Relationship between retention factors and affective organisational commitment among knowledge workers in Malaysia

This research explores the issues that influence affective commitment among knowledge workers in Malaysia. The determinants of affective commitment among knowledge workers that have been examined from the Malaysian knowledge workers’ perspective under this study including compensation, career opportunity, training and development, supervisor support, job autonomy, work life policies and skill varieties. A conceptual framework is constructed based on the retention factors and research hypothesis are then developed in order to focus attention on sets of factors that influences affective commitment among knowledge workers in Malaysia. Results of regression analyses revealed that all but supervisor support and skill variety were significant predictors of affective commitment among knowledge workers in Malaysia. Recommendations for future research are presented for industry bodies involved in supporting retention of knowledge workers in Malaysia

A framework of a sustainable performance measurements (SPMs) model for the Malaysian electronic and electrical industry

This conceptual paper is initiated by the growing awareness of environmental and social responsibility issues. Companies’ excellent performance is no longer championed solely on financial matters but has expanded to environment and social perspectives, calling for the need for a sustainable performance measurements (SPMs) model. Frequent and in-depth sustainable reporting are expected to be more demanding and comprehensive in the future with an intense pressure on and expectation of various stakeholders. The adoption of sustainable performance reporting is already in place in developed countries such as Europe, the United States (US) and the United Kingdom(UK), but reporting is relatively low among developing nations especially countries from Asia; Malaysia is no exception. This is due to the fact that sustainability performance reporting in Malaysia is still in its infancy phase and is subject to plenty of uncertain issues particularly on SPMs models that need to be managed, measured and reported on. The SPMs model is developed to be applied in the Malaysian electronic and electrical industry as this industry is subjected to intense scrutiny from Western Nations in term of environmental and social compliance. This paper, therefore, aims to mitigate the problem by constructing a framework of SPMs models in order to promote genuine sustainable reporting among the industry

Employee perceptions of workplace theft behavior: A study among supermarket retail employees in Malaysia

Employee theft is costly to any business, especially to big retail chain organizations. This research is to study the perception of retail employees on the impact of the individual and organizational factors contributing to workplace theft behavior in supermarkets in Malaysia and to study the mediating effect of intention to steal and the moderating effect of internal control systems. The results proved that individual and organizational factors do influence workplace theft behavior. It is also established that internal control systems moderate the relationship between the intention to steal and workplace theft behavior

The impact of work engagement and meaningful work to alleviate job burnout among social workers in New Zealand

Purpose Grounding our research in the conservation of resources (COR) theory and the job demands-resources (JD-R) theory, this study addresses the research gap of examining the relationship between meaningful work and dimensions of job burnout with work engagement as the mediator, especially in times of the COVID-19 pandemic. It also attempts to understand if age plays a role in moderating the effect of these relationships. Design/methodology/approach This study collected data using a questionnaire protocol that was adapted and refined from the original scales in existing studies. The partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to analyze data collected from 530 social workers working in New Zealand nonprofit organizations (NPO). Findings Results indicated that meaningful work only addressed one dimension of job burnout. Work engagement was found to have mediating effects on the relationships between meaningful work and all the dimensions of job burnout. Age does not have any moderating effect on these relationships. Originality/value This study addresses the lack of literature that collectively examines the constructs of meaningful work, dimensions of job burnout and work engagement in the same model. In doing so, this study provides a unique verification of job burnout as a multidimensional construct. At the same time, this study offers insights into the effect of these constructs in NPOs, unraveling the complexities that drive these NPOs' human resources (HR) processes

Malaysia as a regional education hub: a demand-side analysis

Malaysia is becoming an increasingly active player in international education and ranks as the 11th largest exporter of education in the world. Malaysia's recognisable advantages in the international education market include its strategic location between the East and the West, cultural diversity, and a relatively stable socio-economic environment. In addition to these natural advantages, it is important for the Malaysian Government and its higher education institutions to develop a holistic strategy to create a conducive learning environment and to build a regional higher education hub. By taking a demand-side approach, this study highlights factors attracting foreign students to study in Malaysia. Rich information about the country and learning institution and referral by family and friends appear to be the most important sources of influence for foreign students to choose Malaysia. Other considerations include cost and quality of educational programmes, while geographical and cultural proximity are less important than expected

Competitive advantage and firm performance: the moderating effect of industry forces

This study aims to examine the moderating effect of industry competitive forces on the relationship between competitive advantage and firm performance. Previous researches have concluded that competitive advantage leads to superior performance but the impact is limited. A possible reason is that the economic value created by firms is appropriated by other stakeholders. This study hypothesises that the five industry competitive forces moderate the relationship. 517 usable responses were collected from small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Malaysia to test the research framework developed. The results show that buyer bargaining power, supplier bargaining power and threat of new entrants moderate the effect of competitive advantage on firm performance. Surprisingly, SMEs with differentiation advantage and cost advantage are able to appropriate more economic value when the buyers and suppliers have strong bargaining power respectively. On the other hand, the threat of new entrants reduces the economic value that SMEs can capture

Synchronous online learning during movement control order in higher education institutions: a systematic review

Higher education institutions (HEI) are not spared from the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The closure of campuses because of the movement control order (MCO) to mitigate the spread of the COVID-19 has forced HEIs to adopt online learning, especially synchronous online learning (SOL). Although teaching and learning can be continued via SOL, retaining students’ interest and sustaining their engagement have not been sufficiently explored. This study presents a systematic review of the research pertaining to SOL associated with students’ interest and engagement in HEIs during the MCO environment. Methods: Five major online databases, i.e., EBSCOhost, Science Direct, Emerald, Scopus and Springer were searched to collect relevant papers published between 1st January 2010 to 15th June 2021 including conference proceedings, peer-reviewed papers and dissertations. Papers written in the English language, based in full-fledged universities, and with these five keywords: (i) synchronous online learning, (ii) engagement, (iii) interest, (iv) MCO/Covid-19 and (v) HEI, were included. Papers focussing on synchronous and asynchronous online learning in schools and colleges were excluded. Each paper was reviewed by two reviewers in order to confirm the eligibility based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Results: We found 31 papers of which six papers were related to SOL, engagement and interest in HEIs in the MCO environment. Our review presents three major findings: (i) limited research has been conducted on SOL associated with students’ engagement and interest, (ii) studies related to the context of HEIs in the MCO environment are limited, and (iii) the understanding of the new phenomena through qualitative research is insufficient. We highlight the SOL alignment with students’ engagement, interest, style preference, learner interaction effectiveness, behavior and academic performance. Conclusions: We believe that the findings of this study are timely and require attention from the research community