Research Papers - Dept of Business
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Publication Embargo Decrypting the Digital Vault by Understanding Cryptocurrency Adoption Challenges Among Gen Z: Case of Sri Lanka(University of Nigeria Department of Mass Communication, 2025-01-01) Mallawaarachchi, S; Hemachandra, U; Jayakody, D; Wickramarathne, U; Lokeshwara, A.A; Bandara, G.CBackground: As digital natives, Gen Zs are at the forefront of embracing cryptocurrencies for technological innovation and financial empowerment. This study is part of a larger effort to understand the evolving trends in the world of cryptocurrency, highlighting the need for more research in this area. Objective: This study sought to explore the diverse challenges faced by Gen Zs while adapting to the usage of cryptocurrencies within the Sri Lankan context. Methodology: The researchers conducted this study using an inductive qualitative approach. Data were gathered through in-depth interviews with 24 participants, employing snowball sampling to recruit participants. The collected data were then analysed using thematic analysis, and the findings were presented in prose form. Results: The results of this study revealed three key themes that significantly impact the usage of cryptocurrency as a digital asset among Gen Zs in Sri Lanka: (i) Trust and security concerns, (ii) Market volatility and investment risks, (iii) Regulatory approach and cryptocurrency transactions. Conclusion: Although cryptocurrency has gained acceptance among Gen Zs, its usage is determined by factors that ensure that users harness its full benefits. Contribution: This study has revealed the diverse challenges that Gen Zs embraced when adopting cryptocurrencies. © 2025, University of Nigeria Department of Mass Communication. All rights reserved.Publication Open Access Critical risk factors influencing the management of disruptions in construction projects: Insights from recent challenges in Sri Lanka(Elsevier Ltd, 2025-01) Rajapakshe, WThe construction industry has a significantly contribute to the economy of Sri Lanka. However, in recent years, its overall share of the national output has declined, primarily due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, political instability, and ongoing economic challenges. Many construction firms halted projects and laid off employees, highlighting the critical need for effective risk management during crises to predict and mitigate risks. This study explores emerging risk factors in Sri Lanka's construction sector post-crisis. Using a three-phase linear decision-making model, the research combines a literature review, a survey of 290 construction professionals, and structural equation modelling (SEM) to identify major risk factors across four phases of risk management. Key risks out of 23 include general factors like health and safety issues, material costs, regulations, political interference, corruption, and labor shortages, while phase-specific risks involve delays, budget overruns, payment delays, and cancellations. The study revises the risk registers to improve risk management strategies. While the findings are context-specific to Sri Lanka, they may offer indicative insights for other developing countries facing similar crisis-driven disruptions. The practical implications extend to multinational and local companies, supported by data from 22 countries, offering a comprehensive framework for addressing construction industry challenges in volatile environments. The novelty of this study lies in its use of theoretical triangulation to align Classical Risk Management theory with real-world operational risk factors, revealing critical overlaps, behavioral influences, and contextual gaps in traditional frameworks.Publication Open Access Analysis on Current and Future Training Needs in Health Sector of Sri Lanka(SRAC - Romanian Society for Quality, 2022-08) Rajapakshe, W; Weerarathna, R. S; Pathirana, G.Y; Malage, M. HSri Lanka holds a unique position in South Asia as one of the developing nations to provide universal health. Government spending on welfare mainly involves compromising or constraining a country's development budget. It requires sound management strategies to utilize limited resources, including the human resource of the health sector. Training and development of health professionals can be identified as a critical component in strengthening the quality of health services. Fewer studies exist on Training Needs Analysis (TNA) on health professionals in Sri Lanka, and this study assessed the Training Needs of Sri Lanka's healthcare professionals. This is a cross-sectional study collecting data from 240 health sector professionals in Sri Lanka. The Hennessey Hicks Training Need questionnaire was used to obtain data. Data from the source was analysed through the oneway ANOVA to compare the training needs of various professional groups, and the Word Cloud Online tool was applied to analyse the open-ended questions. The study identifies published research evaluation, communicates with patients, identifies viable research, introduces new ideas, prioritizing works, assessing patients' needs, using technology, undertaking health promotion activities, collecting research information, and undertaking administrative duties as current training needs. While computer literacy training, training on new medical equipment, awareness programs on workplace stress-reducing, training on quality assurance certifications like ISO, programs on effectively communicating with patients, management training, and language training were identified as future training needs of