Abdul Kadir Othman

Emotional Intelligence, Emotional Labour and Work Effectiveness in Service Organisations: A Proposed Model

The paper draws together literature on emotional intelligence (EI) and emotional labour (EL) and examines its influence on work effectiveness (WQ) in different business settings; professional service, service shop and mass service. In professional service, it is proposed that EI is important in assisting employees to achieve highly in five facets of WQ; job role, career role, innovator role, team role and organisation role. In service shop, the influence of EI is moderate but the role of EL is increasingly important. In mass service, EI does not significantly contribute to high WQ instead EL plays its effective role in promising WQ. Therefore, the role of emotional intelligence and emotional labour in influencing service quality is dependent on the type of service organisations.

Displaying Employees’ Organisational Citizenship Behaviour at the Workplace: The Impact of Superior's Emotional Intelligence and Moderating Impact of Leader - Member Exchange

The aim of this study is to examine the impact of superiors emotional intelligence (EI) and leader-member exchange (LMX) on organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB). Using a sample of 200 supervisor-subordinates dyads working in four financial institutions located in Klang Valley, Malaysia, this study hypothesised that emotional intelligence and leader-member exchange would have a stronger relationship to organisational citizenship behaviour. The results revealed that use of emotions (UOE), others emotions appraisal (OEA), and regulation of emotion (ROE) were the dimensions of emotional intelligence to predict employee organisational citizenship behaviour. Both UOE and OEA shared the same findings with 52.7% of the variance on conscientiousness respectively. On the other hand, OEA was also found to be significantly influencing sportsmanship with only 6.3% of the variance and ROE was found to predict civic virtue with 26.7% of the variance. Meanwhile, LMX of subordinates was found to moderate the relationships between only one EI dimension and OCB-civic virtue. A difference between male and female emotional intelligence and organisational citizenship behaviour were also analysed. Future research and practical implications are also discussed.

Hybrid integrated two-stage multi-neighbourhood tabu search-EMCQ technique for examination timetabling problem

In this research, we introduce a hybrid integrated two-stage multi-neighbourhood tabu search, ITMTS, with EMCQ method in solving an examination timetabling problem. Two search mechanisms of this method, vertical neighbourhood search and horizontal neighbourhood search, will work alternately in different stages with several neighbourhood options. This procedure is based on the enhanced ITMTS with stratified random sampling technique (to represent selected exams to be evaluated) where EMCQ technique is used in the horizontal neighbourhood stage as a diversification search mechanism. We test and evaluate this technique with the uncapacitated Carters benchmark datasets by using the standard Carters proximity cost. The results of this technique are comparable with other approaches that have been reported in the literature and have shown that this technique has a potential to be further enhanced.

The relationship between service quality and customer loyalty at a telecommunication company in Malaysia

Service quality is becoming the most significant aspect of business success for either manufacturers or service providers. Therefore, businesses are eager on precisely measuring service quality in understanding its crucial antecedents and consequences to accomplish competitive advantage and assemble customer loyalty. Thus, this paper is to determine the relationship between service quality and customer loyalty at a telecommunication company in Malaysia. The data were gathered through the distribution of questionnaires to the total of 306 respondents who visited and used the products or services at TMpoint Bukit Raja, Klang, Selangor. The researcher used the correlational and multiple regression methods. The result identified that there was a positive and significant relationship between service quality and customer loyalty. The most influence factor on customer loyalty was assurance followed by reliability and tangibles. Nevertheless, there was no significant influence among responsiveness and empathy on customer loyalty. The implications of the findings are

The Influence of Team Characteristics on Team Performance Among Employees at Selected Telecommunication Companies

To survive in today’s competitive business environment, organizations are implementing various strategies to optimize the use of existing resources. One of the strategies is to focus on teamwork. The outcome of using this strategy is that the organizations can experience the synergistic performance. However, some organizations are unable to gain this outcome as they are unable to identify and leverage the factors that are associated with team performance. The objective of this study is to investigate the factors that are important to team and their contribution to team performance. Analyzing 356 data collected from two major telecommunication companies in Malaysia, the results of regression analysis indicate that leadership support, trust and knowledge sharing significantly contribute to team performance. The managerial and research implications of the study are discussed in detail in the paper.

