Subjective life satisfaction among urban Malay civil servants in Malaysia: a qualitative study

Quality of life (QOL) has two main dimensions: objective and subjective. Both dimensions are equally important in determining the overall quality of life of a person (Mahadzirah et al., 2008). Hence, a comprehensive measure of people’s life satisfaction should ideally take into account these two dimensions. Empirical data for the measure of quality of life in Malaysia however has largely employed objective indicators (MQLI, 2004) and were used mainly in quantitative research. This situation has left research on subjective life satisfaction or well-being largely unexplored or limited. In light of the above, one may ask: if the MQLI has shown high score on the objective indicators, how far does this score reflect upon the people’s subjective life satisfaction. This study thus focuses on exploring subjective life satisfaction among urban Malay civil servants in Malaysia. Being qualitative in nature, the research is concerned mainly with the emic than the etic views and perspectives (Merriam, 2009). Framed withing a modified Allardt’s model of welfare and MQLI, the study explores the subjective meaning of life satisfaction among the staff members of a Malaysian public university namely Universiti Teknologi MARA or UiTM. Sixteen respondents from four different categories of the University’s administrative staff working at its main campus in Shah Alam, Selangor were engaged in the research. Data collected via in-depth interviews were later verified through written feedback validation (WFV) form. Preliminary findings have shown that the responses centered around two main themes namely satisfying non-living needs and satisfying the living needs with the former being the main priority of the respondents. These findings have significant bearing upon development policy in Malaysia

Social Determinant of Child Maltreatment: Relationship between Collective Efficacy and Child Maltreatment among Community in Petaling Jaya, Selangor

The community has active roles to play to mitigate child maltreatment. In reviewing the Child Abuse and Neglect prevention measurement in Malaysia, the readiness score is relatively at the moderate level based on World Health Organization assessment tools. The primary objective was to assess a relationship between collective efficacy and child maltreatment in Petaling Jaya, Selangor. The cross-sectional and correlational study has been adopted. A sum of 390 questionnaires were disseminated to Petaling Jaya community, particularly those who were married with at minimum one child. The findings have revealed that the social cohesion and child maltreatment possesses a significant relationship (r= 0.111, p<0.05), however informal social control did not indicate any relationship (r= 0.098, p>0.05) with child maltreatment. The findings of this study contribute to several significant contribution. Several suggestions were provided for the Malaysian government to initiate some community approaches in effort to mitigate child maltreatment. It is practically to recommend the government to invigorate the comprehensive policies in fostering the community awareness to exercise their social responsibility in community in addressing the child maltreatment issues.The community awareness enables to enhance proactive involvement in which it could prompt the active action and establish a set of partnership among community group members. Hence, it is able to strengthen the solid protection to increase the resilience of children due to the proactive society to protect the vulnerable children and have zero tolerance on violence against children. &nbsp

The Relationship Between the Impacts of Telecommuting Engagement and Employee Performance in Oil and Gas Industry in Kuantan, Pahang

Telecommuting refers to the work option that enables telecommuters to work outside of the office. It allows telecommuters to have a direct contact with those inside and outside of the organization by using information and communication technologies. Despite the continuous effort by Malaysia’s government, the implementation and occurrence of telecommuting practice in Malaysia had not gained full support from many local companies. Consequently, the Malaysian workforce has suffered from low-level performance and poor productivity due to the lack of flexibility in task accomplishment. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to investigate whether the impacts of telecommuting engagement (i.e. job autonomy, work-family balance, work productivity, and level of occupational stress) lead to employee’s performance. This research aims to identify the most dominant impact of telecommuting engagement that leads to the employee performance. The study has adopted a correlational research and cross-sectional survey research design to explore the relationship between variables. There were 229 respondents who practice telecommuting work arrangement. They were chosen from 11 oil and gas companies located in Kuantan, Pahang. The findings of the study had revealed that all of the telecommuting impacts which consists of the job autonomy, work-family balance, work productivity and level of occupational stress have a significant relationship with the employee performance at r = .923, p < 0.05, r = .734, p < 0.05, r = .817, p < 0.05, and r = .408, p < 005 respectively. Job autonomy was found the most dominant impact of telecommuting engagement that leads to the employee performance with r = .923, p < 0.05. The positive experiences and knowledge possessed by the telecommuters in the oil and gas industry helped to increase the level of motivation and maintain the good mental and physical state of employees. The exercise of the proper balance between the personal and professional life could guarantee the high employees’ performance among the telecommuters. Hence, it is suggested for the government to promote and develop more appropriate policies regarding telecommuting practice in Malaysia. The purpose is to enhance the level of acceptance towards the work arrangement among the local society. Moreover, the active approaches by the government can stimulate the implementation of telecommuting in this country as people will have more proper guidelines to assist the work practices. Telecommuting work arrangement helps to achieve excellent performance in an organization

