Malaysia RPCV William Hughes writes book on job satisfaction
Tracking working life to get job satisfaction
Jan 25, 2004
New Straits Times
KUCHING, Sat. - Getting on the Right Track at Work, as the book title suggests, is not just about getting the right person for the job.
Written by William Hughes, an Associate Professor of Management at Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas), the book is also about identifying people who are dedicated and committed to their job.
Published by Times Edition, the book focuses on how to track the working life to gain job satisfaction, he said at Unimas recently.
He has been with Unimas for a year after deciding to make Sarawak his home. Home is at Kampung Kakai in Serian, the birth place of his Bidayuh wife.
He first came to Sarawak in 1964, when he served as a teacher under the Peace Corps.
He met and married Cynthia the following year and they left for the United States, where they spent most of their lives until they decided to return to Sarawak in 2002.
He said the book was actually a rewrite of his earlier book entitled Track in the Work Place published in 1999 in the US.
"However, the book, which is available in digital form, was not selling well and since I hold its copyright, I pulled it out and rewrote it," said Hughes, who has wide experience in management after getting into it in 1983.
The rewriting involved the inclusion of additional material, but maintaining the tracking "instrument" that he had formulated.
The instrument which he referred to is an indicator and concept that focuses on management training and career development and it is based on his experience in the US and other places, such as Turkey and Ethiopia.
He is responsible for installing the first result-based performance management system for the Ethiopian Government in 2000 and 2001.
After testing his concept in organisations and countries over the past years, he discovered that it worked in any place, crossing various cultures and backgrounds.
"They may speak different languages, but their needs and the things they respond to and aspire to be to are very much the same anywhere," he added.
The book will be available in bookstores in February at RM21.90 each.
