The impact of religion and culture on leadership styles of women policy-makers in the education industry

This qualitative study is purposive in sampling and explored a small number of women leaders in the education industry who are policymakers of Malay Muslim origin of their experiences in leadership positions. Policymaking here involved policies at the micro-level, which related more to their institutions and organizations. The researcher examined the women's leadership styles and the factors that influenced how they lead explicitly. Likewise, the researcher focused on how gender, culture, and religion may relate to women's experiences. Basic interpretive and descriptive qualitative research methods were employed. Data were collected through in-depth individual interviews. Participants interviewed included nine women leaders in the public and private sector who were either teachers/lecturers or administrators in the education industry. These women held positions within the top echelon of their organization or institution. The finding of this research indicated that gender, religion, and culture play an important role in women leadership experiences, therefore, themes emerged around influences on the women's approaches to leadership, with particular emphasis on the role of the larger environment in impacting women's leadership behaviours. To further focus on the impact of culture and religion on women's leadership styles, the researcher conducted a focused discussion group on the second group of Malay Muslim women leaders. This group of women leaders compromised mainly of women leaders who are department and section heads but still involved in policymaking decision albeit within their department or sections. This study can provide insight into the landscape of women‘s leadership roles and how to support these leaders

RESIDENT'S PERCEPTION ON LIVABILITY IN AFFORDABLE HOUSING IN MALAYSIA

Housing affordability has always been an issue worldwide. With the increase in human population and spiraling house price, governments have been scrambling to build sufficient affordability house to meet the forever increasing demand. In light of this there is concern on the livability aspect of these affordability houses built have been compromised. This research identifies the livability attributes and studies the perception of residents' in affordable housing towards these attributes. Findings revealed that there is compromise in location of the affordable housing schemes. The findings also signified that the most important issues to the residents were safety and accessibility to health facilities. Interestingly this research suggest that many residents within the affordable housing schemes tend to make do with the situation and would seriously consider moving to better dwellings if the opportunity arises. Keywords: affordability; livability; housing; perceptio

Affordable housing livability attributes

Purpose - Housing plays an important role in people’s wellbeing, contributing to the physical and mental health, education, employment and security outcomes for individuals. Still, housing affordability has always been an issue worldwide. Governments have been scrambling to build sufficient affordable houses to meet the forever increasing demand. In light of this there is concern that the livability aspects of these affordable houses built have been compromised. For that reason, this study presents a research on the attributes of livable-affordable-homes. The findings indicated that there are seven significant affordable housing livability attributes.Methodology - Data was gathered by identifying all livable attributes from literature and previous research carried out with particular focus on Malaysia. A Focus Group Discussion was conducted to finalise and refine the attributes and sub-attributes of affordable-livable homes. The participatory organizations were picked based on their housing expertise and knowledge, which the researchers recognized as contributory towards the research according to the attributes identified. Findings - The aim of the FGD is to discuss and determine the attributes and sub-attributes of livable- affordable-homes.This discussion enables the researcher to gain a larger amount of information in a shorter period of time. Altogether 12 individuals representing related government bodies, public and private universities and NGOs participated.The findings indicated that there are seven significant affordable housing livability attributes namely physical factor, community and neighbourhood factor, public amenities, economic development, residence wellbeing, safety and security and also psychological impact.This research has taken into account of not only physical aspect but also psychological well being of the residents

Affordable housing policy: issues and challenges among middle income groups

Shelter is a fundamental human need. Housing plays an important role in people’s wellbeing, contributing to the physical and mental health, education, employment and security outcomes for individuals. Still, to date the major challenge is housing issue particularly on the establishment of adequate affordable livable home standards for the nation; and failure to achieve that will lead to a housing stress. For that reason, this study presents a research on issues related to affordable housing among middle-income groups. It examines on how certain issues of housing affordability affect societal well being. The purpose is to present an overview of affordable housing problem and to set out a series of options that should be considered as part of a comprehensive “way in managing these issues”. Data was gathered from fifty respondents, using “housing issues questionnaires”. The accumulated data were then analyzed; descriptive statistics were used to interpret these issues. The findings indicated that three main housing issues faced by middle-income groups are housing price, housing loan and housing schemes’ policy. Hence, it is highly advisable to address these issues to ensure the vast majority of the population are affordable to own livable property and directly may enhance the quality of life in Malaysia

