Small accommodation providers are challenged to grow their business due to their limited resources. Although social networking is suggested to assist organization growth, few studies have focused on how owner-managers in the Malaysian hospi-tality industry network and the value they attach to it. This paper presents findings of 10 in-depth interviews of social networking motivation and barrier of owner-managers of small accommodation in Kuching, Malaysia. The findings show that the owner-managers were motivated by the perceived organizational and personal bene-fits of networking with others. However, issues such as social competence and busi-ness concerns were identified as barriers that may limit their participation in network-ing. To overcome these issues, it is suggested that educators, policymakers, and trade associations work together with the owner-managers to address their specific devel-opment and resource needs.
The objective of this study is to identify the relationship between task characteristics (variety of skills, task identity, task significance, autonomy, feedback) and employee engagement. The study was conducted in a healthcare service in Sabah, Malaysia. A self administered questionnaire was used to collect data by using convenience sampling. A total of 78 respondents participated in the study. Data was analyzed using Spearman Correlation. The results revealed a significant and positive relationship between task characteristics (variety of skills, task identity, task significance, autonomy, feedback) and employee engagement in the studied organization. This has important implications to employers. It is recommended that managers, human resource development (HRD) practitioners and supervisors provide employees with more challenging tasks, autonomy and feedback from time to time. Moreover, work designs should include how the tasks may improve employee identity and significance.