professionals in the health sector. The study concluded that, continuous training programs as the preferred approach to access the performance gap. It also demonstrates that this awareness of information regarding the training needs is beneficial for the health sector policymakers, managers, employees, and the community. Having a better understanding of their job roles, performance needs, and involvement in the decision-making process is likely to motivate healthcare sector employees to improve service quality. These benefits will be reflected in positive outcomes on service quality, improving the overall healthcare system in the country.Publication Open Access Analysis on Future Training Needs in Health Sector of Sri Lanka(SRAC - Romanian Society for Quality, 2022-08) Weerarathna, R; Rajapakshe, W; Pathirana, G. Y; Malage, M. HSri Lanka holds a unique position in South Asia as one of the developing nations to provide universal health. Government spending on welfare mainly involves compromising or constraining a country's development budget. It requires sound management strategies to utilize limited resources, including the human resource of the health sector. Training and development of health professionals can be identified as a critical component in strengthening the quality of health services. Fewer studies exist on Training Needs Analysis (TNA) on health professionals in Sri Lanka, and this study assessed the Training Needs of Sri Lanka's healthcare professionals. This is a cross-sectional study collecting data from 240 health sector professionals in Sri Lanka. The Hennessey Hicks Training Need questionnaire was used to obtain data. Data from the source was analysed through the one-way ANOVA to compare the training needs of various professional groups, and the Word Cloud Online tool was applied to analyse the open-ended questions. The study identifies published research evaluation, communicates with patients, identifies viable research, introduces new ideas, prioritizing works, assessing patients' needs, using technology, undertaking health promotion activities, collecting research information, and undertaking administrative duties as current training needs. While computer literacy training, training on new medical equipment, awareness programs on workplace stress-reducing, training on quality assurance certifications like ISO, programs on effectively communicating with patients, management training, and language training were identified as future training needs of professionals in the health sector. The study concluded that, continuous training programs as the preferred approach to access the performance gap. It also demonstrates that this awareness of information regarding the training needs is beneficial for the health sector policymakers, managers, employees, and the community. Having a better understanding of their job roles, performance needs, and involvement in the decision-making process is likely to motivate healthcare sector employees to improve service quality. These benefits will be reflected in positive outcomes on service quality, improving the overall healthcare system in the country.Publication Open Access The Impact of Cultural Orientation on the Societal Motivations of Luxury Good Consumption of IT Professionals in Sri Lanka(researchgate.net, 2021-01) Dissanayake, L. D. A. D.The primary objective of the study is to examine the impact of cultural orientation on the societal motivations of luxury good consumption of IT professionals in Sri Lanka. Thus, the study has used a sample of 103 IT practitioners in Sri Lanka. Correlation and regression analysis have been used to achieve the primary objectives. Consequently, among the four independent variables; horizontal individualism, vertical individualism, horizontal collectivism and vertical collectivism, only vertical individualism has a signifcant and positive relationship towards the societal motivation of luxury good consumption. The other variables have negative none signifcant relationship towards social luxury good consumption. Regression analysis concludes that only vertical individualism is a signifcant predictor of social luxury good consumption motivation of IT professionals. The other variables are not signifcant predictors.Publication Open Access Employee Happiness Heals the Turnover Intention: A Study of the Machine Operators of a Leading Apparel Company in Sri Lanka(researchgate.net, 2022-03-08) Weerarathna, R. S; Somawardana, W. S. D; Weerasinghe, W. A. P. DHappiness is a highly valued goal for most inhabitants as identified in most cultures. Feeling fulfilled is essential to social existence, and most people appear to be fairly content most of the time. A high rate of turnover among employees signals a major weakness in achieving organization's goals. This is because employees are the key players in determining organizational performance and survival. In ABC Apparel Company, it was identified that the employees who were machine operators' position have resigned frequently due to several reasons related to work. As a result of preliminary research, researchers identified several factors that make employees unhappy resulting in intention to leave their job. The main objective of the study was to find the impact of employee happiness on turnover intention. The research study was conducted in ninety (90) samples using simple random sampling among five hundred sixty (560) employees in the machine operator position. A selfadministered questionnaire was distributed randomly to a sample of ninety (90) employees who were in the machine operator position used in this study, and data