antecedents of computer attitudes: a case study of the royal malaysia police – sabah

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C O N F E R E N C E ON S C I E N T I F I C & S O C I A L R E S E A R C H

Paper number: 8696528

ANTECEDENTS OF COMPUTER ATTITUDES: A CASE STUDY OF THE

ROYAL MALAYSIA POLICE – SABAH

Hajah Rugayah Hashim

1, Asiyah Kassim

2 and Abdul Latiff Abdul Rahman

3

1Faculty of Administrative Science and Policy Studies, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Shah Alam, MALAYSIA 2Faculty of Administrative Science and Policy Studies, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Shah Alam, MALAYSIA

3Faculty of Office Management and Technology, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Shah Alam, MALAYSIA

[email protected]

ABSTRACT

Law enforcement in the Information Age requires the utilization of information and

communication technologies (ICT) as the enabler. The successful police officer of the future will

be marked by their ability to incorporate and directly apply a wide range of ICT in dispensing their

duties or e-policing. Hence, the objective of this study is to determine the attitudes of the Sabah-

based Royal Malaysia Police (RMP) officers toward the use of ICT in law enforcement and then

ascertain the relationships between these attitudes relative to other demographic profiles. The

response rate was 87.75% or 351 of 400 respondents. The findings showed a high level of anxiety

towards ICT and working with computers with a mean score of 28.87. Thus, proper training has to

be conducted to alleviate the anxiety level of these officers when using and working with ICT.

Also, the findings provided for important managerial implications for RMP Sabah in terms of

readiness for introducing, implementing and using ICT for e-policing and enforcing the law.

Keywords: Attitudes, ICT, law enforcement, computer anxiety, e-policing

1. INTRODUCTION

In the last ten years, Malaysia has seen a phenomenal growth and penetration of information and

communication technology (ICT) in both the private and public sectors. Usage of computers and ICT has

increased dramatically for various purposes. In the public sector, automation of common tasks is ‘poetry

in motion’ and in unison with Malaysia’s e-government initiative. E-government is imperative for online

service delivery to the public but successful e-government rollout is not possible if ICT is not properly

implemented. Most organizations today use ICT for work efficiency and effectiveness. Among the

government agencies that should rely heavily on ICT usage is the Royal Malaysia Police (RMP) for law

enforcement purposes. In keeping up with the Information Age, it is crucial for RMP to jump on the

bandwagon and use ICT or computers in every areas of policing. It is without doubt that the impact of e-

policing will be immensely rewarding for both the RMP and the public they serve.

2. LITERATURE REVIEW

With the onslaught of globalization and the K-economy, the Royal Malaysia Police (RMP) has to

reinvent itself in order to better respond to a rapidly changing environment and new challenges

(Mazerolle, 2001; Poirot, 1978; Reinhard, 2007). “Dramatic changes in demography; intense and

sustained urbanization; massive immigration; rapid development of residential areas adjacent to ever-

growing urban centers; continuous advances in technology, especially information and communication

technology; globalization; increasing sophistication of crime; rise in transnational crime; perceptions of

widespread and mounting corruption in the police force; expanding civil society including proliferation of

non-government organizations; rise in public expectations and demands for transparency and

accountability; and greater consciousness of human rights; are placing increasing pressure and challenges

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upon RMP to adapt, modernize and enhance its services and performance” (Report of the Royal

Commission, 2004). A key challenge for the RMP organization is to regain the good image it enjoyed

during the period of the 1960s to 1980s, an image that has been seriously undermined in the last decade

due to mounting public perceptions of corruption and abuse of power in RMP (Report of the Royal

Commission, 2004).

Furthermore, the RMP is also experiencing the same predicament as other public sector agencies,

whereby the need to diffuse technology and simultaneously adopt technology are problematic (The

President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice, 1967; Colton, 1973; Green,

2003; Gottschalk, 2006; LeBeuf, 2000; Mazerolle, 2001). As tabled in the Ninth Malaysia Plan (2006-

2010) and the 2007 Budget, ICT has been given huge allocations for the public sector agencies.

