CHALLENGES OF STUDYING PART-TIME WHILE WORKING

TOWARDS EMPLOYEE'S JOB PERFORMANCE

Alpha Manik Anak Maling

Master of Science (Human Resource Development)

2011
 Pusat Khidmat Maklumat Akade«ji,.
UNIVERSITI MALAYSIA SA]7ANVAF

P.KHIDMATMAKLUMATAKADäMIK

1111111VIINq
1000246414
CHALLENGES OF STUDYING PART-TIME WHILE
WORKING TOWARDS EMPLOYEE'S JOB
PERFORMANCE

ALPHA MANIK ANAK MALING

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements

for the degreeof Master of Science(Human ResourceDevelopment)

Faculty of Cognitive Sciencesand Human Development

UNIVERSITI MALAYSIA SARAWAK
2011
 UNIVERSITI MALAYSIA SARAWAK
THESIS STATUS ENDORSEMENT FORM Grade :

TITLE : CHALLENGES OF STUDYING PART-TIME WHILE WORKING TOWARDS EMPLOYEE'S

JOB PERFORMANCE

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

First of all, I would like to thank God for the blessing and giving me strengths to face all the

challenges in completing my Master's Degree. I would like to specially express my gratitude

to my supervisor, Dr. Shahren Ahmad Zaidi Adruce for his guidance and valuable advice

throughout the completion of this research.

Special thanks to the Faculty of Cognitive Sciencesand Human Development that involved in

the study especially to the Centre of Gradute Studies at University Malaysia Sarawak for

giving me the permission to conduct my study there. My sincere gratitude goes to all first year

and final year master's students of Human Resource Development for their cooperation, time

and effort for this study.

My gratitude also goes to my parents, Mr Maling Kanyan and Mdm Kutie Sema for their

understanding and consistent encouragement. They have in many ways motivated me to

complete this research. Not forgetting my beloved sister, Madam Elizabeth Manyie and

brother-in-law Mr. Ortiger Elizwenger for their full support and always be there for me.

My heartiest appreciation to all my friends specially Samuel Chinonso Ezeonwu for his

brillliant ideas, information and support. Thanks to everyone that contributed directly or

indirectly in completing this study. May God bless you all.

