WORK ETHIC : THE EMPLOYABILITY SKILL THAT ENGINEERING STUDENTS MUST POSSES

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1 WORK ETHIC : THE EMPLOYABILITY SKILL THAT ENGINEERING STUDENTS MUST POSSES Farrah Dieba Rashid Ali a, Zuraidar Badaruddin a, Ahmad Tarmezi Yahaya b a Academy of Language Studies, Universiti Teknologi MARA Pahang b MARA Higher Technical College Petaling Jaya Higher institutions, like MARA Higher Technical College, have focused their attention on generic and professional skills as well as thinking skills in their students through the syllabuses that they design. However, the issue of instilling personal qualities such as work ethic, which is considered as employability skill, has always been a challenge. Work ethic is a very fundamental characteristic that the students need when they are at workplace. Therefore the objective of this study is to investigate the work ethic among the MARA Higher Technical College diploma of engineering students who are doing their industrial training at various industries. This study is carried out to determine if they posses excellent work ethic at the workplace as required by the employers, which is measured using the Occupational Work Ethic Inventory (Gregory C. Petty, 1993). The analysis can provide technical educators with information to design syllabuses that can prepare the students for better understanding of attitudes, work ethic and to be competent. Keywords: work ethics, attitudes, employability skills. 1.0 Introduction Due to the 2009 world economic crisis, many major players of the industries had ended or resized their operation, resulting to limited numbers of job opportunities. The young fresh graduates were deeply affected by these moves as the number of graduates leaving higher learning institution every year did not coincide with number of available job. However, as a developing country, it is expected that there will be around 200,000 engineers serving the country in the future (Osman & et. al., 2008). Thus to ensure that these engineers are of high quality, several measures need to be taken. One of it is to ensure that the young engineers started off with positive attitude or what is known as affective work competencies or personal-social competencies (for this study, the term adopted is work ethics) needed at work place (Boatwright & Slate, 2002). And all these highly-sought-after qualities of young graduates should be instilled right from the day they enrolled as engineering students. Thus this study was conducted with the aim to identify what were the ethical values possess by MARA Higher Technical College industrial training students. The findings of this study will later provide some hint on the weaknesses and strengths, if any, of the programme in the soft skills development of future graduates. Earlier studies in Malaysia have confirmed that Malaysian graduates were fully equipped with technical skills in contrast to the employers stress on personal transferable skills such as communication and problem solving skills (Gurvinder & Sharan, 2008). This is in vein with Baxter 1

2 and Young (1982) who spelled out those fresh graduates need more than technical and theoretical skills. Future employers are actually looking for entry level workers who are dependable and trustworthy, have basic communication, thinking and problem solving skills, and have the desire to learn and advance, the ability to work as a team, and possess a proper attitude (Gurvinder & Sharan, 2008). This issue does not only concern Malaysian higher learning institutions, however, it received central attention in other international institutions, Petty and Hill (2005) had compared the self-scoring of work ethics between the supervisor and their workers. They found out that there is no difference between both workers and supervisors in term of interpersonal skills. However the supervisor scored significantly higher in initiative and lower in dependable. In contrast Hatcher (1995) reported that instructors scored significantly higher than apprentices on dependable and initiative. The apprentice on the other hand scored higher for inter-personal skills. With reference to the above earlier findings, it is hope that the current study would provide some input on Malaysian industrial trainees work ethics and how it is similar or different to the earlier findings. Protestant Ethic Scale developed by Blood (1969), Protestant Ethic Scale by Mirels and Garrett (1971), and the GDTAE s Work Ethic Program by Boatwright and Slate (1991 and 2002). However for this study, the Occupational Work Ethic Inventory (OWEI) by Gregory C. Petty (1991) was used to seek information and feedback from the industrial trainees. This instrument consists of 50 oneword self-rated items. These items are descriptors on work ethics which Petty has grouped the items into four factors which are dependable, ambitious, considerate and cooperative. The respondents had to response to either one of these options which are 1= never, 2 = almost never, 3= seldom, 4= sometimes, 5= usually, 6= almost always, and 7= always. In term of reliability, OWEI has recorded significantly high reliability - coefficient alphas ranging from.90 to.95 (Boatwright and Slate, 2002). In addition to the above, Brauchle and Azam (2004) suggested that OWEI s factor are replicable in different populations and that evidence exists for construct validity of this instrument (Petty & Hill, 2005). Thus, these are the winning points of OWEI over other available instruments. 2.0 Research Methodology 2.1 Instrument There are several instruments available to measure work ethics which are the Survey of Work Values by Wollack et al., (1971), 2.2 Participant A total of 16 industrial trainees participated in this study. These trainees specialized in electronic and automotive heavy machine engineering and were doing their industrial 2

