Sabaragamuwa University Journal最新文献

{"title":"Reasons for the Improvement of Labor Productivity in Tea Plantations after Privatization with Special Reference to the Estate Laborers in the Ratnapura District","authors":"S. Kodithuwakku, H. Priyanath","doi":"10.4038/SUSLJ.V7I1.1842","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4038/SUSLJ.V7I1.1842","url":null,"abstract":"This paper attempts to discuss the reasons for the improvement of labor productivity after the privatization. This study mainly based on the primary data gathered from the laborers employed in tea estates in the Ratnapura district in Sri Lanka. 120 of laborers are selected representing 40 laborers from 03 privatized estates situated in the Ratnapura District. Data was mainly collected through a structured questionnaire and analyzed qualitatively and quantitative techniques. The study reveals that the financial benefits i.e. salary, allowances, salary increments, overtime and loan facilities and non-financial facilitieswelfare facilities like housing, education, health, daycare centers, transport, electricity etc. provided by the management company for laborers are highly affected to the improvement of labor productivity through the increase of labor satisfaction. Labor satisfaction regarding financial and non-financial benefits was relatively very high. On the other hand, strict management and application of new technology for the factories affect the improvement of labor productivity. Finally, it can be concluded that the labor productivity in tea plantation sector has improved after privatization due to the improvement of labor satisfaction, strict management and application of new techniques of the private companies. Key Words : Labor productivity; Privatization; Financial benefits; Non-financial facilities; Labor satisfaction. DOI: 10.4038/suslj.v7i1.1842 Sabaragamuwa University Journal vol. 07 no.1, 2007 pp 37-47","PeriodicalId":363402,"journal":{"name":"Sabaragamuwa University Journal","volume":"67 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2010-04-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127912724","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Illusions under an Alien Sky: Paul Scott’s precursor to the Raj Quartet","authors":"R. Wijesinha","doi":"10.4038/SUSLJ.V6I1.1688","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4038/SUSLJ.V6I1.1688","url":null,"abstract":"Paul Scott's second novel, The Alien Sky , foreshadows the interest with the subject of Indian independence that dominates his final great achievement, The Raj Quartet . Though in this single novel Scott's obvious concern is the British reaction to independence, I believe in his presentation of his characters he also explores some of the moral concepts relating to colonialism and independence that he analyses so illuminatingly in the Quartet. In particular he shows how elements in the individual human psyche contribute to actions and reactions within relationships based on power, which are the dominant feature of the imperial situation. One of Scott's principle themes is that, because of the power factor, even for the most idealistic of those within the system there were boundaries that could not be crossed. While Scott exposes then those who have no qualms about abusing their power, I suggest that he reserves his sharpest criticism for those who fail to live up to their expressed ideals because of their reliance on the system with which in the end they must show solidarity. DOI: 10.4038/suslj.v6i1.1688 Sabaragamuwa University Journal , vol 6, no. 1, pp 35-49","PeriodicalId":363402,"journal":{"name":"Sabaragamuwa University Journal","volume":"86 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2010-03-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124820641","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"\"Why not? But I can't\" – Influence of a 'culture of poverty' on learning - A case study","authors":"M. Perera","doi":"10.4038/SUSLJ.V6I1.1687","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4038/SUSLJ.V6I1.1687","url":null,"abstract":"Based on a sub set of data from a study which investigated the role of motivation as a contributing factor in second language learning in a disadvantaged school setting in Sri Lanka, this paper attempts to show the relationship between a ‘culture of poverty’ and learning. Lewis, (1970 : p.85) states that ‘in addition to being a condition of chronic economic poverty, the culture of poverty is characterized by the cognitive poverty of its ‘members’, instilling a fatalism with reference to any possibility of ever achieving a different way of life’. Although education is one way in which such people could be empowered to develop a sense of self confidence and self worth, children acquire the adult fatalism early and become learned helpless. The findings of the study indicate that there is a correlation between motivation and a ‘culture of poverty’. Further, in spite of the adverse socio-economic backgrounds from which the students come, their motivation to learn the second language can be enhanced. However, it is not the ‘culture of poverty’ per se that affects motivation but the type of attributions that the students make regarding their prior learning experiences. Thus a relationship between attributions and ‘cognitive poverty’ was visible.","PeriodicalId":363402,"journal":{"name":"Sabaragamuwa