2007: Volume 14, Number 1
Issue Editors:  Rafael A. Rodriguez and

                           Gwendolyn R. Tecson

Compensation management literature highlights that employees who actively participate in pay systems may have increased job commitment. A careful observation of such relationships shows that employee participation in pay systems indirectly affect job commitment via interactional justice. The nature of this relationship is less emphasized in compensation management models. The evidence is used as a foundation to develop conceptual schema for this study. A survey research method was used to gather 917 usable questionnaires from employees who have worked in Malaysian Institutions of Higher Education (MIHE). Outcomes of testing mediating model using a stepwise regression analysis showed that the inclusion of interactional justice in the analysis had increased the effect of participation in pay system features (i.e., participation in pay allocation and participation in pay procedure) on job commitment. Further, this result confirms that interactional justice does act as a full mediating variable in the compensation system models of the organizational sector sample. In addition, the implications of this study to compensation theory and practice, methodological and conceptual limitations, and directions for future research are discussed.

Over two decades of war have left Cambodia as one of the poorest countries in the world today. Social protection and insurance are currently in the incipient stage and there is no organization, public or otherwise, that addresses the risks and vulnerabilities of the workers and of the poor. This study was undertaken primarily to establish the feasibility of providing social protection coverage for organized formal and informal workers in Cambodia. It aims to design a microinsurance product and benefit package that may be initially offered to interested members of trade unions. This is also in response to a growing need for trade unions to provide innovative strategies that will alleviate the effects of poverty and consequently, improve its members’ welfare and economic well-being. Survey results, focus group discussions, and interviews with key informants were the instruments used to define the characteristics of the target market so as to be able to create a product suited to their needs and financial capabilities.

Following the Asian financial crisis in 1997, the Philippine banking system improved its productivity and efficiency.  The paper examines the Malmquist index and technical efficiency scores of Philippine commercial banks for the post-crisis period employing data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach.  Using a balanced panel of 35 banks, the time-varying Malmquist index shows that on average, banks improved their productivity by 4.6% annually from 1998 to 2005.  Technological change or innovation dominated and offset the decay in the catch-up effect component of the index.  The technological frontier shift of 110% for the 8-year period is largely driven by the innovation undertaken by banks to accommodate e-banking as well as build ATM and network infrastructure, in both in-site and off-site locations, with local banks outperforming the foreign banks in this aspect.  Efficiency change or the catch-up component has been decreasing by 5.6% annually, suggesting that banks have been actually falling behind in management-influenced productivity rather than catching up.  DEA results on technical efficiency show that majority of banks exhibit decreasing returns to scale.  Universal banks are more technically efficient than plain commercial banks, providing evidence for scope economies.  

Using panel data for the period 1993 to 2005 from 16 regions of the Philippines, this study investigates whether the resource allocation efficiency of Philippine rural banks resulting from the quantity and quality of banking intermediation activities affects regional economic growth. To explore this relationship, four measures of resource allocation efficiency were alternatively tested employing pooled generalized least squares (EGLS) estimation. The findings suggest that Philippine rural banks need to make allocative adjustments in the areas of branch presence, operational efficiency and credit participation. These results lend support to government efforts to strengthen the rural banking sector and to increase the volume of investments in the regions. Important policy implications of these findings include the need to enhance confidence in the Philippine rural banking system, to encourage savings in regional rural banks, and to ensure efficient transfer of resources from savers to investors.

Results show that supply chain operations, particularly demand management and supply management, are still conducted in the traditional and conventional way. Very few industries also reported adopting supply chain operations that use information technology (IT). Philippine companies have yet to fully adopt and fully explore a lot of supply chain operations based on supply chain management (SCM) principles. The Philippine manufacturing and service industries still need to be exposed to the strategic value of these SCM-based supply chain operations.

The paper investigates the information content of Philippine television advertisements. Specifically, it intends to establish exposure patterns and information content profile of television advertisements; and to determine if information content of television commercials varies in different product categories. The Foote-Cone-Belding (FCB) Planning Matrix was utilized to classify the advertised products.