THE FOLLOWING ARE THE ABSTRACTS OF JUST A SMALL SELECTION OF HIS JOURNAL ARTICLES.
THESE ARE RESEARCH CARRIED OUT ALONE OR HEADED BY DR KAMARUL.
ALL THESE JOURNAL ARTICLES HAVE UNDERGONE A DOUBLE BLIND REVIEW BY AT LEAST TWO REVIEWERS AND ACCEPTED FOR PUBLICATION
Lee H.Y. & Kamarul Z.A. (2008). The Moderating Effects of Organizational Culture on the Relationships between Leadership Behaviour and Organizational Commitment and Between Organisation commitment and Job Satisfaction and Performance. Leadership and Organization Development Journal.
ABSTRACT
Purpose – This study seeks to investigate the moderating effects of organizational culture on the relationships between leadership behaviour and organizational commitment and between organizational commitment and job satisfaction and performance in the Malaysian setting.
Design/methodology/approach – Data was gathered from 238 Malaysian UM MBA part-time students and the researcher’s working peers. Data on the respondents’ organizational culture and leadership behaviours, and how they affect organizational commitment, job satisfaction and employee performance, were collected using the OCI (Wallach, 1983), leadership behaviour questionnaire (Harris and Ogbonna, 2001), ACS (Allen and Meyer, 1990), single global rating for job satisfaction (Robbins, 2005), and overall performance questionnaire (Motowidlo and Van Scotter, 1994), respectively. Descriptive statistics were reported, followed by factor analysis, reliability analysis, Pearson correlation and hypotheses testing using hierarchical multiple regression.
Findings – Generally and with a few exceptions, leadership behaviour was found to be significantly related to organizational commitment, and organizational culture played an important role in moderating this relationship. Organizational commitment was found to be significantly associated with job satisfaction, but not with employee performance. However, only supportive culture influenced the relationship between commitment and satisfaction. Possible causes and implications for managers are discussed.
Originality/value – This article contributes to the existing pool of knowledge on the relationships between leadership behaviours, organizational culture, organizational commitment, job satisfaction and employee performance. Different aspects of these variables were tested, so as to provide a wider and more comprehensive understanding on the factors which affect organizations and employees.
Keywords – Leadership, Organizational Culture, Commitment, Satisfaction, Performance, Malaysia.
Category – Research Paper
Kamarul Z.A. (2008). Work Value Congruence and Satisfaction at Work:
Is Western Concept Applicable to a Developing Country such as Malaysia? Internation Journal of Business and Accounting
ABSTRACT
This study aims to fulfil two literature gaps in the person-environment fit theory, in particular the supply-value fit or S-V fit relating to work congruence. Firstly, previous research in S-V fit tended to look mainly at autonomy and supervision style. However, there appears to be no reported research that have simultaneously investigated in a single study, the effects of the discrepancy between the perceived and desired levels of work quantity, variety, power, responsibility and concentration required for the job and its relationship with satisfaction at work. Secondly, the S-V fit theory has been relatively established in developed countries such as America and Britain. However it would be interesting to discover whether the theory is also applicable among workers in small isolated towns, in a developing country such as Malaysia. Questionnaires were distributed and collected from two hundred and eighty respondents working in three small towns in Peninsular Malaysia. Support for the S-V fit theory was obtained, as results suggested that the greater the discrepancy between the supplies and values of work quantity, variety, power, responsibility and concentration required at work, the lesser was the satisfaction.
Key Words: Autonomy, Job Satisfaction, P-e fit, Person-environment fit, Supply-value fit
JEL Classification: M12, M51, M54
Kamarul Z.A. (2008). Relationship between Leader-Subordinate Personality Congruence and Performance and Satisfaction in the UK. Leadership and Organization Development Journal.
ABSTRACT
Purpose - This study seeks to investigate the relationship between leader-subordinate congruence and performance and satisfaction.
Design/methodology/approach - Data was gathered from 267 leader-subordinate dyads in a light manufacturing electrical assembly plant in Wales and 82 leader-subordinate dyads in another, in England, UK. Data on personality of the respondents and their supervisors were gathered using the 16PF (Cattell et al., 1992). The absolute difference between the personality score of the respondent and the supervisor for each of the five secondary personality factors were calculated. The absolute differences were then totalled up to obtain a total difference score.
Findings - As expected there was a significant correlation between the difference scores and satisfaction with the supervisor and overall job satisfaction. The results suggest that, if management wishes to improve satisfaction of their subordinates, then the personalities of supervisor and subordinate should be similar. The direction of the relationship between difference scores and performance scores in the two companies were in opposite directions to each other. Possible causes and implications for managers are discussed.
Originality/value – This paper establishes that the relationship between congruence and performance is contingent on the nature of work interaction between the leader and the subordinate.
Keywords – Individual psychology, Leader, Subordinate, Congruence, Performance, Personality.
Paper type – Research paper.
