Leadership Behaviour and Its Effectiveness From Subordinates' Perception

This study has four objectives, first to determine the level of leadership effectiveness and leaders’ behaviour from subordinates’ perspective. Second to determine the relationship between leaders’ behaviour and leadership effectiveness. Third to determine the influence of leaders’ behaviour toward leadership effectiveness from subordinates’ perspective and the last one to determine the differences of perceiving leadership effectiveness base on subordinates’ demographic factors. This study is a cross-sectional research, which is using survey method. In gathering the data, the questionnaire is based on the previous study by Brown (1964) and Mirza (2003). The population of this study is 200 academics staff (lecturer) in Universiti Teknology MARA Perlis. A total of 105 usable questionnaires were returned, giving a response rate of 52.5 percent. Leader behaviour was measured by adopting the general scheme provided by Brown (1964). Decision-making, communication skill, leadership performance and personal characteristics are identified as the most important areas for effective leaders’ behaviour. Leadership effectiveness was measured adopting the scale developed by Cumming (1967). The finding shows that the mean score of the variable above 3.5, the highest is communication skill followed by leadership performance, personal characteristic, leadership effectiveness and decision making skill. Leadership performance, decision-making skill, communication skill and personal characteristic are significantly positive correlated to leadership effectiveness. 40.0 percent of the variance (R-square) in leadership effectiveness has been significantly explained by the four independent variables (leadership performance, decision making skill, communication skill and personal characteristic). The finding also shows that demographic factors (gender, age, seniority and level of education) have no difference on perceiving leadership effectiveness. The findings support past evidence that leadership effectiveness is related to subordinates’ perception

Why do students decide to study culinary arts and why don’t they maintain interest in the hotel industry employment? / Fadzillah Mohd Shariff, Mohd Zain Kutut and Hamizad Abdul Hadi

This paper reports the results of the research project (IRDC) into factors influencing students in advancing education in culinary arts at Faculty of Hotel and Tourism Management, UiTM. In other words, this study examines the moderating variables that influence a student decision to enter Culinary Arts program and subsequent interest towards industry employment. All students who enrolled at three levels of the Diploma culinary arts program (part one of first year, part three of second year and part five of third year) from Shah Alam, Penang and Dungun campuses was surveyed at the beginning of the semester and followed them through a second round survey at the beginning of another semester. Students’ career choice and the decision of taking culinary arts program are influenced by various factors ranging from parents, immediate family, and glamorous image to advertisement on television, brochures, and newspaper. Among all, parents are found to be the strongest influence on the individual students’ decision. Nevertheless, despite continuous encouragement, many students are becoming less positive in interest toward employment in the hotel industry and reduced intention to pursue such a career. These weakened employment intentions have given varying consequences and implications for the students, hospitality institutions, industry, and government

Desalination Using Solar Evaporator

This report discusses about Desalination Using Solar Evaporator process where the main objective of the project is to find the most promising process configuration which enable the process to produce an amount of 0.35m3 freshwater per hour and at the same time is feasible for low and middle income people to utilize it

OUTCOME BASED EDUCATION: A PERCEPTION FROM PRIVATE HEALTH SCIENCES GRADUATING SCHOLARS IN MALAYSIA

The transfer of education system from the traditional approach to Outcome Based Education (OBE) had given a significant change in many educational institutions worldwide. In Malaysia, most of the education institutions had implemented OBE in their system and had shown an increment in the students’ academic achievement. The reform in the health services that stresses on professionalism had brought the necessity to adopt OBE in allied health education. Thus, the Faculty of Health Sciences in KPJ Healthcare University College (KPJUC) implemented OBE on 2014 and positive result had been showed. There is a notable paucity of studies that focused on the students' perception on the educational system. This study focused on students' perception on OBE system in terms of students' understanding and their academic achievement. The student’s perception is the most crucial part as they are the medium of the system. They are the ones who undergo the system thoroughly, and they are the final product of the OBE system. This study used a descriptive method of research wherein the quantitative data were gathered using questionnaires. The participants were 19 graduating students from Bachelor of Medical Imaging (BMI) and Bachelor of Physiotherapy (BPY). The study showed that the perception of students regarding the program outcomes was good and this finding will help to improvise the lacuna in the system and can be the stepping-stone to a better education system in future.  Article visualizations

