Jasmine Ahmad

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.

The fit between organisational structure, management orientation, knowledge orientation, and the values of ISO 9000 standard: A conceptual analysis

Purpose – The purpose of this conceptual paper is to examine the fit between values underpinning the ISO 9000 standard and selected managerial and organisational factors.Design/methodology/approach – The study is a conceptual one relying on the literature on the selected strategic factors and also the standard. The values of institutionalisation, explicitation, systematisation, delineation and Taylorisation underpinning ISO 9000 standards were distilled from the origin and the principles of ISO 9000 and the ISO 9000 certification practices. The values are juxtapositioned with the imperatives of control and creativity, knowledge management and organisational structure to understand the consequent synergism or tension.Findings – It is postulated that the more mechanistic and explicit knowledge based organisations will enjoy ISO 9000 certification while the more organic and tacit knowledge based organisations will experience tensions arising from lack of fit. Hence, conceptually, the standard will work best ...

Information mining capabilities in Malaysian SMEs: Specific use of enterprise resource planning system

Information mining has never been more crucial in organizational decision making than now. Without information and communication technologies (ICTs), most companies, particularly the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) would not be able to survive the demands of the current volatile economic conditions. Hence, this paper reports the findings from the assessment of ICT usage by 110 SMEs in the Klang Valley, Malaysia. Specifically, the usage of enterprise resource planning system (ERP) was assessed and the outcome showed that SMEs in Malaysia are still lagging in computer usage for improved organizational decision. The implications for non-usage bode negatively for SMEs sustained survival although the government continued to offer assistance through the annual budget allocation. The findings of this study showed that the perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness had significant relationship with the ERP system usage. A strong and visionary leader would provide the basis to push the SMEs to achieve better returns of investment.

Assessing the Moderating Effect of Competition Intensity on HRM Practices and Organizational Performance Link: The Experience of Malaysian R&D Companies

Abstract Nowadays, firms in R&D sector face many challenges in enhancing performance. To perform, these firms need to develop strong internal workforce to address increasing environmental challenges. Based on the contingency theory, this paper examined the moderating effect of competition intensity on the relationship between human resource management (HRM) practices and organizational performance. Using data from 64 R&D companies, the hierarchical regression analysis however failed to show significant moderating effect of competition intensity on such relationship. Several plausible causes are discussed. Given that, this study offers good insights about the practice of HRM in this sector

Socioeconomic and Political Implications for Ethnic and National Sentiments: The Impact on Nation-Building Policy Efforts

The issue of ethnic attachment is always in conflict with national sentiment, which can affect nation-building efforts in any multiracial country of the world. This paper examines the issues in Malaysian context. The findings of the study show significant relationships between social (H1) and economic factors (H2) and national sentiment with beta coefficient β = 0.111 and 0.138, respectively. However, the relationship between political factor (H3) and national sentiment is extremely weak with β = 0.008. A bootstrapping procedure of 1,000 resampling method was followed. The results supported the hypotheses H1 and H2 with t-values of 1.63 and 1.88, p 0.05. As such the main significant contributing effects to national sentiment in this study are both social and economic factors, where R2 is 5.4 %. Secondly, the three factors were also significantly related to ethnic sentiment with beta coefficients of β = 0.275, 0.196, and 0.148. Thus, using the bootstrapping procedure of 1,000 resampling again, the hypotheses (H4, H5, and H6) were supported with t-values of 3.39, 2.264, and 1.821, p < 0.001, respectively. In this context, the hypotheses support the theory that socioeconomic and political factors have significant effects on ethnic sentiment of people with R2 of 30.1 %. Finally, the results indicate that both national (H7) and ethnic sentiments (H8) have significant relations with nation-building policy efforts, where beta coefficients are β = 0.141 and 0.53 and t-values of 3.49 and 8.79, p < 0.0001, respectively.

