Department of Human Resource Manegement

Effective Utilization of human resources bring out a positive employee outcomes which has direct implications for organizational effectiveness. Job satisfaction, performance and organizational commitment has been the most researched employee work outcomes in the past years. However, little effort ha been made to test the contextual validity of the measure of these employee outcomes in reported studies. The purpose of the present study is to validate the dimensionality of three employee work related outcomes, namely job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and job performance in Sri Lankan context. A questionnaire is developed with the items adopted from role theory based performance measure, Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire, and O'Reilly and Chatman's organizational commitment measure. Data is gathered from 136 public sector employees selected with  stratified random sampling procedure. Data is analyzed with exploratory factor analysis and reliability analysis. it is found that the three measure of performance, job satisfaction and commitment developed are valid and reliable with slight modifications in Sri Lankan context.

Empirical studies on citizenship behavior of employees are largely centered on organizational citizenship behavior of employees. Other form of citizenship behavior of employees such as union citizenship has been identified. However, studies on citizenship behavior with a multilateral perspective are scant in behavioral studies and in Sri Lankan context in particular. The objective of this study is to examine whether organizational and union citizenship behavior are exhibited simultaneously by unionized employees in Sri Lanka. A sample of 200 employees was selected for this study from selected number of public sector organizations. A standard questionnaire was used to assess the organizational and union citizenship behavior of respondents. Bivariate correlation and model testing with structural equation modeling were applied for the analysis of the data. It was found that organizational and union citizenship behavior can be observable simultaneously among the respondents indicating a multilateral citizenship behavior. Further, it was revealed that the degree of coexistence of organizational and union citizenship behavior increases when the union tenure period of employees increases.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors which determine the employees' participation in training programs in one of the Tea Manufacturing Companies in Sri Lanka. Even though non-managerial level employees in the aforesaid company have requested several training programs from their supervisors semi-annually, they are reluctant to participate in those programs. Hence, this research is conducted as an exploratory field study which is cross-sectional, intending to explore the determinants of training motivation of employees in the selected company. Unit of analysis of the study is at the individual level; individual non-managerial employees. Researcher administered a standard questionnaire to collect primary data from a sample of 83 non-managerial employees where convenience sampling was used to select the sample. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was conducted to find out the significant determinants of training motivation. Moreover, factor loading values and cumulative percentage of extraction sums of squared loading values were used to draw the conclusion. It is found that self-efficacy, training reputation and job benefit are the significant training motivators for non-managerial employees in the selected company while supervisory support and the financial sponsorship were found to be insignificant motivators. Hence, it is recommended for practicing manager and Human Resource (HR) professionals in the selected domain to design training programs which will improve the efficacy and the reputation of the participant, and especially, to deliver transferable skills in designing future training programs.

Job Satisfaction is one of the most significant attitudes of the employees of an organization. Job satisfaction used to describe
whether the employees are happy, asserted and fulfilling their desires and needs at work. The organizations are challenged, as they have
to make the employee’s satisfied in their Job. So they will perform better and consequently organization will achieve their competitive edge. Thus achieving Job Performance of the employees has been significant for both Private and Public Organizations. Basically
organizational practices affect the job satisfaction in a considerable extent. Hence there is a need to investigate the how the organizational practices affect the Job Satisfaction of the employees. Therefore the objective of this research was to identify the impact
of Reward Management and Decision Making on Job Performance. The Independent Variables were Reward Management, Decision making, and the Dependent Variable was Job Satisfaction. The reliability of the instruments was tested against the data. This study was
engaged in hypothesis testing and it was corelational. This research was conducted in the natural environment where work proceeds normally, with less interference of the researchers (noncontrived). Data was collected from each individual: an employee of the public
banks, and the study was cross sectional. The analysis was based on the information collected using a self administered questionnaire. Data used for analysis were totally based on primary data which was collected using a questionnaire developed by the researcher. According to the results, there is an impact on reward management, decision making on job satisfaction, and there is a relationship between reward management, decision making and job satisfaction which is significant. Based on that it can be concluded employee’s
job satisfaction have been impacted by reward management and decision making.

To attain a competitive advantage and remain in the competitive market, organizations should focus on the employee job performance significantly. Achieving the Job performance of the employees has been a critical issue in both private and public sector organizations. Hence it is needed to investigate how the practices of the public banks in Sri Lanka, affect the job performance of their employees. Thus the objective of this research was to investigate the impact of administrative practices on job performance of the public banks in Sri Lanka. The independent variable was administrative practices, with two sub variables named Reward Management and Decision Making and the dependent variable was job performance. The reliability of the instruments were tested against the survey data. This study was engaged in hypothesis testing and it was corelational. This research was conducted in the natural environment where work proceeds normally, with less interference of the researchers (noncontrived). Data was collected from each individual: employees of the public banks, and the study was cross sectional. The analysis was based on the information collected using a self administered questionnaire from 92 Managerial, Executive and Non Executive employees doing a variety of jobs in the Public Banks in Colombo District. Data used for analysis were totally based on primary data which was collected using a questionnaire developed by the researcher. The analysis was done by simple regression models using the software SPSS 15.0. According to the results, there is an impact on administrative practices on job performance, but it is not significant. Based on that it can be concluded employee‘s job performance have been impacted by administrative practices, and the job performance can be improved by developing the administrative practices.

