Malaysian Professionals Research Articles

Special Issue on Off-Site Construction

Special Issue on Off-Site Construction

Attitudes of Malaysian general hospital staff towards patients with mental illness and diabetes

BackgroundThe context of the study is the increased assessment and treatment of persons with mental illness in general hospital settings by general health staff, as the move away from mental hospitals gathers pace in low and middle income countries. The purpose of the study was to examine whether general attitudes of hospital staff towards persons with mental illness, and extent of mental health training and clinical experience, are associated with different attitudes and behaviours towards a patient with mental illness than towards a patients with a general health problem - diabetes.MethodsGeneral hospital health professionals in Malaysia were randomly allocated one of two vignettes, one describing a patient with mental illness and the other a patient with diabetes, and invited to complete a questionnaire examining attitudes and health care practices in relation to the case. The questionnaires completed by respondents included questions on demographics, training in mental health, exposure in clinical practice to people with mental illness, attitudes and expected health care behaviour towards the patient in the vignette, and a general questionnaire exploring negative attitudes towards people with mental illness. Questionnaires with complete responses were received from 654 study participants.ResultsStigmatising attitudes towards persons with mental illness were common. Those responding to the mental illness vignette (N = 356) gave significantly lower ratings on care and support and higher ratings on avoidance and negative stereotype expectations compared with those responding the diabetes vignette (N = 298).ConclusionsResults support the view that, in the Malaysian setting, patients with mental illness may receive differential care from general hospital staff and that general stigmatising attitudes among professionals may influence their care practices. More direct measurement of clinician behaviours than able to be implemented through survey method is required to support these conclusions.

A multi-center study on the attitudes of Malaysian emergency health care staff towards allowing family presence during resuscitation of adult patients

sBackgroundThe practice of allowing family members to witness on-going active resuscitation has been gaining ground in many developed countries since it was first introduced in the early 1990s. In many Asian countries, the acceptability of this practice has not been well studied.AimWe conducted a multi-center questionnaire study to determine the attitudes of health care professionals in Malaysia towards family presence to witness ongoing medical procedures during resuscitation.MethodsUsing a bilingual questionnaire (in Malay and English language), we asked our respondents about their attitudes towards allowing family presence (FP) as well as their actual experience of requests from families to be allowed to witness resuscitations. Multiple logistic regression was used to analyze the association between the many variables and a positive attitude towards FP.ResultsOut of 300 health care professionals who received forms, 270 responded (a 90% response rate). Generally only 15.8% of our respondents agreed to allow relatives to witness resuscitations, although more than twice the number (38.5%) agreed that relatives do have a right to be around during resuscitation. Health care providers are significantly more likely to allow FP if the procedures are perceived as likely to be successful (e.g., intravenous cannulation and blood taking as compared to chest tube insertion). Doctors were more than twice as likely as paramedics to agree to FP (p-value = 0.002). This is probably due to the Malaysian work culture in our health care systems in which paramedics usually adopt a ‘follow-the-leader’ attitude in their daily practice.ConclusionThe concept of allowing FP is not well accepted among our Malaysian health care providers.

Malaysian Technological Elite: Specifics of a Knowledge Society in a Developing Country

AbstractThere is a lack of understanding of the forms of knowledge and expertise in so-called developing societies such as Malaysia. This paper addresses this issue by suggesting a framework—based on Schutz and Luckmann's (1973) concept of social distribution of knowledge and Knorr Cetina's (1999) notion of epistemic communities—for examining the Malaysian automotive and information technology industries. These industries are central to Malaysia's agenda of becoming a knowledge society in the context of Vision 2020. Vital to these industries is a group of Malaysian professionals who possess knowledge and expertise: the “technological elite.” is group, the technological elite, includes, but is not limited to, engineers working for Proton, as well as professionals working in the Multimedia Super Corridor. Using professional biographies and narratives, this paper illuminates the context and culture of knowledge in Malaysia. Similarities in the principles that inform epistemic practices and relations within an “old” industry (i.e., automotive) and a “new” industry (i.e., ICT) call for the recognition of epistemic work characterized by the mixing of specialist knowledge with other forms of knowledge, and of localized knowledge in nascent epistemic communities with knowledge developed from an established tradition of technological practice.