University Journal","volume":"26 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2010-03-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114515417","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Managerial Deficiencies in the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Sri Lanka: An Empirical Evidence of SMEs in the Ratnapura District","authors":"H. Priyanath","doi":"10.4038/SUSLJ.V6I1.1692","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4038/SUSLJ.V6I1.1692","url":null,"abstract":"This paper discuses the basic managerial deficiencies of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Sri Lanka with special reference to the SMEs in Ratnapura District. The study is mainly based on primary data gathered from 57 of SMEs, which were selected from 287 SMEs using stratified random sampling method. Data was gathered using a structured questionnaire and interviewing labourors, officers of various SME supportive organizations and observing SMEs. The study was supplemented with the data collected from secondary sources as well. Data was analyzed using qualitative and quantitative techniques. The study found that even basic management functions like planning, organizing, staffing, directing and controlling are not properly practiced in most of the SMEs. Most SMEs do not have clear plans for future development, production process, marketing, financial activities etc. Owners (entrepreneurs) of most of SMEs act as managers handling all the responsibilities, which are not delegated to others. Therefore, most of the SMEs do not function efficiently due to the delay of decision-making process, poor organization, poor staffing, weak controlling and directing. Financial management of most of the SMEs is found to be very weak. Most SMEs do not calculate total expenses, total revenue, profit etc, for they do not keep any account systematically. Most SMEs do not provide any welfare facilities and retirement benefits like EPF and ETF to encourage labourers. Poor production planning and production process, weak practices of marketing and poor quality of the products are the other deficiencies of SMEs. Performance of many SMEs is very poor due to the deficiencies in management. Poor knowledge in management of entrepreneurs causes the managerial deficiencies. Therefore, SMEs cannot judge problems and barriers coming from internal and external industrial environment. The paper concludes that the growth of SMEs can be accelerated by developing managerial knowledge of entrepreneurs of the SMEs.","PeriodicalId":363402,"journal":{"name":"Sabaragamuwa University Journal","volume":"6 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2010-03-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129577859","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Effect of Macroeconomic Variables on Stock Prices in Emerging Sri Lankan Stock Market","authors":"L. Menike","doi":"10.4038/SUSLJ.V6I1.1689","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4038/SUSLJ.V6I1.1689","url":null,"abstract":"This study investigates the effects of macroeconomic variables on stock prices in emerging Sri Lankan stock market using monthly data for the period from September 1991 to December 2002. The multivariate regression was run using eight macroeconomic variables for each individual stock.  The null hypothesis which states that money supply, exchange rate, inflation rate and interest rate variables collectively do not accord any impact on equity prices is rejected at 0.05 level of significance in all stocks. The results indicate that most of the companies report a higher R 2  which justifies  higher explanatory power of macroeconomic variables in explaining stock prices.  Consistent with similar results of the developed as well as emerging market studies, inflation rate and exchange rate react mainly negatively to stock prices in the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE). The negative effect of Treasury bill rate implies that whenever the interest rate on Treasury securities rise, investors tend to switch out of stocks causing stock prices to fall. However, lagged money supply variables do not appear to have a strong prediction of movements of stock prices while stocks do not provide effective hedge against inflation specially in Manufacturing, Trading and Diversified sectors in the CSE.  These findings hold practical implications for policy makers, stock market regulators, investors and stock market analysts. DOI: 10.4038/suslj.v6i1.1689 Sabaragamuwa University Journal , vol 6, no. 1, pp 50-67","PeriodicalId":363402,"journal":{"name":"Sabaragamuwa University Journal","volume":"66 2 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2010-03-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127524793","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Commercialization of Agriculture and Role of Agricultural Extension","authors":"R. P. Mahaliyanaarachchi, R. Bandara","doi":"10.4038/SUSLJ.V6I1.1686","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4038/SUSLJ.V6I1.1686","url":null,"abstract":"Today commercialization of agriculture is an inevitable reality throughout the whole world.  