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Organisational creative climate and knowledge sharing in fostering innovative work behaviour among startups in Malaysia / Rosintansafinas Munir
No full textStartups are crucial as it contributes to the thriving economy and national growth of Malaysia. Indeed, various government programmes and initiatives have been implemented over the years to flourish the startups entrepreneurial activities to ensure its sustainability. Noticeably, a significant number of startups failed within five years of business due to the high level of uncertainties and risks. In the new era of innovation, startups need to inculcate an innovative work behaviour to support the business performance as its creative and innovative mindset are the mechanisms to capture the competitive market rather than focus on the innovative product. Unfortunately, the level of individual innovative work behaviour in Malaysia is moderate particularly with startups having a low level of innovative work behaviour as compared to small enterprises which echoed warning sign of the startups eco-system. The understating of organisational creative climate is reckoned as having a powerful effect on employees’ creativity and innovativeness. In addition, the knowledge sharing practice is crucial as integrating knowledge among the small circle of entrepreneurial members can increase the performance both individually and collectively. Therefore, this study intends to provide an empirical verification to support the link between organisational creative climate, knowledge sharing, and the innovative work behaviour of startups. The quantitative approach was used to collect data from the entrepreneur (n=355) and employees (n=355) of startups in the services sector in Malaysia. The purposive sampling was used to select a sample of employees due to the limited number of creative and innovative employees in startups and obtain the desired information. The Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) was applied to test the hypothesised model. The results established that organisational creative climate is significantly correlated with the innovative work behaviour, and this organisational creative climate also affects knowledge sharing. In addition, the findings indicated that knowledge sharing has significantly influenced the innovative work behaviour of employees. On the other hand, the mediating roles of knowledge sharing was found to have significantly mediated the relationship between organisational creative climate and innovative work behaviour among startups in Malaysia. Hence, sharing information activities within the realm of startups need to be encouraged to gain valuable creative and innovative ideas. In addition, it is also suggested that startups practice a creative climate in enhancing the individual innovativeness. It is believed that the comprehensive use of resources could enhance the eco-system of startups. Overall, startups should well incorporate the sharing knowledge activities and harmonious creative climate in forming the best strategies that can adapt to the needs of markets and the competitiveness of startups. The findings have provided valuable input which helps towards better understanding specifically for the startups agencies and government to look further at the programmes as well as to enforce new favourable policies in improving the startups eco-system. Further, this study serves as a guideline for startups to re-design the organisation’s policies and structures for the new comprehensive management system. Subsequently, startups that practice effective knowledge sharing and harmonious creative climate will nurture the individual’s innovative work behaviour
The influence of organisational culture and job satisfaction on emotional intelligence and organisational performance of Malaysian administrative and diplomatic officers / Suganthi Supramaniam
No full textAs a natural instinct of survival in a competitive environment, organisations inherently aim to achieve high organisational performance. Due to constant global challenges and the volatile environment, organisations are accosted with various challenges. An analysis of Malaysia’s ranking in the IMD World Competitiveness report secured a 12th position in 2014, which dropped to the 24th position in 2017. As public servants play a pivotal part in meeting the competitiveness challenge of a country, this highlights a potential issue in the performance of the public service in improving the nation’s productivity. Hence, this thesis explores the effects of emotional intelligence on organisational performance in the civil service environment, with an emphasis on organisational culture and job satisfaction. In addition, the study aims to analyse the ingrained influence of emotional intelligence on the performance of Administrative and Diplomatic Officers in the civil service. This research further develops a holistic framework that links emotional intelligence, organisational performance, organisational culture and job satisfaction. This study intends to contribute to the developing literature and knowledge base on EI and OP through OC and JS, this may assist practitioners and researchers who are deliberating on the value of EI on OP and further research. This quantitative study collected data from the public administration officers based in Putrajaya and Kuala Lumpur. The data was obtained via a Likert type-scale questionnaire completed by 365 Administration and Diplomatic Officers and analysed using Smart PLS 3.2.6. This study contributes to a better understanding of organisational performance specifically in the public sector, due to the new knowledge created by this research. This research is based on the Social Intelligence Theory and the Theory of Hierarchy Needs. The Social Intelligence Theory emphasises on the ability of an individual to realise and recognise ones’ feelings and also the feelings of others. It allows one to be aware of self-management, self-awareness and knowing others in relationship management. As for the Theory of Hierarchy of