Convergent aims of collaborative partnership in a sustainable community service organisation to empower underprivileged children

The purpose of this study is to address the issue: to what extents do different collaborative partners in a sustainable community service organisation have similar aims?The stakeholders involved in this study including the service organisation (key stakeholder), corporate and government bodies, non-governmental organisations, orphanage administrators, and volunteers. Interviews with the selected participants from each group of the stakeholders were conducted to gain the understanding regarding what they considered as their aim or focus in carrying out their collaborative efforts with the service organisation.The findings also included a review of the available documents. Based on the responses, this paper discusses various perspectives of the stakeholders which do not provide an agreement across all stakeholders on what they considered as their aims or focus of collaboration but they intersected with the key stakeholder’s aims.This challenges the notion that the partners in a collaborative partnership setting have to develop and be clear of the common aim of the collaborative partnership prior to collaboration.This case study was done in Malaysia within the context of a particular community service organisation for children. Future research may be conducted on the similar issue in different contexts

Engaging underprivileged children in collaborative partnership via a curriculum

Curriculum is one of the collaborative partnership strategies used in the community efforts to develop the underprivileged children in Malaysia.This curriculum was developed by the community members to assist community partnership efforts to impart ICT knowledge and skills, personal development elements, and encourage learners to contribute to the society via a CSP.Based on the available documents, this paper examines how the curriculum is able to bring the stakeholders together in the collaborative partnerships, and how underprivileged children are engaged in the efforts.This analysis will focus on the distinctive conjunction of personal development, ICT, and community service elements in the curriculum

Establishing long-term partnership to achieve effective partnering. Is it necessary?

One of the issues in sustaining collaborative partnerships involves the drivers of change and transformation in the process. In particular to this study, various factors have gradually transformed the collaborative partnership activities in the quest for sustaining the collaborative efforts to empower children in orphanages. The paper seeks to explain one of the factors considering the significant discussion among the stakeholders regarding their perspectives on whether long-term partnership is valuable. Using a qualitative case study design, this study uses two methods of data collection with interview as the main method, supported by document review. The data collected were analysed thematically and the findings from the interviews were compared to the findings from documents reviewed. Later the findings are placed alongside the findings of the previous studies from the literature reviewed in the discussions. Based on the interview responses of 24 participants from five stakeholder groups in this collaborative setting and the review of available documents, the findings mainly revealed that partnerships are mostly pragmatics and programme based. Diverse views are given in considering the importance of partnerships to be sustained over a long period in order to be effective. This challenges the common notion that long-term commitment or relationships are needed for effective partnerships

Youth online political participation: the role of Facebook use, interactivity, quality information and political interest

Communication is an important aspect of organizational dynamic process and it is irrefutable one of the critical success factors of the Total Quality Management (TQM) implementation. Although there are increasing awareness concerning the importance of internal organizational communication, knowledge appears to have rarely translated into practice or there is lack of guidance to effectively practicing it.Therefore, a study was proposed to investigate the pattern of internal communication practice in TQM implementation.This paper concerns on focusing into internal communication practices in TQM implementation factors and the communication patterns in terms of message forms and mediums of communication to convey TQM messages.Reliability and Factor analysis were carried out to confirm items that form each factor in internal communication in TQM implementation.Based on the analysis of survey questionnaires distributed to 104 large manufacturing companies implementing TQM in Malaysia, it was found that there are certain communication patterns practice by the management when conveying and disseminating TQM messages, but they have no specific guidelines.Therefore, the internal communication practices are not well planned.Finally, it is suggested that further research should be carried out to explain clearly the role and strategy of communication on this issue in order to boost the success of TQM implementation particularly in manufacturing company

Penerimaan dan kebolehpercayaan berita dalam talian (on-line)

Kajian eksploratori ini menganalisis tahap kebolehpercayaan berita dalam talian (on-line). Sejumlah 600 pelajar institusi pengajian tinggi telah terlibat dalam kajian ini. Tahap kebolehpercayaan berita on-line ini telah dinilai dengan menggunakan instrument Gaziano and McGrath News Credibility Scale. Hasil kajian menunjukkan bahawa perolehan berita secara on-line adalah ditahap rendah. Walau bagaimanapun dari segi tahap kepercayaan terhadap berita on-line dapat disimpulkan sebagai sederhana. Selain itu faktor-faktor demografi juga didapati tidak menunjukkan nilai yang signifikan dengan kebolehpercayaan berita on-line

Kredibiliti berita akhbar, televisyen, radio dan berita dalam talian

Kajian ini meninjau hubungan di antara kredibiliti berita dengan tahap penerimaan berita. Sejumlah 1779 responden yang terdiri daripada pelajar institusi pengajian tinggi awam Malaysia telah menyertai soal selidik kajian ini. Secara umumnya tahap kredibiliti berita telah dinilai sebagai berada di tahap sederhana. Hasil ujian korelasi menunjukkan bahawa wujudnya hubungan yang signifikan di antara kredibiliti berita dengan tahap penerimaan berita di negera ini bagi berita yang disiarkan oleh akhbar, radio dan televisyen. Namun tidak ada hubungan yang signifikan terhadap penerimaan berita dalam talian (on-line) dengan tahap kredibiliti berita. Selain itu kajian juga mendapati bahawa wujud perbezaan tahap kredibiliti berita berdasarkan aspek demografi. Jantina, bangsa dan bidang pengajian dikenalpasti ada menunjukkan perbezaan terhadap tahap kredibiliti berita. Turut diteliti dalam kajian ini ialah dimensi-dimensi yang menyumbang ke arah tahap kredibiliti berita berdasarkan saluran berita, jenis dan kategori berita

