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Global studies investigating scaling-up of mental health services have highlighted mental health policy development and implementation as a priority area, especially in low- and middle-income countries. This research aimed to investigate Malaysia's National Mental Health Policy (NMHP) development and implementation and explore the barriers and facilitators to mental health care from multi-stakeholder point of view. This study, consisting of two main parts, adopted the situation analysis model from the Global Mental Health Lancet 2011 Series. Part One details the current mental health plans and development of the NMHP with data obtained via semi-structured interview, consultation observation, and government documents analysis. Part Two investigates key stakeholder perceptions and/or experiences gained through semi-structured interviews with 54 participants across five main stakeholder groups: policymakers, service providers, NGOs, service users, and caregivers. These were analysed using content analysis and the Framework Method respectively. Six categories of types of mental health plans emerged: (1) 'action plans', (2) 'education and training', (3) 'operational', (4) 'community psychiatry', (5) 'promotion', and (6) 'NGO'. Further, stakeholders identified seven key areas in relation to mental health care: (1) 'barriers to mental health care', (2) 'suggestions for improvement', (3) 'awareness and knowledge on mental health', (4) 'facilitators to mental health care', (5) 'impact of mental illness', (6) 'duty of care', and (7) 'cultural spiritual or ethnic influence'. Findings indicate the extent to which the NMHP objectives and goals were achieved between 2009 and 2016. Issues around attitude, resources, and awareness are most pressing to address. Facilitating factors, as well as suggestions for improvements, were uncovered too. Further important considerations in providing care in Malaysia revolve around raising awareness and knowledge, cultural appropriateness, and the roles of family, friends and even NGOs. This study concludes with proposed needs- and asset-based recommendations for future national mental health policy development.

This study is a comparative investigation of organizational leadership internationally in Australia, Singapore and Malaysia. The thesis developed is largely based on the "PM" (Performance/Maintenance) model of leadership developed by Misumi over the last three or four decades in Japan.The Misumi model sets a precedent interesting for its Eastern juxtaposition with Hofstede and for the tension it recognizes between behaviours general to all situations of organizational leadership and those which are context-specific. In addition to the focus on this theory in particular, the study examines the relationship of national and personal values to perceptions and interpretation of organizational leadership behaviour. The underlying purpose is to increase understanding of cross-cultural variables in the field of organizational leadership.For its premise, the research undertaken makes the suggestion that leadership behaviours are influenced by national cultural variables and therefore national similarities or differences are, at least to some extent, culturally determined. It is the scope of this cultural imperative which becomes the focus for the thesis. Hypotheses developed, and the data gathered to test them, centre on the perceptions of consistency between organizational leadership in Australia, Singapore and Malaysia.

Stress can lead to poor health and loss of productivity among employees across occupations. Stress does not only affect individuals but also organizations by causing work absence and staff turnover. Academics in Malaysian public universities are no exception. Due to the rapid developments in tertiary education, academics in Malaysian public universities are believed to be experiencing increased job demands that potentially lead to increased stress. This study was carried out to examine: i) the direct effect of role stressors (i.e. role overload, role ambiguity and role conflict) on strain; ii) the direct effect of strain on the outcomes of strain (i.e. cynicism, professional efficacy, and organizational commitment); iii) the moderation effects of organizational support, peer support, and self-efficacy on the relationships between role stressors and strain; iv) the mediation effect of strain on the relationship between role stressors and strain; and v) the mediation effect of outcomes of strain (i.e. cynicism, professional efficacy, and organizational commitment) on the relationship between strain and intention to leave among those academics. This study used a non-experimental two-wave panel design. Eleven of the 12 study variables were measured using pre-existing scales except for self-efficacy, iii which was measured by items specially developed for this study. A longitudinal survey with a six-month time interval yielded 357 respondents (academics) at time 1 and 210 respondents at time 2. Data were analyzed using multiple regression, hierarchical regression, and structural equation modeling (SEM) to test for direct effects, moderation effects and mediation effects respectively. The findings of this study indicate that academics who experienced increased levels of role stressors were more likely to have increased levels of strain. Subsequently, the strained academics were more likely to show higher levels of cynicism and lower levels of professional efficacy and organizational commitment. The predicted moderators (i.e organizational support, peer support, and self-efficacy) had no significant influence on the relationships between role stressors and strain. Mediation analyses consisted of two parts. In the first part, I found that strain strongly mediated the relationship between role ambiguity and outcomes of strain (i.e. cynicism, professional efficacy, and organizational commitment). In the subsequent mediation analysis, I found that cynicism and organizational commitment fully mediated the relationship between strain and intention to leave, but not professional efficacy.