Double microring resonators polymer waveguide for optical biosensing

The potential of double microring resonator polymer waveguide as an optical biosensor was demonstrated. Visible wavelength region at 632 nm is used as a centre wavelength because it is commonly used in biological and chemical sensing for both label and label-free sensing. The double microring resonator waveguide structure is simulated using COMSOL Multiphysics optical design and analysis software. The results show that there is a transmission drop with a 3 dB bandwidth of 631.4 nm when the surrounding refractive index is 1.33. The specific wavelength (output transmission) is shifted to 674.6 nm when the surrounding medium into 1.43, in order to imitate the bioanalytes solution. According to simulation result, the wavelength shift was approximately 43.2 nm for 0.1 increasing of surrounding refractive index. The double microring resonator polymer waveguide was fabricated by using electron beam lithography. Then, the fabricated devices were integrated into microfluidic systems in order to validate the wavelength shift. From the experiments, the wavelength shift occurred approximately 32.3 nm over 0.1 increment of refractive index. Thus both simulation and experimental results strongly indicate that double microring resonator polymer waveguide structure at visible wavelength region have a potential for label or label-free optical biosensing applications

Impak kitaran sosial dalam sumbangan alumni terhadap pendapatan endowmen universiti

Pelan Strategik Pengajian Tinggi Negara (PSPTN) dirangka bagi memperkasa pendidikan tinggi negara. Antara perancangan pelan ini adalah memberikan kuasa autonomi kepada pihak universiti untuk menguruskan operasi universiti. Keadaan ini bergantung kepada kemampuan pihak universiti untuk mencapai peruntukan sasaran kementerian bagi menanggung kos operasi mengurus dan membangun universiti. Antara strategi kewangan yang difokuskan dalam pelan ini ialah meningkatkan pendapatan endowmen universiti melalui sumbangan alumni. Walau bagaimanapun, kesanggupan alumni memberikan sumbangan boleh berubah-ubah dan bergantung kepada beberapa faktor. Dalam kajian ini, lima faktor sumbangan alumni telah dianalisis iaitu pengurusan kewangan, personaliti diri, eksternal, pengurusan universiti dan jalinan universiti-komuniti. Faktor-faktor ini turut diinteraksi untuk menghasilkan indikator yang dikenali pemboleh ubah kitaran sosial. Pemboleh ubah kitaran bertujuan mengukur impak perubahan faktor-faktor terhadap nilai sumbangan. Ujian regresi diaplikasi untuk menganalisis faktor-faktor yang dikaji terhadap sumbangan alumni ini. Dapatan analisis menunjukkan bahawa pemboleh ubah kitaran sosial mempengaruhi secara signifikan terhadap pendapatan endowmen universiti antara 3 hingga 4 peratus. Implikasi kajian ini membuktikan saluran sumbangan alumni signifikan untuk diteroka oleh pihak universiti bagi menampung sebahagian defisit peruntukan yang dialami

Building Information Modeling (BIM): A New Paradigm for Quality of Life Within Architectural, Engineering and Construction (AEC) Industry

AbstractThe adoption of Building Information Modeling (BIM) constitutes a paradigm shift in the architectural, engineering and construction (AEC) industry. Broader BIM adoption will transform construction processes to achieve greater efficiency to improve the quality of life (QOL) of construction stakeholders. This paper seeks to identify determinant factors and implementation gaps of BIM in the AEC industry. A case study was conducted through a preliminary workshop organised by CIDB among the five potential stakeholders: Public Private Partnership (PPP) Unit (UKAS), JARING, eMOST/UMP, Greenwave Synergy (GWS) and CIDB eConstruct (EC) of the AEC industry in Malaysia. The findings suggest various determining factors and gaps existed at the national and organisational levels. Finally, the workshop suggested an ‘affordable BIM concept’ with ‘pay-per-use or periodical license’ method to be adopted for SMEs contractors

