The relationship between self-efficacy and academic performance among engineering students in Universiti Teknologi Malaysia

The field of engineering and mathematics are interconnected with each other. Thus, the engineering students need to perform well in their mathematics skill in order to get better grades. However, not everyone has the courage and confident when it comes to mathematics. Therefore, this study was conducted to determine the level of self- efficacy and academic performance of the UTM’s engineering students and to know whether there is a relationship between self-efficacy and academic performance among them. This study adopted the set of questionnaire from the Sources of Mathematics Self-Efficacy (SMES) and it was distributed to 107 final year students from Bachelor of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, UTM. The self-efficacy was measured by using the four dimensions, which were mastery, vicarious experience, social persuasion, and emotional and physiological states. The result revealed that self-efficacy had a positive significant but weak relationship with the academic performance among the respondents. Finally, suggestions are offered for the UTM’s curriculum developer to reconsider self-efficacy in designing the academic modules, as well as the recommendations to the future research

The effect of web 2.0 on innovative work behaviour among academia in Malaysian Research Universities

Previous study indicates the user’s degree of Web 2.0-ness is positively associated with his or her behavior. However, there is a paucity in examine the effect of Web 2.0 especially on innovative work behavior among academia in research universities even though it is imperative to be identified due to it demanding research nature. Web 2.0 are technologically driven and designed to allow people to communicate, share information and create online communities. Meanwhile, innovative work behavior refers to the creativity and involvement in bringing changes and new ideas in duties or in solving problems especially among academia in research universities which become the focus in this study. Innovative work behavior consists of generation, promotion, and realization of new ideas. Therefore, this study aims to identify the effect of Web 2.0 on innovative work behavior among academia in research universities. In our endeavor to this matter, we view the issue in a positivist paradigm with quantitative approach. This approach used surveys as research strategy by adapting questionnaires technique. The data collection has been conducted among 393 lecturers in five research universities and emphasize on the lecturer’s research and development. Accordingly, data collected were analyzed using SPSS and SEM AMOS by looking at the exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), model fit, and path analysis. The result of this study indicates that the Web 2.0 has positive and significant relationship with the idea generation, idea promotion and idea realization of innovative work behavior

The Mediating Role of Web 2.0 Usage in the Effect of Psychological Empowerment on Innovative Work Behavior among Academia in Malaysian Research Universities

Innovative work behavior is crucial to fulfill the demands for a lecturer’s research activities especially at research universities. Prior literature indicated that psychological empowerment is an important predictor for innovative work behavior. Meanwhile, Web 2.0 is an indispensable tool for innovation among lecturers to facilitate their research activities. Thus, social cognitive theory was used to support the conceptual framework in identifying the mediating role of Web 2.0 usage in the effect of psychological empowerment on innovative work behavior. This study utilized quantitative approach using questionnaire as a tool to gather data from 393 lecturers of five research universities in Malaysia. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to analyze the direct and mediation effects of the variables in the conceptual framework. Web 2.0 usage was identified as the mediator for the effect of psychological empowerment on the realization of new ideas in innovative work behavior, specifically for the dimensions of meaning, competence and self-determination. Based on the results of the study, use of Web 2.0 is important among lecturers to enhance innovative work behavior

What makes deaf employees stay and quit?

People with disabilities are largely marginalized and experienced economic exclusion for various reasons. Aside from employers’ negative perception towards people with disabilities, they also have the fear of costs and legal liabilities which may arise from employing disabled employees. Moreover, as a result of social exclusion at family, community/social, and institutional/state levels, people with disabilities have a lower chance of participating in the labour market not only because they lack the necessary skills and education and have low self-esteem, but also because the workplace environment is unfavourable. This research was conducted to explore whether these factors apply to deaf employees in Johor Bahru, Malaysia. Deaf people were chosen for this research among other types of disabilities because they are highly preferred by the employers, and thus more likely to be employed. Nevertheless, their participation in the labour market is still significantly low. Qualitative methods were employed for this research whereby interviews were conducted with fourteen deaf employees (assisted by sign language interpreters). The findings revealed three major themes – organizational, individual and labour market factors as the cause of deaf employees staying or leaving the company. In brief, deaf employees stay because the job suits them, they are satisfied with the salary and the working environment, receive fair treatment, able to communicate and have good relationship with colleagues and superiors, have patience and able to adapt to changes in the workplace, and also because alternative employments are scarce for them. On the flipside, deaf employees quit or intent to quit because of communication difficulties, poor relationship with others, being bullied and discriminated at work, unsatisfied with the salary and career development opportunities, unfavourable working conditions, job stress, job boredom, and feeling excluded at the workplace. This research concludes that awareness, acceptance and learning sign language are among the ways to create a more inclusive workplace for deaf employee in specific

Understanding the factors of low employment among deaf people from the perspective of job coaches