Needs, it places importance on fulfilment of physiological, safety and self-actualisation that are needed for job satisfaction. The main finding of this research indicates that emotional intelligence has a positive direct effect on organisational performance. The constructs of emotional intelligence consisting of self-management, self-awareness, social awareness and relationship management play an important role in improving performance of public administrators. This highlights the need to establish emotional intelligence as one of the determinants of organisational performance and simultaneously find ways in ensuring it is prioritised in the public administration domain. The findings also reveal that emotional intelligence has a positive indirect effect on organisational performance through organisational culture. This indicates that emotional intelligence has the ability to influence organisational performance through organisational culture. The findings have implications for government human resources policies related to recruitment, training and development and organisational performance that are targeted at producing better outcomes and services to the general public
Gender stereotypes and political leadership: A study of Malaysian secondary schools / Wan Farihah Ahmad Fahmy
No full textGender inequality continues to be a pervasive problem in both developing and developed nations. While significant progress has been made towards achieving gender equality in many aspects in the recent decades, educational attainment remains an issue in many developing economies. Worldwide, various institutional barriers also continue to prevent women from achieving their fullest political, social, and economic agency. The Malaysian narrative on gender equality in education runs counter to conventional expectations. In the last three decades, girls and women in Malaysia have made significant strides in educational attainment. However, despite this gender gap in schooling favouring females, women continue to be underrepresented in political leadership in Malaysia. Possible explanations include socio-economic attitudes, influences, and deficiencies within the schooling system per se. This study investigates the latter possibility using primary data collected on 616 secondary school students and their class teachers and principals from 20 schools. It examines gender stereotypes in student attitude towards leadership (i.e. the belief that “men are better political leaders”) as a function of teacher gender, independent of the influence of socio-economic backgrounds of students. The study schools are sampled from four states - Kuala Lumpur, Negeri Sembilan, Perak, and Kelantan. Three findings follow from the multivariate regression models of student attitudes towards leadership: (i) the support for the statement “Men are better political leaders” is higher among boys; (ii)having a female teacher is a significant and positive predictor of student gender attitudes; and (iii) fixed attributes such as student’s race and gender matter significantly in explaining gender attitudes. This study shows that the influence of female teachers is not driven by gender of the school principal, gender belief of the teacher, sex orientation of the school and religious identity of the sample states. This is in line with findings from previous studies on gender attitudes in other nations. Implications for policies are discussed in the study
Information needs of users patronizing the National Archives of Malaysia / Kaszilawati Kasman
No full textThe National Archives of Malaysia has a vision of becoming the centre of excellence for information sources and services by the year 2020. This vision is a support to make Malaysia a developed nation with strong moral and ethical values through the national heritage. The literature indicates that in an archival context, user studies remain unlimited. Even in Malaysia, archival user study, especially on archival user information needs, have not been empirically investigated. In order for archivists to respond adequately to the needs of researchers using their services, they must first understand the kinds of information which particular user group requires. This study is designed to help the National Archives of Malaysia identify the information needs of the users so that the National Archives of Malaysia can serve them effectively and more efficiently. For that purpose, this study explored the information needs of users while using archives or archival materials as their primary sources of information, and discovered the users actual use of primary sources. In this regard, the headquarters of the National Archives of Malaysia, Jalan Sultan Abdul Halim, Kuala Lumpur has been chosen as the case setting. This study used a qualitative data gathering technique using interviews. Observation and document analysis were also employed for data collection. All registered researchers who patronized the National Archives of Malaysia served as survey population and a total of 20 participants were purposively sampled. The qualitative data were analyzed descriptively and results were presented narratively. The results of this study found that archival user information needs to be categorized into 5 main areas: purpose of archive information needs, popular archive information subject, preferred type of archived material, reasons leading to visit the National Archives of Malaysia and archives’ user concern in obtaining required information. Finally, this study gives additional input on how the crucial role of the National Archives of Malaysia may be strengthened to provide sufficient archives information and convenient facilities for its users. The findings can then be utilized by archivists in their efforts to respond more effectively to the needs of this particular group of archival users
The ecological function of intertidal seagrass for sediment entrapment on middle Bank Shoal, Penang / Nur Asilah Awang
