marketers to effect an invisible price increase for their products. Although marketers may maintain that providing, the legally required, quantity indication on the package is adequate for customers to make logical and informed choices, research indicates that consumers often do not consult quantity indications on packages (...) but use alternative methods (e.g., visual impressions of the package size, total package price, or previous purchase experience) to judge product quantity and to calculate product value. As a subtle means, package downsizing therefore has the potential to mislead customers in the buying process due to an unfavorable balance of information within the dyad. This could give rise to serious moral and ethical consideration. In this paper, we examined various issues related to package downsizing, such as why sellers resort to this type of practice, consumer vulnerability to package downsizing, as well as the extent of protection offered to consumers by the existing laws and regulations with respect to product packaging. Finally, we examined the ethics of package downsizing using the existing legal, moral, and professional ethical standards as well as the principle of equivalence. Our analysis indicates that package downsizing, as it is practiced by the marketers and sellers today, is unethical as far as the consumers are concerned. (shrink)

PurposePossession and usage of data-enabled smartphones have added further complexity to the issue of cyberloafing behavior and it certainly evokes newer ethical concerns. This study aims to explore how working individuals perceive the ethicality of their cyberloafing behaviors at the workplace and the cognitive logics they apply to justify their cyberloafing behavior.Design/methodology/approachIncorporating constructivist grounded theory methodology, 19 working managers from various organizations were interviewed face-to-face and responses were audio-recorded with prior consent. The recordings were transcribed verbatim, simultaneously analyzed and coded (...) to let the themes emerge out of the data.FindingsThe research showed that working managers use varied combinations of office computers, personal laptops, smartphones, wireless internet provided at the office and personal mobile-internet to loaf around at workplaces. Moreover, it unearthed that employees use nine different neutralization techniques and six different ethical logics (with normative undertones) in a network fashion while considering the ethicality of cyberloafing behavior.Practical implicationsRecognizing the complexities is imperative to moderate any deviant behavior in an organization. The layers of ethicality and neutralization tactics will equip the working managers and companies to place the required internet and smartphone usage policies in the future.Originality/valueThis research has taken into account all forms of cyberloafing behaviors. The perceived ethicality of cyberloafing behavior at the workplace was not fully explored in a holistic manner before, specifically in the Indian context. (shrink)

Objective: Electrical stimulation potentially delineates epileptogenic cortex through induction of typical seizures. Although frequently employed, its value for epilepsy surgery remains controversial. Similarly, ES is used to identify symptomatogenic zones, but with greater success and a long-standing evidence base. Recent work points to new seizure symptoms such as ictal central apnea that may enhance presurgical hypotheses. The aims of this review are 2-fold: to determine the value of ES-induced seizures in epilepsy surgery and to analyze current evidence on ICA as (...) a new surrogate of symptomatogenic cortex.Methods: Three databases were searched for ESIS. Investigators independently selected studies according to pre-specified criteria. Studies reporting postoperative outcome in patients with ESIS were included in a meta-analysis. For ES-induced apnea, a thorough search was performed and reference list searching was employed.Results: Of 6,314 articles identified for ESIS, 25 were considered eligible to be reviewed in full text. Fourteen studies were included in the qualitative synthesis ; six studies were included in the meta-analysis. The meta-analysis showed that favorable outcome is associated with ESIS prior to surgery. In addition, the overall estimation of the occurrence of favorable outcome among cases with ESIS is 68.13%. On the other hand, recent studies have shown that stimulation of exclusively mesial temporal lobe structures elicits central apnea and represents symptomatogenic anatomic substrates of ICA. This is in variance with traditional teaching that mesial temporal ES is non-symptomatogenic.Conclusions: ES is a tool highly likely to aid in the delineation of the epileptogenic zone, since ESIS is associated with favorable postoperative outcomes. There is an urgent need for prospective evaluation of this technique, including effective stimulation parameters and surgical outcomes, that will provide knowledge base for practice. In addition, ES-induced apnea studies suggest that ICA, especially when it is the first or only clinical sign, is an important semiological feature in localizing the symptomatogenic zone to mesial temporal lobe structures, which must be considered in SEEG explorations where this is planned, and in surgical resection strategies. (shrink)

The impact of the SARS‐CoV‐2 (COVID‐19) pandemic on medical education is well described. Here, we describe an aspect that has received little attention so far, namely the ethical implications of continued bedside teaching. As a team of clinical educators supported by one of our students and an ethicist, we describe this unexpected challenge and how we navigated it in an already existing sea of COVID‐induced issues and uncertainty.

