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This study aims to describe and analyze the students' argumentative skills in the subject of static fluid using the PBL model with the experimental method, after the lesson is given to students. This type of research is descriptive research.The subjects of this study are 34 students of XI MIPA 2 class of SMAN 1 Tanggul. The sampling technique used in this study was simple random sampling. The data was collected by using an essay question consisting of 8 questions which have been adjusted to the indicators of argumentation ability which include; argument evidence, counter argument evidence, refutation evidence, argument justification, counter argument justification, and rebuttal justification. The data analysis of this research used a descriptive approach by calculating the score. The results showed that the average argument evidence indicator is 1.5 with the high category, the counter argument evidence is 1.5 with the high category, the refutable evidence is 1,4 with the high category, the argument justification is 2.1 with the high category, the justification the counter argument is 2.1 with the high category, and the rebuttal justification is 2.1 with the high category. Based on the research that has been done, it can be concluded that the students' argumentative skills on each measured indicator are high

The COVID-19 pandemic forced the Deans’ Council of Public Malaysian Medical Faculties to tackle the issue of examinations in the face of movement control orders (MCO). A task force decided that final professional examination is necessary and three recommendations have been proposed. Online examination is among the best option with strict adherence to the Malaysian Medical Council guidelines. The majority of the universities used a Moodle-based Learning Management System; the examination will therefore mainly cover cognitive outcomes focusing on final professional exit examinations. It felt that cheating, although a real issue, is manageable and came up with several recommendations for the implementation based on likely outcomes of the MCO.

Skills for living in the world are 21st century skills based on information, information, and communicate literacy. ICT literacy supports education successfully due to the fact that ICT literacy on education is lower than general ICT usage. E-learning engages ICT tools to increase transfer of knowledge, then e-learning usage is expected to improve ICT literacy especially on education. The purpose of this study is to determine ICT literacy through the assessment of school e-learning effectiveness. The questionnaire consisted of students' ICT literacy tests based on PISA (2012) and the assessment of e-learning effectiveness according to The European Association of Distance Teaching Universities. The results showed students' ICT literacy of high level school is 34.95%, middle level school is 34.95%, and lower level school is 34.95% while the assessment of school e-learning effectiveness is around 43.07%. We determined the impression of the students' ICT literacy with the assessment of school e-learning effectiveness. This study shows that there is an influence between ICT literacy of students towards the assessment of e-learning effectivity at school (sig

Objective - The study seeks to determine the relationship between psychosocial factors, namely social support, impression management and emotional factors (stress, anxiety and depression), with quality of life among flood victims. The Conservation of Resources Stress Approach Model and The Social Support Deterioration Model suggest that quality of life is dependent upon these psychosocial factors. Methodology/Technique - The cross-sectional study examined 1300 flood victims in flood prone areas in Malaysia. The Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, The Bolino and Turnley Impression Management Scale and Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale questionnaires were used to measure the psychosocial factors, while The WHO Quality of Life instrument was used to measure quality of life. The results were analysed using Pearson Correlations. Findings - The findings demonstrate that, in general, psychosocial factors are associated with quality of life. Social support dimensions and emotional factor dimensions were significantly correlated with quality of life. In addition, two dimensions of impression management were correlated with quality of life. The findings are consistent with the psychosocial theory that implies an overall relationship between the variables studied. Novelty – This study suggests that there is much to be done in terms of community flood education in Malaysia, as well as training for emergency aid providers to decrease the likelihood of negative effects of psychosocial factors on individuals' quality of life. A psychosocial support programme is recommended to enhance overall quality of life for flood victims. Type of Paper - Empirical Keywords: Psychosocial; Social Support; Impression Management; Stress; Anxiety; Depression; Quality of Life. JEL Classification: I30, I31.

While most people who are involved in disaster recover with the support of their families, friends and colleagues, the effect on some people health, relationships and welfare can be extensive and sustained. Flooding can pose substantial social and mental problems that may continue over extended periods of time. Flooding can challenge the psychosocial resilience of the hardiest of people who are affected. Communication skills used in managing disaster to provide emotional support, provide information, giving hope to the victim and help them to cope with anxiety. Thus, the purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between perception toward communication style practiced by relief workers and psychological well-being. This study was carried out among flood victim in Malaysia. The participants were asked to complete communication style and psychological well-being inventory. Data was analysed using of Pearson correlation coefficient. The result showed that communication style and psychological well-being were significantly related. This study provides theoretical contributions to organizational communication research and the literature on disaster management context. On the other hand, the findings provide support for the effects of relationships between communication style and well-being of flood victims.

