Teaching Competency Among Academic Staff of M'Sian Private Universities - An Exloploratary Study

Global Business and Economics Research Journal
ISSN: 2302-4593
Vol. 2 (4): 34 - 44
Teaching competency among academic staff of

Malaysian private universities: an exploratory study
Muhammad Faizal A. Ghani
University Malaya, Malaysia
mdfaizal@um.my
Tengku Noorainun Tengku Shahadan

UNITAR International University, Malaysia
Mohd Shahir Liew

University Teknologi PETRONAS, Malaysia
Abstract
Academic staff plays an important role in delivering knowledge and skills to students in an
organizational academic environment. Private universities in Malaysia are not exempted from
this axiom. The academic staff is considered as a leader, instructor, facilitator and above all
Subject Matter Expert (SME). Furthermore, they have the challenging task to deliver the
subject matter, create a positive classroom environment, exhibit exemplary personality, and
showing high level of praise and encouragement to the students. In this modern day, there is a
strong demand for competent staff. Competency is a complex process whereby it involves the
interaction of staff, students and environments. 400 academic staff was involved in this study.
Most of the researchers agreed that competencies deliberated are focused on three strong
factors such as knowledge, ability and skills. This study analyzes the need for competency
based attributes to be ingrained within academic staff in a Private University in Malaysia.
The study herein emphasizes on three competency dimensions namely; personal dimension,
academic dimension and work place dimension. The finding shows that there is a high level
of relationships between the demographic variables, e.g. job title, tenure and ethnicity and the
three competency dimensions. A development of a competency model for academic staff is
proposed to ensure they provide quality students that in turn will transform into world-class
global workers.
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dimension, work place dimension
34
Keywords: competency, academic staff, private university, personal dimension, academic
Citation:
Ghani, M. F. A., Shahadan, T. N. T., and Liew, M. S. (2013).Teaching competency among academic staff of Malaysian private universities:
an exploratory study. Global Business and Economics Research Journal, 2(4): 34-44.
Global Business and Economics Research Journal. Available online at http://www.globejournal.org
Ghani, Shahadan and Liew

Vol 2 (4): 34-44

ISSN: 2302-4593
1. INTRODUCTION
Admittedly, competent human capital has become an important element for the success of
an organization, particularly in the context of modern business. Thus, some of the
competency models developed and applied in an organization is to evaluate staff
performance. The competency model was embraced by an early study done by McClelland
(1973), entitled Testing Competence rather than Intelligence. To date, some competency
model have become a 'code word' and 'practice' to almost all of the world's Human Resources
Department (HRD) in planning their core businesses and industries. Planning involves
recruiting, selecting, placing, and providing training for the intent of evaluating staff
performance. According to Kettunen (2011) this concept is becoming a necessity in higher
education, as serve as fundamental platform to nurture and secure talent for the future of the
country and the next generation.
In Institutions of Higher Learning (IHL) be it public or private university, academic staff
plays an important role to develop, modify and implement the education policy agenda.
Therefore, the staff should have competence (Rothwell, 2002). The role is becoming
increasingly important as this is indicated by the change in the teaching and learning
environment in an institution. This is being spurred by the higher demand for quality
education. In spite of that, it is imperative that Malaysia should not rely heavily on foreign
aid in providing quality education as this would undermine the development of local
competency in the long run.
Meanwhile, in terms of educational policy formulation, the government has formulated the
National Higher Education Strategic Plan 2007-2010 and with second phase 2012-2015. The
policy focuses and leads to the development of staff competency levels in the organization. It
is stated by the Minister of Higher Learning Malaysia, YB Dato Seri Mohamed Khaled
Nordin, that the objective of the plan as a hub of excellence for higher education. The
development of higher education organizations through staff competency as the following
strategies (a) strengthening its human capital , (b) creativity and innovation to enrich
everyone in the organization, (c) maximize the ecosystem of higher education, (d) benefit of
the globalization and (e) professional transformational leadership (Ministry of Higher
Education Malaysia, 2010). The plan is aimed at making local private universities
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citizen in the educational organization has a high level of competency.
35
competitive with at off in a developed country. Our aspirations will be achieved if every

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ISSN: 2302-4593
1.1 Problems in academic competence