Purpose Previous studies on cyberloafing have so far not focused on the interlinkages among push factors, pull factors, consequences of actions and value orientations of the employees in a comprehensive manner. The purpose of this study is to close that gap by integrating push-pull theory with means-end chain framework. Design/methodology/approach Using a soft-laddering technique, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 21 Indian employees from various organizations with prior written consent. After performing the content analysis and preparation of ladders, an implication matrix (...) and a hierarchical value map were constructed using the LadderUX tool. Findings “Upholding conversational conformity,” “achieving efficiency through noise cancellation,” “addressing occasional requirements,” “social networking as a coping mechanism,” “staying informed and sharing opinions,” “attempting job or profile alteration” and “fulfilling transactional obligations” turned out to be the seven prominent means-end chain patterns, with their respective push-pull factors, consequences and value orientations. This study also suggested the multifaceted character of cyberloafing in a continuum, from “serious-destructive” to “minor-positive” to “facilitative-productive.” Research limitations/implications This study has been conducted by focusing on cyberloafing at physical workplaces and not in the context of distributed work environments. Practical implications The findings of this study will enable organizations to frame an appropriate set of guidelines to control this behavior. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to integrate the push-pull theory and means-end chain framework to explore the nuances of cyberloafing among employees. (shrink)

Intellectual property law plays a pivotal role in ensuring that luxury goods companies can recoup their investments in the creation and dissemination of their copyrighted works, trademarked logos, and patented designs. In 2011, global sales for luxury goods reached about $250 billion, and consumers in East and Southeast Asia accounted for more than 50 percent of that figure. The rapid expansion of the market has prompted some retailers to wield intellectual property against the influx of imitators and counterfeiters. The Luxury (...) Economy and Intellectual Property comprehensively explores the rise of the luxury goods economy and the growing role of intellectual property in creating, sustaining, and regulating this economy. Leading scholars across various disciplines critically consider the industry, its foundational intellectual property laws, and the public interest and social concerns arising from the intersection of economics and law. Topics covered include defining the concept of luxury, the social life of luxury goods, concerns about distributive justice in a world flooded by luxury goods and knockoffs, the globalization of luxury goods, and the economic, social, and political ramifications of the meteoric rise of the Asian luxury goods market. (shrink)

Analyser les origines de l'apparition du concept de zoonite comme unité d'organisation segmentaire en zoologie demande de se placer dans le contexte de la première moitié du dix-neuvième siècle, plus spécifiquement vers 1826-1839. Si les origines de la problématique remontent à Goethe, d'une part, à des botanistes tels que de Candolle d'autre part, la thèse de Moquin-Tandon sur les dédoublements chez les végétaux (1826) est une étape essentielle. Les hypothèses de multiplication et de diversification des organes arrangés selon une (...) symétrie, préside aussi à ses recherches sur les Hirusinées (1827). Le zoonite est une unité organique élémentaire pouvant se démultiplier et il est structuré symétriquement. Mais, ce qui le caractérise est sa composition lui conférant une autonomie. En 1832, Dugès regardera le rapport entre zoonite et organisme total sous l'angle de la conformité organique. Il déduit de ses observations les lois de multiplicité des organismes, de disposition, de modification et de coalescence. Cette dernière loi deviendra primordiale chez Dugès en 1838 pour expliquer l'évolution de l'être composé ainsi que la croissance embryonnaire. Mais, le zoonitisme des années 1830 ne constitue pas une théorie scientifique, même s'il servira ultérieurement de référence, en particulier dans la physiologie animale d'Edwards. To analyse the origins of the appearance of the zoonite concept as a unit of segmentary organisation in zoology requires positioning oneself in the context of the first half of the nineteenth century, more specifically in the years 1826-1839. If the origins of the problem go back to Goethe, on the one hand, and to botanists such as de Candolle on the other, the thesis of Moquin-Tandon on the splitting of plants (1826) is an essential step. The hypotheses of multiplication and diversification of organs arranged according to a symmetry, also presides over his research on the Hirudinées (1827). The zoonite is an elementary organic unit which can multiple itself and is structured symmetrically. But what characterises it is that its composition confers on it a certain autonomy. In 1832, Dugès regarded the connection between zoonite and total organism from the angle of organic conformity. He deduced from his observations the laws of multiplicity of organisms, of disposition, of modification and of coalescence. This last law would become vital to Dugès in 1838 for explaining the evolution of the composed being as well as embryonic development. But zoonitism in the 1830s did not constitute a scientific theory, even if it would ultimately serve as a reference, in particular for the animal physiology of Edwards. (shrink)