PBHS merupakan salah satu program prioritas pemerintah melalui puskesmas dan menjadi sasaran luaran dalam penyelenggaraan pembangunan kesehatan. Cakupan rumah tangga sehat yang paling rendah di Wilayah Kerja Puskesmas Nanggalo terdapat di Kelurahan Kurao Pagang yaitu sebesar 5% dari 3 kelurahan yang ada. Penyebab rendahnya pelaksanaan PHBS di tatanan rumah tangga dipengaruhi oleh beberapa faktor antara lain faktor perilaku dan non perilaku fisik, sosial ekonomi dan sebagainya. Tujuan penelitian untuk mengetahui manajemen penerapan perilaku hidup bersih dan sehat (PHBS) pada tatananrumah tangga. Jenis penelitian ini adalah penelitian kualitatif.Informan penelitian ini Pengelola program PHBS Puskesmas, Pimpinan Puskesmas, Kader, Tokoh masyarakat, Tokoh agama,dan masyarakat, diambil secara purposive sampling. Pengumpulan data dilakukan melalui wawancara mendalam ( In-Depth Interview ), telaah dokumentasi dan Focus Group Discussion (FGD).Hasil penelitian diketahui adanya masalah pada komponen input yaitu tenaga promosi kesehatan yang ada di puskesmas belum pernah mendapatkan pelatihan, alokasi dana sangat kecil, dan sarana penunjang Promkes sebatas media cetak. Pada proses, perencanaan belum dilaksanakan secara terpadu, pengorganisasian dan pelaksanaan promkes belum terlaksana maksimal, dan pemantauan hanya berdasarkan hasil survei PHBS rumah tangga. Komponen output diketahui penerapan PHBS Tatanan Rumah Tangga masih rendah dibawah target.Disimpulkan manajemen penerapan PHBS Tatanan Rumah Tangga belum sesuai yang diharapkan. Disarankan kepada Dinas Kesehatan Kota Padang agar lebih mensosialisasikan PHBS Tatanan Rumah Ttangga, perlu adanya peningkatan kualitas tenaga pelaksana, alokasi dana dan sarana prasarana, serta perlu adanya upaya peningkatan manajemen penerapan PHBS tatanan rumah tangga. Clean and Healthy Behavior (PHBS) is one of the governmental priority programs through public health centers and is as an external objective in the process of health development This research uses qualitative approach. The informants of this research are the management staffs for clean and healthy behavior program in the public health center, the director of public health center, volunteers, local public figures, religious figures, and local people. These informants were selected through purposive sampling technique. The data were collected through in-depth interviews, documentation review, and Focus Group Discussion (FGD). The research findings reveal that there is a problem in input component, which is the less trained health promotion personnel, the limited allocated fund, and the lack of supporting facilities. In the process, the planning step of this program is not thoroughly conducted; the organizing and actualizing of promkes (community health program) is not maximally conducted; the monitoring is conducted using only survey result. It is suggested for Health Department of Padang to carry out more socialization about household clean and healthy behavior, to improve the quality of working personnel, to allocate sufficient fund and facilities, and to improve the management for the implementation of household clean

For the understanding of economic and cultural advancement in a society, higher education is one of the key factors.Present study intended to examine the role of hierarchy culture as a moderator on the relationship between work motivation and work commitment among university teachers. The study design was based on quantitative methods. Sample comprised of 351 teachers from public universities of Punjab, Pakistan. Multivariate analysis and descriptive statistics were performed using Smart PLS 3.0. Findings confirmed the moderating effects of hierarchy culture. The findings have implications for policy makers to take advantage of work motivation because motivated teachers preserve commitment despite the controlled and structured features of hierarchy culture. Study findings also propose the development of supportive culture to enhance work commitment. Keywords: hierarchy culture, work motivation, work commitment, university teachers, partial least square

The purpose of this paper is to discuss about the development of an instrument to measure impression management.Impression management involves attempts to establish the meaning or purpose of social interactions, guides actions and helps us anticipate what to expect from others.Although interest in the area of impression management continues to grow, the lack of a measure that is both grounded in theory and well-suited for organizational use has slowed the progress in this area. The paper is based on a quantitative approach. The data were collected through a survey among 759 respondents.It offers to understand characteristics of impression management in the areas of disaster management in Malaysian organizations.We found four stable dimensions which measure impression management among flood victim in Malaysian contexts.Moreover, scores on the scale developed to measure the impression management criteria yielded excellent validity and reliability estimates.This study provided and presented insights and further understanding of impression management from the indigenous perspective, which allows practitioners to gain in-depth knowledge about the implementation of impression management in an organization.The implications of this research were discussed.

