Browsing by Author "Tennakoon, W.D.N.S.M."

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Determinants of Work - Life Balance (WLB): Evidence from Generation Y Employees in Sri Lanka
(International Conference on Business and Information (ICBI – 2019), [Human Resource Management], Faculty of Commerce and Management Studies, University of Kelaniya Sri Lanka, 2019) Senaratne, R.B.C.P.; Tennakoon, W.D.N.S.M.
Previous studies have reported a significant attitudinal difference between the Generation Y (Gen Y) and others in their Work-Life Balance (WLB). The present study aimed at finding promising factors those influence the WLB and their impact on the WLB of Gen Y. A quantitative inquiry of WLB determinants namely; flexibility & freedom, motivation, job satisfaction, feedback & support and technological adaption is performed in realizing the aim of the study. The research method was a field survey (N = 213) of randomly drawn Gen Y respondents who are currently employed in Kandy, Sri Lanka. The survey instrument had 32 items (α = 0.79) and the responses were anchored on a five point Likert scale. A Google form was e-mailed to the respondents (85.2% response rate) to collect primary data. Data were analyzed using univariate and multivariate analysis techniques. Data analysis resulted in detecting significant impact of job satisfaction, flexibility & freedom and feedback & support on WLB of Gen Y. Theoretical implications posited by this study are the determinants of WLB for Gen Y. i.e. Job satisfaction, Flexibility & freedom and Feedback & support. Findings do hold the practical importance of focusing on above factors in any such attempt to enhance the WLB of Gen Y employees who are currently the most active group in the workforce.
“Doing Good or Being Good” The Choice Between Corporate Social Responsibility and Social Sustainability by SMEs: A Review and Research Agenda
(Faculty of Graduate Studies - University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2021) Tennakoon, W.D.N.S.M.; Janadari, M.P.N.
Societal marketing strategies underpinned the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) of institutions to harness their Key Performance Indicators to contribute towards societal goals. This strategic initiative is often expected to sustain the brand reputation, thus improving the organizational performance in the long run. Uniformly, Social Sustainability (SS) is the societal pillar of the sustainable business models, a dynamic, open and contested concept in which social values, social identities, social relationships and social institutions can continue in the future. No development can be called "sustainable" if it leads people to change or give up their social values, identities or relationships for the sake of achieving the development status. Whilst the sustainable development agendas stressed the importance and welcomed sustainability's social aspect, there is only very little agreement on what it is. Resultantly, many practitioners view CSR in exchange for SS, which is contradictory as far as the theoretical substances of each concept are concerned. Notably, the practice of CSR and SS dimensions were reported overlapping in the context of SMEs due to unseen reasons. Thus, in the context of SMEs, this study performed a systematic review of literature about the practice of CSR and SS to reveal the underlying meaning of adopting each concept. Specifically, researchers looked at how CSR and SS are viewed and practiced, and their mutually inclusive nature as presented in the domain of SMEs literature. The review included 334 research papers published mainly in five databases. The inclusive criteria were "peer-reviewed", "written in English", "published in any year", "having keywords CSR or SS", and "addressed the SMEs context". The content analysis supported synthesizing the information and derived valuable insights. The representativeness of CSR is dominant among the reviewed papers in contrast to SS. Two concepts were regularly presented interchangeably to denote the interactions of any nature between the organization and the society. Moreover, most papers have treated CSR initiatives of organizations as symbolic acts of SS focus, implying the perceived mutually inclusive nature of the two concepts. A distinct lack of SS focus is noted in the SMEs context instead of the practice and reporting. Instead of the societal dimension in corporate conduct, many seem to practice and report CSR to showcase the organizational commitment to preserving the interests of society. However, the longevity of CSR activities seems to be evaluated seldom while substitution is made. Based on the review outcomes, the future avenues of research on the practice and reporting of SS of SMEs are outlined. Furthermore, the necessity to contrast two concepts explicitly in terms of aligning and distinguishing their attributes is encouraged.
THE MODERATING EFFECT OF FIRM SIZE ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ENTREPRENEURIAL ORIENTATION AND MARKET ORIENTATION: EVIDENCES FROM SRI LANKA.
(Department of Marketing Management, University of Kelaniya,Sri Lanka, 2017) Tennakoon, W.D.N.S.M.
