The study analyzes academic stress and strain among the undergraduate students of the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUMM). It aims at investigating the effect of religious orientation on level of stress and experience of strain among those students. The sample consists of 218 bachelor's students studying in different departments of this university. The sample was cornposed of around 75% of Malay students and 25% of non-Malay. In terms of gender, it was 55% female and 45% male. Data were collected from the stressful situations questionnaire (SSQ) and role strain measures. Frequency analysis was used to examine the level of stress. strain, and religious orientation in the students. The results indicated that all the students in general experienced stress and strain and they also used religious orientation as coping mechanism, but they differed in degree of stress, strain, and religious experience. A series of analyses were done to examine the relationship between criterion and predictor variables, such as gender and nationality. With regard to gender differences, the results indicated that there was a significant difference in the perception of male and female toward stress and religious orientation, but they are not different in their level of strain. Female students reported more stress and they tended to use more religious orientation than do male students. Moreover, there appeared no significant main difference in the perception of Malay and non-Malay students toward stress, but it did appear Strain and religious orientation. Malay students were found to experience more strain and they made more frequent use of religious orientation than did non-Malay students. This analysis also indicated that religious orientation has nothing to do with stress and strain level. That is whether the students were religious or they did experience stress and strain.

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Studies in the area of psychological restoration at the workplace tend to focus on the positive effects of visual natural environments, and limited work has been carried out to explore the potential role that natural auditory stimuli could play in facilitating this process within open-plan office settings. Addressing this gap, the present study investigates the effects of nature sounds and office noises on perceived psychological restoration and cognitive performance of workers in an open-plan office. The study, which took place in the Registry Office at the University Putra Malaysia, involved a total of 50 administrative workers (Males = 15; Females = 35). Using a within-subject repeated measure design, all participants were exposed to four auditive stimuli (geophony, machine-generated noise, biophony, and human-generated noise) for the duration of one month following a specially designed schedule. At the end of each week, participants completed a questionnaire that consisted of background information, the Perceived Restorativeness Scale, and an error detection task. Results of two separate one-way repeated measure ANOVAs revealed that: (1) there is a significant positive effect of nature sounds, specifically the biophony, on perceived psychological restoration; (2) a significant negative effect of office noises, specifically human-generated noise, on perceived psychological restoration; (3) a significant positive effect of nature sounds on cognitive performance; and (4) a significant negative effect of office noises on cognitive performance. Taking these findings together, it can be concluded that exposure to nature sounds, particularly biophony, can bring positive effects to people cognitively and psychologically. In contrast, exposure to office noise, particularly human-generated ones, has significant negative effects on cognitive performance and perceived psychological restoration. Further discussions on the results are presented, together with the implications of the present study and the recommendations for future research.

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This study aims at developing a community-based intervention programme for single mothers in Selangor using a health empowerment model to examine its effectiveness. The programme focused on three areas namely building personal resources, recognising social contextual resources and utilising social services. It was a five-week intervention programme with 2.5 hours per session. Using a non-randomised experimental design, 12 single mothers made up the intervention group while eight single mothers served as the control group (Group). The effectiveness of this intervention programme was assessed using five well-being measures – mental health, self-efficacy, community engagement, social support and religiosity – through self-report questionnaires that were administered before and after the intervention programme (Time). For the intervention group, an interview was conducted to provide additional information on the effectiveness of the programme. A 2 x 2 analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used with Time as the within subject factor and Group as the between-subject variable. Results show significant main effect of Time for self-efficacy, community engagement, social support and religiosity. Most importantly, the result revealed significant Group x Time interaction for self-efficacy. The participants in the intervention group reported a significant change in scores of self-efficacy after the intervention programme compared to the control group. The data obtained from the interviews further substantiated the quantitative results. The implications of this study were discussed.