Kamarul, Z.A, Aliman, N.K., Mahdzan, N.S.A., Kamarudin, M.A., Peng, C.Y. & Nandita, T. (2004). Emotional Stability and Perception of Job Security in the Services Sector Malaysia. Malaysian Management Journal, 8, 2, 1-15
ABSTRACT
Research pertaining to the perception of job security has focused primarily on attitudinal (e.g. job satisfaction), behavioral (e.g. employee turnover), and health outcomes, while research in the area of emotional stability has largely focused on attitudinal and social consequences. However, there appears to be no reported studies that have examined the relationship between emotional stability and the perception of job security in different industries within the Malaysian context. Data from 255 employees from the information technology, financial services and education industries were collected and analyzed. Results suggest that respondents in the education industry are more stable in emotion compared to those in the finance industry and that respondents in the education sector perceive job security to be higher compared to those in the finance and IT industries. In all three industries, emotional stability was significantly associated with perception of job security (r=.403). There is a strongest correlation between emotional stability and perception of job security scores in the financial services industry. This suggests that in an industry that is unstable, respondents with higher emotional stability tend to perceive the same environment as more stable than those who have lower emotional stability.
Kamarul, Z.A. (2003). The Association between Ethical Decision Making, Job Satisfaction, Organisational Commitment, and Selected Demographic Variables (2003). Malaysian Management Journal, 7, 2, 1-11.
ABSTRACT
Job satisfaction and organisational commitment are variables that have been frequently studied. However, the relationship between ethical decision-making and these two variables are seldom explored. This study conducted on 200 employees from public and private companies in various parts of Kuala Lumpur, aims to investigate the relationship between these three variables. Instruments were used from Paolillo and Vitell (2002), Hunt, Wood and Chonko (1989) and Dubinsky and Hartley (1986) to measure ethics, organisational commitment and job satisfaction respectively. Results show that there is a positive correlation between ethics and organisational commitment and between job satisfaction and organisational commitment. However, contrary to expectation, there appears to be no significant correlation between ethics and job satisfaction. The negative correlation between organisational commitment and position (r = -0.288, p< 0.1) suggests that people higher up in the hierarchy are less committed towards the organisation. The absence of any significant correlation between ethics and age, experience, and position is also contrary to previous studies conducted in the West. This suggests that, unlike the West, ethics does not increase or decrease with age, experience, and position.
Kamarul, Z.A. & Raida A.B. (2003). The Association between Training and Organisational Commitment Among White Collar Workers In Malaysia. The International Journal of Training and Development, 7, 3, 166-185.
ABSTRACT
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 a 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.
Kamarul, Z.A. & Khairuddin, M.M. (2003). Person-Environment Fit Perceptions and Satisfaction at Work (2003). Malaysian Management Journal, 7, 1, 35-46.
ABSTRACT
This study aims to fulfil two literature gaps in the person-environment fit theory, in particular relating to the supply-value fit or S-V fit. Firstly, previous research in S-V fit tended to look mainly at autonomy and supervision style. However, there appears to be no reported research that have simultaneously investigated in a single study, the effects of the discrepancy between the perceived and desired levels of work quantity, variety, power, responsibility and concentration required for the job. This study aims to fill that gap. This study examines the discrepancy between the supplies and values of work quantity, variety, power, responsibility and concentration, and its relationship with satisfaction at work. Secondly, the S-V fit theory has been relatively established in developed countries such as America and Britain. However it would be interesting to discover whether the theory is also applicable among civil service workers in a small isolated town, in a developing country such as Malaysia.
Questionnaires were distributed and collected from one hundred respondents working in a government department in a small town of Gua Musang in Peninsular Malaysia. Support for the S-V fit theory was obtained, as results suggested that the greater the discrepancy between the supplies and values of work quantity, variety, power, responsibility and concentration required at work, the lesser was the satisfaction. The implication therefore was that if managers were desirous of improving satisfaction of their workers, they should ensure that their workers receive neither too much nor too little, work quantity, work variety, power, responsibility and concentration at work - for either state can result in lower satisfaction
Kamarul, Z.A. (2002). The Association between Sensitivity, Group Size & Satisfaction (2002). Malaysian Management Journal, 6, 1, 53-61.
ABSTRACT
Previous research have looked at the relationship between sensitivity and satisfaction, and between group size and satisfaction. However there appears to be no reported studies that have investigated the interacting effects of group size on the relationship between sensitivity and satisfaction. Data from 257 shopfloor workers in a light manufacturing plant in the UK were collected and analysed. Group size was significantly negatively related to satisfaction with co-workers. Statistical tests of hierarchical multiple regression were used to determine the significance of the interaction terms (sensitivity x group size) on pay and co-worker satisfaction. Support for both hypotheses were obtained. Results suggested that group size significantly moderated the relationship between sensitivity and pay satisfaction, and the relationship between sensitivity and co-worker satisfaction. Linear regression plots showed that the relationship between sensitivity and satisfaction (pay and co-worker) were negative in large groups but positive in small groups.
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