The entrepreneurial orientation and marketing orientation can be viewed as two interrelated strategic responses those address the environmental uncertainty. These two are found to be highly related, yet carrying both a combined effect and a specific bearing on organizational performances. Nevertheless the size of the business appeared to be governing this relationship. Thus, the focus of this study is to test the moderating effect of the firm size on the association between entrepreneurial orientation and market orientation. A quantitative study was conducted with the participation of 128 conveniently selected business entities. The unit of analysis is a firm where the data was collected from the/a founder or a top management representative from each firm. The survey instrument was adopted from existing literature after ensuring the reliability of the scale. The results of Ttest and partial correlation analysis indicate a strong positive relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and market orientation provided that the firm size is high. The strength of the relationship appeared to be lessened for smaller firm sizes. The theoretical implication claims the necessity of accounting the firm size when assessing the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and market orientation while practical implication suggests small firms to pay much attention to employ remedial strategies to strengthen the above relationship.
Revitalizing the Green mindset: Environmental Sustainability approach towards Community Resilience
(Center for Sustainability Solutions, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2021) Janadari, M.P.N.; Tennakoon, W.D.N.S.M.
Global communities are increasingly becoming more vulnerable to natural disasters. Be¬sides the massive loss of invaluable human lives, the economic loss caused by natural disas¬ters is mounting day by day (Brikmann, 2016). The nearest experience was the COVID-19 pandemic which paralyzed the entire world both economically and socially. In the period 2000 -2019, 7,348 major recorded disaster events were claiming 1.23 million lives, affecting 4.2 billion people (many on more than one occasion) and resulting in approximately US$ 2.97 trillion in global economic losses (UNDRR, 2020). In face of the challenges posed by natural disasters, the concept of “resilience” started gaining much attention from individuals, organizations, and global communities at large. The term resilience simply means the ability to “bounce back”. It is rooted in the Latin term “resiliere” which gives the similar meaning of “jumping back” (Paton & Johnston, 2006). Despite the appearance of the term being noted in general use for decades, ecology was the first scientific discipline to adopt the term in building its theoretical construction. Holling (1973) pioneered the use of the resilience concept in the field of ecology. Resilience is a multidimensional, socio technical phenomenon about how individuals or groups manage uncertainty. The term community resilience, a branch of the resilience knowledge domain, is regard¬ed as a way of protecting and empowering communities while enabling them to reduce the negative impacts of both environmental and socio-political challenges in their lives, liveli¬hoods and dignity (Amul & Shrestha, 2015). Thus, building community resilience should primarily arise at individual, household and community levels (Silva, 2016). Community resilience relies on services and employment provided by the organizations to plan for, respond to, and recover from emergencies and crises (Lee, Vargo & Seville, 2013). Hence, the disaster preparedness, disaster response, and disaster recovery of organizations predict community resilience. Simply, more the organizations are resilient the more resilient the community will be. The ecological component, the biosphere of sustainability, is perhaps the widely discussed dimension of sustainability. The eye-opening report of “Our Common Future” (Brundtland, 1987) paved many governments, institutional bodies, and individuals to have a second look at their activities through the ecological lens. However, when it comes to defining and mea¬suring, this component of sustainability was found to be the most challenging among the three of them (Husgafvel et al., 2017). As the environmental challenges mushroomed since conventions, and policy frameworks (e.g., Vienna Convention of 1985, Espoo Convention 1991, Kyoto Protocol of 1992, Paris Agreement of 2015, Hyogo Framework for 2005_2015, Sendai Framework for 2015-2030 etc.) have been staged from time to time in ensuring eco¬logical sustainability. From a theoretical perspective, a gigantic number of scholarly works have generated an ample number of definitions and measures to assess environmental sus¬tainability. The common aim of almost all these models is to provide relevant information for decision-makers. There, the environmental impact of each decision is expected to be assessed within the frame of organizational performance. Next, they are evaluated against their im¬pact on the surrounding environment, society and economics. In such a way environmental sustainability plays a central role in the overall decision-making cycle of the large communi¬ty; thus, can look upon a tenable approach towards community resilience (Okvat & Zautra, 2011; Rivera-Muñoz, 2021; Shenk et al., 2019). In congruence with discernible interrelated¬ness between lead constructs, the authors of the present work are motivated in offering their insights on an enduring path towards community resilience: environmental sustainability.