Employability skills for hospitality students in Malaysia

Malaysia needs high skilled workforce to support growth of the industry. With dynamically changing job market and progressive technological change, employees are expected to keep abreast of global economics. In the process of achieving the status of developed nation by the year 2020, Malaysia needs to restructure its workforce to ensure that middle level workers are highly skilled. Current job environment demands multi-task and skills. Thus, university graduates must be prepared to meet the demand especially in the hospitality industry. The purpose of this study is to identify the level of employability skills in the hospitality field. This research applied quantitative methodology. The respondents consist of final year students in bakery and culinary programme. Stratified sampling was used to select students in hospitality programs from 22 vocational colleges in Malaysia. Questionnaires were distributed to 841 students in five regions which are Central, South, North, East and East Malaysia (Sarawak) in Malaysia. Descriptive analysis was used to analyse the quantitative data. The results showed that the level of hospitality employability skills among vocational students in Malaysia were at high level of competence (93.2%). The research has brought meaningful implications for hospitality vocational students, employers and policy makers

INVESTIGATING KNOWLEDGE TASK DIFFICULTIES IN AN E-TRAINING SYSTEM FOR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT DESIGN

E-training system has been a practical method in higher learning institutions to enable a virtual training environment. It is a vigorous effort to corroborate educators to prepare and facilitate themselves with professional knowledge, skill, values, and practices through training programs. These training programs are structured with an essence of competency development, lifelong learning, and career path. The effect of e-training design and process difficulties faced by end-users were less prominent. Therefore, this research’s objective is to validate the design of the E-Training System for Professional Development (TaSPoD), using an Applied Cognitive Task Analysis (ACTA) that was performed by a group of experts, to elicit the most difficult cognitive elements. Interview sessions were conducted to answer the research question of the electronic training design recommendation implemented in TaSPoD. The result shows that the experts faced difficulties in two system design elements which are system design and functionality and course content design. Thus, to increase user engagement in the e-training system, experts proposed three recommendations: (i) graphical user interface with simple and appropriate objects, tabs and icons, and video upload tools, (ii) communication tools such as chat programs and video conferencing, (iii) customized application for external documents

The Effect of Education Costs Through Accreditation of Students' Decisions to Choose Private Universities in Makassar City

This research was conducted with the aim to: 1). To analyze the effect of the cost of education on the accreditation of Private Universities in Makassar City. 2). To analyze the effect of the cost of education on the decision of students choosing Private Universities in Makassar City. 3). To analyze the effect of accreditation on the decision of students to choose a private university in Makassar. 4). To analyze the effect of education costs on the decision of students to choose Private Universities in Makassar through accreditation of Private Universities. This research uses data taken from the results of the questionnaire distributed during the study. Where a sample of 190 respondents, this study was conducted from February to April in 2019. Data were analyzed using the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) program with Amos software. The results of this study indicate that (1) There is a positive and significant effect of the cost of education on accreditation in Private Universities in the City of Makassar. (2). There is a positive and significant effect of the cost of education on the decision of students to choose at Private Universities in the City of Makassar. (3). There is a positive and significant effect of accreditation on the decision of students to choose at Private Universities in the City of Makassar. (4). There is a positive and significant effect of the cost of education on the decision of students to choose along with the increasing accreditation in Private Higher Education in the City of Makassar.  The implication of this research is that the cost of education is a consideration for students in making decisions to choose private universities. When in the consideration of students to choose in relation to the cost of education which is then included in the element of private higher education accreditation, the student's decision becomes significant. In supporting students' decisions to choose private tertiary institutions, it is necessary to apply a model of payment terms that can be made by students to complete tuition fees at the university concerned

Structural equation models of management and decision‐making styles with job satisfaction of academic staff in Malaysian research university

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to discuss the effect of management and decision‐making styles on the job satisfaction of academic staff in a Malaysian Research University. Design/methodology/approach – The sample consisted of 218 respondents. The instruments used in the study were the Teacher Job Satisfaction Questionnaire and the Decision Style Inventory. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was used to determine the influence of decision‐making style and management style on the job satisfaction. Findings – The findings showed that the research university had adopted an analytical decision‐making style. The hygiene factors were the predictors of job satisfaction as perceived by the academic staff at the research university in Malaysia. Research limitations/implications – This research selected a top Malaysian research university and small samples were selected from the whole population under consideration, thus, the findings can be generalized as similar to other research universities. In addition, the university management determines the decision‐making style, and the job satisfaction of the academic staff is affected by the decision‐making style of the university. Originality/value – A contribution is made to the literature as the research reinforces the view that the management style and decision‐making style can predict or affect the job satisfaction of the academic staff

Determinants of behavioral intention of fraudulent financial reporting: using the theory of reasoned action / Siti Noor Hayati Mohamed Zawawi, Kamil Md. Idris and Rashidah Abdul Rahman.