was collected accordingly. Findings proved that employee happiness impact on turnover intention and a relationship exists between employee happiness and turnover intention. The importance of having employees happy within an organization was highlighted from this studyPublication Open Access Evolving Expectations of HR Professionals Amid the Covid-19 Pandemic in Sri Lanka(researchgate.net, 2022-07) Weerarathna, R; Rathnayake, N; Perera, H; Wickramasena, D; Arambawatta, V; Kaluarachchi, RThis study explores the expectations of HR professionals in Sri Lanka in terms of their workplaces during the COVID19 pandemic. A qualitative research methodology was employed in this study with 16 semi-structured interviews of HR professionals in Sri Lanka. Results reveal that on-premise and hybrid work cultures are much preferred by HR professionals in Sri Lanka. Further, if the work culture transformation remains, their expectations are high regarding concerns in new work practices at the workplace triggered by the pandemic including worklife balance practices, crisis management practices, financial incentives, career progress and Work from Home (WFH) resources.Publication Embargo Sri Lanka’s labour migration trends, remittances and economic growth(SAGE Publications, 2018-09-17) Ramanayake, S. S; Wijetunga, C. SLabour migration has significant multiple impacts for Sri Lanka, where migrant remittances have massively increased over time. In the light of changing migrant worker dynamics, including state involvement in virtually exporting people, this article examines various trends of labour migration and then specifically analyses remittance inflows and their economic impacts in Sri Lanka between 1970 and 2015. Our findings confirm the increasing importance of remittances as a source of external financing, with considerable impetus for domestic economic growth, related development policies and gender issues. The conclusions make some suggestions to safeguard future remittance inflows to Sri Lanka.Publication Open Access A Study of Essential Competencies and Skills of HR Managers in Sri Lanka(researchgate.net, 2016-11) Weerarathna, R. S; Pintoe, ASkills and competencies are vital assets for any individual in order to carry out the tasks and duties in triumphant manner. In today’s globalized and exigent business environment Human Resources (HR) managers need apposite skills and competencies to thrive in business organizations. Even though skills and competencies are important to HR managers; researchers have identified that an empirical gap is existing in Sri Lanka; as Sri Lankan researchers have not conducted the researches in the area of competencies and skills of HR Managers job which consists with Senior Manager (HR), HR Manager, Group HR Manager, Group HR and Administration Manager and HR Manager (Specialized HR Function). The research question of this exploratory study is what are the skills and competencies needed or expected by the organizations in Sri Lanka for HR Managers? There are two research objectives in this current study, mainly; to identify the skills and competencies needed or expected from HR Managers by the Sri Lankan Organization and to give an insight on theoretical perspective for the skills and competencies needed for key HR Managers. To achieve those two research objectives, researchers used HR job advertisements appeared in Sunday Observer Newspaper, Topjobs website for the period of November 2015 to November 2016 of time. The current research was carried out in non-contrived setting and the time horizon of the study is longitudinal under minimal interference of the researchers’. The findings of this exploratory study proved that communication skills, interpersonal skills, computer Literacy, leadership skills and negotiation skills were identified as most expected skills for HR Managers in Sri Lankan Organizations. As per the second major finding of this study researchers found that human skills from three managerial skills introduced by Robert. L. Katz are mostly expected skills by the Sri Lankan organizations. The findings of this study are useful to current HR Managerial job holders, future HR Managerial job seekers, teachers, university lecturers and educational policy makers.Publication Open Access Factors Affecting Life Satisfaction with Mediating Role of Work Satisfaction of Employees’ in Insurance Companies in Sri Lanka(2019-03-07) Rajapaksha, WThe study investigates how to work satisfaction influences workers' life satisfaction with job attribute assessment. Two hundred ninety-five operational level employees from 03 insurance companies in Sri Lanka were selected through Simple Random Sampling. The structural equation modeling approach (SEM) was applied to test the hypotheses. It has been discovered that employees' work satisfaction depends on work hazards; job characteristics and job attribute assessment, while job attributes assessment affected work benefits and cost, work hazards and job characteristics. The paper's findings revealed a strong positive relationship between work satisfaction and life satisfaction. It can be concluded that even though labor turnover is high among insurance workers, their life satisfaction depends on work satisfaction. These results denote that managers should specifically attempt to target enhancing work satisfaction by eliminating work hazards and setting job tasks along with building a good rapport with supervisor and employee, according to employee’s job position. The study recommends that policymakers identify workers' felt needs and satisfy those needs for a contented workforce to minimize labor turnover.