Application of Organizational Culture and Leadership Concepts to the "Prof. Jinadasa Perera Hostel" of University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka.

Prof. Jinadasa Perera Hostel

The University of Sri Jayewardenepura has only thirty hostels to offer accommodation for the selected group of students who come from far distance areas as fulltime students. Some of these hostels are located within the university premises while others are located close-by to the university. Considering the total capacity of these hostels, all of the hostels can provide accommodation up to 37% of the student population in University of Sri Jayewardenepura. All these hostels are considered as social organizations and students who are privileged with hostel accommodation can obtain its service for an administration fee of 750 rupees per year. All the other expenses such as water, electricity, maintenance etc. beard by the university behalf of the government of Sri Lanka.

Professor Jinadasa Perera hostel is a one of hostel which is situated near by the University and it is allocated for first year male students of faculty of Management Studies and Commerce who belongs to age group of 20-23 years old in general. This hostel established in a four stairs building with sixty two bed rooms, eight common rooms, eight washrooms for the students and one office room for the two matrons. The capacity of this particular hostel is limited to 180 students at once.

This is a one of the largest hostels belongs to University of Sri Jayewardenepura and it is located opposite to the University main gate, alone with the other hostels in the hostel complex. If we describe the physical surroundings of the professor Jinadasa Perera hostel as in Figure 1, in that hostel complex there are three other hostels including Hettiaarachchi hostel, Hema Ellawala hostel and Vimaladharma Hostel.

Hostels are administered simultaneously by two senior members of the academic staff and fulltime sub-wardens. In addition there are other part-time sub-wardens appointed from the academic staff to help administration further. Hostels are equipped with all the facilities for the staff to handle their daily duties. The students’ welfare unit acts as the coordinator of all the hostels. Currently Dr. Gamini Ranasinghe (Senior Lecturer Dept. of History & Archaeology) acts as the warden of the Prof. Jinadasa Perera Hostel and Mr. Samantha Priyadarshana works as the sub-warden of this hostel.

Even all these hostels are used by the students who belongs to one organization which is University of Sri Jayewardenepura, it is interesting to observe that these four hostels have very unique cultural characteristics while sharing considerable amount of common values and basic assumptions.

What is Culture?

Organizational culture is a set of shared values, the unwritten rules which are often taken for granted, that guide the employees towards acceptable and rewarding behavior. (Gupta, 2013)

Every organization is a unique culture. It has its own special history. Its own way of approaching problems and conducting activities. Its own mix of managerial activities and styles, its own establish patterns of “how we do things around here”. (Thompson and Strickland, 1996)

According to above definition we can identify some features and also can get a general idea about what is culture and cultural aspects. But those definitions do not cover the whole area of the organizational culture. It is difficult to construct a perfect definition to define what culture really is? But when understanding a culture of an organization it is important to consider the following areas.

Observable behavior and patterns

· Group norms, standards and values

· Formal philosophy

· Rules and regulations

· Organizational climate

· Embedded skills of the organization

· Shared knowledge

· Shared meanings of the group

· Metaphors and symbols

Above description is only an initiation to enter into the comprehensive analysis of the organizational Culture and leadership of the Prof. Jinadasa Perera Hostel.

What kind of culture it is?

It is a sub culture

According to Schein (1995), Subculture is the segments of culture which show different norms, values, beliefs and behavior of people due to difference geographical areas or departmental goal and job requirements (within organization). In other way it is a part of a culture.

In practical scenario, it is complex to identify the exact dominant culture and sub cultures at a glance. It takes time to identify the hidden characteristics and to differentiate these cultures, to build a strong connection among these dominant and sub cultures. As simplified in following figures, we can identify that, Prof. Jinadasa Perera hostel as a sub culture of University of Sri Jayewardenepura hostels’ culture because even as a university, University of Sri Jayewardenepura has a unique culture for itself.

As mentioned in above definition, the culture of the Prof. Jinadasa Perera hostel consist with different norms, values, beliefs and behaviors of its members. (we will discuss those in descriptive manners later)

It is a parallel sub culture

Parallel sub culture always aligns with dominant culture. It carries same characteristics of the dominant culture and much more characteristics which do not share with dominant culture. (Dominant culture - A set of values shared by a majority of the organizational members, E.g. Sri Lankan Universities’ culture)

Here the members (students) who reside in the Prof. Jinadasa Perera hostel are aligned with the Sri Lankan university’s culture. They execute the values, general norms, routines and attitudes of its dominant culture. they are not counter factors but there are some dissimilarities which differentiate the culture of from the dominant culture, but. Here we are not going to describe parallel values and norms to the dominant culture. This is only an identification that, the organization as a subculture.

In other way it is a dominant culture

If we keep aside the fact that Prof. Jinadasa Perera Hostel as a subculture of University of Sri Jayewardenepura’s culture. The culture of Prof. Jinadasa Perera hostel has shared some sort of values by a majority of the organizational members. But the segmentation is not over. We can see another subgroups within the hostel based on different criteria.

· Based on ethnicity – Sinhala boys, Tamils boys, Muslim boys

· Based on geographical area they live – Galle set eka, Pollonnaruwe set eka, Balangoda set eka, Ambilipitiye set eka … etc

· Based on the floor that reside in the hostel – Ground floor set eka, 1^st floor set eka, 2^nd floor set eka, Top floor set eka

· Based on habits – The boys who use all kind of alcohol and drugs (bebadu set eka/ganja set eka/bona set eka), the boys who do not use alcohol.

So we can see the Prof. Jinadasa Perera hostel culture as a dominant culture of several subcultures.

It is a strong culture

Culture of an organization is considered strong, where the majority of members hold the same beliefs and values as concern to the organization. Strong cultures exist when most employees across all sub units hold the dominant values. Determinants of the strength of an organizational culture (sharedness, intensity… etc.)

Here the all sub units that we identified above (ethnic based, geographical based, floor based, habits based) are holding some dominant values. So we can see a strong culture in Prof. Jinadasa Perera Hostel (some criticisms will be discussed later).

Social institutions and Culture of Prof. Jinadasa Perera Hostel

Before build up a connection between the organizational culture and social institutes which developed individuals, It is useful to understand the compound of the focused population. There are 174 registered 1^st year students in the Prof. Jinadasa Perera hostel according to administration reports. Apart from that currently there are around 50-60 students resident in the hostel, without being registered. From that, 45 students are belong to 2^nd year and 15 students are from 3^rd year. If we consider both registered and unregistered students there are around 220 students resident in Prof. Jinadasa Perera hostel.

All the students who residence in Prof. Jinadasa Perera Hostel, are coming from different family backgrounds, different geographical areas, different races, different religions, different schools and different societies. The culture of the hostel has shaped and influenced by different social institutions such as family, ethnicity, religion, socio economic class, education etc. In order to have a deeper understanding about the culture, knowledge on influencing social institutions is important.

So let’s identify some cultural institutions, their nature, their impacts and how they can be applied to the culture of the Prof. Jinadasa Perera hostel.

