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The purpose of this paper looks into how the Islamic legal maxims (ILM) could provide a basis for Sharīʿah audit practices in assisting the institution’s managerial practice to achieve Maqasid al Shari’ah (MS).

The findings of the study recorded in this paper are based on a single case study selected from a preliminary study. The qualitative approach was used, where two phases of a semi-structured interview were conducted on the targeted participants in their natural settings.

It was found that with the implementation of Sharīʿah audit practices, ILM supports the achievement of MS by Islamic banks. With this, the income generated by these banking institutions is halal, and all business transactions and operations will not violate the Sharīʿah principles. Furthermore, the ILM includes principles such as “certainty is not overruled by doubt,” “matters determined according to intentions,” “the norm in transactions is that of permissibility,” “harm must be eliminated” and “judgment is to be based on knowledge and understanding.”

The findings of this study have provided valuable information that would lead Muslim auditors to exhibit a strong character while abiding by Islamic principles.

MS is strongly recommended in Islamic banking institutions because of the significant relationship between MS and the objectives of business transactions where wealth must be protected in the prevention of incoming hardships occurring in society. Moreover, this paper focuses on the application of ILM in the Sharīʿah audit practices as a part of the Sharīʿah governance in Islamic banks.

Drawing from emotional geography framework promoted by Hargreaves (2000), our research sought to depict the emotional geography of two faculty members who engaged in a virtual teacher professional development (VTPD) sessions during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to focus on capturing participants’ emotional closeness or distance while they were engaging in VTPD.

This study employed narrative inquiry by exploring three-dimensional narrative inquiry space: temporality, personal-social interaction and place (Clandinin and Connelly, 2000). Following this step, the participants were interviewed online through Zoom meetings and WhatsApp to capture critical incidents of their emotional experience. All collected data were transcribed, and some data from Bahasa Indonesia were translated into English. Member checking was also done several times to ensure the accuracy of the data as well as to avoid misinterpretation. The data were analysed inductively to generate coding categories using systemic functional linguistics (SFL) language appraisal (Martin and White, 2007) and emotional geography parameter (Hargreaves, 2001b).

The findings of the study revealed that both participants experienced greater positive feeling than negative ones. The participants experienced positive feelings such as seriousness, happiness, successfulness and satisfaction. They also experienced negative feelings such as insecurity, unhappiness, dissatisfaction and impatience. Such positive and negative feelings create closeness and distance among participants, mentor and workshop organiser. This study indicates that maintaining positive feelings is a passport to succeed in VTPD.

The study has two limitations. First, its findings cannot be overgeneralised since the analysis was restricted to data gathered from a small number of participants. Second, the scope of investigation was limited in virtual situations.

The present study empirically showed that faculty members need to engage in constructing or maintaining positive emotional bond with the mentor and other participants and create conducive situations to understand their own and others’ emotions (Mayer, 2011). Practically, a mentor in VTPD may ask faculty members to voice and share their emotional experience as an evaluation tool to make VTPD programmes more successful. Future participants can benefit from these findings by engaging in emotional understanding and building a conducive situation during VTPD to develop their academic competence, agency and identity.

While previous research into VTPD in the context of higher education mainly focused on designs, attention to pedagogy of online teacher learning environments, trends toward innovation in teacher collaboration and communities of practice in online settings, the present study specifically looked into how participants emotionally engaged in VTPD, which is inevitably linked to physical, moral, sociocultural, professional and political geographies.

Despite the establishment of the Zakat, its role has been argued by the new Muslim (Muallaf) community. This research attempts to examine the role played by the Zakat institution in Selangor in distributing funds and supporting Muallaf.

A qualitative approach through a series of interview sessions with management of the Zakat institution was carried out.

The results show that the department has supported Muallaf, particularly in terms of education, finance and monitoring the Muallaf through various programmes starting from the first day they convert to Islam.

This chapter has its limitations in terms of the data collection from the Islamic religious centre. Future research should collect information from all rightful recipients, particularly the Muallaf community in order to measure the efficiency of the institution of Zakat. Future studies are important to understand how efficient the Islamic institution plays its role in managing and ensuring social economic justice among the other Muslim community.

This chapter indicates that the management of the Zakat institution should provide more systematic guidelines in managing Zakat fund for the efficient promotion, collection and distribution. Managing the institution of Zakat efficiently and effectively will help to enhance the image of religion, particularly Islam.

This chapter confirms that the Islamic Religious Department of Selangor has managed to successfully administer the Zakat fund. On top of that, the department has organized several programmes for Muallaf in order to support them to be a new Muslim in a majority Muslim country.

This chapter also clarifies the issues raised by the Muallaf community concerning the unfair treatment in distributing the Zakat fund and supporting them. This chapter contributes towards an understanding of the Zakat institution with regards to its concepts, role, issues and challenges.

