Boards engagement in strategy execution : an emerging trend in business strategy research

The Board assists in creating successful conditions to ensure the alignment of the strategic plan with the organization’s objectives and determines the management’s realistic expectations, risks and opportunities throughout the execution of the strategic plan. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the role of Board management in the strategy execution of the organization. The paper examines the significance of the Board to the development, formulation, and monitoring of the decision-making processes within an organization. Theoretical and empirical data within the literature on relevant aspects of organizational management is described in detail. The research methodology is focused on the qualitative design approach that assisted in exploring, analyzing and evaluating the data obtained with respect to the research topic. The paper analyses numerous peer-reviewed journal articles ranging from past to recent period of time to examine the evolving literature on Board and strategy execution. Published articles from ScienceDirect, Emerald, ProQuest, Swetsnet, EbscoHost and Business Source Premier Databases are explored. The results and findings of the study reveal increased focus of the organizations’ Boards on strategy execution that indicates progress towards a continuous increase in Board involvement. A conflicting situation arises with the fundamentals of agency theory that considers decision-making control as the basic and sole responsibility of the Board of Directors of an organization. The paper also presents certain recommendations that revolve around the formation of a supportive and constructive framework for the organization with regard to Board and management structure and steps towards improving organizational performance

Strategic fit - the missing link between strategy formulation and strategy execution

A wide framework for strategy formulation and procedures for its implementation are designed and used in last few decades by a large number of firms, with strong conviction that the expected outcome will be as precise as it is claimed. A study of 750 of the biggest U.S. business catastrophes from the past 25 years pointed at popular but risky strategies, which were used by their firm. Strategists find it difficult to cope with the complexity and trim it to a manageable extent. The complex interactions of variables from the perspective of geopolitics, technical innovation, capital market swings due to national economic policies, direct and indirect competition, varying consumer preferences etc insists the organization to change the way strategies are visualized and alter the methods of implementation. The organizational behavior determinants from internal and external contingencies decide the course of strategy implementation and complexities arising in it. The implementation may not take place as expected from formulation due to concealed gaps and may result in a deficient performance. This paper is an effort to identify the determinants of a commendable strategic fit to create a win-win situation; by encompassing the factors creating the gap and evaluating the performance perimeters consequent to dimensions of a strategic fit

The Effects of Emotional Intelligence on Job Satisfaction

Emotional Intelligence (EI) becomes a key element in organisation’s success and one of must-have skills and capabilities- among other things- needed by leaders and followers in the workplace to encounter the environment changes and do as possible as they could to gain the organisation commitments that could lead to organisation’s success. It is also found that there is a strong relationship between emotional intelligence and job satisfaction and organisation commitment. Hence, the higher employees’ EI scores, the more performance and commitment towards organisation. Emotional intelligence is also a key component to job satisfaction. Therefore, this paper presents a review on Emotional Intelligence (EI) and its effects on job satisfaction. Therefore, the main purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between emotional intelligence job satisfactions. The findings of this paper are that in any organisation, emotional intelligence has a strong relationship with job satisfaction. It is also found that the higher employees’ EI scores, the higher performance and commitment towards organisation. Key Words: Emotional Intelligence, Job Satisfaction

Cyberspace: the warfare domain

Cyberspace is by itself a dimension that has own unique nature with characteristics that shape and affect global security environment as well as national security. The objective of this paper is to explore the nature of cyberspace as a warfare domain and assess its implications to national security. The unique nature of cyberspace as a warfare domain has different forms of impact on effect to the conduct of warfare and national security. The increasing use of advanced information systems and proliferation indicates that such development leads to cyberspace achieving a more direct implication and decisive effect to national security

Influence of soft elements on KM implementation in Malaysian higher learning institutions

