Mockup Journal

A Case Study: Principles of Adult Learning Influencing the Learning Process of OUM Learners Nor Asiah Mahmood, Shazreen
Mohd Shah asiah_mahmood@oum.edu.my, shazreen@seriputeri.edu.my
ABSTRACT The principles of adult learning are crucial aspects to be examined since they play significant roles in the learning process involving adults. This study aims to identify the principles that are most applied by or the most helpful to OUM learners in order to obtain good academic results. Applying such principles at the individual level significantly contributes to the success of OUM learners in their studies as indicated by researchers who found that adapting the principles of adult learning in the learning process can in turn provide significant benefits for the students (Sweeny, 2008). It is also considered as best practices for the learners (Goodlad, 2005), with a strong correlation found between principles of adult learning and academic success in the learning process of university students (Roger, 2002).The student data collected for this study will be limited to the Klang Valley for geographical reasons with the results identifying the principles of adult learning that help our learners to be academically focused and successful. Keywords: Principles of Adult Learning (PAL), Learning Process (LP), Success.
1. Introduction
The learning processes of OUM students can be influenced by the principles of adult learning (PAL) introduced by Malcolm Shepherd Knowles (1950). How far these principles actually influence the learning process of OUM students is the focus of this paper. Before discussing
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PAL further, it is worthwhile to look at the definition of Andragogy which describes the science of helping adults learn (Knowles, 1950). In other words, how adults learn in their informal or formal education as a life-long learning and which of the PAL is the most influential, or motivate them to achieve their aims. The issues here include which PAL actually impacts our students as adult learners most. Additionally, other questions include whether they have to be ready, do they prefer to be respected and can they be voluntarily engaged in exchanging ideas with the other students in order to succeed in their studies. These are the issues that are to be examined in this study. Prior researches have pointed out that adapting the principles of adult learning (PAL) in the learning process can in turn achieve significant results for the students (Sweeny, 2008) and that they form best practices for the learners (Goodlad, 2005). The main purpose of this paper is to identify which principles of adult learning are the most influential in the learning process of OUM students. The specific objectives of the study are to:
1.
Determine the factors that influence the current OUM students in their learning process as adult learners.
2.
Propose the input output system model to explain the significance of PAL to the OUM learners success.
2. Principles of adult learning (PAL)
Principles of adult learning (PAL) were introduced by Malcolm Shepherd Knowles (1950), the central figure in US adult education in the second half of the twentieth century. Knowles (1950) outlined six principles of adult learning which are adults are internally motivated and
self-directed, adults bring life experiences and knowledge to learning experiences, adults are goal oriented, adults are relevancy oriented, adults are practical, and adults learners like to be respected. Yet, which of these six principles give the most impact to adult learners is unclear. What are the needs of adult learners, the reasons for pursuing their studies, and how they are going to study are some of the issues that that need to be addressed.
Adult learners often have to push a start button before they actually enrol for a program. Also, they need some kind of recognition from others in order to continue pursuing knowledge. In other words, adult learners need to take control of their own goals, find own way to solve problems, locate appropriate resources, make decisions on methods they are going use and at the end of the day, evaluate their own progress. Adult learners need to take these measures to ensure they achieve their targets.
3. Adult education, self-direction and andragogy
When discussing adult education, it can include informal or formal education or a combination of both. Informal education it can take place anywhere, at any time for different kinds of groups (Brew, 1946). It can involve housewives, retirees and also youths. This happens as they realise that they need to enhance their knowledge and perhaps change their styles or upgrade themselves (Brockett and Hiemstra, 1991). This is very much related to
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self-directed learning as such learners have to be autonomous or self-directed in their learning process, and be a leader in a group for learning to occur.
Work on self-direction is now so widespread that is justifies an annual international symposium devoted solely to research and theory in the area. Fundamentally, self- directed learning emphasises the need for learners to be independent and focused on what they hope to achieve. In the workplace, where informal learning can also take place, employees have to consider themselves as active learners at work in order to achieve organisational goals.
Even though there is much argument on how adults practice self-directed learning, there is still no strong evidence on how adults engage in self-directed learning using social networks and peer support groups for emotional sustenance and educational guidance (Knowles, 1984). In relation to this, the principles of Andragogy explain how adults learn, which is not characterised by spoon feeding but through two way communication and interactions to ensure that they engage with the learning process (Knowles, 1970, 1980). This is an important feature of andragogy as adults are seen to bring more life experiences and knowledge to their learning process than young learners (Davenport, 1993).
4. The Learning Process
Tuijnman (1992) suggested that adult educators should capitalise on the ability of adults to learn how to learn and to become skilled at learning in a range of different situations and through a range of different styles. However, OUM learners differ, in that they tend to be
proactive when they are engaged in the experiential learning process. They try to relate their own experiences with the theories they learn. This sharing of knowledge and experiences brings added value to the other adults in the class. Being proactive, and respecting each other also serve important roles in the learning process and create conducive learning environments. Besides, as insightful adults, they tend to be more logical in their questions and answers in the discussion. The learning process becomes even more interesting if the topic discussed is related to their current jobs or they have similar experiences. When this happens, coaching is conducted to guide them to go deeper into the topic and consequently, understand the whole situation better. This is supported by Kitchener and King (1990) who proposed the concepts of epistemic cognition and reflective judgment.
According to the principles of adult learners , adults are internally motivated and selfdirected, adults bring life experiences and knowledge to learning experiences, adults are goal oriented, adults are relevancy oriented, adults are practical, and adult learners like to be respected. In this context, the learning process illustrates the following:
Adults learn by doing activities, not just by listening. They will remember best what they have learned last in the class. They will frequently use examples from the workplace or relevant profession of the trainees, in trying to relate to the learning process. Adults also learn best when they feel included or engaged with the class and the lecturer. Thus adult educators need to carefully plan the activities for their session. The lecturers play important roles by frequently asking questions and encouraging discussion, to encourage student centred learning. Adult learners often contribute many points for further discussion. Lecturers should
make the class more productive, say the same thing in different ways, so the learners will not become bored as the capacity of adults to focus only stretches up to two hours.
Additionally, adults like to hear feedback, because they are always looking for ways to improve themselves especially in work and education. During the learning process, educators need to start the session with the most important points, because adult learners tend to remember the most important points more. Methods used must be appropriate, so that they will be engaged in the learning process and also because adults want to have fun while learning. Thus, they must be active in learning, enjoy the learning, and most importantly,
practice two-way communication.
5. Impact on student success
Adults who are actually motivated and self-directed and goal oriented display the following characteristics; adults are internally motivated and self-directed, adults bring life experiences and knowledge to learning experiences, adults are goal oriented, adults are relevancy oriented, adults are practical, and adult learners like to be respected.
6. Theoretical Framework
Figure 1: Theoretical framework of the study
The input output system model is normally applied in quantitative research, which is more economic based. However, this research attempts to examine how the principles of adult
learning influence the learning process and success of OUM students. In particular, it attempts to identify which of the principles is the most influential in the learning process in order for OUM learners to be successful. Based on the objective of this study, the above theoretical framework was developed (Figure1). The instrument used was adopted from Knowles (1950) work on adult learning principles in e-learning, with various adaptations in view of the different group of respondents involved, being the OUM students.
7. Methodology
For the purpose of this study, students from different backgrounds were randomly selected during their classes with the intention to create a sample which was representative of the following categories: gender (male, female); age (22-30 years, 31-40 years, 41-60); educational level (secondary, diploma holders) and employment status (working full-time, working part-time, retirees). In total, 20 adult students from various backgrounds and programs were selected and were individually interviewed. The respondents for this study comprised students from Open University Malaysia (OUM). Generally, they are all adults and working full-time. Based on the data collected, 97% OUM students are working adults with the oldest being a 77 year-old, in the sixth semester of his studies.
Some of the limitations of this study include that as adults, it was difficult to ask the learners to spend time on something that was deemed really beneficial to them, and some refused to answer the questionnaires. Thus, in-depth interview sessions involving a few respondents at one time were conducted. The sessions were conducted several times to accommodate different kinds of respondents. These in-depth interviews were carried out smoothly with the learners were very responsive to the questions posed.
In-depth interviews are a useful qualitative data collection technique that can be used for a variety of purposes, including needs assessment, program refinement, issue identification, and strategic planning. In-depth interviews are most appropriate for situations in which the researcher needs to ask open-ended questions that elicit depth of information from relatively few people (as opposed to surveys, which tend to be more quantitative and are conducted with larger numbers of people). This paper provides a brief introduction to in-depth interviewing as a tool for collecting rich information on which principles of adult learning
most influence the OUM adult learners in their learning process. Adult learners in OUM form the unit of analysis as the University centres on working adults. Being a good listener and paying full attention is one of the strategies to focus on what is being said. Active listening requires the listener to give full attention to the respondent until either the message has been received or the respondent has finished speaking. Following this, the listener should paraphrase what the respondent is saying to confirm to the respondent that the listener is actually listening and that the message conveyed is the message received. Paraphrasing also has the added benefit of forcing a respondent to focus wholly on the conversation, thus limiting distractions. Reflecting back to the respondent, the interviewer should also be able to recognize the emotions inherent in the message. By paying attention to tone and emotional content, the interviewer can gain a greater understanding of the messages being delivered. Although active listening sounds easy, it takes a lot of practice. Thus, prior to conducting an in-depth interview, it is important to practice active listening on a friend or colleague. This can be done by instructing a friend to talk about a topic of interest and employing your active listening strategies during the conversation. Afterwards, ask for feedback and continue with different topics until active listening becomes a natural way of interacting.
8. Instrumentation Interviews have been used extensively for data collection across all the disciplines of the social sciences & in educational research (Berry, 1999). Kvale (1996) observed the seven stages of conducting in-depth interviews which include thematizing, designing, interviewing, transcribing, analyzing, verifying, and reporting.
Stage 1: Thematizing. In this stage, the interviewer has to clarify the purpose of the interviews. Moreover, the group of adult learners will often question why they have to be interviewed and the implications of the exercise. The interview conducted was more for data gathering, since the respondents had earlier refused to answer questions using survey methods, at the first attempt. Thus, there was a change in the method to gather in-depth information related to area of study. Firstly, the principles of adults learning and their relevance to them as adult learners in OUM were explained. Essentially, the researcher had to make sure that what the learners practiced everyday such as self-directed learning is considered one of the principles of adult learning. In this context, no one forces adult students to further their studies but because they are adults, they know what they want and how to achieve it. This illustrates the principles of adult learning in the adult education environment. Once the general purpose of the interview was decided, it was easier to identify the key information that needed to be gathered through the in-depth interview process.
Stage 2: Designing. After determining what needed to be known, we designed a way to elicit this information through the interview process. The interview included the key topics and questions as a formalized plan for collecting information. The focus is
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on the topics that are important to explore as well as the design of the interviews, so that consistency is maintained across interviews with different respondents.
The three essentials of interviews were used in gathering the information for this particular study. These include firstly, the facesheet which is used to record the time, date, and place of the interview, special conditions or circumstances that may affect the interview, and demographic information about the respondent being interviewed. Secondly, there are the interview questions which are placed on the left side of the page, along with a blank space on the right side of the page for written observations. Lastly, the post-interview comment sheet, which is a place to write notes after the interview; these notes should include feelings, interpretations, and other comments that arose during the interview (Kvale, 1996).
Stage 3: Interviewing. The interview session starts with some important introductions, about what the study is about, with explanations on the purpose of the study. The respondents are also put at ease. The procedure involves listening to and observing the respondents and guiding them through a conversation so that all the important issues during the interview are explored.
Stage 4: Transcribing. Transcribing involves creating a verbatim text of each interview by writing out each question and response. The interviewers side notes should also be included in the transcription, and properly labeled in a separate column or category. Stage 5: Analyzing. Analyzing involves re-reading the interview transcripts to identify themes emerging from the respondents answers. The topics and questions were used
to organize the analysis, in essence, synthesizing the answers to the questions proposed. If the interviews raised more questions than they answered, more interviews may be necessary to accurately examine the issue at hand.
Stage 6: Verifying. Verifying involves checking the credibility of the information gathered and a method called triangulation is commonly used to achieve this purpose. Triangulation involves using multiple perspectives to interpret a single set of information. For example, a study that uses triangulation to examine the principles of adult learning that is the most influential in the learning process of OUM students would require researchers to interview at least three groups of respondents, i.e. students from the Bachelor of Accounting, Bachelor of Human Resource Management and Bachelor of Business Admin courses. When the participants say the same thing in the interviews, then the information is considered valid.
A simpler way to use triangulation in a study would be to have two colleagues read and analyze the same set of transcripts, and then compare notes. If the notes agree, then the information is credible (Kvale, 1996).
Stage 7: Reporting. Finally, results from the in-depth interviews were shared with internal and external stakeholders through a written or oral report; these reports describe not only the results, but how the results will shape future work. When respondents see that the information is being used, they are more likely to participate in future data collection efforts.
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9. Findings and Discussion
The data was analyzed using grounded theory such as coding which was done by reading over transcripts multiple times whilst comparing the responses and themes uncovered. The respondents for this study comprise students from Open University Malaysia (OUM), and are generally adults who are full time working. Based on the data, 97% are working adults, with the oldest being a 77-year old, in semester six of his studies.
Fundamentally, OUM students need to study on their own using online distance learning (ODL) or the materials given by the university. Generally, 88% of the learning is conducted on their own and face-to face meetings with the lecturer only account for 8%.
The findings of this study suggest that as adult learners, OUM students preferred to be autonomous or self-directed in their study as previously observed by Brockett and Hiemstra (1999). They know what they want, they know what they want to achieve in the specific time they allocated (Candy, 1991). This is the starting point at which they begin with their learning process. The findings support the study conducted by Knowles (1975), in that self-directed learning means that individuals take the initiative, with or without the help of others, in diagnosing their learning needs, formulating learning goals, identifying human and material resources for learning, choosing and implementing appropriate learning strategies, and evaluating learning outcomes.
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According to Knowles (1975), self-direction is the continuous exercise of authentic control by the leaner over all decisions about learning and reflects the ability to gain access to, and choose from, a full range of available and appropriate resources.
The most important factor was that adults liked to use life experiences and their knowledge in their learning process and to be successful in their studies. Being goal oriented was the second most important principle related to the learning process and this was followed by earning respect (Meriam and Caffarella, 1991). According to a student on the Bachelor Human Resource Management (BHRM) course, they mostly used or shared their experiences in group discussions so that they will better understand the topics discussed (Kett, 1994).
10. Conclusion and Future Recommendations
The main elements of the principles of adult learning (PAL) have been endorsed by the group of OUM respondents in this study, thus illustrating support for the accumulated knowledge on adult learning.
The main contribution of this paper is to demonstrate that the most important element of PAL was the sharing and application of life experiences to the learning process. This is central to the way adult students learn and to ensure academic success and indicates that the adult learner is motivated to a certain extent, by this need to share and apply life experiences in their learning. It also suggests that prior experience and knowledge is thus an asset in adult learning and is a factor to be exploited by adult educators and researchers. Moreover, it is significant that the adult learners were goal oriented and emphasised the value of respect. In
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other words, to be successful adult learners, it takes not only experience and a passion for sharing and learning, but also self-direction, as well as attitudes of trust and respect.
The findings of this study enrich understanding of and add to the literature on how adults learn, underlining the role and importance of PAL. However, despite their prominence, Malaysian universities specialising in adult education have yet to utilise these principles in creating the conditions that will nurture the positive traits of adult learners.
This missing link holds implications for other researchers and also adult educators, in that future studies can be conducted to clarify the strategies to be employed in adult education, especially how PAL can be incorporated. Such studies may help adult education providers and educators in strategising, positioning and marketing adult education.
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References
Berry, R. S.Y (1999). Collecting data by in-depth interviewing. Paper presented at the British Educational Research Association Annual Conference, University of Sussex at Brighton, September 2 - 5 1999 Brew, J.M. (1946). Informal Education. Adventures and reflections, London: Faber Brockett, R.G. and Hiemstra, R. (1991). Self-Direction in Adult Learning. Perspectives on theory, research and practice, London: Routledge Candy, P.C. (1991). Self-direction for Lifelong Learning. A comprehensive guide to theory and practice, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Davenport (1993). Is there any way out of the andragogy mes s? In M. Thorppe, R. Edwards and A. Hanson (eds). Culture and Processes of Adult Learning, London; Routledge. (First published 1987) Goodlad, J. (2005). Principles of Adult Learning. Copyright 2005, Best Practice Resources. Kett, J.F. (1994). The Pursuit of Knowledge Under Difficulties. From selfimprovement to adult education in America, 1975-1990, Stanford, Ca.: Stanford University Press. Merriam, S.B. and Caffarella, R.S. (1991). Learning in Adulthood. A comprehensive guide, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Kitchener, K. S, King, P.M (1990). The reflective judgement model: Transforming assumptions about knowing. In: Mezirow J (ed.) Fostering Critical Reflection in Adulthood. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco. Knowles, M.S. (1975). Self-Directed Learning. A guide for learners and teachers, Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall/ Cambridge. Knowles, M.S. (1950). Informal Adult Education, New York: Association Press. Knowles, M.S. et al (1984). Andragogy in Action. Applying modern principles of adult education, San Francisco: Jossey Bass. A collection of chapters examining different aspects of Knowles formulation. Kvale, S. (1996). Interviews: An Introduction to Qualitative Research Interviewing. London: Sage Publications. Rogers, A., (2002) Teaching Adults (3rd Ed) Buckingham, Open University Press Sweeny, B. (2008). Principles of Adult Learning, adapted from John Goodlad (2005) . Copyright 2008, Best Practice Resources. Tuijnman, A. Van Der Kamp, M. (1992). Learning Across the Lifespan: Theories, Research, Policies, Pergamon, Oxford
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DEVELOPING CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS THROUGH INTERACTIVE APPROACH OF TEACHING AND LEARNING GENETICS Maria Lorraine B. Escalante malorrainee@gmail.com ABSTRACT
This study was conducted to determine the effects of Interactive Approach on the development of critical thinking skills in learning biological concepts in Genetics among students of St. Michaels College, Tibanga, Iligan City. The heterogeneously-grouped students belonging to two intact classes were chosen as respondents of the study. The experimental group was exposed to Interactive Approach of teaching using teacher-formulated interactive activities in Genetics. The same topics were given to control group using the Traditional Method of teaching. As revealed on the data analyses results, it was concluded that the critical thinking skills of students in experimental group were developed after the intervention as evidenced by the significant difference of the students critical thinking skills test gain scores. The levels of students critical thinking skills such as collecting evidence and judging reliability; analysis, grouping, and classification; inference (reasoning); and making value judgments were elevated from below average to average and were more evident in the experimental group than in control group. Furthermore, the statistical results showed that Interactive Approach of teaching made a remarkable increase in the posttest scores obtained by the experimental group, hence, developing the students critical thinking skills compared to the posttest scores garnered by the control group. Since Interactive Approach has been found to be more effective for developing students critical thinking skills, it is recommended that teachers should be encouraged to use Interactive Approach as a mode of instruction. School Administrators must take into consideration the availability of trainings and seminars related to Interactive Approach of teaching.
Field of Research: teaching.
Critical thinking, critical thinking skills, Interactive Approach of
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1.
Introduction
The educational system, in all its forms, does a poor job of fostering critical thinking. This is a real problem, because humans are inclined to embrace ideologies rather than information (Fernandez, 2011). It is frustrating to see students using poor critical thinking in completing classroom tasks and assignment. However, it is a reward of a teacher when students can think critically and understand faulty reasoning patterns and distinguish good data from poor data.
