IPM, a giant among professional organisations

The Institute of Personnel Management (IPM) has grown to be a giant among Sri Lanka's professional organisations, Barrister/Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Australia Chanaka Bandarage said.

Bandarage, son of Dr D S Bandarage, regarded the 'Father of Modern Management of Sri Lanka' was speaking at a council meeting recently.

Today is the fourth death anniversary of Dr Bandarage.

At the recent council meeting at the IPM, attended by the IPM Council, a large collection of newspaper articles (mostly published in the Lake House Newspapers - Ceylon Daily News, the Evening and Sunday Observer) from 1950 and books on Management (3) written by Dr Bandarage was presented to the Institute by Chanaka Bandarage.

He said during the times when his father was a council member, IPM secretary and president, he worked hard to build the institute.

Most of the key documents of the institute, especially in its formative years, were drafted by Dr Bandarage, including the Memorandum and Articles of Association, the By-Laws and even the IPM Course Syllabuses.

The institute honoured Dr Bandarage on June 30, 1960, awarding him the first Fellow membership of IPM. In 2003, the institute bestowed upon him the first ever IPM Gold Medal.

Among the articles presented are information about the 1949 ILO funded Personnel Management Seminar held in Ceylon where the need for a professional Personnel Management Organisation was first raised.

In 1959, an ILO sponsored workshop of personnel executives was held in Sri Lanka with Dr Bandarage playing the leading role. He wrote an article in the Daily News of November 17, 1959 where he emphasised the need to establish the IPM and even presented a draft constitution of the institute.

- L. S. Peiris FIPM (SL), Hony Asst. Treasurer, IPM