Psychotherapy in Malaysia – An Overview

As a young and developing profession for the last two decades, psychotherapy in Malaysia is not widely known to those outside of the country. Therefore, this paper seeks to provide an overview of the development of psychotherapy in Malaysia. The paper first begins with a review of the Malaysian social-cultural context and mental health scenario, followed by the current practice of psychotherapy and psychotherapists in Malaysia. The title of ‘psychotherapist’ covers a broad range of professionals in Malaysia. Since the 1970s, the practice of psychotherapy, mostly brought in from the Western world, has evolved from the psychoanalytic tradition to behavioural and cognitive-behavioural traditions. Family systems work is, however, limited. There is growing interest in integrating indigenous cultural beliefs with the Western model of psychotherapy, as well as exploring alternative means to traditional face-to-face counselling mode. This paper therefore discusses several contemporary issues of concern within the field, as well as future directions, in relation to the practice of psychotherapy, research areas as well as training and development of future therapists. With still much room for growth and development, the field presents as a fertile ground for those up for the adventure and challenges of pioneering and revolutionary work.

Addressing the learning needs of multidisciplinary students at a distance using a virtual learning environment (VLE): A novice teacher reflects

This paper analyses the experience of one individual in the development and delivery of an innovative, undergraduate leadership development module. The module is accessed by practising health care professionals in Malaysia as part of a top-up Honours Degree and is delivered solely using a virtual learning environment (VLE), in this case Blackboard. The aim of this analysis is to contribute to the current body of knowledge regarding the use of VLE technology to facilitate learning at a distance. Of particular relevance is the paper's focus on: the drivers for e-learning; widening participation and increasing access; the experience of designing and delivering learning of relevance for this contemporary student population and evaluating the VLE experience/module. The development and delivery of this module is one result of a rapidly growing area of education. As a novice teacher in her first year in the higher education sector, this experience was a significant and stimulating challenge for a number of reasons and these are explored in greater depth. This is achieved by means of personal reflection using the phases of module development and delivery as a focus.

The Effect of Americans' Adaptation to Malaysians on Perceived Trustworthiness

This experiment investigates the effect of cultural adaptation by American business people on their trustworthiness, as perceived by Malaysians. The sample consists of 140 Malaysian professionals in Malaysia, who read one of the four stories that differ in degrees of Americans' cultural adaptation: none, moderate, high using the English language, and high using the native language (i.e., Malay language). The results show that the high adaptation using the native language condition results in higher disconfirmation of stereotypic behavior than does the high adaptation using English and the moderate adaptation conditions, both of which in turn result in higher disconfirmation than does the no adaptation condition. The high adaptation using the native language condition is perceived to be more situationally caused than is the moderate adaptation condition, which in turn is perceived to be more situationally caused than is the no adaptation condition. Despite the support for situational attribution made for the high adaptation conditions, the high adaptation using the native language condition is perceived to be more trustworthy than is the moderate adaptation condition, which, in turn, is perceived to be more trustworthy than is the no adaptation condition; these results contradict the findings of some earlier studies but replicate the results in the cases of Americans adapting to Thais and Japanese in Pornpitakpan (1998) and to People's Republic of China Chinese in Pornpitakpan (2002b). Explanations for the discrepancies in the findings and managerial implications are discussed.

The association between training and organizational commitment among white‐collar workers in Malaysia

