Economics

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THINKING TOWARDS STAKEHOLDER SATISFACTION IN HIGHER EDUCATION: AN APPLICATION OF PERFORMANCE PRISM
(2010) Singh, K.; Weligamage, S.
Quality of service and customer satisfaction is key concerned area in the today?s business. When considering education, quality of educational service and stakeholder satisfaction can be taken as more important. Most of the performance management systems are fails to address and consider the entire stakeholder needs after considering the importance and contributions of all stakeholders to the organization. The Performance Prism Model can be used as one of performance management and measurement tool which is closely looking at measurement from a stakeholder perspective. Performance prism model is taking consideration of two ways process as first identify the what are the want and needs of stakeholders and second to identify what are the organizations wants and need from its stakeholders. The purpose of the study is to review the performance prism model and to identify the possibility of application of this model into higher educational institutions. Finally presents the interrelation between stakeholder need, organizational capabilities, existing process, strategies and stakeholders? role. The study concluded that use of performance prism model can be highly benefited in an academic institution and the process should start from identifying stakeholder needs, and then formulate strategies using existing capabilities and process and finally deliver better value with the support of all stakeholders in the system.
IMPACT OF JOB DESIGN ON EMPLOYEES? PERFORMANCE (WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO SCHOOL TEACHERS IN THE KALMUNAI ZONE)
(2010) Ali, M.A.M.H.; Aroosiya, M.A.C.F.
The objective of this study was to investigate the impact of job design on employees? performance in the school of Kalmunai Zone in Sri Lanka and which factors of job design highly influence on employees? performance in the organizations. To analyze this condition, one hypothesis was formulated using deductive approach. The study was conducted by using a random sample of five school in Kalmunai Zone. Type of investigation was correlational and it was cross-sectional on time horizon. The unit of analysis was organizational level; each school. Teachers served as respondents on behalf of the firm. Measures of the study were of good quality after assuring reliability and validity. Data were collected from 103 respondents which was 100% response rate. In order to test the hypothesis that was concerned with relationship between perceived level of job design and perceived degree of employees? performance the Pearson Product- Movement Correlation technique was applied. The results of the study showed a significant and positive relationship between perceived level of job design and perceived degree of employees? performance in the schools. Found relationship was significant (correlation coefficient was .363 that was significant at 0.01 level) implying that a school should adopt an effective task identity, autonomy and feedback in order to improve teachers? performance.
The Need for an Effective Management Framework for Enhancing the Quality of Higher Education
(2010) Weerakoon, Y.M.S.K.
This paper shows the need for a management-framework to enhance the employability of Sri Lankan graduates. According to sources including World Bank, graduate-unemployment rate is higher than the national unemployment-rate in Sri Lanka. The graduate-unemployment in certain subject-disciplines is as high as 45.5% due to graduates lacking transferable skill expected by the employer as studies have revealed. To identify why the transferable skills are not being effectively developed in graduates, teaching practices in Sri Lankan higher education (HE) were studied using Biggs?s Constructive Alignment model. Data collected from a sample (n=56) of lecturers from six Sri Lankan universities. The study revealed that though the expectations from the graduates by both employers and the lecturers aligned with that of each other Constructive Alignment is largely being absent in HE. The importance of a management-framework to address graduate-unemployment, and to prevent the occurrence of third university student-led-insurgency, is discussed in the paper.
A CASE OF AN ACCOUNTANCY STUDY PROGRAMME IN SRI LANKA TO IMPROVE RELEVANCE AND QUALITY OF UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION: A NEW DIMENSION ON INSTITUTIONAL VIEW
(2010) Senaratne, S.; Gunarathne, A.D.N.
