Abstracts of supervised research papers

Below are publications and conference presentations (including one thesis) produced from supervised undergraduate and postgraduate research. I am proud of each student's work and believe in pushing them to present their work at either national or international conferences. 

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ADAPTATION OF SAFETY ATTITUDE QUESTIONNAIRE (SAQ) IN MALAYSIA HEALTHCARE SETTING

Che Suriya Che Kar & Harris Shah Abd Hamid

Safety culture has been shown to be related to patient outcomes and Safety Attitude Questionnaire (SAQ) is one of the measures of safety culture that has good psychometric properties. The present study attempts to adapt the short version of the Generic SAQ for use in Malaysian healthcare setting. The process of adaptation included forward translation and backward translation method, followed by content validity analysis by seven subject matter experts. All 36 items of the SAQ was retained for the field test. The MSAQ was distributed to 400 healthcare workers in a hospital in Kuala Lumpur. There were 126 returned and usable questionnaires (31.5% return rate). The internal consistency Malay version of SAQ is acceptable: the overall alpha value is .85 and alpha values for the six dimensions of MSAQ range from .67 to .85. Two items in two different dimensions need to be revised due to low corrected item-total correlation. The MSAQ can be further refined and used to investigate the relationship between safety culture and patient outcomes in Malaysian hospitals.

Che Surya Che Kar & Harris Shah Abd Hamid. (2013). Adaptation of Safety Attitude Questionnaire (SAQ) in Malaysia healthcare setting. Paper presented at the 10th Biennial Conference of Asian Association of Social Psychology, 21 – 24 August, Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

SAFETY CULTURE & BARRIERS TO MEDICATION ERRORS REPORTING: A COMPARISON BETWEEN ACCREDITED AND NON-ACCREDITED HOSPITAL

Nor Shuhada bt Murad@Mansor

Accreditation has been embraced by many healthcare providers as a mean to embark on a journey towards a safer care. As a systemic intervention, accreditation is expected to have a positive effect on safety culture, and, consequently, safety behaviour (e.g. error reporting). However, the evidence of its ability to enhance safety culture and patient safety behaviour, especially from the local perspective, remains inconclusive. Hence, this study aimed to investigate the safety culture and barriers to medication administration errors (MAE) reporting among nurses with regards to hospitals’ accreditation status. A survey, which consist of the MSAQ (Che Kar, 2013) and the Barriers to MAE reporting scale (Wakefield et al., 1999), was administered to nurses (n=175, with 76.1% response rate) of two public hospitals in East Peninsula of Malaysia which has a different accreditation status. Data was analysed using descriptive statistics, independent t-test, and Pearson correlation. Job satisfaction was the only safety dimension which was positively perceived by nurses (mean>75) in both hospitals. There was no significant difference in overall safety culture level between accredited (mean=73.25) and non-accredited hospital (mean=74.25, t(120)=.357, p=.722). All the barriers towards MAE reporting were significantly lower in accredited compared to non-accredited hospital (p<.05). Administrative response emerged as the major barrier to medication error reporting in both types of hospitals, followed by fear, reporting effort and disagreement over definition of error. Moreover, a correlation analysis showed that there was an association between safety culture and barriers to MAE reporting in accredited compared to non-accredited hospital (p<.05). Although the present study showed that accreditation status was not related to the safety culture level in hospital within local context, nurses in accredited hospital does perceived fewer barriers in reporting medication error compare to non-accredited hospital. The association between safety culture and barriers to MAE reporting in accredited hospital demonstrated the positive influence of the former in overcoming the latter.

Nor Shuhada bt Murad@Mansor. (2014). Safety culture & barriers to medication errors reporting: a comparison between accredited and non-accredited hospital. Unpublished master thesis, IIUM.

JOB SATISFACTION AND ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT AMONG EMPLOYEES OF A SMALL COMPANY IN KUALA LUMPUR

Madzwin Ansari Zambri & Harris Shah Abdul Hamid

A small company in Kuala Lumpur experienced high employee turnover for three consecutive years from 2010 to 2012. Two main reasons provided to the management during the exit interviews before the employees left were dissatisfaction on the remuneration packages and job related reasons. Remuneration packages were then improved significantly in 2012. This study was conducted to measure the relationship between job satisfaction and organizational commitment among the employees in this company after the improvements. Questionnaires were distributed to 22 employees (out of 48) who hold executive or management level positions. In this survey, the Job Satisfaction Index developed by Brayfield and Rothe (1951) was used to measure job satisfaction and Organizational Commitment Questionnaire by Meyer and Allen (1984) were used to measure organizational commitment of the employees. The findings show that job satisfaction is statistically not correlated to organizational commitment. More important, for intervention and organizational development purposes, this study helps to identify groups with the lowest job satisfaction level and lowest organizational commitment level. It is recommended that change efforts at the organisation include considerations for improving the job attitude among the identified groups.    

Madzwin Ansari and Harris Shah Abd Hamid. (2013). Job satisfaction and organisational commitment among employees of a small company in Kuala Lumpur. Paper presented at the 10th International Postgraduate Research Colloquium, 26th – 27 August, Bangkok, Thailand.

