Zoharah Omar, Steven Eric Krauss, Rahim M. Sail and Ismi Arif Ismail
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…
Abstract
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 individual's strengths and the organization's ability to compensate, motivate and support the individuals in their career progression.
Research limitations/implications
The limited sample size employed can only provide initial insights into career success levels and contributing factors of career success. The results may spur larger scale research on career success of TVET graduates in Malaysia and the neighbouring region.
Practical implications
The paper provides important initial findings on the technical and vocational career line as an alternative pathway for Malaysian youth, particularly school leavers and underachievers, to achieve career success and enhanced social inclusion through higher salaries, job status and educational attainment.
Originality/value
The paper highlights the unexplored potential of career success as a facilitator of educational attainment and social inclusion, rather than the traditional path of educational attainment first, followed by career success.
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Rahim M. Sail and Khadijah Alavi
The main purpose of this paper is to determine the extent of acquisition of knowledge on social skills and social values by trainers of institutes and coaches of industries in…
Abstract
Purpose
The main purpose of this paper is to determine the extent of acquisition of knowledge on social skills and social values by trainers of institutes and coaches of industries in training of trainers (ToT) programmes. It has been ascertained that social skills and social values can and must be taught to apprentices to enhance their employability skills as well as to remove any barriers for upward mobility in their careers.
Design/methodology/approach
A four‐day ToT‐cum‐workshop was organized using “hands‐on” experiential outdoor learning activities with lots of interactions, discussions and reflections between participants and participants, and between participants and facilitators. A retrospective post‐ then‐pre‐evaluation design was employed to determine the amount of knowledge acquired by the participants using a four point Likert‐type statements. Using the Handbook of Social Skills and Social Values as a guide, eight core social skills and eight core social values that were relevant to NDTS were identified, emphasized and evaluated in the training programme.
Findings
The overall findings indicate that there was about +20 per cent increase in knowledge among the participants on social skills and social values after the training programme. These findings indicate that social skills and social values can be taught when participants show increases in knowledge on all the social skills and social values studied.
Practical implications
Trainers of institutes and coaches of industries can integrate social skills and social values in their technical curriculum to provide apprentices with the foundation of human and social competence required to be an effective workforce to face future challenges and global competition.
Originality/value
This paper provides evidence that social skills and social values can be taught through appropriate teaching/learning techniques as well as providing the right learning environment.
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Shalini Srivastava, Anubhuti Saxena, Vartika Kapoor and Abdul Qadir
Gossip spreads like wildfire, damaging relationships, decaying trust and creating a negative work environment. This study aims to investigate the relationship between negative…
Abstract
Purpose
Gossip spreads like wildfire, damaging relationships, decaying trust and creating a negative work environment. This study aims to investigate the relationship between negative workplace gossip (NWG) and quiet quitting (QQ), while considering the mediating effects of workplace stress and emotional exhaustion (EE).
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing upon the conservation of resource theory, the study aimed to comprehend this association in the context of 267 employees from diverse sectors in India, including health care, IT, banking and education. Through a three-wave time lagged survey design, using partial least squares structural equation modeling, significant findings were uncovered.
Findings
The results revealed a positive link between NWG and QQ. There was also a positive correlation between NWG and workplace stress. In addition, workplace stress and EE were found to mediate the relationship between NWG and QQ.
Practical implications
The findings have implications for both theory and practice. Organizations should consider implementing strategies to mitigate the prevalence of negative gossip and foster a healthier work environment, promoting employee well-being and retention.
Originality/value
The study reveals the “black box” between NWG and QQ, adding to the body of knowledge on the novel concept of QQ. Second, the study expands the literature on NWG, by examining impact path of how it leads to stress and EE, leading to QQ.
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Peter J. Rimmer and Paul T.W. Lee
As the Malacca and Singapore Straits are part of the shortest route between Europe and Asia any impedance to shipping has serious commercial and strategic repercussions. What…
Abstract
As the Malacca and Singapore Straits are part of the shortest route between Europe and Asia any impedance to shipping has serious commercial and strategic repercussions. What would be the consequences to tankers and container shipping if access was restricted or prevented? This issue is addressed by examining the costs of using alternative tanker routes to the Straits and the flow-on consequences of removing a mega-hub port from the container-shipping network. The analysis highlights differences between tanker shipping, where the ship itself is the prime unit of interest, and container shipping, where the door-to-door network is of paramount importance.
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This paper aims to examine how leaders’ avoidance influences followers’ attitudes and well-being in China. Although conflict avoidance is one of the most commonly used conflict…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine how leaders’ avoidance influences followers’ attitudes and well-being in China. Although conflict avoidance is one of the most commonly used conflict resolution styles in China, there has surprisingly been no explicit investigation of the effects of leaders’ avoidance.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from 245 subordinates in three large companies in the People’s Republic of China through an online survey. Multiple regression analysis was adopted to test three sets of competing hypotheses.
Findings
Leaders’ avoidance behavior is positively related to followers’ perception of justice, supervisory trust and emotional well-being in Chinese organizations.