Family

The family values, number of family members, roles of the family members are different from each other. They try to bring their family values to the hostel. Example of “Aravinda” will simplify the misery behind this.

Aravinda is a second year student who stayed at Prof. Jinadasa Perera hostel and his mother has passed away when he was at age four. His father is not with him and he was adapted by his aunt (father’s elder sister). His aunt’s all children are well educated and Aravinda spent his childhood with those children and privileged enough to university of Sri Jayewardenepura. Hence he was adopted by his aunt, he had to do some house hold works also (aunt did not discriminate him from her own children as all members in the family should do small house hold works in order to survive in day-to-day life). His aunt has taught him, how to keep his belongings very clean and neat by himself.

Aravinda practice his aunt’s family values in the hostel. He always tried to make others obey to his commands, because that’s what his aunt did at the home. He blames his colleague to clean the room and keep the belongings clean and neat. Others do not implement these kind of practices because when they were at home, their mothers do everything for them. So some times Aravinda make conflicts with others because others do not follow his values. Meantime there are few people who follows Aravinda’s principals as a best solution for their problems.

Ethnicity and Religion

There are students from different races and religions. The majority is Sinhala students. Also there are Tamil students and Muslim students. According to hostel register for year 2016, ethnic statistics are as follow.

Race	Amount	Percentage
Sinhala	136	78%
Tamil	26	15%
Muslim	12	7%

These different ethnic groups has brought their cultural values to the hostel as well. We cannot see any Sinhala student who resided with Tamil or Muslim students in same room, any Tamil student who resided with Sinhala or Muslim students and any Muslim student who resided with Sinhala and Tamil students in same room. They have brought the values of the main culture as Sinhala, Tamil, Muslim people live separately in Macro-culture (ethnic rivalry). Another interesting fact is, in every year the Tamil students reside only in top floor as Tamil community live in the Northern part of Sri Lanka. We cannot see any Tamil student in ground, first or second floor. All Muslim students are resided in right side of first floor, as Muslims live in eastern part of Sri Lanka. The ground floor is full with Sinhala students to as macro-culture interpret the ground of Sri Lanka belongs to Sinhalese. That is how the ethnic cultural attitudes are embedded within the members of Prof. Jinadasa Perera hostel.

Floor	Sinhala	Tamil	Muslim
Ground Floor	100%	0%	0%
First Floor	71%	0%	29%
Second Floor	100%	0%	0%
Top Floor	42%	58%	0%

In study leave time Sinhala and Muslim students do their studies at night from 8.00pm to 1.00am. But Tamil students go to bed early at 9.00pm and wake up at 1.00am when Sinhala students go to sleep. They get up and start to worship goddess “Sarasvati” by chanting “shlock from Vedas” loudly, and keep the lights on, in the floor. Sinhala students frequently make conflicts with Tamil students by complaining that Tamil students are disturbing to their sleep. An outsider might think why these same age students cant corporate with each other and try to respect each other’s cultural values. But again it’s not something these students created intentionally, it comes from the conflicts which practiced for many years in macro-culture.

The Tamil and Muslim students are hesitate to follow some values and norms of the hostel, but as the Sinhala students are the majority, by informal norms they try to adopt minority Tamils and Muslims to the majority’s values and norms. Sometimes minority population in the hostel has to face physical harassments just like the workers did in the scenario of “Bank Wiring Room test by Elton Mayo (This will be descriptively discussed in later part as dark side behavior of the Organizational Culture).

Education

All the students are coming with same educational qualifications in academic side as all are A/L passed students with highest ranks in Sri Lanka in commerce stream. But we consider about their education about general society, English knowledge, knowledge of other areas such as films industry, sports, literature and art, the students are in different levels.

In year 2014, in Management Studies and Commerce, 1^st year students were allocated to their groups based on their A/L English subject results. The group A1 and group B1 were consisted the students who got A and B passes to the A/L examination. There were only 3 boys in group A1 and only 1 boy in group B1 resided in Prof. Jinadasa Perera hostel. Informally it was a pride for those boys. “Ammo eya A1”, “Ubata nam mokada? Uba A1 neh!”, “uba A1 kiyala porada?”…. Such words were common towards these boys by other residents of the hostel. They had acquired some sort of information power in the hostel. Also others respected them because they helped rest of the members to do their presentations, reports, letters, and assignments and conducted “kuppi[1]” within the study leave period. All most all of the residents showed some sort of politeness, decency and respect towards those students, but some behaviors were artificial and not coming from their hearts. As according to majority’s point of view, most of the students in group A1 were from Colombo area, considered as coming from rich families and educated from popular schools in Sri Lanka. So the hostel students in A1 group try to adopt the “Posh” behaviors as they experience in their educational groups and also the hostel values and norms where they spend most of the time. As the end result of cross- cultural experience, these students reflect a hybrid role in their day to day life trying to be accepted by both cultures them live-in.

Socio-Economic Class

Students who belongs to “Samurdhi-labhi” families and other low income families are eligible to apply for hostel facilities. But there are some students from middle class families as well, even though their parents do high income businesses. Since there is no way to prove the income, they claim a low income statement from the Grama Niladhari and acquire hostel facilities. In the hostel we cannot see clear cultural difference between middle class students and low income students. Because after coming to the university, low income students are also imitate the middle class or upper class appearance by dressing well with jewelries and try to pretend that they are posh. Some middle class students dress oddly (do not cut hair and mustache, steel chains around the neck and wrist, odd t-shirts and denim trousers) not because that is how they dress before they come to university but because it has become a trend and a fashion to dress like a vagabond. Therefor we cannot identify which class they represent by observing their physical appearance, without doing a search about their families and real income.

The Levels of Organizational Culture and Prof. Jinadasa Perera Hostel

Culture or Civilization taken in its broad ethnographic sense , is that complex whole that includes knowledge, belief, art, moral, law, customs and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society. (Tylor, 1871)

Before analyzing the levels of Prof. Jinadasa Perera hostel, it is important to understand what is defined by “level”. “It means the degree to which the cultural phenomenon is visible to the observer. These levels range from vary tangible overt manifestation that we can see and feel, to the deeply embedded, unconscious, basic assumptions that that we define as the essence of culture.” (Edgar.H.Schein, 2010)

The organizational culture exists at two distinct levels, visible and hidden. The visible aspect of the organization is reflected in artifacts, symbols and visible behavior of employees. The hidden aspect is related to underlying values and assumptions that employees make regarding the acceptable and unacceptable behaviors. (Gupta, 2013)

As showed in Figure 3 most of the organization culture is hidden and very few is visible to the bear eye. Artifacts are the surface level of culture and it include all phenomena which we can see, hear and feel when you encounter in to an unfamiliar culture.

Espoused values are the group aims to be achieve. (Deal, 1999) All group learnings reflects some individual’s own assumptions. Then it is transformed in to group belief & value. But it all derives from the basic assumptions that particular group shares. It is same with the Professor Jinadasa Perera hostel’s as well.