The Mediating Role of Emotional Exhaustion on the Relationship Between Job Factors and Turnover Intention Among Service Employees

Service employees are expected to portray a positive image in dealing with their day-to-day job. This image will be the first impression of customers or clients towards the services offered. A positive image can only be shown if the employees are happy with their job. In delivering services required by the customers, emotional exhaustion experienced by service employees is not inevitable and if it is not properly managed, it will lead to turnover intention. The objective of the study is to investigate the mediating role of emotional exhaustion on the relationship between job factors and turnover intention among service employees. Analysing 108 data collected from employees using a mediated regression analysis reveals that the emotional exhaustion did not have any mediation effect on the relationship between job factors (work balance, role conflict, role clarity and emotional labour) and turnover intention. The results indicate that employees will leave the organisation if there is low work life balance, high role conflict, low role clarity and low emotional labour. The implications of the study are further discussed in the paper.

The Effects of e-Service Quality on Users’ Satisfaction: A Case of e-Filing at LHDN

Lembaga Hasil Dalam Negeri (LHDN) had introduced e-Filing services, which allow taxpayers to submit their tax return forms electronically via the Internet, which is an alternative means to the traditional form submission. The success of e-Filing depends on the delivery of e-service quality and satisfaction to its users. This paper aims to investigate the effects of e-service quality on user satisfaction with regard to the users of e-Filing in Klang Valley, Malaysia. A total of 377 respondents were involved in the study, and by using SPSS version 22 the results of regression analysis revealed that all e-service quality dimensions except reliability have significant influence on user satisfaction of using e-Filing of LHDN. The results indicate that responsiveness, ease of use, security/privacy and website design are the factors of e-service quality that must accompany with e-Filing service so that users’ satisfaction can be assured.

Organisation Restructuring: The Influence of Interpersonal Conflict, Anomie, and Trust in Management on Counterproductive Work Behaviour

Employees’ reaction to organization restructuring varies as some react positively towards change but others refuse to accept it. Those who react negatively may engage in counterproductive work behavior. Since the existing studies are scarce in addressing this issue especially during organization restructuring, the present study is meant to investigate the influence of interpersonal conflict, anomie and trust in management on employees’ counterproductive work behavior. Data were collected from 215 non-managerial staff of a company offering maritime related services, which is undergoing restructuring exercise. Using a multiple regression analysis, it was found that trust in management and interpersonal conflicts negatively influence counterproductive work behavior while anomie or feeling helplessness or hopelessness positively influences counterproductive work behavior. The implications of the study are discussed in the paper.

From Perma To Permaig©: Happiness Instrument Development

Measuring the Happiness Index has become a crucial part of higher learning institutions’ strategic planning and policy making in paving the future. Therefore, developing and measuring the happiness instrument however is critical as it must be relevant to the context of the study in its own setting. Based on previous study, Seligman’s PERMA model was often adopted as a measurement of happiness index in the higher learning institutions. The PERMA Model, which was developed by Seligman in 2011 consist of Positive Emotions, Engagement, Relationship, Meaningful and Accomplishment. This article will explain further on the development of the happiness instruments used to determine the happiness index in a public organisation based on the KJ Method and Seligman’s PERMA Model. A focus group study was conducted using the staff of a public organisation in Malaysia. Therefore, by using Seligman’s PERMA model as a guide, the result of the focus group entails seven elements of measurements. The seven elements are Positive emotions, Engagement, Relationship, Meaningful, Accomplishment, Infrastructure and Gratitude.

Reliability of happiness index model questionnaire

Happiness among employees at a workplace is highly regarded by the organizational top management as one of the fundamental sources of positive organizational outcomes. However, rather than as the major source of business success, happiness at work has always been seen as a small potential contributor towards positive organizational outcomes. Nowadays, happiness at work is important and relevant due to the demand of uncertain economic challenges and increased global organizational competition. Happiness Index questionnaire is a common and widely used tool for determining happiness among employees who work in an organization. This study has determined the reliability of Happiness Index questionnaire to a higher learning of institution’s employees. Happiness Index questionnaire were handed out to 9,654 employees of a higher learning institution. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was assessed to determine the internal consistency of the questionnaire. The internal consistency was derived from 8 domains of Happiness Index instrument. The General domain was 0.856, Personal Emotion domain was 0.879, Engagement domain was 0.969, Relationship domain was 0.897, Meaning domain was 0.887, Accomplishment domain was 0.912, Infrastructure domain was 0.963, and finally, Gratitude domain was 0.924. The overall reliability for the whole domains (e.g., PERMAIg) was 0.85. The Happiness Index questionnaire was reliable in assessing the employee’s happiness at a higher learning institution.