When students think critically, they are evaluating the outcomes of their thought processes as to how a good decision is or how well a problem is solved. Teaching children to become effective thinkers is increasingly recognized as an immediate goal of education. If students are to function successfully in a highly technical society, then they must be equipped with lifelong learning and thinking skills necessary to acquire and process information in an ever-changing world.
Critical thinking ability is not universal. Most students do not score well in tests that measure ability to recognize assumptions, evaluate arguments, and appraise inferences. The development of critical thinking among students of St. Michaels College, Basic Education Department has been observed to be unsatisfactory as shown by the results of Religious of the Virgin Mary (RVM) Achievement Tests given to them last January 2008. Among 160 Second Year students who took the tests only 31 percent was able to answer the questions proficiently in the area of Higher Order Thinking Skills (RVM, National Assessment program, January 2008). On the same note, based on the three rounds of the Trends in Math and Science Study or TIMSS conducted in 1995, 1999, and 2003, Filipino students in grade four and second year high school are grappling with their Math and Science knowledge and skills. This showed time and again that their math and science functional literacy is on the decline. University of the Philippines professor Dr. Michael Tan (2006) in his newspaper column pointed out how the Philippines fared in the TIMSS 2003. For the fourth graders, the Philippines ranked 23 rd among 25 countries in both math and science. Test results for the 8th graders (equivalent to second year high school) showed that the Philippines is at the 40th rank in math and 41st in science among 45 countries. Among the Asian countries that participated, Taipei (Taiwan), Hong Kong SAR, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, and Singapore the Philippines had the lowest scores in Science and Math.
In view of this low performance of the students, the teacher plays a vital role to look into effective teaching approach to develop students critical thinking skills making these students able to face the realities in life.
In the history of the countrys educational system, a number of surveys and tests have been conducted; many programs have been implemented to improve science curriculum and instruction. New approaches to teaching Biology have been introduced to deviate from lecture method as a traditional way of teaching. The world now is with high technologies, computers and Internets alike, but considered as insufficient approaches in teaching. Each student is known to be intelligent in a certain aspect, as it is stated in the multiple intelligences. A better understanding with the strength of the learner, the availability of the materials plus the proper approach may develop students ability on critical thinking.
The effects of interactive approach in teaching Biology must be determined so that if this teaching method will be found effective in the development of the learners critical thinking then
this will encourage the other teachers to use the interactive approach in teaching their assigned subject.
2. Critical Thinking Critical thinking is defined as a self-guided, self-disciplined thinking which attempts to reason at the highest level of quality in a fair-minded way. People who think critically attempt to live rationally, reasonably, and empathically (Paul and Elder, 2007). 3. Critical Thinking Skills Schraer and Stoltze (1995) grouped critical thinking skills into several subskills such as: collecting evidence and judging reliability; analysis, grouping, and classification; inference; and making value judgment. Collecting evidence and judging reliability includes evaluating firsthand observations and evaluating secondhand information. Relating parts and wholes; comparing and contrasting; ordering; classifying; identifying reasons; and identifying assumptions are under analysis, grouping, and classification. Inference could be induction or deduction. Induction includes generalizing, identifying causes, reasoning by analogy, and predicting while deduction includes reasoning categorically and reasoning conditionally. Making value judgments are referred to judgments of usefulness (of things and ideas) and making ethical judgments. 4. Interactive Approach in Teaching The hands-on approach that encourages learning from experience through an extensive and carefully graded series of exercises (Shapiro, 1992). In this study, it refers to a classroom teaching approach wherein there is interaction of students to the materials, students to the activities, students to students, and students to teachers. This is the teaching approach employed in the experimental group.
5. Research Questions 5.1 The study intended to answer the following questions: 1. What is the achievement score and level of students critical thinking skills before and after interventions? 2. Is there a significant difference in the achievement gain scores and level of students critical thinking skills in the traditional and interactive groups? 3. How do students critical thinking skills influenced by the types of interventions?
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5.2 Statement of the Null Hypotheses The following null hypotheses were formulated based on the research questions 2 and 3: 1. There is no significant difference in the achievement score and critical thinking skills of the students in the traditional and interactive groups. 2. There is no significant difference in the critical thinking skills test as influenced by the types of intervention.
6. Theoretical Framework of the Study The study is anchored on Jerome Bruners, Jean Piagets, John Deweys, and Lev Vygotskys Constructivist Learning Theory that supports the idea that the use of Interactive Approach in teaching has an effect to the learners critical thinking skills depending on certain factors. Constructivist Theory supports the effectiveness of Interactive Approach in teaching in a way students engage in discovery learning using interactive materials obtaining knowledge by themselves. They select relevant ideas to construct hypotheses, transform information, use their own thinking, and make decisions to arrive at correct solutions to problems. Constructivist teaching fosters critical thinking and creates motivated and independent learners (Gray, 2005). Gray emphasized that students and teachers are interactive in a constructivist classroom.
7. Conceptual Framework of the Study
On the basis of the discussed theoretical framework, this study conceptualized that Interactive Approach of teaching has an effect on the development of critical thinking skills of sophomore students of St. Michaels College, Iligan City. To determine the effect of the use of Interactive Approach, this study has derived its conceptual framework as shown in Figure 1. Two groups of intact students were used in this study. The experimental group carried out the treatment which was Interactive Approach. The other group served as the control group, taught using the Traditional Method of teaching. This study tested the effectiveness of teaching approaches in the development of critical thinking skills as shown in the achievement scores. Furthermore, the diagram shows the role of pretest as covariate.
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Independent Variable
Teaching Approaches Interactive Approach of teaching
Dependent Variable
Critical Thinking Skills Achievement Score
Pretest
Figure 1. Conceptual Framework of the Study 8. Methodology
8.1 Research Design An experimental research design was utilized in this study to determine the effects of interactive approach to the development of critical thinking skills of the students. The development of students critical thinking skills was determined through their gain scores in the teacher-made multiple choice and open-ended critical thinking skills tests given to the two groups before and after intervention. Specifically, this study used the Quasi-Experimental Pretest-Posttest Nonequivalent Groups Design. This design was chosen over the True Experimental Design because the sampled subjects of this study came from the intact heterogeneous sections. This design is shown below: Pretest Treatment N N Posttest O1 O3 X O2 O4
Experimental Group Control Group
The design notation for the Non-Equivalent Groups Design (NEGD) showed that there were two groups, an experimental and control, and that each was measured pretest and posttest. Moreover, O1 and O3 represented the first administration of the critical thinking skills pretest (achievement) to the experimental and control group. O2 and O4 represented the second administration of the instrument as posttest (achievement) to the experimental and control group. The symbol X
signified the intervention as Interactive Approach in teaching Biological concepts particularly in Genetics and N signified the non-equivalent.
8.2 Research Locale and Setting The study was conducted in St Michaels College, Basic Education Department, Brgy. San Miguel, Tibanga, Iligan City. St. Michaels College is Catholic institution of higher learning administered by the Religious of the Virgin Mary (RVM).
8.3 Subjects of the Study and Sampling Procedure The second year high school students belonging to sections Simplicity and Generosity of St. Michaels College were chosen as respondents of the study.
8.4 Data Gathering Procedure 8.4.1 Preliminary Activities The Interactive Activities were formulated by the researcher with a self-made format consisting of introduction, objectives, materials to be used, procedure, and questions to be answered. Selection of these activities was based on the identified subtopics of genetics in biology learning competencies of St. Michaels College in accordance with the DepEd.
8.4.2The Intervention The multiple choice pretests-posttests were administered before the intervention to both experimental and control groups. In performing the Interactive Activities, the students in the experimental group interacted with the materials, with their classmates, and teacher-researcher. When the activities called for the use of computers or laboratory materials, the activities were performed in the Computer Laboratory and Biology Laboratory otherwise in the classroom.
In the control group, the teacher-researcher taught the same topics using Traditional Method of teaching with minimum materials and visual aids. The classes using this method were only done in the classroom. Though this method is purely lecture, the researcher also entertained questions for clarification. The control group and experimental group differed only in the teaching method since both were given the same topics, evaluation and assignment to assess their understanding of the lesson.
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At the end of the intervention, the critical thinking skills posttests were administered to the experimental and control groups.
8.5. The Research Instrument
8.5.a Critical Thinking Skills Test. This is the instrument used in gathering data. To proportionally cover all Genetics subtopics, the test construction was guided by a table of specification. The subtopics covered were Mendels Experiments; Monohybrid and Dihybrid Crosses Using Punnett square; Probability Ratios; Formation of Boys and Girls in a Family; Inheritance of Human Traits and Pedigree Analysis. Two hundred (200) items multiple-choice type of test were formulated basing on the Critical Thinking Skills sample questions by Schraer and Stoltze (1995).
8.5.b Content Validity of the Instrument. The draft of the test was shown to the research adviser for corrections, comments and suggestions. The test items were checked by the thesis adviser and revised by the researcher several times. To determine the validity of the test questions, the researcher consulted three (3) Biology education experts to validate the content and make the necessary corrections, comments and suggestions in order to improve the test. Only 146 multiple choice test items were left after the validations.
8.4.c Reliability of the Instrument. Cronbach Alpha was used to measure the internal consistency reliability coefficient of the Critical Thinking Skills Test. As computed, the reliability coefficient was 0.752 which meant that the constructed achievement test had a higher reliability. The test questionnaire was finally composed of 35 items multiple choice questions.
9. Statistical Treatment of Data The data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) Version 11.5 for Windows. Mean and Standard Deviation were used to determine the levels of students critical thinking skills. To determine if the improvement on each group was significant, further analysis was done through t-test of correlated means for samples (paired t-test). That is, investigating whether the gain scores of each group were significant and can be attributed to fact that they have prior knowledge on this regard. To test the effectiveness of the interactive approach on developing critical thinking skills compared to traditional approach while controlling the respondents prior knowledge (pretest), one-way ANCOVA (Analysis of Covariance) was utilized.
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10. Finding & Discussion
Investigating the first research question concerning the level of critical thinking skills of the students before and after the intervention, achievement pre-test and post-test in Genetics were administered prior to and after the treatment was given and descriptive statistics were calculated. Result is shown in Table 1.
Table 1. Mean, Standard Deviation, and Students Level of Critical Thinking Skills Achievement Scores (Critical Thinking Skills) Pre-test Post-test Mean 14.95 22.92 Traditional SD 2.97 4.14 Description* Very Low Below Average Mean 13.55 25.10 Teaching Approaches Interactive SD 2.57 3.73 Description* Very Low Average
*Very High = 33 35; High = 30 32; Above Average = 27 29; Average = 24 26; Below Average = 21 23; Low = 18 20; Very Low = 17 and below It can be noted that control group was exposed to the Traditional Method of teaching while experimental group was treated by Interactive Approach of teaching. As shown in Table1, control group got a little higher pre-test mean score of the achievement test ( M = 14.95, SD = 2.97) than the experimental group (M = 13.55, SD = 2.57) though these scores fall under on the same level (very low) of critical thinking skills. As post-test was conducted after the specified time frame of the treatment, improvements of their achievement scores can be seen directly on each group. Great improvement was exhibited by the experimental group who was exposed to Interactive Approach of Teaching (M = 25.10, SD = 3.73) than the control group (M = 22.92, SD = 4.14) which implied improvements also in their critical thinking skills to average and below average respectively. To determine if this improvement on each group was significant, further analysis was done through t-test of correlated means for samples (paired t-test). That is, investigating the second research question whether the gain scores of each group were significant and can be attributed to fact that they have prior knowledge on this regard. Results are shown in Tables 2 and 3.
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Table 2. Paired Samples Correlations Teaching Approaches Traditional Interactive *Significant at 0.05 level As reflected, pre-test and post-test of the two groups were positively correlated to each other. Students who were exposed to traditional method of teaching who got higher pre-test scores among the others tend to have higher scores in the post-test, r = .456, p = .003 which their pretest explained about 20.8% of the variance in their post-test which suggest a strong influence of their post-test. This implies that students were consistent on their achievement scores, that is, those who got higher pre-test most of them got also higher post-test as they were exposed in Traditional Approach of Teaching. On the other end, students who were exposed through Interactive Approach of Teaching showed also a positive correlation between their pre-test and post-test, r = .392, p = .011. Over-all, their pre-test only accounted 15.4% of the variance of their post-test, indicating a small-moderate effect. This suggests that the relationship of their pre-test and post-test is not so strong however significant and directly correlated to each other. Meaning, students who got higher scores in pretest as expected also got higher score in post-test though this relationship was limited to moderate association. This further suggests that not all students who got higher scores in pre-test got also the higher scores in post-test, there were some students who even got higher post-test whose pretests were not quite as good as the others. Further analysis was done in order to investigate these apparently odds between difference of association of the pre-test and post-test of the control and experimental group, paired t-test result is shown in Table1 to support the above claimed and to determine whether their gain scores are statistically significant. Table 3. Summary Results of the Paired Samples Test Achievement Pre-test Scores ( Critical Mea Thinking DE* n Skills) Traditional Interactive 14.95 13.55 Post-test Mean DE* (VL) (A) Paired Differences t-value Mean -7.97 -11.55 SD 3.826 3.603 -13.182 -20.720 39 40 df Paired Samples Pre-test and Post-test Pre-test and Post-test Correlation Coefficient .459 .392 Description Strong Relationship Moderately strong Relationship p-value .003* .011*
pvalue < . 001** <. 001**
(VL) 22.92 (BA) 25.10
*Descriptive Equivalent (DE): (VL) = Very Low; (BA) = Below Average; (A) = Average
** Significant at 0.05 level It can be observed that experimental group has the higher gain score (11.55) than the control group (7.97). Hence, this supported the above claimed that there were students from interactive group got higher post-test scores whose pre-tests are seemingly low than the others who got also higher scores from the post-test. It can noted however, that both gain scores of the traditional and interactive groups were highly significant at 0.05 level, t (39) = -13.182, p < .001 and t(40) = -20.720, p < .001 respectively. This implies that this great improvement of the interactive groups can be attributed to the fact that their critical thinking skills were developed through this method of teaching. Related study was carried out by Knight and Wood (2005) to determine whether student learning gains in a large, traditionally taught, upper-division lecture course in developmental biology could be increased by partially changing to a more interactive classroom format. The results indicated significantly higher learning gains and better conceptual understanding in the more interactive course. On the basis of this evidence, they propose a general model for teaching large biology courses that incorporates interactive engagement and cooperative work in place of some lecturing, while retaining course content by demanding greater student responsibility for learning outside of class. However, it cannot be denied that somehow this result can be confounded with some attributes, one of that is their prior knowledge on some extent. Hence, further analysis was conducted to investigate whether this improvement can be attributed solely to the treatment done in the interactive group through interactive teaching by controlling their pre-test. This led to investigate the last research question of this study, the effect of the interactive approach of teaching in developing critical thinking skills of the students. The analysis was done through one-way ANCOVA (Analysis of Variance) and the result is shown in Table 4. Table 4. Summary Table of One-Way Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) on the Achievement Scores and Level of Critical Thinking Skills of the Students as Influenced by the Teaching Approaches Source of Sum of Squares Df Mean Square F-value p-value Variation Teaching Approaches Error Total *Significant at 0.05 level 173.216 982.091 47433.000 1 77 80 173.216 12.754 13.581 <.001*
Using pre-test as the covariate, the result of the analysis revealed that there exists a significant difference between the mean scores of traditional (M = 22.92, SD = 4.14) and interactive (M = 25.10, SD = 3.73) groups in the post-test, F(1, 77) = 13.581, p<.001 at 0.05 level of significance. This implies that the students who were exposed to Interactive Approach of teaching performed much better than students whose intervention was based from the Traditional Method of teaching which in a way led the development of students critical thinking skills This is supported by Potts, B. (1994) in his statement: Promoting interaction among students as they learn helps each member achieve more. Shymansky & Penick (1981) also concluded after his study that activitycentered classrooms encourage student creativity in problem solving, promote student
independence, and help low ability students overcome initial handicaps. It can be inferred that students performance in the achievement test was influenced by the given treatment through interactive approach of teaching as the intervention of developing students critical thinking skills. Hence, Interactive Approach of teaching is a very effective tool in developing learners critical thinking skills. This result is supported by some studies that showed evidences of the effects of interactive approach to students critical thinking skills. Johnston (2002) investigated the effect of interactive teaching on the development of learning in Physics using recognized international tests and observational analysis. Pupils taught in the traditional didactic way, using secondary sources, have been tested alongside those pupils taught using the interactive approach. Initial results have indicated that pupils engaged in interactive learning score higher on tests of knowledge than pupils taught using the more traditional approach. These pupils appear to have a better conceptual understanding of physics and are more able to apply their knowledge and understanding in unfamiliar contexts.
8. Conclusion and Future Recommendation The results revealed that Interactive Approach in teaching Biological concepts specifically in Genetics had positive effects on the development of Critical Thinking Skills. The results further showed that the students who were exposed to Interactive Approach became more efficient in their learning process that they were able to manage their own learning. It is safe to say that the instructional materials used in the interactive activities, individualized and small-group exercises, challenged the students to learn new skills and develop creative problem-solving strategies. Hands-on learning as in interactive learning was an important method for a students education. Manipulation and experiential learning gave students a reference for importance of material. Through interactive learning, students were given meaningful experiences that helped them develop their critical thinking skills. As students were exposed to interactive activities, there is a reason to believe that through this they became more skillful in answering and solving problems embedded in the interactive activities.
Although the results significantly showed that the experimental group had a remarkable increase in their critical thinking skills test scores, the control group scores should also be taken into consideration. The fact that the students in the control group had also a remarkable increase though not as much as the experimental group, directs the teacher to rethink about the route of teaching and learning. This implies that Traditional Method of teaching has also its way to learning but may inhibit the development of the students critical thinking skills. Teachers should always look for varied teaching approaches for students learning experiences to be more enjoyable and meaningful.
Inasmuch as the students exposed to interactive approach in teaching showed remarkable increase in the critical thinking skills test score, it is imperative that science teachers should
constantly expose the students to interactive activities. By so doing, students would have enough experience with the activities thereby improving their performance in science. The results of this study will serve as basis for designing a skills-training program for the teachers teaching method and strategies that promote the development and improvement of critical thinking skills among the students.
Acknowledgement This paper is under scholarship of the St. Michaels College.
References A. Books Dewey, John. (1966). Democracy and Education. New York: Free Press. Gagne, R. (1970). The conditions of learning. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston. Glasserfield, V. E. (1995). A constructivist approach to teaching. In L. Steffe & J. Gale (Eds.), Constructivism in education. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Krathwohl, D. R., Bloom, B. S., & Masia, B. B. (1973). Taxonomy of educational Objectives, the classification of educational goals. Handbook II: Affective domain. New York: David McKay Co., Inc. Paul, R. and Elder, L. (2007). The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking Concepts and Tools, Foundation for Critical Thinking Press, Piaget, J. (1977). Equilibration of cognitive structures. New York: Viking Press. Pohl, M. (2000). Learning to Think, Thinking to Learn: Models and Strategies to Develop a Classroom Culture of Thinking. Cheltenham, Vic.: Hawker Brownlow. Salandanan, G. G. (2006). Methods of teaching. Quezon City: Lorimar Publishing Co.,Inc. Schraer, W. O. & Stoltze, H. J. (1995). Biology: The study of life. Middletown, New York: Prentice Hall.
Shapiro, S. C. (1992). Common LISP: An interactive approach. New York: W. H. Freeman and Company..
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B. Periodicals Langer, J. & Applebee, A. N. (1987). How writing shapes thinking: A study of teaching and learning. National Council of Teachers of English. Scriven, M., & Paul, R. (1992). Critical thinking defined. Handout given at Critical Thinking Conference, Atlanta, GA.
Yeh, M. & Chen, H. (2009). Effects of an educational program with interactive videodisc systems in improving critical thinking dispositions for RN-BSN students in Taiwan. International Journal of Nursing Studies. 42(3), 333-340.