There are a number of factors affecting the commercialization process in agriculture. Some of them could be named as rapid growth of economies in the both developing and developed countries, introducing of new technologies, market expansion, market liberalization, urbanization, rapid increase of demand for food, decreasing of farming population, liberalized and open economic policies, bilateral and multilateral economic agreements, developed infrastructure facilities in farming areas and government agricultural policies. However, commercialization in agriculture is not a new phenomenon and it is not a surprise to the farming community. Since the nineteen fifties, farmers in most of the countries have moved towards commercial agriculture. Their major objective was surplus production aiming market prospects. Agricultural extension plays a major role in agricultural production.  Role of agricultural extension in a commercialized agricultural system is different from such service in subsistence farming system. In the commercialized agriculture the extension service will mainly concentrate on the resourceful big farmers, with favorable environmental conditions and higher socio-economic status. Under the commercialized agriculture the number of farmers is to be reduced and the size of the farm land should be increased. This is a generally accepted concept in commercial agriculture. Do we have to accept this concept under each and every situation? We think the answer is \"no\". By using improved technologies farmers can move towards commercial agriculture without considering the size of land. Under protected agriculture, farmers follow concepts of the commercial agriculture. Commercial livestock farming does not rely on the farm size except diary farming. However, the role of agricultural extension in the commercialized agricultural system is mainly dependent on the type and way of commercialization in a given society. We have to expect that agricultural extension services are supposed to fulfill many aims, from reducing rural poverty and improved livelihoods for rural households to increasing the overall production and contributing to foreign exchange earnings from exports. But the level and percentage of this contribution may vary from one situation to another. DOI: 10.4038/suslj.v6i1.1686 Sabaragamuwa University Journal , vol 6, no. 1, pp 13-22","PeriodicalId":363402,"journal":{"name":"Sabaragamuwa University Journal","volume":"68 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2010-03-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130562699","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Measuring the Risk and Performance in Plantation Sector Using CAPM Based Jensen’s Alpha","authors":"D. Dayaratne, D. Dharmaratne, Sam Harris","doi":"10.4038/SUSLJ.V6I1.1690","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4038/SUSLJ.V6I1.1690","url":null,"abstract":"This paper evaluates the company performance using the CAPM Based Jensen's Alpha. The CAPM of Sharpe (1964), Lintner (1965) and Mossin is a widely used model in modern Finance to estimate cost of equity and company performance. We carried out our study for ten plantation companies listed on Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE). We used cost of equity that is calculated using CAPM to determine the Economic Value Added (EVA).The EVA measures whether the companies have created shareholders' value during the estimating period. We selected the sample period of 2000 to 2005 years and we applied the monthly ending prices of common stocks of each company for the regression.  The monthly ending prices of All Share Price Index (ASPI) are used as the market proxy. To estimate the beta, we applied market model. It was found that almost all the companies have created value for their shareholders during the study period. To measure the market performance, we calculated Jensen's alpha for each company and according to Jensen's alpha we found that the market performance is not satisfactory in most plantation companies. These results are important for Corporate Managers undertaking risk calculations, for fund managers making investment decision and, amongst others, for investors who wish to assess value of their investments. DOI: 10.4038/suslj.v6i1.1690 Sabaragamuwa University Journal , vol 6, no. 1, pp 68-81","PeriodicalId":363402,"journal":{"name":"Sabaragamuwa University Journal","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2010-03-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115221235","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Diversity, Threats and Conservation of Herpetofauna in and around the Eastern Sinharaja","authors":"Thinlina D Surasinghe, R. Jayaratne","doi":"10.4038/SUSLJ.V6I1.1685","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4038/SUSLJ.V6I1.1685","url":null,"abstract":"The Eastern Sinharaja is a moist montane tropical forest that falls within the Rakwana mountain range and is 30km 2 in area. Eastern Sinharaja is the home for many threatened endemic herpetofauna where seven species of anuran amphibians three agamids, one species of gecko are known to be spot endemics where all of them are considered to be critically endangered. The eastern Sinharaja is confronting different degrees of threats due to human disturbances including deforestation and habitat destruction due to cardamom and tea cultivation, the land degradation as a result of Illegal gem mining, extraction of forest resources, illicit timber felling, collection of non-woody products, wild