This research examines the relationships among group-directed organisational citizenship behaviour, interactional justice, and group identification in three Malaysian public universities. A total of 174 university lecturers (Males = 85; Females = 89) from the International Islamic University Malaysia, Universiti Teknologi MARA, and Universiti Malaya were recruited as participants using purposive sampling. Using paper-based questionnaires completed at their workplace, the participants answered questions from four established scales that measured group-directed organisational citizenship behaviour, interactional justice (i.e., interpersonal and informational), and group identification. Results of regression analysis show that there is: (1) a moderate and significant positive relationship between interpersonal justice and group-directed organisational citizenship behaviour; (2) a moderate and significant positive correlation between informational justice and group-directed organisational citizenship behaviour; (3) a weak but significant positive relationship between interpersonal justice and group identification; (4) a moderate and significant positive correlation between informational justice and group identification; and (5) a small but significant positive relationship between group identification and group-directed organisational citizenship behaviour. However, the mediation analysis using Baron and Kenny’s (1986) three-procedure approach and Preacher and Hayes’s (2004) bootstrapping techniques showed that although interactional justice directly predicted group-directed organisational citizenship behaviour, this relationship, however, was not mediated by group identification. The implications of these findings are discussed, and recommendations for future research are provided.

Work ethics are essential in organisations because they are not only used to guide employees to behave ethically, but they could also affect employees’ performance and efficiency. Such considerations necessitate a clear and effective strategy for implementation of workplace ethics policies in general, and Islamic work ethics, in particular. However, little systematic evaluation of the implementation process of workplace ethics has been made. Using a qualitative approach, this study explored what is known regarding the factors that facilitate the implementation of Islamic work ethics and how these factors could affect the implementation process in organisations, particularly in Islamic banks. More specifically, a series of semi-structured interviews with Branch Managers and Assistant Branch Managers from six Islamic banks in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor (n = 16) was conducted. Data saturation was reached after 12 interviews, with four additional interviews undertaken to ensure a broadly representative sample. Using thematic analysis, nine important themes and 30 sub-themes were revealed as factors that influence the implementation of Islamic work ethics. These factors vary from personal and organisational to managerial and environmental factors. Improvements in these factors may have positive effects on successful implementation of work ethics policies in organisations. The thesis then concludes by discussing the implications of the findings and recommendations of the study. Future research potential to explore this issue is also provided.

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This study was carried out to examine the relationship between infertility, coping and women’s well-being. A convenience sample of 49 women with fertility problems and 51 fertile women participated in this study. They were asked to complete a questionnaire consisting of scales measuring their coping strategies and psychological well-being. It was hypothesized that (1) women with fertility problems would report lower psychological well-being than fertile women, and (2) coping would moderate the relationship between infertility and psychological well-being such that those who used emotion-focused coping would report lower psychological well-being than those who used problem-focused coping regardless of infertility. t-tests and hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted to test for the hypotheses. Results showed that infertility was not a significant predictor of psychological well-being, and there was no evidence of coping acting as a moderator in the hypothesized relationship. Limitations and implications of research were highlighted.

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship between organisational commitment and readiness to change. The role of internal locus of control as the moderator variable on the relationship between organisational commitment and readiness to change was also investigated. 120 nurses in Ampang Puteri Hospital were used for the sample of the study. The descriptive analysis, hierarchical multiple regression analysis as well as t-test and analysis of variance were used to test the hypotheses and exploratory analysis. The results indicated that organisational commitment significantly correlated and predicted readiness to change. In addition to that internal locus of control did not act as a moderator in the relationship between organisational commitment and readiness to change. The comparison study mostly showed that there were no differences among demographic variables. However, only length of service was illustrated differently in affective commitment.

This research will look at the relationship perceived between perceived leadership styles and intention to leave among customer service staff of private company as well as the mediating role of stress. One hundred and twenty seven employees who work in customer service from different private organizations were selected through convenient sampling to participate in the study. They were administered three questionnaires: 1) Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire, 2) General Work Stress Scale, and 3) Turnover Intent Scale from the Michigan Organizational Assessment Questionnaire. It was hypothesized that: a) transformational and transactional leadership styles will have significant relationships with job stress, b) transformational and transactional leadership styles will have significant relationships with the intention to leave, c) job stress will have a significant relationship with the intention to leave and d) job stress will mediate the relationship between leadership styles and the intention to leave. The questionnaires were administered either through email or by hand. The data collected was analyzed using SPSS version 21. The results showed that transformational and transactional leadership styles did not have a significant relationship with job stress. Transformational leadership styles showed no relationship with intention to leave, while transactional leadership styles were shown to have a significant relationship with the intention to leave. Job stress was seen to have a significant relationship with the intention to leave. No evidence of a direct or indirect mediation effect was seen between perceived leadership styles and the intention to leave.