C. Internet Accessed Articles Abrahamson, L. (2009). What is interactive teaching? Retrieved October 15, 20011, from http://www.bedu.com/interactive.html
Facione, P. A. & Facione, N. C. (1994). Holistic critical thinking scoring rubric. Retrieved May 8, 2009, from http://www.insightassessment.com/pdf_files/rubric.pdf
Johnson, R, (2001). Cooperative learning. Retrieved March 15, 2009, from http://www.clcrc.com/pages/cl.html Johnston, J. (2002). The effect of interactive teaching on the development of learning in Physics. Retrieved May 7, 2009 from http://www.ipn.uni-kiel.de/projekte/esera/book/025-joh.pdf
Knight, J. & Wood, W. (2005). Teaching more by lecturing less. Retrieved May , 2009 from http://www.lifescied.org/cgi/content/abstract/4/4/298 Oak, M. (2008). Developing critical thinking skills. Retrieved May 7, 2009, from http://www.buzzle.com/articles/developing-critical-thinking-skills.html Ridley, R. (2007). Interactive teaching promotes Inner Active Learning. Retrieved October 15, 2008, from http://www.hiceducation.org/Edu_Proceedings/Reneepdf
Tan, M. (2006). Pinoy kasi: More on TIMSS. Retrieved September 15, 2008, from http://services.inquirer.net/print/print.php?article_id=4792
Tremblay, K. Jr. & Downey, E. (2004). Identifying and Evaluating Research-Based Publications: Enhancing Undergraduate Student Critical Thinking Skills. Retrieved May 8, 2009, from http://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst;jsessionid
Van Dijk, L. A. & Jochems, W. M. G. (2002). Changing a traditional lecturing approach into an interactive approach: Effects of interrupting the monologue in lectures. Retrieved March 15, 2009, from www.ijee.dit.ie/articles/Vol18-3/pdf
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Assessing Elementary Understanding of Multiplication Concept Year Four Children: An Exploratory Study Adora Abdullah Nik Suryani Nik Abdul Rahman International Islamic University of Malaysia
ABSTRACT Multiplication is an important topic to be mastered by children that foster understanding of big ideas in mathematics. Unfortunately the degree of understanding of multiplication and the difficulties faced by the children are still perplexing to many mathematics educators. This study aims to assess understanding of basic concept of multiplication among four Year 4 children. They were given 30 multiplication tasks under six main categories to ascertain their understanding of the concept and difficulties they faced. Data collection and the subsequent analysis were guided by qualitative research method based on constructivist learning theory. From this study four themes were derived, namely: conventional notation, additive groups, multiplicative groups and partitioning group situations. Keywords: constructivism, understanding, multiplication, primary school children. . 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the study Multiplication is a difficult topic to be grasped by children in primary school level. The children could understand both addition and subtraction easily, however find hard once they come to multiplication. Many researchers admitted that multiplication is a difficult area for the children (Barmby, et al., 2011; Downtown, 2010; Barmby, et al., 2009; Ell, McNaughton and Irwin, 2004). Anghileri (as cited in Barmby, et al., 2011) emphasizes the fact that multiplication, unlike addition and subtraction, is a binary operation with two distinct inputs for the multiplicand and multiplier (p.1). The difficulties in multiplication are varied. These include: the range of situations in which the concept of multiplication can arise, a range of different classes of situation for multiplication, a range of different external representation for these situations, the usefulness of the array representation in showing the commutative and distributive laws for multiplication, the repeated group which children view as repeated addition, the array, the line and multiplication in a symbolic way (Barmby, et al., 2011).
Most children fail in mathematics due to their lack of understanding in multiplication. Failure to understand multiplication will affect childrens attitudes, emotions and their learning in mathematics. Mundia (2012) stated that students who do not perform well in mathematics often develop math anxiety and phobia (p.349). It is clear that failure to develop multiplicative structures in the early years impedes the general mathematical development of students into the secondary school, for example, in using algebra, functions and graphs (Mulligan, 2002, p.497). There has been little work carried out on assessments specifically for childrens understanding of multiplication. This research aims to broaden the research agenda in assessing understanding of multiplication in Malaysia. 1.2 Literature Review Understanding is a basic requirement in teaching and learning activities. Barmby et al. (2007) in their study drew the idea of understanding of mathematics as to understand mathematics is to make connections between mental representations of mathematical concept. Understanding is the resulting network of representations associated with that mathematical concept (p.42). Understanding in multiplication requires development of language for thinking about and describing multiplicative situations and their quantities. In order to have a basic understanding of multiplication, the children need to master four interconnection multiplication concepts: (a) quantity, (b) multiplicative problem situations, (c) equal groups and (d) units relevant to multiplication. Most of these understanding can be developed through experiences using counting, joining and grouping strategies to solve contextualized problems in the early grades (Smith and Smith, 2006). A number of studies revealed the development changes in childrens thinking, moving from additive to multiplicative thinking (Mulligan and Mitchelmore, 1997; Jacob and Willis, 2001; Mulligan, 2002; Jacob and Willis, 2003; Ell, Irwin and McNaughton, 2004; Smith and Smith, 2006; Downton, 2010). Jacob and Willis (2003) mentioned five broad phases through which multiplicative thinking develops. These were classified as one-to-one counting, additive composition, many-to-one counting, multiplicative relations and operating on the operations. The children are considered possessing understanding in multiplication if they attain the phase of multiplicative relations.
Barmby et al. (2011) stated that In the case of multiplication, questions examining pupils recognition of multiplication in different contexts or different representations have been used (p. 2). A few multiplication tasks have been created by some researchers in assessing childrens understanding of multiplication concepts. For example Smith and Smith (2006) developed 26 interview items which provides evidence that instruction emphasizing memorization of multiplication facts produces much less understanding of the basic concepts of multiplication. While Barmby et al. (2011) constructed 19 test of multiplication which tested its reliability through Rasch analysis. In Barmby et al. (2007), the researchers analysed a range possible approaches in assessing understanding in mathematics. They outlined six possible methods students errors, connections made between symbols and symbolic procedures and corresponding referents, connections between symbolic procedures and informal problem solving situations, connections made between different symbol systems, using concept maps and mind maps. 2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK The constructivist view of learning has been used largely in investigating early number concept and processes Mulligan, 1992). Among the core ideas of the constructivist were knowledge is actively constructed by the learners, learners come to the learning situation with existing ideas about phenomena and learners have their own individual ideas about the world (Sjoberg, 2007). Barmby et al. (2009) in their article The array representation and primary childrens understanding and reasoning in multiplication have introduced a model of mathematical understanding. Based on constructivism, the model emphasises on the importance of connections between internal or mental representations of a concept through reasoning. The reasoning can be used both to demonstrate existing understanding (i.e to explain links between representations) or to develop understanding further (i.e to establish links between representations (p.3-5).
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Figure 1: Diagrammatical representation of the representational-reasoning model of understanding
In examining childrens mathematical understanding, some task-based interview or clinical interview could be used in order to probe the childrens understanding. By explaining their reason of the tasks (i.e a key part of the constructive process), the children already established the links between representations. The researcher put an example of a research did by Niemi (1996) in examining students understanding of fractions to show how the model worked. the open-ended task provided the opportunity to see the possible links that students made, the problem solving task specifically looked at the reasoning used by the students when linking between problems and their understanding of fractions, and the final task examined which links to visual representations the students could quickly access (p.6) In this study, the childrens elementary understandings of multiplication were assessed through variety of multiplication tasks-based interview. The children were requested to put in written formats and gave reasons of their written answers verbally. Both sessions gave opportunity to children to show their understandings of multiplication. 3. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY Most of the studies in multiplication were done in Australia, USA and Europe. The studies were more focusing on developing multiplicative thinking among children and problem solving except two quantitative studies done in assessing understanding of multiplication. However both studies were conducted in USA and England and their findings were not suited to be adopted in the Malaysian context. Multiplication begins to be introduced in primary school during Year Two. The concept has been taught repeatedly until Year Six (Malaysian National Mathematics Curriculum, 2011). It seems that assessment of basic understanding of multiplication among children is important peculiarly in ensuring full understanding of the topic among the
children and helping teachers in developing lesson plan. Jacob and Willis (2003) suggested that teachers need to recognise the difference between additive and multiplicative thinking by having specific assessment tasks if they are willing to help children develop the later. The purpose of the present study was to explore the degree of understanding in multiplication for a particular four Year Four children. This study sought to answer the research question: what are the childrens understandings of the concept of multiplication? 4. METHODOLOGY This study has adapted a study done by Smith and Smith (2006) in Assessing Elementary Understanding of Multiplication Concepts. The collection tasks used by both researchers have provided meaningful evidence for assessing childrens understanding of multiplication concepts, including understanding of relationship between multiplication and addition (p.148). However, the multiplication tasks were modified in this study in order to be suited with local condition and for the purpose of having depth exploration in assessing the childrens understandings of multiplication. 4.1 Subjects The four children, two males and two females, Year Four, aged 10 who attended a government primary school involved in this research. They were selected by their mathematics teacher based on their achievement in mathematics examination. They were labelled as A1 for male child number 1, A2 for male child number 2, B1 for female child number 1 and B2 for female child number 2. The children were moderate students, who managed to get mathematics marks within the range of 70 to 80 percents. The children had been exposed to multiplication since in their first two years of primary schooling. However they were still struggling in memorizing multiplication facts. 4.2 Tasks 30 multiplication tasks under six main categories were presented to the children to ascertain their understanding of the concept and difficulties they faced. Each task was repeated in order to explore deeply the childrens knowledge of multiplication. Task 1: Array representation
The children were asked to list number sentences based on the marbles arranged in front of them. The researcher expected that the children would list at least one multiplicative number sentence in accordance with the arrangement of marbles. Task 2: Conventional number sentence The children were asked to produce correct answers. The goal of this task was to produce a correct answer, whether through recall of facts, mental computations or counting strategies. Task 3: Writing a story problem The children were asked to write a story problem for the number sentence to check their connections between multiplicative number sentences and problem situations, quantities and units. Task 4: Drawing picture The children were asked to draw a picture in order to test their visual representations for multiplicative structures and units, as distinct from those in additive relationships. Task 5: Writing an addition number sentence
The children were asked to write an addition number sentence that showed the same thing as the given multiplication number sentence. The goal of this question was to provide additional data about childrens understanding of relationship between multiplication and addition. Task 6: Word problem The children were asked to solve the word problem as evidence of childrens understanding of various multiplication and division situations and their functional facility in solving such word problems.
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4.3 Task-based interview procedures Prior of the study, the permission to conduct the study around the school was obtained from the school authorities. The parents also gave their consent to have their children as subjects of the study. The researcher conducted the study in different class. A one-to-one, task based interview was administered to the children to gain insights into and probe their understanding and approaches in multiplication. Each child was interviewed individually in four successive video-taped sessions where each last for not more than 30 minutes, depending on the complexity of the childrens perception towards questions and their explanations. The childrens responses were recorded and any written responses retained. Generous waiting time was allowed and the researcher asked the students to explain their thinking by asking questions like how did you get that, why, can you tell me.... which the researcher asked after the children responded to each items. The children had the option of choosing the level of difficulty to allow them to have some control and feel at ease during interview. The researcher kept saying the phrases like there is no right and wrong answer. I just want to know your understanding of this question. These phrases were repeated throughout the interview sessions. 4.4 Data Analysis Data were analysed qualitatively through written work and verbal comments during the interviews as evidence of understanding of multiplication concepts. The verbal comments were transcribed into written document. Both written work and transcription were coded and put into themes. 5. RESULT AND DISCUSSION The understanding of the children could be assessed through their works and reasoning. Smith and Smith (2006) stated that examining details of what students produce (or what they say during conversations) provides insights into their understandings of key concepts that cannot be inferred from percentages of correct answer only (p. 146). There
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were four major themes emerged in this study. The research questions will be reflected from the themes. 5.1 Multiplication as conventional notation Multiplication as conventional notation consists of two: (a) conventional multiplication notation and (b) conventional division notation. (a) Conventional multiplication notation The children who memorized multiplication facts automatically answered the questions by recalling the facts. This understanding appeared mostly in conventional number sentence tasks. An example of their understanding is illustrated below:
A2 R A2
: Just multiply it. : Just multiply? Could you multiply it from beginning? I would like to hear it : 3x1 is 3, 3x2 is 6, 3x3 is 9, 3x4 is 12. : Can be from timetable 4 and 3 : Means ... 3x4=12? : Nodded. : 4x3=12 : Haaa
B2 R B2 R B2
(b) Conventional division notation Multiplication is also understood as division notation. In array representation tasks, one of B2s answers as follows:
: What is the different between 82=16 and 8x2=16? B2 : Symbol 5.2 asthe additive R Multiplication : Symbol? But answers groups are same? B2 : Haaa
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Multiplication as additive groups is divided into two: (a) addition between unequal quantities and (b) addition between equal quantities. (a) Addition between unequal quantities The children who understood under this category usually wrote addition number sentences that totalled to the sum as the product of the multiplication. The children, however, failed to include addends that were related in any way to multiplicative situations. This understanding is illustrated in the following tasks: Array representation task:
A1: Additional number sentence (3x4):
B2 R B2 R B2
: 5+7=12 : Is it correct? : Same number : Same? : The answers are same
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Writing a story (3x4):
Translation: Azim has 3 baskets. There are 9 apples in the basket. Afiq has 3 apples. How many apples both of them have?
A2 R A2 R A2 R B2 R A2
: Azim has 3 baskets. There are 9 apples in the baskets. : How do you get 9? : No ... there are 9 apples in the baskets. Afiq has 3 apples. How many apples they have? : Means? : 9 apples. Plus with Afiqs apples. : Do you mean 9+3 : Nodded : What the answer? : 12
(b) Addition between equal quantities. The children used repeated addition as a strategy for answering multiplication problems. The three examples of childrens answers as the following: Array representation task:
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Conventional number sentence (3x4):
R AI
: How do you get 3x4=12 : aaa ... so easy. Add 4 for 3 times: add 4, add 4, add 4. (showing one of his fingers) 4... 1 time, add 4...2 times ... its 8, add another 4 ... 3 times, its 12.
Additional number sentence (3x4):
A1
: 3 + 3 + 3 + 3 = 12. Means these 3 need to be added for 4 times ... aaa ... 3x4; is 12. Add 3; add 3, add 3, add 3; for 4 times, so we get 12
5.3 Multiplication as multiplicative groups The childrens responses under this theme can be classified into three sub-themes: (a) multiplication as grouping, (b) multiplication as structure of multiplication number sentence and (c) multiplication as grouping situation.
(a) Multiplication as grouping In this sub-theme, the children described the tasks in a given number of groups with a given number of items in each group and then totalling to the appropriate number. Below are some examples of children works: Array representation task:
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A1: Conventional number sentence (5x8):
R: How do you get 5x8=40 tu? B1: This is 5 right? R : Hmm B1: (Show his fingers) 5,10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40 R: It means 8 fingers is 40? BI: Haaa
Writing a story (3x4):
B1: Lin Sin has 3 pencil boxes. Each box has 4 pencils. How many pencils altogether? R: If I want to find total of the pencils in the boxes, what should I do? ... B1: Multiply 4 R: 1 box has 4 pencils? B1: Haaa
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Drawing picture (9x6):
A2 R A2
: 9 boxes. Each box has 6 pencils. : What should we do if we want to find the total of pencils? : Multiply. 9x6.
(b) Multiplication as structure of multiplication number sentence The child who understood multiplication as structure of multiplication number sentence began with additive groups, then specified as multiplication operation. An example of the childs answer as follow: Drawing picture (3x4):
A2 R A2 R A2 R
Its 3 lah. This 3 ... aaa .. like a group lah. Group. Hmm Ok, This is one group? Hmm This is 2 groups?
A2 R A2 R A2 R A2 R A2 R A2 R A2 R A2
Hmmm This? Multiply 1 group with 2 groups. Means ... group 2 multiply with group 1? Or Lets say this is group A, group B multiply with group C and group D, like that? Hmm Ooh .. Means this is 3? Hmm 3? Hmm Got 6? Haaa Got 6 multiply with 3 ... 3? Haaa This 6 ... means 6x6. Is it? Haaa
(c) Multiplication as grouping situation In answering word problems, children used their basic understanding to interpret and solving the problems. Both examples below illustrated childrens understanding of multiplication as grouping situations.
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Word problem: Sarah walks 3 miles an hour. How long will it
take her to walk 21 miles?
B2 R B2 R B2
: 1 hours = 60 minutes. Then 21 times 60. That the answer. : So the answer refers to what? : 1260 minutes : How about 3? : Nothing
Q: Building A is 3 times higher than Building B. If Building B is 30 meter, how high Building A?
B2 R B2 R
: This is multiplication : Why we need to multiply the numbers? : Because 3 times higher than Building B, So 30x3. Building A is 90 : Same?
5.3 Multiplication as partitioning group situations Some children understood multiplication as partitioning group situations. They used measurement division and partitive division problems in comprehending the words in the problem. The examples of the childrens work as below: Writing a story (3x4):
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A1 R A1 R A1 R A1 R A1 R A1
Its like a big jug. Big jug ....big jug (draw a jug. Full with water.? Aaa. Full with water. Its not 7 litres, the jug has much water ... aaa maybe 10 litres ... 56 litres. Ok he poured each glass 7 litres, 7 litres, 7 litres, 7 litres .. until the last glass. So how many litres in each glass? So, we make 8x7. Ok. Based on your explanation, you have 8 glasses. You poured 7 litres of water to each glass? Yes And we still not know how many litres of water in this jug, right? Aaaa ...lets say the jug has 56 litres. Ooh the jug has 56 litres of water. Please write 56 here (write 56 litres). Then you poured here 7 ... here 7? Aaa. Each glass got 7. So 8x7, is 56.
Word problem: Sarah walks 3 miles an hour. How long will it
take her to walk 21 miles?
A1
: Ok, we make 21 meters divide with 3; because 7x3=21. So, she took 7 hours to walk for 21 meters
6. FINDINGS AND CONCLUSION This study revealed some findings: the children basically understood the concepts of multiplication even though their answers were incorrect. Their errors were due to their lack of memorizing multiplication facts and confusing in the understanding of the structure of multiplication problem. In Smith and Smith (2006) states that Errors by students in the
traditional group often resulted not understanding the structure of the problem, not remembering the multiplication fact they needed, or retrieving an incorrect fact. Besides, the childrens understandings of multiplication were improved and better in subsequent repeated questions. Most questions were entertained by using repeated addition strategy. From the task-based interview, the study identified the children were still not fully understood three major areas multiplication, namely writing a story problem, writing an addition number sentences and word problems. Hence, the mathematics teachers should take immediate responses to overcome these problems. Moreover, the teachers should harmonize their teaching as human activity-learning via constructivism learning theory. Since this study focused on the assessment of the four children, the result of this study limited to them and cannot be generalised to public. Therefore this study provides opportunities for further research in this area such as assessing a larger group of children, the role of teacher in teaching multiplication effectively and the Malaysian curriculum itself.
