Disclosure of Shariah compliance by Malaysian takaful companies

Purpose: This paper seeks to explore the disclosure of Shariah compliance as reported by the Shariah Committee (SC) in the annual reports of takaful companies in Malaysia. Disclosure of Shariah compliance is important in enhancing and protecting the Islamic identity of takaful operators, thereby providing Muslims with an alternative insurance system. The paper also aims to discuss whether the advisory role constrains the SC members to improve disclosure which can boost consumers' confidence and companies' accountability. Both confidence and accountability on Shariah compliance would also help promote Malaysia as an Islamic financial centre. Design/methodology/approach: Content analysis of the SCs' reports in the 2008/2009 annual reports of seven takaful operators in Malaysia were conducted and the findings discussed with three officers from Bank Negara Malaysia (Central Bank of Malaysia). Subsequent to the discussion, the findings were further clarified and confirmed with a former member of the SC through e-mail correspondence. Findings: Disclosure of Shariah compliance by the SC reflects high conformance to the Bank Negara Malaysia guidelines. Although the high level of conformance promotes comparability, it does not necessarily fully address disclosure issues such as providing adequate and relevant information. Shariah compliance by takaful companies seems to develop in much the same manner as other disclosure practices, that is, a tendency to comply with rules rather than with principles. Related to the disclosure issue, SC members are constrained by the advisory role and part-time basis of appointment from fully participating in every stage of product process from its conception to its implementation. Research limitations/implications: The paper relies heavily on Shariah compliance reported by the SC in the annual reports of takaful companies. Nonetheless, findings were confirmed with three officers from Bank Negara Malaysia and with a former member of the SC to enhance the findings' credibility. In future, interviews can be conducted with other stakeholders such as takaful managers, Islamic academics and members of the SC to better understand the nature of disclosure practices by takaful companies. Practical implications: Insights drawn from this study suggest the need to enhance disclosure on Shariah compliance in the SC reports and to further strengthen the role of the SC members. As Shariah governance mechanisms, both the SC reports and SC members can be utilised to enhance the identity of Islamic businesses and fulfils the religious obligations. Originality/value: This paper highlights the need for increased transparency through adequate and relevant disclosure of Shariah compliance information in the SC report of takaful companies. It also raises the concern that the advisory role entrusted to SC members might not be adequate for them to effectively ensure that compliance with Shariah principles are adhered to at all times as expected by Bank Negara Malaysia

Factors that contribute to obesity problem among UTHM catering student

Negative perception by the society and the hospitality industry toward the disabled people is very high and it has to be changed and this parties should be given opportunity to work in this industry. Rosli, et al (2011) states the acceptance in the small and medium industries towards the disabled is at moderate level. However, in 2005, Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia (KPTM) has initiated Polytechnic Ibrahim Sultan, Johor Bahru conduct a pioneer program to produce graduates with disabilities (OKU) with hearing impairments for a career in the hotel industry. Related to the situation, some lecturers were sent to attend sign language courses for the preparation for the program, some facilities were updated to fit their needs. To this present Polytechnic Ibrahim Sultan, Johor Bahru has produced hundreds of OKU graduates. It is hope that the graduates produced from this program could reduce the number of foreign worker working in the industry. Dependence on foreign workers should be reduced because there are almost 2.6 million people with special needs in Malaysia. Some of them have been able to pursue their studies to diploma and Bachelor degrees. Through the development of education they are participated in, it is hoped that they will also contribute to the country's economy. The Government of Malaysia is in the effort to transform employers' perceptions towards this group to be more positive. Thus, several initiatives or benefits had been made by the Government of Malaysia to attract more government link companies (GLC) and private firms to hire people from this group. However there are also some challenges and obstacles faced by the industry in accepting these graduates at their company. Taheing (1996) states that in its study it has been able to identify problems that limit the employment of disabled persons including physiological factors, disability due to defects, occupational types, gender factors, workplace environment, personality, illness and other disabilities. This is a challenge and obstacle faced by the employer in hiring the disabled graduates in their industry. Therefore, the industry is highly concerned with the selection of highly capable employees in helping to increase profits to the company

Employability skills for hospitality students in Malaysia

Malaysia needs high skilled workforce to support growth of the industry. With dynamically changing job market and progressive technological change, employees are expected to keep abreast of global economics. In the process of achieving the status of developed nation by the year 2020, Malaysia needs to restructure its workforce to ensure that middle level workers are highly skilled. Current job environment demands multi-task and skills. Thus, university graduates must be prepared to meet the demand especially in the hospitality industry. The purpose of this study is to identify the level of employability skills in the hospitality field. This research applied quantitative methodology. The respondents consist of final year students in bakery and culinary programme. Stratified sampling was used to select students in hospitality programs from 22 vocational colleges in Malaysia. Questionnaires were distributed to 841 students in five regions which are Central, South, North, East and East Malaysia (Sarawak) in Malaysia. Descriptive analysis was used to analyse the quantitative data. The results showed that the level of hospitality employability skills among vocational students in Malaysia were at high level of competence (93.2%). The research has brought meaningful implications for hospitality vocational students, employers and policy makers

