Intercultural learners, intercultural brokers and ESP classrooms: The case of a shipping business course

This paper explores the ways in which “interculturality” can be embedded in the English for Specific Purposes (ESP) classroom and presents a project developed within a “Shipping Business English” course whose ultimate aim is to provide students with opportunities for gaining awareness across cultures at the same time English is used as the means of communication and language is integrated with content. Conclusions point at the new role of ESP teachers as “intercultural brokers” and prove that ESP classrooms provide a suitable context to explore foreign cultures by bringing them in line with each student’s home culture and the specific contents of the ESP course

Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) management systems: towards development of safety and health culture

The unsatisfactory OSH record of the construction industry has always been highlighted. It is because the OSH management system is a neglected area and a function that has not been pursued systematically in the construction industry. Safety is an important issue, but many employers do not feel it is vital to the success of companies. For a long time, the construction industry has been labeled as with poor OSH culture and performance. But a mature construction company is still able to perform well in safety area. This type of company usually set their OSH goals for the continuous improvement in overall. Understanding the concept of the OSH management system will help us to understand the application of OSH management system in Malaysia and legislation needs to follow by industry. The rules and legislation are always protecting the worker safety and ensuring healthy workplaces. The main purpose of the rules and legislation is to prevent accidents, ill health and injury at workplaces. This paper will discuss theoritical review on OSH management in construction industry towards development of safety culture

One Size Does Not Fit All: Meeting the Health Care Needs of Diverse Populations

Proposes a framework for meeting patients' cultural and linguistic needs: policies and procedures that support cultural competence, data collection, population-tailored services, and internal and external collaborations. Includes a self-assessment tool

Critical success factors influencing performance outcome of joint venture construction projects in South Africa: Comparison of first and second order models

Joint ventures (JVs) have become increasingly common, because of the complexity and challenges associated with the delivery of construction projects globally and in South Africa. However, it has been established that JV projects have experienced unsatisfactory performance leading to clients’ dissatisfaction. The purpose of this paper is therefore to determine the critical success factors (CSFs) influencing the performance of JV construction projects in South Africa. A positivist philosophy position was adopted using a structured questionnaire survey administered to the construction professionals. Prior to the main study, a content validity of the questionnaire was achieved using a pilot study. The data was collected from 115 conveniently sampled respondents, and analysed using principal component analysis and multiple regression analysis. The exploratory factor analysis revealed two empirical models to be tested; namely the first and second order factor models. The result of the first order model revealed that, management control influenced achievement of project objective of JV, whereas, the second order model established that understanding of contractual agreement, which was explained by six components of CSFs influenced achievement of project objective. It is suggested that stakeholders who prefer to be involved in JV projects should acquire good understanding of the contractual agreement in managing JV projects in order to successfully achieve the project objectives. This study adds to the discourse and literature on CSFs of JVs. It provides new empirical evidence of the CSFs that influence project performance outcome of JV in the context of South Africa which can also be replicated in other countries globally. However, the study may not be generalised because of the geographical setting and respondents

An interdisciplinary competence profile for AI in engineering

The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in engineering is on the rise and comes with the promise of cost reductions and efficiency gains. However, classical engineers often lack the necessary skills to implement data-driven solutions. At the same time, computer scientists lack the required understanding of engineering systems. Thus, we need to extend the current set of competencies of engineers across the boundaries of disciplines to include competencies of Artificial Intelligence as well as skills necessary for interdisciplinary work. In this paper, we propose a competence profile of a so-called AI Engineer that combines the expertise of AI systems in the context of engineering. Based on perspectives from literature and interviews with experts from industry and research, we highlight the most important set of competencies across the professional, methodological, social, and selfcompetencies. The contributions of our paper can act as a reference point for developing and advancing future engineering curricula. Furthermore, it serves as a guide for professional self-development

The role of organisational culture during the implementation of internal succession planning within Malaysian research universities

Succession planning is not new to academia and many institutions have supported these programs for years. Few, however, have adopted formal succession planning strategies that are both strategic and deliberate and encompass the full spectrum of succession planning activities. However, less is understood about the role of culture on succession planning within public universities in Malaysia. Nevertheless; there is an absence of a comprehensive conceptual model of the culture-succession relationship in the literature that includes the impact of moderators such as national culture. A mixed mode design was adopted by the study where qualitative data was first collected, analyzed and then used to develop a survey instrument for the quantitative phase of the study. The study surveyed 375 academic staff of the five research universities in Malaysia, and the results were analyzed using the IBM SPSS for Windows and PLS-SEM. A structural model was built to identify the relationship between the organisational culture and succession planning and the moderating effect of the national culture in public research universities. The study's findings showed that succession planning is still new to public universities in Malaysia and training and development are still unstructured. Although there was a positive and significant relationship between organisational culture and succession planning, whereas, findings suggested national culture showed a moderating effect on the relationship of organisational culture and succession planning. The model can help to analyze organisational culture in order to change the Malaysian public universities’ strategy to implement succession planning