JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES DEVELOPMENT

THE HUMAN SIDE OF AI: HOW ETHICAL LEADERSHIP SHAPES EMPLOYEE OUTCOMES IN HIGHER EDUCATION

Dr. Sonia Sethi — 2026-09-02

Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly transforming higher education through applications in teaching, research, assessment, administration, student support, and institutional decision-making. Although AI offers substantial opportunities for efficiency and innovation, its implementation also creates organisational and human challenges related to transparency, fairness, accountability, professional autonomy, job uncertainty, and employee well-being. This study examines the role of ethical leadership in shaping employee outcomes within the evolving context of AI-enabled higher education. A quantitative, cross-sectional research design was adopted, and data were collected from academic and administrative employees in higher education institutions using a structured questionnaire based on a five-point Likert scale. The study examined ethical leadership in relation to four employee outcomes: job satisfaction, organisational commitment, employee engagement, and employee performance. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) using SmartPLS was employed to assess the measurement and structural models and test the proposed relationships. The findings indicate that ethical leadership has positive relationships with job satisfaction, organisational commitment, employee engagement, and employee performance. The results suggest that fairness, integrity, transparency, accountability, and employee-oriented leadership can strengthen positive employee responses during periods of technological and organisational change. The study further highlights that successful AI integration in higher education requires more than technological infrastructure and digital competencies. Human-centred leadership, employee participation, transparent communication, appropriate training, ethical governance, and organisational support are essential for responsible and sustainable AI transformation. The study contributes to the emerging literature by connecting ethical leadership and employee outcomes with the human dimensions of AI-enabled transformation in higher education, particularly within the developing higher education context.

BEYOND THE BLUNT VERDICT: A FOUR-DIMENSION DIAGNOSTIC FRAMEWORK FOR INTELLIGENCE WARNING FAILURE IN BALOCHISTAN

Muhammad Faizan Asghar — 2026-09-03

The concept of intelligence failure is a constant refrain in Pakistan's security establishment when it comes to the various rounds of shooting sprees that have been going on in Balochistan. This is a way of hiding more than showing. It cannot tell if someone interpreted a warning correctly but it did not pass through to a decision-maker, or it was meant to be handed out to a decision-maker but passed no one up the chain of command, or if it was meant to be a warning but wasn't recognized as such in the first place. The paper draws on the recent literature on intelligence studies for developing a four-dimensional framework for the analysis of warning, comprising analysis, process, politics, and tribal integration, and extends the framework by adding a tribal and administrative geography dimension for Balochistan. This framework is used for the ongoing insurgent violence by Balochs that has brought terror to the multi-district attack in January–February 2026; the hijacking of Jaffar Express on March 2025 and the live tempo of attacks through mid-2026. The analysis reveals a less effective warning chain – tactical, short horizon analysis is often sufficient, as the process is fragmented within a crowded intelligence bureaucracy, political unwillingness to rethink resource allocation in favor of the central warning chain, and an unreliable tribal information network results in dampening of warning value if there is any. Finally, the paper offers a suite of institutional (as opposed to operational) recommendations to help reduce the disconnect between what the state knows and what the state can do.

WEATHER FORECASTS AS A CREDENCE GOOD: VERIFIED ACCURACY, FARMER BELIEF AND THE DEMAND FOR AGROMETEOROLOGICAL INFORMATION IN PAKISTAN

Abdul Basit — 2026-09-03

A farmer who acts on a weather advisory and still harvests a poor crop cannot tell a bad forecast from bad luck. Forecast quality is consumed jointly with soil, seed, pests and the weather draw, so consumption does not reveal it. Almost every study of weather-information uptake observes what farmers believe about forecast quality but not what that quality is. This paper measures both sides at the same place and the same time. Verified day-ahead accuracy is constructed for 89 Pakistan Meteorological Department stations from 34,610 scored station-days and matched to the perceived accuracy reported by 689 farmers. The level comparison depends on which verification score is used. Against percentage correct, mean belief of 0.692 sits 0.19 below a verified 0.883, but percentage correct is beaten on this panel by a no-skill climatological rule, and the sign of the gap reverses against the hit rate on rain days. What does not depend on the score is the decoupling. Across seven verification metrics the correlation between belief and verified quality never exceeds 0.112 in magnitude at station level or 0.056 at farmer level. Demand follows belief alone. Conditional on the perception, verified accuracy has no detectable effect on willingness to pay or reported outcomes. A learning model with misattribution, at calibrated coding thresholds, reproduces about two thirds of the level gap measured by percentage correct. Its policy ranking places de-biasing extension and localised advisories far above subsidised access.