DETRIMENTAL EXTERNAL FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE PERFORMANCE OF STUDENTS WHO REPEAT PSYCHOLOGICAL STATISTICS

Hamed S. Haque & Harris Shah Abd Hamid

Psychology students generally dread their undergraduate statistics course. The current study explored the detrimental external factors that influence students to perform poorly in statistics courses. In-depth interviews were conducted on six undergraduate psychology students from International Islamic University Malaysia who failed a statistics course and the data was analyzed using thematic analysis. Eight factors were obtained (with a total of 19 sub-factors) and were arranged under the Lecturer, Social Support, Administrative, and Environmental categories. The findings of the study would provide statistics lecturers with a better understanding of why many of their students face difficulty in the course.

Haque, H.S. & Abd Hamid, H.S. (2014). Detrimental external factors that influence performance of students who repeat psychological statistics. Proceedings of the 11th International Postgraduate Research Colloquium, 21&22 August 2014, Serdang, Malaysia, 157-171. (ISBN 978-983-2408-18-5: CD)

FACTOR STRUCTURE OF THE STUDENT ENGAGEMENT INSTRUMENT AMONG MALAYSIAN UNDERGRADUATES

Mohammed Iman Karim, Harris Shah Abd Hamid

Student engagement has been known to be positively associated with academic performance, but there has been a lack of studies that highlight this phenomenon among Malaysian undergraduates. This study seeks to examine the factor structure of the Student Engagement Instrument (SEI) in a Malaysian sample. The scale was administered to 290 undergraduate students from the Faculty of Islamic Revealed Knowledge and Human Sciences as well as the Faculty of Economics and Management Sciences of the International Islamic University of Malaysia. Principal axis factor with Promax rotation was used in exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and revealed a six-factor solution that was consistent with the factor structure found in the original study by Appleton et al. (2006). A new factor labelled belongingness which was not discussed in previous studies was also discovered, which is worth exploring.

Karim, M.I. & Abd Hamid, H.S. (2015). Factor Structure of the Student Engagement Instrument among Malaysian Undergraduates. Proceedings of the Malaysian International Psychology Congress, Bangi, Malaysia, 2015, pp 16-27. ISBN 978-983-99859

TRANSLATION OF STATISTICAL ANXIETY SCALE (SAS) INTO BAHASA MELAYU

Muhamad Karimi Sulaiman & Harris Shah Abd Hamid

The study aimed to translate the English version of Vigil-Colet et al.’s (2008) Statistical Anxiety Scale (SAS) into Bahasa Melayu, and consequently explore and confirm its factor structure. The SAS consists of 24 items with three factors namely Fear of Examination, Fear of Asking for Help, and Fear of Interpretation. The translation method used was committee approach. At the beginning of the study, the expert committee translated the English version of SAS into Bahasa Melayu. Then, six subject Matter Experts (SMEs) reviewed the translated items. The researchers then harmonised the translation. The resulting scale was then examined via interviews with ten participants (4 females, 6 males) from the intended target population. The interviews were done to check the respondents understanding of the whole scale. A pilot test was conducted with 70 participants (6 males, 64 females) with a mean age of 22.36 (SD=1.01). The Cronbach alpha for the whole scale is .835. A purposive sampling of 300 undergraduate university students will be selected in the next phase of the study, aiming at examining the factor structure. Principal Axis Factoring with Promax rotation will be performed on the data. The findings of this study will be compared to the original factor structure of SAS.

Sulaiman, M.K. & Abd Hamid, H.S. (2015). Translation of Statistical Anxiety Scale (SAS) into Bahasa Melayu. Paper presented at the Malaysian International Psychology Congress, Bangi, Malaysia, 10-11 June, 2015.

 MEASURING EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE IN A MALAYSIAN SAMPLE: AN EXPLORATORY FACTOR ANALYSIS

Mohamad Nahar Abd Razak & Harris Shah Abd Hamid

Schutte et al. (1998) developed a 33-item emotional intelligence scale which they claimed to be unidimensional.  Petrides and Furnham (2006) conducted factor analysis on the same scale and found 4 factors underlying the scale.  Studies on emotional intelligence had been conducted in Malaysia with scales that were adopted, adapted, and developed. The dimensionality of the scales needed to be clearly demonstrated to better put the findings within the local context. This study examined the factor structure of the bilingual version of the scale (Malay translation by Abd Hamid and Kimin, 2004) using principal axis factoring with a varimax orthogonal rotation, in a Malaysian sample.  The scale was administered to 187 Malaysian employees in a government agency and a college community.  The analysis revealed four factors underlying the scale that matched Petrides and Furnham’s findings. Reliability was found to be good for three factors and unacceptable for one.  The issues in the factor structure were discussed.

Abd Razak, M.N. & Abd Hamid, H.S. (2015). Measuring emotional intelligence in a malaysian sample: an exploratory factor analysis. Proceedings of the Malaysian International Psychology Congress, Bangi, Malaysia, 2015, pp 28-34. ISBN 978-983-99859