The area of motivation has been receiving a lot of attention both by behavioral scientists as well as by industrial
psychologists. As well motivation affects individual behavior and it related to performance and productivity of the organization as the
human is a unique resource compared to other resources. Therefore today’s management highly focused on the impact of employee motivation towards the productivity, since it ultimately affects achieving the organizational goals and objectives and also it drives
towards achieving the competitive advantage. Therefore there is a need of investigating the impact of employee motivation on employee productivity. So this research was conducted with the objective of identifying the impact of employee motivation on productivity of the
employees. The independent variable is employee motivation and the dependent variable is productivity of executive employees. This
study was engaged in hypothesis testing and it was corelational and this research study was conducted in the natural environment where work proceeds normally (noncontrived). Data was collected from each individual: executive employees of the Apparel Industry in Sri Lanka. The analysis was based on the information collected using a self administered questionnaire. Data used for analysis were totally
based on primary data which was collected using a questionnaire developed by the researcher. According to the results, there is an impact on employee motivation and productivity of executive employees and there is a relationship between employee motivation and productivity of executive employees, which is significant. Based on that it can be concluded that productivity of executive employees have been affected by the employee motivation.

Organizational behavior is the study of how people behave both individually and within
informal and formal groups, and in organizations. Every organization’s performance is
ultimately dependent on the motivational level of its human resources and the willingness
and ability of people to work harmoniously and effectively towards the accomplishment of
shared goals. Identifying the organizational behavior concepts is more important to make
resolutions for the issues that emerge within organizations. Banking industry is an industry
where problems are intense and the management should understand the human behavior
in order to manage them to excel in the competitive market. Culture, emotions and moods,
and teams are much more important concepts in Organizational Behavior and the banks and
the leaders therein must have knowledge on these concepts in order to achieve the goals and
objectives effectively. This articleis developed by identifying an issue which occurred in a
government bank in Sri Lanka and the case has been analyzed through culture, emotions
and moods, and teams which are important perspectives of Organization Behavior.
Key Words: Emotions, Team Work, Culture

O ver the years,there has been a significant concentration on recognition and managing job stress as an important organizational problem. With this identification, organizations have enhanced their awareness towards this problem, as job stress contributes to a significant portion of health care cost, absenteeism, and turnover consequently reduces the employee performance and leads to productivity losses. The purpose of this study is to investigate the job stress level of executive employees. The data were collected from 88 employees of apparel sector manufacturing organizations in Sri Lanka. Data were collected through a self-administered questionnaire, which comprised of standard measures with five dimensions. They are working environment and communication, work/home conflict and social life, administration and goal achievement, problems with subordinates, and demands from subordinates and others. The level job stress of the respondents was measure by the measure developed by Rout, Cooper, and Rout, (1996 cited in Rout 1999). The results shows that the executive level employees experience stress in any given situation while they are performing their job. So that this paper emphasizes that, the management of the companies should develop strategies focusing on reducing the level of job stress to enhancing the performance of the employees.

Organizational Management is one of the exciting themes in modern economies nowadays. An organization is a collection of people working together towards a common target. The basic building block of any organization is its people; employees. Managing an organization is ultimately getting things done through employees. Hence, more humanistic and pragmatic ways of organizational management which excel in managerial competencies are needed to sustain in this modern turbulent environment. It could be seen that Buddhist 'Sanga Communities' were organizations which excelled in managerial skills. Buddhism offers a pragmatic and an interesting perspective on the proper application of modern organizational management practices. This conceptual paper is done with the objective of exploring the implications of Buddhist perspectives such as moderation, impermanency, the belief in no-self, five precepts, eight-fold path, mindfulness and self-discipline, collectivistic view of team building, value of self-sacrifices for the common good,  mutual respect, seven reconciliation rules and four bases of sympathy could manifest themselves in a number of different aspects of modern organizational management. This paper explores the application of those Buddhist concepts and practices in areas of organizational management including interpersonal relations, ethical behavior, emotional intelligence, team building, communication, leadership, conflict management, personal development, good governance, group harmony, goal setting, performance management, knowledge management, and in broader sense managing people at work. The paper suggests that Buddhist concepts and practices are effective to be applied in organizational management and that those concepts and practices have more universal application which could improve the organizational productivity as the end result. It is recommended for modern managers to be mindful, compassionate and flexible, open minded, and recognize that nothing is permanent. In conclusion the Buddhist perspective of organizational management is about accepting change, creating harmony among employees and treating all with dignity and respect to achieve the ultimate goals of the organization.

