The school as learning organization: Some reformation on Malaysian school management system

To move Malaysia towards a fully developed country by the year 2020 as aimed by the “Vision 2020”, will be victorious if systemic changes take place in Malaysian school management system.Indeed, Malaysian schools needs to expand and learn continuously at a higher or equal rate of any changes that occurs in this technological world that are changing rapidly.To be a part of the nations success, Malaysian schools need to be driven from traditional management practices into the learning organization paradigm.Without a doubt schools in Malaysia can adapt to the changes in a natural way by addressing the importance of being learning organizations where continuous learning will be the main ingredient.The smart school and vision school concepts introduced by the government shows a positive indicator that Malaysian schools have the potential to become learning organizations.This paper attempts to address the five disciplines of learning organization which are crucial to sculpt Malaysian schools into learning organizations

Job satisfaction of secondary school teachers in Tawau, Sabah

In order for the teachers to function effectively in a school system, it is important that teachers need to seek satisfaction and happiness not only in the intrinsic aspects of teaching job but also in other dimensions related to the teacher work experience in the wider social environment. This paper examines the level and differences in the job satisfaction of 200 Sabah secondary school teachers with respect to the various teachers characteristics identified as gender, service category, job title, tenure and place of origin. Data was collected through survey questionnaire. The finding reveals that secondary school teachers in Tawau, Sabah are generally satisfied with their job. There is significant relationship between job satisfaction and gender, whereby the male teachers are generally more satisfied than female teachers. The graduate teachers are more satisfied than non-graduate teachers. The higher ranking teachers are more satisfied than the ordinary teachers. Also, older teachers are more satisfied than younger teachers. However, there is no significant relationship between places of origin of teachers with job satisfaction. Based on the findings, several recommendations are proposed

Managerial learning from the perspectives of individual and organization level learning.

The purpose of this research paper is to empirically investigate managerial learning from the perspective of individual and organization level learning by managers in the organizations they work for. On the premise that all organizations are learning organizations this research draws upon the data collected using an instrument developed by Moilanen (2001b) in a Malaysian scenario. Analysis of the data collected on whether there was significance difference between individual and organization level learning led to a decisive conclusion that the managers feel strongly that most learning in the organization they work for was at the individual rather than at organization level. This decisive conclusion, using stringent statistical analysis, has deep implication in that learning by managers must relate to the overall development and sustainment in building their organization as learning organizations, and not for benefits at micro level with individual effort or interpersonal level. Some suggestions are given for overall development of the learning organization through managerial learning

Adjustment amongst first year students in a Malaysian University

Based on the adjustment model by Baker and Siryk (1984), this study aimed to explore college adjustment processes experienced by 250 first year university students who were attending various undergraduate programmes in a Malaysian public university. In addition it examined the role of gender in college adjustment and the impact of college adjustment on students’ academic achievement. The study employed a correlation design and data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics to address the research objectives. Findings from this study showed that students’ overall adjustment was at a moderate level and male students were found to be better adjusted compared to female students. Results indicated that throughout a period of one semester, students’ academic achievement was found to be significantly predicted by college overall adjustment, academic adjustment, and personal-emotional adjustment

The influence of socio-demographic factors on work performance among employees of government agricuture agencies in Malaysia.

Work performance has been identified as the significant key for organizations to gain competitive advantage and superior productivity. Thus, this study intends to discover what exactly affect work performance among employees of government agriculture agencies in Malaysia. A total of 180 employees were selected as the respondents for this study. The respondents were chosen from ten government agriculture agencies in Malaysia. From the ANOVA and independent t-test conducted, type of residential house was found to have significant difference with work performance while Pearson Correlation employed indicated that age, working experience and gross monthly salary has significant and positive relationship with work performance

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

Training and education program as a major determinant of quality improvement in Malaysian electrical and electronics industry

Organizations that are committed to quality improvement invest heavily in training and education (T&Ed) program of their employees. T&Ed program is therefore becomes an important aspect in the human resource management. The aim of the paper is to examine the influence of training and education program on quality improvement in 255 Electrical and Electronics (E&E) firms in Malaysia. The findings reveal that quality improvement in the Malaysian electrical and electronics industries are significantly influenced by training and education. Thus, this study has empirically shown that quality improvement will increase when the firms implement more training and educational programs

The moderating effect of geographical scope on the relationship between managers' prior international knowledge and working experience and international performance in the Malaysian halal food industry

This study investigates the moderating effects of geographical scope level (measured by number of regional bases) on the relationship between managers' prior international knowledge and working experience and international performance among small and medium enterprises in the Malaysian Halal Food Industry. Previous studies have stressed that experiential knowledge is an essential resource for a firm's internationalization process from both the traditional Stage Theory based on incremental and international entrepreneurship on born global rapid internationalization perspectives. Unfortunately, most of the studies did not empirically investigate the influence of scope level as a moderator on the relationship between international performance and managers' prior international knowledge and working experience. The findings of this study reveal that firms that export regionally (lower scope) have lower experiential knowledge and international performance compared to firms that export globally (higher scope). As a result, there are differences in terms of the internal capability among these two types of small and medium enterprises as a source of their competitive advantage in foreign markets

The influence of work-family factors on the relationship between job autonomy and intention to stay among single mothers in Malaysia.

Employee turnover has been a major concern among researchers in human resource development (HRD) area since it has negative impact on organization. This study was conducted to test the mediating effects of work-family facilitation and family satisfaction on the relationship between job autonomy as the independent variable and intention to stay as the dependent variable. By using self-administered research questionnaire, data was collected from 240 middle age single mother employees. Samples were determined through simple random sampling method whereby six out of 24 single mother associations were selected to obtain research samples. Descriptive statistical analysis was conducted to describe the respondents. Pearson Product Moment Correlation was used to determine the relationships among variables and Structural Equation Modeling using AMOS version 16.0 was utilized for model testing and to verify the presence of mediation effects. Then the Soble’s z-test was used to test whether the mediators carry the effect of the independent variables on the dependent variable. The findings indicated that there were positive and negative relationships among variables. The results also established the presence of mediation effects between the independent and dependent variables. Organizations may utilize work-family facilitation and family satisfaction as mechanisms to promote longer retention among employees

Mediating effects of work-family factors in the relationship between organizational characteristics and intention to stay.

Employee attrition has been a major concern among researchers in human resource development (HRD) area since it has negative impact on organization. This study was conducted to test the mediating effects of work-family facilitation and family satisfaction on the relationship between organizational characteristics as the independent variables and intention to stay as the dependent variable. By using self-administered research questionnaire, data was collected from 240 single mother employees age 45 and below and having at least one child. Samples were selected through simple random sampling method whereby six out of 24 single mother associations were selected to obtain research samples. Descriptive statistical analysis was conducted to describe the respondents. Pearson Product Moment Correlation was used to determine the relationships among variables and Structural Equation Modeling using AMOS version 16.0 was utilized for model testing and to verify the presence of mediation effects. Then the Soble’s z-test was used to test whether the mediators carry the effect of the independent variables on the dependent variable. The findings indicated that there were positive and negative significant relationships among variables. The results also established the presence of mediation effects between the independent and dependent variables. Organizations may utilize organizational factors along with work-family facilitation and family satisfaction as mechanisms to promote longer retention among employees