Zoharah Omar

Exploring career success of late bloomers from the TVET background

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore objective and subjective career success and to identify factors contributing to career success among a sample of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) “late bloomers” working in Malaysia.Design/methodology/approach – Incorporating a mixed method design, the authors quantitatively surveyed 86 TVET graduates from two multinational companies, followed by in‐depth qualitative interviews with five high‐performing “late bloomer” TVET graduates.Findings – Quantitative results indicate that the respondents progressed in their careers both in terms of salary and promotions, while most were satisfied with their careers and felt that they were internally and externally marketable. Qualitative findings indicate that the success of the late bloomers was the result of a perceived good fit between an individuals strengths and the organizations ability to compensate, motivate and support the individuals in their career progression.Research limitations/i...

Impact of T-shaped skill and top management support on innovation speed; the moderating role of technology uncertainty

Abstract This study examines the moderating role of technology uncertainty on the relationship between team contextual factors of top management support and T-shaped skills with innovation speed. For the purpose of this study, the data were collected from 227 new products from 147 biotechnology firms in Malaysia. The overall results confirmed the moderating effect of technology uncertainty on the relationship between T-shaped skills, as well as top management support with innovation speed. The results further confirmed that under the high technology uncertainty, this effect is higher in comparison to the low and medium uncertainty. This indicates that the effect of top management support and T-shaped skills on innovation speed improves when technology uncertainty increases. On the practical side, the report equips biotech firms with valuable insights to develop effective strategies.

Psychometrics properties of the Persian version of Beck Anxiety Inventory in North of Iranian adolescents

Aim: This study investigated the psychometric properties of the Persian Version of the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) for adolescents. Materials and Methods: This research examined the validity and reliability of BAI in North of Iranian normal population. After psychologists had been sufficiently prepared, they were dispatched to different regions of the Guilan (Guilan Province of Iran), referring to residential places for boys and girls in the research. At the end, 783 respondents were randomly recruited and tested using BAI. Two hundred and thirty-two respondents were randomly selected and re-tested in order to measure test-retest reliability with a 1-week interval time between first and second tests. To assess validity; we performed a principal component exploratory factor analysis to explore the factor structure of the BAI and Pearsons correlation coefficient performed for convergent validity between the BAI, self-rating anxiety scale, symptom check list-90-R, sexual abuse trauma index and divergent validity with Beck Depression Inventory (BDI)-II. For data reduction and analysis, the SPSS 22 and Amos 18 were conducted. Result: Findings showed that the Persian version of BAI proved an acceptable test-retest reliability (r = 0.67), an internal consistency (α =0.88), convergent validity (0.40-0.44), and divergent validity (r = 0.216) with BDI-II. We found a clear cut point for our society and these findings confirmed the confirmatory factor analysis results and suggested that the factor structure for the BAI-Iranian is valid and stable. The indices were the Chi-square statistics (χ2 df =547.234), the comparative fit index =0.91), the standardized root-mean-square (0.05), the root-mean-square error of approximation (0.04), and the Akaike Information Criteria (694) a good model fit is indicated. Conclusion: The results support the applicability of BAI in adolescents and suggest the use of this inventory for screening general anxiety by school counselors and psychologists adolescents and research aims.

Examining the Relationship between Organisational Justice and Organizational Commitment with Perceived Organisational Support of the Malaysian High Performance School Sports Developmental Programme (SPTS) Volunteer Coaches

This study aims to examine the relationship between organisational justice and organizational commitment with perceived organisational support of the Malaysian High Performance School Sports Developmental Programme (SPTS) volunteer coaches, in an organisation sponsored volunteerism at grass root sports development level. A cross-sectional correlation research mail survey was conducted. Data were analysed by using IBM SPSS statistics software and structural equation modelling with AMOS. Findings showed that interpersonal justice related positively with affective commitment but negatively with continuance commitment; while, distributive justice was only linked to normative commitment. All four dimensions of organisational justice except procedural justice were associated with perceived organisational support. Perceived organisational support relates only to normative commitment. Moreover Organisation Support Theory, under current research, is suggested to contextualise and resolve their conflicting dual roles as a teacher by contract and as a volunteer coach by assignment within the organisation. Besides, it is essential to strengthen the Sports Officers’ capabilities and abilities in volunteer sports management in order to achieve Malaysia’s aim for sports excellence. Future in-depth research is recommended for a better understanding of the subject matter.

Can Emotional Stability Buffer the Effect of Job Stress on Deviant Behavior

The interrelationships between job stress, WDB and emotional stability have not been studied in a model to comprehend whether emotional stability could weaken the impact of job stress on employee deviant behavior. We tested a model on the moderating role of emotional stability, a personality factor, in the relationship between job stress and workplace deviant behavior. The model was developed based on the general strain theory and the integrated general model of workplace deviant behavior. Structural equation modeling analysis was conducted on survey data from 261 employees from six Malaysian public service agencies. Our results supported the proposed model. The stress-deviance relationship is significant. The stress-deviance linkage is stronger among employees who are less emotionally stable than those who are more emotionally stable. The results suggest that emotional stability as a personality factor plays a vital role in further understanding the impact of job stress on employee deviant behavior. Based on the results, the general strain theory and the integrated general model of workplace deviant behavior could serve as the bases for explaining the stress-deviance relationship and the moderating role of emotional stability.