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REFERENCES Mundia, L. (2012). The assessment of math learning difficulties in a primary grade-4 child with high support needs: Mixed methods approach. International Electronic Journal of Elementary Education. 4(2), 347-366. Barmby, P., Bolden, D., Raine, S., & Thompson, L. (2011). Assessing young childrens understanding of multiplication. In Smith, C. (Ed.) Proceedings of the British Society for Research into Learning Mathematics, 31(3), 1-6 Downton, A. (2010). Challenging multiplicative problems can elicit sophisticated strategies. In L. Sparrow, B. Kissane, & C. Hurst (Eds.), Shaping the future of mathematics education (Proceedings of the 33rd annual conference of the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia, pp. (169-176). Fremantle, WA: MERGA. Nik Suryani Nik Abdul Rahman. (2010). Schematized meaning of the concept of percent by the 14 year-olds children. European Jurnal of Social Sciences, 18 (2), 245-256). Barmby, P, Harries, T., Higgins, S. & Suggate, J. (2009). The array representation and primary childrens understanding and reasoning in multiplication. Educational Studies in Mathematics 70(3), 217-241. Smith, S. Z., & Smith, M. E. (2006). Assessing elementary understanding of multiplication concepts. School Science and Mathematics, 106(3), 140-149. Ahmad, S. & Ahmad Zanzali, N. A. (2006). Problem posing abilities in mathematics of Malaysian primary year 5 children: an exploratory study. Jurnal Pendidikan Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (11), 1-9. Ell, F., Irwin, K., & McNaughton, S. (2004). Two pathways to multiplicative thinking. In I. Putt, R. Faragher & M. Mclean (Eds), Mathematics education for the third Millennium, towards 2010 (Proceedings of the 27th annual conference of the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australia, Townsville pp. 199-206). Sydney: MERGA Mulligan, J. (2002). The role of structure in childrens development of multiplicative reasoning. In B. Barton, K. C., Irwin, M Pfannkuch, & M.O. J. Thomas (Eds.) Mathematics Education in the South Pacific (Proceedings of the 25th Annual Conference of the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia, Auckland, pp. 497-503). Sydney: MERGA Jacob, L., & Willis, S. (2001). Recognising the difference between additive and multiplicative thinking in young children. In J. Bobis, B. Perry & M. Mitchelmore (Eds.), Numeracy and Beyond (Proceedings of the 24th Annual Conference of the Mathematical Education Research Group of Australasia pp. 306-313). Sydney: MERGA. Sjoberg, S., (2007). Constructivsm and learning. In Baker, E., McGaw, B. & Peterson, P (Eds.), International Encyclopaedia of Education 3rd Edition pp. 1-11). Oxford: Elsevier.
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APPENDIX A Task-Based Interview Items
No 14 5 6 7 8 9 - 12 13 -16 17- 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
Items List multiplicative number sentences based on the array representation. 3x4= Write a story problem for which 3 x 4 is the correct number sentence. Draw a picture that shows 3 x 4. Write an addition number sentence that shows 3 x 4. Repeat 1-4 sequence with 5x8 Repeat 1-4 sequence with 8x7 Repeat 1-4 sequence with 9x6 Abu has 6 boxes. Each box contains 7 books. How many books does Abu have altogether? Sarah walks 3 miles an hour. How long will it take her to walk 21 miles? Mei Mei has RM16. A plate of nasi lemak cost RM2 each. How many nasi lemak can Mei Mei buy? Building A is 3 times higher than Building B. If Building B is 30 meter, how high Building A? Ravi has some boxes for his balls. There are 9 balls in each box. Altogether there are 54 balls. How many boxes does Ravi have? Ahmad bought 8 pizzas Each pizza had the same number of slices. Altogether there are 56 slices. How many slices are there in each pizza? There are 3 cows in the zoo. How many cow legs altogether? If 5 spiders were on the wall, how many spider legs would be there?? How many days are there in eight weeks? If 9 pupils draw 6 ants, how many ant legs should they draw?
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Array representation 1
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PUSH AND PULL FACTORS TOWARDS INTENTION TO ENGAGE IN PONDOK PELANCONGAN PROGRAM Mazne Ibrahim, Rosliza Che Rahim, Nik Mohd Ikram Mohamed Nor mazne@umk.edu.my, rosliza.cr@umk.edu.my, ikram@umk.edu.my ABSTRACT This study emphasizes on Pondok institution that serve as a religious education institution which has now been geared to be offering a new form of tourism product, known as Pondok Pelancongan program. The program is mainly aim to cater for the Muslims tourists (domestic tourists) who look for religious knowledge and spiritual enhancement through Islamic touristic experience. Hence, this study attempts to identify tourist motivation to engage in Pondok Pelancongan program. The researcher has identified several factors that are better able to lead and attract tourists towards participating in the program. Interview sessions had been conducted with the government officers, religious practitioners and tourism association since they are wellversed with the program in an effort to get the information firsthand during the preliminary stage of the study. Apart from that, a questionnaire survey had been carried out to identify the demography of respondents, awareness and demand towards the program, and the importance of the push and pull factors towards the program. Finding shows that there is good demand for Pondok Pelancongan program even though the program is not quite familiar among the respondents. To a large extent, most of the respondents are willing to participate in the program which is a favorable indicator for the program to succeed in near future. Keywords: Religious tourism, spiritual tourism, Pondok institution,
1. Introduction Currently, there are growing numbers of travelers who are looking for more spiritually stimulating and fulfilling travel and to address the elements of their spirituality through tourism (Willson, 2008). In addition, Reisinger (2005) pointed out that the demand for spiritual and mental renewal, better health and identity has been increasing around the world, which indicates that people do emphasize on a meaningful touristic experience instead of ordinary form of secular tourism activity. On the other hand, there is a phenomenon like the clean cinema or Islamic tourism attests to the growing influence of Islamic sensibilities in the public sphere (Nieuwkerk, 2008). According to Haq and Jackson (2007) the interest in spirituality has affected a number of industries around the world including the tourism industry, whereby spiritual tourism seems to be a new concept but it is not a new phenomenon. In fact, spirituality is the essence of being and concerns every humans search for meaning, purpose and connectedness in life. On the other
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hand, tourism is another way we do life where people may gain experiences that have spiritual dimensions across a wider range of touristic situations (Willson, 2008). Indeed, there are growing numbers of people who are turning towards spirituality, which is becoming an important motive for travel (Reisinger, 2005). Furthermore, spirituality is to be viewed on the one hand as something that is embedded in the respective society and it can also be defined as an attitude towards life that cause someone to search for a meaning in life, whereby the connection to a transcendental level plays a role that is a personal belief in, or a search for a reason for ones existence, a greater or ultimate reality, or a sense of connection with God, nature or other living beings (Singh, 2005). In addition, Reisinger (2005) outlined that spirituality refers to the search for meaning, unity, connectedness and transcendence, the sacred and the highest level of human potential. In the meantime, a number of tourism scholars suggested that the resurgence of interest in the spiritual is fuelled by the feelings of emptiness due to a modern life that is characterized by high level of stress, lack of personal time, isolation and feelings of depression which is caused by rapidly advancing technology and civilization growth (Willson, 2008). Of particular concern, religious tourism can be regarded as a formula that has a more neutral contents, comprising the kind of journeys (volunteer, temporary and non profitable) in which, at the same time, the genuine religious motivations mingle with other motivations, that may be common to other types of tourism (Santos, 2002). In addition, Stoykova (2009) argued that today more than ever before, it is easy to travel whereby throughout the world people tend to travel in all directions for different reasons and occasions. In this context, religious tourism is one of the seven types of tourism based on the motivations of the tourist, where tourism has had a major contribution as it caused religious destinations and itineraries to become internationalized, due to lower transport costs, group excursions and online information (Herman, 2007). In fact, Timothy and Olsen (2006) mentioned that religion has long been an integral motive for undertaking journeys and is usually considered as the oldest form of non-economic travel. In this context, religious activities such as prayers, rituals, miracles and mystical experiences, build up over a lifetime, not only increasing confidence in the truth of a religion, but strengthening emotional ties to a specific religion (Barker, 2007). 2. Background of Problem Today, many people tend to be demotivated in their life due to the hectic pace lifestyle caused by heavy workload, escalating civilization, advance technology, constant change, overworked and etc (Reisinger, 2005). This scenario will create some undesirable effects such as anxiety, feeling of isolation, depression and stress which will lead to a poor quality of lifestyle. In addition, people are now getting tired of living in a materialistic lifestyle, therefore there are certain people who intend to seek solace in any activity that will enhance their physical, mental and spiritual comfort. Moreover, they do have courage to get away from their usual routine by travelling to any destination of their interest.
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In this circumstance, the state of Kelantan Darul Naim do have various well-established Pondok institutions that serve as a religious institutions by which there is a norm where people do visit the institutions for a certain period of time to learn about religious matter. By looking at this scenario, Pondok institution has the potential to be developed as a new form of tourism product in a way that to cater the growing trends of people who intend to go for a holiday while seeking for religious knowledge and spiritual enhancement as the fulfillment of their self-actualization. In this context, it has been termed as Pondok Pelancongan program which seems to be as an alternative tourism product instead of the ordinary or secular tourism product. In this case, many people decide to make use of travel as a form of escapism from an ordinary and monotonous everyday life in order to discover their own identity and their real sense of self (Reisinger, 2005). Due to this scenario, it is wise to manipulate this current situation to be turned into an opportunity for the Kelantanese to benefit from offering a new form of tourism product that is known as Pondok Pelancongan program. The gist of the program is to capture the untapped market of religious and spiritual tourists particularly the domestic tourists. In fact, with the appropriate setting in a rustic area that is far beyond the hectic pace lifestyle, there is a likelihood that this program is able to stimulate potential tourists to engage with the program. In this context, it is crucial to consider the tourist motivation which relies on push and pull factors which are going to be identified as it will influence the tourists to engage with Pondok Pelancongan program. This program is inspired in line of promoting religious and spiritual tourism in the state of Kelantan Darul Naim which is renowned with the image of Serambi Mekah and Negeri Tadahan Wahyu. In addition, there are people who visit this particular state to seek for religious knowledge which rely on Islamic religion during their travel instead of having secular tourism activity. Thus, this study will help the organizer or provider for this program to better comprehend the factors that underlying the tourist motivation in order to design the program which will meet the need and expectation of the tourists. Then, it will lead for the Pondok Pelancongan program to succeed in near future.
3. Literature Review Travel and tourism are integral to Islamic political, economic, legal and social policies. Apart from that, in respect of Islam worldview of God, man and nature tourism is likely part of Addin (way of life) whereby travel seems to be a fundamental and encouraged in Islam. In addition, Islam urges Muslims to tour the earth to seek beneficial activities while having better interaction with others by which Muslims are commanded by Islam to have good human relations with all the inhabitants of this globe (Quran Chapter 29: Verse20; Quran Chapter 22: Verse 46). Travel through the land and observe how He began creation. Then Allah will produce the final creation. Indeed Allah, over all things, is competent. (Quran Chapter 29: Verse 20)
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So have they not traveled through the earth and have hearts by which to reason and ears by which to hear? For indeed, it is not eyes that are blinded, but blinded are the hearts which are within the breasts. (Quran Chapter 22: Verse 46) Furthermore, Islam encourages their followers to travel across the world for various reasons. The encouragement to travel is being narrated in the Quran as below: And it is He who has made the earth manageable for you, so traverse through its tracts and enjoy of the Sustenance which He furnishes, but unto Him is the Resurrection. (Quran Chapter 67: Verse 15). As far as travel and tourism is concerned, Islam put a great emphasis on the achievement of physical, social and spiritual goals. In this circumstance, the spiritual goal reinforces ones submission to God through the beauty and bounty of Gods creation, grasping the smallness of man who reinforces the greatness of God. Apart from that, the physical goal allows Muslims to acquire knowledge and to lead a healthy and stress-free life, which is subsequently lets Muslims serve God better (Zamani and Henderson, 2010; Hashim, Murphy and Hashim, 2007). Therefore, Islam encourages visiting Muslim brothers as this helps strengthen bonds in the Muslim community or better known as Ummah. In this context, tourism is highly recommended by the Quran whereby Muslims is encouraged to travel through the earth to take lessons from various ethnicities. Moreover, people travel to gain knowledge, learn about history of other people and to widen their perspectives about life and their understandings of human civilization (Quran Chapter 29: Verse 20; Chapter 30: Verse 42; Chapter 16: Verse 36). On top of that, Islam do encourage people to travel throughout the world in both Muslim and non-Muslim countries, thus it reflects some sort of expression of the deeply embedded Islamic practices of seeking knowledge and spiritual enlightenment through travel (Stephenson, Russel and Edgar, 2010). Therefore, by travelling people will appreciate the cultural diversity that will build up social integration among the community.
3.1 Tourist Motivation As far as tourism is concerned, people travel for numerous motives, for instance to see, to learn, to discover new things, to socialize, to get in better shape and etc (Prebensen and Hansen, 2007). According to Werner and DeSimone (2006) motivation is one of the most basic elements of human behavior where people do have unique needs, desires, attitudes and goals which will lead to different purpose of travel.
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Generally, tourist motivations have been said to be the foundation in a way that it will influence the way tourist behaves as well as where they are going to travel, when they will travel, what activities they will participate in the destination and thus determine the level of satisfaction (Jani, 2008). Besides, motivation seems to be the driving force within individuals that impel them to action by which the motivations do make a person to be moved to something. In other words, motivations are the basis of all behavior including traveling or attending any event. Or else, motivation has often been utilized synonymously with the purpose of travelling (Prebensen and Hansen, 2007). In this context, motivation can be referred to as biological or psychological needs and wants, including forces that arouse, direct and integrate a persons behavior and activity (Yoon and Uysal, 2005; Merwe, Slabbert and Saayman, 2009). Besides, motivation can be classified as internal or external motives by which internal motives are associated with feelings, instincts and drives whereas external motives involve mental representations such as beliefs or knowledge. On the other hand, from an anthropological viewpoint, tourists are motivated to escape the routine of daily life and seek authentic experiences, whereas from a socio-psychological point of view, motivation is portrayed as seeking and avoidance behavior (Cassidy, 2004). According to Yoon and Uysal (2005) motivation concept can be classified into two forces, by which it indicates that people travel because they are pushed and pulled to do so by some forces or factors. Here, these forces describe how individuals are pushed by motivation variables into making travel decision and how they are pulled or attracted by destination attributes. In other words, the push motivations are related to the tourists desire, while pull motivations are associated with the attributes of the destination choices (Uysal and Jurowski, 1994). Then again, push motivations are more related to internal or emotional aspects. However, pull motivations are connected to external, situational or cognitive aspects. In this context, push motivations can be seen as the desire for escape, rest and relaxation, prestige, health and fitness, adventure and social interaction, family togetherness and excitement (Crompton, 1979). For instance, there are tourists who travel to escape from routine and thus searching for authentic experience. On top of that, pull motivations are those that are inspired by a destinations attractiveness such as beaches, recreation facilities, cultural attractions, entertainment, natural scenery, shopping and parks. These destinations attributes may stimulate and reinforce inherent push motivations. Moreover, Crompton (1979) identified nine motivations of leisure travelers, by which he classified seven as socio-psychological or push motives and another two as cultural or pull motives. All of them namely, learning, regression, exploration, dignity, getting away from material world, upgrading family relationship, simplifying social interaction, novelty or something extraordinary and relaxing. Out of these nine motivations, seven of which were socio-psychological or push motives, and two cultural or pull motives being novelty and education (Crompton, 1979; Kay, 2003).
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In addition, Kay (2003) mentioned that this theory emphasizes two stages in a decision to travel, that relies on the push factors which occur first and are those that make people want to travel, whereas pull factors affect where people are going to travel, that is the initial desire to travel. Other scholars outlined that push factors are defined as origin-related and refer to the intangible, intrinsic desires of the individual traveler that pushes a tourist away from home, such as desire to escape, rest and relaxation, adventure, health and prestige. On the other hand, pull factors are tangible characteristics that pull the tourists towards the destination, which can be referred to what makes a destination attractive for the potential tourists and visitors including historical and cultural resources, beaches, accommodation, recreation facilities and etc. All of these factors are crucial to better understand in order to identify the tourist motivations (Zhang and Marcussen, 2007; Jonsson and Devonish, 2008). Meanwhile, Buckley and Flanagan (2006) stressed that there are two motivational factors that simultaneously influence tourist behavior namely approach and avoidance. In this case, approach motivation can be viewed as seeking for recreational opportunities for certain intrinsic rewards, whereas avoidance motivation is perceived as escaping of routine and stressful environments. In addition, Merwe, Slabbert and Saayman (2009) pointed out that motivation do reflect numerous sets of needs that will subsequently affect individuals choices in various ways. In addition, motivations are connected to individuals basic needs for participating diverse activities, developing preferences and expecting satisfaction (Konu and Laukkanen, 2009). As mentioned by other scholars, tourism motivation is a multi-motive dimensional by which tourists normally have more than one motive for choosing a certain destination, for example, people can choose one destination with a motive of relaxation in a pleasant safe place combined with visiting a local historical heritage (Zhang and Marcussen 2007; Prebensen and Hansen, 2007). Out of this phenomenon, it can be recognized that motivation is also a dynamic and flexible variable. Some tourists are travelling for the sake of spiritual reasons whereas some find themselves in situations of spiritual or life-changing significance due to the presence of religion and religious activity which is perceived as something that ought to be done when travelling. In fact, tourists who did engage in spiritual activities like attending meditation courses or staying in ashram, the majority admitted they were simply experimenting, or even playing with alternate centre (Norman, 2004). In respect with Maslow Hierarchical Theory of Needs (Maslow, 1943), it is suggested that people behavior is driven by both physiological and socio-psychological needs. In this context, it is believed that the lower-order needs relying on the physiological needs followed by safety needs had to be satisfied before an individual could work on the higher-order needs of love, belongingness and self-esteem. Finally, at the top of the hierarchy of needs is self-actualization which is an opportunity for individuals to become everything that one is capable of becoming. As far as religious and spiritual tourism is concerned, one is said to look for meaning of oneself through having various religious activities. In this circumstance, there are people such as businessman or retirees who have gained a lot of success, wealth and achievement in their
lifetime, are now paying attention to rediscover oneself in order to achieve their selfactualization (Kelantan State Economic Planning Unit, 2010). In the context of religious and spiritual tourism, there are similarities and differences in term of push and pull factors if compared to other form of secular tourism. According to Political Secretary of Kelantan Chief Minister (2010), the push factors that drive the tourists to involve in Pondok Pelancongan program basically relies on the religious motivation by which people are now actively seeking for religious knowledge and spiritual enhancement. At the same time, there is an opportunity for them to learn other peoples culture through their way of living. In fact, according to Pondok Moden Kandis (2010), among of the pull factors that are able to attract people to join this program is because of the availability of well-established Pondok institution in the state of Kelantan. In addition, they manage to obtain an international recognition from the University of Al-Azhar in Egypt due to their achievement in producing excellent graduates which seems to be as a competitive advantage for the institution to stimulate potential tourists to engage with the program. Apart from that, there is an emphasis given on a concise and effective module in offering religious education to those who are interested in this program to ensure that people would be able to gain the utmost religious knowledge yet in an enjoyable atmosphere. Furthermore, Kelantan has been associated with its friendly and courteous people who really appreciate the presence of tourists or guests to their homeland. In this context, Muslims is viewed of having obligations as hosts and it seems as a tradition of offering hospitality to visitors or strangers, which many Western travelers have appreciated the kindness of the host community (Zamani and Henderson, 2009). According to Kelantan State Urban and Regional Planning Department (2010), Pondok Moden Kandis in Bachok has been chosen as the site for Pondok Pelancongan program. It is due to its strategic location which is located on the main route along the coastal road that link several main staging point which connect the district of Kota Bharu and Bachok and heading up to Tok Bali, a well-known fishing village that used to be one of the tourism attractions in the state of Kelantan Darul Naim. This scenario will increase the accessibility and thus promoting a greater number of tourists flow to these destinations. In addition, the availability of special events and festive that relies on religious activities seems to attract and encourage people to visit Kelantan thus encouraging a participation in the Pondok Pelancongan program. In this context, there are few events which is of interest namely Ihya Ramadhan which will be held during the month of Ramadhan where people come to this state to experience having a fasting during Ramadhan (lunar month) while engaging with various religious activities during the day and night. Moreover, people also prefer to celebrate their Hari Raya Qurban in Kelantan due to the tradition of Kelantanese to have an enjoyable experience during this religious celebration (Kelantan State Economic Development Corporation, 2010).