The quality enhancement of undergraduate education is presently, a much discussed area in Sri Lanka, with the implementation of the World Bank funded Improving the Relevance and Quality of Undergraduate Education (IRQUE) Project. In this context, this study explores the case of IRQUE Project of Department of Accounting (DA), University of Sri Jayewardenepura (USJ) in relation to the institutionalization of good practices resulted through its interventions. The study examines the institutionalization of these practices in DA by drawing inferences from New Institutional Sociology (NIS) (Scapens,2006) with specific reference to the works of DiMaggio and Powell in relation to institutional isomorphism. The study finds that DA has developed and adopted many good practices through the interventions made through the IRQUE Project to improve the quality and relevance of B.Sc. Accounting (Special) Degree Programme. Further, the study suggests that institutionalization of these good practices in DA, reflects all three forms of isomorphism viz. coercive, mimetic and normative as proposed by DiMaggio and Powell (1983).
THE ROLE OF INTUITION IN DECISION MAKING: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY ON ACADEMIC STAFF IN A MALAYSIAN PUBLIC UNIVERSITY
(2010) Tat, H.H.; Hooi, P.S.; Rasli, A.D.; Chin, T.A.; Yusoff, R.M.
Decision making is the process of deciding something important by a group of people or an organization. An empirical study was investigated to analyze intuitive decision making style among academic staffs at five various faculties in one of the public universities in Malaysia. Its objectives are: to identify intuitive decision making style among academic staffs; to identify difference intuitive decision making style based on age, gender, race, working experiences, professional level and field of expert; and lastly, to identify relationship between intuitive decision making style and situational factors. 94 academic staffs of five various faculties were involved in this study. Data were collected using questionnaire and SPSS was used for data analysis. The findings show that out of four situational factors, two of them, i.e. information and risk factors were found to have significant relationship with intuitive decision making style. Recommendations of the study are highlighted and further research discussions are also suggested.
Work - Family Conflicts among Female Branch Managers in Private Sector Commercial Banks of Sri Lanka
(2011) Fernando, W.R.P.K.
The work family conflict is one of the issues in modern society. The objectives of this study are; to identify the important variables of work-family conflict among female branch managers, to study relationships between the variables in work family conflict among female branch managers and to identify equal groups of the work- family conflict among female branch managers. A sample of 25 managers - branches were randomly chosen for this study. The primary data collection was done through questionnaire and questions were scaled using the five point Likert scale. The statistical tools were adapted to analysis of the study such as factor analysis, correlation analysis, and regression analysis. All the tests were carried out at 5% level of significance and all the analyses were carried out using SPSS - 17.0 version. The results of the study indicated that some factors in the work- family such as work demand and family involvement are higher the priority for work-family conflicts among female branch managers.
Eliciting OCB through Human Resource Management Practices: Review of the Extant Literature
(2011) Bambale, A.J.; Shamsudin, F.M.; Subramaniam, C.
This paper is an attempt to gather various organizational factors identified to have influence in eliciting OCB. This paper is a content analysis that provided a comprehensive and updated development about numerous organizational factors that positively affect employees which in turn elicit OCB. The paper has identified several HRM practices that positively affect OCB in different organizational contexts. HR practices including conducive work atmosphere, equity, empowerment, training and development, job description, socialization, evaluation and rewards were among important HRM practices reported to have positive impact on employee work attitudes and behaviors. These HR practices were demonstrated to influence job satisfaction, commitment, and eventually OCB. The paper is significant to both the theory and practice of HRM. Theoretically, the paper has provided an updated framework for understanding theoretical contributions of various authors to the development of the subject areas of HRM and OCB. This paper has also provided insights for further theory development of both HRM and OCB. Practically, this paper has unveiled updated information concerning HR practices that enhance OCB performance. This paper provided insights into new research directions for further development of HRM theory and practice.
Impact of Organizational Corporate Social Responsibility on Employee Motivation in Public Quoted Companies in Sri Lanka
(2011) Mahindadasa, U.; Lakshan, A.M.I.
It is an acceptable fact that the human resource is the most important asset in the world. The importance of human resources is more in Sri Lanka since the service sector is growing rapidly. In order to get the maximum output from this valuable resource, HR professionals of organizations execute different strategies to motivate their employees. This study focused on analyzing the concept of corporate social responsibility and how it affects on employee motivation. The research was carried out with executive level employees in public quoted companies in Sri Lanka. Selected sample size was hundred executive level employees and convenience sampling method was used. Data collection was done by a questionnaire and reliability was checked by Cronbach Alpha. Results of covariance analysis reveal that the organizational corporate social responsibility has positive and significant impact on employee motivation. So, it is suggested Human Resource Management to take a leading role in encouraging CSR activities at all levels. The combined impact of CSR and human resource activities, which reinforce desirable behavior, can make a major contribution in creating long term success in organizations.
