Upward influence strategies: relationship with academics' career advancement

Often times, in academia world, academics report to superiors who are not from similar backgrounds and do not share the same standards, points of view or needs. Hence, to be effective, any particular academic staff must understand that upward power is partly based on the ability and willingness to use influence tactics. The aim of this paper is to provide an in-depth analysis of the relationship between upward influence strategies and employees’ career success. All three dimensions of upward influence strategies i.e. soft, hard and rational tactics have different effects towards career progression due to the nature of the tactics. The paper argues that career advancement, assuming that all other factors are equal, is a very subjective matter which lies upon three main influencing factors of ingratiation, assertiveness and reasoning

Knowledge and perception of integrity among Penang civil servants

The integrity of the civil servants needs to be greatly improved in order to turn Malaysian Vision 2020 into a reality. This objective of this research was to determine the level of awareness, knowledge and understanding on noble values particularly integrity among selected civil servants in selected State Government agencies in Pulau Pinang, Malaysia. The respondents were selected based on a purposive sampling technique. The research used a quantitative approach where self-administered structured questions were distributed. Descriptive and inference analysis were carried out to meet the research objectives outlined. The research findings showed that there were civil servants groups who were unclear and uncertain about the meaning of integrity in public sector. Those with shorter length of services were found to be less knowledgeable on the rule and procedure which led to them being unsure about integrity. Length of service was found to be inversely related to the perception on the knowledge of integrity, corruption and quality of service delivery. In this research, respondents might or might have not disclosed the actual truth when answering questions. Most heads of departments might have not wanted to disclose actual work realities of their offices. They, in particular, did not want to wash their dirty linen in public. For that reason, future research may improve on such limitation

The perception of integrity of three public agencies in Kuala Terengganu

Malaysia in its effort to become a fully developed nation by 2020 has undertaken a monumental task in instilling noble values into its society including its civil sector. The integrity of the civil servants needs to be greatly improved in order to turn this vision into a reality. This project attempted to examine the level of awareness, knowledge and understanding on noble values particularly integrity among selected civil servants in selected State Government agencies in Terenganu, Malaysia. The respondents were selected based on a purposive sampling technique. The research used a quantitative approach where self-administered structured questions were distributed. Descriptive and inference analysis were carried out to meet the research objectives outlined. The research findings showed that there were civil servants groups who were unclear and uncertain about the meaning of integrity in public sector. Those with shorter length of services were found to be less knowledgeable on the rule and procedure which led to them being unsure about integrity. Length of service was found to be inversely related to the perception on the knowledge of integrity, corruption and quality of service delivery. For that reason, future research should identify the causes that will lead to enhancement of perception of integrity

Motivation Model for Employee Retention: Applicability to HRM Practices in Malaysian SME Sector

In the Vision 2020, Malaysian government aims at achieving a developed nation status by the year 2020. To realize the vision, the country needed the support and motivation from all Malaysians. Hence, human resource management (HRM) plays an important role for the said vision since it is a significant capital in the operation of an organization. For Malaysian entrepreneurial firms, it is crucial to retain their employees in order to achieve their ultimate goal i.e. maximizing profits. Such small, growthoriented firms are considered vulnerable to lose even one key employee because it may aggravate extensive consequences and, at the extreme, may imperil exertions to attain organizational objectives. Employee retention becomes a vital human capital objective for entrepreneurial companies which are seeking to grow and capture market share. Motivation is essential in leading the employees towards achieving organizational goals besides fostering the organizational commitment. Such organizational attachment and motivation has implications for whether an employee will opt for remaining with the organization or not. With HRM, the human resource (HR) model would regard humans as being inspired by an intricate collection of interconnected aspects, such as recognition, interpersonal relation, and desire for meaningful work. HR managers must endeavour to redesign the job to be more varied and decentralized in order to encourage sovereignty among employees. Therefore, motivation model is relevant to be employed in HRM practices for employee retention. This paper is primarily based on literature review. Extensive literature study is used to identify relevant information and references. This paper intends to elucidate one particular issue with regards to Malaysian SMEs which is employee retention and in more specifically, this study will aim to produce a model for employee retention conjoining it with organizational strategies, organizational culture and benefits factors. To attain this aim, the two-factor, or motivation-hygiene theory (Herzberg, 1968) was taken as the basic foundation.Key words: Motivation-hygiene; Vital human capital; Sovereignity; JEL Codes: C11, J1

Scenario-based investigation on the effect of partial shading condition patterns for different static solar photovoltaic array configurations

This paper presents an in-depth analysis and investigation on the performance of static photovoltaic (PV) array configurations subjected to various partial shading conditions (PSCs). Under PSCs, the electrical characteristics of the PV modules are critically monitored and reasons for their behavioral changes are highlighted. By doing so, this study aims to improve the efficiency of PV systems by minimizing mismatch losses and determining the optimum array configuration which is characterized by the highest maximum power and lowest relative losses under PSCs. Besides, this study complements and carries forward the previous studies through the detailed analysis of each configuration subjected to various practically probable PSCs. Three different PV array sizes ( 5×4 , 5×5 , and 3×10 ) are used to analyze the results and performance under considered shading scenarios. MATLAB/Simulink platform is used to model and simulate the PV array using the single diode (5-parameters) model. In-depth analysis of current flow across cross-ties and bypass diodes activation shows that the diagonal shading pattern leads to lower power loss (PL). Besides, the Total Cross-Tied (TCT) configuration demonstrates superior performance under most of the PSCs compared to other configurations. These results provide valuable information about the performance of PV array which may lead to better estimation and prediction of global maximum power (GMP) generation of a PV system