The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between pay and benefits, work environment, top management leadership, workload and job satisfaction among academic staffs in a private academic institution in Malaysia. Motivation-Hygiene Theory, Maslow’s Needs Hierarchy theory and Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) theory were used to establish the theoretical framework of this study. Questionnaire survey method was employed to collect data which yielded 82 responses in this study. Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) was used to perform data analysis throughout the study. All study variables were found to have significant positive relationships with job satisfaction among academic staffs in the selected institution. Top management leadership was discovered to have the most significant relationship with job satisfaction. The findings of this research provide a clear message to the top management that leadership plays an important role in enhancing job satisfaction of the academic staffs. Hence, it is suggested that the institution management should adopt appropriate leadership style and establish effective strategies and policies that aim to increase job satisfaction and performance of the academic staffs.

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between Human Resource Management (HRM) practices (Compensation and Benefits, Work-life Policies, Performance Appraisal and Training and Development) and employee performance. Data was collected through questionnaire from 161 employees of a manufacturing company in Johor, Malaysia. The results of the multiple regression analysis showed that performance appraisal and training and development were significantly related to employee performance. The findings suggested that training and development is the most important factor that positively influences employee performance followed by performance appraisal. Compensation and benefits and work-life policies were found to be not significant in predicting employee performance. In relation to these findings, human resource department shall have designed suitable training plan with comprehensive and consistent performance appraisal system for the employees.

Industry 4.0 is a new breed from the past industry revolution. The revolution implies an inevitable impact on professional sectors, including education field. Higher Learning Institution (HLI) is viewed as the platform for the development of Industry 4.0 competencies. However, research related to Industry 4.0 competencies among educators or academicians is scarce. Hence, this study aims to assess the level of Industry 4.0 competencies among lecturers in one of higher learning institution in Malaysia, as well as to identify Industry 4.0 competencies that required further enhancement. Five Industry 4.0 competencies identified from literature review, which are Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), Organizational Learning, Innovative Management, Environment and Continuous Improvement competencies. The importance level and implementation level perceived by the lecturers across the five competencies are assessed via questionnaire which responded by 132 lecturers from a higher learning institution in Malaysia. Data collected is analyzed via descriptive analysis to assess the importance and implementation levels perceived by the respondent. In addition, an improvement opportunity index, namely Focus Index is calculated for each competency. Finding from the study reveals that all the four Industry 4.0 competencies are perceived by respondents as important, however implemented at moderate level. Analysis result of Focus Index also suggests that competencies in term of Organizational Learning and ICT are “over focus”, while Environment competency is viewed as “under focus” which required further enhancement.