Journals & Books – USIM PODCASTS

This dialogue highlights why knowledge on conflict and conflict resolution is an essential skill for any society, and provides a broad introduction to the nature, scope and practices of conflict resolution. Knowledge on conflict resolution allows society to understand the fundamental problems that give rise to conflicts, the power dynamics and recognition of interests of all parties. It emphasises the contextual nature of descriptions of peace and conflict and the importance of a thorough analysis in determining the most effective course of intervention. Here, the notion of wise and unwise approaches in conflict resolution is explained by referring to the actions taken by parties to curb escalations of disputes, including shifting the emotional positions to the achievement of interests of both parties. Another crucial observation is the relationship between law and solutions proposed in peace and conflict studies, with examples from both interpersonal and international conflicts. The elaboration is based on the C.R SIPPABIO framework as a comprehensive approach to study conflict resolution as introduced by Emeritus Professor Dr Amr Abdalla in his scholarly works. The Islamic viewpoint on conflict resolution are discussed in an interesting way, and this dialogue further highlights how, in addition to focusing on legal interpretations, Quranic interpretations must also take into account ethical dimensions and accountability to God.

Academics in higher education of Malaysia are expected to uphold the nation’s aspiration of
achieving a world-class education level and producing multi-skilled and competent individuals.
On top of that, academics are an important player in nurturing the government’s aims
for the harmonisation and oneness of its people that will then carry the aspiration of the nation
towards being a fully developed country in the coming years. Their contribution in
disseminating knowledge and cultivating the value of research and innovation has always been
scrutinised by the government, the industry and the society. As evidenced by recent key policy
decisions, education in the country is being liberalised, as educational achievement is seen to
be the cornerstone from which national prosperity can be constructed. An understanding of
communication outcomes such as satisfaction, is a prerequisite to an integrative explanation
of communication behavior. According to Khairunneezam handsome (2013), not only are such
outcomes influential in determining future communication behaviour, they also provide a
theoretical framework for grouping and assessing the importance of various process elements.

Communication satisfaction is a general concept that covers the communication and
feedback between executives and employees, horizontal and vertical communications, work
related information and communication among departments. Communication satisfaction
carries a personal meaning, where even two people working under same department and same
conditions may have different opinions. In accordance with the content of the research
conducted, communication satisfaction can sometimes be considered as criteria, while it can
also be considered as a theory constructing concept or a function that improves
communicational skills. Therefore, the current article is aimed to fill a gap in the literature pertaining
to the current communication satisfaction level among academics in the Malaysian higher
education. The article is anticipated to explore the riposte of two questions. What is the level
of communication satisfaction among academics in Malaysian higher educational institutions?
What is the difference of the level of communication satisfaction among those academics in terms of
gender, age, and tenure in the current university? The population for the study comprised
academics from three public higher education institutions of Malaysia which included a wide
range of university faculties, departments and academic units in each participating university.

Respondents showed a moderate level of satisfaction with communication. These findings
support the outcome of several past studies. It is understandable why moderate level of
communication satisfaction is the result. In previous studies, issues like poor flow of
communication and misinterpretation of messages between academics and the administration
staff was spoken of as a significant issues impeding job satisfaction among academics. Spector
(1997) asserts that communication in the organisation is a critical aspect that should be
carefully promoted and monitored in any organization. Any occurrence of communication
breakdown among the members in the organisation, will influence the way how each
person interact with each other and how important information is shared among them. It will
then influence the attitude and behaviour of each person in the organisation, including the level of
job satisfaction. Other findings highlighted that males were more satisfied with communication
than females. Then, it was found that older academics were more satisfied than the younger
counterparts, and senior academics were more satisfied than juniors.

The current study extends the work of past researchers by exploring the differences of
satisfaction with communication among different demographic subgroups of gender, age, and
tenure. These findings regarded as a significant contribution towards the body of knowledge in
communication satisfaction especially in research among academics in Malaysian public higher
education institutions. Through the future work on these correlations, it is hoped that better
intervention could be implemented by the university to create and maintain an
optimum level of communication satisfaction among academic staff. In Islam, good
communication among persons especially who work under the same organization will
reflect integrity and embeddedness, contribute towards better relationship, better
working productivity, and blessing from Allah. As mentioned by Allah SWT, Quran informs us what
should be the best speech. Allah says in the Quran, and who is better in speech than someone calls
to God, acts with integrity, and says, I am of those who submit. Al-Fussilat, verse 33.