Medical supervisors who are assigned to train medical trainees usually focus on the standard operating procedures, the manual logbooks and the syllabus required to be fulfilled. The psychological factors of the medical trainees are usually neglected and underestimated. This research sought to explore the relationship between personality traits of the supervisor and the supervisees’ development among medical trainees with working alliance as the mediator. The study uses conceptual framework that combine theoretical framework of Values Effects by Meglino and Ravlin (1998) and Integrated Developmental Model by Stoltenberg and Delworth (1987) which has been revised by Bernard and Goodyear (1998). There are four instruments used in this study, namely; TAJMA Personality Profiles Second Edition which is used to measure medical supervisors’ personality traits, Supervisee Questionnaires Level-Revised to measure medical trainee development, Supervisory Working Alliance for Supervisor and Supervisory Working Alliance for Trainees to measure supervisory working alliance. 128 respondents with equal distribution of medical supervisor and medical trainees participated in this study. There are four hospitals involved in this research: Hospital Kajang, Hospital Serdang, Hospital Ampang and Hospital Raja Permaisuri Bainun, Ipoh. The findings indicate that working alliance is the mediator for personality traits of the supervisors and medical trainees’ development. It is also revealed leadership, patriotism, achievement, and cross cultural traits are significant to enhance supervisory working alliance and to ensure medical trainees’ development. These findings are discussed with respect to the literature on personality traits of the supervisors, medical trainees’ development, and supervisory working alliance. This study may help future medical supervisors to adopt traits that may help medical graduates to develop professionally.

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This study investigates the direct effect of work demands on burnout (emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and personal accomplishment), and mediator effect of work-family conflict on the relationship between work demands and burnout. Work demands was assessed by the Job Content Questionnaire, work-family conflict was assessed by the Work-Family Conflict Scale while burnout was measured using the Maslach Burnout Inventory-General Survey. The measurements were administered to 150 civil servants in Penang. The findings from this study indicate that work demands and work-family conflict were positively associated with burnout (both emotional exhaustion and depersonalization). Work demands were also found to be positively associated with work-family conflict. The results also show that work-family conflict mediated the relationship between work demands and burnout. However, this mediation effect was only found for the relationship between work demands and emotional exhaustion, and between work demands and depersonalization. No mediator role of work-family conflict was found in the relationship between work demands and personal accomplishment. It is recommended that organizations find ways to implement appropriate intervention to assist civil servants, especially in creating coping strategies in work-family conflict as a means to reduce burnout and improve employees` well-being.

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This study sought to explore the structure of three emotion concepts in the Malay culture, namely, marah ‘anger’, sabar ‘patience’, and hormat ‘respect’ using the prototype approach. Two studies (Study 1 and Study 2) were conducted. Study 1 aimed to examine the words that best portray the three concepts using prototypical ratings. In Study 2, 100 nonacademic employees at International Islamic University Malaysia were involved in card sorting procedure. A total of 82 words were sorted and categorized using hierarchical cluster analysis and yielded a comprehensive tree-like hierarchy of marah, sabar, and hormat. The three levels of inclusiveness in the hierarchy are; 1. Superordinate level (positive and negative emotion category); 2. Basic level (sabar ‘patience’, hormat ‘respect’, tenang ‘calmness’, and marah ‘anger’); and 3. Subordinate level. The superordinate level confirms previous findings indicating its universality, whereas the subordinate level depicts the indigenous nature of the three emotion concepts. The basic level may not be concluded as universal or culturally unique because this level needs further evidences from different studies with the same lexicons.

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