Managerial Perception of Unionization and Its Effect in Sri Lankan Public Sector Organizations
(2011) Dhammika, K.A.S.; Ahmed, F.B.; Sam, T.L.
Public sector organizations in Sri Lanka are characterized with high unionization of their employees. This has created a unique context, where managers of these organizations face a problem of managing them with the conventional thought of management. Most of the public sector organizations have failed to achieve the expected level of performance which has caused criticism against them. Therefore, there is a need of a study to explore this situation prevailing in the public sector organizations in Sri Lanka. As a first step of a series of empirical exploration, an attempt was made to understand the issues of employee unionization in the public sector organizations in Sri Lanka. A purposive sample of fifty middle and lower level managers of the public sector organizations was drawn. A self developed questionnaire was administered among respondents, and data was analyzed with the tools of descriptive analysis such as frequency distribution, mean and median. Since this is a preliminary study, the attempt was made to understand the union perception of managers of the public sector organizations in Sri Lanka. It was found that managers differ in their perception of unionization and the effect of unionization varies at different managerial activities. Among them, decision making, implementation and evaluation were found to be mostly affected by the employee unionization. Further, it was found that perceived performance ranged along with the perception of managers and strategies dealing with unionized employees. However, a deep and rigorous study is needed to understand this complex contextual scenario.
The Impact of Job Design and Motivation on Employee Productivity as Applicable in the Context of Sri Lankan Software Engineers: A HR Perspective
(2011) Fernando, A.; Ranasinghe, G.
The Sri Lankan IT1 industry provides diverse clients with quality software solutions under tight timeframes and budgets. However, many organisations encounter the challenge of ensuring employees are adequately skilled, whilst facing the difficulty involved in identifying motivation factors of skilled employees and ensuring proper design of jobs. The research study mainly focuses on understanding the motivation and job design concepts adopted for Sri Lankan software engineers and the subsequent impact of these factors on their productivity from a human resource perspective. The findings indicate that positive correlation exists between job design and motivation and between motivation and productivity. Applicable attributes of each factor are depicted in the derived conceptual model. A proposed web-based DSS2 would measure motivation levels and ensure effective job design, in comparison with productivity levels. By measuring these factors, the performance of a software engineer can be driven, which would benefit both the organisation and the individual.
Determinants of Career Choice Decision of Management Undergraduates in Sri Lanka
(2011) Galhena, B.L.; Rathnayake, R.M.D.D.
This paper aims to explore the influence of various factors on career choice decision of management undergraduates in Sri Lanka. Further, influence of the different individual in the students? network on career choice was also examined. Data were collected using self reported questionnaire from 156 management undergraduates in the University of Ruhuna, Sri Lanka. Males and females were almost equally represented in the sample and third and final year students were considered for the study. Survey results revealed that skills and abilities, education and personality were the most influential factors while teachers are the greatest influencers on determining students? career choice. No empirical research has been conducted on this aspect in Sri Lankan context. This paper addresses this issue and findings of the study would be important for career counselors.
A Study on Human Resource Management and Organization Change with Specific Reference to Globalization in Various Organizations in Bangaluru City, India
(2011) Parvathy, L.; Ahmed, A.A.; Manjunath, R.L.
This study was undertaken to investigate the impact of the globalization on HRM and Organizational change. In the back drop of Liberalization, Privatization and Globalization there has been a tremendous change in work culture, behavior, expectations and the involvement of employees in an organization. There are some crucial questions which could not be answered. The fast changing economic and social scenario in India has brought to light many faces. It is observed that the organizations are finding it difficult to cope up with the change. Those organizations which are able to adapt themselves with the latest techniques and alter their traditional and regular practices according to the demanding situation could succeed in the market. Those who are not able to adapt will find it difficult to succeed. This research was done to study the impact of globalization on Human Resources Management. Apart from this the objectives were set accordingly to study the factors like competitiveness and cultural convergence and the results show that there is a positive relation between the variables. This research also implies the need of training leading to change management.