No full textApplication of seagrass in eco-engineering for sustainable coastal protection requires a deeper understanding of seagrass functions for sediment entrapment. Knowledge gaps on the influence of intertidal seagrass in trapping sediments raised two main questions in this study; (1) what is the relationship between intertidal seagrass meadow structure and trapped sediment? and (2) which part of the intertidal seagrass meadow structure best explains the variability of trapped sediment? To answer these questions, seagrass shoot density, Leaf Area Index (LAI), and total aboveground biomass were used as predictors for sediments deposition rate on Middle Bank Shoal. Three seagrass species were found; Enhalus acoroides, Thalassia hemprichii, and Halophila ovalis, with shoot density, LAI, and total aboveground biomass ranged from 140-6181 shoot.m-2, 1.60-10.03 m2.m-2, 26.28-295.79 gDW.m-2, respectively, while total sediment deposition ranged from 3956 to 13237 gDW.m-2.day-1. Sediment deposition had a strong negative relationship with total aboveground biomass (R2 = 0.49, p<0.05). Low sediment deposition in high aboveground biomass suggested seagrass reduced the deposition of both primary and resuspended sediment. Being an intertidal and multispecific meadow, seagrass functions for sediment entrapment probably focused more on retaining sediments from resuspension than deposition of suspended sediments
Development of an augmented reality based facility layout planning and optimization / Tan Chee Hau
No full textThis study presents an augmented reality (AR) based facility layout planning (FLP) system with an optimization algorithm to assist facility layout designers in decision making. AR is a technology that blends virtual data such as 3 Dimensional (3D) model into the actual world. FLP is about the allocation of facilities to achieve smooth, efficient and effective processes. FLP’s research can be divided into the procedural approach, algorithmic approach, Virtual Reality (VR) and AR-based approaches. AR-based FLP effectively addressed the traditional FLP issues such as facilitating the addition of a new machine in an existing production floor, rearrangement of machines’ sequence, etc. The advantages of AR-based FLP approach over the other approaches are the shorter time taken to build its model and its flexibility in the design modification. Previous studies in AR and FLP had shown that the digitalization of existing objects is needed. The simple plane, blocks and cylinders are used to overlay onto the actual objects as representation in this research. An AR assisted FLP software was built with 4 modules to locate a new machine in an existing layout, to utilize a space given and optimize a production schedule, to locate a shared facility in an existing layout and to optimize a loop layout robotic cell process. The space occupied and the parts’ travelled distance are compared to support in decision making. Production line commonly used algorithm such as shortest processing time (SPT), longest processing time (LPT), cycle time optimization and centre of gravity (CoG) algorithm are coded in this system which enables the production schedule and sequence to be optimized. Four cases studies have investigated this research whereby case study-1 is to evaluate the most suitable position and orientation of a new machine to be placed in an existing production floor, case study-2 is to maximize the area given and further maximize the productivity by optimizing the production sequence, case study-3 is about identifying the best position of a shared facility whereas the case study-4 identified the most effective production sequence in a robotic conveyor cell. The developed AR-based FLP software allows users to re-configure the suggested layout by moving the facilities in the AR environment and the results are reflected in real-time. This research is useful for production line which requires flexibility and agility. The developed AR-based FLP software is fast and effective
Flow patterns, velocity distributions and mixing time in stirred tank reactor under a range of operating conditions / Nor Haslina Abdullah
No full textThe present work employed a two-dimensional Particle Imaging Velocimetry (PIV) technique to determine the flow patterns and velocity distributions of a down-pumping pitched-blade turbine (4PB) and a Rushton turbine (RT) in a flat-bottom fully baffled stirred vessel (T=0.155m) using distilled water and glycerin as liquids. Fluid velocities increased as the impeller speed increased from 50rpm to 300rpm for both fluids and the RT impeller reached a maximum value of velocity of 1.42m/s at the blade tip. The 4PB had higher velocity compared to RT in glycerin, but RT had higher velocity than 4PB in distilled water. In water, radial flow generated from RT discharge that projects the fluid towards the tank wall was stronger than tangential flow from the 4PB. Additionally, it was found that the velocity distribution in distilled water was 69% higher compared to glycerin. As the clearance reduced from T/3 to T/6, the velocity at the blade tip increased because T/3 have well distribution of upward and downward flow while the downward flow tends to circulate faster at T/6. Interestingly, the increased of distance between impeller and measurement point led to decrease in the difference of velocity values between RT and 4PB. RT projected the fluid radially that create high momentum forming upward and downward flow almost evenly while 4PB is dominated by the tangential motion at the blade discharge in distilled water. 4PB tends to have radial motion at the blade tip towards the tank wall in glycerin. Mixing time studies confirm the trend shows by the impeller in the velocity distribution and flow pattern measurements
Motivational factors and job performance of banking industry employees in Klang Valley / Muhammad Ariff Zaini
No full textEmployees’ job performance has been found decreasing and variation changes from time to time. The main objective of this research is to study the relationship between the working conditions, employees’ satisfaction, salaries and benefits, and achievement/recognition towards the job performance of banking industry employees in Klang Valley.