In order to analyze the cultural characteristics of the Professor Jinadasa Perera hostel we use the model drafted below.

Artifacts

These are visible components of culture, they are easy to formulate, have some physical shape, yet its perception varies from one individual to another (Gupta, 2013)

What we see, what we hear, what we feel the unique things in the organization, which differ from other organizations. Artifacts also known as “observable culture”. Stories, rituals and symbols. Organizations rich with stories, about the organization’s culture and operations. During the study, we identified few highlighting artifacts inherent to Professor Jinadasa Perera hostel

University Website

The university website is a main artifact that give the information about the hostels. Under the category of hostels of the web site, it is consisted some sort of pictures of the professor Jinadasa Perera hostel and about rules and regulations, the information of hostel administration (warden, sub wardens)… etc. it is the main tool of giving the image/ view about the hostel by the university administration.

Slogans on the walls of the hostel

Walls in the hostel do a great deal in reflecting the values that students believe in and follow. Also it indicate the uniqueness and dignity of the hostel boys.

Slogans reflected in Figure is an attempt these students made to show the younger generations who enter in to the hostel ,how much the students in hostel are dedicated and concerned about free education and social reconstruction. This is used as a tool of culture transformation and also try to show how perfect they are. All these slogans written on the walls are politicalized slogans and it shows the political view of students who resident in the hostel.

Pictures

Walls in hostel filled with many different slogans but there is a very common picture indicate in Figure 7 that hangs or pasted in most of the walls. The specialty of this picture is that it represent a politician of United Party of Cuban Socialist Revolution even though we also had magnificent leaders who really love our country. This is the way of showing their common political insights. It says that all the students in Prof. Jinadasa Perera hostel are socialists or in other terms “they must be socialists”. The socialism values of equality, fraternity, fairness are shown and reflected by this artifact.

Symbols

Figu

We observed these eye catching symbols showed in Figure.8, Figure.9, Figure.10 on the wall of the top floor of the Prof. Jinadasa Perera hostel. The right side of the top floor has been named as “North Korea” and left side has been named as “South Korea”. At a glance we feel this as a humor. But later we identified that there are some hidden values, shaping the attitudes of the students who resident in those sides of the hostel. The reason behind these names are that South Korea and North Korea are rival nations for a long time and also both countries are at the edge to begin a war. Naturally youth is known for their fussiness. They like to fight with a reason or without a reason. These symboles reflects the student’s attitudes and what they prefer as humans.

Language

The language they are using is similar to the language that is used in University subculture. They use their cards[2] to address to each other, instead of their real names. All the students in Prof. Jinadasa Perera hostel have a unique card for each other, apart from few Tamil and Muslim boys. The “card” is not mere an artifact, there are few objectives of using a card because the card is given mainly considering the appearance, behavior, special skills and geographical area they are coming from.

One of the objective is, giving a unique identity help full for them in addressing people in a clearer manner, especially when they have common names such as, Isuru, Lahiru, Kasun, Sajith. “Mudali, Rambo, Batta” are few examples for the cards give base on their appearance. Cards such as “Madiriya, Hangura, Neluwa” represent where the students are coming from and “Disco”is a card given base on the student’s special skills.

The other objective is the security of real identity. Some students are engaging with illegal political and other activities within the university. So using a card is a safer way as underworld thugs do.

Also, they use the common words that are used in the university subculture, such as “gaje gahanawa, krama danawa, thela & bora thela, kokka…etc.”

The students who are in the JP hostel are mostly using large number smuts in their normal conversations even though it’s not situational to the conversation. It has become generalized and a part of their culture that nobody is going to question about it instead of following that practice due to the impact of group cohesiveness and informal norms. Sometimes the reasons for such behavior is stress, depression, problems and also the seldom freedom they got after separating from their parents.

Rules and regulations

The following rules and regulations are abstracted by the Students Hand Book, 2015 of University of Sri Jayewardenepura

Common conditions and rules and regulations for residential students

1. Resident students should occupy the rooms assigned to them and should not change rooms without the permission of the sub-wardens.

Special permit issued to occupy the relevant room of the hostels should be kept safely and produced whenever necessary.
Prior to taking over the room, each student is expected to check the goods in the room and its condition and sign the register. All students occupying the rooms will be jointly and individually responsible for the contents of rooms.
Any goods handed over should not be removed from the hostel. Any other goods, though permitted within university premises, should not be admitted to rooms.
Furniture, equipment, lamps, wires, walls, doors and windows in the rooms should not be damaged or defaced. Any such damages will be charged for. (cost + fine of 25% of cost)
In case of leaving the hostel, due to vacations, sudden closure or any other reason, keys of the rooms and other goods are to be personally handed over to the sub-wardens. All personal belongings should be removed and cupboards should be left unlocked.
Fixed equipment at common areas must be carefully used.
Residents are required to use a bed sheet or a mat to cover the mattress provided.
It is advised that students maintain silence and discipline within hostel premises and be attentive not to make any disturbance to others.
All resident students must be appropriately dressed whenever they are in common areas of the hostel or visiting the offices.
Identity cards issued by the University, are to be kept in possession and be produced whenever necessary. (Jayewardenepura, 2015)

As we observed in the study, the students of the Prof. Jinadasa Perera hostel do not follow any rule or regulation that is enacted by the hostel administration. They respect and practice their own values and informal group norms rather than the rules and regulations implemented by administration. These rules and regulations are also mentioned in the university web site as well for outsiders to refer and it make them think that hostel life is well disciplined and comfortable. As we observed in the study, the only rules and regulations implemented in Prof. Jinadasa Perera is the norms created by the students in the sub-culture.

Rituals

Rituals are processes or set of actions which are repeated in specific circumstances and with specific meaning. Below we have mentioned some main rituals that are followed by the students of the Prof. Jinadasa Perera hostel.

01. Excretion ritual – when they are going to the toilet to defecation, they are following a standardized procedure.

02. The ritual of bathing - Behind this ritual there is an espoused value shared among students.

The architecture

There are 16 of rooms in a floor and they are established in the two sides of the corridor. This is similar to the architecture of the jail. The cells are established in a jail is in similar manner to the Jinadasa Perera Hostel. The main purpose is the easiness to observe, because in a hostel there are students who are under the control of warden, sub warden and matrons. The architecture is designed according to that view, so this layout is easy to check the rooms and control the students. Also there are 50 students in a floor, when the rooms are established in such manner it is easy to access and leave from the rooms and also it is easy to keep belongings safely, when they wanted to go out they can lock the door before they leave.

Also we can see that the windows are kept only 5ft height from the floor. Because this is a boys’ hostel, there are some houses around the hostel, so they should not see what boys are doing and how they are behaving (the boys are not using any towel or related stuff when they are changing cloths).