111
 Pusat Khidinat {Vlaklumat Akademik
UNNER,SIT7 MALAYSIA SARAWAK

TABLE OF CONTENT

PAGES

Acknowledgements iii

Table of Contents iv

List of Tables V

List of Figures V1

Abstract vii

Abstrak

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.0 Introduction 1

1.1 Background of study 2-4

1.2 Statementof The Problem 5-6

1.3 Objective of Study 7

1.4 Research Question 7

1.5 Significance of Study 8-9

1.6 Limitations of Study 10

1.7 Definition of Terms 11-12

1.8 Summary 13
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.0 Introduction 14

2.1 Concept of Studying Part-Time and Previous Research Studies 15 - 19

2.2 Concept of Job Performance and Previous Research Studies 19-21

2.3 Theories of Motivation 21-22

2.3.1 Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs 22 - 23

2.3.2 Expectancy Theory 22 - 23

2.4 Benefit of Studying Part-Time While Working 24

2.5 Conclusion 25

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.0 Introduction 26

3.1 Research Design 27-28

3.2 Population 28

3.3 Sample 28

3.4 Sampling Procedures 29

3.4 Research Instrument 29 - 30

3.5 Reliability and Validity 30

3.6 Pre-Test 31

3.7 Data Collection Method and Procedures 31

3.8 Data Analysis Procedures 32 - 33

3.9 Summary 34
CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

4.0 Introduction 35

4.1 Informants Background Characteristics 36

4.1.1 Matrix of Findings on Informants' Demographic Characteristics 36

4.1.2 Interpretation and Analysis 37

4.2 Data Analysis on Findings

4.2.1 What are the main challengesthat you faced while you are

working and studying at the sametime? 38

4.2.2 Does your organization encourageyou to pursuestudy for

personalimprovement?Explain. 39-40

4.2.3 How did you able to manageyour study with busy work schedule?41

4.2.4 How much time do you spendon studying or completing

assignmentin week? Explain. 42-43

4.2.5 What are the positive impacts of studying part-time on your

job performance? 44

4.2.6 What are the negative impacts of studying part-time on your

job performance? 45 - 46

4.2.7 What are critical factors that are required to overcome the

challenges that you faced while studying and working at the

same time? 47

4.2.8 What is your expectation after completing or graduating from

your current program? 48 - 49

 4.3 Content Analysis of Each Research Questions 50

4.3.1 Research Question 1 50 - 51

4.3.2 Research Question 2 52 - 53

4.3.3 Research Question 3 54

4.3.4 Research Question 4 55

4.4 Conclusion 56

CHAPTER 5: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

5.0 Introduction 57

5.1 Discussionof ResearchFindings 58

5.1.1 The main challengesthat employeewill encounterin their work

while studying part-time 59

5.1.2 The encouragementfrom organization 60

5.1.3 Ways to managestudy with busy work schedule 61

5.1.4 Time normally spendto completing assignmentand studying 61-62

5.1.5 The impact of studying part-time towards the job performance 62 - 63

5.1.6 Factorsthat are required to overcomethe challenges 64

5.2 Contribution of the Study 65

5.3 Recommendation 66

5.4 Conclusions 67

REFERENCES

APPENDICE
 LIST OF TABLES

Table 1

Research Schedule 6

Table 2

Summaryof Data Collection Technique 27

Table 3

Informants' demographicbackground

Table 4

Categorizationof knowledge

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1

Analysis Framework
Figure 2

Number of informant accordingto gender

Figure 3

Number of informant accordingto ethnicity

Figure 4

Number of informant accordingto educationallevel

Figure 5

Activities that promotes knowledge sharing among employees

Figure 6

Factorsthat contributestowards knowledge sharing

Figure 7

Factorsthat inhibit knowledge sharing

Figure 8

The benefits of knowledge sharing

Figure 9

Kinds of knowledge employeesare willing to share

Figure 10

Characteristicsof the knowledge sharer

Figure 11

With whom people are most willing to shareknowledgewith

 ABSTRACT

The Challenges of Studying Part-Time While Working Towards Employees' Job

Performance

Alpha Manik Ak Maling

This study was conducted to seek challenges of studying part-time while working. An open-
ended question was used to collect data from four (4) informants from Faculty of Cognitive
Science and Human Resource Development, University Malaysia Sarawak of final year and
first year master's students of Human Resource Development. In this study, the main
challenge of studying part-time while working has been identified which is "time constraint)
At the same time, the positive and negative impacts of studying part-time while working are
also investigated in this study. Furthermore, the benefits of studying part-time while working
have also been discussed.There are some findings that correlate with prior researchesand
some new findings. In addition, few contribution and recommendation of this study towards
the organization, human resource practitioner and methodology and direction for future
researchare discussed.

Vii
 ABSTRA% '

CABARAN BF.LAJAR SEPARUH MASA SAMBIL BEKERJA KE ARAH PRESTASI KERJA

PEKERJA

Alpha Manik Ak Maling

Kajian ini dijalankan untuk mencari cabaran belajar separuh masa sambil bekerja. Satu
soalan terbuka telah digunakan untuk mengumpul data daripada empat (4) maklumat
daripada Fakulti Sains Kognitif dan Pembangunan Sumber Manusia, Universiti Malaysia
Sarawak tahun akhir dan pelajar master tahun pertama Pembangunan Sumber Manusia.
Dalam kajian ini, cabaran utama belajar separuh masa sambil bekerja telah dikenal pasti
yang "kekangan masa ". Pada masa yang sama, impak positif dan negatif belajar separuh
masa sambil bekerjajuga disiasat dalam kajian ini. Di samping itu, manfaat belajar separuh
masa sambil bekerja juga telah dibincangkan. Terdapat beberapa penemuan yang kaitan
dengan penyelidikan terlebih dahulu dan beberapa penemuan baru. Dalam sumbangan Selain
itu, beberapa dan syor kajian ini ke arah organisasi, pengamal sumber manusia dan
metodologi dan arahan untuk penyelidikan pada masa akan datang akan dibincangkan.

vii
 CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.0 Introduction

Chapter one of this study consist of eight sections. The first section of this chapter

explains the background of the study. The second section of this chapter is the

identification of the problem statement for the study. Third section is the research

objective and specific objectives. The fourth section of this chapter is the research

questions that are neededto be answered.The fifth section of the chapter explains the

significance of the study. The sixth section of the chapters is on the limitation of the

study. The seventhsection defines the important terms used in this research.Lastly, the

final sectionis the summaryof chapterone.