In this research study, a total of two hundred (200) bank employees who work in bank around Klang Valley has been selected as respondents. Descriptive analysis (frequency, mean, and standard deviation) and inferential analysis (Pearson correlation coefficient) were used. Pearson correlation analysis’s result shows a significant relationship between the independent variables (working conditions, employees’ satisfaction, salaries or benefits, and achievement/recognition) and dependent variable (job performance). The conclusion is these selected independent variables are factors that might affect the job performance of banking industry employees in Klang Valley
Genetic variation of clonal Ananas comosus var. MD2 plants after mutagenic treatment at different post-recovery periods / Anis Norsyahira Mohd Raffi
No full textStudies on genetic variation in plants had become extensively employed in research for plant improvement and conservation. Due to their sessile nature, plants are exposed to various environmental stressors such as exposure to enhanced levels of ultraviolet (UV), ionizing and non-ionizing radiations. Exposure to these harmful radiations will result in various damages, ranging from DNA and chromosomal aberrations to phenotypic abnormalities. However, plants have evolved efficient DNA repair mechanisms to detect and repair any DNA damages caused by the exposure to these harmful stressors, therefore ensuring their survival. In this study, the effect of gamma radiation (as a source of ionizing radiation) on clonal Ananas comosus var. MD2 was evaluated. The morphology of the clonal plantlets before and after exposure to gamma radiation was monitored at timely intervals (at different post-recovery period). Moreover, the degree of genetic variation between the samples pre- and post-irradiation was also analyzed by using inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) markers. Data analysis revealed that the height of the irradiated plantlets were significantly reduced (compared to control), but improved with recovery period. These observations were also supported by the ISSR analysis, where the genetic dissimilarity between the irradiated samples and control was reduced by 0.1017, after 4 weeks of recovery. Eight of 20 tested ISSR primers provided a total of 4169 bands in 10 non-irradiated and irradiated plantlets (randomly collected). The number of scorable bands per primer varied from 8 to 13 which generated an overall of 303 polymorphic bands, with a mean of 30.3% polymorphism. Our findings indicated that the phenotype recovery undergone by the clonal A. comosus var. MD2 plants was contributed by their ability to detect and repair the DNA lesions (as exemplified by the reduction in genetic dissimilarity after 4 weeks) and hence allow the plantlets to undergo phenotype reversion to normal plant stature
Poly(vinyl alcohol)/α-chitin/nanocellulose composites developed from oil palm empty fruit bunch (OPEFB) for removal of cationic dyes / Mok Chun Fah
Get PDFIn search of an eco-friendly polymeric adsorbent for dye effluent treatment application, poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA)/chitin/nanocellulose composites were synthesized. The composites were reinforced by oil palm empty fruit bunch fibers (OPEFB)-derived nanocrystalline cellulose (NCC). With addition of 1 wt.% NCC, a maximum improvement of 57.64% and 50.66% in tensile strength and Young’s Modulus were achieved, respectively. However, the PVA-based composites exhibited low resistance in aqueous medium. Hence, maleic acid (MA) was incorporated, in view of modifying PVA-based composites through cross-linking reactions. The effect of varying chitin content (10 wt.%-30 wt.%) and MA content (10%-50% based on total solid content of composite) towards the swelling, gel content and contact angle of the PVA/Chitin/NCC composites were evaluated. The effect of PVA-based composite composition, solution pH, adsorbent dosage and initial dyes concentration on removal of methylene blue (MB) as model cationic dye from aqueous solution were investigated by batch adsorption studies. The best adsorption performance was determined for PVA/Chitin-10/NCC/MA_30 sample after experimental parameters were optimized, with the calculated maximum adsorption capacity amounted to 467.5 mg/g. The adsorption kinetics were determined to be of pseudo-second order. From thermodynamic studies, it was found that the adsorption processes were spontaneous, exothermic and less-ordered reactions. Lastly, the PVA/Chitin-10/NCC/MA-30 adsorbent showed high adsorption reusability since the adsorption percentage was retained at 83.67 ± 1.08% even at the fifth adsorption_desorption cycle