Can quality of work life affect work performance among Government Agriculture Extension Officers? a case from Malaysia

The importance of agriculture industry in enhancing the country economy cannot be denied. Recently, a total of USD 1.7 billion has been allocated by the government to boost this industry. Beside of this huge allocation, do the policy implementers which are the agriculture extension officers have adequate work performance to carry out the responsibility given to them? Approach: This study would like to discover whether quality of work life among the agriculture extension employee do have impact their work performance or not. It is necessary to estimate quality of work life function in enhancing work performance, analyze the most important factor and variables on this work performance. The instruments used for collecting data were: A scale on individual and family life, a scale on safety and security on the organization, a scale on interpersonal relationship in the organization, a scale on job satisfaction, a scale on organizational policies and management style, a scale on personnel health and well being, a scale on work environment, a scale on remuneration and a scale on organizational support. The data were analyzed PASW software. Results: Results depict that all of the nine qualities of work life studied have significant and positive relationship with work performance where the highest relationship occurred between individual and family life with work performance. Multiple regression analysis demonstrated that five factors which are individual and family life, job satisfaction, organization policy and management style, work environment and remuneration are the main contributors to work performance among government agricultural extension employees. Conclusion / Recommendations: From the results gained, it can be concluded that aspect of individual and family life is the highest contributor to work performance among government agriculture extension officer. It can be noted that more courses on how to manage individual and family life should be intensified. A specific counseling department should be established within agriculture agencies in Malaysia. From this study, it is recommended for the future researchers to investigate more on the influence of individual and family life on work performance and work satisfaction in Malaysia

Socio-economic impact potential of agro tourism activities on Desa Wawasan Nelayan community living in Peninsular Malaysia

Agro-tourism is a tool that has been widely used around the world for the purpose of intensifying the socio-economic aspects of the local community. Malaysia is supportive of this tool. The main objective of this paper is to unveil the potential socio-economic benefits that can be offered by the agro-tourism activities to progressive fishing communities or locally known as Desa Wawasan Nelayan1 community in Malaysia. Data were gathered through document analyses. The qualitative studies concluded that agro-tourism can be the impetus for sustainable development of Desa Wawasan Nelayan community.The benefits include enhancing their social empowerment system, strengthening their social ties and developing their social skills and relationships, increasing the income of local community, diversifying and intensifying the economic activities, providing job opportunities and alleviation of poverty. Thus, agro-tourism has the potential to raise the consciousness of the selected community regarding sustainable development

An analysis on work happiness among university staff in a Malaysian context

Much had been mentioned about workplace happiness as it is poised to enhance productivity and organizational development. It was identified that little empirical evidence is available on the level of happiness among university staff. Thus, this study investigates the happiness index of a public university in Malaysia. A total of 856 university staff both academic and non-academic participated in this study. Previous literature and a nominal group technique method were used to develop the instrument of the study. Overall, the findings showed that the happiness index stood at 70.19 indicating generally the staff are happy working in the university. The study suggests that to further enhance happiness among university staff emphasis should be placed to improve on communications, infrastructure, and human resource management

The Quality of Life of Muar River Community and Socio-economic Factors That Impinge it

Abstract: Quality of life is indeed an important contributor for rural community development in Malaysia and this study would like to investigate the quality of life of the community who are living near to the one of the major rivers in Malaysia; The Muar River. This is a quantitative study, through a simple random sampling, a total of 150 people who live near to Muar River have been selected as the respondents. To gain the data needed, respondents were questioned through face to face interviews based on the developed and tested questionnaire. The results indicated that Muar River community has a high level of quality of life. Further analysis has revealed that aspect of home conditions and social involvement and relationship recorded the highest scores. Inferential analyses performed through ANOVA and Pearson product-moment correlation have revealed that income was the only factor that has a significant difference and significant relationship with quality of life. It is suggested that income generating activities such as boat renting, hotel, home-stay and local product shops be established along Muar River. Furthermore, responsible ministries and agencies can promote and advertise Muar River as one of the main tourism attractions in Malaysia