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PurposeThis study investigates the effectiveness of trade unions in preserving and promoting the rights of the worker, and being their voice in ensuring safe working conditions as part of the firms’ CSR activities.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from employees, managers, and owners of ready-made garments firms in Bangladesh. An open-ended survey instrument was used and distributed widely. Analysis of the 200 responses was undertaken using the qualitative narrative technique.FindingsThe findings show that, unlike traditional labor-management relations, in Bangladesh managers tend to have a more favorable attitude towards unions than employees do. The strong political links between the factory owners and the unions’ leadership raise questions about whose interest the unions represent.Practical implicationsThe authors highlight how adopting a CSR agenda can help unions make better representations on behalf of their members. This, in turn, can enhance the workforce’s efficiency and help strengthen the sector to develop processes to help face disruptions like those experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic.Originality/valueThe study is unique in addressing the role of unions in promoting CSR activities in emerging economies, where the formal institutional application remains limited. The study’s findings can help explain some of the sector’s challenges.

Purpose The International Labour Organization’s (ILO) sustainable compact is evident for many labor-intensive industries in emerging economies. This study aims to develop a sustainable human resource (HR) practice model for a labor-intensive industry from the evidence of the Bangladeshi ready-made garments (RMG) sector. Design/methodology/approach The study tests the factors identified from the literature for model validation. A total of 22 HR function items were used in a survey of 800 randomly selected respondents from the RMG sector in Bangladesh. The factor analysis (both exploratory and confirmatory) techniques were applied to explore and validate the model. Findings The study findings reveal that the factory management and policymakers should focus on sustainable HR practices for the betterment of a labor-intensive industry. In detail, the staffing function involves strategic HR planning, recruitment and selection and perfect employee placement; training and development functions entail proper organizational orientation, various training and development programs and employees’ career management and growth; the motivation function necessitates job design, fairness in the appraisal, practicing good organizational citizenship behavior with sound rewarding system and compensation packages; and finally, the maintenance function entails healthy and safe working environment, good communication and relationship management. Originality/value The study is original in developing a sustainable HR practice model with the alignment of ILO’s three inter-linked sustainability compact for a labor-intensive industry from an emerging economy perspective. The study’s outcomes will be a torchbearer for any labor-intensive industry’s sustainable HR practice from an emerging economy across the globe.

The study aimed to measure the impact of work pressure on family balance and the effect of work-family balance on Bangladeshi employees’ mental health during COVID19 from an emerging economy perspective. Several 400 data (response rate 50.25%) were collected through simple random sampling. The exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and structural equation modelling were run to test the proposed research framework with the help of MS Excel 2007, SPSS 22.0, and AMOS 23.0. The findings revealed that work-life has a significant positive impact on family life and that work-life and family life positively impact employees’ mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic. The novelty of this research is the Bangladeshi employees’ context and the COVID-19 phenomenon.

Purpose: The key purpose of the study is to understand the university students' perception of a sudden distance learning platform from Bangladesh (a least developed countries' perspective). Research methodology: This particular study has employed a qualitative research method with the support of interview and observation methods. The study has selected 20 University students as a sample size based on purposive sampling. Results: The findings provide a vivid outline of the current situation of the universities- that the students have- over the influence of distance learning on education, technology, their university, course instructors, and themselves. Limitations: The data was qualitative in nature and the study only interviewed the university students but not the other stakeholders of that system; in addition, the study did not triangulate the data with more quantitative data. Contribution: The study makes an important contribution to the literature on the least developed countries' university education, which will benefit Higher Education institutions that are also struggling with the prospects and obstacles of distance learning during and in the post-Covid-19 crisis.

This present study applies qualitative research method to evaluate the entrepreneurial roles and leadership styles of Elon Musk in Tesla motors. The study places its focus on the general review of Elon Musk’s leadership and attempts to match the leadership traits with some traditional leadership approaches widely recognized in leadership theory. The study employs a structured observation technique assimilating numerous secondary sources with a view to analyzing Musk’s leadership traits in Tesla motor. The results unfold Musk’s leadership attributes and shows that they match more or less with all the traditional leadership approaches but the servant leadership approach. Additionally, the outcomes also demonstrate a new character (entrepreneurial leader) in Musk’s leadership. Finally, the study offers some recommends for Elon Musk to follow, such as the champion/corporate intrapreneur and the servant leadership approaches so that they add practical values in his leading trait. This study will be a guideline for the new entrepreneur and will provide some distinctive ways of improvement in existing entrepreneurship as well as for management literature.