Emotional Intelligence and Employee Productivity: An Educator?s Perspective
(2011) Rebello, F.S.
Emotional intelligence is essential factor responsible for determining success in life & at work place. Psychological wellbeing seems to play an important role in shaping the behavior & performance of individual?s work-life environment. This study is undertaken to understand the performance level of teachers/lecturers in educational institutions in Maldives, the study focuses on understanding emotional intelligence of teachers/lecturers, its connectivity to their performance on the job. This paper examines the impact of four significant aspects of Emotional Intelligence that is self awareness, self management, social awareness and relationship management. Data for this study was collected through questionnaire and the respondents were the school heads of Academic Institutions. The results revealed that there is connectivity between emotional intelligence and employee productivity. A teacher/ lecturer with better emotional intelligence can perform better in-terms of class delivery, leading the team & building trust among colleagues and the surrounding network.
Teaching Strategies in Higher Education
(2011) Saxena, V.N.
Most universities follow the approaches of student-centered learning, group working, maintaining log-books, role playing and various forms of practical work. Higher education in universities has moved from elite to mass education and shifted from employment training into Higher education delivery. The delivery of service with regard to teaching the rhetoric is one of innovations. The faculty needs to instill a deep approach to learning by providing students with varied stimulating learning environments The objective is to evolve an action plan for teaching adults in Higher Education as per their needs and catering to the preference of different types of learners. This paper focuses on measure of person?s intelligence which includes Intelligence quotient, Emotional Intelligence, Creative intelligence and Cybernetic Intelligence. The adults undergo learning through a cycle of four phases: Experimenting, Reflecting, Theorizing and Planning. The phase at which they start their cycle depends on their personal preference or style. A questionnaire has been developed to ascertain the preference style of learning of an individual and thereafter how to cater to the preference of different types of learners. The paper discusses the designing and delivery tools of lectures for students in Higher Education so as to provide credible content, in a logically structured and interesting manner. It discusses the design tools bearing in mind that they have to be treated as adults and not simply as students. A flow chart has been designed indicating the planning process and action plan for the entire program. The constituent elements of excellent teaching contain certain traits required by an innovative faculty: - humility, courage, impartiality, open-mindedness, empathy, enthusiasm, judgment and imagination.
Work-Family Conflict of Women Employees (Special Reference to Banking Sector) in Batticaloa District
(2011) Victor, L.D.; Thavakumar, D.
The question of how to strike a balance between work and life is attracting increasing attention at both the national and international level (Crompton and Lyonette, 2006). Interest in this issue has grown with the increase in dual career couples and single-parent households and the concomitant decrease in traditional single income families. As long as the society continues to emphasize a woman?s basic role as that of mothering, working women will face role struggles. As married working women, many women employees have to assume multiple roles in the family in addition to their career. They must be bear major responsibility for household chores and childcare. These responsibilities give rise to work-family conflict, which becomes an obstacle in managing their employment. This research studies the work-family conflict among married women employees in banking sector. The data for this study came from 100 married women in public and private banks who responded to a self-administered questionnaire. By using the primary data, the researchers tend to find out the extent of work characteristics and family characteristics influence on the Work-Family conflict. The work characteristics include Number of hours worked, work flexibility, work stressors. The family characteristics include number of children, age of children, family support. ICBI 2011 Faculty of Commerce and Management Studies 2 The researchers used the questionnaire to collect the primary data. Also researchers used interview method to clarify the things. Descriptive and inferential statistics was used to analyse the data, Mean and standard deviation was used in the descriptive statistics to find out the influence of each factor in the dependent variable, stress. And the correlation and regression was done to find out the relationship between independent and dependent variable. The SPSS 14.0 package was used to analyze the data. From the discussion of the findings, several implications arouse. There is a need for greater spouse support, flexible work schedule child care centers and family support in order to alleviate work-family conflict. Maintenance of good marital relations is important in reducing spouse conflict and increasing well being in women employee.
