Improving National Park Management in Malaysia: Towards greater community participation

The study evaluates the wider impacts of a national park within the scope of an integrated environmental hub at the global and local level covering, first, divulges concepts relating to the current governance approach to national park management; second, empirical review in lieu with effective management of protected areas demonstrated by co-management and community-based management approach, third, a brief look at two referral case studies, ie.  Zagatala-Balakan Biosphere Reserves, Azerbaijan and Comana Natural Park, Romania; and fourth, addressing the efficiency use of local resources associated to those areas.  Finally, evaluation on the way and strategy forward for country’s intention to gauge on the potentials of National Park. Keywords: Bio-diversity; National Parks; Protected Areas; environment eISSN: 2398-4287 © 2021. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BYNC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/ebpj.v6iSI5.294

Corporate social responsibility: The involvement of small medium enterprises

The purpose of the paper is to study the involvement of corporate social responsibility by small medium enterprises (SMEs) in Malaysia. Based on the sample taken from SMEs listed under Enterprise 50 (E50) over five years, questionnaires were distributed to find out their involvement in CSR and their motivation for engaging in CSR activities.For this purpose Carroll’s Pyramid of CSR was used as the framework.It was found that that majority of the SMEs involved in ethical responsibility, followed by legal responsibility, economic responsibility and lastly, philanthropic responsibility.It showed that ethical responsibility as the foundation of CSR involvement by Malaysian SMEs and this result is contrary to Carroll’s Pyramid of CSR.The findings also reveal the SMEs were motivated firstly by their own beliefs and values, followed by religious thought and that CSR may enhance the company’s reputation.This motivation is in line with their emphasis on ethical responsibility when engaged in CSR. This study contributes to knowledge about CSR by small medium enterprises, which is still lacking in the literature on CSR, particularly in Malaysia

Ethical values and competitiveness within concentrated ownership structure in Malaysia / Mohd Farhan Mohd Dah … [et al.]

Ethical values of business are normally jeopardized by the stiff competitions among them. Thus, ownership structure plays vital roles to balance these issues. This paper aims to study the relationship between ownership structures and performance pre and post Malaysian Codes on Corporate Governance (MCCG) 2012 revision. Based on a random sampling of 100 Bursa Malaysia listed companies, a final of 500 firm-year observations were chosen for the duration of 2010 till 2014. This study engaged several univariate and multivariate analyses to serve the empirical evidence. Despite the better Corporate Governance practices among the sample companies, the multivariate results showed that family ownership, government ownership, institutional ownership and company size have significant and positive relationship with firm performance only for MCCG 2012 revision. Due to the unfavorable Malaysian stock market for both 2013 and 2014, the results of post MCCG 2012 revision showed an insignificant effect between ownership structures and firm performance. Even though the corporate governance practices were favorably reported, the ownership structures were still powerless to influence the firm performance

Determinants of job satisfaction: How satisfied are employees at public universities / Soo Kum Yoke... [et al.]

The success of an organisation depends a lot on its employees’ satisfaction in carrying out their roles and duties. Thus, job satisfaction is seen to be a significant predictor of employees’ work-related well-being. The current paper aims to determine the employees’ role within the organisation in relations to job satisfaction, as well as to determine whether working environment contributes to job satisfaction. The paper also aims to examine the employer- employee relationship in accomplishing job satisfaction. This study was conducted in a branch campus of a public university consisting of 17 lecturers. It uses quantitative method by means of a survey consisting of 18 items that are divided into three parts which include role within the organisation, working environment and relationship with superior. The results were tabulated using descriptive analysis. The findings show for the role of employees in the organisation, there were a small number of employees who did not feel valued by the organisation. This could be contributed by their not gaining permanent status of employment. The findings also showed that a small number of employees found the workplace environment stressful. These employees had less than three years of work experience which could cause them to have problems adapting fully to their work environment. Finally, it was found that the lecturers felt they were treated with respect by their superior and their relationship with their superior was generally good. It is recommended for future research to consider a more comprehensive study involving a larger scale of respondents from public and private universities

Emotional Challenges across the Welfare provided among the Stranded University Students during Covid-19 Pandemic

The Movement Control Order (MCO) for Covid-19 safety measure caused worry and anxiety among university students, especially those stranded in their university hostels or rental accommodation. Universities’ staffs helped their basic living and study needs. This study aims to determine the emotional challenges among these students and examine the association between their emotional score across the university’s welfare. Based on a survey of 284 respondents, the findings show that there is a significant difference between their emotions and stranded locations. Residential facilities, information updates, and food provided are substantial to their emotional scores. Keywords: Emotional Challenges; Covid-19 Pandemic; Stranded Students; University Welfare eISSN: 2398-4287© 2021. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BYNC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians/Africans/Arabians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/ebpj.v6i16.271

Ritual effectiveness framework for non-profit organisations (NPOs) / Ruhaya Atan … [et al.]

This study proposes a framework for non-profit organisations (NPOs) ritual effectiveness integrating both the tangible and intangible dimensions: clients’ satisfaction, programmes and service’s efficiency, increase in clients, programmes and service’s quality, and programmes and service’s effectiveness. With strong impetus for accountability, the movement toward performance or effectiveness evaluation has gained momentum particularly in non-profits as this sector is becoming increasingly important as a result of its continuous growth. There are 44,936 registered non-profit organisations with the Registry of Societies (ROS) as at March 2009. However, for-profit performance indicators are inappropriate to be applied in non-profits, given their multiple services and programs, lack of bottom line motive, and the difficulty of measuring outputs.The motivation behind this study is to establish the performance framework for NPOs effectiveness with multiple dimensions. Ritual effectiveness uses both tangible and intangibles effectiveness dimensions in evaluating NPOs effectiveness. This study will provide the framework for performance (effectiveness) of NPOs in Malaysia with outside (external) bench marking as a foundation. This framework will assist the regulatory body, the Registry of Society (ROS) to regulate NPOs in Malaysia to provide better performance reporting. This is important since effectiveness measures have an impact on the allocation of resources, thus assist the Welfare Department to allocate the resources to those high-performace or NPOs

The extent of charitable organisations’ disclosures of information and its relationship with donations / Ruhaya Atan, Saunah Zainon and Yap Bee Wah.

This study examines the extent of disclosures of information by charitable organisations and the effect of total donations on disclosure. The sample of this study consists of annual returns for the financial year 2009 of 101 charitable organisations. The disclosure score obtained was based on the ratio of total disclosure score to its total possible disclosure score. The overall total disclosures are very low and below the mean score. Statistical results indicate that the extent of disclosure is significantly related to total donations received. This study provides evidence to the management of the charitable organisations in Malaysia to improve their financial disclosure of information in their reporting so as to convince the stakeholders that the resources are used efficiently for charitable services. Due to the unique features of charitable organisations, ChORI was developed and applied in this study to assist in the examination of the extent of disclosures of information