Peter Songan

The relationship between leadership styles and organizational commitment in Malaysia: role of leader–member exchange

Building upon the ‘social exchange theory’ notion, this study hypothesized the moderating impact of leader–member exchange (LMX) on the relationship between two leadership styles and organizational commitment of employees. One hundred and fifty-six Malaysian executives voluntarily participated in this study. Though the hypotheses for direct effects received low to moderate support for transformational leadership styles, the moderating hypothesis received substantial support, with a stronger relationship particularly in the case of professional respect dimension of LMX. Implications of the findings, limitations of the study and directions for future research are suggested.

Challenges and Opportunities in Introducing Information and Communication Technologies to the Kelabit Community of North Central Borneo

This article describes an action-research pilot project to provide opportunities for the remote Kelabit community in the Malaysian state of Sarawak, on the island of Borneo, to use information and communication technologies (ICTs) for sustainable human development. The project aims to establish a telecentre as a place for the community to use ICTs. Although many in the community have heard about computers, they have not seen or used them. In Phase 1 of this project, a team of University Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) researchers were involved in the collection of base-line data to provide a socio-economic profile of the community, to establish existing patterns of communication and computer awareness and finally to determine the current attitudes towards computers in Barios secondary school (SMK Bario). Findings indicate that due to Barios relative isolation, community members cited their relatives to be the main source of information and face-to-face communication as the major channel of communication, and that a majority of school teachers had a positive attitude towards using ICTs. Recommendations for future directions in promoting the utilization of ICTs to lead to the establishment of a telecentre are discussed.

TELECENTRE REPLICATION INITIATIVE IN BORNEO MALAYSIA: THE COERI EXPERIENCE

There are many bridging‐the‐digital‐divide initiatives implemented by various government agencies and non‐governmental organisations throughout the world. Numerous studies have been conducted to identify the critical success factors in providing remote and rural communities equitable access to Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). Malaysia has its fair share of successes and failures in such initiatives. One such initiative, the eBario Project, which provided ICTs to the rural and remote community in Bario, Borneo Malaysia, has been in operation over the last decade. The project was undertaken by the Centre of Excellence for Rural Informatics (CoERI), Institute of Social Informatics and Technological Innovations, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) with active participation of the local community in Bario. Critical success factors of the eBario Project include the close cooperation between the project initiator and the local community, strong support from the local champions, focus on actual needs and socio‐economic goals of the community, and deployment of appropriate technologies to the remote community. Given its relative success, the eBario project has been replicated to four other rural and remote communities in Borneo Malaysia. This paper highlights the approach used in implementing telecentres within these communities and some of the lessons learnt during the replication process. The CoERI Experience provides a useful guide to policy makers, project implementers and researchers who intend to deploy telecentres in rural communities at a larger scale.

Self-efficacy and sustainable rural tourism development: local communities’ perspectives from Kuching, Sarawak

ABSTRACT The future of the tourism industry is dependent on local communities’ ability to develop and sustain tourism developments, especially in sensitive rural areas. But there is limited research on this topic to guide tourism authorities and governments. In particular, few studies have studied sustainable rural tourism development from the perspective of the local communities. Therefore, this study examines local communities’ views on their capability to achieve sustainable rural tourism development in selected rural areas in Kuching, Sarawak. Questionnaires were distributed to the local communities residing at three rural tourism destinations in Kuching, Sarawak. Interestingly, the results indicated that local communities’ self-efficacy has a positive relationship with social, cultural, economic, and environmental sustainability. Hence, this study offers theoretical and practical contributions to sustainable rural tourism development literature and the tourism industry.

Tourscape: A systematic approach towards a sustainable rural tourism management

Tourism plays an important role in the Malaysian economy as it is considered to be one of the corner stones of the countrys economy. The purpose of this research is to conduct an analysis based on the existing tourism industry in rural tourism destinations in Malaysia by examining the impact of economics, environmental, social and cultural factors of the tourism industry on the local communities in Malaysia. 516 respondents comprising of tourism stakeholders from 34 rural tourism sites in Malaysia took part voluntarily in this study. To assess the developed model, SmartPLS 2.0 (M3) was applied based on path modeling and then bootstrapping with 200 re-samples was applied to generate the standard error of the estimate and t-values. Subsequently, a system named Tourscape was designed to manage the information. This system can be considered as a benchmark for tourism industry stakeholders as it is able to display the current situational analysis and the tourism health of selected tourism destination sites by capturing data and information, not only from local communities but industry players and tourists as well. The findings from this study revealed that the cooperation from various stakeholders has created significant impact on the development of rural tourism.

Service quality gap and tourists? satisfaction at rural destination: an empirical examination

Tourists? satisfaction and service quality has each been the subject of extensive, but separate, research, although a great deal of interest on tourists? satisfaction has been conducted in tourism setting. Little research has empirically examined the distinctions and the perceived satisfaction and actual satisfaction of tourists particularly in rural destination. This study was conducted, firstly, to assess the service quality gap by measuring tourists? perceived and actual service performance and secondly, to identify the service quality dimensions on tourists? satisfaction. The results revealed that there are significant differences between tourists? expectation and their perceptions. All four dimensions showed that tourists? expectation exceeded their perception with places having the smallest gap and outdoor activities having the largest gap. The analysis had shown that different service quality components had various impacts on tourists? satisfaction. Implications of the findings, potential limitations of the study and directions for future research were discussed further.