This study aims to investigate the effects of work-life balance, work environment, and reward and compensation on employee retention in Malaysia. A total of 400 questionnaires were collected online from employees within the service industry in Malaysia. Partial least square structure equation modeling was used to test the model and hypotheses. The results reveal that work-life balance and work environment had a strong positive effect on employee retention, but reward and compensation had a much stronger positive effect on employee retention. This research provides unique theoretical contributions by investigating these factors in the midst of the COVID-19 outbreak as components of the reciprocal process between employee and employer, and their effects on employee retention. This study also provides vital insights to business organizations to consider designing effective employee retention plans for a successful business.

In recent years, there has been a rise in studies aimed at better understanding the needs and traits of emerging adults and the role that higher education institutions play in their development and success. Despite the relevance of higher education institutions to the emerging adulthood development, there has been scant work done to synthesise the literature on this topic. A bibliometric method was utilised to retrieve 2484 journal articles from Web of Science (WoS). Utilizing co-citation analysis and co-word analysis, we determined the most influential publications, mapped the knowledge structure, and predicted future trends. The results of the co-citation analysis indicate five clusters, while the co-word analysis indicates four. The results could be used as a roadmap for the future of research on emerging adults by a variety of interested parties, including policymakers, university administrators, funders, and academics.

COVID-19 in Malaysia has significantly affected the higher education system of the country and increased the level of distress among university students. Empirical evidence proposed that environment quality is associated with university students’ life satisfaction during COVID-19. It was found that hope and optimism are linked with greater life satisfaction in general. Although past literature has reported the effects of hope and optimism on life satisfaction, there are limited studies examining the underlying mechanism among Malaysian private university students. Therefore, the current study offers the preliminary understanding of the intervening role of hope and optimism on the relationship between environmental quality and life satisfaction among private university students in Malaysia. A total of 133 private university students in Malaysia were recruited through homogenous convenience sampling. Partial least square structure equation modeling (SmartPLS) was used to analyze the mediation models. The results revealed that only hope mediated the relationship between environmental quality and life satisfaction, but not optimism. Hence, it is proposed that mental health providers should focus on providing hope-related interventions to university students in confronting COVID-19 challenges and ultimately improving life satisfaction.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the human factor, organisational factor, and political factor for enhancing business operational efficiency in a highly competitive environment in China's education sector. On a global scale, China has garnered recognition for its achievements in the field of education. However, there are significant differences in higher education resource allocation among the many Chinese provinces as a result of the pursuit of scale and speed, as well as unequal development across the country. Therefore, there is a need to investigate the factors that influence the operational efficiency of the Chinese educational sector in a highly competitive environment. A cross-sectional design was utilised to conduct an online survey with 121 education sector employees. According to the findings, the organisational factor is the strongest predictor of business operational efficiency, followed by the political factor. The human factor, however, was not a significant predictor. This study discovered that changes in organisational and political factors can have an impact on the operational efficiency of any educational sector. As a result, it is suggested that clear reporting and an organised hierarchical structure be implemented across all departments. As a result, the educational institute will be able to maintain its business operational efficiency more easily.