Organisational leadership experience during undergraduate studies and its associations with the stress level management in workplace: a study among IIUM alumni

• Main Authors: Mohd. Noor, Mohamed Anwar, Abdul Ghani, Radiah, A. Rahman, Nor Azlina
• Format: Conference or Workshop Item
• Language: English; English
• Published: 2020
• Subjects: HV40 Social service. Social work. Charity organization and practice; R Medicine (General)
• Online Access: http://irep.iium.edu.my/84538/1/certificate%20anwar.pdf; http://irep.iium.edu.my/84538/9/ORGANISATIONAL%20LEADERSHIP%20EXPERIENCE%20DURING%20UNDERGRADUATE%20STUDIES%20AND%20ITS.pdf; http://irep.iium.edu.my/84538/; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QM9tfsMkgYE&feature=youtu.be

Mental illness is expected to become the second leading cause of health problem that affects Malaysians in 2020. Stress at workplace is reported to be vulnerable to this mental wellbeing crisis. In university, student leadership experience is said to be important in providing self-management skills to students and preparing them for their excellent career development. However, no study is conducted yet to investigate the variables of the leadership skills with mental wellness in the workplace setting in Malaysia. Therefore, this research aimed to explore the association between leadership experience during undergraduate study and stress management in the workplace among student leader alumni of International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM). A semi-structured in-depth interviews with four alumni of IIUM have been conducted from February until April 2020 to explore the effectiveness of the leadership experience and skills gained during the leadership period with the stress level management in the current workplace setting. The results revealed five factors of stress in the workplace, eight management mechanisms of stress in the workplace and six potential skills gained which benefit the positive workplace environment. In conclusion, there is an association of the leadership experience during undergraduate study years with stress management which benefits the positive mental wellbeing of the alumni student leader at their workplace. This preliminary finding is expected to be beneficial to assist higher educational institution in identifying the effectiveness of the ecosystem provided for the student leaders and producing quality graduates.