Moreover, the recommendation in the Royal Police Commission Report (2004) emphasized the need for

the RMP to fully utilize ICT in dispensing their services. Currently, three common ICT-based applications

or services that are utilized are:

i) RMP’s homepage, website or portals,

ii) Telephone communications (wired and wireless)

iii) Short Messaging System (SMS) through RakanCop

Besides aiding in the law enforcement activities, ICT will also allow for inter-agency collaboration

and data sharing (Ward & Peppard, 2002; Viano, 1976; Lederer & Mendelow, 1987). In fact, data sharing

is crucial in international crime investigations, for example, by Interpol (Chen et al, 2003), and internal

investigations (Childress, 2004). Within the domestic scenario, inter-agency data sharing would speed up

police investigations on cases that involve citizens and other individuals in Malaysia including expatriates

and immigrants. The latter is particularly serious as the influx of illegal immigrants from neighboring

countries has resulted in the increment of crime rate by as much as 40% (New Strait Times, 2007:8).

2.1 The Impact and Use of ICT in Law Enforcement

According to Colton (1979), in the United States, the impact and use of computer technology by the

police has expanded rapidly since the mid-1960’s. The improvement of police services were aided by the

recommendations from the President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice

(The Crime Commission) (1967) which suggested that technology is an important tool for police work, as

well as federal funding from the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration (LEAA) which provided

added resources to purchase the latest technology equipment.

The scenario for RMP is different from that of their U.S. counterparts. ICT procurement in the public

sector is a huge investment but technology usage and usefulness are not at par with the annual budget

allocation. In the case of the U.S police force, critics contended that the money would be wasted because

such investments do not significantly increase the efficiency or effectiveness of crime control (Colton,

1979). Therefore, in light of this, the Royal Malaysia Police (RMP) has to be prepared to prove to the

public and the critics that technology does significantly increase the efficiency and effectiveness of crime

control in Malaysia. Yet, effective technology and ICT usage requires that the users’ attitude be gauged,

hence, this study is important for RMP to determine the level of attitudes of their officers before

embarking on huge investments in ICT. Moreover, this move is in synchrony with the Royal Police

Commission’s Report (2004) where four of the ten strategies are to enhance, transform and revitalize the

operation and management of RMP. This includes modernizing the role, functions and organization of the

force such as enhancing investigative policing, human resources management and performance and,

upgrading RMP’s (ICT) equipment and logistics.

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3. METHODOLOGY

The ultimate goal of this applied research was to establish policy changes in ICT implementation.

Underhandedly, the objective of this study was to determine the attitudes of the Royal Malaysian Police

personnel based in Sabah, towards information and communication technologies (ICTs) and working with

computers. The four attitudes are anxiety, confidence, liking and usefulness. Consequently, these attitudes

will be correlated with five demographic variables such as gender, age, level of education, and previous

computer experience.

3.1 Sample Size and Sampling Techniques

The sample size for this research was 400 respondents from the police units or departments in Sabah.

Two sampling techniques were employed; quota and convenience sampling. Quota sampling technique

was used in order to obtain convenience samples to represent subgroups, proportionate to each group’s

representation in the population (Sekaran, 2003, Heiman, 2001; Beins, 2004). Since there are five

divisions in Sabah, the predetermined quota of respondents from each division would proportionately

represent the respective division as shown in Table 3.1.

Table 1: Divisions of Sabah and Quota Sampling Size No. Division Name Quota Size

1 West Coast Division 100

2 Interior Division 100

3 Kudat Division 60

4 Sandakan Division 80

5 Tawau Division 60

TOTAL 400

The second sampling technique employed for this study is convenience sampling. This technique is

required as the questionnaires were given to respondents who were conveniently available at the time the

surveys were administered (Sekaran, 2003, Heiman, 2001).

