Situation Analysis of Nation Building Efforts in Sri Lanka: From Early Years of Independence to Contemporary Days

Despite the smooth transition of power from the British colonists to the Sri Lankan Sinhalese in 1949, Sri Lanka inherited considerable challenges. After the culmination of the civil war, from 1983 to 2009, Sri Lanka confronted numerous obstacles in the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the country. Drawing from Birch’s model of national integration, this study attempts to examine the diverse political, economic, and social challenges facing Sri Lanka. The review shows that Sri Lanka needs critical nation building in the following areas: (i) Infrastructural development; (ii) Resettlements and rehabilitation of displaced populations; (iii) Ethnic and religious integration; (iv) Equality in political representation; (v) Educational and employment policies; (vi) Gender equality policies; and (vii) Mental health interventions for children and women. The role of international bodies, like the United Nations Human Rights Council, and neighboring countries is key to creating pressure for national integration and growth. There is fear that if national unity is not at the forefront of state and international policy for Sri Lanka, conflict and instability may arise again.

Exploring the Organizational Factors That Influence Creativity: A Study on Advertising Agencies of Pakistan

The overriding purpose of this study was to highlight the factors from both the theory and empirical research for understanding the factors which influence creativity in advertising agencies of Pakistan. ?KEYS to Creativity and Innovation? assessment tool was used to identify factors affecting creativity. A survey of 30 advertising professionals from account management, creative and design departments of different advertising agencies of Islamabad were interviewed using a semi structured interview guide to understand the organizational factors influencing creativity in advertising agencies of Pakistan. The main insights from the study were that the top management in advertising agencies encouraged their employees to be creative by offering financial rewards and verbal encouragement. However, the clients they were working for, generally did not accept creative ideas to market their brand because of unwillingness to take risks and limitations in budgets. There were also limited researches to understand the market which made it difficult to assess whether the creative advertising would be successful. The findings from the research can help the branding agencies and brands to work together for creating an environment that fosters creativity in their organizations which can then be reflected in the advertisements. The research was first of its kind to understand factors affecting creativity in ad agencies of Pakistan using a theoretical and empirical base. It presented a research model of factors affecting creativity in ad agencies of Pakistan after data analyses. The direction for future is to test the proposed model of the study on a larger scale by targeting multiple advertising agencies in Pakistan of different sizes and from different cities of Pakistan.