In the field of psychological research, more and more studies suggest ways that spirituality and religiosity is important in dealing with life's problems including flood disaster. Many mental health workers considered seeking a spiritual understanding of one's place in the universe is important in overall health and well-being including disaster management intervention. Given the potential effects of spiritual and religious beliefs on coping with traumatic events such as flood disaster, the study of the role of spirituality in fostering resilience in flood disaster survivors may facilitate the understanding of human adaptation to trauma. This paper is based on quantitative and qualitative approach conducted on three groups of flood victims from two different states in Malaysia. The findings show that there was no significant difference on spirituality among the two states studied.

Research on flood disasters in the past decade has impacted outcomes such as spirituality and social support. A number of studies have shown that flood also changes the vicitms’ belief about themselves and meaning of life. The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between spiritual and social support. The paper is based on a quantitative approach by conducting a survey on 764 flood victims. A questionnaire battery including a translated Malaysian version of spirituality and a Modified version of social support were administered to households in flood affected areas. All analysis were carried out using Statistical Package For The Social Science (SPSS Version 21). The study found that there was significant relationship between spirituality and social support (r=202**, family, r=286**,friends, r=210** and significant others, r=.448**) in flood victims. In sum, this study provide theoretical contributions to spirituality and social support research. The study of the role of spirituality and social support in fostering resilience in flood survivors may advance the understanding of human adaptation and coping to flood trauma.

In the last decade, the emergence of violence has been since visible among the youth in school and even in higher education (HE). The number is various forms such as bullying, cyber bullying and even bullying victimization. It can be seen that forms of instance reported are many violence which refers to the perpetration among the school aged students. This paper aims to examine the problems on violence at any forms to propose a model to solve the knowledge set of compassionate based empathy. The findings reveal that the series of feeling mindful of self and social empathy should be developed to enhance the awareness with the ability to interact and care among HE. Providing the framework for the current issue of impending futile effort in terms of caring for terminal patients, nurturing compassionate based empathy could be one of the sources to assist the knowledge on the instructional design and assessment through best practice to improve the social and self-empathy awareness with compassion in HE.

The main objective of this research is to identify the conceptual understanding and consistency of 12th high school students in optics. The samples were selected randomly from four different high schools in Kudus regency, there are 128 high school students of 12th science class. This research were carried out using descriptive qualitative method. Data were collected based on the result of the examination and interview using Properties of Light Diagnostic Instrument (PLDI). Students’ conceptual understanding was analyzed related to paired items and their reasons. The results showed that the concept of refraction is the concept at which students had the lowest correct responses (x =2.34%). The ability of students to understand a concept with different contexts and to provide scientific reasons are still low. Then, students’ consistency levels are mostly at a “consistent with wrong response” level.

