Search

Academics exert themselves tremendously to advance in higher education institutions, and their leaders’ emotional intelligence and idealised influence are fundamental to responsiveness regarding performance. The effects of transformational leadership on job performance have been established, but a single component, idealised influence, has been neglected. Hence, this study aims to investigate the potential mediating effects of academic leaders’ idealised influence between academic leaders’ emotional intelligence and subordinates’ job performance. Approximately 386 questionnaires from five Malaysian public research universities were obtained. The partial least squares structural equation model was utilised in dichotomising the measurements. Drawing from attribution theory and social exchange theory, it was predicted that academic leaders’ idealised influence will mediate the relationship between academic leaders’ emotional intelligence and their subordinates’ job performance. However, the study reveals that the relationship between academic leaders’ emotional intelligence and their subordinates’ job performance was not mediated by academic leaders’ idealised influence. This study is useful for government and higher institutions in planning, developing, and implementing programs or policies in producing highly talented academic leaders in Malaysian research universities.

Purpose – The aim of this study was to identify the level of Principals’ Technology Leadership and its five constructs namely Visionary Leadership, Digital Age Learning Culture, Excellence in Professional Practice, Systemic Improvement, and Digital Citizenship in schools. In addition, the relationship between Principals’ Technology Leadership and Teachers’ Technology Integration was measured. Besides that, the effect of Professional Development as a moderator of the mentioned relationship was also investigated. Methodology – Systematic random sampling was carried out to select 90 principals and 645 teachers in this cross-sectional survey. The Principals Technology Leadership Assessment (PTLA) which is based on National Education Technology Standards –Administrator, NETS-A (2009), and Survey of Technology Experiences’ were administered to principals, while the Learning with ICT: Measuring ICT Use in the Curriculum Instrument was administered to the teachers. Findings – The study showed that there was a significant relationship between Principals’ Technology Leadership and Teachers’ Technology Integration. Furthermore, Professional Development had a significant effect on the relationship between the two variables. Significance – Professional development emphasising ICT must be carried out for school principals so that they can become technology leaders and motivate teachers to integrate technology in the classroom to prepare students as skilled workers for Industrial Revolution 4.0.

Online home-based Learning and Teaching (PdPr) has replaced face-to-face learning. Thus, this study was conducted to identify teachers' readiness and their involvement and acceptance towards learning to write Malay language essays online throughout the MCO period. A total of 149 Lower Secondary Malay Language teachers in Kedah were selected as respondents using a purposive random sampling method. The study uses a questionnaire instrument that contains items and is divided into four constructs, namely teacher readiness, student acceptance, student involvement and evaluation. Descriptive and frequency statistics were used to analyze the questionnaire data. The findings of the study show that lower secondary Malay Language teachers are prepared to teach Malay language essay writing online during the MCO period. The findings also found that teachers facing problems of students' involvement and understanding in the process of teaching Malay Language essay writing online. PdPr essay writing will yield results if the students can provide cooperation and active involvement without giving reasons. The students should be given encouragement and encouragement by various parties whether morally or materially so that PdPr provides benefits to the students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The challenges that business face in sustaining competitive advantage in the corporate world have become a major concern. Businesses are adopting cutting-edge technologies and best practices to cope with rapid, global changes. Various business functions are being reengineered for this purpose. Accounting functions play an important role in helping businesses to maintain competitive advantage. However, some small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) face problems handling fundamental accounting functions. This is predominantly because of their lack of expertise; accounting functions require not only knowledge of generally accepted accounting rules or tax regulations but also the expertise needed to apply the rules in a given business environment (Everaert, Sarens and Rommel, 2006). This paper offers some insight on the outsourcing of accounting functions as there is paucity of data in this area in the context of Malaysia. Essentially, it presents empirical evidence regarding Malaysian SMEs' accounting outsourcing practices. A survey of SMEs was conducted to identify the overall outsourcing landscape as it relates to accounting and third-party organisations. The factors that contribute to the decision to outsource accounting functions are analysed. The study reveals a significant relationship between outsourcing accounting functions and two contributing factors, risks and operation management.

In 2003, there was a significant change in the language policy in theMalaysian education system whereby the Malaysian government decidedto introduce English as a language medium to teach science andmathematics at all levels of the education system in stages. The aim of the policy was to arrest declining standards of English amongMalaysian students. The implementation of this policy was mostcontentious at the primary school level involving two different models of implementation: bilingual model for the Chinese primary school and maximum exposure model for the national school and the Tamil primary school. This paper examines the problems and challenges of implementing the policy of teaching science and mathematics in English in the Malaysian primary schools, which entails learning through a second language. It looks at some of the theoretical constructs pertaining to choice of language as well as learning through a second language. These theoretical constructs offer some perspective lights on the implementation of the policy of teaching science and mathematics in English in the Malaysian primary schools by highlighting its strengths and weaknesses. Based on these theoretical constructs, this paper posits the bilingual model adopted by the Chinese primary schools as a better model to facilitate learning through a second language during the earlyyears of schooling.

Reporting on issues like race and religion in a multi-racial and multi-religious society is not an easy media responsibility. In a country like Malaysia where racial and religious sensitivities abound, the media have to constantly tread on precarious ground, balancing between what to write and how to write it. Much of the concern over the reporting of sensitive issues stems from the belief that a wrong move may have dire consequences, as seen in the recent controversy and furore over the Prophet Muhammad caricature published in the Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten.This study analyses two recent racial/religious issues – M. Moorthy and Nyonya Tahir cases – as reported in the New Straits Times (NST), Utusan Malaysia (UM), Malaysia Nanban (MN) and Sin Chew Daily (SCD). The former case caused a stir when there was a tussle between Moorthy’s Indian/Hindu family and the Federal Territory Islamic Affairs Council which argued that Moorthy had converted to Islam when he was alive without the family’s knowledge. The latter was a case of a Malay/Muslim woman who, while alive, had denounced Islam and lived as a Chinese practising Buddhism.This study analyses how the two race and religion-related controversial issues were treated in the various language newspapers in Malaysia. A preliminary finding showed that, true to the communal nature of the Malaysian press, there was an apparent slant in how the ethnic press covered these two issues. For instance, in terms of prominence given to the stories, SCD, while downplaying the Moorthy story, dedicated more space to the Nyonya Tahir case. Similarly, MN highlighted the Moorthy story and downplayed the Nyonya Tahir case. The different newspapers were also seen to ''favour'' the subject they covered according to the ethnicity.

Government had drawn up various strategies to enculture the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in urban and rural schools. However, existing studies indicated that ICT usage among teachers are still at a moderate level and focused on similar school's locations. The purpose of this study is to identify the difference of knowledge, skills and attitude in using ICT among teachers in urban and rural areas. This study is a cross-sectional survey and used questionnaires as the main instrument. Data was collected from 1440 teachers from national secondary schools (SMK) in urban and rural areas and later analysed using Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA). The study found that there is a significant difference in knowledge and skills of teachers in using ICT in urban and rural areas. On the other hand, there is no significant difference in the attitude of teachers in using ICT in urban and rural areas. The study indicated that the Malaysian Ministry of Education (MOE) needs to improve teacher's knowledge and skills in using ICT at rural area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]