3 training in Selangor and Federal territory of Kuala Lumpur. These trainees were of different states in Malaysia including Sarawak, Kedah, Melaka and Selangor. As for gender, all the trainees are male. 3.0 Result and Discussion The findings of this study were presented according to the four factor analysis which were interpersonal skill, initiative, dependable and work commitment. Apart from that, an analysis on how the trainees addressed their superior at workplace were also analyzed and presented in the discussion below. 3.1 Factor 1: Interpersonal skill Table 1: Interpersonal Skill Friendly Likeable Pleasant Courteous Cheerful Considerate Helpful Cooperative Well Groomed Appreciative Patient Interpersonal skill refers to sub-skills needed while dealing with other colleagues, subordinates and superiors within one s own organization and customers, authorities and stake holders from outside the organization. The trainees understudied reported relatively high mean for all traits under this category. Those traits were courteous, cooperative, cheerful, appreciative, patient, considerate, likeable, pleasant and wellgroomed. This was a good indicator for the faculty as they can rest assure that the students were well-equipped with basic yet important inter-personal skills. However, helpful and friendly scored lower mean than the rest. This maybe due to the fact that these trainees were not sure of what they should or should not do and when it is appropriate to offer help. They were used to act upon instructions and request from others during their studies and their life as teenagers. In term of friendliness, this item reported the lowest mean among all other items under inter-personal skills. One of the possible reasons was the age and status gap between the trainees and their colleagues. The trainees may not feel comfortable or shy socializing with colleagues older than them. In addition to the above, topics of discussion were also limited to everyday work as they only know each other for two months. However, it is not an alarming issue as this can be overcome after few months working in the same company. As a conclusion, the trainees understudied possess all the important traits needed to be good in interpersonal relationship. Even though, some traits scored higher mean than the rest, it is something that can be improved over period of time. 3

4 3.2 Factor 2: Initiative Table 2: Initiative Effective Perceptive Efficient Initiating Independent Ambitious Accurate Productive Adaptable Resourceful For factor 2 initiative, the trainees reported high mean for ambitious, independent, perceptive, adaptable, productive, efficient, resourceful and accurate. As these trainees just entered the working environment, it can be speculated that their level of motivation was very high therefore, they were highly ambitious. Initiative was the only item scored a mean of 5.46; the lowest among all positive items in the questionnaire. This findings coincided with the findings of Petty and Hill (2005), Hill and Petty (1995) and Hatcher (1995). Therefore, it can be concluded that it was common among the trainees to score low mean for initiative. 3.3 Factor 3: Dependable Table 3: Dependable Dependable Reliable Punctual Careful The findings suggested that the trainees felt that they were reliable and dependable workers. They reported that they were careful and punctual too. This is important as the current working scenario requires them to contribute right from the first day of working. However, it was a bit disappointing to look at the mean for punctuality. The trainees should be of high spirit and always punctual. This is one bad trait they inherited form the Malaysian society at large. It is recommended for the faculty to be more serious on the issues related to timeliness and punctuality of the students while they were still studying as the same attitude has been observed during their industrial trainings. 3.4 Factor 4: Work commitment Table 4: Work Commitment Devoted Dedicated Loyal Enthusiastic Hard working Persistent As for commitment while working, devoted scored the highest mean among all positive items listed in OWEI. This is followed by hardworking, persistent, enthusiastic, loyal and dedicated. As industrial training is the transition between the life of a teenage 4

5 student and a working adult, the trainees were really excited about making good impression doing their first job. As a result they tend to be more positive towards the people and the working environment they were in. Since, these were good attributes, it is hope that the trainees will stick to these traits forever. 3.5 Reversed items Table 5: Reversed Items Hostile Rude Selfish Devious Stubborn Irresponsible Careless Negligent Depressed Tardy Apathetic There were eleven reversed items included in the OWEI s list. Among these items, only three items scored high mean of 2.0 and above which were devious, negligent and depressed. Selfish scored the lowest mean of all followed by rude and apathetic. It is hope that the trainees can further improve their behavior so as to reduce the mean for these reverse items in the future. 3.6 Salutations Figure 6: Salutations Apart of the OWEI s factors, information on how the industrial trainees addressed their supervisor was also collected. The finding suggested that 67% of the trainees addressed their supervisors and managers as Mr. (name). This form of address was used when addressing both Malay and Non-Malay superiors. 17% of them used abang (A Malay equivalence of big brother, usually used to address people older to or at the same age of one s own brother. It is also a common term to express respect). In this study, this salutation was solely used to address Malay supervisor. This was followed by Boss and Encik (a Malay equivalent of Mr.) which recorded 8% each of the total population. Please refer to figure 6 for summary of the data. As a conclusion, the use of salutation varied across the trainees. It may depend on the existing culture of the workplace where they did their practical training and on the superior themselves. It was also observed, that the choice of salutation may also lie on the race of the supervisor. The trainees tend to use the English or Malaysian English forms (Mr. and Boss) to address the Non- 5

6 Malay. However, they prefer to use Encik and Abang for the Malay superiors. 4.0 Conclusion In conclusion, the trainees possess good working ethics in almost all four factors interpersonal, dependable, working commitment and initiative. Devoted was the item that scored the highest mean and initiative recorded the least mean of all. These findings were further supported by the mean for reversed items; with the highest mean of only Thus, the faculty can be rest assured that these trainees were on the right track and equipped with the best qualities to be part of the industry players. Hill, R.B., & Petty, G.C. (1995) A new look at selected employability skills: A factor analysis of the occupational work ethic. Journal of Vocational Education Research, 20 (4), Osman, S.A. et al. (2008) The importance of industrial training: Students perception in civil engineering sector. Proceedings of the 7 th WSEAS International Conference on Education and Educational Technology. Petty, G.C. & Hill, R.B. (2005) Work ethic characteristics: Perceived work ethics of supervisors and workers. Journal of Industrial Teacher Education, 42(2) References Boatwright J.R., & Slate, J.R. (2002) Development of an instrument to assess work ethics. Journal of Industrial Teacher Education. 39(4). Brauchle, P.E., & Azam, M.S. (2004). Relationships between selected demographic variables and employee work ethics as perceived by supervisors. Journal of Industrial Teacher Education. 41(1). Gurvinder K. & Sharan K. (2008). Malaysian graduates employability skills. UNITAR E-Journal. 4(1) Hatcher, T. (1995) From apprentice to instructor: Work ethic in apprenticeship. Journal of Industrial Teacher Education. 33(1). 6