1
1.1 BackgroundOf Study

Experience and hard work may not be enough to insure the success in today's complex

life environment. The employees in the organization are expected to finish their

respective courses to gain their academic credentials. It is essential for every employee in

the organization to have their own basic foundation of learning in order to develop their

career. According to Dr. Phil Gardner, Director of the Collegiate Employment Research

Institute at Michigan State University, "The bottom line is that many companies will not

even look at a graduate without work experience, " (Students Turn to Co-op, 2008).

It is a good start for an employee to have their own background regarding the nature of

their work in an organization because it can definitely give them the edge to compete

with other potential in the organization. For some people, learning can be a stepping

stone to a new career, while others study to broaden their horizons and gain personal

satisfaction. According to Newman (2005):

"Accessto a quality educationsystemenhanceseconomicopportunities

population
and an educated will be morepolitically aware and

personallyfulfilled ".

In this modernworld, higher educationqualifications are increasingly required in order to

secureemployment or to gain promotion within existing employment especially for big

organization. It can be one of evidencethat prove this studying part-time while working

towards the employeesjob performance is a vital area for us to focus on. The need of

improving the knowledge among employees in organizations increased. One of the

2
reasonsis relatedto changingenvironmentand technologynowadays.Thesechangeswill

affect the employee's job performance becausethe pressuresof studying and work life

are higher.

Moreover, an employee can improve their chances of getting a better job without having

to give up their present job. However, juggling work and family commitments is often

difficult to opt for an employee to do full-time study. A lot of employees choose study

part-time to develop their career. Therefore, having the academic knowledge, skills and

other working capabilities are such great advantage for the organization because it is the

most influential factor in improving the performance at work place. According to

Matthews (1999):

"More and more individuals are consciouslymaking an effort to improve

their work-relatedperformance, through a range of different training

and educationprograms."

From this statement,it shows that employeesnowadays willing to improve themselves

in
either physically and mentally order to have good knowledge and gain wide experience

in their expertise.

Job performance is referring to the extent to which an employee is productive and

achievesorganization goals. Nowadays,job performance is one of the most important

aspectsthat must consistently improve in an organization. This is due to the fact that by

improving an individuals' job performance,the organization's overall performance can

3
also be improved. For the past few years, there has been various definition of job

performancethat is used.According to Sinha(2004):

"Job performance is related to the willingness and opennessto try

and achievenew aspect of thejob which in turn will bring about an

increasein the individual's productivity. "

Meanwhile, Howell (2004) statedthat job performanceis actually relatedto the important

of social standing within the vocation and to a certain extent this opinion is similar with

Greenberg and Baron (2000) who point out a positive relationship between job

performanceand the status of the vocation itself. From the statement,it shows that the

job performanceis the result of three factors working together which are skill, effort and

the nature of work condition. Skills basically about the knowledge, abilities and

competenciesthe employee brings to the job; effort is the degree of motivation the

employee puts forth toward getting the job done and the nature work conditions is the

degreeof accommodationof theseconditions in facilitating the employee's productivity.

Therefore,this researchwill emphasizeon the challengesthat face by the employeeswho

studying while working towards their job performance.At the same time, this research

will identify the factors to help to balancing the two activities and bring solutions for

employeeto face the challenges.

4
 PusatKhidmat MaklumatAkadernik
II NIVFRS177MALAYSIA
SARAWAK

1.2 StatementOf The Problem

For the past few years,there were limited studiesconductedto seek employees' opinion

on how to deal with the challengesof studying part-time while working and its effect

towards their job performance in Malaysia, specifically in Sarawak. Supposedly,there

should be more studies conducted in Malaysia since many local and foreign higher

education institutes and universities have introduced an adult learning in order for an

adult to continuetheir studying

There are several problems related to the challenges of studying part-time while working

towards employee's job performance. Mostly journals from western mentioned about the

lifelong learning in the research study but not specifically in the challenges of studying

part-time while working. Even though, some journals shown that workplace can become

a place where an employee can gain knowledge and skills which help them to upgrade

and equip an employee in order to increase performance and remain competitive other

than from formal education. According to Sloman and Webster (2005), learning for

people in today's organizations is increasingly seen as an important issue and the ability

of people and organizations to learn is seen by some as a source of competitive advantage

(Doos et al, 2005; Eddy et al, 2006). From this statement, it is true that the workplace is a

beginning place to acquire knowledge but employees who which to mastering and

become specialties in particular field. Therefore, for this research, it is crucial to explore

more about the challenges of studying part-time while working.