The purpose of this paper is to give insight on the important preparation task needed to be considered by prospective PhD candidates prior to the start of their study. As pursuing and obtaining a higher degree qualification is becoming more eminent for those who want to advance their academic career, crucial preparation is needed before embarking on the doctoral quest.

A small-scale study of the PhD experience was carried out in a public university in Malaysia using semi-structured in-depth interviews with eight successful doctoral students representing three different faculties to assess respondents’ experiences concerning the preparation aspect, challenges faced and strategies used to overcome the problem.

From the interview data, three overarching themes emerged: motives, task and financial and health as important dominators that could influence a successful venture of a PhD journey.

As the present research respondents were few, further research with bigger number of respondents may shed better light in identifying other important aspect in preparation for PhD. The authors are unable, in the space of this paper, to fully explore the implications of the data, and the work of others that it builds on, for the future of professional doctorates or other types of PhD awards. As professional doctorates are fully concentrated on their professional endeavour, i.e. nursing and education, the preparation needed may include different groundwork. In addition, this study was carried out in Malaysia, where the system may not necessarily share the same characteristics to other doctoral systems in other countries. Cultural differences, the impact of age, gender and race, were other variables that could be weighed by future research in the same area.

The university’s graduate office should line-up courses to inform future doctoral candidates on the aspect of preparation at personal level that the students need to carry out.

The study provides new views where potential doctoral students should be helped and guided to become more consciously aware of their decision in pursuing a higher degree. This paper provides suggestions on the guidelines of the initial preparation needed before embarking on a PhD journey and managing their own learning.

The paper establishes the important aspect of the preparation phase needed to be considered by future doctoral students before pursuing their doctoral quest.

This paper aims to re-evaluate and thus recommends possible ways in improving the current practice of hibah trust in Malaysia.

This study conducts a thorough and critical review on relevant literature on Islamic wealth management and estate distribution. Besides, the current practice and application of hibah trust by the Malaysian trustee companies such as Amanah Raya Berhad and As-Salihin Trustee Berhad is analyzed based on information gathered from their publications and direct consultation.

Based on the comparison made between hibah trust and its conventional counterpart, living trust, this study found that that the hibah trust product mirrors the conventional living trust, which provides a high degree of freedom to the benefactor to decide on the distribution of his wealth without taking into consideration the interest of the eligible heirs under farai’d. Nevertheless, it is undeniable that the practice of hibah trust would be able to expedite the lengthy and complex procedures of inheritance, reduce administrative costs and avoid legal impediments and inheritance tax.

This paper proposes a comprehensive framework for an improved asset distribution under hibah trust within the Malaysian Islamic wealth management industry by highlighting the significance of fara’id and wasiyyah rules. This proposed framework of hibah trust would become a useful reference for the policy makers in designing a dedicated regulation or legal provisions in the established laws that will govern the practice of hibah trust in Malaysia.

The novelty of this paper lies in highlighting the importance of adhering to the law of Islamic inheritance rules as ordained by Allah s.w.t in structuring contemporary Islamic estate planning instruments such as hibah trust, which is not evident in the current practice.

The purpose of this study is to examine the determinants influencing low- and middle-income households in accepting the Islamic public-private housing co-operative model (IPHCM) as an alternative to contemporary affordable public housing models in Malaysia.

Using self-administrated questionnaires, data are collected from low- and middle-income households dwelling in Programme Perumahan Rakyat projects in Kuala Lumpur and the state of Selangor. The study used the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) and used the partial least squares technique to examine the proposed hypothesised relationships.

The findings of this study suggest that subjective norm and perceived consumer religiosity is the most influential determinants affecting the behavioural intention of low- and middle-income households in accepting the IPHCM model. Attitude had a significantly positive relationship with households’ behavioural intentions towards accepting the IPHCM model.

The findings of this study can serve as a guideline for policymakers to understand the behavioural intention of low- and middle-income households in accepting newly developed models in affordable public housing space.

Behavioural aspects regarding the acceptance of affordable public housing models in Malaysia have yet to be profoundly explored in the literature. This study has extended the TPB by incorporating perceived consumer religiosity, in the affordable public housing domain, to analyse its effects on households’ acceptance of the IPHCM model.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a structural relationship model to study the relationship between causes and effects of poor communication and information exchange in construction projects using Smart-PLS.

The first method of this research is to identify the causes and effects factors of poor communication in construction projects from the extant of literature. The data used to develop the model was collected using a questionnaire survey, which targeted construction practitioners in the Malaysian construction industry. A five-point Likert type scale was used to rate the significance of the factors. The factors were classified under their relevant construct/group using exploratory factor analysis. A hypothetical model was developed and then transformed into Smart-PLS in which the hypothetical model suggested that each group of the cause factors has a direct impact on the effect groups. The hypothesis was tested using t-values and p-values. The model was assessed for its inner and outer components and achieved the threshold criterion. Further, the model was verified by engaging 14 construction experts to verify its applicability in the construction project setting.