This study explores the Malaysian understanding and definition of the concept and terminology of organisational learning (OL) as well as the learning strategies and practices Malaysian organisations use to implement learning. As part of Malaysia's Vision 2020, the government has made a substantial and public commitment to promoting organisational learning to assist industry move to a first world economy status. A number of authors have defined organisational learning as a process of knowledge acquisition that involves continuous change to create, acquire, and transfer knowledge (Garvin 1993; Miller 1996; Williams 2001). The objective is to explore if this conceptualisation has been accepted and implemented within Malaysia and if not, where opportunities exist to improve both the understanding and practice of Organisational Learning. The study explores the understanding of OL and the learning strategies practiced by Malaysian organisations. In-depth interviews were conducted among human resources managers, executives, professors and lecturers from the manufacturing, health, government and academic sectors in Malaysia. The information gathered was analysed using Nudist (v6) software to interrogate and explore similarities and differences in responses within and across the sectors. Trends emerging from the data were drawn together to present a picture of what happens in practice and to identify opportunities to improve and better manage the implementation of organisational learning and knowledge management strategies. The results suggest Malaysian industry representatives were, in general, able to define OL as a concept, however there was variable evidence that it is being implemented effectively in organisations. The manufacturing respondents had a higher level of understanding of OL than other industries. In practice, learning strategies also vary; health organisations emphasize seminars and conferences, the manufacturing sector emphasizes experiential learning, government departments focus more on attachment and exposure, whereas academic respondents were more reliant on self-learning. Overall, the most popular learning strategy is structured training and development programs, which suggests more needs to be done to inculcate learning strategies within the various industries. Those industries with stronger implementation patterns favoured a specialist department to provide a hub for handling knowledge and skills acquisition, for both internal and external learning sources. In contrast, the understanding of knowledge management was much lower, and indeed, the term was unfamiliar to some respondents. These findings may be limited due to the small size of the sample and the findings being from a management perspective. Nonetheless, given the government's strong commitment to organisational learning and the current lack of empirical industry studies within Malaysia, this study serves as a benchmark. It does identify that the uptake of OL is still relatively limited and more needs to be achieved to promote a greater understanding of OL if it is to be successfully implemented in Malaysia.

This study analyzed intercultural communication competence between Malays and Chinese in organizational and social settings in Malaysia. Two groups: Malays and Chinese in organizations in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), were studied. The intent of this study was to find similarities and differences in Malays and Chinese' communication styles. A total of forty-six respondents were surveyed: twenty-three Malay executives and twenty-three Chinese executives, in organizations in Malaysia. The organizations were selected based on their function, size, number of employees, ethnic composition, and location. The open-ended questionnaire was written in English and pretested. The revised questionnaire was sent to Kuala Lumpur to be administered by two interviewers who were from each ethnic groups. All of the responses from the questionnaire were interpreted and categorized by two Malay and two Chinese individuals who acted as coders. This study used thematic content analysis to analyze the responses from the two groups. Respondents' descriptions and explanations of their perceptions on conflict were studied. Coders from both ethnic groups were asked to recall a conflict situation in both organizational and social settings. Each group varied in their definition and perception of conflict. The results showed some similarities in their perception of appropriate and effective verbal and nonverbal messages in organizational and social settings. The results also showed some similarities and differences in their perceptions of inappropriate and ineffective verbal and nonverbal across ethnic group lines. The similarities can be explained by shared orientations to uncertainty, large degrees of power distance and collectivism. The differences may be due to cultural dimensions that are situationally variant. The findings showed both groups' preference for clear and explicit verbal messages in task orientations, and for nonverbal messages in relational-orientations. / Graduation date: 1993