Personality Dimensions as Predictors of Job Satisfaction Of IT Employees in Sri Lanka
(2011) Ubayachandra, E.G.; Silva, H.W.N.S.
Under this study an attempt was made to investigate into relationship existing between personality dimensions and job satisfaction of IT employees attached to leading companies in Sri Lanka. For this purpose, four companies namely Ind. And financial system Sri Lanka ltd, Millennium Software Ltd, John Keels Computer service (pvt) Ltd, and Virtusa (pvt) Ltd. For the convenience of analysis, a sample consisting of 125 employees were selected by using simple random sample technique. Out of these four companies 32 employees were selected from Millennium Software Ltd. while 31 employees per each of other three companies were selected for the analysis. As this study is empirical in nature, a great attempt was made to collect primary data as much as possible by administering a detailed questionnaire which was subjected to a pilot study with a view to clarify reliability and validity of questions. In addition, further information was collected through a series of interviews held with senior management and other low level employees. For collecting additional information an endeavor was made to associate secondary data too. For this purpose, related documentary evidences such as electronically stored data /data mining were used. The focal problem of the study is existence of number of bottlenecks in software development industry in Sri Lanka. The key purpose of the study was to examine the correlation between personality dimensions and job satisfaction. Specific objectives were to identify the correlation between job performance and job satisfaction and to make a better set of suggestions to improve job performance and job satisfaction through the development of personality. Accordingly two research questions consistent with so-called objectives were addressed. They are, is there any relationship between personality dimensions and job satisfaction? What is the relationship between job performance and job satisfaction? The Big-Five personality dimensions were applied to conceptualize the respective theme of the study. For presenting data out of the descriptive statistical tools percentage values, mean, mode and standard deviation were used. Furthermore, in testing hypotheses the well known chi-square test was completely employed. Resulting from the analysis it was found that there is a direct relationship between personality dimensions and job satisfaction of IT employees in Sri Lankan leading companies. The most significant finding is that emotional stability, extraversion and consciousness dimensions are consistently valid predictors for all job categories there. All these dimensions are positively correlated with job satisfaction. And also it was noted that job performance and job satisfaction are almost interrelated each other.
Job Stress and Job Satisfaction: A Study of Managerial Employees in Domestic Commercial Banks
(2011) Weerasinghe, T.D.; Batagoda, C.K.
This study was conducted to measure the impact of job stress on job satisfaction of managerial employees working in Domestic Commercial Banks. Job stress is considered as the harmful physical and emotional response that occurs when there is a poor match between job demands and capabilities, resources or needs of the employee. Job satisfaction describes how comfortable an individual is with own job. A self develop research model was tested where job stress is stated as the independent variable. All the branches of domestic commercial banks located in Colombo district were investigated and it was carried out on a sample of sixty branch managers. Simple random sampling was applied to select a representative sample. A self develop questionnaire was used to collect data. It was found that the measurement scales met the acceptable standards of validity and reliability analyses. Correlation analysis and regression analysis were used to test the research hypothesis. Researcher found that there is a high degree of job stress among branch managers of private commercial banks while having a moderate degree of job stress among branch managers of public banks. Findings revealed that women managers have a higher degree of job stress than male managers. Managers in public banks are highly satisfied while managers in private banks have either moderate or low level of job satisfaction. Women managers enjoy their jobs highly while male managers enjoy moderately. Study confirmed that job stress is significantly correlated with job satisfaction. Though job stress is a significant predictor of job satisfaction, it can be concluded that too little or too much of job stress leads to have low level of job satisfaction and moderate level of job stress leads to have high level of job satisfaction, in the tested domain. Key Words: Domestic Commercial Banks, Job Satisfaction, Job Stress
An Empirical Study on the Impact of Hygiene and Motivation Factors on Job Satisfaction of Bank Executives in Western Province, Sri Lanka
(2011) Dissanayake, D.R.; Wickremasinghe, M.T.P.