The culture within the academic competence in private universities claims to be
comprehensive and prudent. It is so because private universities have a group of academic
staff that serve the needs and level of competence in various respected fields. On the
contrary, Bertoncelj, Kovac and Bertoncel (2009) stated that competence is closely related to
the phase of evolution, this indicates that academic staff should take the initiative to be a
team that not only improves the level of competence and effectiveness in the same field, but
take a more proactive competent across different fields. Competent academic staff
development across the field requires specific competency characteristics. Thus the
characteristics of competence require a sound implementation strategy and are one of the
factors that can contribute to an improvement in students' academic performance.
The view one the characteristic of an effective competency varies across different
literatures and individuals. In Malaysia, it is due to lack of volume that there is difficulty in
coming to a conclusive result of characteristics leading to competency. Abdul Rahim, Mohd
Najib and Lily Ting (2010) described the problems with their finding is due to a lack
sufficient literature during the study. In fact, existing local studies often cross-reference their
findings with that of at developed country as their reference model.
Therefore, under taking effort to identify the factors of competence of academic staff is a
very important thing and is seen to have many benefits not only for career development as
academic staff, but more importantly, to be a catalyst for the success of a particular public
institution of higher education and private institutions of higher learning in general. This
means that the need for a transformation process that can lead to a positive change and
continuous improvement of the existing culture is imperative. For example, Dubois (1993)
and Lucia and Lepsinger (1999) reflects this by explaining the need for personal
transformation character staff such as mental, intellectual, cognitive, social, emotional, and
physical or psychomotor attitude in completing tasks.
One thing to be noted is that competent academic staff serves as a platform to propel the
private universities recognition and value by the industry and the community. If the features
of a competency model and the implementation strategy undertaken by academic staff yields
positively, then the industrys perception to students that a private university education yields
a culture of learning and teaching in a private university. Cheetham and Chivers (1996)
emphasized that the staff is sufficiently competent to understand the involvement of the use
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who continue to look for knowledge, new ideas and approaches through an environment and
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is positive or vice versa. Therefore, academic excellence and competence are crucial to those

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of their thinking abilities in solving tasks given by the employer. Some of the academic staff
is technically-oriented while some others have greater social relationship skills. Thus a
culture program within the academic competence is necessary as defined by Jones, Voorhees
and Paulson (2002) as it relates the competency requirements to a set of criteria to assess
competency based learning objectives.
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
According to Michelle (2008) in her writings stated that competency model is a tool that
classifies each job either in the public or private sector. However, Bolden and Gosling (2006)
claims that competence is a condition that is 'related'. Bertoncelj, Kovac and Bertoncel (2009)
stated that the ability of an organization to survive in the market is through the process of
transformation. The duties and responsibilities of staff should be in line with the evolution of
the non-profit environment in order to compete and remain in the market. Similarly for,
public and private universities, in order to meet the competitive quality of education, the
management have to create or add new value. The new values are then promoted to academic
staffs who are competent enough to take up the values and to make an organization succeed
and even more outstanding. Early Childhood / generalist Standards (2001), outlines the five
core philosophy of competencies. For academic staff they are as follows, a) pledge to commit
to educating students, b) know the intricacies of the subject and have education and
knowledge requirements, c) fully responsible for organizing and monitoring the education of
students, d) a more systematic thinking through experience, and e) an important socializing
with the community around them.
Furthermore, according to Habsah and Aminuddin (2009) the principles and theories of
holistic education were proposed by educators or fellow philosophers such as Montessori,
Pestalozzi, Miller, and Clark or as early as the time of ancient Greek philosopher Socrates
and Plato. They added that the potential of the individual is the element of physical,
intellectual, emotional and spiritual. Education is a deliberate activity and therefore
'intentional'; implemented with the aim of learning activities and are considered with the main
focus of promoting skills and education (Carr, 1996).
Academic Staff Competency private university model obtained from the literature review of
six deferent competency models in a learning and business transactions organization with
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Based on Figure 1, the requirements analysis stage is made up of a Three-Dimensional
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3. THEORTITICAL FRAMEWORK

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varying current and historical highlights. Before the implementation of the design, the needs
analysis need to be performed in order to determine the objective of the study. Therefore, the
design stage is the stage that requires researchers to execute the planned design model. This
involves the collection and analysis of sample data. Furthermore, the evaluation involves
assessing the nature of formative and summative assessment competency model design of
academic staff at private universities.
Need Analysis Stage
Three-dimensional
competencies of
academic staff;
- Personal
- Academic
- Work place
Design Stage
Walter Dick and Lau

Carey (1978) ADDIE
Model (2003)
Analysis Stage
Academic competency
model of private
universities
Figure 1: Conceptual framework of study
3.1 Objective
This study aims to explore the academic staff competencies at private universities in
Malaysia. The focus of the study is based on three competency dimensions: personal,
academic and work place competency.
Therefore, the objective of the study is to identify if there is a correlation between the
academic staff competency and demographic factors such as years of services in academic
environment, job title and ethnicity.
3.2 Three competency dimensions
The three competency dimensions outline as follows:
(a) Personal competency
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staffs interaction of self-control, dealing with emotions and feelings, and physiological.
38
Personal competency refers to an individual's character as a function of an academic