MIGRATIONS AND ECONOMY: UNDERSTANDING DISPLACEMENT DRIVEN ECONOMIES

Faraz Ali — 2026-09-04

Displacement creates complex social and economic challenges between displaced and host communities but also new opportunities for integration. This study examines the economic participation of displaced populations in Tehsil Razar, District Swabi, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, arguing that it has evolved into a displacement-driven economy. Based on 30 semi-structured interviews with traders, farmers, landowners, elders, and officials, findings show Afghan refugees dominate trade while internally displaced persons sustain agricultural labor. Despite legal and social barriers, displaced groups are vital to the local economy. The paper introduces the concept of a “displacement-led economy” with relevance to Uganda, Lebanon, Jordan, and Europe.

DIGITAL DOCUMENTATION AND RECONSTRUCTION OF MOHRA MORADU: PRESERVING GANDHARAN ARCHITECTURAL HERITAGE

Farah Khurram — 2026-09-05

Gandhara region has played a distinguished role in the spread of Buddhism to Central Asia and East Asia. Due to its strategic location, the small settlements around it grew into large metropolises with fine assembled monuments. These monuments are the finest examples of material and their applications. Their form assembling, craftsmanship and the structural soundness of these structures is proven by the ruins, still standing after several decades. This article presents a research study and analysis conducted on an urban settlement, Mohra Muradu, in the Gandhara region. The aim of this research work is the documentation and digital preservation of Pakistan’s rich architectural past. A comprehensive research methodology was devised to study the design and then carry out its critical analysis. Various geometric proportions were recorded and analyzed for digital reconstruction. This research will result in a fine digital recreation of monastery and Stupas of Mohra Moradu. A Digital model will provide an option for a virtual reality walk through allowing for easy accessibility and bringing Pakistan in limelight for its rich inheritance. This methodology can be applied to other historic sites as well and by doing so all such locations can be digitally preserved.

THE ROLE OF CONSUMER TRUST IN AI-DRIVEN SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING AND PURCHASE INTENTION IN EMERGING MARKETS

Shaista Moiz — 2026-09-06

The purpose of this study is to investigate how consumer trust affects purchase intention in emerging economies and the use of AI in social media marketing. To supplement earlier research on social media marketing, the study adds Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Consumer Trust to the relationship between social media marketing and consumer behavioral outcomes. In addition to examining how social media marketing affects brand awareness and engagement, the study also looks at how these factors affect consumer trust and purchase intention. Additionally, the relationship between social media marketing and brand awareness as well as between social media marketing and brand engagement uses artificial intelligence as a moderating element. A total of 196 valid social media user questionnaires were evaluated after the main data was gathered using a structured questionnaire. Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was the structural equation modeling technique utilized in this study to analyze the obtained data and evaluate the measurement and structural model. The study presents a modern perspective on social media marketing by integrating consumer trust and artificial intelligence into a developing market environment. By improving knowledge of the impact of AI-based social media engagement on customers' perception, engagement, trust, and buy intent toward companies, the results are anticipated to provide a distinctive contribution to the marketing literature. Additionally, the study offers advertisers insightful information about how to leverage AI-powered social media marketing in a way that preserves customer trust and engagement with their target demographic.

CORPORATE GOVERNANCE, INTELLECTUAL CAPITAL AND FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE: EVIDENCE FROM NON-FINANCIAL FIRMS LISTED ON THE PAKISTAN STOCK EXCHANGE

Shahbaz Khan Yousafzai — 2026-09-06

The focus of this study is to analyze the effect of corporate governance and intellectual capital on the financial performance of non-financial companies listed on Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX). The study uses a board characteristics model with three measures of financial performance: return on assets (ROA), return on equity (ROE) and the price-earnings ratio (P/E), with three measures of board efficiency to cope with endogeneity and heteroscedasticity and serial autocorrelation: the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM). The financial performance models account for a significant proportion of the financial performance variation: ROA (78.3%), ROE (68.6%) and P/E (57.8%). Board independence and board ownership are important in all three models but with different directions of impact, depending on whether accounting or market performance measures are used. The major components of intellectual capital, namely structural capital efficiency and capital employed efficiency, are generally the most important factors, with board size and CEO duality being relatively unimportant. The results validate the agency theory notion that governance arrangements reduce conflicts between owners and managers and validate that the role of intellectual capital is a material one, which has been under-researched in an emerging market environment. The study is methodologically important for the inclusion of the study of endogeneity (GMM), which was missing in the previous studies conducted in Pakistan, and substantive for studying the non-uniform effects of governance and intellectual-capital on the accounting and market-based performance metrics.