Stories/ Myths

As same as any organization, Prof. Jinadasa Perera hostel also have its own stories and myths to shape its culture. Sometimes those stories are used to make some restrictions among students and sometimes to influence them in to a particular behavior. There is a well-known myth among the students of the Jinadasa Perera Hostel and it is about a “walking lady ghost” .The story is as follows.

Before only 25 years ago the Prof. Jinadasa Perera hostel was a female student’s hostel. At that time a one girl who lived in room number 62, suicide by hanging. After that her soul had started to peregrinate inside the hostel and make some troubles to other girls who resident in the hostel. Later the hostel administration had decided to remove all the girls from that hostel complex and have given this hostel to the boys. The boys believe that on some lonely days in the hostel, especially during the vacation time when there are only few students stay in the hostel, still the lady ghost is wandering along the corridors .There are few students who claim that they have met her.

We do not have evidence to prove the truthfulness of this story but knowing this story place a major role in the hostel culture. As someone who haven’t experienced such situation, we will hand over this mystery as a mythology. Most probably it might be a myth that boys built, but that story transform by year to year for the new generation as a gossips.

Poems

The Prof. Jinadasa Perera hostel students use the same poems which use in the University subculture. There are only 25 poems in the university subculture and there are some special poems that describe how horrible the hostel life is.

“Asarana wela ma mehi laga sitina wita

Rupiyal deke bath aduwen yapena wita

Paththara bima ela ra gatha karana wita

Katath wada ma gana duka sithuni mata….”

There are some poems which are highly unique to the Prof. Jinadasa Perera hostel, but there is a norm that those poems are highly prohibited to publish. To learn those poems students should pay a tiresome sacrifice. The procedure of learning these poems are very painful. It is strictly prohibited to reveal that painful procedure and the poems learnt even to the room members who did not take part with that painful learning procedure. It is an organizational secret embedded in Prof. Jinadasa Perera hostel.

Do the artifacts always reflect the real value system of the organization?

Artifacts do not always reflect the real value system that members follow. The university website is the best example for that. Sometimes the artifacts of the organization are trying to pretend something actually not there in the organization. It is an empty attempt to show the world some values n basic assumptions which are really not shared within the organization. More like a chimera that outsides wish to see.

This picture is taken from the website of the University of Sri Jayewardenepura under the category of hostels. This is a picture of a room of Jinadasa Perera Hostel. By this picture the university administration try to interpret how the university hostels are to the outsiders who haven’t been there. There are five boys in the picture and they are well dressed and clean.We all can agree that it is a clean room with neat beds study and desks. Boys are in a happy and relax mood. Two boys are engaging with academic activities.

By the university website, it is perceiving to the external parties that hostel facilities are comfortable and students live-in are doing their education in a happy and relaxing manner. They give some kind of attraction to the hostels by pretending that the Jinadasa Perera Hostel and other hostels as a very habitual and nice place to be resident.

The situation is same when it comes to rules and regulations as well. Even though there are hand full of rules published by hostel administration, it doesn’t seem that students even care.

The students are not in the particular rooms that they got registered at first place. Normally they change their rooms. The administration grant permeation only for the registered first year students to use the facility. But there are large number of unregistered first year, second year and third year students inside the hostel as mentioned in earlier chapters.

The students have damaged the properties of the hostel, the glasses of the windows, walls, mirrors of the washrooms, buckets, doors of the cupboards, plastic chairs and other public facilities provided by the hostel. Students even do not use bed sheets to cover the mattresses. They not appropriately dress when they are going to the balcony (sometimes with towel, underwear or without any cloth). The hostel is always full of sound. Students are shouting and make troubles even to the neighbors. But no-one get executed for those violations of rules. The hostel administration has failed to take any remedy as they have mentioned in the handbook. The informal norms of the students are more powerful than those rules. That regulation system has become just a statement and a mask for the university website and handbook to be more attractive.

The above pictures reflect the reality of the Prof. Jinadasa Perera hostel. That is the actual behavior and situation of the hostel rooms. Artifacts are trying to pretend something that the others like. Mostly it does not reflect the actual values, behavior and other cultural elements of the culture. The picture of the university website is some kind of seduction. It is not justifiable to say that the artifacts are representing the real value system and basic assumptions of the organization.

Now let’s take the Artifact of “Slogans on the walls”. There we discussed that from those slogans are reflecting, how students in the hostel are dedicated and concerned about free education and social reconstruction. Also try to show how perfect they are.

But when we deeply analyze are these slogans reflect the real values of the students of Jinadasa Perera hostel. Are they noble people? Actually are they dedicated to protect the free education and social reconstruction?

So why do they need this kind of instructions in the wash rooms? If they are noble, advisable, and exemplary and dedicated to social reconstruction firstly they should be reconstructed. They should improve their own values. If they are noble as they mention in those slogans, why is it needed such kind of instructions. They try to show an advancement of them as the future leaders and future constructors of the society and also the role models. But still they have to develop lots of behavioral values. So that artifact is also not showing the real value system and behavior of the students of Prof. Jinadasa Perera hostel.

When we refer to the artifact of “pictures”, we mentioned the pictures of Che-Guerra reflect the socialism political view of the Prof. Jinadasa Perera hostel students.

It is clear that the artifacts are blind and they do not represent the reality all the time. They try to show a pretended aesthetic nature to the organization by the artifacts. We can say that the artifacts act as the mask that cover the real values and practices of the organization.

Shared Values and Norms

Earlier we discussed that there is a relationship among the artifacts, shared values and basic assumptions. The artifacts are shaped by the shared values and also shared values are shaped by the artifacts. Each and every artifact represent the values of the organization but they are hidden (hidden side of the artifact). We cannot see those hidden values at glance. All above artifacts which we mentioned above are represents some sort of values in the value system of the Jinadasa Perera boys hostel. On the other hand those values are related with the basic assumptions of the organization.

01. Brotherhood (fraternity)/ equality and fairness – we discussed earlier by the slogans and pictures they are trying to show a socialism view. From that socialism view they try to pretend the values such fraternity, equality and fairness. If really speaking although there are not those qualities as they are expecting by the artifacts, there is some sort of qualities among the hostel boys. They have a good bond among each other when we compared to the boys who are coming to the university from houses and bodings.

When there is a funeral of a colleague or a family member, most of the time it is hostel boys who take priority in doing the necessaries at the funeral. When someone get hospitalized other boys do not isolate him in the hospital. They stay in the hospital with their friend on shift basis. They help each other when there is a problem or any kind of disaster. As they proudly state, in year 2013, the university administration suspended lots of students of the Prof. Jinadasa Perera hostel. But most of other students fought with suspended students to abolish their suspense. In year 2014 they won their struggle as a group of brothers.

02. Care for each other – Normally they care about each other. By the word of “room fit eka, batch fit eka” they reflect how much they care for each other. Under topic rituals we identified how they care about others’ safety and hygiene. If we take the standard procedure of bathing in Prof. Jinadasa Perera hostel, there is a huge value behind it. The reason for them to bath in naked body, even without closing doors in the bathroom is a common practice among the students in Prof. Jinadasa Perera hostel, as they call it as “gaje gaseema[3]”. When they bath openly in nude, others can see if there any rashes or fungus infections that their colleague didn’t notice and then others can prevent from those infections by not sharing that particular person’s cloths.

