A Study on the Work-Family Balance and Job Performance of Academics in Sri Lanka

--Vidyanee Vithanage and Bhadra J H Arachchige

Work-family balance is a challenging issue for many working adults. As far as Sri Lanka is concerned, employees’ awareness and perception about work-family balance is very limited as compared to the western countries. Academics in Sri Lanka are no exception and they receive very little or no family-friendly support from universities as they struggle to achieve a balance between work and family with their never-ending workload. The objective of this study is to investigate the relationship between university academics’ work-family balance and job performance. Further, this study aims to find the dimensional impact of work-family balance on job performance of university academics. With the purpose of accomplishing the aforesaid objectives, a self-administered survey is carried out among 200 university academics from the four largest government universities in Sri Lanka. The sample is selected based on simple random sampling from the management faculties of the respective universities. This study finds a statistically significant positive relationship between work-family balance and job performance among academics. It also finds that a significant positive relationship exists between work-family balance dimensions and job performance. Further, satisfaction balance is identified as the major contributor to job performance.

© 2017 IUP. All Rights Reserved.

A Study of Cultural Tourists’ Perceptions of Three Sacred Destinations of Eastern Uttar Pradesh Region, India

--Amitabh Mishra and Nisha Kant Ojha

The cultural identity of India is associated with its ancient and official Sanskrit name Bharat (named after Emperor Bharat). The people of India own one of the world’s oldest civilizations (Indus Valley Civilization) and rehearse the traditions, customs and celebrations precisely the same way their ancestors used to do a few thousand years ago. The traces of Indian civilization were found in the remains of 5,000-year-old urban communities of Harappa, Mohenjodaro, Mehargarh (now in Pakistan) and Lothal (India). The Eastern Uttar Pradesh region of India is dotted with some most sacred destinations belonging to Hindu and Buddhist religions. The present paper examines the perception of cultural tourists against several controllable variables, of Allahabad, Varanasi, and Kushinagar cities of Eastern Uttar Pradesh region. It concludes that despite being among the most sacred and popular cultural tourism destinations of the country, the three destinations severely suffer from a crunch of facilities and services. The destinations should be provided with adequate infrastructure to manage the huge influx of cultural tourists.

© 2017 IUP. All Rights Reserved.

Analyzing HRM Inclusion/Disclosure in Annual Reports: A Context-Based Approach

--Shalini Shukla

Demand for knowledge-based products is changing the structure of global economy and the role of intellectual capital in business, especially human capital. Although a large number of studies have been done on intellectual capital, the literature on specific human capital disclosure and its relation to contextual variables is limited. Hence, the present study tries to fill the existing gap in research and contribute to the body of literature by investigating the impact of contextual variables (continent of origin and growth status of country) on the inclusion/disclosure of Human Resource Management (HRM) information (human capital) in annual reports of the foreign companies operating in India. Data collected from 202 companies identified on the basis of shareholding patterns (more than 50% foreign shareholding) and information availability (annual report and official website) is analyzed using the content analysis approach. The findings highlight that continent of origin has more impact on HRM information disclosure as compared to growth status of the country of origin. However, there are a number of unaccountable variables that may affect the research findings and need to be explored. Nonetheless, documenting the variations in HRM inclusion/disclosure of companies from different continents and countries of origin enables a greater understanding of the prevalent voluntary disclosure practices and importance given to HRM in corporate disclosures. Being the strategic key area, human resource skill, potential and abilities affect the way company performs and explicitly impact the content of annual report. Such an understanding holds the potential to guide researchers, HR professionals and policy makers.

© 2017 IUP. All Rights Reserved.

A Strategy Designed for Selection Using AHP Approach: A Study of B-School Students’ Perception and Hiring of Best Minds

--Shilpi Gupta

There is fierce competition among the top MNCs to select the best minds of the country. At the same time, a company’s position in students’ perception becomes equally important. The final selection of top MNCs and the best minds of the country are based on the evaluation of a number of alternatives in terms of a number of criteria. This problem may become a very difficult one when the criteria are expressed in different units or the pertinent data is difficult to be quantified. The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is an effective approach in dealing with this kind of decision problems. The main objective of the present study is to identify and relate the factors contributing to the placement prospects of students from a B-school while selecting a company. The study attempts to relate students’ placement-related variables with the overall rating or brand value of the companies in which they may get placements. The factors/variables considered to have a bearing on the brand value of companies are: job profile, company image, salary, growth, and HR policy. The study also attempts to relate these factors with seven selected companies, which are Indian Tobacco Company Limited (ITC), Proctor & Gamble (P&G), Cadbury, Nestle, Johnson & Johnson (J&J), Glaxo Smith Kline (GSK), and Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL).

© 2017 IUP. All Rights Reserved.