The ethical reasoning variations of personal characteristics

This study provides a comparison of the ethical reasoning components of business managers and executives based on personal characteristics of working experiences, gender and age group. Data were collected in Malaysia within the small and medium sized industry in the form of questionnaires which contain vignettes of questionable ethical reasoning issues. Factor analysis was used to identify the major ethical reasoning dimensions which were then used as the basic comparison. Our study reviews that SMEs managers’ and executives’ ethical reasoning influenced by their years of working experiences. The gap analysis between male and female managers and executives revealed that the significant difference only occurs for ethical awareness in business management and business practices but not for other dimensions. Besides, there are indications that generally, business people tend to have higher ethical reasoning evaluation when they reach thirty six years old. Based on our results, recommendations are made to improve the ethical reasoning evaluation of business managers and executives

Determination of some properties of used cooking oil using AAS, bomb calorimeter and GC-MS techniques

Most of the used cooking oil from households and catering premises in Malaysia will eventually ends up in wastewaters. It will be discharged to the surface of waters because no alternative steps were taken to overcome the waste from used cooking oil. As a component of wastewater, oil is classified together with fats and waxes as grease. This trend results in the generation of a vast waste stream that needs to be properly managed to avoid environmental damage. Thus, the information regarding on the waste cooking oil properties is needed to contribute knowledge for future research where the waste may reformed to value added product. Preliminary analysis of used cooking oil properties via GCMS using capillary column shows n-Hexadecanoic acid and Oleic acid as the major compounds present in the used frying oil. The analysis for determination of volatile and moisture content with 3 replicates show an average of 0.02% moisture and volatile content, which the experimental procedure was based on MPOB Test Methods

Impact of Organizational Culture and Perceived Process Safety in the UAE Oil and Gas Industry

In the last few decades, there had been a lot of accidents in the oil and gas industry throughout the world. This article reports a qualitative study of 30 employees employed in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) oil and gas industry. Health, Safety, and Environment (HSE) culture is a concept which was studied in many researches. However, this research is set to examine how certain behaviors affect the safety performance in UAE’s oil and gas industry. Four core themes that were drawn from the interviewee discussions of how safety culture, leadership safety behaviors, supervisory safety behaviors, and employee training on safety affect the employee’s performance on safety. The emergent narratives on the safety culture showed that an employee was likely to perceive safety in the organization favorably if s/he believed that his/her role in ensuring process safety was critical. Moreover, results pertaining to supervisory safety culture showed that the safety culture promoted by a supervisor within his/her role often set the standard for his/her subordinates constituted the benchmark against which all his/her subordinates rated their own idea and practice of safety culture. In addition, the findings confirm the important role played by safety leadership, which entails leader-follower interactions where the former influences the achievement of safety goals. Lastly, it was emphasized that safety training stimulated employees with negative or indifferent attitudes towards safety to be more actively engaged in safety matters in the organization

How career adaptability influences job embeddedness of self-initiated expatriates? The mediating role of job crafting

AbstractThe purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between career adaptability, job crafting, and job embeddedness, and it was predicted that career adaptability promotes job embeddedness in self-initiated expatriates by increasing their job crafting behavior. Data were collected from 881 self-initiated expatriates from multinational companies in the United Arab Emirates, which were analyzed using structural equation modeling. The structural equation modeling results support the proposed hypotheses and suggest that career adaptability and job crafting are associated with job embeddedness. Specifically, career adaptability is effective in promoting job embeddedness through job crafting. Therefore, career adaptability is an important antecedent for self-initiated proactivity and job embeddedness in organizations

Testing the psychometric properties of the Environmental Attitudes Inventory on undergraduate students in the Arab context: A test-retest approach.

The Environmental Attitudes Inventory (EAI) was developed to evaluate the multidimensional nature of environmental attitudes; however, it is based on a dataset from outside the Arab context. This study reinvestigated the construct validity of the EAI with a new dataset and confirmed the feasibility of applying it in the Arab context. One hundred and forty-eight subjects in Study 1 and 130 in Study 2 provided valid responses. An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was used to extract a new factor structure in Study 1, and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was performed in Study 2. Both studies generated a seven-factor model, and the model fit was discussed for both the studies. Study 2 exhibited satisfactory model fit indices compared to Study 1. Factor loading values of a few items in Study 1 affected the reliability values and average variance extracted values, which demonstrated low discriminant validity. Based on the results of the EFA and CFA, this study showed sufficient model fit and suggested the feasibility of applying the EAI in the Arab context with a good construct validity and internal consistency

Modeling the impact of safety climate on process safety in a modern process industry: The case of the UAE’s oil-refining industry

This study examines the psychometric properties of process safety and models the relationships between top management commitment to safety (Model 1), top management safety practices (Model 2), and supervisory safety behavior (Model 3). It is hypothesized that these determinants are positively related to process safety. Data were provided by 180 workers in an oil refining company in the UAE. The results show high reliability in the overall process safety score and dimensions (employees’ engagement in safety, employees’ safety performance, and safe working environment). Confirmatory factor analyses indicate that 12 items can be combined into a higher-order process safety factor model. The findings from the controlled models demonstrate that top management commitment to safety, top management safety practices, and supervisory safety behavior are positively and significantly related to process safety and its dimensions. By contrast, in the freely estimated model, top management commitment to safety and top management safety practices are not significantly related to process safety. Overall, process safety has very good psychometric properties, suggesting that it can be used for safety research and future research related to psychological–behavioral safety

A structural approach to integrating total quality management and knowledge management with supply chain learning

The aim of this study is to integrate total quality management (TQM) and knowledge management (KM) into a unified framework to study supply chain learning among partnering firms. The impacts of TQM practices (e.g. leadership, strategic planning, customer focus, information analysis, people management and process management) and KM practices including KM process, leadership in KM, KM culture, KM technology and KM measurement on supply chain learning were examined. In this study, mail questionnaire have been sent to the managers consists of the Malaysian manufacturing and service firms. A total of 202 firms participated in this study. While greater level of TQM practices tends to enhance KM practices, we found that both TQM and KM are significantly positively related to supply chain learning. The findings of this study empirically tested and confirmed the proposed integrated model. It is hoped that findings from this paper can provide greater understanding in the areas of quality and knowledge management, and illustrate how these practices can enrich the supply chain learning among partnering firms

Final structural model of the 7-factor model; 21 items.

<p>Final structural model of the 7-factor model; 21 items.</p

Results of the Bivariate correlation analysis of the 7 dimensions (35 items) (Study 1).

<p>Results of the Bivariate correlation analysis of the 7 dimensions (35 items) (Study 1).</p

Results of the Bivariate correlation analysis of the 21 items of the 7 dimensions (Study 2).

<p>Results of the Bivariate correlation analysis of the 21 items of the 7 dimensions (Study 2).</p