Originality/value
This paper joins growing attempts to consider conflict management in the context of leadership. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to examine empirically the relationships between a team leader’s avoidance behavior and his or her subordinates’ perceptions of justice, supervisory trust and emotional well-being in a single study. The findings are provoking by illustrating positive effect of leader’s conflict avoidance behavior in China. This paper supports that conflict avoidance could be a sustainable rather than one-off strategy by a leader, and that identifying conditions (e.g. culture) that affect the outcomes of conflict avoidance is important.
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The emergence of climate science denialism in the United States provides a challenge to STS theories of the relationship between scientific expertise and public policy because a…
Abstract
The emergence of climate science denialism in the United States provides a challenge to STS theories of the relationship between scientific expertise and public policy because a situation of epistemic rift occurs: the capacity of scientific consensus to establish the grounds of political debate is broken, and the standard circulation of expertise from the scientists and funding from the state is interrupted. Three mechanisms for the containment of scientific expertise are studied: direct intellectual suppression of climate scientists, industry support of contrarian scientists and policymakers, and cutbacks on government research programs that support climate change. This situation politicizes climate scientists, who are drawn into the public sphere as a counterpublic to the effort to contain the circulation of their knowledge in the political field. Although the strategy of contained expertise has been effective in blocking climate legislation at the federal government level in the United States, it may be losing effectiveness, and an emergent alternative strategy based on adaptation may be coming to replace it. Factors that affect the reduction in the capacity to contain the circulation of scientific expertise are also analyzed.
The topic of organizational culture has attracted the attention of numerous researchers from both quantitative and qualitative perspectives. A review of the literature shows that…
Abstract
The topic of organizational culture has attracted the attention of numerous researchers from both quantitative and qualitative perspectives. A review of the literature shows that the quantitative assessment of organizational culture has been dominated by studies adopting the competing values framework developed by Quinn and his colleagues. The use of this model embraces the notion that the 4 cultural types depicted by the framework can be used not only to represent the culture of an organization but also to serve as a basis upon which one organization can be differentiated from others. Various attempts have been reported to support the validity of the framework for describing the culture of an organization; however, the claim that one organization can be differentiated from another on the basis of the 4 cultural types is yet to be empirically supported. The study reported here set out to show that the competing values model can be used to differentiate organizations from one another. Based on a survey administered to all academic staff in 7 out of the 8 government‐funded higher education institutions in Hong Kong, the study successfully confirmed the validity of the competing values model as a tool in differentiating organizations.
Nawal Hanim Abdullah, Ian Patterson and Shane Pegg
The aim of this study was to explore resident perceptions of, and engagement with a staged sport event, the Monsoon Cup. The Monsoon Cup is an international yachting regatta which…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this study was to explore resident perceptions of, and engagement with a staged sport event, the Monsoon Cup. The Monsoon Cup is an international yachting regatta which is held annually in Terengganu, Malaysia and is strongly supported by their Federal Government to raise the country’s international profile as a popular sport tourism destination. Previous studies have reviewed residents’ attitudes towards tourism development and the factors that influence their perceptions. However, little research has been conducted on residents’ expectations, interests and needs in terms of a specific mega sport tourism event such as the Monsoon Cup.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative methodology using semi-structured interviews was the principal means of collecting data. The sample consisted of local residents living in Pulau Duyong, five kilometers from the capital of Terengganu. Thirty-six residents were interviewed with the majority being male (N = 28), with ages ranging from 20 to 73 years. A number of questions were developed and pilot tested before being posed to the study respondents about the annual staging of the Monsoon Cup. NVIVO 9.1 computer software package was used to code, compare and classify the major themes that recurred or were common in the data set.
Findings
The findings provided strong support for the critical importance of actively engaging local residents in the staging of such a large-scale event. In the first year of operation, many of the local residents of Pulau Duyong had enthusiastically participated in MC-related activities; however, the level of engagement had declined significantly in the recent years. In the future, every effort must be taken to focus on the development of better lines of communication and information dissemination with respect to the planning and actual staging of the annual event than is currently the case. Practical implications Community feedback suggested that key stakeholders involved in the staging of the Monsoon Cup have a critical role to play in the future in engaging local residents of Pulau Duyong more purposefully in the event itself. Greater effort must be made on the part of event organisers to actively recruit local residents to assist with the event planning, promotion and staging of the regatta. In addition, the distribution of brochures on a periodic basis to convey information about event-related activities and opportunities for community engagement were suggested to be a highly desirable first step.
Practical implications
Community feedback suggested that the event company involved in the staging of the Monsoon Cup had a critical role to play in engaging local residents of Pulau Duyong more purposefully in the event itself. In particular, effort needed to be focussed initially on the development of better lines of communication and information dissemination with respect to the planning and actual staging of the annual event than was currently the case.
Originality/value
This research will be of great benefit to the key stakeholders involved in the staging of the event, which includes local government, the event organisers, tourism professionals and community residents, by providing deeper insights into matters that residents expressed as being important. This will help to ensure that in the future, all stakeholders will be empowered contributors to the ongoing planning and annual staging of this international event.