03. Respect other cultural values – We earlier said that Prof. Jinadasa Perera hostel is a social organization that includes the students from all three races (Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim). In the Prof. Jinadasa Perera hostel there is least amount of conflicts among the ethnic groups. In year 2016 there were no any single conflict among the ethnic groups. In referring the norm of bathing mentioned earlier, the Muslim students do not practice that norm due to one of their cultural norms.. The Sinhala and Tamil students are aware about that cultural norm of Muslims and they never question or make conflicts regarding violation of the bathing norm.

04. Sharing – The Prof. Jinadasa Perera hostel students value the sharing. The cocept “Gaje gaseema” is not limited for the cloths but for soap, books, beds, cups, plates, rooms… etc. It is a normal practice within the hostels. This below mentioned poem is a good example to show the relationship between artifacts and values they share.

“Kalisama giya Mathara – Belt eka Anurapure

Kamisaya giya Kaluthara – Sapaththu Rathnapure

Oralosuwa Nuwara – Baagaya Ampare

Mewa ekata kawada hamuweda Japure…”

When the students return from home after vacation, they bring come food items such as lunch packets or sweets, they inform that to others by making a noise as a crow. “kaaak…. Kaaak…. Kaak” is the common phrase that is used by them to inform that they have received some type of food because the crow is the only bird who shares the food with others. That value has abstracted by the students to their hostel culture.

05. Caring about other’s feelings – Students in Prof. Jinadasa Perera hostel make a great deal in respecting others feelings as they mention. In the hostel it is prohibited to sing or listen to the songs about “mother” in public. If want, they can listen to such songs using their ear phones because there are some students who have lost their mothers and some students haven’t seen their mothers since childhood. Biologically we are more connected to our mother and we are more sensitive with the word mother. To avoid recalling bad memories of the colleagues, such norms are used.

Does the value system of Prof. Jinadasa Perera hostel reflect real values of the Prof. Jinadasa Perera Hostel?

Actually are they possess the values such brotherhood, equality, sharing, caring others and other nations… etc. perfectly? No, it is not.

Even though the students in Prof. Jinadasa Perera hostel accept these norms and values, when it comes to practice there are lots of issues regarding those values and norms. But nobody is going to question it. If someone question it, the group coerciveness will suppress that person. The coercive group members will keep away the person who question by informal strategies such humors, aggressive words or even by physical harassments.

Earlier we mentioned “caring about others feelings” as a norm of students in Prof. Jinadasa Perera hostel. That they don’t play songs related to “ mother” but when the senior students transform the university subculture to the freshers, they are teaching some poems regarding mother as mentioned below.

“Udasanata supipunu sudu neluma wani

Awarata danena sepalika suwada wani

Mada sulagata leladena bo pathak wani

Amma nodaka ma neth ada wela wani… ”

. Teaching poems about mother is a part of the university sub culture but listening to songs about mother at the hostel is prohibited by the parallel hostel culture. It is a controversial fact. Mean time when we observe the way they treat to fresher batch, it is hard to realize weather these students really care about others feelings.

Under the value of “brotherhood” we discussed about a suspend case occurred in year 2013, we mentioned that the other students in the hostel fought with the suspended students against the decision of university administration. But the reality is that the “brotherhood” was not strong enough to remove the damage happened to suspended students. As a result still some students are writing their first year repeated subjects. Now they fight alone for their future, struggling alone to complete their degree however while rest of the brotherhood working in factories and bother about themselves, struggling for first class and second upper degrees. At that point, the brotherhood has been vanished to the thin air and it creates a mystery whether the brotherhood is a real value anymore.

Also under the brotherhood we discussed how the students in Prof. Jinadasa Perera hostel share the sadness during the funeral time of their friend’s families. But it is another mask. In reality when they travel to that funeral house by a hired bus, they enjoy the journey very well. They sing songs, dance and joke with each other while they are traveling to the funeral house. When they reach near to the funeral house, they stop all those activities and pretend to be sad. There for we can identify that “sharing sadness” is a value just stand for its name.

As the third value we identified in Prof. Jinadasa Perera hostel, we mentioned “caring and respecting for other cultural values”. But during the observations we identified that these students who belong to other races do not resident together in same rooms. If they practice such value, it is a real mystery that they can’t stand in same room or eat together or enjoy together. Some students in the hostel insult other’s races openly. Some Sinhala students are using the words such as “Para demalu, Kona kapapu eun” to insult their colleagues.

Basic Underlying Assumptions

Both the artifacts and the values give rise to assumptions the employees (organizational members) make about the organization's culture. Finally, it’s the assumptions that govern how an employee determines the right behavior and feels about his job and career, how the culture actually operates within the organizational system. (Gupta, 2013)

McGregor: if people are treated consistently in terms of certain basic assumptions, they come eventually to behave according to those assumptions in order to make their world stable and predictable. (Edgar.H.Schein, 2010)

Basic assumptions are relatively stable and no one is going to question them. The values have been created base on these basic assumptions and other way around, the values give a hints to create basic assumptions as well. It is kind of cognitive stability we can see. Same situation can be identified in assumptions of Prof. Jinadasa Perera hostel.

· Relationship to environment/ society – Students assumption regarding the society is that the society should be reconstructed in order to change the political view of the people and their attitudes. Prof. Jinadasa Perera hostel act as a main tower of Student’s political career in University of Sri Jayewardenepura. The regular meetings of the Students union take place under the hostel Bo-tree, which is located in front of Prof. Jinadasa Perera hostel. Majority of Prof. Jinadasa Perera hostel students are participating these meetings. There is an assumption among students that, the student’s career is “intervening to the controversial problems of the country without conditions”. Therefore they have taken in to accounts that, university students have a responsibility regarding the social problems. As a parallel subculture to the university subculture, Prof. Jinadasa Perera hostel students are embodied with the same assumption as a result of the activities of union leaders. In the Prof. Jinadasa Perera hostel that embodying process may take place in formal and also in informal ways.

· Nature of human nature – Students in Prof. Jinadasa Perera hostel assume the humans as a social creatures. Here the human is the boys who live in the hostel and people in the society, has feelings, problems and desires. That is what we discussed as the value of “caring about others’ feelings”.

· Nature of human relationships – Students in Prof. Jinadasa Perera hostel consider that there is a collectivist culture. (will be discussed later) They assume that the human relationships are the strongest assets they have. They consider that the student’s power is very strong and it is student’s power that led them to win every struggle of the history, as according to their perception.

Can we view the culture of Professor Jinadasa Perera hostel as a unique identity to the Organization?

No, it is impossible to view the culture of Professor Jinadasa Perera hostel as a unique identity to the Organization. In real words, it is an imitated identity that they pretend as organization follow fashions and facts. Students make their artifacts believing that they can get the attention of the society. But in reality, it is a fake identity.