5
Furthermore, the impact and ways to manage of studying part-time while working

towardsthe employeesjob performanceare barely investigate. There are instanceswhere

learning and working are coming together. This is becauseof the tight situation in the

area of employment; many people choose to work while learning. The arrangementis

based on their own assessmentand schedule. Employees who opted to upgrade

themselvesby continuing their education will have to sacrifice and divide their time

in
accordingly which they will have to learn while working. They could be working in

day time and learning at night time or working on weekdays and learning during the

weekends.It is believed that these arrangements

significant influence on their work and

generatean impact in an individual's performance at work. Therefore, the impact and

ways to managetheir studying part-time while working will be the main purpose of this

study.

6
1.3 Objective Of The Study

Main objective of the study:

(a) To study the challengesof studying part-time while working towards employee's

job performance.

Specific objectivesof the study:

(a) To find out the individual performancein their work while studying part-time.

(b) To explore the impacts of working while studying part-time.

(c) To identify the successfactors that enable individual to overcome challengesof

studying part-time while working

1.4 ResearchQuestion

1. What are the main challenges that employee encounters in their work while studying

part-time?

2. How do employeesmanage to cope with their studying despite the busy nature of

their work schedules?

3. What are the impactsof studying part-time on employee'sjob performance?

4. What are the factors that contribute to overcome the challenges of working and

studying part-time?

7
1.5 SignificanceOf The Study

1.5.1 To the Students

The resultsof thesestudiesprovide useful information on how to copewith their studying

while working. In other way, this study will be beneficial a guide to studentswho faced

the challenges of studying part-time while ensuring and maintaining good job

performancefor the organization.

1.5.2 To the Future Researcher

This researchwill provide recommendationson how an individual will improve the

impact of challenges of studying part-time while working towards employees' job

performance. Thus, this study can acts as guidelines to any party or human resource

developmentresearcherwho is interestedin this researchwork whereby it can be usedas

reference especially for human resource development studies. Besides that, it also will

bring knowledge and perhapstheoriesor modelsrelatedto learning while working.

8
1.5.3 To Methodology

As this is a qualitative study, the data collected from survey questionnairesalong with

interviewing sessionwere interpreted and figures were used to explain the findings. This

method can be replicated in future researchby using different population and may serve

as referencefor future who

researchers are interestedin this research.

1.5.4 To the Human ResourcePractitioner

Findings from the study help human resource managers to understand the issues of

studying part-time while working towards employees' job performance. Hence, it helps

them to preparethe solutions to overcomesuchproblems and face difficulties in handling

employee's problem. Other than that, this research will also inform employees to

accommodatepart time learning and perhaps device conducive on how to facilitate

lifelong learning among their employees since new knowledge and skills from the

employeeare vital for the progressof the organization.

9
1.6 Limitation Of The Study

The first limitation is location. The study was conductedin only one local university in

Kuching and involved one faculty as a place to be investigated. Therefore, the result of

the study cannot be used to represent the Malaysian's perspective on the issue of

challengesof studying part-time while working. There could be different results if the

sampleused in this researchincludes those local universities in PeninsularMalaysia or

Sabah.This researchwas using small sample whereby the results will only reflect the

selectedinformants that involved in the studies. In anotherword, the result of the study

cannotbe generalized.

Furthermore,the other limitation is this study is only using an interviewing, observation,

document analysis and acquisition the information from the secondary data such as

journals, articles for data collection. These are part of qualitative technique. The

informants will be given the open-endedquestionsfirst, and then they will be interviewed

in dept for further information. If the respondfrom the informants are not apparent,there

will be a follow up sessionwith the informants so that their answers are fulfilled the

questionsand objectivesof the study.

Besidesthat, issueof biasnessof the researchescould reflect on the small samplesize in

this study. The reliability and validity of the study dependson the given time constraints

and the informants may be hast and-may not be totally honest in reviewing their life

experiences.

10
1.7 Definition Of Terms

Definition of terms is divided into two types which are conceptual and operational

definitions. A conceptualdefinition describeswhat a conceptmeansby relating it to other

abstractconcepts.An operationaldefinition describesa conceptin terms of its observable

and measurable characteristics or behaviors, by specifying how the concept can be

observedin actual practice.

(i) Employee

ConceptualDefinition

An employee is a person who works in the service of another person under an

expressor implied contract of hire, under which the employer has the right to

control the details of work performance.(Murray. J, 2009).

OperationalDefinition

A personwho is working for anotherperson in order to get pay or a personwho

works part-time or full-time under a contract of employment and has recognized

rights and duties.

11