Career Aspirations Of R&D Professionals In Malaysian Government Research Institutes

One of the strategic mechanisms for human resource development (HRD) practitioners in developing career development program for research and development (R&D) professionals is by managing their career aspirations (Petroni, 2000). It is believed that career aspiration is one of the internal needs for motivating R&D professionals to succeed in their careers. This study therefore would contribute insights into the management of R&D professionals’ careers, where their internal needs could be fulfilled through their aspirations. There are three factors that had been recognized to have influenced the R&D professionals’ career aspirations in Malaysian Government Research Institutes (GRI), namely, self-efficacy, organizational socialization and continuous improvement (CI) practices. These factors were selected based on the components of Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) developed by Lent, Brown and Hackett (1994). The objectives of this study were to determine the levels of career aspiration, self-efficacy, organizational socialization and CI practices of R&D professionals in GRI, to determine the relationship between each factor and their career aspirations, and to determine the contribution of each factor to their career aspirations. The design of this study was a descriptive correlational research where it was conducted through a quantitative research method on 158 R&D professionals. The respondents were gathered through a purposive sampling procedure and the response rate was 69.30%. The data for this study were collected using a set of questionnaire which consists of simplified version of Schein’s Career Anchor Inventory (Igbaria, Kassicieh, & Silver, 1999), the General Self-efficacy scales (Schwarzer & Jerusalem, 1995), the Organizational Socialization Inventory (Taormina, 1994), and the CI Cpabilities Survey (Jorgensen, Boer, & Laugen (2006). The data were then analyzed using descriptive statistics to see the distributions of the respondents based on age, gender, marital status, educational attainment, and working experience. Pearson Product-Moment correlation analysis was also conducted to explain the relationship among the variables and multiple linear regressions analysis was conducted to predict the contribution of self-efficacy, organizational socialization, CI practices to the R&D professionals’ career aspirations. The findings of this study revealed that the level of R&D professionals’ self-efficacy, organizational socialization, continuous improvement (CI) practices, and career aspirations were high. The results indicated that the three selected factors showed significant positive relationships with the R&D professionals’ career aspirations. Nevertheless, only self-efficacy and CI practices were found to be significant in explaining the variation of career aspiration. The predictor variables explained 15.5% of the variance in the R&D professionals’ career aspiration. The study concluded that R&D professionals’ self-efficacy, organizational socialization, and CI practices are important factors that determined their career aspirations. This study implied that R&D professionals must equip themselves with high level of self-efficacy, organizational socialization and CI practices to enhance their career aspirations. It is recommended that the HRD system of the GRIs need to formulate a career development programs that considers R&D professionals’ self-efficacy, promotes more learning experiences through organizational socialization and strengthens the quality improvement work-procedures. Although it had been identified that the career aspirations held by the R&D professionals are high, however, this study did not explore their career aspirations with different career stages. Therefore, additional study is necessary to delve into the stability of their career aspirations over different career stages

Antecedents of career aspiration of R&D professionals in Malaysian Public Organizations

The paper analysed factors that influence R&D professionals’ career aspirations in Malaysian public organizations. The study used Schein’s Career Anchor Theory and Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT). The former describes the components that make up career aspirations, while the latter explains the cognitive-person variables (e.g. selfefficacy), external environment factors (e.g. organizational socialization) and behaviour (e.g. continuous improvement practices) in influencing career aspirations. The results were gathered from 158 R&D professionals of ten government research organizations in Malaysia through a survey research design. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics, Pearson Product-Moment correlation and multiple linear regressions. The results indicated that the three factors, namely, self-efficacy, organizational socialization and continuous improvement practices showed low positive linear relationships with the respondents’ career aspirations. However, the results showed that self-efficacy and continuous improvement practices were found to be the main contributors to explain variations in career aspiration

Career aspirations of Malaysian research and development professionals in the knowledge economy