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4. Theoretical Framework
Independent Variables PUSH FACTORS Religious motivation Learning and education Rest and relaxation Family togetherness Social interaction Dependent Variable
PULL FACTORS Government policy Destination attributes Destination image International recognition Special events and festive Figure 1: Relationship between push and pull factors towards intention to engage in Pondok Pelancongan program variables used for this study. In this context, Figure 1 illustrates the independent and dependent
Intention to travel/participate in Pondok Pelancongan program
the motivational factors that concern on push and pull factors will represent the independent variable. These two variables have their own elements to be studied upon in identifying what sort of factors which will push and pull the tourists to partake in Pondok Pelancongan program. On the other hand, the dependent variable is the intention to travel or participation towards Pondok Pelancongan program which will be influenced by the push and pull factors.
5. Methodology This study is conducted by using the quantitative approach to identify the tourist motivation that relies on the push and pull factors towards Pondok Pelancongan program. It is to be noted that this study is considered as Exploratory Studies since the subject matter of Pondok Pelancongan program is something new to be studied in the field of tourism. As for this study, the researcher has been using two categories of data collection method that relies on primary data as well as secondary data in order to carry out this study pertaining to the Pondok Pelancongan program.
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For the primary data, this research used questionnaire taken from respondents that used to be the domestic tourists who visit the state of Kelantan Darul Naim in order to identify the push and pull factors towards Pondok Pelancongan program. As for the secondary data, this research relied on the existing material such as related journals, books, report, statistical data and district local plan given by the government agencies, Pondok institution (Pondok Moden Kandis) and tourism association (Tourism Malaysia) to be regarded as supporting material to conduct this study. The gist of having such material is to review the existing information to be blended with the primary data that relies on the interview sessions in order to work out on the design of questionnaire which are going to be distributed to the respondents during the field survey. 5.1 Sampling Station
In order to distribute the questionnaire to the respondents, the researcher had identified few places which are of potential to have greater number of respondents who used to be domestic tourists. Below is the list of locations where the process of field survey have taken place which covers two districts of the state of Kelantan Darul Naim namely Kota Bharu and Bachok due to its proximity to each other.
Table 1: List of Sampling Station
KOTA BHARU
BACHOK
Masjid Muhammadi Madrasah Diniah Bakriah Pasir Tumboh Pasar Siti Khadijah Pasar Buloh Kubu Hotel Raudah
Pondok Moden Kandis
5.2 Formulation of Questionnaire In order to carry out this study, the researcher has been combining various methods to construct the variables in the questionnaire. First and foremost, the researcher has reviewed the literature pertaining to the research area of religious and spiritual tourism, the nature of Pondok institution, tourist motivation and etc. Moreover, the researcher has also been conducting interview sessions
with respective persons from government agencies, religious practitioners and tourism association as these people are well-versed with the idea of Pondok Pelancongan program in order to dig the extensive information which is to be translated into the questionnaire. 6. Results and Discussion In this chapter, the researcher will discuss on the analysis of the data that have been collected during the field survey. In fact, the field survey managed to get 178 respondents which rely on the domestic tourists who visit the state of Kelantan Darul Naim. Table 2: Profiles of the respondents Freque ncy Gender Male Female Below 20-29 Age 30 49 50 - above Primary Education Secondary Tertiary No formal Professional Businessman Managerial Occupation Self- Employed Retiree Student Others 96 82 23 67 89 9 49 108 12 20 19 44 33 27 13 22 53.9 46.1 12.4 37.6 50.0 5.1 27.5 60.7 6.7 11.2 10.7 24.7 18.5 15.2 7.3 12.4 Percent
6.2
Analysis on Tourist Motivation towards Pondok Pelancongan Program

In this section, the researcher will identify the level of importance of push and pull factors towards Pondok Pelancongan program. It is important to note that every respondent has his own viewpoint on the importance of every single push and pull factors that have been outlined in the questionnaire. In this context, the push and pull factors will be ranked based on the 5-Point Likert Scale in order to know the importance of the factors towards Pondok Pelancongan program. Table 3: Push factors towards engaging with Pondok Pelancongan program Mean SD PS1: Religious knowledge PS2: Strengthening faith to God PS3: Religious activities PS4: Escapism PS5: Peaceful atmosphere and calm 4.62 4.61 4.30 3.93 3.93 3.84 3.22 family 3.11 3.07 3.45 0.521 0.501 0.540 0.924 0.830 0.824 0.790 0.795 0.673 0.713
PS6: Rediscovering oneself PS7: Knowing the culture PS8: Strengthening bonding PS9: Visiting friends PS10: Meeting new friends
Table 3 shows that the importance of the push factor with regards to the travel intention for Pondok Pelancongan program. Overall, most of the respondents believe that items PS1 to PS6 are the important factors for them to engage with Pondok Pelancongan program. The values of PS1 to PS6 range from 3.84 to 4.62. For the rest of the items in push factor category, PS7 to PS10 values range from 3.07 to 3.45 which indicate that the most of the respondents believe that those factors are only moderately important for them to involve with Pondok Pelancongan program. Upon checking the values of standard deviation (SD) of items in Table 3, it is found that all values are within the acceptable range i.e. less than 1. Individually, according to the mean, the most important factor in pushing the respondent to engage with the program is PS1 Looking for religious knowledge with score of 4.62. Then, it is followed by PS2 Strengthening faith to God with and PS3 Participating in religious activities with individual score of 4.61 and 4.30 respectively. While PS4 Getting away from regular routine and PS5 Feeling of peaceful and calm atmosphere share the same level of importance with the score of 3.93 that might be because they do complementing each other.
On top of that, PS6 Rediscovering oneself seems to continue the ranking of importance for push factor with mean score of 3.84. Next, it is followed by PS10 Meeting new friends with the score of 3.45 overtaking PS7, PS8 and PS9. Meanwhile, PS7 Knowing the culture of the host community have scored 3.22, followed by PS8 Strengthening family bonding with score of 3.11. Last but not least, PS9 Visiting friends tend to be the least important factor that pushes the respondent away to engage with Pondok Pelancongan program.
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Table 4: Pull factors towards engaging with Pondok Pelancongan program Mean SD PL1: States policy of Membangun Bersama Islam PL2: Image of Kelantan as Serambi Mekah PL3: Well-established Pondok institution PL4: Well-versed Mursyid PL5: Recognition from University of AlAzhar PL6: Concise module PL7: Friendly and corteous people PL8: Sense of welcoming PL9: Pleasant ambience PL10: Strategic location PL11: Proximity to tourist attractions PL12: Uniqueness of experience PL13: Special events or festive 4.50 4.48 4.35 4.45 4.48 4.46 3.65 3.37 3.49 3.65 3.65 3.98 3.87 0.613 0.584 0.614 0.612 0.613 0.574 0.667 0.645 0.754 0.699 0.699 0.755 0.611
Table 4 indicates the level of importance of pull factors in attracting respondents to engage in Pondok Pelancongan program. Overall, most of the respondents believe that most of the factors are important for them in an effort to engage with Pondok Pelancongan program ranging from 3.65 to 4.48. Except for the two factors PL8 & PL9 which range from 3.37 to 3.49. Individually, the highest score is relying on PL1 States policy of Membangun Bersama Islam with a score of 4.49, whereas PL2 Image of Kelantan as Serambi Mekah and Negeri Tadahan Wahyu share the same score with PL5 Recognition from University of Al-Azhar with a score of 4.48 which seems to be the second highest of the importance. Meanwhile, PL6 Concise and effective module appear to be on the third rank with a score of 4.46, followed by PL4 Wellversed Mursyid with a score of 4.45. Then, PL3 Well-established Pondok institution manages to
get a score of 4.35, followed by PL12 Uniqueness of experience which seems to have a score of 3.98. On the other hand, PL13 Special events or festive tend to have a score of 3.87. Moreover, there are three factors that share the same level of importance which are PL7 Friendly and courteous people, PL10 Strategic location of coastal road that link Kota Bharu Bachok Tok Bali, and PL11 Proximity to other tourist attractions with the same score of 3.65 respectively. However, PL9 Pleasant ambience and PL8 Sense of welcoming with a score of 3.49 and 3.37 respectively seems to be the least importance in attracting respondents to partake in the program. However, these factors should not be given less attention to attract people since the intangible part of any tourism attraction should be attractive and conducive to please the tourists and visitors during their journey. 7. Conclusion The researcher would like to address that Pondok Pelancongan program is feasible to be implemented as a new form of tourism product and attraction since the nature of Pondok institution which has been associated as Islamic learning centre within the state of Kelantan Darul Naim. By looking at the scenario, it seems to be as a fascinating program due to its distinctive features in offering religious knowledge and spiritual enhancement to the tourists who engage with the program. Apart from that, Pondok Pelancongan program is seen to succeed because there is demand for this program by which it serves as a positive indicator in its capability to draw greater number of tourists arrival to the state of Kelantan Darul Naim and thus to participate with the program. In conclusion, the researcher finds that this study is of importance to be carried out in order to know what are the factors that actually push and pull the tourists to engage with the Pondok Pelancongan program or to get involve in religious and spiritual tourism. Thus, in this study the tourist motivations have been studied pertaining to push and pull factors towards the program. Therefore, all of these factors should be taken into consideration by the organizer or provider in designing the detail of the program to meet the needs and expectations of the tourists. It is hoped that in the future, once the program has been established and existed in the actual market place, there will be further study on the typology of religious and spiritual tourists in order to identify the actual market segment for Pondok Pelancongan program.
8. Limitations of Study Throughout the study, the researcher encounters several limitations in carrying out the study pertaining to Pondok Pelancongan program. First and foremost, it concerns on the identification of domestic tourists whether or not they are coming to Kelantan for the sake of having religious and spiritual tourism or to engage with other form of tourism like attending seminars and conference, visiting friends and relatives and so forth. Apart from that, there is
also a likelihood that the non local (non Kelantanese) such as people from Selangor, Kedah, Johor and etc whose giving their service in the state of Kelantan. Thus, it is quite hard to identify the actual religious or spiritual tourist to be approached during the field survey of this study. The second limitation would rely on the research output by which the data obtained do not meet the actual or targeted sampling size that would be 269 respondents. In this context, the researcher only manages to get 178 respondents to answer the questionnaire given by using 3 numerators with the response rate of 66 percent. Therefore, it may impose some error in representing the whole population of domestic tourists who visit Kelantan. Lastly, another limitation relies on time constraint by which the duration of data collection for this study took place within 6 days to obtain information from the respondent on the ground. This circumstance resulting on limited number of respondents to respond to the questionnaire.
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References Barker, M. (2007). Investments in Religious Capital: An Explorative Case Study of Australian Buddhists. Journal of Global Buddhism. Buckley, J. and Flanagan, S. (2006). City Break Travel Motivation: The Case of Dublin. Dublin Institute of Technology. Cassidy, F. (2004). What Motivates Event Tourists? University of Southern Queensland: Australia. Crompton, J. (1979). Motivations of Pleasure Vacations. Ann Tour Res, Vol.6, No. 4 (408-424). Haq, F., and Jackson, J. (2007). Exploring Consumer Segments and Typologies of Relevance to Spiritual Tourism. Charles Darwin University, Central Queensland University. Haq, F., and Jackson, J. (2009). Segmentation of the Spiritual Tourism Market. Charles Darwin University, Central Queensland University. Hashim, N. H., Murphy, J., and Hashim, N. M. (2007). Islam and Online Imagery on Malaysian Tourist Destination Websites. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication (1082-1102). The University of Western Australia. Herman, I. (2007). Religious Tourism along the Camino Frances: The Pilgrimage as a Tourism Activity in Modern Society. International Congress of Religious and Cultural Tourism. Jani, D. (2008). Event Tourist Motivation: A Mean-End Approach to Backpackers Attendees of Sauti Za Busara (Sound of Wisdom). University of Dar-es-salaam: Tanzania. Jonsson, C., and Devonish, D. (2008). Does Nationality, Gender and Age Affect Travel Motivation? A Case of Visitors to the Caribbean Island of Barbados. Journal of Travel and Tourism Marketing, Vol. 25 (398-408). Kay, P. (2003). Consumer Motivation in a Tourism Context: Continuing the Work of Maslow, Rokeach, Vroom, Deci, Haley and Others. Victoria University. Merwe, P. V., Slabbert, E., and Saayman, M. (2009). Travel Motivations of Tourists to Selected Marine Destinations. Institute for Tourism, Wildlife Economics and Leisure Studies, North West University: South Africa. Nieuwkerk, K. V. (2008). Creating an Islamic Cultural Sphere: Contested Notions of Art, Leisure and Entertainment. Radboud University, Netherlands. Norman, A. (2004). Spiritual Tourism: Religion and Spirituality in Contemporary Travel. University of Sydney.
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Prebensen, N., and Hansen, K. (2007). Conceptualizing Body and Mind Motivation in Sun and Sand Tourism Consumption. University of Tromso: Norway. Reisinger, Y. (2005). Travel / Tourism: Spiritual Experiences. Santos, M. G. (2002). Fatima: Religious Tourism in a Sanctuary-City. Singh, S. (2005). Secular Pilgrimages and Sacred Tourism in the Indian Himalayas. Geo Journal (215-223). Stephenson, M. L., Russel, K. A., and Edgar, D. (2010). Islamic Hospitality in the UAE: Indigenization of Products and Human Capital. Journal of Islamic Marketing, Vol. 1, No. 1 (924). Stoykova, B. (2009). Contemporary Tendencies in Development of Sacred Tourism in Bulgaria. Trakia University, Bulgaria. Timothy, D., and Olsen, D. (2006). Tourism, Religion and Spiritual Journeys. Routledge Contemporary Geographies of Leisure, Tourism and Mobility. Willson, G. (2008). Conceptualising Spirituality in the Context of Tourism. University of Waikato, New Zealand. Yoon, Y., and Uysal, M. (2005). An Examination of the Effects of Motivation and Satisfaction on Destination Loyalty: A Structural Model. Tourism Management, (45-56). Zamani, F. H., and Henderson, J. C. (2010). Islamic Tourism and Managing Tourism Development in Islamic Societies: The Cases of Iran and Saudi Arabia. International Journal of Tourism Research, University of Malaya, Malaysia and Nanyang Technological University, Singapore: John Wiley & Sons. Zhang, J., and Marcussen, C. (2007). Tourist Motivation, Market Segmentation and Marketing Strategies, Centre for Regional and Tourism Research: Denmark.
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PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION, ACCOUNTABILITY, AND GOVERNMENT EFFECTIVENESS Irwanda Wisnu Wardhana irwandawisnu@gmail.com ABSTRACT Proportional representation (PR) is viewed as the best electoral system to represent minority groups at the expense of accountability and government effectiveness. This research attempts to reveal the effects of PR on accountability and government effectiveness by employing variable of political corruption for the former and macroeconomic management for the latter. This literature review utilizes existing theories and empirical findings both in cross-country study and a particular country case. The result exhibits mixed and inconclusive findings to support the research hypotheses that PR induces more corruption and brings worse macroeconomic management compared to majoritarian rule. The study and its approach enrich understanding on the roles of electoral systems on public policy making and outcomes. Keywords: proportional representation, accountability, government effectiveness, majoritarian -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1. Introduction An electoral system is an important component on a countrys political institutions. Elaborately, at least, there are three factors that underline the importance of electoral systems in relationship with their consequences to the nation interests. Firstly, its importance lies on its ability and formality to provide access to a small portion of citizens to represent the whole population. The system creates a mechanism to form and circulate the power elite as defined by Mills (1956, p.3) that the power elite are people whose positions enable them to transcend the ordinary environments of ordinary men and women; they are in positions to make decisions having major consequences. Obviously, the mechanism is pivotal to shape the structure and the future of a society. The society may choose either to maintain the existing power elite or enable the formation of new elite by designing the appropriate electoral system.
The second factor is that an electoral system determines how the majority treats minority groups in public affairs participation. They have options either to accommodate representation of ethnic, racial, religion and other minority groups more proportionally or they simply keep those marginal groups underrepresented. In the modern days, terminology of minority groups includes women representation that is arguably having problems to utilize the formal channels to articulate their aspirations. In addition, it is relevant to include former rebellion groups under the minority groups definition. In a divided society, the electoral system can be either a cure to heal prolonged conflicts or a poison to accelerate peaceful post-conflict agreements. In another word, the electoral system may attract the old enemies to work together within the formal means as
well as it may provide incentives for relevant parties to engage in confrontation and hostile actions.
Finally, the electoral system determines both the governments working approach and the public policy outcomes as suggested by Person and Tabellini (2004) that (electoral rules) clarify policy responsibilities and make it easy to replace an incumbent government strengthen accountability, but at the same time increase the political influence of the groups to whom policymakers are accountable (as the case of) tradeoff between accountability and representation (p. 76-77). In other words, the electoral system influences the effectiveness of government in terms of on how agencies working, type of separation of powers and authorities, incentives to conduct broad coalition and to negotiate. In addition, the system may determine the risk of politicians to engage corruption depends on whether it is designed as pricey mechanisms or cheap systems to win the elections. Obviously, the more expensive the system is the more incentives for politicians to engage unlawful behaviors.
Furthermore, the electoral system is one of the most crucial issues for particular countries under the condition of the least and developing stage; transition toward democratization; fragmented society; post-conflict period; and low level of education; because they are vulnerable to political instability and social unrest in the presence of perceived unfair treatments on some parts of people or particular groups (either the majority or minority population). Ironically, despite its importance and crucial position, Reynolds et al.(2005) suggest that the electoral system is the easiest political institutions to manipulate, for good or for bad with each voter casting exactly the same vote (but) different electoral systems can translate the votes cast into dramatically different results (p.5). Consequently, understanding on the electoral systems and their consequences toward the society is profound for policymakers and researchers who concern on countries possess the vulnerable attributes.
2. Majoritarian vs. Proportional Representative Based on electoral formulas that determine how votes are counted to allocate seats in the legislative bodies, we can generally categorize the electoral systems into three types by drawing research by Norris (1997), Reynolds et al. (2005), and Golder (2005), as the following: (i) plurality/majority/majoritarian, (ii) proportional representative (PR), and, (iii) mixed system. For this research purpose and its simplicity, only the former two types would be explained.
According to Norris (1997), majoritarian system is considered as the oldest and the simplest electoral system and commonly refers to its most popular subtype is the plurality system as known as "first-past-the-post". Golder (2005) estimates that 327 of 867 democratic legislative elections in 199 countries between 1946 (or independence) and 2000, which account for nearly 40% of the total elections, have utilized majoritarian system. However, variation on the number of elections is high across country. It is better to rely on a more precise estimation based on
countries that Reynolds et al (2005) exhibit that majoritarian is employed by 47 of 199 countries which are dominated by the United Kingdoms former colonies. The result suggests that majoritarian is the second largest electoral system adopted in the world (Reynolds et al., 2005).
Norris (1997) illustrates the basic formula for majoritarian system: countries are divided into territorial single-member constituencies; voters within each constituency cast a single ballot (marked by an X) for one candidate; the candidate with the largest share of the vote in each seat is returned to office; and in turn the party with an overall majority of seats forms the government (p.301). He argues that majoritarian has a goal and merit which is to create a strong and majority government since it impedes the emergence of other parties than two parties at the national level utilizing the winner take all principle (Norris, 1997).