The psychology of giving behavior in Islam

Waqf is a financial charitable endowment established by withholding immovable and movable properties to perpetually spend its revenue on fulfilling public needs, once the property is created asWaqf, it could never be given as gift, inherited, or sold. Traditionally, Waqfwas inculcated in Muslims’ culture, and has included in all walks of life. When it was the main source for various public services that been provided to communities. Therefore, Muslims in all over the world are exposed to participate in Waqf, the value of giving is one that spans all cultures and religious faiths and is an important means of establishing a social safety net for the poor. Oftentimes, charitable giving is motivated by people’s attitude and behavior, religious beliefs, cultures and religious educations. This is a literature review paper that focuses on the strong connection between motives for giving and outcomes of giving. The purpose is to shed light on some of the key expressions of giving in Islam, and the psychology of giving that is quite difficult to determine in most of the studies. Some motives and effects of giving are easy to explain and the wisdom behind them is clear. On the other hand some of these phenomena's are hard to explain. However Islam stresses that giving charity increases our wealth, and makes the mercy of Allah befall on us. The findings of this study signified that the major motives for giving are behavior, attitude, faith (belief), and education. And the outcomes of giving are God blessing, more rewards, and psychological comfort that can be perceived from happiness and joy of giving as well as self-satisfaction. Hence, it is highly advisable to look comprehensively at this topic and introduce an effective framework that can help people to have better understanding on the psychology of giving

Do we need a proper monitoring system that bond industry and academia? Preparing for better employability in Malaysia

The marriage between industry and academia is globally recognized as beneficial connection for both the parties. The role of university is more projected towards producing right human capital as per the demands of the industry. Whereas, this process is complete only with input of industry related to skill development and R&D activities performed by the universities. However, this dependency is prone to raise issues for both the entities if the relationship is not checked and balanced from time to time through a proper monitoring system. This has direct ramifications on unemployment rate in general and youth/graduate unemployment rate in particular. This research identifies the current practices of university-industry relationship in Malaysian perspective and its effects on youth employability in the country. The National Graduate Employability Blueprint Malaysia 2012-2017 is reviewed in the context of determining loopholes in maintaining the desired relationship between industry and academia. The factor of “monitoring the link between industry and academia” is found most glaring lacunae in the consistency of the bondage between the two parties, and hence resulting in high graduate unemployment rate in the country. Moreover, a review framework of Graduate Employability Framework Malaysia 2012-2017 is proposed to minimize the rift of knowledge transfer between industry and academia through an organized monitoring body. The findings from the literature have been found generously supportive to the instalment of a monitoring system on permanent basis. This measure is seemed most effective in reducing the rising youth unemployment rate in Malaysia

Towards the sustainable development by 2020: Malaysia perspective on economic growth and wellbeing

This paper has prioritizes on the impact of national growth on wellbeing. This is a review paper that contributes to define the 14 components of Malaysia Wellbeing Index (MWI, 2012) and its relation to country’s economic growth (the Gross Domestic Products (GSP)). The aim is to introduce and analyse the 10th Malaysia Plan (10MP), the 11th Malaysia plan Strategic Thrusts, achievement from macroeconomic indicators, average monthly incomes, Malaysia Wellbeing Index, and the sustainability by 2020. The findings are of a great value to both theory and practice and have important implications for the country growth. Furthermore, the paper argues that although MWI projected to increase about 1.7% per year with estimated growth of 5-6% every year from 2016-2020, some challenges are expected to undermine the target set by Economic Planning Unit (EPU) if not given a proper attention. Furthermore, the study shared few wellbeing indicators that used internationally, which only concerned about material aspects and outcomes without looking into the spiritual part of wellbeing. This paper concludes with possibilities for future study to consider the importance of spiritual aspect in the wellbeing index