The single and joint effects of financial intervention policies introduced by governments and power distance culture on returns of equity markets during the COVID-19

Understanding the (lack of) utilization of work-family practices: a multilevel perspective

Purpose

Many employees do not use work-family practices to their full extent, even when they are in need of them. Drawing on the concept of psychological safety the authors propose a new construct: psychological accessibility– employees' sense of embracing the benefits of work-family practices without experiencing a fear of using them. The authors argue that the psychological accessibility of work-family practices could explain the variations in the utilization of work-family practices among employees with similar levels of family needs. Furthermore, the authors propose multilevel contextual factors that could affect the psychological accessibility of work-family practices.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors develop a theoretical multilevel framework for work-family practices that places psychological accessibility at its core and addresses accessibility of work-family practices from a macro level that includes institutions and the different attributes of the national culture, a meso level that includes work time norms in organizations, and a micro level, that includes the social context at the team level in organizations.

Findings

As part of the conceptual development the authors offer 10 propositions.

Originality/value

The authors' multilevel model of psychological accessibility could explain the variations in the utilization of work-family practices across different national, organizational and group contexts. This paper refocuses scholarly attention to the psychological antecedents of the utilization of work-family practices. The authors offer some practical recommendations to make the utilization of work-family practices a psychologically safe activity.

Mapping the key challenges and managing the opportunities in supply chain distribution during COVID-19: a case of Myanmar pharmaceutical company

Purpose

This study aims to present a study on the supply chain process of a Myanmar-based pharmaceutical company (named ABC Pvt. Ltd. in this study) that produces pharmaceutical products across Myanmar and aims of bringing quality medical products and best care for Myanmar people’s health. The study aims to identify the key supply chain challenges and manage the opportunities executed by this pharmaceutical company to improve the supply chain process during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Design/methodology/approach

This work used a case study and conducted semistructured interviews with the manager, senior managers and senior staff of the ABC Company to improve the supply chain process and develop a comprehensive structural relationship to rank them to streamline the uncertainties, real-time information and agility in a digital supply chain using grey relational analysis (GRA) method.

Findings

From the data analysis and results, “Impact of political factor,” “Delay in import process” and “Weak internet connection,” and “Weak knowledge of the use of digital platform,” “Poor information sharing in online by employees” and “Information flow from top management to operational level” have been identified as top and bottom three key challenges, respectively. “Inventory management,” “Selection of transport method” and “Operational cost”, and “Marketing and brand Innovation,” “Online delivery of products” and “E-commerce enablement (Launching applications, tracking system)” are identified as the top and bottom three managing the opportunities, respectively.

Research limitations/implications

The findings of the study help to supply chain decision-makers of the company in their establishment of key challenges and opportunities during the COVID-19 era. As a leading company, it always tries to add value to its product through a supply chain system, effective management teams and working with skillful decision-making toward satisfying the demand on time and monitoring the supplier performance.

Originality/value

The novelty of this study is to identify the key supply chain challenges and opportunities by the GRA method to rank them, considering the case of Myanmar pharmaceutical manufacturing company as a case-based approach to measuring its performance during the COVID-19 outbreak era. This work will assist managers and practitioners help to the company to provide optimal services to its consumers on time in this critical situation.