Anxiety or restlessness is an affective psychological variable that could affect the life of students significantly. In Malaysia, anxiety is one of the factors influencing subject performance especially among primary school students. Thus, a study of anxiety in Islamic Studies should be conducted to identify the problem. Also lack of previous study investigate the indicators of Islamic education subject anxiety specifically. Thus, this study aims to identify students’ experience anxiety level for Islamic Education subject and to build a hierarchy of students' experience anxiety based on the Parkinsons’ Four Factor Theory. A total of 83 primary school students were selected by using simple random sampling to become the respondents in this study. The respondents were asked to complete Anxiety Scale which measure students’ appraisal, arousal, action tendencies and also face expression throughout the process and situations in learning Islamic education. All the collected data were analysed by using measure rank analysis by applying Rasch Measurement Model to identify the rank of the four indicators of Islamic education anxiety. Results show that students experience relatively moderate level of anxiety in learning Islamic education. Besides, within the four indicators of Islamic education anxiety, appraisal towards external stimulus rank the highest while action tendencies rank the lowest. The results of this study have great implications for Islamic Education Teacher in identifying and improving communication with students experiencing anxiety in learning Islamic education at class. Keywords: Anxiety, appraisal, arousal, face expression, action tendencies. Abstrak Keresahan atau kegelisahan merupakan antara faktor yang boleh memberi kesan yang signifikan kepada kehidupan murid. Di Malaysia, keresahan dalam mata pelajaran antara faktor yang boleh mempengaruhi pencapaian murid dalam sesebuah mata pelajaran di sekolah rendah. Justeru, satu kajian terhadap keresahan dalam mata pelajaran Pendidikan Islam perlu dijalankan bagi menangani masalah ini. Kajian menggunakan indikator keresahan secara spesifik dalam mata pelajaran pendidikan Islam kurang dijalankan. Oleh itu, kajian ini dijalankan bertujuan untuk mengenal pasti tahap keresahan yang dialami murid dalam mata pelajaran pendidikan Islam dan membina hierarki pengalaman keresahan murid berdasarkan Teori Emosi Empat Faktor Parkinson. Seramai 83 orang murid sekolah rendah telah dipilih dalam kajian ini berdasarkan sampel rawak mudah. Responden dikehendaki melengkapkan instrumen keresahan bagi mata pelajaran pendidikan Islam yang mengukur indikator berdasarkan aspek penilaian terhadap rangsangan luar, rangsangan dalam, ekspresi muka dan kecenderungan tindakan. Data dianalisis dengan menggunakan Model Pengukuran Rasch untuk mengenal pasti kedudukan empat indikator ukuran pengalaman keresahan pendidikan Islam tersebut. Keputusan menunjukkan murid bahawa murid di sekolah rendah mempunyai tahap pengalaman keresahan yang sederhana. Berdasarkan empat indikator pula, penilaian terhadap rangsangan luar berada dalam kedudukan tertinggi, dan kecenderungan tindakan berada dalam kedudukan terendah. Keputusan kajian ini boleh dijadikan panduan terbaik kepada GPI dalam mengenalpasti dan memperbaiki komunikasi dengan murid yang mempunyai keresahan semasa pembelajaran pendidikan Islam di dalam kelas dijalankan. Kata kunci : Keresahan, penilaian terhadap rangsangan luar, rangsangan dalam, ekspresi muka, kecenderungan tindakan.

Informal caregivers has always been a significant source of providing care to the individuals with chronic illness such as cancer. Diagnosis of cancer in children can have harmful effects on a psychosocial and emotional well-being of a caregiver. Considering the caregiver stress theory as a theoretical framework, the purpose of this research was to determine the relationship of physical caregiving to the children with cancer in relation to caregivers’ stress taking social support as a mediator. The data was collected from 100 primary caregivers of children aged 0-19 years from hospitals of Pakistan using measurement scales of Caregiving task questionnaire, Medical Outcomes Study-Social Support Survey and Modified Caregiver Strain Index. For data analysis, descriptive statistics and multivariate analysis were conducted. Findings showed positive correlation of physical caregiving and social support with caregivers’ stress as well as significant mediating effects of social support on caregivers’ stress. This suggests that social support is a resource of mental health for caregivers of children with cancer highlighting the importance of social support while designing and implementing caregiver health interventions.

Increasing rate of pediatric cancer has shifted the patients from hospitals to the home settings. This shift involves the informal caregivers of pediatric cancer to face several social and emotional challenges that may result in caregiving-related stress. Stress process theory suggests a mediating variable such as social support in managing the caregivers’ stress. This study examines the stress of caregivers of cancer children in terms of emotional caregiving and social support using Berlin Social Support Scale, Medical Outcomes Study- Social Support Survey and Modified Caregiving Strain Index. This cross-sectional study involved 120 caregivers of children with cancer aged 0-19 years from cancer hospitals of Punjab, Pakistan. Multivariate analysis was conducted in addition to descriptive statistics. Results showed that emotional caregiving to the patients and caregivers’ stress were positively correlated and social support acts as a mediator in coping with the caregivers’ stress. The findings of this study exhibit the significance of involving multiple social resources while studying the process of cancer caregiving by illustrating the distinguishing effect of social support on caregivers’ stress of cancer patients.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the relationship between social support and impression management on the well-being of flood victims in Malaysia. Literature review so far shows that there is a limited research on these variables especially in the area of disaster management in Malaysia. The paper is based on a quantitative approach by conducting a survey among flood victims. This study provides theoretical contributions to organizational communication research and the literature on disaster management context. On the other hand, the findings provide support for the effects of relationships between social support and impression management on the well-being of flood victims.