Systematic Literature Review of Urban Poor Livelihoods in Malaysia

This paper aims to conduct a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) to examine the urban poor livelihood analysis through the lens of Sustainable Livelihood Approach (SLA) in Malaysia. SLA is a widely adopted framework for examining rural livelihoods globally and nationally, however, there are limited studies that have adopted the SLA to examine urban poor household livelihoods. Hence, this paper aims to fill a gap of knowledge on analysing sustainability of urban poor livelihoods in Malaysia. Adopting Transparent Reporting of Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses method known as PRISMA, the results of SLR revealed significant urban livelihood themes are financial, human, social and physical capitals. These findings help policymakers and local support groups in improving the current policies and to enhance the quality of life of the urban poor. Keywords: urban poor livelihoods, Malaysia, systematic literature review, Sustainable Livelihood Approach. eISSN: 2398-4287© 2020. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer-review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/ebpj.v5i14.227

Social Mobility of Orang Asli: Kampung Sungai Raya, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia

Social mobility impacts indigenous people's employment, education, and danger of exclusion. Hence, this study investigate the impact of health, education, work possibilities, social capital, cultural capital, technological access, social security, and area-based factors on indigenous people's social mobility, which previous research has not explored. For data collection, face-to-face interviews are conducted using Google Meet due to COVID-19 Pandemic. The target groups of the study are Orang Asli from Sungai Raya Village. Findings show the importance of social mobility and how the Malaysian government initiative to help the Orang Asli is visible. Keywords: Indigenous people; orang asli; social mobility; socio-economy eISSN: 2398-4287 © 2022. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BYNC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians/Africans/Arabians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/ebpj.v7i19.324

Exploring the state of economic well-being among urban Malay civil servants: a qualitative study

This research aims to explore how the economic well-being affects the subjective well-being (SWB) among the selected respondents who live in the major cities in the Klang Valley, Malaysia. Adopting the Allard's dimensions of welfare, this study explores the subjective meaning of life satisfaction among the administrative personnel of a Malaysian university, namely Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM). Sixteen key informants from four different categories of administrative staff of the University’s main campus in Shah Alam, Selangor were engaged in the researchers’ in-depth interviews. The main findings of this research have shown that the responses centred around the different coping abilities adopted by the urban Malay civil servants to survive life in the urban areas

Determinant of happiness among urban civil servants of Universiti Teknologi MARA, Shah Alam

Since independence in 1957, Malaysia has initiated vigorous socio-economic and other developmental projects in order to raise the well-being and the quality of life of its people. The present study aimed to reveal insights on the reality of life satisfaction among the urban dwellers in Malaysia, particularly the urban civil servants who lived in the major cities in Klang Valley. Adopting the Allardt’s dimensions of welfare, this study explored the subjective meaning of life satisfaction among the administrative staff of a Malaysian university namely Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM). Sixteen key informants from four different categories of administrative staff of the University’s main campus in Shah Alam, Selangor were engaged in the researchers’ in-depth interviews whose inputs were later reinforced and verified through written feedback survey. The NVivo version 9 was employed to analyse the data and the main finding has shown that the responses centered aroun

Economic well-being of selected administrative staff of an urban public university: A qualitative study

The trend of urbanization in Malaysia is increasing and presently sixty-seven percent (67%) of the Malaysia’s population are living in the urban regions. Therefore, the concern over the quality of life of the urban residents becomes more crucial in the Malaysian government’s policy. It can be predicted that the urban population will face greater obstacles in availing the opportunities and coping with the challenges of living in the cities. In this regards, the economic well-being of the urban population is the central aspect affecting their subjective well-being (SWB). Hence, this research aims to explore how the economic well-being affects the subjective well-being (SWB) among the selected respondents who live in the major cities in the Klang Valley, Malaysia. Adopting the Allard's dimensions of welfare, this study explores the subjective meaning of life satisfaction among the administrative personnel of an urban public university, namely Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM). Sixteen key informants from four different categories of administrative staff of the University’s main campus in Shah Alam, Selangor were engaged in the researchers’ in-depth interviews. The main findings of this research have shown that the responses were centred on the coping ability adopted by the UiTM administrative staff to survive life in the urban areas

Subjective life satisfaction among urban Malay civil servants in Malaysia: A qualitative study

Quality of life (QOL) has two main dimensions: objective and subjective. Both dimensions are equally important in determining the overall quality of life of a person (Mahadzirah et al., 2008). Hence, a comprehensive measure of people’s life satisfaction should ideally take into account these two dimensions. Empirical data for the measure of quality of life in Malaysia however has largely employed objective indicators (MQLI, 2004) and were used mainly in quantitative research. This situation has left research on subjective life satisfaction or well-being largely unexplored or limited. In light of the above, one may ask: if the MQLI has shown high score on the objective indicators, how far does this score reflect upon the people’s subjective life satisfaction. This study thus focuses on exploring subjective life satisfaction among urban Malay civil servants in Malaysia. Being qualitative in nature, the research is concerned mainly with the emic than the etic views and perspectives (Merriam, 2009). Framed withing a modified Allardt’s model of welfare and MQLI, the study explores the subjective meaning of life satisfaction among the staff members of a Malaysian public university namely Universiti Teknologi MARA or UiTM. Sixteen respondents from four different categories of the University’s administrative staff working at its main campus in Shah Alam, Selangor were engaged in the research. Data collected via in-depth interviews were later verified through written feedback validation (WFV) form. Preliminary findings have shown that the responses centered around two main themes namely satisfying non-living needs and satisfying the living needs with the former being the main priority of the respondents. These findings have significant bearing upon development policy in Malaysia