Emotional intelligence and demographic differences among students in public universities

Emotional intelligence is the grassroots of all intelligence dimensions. It provides individuals with the ability to understand one’s own emotions, managing it and hopefully be able to understand other people emotions as well.The purpose of this research is to determine the emotional intelligence level of Malaysian university students from demographic aspects (gender, academic background, place of residence, academic courses and cumulative grade point average (CGPA). The importance of studying emotional intelligence in students is imperative since it indicates other competencies such as communication and interpersonal relations. A total of 3101 final year students from 10 public universities were randomly chosen as samples. The Bar-On Emotional Quotient Inventory: Short (EQ-i:S) by Bar-On (1997) has been utilized for the purpose of measuring emotional intelligence. Scores were categorized into high and low emotional intelligence level. Results were analyzed based on demographic factors such as gender, academic background, place of residence, academic courses and cumulative grade point average (CGPA).It was found that in general, majority of students were quite low in terms of emotional intelligence.Other demographic factors showed varying results.This study implicates that more should be done in higher learning institutions to alleviate and enhance students’ emotional intelligence

Sustaining collaborative partnerships in an ICT-based community service organisation to empower children in orphanages: perspectives from multiple stakeholders

Theoretical thesis.Bibliography: pages 261-273.Chapter One. Overview of the study -- Chapter Two. Community service organisations in a Malaysian context -- Chapter Three. Sustaining collaborative partnership : a review of the literature -- Chapter Four. Research design and methodology -- Chapter Five. The drivers of change and transformation of the collaborative partnership in a longstanding community service organisation -- Chapter Six. Challenges of maintaining collaborative partnership in a longstanding community service organisation -- Chapter Seven. Discussion and conclusion.This thesis aims to discover, from the perspective of multiple stakeholders, how collaborative partnership survives over the long-term. This aim is addressed through a case study of a community service organisation focussing on ICT use by orphanage communities in the developing country of Malaysia. This case study will identify factors that influence the development and sustainability of collaborative partnerships. A wide-ranging literature exists around collaborative partnerships with multiple stakeholders, especially between profit making organisations and government. While research on collaborative partnerships between non-profit organisations is emerging, this work is most established in developed countries such as the USA and UK, with little written about community based service organisations outside Europe and the US. This thesis addresses this gap.Beginning as a community group initiative in April 1998 and later developing into non-profit service organisation, CyberCare, the organisation which is the focus of this case study, worked collaboratively towards a vision of bridging the digital divide and improving the lives of the children in orphanages. Many collaborative partnerships begin as small scale and grow progressively larger. In contrast, this partnership rapidly became a nationwide e-community project with strong support from government and major corporations. Under the umbrella of a non-profit service organisation group, CyberCare has linked children in 90 orphanages throughout the country online and came to be perceived as one of the successful e-community projects in the country. However, in the process, this collaboration faced challenges that required it to reduce scale and find ways to survive. These decisions included becoming independent, in 2009, from a network of well-established service organisations.This study identifies drivers of change in collaborative partnerships, and maps stakeholders’ perspectives on challenges across collaborative partnership. A qualitative case study design is used in this research, using the methods of document review, participant observation of two programmes, and interviews with 58 participants from seven stakeholder groups: the community service organisation; government; corporations; non-governmental organisations (NGOs); orphanage administrators; volunteers; and children. The data collected were analysed and triangulated with the aid of NVIVO, qualitative analysis software.While the existing literature on collaborative partnerships stresses the importance of a shared vision at the foundation of a project, this research suggests that sustainable partnerships may be grounded on objectives shared by pairs of partners, rather than agreement across all partnerships. Equally, the case study suggests that pragmatic rather than strategic motives are drivers for the establishment of and direction of partnerships. Much of the literature also studies collaboration from a managerial perspective which deals specifically with governance issues rather than a whole of community perspective which considers the views of multiple stakeholders.The findings of this thesis provide a rich evidence base reflecting the challenges and benefits of collaborative partnership and divergent understandings of key concepts including partnership, sustainability, achievement, and volunteering. Financial, human resources, and time management emerge as the crucial challenges in sustaining the community efforts, leading to tensions between community organisations and business or government funders. This thesis also makes a contribution to academic accounts of the role of information technology in community development, by tracing the changing understandings within the collaborative partnership of the links between personal development, ICT skills, and community service. The evolution of this collaborative partnership emphasises the possibility of transformation within such relationships, and suggests mechanisms for sustaining partnerships during such transformations.Mode of access: World wide web1 online resource (xx, 334 pages

Communication and nurturing to sustain collaborative partnership

One of the major challenges of sustaining collaborative partnership in a longstanding community service organisation in the study involves ambiguous communication and cultural constrains among the stakeholders which due to the lack of communication and nurturing in the relationships. Based on the responses of multiple stakeholders, this paper brings forward the discussion on the need for communication and nurturing, the aspects which importance is commonly known but often being disregarded in the collaborative settings