Pickets, meetings are some activities which drive the attention of the society. Also, it is not unique, that is what exactly other political organizations also implementing in order to win their needs and requirements.

The value such as brotherhood, harmony, equality are the beautiful words that the outer society values and by using those words, they try to pretend that the Prof. |Jinadasa Perera hostel is unique from all the other organizations.

Dimensions of organizational Culture and Prof. Jinadasa Perera Hostel

Hofstede’s (1980), used the gathered data from IBM employees more than 50 countries and classified organizational culture in to four dimensions.

Power distance – The degree in which the members of the organization have distinct relationship, formal and informal (Shahzad, Luqman , Khan, & Shabbir , 2012)

According to the formal hierarchy of the organization there is a mere power distance in the organization. The University administration has been assigned some authority to the Warden, Sub wardens, and the matrons to control the students. But in the real context, they use their least amount of power regarding the students. The students have built a power and they never think that the Warden and sub wardens have some sort of power to control them and, they think that the students are more powerful and that is the reality as well. According to their organizational norms and their cultural values, each and every person in the hostel should have equal duties, responsibilities, powers and privileges. Therefor in the real context, it is a low power distanced organization. (Will be discussed more detailed manner in the leadership part of the report)

Individualism vs Collectivism – The degree in which people may create difference between interest of organization and self-interest (Shahzad, Luqman , Khan, & Shabbir , 2012)

According to the cultural values and norms of the Prof. Jinadasa Perera hostel it is a collectivism culture. Students do various activities collectively. Their union leaders and the leaders who were arisen among the students informally, assign the works to the members to perform as a group. Especially when organizing a batch trip, cultural show, Social party, gate collections etc. They work collectively and mostly they practice the collective rewards/ punishment system as well .

Uncertainty Avoidance – The level in which the people are willing to mitigate the uncertainty and tolerant of ambiguity (Shahzad, Luqman , Khan, & Shabbir , 2012)

According to the value system of the students of prof. Jinadasa Perera hostel, it is an uncertainty avoiding culture. Those students are risk avoiders. They fear to take risk as a group or as an individual. Whenever any reform take place or new policy introduced by the university administration, they struggle with it even though there is no direct impact on them. For an example we can take CCTV project in FMSC got cancelled because the students restrained. As a group, they are restraining to change.

Masculinity vs Feminity – Masculinity is the level in which define the success as ambition, challenge and the insolence, rather than caring and promotions (Shahzad, Luqman , Khan, & Shabbir , 2012)

The culture of the Prof. Jinadasa Perera hostel is a masculine culture. The students who live in the hostel are assertive and dominant. They are compititive, goal oriented and pay less attention on quality of life. In most problems raised within the hostel, they solve their problems by using their mouth, hands and legs rather than their hearts.

Long term orientation vs Short term orientation – this refers to, as a group do they have long term plans, visionary leaders and persistence to achieve goals.

According to our observations the culture of Prof. Jinadasa Perera hostel has a short term oriented culture. They have no proper future plans on how to change the issues of their culture and how to transform that with the changing environment. They use the traditional value system and traditional ways in transforming their culture. They don’t have a proper future vision. Some values and norms are not compatible with modern trends, especially with the new technology and external treats such as establishment of Private Universities in Sri Lanka and NSBM incident. However, because of not having a proper vision, these students will loss lots of privileges after their graduation. Most of the students in the Prof. Jinadasa Perera hostel has failed to balance their academic and other activities. They involve in part time jobs, neglecting the lectures and engage with the union activities and consider their degree as a second option. In long term, it is a higher damage to their academic qualifications.

How they face Internal Integration and External Adaptation questions of their culture?

External Adaptation

All organizations & groups face two archetypical problems. They are survival in and adoption to external environment, and integration of internal process to ensure the capacity to continue to survive and adopt.

As we all know culture formation and group growth is like two sides of same coin. But most importantly what we should recall is, it's the basic assumptions that drive the bunch of people in to an actual group.

These shared assumptions solve the problem of organization's external adoption.

organization must develop a shared concept of its long-time survival matter. And this "reason to be" should all kind of stakeholders. In JP hostel, their reason to be mention as its mission which is "Protecting free education and the university culture and transform it to next generation (there is not any stated mission, but the idea it is)".

The stakeholders are the members of the JP hostel, Students’ Union of USJP, students of other hostels... etc. As you can see all of the stakeholders together make the environment for organization to succeed.

But it's not all, JP hostel need shared assumptions relating to goals derived from their mission. In that case, we can see protecting free education and protecting culture as the goals of the JP hostel as an organization.

in order to achieve their goals, the JP hostel has made their own hierarchy, system of work and process as mentioned in the university website. But with the sub-culture the students have, there is another set of hierarchy, systems and processed that we later discuss in the study.

Assumption about measuring results is critical in JP hostel because the reported details are not the real scenario of the organization. For Admission, it would be how well the students turn out from the hostel as a graduate, but with students it's always how cheap they can resident in the hostel and degree of radical political achievements they gained while they stay in the hostel.

Once we know how to judge performance of the organization, they can find remedial actions if things do not go as expected. The final area of external adoption is based on how to make the required changes. When JP hostel face a requirement of change how things going on, the administration always introduce new policies or rules but most of the time, it conflicts with the shared assumptions among the students. It might be the reason that JP hostel has never been upgraded since it's stared more than 25 years ago. Students basic assumptions are always base on their individual wellbeing other than on common betterment of the organization.

Internal Integration

An organization or a group Cannot archive its survival if it cannot manage its internal relationships. Mainly to function as a group, the individuals who came together must establish a system of communication and a language that permits setting goals and interpreting and managing what's going on.

JP hostel the administration and students often get in to conflicts due to the fact that they do not share the common language. In here the language doesn't mean the words we discussed in artifacts. it's about knowing all members semantic space, to determine what they meant by "quality accommodation" or "wellbeing of the residents".

Defining group boundaries also a part of internal integration, as it defines who is in the group and who is not. As the student leaders in JP hostel make criterias, tested them and group consensus arise around the criteria that survive the test. The same applies in JP hostel when a new batch is registered to the hostel. The ones who go through the painful and highly confidential culture transformation are the people are considered as in the group.

Distribution of power, authority and status is a part of internal integration and in JP hostel the power and authority is always allocated to the senior members and status is with the people who are involved in political activities.

Every organization should decide how to deal with authority problems and how to establish peer-relationship. In JP hostel, also there are rules to conduct relationships among the residents such as “compulsory attending to the night meetings”. The shared assumptions on rewards and punishment systems of the JP hostel is created by the seniors who residence in there and the Administration also has made by a system but hardly implement with in the hostel due to the power consistent with students.

