Sexual Harassment at Work: Experiences from a Multinational Company

A study was conducted to gain a view on the issue of sexual harassment in a multinational company located in Kulim Hi - Tech Park, Kedah. The objective of the study is to investigate the relationship between organizational climate and sexual harassment and also to investigate the relationship between job gender and sexual harassment. A quantitative study using survey methodology was employed whereby modified questionnaires designed by the DEOC Task Force on Discrimination and Sexual Harassment, USA was randomly distributed to an engineering department in the multinational company which consists of approximately 70 employees. The overall results show that organizational climate is positively related to sexual harassment while job gender is negatively related to sexual harassment. Various suggestions were also made to improve the working environment of the Malaysian corporate world

A STUDY ON THE INFLUENCE OF SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP ON KNOWLEDGE SHARING BEHAVIOR WITHIN TELECOMMUNICATION INDUSTRY IN MALAYSIA

Purpose of Study: This paper aims to explore the ability of telecommunication industry in Malaysia engaged in managing those unexpected events by studying the leadership ability based on spiritual leadership to optimize the potentials of their human resources’ knowledge and experiences as part and parcel of competitive advantage in meeting the challenges brought by the competition within the industry. Methodology: The present study is exploring the outcome of such areas through a combination of both qualitative and quantitative perspective methods, to provide with empirical evidence for the research problem, and also to help answer questions that cannot be answered by qualitative or quantitative approaches alone. The Exploratory Sequential Design as in model development has been selected for this study for no specificity of guiding framework to begin with as it integrates diverse areas within spiritual leadership and knowledge sharing behavior with integration to islamic leadership model, that require to begin with qualitative exploration. Main Findings: The present paper is based on the mixed method findings of such leadership style in creating the values within the workplace that able to ignite the inner-sense among the employees to feel the conscience and compassion to share knowledge beyond conventional motivational factors as in rewards, power, and relationships, aligned to the Islamic leadership model perspective. Implications/Applications: The present study will definitely help in analyzing the influence of spiritual leadership on the knowledge sharing behaviuor within the telecommunication industry of a nation. This study will also contribute to the agenda of KSB within telecommunication industry in Malaysia, by including the exploration on SL as the construct for the leadership style, so that individual employees would be motivated to share knowledge by positioning it within the context of Islamic leadership model

Family first: Evidence of consistency and variation in the value of family versus personal happiness across 49 different cultures

People care about their own well-being, but also about the well-being of their families. It is currently however unknown how much people tend to value their own and their family’s well-being. A recent study documented that people value family happiness over personal happiness across four cultures. In this study, we sought to replicate this finding across a larger sample size (N = 12,819) and a greater number of countries (N = 49), We found that the strength of the idealization of family over personal happiness preference was small (average Cohen’s ds = .20 with country levels varying from -.02 to almost .48), but ubiquitous, i.e., direction presented in 98% of the studied countries, 73-75% with statistical significance and .40 and .30). Importantly, we did not find strong support for traditional theories in cross-cultural psychology that associate collectivism with greater prioritization of the family versus the individual; country level individualism-collectivism was not associated with variation in the idealization of family versus individual happiness. Our findings indicate that no matter how much various populists abuse the argument of “protecting family life” to disrupt emancipation, family happiness seems to be a pan-culturally phenomenon. Family well-being is a key ingredient of social fabric across the world, and should be acknowledged by psychology and well-being researchers, and by progressive movements too

Societal emotional environments and cross-cultural differences in life satisfaction: A forty-nine country study.

In this paper, we introduce the concept of ‘societal emotional environment’: the emotional climate of a society (operationalized as the degree to which positive and negative emotions are expressed in a society). Using data collected from 12,888 participants across 49 countries, we show how societal emotional environments vary across countries and cultural clusters, and we consider the potential importance of these differences for well-being. Multilevel analyses supported a ‘double-edged sword’ model of negative emotion expression, where expression of negative emotions predicted higher life satisfaction for the expresser but lower life satisfaction for society. In contrast, partial support was found for higher societal life satisfaction in positive societal emotional environments. Our study highlights the potential utility and importance of distinguishing between positive and negative emotion expression, and adopting both individual and societal perspectives in well-being research. Individual pathways to happiness may not necessarily promote the happiness of others

Personal life satisfaction as a measure of societal happiness is an individualistic presumption: Evidence from fifty countries

Numerous studies document that societal happiness is correlated with individualism, but the nature of this phenomenon remains understudied. In the current paper, we address this gap and test the reasoning that individualism correlates with societal happiness because the most common measure of societal happiness (i.e., country-level aggregates of personal life satisfaction) is individualism-themed. With the data collected from 13,009 participants across fifty countries, we compare associations of four types of happiness (out of which three are more collectivism-themed than personal life satisfaction) with two different measures of individualism. We replicated previous findings by demonstrating that societal happiness measured as country-level aggregate of personal life satisfaction is correlated with individualism. Importantly though, we also found that the country-level aggregates of the collectivism-themed measures of happiness do not tend to be significantly correlated with individualism. Implications for happiness studies and for policy makers are signaled

Introduction to a culturally sensitive measure of well-being: Combining life satisfaction and interdependent happiness across 49 different cultures