Another merit of majoritarian system suggested by Reynolds et al. (2005) that it nurtures higher level accountability of politicians since voters cast their votes based on personal characters not just parties identities. Voters ability to assess politicians performance produces strong bond between representatives and constituents. Threats to lose re-elections provide greater incentives to politicians to conduct good behavior during their terms in the offices (Reynolds et al., 2005).
While the majoritarian emphasizes the ability to govern and accountability, on the other hand, PR system focuses on fairer representations from all components of a society. PR system enables broader minority representation in the legislative bodies. This merit may be the main reason to explain that PR system is the most popular electoral system, as of 2004, PR system is the most popular electoral system adopted by 70 out of 199 countries and related territories ( Reynolds et al., 2005). It is favored by least developing and developing countries which have vulnerability because of the wide ranges of heterogeneity in races, ethnicities, religions, and other diversity variables.
Due to its substantive merits to guarantee the minority groups representation, scholars have reached consensus that proportional representation (PR) is the most suitable electoral system compared to other electoral systems for those countries, as Lijphart (2004) argues that the beauty of PR is that in addition to producing proportionality and minority representation, it treats all groupsethnic, racial, religious, or even non communal groupsin a completely equal and evenhanded fashion. Why deviate from full PR at all? (p.100).
However, some scholars cast doubts on the PR systems flaws that may bring detrimental effects. The first problem rose from broader representations that are most likely to create a weaker government than majoritarian. The system is more likely encouraging the establishment of parties that makes legislative bodies to be more fragmented. Even a small party and minor politicians can influence policy making process heavily (Roubini and Sachs, 1989).
Another flaw is the accountability that comes from the basic principle of PR system based on definition by Norris (1997) that the seats in a constituency are divided according to the number of votes cast for party lists (that) may be open in which case voters can express preferences for particular candidates within the list. Or they may be closed in which case voters can only select the party, and the ranking of candidates is determined by the political party (p.303). The presence of parties between voters and representatives would more likely provide incentives for politicians to hinder their obligations to serve the peoples interests and to commit political corruption either for their own interests or their parties. Hence, we might assume that the level of accountability of incumbents under PR system is lower than majoritarian.
Furthermore, Norris (1997) captures dilemma faced by scholars and policymakers in the comparison between majoritarian and PR system by saying that the core debate concerns whether countries should adopt majoritarian systems which priorities government effectiveness and accountability, or proportional (representative) systems, which promote greater fairness to minority parties and more diversity in social representation (p.298).
3. Research Question and Approach Do PR systems deteriorate accountability and government effectiveness? This question is the main inquiry of this literature review-based research. This research attempts to review seminal works and other relevant literature contains hypotheses, theories, and empirical studies from 1990s until recently. It will employ both cross-country data analysis and specific countries studies.
To be more precise, this study utilizes the definition of PR system suggested by Norris (1997), Kunicova and Rose-Ackerman (2005) as the following: 1. The system is employed exclusively to elect member of parliaments or legislative branch both in the national/federal level and state/regional level.
2. It includes the whole electoral formula in PR system namely the dHondt formula, the 'pure' Saint-Lagu, the 'modified' Saint-Lagu, the largest remainder methods, the Hare quota, and the Droop quota.
3. This research divides PR system into two general types: open-list (OLPR) and closed-list (CLPR). Technically, under the former system, voters will select both party and candidates and decision of winners based on number of votes. Meanwhile under the latter, voters choose party and winners are decided based on the candidates rank in the list.
In the upcoming sections, this research will elaborate two key variables of the research question namely (i) accountability and corruption; and (ii) government effectiveness. In each section, relevant theories and empirical findings would be exhibited to provide debates on the issues. Both proponents and opponents arguments would be presented as a comprehensive literature review.
4. Accountability and Corruption In literature, accountability is often correlated significantly and negatively to corruption behavior. As one of the best measurement of accountability, corruptions incidences are more likely to happen in the event of less accountability. Indeed, many scholars have suggested the existence of significant relationship between electoral systems and accountability which is related to political corruptions. However, there are disagreements among scholars to resolve which electoral system is more likely to induce corruption behavior, either majoritarian or proportional representative (PR) system.
Some scholars suggest that there is weak relationship between PR system and corruption as pointed out by Lijphart (1999) that a democracy built upon broader consensus is more likely to be less corrupt. Furthermore, he argues that it is the majoritarian system that has more probabilities to induce corruption behavior than PR system. He shows supporting evidence to the hypothesis by employing cross country analysis using the Corruption Perception Index in 1997 (Lijphart, 1999).
Similarly, Myerson (1993) supports that PR system is better than majoritarian to reduce political corruptions by employing game theory in his theoretical model. He constructs a theoretical model to examine the effectiveness of different electoral systems to eliminate elected politicians who have been known as corruptors. Specifically, majoritarian system creates a dilemma for voters to maintain their supports to the corrupt politicians in order to maximize the probability to keep the implementation of their desired policy choices. In the presence of other uncorrupt candidates, a corrupt candidate can attract supports from voters by holding their preferred policy position as a hostage (Myerson, 1993, p.3).
On the other hand, Persson et al. (2003) argue that PR system provide incentive for incumbents to commit unlawful behavior due to its lack of accountability and free-rider problems. They examine relationship between corruption and electoral system by drawing a sample of 80 countries during the period of 1990s. In addition, they point out that majoritarian is more effective to deter corruption because the election works better to punish corrupted politicians than those under PR system. However, they mention the high probability for open-list PR system to reduce corruption (Persson et al., 2003).
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Another research that confirms the conviction that PR system is more likely to induce corruption behaviors is Kunicova and Rose-Ackerman (2005). They provide two explanations to differ majoritarian and PR system. The first factor is locus of corrupt rent as the indicator of rentseeking power and opportunity. In majoritarian, the power is equally divided between party and incumbents, while in PR system; party is more superior to incumbents. Secondly, the monitoring factor from voters to incumbents that is stricter under majoritarian than PR system.
These combined factors are facing by politicians as a tradeoff between re-election chances and desires to personal enrichment. They argue, as the result, that corruption behavior to occur more likely under PR system (Kunicova and Rose-Ackerman, 2005).
However, Perrson and Tabellini (2003) suggest a finding both that majoritarian and PR bring indifference effects on corruption. They argue that the political rent extraction, as another terminology for political corruption, is lower in a situation that voters are choosing politicians as individual rather than candidates lists provided by parties. Here, the party list is associated with PR system especially closed-list PR. However, they do not support to reform electoral systems by changing the existing PR to be a majoritarian because they get another empirical result that larger electoral districts, which is a common characteristic of PR system, tend to reduce corruption. Therefore, the offset mechanism between majoritarian and PR makes the evidence inconclusive to support which system will induce higher possibility of corruption (Perrson and Tabellini, 2003).
Despite the merit of a country case study for its deeper and more careful study, little study on specific countries has been undertaken to evaluate how each type of electoral systems influences the politicians behavior within a countrys context. Among the few scholars undertakes country case study is Chang (2005) who evaluates empirical evidences on the relationship between openlist proportional representation systems and political corruption in Italy. He suggests that openlist PR system creates more uncertainty for incumbents re-election possibility since they must compete with the intraparty competitors. As the consequence, the cost for election is considerably expensive because each candidate needs its own resources and strategy to win the election. This harsh competition has induced unlawful behavior in order to gain resources to finance the campaigns. Therefore, he argues that the open-list PR system has increased propensity to corrupt among incumbent politicians (Chang, 2005).
Chang (2005) elaborates the possible corruptions pattern is the corruption policy that happens when special interest groups bribe the incumbent politicians in exchange to the endorsements or influences for any policies that favorable to the particular interest groups. Chang also points out the difference between open-list and closed-list (or party-list) system under PR system. Inevitably, the former system creates higher political costs which promote corruption behavior. Meanwhile, the latter is more promising to maintain discipline and oppressing corruption among its party members.
Although Chang (2005)s finding supports the argument that PR system will induce corruption behavior, he challenges hypothesis of Persson et al. (2003) that open-list PR system is more likely to reduce corruption. Indeed, he points out that the incidence of corruption is more likely to happen under open-list PR system (Chang, 2005).
In addition, it is worth to consider a theoretical principal-agent model suggested by Gingerich (2009) based on Brazils case study. He points out that both open-list and closed-list PR system are more likely to preserve corruption behaviors. He argues that the only difference between those two systems is on the corruption agent that the former involves an individual who is willing to engage with risky behavior while the latter will bring a flood of party-directed corruption (p.538). Furthermore, he suggests that shifting from open-list to closed-list will deepen partys control on the bureaucracy due to high number of confidence posts in the Brazil administration system, which officials who are appointed by politicians hold the posts (Gingerich, 2009).
At this stage, we have gathered mixed and inconclusive results theories and empirical findings on the impact of PR system on corruption. Therefore we cannot conclude that PR system has lower degree of accountability than majoritarian rule. Despite an argumentation by Kunicova and Rose-Ackerman (2005) that recent study has both better country coverage and more econometric sophistication than Lijpharts work (p.597), by looking at the result from Perrson and Tabellini (2003)s work, it obvious that the evidence is still inconclusive. Similarly, at the subsystem level, there is no solid evidence to support either open-list or closed-list as the more subsystem to induce corruption behavior under PR system.
5. Government Effectiveness The impact of different types of electoral systems on government effectiveness has been the subject of intensive scholarly debate for a long period of time. Unlike the previous discussion on accountability and corruption, definition of government effectiveness is not straightforward as indicated by Lijphart (1991) that there appears to be a slight difference in the relative emphasis on (government) quality and effectiveness. Proportionalists tend to attach greater importance to the representativeness of government, while plurality (majoritarian) advocates view the capacity to govern as the more vital consideration (p.76). However, this research will utilize the definition of government effectiveness in terms of macroeconomic and fiscal management.
Roubini and Sachs (1989) suggest that PR system is more likely to perform poorly in terms of fiscal deficits and the public debts management. They conduct cross-country study during the period of 1975-1985 and exhibit result that there is a clear tendency for larger deficits in weaker
governments, where weakness is indicated by a short average tenure of government and by the presence of many political parties in the ruling coalition (p.931). The reason behind their hypothesis is that difficulty to form a strong government is obvious since even a small part of the legislative fractions has voting power to blocking any changes (Roubini and Sachs, 1989).
In addition, Perrson and Tabellini (2003) suggest that majoritarian induces a smaller government, lower welfare program and, hence, smaller budget deficits than PR system. Furthermore, their research estimates reduction of the size of central government spending by 4-5% of GDP, the size of welfare and social security programs by 2-3% of GDP, and the budget deficit by 1-2% of GDP (p.150) by shifting from PR system to majoritarian (Perrson and Tabellini, 2003).
In contrary for the evidence that PR system produces a weaker government than majoritarian, some theories and empirical findings reject the notion. Lijphart (1991) mentions his hypothesis that government under PR system is better than majoritarian rule by providing explanation using policy time frame. He indicates that in the short term, majoritarian might work more effective in terms of speed and easiness both to formulate and implement economic policy since its advantage to deal with very limited parties and stakeholders. Then he predicts that for a longer term, policies supported by a broad consensus are more likely to be successfully carried out and to remain on course than policies imposed by a "strong" government against the wishes of important interest groups (Lijphart, 1991, p.83).
In his later study, Lijphart (1999) conducts a cross-country study to compare the impacts of majoritarian rule and PR system on macroeconomic management for the period of 1971-1996. The dependent variables in the study are economic growth, inflation and unemployment. He suggests that the evidence with regard to economic growth and economic freedom is mixed, but with regard to all of the other indicators of economic performance, the consensus democracies have a slightly better record and a significantly better record as far as inflation is concerned (Lijphart, 1999, p. 270).
In addition, some empirical findings are supplemented in this debate. Boston et al. (2003) employs three criteria of government effectiveness namely government durability, decisional efficacy and government responsiveness to voters, in New Zealand from 1996 (the year that the government has embraced PR system) until 2003. Compared to the previous majoritarian rule adopted in New Zealand, their evidences suggest the move to PR has not resulted in any significant loss of government effectiveness (Boston et al., 2003 p.19). Furthermore, they show that fiscal prudence has improved and New Zealand has enjoyed fiscal surpluses. Despite their conclusion in favor to the proportionalists, they point out that time needed for policy making increases, the process is more complicated, and need consultation to broader stakeholders. But this has not impeded governments to pursue effective policy formulation and implementation (Boston et al., 2003).
Similarly, Boston and Church (2002) evaluates the impact of PR system on the national budget policy making process. They divide the process into three steps: formulating, negotiating and enacting the annual budget. They suggest evidence that the current instruments of fiscal policy and expenditure control are relatively robust (p.42), and that PR system does not influence the government incapability to conduct effective policy relate to budget. This result confirms Boston et al. (2003)s findings.
From the evidences, we cannot conclude that PR system has lower government effectiveness compare to majoritarian. The mixed and inconclusive results from theories and empirical findings are unable to determine which electoral systems are the best in terms of their impacts to the governability. However, by looking at the country case study, we find the evidence that PR system is better in dealing with fiscal management in New Zealand.
6. Conclusions The initial conviction says that PR system is worse than majoritarian in terms of accountability and government effectiveness. After carefully examine the recent literature in theoretical models and empirical studies both in cross-country and country case study, we cannot support that hypothesis. The results are mixed and inconclusive to decide which electoral system is better. Therefore, we might answer the central question of this research by a conclusion that PR system is not deteriorating accountability and government effectiveness in comparison to majoritarian.
Some speculative explanations on this conclusion could be developed as the following: 1. There is no such a size that fits all. A best electoral system in one country will not guarantee that it serves the best national interests in another country. The merits and the flaws of an electoral system are not static; in fact, they are dynamic toward country specific conditions. Despite their major and embedded characteristics, electoral systems could bring a variety of impacts different countries. Therefore, researchers and policymakers should consider customization prior the implementation of a preferred electoral system based on uniqueness and special attributes within a country.
2. Electoral systems are small components in a large and complex political system. By utilizing an electoral system as the only independent variable, we might unable to gain good understanding to explain its impacts to the dependent variables such as accountability and government effectiveness. Some influential factors that could be employed as multiple measurements are types of relationships between executive and legislative, the independences level of bureaucracy, education level of voters, power elites preferences, judicial framework and legal enforcements, and other relevant components.
Therefore, we might consider additional empirical findings to the debate. As directions for the future research, one might consider to enrich the current research by looking at relationship patterns on specific regions and a particular country. Another suggestion is that future research should employ multiple measurements and multiple methods to obtain better understanding and create new boundaries in the subject.
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Perrson, Torsten and Tabellini, Guido. 2004. Constitutions and Economic Policy. The Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 18, No. 1, pp. 75-98. URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3216876. Reynolds, A. et al. 2005. Electoral System Design: The New International IDEA Handbook. International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance. Roger B. Myerson. 1993. Effectiveness of Electoral Systems for Reducing Government Corruption: A Game-Theoretic Analysis. Games and Economic Behavior, Vol. 5, p.11832. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/game.1993.1006. Roubini, Nouriel and Sachs, Jeffrey D. 1989. Political and Economic Determinants of Budget Deficits in the Industrial Democracies. European Economic Review 33 p.903-938. NorthHolland. URL:http://earth.columbia.edu/sitefiles/file/about/director/documents/EuropeanEconomicRevie wwithRoubini1989PoliticalandEconomicDeterminantsofBudgetDeficits.pdf.
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KEADAAN EKONOMI DAN PEKERJAAN SEMASA: KAJIAN MENGENAI WORKAHOLISM DAN KAROSHI DI JEPUN Baizura Hanim Halim & Zakaria Mustafa zurasweety2@gamil.com pakya28@hotmail.com Abstrak Artikel ini mengkaji tentang perkembangan pesat ekonomi Jepun yang berlaku semenjak tahun 1980-an sering dikaitkan dengan sistem pengurusan Jepun yang unik dan sangat efektif. Salah satu yang menjadi perhatian ialah persekitaran pekerjaan di Jepun yang menjadi kunci kejayaan dan juga sering dikaitkan sebagai penyebab kepada situasi karoshi dan juga workaholism. Struktur ekonomi dan kerangka pengurusan sumber manusia di Jepun dilihat mempengaruhi revolusi industri dan akhirnya menyumbang kepada permasalahan karoshi yang menjadi sangat kritikal pada masa kini. Workaholism dilihat mempunyai pengaruh terhadap minda dan fizikal pekerja yang mempunyai pandangan berbeza di negara-negara maju yang lain seperti Amerika Syarikat, Jerman, Korea Selatan dan lain-lain. Peningkatan kemalangan pekerja sewaktu berkhidmat dan kepentingan adaptasi terhadap pekerjaan yang mendalam memberikan dilema bagaimana workaholism ini memainkan peranan dalam membentuk sistem pekerjaan di Jepun pada masa hadapan. Artikel ini akan membincangkan perhubungan yang melibatkan permasalahan antara workaholism dengan situasi karoshi dan mencari satu pembaharuan sistem pekerjaan yang dinamik serta mempunyai halatuju yang bersesuaian dengan proses globalisasi dunia tanpa sempadan pada abad ke -21. Kata kunci: Pengurusan Jepun, Workaholism, Karoshi, Globalisasi ......................................................................................................................................
1. Pendahuluan Pada tahun-tahun kebelakangan ini semakin banyak gaya hidup yang sibuk dan mencabar dunia perniagaan serta perkembangan teknologi terkini telah beransur-ansur mengaburi sempadan antara kerja dan rumah (Jones, Burke, & Westman, 2006; Ng, Sorensen, & Feldman, 2007). Sehubungan itu, menyebabkan pekerja mengalami kesukaran yang semakin meningkat, tekanan dan kegagalan untuk mengelakkan diri dari terlibat dengan kerja sehingga menyebabkannya bertukar menjadi workaholism (Porter, 2004; Sparks, Faragher & Cooper, 2001). Jelas sekali, individu yang boleh bekerja berjam-jam kerana banyak sebab seperti masalah ekonomi, perkahwinan miskin, budaya organisasi, tekanan oleh unggul mereka, atau keinginan yang kuat untuk pembangunan kerjaya tanpa ketagihan dan bukannya didorong oleh faktor luaran atau faktor kontekstual, (Schaufeli, Shimazu, & Taris, 2009). Sejak workaholism istilah
dicipta oleh menteri Amerika dan psikologi Wayne E. Oates (1968) untuk menunjukkan ketagihan kerja sendiri, ia telah berkembang pesat menjadi satu simpulan bahasa tanggapan.1 Sejak kejatuhan ekonomi gelembung Jepun pada awal 1990-an, ekonomi Jepun telah hanya pulih sedikit. Ini mempunyai implikasi langsung bagi pekerjaan. Kedua-dua sistem kekananan upah dan sistem pekerjaan seumur hidup, yang popular semasa tempoh pertumbuhan ekonomi di Jepun, tidak dapat dielakkan telah bertukar kepada sistem hasil upah. Kini terdapat lebih mobiliti dalam pekerjaan, peningkatan penggunaan pekerja bukan tetap, dan pelbagai corak bekerja. Masalah karoshi iaitu sindrom boleh membawa maut disebabkan daripada waktu kerja yang panjang, telah diketahui sejak awal 1980-an. Masalah ini telah menjadi lebih serius dalam tahun-tahun kebelakangan ini.2 Kebanyakan manusia menghabiskan sebahagian besar daripada kehidupan mereka dengan bekerja, tetapi sesetengah individu menumpukan lebih banyak masa untuk bekerja daripada yang lain. Walaupun terdapat beberapa sebab untuk bekerja keras, bagi sesetengah individu perkara ini seolah-olah merupakan manifestasi dorongan dalaman mereka untuk bekerja keras secara berlebihan. Menurut Oates (1968), fenomena ini dirujuk sebagai workaholism. Sebagai workaholism yang kompulsif akan menjalankan tugasan mereka secara bersungguhsungguh (Scott, Moore & Miceli, 1997), mereka juga berisiko untuk mendapat masalah kesihatan (Burke, 2000; Taris, Geurts, Schaufeli, Blonk & Lagerveld, 2008). Mencari cara yang berkesan bagi mengurangkan atau mencegah workaholism adalah penting untuk pengurusan Sumber Manusia (HR) dan golongan profesional yang bergantung kepada pemahaman yang lebih baik daripada la tar belakang. Berdasarkan kajian terdahulu telah menunjukkan bahawa ciri-ciri demografi (Spence & Robbins, 1992), tekanan persekitaran kerja (Kanai & Wakabayashi, 2004), dan lebih mementingkan budaya organisasi yang tinggi serta tekanan kerja (Buelens & Poelmans, 2004) berkaitan kepada workaholism. Satu isu yang agak belum diterokai, tetapi penting adalah bagaimana faktor kognitif tertentu mengenakan pengaruh di workaholism (McMillan, O'Driscoll & Burke, 2003). Terdapat sebab untuk mempercayai bahawa kognitif yang memainkan peranan penting dalam pembangunan workaholism. Sebagai contoh, dalam kajian Burke (1999b, 2001) menunjukkan bahawa kognitif merupakan perasaan suka berusaha terhadap orang lain, prinsip moral, dan membuktikan diri sebagai peramal kepada dorongan workaholism. Porter (2004) juga menyatakan bahawa workaholisma "terdedah kepada pemikiran tegar, mereka tidak mampu untuk menjadi fleksibel dalam idea-idea mereka, keputusan kajian dalam sikap yang terlalu mementingkan kesempurnaan yang melebihi tahap. "(ms 435)..3
1
Ayesha, T., & Tasnuva, R. (2013). International Journal of Research Studies in Psychology . Gaining the insight of workaholism, its nature and its outcome: A literature review . Vol.2 Number 2, pp. 81-92. Eastern University, Bangladesh 2 Kanai, A. (2009). Journal of Business Ethics. Karoshi (Work to Death) in Japan. Vol. 84, Issue 2 Supplement, pp 209-216. Springer.
