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COVID-19 triggered the downfall of global economies and heavily impacted the Malaysian tourism sector as the country’s borders were closed since March 2020. The decrease in number of tourists’ arrival into the nation caused huge losses for the tourism sector and unemployment rates have surged with more than 800,000 employees being out of employment and about 30 percent were for the hospitality and tourism sector. Although the government has provided numerous incentives and assistance to employers and employees from all sectors of the economy, the progress is rather slow, and it may take time to recover fully. One of the main challenges is the misfit of the employees who were retrenched as different knowledge, skills and abilities requirements are sought. Given this background, the paper provides avenues to rethink tourism talent management strategies post COVID-19 for the relevant stakeholders since the tourism sector is still seeing a surge in unemployment rates. This paper provides an up-to-date viewpoint in relation to COVID-19 and its spill over onto the Malaysian tourism sector while addressing the shift from ‘Person-Job-Fit’ towards a new norm ‘Talent-Job-Fit’ in managing tourism talent in order to create sustainable talent management within the sector.

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to explore the internalized dimension of motivation under the Unified Model of Vegetarian Identity (UMVI) model, namely, personal and prosocial motivators, for vegetarianism that spurs economic growth in the Malaysian vegetarian market potential.Design/methodology/approachSemi-structured online questionnaire was adopted as the primary methodology from which a total of 163 respondents were obtained.FindingsBoth, personal and prosocial motivators do positively relate to the economic growth of the Malaysian vegetarian market potential. However, prosocial motivators has a greater impact with a beta coefficient of 0.374 compared to 0.273 for personal motivators.Research limitations/implicationsProbable inaccurate representation of the entire vegetarian population in Malaysia. Time and resources available.Practical implicationsPractically, the Malaysian vegetarian society and Malaysian government bodies benefit from the study in ensuing promotion of environmental awareness in line with a vegetarian diet.Originality/valueLack of literature resources on vegetarianism in Malaysia led to the study contributing to an expansion of literature on the matter. This pioneer study benchmarks global literatures on motivators of vegetarianism and their impact on economy against the scarce literatures available in the Malaysian context. It contributes to the Malaysian economy and potential vegetarian restaurant start-ups wishing to enter the Malaysian vegetarian market. Theoretically, the theory of planned behaviour, utilitarian function and the UMVI were jointly utilised in explaining the motivators capturing Malaysian vegetarians' intention towards demand for vegetarian food.

There are two perspectives to talent management (TM) practices, exclusivity and inclusivity. The limelight, however, has been on the widely practised exclusive TM approach through development of high potentials. As part of the 12th Malaysian Plan, the social reengineering goal seeks to attain an inclusive nation. Thus, this paper sets out to outline propositions and a framework on critical success factors (CSFs) of TM followed by potential research questions for future researches. This paper sets out to explore the under-researched area of inclusive TM by studying its critical success factors (CSFs) that would enable applicability in Malaysia by means of an inclusive talent development plan. In doing so, the stakeholder, resource-based view and ability, motivation and opportunity theories can be synchronously utilised. As a result, four CSFs to inclusive talent development were identified, inclusive TM as a priority, the presence of multiple contingent inclusive employee valuation propositions, the need for strategic recruitment passages, and the ability to generate and develop inclusive talents’ knowledge, skills, and abilities. For Malaysia’s government and respective bodies to realise the goal of their inclusivity targets, they need to recognise CSFs of inclusive TM best practices primarily in relation to talent development.

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Background: In the country’s shared prosperity vision, Malaysia aspires to uplift the bottom 40% household income group (B40) by addressing wealth and income disparities. By 2030, the nation seeks to eradicate poverty through the provision of employment opportunities and career progression plans. A grey area between the nation’s aspirations and actions in practice can be observed because the goals have not been achieved despite numerous efforts aimed at the upliftment of the B40 group. The nation is still way behind its targeted outcomes despite various policies being implemented, which could be attributed to the mismatch between government policies and that of organisational practice. Thus, this study explores the rationale of strategic government intervention in managing B40 talent in the IR4.0 era. Methods: A general qualitative inquiry method that used 11 semi-structured interviews was carried out with representatives of Malaysia’s policy makers’, training providers, and trainees. All Interview questions centred around measures, importance and outcomes of B40 youth training from a multi-stakeholder perspective. Data were thematically analysed in five stages using NVivo. Results: Training, which includes IR4.0 era digital skills, is the key to uplifting the B40 youth to eradicate poverty. Proactive measures are imperative in the success of B40 youth training towards poverty eradication. Conclusions: This study contributes to the existing literature and helps practitioners by addressing the current gap in Malaysia’s aspirations versus organisational practice. Stakeholders should formulate proactive strategies to ensure that the right trainees are matched with the right training providers and government policies. A linkage between government policies and industry requirements needs to be established as opposed to the present discontinuity. A structured training needs analysis should be applied through a collaboration between industries and governments. Then, B40 individuals commonly found in lower-level positions can be pooled into the career pathway towards a shift into M40.

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