Knowledge Management (KM) is an approach in identifying, acquiring, applying, sharing, creating, developing, preserving and measuring the knowledge of the organization. However, recent global analyses of such KM initiatives highlight the fact that not all of them are necessarily successful. The reason is due to the efforts on technology. Practitioners are now realizing the importance of the soft aspects of KM initiatives. Moreover, there is an organizational lack of data and information on the soft elements of critical success factors of KM. The main purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between the soft elements of critical success factors and KM perceived benefits. This study was accomplished through questionnaires that surveyed 99 higher learning institutions that are located in the Malaysia. Findings revealed that organizational culture and top management leadership have a positive relationship with the perceived benefits of KM

Implementation of knowledge management (KM) in higher learning institutions: Key activities and success factors

Today, as the growing demand for knowledge based products and services is changing the structure of the global economy, the role of knowledge in achieving competitive advantages is becoming an important management issue in higher learning institutions. The practice of knowledge management (KM) is essential in higher learning institutions in order to sustain in this knowledge economy in Malaysia in line with the Knowledge Based Economy Master Plan 2002. The main purpose of this study is to identify the Knowledge Management (KM) activities that are implementing in higher learning Institutions in Malaysia. The key activities are knowledge identification, knowledge acquisition, knowledge application, knowledge sharing, knowledge development, knowledge creation, knowledge preservation and knowledge measurement. The second objective is to identify the relationship between the success factors of KM implementation in higher learning institutions, i.e. top management leadership and culture with the perceived benefits of KM. A total of 200 questionnaires were sent to the higher learning institutions in Klang Valley. 99 institutions responded. The result showed that the top management leadership and culture positively influenced the perceived benefits of knowledge management

Overview on industrial major accident hazards control

This paper gives a detail review on industrial major accident hazard control. A major hazards control system must contain four areas of activities that is identification of major hazards, assessment and analysis of major hazards, management of major accident prevention system and emergency operations. The details of the discussion is available in full text article

Factors influencing the acquiring of technological knowledge among technology transfer recipients - a perspective from a radar manufacturing firm

Technology transfer is becoming increasingly important for business and economic growth in developing nations. The transfer and adoption of technology is essential from the perspective of the strength of national economies in self-reliance and enhancing international competitiveness. Without proper knowledge acquisition, transfer of technology cannot take place. The process of acquiring knowledge comprises learning to understand, utilise and internalise the knowledge of the technology, and requires the organisation to choose or adapt elements of the technology to local cultural conditions to integrate it with indigenous technologies. The cultural context of the recepient can also affect the process of acquiring knowledge. In many cases, adopting the technology may require changes to the organizational culture support greater acceptance and use of the technology among employees. The culture and social environment of the individual creates a scheme for organising knowledge and understanding reality. This paper has two objectives. Firstly, to investigate how organisational culture affect readiness for technology transfer. A qualitative mode of data collection was used in this study. Interviews and focus group discussions were conducted. The findings were used to identify the component and to create the framework. Hypotheses were formulated between the constructs of the framework to understand better the effectiveness of the technology transfer process. The implementation was tested using post-hoc interviews

Industrial training programme in the Department of Chemical Engineering, UTM: lessons learnt

The undergraduate students at the Chemical Engineering Department at UTM are required to undergo industrial training programme at any related industries nationwide. There are several factors that need to be taken into account as students may face some difficulties during the training period. Behind the scene, the coordinator holds several important tasks that require full commitment and motivation to serve students. This paper describes the procedures and the lessons learnt from the early beginning students preparing to apply until the applications are approved as well as the coordinator’s roles and responsibilities to assist and provide good guidelines to ensure all students achieve the objectives of industrial training

Pembentukan jurutera kimia yang mahir dan bertanggungjawab di UTM

Dua aspek panting telah dikenal pasti dalam usaha Jabatan Kejuruteraan Kimia UTM untuk mencapai matlamat-matlamat UTM dan jabatan sendiri, iaitu aspek bidang teknikal dan aspek memupuk kesedaran bertanggungjawab. Kertas kerja ini memperincikan perancangan dalam dua aspek tersebut yang telah, sedang dan akan dilaksanakan oleh Jabatan. Penilaian dari profesor pelawat dan dari agensi-agensi luar yang berkaitan juga dibincangkan dalam menilai tahap pencapaian matlamat-matlamat universiti dan jabatan