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Namun berbeza bagi situasi di Jepun yang mana perubahan dalam situasi ekonomi dan pekerjaan di Jepun sangat mempengaruhi tingkah laku worlakolism dalam kalangan pekerja di Jepun. Kelembapan ekonomi telah berlaku sejak tercetusnya keruntuhan gelembung ekonomi iaitu bubble economy pada tahun 1991. Peningkatan dalam perjalanan ekonomi yang berlaku sedikit sehingga mengakibatkan penyusunan semula dilakukan seperti pemotongan dan penggabungan unit perniagaan yang dijalankan oleh firma-firma utama di Jepun dalam situasi pekerjaan yang masih kasar.4 Perubahan aliran ekonomi dan keadaan pekerjaan adalah penting dan perlu diberi perhatian kerana akibat kemurungan ekonomi yang berlaku menyebabkan banyak syarikat meningkatkan persaingan sehingga berlakunya penyusunan semula secara besarbesaran dan peningkatan dalam pekerja tidak tetap seperti pekerja sambilan, pekerja kontrak dan pekerja sementara. Berikutan dengan ini, pekerja dikehendaki untuk bekerja lebih masa untuk berusaha menangani peningkatan dalam permintaan organisasi (Ohashi, 2000). Masa bekerja dikenakan bagi pekerja bagi pekerja lelaki dalam lingkungan awal 20-an, 30-an, dan 40-an adalah lebih lama daripada mereka dalam kumpulan lain (Kanai, 2006).5 Perubahan dalam persekitaran makroekonomi dan keadaan pekerjaan telah menjejaskan tren workaholism dalam kalangan pekerja Jepun. Dalam suatu keputusan analisis telah menunjukkan bahawa komponen workaholism iaitu komponen dorongan workaholism masih kekal tinggi pada awal tahun 1990 an, manakala komponen keseronokan bekerja telah menurun dalam tempoh yang sama, menyebabkan kecenderungan workaholism menjadi lebih serius dalam keadaan ekonomi dan pekerjaan yang semakin teruk. Kerja yang berlebihan dan padat juga sebenarnya telah meningkat bagi jurutera dan pekerja dalam 30-an dan 40-an ini berada di tengah-tengah kemurungan ekonomi.6
Wijhe, C. V., Peeters, M., & Schaufeli, W. (). Running head: Enough is enough! Enough is enough! Cognitive antecedents of workaholism and its aftermath . Department of Work and Organizational Psychology Utrecht University. Human Resources Management 4 Kanai, A. & Wakabayashi, M. (2004). Effects Of Economic Environmental Changes On Job Demands And Workaholism In Japan. Journal of Organizational Change Management, Vol. 17 Iss: 5, pp.537 548. Emerald 5 Shimazu, A., Demerouti, E., Bakker, A. B., Shimada, K., & Kawakami, N. (2011). Social Science & Medicine. Workaholism and well-being among Japanese dual-earner couples: A spillover-crossover perspective. pp 399-409. University of Tokyo & Eindhoven University of Technology. 6 Kanai, A. & Wakabayashi, M. (2004). Effects Of Economic Environmental Changes On Job Demands And Workaholism In Japan. Journal of Organizational Change Management, Vol. 17 Iss: 5, pp.537 548. Emerald
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2. Pernyataan Masalah Jika dilihat dari segi kejayaan pertumbuhan ekonomi Jepun adalah disebabkan aplikasi sistem pengurusan organisasinya yang unik dan tersendiri, asas amalan sistem pengurusan ini menjadi menjadi faktor utama kebangkitan ekonomi Jepun yang diamalkan di dalam setiap organisasi Jepun. Namun aliran ekonomi bergerak seiring dengan tingkah laku bekerja sehingga dapat memberikan kesan yang sangat mendalam terhadap hasil dan produktiviti organisasi. Berdasarkan etika kerja yang diamalkan dalam pengurusan organisasi telah mensyaratkan komitmen setiap pekerja untuk bekerja lebih masa setelah mereka diterima masuk sebagai pekerja dalam organisasi semasa proses pengambilan pekerja dijalankan. Fenomena gelembung ekonomi yang melanda juga turut menjadi faktor berlakunya tingkah laku workaholism dan karoshi dalam kalangan pekerja di Jepun. Workaholism secara umumnya sering dikaitkan dengan jumlah masa yang berlebihan telah diperuntukan oleh seseorang individu untuk bekerja termasuk bebanan kerja yang berlebihan terpaksa ditanggung oleh seseorang pekerja dalam organisasi. 3. Metodologi Kajian ini menggunakan sepenuhnya kaedah kualitatif iaitu penyelidikan perpustakaan. Sumber rujukan terdiri daripada buku-buku, jurnal-jurnal terpilih, keratan akhbar, artikel, disertasi pelajar-pelajar terdahulu dan rujukan dari laman-laman sesawang rasmi. Sumber yang diperolehi adalah daripada perpustakaan-perpustakaan di Malaysia seperti Perpustakaan Utama Universiti Malaya, Perpustakaan Peringatan Zaaba dan Perpustakaan Jabatan Asia Timur. Namun terdapat beberapa sumber yang diperolehi daripada perpustakaan-perpustakaan di Jepun seperti Sophia University Library, dan National Diet Library.
4. Dapatan Kajian a) Workaholism Istilah workaholism telah digunakan secara rasmi untuk merujuk kepada pekerja perkhidmatan kolar putih dan awam yang bekerja terlalu keras, istilah ini telah dicipta pada tahun 1968 oleh ahli psikologi Amerika iaitu Wayne Oates. Walau bagaimanapun, terdapat telah banyak perbincangan akademik tentang istilah sebenar yang dimaksudkan dalam konteks klinikal, dan kesukaran yang besar bagi mencapai kata sepakat.
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Beberapa kajian awal mengenai workaholism telah melihatnya sebagai sikap pekerja terhadap pekerjaan mereka, manakala kajian yang lain memberi tumpuan kepada tingkah laku pekerja, iaitu bilangan jam bekerja setahun. Sebagai contoh, Mosier (1983) mentakrifkan gila kerja sebagai seseorang yang bekerja lebih daripada 50 jam seminggu tanpa mengira keadaan psikologi; Cherrington (1980) mentakrifkan gila kerja sebagai mempunyai "Komitmen yang tidak rasional kepada kerja-kerja yang berlebihan"; Machlowitz (1980) memberi tumpuan kepada yang gila kerja keseronokan kerja yang positif.7 Kajian ini kemudiannya cuba untuk meletakkan workaholism pada spektrum "penglibatan kerja, perasaan didorong untuk bekerja, dan keseronokan kerja", membezakan antara workaholism yang menikmati kerja mereka dan mereka yang sebaliknya. b) Karoshi di Jepun Karoshi adalah salah satu akibat daripada masa bekerja yang panjang, sehingga menyebabkan kemerosotan kesihatan pekerja. istilah ini pertama kali muncul pada awal 1980-an, sejurus sebelum Jepun memasuki gelembung ekonomi. Ia ditakrifkan sebagai keadaan yang kekal kerana tidak dapat untuk bekerja atau mati disebabkan diserang akut iskemia penyakit jantung seperti pelanggaran miokardium, atau akut kegagalan jantung disebabkan oleh penyakit serebrum vaskular iaitu pendarahan serebrum, pendarahan subaraknoid dan pelanggaran serebrum, kerana kesihatan yang wujud akibat masalah seperti hipertensi dan arteriosklerosis merosot oleh beban kerja yang berlebihan'' (Hosokawa et al, 1982).8 Namun Morioka (2005) berpendapat bahawa tanggungjawab individu tidak perlu dikurangkan kerana dalam pengurusan organisasi telah menganjurkan kerja keras dan pekerjaan yang berlebihan, dan tabiat kerja selalunya akan mewujudkan penghasilan dalam promosi. Oleh itu, bagi menghapuskan kesan berbahaya workaholism, adalah penting untuk perubahan organisasi bagi mengambil tempat memperbaiki persekitaran tempat kerja dan menguruskan isuisu bebanan kerja.9 b) Perubahan dalam situasi ekonomi dan pekerjaan di Jepun Jepun berada kemuncak ekonomi yang membanggakan pada tahun 1980, yang mnunjukkan purata bekerja sebanyak 2121 jam setahun manakala Kanada dan Amerika keduaduanya bekerja hanya lebih 1800 jam. Ketika meletusnya gelembung ekonomi, Barat terus melihat Jepun sebagai sebuah masyarakat yang workaholism, tetapi tren ini juga mungkin berubah. Pada tahun 2009, pekerja Jepun bekerja pada purata 1714 jam seminggu, hanya lebih 15 jam daripada Kanada dan kurang daripada pekerja Ameirka yang bekerja 1767 jam. Statistik
7
Ayesha, T., & Tasnuva, R. (2013). International Journal of Research Studies in Psychology . Gaining the insight of workaholism, its nature and its outcome: A literature review . Vol.2 Number 2, pp. 81-92. Eastern University, Bangladesh 8 Kanai, A. (2009). Journal of Business Ethics. Karoshi (Work to Death) in Japan. Vol.84, Issue 2 Supplement, pp 209. Springer. 9 Ibid pp.210
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ini menunjukkan bahawa pemikiran semula terhadap stereotaip tipikal tentang pengaruh prabudaya dan melihat faktor-faktor ekonomi dalam menentukan tren terhadap kerja berlebihan.
Purata Jam Tahunan Sebenar Kerja Setiap Pekerja Bagi Jumlah Guna Tenaga 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 Time Country Australia Austria Belgium Canada\ Chile Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France Germany Greece Hungary Iceland Ireland Israel Italy 1 7761 7371 7311 7351 733 1 7251 7151 7111 7161 6851 6871 693 1 7271 7141 7101 7051 714 1 6961 6731 6671 6481 6081 5991 600 1 5451 5771 5801 5751 549 1 5651 5661 5601 5681 5501 5511 577 1 7751 7681 7471 7361 754 1 7391 7381 7381 7281 7001 7021 702 2 2632 2422 2502 2352 232 2 1572 1652 1282 0952 0742 0682 047 1 9041 8271 8251 8151 827 1 8271 8081 7931 8001 7641 7951 774 1 5811 5871 5791 5771 579 1 5791 5861 5701 5701 5591 5601 522 1 9871 9781 9831 9851 996 2 0102 0011 9991 9691 8311 8791 924 1 7511 7331 7261 7191 723 1 7161 7091 7061 6881 6721 6841 684 1 5231 5141 4761 4731 501 1 4951 4731 4851 4921 4721 4781 476 1 4711 4531 4411 4361 436 1 4311 4241 4221 4221 3831 4081 413 2 1302 1312 1182 1122 092 2 0952 0662 0382 0511 9952 0172 032 2 0331 9972 0091 9811 992 1 9921 9881 9831 9881 9691 9621 980 1 8851 8471 8121 8111 827 1 8181 8071 7831 7871 7061 6911 732 1 7191 7131 6981 6711 668 1 6541 6451 6341 6011 5411 5451 543 .. .. .. ..1 905 1 9891 8871 9211 8981 8891 8881 890
1 8611 8431 8311 8261 826 1 8191 8151 8161 8031 7711 7751 774
86
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 Time Country Japan Korea Luxembourg Mexico Netherlands New Zealand Norway Poland Portugal 1 8211 8091 7981 7991 787 1 7751 7841 7851 7711 7141 7331 728 2 5122 4992 4642 4242 392 2 3512 3462 3062 2462 2322 1872 090 1 6831 6671 6561 6511 607 1 5901 6011 5371 5771 6221 6361 601 2 3112 2852 2712 2772 271 2 2812 2812 2622 2602 2532 2422 250 1 4351 4241 4081 4011 399 1 3931 3921 3881 3921 3841 3811 379 1 8281 8171 8171 8131 828 1 8111 7881 7661 7501 7381 7581 762 1 4551 4291 4141 3991 417 1 4201 4141 4191 4231 4071 4141 426 1 9881 9741 9791 9841 983 1 9941 9851 9761 9691 9481 9391 937 1 7911 7951 7931 7681 790 1 7781 7841 7541 7721 7461 7421 711
Slovak Republic 1 8161 8011 7541 6981 742 1 7691 7741 7911 7931 7801 8071 793 Slovenia Spain Sweden Switzerland Turkey 1 7101 6961 7201 7241 737 1 6971 6671 6551 6701 6701 6761 662 1 7311 7361 7341 7191 704 1 6861 6731 6581 6631 6691 6741 690 1 6421 6181 5951 5821 605 1 6051 5991 6181 6171 6021 6431 644 1 6881 6501 6301 6431 673 1 6541 6431 6331 6231 6171 632 ..
1 9371 9421 9431 9431 918 1 9361 9441 9111 9001 8811 8771 877
United Kingdom 1 7001 7051 6841 6741 674 1 6731 6691 6771 6591 6511 6521 625 West Germany United States 1 4501 4341 4241 4191 419 1 4131 4061 4051 4071 3661 3931 399 1 8361 8141 8101 8001 802 1 7991 8001 7981 7921 7671 7781 787
87
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 Time Country Russian Federation 1 9821 9801 9821 9941 994 1 9901 9992 0001 9971 9731 9761 981
OECD countries 1 8441 8291 8191 8121 812 1 8071 8051 7991 7921 7661 7751 776
Data extracted on 28 Mar 2013 23:09 UTC (GMT) from OECD.Stat
Berada di bawah situasi ekonomi telah menjadi sukar bagi syarikat-syarikat Jepun bagi mengekalkan karakteristik gaya pengurusan Jepun yang menampilkan konsep pekerjaan sepanjang hayat dan berasaskan sistem kekananan atau sistem senioriti berdasarkan sistem HRM (Pengurusan Sumber Manusia) (Wakabayashi, 2001). Perubahan ekonomi berlaku pada awal tahun 1990 an yang mana menyebabkan perniagaan-perniagaan kecil menjadi lemah dan syarikat-syarikat besar juga mula mengambil tindakan bagi mengurangkan bilangan pekerja atau menutup perniagaan mereka. Insiden yang berlaku ini akan menjejaskan keyakinan pekerja terhadap syarikat, yang mana pekerja akan kehilangan kepercayaan kepada sistem pekerjaan sepanjang hayat iaitu apabila anda bekerja untuk syarikat besar, anda akan bekerja untuk hidup. Selain itu sistem gaji juga berasaskan kekananan menjadi senior akan mendapat lebih juga telah berubah menjadi mendatar bagi menghadapi tenaga kerja yang sudah tua dan berusia dalam syarikat dan pemberian gaji berasaskan prestasi telah dijalankan dan menjadi semakin popular. Kenaikan gaji telah berhenti bagi sesetengah pekerja dalam usia 30-an dan 40-an, menyebabkan golongan ini menghadapi beban kewangan.10 Menurut Snir dan Harpaz, 2004 sebab-sebab untuk pekerja bekerja berjam-jam di Jepun bukan hanya disebabkan faktor ekonomi, tetapi juga sosio-budaya. Bagi pekerja Jepun, bekerja merupakan pengakhiran untuk diri sendiri yang merupakan proses untuk menjalankan kewajipan yang terhutang kepada masyarakat dan kepada diri sendiri sebagai makhluk sosial (Snir & Harpaz, 2004). Dalam budaya Jepun, masa log masuk di meja seseorang pekerja atau tempat kerja kebiasaannya merupakan kenyataan simbolik penyerahan kepada kuasa pengurusan dan kesetiaan kepada organisasi (Herbig & Palumbo, 1994, Institut Dasar Buruh dan Latihan Jepun). Kerja keras dan usaha tinggi lebih bernilai daripada keupayaan dalam budaya kolektivistik (Scholz, Gutierrez-Dona, Sud, & Schwarzer, 2002). Oleh itu, pekerja di Jepun sering ditanya untuk bekerja lebih masa secara sukarela atau bekerja tanpa dibayar sejumlah besar masa tambahan (Snir & Harpaz, 2004).11
10
Ibid 2
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Berdasarkan data yang terawal pada jumlah jam bekerja yang telah diterbitkan oleh Kerajaan Jepun, pada tahun 1905, dapat dikatakan bahawa purata pekerja Jepun bekerja keras sekitar 3,100 jam setiap tahun. Seperti yang ditunjukkan dalam Rajah. (1), jumlah ini adalah kira-kira 400 jam setahun lebih daripada pekerja biasa di Amerika pada masa itu. Masa bekerja di Jepun secara beransur-ansur telah jatuh kepada kira-kira 2.900 setiap tahun pada tahun 1930, dan menjadikannya serupa dengan purata pekerja Amerika pada tahun 1870-an. Kemudian dipercepatkan semula untuk kira-kira 3,000 pada tahun 1940 dan kemudian 3,200 pada tahun 1945, pada akhir Perang Dunia ke-2. Secara ringkasnya kira-kira purata 1,000 jam bekerja oleh pekerja Jepun lagi adalah daripada purata Pekerja Amerika pada masa itu.12 Sejurus selepas Perang, purata masa tahunan Pekerja Jepun telah jatuh secara mendadak kepada 2,200 jam, sebelum meningkat semula secara berterusan kepada paras tertinggi selepas perang iaitu sebanyak 2425 jam pada tahun 1960. Ia adalah penting untuk diperhatikan, bagaimanapun, setelah tahun 1947, Kementerian Buruh Jepun mula melaporkan data sahaja untuk pekerja 30 buah firma atau lebih, yang merupakan, jumlah pasca-perang telah menonjol lebih tinggi jika semua firma telah dimasukkan. Di bawah kiraan, pada masa itu, Buruh Jepun masih bekerja dengan purata 400 jam setahun lebih daripada pekerja tipikal Amerika, atau sama dengan tambahan sepuluh minggu 40-jam. Perbezaan ini hanya akan terdapat sedikit pada tahun 1960. Pada tahun 1970-an dan 1980-an, walaupun negara menjadi dunia kedua ekonomi terbesar, pada kira-kira 2100 jam tahunan bekerja, buruh Jepun masih bekerja lebih daripada 300 jam setahun lebih lama daripada sekutu mereka di Amerika Syarikat dan United Kingdom. Keadaan ini mula berubah dalam tahun 1990-an, berikutan hampir dua dekad perdebatan politik dalaman dan tekanan asing bagi reformasi Jepun yang panjang iaitu dengan bekerja enam hari dalam seminggu. Proses ini bermula pada bulan Jun 1979, apabila Menteri Buruh negara, Yukoh Kurihara mengisytiharkan bahawa kerajaan telah menetapkan matlamat untuk meletakkan tenaga kerja negara pada lima hari kerja dalam seminggu menjelang tahun 1985. 13 Selepas laporan 1985 oleh jawatankuasa Kementerian Buruh telah menunjukkan bahawa kira-kira 40 peratus tenaga buruh Jepun masih bekerja lebih daripada 45 jam seminggu seperti biasa. Tindakan ini akhirnya diambil untuk disemak semula yang kemudiannya datang dalam bentuk pindaan kepada Undang-undang Standard Buruh Jepun, yang pertama pada tahun 1987 dan 1998, dan melalui pengenalan Promosi Akta Kerja Waktu Pendek pada tahun 1992. Dasardasar ini telah disokong lagi oleh mereka yang digariskan di Jepun mengikut Rancangan Ekonomi Negara Disember 1995. Inisiatif ini telah digabungkan dan dipanggil sebagai Institusi
11
Shimazu, A., Demerouti, E., Bakker, A. B., Shimada, K., & Kawakami, N. (2011). Social Science & Medicine. Workaholism and well-being among Japanese dual-earner couples: A spillover-crossover perspective. pp 399-409. University of Tokyo & Eindhoven University of Technology. 12 Ibid 1., pp. 15 13 Jacobs, A. J., (2010). The Open Area Studies Journal. Max Weber was Right about the Preconditions, Just Wrong about Japan: The Japanese Ethic and its Spirit of Capitalism. Vol. 3. Pp. 12-29. East Carolina University. USA.