Flood disaster is one of the events that have an impact on the lives of the individuals involved in Malaysia. Destruction and loss make a person feels depressed besides being worried. Even worse when the victims become depressed as a result of the incident. Flood events can be seen as a threat to the well-being of individuals both physically and emotionally. This article will discuss how stress, anxiety and depression are relatedtothe quality of life and well-being of flood victims. The discussion is based on the Stressful Life EventsTheory, Freud's Anxiety Theory, Beck's Cognitive Theory of Depression and the Quality of Life Conceptual Model.

This study examines the psychological preparedness among flood victims. When a disaster strikes, psychological preparedness is one of the most essential factors needed to oversee and adapt individual reactions before and during a disaster, with the objective to enhance the individual conduct and psychological reaction. Present study reveals that psychological preparedness is not the same as physical readiness since it is identified as an intraindividual and mental condition of mindfulness, expectation, and availability. The study also unravels the disaster impact on the individual, community and the nation. The undeniably recurrence and force of natural disaster everywhere in the world reveals that psychological preparedness for disaster management requires urgent attention. It is therefore, recommended that personality traits become a key component to comprehend, enhance versatility and individual readiness to confront and manage flood disaster. The study further recommends conceptual framework to explain the relationship between personality traits and the impact of the disaster based on previous studies. © 2016 Published by Future Academy www.FutureAcademy.org.uk

This study is design to investigate the implementation of the shura among headmasters that’s influence teachers’ work commitment, and to examine the shura element asli predictability of teachers’ work commitment. This study uses quantitative methods involving 200 respondents among teachers from 23 grade A schools in Johor Bahru. The overall analysis of questionnaire data obtained Cronbach alpha value of 0.946, which showed the highest level of reliability assessment and fulfilling the needs of this study. The data is analys using Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) 22.0. Overall finding shows the implementation of the practice of shura is in a high level, which should be carried out among the teachers. Referring to the second objectives of this study, the analysis proves that elements of the shura; openness, consensus, trust, and trust able to predict work commitments. Based on this result, it can be understood that the elements of the shura competent to improve future teachers’work commitments. It is recommended, for future studies to the investiage the practice of shura in relation with the job satisfaction and school achievement in education. The findings of this study are expected to generate knowledge and understanding in leadership based on a broad practice of shura.

The link between the work motivation and work commitment is well established in a variety of work settings. However, the role of organizational culture is not explored in depth, especially as a moderator between work motivation and work commitment. The present study undertakes an examination of the above explained model. The sample consisted of 351 academics from nine public universities in the state of Punjab, Pakistan. Cross-sectional survey design was employed to collect the data. The statistical analyses were performed with Partial Least Squares technique using the Smart PLS 3.0. The findings revealed that adhocracy culture moderates the link between non-self-determined work motivation and work commitment among university academic staff. The study has implications for authorities to capitalize on organizational culture to boost work motivation that will ultimately improve work commitment among academics.

Shortage of the nurses is an important issue in the developing and developed countries. The aim of this paper is to determine the impact of organizational commitment on intention to quit among psychiatric nurses. Based on the model of casual turnover this study assessed the direct effect of organizational commitment on nurse’s intention to quit. The cross sectional data was collected from three hundred five nurses of psychiatric hospitals in Punjab, Pakistan. Structural equation modeling was applied to achieve the objectives. The results revealed that affective commitment and normative commitment have significant impact while continuous commitment has not significant effect on nurse’s intention to quit. So, the commitment of nurse to hospital goals, missions, and values is not enough to predict her intention to quit from job in the hospital. This study recommends that, the government and policy makers should look beyond forces in their internal and external environment, when considering how to reduce employee’s turnover intentions. This study recommends that future researchers should examine the impact of work environment on intention to quit though burnout as a unit variable. This study contributes socially and economically.

