Development of employability skills assessment tool for manufacturing industry

Mastering employability skills is one of the global problems which employers are facing with graduates or their future employees. Various research on employability skills have been conducted nationally and internationally and it was found that many technical graduates nowadays are lack of employability skills rather than technical skills. The main goal of this research is to develop an employability skill assessment tool using the Kepner-Tregoe (K-T) method in which weight factor is set. Samples for this research consisted of 107 employers from five types of Malaysian manufacturing industry. The results showed that employers in all five categories of manufacturing industry are in consensus on the importance for all seven of the employability skills. These skills were ranked as follows; interpersonal skills, thinking skills, personal qualities/values, resource skills, system and technology skills, basic skills and informational skills. From these means, an employability skills assessment tool was developed using the K-T Method and an Employability Skills Assessment Tool Development Model was produce

Service quality as an antecedent in enhancing customers’ behavioural intentions: a case study of Malaysian army medical centers

Behavioural intention is a customer preference to use services provided by service providers and this preference manifests itself in the form of the customer’s readiness to recommend, intention to repurchase, and deliver positive words of mouth regarding the services provided. This has a lot to do with the ability of providers to effectively offer services which are not only tangible but also reliable, responsive, reassuring, and empathic. Extant studies in this field reveal that the ability of service providers to appropriately deliver these qualities in performing daily job may have a significant impact on customers’ behavioural intentions. Even though this relationship has been studied widely the role of service quality as an important antecedent has been relatively ignored in current organizational quality research literature. In this light, this study was undertaken to measure the relationship between service quality and behavioural intention. Primary data were gathered from 128 customers and eleven administrative staff and doctors of the military hospitals in Peninsular Malaysia. The outcome of a SmartPLS path model analysis confirmed that the ability of organizations to properly implement quality in medical services would enhance the intention of customers to continuously use the services

Interlinkages between service quality, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty in Malaysia: a case study of Armed Forces Medical Organizations

Although conceptually viewed as abstract and elusive service quality is an important ingredient in quality management, marketing and organizational studies as evidenced by the appearance of various models dealing with it. The Parasuraman et al. (1985, 1988, 1991, 1994) SERVQUAL model conceives of effective service quality as comprising five core components: tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy. This study was conducted to measure the relationship between service quality, customer satisfaction and customers’ loyalty. Selfreport questionnaires were used to collect data from customers who received treatments at the armed forces health organizations in Peninsular Malaysia. The outcomes of SmartPLS path model analysis demonstrated that the ability of organization to appropriately implement tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy in performing daily job had strongly invoked customer satisfaction, which in turn might lead to enhanced customers’ loyalty. Nevertheless, future research in this field should consider exploring further individual similarities and differences in influencing the implementation of service quality by organizations, other research designs that can better describe the patterns of change and the direction and magnitude of causal relationships amongst variables of interest, the need for more diverse organizations to be involved, other specific technical and environmental qualities as an important link between service quality and many aspects of customer outcomes, and the use of a larger sample sizes

"Thematic concern" analysis in the process of developing cost management skills curriculum

Although the Malaysian government has already provided various entrepreneurial training programmes, Malaysian SME owner managers still lack entrepreneurial skills.Among the important skills that are still lacking are cost management skills.Thus, the current research attempts to develop cost management skills curriculum using action research approach.Action research approach is a cyclical process of planning, acting, observing and reflecting.According to several studies, the planning stage is the most critical stage of the action research cycle. At the planning stage or “thematic concern” stage, the problem or situation that needs to be improved must be clearly analysed.Hence, this paper discusses in detail the “thematic concern" analysis in developing cost management skills curriculum for SME training programmes in Malaysia.This paper triangulates various data sources, such as interviews and other secondary data. Among the important findings of this paper are SME owner managers in Malaysia still lack cost management skills knowledge.Furthermore, entrepreneurial training programmes also lack curriculum related to cost management skills

Buruh kanak-kanak di Malaysia menurut perspektif undang-undang

Penggunaan buruh di Kalangan kanak-kanak pengeksploitasian ke atasnya berbeza antara satu negara dengan yang lain. Negara-negara yang mempunyai populasi yang tinggi serta taraf kemiskinan yang melampau menyaksikan lebih ramai kanak-kanak yang keluar bekerja. Di India misalnya, bilangan pekerja di kalangan kanak-kanak menghampiri atau kemungkinan lebih tinggi daripada keseluruhan populasi rakyat Malaysia(Rasamani,1995). Masalah buruh di kalangan kanak-kanak dan orang muda di Malaysia merupakan isu yang sering diperbahaskan.Walaupun peruntukan undang-undang ada mengenainya, terdapat majikan yang mengambil kesempatan dan golongan kanak-kanak ini menjadi mangsa pengeksploitasian pihak yang tidak bertanggungjawab. Artikel ini akan membincangkan secara ringkas senario buruh kanak-kanak di negara kita serta perkembangan undang-undang berkaitan buruh kanak-kanak di Malaysia hingga kini

Learning to Read in English in Standard One: Some Major Difficulties of National Primary School Pupils

