The Impact of Performance Assessment System on Employee Commitment: A Study among Executive Officers of State-Owned Commercial Banks in Sri Lanka

D. A. T. Kumari

Senior Lecturer, Wayamba University of Sri Lanka

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Ajith Medis

Senior Lecturer, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka

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ABSTRACT

Performance management is a much broader and a complicated function of HR, as it encompasses activities such as joint goal setting, continuous progress review and frequent communication, feedback and coaching for improved performance, implementation of employee development programs and rewarding achievements. Performance management can be regarded as a systematic process by which the overall performance of an organization can be improved by improving the performance of individuals within a team framework. It is a means for promoting superior performance by communicating expectations, defining roles within a required competence framework, and establishing achievable benchmarks. As end results, the performance appraisal positively affects to the employee commitment and it will lead to achieving corporate objectives.  However, there is a public opinion about a poor performance management system in public sector organizations. Accordingly, some researchers argue that performance management of public sector commercial banks is poorer than private sector commercial banks in the Sri Lankan context.

Hence, this paper focuses on the assessment of the influence of the current performance management system adopted by major state-owned commercial banks on job commitment of their executive employees.  The sample for this study was drawn from executive grade employees who are working at Peoples Bank and Bank of Ceylon and data were collected by using self-administrated questionnaire. Altogether 350 questionnaires were distributed by email and 208 completed questionnaires were taken in for final analysis. The PLS based SEM was employed to measure the impact of the exogenous variable on the endogenous variable based on the Smart PLS-3. The results revealed that among the set of determinants, career development, is the most significant determinant of employee commitments among executive officers of state-owned commercial banks in Sri Lanka. Further, it was revealed that, alignment with organizational goals, is the least significant determinant of employee commitments among executive officers of state-owned commercial banks in Sri Lanka.

Keywords: Altruistic Values, Brand Trust, Consumer-Brand Relationship, Factor analysis, Hedonic Values

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Impact of Dynamic Capabilities on Global Mind-set: The Case of ICT Start-ups in Sri Lanka

C. H. Jayasuriya

Research Analyst, LSEG Business Services Private Limited, Sri Lanka

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G.A.T.R. Perera

Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Management and Finance, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka

ABSTRACT 

The purpose of this study is to explore how firm-level dynamic capabilities influence the level of firms’ global mindset in information and communication technology (ICT) startups in Sri Lanka. Based on the literature on dynamic capabilities and global mindset, the impact of dynamic capabilities on global mindset is tested empirically on a sample of 295 Sri Lankan ICT start-up firms using structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis technique to find whether if there is any difference of the impact from sensing dynamic capabilities, seizing capabilities and reconfiguration capabilities on the global mindset. The results show a positive significant impact of the sensing, seizing and reconfiguration capabilities on the global mindset in ICT startups in Sri Lanka. However, among three different but theoretically interrelated capabilities, seizing and reconfiguration dynamic capabilities have shown the strongest impact on the global mindset. This study contributes to the emerging literature of global mindset in the international business and to strategic management literature by understanding the global mindset through the lenses of dynamic capabilities as organizational level contingencies.

Keywords: Dynamic Reconfiguration Capabilities, Dynamic Seizing Capabilities, Dynamic Sensing Capabilities, Global Mindset, ICT Startups, Sri Lanka

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  Factors Influencing Milk Powder Brand Preference: A Case from Kegalle District of Sri Lanka

A.G.K. Wijesinghe

 Senior Lecturer, Wayamba University of Sri Lanka

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N.R. Abeynayake

 Professor, Wayamba University of Sri Lanka

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  R.L.C. Priyadarshani

 Undergraduate, Wayamba University of Sri Lanka

ABSTRACT 

Recent information released through the mass media related to contamination of imported milk powder with hazardous components has made a considerable effect on the preference of milk powder brands among the consumers in Sri Lanka. This study was focused to investigate: (1) the factors influencing consumer brand preference for local and imported milk powder brands, (2) whether these identified factors have significant influences on consumer preference in milk powder brands. A questionnaire survey was conducted by means of face to face interview to gather primary data from a sample of 250 respondents covering five Divisional Secretariats in Kegalle District. Data were analyzed by using confirmatory factor analysis in AMOS in SPSS. The study shows that trust on the brand, product factors and brand loyalty are the main factors that significantly and highly influence consumer brand preference for a particular milk powder brand. Findings of this study are important to milk brand producers, investors, policymakers, marketers, relevant enterprises, and government to implement necessary product improvements and quality enhancement in the milk powder industry.

Keywords: Brand Loyalty, Brand preference, Certification, Consumer, Milk powder, Product factor, Trust on brand

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Supply Chain Management practices: Competitive Advantage and Organizational Performance in Sri Lankan

Construction Industry

T.S.L.W. Gunawardana

Senior Lecturer, University of Ruhuna, Sri Lanka 

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D.H. Wedage

M & E Engineer, International Construction Consortium (Pvt) Ltd. Sri Lanka.

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ABSTRACT 

In the construction industry supply chain management (SCM) is a vital tool in controlling business processes in a defined and a systematic way to improve quality, time management and increase profit. Effective supply chain management has become a potentially valuable method of securing and improving competitive advantage and organizational performance since competition no longer between organizations, but between global organizations and among supply chains. This paper aims to investigate the impact of supply chain management practices on competitive advantage and organizational performance in the construction industry, Sri Lanka, due to the lack of application of supply chain management practices to determine the organizational performance in the competitive environment. Further, this study focuses five SCM practices:  strategic supplier partnership, customer relationship, level of information sharing, quality of information sharing, and postponement to investigate what supply chain management is, how it works in increase competitive advantage and what are its dynamics. Six hypotheses were developed based on the constructed conceptual framework derived from the supply chain management literature. The data were collected over the survey technique by randomly administering structured questionnaires from 198 respondents of construction management teams and different sub-contractors. First Multiple regression analysis was performed to explore the impact of five supply chain management practices on competitive advantage and organizational performance in the construction industry and the analysis was carried out the factor analysis to explore the significance of supply chain management dimensions.  The results of the regression analysis indicated that all SCM variables have a positive impact on competitive advantages and organizational performance of the construction industry in Sri Lanka. Moreover, it suggested that the strategic supplier partnership was the most significant SCM variable which determines the competitive advantage and level of information sharing variable was the less significant variable towards competitive advantage. The results of this study provide new insights to the construction companies to better understand the significant role that SCM variables play in respect to the competitive advantages and organizational performance in Sri Lanka.  The study has outlined to examine the five SCM variables in construction industry. Hence future study can be outlined to further examine the impact of SCM on competitive advantages in other industries. Moreover, the future study can be outlined to further examine the impact of SCM variables in different dimensions especially including customer perspective in respect to human variables. Besides, this study was based on the limited large-scale construction companies operated in Sri Lanka and ignore the small and medium scale supermarkets.

Keywords: Competitive Advantage, Organizational Performance, Supply Chain Management Practices

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