In this modern era of competitiveness, work commitment is imperative as every organization strive to excel. Employees must find the means to achieve goals with full determination and commitment despite their personal difficulties. This paper analyses the moderation effect of the dimensions of basic needs satisfaction at work (autonomy, relatedness, and competence) on the relationships between burnout (exhaustion, professional efficacy, and cynicism), work-family conflict (work interfering with family (WIF), family interfering with work (FIW)), and the dimensions of organizational commitment (affective, continuance and normative). Two hundred and twenty administrative and professional groups from Kuala Lumpur City Hall (KLCH), Malaysia were involved in the study. The data gathered was examined using hierarchical multiple regression analysis to determine the moderating effects between variables. The findings revealed that: (1) autonomy moderates the relationships between exhaustion and continuance commitment; and (2) relatedness moderates the relationships between WIF and continuance commitment. The study has defined the motivating factors using the Conservation of Resources (COR) theory as a foundation for the discussion. Recommendations and areas for future research are also discussed. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n4s3p506

Emotional intelligence comprises of several important elements which enhance the ability of several keycompetencies. This study attempts to examine the relationship between emotional intelligence, communicationskills and information technology skills among university students in Malaysia. Three thousand one hundred andone final year students from 10 public universities in Malaysia were randomly chosen as samples for this study.The Bar-On Emotional Quotient: Short (EQ-i:S) by Bar-On has been utilized for the purpose of measuringemotional intelligence. An inventory by Moreale, Spitzberg and Barga was used to measure communicationskills while the Computer Efficacy Scale by Murphy, Coover and Owen was utilised to measure skills ininformation technology. Results showed that there were positive significant relationship between emotionalintelligence and both communication and information technology skills. This study implicates that students withhigh emotional intelligence will have better command in communication skills and information technologyskills.

This article discusses the contribution of ‘child-friendly’ learning environments in an obesity prevention healtheducation program for young children. The ‘child-friendly’ approach refers to a concept wherein the situation,place, as well as the activities conducted include elements that children like or enjoy and are suitable to theirlevel. A total of 68 children between the ages of 3-6 years participated in the study. The program was conductedfor 32 weeks at a kindergarten using a ‘child-friendly’ approach. Data regarding children’s reactions towards theapproach were collected using video recordings and anecdotal records from in-situ observation. The data wereanalyzed using ATLAS.ti. Research results show that the ‘child-friendly’ learning environment contributed fourpositive reactions from the children; 94.29% of the children were recorded to be ‘happy’, 90.02% were recordedto be ‘excited’, 98.59% showed ‘acceptance’ and 95.71% showed ‘appreciation’. In conclusion, the researchfindings support the use of the ‘child-friendly’ approach in the teaching and learning process of children agedbetween 3-6 years as they are able to experience learning in an enjoyable manner thus motivating them to learn.

Management education is not a rare domain anymore. People learn, study and teach management in a diversity of branches of knowledge or disciplines. In this perspective, management educators are required to be people-smart. The ability to administer their inner feelings as well as to work with people will improve the quality and effectiveness of management teaching. To reach this, personal intelligences which include general intelligence (Intelligence Quotient {IQ}), emotional intelligence (Emotional Quotient {EQ}) and interpersonal intelligence (People Quotient {PQ}) are essential. . This paper will tackle the issue of enhancing interpersonal intelligence (PQ), which also takes into account the aspect of emotional intelligence (EQ) among management educators. To ensure success in interpersonal intelligence, several criteria can well predict people’s quotient. These are the ability to understand students, the ability to grasp people/students’ ability to clearly establish thoughts and feelings, ability to ask and offer feedback, ability to serve as a determinant to how others act and think, ability to engage in and resolve conflicts, and, ability to work with others effectively. It is anticipated that management education will not only perform well in the content and structure but in the psychological aspects of management educators as well.

Social capital is a vital concept in identifying resources in the social network, which has the capability to be used to improve life quality and to facilitate the society development process. It emerges in the form of individual asset and needs to be analyzed through collective lifestyle or a community. An initial process has been explored to identify social capital components. The outcome is translated into an instrument comprising of six social capital components based on survey items and past studies namely participation in community activities, proactivity in the social context, neighborhood connections, multi-racial tolerance, a sense of trust and protection, and life values. A pilot study involving 41 respondents was carried out in several neighboring areas in the northern part of Malaysia. The study results show that all six components have a high internal reliability value. These components of social capital are categorized into three levels namely low, moderate and high. The findings demonstrate that the majority of the four components are at the high level. They are participation in community activities, neighborhood connections, multi-racial tolerance, and, a sense of trust and protection whereas majority of the respondents for the components of proactivity in the social context and life values is at the moderate level.

