Purpose The paper aims to identify the emerging themes on the challenges faced by the Malaysian private higher learning institutions (HLIs) in the provision of providing quality education. Design/methodology/approach Semi-structured interviews were purposively conducted with 29 of the Malaysian private HLI internal and external stakeholders ranging from the relevant personnel of the institutions (the quality director, administrators and senior academics), regulatory agencies, prospective employer, students and parents. Thematic analysis was then applied to analyze the participants’ responses in determining and clarifying the challenges faced by the Malaysian private HLIs in the issue of providing quality education. Findings Eight overarching themes were identified, namely, Academics, Facilities, Students, Programs and curriculum, Competition, Accreditation, Finance and Research. Academics represent the most frequent challenge raised by the participants, whereas Research emerged as the least mentioned challenge during the interview sessions. Research limitations/implications The present paper focused solely on Malaysian private HLIs, and thus, the findings may not be applicable to the foreign private HLIs that are operating in Malaysia as well as to the public HLIs. Originality/value The findings are expected to provide valuable guidelines to the Malaysian Private HLIs in areas where resources need to be critically disbursed. To the regulatory agencies and policy-makers, the findings could enlighten them on the difficulties faced by these privately funded institutions so that further policies can be designed and implemented to assist these institutions in their operations and long-term survival.

Currently, there has been increasing interest in the application of the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) in the educational sector. However, little effort has been made in reviewing its applications particularly in higherlearning institutions (HLIs). Thus, this paper attempts to systematically review and critically examine the applications of the AHP in this context covering 33 empirical and conceptual studies published in the period of 1992-2013. The studies are examined on the basis of four specific dimensions: publication year, country of origin, integrated techniques that were simultaneously applied along with AHP and also the HLI areas wherein the AHP was applied. The systematic analysis reveals that the AHP was dominantly applied in measuring quality education of HLIs, faculty member evaluation, performance measurement, strategic planning, university choice and selection of university majors.

Employees" reaction to organization restructuring varies as some react positively towards change but others refuse to accept it. Those who react negatively may engage in counterproductive work behavior. Since the existing studies are scarce in addressing this issue especially during organization restructuring, the present study is meant to investigate the influence of interpersonal conflict, anomie and trust in management on employees" counterproductive work behavior. Data were collected from 215 nonmanagerial staff of a company offering maritime related services, which is undergoing restructuring exercise. Using a multiple regression analysis, it was found that trust in management and interpersonal conflicts negatively influence counterproductive work behavior while anomie or feeling helplessness or hopelessness positively influences counterproductive work behavior. The implications of the study are discussed in the paper. Contribution/Originality: This study contributes in the existing literature by providing empirical evidence on the role of trust in management, interpersonal conflict and anomie in influencing counterproductive work behavior.

The issue of quality education in higher learning institutions is timely and crucial due to the Malaysian government's aspiration to turn the country into a centre of educational excellence in the Asian region. Quality education acts as an indicator of the institution's ability to provide tertiary education to the society as well as an instrument for the nation's economic growth. To date, numerous studies have been conducted to measure the quality of education in higher learning institutions in Malaysia. However, the task of identifying the challenges faced by these institutions in providing quality education and the critical success factors to address the challenges has largely been ignored by previous researchers. It is within this overall context that this study employs the Analytic Hierarchy Process, with the aim of identifying and ranking the challenges and also their critical success factors. Data was collected from the stakeholders of Malaysian private HLIs via semistructured interviews and a questionnaire survey. Results indicate that 'Establishing financial capabilities for the institution's self-sustainability', 'Complying with the rules and regulations of regulatory agencies and relevant professional bodies' and 'Providing facilities to ensure the delivery of quality education' are the challenges that need to be carefully handled by the management of these Malaysian private HLIs. Critical success factors that act as practical solutions to address each challenge were also identified and ranked in this study.

Manufacturing companies as well as service providers often encounter barriers in successful implementation of supply-chain management (SCM) principles and practices. This research, through extensive literature review, has identified the main barriers of SCM implementation for Malaysian manufacturing companies. Having identified the list of barriers, the items in the list are prioritised by applying the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). Ten respondents who have a wide range of experiences in dealing with SCM have provided the necessary inputs in the prioritisation exercise. The individual AHP pair-wise comparison matrices are aggregated and Superdecision software has been used to compute the priorities. From the generated ranks, the most critical barriers can easily be identified. The onus on the Malaysian manufacturing companies is to take note of the present research findings and take appropriate measures so that the full benefits of SCM can be reaped. Though the findings are valid in the Malaysian context, judgements from people from other countries can be taken and a comparison of the results can be made.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to develop a hierarchical model to rank the challenges faced by the private Malaysian higher education institutions (HEIs) in the provision of quality education and subsequently their corresponding critical success factors (CSFs) to address those challenges. Design/methodology/approach A sequential mix method was adopted in this study. Semi-structured interviews with 29 participants were initially conducted to identify the challenges and CSFs. This was followed by a questionnaire survey involving 158 respondents to prioritise the identified findings. Thematic analysis was conducted in the qualitative stage, uncovering the challenges and their corresponding CSFs. Data for both stages were accumulated from internal and external stakeholders of Malaysian private HEIs. Finally, the four stages of the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) were applied to rank the challenges and CSFs. Findings The qualitative stage identified eight challenges, i.e. “academics”, “facilities”, “students”, “programmes and curriculum”, “competition”, “accreditation”, “finance” and “research” together with their corresponding CSFs. The AHP enables the ranking of these challenges. “Finance” has been found to be the most crucial challenge and “high competency in managing the institution’s finance” as the most important CSF to address this challenge. Research limitations/implications As the study restricted its focus on Malaysian private HEIs, the results may not be generalised for public HEIs and foreign private HEIs operating in Malaysia. Originality/value The hierarchical model developed in this study is deemed important for implementation to resolve the prioritised challenges. It spells out the specific areas in which the resources of Malaysian private HEIs need to be prudently disbursed and properly managed.

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Paper aims: Several Barriers impede the robust effectiveness of the supply-chain management implementation for the Malaysian automotive industry. The purpose of the present work is to identify these Barriers and prioritize them.Originality:Originality of the present work lies in identifying the Barriers, putting them into categories and subsequently prioritize them by applying a scientific method such as Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP).ResearchResearch method:This study has identified five main categories of Barriers through literature reviews. Fourteen practitioners who are involved with the automotive industry helped prioritise those Barriers by applying the AHP.Main Main findings: Five main categories of Barriers are found to be technological, organisational, individual, strategic, and cultural barriers. Organisational barrier is the most critical barrier followed by technological and strategic barriers. Implications for theory and practice:This research provides important feedback to the automotive company managers to take appropriate measures to minimise negative impacts of the barriers identified.