In the organizational sciences, job satisfaction occupies a central role in many theories and models of individual attitudes and behaviors. The problem of job dissatisfaction exists across various spheres of industries around the world although numerous theories have been established and empirical studies conducted to address the problem. Hence, more researches and empirical studies pertaining to the concept of job satisfaction are essential in order to enhance the boundaries of existing knowledge. Although theories of job satisfaction have been extensively studied, researchers are yet to agree on the major predictors of Herzberg?s two factor theory of job satisfaction, Hygiene factors and Motivation factors. Further, it seems very rare to find a good empirical study with respect to job satisfaction of bankers in Sri Lankan context. This is the research gap that will be addressed in this empirical study. This study aims at finding out the impact of Hygiene and Motivation Factors on job satisfaction of bank executives (junior and middle level) of Commercial banks in Western Province, Sri Lanka. To investigate this, a quantitative empirical study was conducted using a self-designed questionnaire on the selected convenient sample (n = 200). Then reliability (Cronbach?s Alpha) of the questionnaire was determined and the questionnaire was found to be reliable. Descriptive and inferential statistics were calculated. The findings indicated that 85% of the variance in job satisfaction is significantly explained by hygiene and motivation factors. Further, the study reveals that except for salary, benefits, working condition, relationship with peers and growth, other hygiene and motivation factors are not significant predictors of the job satisfaction. But, if individually taken, all the hygiene and motivation factors are significantly correlate with job satisfaction. It is, therefore, recommended that the banks should focus on hygiene and motivation factors very seriously when crafting and executing new strategies. This will ensure that the banks remain sustainable and continue to make a positive contribution to Sri Lankan economy.
Occupational Stress: A Study of the Private Banks in Batticaloa District
(2011) Victor, L.D.; Thavakumar, D.
Employees in many countries increasingly complain about high and rising levels of stress at work. As stress levels have increased, employers have faced rising medical bills, more accident insurance claims, increased absenteeism, and declining morale. Most corporate efforts to handle the problem have focused on the symptoms of stress, with, for example, therapy, counseling, gym memberships, and in-house exercise facilities. This research studies the occupational stress of private bank employees in the Batticaloa District. The data for this study is collected from 100 employees selected from banks. In this study we are concerning about two variables, namely Work Demands and Decision Latitude. Work demands are the psychological stressors the job places on the worker and include: the volume of work, the speed of work, the lack of time, and the conflicts involved in having to do different types of work at the same time. Decision latitude encompasses decision authority, which refers to the worker?s authority to make decisions involving how the work is done, and skill discretion, which refers to his or her opportunity to use a variety of skills on the job. The researchers used the questionnaire to collect the primary data. Descriptive and inferential statistics was used to analyze the data, Mean and standard deviation was used in the descriptive statistics to find out the influence of each factor in the dependent variable, stress. And the correlation and regression was done to find out the relationship between independent and dependent variable. The researchers used SPSS 14.0 to analyze the data. In general, we found that stress increases when work demand is high. And the stress reduces when the decision latitude are high. As a result, we suggest the managers to decrease the work demand and increase the decision latitude to keep the stress in a balance level.
The Relationship between principals’ Emotional intelligence and Teachers’ Job Satisfaction: A Case of National Schools in Sri Lanka
(2011) Kappagoda, U.W.M.R.S.
Emotional Intelligence (EI) is regarded as an important concept that leaders have to learn for the success of any organization. In reviewing the Sri Lankan literature on EI and Job Satisfaction (JS), it was difficult to find any investigation which has focused on the relationship between EI and JS in the context of schools and, in particular, teachers. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between Principals? EI and Teachers? JS in the national schools in Sri Lanka. The data were collected from a sample of 50 principals and 200 teachers using convenience sampling method. Data collected were analyzed using regression analysis and correlation coefficient. The results of the study indicated that EI of principals had a significant positive relationship with JS of teachers. It was recommended that EI of the principals should be enhanced to improve the JS of the teachers.