The primary concerns of this study is whether universities’ sport coaches possess good coaching competency skills in bringing up potential athletes for the country. What are coaches’ coaching competency levels? Do their competencies capability able to contribute significantly to sport achievement motivation of student-athletes? Thus, this study was designed to evaluate the competency level of coaches and student-athletes’ achievement motivation at the Higher Educational Institutions (HEI) in sports competitions. A total of 322 student-athletes were participated in the questionnaire survey. Researchers have adapted the Coaching Competency Scale to measure four different dimensions of coaching competency and Sport Orientation Questionnaire to measure achievement motivation of student-athletes. Validity and reliability of the instrument were found to be satisfactory.The results of this study indicate that the coaches’ competency levels at the HEI were not differ significantly by gender and performance of student-athletes, but it was differed significantly by type of sport, between team and individual sports. In addition, this study showed that there was a moderate relationship between the competencies of sport coaches and achievement motivation among student-athletes. However, among the coaches’ coaching competencies, motivation competency of coaches was found to be significant contributor to student-athletes sport achievement motivation. The study provides important insights from the perspective of sport development programme at the related organizations which can be valuable in identifying and recruiting suitable coaches; and helping coaches to some extent in planning strategies for coaching athletes to ensure the effectiveness of its role as a coach.

Our era of knowledge today has shown the fact that accomplishments achieved by public agencies receive influence from several inside factors; to name but a few, individual intelligence and personality characteristics. The emphasis on this paper rests on the contributions made by personality and the act of implicit knowledge-sharing to improve individual presentation, with special regards to managers in the public sector. There is a potential that this paper can serve to justify how individual differences are able to weave their way among knowledge workers for performance improvement. The assessment of personality traits is performed using the Big Five Inventory, where the traits are extraversion, agreeableness, openness to experience, neuroticism and conscientiousness. Tacit knowledge sharing, on the other hand, is realized through mentoring and knowledge-sharing agenda. This current study is targeted at Malaysian public sector managers who are expected to distribute their valuable knowledge with others and help enhance individual productivity. Individual performance system is introduced as a measuring tool on individual productivity which comprises of four main components; knowledge and expertise, personal quality, leadership and community contribution. It is suggested that for the purpose of practising knowledge sharing, managers need to possess some personality traits to improve their employees’ performance.

Perceptions of interviewer characteristics signify the validity and reliability of selection procedures. Personality characteristics of the interviewer such as personableness, skills and competency, questioning manner and job information may be perceived differently in different situations. This study examined the perceived and preferred interviewer characteristics based on Perceived Interviewer Characteristics Scale by Ahmad Marzuki (2000). In addition, it included the preferred interviewer characteristics scales modified from the original scales. A total of 140 participants were selected as samples. Results indicated that the actual 4 scales except for ‘questioning manner’ characteristic were correlated to the preferred interviewer characteristics. Results also shown that there were significant differences between what the applicants perceived and what the applicants preferred in three interviewer characteristics namely personableness, skills and competency and job information in general, as well as based on those who were offered and not offered the job.

The first aim of the present study is to validate an extended technology acceptance model (TAME) on the data derived from the faculty members of a university in an ongoing, computer mediated work setting. The study extended the original TAM model by including an intrinsic motivation component - computer self efficacy. In so doing, the study assessed the direct and indirect effects of computer self efficacy on the use of the technology, via the perceived usefulness and intention to use the technology voluntarily. The second purpose of the study is to evaluate gender and age invariants of the causal structure of TAME. This cross-validation procedure determined whether gender and age group moderated the causal structure of the model, and thus the generality of TAME. The data were collected from a self reported questionnaire administered to 731 faculty members of a public university in Malaysia. The results of structural equation modeling supported the adequacy of TAME. Although the TAME's causal structure was applicable to both male and female staff, age group appeared to moderate the structural relationships among the constructs of interest.

Job burnout issue is an increasingly important phenomenon in Asian countries. Based on the model of casual turnover this study assessed the direct effect of organizational commitment on job burnout. The cross sectional data was collected from three hundred five nurses of psychiatric hospitals in Punjab, Pakistan. Structural equation modeling was applied to achieve the objectives. The results revealed that only and normative commitment have significant impact while affective commitment and continuous commitment has not significant effect on nurse’s job burnout. So, the commitment of nurse to hospital goals, missions, and values is not enough to predict her job burnout in the hospital. This study recommends that future researchers should examine the impact of work environment on job burnout as a unidimensional. This study contributes socially and economically.