The objective of this study is to find out the impact of trustworthiness on the usage of mobile banking (M-banking) apps in the capital city of Bangladesh. A structured questionnaire was distributed using the snowball sampling technique. Confirmatory factor analyses and structural equation modeling (using SPSS Statistics 20.0 and AMOS 26.0) were used on 362 responses found suitable for the study. The analytical results reveal that all three components of trustworthiness (ability, benevolence, and integrity) have a positive impact on M-banking app usage. Although banks have realized the importance of consumer convenience, they struggle to create trustworthiness. Thus, this study showcases that this positive trustworthiness amongst M-banking app users would be helpful in enhancing the usage of apps.

The present study responds to calls from global agencies, regulators and activist groups to understand the impacts of religion on purchase decisions. The study reveals the purchase preferences and behaviour of consumers on occasions of a religious festival, that is, Eid-al-Fitr in an emerging market. The study aims to explore consumption patterns along with the specific reasons and factors influencing the purchasing behaviour of Muslim consumers during Eid-al-Fitr . The study is conducted as an ethnographic research in Bangladesh. Observations and interviews (on 100 event actors) were conducted between July 2014 and June 2018. The results reveal that Muslims undergo a shopping spree during their biggest religious festival Eid-al-Fitr. Purchase behaviour among Muslim society in Bangladesh is influenced by the head of family or senior citizens of the society. The study also tries to address the link among market, goods, services and consumers during the Eid-al-Fitr. Finally, the study identifies several key factors such as biological, neighbouring countries and issues of affiliation which may affect the purchasing behaviour of consumers during the religious occasions.

The impact of globalization is nothing new to the business firms. In the last few decades globalization has changed the business strategies of the companies. The current case study has tried to evaluate the Aetna’s diversity approaches named ‘The Aetna Way’ policy along with its complexity of implementation in people management issues. The report is categorized as follows. The first part of the report has discussed about the background of investigation. The following part has analyzed some closely related literatures related to the context. This past basically narrate the theme of recruitment and retention policy along with talent management process and its significance for the company. The third part of the case has assessed the Aetna’s recruitment and retention policies and then tried to compare the Aetna’s policies with close competitors’ and top performing companies’. This part also evaluates Aetna talent management process and policies and also compare with the competitors. After that in fourth part, the study points some recommendations with justification. The study has recommended the Aetna, to change the traditional recruitment policy and give more concentration on employee retention rate. Technology driven talent management practices should be the time worthy policy of the Aetna. Focusing more on LAMP and MCC frameworks would enhance the effectiveness and efficiency in recruitment, retention, and talent management policies for the Aetna.

Many studies have been conducted to find out the employee retention strategies by the organization towards issues related with HR. In this particular research the researchers tried to research and observe the relationship between employee retention and job satisfaction in private banking sector in the context of Bangladesh. A number of 150 sample size was considered through convenient sampling technique to analyze the relationship between satisfactions of employee on job retention strategies. The result of the correlation analysis found employee retention strategies is positively and strongly correlated with employee job satisfaction (r = 0.533, p < 1.00). In this regression analysis, the study found R2 = .284 which means independent (employee retention) variable can explain 28.4% of dependent variable (employee satisfaction) and the Independent variable employee retention can explain is positively depending on dependent variable employee satisfaction.