Design and Real Time Control of a Versatile Scansorial Robot

This thesis presents investigations into the development of a versatile scansorial mobile robot and real-time realisation of a control system for different configurations of the robot namely climbing mode, walking mode and steering mode. The mobile robot comprises of a hybrid leg and wheel mechanism with innovative design that enables it to interchange its configuration to perform the specific tasks of pole climbing in climbing mode, walking and step climbing in walking mode, and skid steering and inclined slope climbing in steering mode. The motivation of this research is due to the surrounding environment which is not always structured for exploration or navigation missions, and thus poses significant difficulty for the robot to manoeuvre and accomplish the intended task. Hence, the development of versatile scansorial robot with a flexible and interchangeable configuration can provide a broad range of applications and locomotion system and to achieve the mission objective successfully. The robot design consists of four arms/legs with wheel attached at each end-effector and has two link manipulation capability. In climbing mode, the arms are configured as grippers to grip the pole and wheels accelerate to ascend or descend. The climbing angle is monitored to retain the level of the robot while climbing. However, in walking mode, the arms are configured as legs and the wheels are disabled. By implementing a periodic walking gait, the robot is capable of performing stable walking and step climbing. In steering mode, the arms are configured as suspension and the wheels are used for manoeuvring. In this mode, the skid steering system is used to enable the robot perform the turn. The versatile scansorial robot’s configurations and locomotion capabilities are assessed experimentally in real time implementation using the physical prototype. The experiments provided demonstrate the versatility of the robot and successfully fulfill the aims and objectives of the research

Penyediaan kemudahan orang kurang upaya (OKU) di masjid-masjid: kajian kes di masjid-masjid daerah Batang Padang

Masyarakat melakukan pergerakan setiap hari untuk ke sesuatu tempat termasuklah pergerakan ke rumah ibadat. Pergerakan ke rumah ibadat melibatkan semua golongan termasuklah orang kurang upaya (OKU). Namun begitu, golongan OKU memerlukan kemudahan yang tersendiri bagi memudahkan pergerakan mereka ke rumah ibadat. Kertas kerja ini bertujuan untuk membincangkan penyediaan kemudahan untuk OKU di masjid-masjid seluruh daerah Batang Padang. Sebanyak 39 buah masjid yang terdapat di daerah ini telah dikaji berkaitan dengan penyediaan kemudahan OKU. Kajian ini menggunakan kaedah pemerhatian dan temu bual untuk meneliti kemudahan OKU yang disediakan di masjid-masjid di Daerah Batang Padang. Penganalisisan data dilakukan, mendapati penyediaan kemudahan OKU di masjid-masjid daerah Batang Padang masih berada di tahap kurang memuaskan. Hanya masjid-masjid di kawasan bandar sahaja yang menyediakan kemudahan untuk golongan OKU berbanding dengan masjid di kawasan luar bandar. Faktor yang mempengaruhi penyediaan kemudahan OKU di masjid di kawasan ini turut dikemukakan

Characteristic qualities affecting landed house prices

The research was conducted to find the characteristics quality of houses in Malaysia. The aim of this research was to produce the ranking characteristics of house qualities and determining its weightages. The methodology used in this research was primarily by using the Delphi Method to ascertain characteristics quality and also Analytical Hierarchy Process to determine the ranking of the characteristics quality. Data collection gathered through a structured questionnaire that incorporates the element of Saaty’s Scale using variables outlined from review and interview. A theoretical framework of the research was established from this that will lead to future research model