The promotion of electronic filing technology

Electronic tax filing system or e-filing was introduced in Malaysia in 2006. It is one of the e-government applications that has the potential in ensuring the tax collection process efficiently. However, there are many excuses given by the taxpayers for not using the e-filing service provided by the government. Hence, taxpayer behavior really affects revenue collection for the country. The research postulates two objectives namely; to investigate the taxpayers awareness on the availability of the electronic services offered by Lembaga Hasil Dalam Negeri Malaysia (LHDNM) and to analyse the feedback on the system. Data were collected using questionnaire adapted from Siegels model known as electronic filing model of motivation (e-MAM), developed in 2008. The findings of the research show that respondents are aware of the services offered by LHDNM and they find the system easy to use and convenient.

Information prospecting in Malaysian small medium enterprises for competitive advantage

Information prospecting or mining has never been more crucial in organizational decision making and strategic competitive advantage Without information and communication technologies (ICTs), most companies, particularly the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) would not be able to survive the demands of the current volatile economic conditions Hence, this paper reports the findings from the assessment of ICT usage by 300 SMEs in the Klang Valley, Malaysia Specifically, the usage of enterprise resource planning system (ERP) was assessed and the outcome showed that SMEs in Malaysia are still lagging in computer usage for improved organizational decision. The implications for non-usage bode negatively for SMEs sustained survival although the government continued to offer assistance through the annual budget allocation. A strong and visionary leader would provide the basis to push the SMEs to achieve better returns of investment through strategic decision making.

Adoption of enterprise information system (EIS) in Malaysian small and medium enterprises (SMEs)

Enterprise information systems (EIS) are commonly adopted by large corporations rather than small ones because of the formers financial ability. However, in the Information Era, non-adoption is not an option for any firm size hence, the aim of this paper is to assess the adoption of EIS in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Malaysia. One thousand questionnaires were sent to the respondents that were identified through purposive sampling technique. Two hundred and twenty or 22% completed ones were returned. The findings revealed that 48.8% of the SMEs in Malaysia have implemented the EIS platform between 2003-2005 and 28.8% have been utilizing the enterprise system before the year 2000. This implies that SMEs are early adopters of EIS and as such, should not have any problems with efficiency and productivity. Maintaining the organizational performance through information and communication technologies utilization would further enhance the SMEs competitive advantage.

Corporate governance and company boardroom consideration in Malaysia: Triple-Bottom Line insights

Attempts to test the impact of different boardroom characteristics relative to Triple-Bottom Line (TBL) performance in Malaysia has been limited. This study will offer such insights using a relatively new dataset from the Asian Sustainability Rating Index 2009. Using correlation tools, the study found no relationship between board characteristics and TBL performance, thus, this suggests that alternative control mechanisms should be created to steer the boards decision to maximize the interest of stakeholders. It showed that the boards incentive to maximize TBL performance is still lacking as compared to financial performance. The implications from the results are: companies can improvise the existing metrics of evaluating good governance from the non-financial stakeholder perspective in Asian Sustainability Rating Index and the control mechanisms can benefit Malaysia or any developing countries in the improvement of sustainability rating such as FTSE4good that has been established in the United Kingdom. Lastly, the findings offer additional information relating to TBL scenario in a different quality of board governance to interested parties by providing empirical support from the Asian perspective relating to TBL scenario in different corporate governance environment.

Usage of enterprise information system (EIS) among SMEs in the east coast of Malaysia: A preliminary study

The 2012 Budget announced by the Prime Minister of Malaysia indicated that small and medium enterprises (SMEs) continue to play an important role in the nations economy and are therefore, given sufficient allocation to sustain the various small enterprises. ICT usage has never been more emphasized than now, therefore the objective of this paper is to assess the SMEs use of enterprise information system (EIS) of companies in the Kelantan and Terengganu, Malaysia. The findings from the preliminary study showed that only three out of 20 companies (or 15%) are into full ICT usage. The implication from non-usage of ICT in the globalized world will negatively impact the SMEs ability to compete at both the local and international level, hence, internal management and organizational matters, particularly leadership and resilience must be enhanced, else these SMEs will not succeed in their endeavors.