Stories of accounting change during financial reform of public enterprises

This paper analytically compares five commercially-oriented public enterprises from different countries which were subjected to the process of accounting and organisational changes in order to become profitable. The five case studies were selected for their attention to the importance of context, and to the process of how and why accounting evolved, interpreted and used within specific organisations. A comparison of the insights drawn from these case stories allows some possible lessons to be learnt and parallels to be drawn. The comparison reveals that the process of organisational change through accounting is complex and may not always evolve as an influential and effective means of altering behaviour and accepted ways of thinking. One vital lesson is that accounting change is implicated with various other non-technical issues such as environmental pressures, culture or ways of thinking, power and trust

Role of accounting in a corporatised public organisation intertwined issues of accountability and trust / Nor Aziah Abu Kasim

This paper presents an in-depth case study of a Malaysian public utility undergoing reform to transform itself into a self-financing, and profitable organisation during corporatisation. As profitability became increasingly important, attempts to enhance profitability were made through imposing new budgeting rules and recruiting new accounting graduates. An explanatory case study method, using mainly semi-structured interviews was adopted. The theoretical framework for understanding the process of implementing accounting change, the context in which change unfolded and the emerging consequences of change is based on the insights of new institutional sociology (Meyer and Rowan, 1977). The findings reveal that accounting changes were enacted, but over time became separated from, or loosely coupled with, other intra-organisational concerns. The top-down manner in which the budget targets was imposed by the accountants created tensions and constraints, changes in power relations and a climate of lack of trust. The explanations on the emergence of loosely coupled budget enrich our understanding of why budgeting changes are enacted but the budget is used as rituals for requesting funds rather than for planning and guiding operational decisions

Unravelling tertiary students’ ownership, usage, attitudes and preferences of mobile devices as tools for M-learning

Throughout educational institutions around the globe, mobile learning (M-learning) has become a growing field of practice and studies. The number of students that have access to mobile devices is also increasing from time to time. The purpose of this research is to determine the students’ present ownership and usage of mobile devices, find out the students’ attitudes towards the application of M-learning, and discover their preferences in the use of mobile devices for learning Academic English in future. A total of 164 students who enrolled in Academic English course from Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia, Johor (UTHM) had participated in the study. This research had deployed survey method and the data was obtained from a set of questionnaire. Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) software was used to analyze the data. The data was processed using descriptive statistics: frequencies, percentage, mean (M) and standard deviation (SD). The findings suggested that laptops and smartphones seem to be the devices being used by the students of this institution. The findings of this research also highlight that the students use mobile devices to conduct a wide-range of learning activities. To add, the results illustrate the encouraging opportunities in creating learning activities associated with mobile devices by the lecturers and institution

Linking CRM strategy, customer performance measures and performance in the hotel industry

Customer relationship management (CRM) has been increasingly adopted because of its benefits of greater customer satisfaction and loyalty, which in turn, leads to enhanced financial and competitive performance. This paper reports on a study that examines the relationship between CRM strategy and performance and determines whether the use of customer performance measures plays a mediating role in the relationship between CRM strategy and performance. This study contributes to the limited literature on CRM strategy since little is known about the use of CRM strategy and customer performance measures and their relation with performance in the hotel industry in Malaysia. Data were collected through a questionnaire survey of hotels in Malaysia. Hierarchical regression analyses on a sample of 95 hotels revealed that only the information technology dimension of CRM strategy has a significant and positive effect on performance. In addition, the hypothesis concerning the role of customer performance measures as a mediator was supported

Corporatisation and accounting change: the role of accounting and accountants in a Malaysian public utility

Using an explanatory case study, this paper presents an in-depth analysis of a Malaysian public utility which was required to transform itself into a self-financing, efficient and profitable organisation through a process of corporatisation. Despite attempts to enhance profitability by imposing new rules of budgeting, and by recruiting new accounting graduates, the case reveals that although accounting changes were enacted, over time they became separated from, and only loosely coupled to, other organisational activities. Concepts from institutional theory were used as sensitising devices to inform the research, but alone they were unable to fully explain the case. Consequently, an extended framework, which treats loose coupling as both a process and an outcome, and which recognises the intertwining of trust, resistance and power was developed. This theoretical framework provides a possible explanation for the mixed findings about the effectiveness of public sector financial reform which have been revealed in a wide array of research studies

The Isolation and Spectroscopic Characterization of Products from the Metatheses of Alkyl Oleates

The products from the metathesis reactions of methyl and ethyl oleate were isolated using column chromatography. The various components obtained were characterized using infrared (IR), 1Hand 13C nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) and gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS