Malaysia will likely have a general election in 2022

Significance The United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), surprisingly defeated by the PH in the 2018 general election, returned to government in March 2020 and regained the premiership in August this year through party Vice-President Ismail Sabri Yaakob. The next parliamentary polls are due in 2023. Impacts PH Chairman Anwar Ibrahim will come under growing pressure to step down as leader of the opposition. High-profile corruption proceedings against senior UMNO figures, including former Prime Minister Najib Razak, will be a drag on the party. Eastern Malaysian state governments will have greater influence over the oil and gas sectors.

Making Rebels: The New Zealand Socialist Party, 1901-1913

<p>The New Zealand Socialist Party (NZSP) was the first radical socialist party in this country. The decade in which it existed was a time of rapid social change. The NZSP began in 1901 as a reaction against the Liberal Party which dominated New Zealand politics at the time. In its first five years the party had two main branches in Wellington and Christchurch, but it grew rapidly after 1907 with the expansion of industrial unionism. The NZSP was overshadowed by the Federation of Labour and never developed a coherent national organisation. As the working class began to organise nationally to challenge the Massey Government, the NZSP failed to adapt to the new political situation and dissolved in 1913. The party began as a group of marginal outsiders, but as society changed and class became an important political factor, the NZSP played an important role in spreading new ideas and educating a generation of socialists. When the NZSP ended in 1913 the ideas it had promoted were widely accepted among New Zealand’s organised working class.</p>

Making Rebels: The New Zealand Socialist Party, 1901-1913

<p>The New Zealand Socialist Party (NZSP) was the first radical socialist party in this country. The decade in which it existed was a time of rapid social change. The NZSP began in 1901 as a reaction against the Liberal Party which dominated New Zealand politics at the time. In its first five years the party had two main branches in Wellington and Christchurch, but it grew rapidly after 1907 with the expansion of industrial unionism. The NZSP was overshadowed by the Federation of Labour and never developed a coherent national organisation. As the working class began to organise nationally to challenge the Massey Government, the NZSP failed to adapt to the new political situation and dissolved in 1913. The party began as a group of marginal outsiders, but as society changed and class became an important political factor, the NZSP played an important role in spreading new ideas and educating a generation of socialists. When the NZSP ended in 1913 the ideas it had promoted were widely accepted among New Zealand’s organised working class.</p>

Enhancing delivery: algorithms supporting performance management in the logistics sector

Purpose The purpose of this study is to contribute an actor-network-theory (ANT) perspective of how algorithms are used and whether this reflects positively on organisational practices and related perceptions of organisation performance, by both customers and employees. Furthermore, the organisation’s view of adopting algorithms to manage their performance is explored. Design/methodology/approach The current study is a study set in this virtual space, as it seeks to use data available online from different stakeholders of the case organisation. Online “virtual space” studies have become more common over the past few years. Primary and secondary data are shared online, for instance on relevant rating websites for customers (such as TrustPilot) and employees (such as Indeed), which serve as a reflection of the organisational performance and the communication of their values. This type of study has become more prevalent, either as a study undertaken online fully (Hine, 2007) or partially (for instance Baxter et al., 2019), which provides a different perspective to traditionally carried out face-to-face interactions. Findings The current study has contributed insights from a global case organisation in the logistics sector originating in the Middle East (ME). The case organisation clearly indicates that its algorithm, in line with particular presentations and discussions on online platforms, is focussed on analysing limited factors, which are prediction of accurate delivery timeslot, preferred and precise location for delivery and speed of delivery overall. This reflects an inherent bias of the delivery industry, which the case organisation operates in, and may focus attention on delivering on those objectives, with a detrimental effect on the organisation’s broader organisational mindset. This refers to long-term values and sustainability-related objectives. Originality/value Findings will reflect on whether algorithms can be used to align a multi-national organisation to achieve its desired performance and related desirable results. This will be one of the main contributions of the current study, which engages with a multi-national organisation in the logistics sector that is based in the ME region.

Enforcing Social Control in Rural Myanmar: Identifying the Implementer in the Pa-O Self-Administered Zone

The Pa-O National Organisation (pno) was the only pro-regime ethnic political party that managed to retain all its seats in the 2015 Myanmar election. Amid accusations of rampant land grabbing and faced strong competitions from political parties at the national, regional and local levels, how did the pno manage to secure the seats? Through quantitative analysis, the paper noted a statistically significant volatility in the turnover of village tract leaders (vtl s) in the township where resistance was strongest. This in turn suggested that the pno relied on the vtl s to enforce social control. There is a clear gap in existing literature on how social control is constructed at the local level. Applying the state-in-society theoretical framework by Migdal, this paper aims to identify the ‘implementer’ in the crucial process of social control in the Pa-O saz, thereby helping to shed light on how local politics work.

Developing Initial Middle Range Theories in Realist Evaluation: A Case of an Organisational Intervention

(1) Background: Realist evaluation is a promising approach for evaluating organisational interventions. Crucial to realist evaluation is the development and testing of middle range theories (MRTs). MRTs are programme theories that outline how the intervention mechanisms work in a specific context to bring about certain outcomes. To the best of our knowledge, no organisational intervention study has yet developed initial MRTs. This study aimed to develop initial MRTs based on qualitative evidence from the development phase of an organisational intervention in a large multi-national organisation, the US food service industry. (2) Methods: Data were collected through 20 semi-structured interviews with the organisation′s managers, five focus groups with a total of 30 employees, and five worksite observations. Template analysis was used to analyse data. (3) Results: Four initial MRTs were developed based on four mechanisms of participation, leadership commitment, communication, and tailoring the intervention to fit the organisational context to formulate ‘what may work for whom in which circumstances?’ in organisational interventions; (4) Conclusions: Our findings provide insights into ‘how’ and ‘which’ initial MRTs can be developed in organisational interventions.

Malaysia’s Muhyiddin will be secure for now

Significance The leader of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) earlier this month withdrew his party’s support for Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, ostensibly depriving him of a governing majority. However, a no-confidence vote will not be on the agenda when MPs reconvene next week. Impacts Enduring political uncertainty will hamper the effectiveness of efforts to contain the COVID-19 outbreak. Wrangling within all of Malaysia’s major political parties will intensify in the lead-up to parliament’s first full sitting post-emergency. The influence of Malaysia’s monarchs will continue to grow as further political instability at state level necessitates royal intervention.

Scouting Activities in Maintaining the Wellbeing and the Health of High School Students

The article is part of a larger research, this being the starting point in order to see the efficiency of some activities that are already in development, similarly to those that we are about to suggest in a series of activities packages for free time activities for high school students, that come to meet the problems they are dealing with, but also to support the teachers who have more and more the opportunity (obligation) to make projects for extracurricular activities. The case study presented analyses the level of wellbeing and health of high school students, members of the National Organisation of Romanian Scouts, Local Centre Târgu-Mureș, named within the association Explorers. We present the activities they have and we follow the dependent variables through a questionnaire.

Perception of survival and overconfidence: The case of Najib Razak (2009–2018)

This article aims to examine political decision-making by focusing on how leaders’ motivation to maintain power affects their perception of political survival. Such motivation however is susceptible to judgment bias. Built on political psychology, accountability may help leaders improve their cognitive complexity or make them resort to cognitive shortcuts. Where leaders end up in the cognitive spectrum depends on the type of audiences to whom they feel accountable: core (i.e. ruling elites and loyal voters) and external (i.e. the opposition and its supporters) audiences. Preoccupation with the former may prompt leaders to downplay the latter’s challenges. Moreover, leaders’ understanding of their support base may be mistaken—that core audiences may shift their allegiance to the opposition. The result is overconfidence. Analysing Najib Razak’s leadership (2009–2018), I argue that Najib’s perception of survival stemmed from his perceived unwavering loyalty towards core audiences, invulnerability as the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) standard-bearer and the weakness of the opposition. Unfortunately, his overconfidence resulted in Barisan Nasional’s (BN) defeat in GE14.