cardamom, medicinal plants and firewood, setting fire to the forest and grasslands and the excessive usage of pesticides in plantations. The relative abundances of the above mentioned endemic herpetofauna is significantly low. Therefore it is assumed that the population size of these species is extremely low. Having a small land area, where the primary forest vegetation is rapidly declining, the herpetofaual populations are facing an imminent threat. Therefore, immediate conservation actions are recommended. Specific attention must be paid over restoration of regarded areas with native fast growing forest species and establishment of habitat corridors to bridge the neighboring forest patches to yield space and resources to sustain the minimum viable populations. Establishment of a buffer is imperative to mediate the human impacts. The landowners must be encouraged to adopt agro-forestry practices instead of monocultures like tea/cardamom plantation, allowing establishment of small populations of herpatofauna in those agroforestry plots adjoining the reserve. DOI: 10.4038/suslj.v6i1.1685 Sabaragamuwa University Journal , vol 6, no. 1, pp 3-12","PeriodicalId":363402,"journal":{"name":"Sabaragamuwa University Journal","volume":"322 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2010-03-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124554156","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"An Empirical investigation of the Impact of Organizational factors on the Perceived Job Performance of Shop Floor Employees of Large scale Garment Industries in Sri Lanka","authors":"Ld Kalyani","doi":"10.4038/SUSLJ.V6I1.1691","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4038/SUSLJ.V6I1.1691","url":null,"abstract":"Existing literature reveals a gap in the empirical knowledge in respect of organizational factors that impact perceived job performance (PJP) at the large scale garment industries. The present study empirically evaluated four organizational factors that could have impact on the perceived job performance namely Leadership Style, Organization Structure, Organization Culture and Performance Evaluation. The study involved 236 shop floor employees who were selected randomly from 12 large scale garment factories in each province except North and North East provinces in Sri Lanka. Methods such as univariate, bivariate, regression and hypothesis testing were used for data analysis. The results indicated that all the independent variables were positively and significantly correlated to the perceived job performance. However, results regressing the independent variables on the perceived job performance showed that Leadership style, Organization Structure and Performance Evaluation are strong predictors of perceived job performance while organization culture variable is excluded from the model. On the whole, the independent variables accounted for almost 36% of the variance in the perceived job performance.","PeriodicalId":363402,"journal":{"name":"Sabaragamuwa University Journal","volume":"7 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2010-03-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131376563","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Bridging the Digital Divide by Building and Developing Wireless Community Networks in Rural Areas of Sri Lanka","authors":"Chandima H De Silva, R. Udugampola","doi":"10.4038/SUSLJ.V6I1.1693","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4038/SUSLJ.V6I1.1693","url":null,"abstract":"This paper discusses how new and emerging wireless technologies could be deployed together with Open Source product lines in expediting the propagation of the ICT know-how in the rural as well as the suburban areas of Sri Lanka. The intention of the authors is to showcase a blueprint for using newer and emerging viable communication technologies in the rural context. Current internet distribution networks generally rely on a permanent, fixed and largely wired infrastructure that is owned and often operated by large entities such as telecom operators or an Internet Service Provider. A relatively new and emerging technology is wireless Ethernet or wireless networking using the IEEE 802.11 standard. This standard encompasses the lower layers of the OSI model for transport of data as Ethernet frames using a spread spectrum based radio link. This technology opens the possibility of building a network without having the problems associated with, and the cost of putting some sort of physical transmission medium in the ground. Instead, antennas can be used to send and receive data using radio waves through free air. Due to the relative simplicity of the currently available commodity hardware that uses IEEE 802.11 technology it is relatively easy to build a local wireless community network in a community township. Using this network people can share resources among each other and, more importantly, it would facilitate the adaptation of a highly collaborative environment forgoing the language barriers, which is regarded as a major cause of the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka.","PeriodicalId":363402,"journal":{"name":"Sabaragamuwa University Journal","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2010-03-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130228225","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}