Cybernetic Diagnosis Approach for Publication Productivity of Malaysian Research University

Abstract

It is essential for academic staffs to keep track of their publication records. Publication is seen to be the main resource for evaluation in the academic world. Besides, the publication criteria are mainly being evaluated for promotion and to access research grants from the institution or the government entities. The basis of this research is to unveil personal, behavioral and environmental factors using social cognitive theory (SCT) and by implementing the Viable System Model (VSM) as the diagnostic tool using cybernetic concept which is more viable to changes in the organization, which relate to key performance indicators (KPI) delivery on scholarly publications (SP). Thus, this study is aimed at investigating factors associated with publication productivity among the research university academic staffs by integrating VSM and SCT. This study applies qualitative method triangulated with quantitative method. The findings show that the most influential factors for the SP of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) are age, gender, experience, rank, teaching load, collaboration, funding, resource, discipline and skill. The model was evaluated for the SP KPI monitoring process, which further can be used by public and private universities to improve the performance of their institution’s publication.