Keywords: Buddhist concepts and practices, Management, Organization, Organizational Management

Corporate team management is one of the impressive themes in modern economies nowadays. A team is a collection of people working together towards a common target. The basic building block of any team is its people; employees. Moreover, the definition of an organization indicates that an organization itself is a team which consists of different sub teams. Hence, in a broader perspective organizations are seen as teams. Managing an organization is ultimately managing different teams of employees effectively and efficiently. Thus, organizations need more humanistic and pragmatic ways of corporate team management to sustain in the modern business environment. It could be seen that Buddhist 'Sanga Communities' were teams which excelled in managerial skills. Buddhism offers a pragmatic and an interesting perspective about the formation and management of teams which is more applicable in modern corporate team management practices.

Buddhist perspectives such as moderation, belief in no-self, self-discipline, collectivistic view of team building, value of self-scarification for the common good, mutual respect, and six harmonies could manifest themselves in a number of different aspects of corporate team management. This paper explores the application of those Buddhist perspectives in the area of corporate team management in modern work organizations. The paper suggests that Buddhist perspectives are effective to be applied in team management and that those perspectives have more universal application which could improve the team efficiency and the effectiveness. Ultimately the Buddhist perspective of team management is all about creating harmony among employees and treating all with dignity and respect to achieve the generic purpose of the organization.

Key words: Teams, Organizations, Management, Corporate Team Management, Buddhist Perspective

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 ICBI 2011 Faculty of Commerce and Management Studies 2 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.

The main purpose of this study was to identify whether there is a significant value given to the graduates who have engaged in university extracurricular activities in the selection process for a Human Resource Management related job. Further, the current study was designed to identify the industry perception about graduates those who have engaged in extracurricular activities, and who did not. This is a cross sectional descriptive research in nature. A standard questionnaire was used to collect the primary data through a survey. The respondents were the professionals who are directly engaging in the selection process selected from 40 private sector organizations in Sri Lanka. Descriptive statistics, paired sample t-test and one-way ANOVA were used to analyze the data and make conclusions. Findings revealed that the private sector organizations significantly believe that graduates who have engaged in university extracurricular activities might have developed more skills, good personal qualities and other relevant employability behaviors than graduates those who haven't engaged. Thought the belief was that, further, it was identified the engagement in extracurricular activities is not a significant reason to get selected for a HR related job in the industry. It was found that the perception regarding undergraduates who have not engaged in extracurricular activities is not varying from industry to industry. But, findings revealed that the perception, and the given due recognition for undergraduates who have engaged in extracurricular activities is industry specific.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of rewards on employee retention and to construct a model which could be used to predict the retention intention of operative level employees in apparel industry. This was carried out as a cross sectional field study among a sample of 320 operative level employees in the apparel industry. Convenience sampling was applied to select the sample and the investigation was done in three leading garment factories in the industry. A self administered, pre-tested questionnaire was used to collect data which met the accepted standards of validity and reliability. Correlation test was used to identify the strength of association among variables, and the stepwise regression analysis to fit a regression model. p-value was used to test the mentioned hypotheses. It is found that basic salary, welfare and incentives are significantly correlated with the retention intention of employees. The fitted regression model explains 67.7% variation in dependent variable where basic salary and welfare are taken as the best two predictors of retention intention in the tested domain. Basic salary is more important in predicting employee retention than welfare as its standardized coefficient of beta is greater. It could be recommended to review basic salaries and welfare facilities given for operative level workers in garment factories frequently, rather having exit interviews and turnover analysis.

Small Businesses are considered the stamina of any economy as they play a critical role by generating jobs, accelerating regional development, empowering innovations and stimulating many economic functions. Small Businesses are more important to a developing country like Sri Lanka where inflation, poverty and unemployment are now serious problems in the economy. It is estimated that only one in three Small Businesses survive to their fifth anniversary. Thus, the study was initiated to identify the key success factors of Small Businesses in Sri Lanka. This was carried out as a cross sectional field study among a sample of 246 Small Businesses in the country except the Eastern province. Convenience sampling was applied to select the sample. Data were collected via a self – administered, pre - tested questionnaire that met accepted standards of validity and reliability. Descriptive statistics, simple ranking and factor analysis were performed to analyze data.  It is found that, availability of financial resources, available human resource, management skills of the owner, proper planning, cash & credit management, suppliers' support, marketing strategy, customer loyalty, business location and the government support are the top ten key success factors of Small Businesses. Findings revealed that nine out of top ten success factors are management related. The findings of this study serve as a guideline for Small Businesses, Management Practitioners & Policy Makers in the country. It is recommended to review the support given by the government and the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Policy in Sri Lanka.