CIPM Sri Lanka – the Nation’s leader in human resource management, held the inauguration ceremony of the 6th Annual Research Symposium ‘Glocalization of HRM Practices for Business Resilience’ on 25th and 26th May on a hybrid mode with local and international participants, including Guest of Honor Johnny C. Taylor Jr – President & CEO SHRM USA, Keynote speaker Professor of HRM & Asia Studies, Monash Business School, Australia – Fang Lee Cooke together with local and international participants joining the Symposium hosts including Jayantha Amerasinghe – President CIPM, Ken Vijayakumar – Vice President CIPM, Chris Obeysekera – CEO CIPM, Conference Chair – Prof Prasadini Gamage, Dilanjani Weerathunga – Conference secretary, G Weeratunga – Director, Professional & Academic Affairs, Himali Dassanayake – Director Operations, and Kamani Perera – Manager, Research, at the CIPM head office “HR House” in Colombo 5 via web technology. A very successful pre-symposium workshop on research methodology was conducted on the 25th of May by veteran researcher Dr. Ananda Jayawardene, Senior Lecturer/consultant, Postgraduate Institute of Management (PIM), University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka, which is a new feature to enrich the standard of the Symposium. . The inauguration ceremony was followed by a full day of eye-opening research presentations, and technical and panel discussions on the 26th of May. The CIPM Research Symposium is organized by CIPM Standing Committee on Applied Research and Knowledge Centre under the guidance of President CIPM Sri Lanka.
Following the welcome speech delivered by the Symposium Chair, addressing the Symposium, CIPM Sri Lanka President – Jayantha Amerasinghe said that the amount of primary or applied research conducted in Sri Lanka is very minimal. “Since research is very important to get a first-hand and in-depth view of practical issues pertaining to human resource management, very early in my tenure as President, I requested that an R&D unit be set up at CIPM to add value to our understanding of HR leading to a deeper appreciation of the intricacies involved in managing and motivating people in these unprecedented times. Our aim is to be the leading centre in bringing research to the forefront in this country and to be the differentiator in the market,” he said and added that CIPM would be strengthening the research unit in the coming years.
Prof Prasadini Gamage presented the Symposium proceedings book comprising over 60 research papers and 600 pages and the 1st copy of the June 2022 version of the bi-annual peer-reviewed open-access journal of the CIPM HRM Perspectives Research Journal published by the CIPM Standing Committee on Applied Research & Knowledge Centre to the President of CIPM Sri Lanka. All 60 research papers were presented at the Symposium by the respective authors during the technical sessions, which comprised 9 tracks. Thereafter, the Case Study book comprising HR-related success stories of leading companies was presented to CIPM President by the Conference Secretary. Dr Dilrukshi Herath and Athula Hewapathirana, members of the National Research Project on “Attracting Youth to Technical and Vocational Education: The Way Forward” based on a national survey done by the Standing Committee of Applied Research & Knowledge Centre, was handed over to the President of CIPM.
Ken Vijayakumar moderated the panel discussion – Vice President of CIPM, while the eminent panel who are leaders in their own fields comprised Prof Ajantha Dharmasiri – Past President of CIPM, Mahendra Jayasekera – Managing Director of Lanka Wall tiles PLC, Rajitha Kariyawasam – Managing Director, Haycarb PLC, Ms. Chandi Dharmarathne – Vice President of HR, Virtusa.
The Technical Session of the Symposium comprised 9 tracks, each track chaired by two chairpersons, while the Case Study Session comprising 5 Case studies were chaired by eminent business and academic personalities, namely Mr. Dhammika Fernando, Mr. C. Hewapattini, and Dr. N. Bogahalande. The Symposium Chair Prof Prasadini Gamage chaired the valedictory session. Awards were also presented for the Best Paper and Best Presenter. The CIPM 6th Research Symposium concluded with the vote of thanks delivered by Ms. Kamani Perera, Research Manager.