Managing the unmanageable and explaining the unexplainable is the real deal in an organization. In JP hostel, when there is such a situation, will the residents get to gather and get into a solution. If it relates to administration of the hostel, generally it ends up with a conflict between administration and residents. For an example in 2014 February it was happen a conflict between administration and students, when administration decided to check the hostel identity cards of the students when entering the hostel complex. The students were risen up (as a restriction of students’ freedom) and could abolish that decision of the administration.

Culture of the Prof. Jinadasa Perera Hostel and Dark side behavior

Dark side practices of the professor Jinadasa Perera hostel sometimes end up making a bad impact to the whole university. We can interpret dark-side practices as the situations where,

· People hurt other people (in order to achieve something, people do this. Can be a physical, verbal or mental hurting)

· Injustices are perpetuated and magnified and,

· The pursuits of wealth, power and revenge.

Some organizational people are willing to harm others in order to fulfill their physical, psychological or emotional deficiencies and also, these dark side practices can be happened in verbally, physically or sexually. Dark side behaviors relevant to the culture of Prof. Jinadasa Perera Hostel also the same as any organization.

Organizational Humor – This is largely spread within the hostel. Mostly they use humors in order to fulfill their psychological deficiencies because most of students resident in the hostel are victims of stress. They are separated from the homes and they have not enough facilities in the hostel and also hostel students are suffering from the economics and family problems rather than the other students in the university. However, their humors may be joyful for the doers, but it can be more painful for others. As an example, “pola deema” is one of the famous humors in hostels. When a student is in sleep, several students get to together and throw a bucket of water towards the sleeper and escape. Actually, it may be joyful, but in other hand most of students are keeping their notes, mobile phones, laptops near the sleeping area. In such situation, those valuables can get wet and damage. It can be painful for that particular student if he suffered from wheeze or any other related sickness. Some humors can be negatively influenced to the personality of the students. But the doers do not care about it and do such for mere entertainment.

Bulling, Harassments and Discriminations – “The bulling and harassments” are another side of the dark side practices, practiced by the students of Professor Jinadasa Perera hostel. Some people interpret it as dark and some people interpret it as not dark. It is controversial and still exists within the Professor Jinadasa Perera hostel as an internal “ragging”. The new students get ragged by the senior students. According to norms it has been accepted but in law, it is as a crime.. Physical ragging and verbal ragging are done only by the senior students to the juniors. Through informal discussions we revealed that some students has faced sexual harassment as well. This kind of bulling and harassments cannot be seen among the same year students. But the dark side practice of discrimination can be seen among each level of students.

Mostly the Tamil and Muslim students are subject to discrimination in the hostel. Usually they do not adapt the general culture of the Professor Jinadasa Perera hostel. The culture transformation is done by Sinhala language and they cannot acquire because of the language difficulties. Most of Tamil and Muslim students do not have a “card “even. Due to the influence of informal norms of the hostel students, they should participate the “culture transferring meetings” that is conducted in Sinhala medium and most of values and norms are bias to the Sinhalese culture. Also, there are some students with racism mindset. Last year set of students had been tore and destroyed the Muslims religious book of Al-Quran which belongs to a Muslim student, but still could not identify the executer of such behavior.

Revenge, Rivalry and Fights – Due to their age, with the masculine nature and hormone affects naturally they are bias to the fighting mood and try to solve their problems through fights. Also, they are mostly involved with revenging. The most recent incident is the fight took place among hostel students in year 2015. It was among two parties of students who represented Professor Jinadasa Perera hostel, Hettiaarachchi hostel and Hema Ellawala hostel. Several students got injured and the university properties were damaged. The whole university faced the consequences as the university was closed for a week and all the third-year students had to face for a tiresome examination.

Drunkenness – Several students in the Professor Jinadasa Perera hostel use alchohol and drugs. Although it has prohibited from the hostel rules and regulations by the hostel administration, since it is not inspected. But the informal statements by the Students union has prohibited the usage of drugs within the hostel. But they are privileged to use alcohol outside the hostel and campus, and drunk students can enter the hostel after 8.30pm. But there is another informal norm to use cigarettes in the huts which is situated in the compound of the hostel and behind the store room of the hostel during any time of the day. The drunkenness is very harmful for others who do not use drugs. Sometimes the drunk students make lots of troubles to the others. Also, it is very harmful for their bodies, their academic performances and as well as to their economy. The drunkenness is another factor influence the bulling, harassments, discriminations, revenge, rivalry and fights in the hostels.

Transfer of the Culture Generation to Generation

There is a standard way to transfer the culture of the prof. Jinadasa Perera hostel to the next generation. It is done through the meetings which is conducted by the former year students who resident in that hostel, the student union is monitoring those meetings. It is a formal and standard procedure in hostel sub culture.

The culture transfering is done through the informal ways as well. That is transferring culture through ragging. It is very painful for the students who obtain the culture. On the other hand, it is a dark side of the culture transfer. It cannot be accepted as a standard way of transferring the culture. But still it is there. It has become a normal practice of transferring the culture of Prof. Jinadasa Perera hostel.

Cultural Nostalgia

Resistant to change is a result of cultural nostalgia. They like to live in past. Always value the past performances and past history. The members of the Prof. Jinadasa Perera are also suffering from some sort of cultural nostalgia. They do not like to change the values, norms, procedures and standards which are coming from past generations. They believe that 1988-1989 riot period as the period which lots of student heroes were born in the prof. Jinadasa Perera hostel. That’s why the Prof. Jinadasa Perera hostel named as “Ranjitham Gunarathnam Hostel”. (Ranjitham Gunarathnam was a student hero who was assassinated by the government in 1989)

Application of Organizational Leadership Related Concepts to the Prof. Jinadasa Perera Hostel

What is Leadership?

v It is the process of influencing to activities of an organized group in its efforts towards goal setting and goal achievement.

Before identify and apply the leadership and the leadership related concepts, let’s discuss about the power structure of the Prof. Jinadasa Perera hostel. Because there is a close relationship between the power and leadership. A leader should possess any kind of power to be a leader.

You can see two different structures of power within the Jinadasa Perera hostel. Any kind of social organization can have this kind of situation. Firstly, if we discuss about the first figure from left hand side it is the formal hierarchy according to the hostel administration of the university. The warden has the power to control the hostel, its properties and the resided students. It is the authority power that is received by the warden. Warden is the head, sub warden works under the warden and the matrons work under the sub warden and finally the students should behave under the matrons. But in the reality, this chain has been broken in a particular level. The coordination is collapsed.

Here the students do not accept the matrons as their leaders, even monitors. They have built a powerful informal power than the formal authority power. So, the warden, sub warden and matrons are only the nominal leaders according to the formal Hierarchy of the University administration. So, we do not hope to discuss about this hierarchy further. The real leadership of the members of the Prof. Jinadasa Perera hostel does not represent by the first figure from left hand side.

When we refer the second figure, it is the real power and leadership structure of the Prof. Jinadasa Perera hostel. Even it is informal the parties who are holding the powers are strategically acquired the power by persuading the members from their beginning to the hostel. Also, they have generated a huge informal power which cannot be overtake by the authority power. Sometimes the president of the students’ union or some other union members do not possess outstanding leadership skills. But by the influence of informal norms and values that they were acquired at the beginning, the students accept those people as their leaders.