The study developed a structural equation model to clarify the relationships between causes and effects of poor communication in construction projects. The model explained the degree of relationships among causes and effects of poor communication in construction projects.

The published academic and non-academic literature introduced many studies on the issue of communication including the definitions, importance, barriers to effective communication and means of poor communication. However, these studies ended up only on the general issue of communication lacking an in-depth investigation of the causes and effects of poor communication in the construction industry. The study implemented advanced structural modeling to study the causes and effects. The questionnaire, the data and concluding results fill the identified research gap of this study. The addressed issue is also of interest because communication is considered one of the main knowledge areas in construction management.

An instructor could link the case to lean production principles and Kurt Lewin’s change management model, key reading materials on these theories are, namely,  Lewin, K (1947) Frontiers in group dynamics: concept, method and reality in social science; equilibrium and social change. Human Relations 1(1): 5–41  Stewart, J. (2012). The Toyota Kaizen continuum: a practical guide to implementing lean. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press. Wickramasinghe, V. and Wickramasinghe, G. L. D. (2020). Effects of human resource management practices, lean production practices and lean duration on performance. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 31(11), 1467–1512.

This case was developed from both primary and secondary sources. The primary source included three face to face meetings with Mr CK in University Putra Malaysia (two meetings) and WSAE factory (Rawang, Malaysia – one meeting), respectively. Interviewed three workers at Rawang factory. The secondary source was taken from the company website and company reports.

Dr Wan, the Chief Executive Officer of WSA Engineering Sdn Bhd (WSAE) accepted the invitation from Small Medium Industries Development Corporation to participate in a Malaysian-Japanese Industry Cooperation program that focused on Lean Production System (LPS). Dr Wan was worried about Malaysia’s culture incompatible with Japanese-originated LPS. The case shares how the organization and behavioral change took place, for LPS buy-in. Successes and challenges WSAE faced in the 10-year journey of implementing LPS were elaborated.

This case was written for use in an operations management course, on the topic of lean production. It can also be used as a training material targeting the operation managers of a manufacturing company aiming to implement lean production or any change management process.

This paper aims to investigate the awareness of construction practitioners of the adoption of building information modeling (BIM) and identification of the dominant challenges of implementing BIM in the life cycle of a construction project.

This study was sequentially conducted in the following in three main phases: a preliminary study of archival literature, where a rigorous study of the literature was conducted to identify the challenges of adopting BIM in the construction industry which was to be applied later to the challenges in the case of the Yemen construction industry; data collection, where data were collected using a questionnaire survey targeting 123 Yemeni construction practitioners working in managerial and technical levels; and data analysis, where data were analyzed using descriptive analysis by calculating the average index and standard deviations. The data were analyzed using the SPSS software.

The results show that the most critical challenges to adopt BIM are financial restrictions, lack of BIM knowledge, improper introduction of BIM concepts, lack of awareness of BIM benefits and no governmental enforcement. The study recommends policymakers and construction players to consider the challenges for a better introduction of BIM in the Yemen construction industry.

This research focuses on the awareness and challenges of implementing BIM in the Yemen construction industry.

The findings of this study will help policymakers develop more constructive strategies to reduce the challenges and introduce governmental agendas towards the widespread use of the BIM concept and technology in the Yemen construction industry. The study suggested an in-depth investigation into the current curriculum in the Yemen universities and recommended the introduction of BIM concept in engineering courses.

This study focused on the challenges of implementing BIM and the role of the social aspect in the issue.

From the extensive review of previous findings, this paper concentrates on the challenged to the implementation of BIM in the Yemen construction industry. There are lack of investigative studies that focus on the introduction of new technologies to advance the Yemen construction sector. Therefore, the findings help the authority to diagnose and address the sources of these challenges and introduce new solutions to the industry.

This paper aims to investigate the impact of adopting lean manufacturing principles on operational efficiency by eliminating seven major lean wastes (or Muda) in a Malaysian stationery manufacturer. Much of the research on lean considers its application to larger organisations with stable demand patterns. This research examines a small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) with a volatile demand pattern.

A process activity mapping (PAM) methodology was utilized to identify the potential for waste elimination. PAM is a visual tool that considers every step in a production process. Value-added and non-value-added activities are therefore examined to understand hidden wastes and their sources.

The results revealed that the adopted lean principles significantly reduce the waiting times. This time reduction resulted in savings (reduction of cycle time) and to a certain extent, can be a crucial driver in continuous improvement sustainability in the production process.

The study focuses on a single case study and provides a springboard for further research. Future studies examining the results across a broader sample of organisations would develop the findings further.

The extant literature cites mixed success for lean implementation programmes. The results demonstrate that lean is still recognised as a powerful approach to improving operations in SMEs.

This paper reflects on the application of lean in a real case study showing the impact of lean on operational performance of an SME.