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Updated 11 Febuary 2005
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2004 Conference - Feedback Report. By Dr. Chintha Dissanayake
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The
guests of honour Deshamanya Dr. Lalith Kotelawela
and CIMA president Mr.Claude Perera at the conference
opening on Saturday the 13th of November, with
(from left) Dr Travis Perera, Dr. Binna Kandola,
Dr. Jill Flint-Taylor, Dr Chintha Dissanayake,
Mr Nihal Rangala and Mr. Migel Jayasinghe, at
the Galadari hotel, Colombo, Sri Lanka. |
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In November 2004, I had
the distinguished privilege and pleasure of meeting
many outstanding delegates, speakers and guests at the
first international conference on Psychology @ Work
to be held in Sri Lanka.
The conference, an initiative of Oxford
Psychometrics UK, was in association with CIMA
Sri Lanka and was supported by the Division of Occupational
Psychology (DOP), the British Psychological Society
UK and EWAOP. It was aimed at increasing the awareness
of Sri Lankan businesses on the Scientific & highly
practical merits of Occupational Psychology in the workplace.
UK experts in Occupational psychology, Dr. Binna Kandola
& Dr Jill Flint Taylor, joined Dr Edma Naddaf of
Emirates & myself and Sri Lankan specialists and
practioners Dr Travis Perera, Mr. Sunil Dissanayake
and Ms. Shanaaz Preena, to create a stimulating two
day event. The day was opened and sessions chaired by
distinguished individuals as Mr Kingsley Bernard, President
of NCE, Mr Nihal Rangala of the NCE, Mr. Jayanta Jayaratna
of Commercial Bank, Prof Kamalgoda of the State Pharmaceutical
Corporation and UK’s first Sri Lankan Occupational
Psychologist Mr Migel Jayasinghe.
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The
post conference feed-back received from the
delegates indicated that 72% of the respondents
were only a little or not at all familiar with
the subject of Occupational Psychology prior
to attending conference.
Following the two day conference, 82% of the
respondents rated the contents of the conference
as being informative and reported being more
aware of the contributions of the specialized
area of Occupational Psychology to the workplace.
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Some
delegates, 9. 8% of the feed-back received,
found the conference only slightly informative,
with their understanding of Occupational Psychology
remaining unclear, and rated the conference
as being in overall mostly unsatisfactory. These
delegates revealed that they had expected much
more on the theory of Psychology and the working
of the mind. |
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Occupational Psychology is the practical application
of psychological theory in the workplace. And as it
became evident during the conference, many of the instruments/techniques
used in people management, such as Competencies, 360
degree feedback, assessment / development centres, psychometric
testing, structured interview technique, job-analysis,
leadership models etc., have all been developed and
rigorously researched and tested by psychologists and
are built upon the foundations of psychological theory.
Due to strict time constraints, we did not cover the
background theory under-pinning each of these important
areas during the conference, and instead focussed more
on how each area fits within the context of modern performance
management in the workplace.
The lectures stirred a deep interest and triggered energetic
participation amongst the delegates during the conference
and a large number of individuals have requested additional
information on areas of special interest to them. We
will endeavour to deal with all these requests during
the course of the next month.
Thanks to the number of registrants at the conference
and the very kind help of the DOP, we were able to offer
full student & academic sponsorships for attendance
to the conference to the Universities of Colombo, Kelaniya
and Jaffna. The feed-back received from these sponsored
delegates has been highly positive.
We will also pursue the suggestion of one young delegate
and initiate a Young Female Entrepreneur of the Year
award for 2005, an initiative to recognise the significant
Value and Contribution of Women to the Sri Lankan economy
& the workplace.
Thanks to you and all the other kind supporters, who
over the last year gave their help so willingly, made
this First International Conference on Psychology @
Work in Sri Lanka, a great success.
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| A very special thanks
to all our Sponsors & Supporters |
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Our
sincere thanks and gratitude goes to
Mr. Kingsley Bernard and his team at Solution KITS Management
Consultancy's for their hard-work before, during and
after the conference.
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“As an Undergraduate
it was a great opportunity for me to participate in
the Psychology at Work seminar where I learnt lots of
new developments in the field of Human Resource management.”
Undergraduate student, Colombo University.
“I for one found it very invigorating
and beneficial and many are the lessons that I have
learnt, that would prove to be useful and applicable
in my work place”
Senior HR Manager
“Thank you all for organizing such a
value adding program. I have learnt much and am working
on implementing issues discussed at the forum. It was
not only a great learning experience but also a fantastic
opportunity to meet people of great importance in the
field and share our ideas” HR Management
Trainee |
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