3.2 Instrument and Measurement

Since this is a replicated research from studies conducted by Hashim and Mustapha (2004) and

Gressard and Loyd (1986), the instrument (questionnaire) used was modified to suit the scope and

environment. There were two parts to the questionnaire: The first consisted of five questions which were

to determine the respondent’s age, level of education completed, major area of study, gender and previous

computer experience. These questions provided data for categorical analyses of responses. The second

part of the instrument consisted of 40 statements rated on a Likert scale from ‘Strongly Agree’ to

‘Strongly Disagree’. Of these 40 statements, 20 were worded positively and 20 were worded negatively.

Also, the questionnaire was translated to Bahasa Malaysia as most of the respondents were not proficient

in the English Language.

3.3 Procedure

Four hundred sets of questionnaires were sent to the Royal Malaysia Police headquarters in Kota

Kinabalu, Sabah. From there, the predetermined quota sizes were sent to the five divisions (see Table 3.1).

A total of 351 completed questionnaires were returned likewise.

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3.4 Data Analysis

Data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) and MS Excel. The

demographic variables for this study were discrete data (nominal and ordinal) therefore, descriptive

statistics were used to run for frequencies, mean, and standard deviation (Coakes, 2005; Sekaran, 2003;

Stangor, 2003; Heiman, 2001; Blaikie, 2003). The 40 attitudes scores and subscores were continuous data

(interval or scale), hence, parametric analysis will be used such as T-Test (to determine whether there is a

significant difference between two sets of scores or to compare means) and correlation, that is, looking at

the relationship between two variables in a linear fashion (Coakes, 2005; Blaikie, 2003; Heiman, 2001).

Specifically, the Pearson Product-moment correlation coefficient will be used to describe the relationship

between the attitudes’ scores or bivariate correlations. Chi-square analysis, which is a non parametric

measure was used to statistically analyze bivariates of nominal versus interval data.

4. RESULTS

The main findings are the mean scores for the four attitudes as shown in Figure 1. Of the four

attitudes, anxiety showed the highest mean score of 28.87, followed by liking at 28.02. The variable,

‘confidence’ came in third at 27.62 and last, was usefulness at 25.98.

28.87

27.6228.02

25.98

24.5025.0025.5026.0026.5027.0027.5028.0028.5029.0029.50

Anxiety

Confidence

Liking

Usefulness

Attitudes

Mean

Figure 1: Bar Chart for the Mean Subscores of the Four Attitudes For the comparison between gender and the four attitudes, the output showed that there is no

difference between gender and attitudes (Figure 2). All four attitudes have the Pearson Chi-square

significant values well above the alpha level of 0.05 where usefulness = 0.557, confidence=0.120,

liking=0.094 and anxiety=0.686. Furthermore, the minimum expected cell frequencies for usefulness = 28,

confidence = 27, liking = 28 and anxiety = 28 were all greater than five (>5). Thus, we can be confident

that we have not violated one of the main assumptions of chi-square. Therefore, in examining the

observed cell frequencies, it can be concluded that gender do not show a significant difference for any of

the four attitudes, X2(16, N=339) = 14.558, p>.05; X

2(13, N=336) = 19.096, p>.05; X

2(16, N=339) =

23.787, p>.05; and X2(15, N=339) = 11.909, p>.05 respectively.

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Chi-Square Tests: Gender * Usefulness

Value Df

Asymp. Sig. (2-

sided)

Pearson

Chi-Square 14.558(a) 16 .557

Likelihood

Ratio 16.472 16 .421

Linear-by-

Linear

Association

.059 1 .808

N of Valid

Cases 339

a 18 cells (52.9%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is .28.