The employment’s issues of people with disability (PWD) are not only limited to Malaysia but extend to the global context. Despite introducing the Malaysian Disabilities Act 2008, which entitled PWD for an equal right to access to employment, and various strategies at the national level, the employment rates for PWD are still low. PWDs are often excluded from the mainstream labour market, thence considered as the marginalized group. This research was conducted to explore the factors of low employment among deaf people, particularly in Johor Bahru, Malaysia. Qualitative research design was employed for this study whereby a focus group discussion was conducted with job coaches in a PWD Job Placement Unit and with the president of Deaf Society. The findings revealed several organizational, people and extra-organizational factors that contribute to low employment among deaf people

Academician profile system for developing an ICT academic community

This project tackles the following problems: first, there is no clear identification on profile features and type of search that support retrieval of profile to provide information that help manage academic activities in ICT Academic Community; secondly there is no apparent identification on communication tools that allow interaction and information exchange to encourage affiliation among Community of Practice (CoP) in ICT Academic Community and thirdly, there is no particular profile system that been developed (based on the proposed profile features, type of search and communication tools) that enables retrieval of profile together with interaction and information exchange towards ICT Academic Community development. The main findings of the study are the sixteen main academician profile features (Personal Data, Education/Qualification, Expertise/Specialization, Work Experience, Administrative Experience, Teaching Experience, Thesis/Dissertation/Report Examiner Experience, Supervision Experience, Research Experience, Consultancy Experience, Committee Experience, Compile Editorial Experience, Publication/Writing Experience, Academic Voluntary Service, Membership in Association, and Awards/ Recognition) and type of search (the category searches and free text searches). The proposed communication tools, consists of Community Membership, Information Resources, Interaction Facilities and Additional components contributed by the community members. These findings were incorporated in the form of a prototype web-based Academician Profile System. The system was developed using PHP, Macromedia Dreamweaver MX, Apache, MySQL and Rational Rose. The prototype was tested using the User Acceptance Test with ten ICT academician that shows it supports retrieval of profile that provide information to help manage academic activities as well as allows interaction and information exchange for ICT Academic Community development

A systematic literature review of the barriers to job placement for person with disabilities

People often fail to realize that the disabled population is an important but largely untapped human resource. Prejudices and misconceptions about person with disabilities’ ability to perform and compete in the open market are likely to be the cause. This research endeavor provides an overview of some of the factors that contributes for low ratio of job placements for persons with disabilities. Study about such factors is imperative so as to improve understanding regarding this phenomenon and increase employment opportunities for person with disabilities. Review of literature is carried out to highlight the barriers to job placement for persons with disabilities. Some of the barriers highlighted in this study are the attitude of the employers towards the hiring of persons with disabilities, job demand, and attitude of disabled persons. This paper concludes that more training and awareness programs should be conducted to educate employers about human resource policies, practices and strategies for persons with disabilities to improve their participation in the mainstream workforce. This research will have useful implications for the policy makers for incorporating untapped human resource in the form of persons with disabilities

Variable analysis for knowledge creation theory

This research proposed a study on analyzing variable of knowledge creation based on multidimensional perspectives. At present, many researches in the area of knowledge management (KM) and knowledge creation (KC) specifically discussed about variables development in various contexts including organization. However, there is still a lack of information or research in multidimensional perspectives since most of the previous researches have only provided a set of knowledge creation theory based on single dimensional perspective, in strengthening the strategic organizational knowledge for the context involved. Therefore, there are limited concepts carried out in the new theory of knowledge creation as well as in enhancing the knowledge perspective and knowledge base decision making process. Due to the problem, it comes to the significant of this study to understand the organizational knowledge, process and variables involved in knowledge creation from the multidimensional perspectives. This research employs an empirical research approach. It starts with reviewing the previous studies of knowledge creation areas and analyzing knowledge creation theories which combining the theoretical and multidimensional knowledge creation variables. This leads to the development of the proposed theory of variables analysis that covers the multidimensional perspectives and model development. Interviews were conducted to the proposed theory to validate the developed model. The findings of this study are analyzed variables for knowledge creation that employs multidimensional perspectives and improvement of knowledge creation process

A model of multidimesional perspectives variable analysis for organizational knowledge creation

This paper proposes a model of knowledge creation for organization based on variable analysis from multidimensional perspectives. At present, many researches in the area of knowledge management (KM) and knowledge creation (KC) specifically discussed about variables development in various contexts including organization. However, there is still a lack of information or research in multidimensional perspectives since most of the previous researches have only provided a set of knowledge creation theory based on single dimensional perspective, in strengthening the strategic organizational knowledge for the context involved. Therefore, there are limited concepts carried out in the new theory of knowledge creation as well as in enhancing the knowledge perspective and knowledge base decision making process. Hence, the significance of this study is to understand the organizational knowledge, process and variables involved in knowledge creation from multidimensional perspectives. This research employs an empirical research approach. It starts with a review of previous studies of knowledge creation areas and analyzing knowledge creation theories which combines both the theoretical and multidimensional knowledge creation variables. This lead to the development of the proposed theory of variable analysis which covers multidimensional perspectives. Interviews were conducted to validate the model developed based on the proposed theory. The findings suggested a new knowledge creation theory that employs multidimensional perspectives of variables analysis and an improvement in the knowledge creation process