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Minggu Kerja Lima Hari, 40 jam dan pengurangan purata waktu kerja tahunan kepada 1,800, yang perlu dicapai dengan tidak menggalakkan jadual lebih masa, menetapkan had pada jam lebih masa bekerja, dan juga menggalakkan pekerja untuk mengambil semua cuti bergaji mereka.14
Menjelang tahun 1999, Kementerian Buruh dan agensi separa kerajaan iaitu JETRO telah mengisytiharkan bahawa sektor pembuatan dan firma dengan 30 orang atau lebih pekerja telah melaksanakan lima hari, 40 jam kerja seminggu, dan berada di puncak pencapaian sasaran 1,800 jam kerja per tahun. Kementerian Buruh juga menyatakan bahawa ia akan menjadi awal 2000-an sebelum peruncitan dan sektor perkhidmatan, akan mempunyai pelbagai firma dengan kurang daripada sepuluh pekerja. Di sebalik tuntutan ini, antara 1999 dan 2007, pekerja di firma-firma dengan purata 30 atau lebih telah bekerja satu minggu penuh lebih daripada 1,800 jam pada tahun tersebut. Perkara ini mungkin masih menjadi kes, jika tidak untuk serius di seluruh dunia, tetapi kelembapan ekonomi yang berlaku pada tahun 2008, telah mengurangkan masa purata bekerja tahunan di Jepun dengan ketara, iaitu daripada 1,850 pada tahun 2007 kepada 1,813 pada tahun 2008. Pada asasnya telah meletakkan firma yang mempunyai 30 atau lebih, setaraf dengan jumlah 1,792 Amerika Syarikat pada tahun 2008, tetapi masih terdapat kira-kira 160 jam bekerja melebihi UK. Sama ada trend ini berterusan atau pun tidak, ia masih belum dapat dilihat, menerusi kaji selidik
14
Ibid 2., pp. 15.
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pada tahun 2008 oleh Kementerian Buruh, perusahaan daripada semua saiz menunjukkan bahawa purata Pekerja Jepun masih bekerja secara purata 1,968 jam setahun. 15
15
Ibid 3. pp. 15.
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5.Kesimpulan
Dalam artikel ini, saya telah membincangkan masalah karoshi dan masa kerja yang panjang di Jepun. orang bekerja untuk hidup, tidak mati. Kerja berjam-jam lama, yang dikaitkan dengan karoshi, menjadi semakin serius, masalah ini kerana perubahan persekitaran kerja dan ekonomi semasa. Sangat penting untuk kita menangani masalah ini serta-merta. Untuk tujuan ini, saya berpendapat bahawa, pertama sekali, kedua-dua pekerja individu dan organisasi yang pada masa yang sama harusi sedar perkaitan antara masa kerja yang panjang dan karoshi. Untuk menikmati kahidupan yang sihat dan aktif, kita mesti menyesuaikan diri dengan gaya kerja yang munasabah dan bekerja pada jumlah masa yang sesuai. Tanggungjawab tidak seharusnya diletakkan semata-mata ke atas individu, sebaliknya, organisasi perlu mengambil inisiatif dalam mengawasi waktu kerja yang sesuai. Perlu dikatakan bahawa, organisasi harus mempertimbangkan waktu kerja yang sesuai pada asas hak asasi manusia dan etika sosial. Pada masa ini, pelbagai cara untuk menangani masalah ini sedang dibincangkan, termasuk sistem pengecualian kolar putih. Sistem yang baru sangat diperlukan untuk mengambil pertimbangan dan berhati-hati terhadap persekitaran sosial dan budaya buruh di Jepun. Peredaran masa dan keadaan ekonomi semasa sangat mempengaruhi tingkah laku workaholism dalam kalangan pekerja Jepun yang menjadi permasalahan serius bagi negara Jepun. Kerajan Jepun juga telah melaksanakan pelbagai langkah bagi mengatasi masalah Karoshi dalam kalangan pekerjanya, namun workaholism masih juga berlaku walaupun dengan jumlah yang sedikit tetapi kadar populasi di Jepun juga berada pada tahap yang membimbangkan. Perancangan bagi kajian di masa hadapan juga akan menyelidiki implikasi karoshi dalam kadar populasi masyarakat Jepun.
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Bibliografi
Ayesha, T., & Tasnuva, R. (2013). International Journal of Research Studies in Psychology . Gaining the insight of workaholism, its nature and its outcome: A literature review . Vol.2 Number 2, pp. 81-92. Eastern University, Bangladesh Jacobs, A. J., (2010). The Open Area Studies Journal. Max Weber was Right about the Preconditions, Just Wrong about Japan: The Japanese Ethic and its Spirit of Capitalism. Vol. 3. Pp. 12-29. East Carolina University. USA. Kanai, A. (2009). Journal of Business Ethics. Karoshi (Work to Death) in Japan . Vol. 84, Issue 2 Supplement, pp 209-216. Springer Kanai, A. & Wakabayashi, M. (2004). Effects Of Economic Environmental Changes On Job Demands And Workaholism In Japan. Journal of Organizational Change Management, Vol. 17 Iss: 5, pp.537 548. Emerald Shimazu, A., Demerouti, E., Bakker, A. B., Shimada, K., & Kawakami, N. (2011). Social Science & Medicine. Workaholism and well-being among Japanese dual-earner couples: A spillover-crossover perspective. pp 399-409. University of Tokyo & Eindhoven University of Technology. Wijhe, C. V., Peeters, M., & Schaufeli, W. (). Running head: Enough is enough! Enough is enough! Cognitive antecedents of workaholism and its aftermath. Department of Work and Organizational Psychology Utrecht University. Human Resources Management
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Mediating Effect of Enterprise Risk Management Practices on Risk Culture and Organizational Performance
Azreen Roslan & Hayati Mohd Dahan azreenroslan@gmail.com, hayati702@salam.uitm.edu.my
ABSTRACT Major organizations around the world agree that managing risk is crucial to survive in this globalized and competitive world. Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) has emerged as a new popular concept of managing organizational risk holistically. Past researches found that adopting and practicing ERM makes an organization more prepared in addressing possible threats. Furthermore, there is also general argument by scholars and researchers that organizations adopting ERM will improve their business performances. Hence, ERM has received a positive response from business leaders and organizations around the world. However, evidence from various studies shows that there are lacking in the practice of ERM among Malaysia organizations. Why is this so? There are various factors that influence ERM adoption and implementation. But several studies indicate that risk culture is one of the important attributes of risk management aspect that board members should comprehend. This is because the implementation of ERM will be unsuccessful without a risk culture awareness being embedded at all level of the organization. As such, this paper aims to propose a conceptual framework to investigate the mediating effect of ERM on organizational culture and firms business performance among public listed companies in Malaysia. This study will broaden the scope of literature in this area by providing evidence on Malaysian environment and enhancing the frontier of knowledge in this area.
Keywords:
Enterprise Risk Management, Risk Culture, Organizational Performance
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1. Introduction Every businesses face a number of risks in their business operations and activities that could present threat in achieving their business objectives .Moreover, the business environment also has become more riskier for businesses to operate; with the advent of technology and internet, globalization, mergers and acquisitions. Furthermore, the news of the collapsed of many large and strong multinational companies over the past few years reveal that ineffective risk
management and internal controls as one of the reasons that contribute to this incident (Yazid, Razali and Hussin, 2012). However, the emergence of a popular concept known as Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) is believed to be an effective technique to manage risk and is fast becoming best practice standard (Lam, 2000). Currently, there is in depth examination on whether the approach to corporate governance through risk management has improved the performance of organizations, both operationally and financially (Fraser and Henry, 2007). Research conducted by Hoyt and Liebenberg (2008) found that Enterprise Risk Management improve the capital efficiency and return on equity of the organization. This is because the organization are better able to recognize all risks inherent in their business activities and process. However, evidence from various studies shows that there are lacking in the practice of Enterprise Risk Management among Malaysia organizations. Empirical findings in the study undertaken by Yazid, Razali and Hussin (2008) found that only 18% of manufacturers practice risk management and have implemented Enterprise Risk Management framework in their strategic business operations. Recently, Wan Norhayate (2011) stated that there are about 43% of public listed companies that practiced Enterprise Risk Management. So there is a question arises as to why there are some organizations practice Enterprise Risk Management and the other organizations do not do so. Furthermore, the implementation of Enterprise Risk management in Malaysia is still slow. The Star (7 Dec, 2011) also reported that Malaysia has about 6400 standards but only 5% of these standards were mandatory and this caused many Malaysian organizations that produce products and services to lag behind. Based on the Agency Theory, Enterprise Risk Management is a mechanism that may overcome agency problem. This is because the idea of risk management has become fundamental to corporate governance and is connected to the organization internal control (Puan Yatim, 2009). Therefore, from an agency theory perspective, the clear implication for corporate governance is that sufficient monitoring or control mechanisms must be created in protecting shareholder values from managements conflict of interest as corporate governances goal is to maximize the firms value for stakeholders (Jensen, 1993). The paper aims to come up with a conceptual framework that contributes in enhancing the frontier of knowledge and understanding of Enterprise Risk Management practices. This is done by investigating the practices of Enterprise Risk Management among public listed companies in Malaysia. Based on this, the objectives of this paper are as follows: a) To examine the extent of Enterprise Risk Management practices among public listed companies in Malaysia. b) To examine the relationship between risk culture and organizational performance.
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c) To investigate the mediating effect of Enterprise Risk Management practices on risk culture and organizational performance.
3. Risk Culture Levy, Lamarre and Twining (2010) had defined risk culture as the norms of behaviour for individuals and groups within an organization that determine the collective ability and understand, openly discuss and act on the organizations current and future risks . Every organization has a different organizational culture that led the organization towards excellent organizational performance. This has been supported by Shahzad, Luqman, Khan and Shabbir (2012) which they stated that organizational culture has a significant impact towards employees job performance and this will lead to better productivity thus enhance organizational performance. Kefela (2010) concur and said that in order for the organization to accomplish their business goals and objectives as well as executing the business strategy; the organizational culture has a considerable impact on it. However, when it comes to implementing Enterprise Risk Management previous studies had identified organizational culture as a barrier and limitation (Kleffner, Lee & Mc Gannon, 2003). Therefore without a risk conscious culture being embedded at all levels of organization, the large amounts of resources that had been consumed by the organization to implement the enterprise risk management program will be unsuccessful (Rosa, 2006). This has been supported by Kimbrough (2009) where his research result indicates that the organizations culture impacted the enterprise risk management deployments effectiveness and speed. Furthermore, in order to achieve a sound system of Enterprise Risk Management, the board as well as the management must make sure that the risk management framework is embedded into the culture, processes and structures of the company (The Institute of Risk Management, 2012). Moreover, the board has a responsibility to set, communicate and enforce a risk culture that consistently influences, directs and aligns with the strategy and objectives of the business. This led to the following hypothesis, H1: There is a positive relationship between risk culture and organizational performance
4. Enterprise Risk Management Risk Management is crucial as risk is an essential component of corporate governance (Fong and Samad, 2011). They also reported that businesses today are prone to risk as a result of corporate governance scandals and improper financial management. However, the scope and functions of risk management have increased over time due to rapid environmental changes. In response to these changes, Enterprise Risk Management has received much attention globally (COSO, 2004). Enterprise Risk Management has been defined by The Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO) as .a process effected by an entitys board of directors, management and other personnel, applied in a strategy setting and across the
enterprise, designed to identify potential events that may affect the entity, and manage risk to be within its risk appetite, to provide reasonable assurance regarding the achievement of entity objectives. Beasley, Branson and Hancock (2009) clarify that Enterprise Risk Management is an effective approach as this approach involve a process of identifying, assessing and monitoring risks throughout the organizations. Furthermore, this approach also involve communication procedure to spread this risk information across the organization. Moreover, organizations which have adopted a more integrated approach namely Enterprise Risk Management in managing enterprise wide risks have experienced significant benefit relating to business performance (Gordon, Loeb and Chih Yang, 2009). Even the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has seen the importance of risk management towards businesses and had endorsed an international standard for Enterprise Risk Management (ISO 31000:2009). Malaysia also has come out with its own risk management standard known as MS ISO 31000:2010. Besides, Enterprise Risk Management has been highlighted in the National Integrity Plan (PIN) in order to foster good corporate governance. Based on the above literature, the study hypothesized that, H2: There is a mediating effect of Enterprise Risk Management practices on risk culture and organizational performance.
5. Proposed Framework This paper intend to examine the extent of Enterprise Risk Management practices among public listed companies in Malaysia. Based on literatures, there are various attributes that become the forces in the risk management adoption and implementation. As such the encouragement from the board of directors and top management (Puan Yatim, 2009) and dedicated chief risk officer (Rochette, 2009). Therefore, this paper proposes a conceptual framework of the relationship between risk culture and organizational performance as well as the mediating effect of Enterprise Risk Management on this relationship.
6. Methodology 6.1 Sample and data collection method The target population of the study is the eight industries listed on the main board of Bursa Malaysia. The sample size is 767 organizations consist of consumer products, construction, industrial products, infrastructure, plantations, properties, trading/services and technologies. Financial industry is excluded because they have different rules and approach of ERM. The unit of analysis is the multinational organizations listed on the main board of Bursa Malaysia. Questionnaires with measurement of a seven point likert scale ranging from strongly disagree
(1) to strongly agree (7) will be addressed to the senior management who has direct dealing with Enterprise Risk Management practices in the organization.
6.2 Instrumentation The following Table 1 indicates the measures of the study variables used in the study. The instrument items will be adopted from previous studies by Kimbrough (2006), COSO (2004) and Hoyt and Liebenberg (2008).
Table 1: Instrumentation of the study variables Variables Risk Culture ERM Practices Organizational Performance Source of scale Kimbrough (2006) COSO (2004) Hoyt & Liebenberg (2008) Type of scale 7-points Likert scale 7-points Likert scale 7-points Likert scale
7. Conclusion and Future Recommendation As a conclusion, this paper conceptual framework explains the significant relationship between risk culture and Enterprise Risk Management and its affect on the organizational performance. There are two hypotheses that need to be tested empirically under the proposed framework. The adoption and implementation of Enterprise Risk Management among Malaysian organizations are still in an early stage. Therefore, this paper is intended to broaden the scope of literature in this area in terms of fostering good corporate governance in line with the National Integrity Plan (PIN). Furthermore, this paper also will provide an insight and understanding in formulating policy for mandatory implementation of Enterprise Risk Management standards as well as a clear benchmark for quality related accreditation in the future. Further researches are recommended to test other factors that may influence the adoption and implementation of Enterprise Risk Management practices. This conceptual paper is subjected to some limitations surrounding similar conceptual academic works. Acknowledgement This paper is under scholarship of the Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM).
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References Beasley, S., M., Branson, C., B., & Hancock, V., B. (2009). ERM: Opportunities for improvement. Journal of Accountancy. COSO ERM Framework (2004). Enterprise risk management-Integrated framework [Online] Available at http://www.coso.org Fong, W. L., & Samad, A., F. (2011). Enterprise Risk Management framework and the empirical determinants of its implementation. International Conference on Business and Economics. Fraser, I., & Henry, W. (2007). Embedding risk management: structures and approaches. Managerial Auditing Journal, 22 (4), 392-409. Gordon, A., L., Loeb, P., M., & Chih Yang, T. (2009). Enterprise risk management and firm performance: A contingency perspective. Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, 28, 301-327 Hoyt, E., R., & Liebenberg, P., A. (2008). The value of enterprise risk management: Evidence from the U.S. insurance industry. Working Paper. Jensen, C., M. (1993). The modern industrial revolution, exit and the failure of internal control systems. Journal of Finance. Kefela, T., G. (2010). Understanding organizational culture and leadership-enhance efficiency and productivity. PM World Today. Kimbrough, R., L. (2009). The relationship between organizational culture and enterprise risk management. Engineering Management Journal, 21 (2). Kleffner, E., A., Lee, B., R., & Mc Gannon, B. (2003). The effect of corporate governance on the use of enterprise risk management: Evidence from Canada. Risk Management and Insurance Review, 6 (1), 53-73. Lam, J. (2000). Enterprise risk management and the role of the chief risk officer [Electronic version]. E-Risk, 1-5. Levy, C., Lamarre, E., & Twining, J. (2010). Taking control of organizational risk culture. McKinsey & Company. Puan Yatim. (2009). Board structures and the establishment of a risk management committee by Malaysian listed firms. Springer Science and Business Media. Rosa, D., L., S. (2006). Board influence cultivating the best board. Accountancy SA. Rochette, M. (2009). From risk management to ERM. Journal of Risk Management in Financial Institutions, 2 (4), 394-408.
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Shahzad, F., Luqman, A., R., Khan, R., A., & Shabbir, L. (2012). Impact of Organizational Culture on Organizational Performance: An Overview. Interdisciplinary Journal of Contemparary Research in Business, 3 (9). The Institute of Risk Management (2012). Risk Culture-Under the Miscroscope Guidance for Boards. University students to learn about standards. (2011, December 7). The Star, p.9. Wan Norhayate, W., D. (2011). The role of the quality internal audit support in enterprise risk management (ERM) practices: Evidence from Malaysia. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 2 (5). Yazid, S., A., Razali, R., A., & Hussin, R., M. (2012). Determinants of Enterprise Risk Management: A proposed framework for Malaysian Public Listed Companies. International Business Research, 5 (1). Yazid, S., A., Hussin, R., M., & Razali, R., A. (2008). A cross-sectional study on foreign exchange risk management by Malaysian manufactures. International Business Management, 2 (2), 28-32.
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