Tanto los antiguos colonialistas británicos como el actual gobierno local han insistido en que los campesinos malayos no han sabido adaptarse a la nueva economía de mercado. Este es el presunto problema del subdesarrollo económico malayo que aborda la tesis doctoral, una monografía etnográfica basada en quince meses de trabajo de campo entre los pescadores tradicionales de la sociedad de Pulau Tuba, una de las 101 islas del Archipiélago de Langkawi, en el Estado de Kedah, Malaysia. La investigación aborda temas de economía política recogidos bajo rúbricas como «subdesarrollo», «colonialismo y capitalismo», «transformación económica de sociedades campesinas», «intervencionismo público y desarrollo rural», «economía pesquera tradicional», etcétera. El trabajo tiene tres objetivos. El primero es cognitivo: paliar un importante vacío en el ámbito de la antropología nacional sobre el sudeste asiático en general y sobre Malaysia en particular. El segundo objetivo constituye propiamente el núcleo de la investigación: ofrecer una explicación antropológica a las aparentes dificultades y limitaciones que presenta la sociedad malaya para adaptarse al nuevo orden mercantil y evaluar críticamente los argumentos neoliberales generalmente esgrimidos para justificar la necesidad de la rápida transición económica. El tercer objetivo es de orden teórico: a partir de los datos empíricos y la reconstrucción histórica, se reevalúan las tesis de la economía moral referentes al campesinado asiático y al impacto del capitalismo. La etnografía tiene un carácter deliberadamente clásico y empírico: es un ejercicio descriptivo, interpretativo y explicativo que consta de cinco partes. La primera parte, La Forja del Crisol Étnico, aborda el proceso histórico que lleva a la presente configuración pluricultural del país, desde la sociedad precolonial hasta la actual política nacional malaya. La segunda parte, El Tejido Social o El Mundo Visible, describe la realidad del enclave local mediante datos etnohistóricos, demográficos y socioeconómicos y analiza el sistema normativo-moral que impregna a la pequeña comunidad malaya. Este marco general permite analizar las relaciones de parentesco y sus obligaciones y derechos implicados. La cuarta parte, «Alam Ghaib» o el Mundo Invisible, explora la cosmología y el sincretismo malayo. La contraposición entre el mundo visible (lo material y social) y el mundo invisible (lo espiritual e ideal) permite entender la concepción del cuerpo humano, la enfermedad, el azar económico y la relación entre magia negra y economía. La quinta parte, la Radiografía Económica de Pulau Tuba, consta de un análisis pormenorizado de la economía insular. Se analizan los rasgos ecológicos y climáticos, la actividad económica principal (pesca), las fuentes de ingresos secundarios, las relaciones y medios de producción y las características de los negocios rurales. La sexta parte, Las Políticas de la Pobreza y la Marginación, revela las claves de la aparente dificultad económica malaya. Finalmente se ofrece una alternativa a las explicaciones sobre el impacto capitalista y se dedica una crítica a la economía moral. / Old British colonialism and present local government alike have affirmed that Malay peasants have failed to adapt to the new market economy. This is the apparent problem of the Malay economic underdevelopment that approaches this thesis, an ethnographic monograph based on fifteen months of fieldwork among the traditional fishermen of Pulau Tuba, one of the 101 islands of the Archipelago of Langkawi, State of Kedah, Malaysia. The research raises political economy topics under headings like "underdevelopment", "colonialism and Capitalism", "economic transformation of peasant societies", "public interventionism and rural development", "traditional fishing economy", and so on. The work has three objectives. The first one tries to palliate an important lack of Spanish ethnography on Southeast Asia in general and Malaysia in particular. The second objective constitutes properly the corner-stone of the research: to offer an anthropological explanation to the apparent difficulties of the Malay society to adapt to the new mercantile order and to evaluate the neo-liberal arguments used generally to justify the necessity of its economic transition. The third objective is of theoretical order: departing from the empirical and historical data we analyse the moral economy thesis in order to revaluate the theories on Capitalism penetration and Asian peasantry.The ethnography has a classic and empirical character: it is a descriptive interpretative and explanatory exercise that consists of five parts. The first part, The Forge of the Ethnic Crucible, approaches the historical process that makes the present pluricultural configuration of the country, from the precolonial society to the present Malayan national policy. The second part, The Social Weave or the Visible World, describes the reality of the local setting by means of etnohistóric, demographic and socioeconomic data and describes the normative and moral system that impregnates the 'little community'. This general frame allows us to analyse the kinship relationship, its obligations and rights. The fourth part, "Alam Ghaib" or the Invisible World, explores the cosmology and the Malay sincretism. The contrast between visible (the social material and) and invisible world (spiritual and the ideal thing) allows us to understand the local conception of human body, disease, and the relationship between economy and magic. The fifth part, Economic x-ray of Pulau Tuba, is a detailed analysis of the insular economy, and it deals with the ecological and climatic traits, the main economic activity (fishing), sources of secondary income, means and relations of productio, etcetera. The sixth part, Policies of Poverty and Marginalization, reveals the keys of the apparent Malay economic difficulty. Finally an alternative is offered to the explanations on the capitalist impact and a critic is dedicated to the moral economy.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2001. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 168-172). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2001. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 168-172). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2000. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 372-391). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.