Kesan birokrasi ke atas kelancaran sistem pengurusan penyelidikan di Universiti

Abstract

In the era of globalization and modernization that is increasingly competitive, the Malaysian government stresses the involvement of higher education institutions, especially research universities to retain the ability to be competitive in research and development activities. Based on the global competitiveness index 2015-2016, Malaysia is not at par in terms of research and development in comparison to other developing countries. Bureaucracy has been identified as one of the causes that has affected the efficiency of research management system in these institutions. Bureaucracy is referred to as the regulation by the higher authorities to facilitate a management system, but these regulations can interfere with researchers in the course of their work. This study investigated the issue of bureaucracy that exists in research management system as a factor that affects the running of a smooth administration with reference to research and development activities. This research data was collected based on respondents’ willingness to share their experiences and opinions about conducting research activities. In-depth interviews were conducted to obtain a detailed overview of the research activity. 13 respondents who are professors as well as researchers at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia were selected for this study. Results of the interviews showed that bureaucracy has affected the respondents’ research activities by delaying the process of research fund allocation. The bureaucracy affected the whole research progress such as taking up too much time before approval is given. The current administration is not dynamic as the basis for the practice of bureaucracy is about following rules and regulations based on hierarchical administrative system which should be simple and straightforward system. In conclusion, although bureaucracy has been found to be a problem, it has not caused major problems among the researchers.