In the real sense, the leadership and the power bases of the social organizations (specially the boys’ hostels of universities) are little bit unclear and complicated. By a deeper analysis we can find some related characteristics with the theoretical learnings of the leadership. But those characteristics are not perfectly compatible with the theoretical concepts. Practically there are some variations.

As a whole, the fact is that the “Students’ Union of USJP” holds the leadership of the Jinadasa Perera boys’ hostel.

Who is “Anapathi”

The post of the “Anapathi” is the post of batch coordinator of a particular batch. He is the person who coordinates the whole batch and the students’ council. Most probably the post of “Anapathi” given to a student who resided in the Prof. Jinadasa Perera Hostel. He is considered as the leader of the batch. The post is assigned in the social party of their batch.

Is there any hegemonic view of the leadership of Students’ Union of USJP?

Hegemony is the dominant of one group over another (one party over another party). Often supported by legitimating norms and ideas. This dominant group manipulates everything. (E.g. expectations, values, rules, norms. These things will be confirmed as standards.)

The leadership towards the Prof. Jinadasa Perera hostel by the Student Union of USJP is not a hegemonic manner. It seems some sort of democratic manner. They take a meeting (they are informal discussions conducting by the union representatives) for the JP students at least twice a month and discuss the problems, ideas and suggestions with its members. Based on that problems, ideas and suggestions they are coming in to values, rules, norms, principles, standards… etc. if those are only regarding the JP hostel, those values, rules, norms, principles and standards will be implemented from that particular time. If those are also related to the other hostels, in a general hostel meeting they will be discussed further and will be implemented. So, the rule making procedure is happening with the informal discussions with its members.

Does the leadership of Students’ Union of USJP views a Co-leadership or a distributed leadership?

Co-leadership – two or more leaders in vertically contiguous positions who share the responsibilities of leadership (Heenan and Bennis, 1999)

Distributed Leadership – The leadership, like power and like information, can move between people at differing levels of the organizational or societal hierarchy (Jackson and Parry, 2011)

We can see a distributed leadership nature in the leadership of students’ union. The president of the union does not possess an absolute power. Other leaders are also. They are also a part of students’ and friends of the members of JP hostel and other hostels. So, the power is moving between the people at different levels of the organization.

Distributed leadership is primarily concerned with the practice of leadership rather than specific leadership roles or responsibilities. It equates with shared, collective and extended leadership practice that builds the capacity for change and improvement (Harris, 2013). We can see a shared, collective and extended leadership practices among the leaders of the JP hostel students. The union leaders are the coordinators rather than the leaders. When they are doing the common activities (Wedikawen mahapolawata, Himidiriya, they are doing the works by existing in the same level)

When distributed, leadership works well, individuals are accountable and responsible for their leadership actions; new leadership roles created, collaborative teamwork is the modus operandi and inter-dependent working is a cultural norm. Distributed leadership is about collective influence - it is not just some accidental by-product of high performing organizations but, as highlighted earlier, is a contributor to organizational success and improved performance (Hargreaves & Harris, 2010; Hargreaves, Boyle & Harris, 2014).

Does the leadership of Students’ Union of USJP views a Leaderless work groups or a Team leadership?

It is a team leadership. Any team member can perform the critical leadership functions to access the current effectiveness of the team. Here when the members of the JP hostel are doing the common activities, they are not needed to ask each and every thing from their leaders. They can think and take the immediate decisions collectively.

Are their ethical leaders among the leaders of the members of Prof. Jinadasa Perera hostel?

It is rare. Ethical leader is a leader who does the right thing, the right way for the right reasons. Most of the leadership models of the students of the JP hostel students are politicalized. They are working according to the political parties’ schedules and lead the JP hostel students to fulfill their narrow political requirements. But rarely we can see some leaders who are working in an ethical manner.

Summary

Prof. Jinadasa Perera hostel is one of the hostels in the University of Sri Jayewardenepura among 28 hostels. it is allocated for first year male students of faculty of Management Studies and Commerce. In this hostel, there are only 174 registered 1st year students. Apart from that currently there are about 50-60 students who are not registered. If we consider both registered and unregistered students there are about 220 students while Only 180 students can be resided in this hostel. This hostel shows different norms, values, beliefs and behaviors of its members which consist large number of residentially studying students for their degree in same age (age 20-23).

we have discussed these topics in descriptive manner

1. whether there is a parallel / sub culture as a hostel?

2. Whether there is a dominant culture/ strong culture?

3. How it sees in university website and what the reality is?

4. Culture of the Prof. Jinadasa Perera Hostel and Dark side behavior there.

5. Application of Organizational Leadership Related Concepts to the Prof. Jinadasa Perera Hostel

6. Is there any hegemonic view of the leadership of Students’ Union of USJP?

7. Does the leadership of Students’ Union of USJP views a Co-leadership or a distributed leadership?

8. Does the leadership of Students’ Union of USJP views a Leaderless work groups or a Team leadership?

9. Are their ethical leaders among the leaders of the members of Prof. Jinadasa Perera hostel?

10. And about the Students, slogans, Language, Activities, Ritual, Administration Architecture, Clothes, habits, Dimensions of organizational Culture, poems, Shared Values and Norms, Cultural Transformation and Cultural Nostalgia in Prof. Jinadasa Perera Hostel

You can experience what the Jinadasa Perera hostel tries to show to the outside world while what it actually it is. The beautiful image which has built by administration just as an icing pasted on a spoiled cake. That makes the hostal culture more bitter to innocent students and cheat them. Afetr they have spelled by that fake identity,they try to grab another one too. Thats why students become socialist though they are practicing Capitalis.

Reference List

Hargreaves, A., Harris, A., Boyle, A., Ghent, K., Goodall, J. Gurn, A. McEwen, L. ... Stone Johnson, C. (2010). Performance Beyond Expectations. London: National College for Leadership and Specialist Schools and Academies Trust.

Harris, A. (2013). Distributed Leadership Matters. Corwin Press.

Heenam, D.A. and Bennis, W (1999). Core-Leaders: The power of Great Partnerships, John Wiley and sons; New York.

Schein, E.H. (1992). Organizational Culture and Leadership, 2^nd edition, San Francisco; CA: Jossey-Bass.

Shahzad, F., Luqman, R.A., Khan, A.R. and Shabbir, L., (2012). Impact of Organizational Colture on Orgnizational Performance: An Overview, Interdisciplinary Journal of Contemporary Research in Business, 3(9) pp.975-979.

University of Sri Jayewardenepura, (2015). Students’ Hand Book, 21^st edition, Dynamic Associates; Waththala.

[1] Revision sessions for particular subjects, conducted by own colleagues during the study leave period.

[2] Rapport name of students, given by the senior batch

[3] Refers to sharing the belongings such as cloths with each other