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(b) Academic competency

Academic competency that builds on the skills, knowledge and comprehension or
understanding of the 'know-why'. It is related to an academic staffs use of cognitive
skills in solving problems.
(c) Workplace competency
Workplace competency focused on job know-how for example, understand the
directions and organizational goals, capability and understanding the institutional culture
and coordination of action such as adapting to a new technology, two-way interaction
skills and teamwork.
4. METHODOLOGY
4.1 Sample and data collection method
The survey sample consists of 400 academic staff private universities who are Malaysian
citizens and holds a Master's degree. For the importance of this study, the selection of the
sample size was carried out in various stages. Selection method was made due to its
suitability for obtaining samples from a large number and widespread population. The overall
size of the population of private academic universities in Malaysia holds a Masters in 2012 is
a total of 13.328 people. For the study, researchers refer to the formula prescribed by Krejcie
and Morgan (1970) in determining the sample size. A structured administered questionnaire
using 5-point Likert scale was used in assessing the staff academics feedbacks. The choice
of location for survey activities are in accordance with the latest number of private
universities level from 2007 until 2012. Data are obtained from the official repository of the
Department of Higher Education Malaysia (DHEM). Out of 29 private universities, the study
managed to get only 23 private universities to participate.
4.2 Instrument
According to Creswell (2009), the instrument can be built yourself, innovated from the
existing instruments or a merger between the two. He added that the information on the
instrument was considered an important component in the plan to collect data. For the
purpose of this study, instruments were made based on researchers modified instruments to
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suit with the culture and the nature of the environment study in Malaysia.

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5. FINDING AND DISCUSSION

5.1 Reliability analysis
Julie Pallant (2010) used the Kruskal-Wallis test as an alternative to non-parametric oneway analysis of variance between groups. The test is to ensure comparability in scores and
continuous measurements to groups of three or more variables. This explorative study is used
to answer forth the question; is there a significant correlation between the academic staff
competence at private universities in Malaysia based on years of services in education field,
job title, and ethnicity. Table 1 shows the results of the analysis of the validity and reliability
of questionnaires used in the pilot study. The pilot study involved 30 academic staff from one
private university at Klang Valley.
Table 1: Validity and Reliability of the Questionnaire Items with Cronbach Alpha Value
Item
No Item
Cronbach Alfa Value
Part I
Personal Competency
- Self-control
7-17
.710
- Emotions and Feeling
18-24
.744
- Psychological
25-34
.713
Part II
Academic Competency
- Skills
- Knowledge
- Comprehension
35-42
43-51
52-64
.820
.801
.802
Part III
Workplace competency
- Direction and Organizational Goals
- Institutional Culture
- Coordination of actions
65-77
78-84
85-95
.809
.826
.710
5.2 Descriptive statistics and analysis

The findings showed that the distribution of years in service in the educational field was
higher for 11 to 25 years of services with a total of 217 participants (54.2%). On the other
participants. The ethnicity of the participants showed that most of them were Malay, 301
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participants or 75.2%, 83 or 20.8% were Chinese and the rest 16 participants were Indians or
40
hand, there were 301 participants with lecturer positions or 75.2 percent out of the total 400
4.0%.

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Table 2: Participants Based on Years Service in the Field of Education, Job Title and,
Ethnicity.
Participants Profile
Number of (people)
Percentage (%)
Years service in Education Field
Less than 10 years
11-25 years
217
54.2
26-35 years
131
32.8
More than 36 years
52
13.0
TOTAL
400
100.0
Job Title
Associcate Professor
Senior Lecturer
Lecturer
Assistant Lecturer
TOTAL
9
70
301
20
400
2.3
17.5
75.2
5.0
100.0
Ethnicity
Malay
Chinese
Indian
Others
TOTAL
301
83
16
0
400
75.2
20.8
4.0
.0
100.0
Next, the analysis of the following is the test statistic of Spearman's rho correlation was
used to examine the correlation between these factors in designing a competency model for
academic staff in private universities. Shown by the significant correlation coefficient r
whereby significance level at 0.01 (two-tailed) and 0.05 (two-tailed). Correlations are
described as a function of high correlation, medium correlation and low correlation.
Valuation is based on Cohen (1988) quoted from Jullie Pallant (2010) which indicate a high
level of r = .50 to 1.0, moderate levels of r = .30 to .49 and r = .10 weak level to .29.
Correlation values shown in Table 3 as follows.
5.3 Years of services in education field
Dimensions I Personal competency with three sub-theme, high level of correlation for
Self-control (KPP1) (r=1.000), high level of correlation for Emotion and Feeling (KPP2)
(r=.557), weak level of correlation for Psychological (KPP3) (r=.147). Dimension II
Academic competency with three sub-theme, high level of correlation for Skills (KAA1)
competency, there are also three sub-themes, high level of correlation for Direction and
Organizational goals (KTK1) (r=.906), high level of correlation for Institutional Culture
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correlation for Comprehension (KAA3) (r=.730). For dimensions III - Workplace
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(r=.944), weak level of correlation for Knowledge (KAA2) (r=.013), and high level of