The exploration of the relationship between organizational commitment and training is still in its early stages. Although there have been several studies reported on training and organizational commitment in Western countries, very little has been done in respect of the local professionals in Malaysia. This research investigates the association between five training variables (availability of training, support for training, motivation to learn, training environment and perceived benefits of training), and various aspects of organizational commitment (affective commitment, normative commitment, continuance commitment and overall organizational commitment). The availability of training, support for training, motivation to learn, training environment, perceived benefits of training were all significantly correlated with affective commitment, normative commitment and overall organizational commitment. The training environment and perceived benefits were also significantly correlated with continuance commitment. However the availability of training, support for training and motivation to learn were not significantly correlated with continuance commitment. This suggests that despite other forms of commitment, Malaysian workers do not feel that they need to remain in an organization that has made available the training, given support for the training and were motivated to learn. Otherwise, results suggest that on the whole, training does seem to have an influence on organizational commitment. The practical implication of this is that managers, who are so desirous of enhancing organizational commitment among their subordinates, should pay more attention to training.Annual income was found to correlate positively with affective commitment and overall commitment. Age and tenure were not significant predictors of overall organizational commitment contradicting studies in the West. This demonstrated that Malaysians might have different attitudes towards organizational commitment. The older they are and the longer they stay within an organization do not imply that they will be committed towards their organization. This phenomenon can be attributed to the uncertain business environment in Malaysia.

Cultural Adaptation and Business Relationships

A 3 × 4 (culture of participants × degrees of cultural adaptation) experimental design with 124 People's Republic of China Chinese, 140 Indonesian, and 140 Malaysian professionals is used to investigate the effect of cultural adaptation on attraction and outcomes when Americans adapt to PRC/Indonesian/Malaysian people. This study extends the research of Francis (1991) and Pornpitakpan (1999). The inverted-U relationship between adaptation and attraction in Francis's study is not replicated. Instead, the results are consistent with those of Pornpitakpan's study. For Indonesians, the relationship appears monotonic positive on both attraction and outcomes. For PRC and Malaysian people, the relationship appears monotonic positive on attraction and reaches a plateau beyond moderate adaptation on outcomes. Participants do not feel their social identity is threatened when Americans adapt to their culture.

Research Article: Perceptions of Environmental Problems by Malaysian Professionals

Malaysian environmental professionals were surveyed to determine their outlook on key environmental issues related to Malaysia and to the world. Learning about environmental perceptions from local decision makers was seen as important because of the rapid economic growth of Malaysia and because of concern that this development may result in the loss of a high-quality tropical environment. Study data should be useful in providing understanding of values relating to environmental management within the country. Results showed that air pollution and waste management were perceived of as key local environmental issues, with industrial air emissions and vehicular exhaust two of the major sources of local environmental degradation. Air pollution may be the more difficult of these problems to solve, perhaps conflicting with economic development interests. Loss of critical habitat, ozone depletion and climate change were viewed as important to global-scale environmental conditions, although habitat destruction was seen as somewhat less important to the local situation. River pollution was identified as the major ecological problem in Malaysia, although drinking water quality was not seen as a critical issue. Malaysian environmental professionals' perceptions of global-scale environmental problems are consistent with much of the international environmental community, knowledge that should be helpful in negotiating future international agreements.

Competencies for Public Library Professionals in Malaysia

Competencies of the entry-level professionals for the Malaysian public libraries were defined and validated for the next five years. The exercise of competency determination was accomplished by focusing on the peculiarities of the Malaysian context by adopting a number of methodological innovations. Each competency statement was an identifiable and measurable performance unit. The top and middle managers of the ten largest Malaysian public library systems were interviewed to validate knowledge and skill competencies by indicating their perceived degree of importance of each statement. The competencies were presented in the categories of foundation core and five operational areas of cataloging, circulation, information services, collection development, and serial control. The primary thrust for the future public library professionals is on the contextual, managerial, technological, and service capabilities.

Competency Definition and Validation for Library and Information Professionals in Malaysia

Changes in the information market, situational peculiarities of the developing nations, and certain methodological considerations prompted this identification and validation of competencies for library and information professionals in Malaysia. Procedures were used to identify sets of knowledge and skill competencies for future entry-level professionals in the institutional settings of academic, public, and special libraries in six operational domains. Leading professionals were engaged in the validation exercise. A distinct emphasis was placed on competencies related to changing information dynamics, information technology applications, management capabilities, and service aspects of the professional practice. The validated competencies are expected to serve as evaluation criteria for formal education programs, guidelines for national manpower development in the field, and articulation of a clear focus for the preparation of future professionals.