Rohani Salleh

The link between training satisfaction, work engagement and turnover intention

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the casual relationship between training satisfaction, work engagement (WE) and turnover intention and the mediating role of WE between training satisfaction and turnover intention. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from 409 oil and gas professionals using an email survey questionnaire. Structural equation modelling, using Analysis of Moment Structures (IBM AMOS) 22.0, was performed to test the hypothesized model. Findings The results suggest that training satisfaction is significantly positively related to employees’ level of WE and is negatively related to turnover intention. The results also reveal that WE mediates the relationship between training satisfaction and turnover intention. Practical implications Training has long been thought to play an important role in achieving positive attitudinal and behaviours outcomes among employees. This study reconfirms these ideas and highlights the importance of training satisfaction as being key to achieving greater WE and reducing voluntary turnover. Therefore, the finding of this study have a number of implications for research and human resource development practitioners. Originality/value This study makes a significant theoretical contribution to the literature as this is the first study to demonstrate the significance of training satisfaction and the mediating effects of WE in reducing the turnover intention of employees.

Understanding Motivators and De-motivators for Software Engineers – A Case of Malaysian Software Engineering Industry

One of the key components which has an impact on the performance and productivity of individuals in the organization is motivation. Software engineering lacks the studies on motivation. Even though those studies which have been done so far are mostly from Western countries. This paper tries to fill this gap by understanding motivators and de-motivators in the field of software engineering from Malaysian perspective. Questionnaire method was used to collect the data. Results show that recognition, technically challenging work, job security and feedback are the major motivators in the field of software engineering. As far as de-motivators are concerned, main de-motivators includes lack of promotional opportunities, less competitive pay and unfair reward system. These results confirmed that the importance of motivators and de-motivators vary between Western and Malaysian cultures.

Work design characteristics and knowledge sharing behavior among Software Engineers

Knowledge sharing is important for Software Engineers because software is purely based on individuals knowledge and one of the sources to learn new knowledge is through sharing. Although Software Engineering is a growing field, however research done in this profession is still not mature. One of the areas, which have not been thoroughly investigated in this profession, is working environment and its impact on knowledge sharing. Focus on this aspect of Software Engineering is important because work environment not only influences the performance of an individual but also the behavior (which in this case will be knowledge sharing behavior). Therefore, huge number of studies has been done conducted on designing work environment. One of the important works done was Job Characteristics Model (mostly used in Software Engineering field). However, it covers only five aspects of work/job. Therefore different other studies focused on more work design characteristics. This study analyzed the relationship between knowledge sharing behavior and work design characteristics among Software Engineers. Work design characteristics proposed by Morgeson and Humphrey (2006) were used for this study. This study was conducted in Malaysia and four locations were selected through geographical random cluster sampling. Results indicated that task identity, feedback from job, skill variety and received interdependence are the main work design characteristics for Software Engineers. Results also indicated that all work design characteristics has positive relationship with knowledge sharing behavior.

An exploratory study on interns' communicative abilities: The industrial internship experience

Communication skills, other than specialized technology competency is a competency valued by employers. Universities are accountable in providing adequate communication skills for graduates to prepare them to face the challenging and changing industry. This study investigates the communication skills (oral and written) of interns from a private engineering and technology focused university in Malaysia. For a more comprehensive perspective, two sets of questionnaires are used to gather data from the interns and their respective industrial supervisors. Overall, the findings indicate that the interns possess high communicative abilities both in oral and written. Although the mean scores suggest that the interns had rated their communicative abilities higher than their industrial supervisors, t-test results show no significant difference between the two groups of respondents. Interestingly, no significant difference is found between interns from different academic programmes. The findings of this study indicate that the university may have prepared and groomed its students adequately to meet the needs of the current industries. Explanations for the findings are discussed in relation to the universitys intake requirements, course syllabus, and university-industry collaborative initiatives.

Personality Traits Influencing Knowledge Sharing in Student–Supervisor Relationship: A Structural Equation Modelling Analysis

Although knowledge sharing (KS) and personality traits are primarily studied in business organisations, these issues are equally important for universities. However, few attempts have been made to investigate the relationship between personality traits and KS, particularly in the context of Malaysian higher education. The present study fills the research gap by examining the effects of personality traits — specifically agreeableness, conscientiousness and openness to experience — on KS in the student–supervisor relationship. Using probability sampling, data was collected from 175 doctoral students. Structural equation modelling was used to test the hypotheses. The findings suggest that agreeableness, conscientiousness and openness to experience are significantly and positively related to the KS behaviours of research supervisors. Openness to experience was revealed to be the most influential factor in the supervisor’s level of KS. This is the first study to investigate the relationship between personality traits and KS in the context of the student–supervisor relationship, thus marking a significant contribution to the KS literature. The findings of this paper have implication for academics and higher education administrators.

Influence of Informal Visual Environments and Informal Motivational Factors on Learners’ Aesthetic Expectations from Formal Learning Visual Environments

Media aesthetic researchers believe that Informal Visual Environments (IVEs) have changed our aesthetic perceptions and made us perceptually selective by establishing a new schema (set of aesthetic expectations) based on information visualization. This may have caused learners’ to have aesthetic expectations from Formal Learning Visual Environments (FLVEs). Likewise, learners’ get cognitively fatigued when experience difference between what they aesthetically expect and what they see in a FLVE, this lowers their learning motivation. The purpose of this empirical study is to investigate how learners’ aesthetic expectations from FLVEs are influenced by IVEs (Motion-Pictures, Video-Games, and Social Networking Websites) and Informal Motivational Factors (Challenge, Curiosity, Control and Fantasy). Keller’s and Malone & Leppers’ motivational models are used as research baseline to ascertain aesthetic expectations in formal and informal visual environments and how they jointly determine learners’ aesthetic expectations from FLVEs. The study investigates four research questions by computing Two-Way Analysis of Variance, Pearson Correlation Coefficient and Multiple Regression Analysis. Results support the argument discussed in the paper and show a strong influence of both IVEs and Informal Motivational Factors on learners’ aesthetic expectations from FLVEs.