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(KTK2) (r=.863), and moderate level of correlation for Coordination of Action (KTK3)
(r=.396)
Table 3: Correlation between Years of Services in Educational Fields, Job Titles and
Ethnicity and Three Competency Dimensions
KPP1 KPP2 KPP3 KAA1 KAA2 KAA3 KTK1 KTK2 KTK3
-.030 .029
.073
-.003
.124
.017
-.006
.009
.043
Years
Services
.557
.147
Significance .555
.040
.042
.071
Job Titles
.406
.159
Significance .421
-.073 .010
.077
Ethnicity
.849
.125
Significance .147
** Significance level 0.01 (2-tailed)
*Significance level 0.05 (2-tailed)
.944
.036
.467
.027
.588
.013
.104
.037
-.034
.496
.730
.082
.102
.037
.466
.906
.032
.523
-.012
.804
.863
.081
.106
-.080
.110
.396
.016
.750
-.009
.864
5.4 Job Titles

Dimension I - Personal competency with three of sub-theme, moderate level of correlation
for Self-control (KPP1) (r=.421), moderate level of correlation for Emotion and Feeling
(KPP2) (r=.406), weak level of correlation for Psychological (KPP3) (r=.159).
For
dimension II - Academic competency, moderate level of correlation for sub-theme, Skills

(KAA1) (r=.467), weak level of correlation for Knowledge (KAA2) (r=.037), and weak level
of correlation for Comprehension (KAA3) (r=.102). For dimension III - Workplace
competency, high level of correlations for the Direction and Organizational goals (KTK1)
(r=.523), however, weak level of correlation for Institutional Culture (KTK2) (r=.106), and
high level of correlation for Coordination of Action (KTK3) (r=.750)
5.5 Ethnicity
For dimension I - Personal competency with three sub-theme, weak level of correlation for
Self-control (KPP1) (r=.147), however, high level of correlation for Emotion and Feeling
(KPP2) (r=.849), but weak level of correlation for Psychological (KPP3) (r=.127). For
dimension II - Academic competency, there are also high level correlation for the first subtheme, Skills (KAA1) (r=.588), and moderate level of correlation for both Knowledge
(KAA2) (r=.496), and Comprehension (KAA3) (r=.466). For dimension III - Workplace
goals (KTK1) (r=.804), weak level of correlation for Institutional Culture (KTK2) (r=.110),
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and high level of correlation for Coordination of Action (KTK3) (r=.864)
42
competency with three sub-theme, high level of correlation for Direction and Organizational

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Based on the correlation value is shown in Table 3, in conclusion, all the competency
items were related to the factors discussed above, but at a high, moderate and low level at
different sub-theme of competencies. The correlation value is a value r that varies between
positive or negative values. Positive r values mean variables have a linear relationship in
which aspects of the competency of first priority are directly related to the factors of study.
Whereas when the value of r is negative, this means the competency aspect is inversely
related to the factors of study. Thus, the correlation that exists shows that there is relationship
between the years of services in education, job title, and ethnicity of the academic staff in the
competency private universities.
6. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE RECOMMENDATION

Overall, relationship academic competence is very high regardless of gender and other
factors. Priority of competence building should also be on the interrelation of competence
dimensions and sub-themes to academic staff. However, the effectiveness of academic
competence by private universities is marginal. This happens because of the different
curriculum of private universities, such as academic staffs who teach in technical pedagogy
are more competent than academic staff teaching in the form of sciences and art theories and
concepts. Ever-changing needs of educational quality demand a high respond from the
private institutions in general, and especially the staff. Governmental pressure, societal
perception towards the quality of education has made competency of the academic become a
serious agenda. The private universities management has to look at a new approach for the
21st century and the importance of enhancing academic staff competences in line with
globalization. However, the debate over whether the current situation and the best way to
assess needs of private universities, especially in the building and measure of integrity of
their academic staff are thus far deemed competent. However, private institutions can no
longer skirt the ideas of implementing appropriate strategies or approaches to ensure their
level of academic competence is in line with market expectations and the expectations of
society.
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Bolden, R. & Gosling, J. (2006). Leadership competencies: time to change the tune?.
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