How can one conclude that well-being is higher in country A than country B, when wellbeing is being measured according to the way people in country A think about wellbeing? We address this issue by proposing a new culturally sensitive method to comparing societal levels of well-being. We support our reasoning with data on life satisfaction and interdependent happiness focusing on individual and family, collected mostly from students, across forty-nine countries. We demonstrate that the relative idealization of the two types of wellbeing varies across cultural contexts and are associated with culturally different models of selfhood. Furthermore, we show that rankings of societal well-being based on life satisfaction tend to underestimate the contribution from interdependent happiness. We introduce a new culturally sensitive method for calculating societal well-being, and examine its construct validity by testing for associations with the experience of emotions and with individualism-collectivism. This new culturally sensitive approach represents a slight, yet important improvement in measuring well-being

Happiness Maximization Is a WEIRD Way of Living

Psychological science tends to treat subjective wellbeing and happiness synonymously. We start from the assumption that subjective wellbeing is more than being happy to ask the fundamental question: what is the ideal level of happiness? From a cross-cultural perspective, we propose that the idealization of attaining maximum levels of happiness may be especially characteristic of WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrial, Rich, Democratic) societies, but less so for others. Searching for an explanation for why “happiness maximization” might have emerged in these societies, we turn to studies linking cultures to their eco-environmental habitat. We discuss the premise that WEIRD cultures emerged in an exceptionally benign ecological habitat, i.e., compared to other regions, they faced relatively light existential pressures. We review the influence of the Gulfstream on the North-Western European climate as a source of these comparatively benign geographical conditions. We propose that the ecological conditions in which WEIRD societies emerged afforded them a basis to endorse happiness as a value and to idealise attaining its maximum level. To provide a nomological network for “happiness maximization”, we also studied its several potential side-effects: alcohol and drug consumption and abuse, and the prevalence of mania. To evaluate our hypothesis, we re-analyse data from two large-scale studies on ideal levels of personal life satisfaction—the most common operationalization of happiness in psychology—involving respondents from 61 countries. We conclude that societies whose members seek to maximize happiness tend to be characterized as a WEIRD, and generalizing this across societies can prove problematic if adopted at the ideological and policy level

Job quality and turnover intention among ICT employees in Malaysia: employees’ affective commitment as mediator and age as moderator

The paper is based on the concern that rate of turnover of Information and communication technology (ICT) employees in Malaysia is alarmingly high. The study examined the role of job quality as the determinant of turnover. It also examined the relationship between job quality and affective commitment and how this factor-mediated the relationship between job quality and turnover intention. The study also examined the role of employees age as the moderator between job quality and turnover intention. The sample consisted of 243 ICT employees drawn from a mix of industry. The data were collected with the help of standardized instruments. Results were generally in the expected direction. Among the job quality factors appreciation and advancement, teamwork and empowerment, and work conditions were significantly associated with affective commitment. Appreciation and advancement negatively contributed to turnover intention. Additionally, affective commitment negatively but partially mediated the relationship between appreciation and advancement aspect of the job quality with turnover intention. Age showed a full negative moderation effect in the relationship between appreciation and advancement and turnover intention

Impact of Strategic Locations on Customer Dynamics in Business Outlets: A Case by Observation Method

This paper investigated the impact of strategic location, a retailer's most expensive and long-term marketing mix choice, on customer dynamics. The researchers used two aspects of retail location to estimate consumer spending at a multinational café franchisee in the metropolitan area of Malaysian capital. A qualitative observation method has been applied to collect the data and analyzed it systematically. Several factors including proximity to customers, i.e. trip times, and closeness to other shops, i.e. agglomeration are measured. Both are key indicators of customer spending and, as a result, revenue for the business. Furthermore, across retail forms, location effects are diverse and frequently asymmetric. Rush hour times to a retailer's general outlet have a significantly larger effect on customer dynamics than they do on other outlets, according to the findings. Retailers are increasingly focusing on providing a better consumer experience. However, there has been a scarcity of comparable academic study on the subject. The researchers addressed particular factors in this study, emphasizing those that need further investigation

A conceptual paper on perception of society and social entrepreneurship intention among business graduates in Bangladesh moderated by innovation

Social entrepreneurship is contributing towards the welfare of society since it creates social value characterized by innovation. This concept is growing worldwide in order to solve existing social problem through entrepreneurship. Though, entrepreneurship in Bangladesh is raising rapidly among business graduates, social entrepreneurship is still a new concept here. This study aims to investigate the relationship between the perception of society and the intention of business graduates for social entrepreneurship in Bangladesh. This study will be primarily in conceptual nature and it will provide overview of existing literature on social entrepreneurship. Extensive literature review will be done based on which there will be a reflective analysis. This conceptual paper will contain definitions, concepts and characteristics of social entrepreneurship. However, this study will be extended in future with primary data collection and quantitative analysis. Based on the social network theories of innovation, this study will reveal the relationship between perception of society and social entrepreneurship intention of business graduates. The findings of the study will draw the attention of policy makers to emphasis on social entrepreneurship development among business graduates who have the high chances of success due to academic background and enthusiasm. Moreover, practitioner will be benefitted from the conceptual framework of this study in order to promote social entrepreneurship