Bacaan Bahasa lnggeris lazimnya tidak diajar sebagai satu matapelajaran sekolah rendah di Malaysia tetapi diajar sebagai satu aktiviti kaedah mengajar Bahasa lnggeris. Oleh demikian seorang murid dalam darjah satu di Sekolah Rendah Kebangsaan akan menghadapi beberapa masalah semasa ia mula belajar membaca da1am Bahasa lnggeris. Masalah-masalah utama tersebut adalah (I) penguasaan bahasa ibunda serentak dengan Bahasa lnggeris; (2) penguasaan mekanisme membaca; (3) kesesuaian kaedah mengajar guru; (4) kesesuaian alat membantu baca dan latihan bacaan; (5) jenis buku teks dan (6) persediaan murid untuk membaca

The relationship between organisational competitive advantage and performance moderated by the age and size of firms

It has been argued that achieving a position of competitive advantage is a necessary precursor to a firm's significant performance. This paper will empirically examine the potential moderating variables that could affect the relationship between a firm's competitive advantage and performance, namely the firms' age and size. By examining the relative moderating effects of these variables, this paper delivers valuable information to firms, specifically with regard to strategic management directed toward performance and attaining a competitive advantage. This research was conducted among 127 manufacturers listed in the 2008 Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers Directory. A cross-sectional study was conducted using a structured questionnaire to obtain responses from the manufacturers. A two-way ANOVA shows that only the age of firms is a significant moderator in the relationship between competitive advantage and performance, and that this relationship is stronger for older firms. The size of firms does not significantly moderate the relationship between competitive advantage and performance. Despite the non-significant moderating effect of firms' size, overall, this study provides empirical support for the Resource-Based View (RBV) of Malaysian manufacturers regarding the issue of competitive advantage

Jury review

This project is about fruits that are found in Malaysia and outsidethe country. Fruits are commonly perceived as edible and fit for human consumption. This exhibition shows that fruits are more than just this simple notion. It reveals not only the simplicity of looks alone but also the science behind it together with complexity inherent within many species of fruits. There are more than just the Latin names of fruits that falls within the science of taxonomy. There are genetic materials which are coded and passed down from generations which got entangled with evolutionary processes and hence altering them to become new species and varieties. Some fruits are also associated with insects for pollination and thus some peculiar looking fruits like the figs exist in nature

Relationship Between Service Quality and Behavioral Intentions: the Mediating Effect of Customer Satisfaction

This study was undertaken to measure the relationship between service quality, customer satisfaction and behavioral intentions. A survey method was employed to collect data from customers who received treatments at army medical organizations in Malaysia. The outcomes of Smart-PLS path model analysis confirmed that relationship between service qualities features (tangible, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy) with customer satisfaction were positively and significantly correlated with behavioral intentions. This result demonstrates that effect of tangible, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy on behavioral intentions was mediated by customer satisfaction.DOI: 10.15408/etk.v16i2.553

Pengaruh Latihan Bercirikan Ketenteraan Keatas Pembangunan Prestasi Pekerja: Organisasi Sektor Awam di Malaysia

Latihan di tempat kerja merupakan faktor kritikal dalam meningkatkan kekuatan sumber manusia khususnya pembentukan prestasi pekerja. Pengurusan sumber manusia yang optimis akan memastikan latihan tersebut memberi impak yang positif. Namun begitu, kebanyakan latihan yang dilaksanakan di kebanyakan organisasi sektor awam masih di tahap yang memuaskan. Justeru, kajian ini dijalankan bagi mengkaji pengaruh latihan bercirikan modul ketenteraan keatas pembangunan modal insan di Kementerian Pertahanan, Malaysia. Kaedah pengumpulan data daripada borang soal selidik yang diedarkan kepada 92 responden menggunakan formula Taro Yamanae. Prestasi pekerja berasaskan modul ketenteraan dianalisis berdasarkan analisis kebolehpercayaan, ujian kenormalan, analisis deskriptif, analisis kolerasi dan analisis regresi linear menggunakan Statistical Package for Social Sciences. Daripada ujian kenormalan, data Skewness dan Kurtosis bertabur secara normal yang menunjukkan nilai kepencongan berada dalam lingkungan 2.0 titik cut-off. Analisis deskriptif menunjukkan taburan kekerapan tahap prestasi pekerja pada tahap tertinggi bersamaan 90.32 peratus. Melalui analisis kolerasi, penggunaan modul ketenteraan mempunyai kolerasi yang tinggi. Analisis regresi linear turut menunjukkan terdapat hubungan yang signifikan antara modul ketenteraan terhadap prestasi pekerja khususnya dari aspek kerjasama sepasukan. Justeru, latihan berasaskan modul ketenteraan berupaya melatih mental dan fizikal pekerja awam khususnya mengurangkan tekanan bekerja dalam organisasi. Malah, perkembangan kognitif dan psikomotor pekerja amat bersesuaian dengan skop kerja dengan latihan tersebut. Pelaksanaan latihan bercirikan ketenteraan secara holistik telah memberi impak yang positif dalam pencapaian matlamat, misi dan visi organisasi sekali gus mengoptimumkan sumbangan modal insan memacu wawasan negara yang berjaya