Defining the Social Equity Issues in Sustainability

Social equity concerns are complicated because of political and economic realities and the number of variables the lens can embrace. This book chapter discussed on the definition of social equity, issues related to social equity, key challenges in defining social equity in sustainability, and the way forward. There are five issues highlighted which are socioeconomic status, education, public transportation, health care, and environmental threat. Some of the key challenges in defining social equity in sustainability are financial challenges, uneven progress of SDG targets, preexisting socioeconomic inequalities, and equitability of natural resources

THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 AMONGST INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS IN UNIMAS

The COVID-19 pandemic has altered the landscape of the education domain. It affects the way we teach, the way we learn, and imposes novel obstacles in the way institutions of higher learning conventionally manage themselves. While all students in higher learning institutions would certainly feel the impact, there is a need to focus on the experience of international students. In an effort to combat the pandemic, Malaysia has issued a directive for Movement Control Order (MCO), starting 18 March 2020. Amongst others, this directive directly affected all universities in the country. This study aims to explore the impact of COVID-19 amongst the international students in a higher education institution in Sarawak, Malaysia. Data was gathered via an online questionnaire adapted from the QS Survey Report 2020 on COVID-19. Our findings revealed that while most of the international students perceived their studies to be affected, most planned to continue with the programs that they were currently enrolled in. The students expressed deep concerns about the impact of the pandemic on their exams and classes and preferred reassurance in terms of updates on information related to academic matters

Relationship between Selected Leadership Style and Employee Stress Level at Workplace

There has been only limited research focused on the assumption of leader stress and affective well-being. Hence, this study aims to determine the relationship between leadership style and employee stress level at workplace. This study primarily took a quantitative approach for data collection and analysis. Questionnaires were distributed at three branches of banks located in Kuching, Sarawak and to their employees. The findings show that there is a relationship between autocratic leadership style and employee stress level at workplace. The strength of the relationship is weak due to r = .461, p = .002. The findings also show that democratic leadership and transformational leadership have no relationship with the employee stress level at workplace

Assessment of city's sustainability performance via Fuzzy Lingustic Scale: East Malaysia case study

The rapid growth of urbanization is not without any impact to the economic, environmental and even socially. There has been a constant call to develop measurement tool to provide a fair weightage for the urban sustainability indicators. The aim of this research is develop a measurement tool integrating Fuzzy Linguistic Scale to assess sustainability performance and test it on two selected cities; Kuching and Kota Kinabalu were selected due to their geographical location and their demographic similarities. 16 indicators were utilized in this research where the actual data were obtained from secondary sources on the two cities and were associated with the FLS to obtain the city's final value where Kuching scored 0.595 which falls under 'Fair' sustainability performance, and Kota Kinabalu scored 0.642, which falls under 'Good' sustainability performance. The results then lead to 4 hotspots in Kuching and 5 hotspots in Kota Kinabalu which are considered critical areas that needs to be considered for immediate action

The Relationship Between Workers’ Health and Night Shift Work in Food Franchise Industry in Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia

Shift work alters workers exposure to natural and artificial light, sleep patterns, and feeding patterns. Among other working population, shift workers are at a greater risk of developing metabolic impairments over time. Hence, this study aimed to study the relationship between workers’ health and night shift work in food franchise industry in Kuching, Sarawak. The independent variables are sleep pattern, mental health, psychological well-being, circadian rhythm, and insomnia, while the dependent variable is night shift work. Questionnaires were distributed using convenience sampling techniques and a total of 59 questionnaires were collected. Pearson Correlations test. showed that there is a significant relationship between workers’ health and night shift work. The implications on this research shows that there are more researches on the mitigation of health risk on shift workers

Complementary Therapy as an Approach in Managing Occupational Stress

Occupational stress is caused by various reasons, such as, workload and long working hours. This leads to occurrence of trend in using wellness activities to treat physical and psychological illness that is known as complementary therapy, which is Yoga, Aromatherapy, Qi gong, and Islamic Medical Practices (Ruqyah). Therefore, this research offered a perspective on the use of complementary therapies as a tool in improving and maintaining mental health condition of employees located in Penang, Malaysia. Qualitative method was used where 5 complementary therapy practitioners were interviewed to identify the perceptions towards the use of complementary therapy and to identify the type of therapy that can be practiced to reduce stress, as well as, discuss the benefits of complementary therapies. It was found that complementary therapy is very beneficial as it acts as a holistic treatment, natural way of healing and more empowering, as it helps to improve employee’s mental, emotional and physical health

Preferred Leadership Traits by Employees : A case study in Telecommunication Organization

Leaders affect employees’ performance in the organization by their leadership style, which is dependent to the degree of favor by their followers. It is vital for the organization to identify the most effective leadership styles which will boost performance in the organization. This research studied the type of leadership trait most preferred in the telecommunication sector. This qualitative study used the Full Range Leadership Model to identify and suggest the preferred traits of a leader. The sampling method used was purposive. Interview guides were used as the research tool. A total of six (6) informants were interviewed. The results showed transformational leadership style is the most preferred by all the informants as the employees found that the traits of the transformational leader bring more positive impacts on their work performance

Relationship between Selected Leadership Style and Employee Stress Level at Workplace

There has been only limited research focused on the assumption of leader stress and affective well-being. Hence, this study aims to determine the relationship between leadership style and employee stress level at workplace. This study primarily took a quantitative approach for data collection and analysis. Questionnaires were distributed at three branches of banks located in Kuching, Sarawak and to their employees. The findings show that there is a relationship between autocratic leadership style and employee stress level at workplace. The strength of the relationship is weak due to r = .461, p = .002. The findings also show that democratic leadership and transformational leadership have no relationship with the employee stress level at workplace

The Relationship between Management Practices and Safety

Work-related accidents is a controversial topic in Malaysia as evidenced by the increased number of occupational accidents throughout the years. The purpose of this research is to examine the relationship between management practices and safety performance in an or-ganization. The four management practices investigated are (a) training, (b) management commitment, (c) communication and feedback, and (d) employee involvement. The most effective safety practice is also identified. The data was collected at a manufacturing com-pany located in Shah Alam, Malaysia using closed-ended questionnaire. 95 respondents from the production line were involved in this study. The result found that training had a very weak relationship to the safety performance while the management commitment, as well as the communication and feedback, revealed to have a weak impact on safety perfor-mance. On the other hand, the analysis showed that employee involvement is the most ef-fective safety practice to the safety performance, as it had a moderate impact on safety per-formance

Exploring Managers’ Perception Towards Generation Y Employees : A Case Study in an IT Company in Selangor

This study was conducted to explore the manager’s perception towards Generation Y employees particularly in the IT industry in Selangor. A case study approach was adopted in which data was obtained through semi-structured interviews. Purposive sampling technique was used and a total of eight (8) informants participated and interviewed. The data obtained from the interview were qualitatively analyzed. Data analysis was conducted by adopting a content analysis framework in which obtained data were divided into four (4) phases including condensation, code, category and inference and summarize. The findings showed majority of the managers perceived that openness to experience, conscientious and extraversion’ are the most common personalities among Generation Y employees. Besides that, the findings also revealed that in terms of work ethics, Generation Y employees are perceived as accountable of own’s actions, respect authority, transparency and loyal. The result of this study implicates the organization in terms of attrition and turnover rate among Generation Y employees and organizational branding. The result of this study provided some recommendations to HR practitioners and organizations in managing and handling at the workplace