The main aim of this study was to identify factors that determined the behavioral intention of fraudulent financial reporting. Since fraudulent financial reporting involves unacceptable human behavior, the social psychology theory of reasoned action was used to identify the behavioral factors that could explain this behavior. Using the structural equation modeling, the results indicate that the attitude toward behavior and the subjective norm significantly influenced the behavioral intention of fraudulent financial reporting. However, the subjective norm was a more important predictor than the attitude toward behavior. Overall, the results show that the theory of reasoned action was successful in explaining the fraudulent financial reporting behavior

Enhancing Anti-Corruption, Accountability and Transparency Laws in the Malaysia's Health Sector

Good governance, alongside the principles of accountability and transparency, are potential strategies for combating corruption in the healthcare sector. This study aims to examine the role of law to curb the corrupt practices, and it employs a qualitative research methodology through a content analysis approach in which all relevant literature on corruption and law are reviewed. The major finding has significant implications for lawmakers to propound legislative framework for the risks of corruption in the healthcare sector towards promoting accountability and transparency. This paper concludes that the law is an effective tool for instigating change to the healthy anti-corruption environment. Keywords: Corruption; risks; laws; healthcare eISSN: 2398-4287 © 2022. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open-access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under the 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.v7iSI7.381

Level of satisfaction among industrial customers in relation to logistics service provider in Sabah

To investigate the relationship between operational logistics service quality (OLSQ) and relational logistics service quality (RLSQ) towards customer satisfaction among industrial customer in Sabah. self-administrative survey and online survey questionnaire were used to collect the data for this study. List of 180 industrial customer provided by the express bus companies. Purposive sampling techniques was used in this study. The data was analyzed using SPSS 26.0 and SmartPLS 3.0. Results support the hypothesis developed in this study confirming that service perceptions lead to customer satisfaction among industrial customer in Sabah. The current study is limited to east Malaysia which is Sabah where it excluded the respondent from peninsular of Malaysia. Besides, present study focusing only on land logistics transportation and excluded the air and ocean logistics transportation. Those involved in logistics especially express bus managers can find new methods to make their customers satisfied and place their trust on the service provided. Not only that, as the express bus was used to send parcels within the various districts in Sabah, this present study can be used as a reference tool by the policy makers to revisit and improve the existing policies in the future. For the record, this study is the first of its kind ever conducted in Sabah. It shows that OLSQ and RLSQ is an important indicator in satisfying industrial customers in the express bus sector

Knowledge management practices (KMP) and academic performance in Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) Terengganu, Malaysia

Knowledge management is one of the significant fields in the current organization in order to improve the performance. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between knowledge management practices and academic performance in public institution of higher learning. A questionnaire was used as the main instrument for the data collection. A total of 100 respondents answered the questionnaires which represented 54% of response rate. It was found that knowledge management practices namely knowledge generation, knowledge codification, knowledge sharing and knowledge utilization had positive and significant relationship with academic performance. Thus, in order to achieve higher academic performance, UiTM Terengganu has to ensure that the knowledge management practices were excellent

Soil erosion assessment in Tasik Chini Catchment using remote sensing and gis techniques

Over many years, forested land transformation into urban, agriculture and mining areas within Tasik Chini Catchment become more intense. These activities have negatively affected the catchment through soil erosion and increased the amount of sediments that deposited into the lake. Hence, the present study aimed to estimate soil erosion risk within Tasik Chini Catchment integrating the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) model and remotely sensed geospatial data. The multispectral imagery from LANDSAT 8 was used to provide up to date information on land cover within the catchment. The result shows the majority of Tasik Chini Catchment is classified at very low class ( 150 ton ha−1 yr−1) with total area of 120.04 ha (2.30%). Tasik Chini Catchment is very susceptible to soil erosion especially on northwest and southeast regions, where the main sources of soil loss come from the agricultural, new settlements and mining activities. To conclude, the estimation of soil erosion model using remotely sensed data can be used to build sustainable development strategy within Tasik Chini Catchment in the future

Potential of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index for Mapping of Soft Clay Area in Paddy Fields of Kedah, Malaysia

Mapping of soft clay area in paddy fields uses remote sensing and GIS technique is the fastest way to obtain an accurate location of soft clay in a large scale area. It can be an alternative way to change conventional method like in-situ observation that is expensive and labor intensive. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) to map soft clay area in paddy fields Kedah, Malaysia. To analyze soft clay area comprehensively, the study was carried out in three different periods; before paddy planting, after paddy planting and harvest. Ground-truth data of soft clay area was collected from study area during fieldwork activity and compared with NDVI values that produced from Landsat 8 image. Result of study showed NDVI map in period of before paddy planting could be a good indicator for mapping soft clay area because it gave a higher accuracy value than the other periods, with overall accuracy (85%) and kappa coefficient (0,84). Total area of soft clay from the highest value was showed in period of before paddy planting (1.856,97 ha), followed by after paddy planting (656,73 ha) and harvest (401,85 ha) periods, respectively