Purpose: This paper seeks to compare the influence of self‐efficacy, organizational socialization and continuous improvement (CI) practices on the career aspirations of research and development (R&D) professionals in government research institutes (GRIs) and multinational corporations (MNCs) in Malaysia. R&D professionals in this study refer to a specific group of knowledge workers. Design/methodology/approach: Social cognitive career theory (SCCT) was used as this study's theoretical framework. The study involved 164 respondents from GRIs and 120 respondents from MNCs in Malaysia. Descriptive statistics and inferential multiple linear regressions were used to analyse the data. Findings: Self‐efficacy and organizational socialization were found to differ significantly in terms of their levels, and CI practices and career aspirations were not found to be significantly different between the two groups of respondents. Regression results showed MNCs reported higher explanatory power compared to that of the GRIs in terms of the variance in career aspirations. Research limitations/implications: The insights generated about the factors affecting career aspirations are based on three independent variables, namely: self‐efficacy, organizational socialization and CI practices that are most suitable for a R&D environment. Practical implications: This study confirms the relevance of CI practices in the existing model of SCCT because it represents the organizational variables. HRD practitioners in both types of organizations should consider changing the work practices of R&D professionals by strengthening the quality improvement procedures because they affect the professionals' career aspirations. Originality/value: Incorporating CI practices into the SCCT model is believed to be a contribution of this study to the theory

Career aspirations of R&D professionals in Malaysian organizations

R&D professionals play vital roles in work organizations, society and nation building in today’s scenario of development. Since research on R&D professionals’ career aspirations is context specific, there is yet limited empirical investigation on their career life in relations to career aspirations particularly based on Malaysian scenario. Specifically, this study aims to examine the relationship between self-efficacy, organizational socialization, and continuous improvement practices with career aspiration among R&D professionals. The framework of this study is based on Schein’s Career Anchor Theory and Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT). The former describes the components that make up career aspirations, while the latter explains the interaction of cognitive-person variables (e.g. self-efficacy), external environment factors (e.g. organizational socialization) and behavior (e.g. continuous improvement practices) with career aspirations. This study presents results based on pre-testing data involving 49 R&D professionals from two public organizations and four Multinational Corporations (MNCs) in Malaysia through a survey research design. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics and Pearson Product-Moment correlation. The results indicate that the three selected factors, namely, self-efficacy, organizational socialization and continuous improvement practices, show significant positive relationships with the respondents’ career aspirations. The study concludes that the variables seem to have the predictive potential to career aspiration of R&D professionals

Carreer Aspirations of R&D Professionals in Government Research Institutes and Multinational Corporations in Malaysia

The research compares the influence of self-efficacy, organizational socialization and continuous improvement practices on career aspirations of research and development (R&D) professionals of government research institutes (GRIs) and multinational corporations (MNCs) in Malaysia. This study used Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) to examine the influence of the selected variables on career aspirations of the R&D professionals. Data were collected from 164 respondents from GRIs and 120 respondents from MNCs in the country. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and multiple linear regressions. The two groups differed significantly in terms of their levels of self-efficacy and organizational socialization, and were not significantly different in continuous improvement practices and career aspirations. Self-efficacy and organizational socialization levels of R&D professionals in GRIs were found to be slightly higher than those of MNCs. Regression results showed MNCs reported higher explanatory power compared to that of the GRIs in terms of variance in career aspiration. This study suggests that continuous improvement practices and self-efficacy are relevant to the model of SCCT. Managers and human resource development (HRD) practitioners in both types of organizations need to restructure the work practices of R&D professionals by strengthening the quality improvement work procedures and cognitive-behaviour initiatives

2008, "Effectiveness of quality management system audit to improve quality performance – A conceptual framework

ABSTRACT Quality Management System audit is one of the quality tools to assist organization to improve quality performance. They are commonly used in the effort to diagnose, maintain and improve quality management system. It is made compulsory for the organization to maintain their quality management system based on ISO9001 standard to undergo series of audit. However, similarly to any other physical or conceptual system, they may fail to achieve the objectives set forth, to assess effectiveness and at the same time fail to recognized area for improvement. Based on an extensive literature review, the issues relevant to quality management system audit and quality performance are examine, and discussed the several issues to identify the conceptual framework to ensure the quality management system audit deliver the results