Diabetes is a globally prevalent disease that can cause microvascular compilation such as diabetic retinopathy (DR) in the human eye organs, and it might be a significant reason for visual deficiency. The present study aims to develop an automated diabetic retinopathy detection and classification system from digital fundus images to reduce the workload of ophthalmologists. This work comprises three main stages. Our method starts with the extraction of blood vessels from retinal images using Kirsch’s templates. Secondly, the method detects whatever the input images as normal or diabetic retinopathy and then illustrates an automatic diabetic retinopathy classification technique through statistical texture features. It embeds gray-level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM) and gray-level run length matrix (GLRLM) for second-order and higher-order statistical texture features as a feature extraction technique into three-renowned classifiers namely K-nearest neighbor (KNN), random forest (RF), and support vector machine (SVM). The evaluation results containing a dataset of 644 retinal images indicate that the proposed method based on random forest classifier is found to be effective with a weighted sensitivity, precision, F1-score, and accuracy of 95.53%, 96.45%, 95.38%, and 95.19%, respectively. It is expected that the suggested medical decision support system will be able to detect and classify diabetic retinopathy well.

Purpose: The central endeavor of this study is to scrutinize the standard of ethical business practice along with the intensity of short term earning on the Covid-19 crisis from a least developed country named Bangladesh. Research Methodology: The research is a concept paper based on the qualitative measurement of secondary sources of data. Results: The study urges four propositions such as, application of Golden Rule makes the businessmen’s realization regarding the suffering of consumers, Islamic Profit theory may enhance the Islamic morality and education in business practice, Building Ethical Education Curriculum may assist the ethical basement from early childhood to the whole education period which can be applicable in a real-life business career, and Trusteeship theory may rethink the businessmen about the meaning of real ownership in the natural world. Limitations: The paper is a concept paper; thus further studies have been required for practical implications based on the outcomes variables’ proof. Contribution: All the four propositions may also support the lawmakers to develop a permanent standard of ethical business climate instead of existing punitive system. Keywords: Ethical business practice, Short term earning intensity, COVID-19, Least developed country, Bangladesh

Samson H. Chowdhury along with his three friends was the founder of Square Group in 1958. Mr. Samson was a true entrepreneurial leader and an idol for the South Asian entrepreneur. The current study was based on Samson's leadership in Square Group. The study critically analysed Samson's leadership styles for Square. The study also examined the performance trends of few ventures under Square Group along with few comments regarding leadership of Samson Chowdhury. Finally, the study unearthed the entrepreneurial process and strategic steps of Samson. The study believes the findings will be a guideline for the entrepreneur of the century.

The study evaluates the level of the voluntary disclosure practices of 27 listed and non-listed banks in Bangladesh; whether there is any significant association between bank's specific attributes (i.e., size, profitability, age, and ownership structure) and the level of voluntary disclosure in the annual reports over the period of the study. To measure the level of voluntary information disclosure in the annual reports of each individual bank for each year, the study considered a two-step process: 1) construction of the voluntary disclosure index; 2) scoring the voluntary information disclosure items. For analysing the study, some statistical methods (descriptive statistics, OLS regression model, correlation analysis) have been considered. The result reveals that, a diverse set of factors influence the level of voluntary disclosure in the annual reports of the banks. The study has the implication for current professional practice and is in important addition to existing literature in the arena of voluntary disclosure and the strategy of disclosure. The study also finds that, the bank's size and profitability have the positive relationship with the level of voluntary disclosure. On the other hand, bank's age and ownership structure have the negative relationship with the level of voluntary disclosure in the annual reports.

A Focus Group Discussion has been made to see the practice of basic HR functions ingarment industry in Bangladesh. 13 garments employees along with the researchers in total 16 members were consisted for the FGD and the finding shows the prime reasons for the deviation of HR practice in different areas are attract foreign buyers, enhancing the brand value of the organization, employee-management relationship, cost minimization pressure, keep environment green, auditing policy compliance. Few factors have also been sort out under the four basic HR functions; those are employment planning, job advertisement, and recruitment & selection practice, orientation, training & development facilities, career development, job security, better salaries, appraisal systems, different leave policies, work environment, health & safety issues, transport facilities, working hour. A quantitative analysis has also been conducted by using those identifing factors from 150 employees’ responses. The study conducted the reliability test to find out the consistency of the data. Then the study shows the descriptive analysis of mean response & Std. deviation of responses. Finally the study goes for correlation analysis for those four HR functions and the result shows the relationships among the all the functions are strongly positively correlated to each others.