Chi-Square Tests: Gender * Confidence

Value Df

Asymp. Sig. (2-

sided)

Pearson

Chi-Square 19.096(a) 13 .120

Likelihood

Ratio 22.181 13 .053

Linear-by-

Linear

Association

.005 1 .942

N of Valid

Cases 336


Chi-Square Tests: Gender * Liking

Value Df

Asymp. Sig. (2-

sided)

Pearson

Chi-Square 23.787(a) 16 .094

Likelihood

Ratio 25.410 16 .063

Linear-by-

Linear

Association

3.008 1 .083

N of Valid

Cases 339


Chi-Square Tests: Gender * Anxiety

Value Df

Asymp. Sig. (2-

sided)

Pearson

Chi-Square 11.909(a) 15 .686

Likelihood

Ratio 12.730 15 .623

Linear-by-

Linear

Association

.471 1 .492

N of Valid

Cases 339


Figure 2: Chi-Square Tests for Gender & Attitudes

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For the question on the relationship between age and attitudes, the output was:

� age and usefulness (r = 0.001, p > .05), where p = 0.992

� age and confidence (r = 0.101, p > .05), where p = 0.062

� age and liking (r = .108, p < .05), where p = 0.045

� age and anxiety ( r = 0.078, p > .05), were p = 0.149

Since the p-values for usefulness, confidence and anxiety were greater than alpha (α=0.5), therefore,

there are no significant relationships between age and these three attitudes. On the other hand, there is a

significant relationship between age and liking, that is, liking for ICT and working with computers

increases with age (r = 0.108, p < .045).

5. CONCLUSION

Based on the research findings, it can be concluded that elements of anxiety does exist among certain

segments of the RMP personnel in Sabah. Without prejudice, geography can be considered an issue,

nonetheless, ICT should be mandated as the core tool for policing and law enforcement. Furthermore, for

most of the police beat bases in certain divisions of Sabah, some police personnel were not ready for

change because of lack of ICT facilities and infrastructure. Change should occur in a gradual manner after

proper training has been given to the relevant police workforce. Lastly, the antecedents analyzed the

attitudes of usefulness, confidence, liking and anxiety, but these results do not show a robust evidence to

support positive attitudes toward ICT usage.

6. RECOMMENDATIONS

Again based on the research findings, the following are recommended for RMP Sabah:

1. The results indicated that computer anxiety was ranked the highest, thus, a needs assessment should

be conducted in order to determine the various skill areas of computer training for the police officers

to alleviate technophobia (Inman, 1983; Jay, 1981; Harrington, 1988; Fauri, 1984). RMP’s top

management should emphasize the importance of ICT in policing so as to prepare the officers in a

technology-based workplace. Proper computer training should encompass all levels of the police

workforce (Chu & Spires, 1991; Nowicki, 2004).

2. Also, the findings from the survey indicated that officers with no computer experience, especially

PMR and SPM leavers, showed inherent negative attitude towards computers. Further research

should be conducted to determine the reasons for this and to suggest possible solutions.

3. Lastly, the survey also sought to determine if the level of educational background made a difference in

the attitude of officers toward computers - it does. Hence, further research should be carried out to

determine the specific areas of computer training for different levels of the RMP workforce.

To enforce the above recommendations, Ward and Peppard (2002) suggested the following which should

also be duplicated by RMP. This would allow RMP to consider their future quest for effective and

efficient policing in line with the recommendations made in the Report of The Royal Commission (2004):

1. Most RMP top management lacked awareness of the impact of ICT in the workplace or the strategic

advantages of using ICT. They tended to see ‘computers’ in purely an operational context, that is,

ICT is essentially for data processing.

2. Perceived credibility gap between the ‘hype’ of the ICT industry and what ICT can actually do and

how easy it is to do it. Given these difficulties, RMP Sabah may not be able to claim the benefits

offered by ICT.

3. Top RMP managers do not view information as an organizational resource to be managed for long-

term benefit. Information is power and information should be managed systematically to combat

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crimes. In fact, the power of ICT is obvious in forensics and crime scene investigations (Fuscaldo,

2004).

4. Despite the difficulty in expressing all ICT benefits in economic terms, RMP top management has

demanded to see a financial justification for investments. This is a lame argument as the impact of

globalization means better ICT infrastructure, Internet access and the willingness of users to utilize

ICT.

5. An increasingly apparent problem today is that RMP’s top management is more action orientated with

a short-term focus that militates against putting much effort into long-term planning, especially of ICT

– a paradigm shift of mindset is suggested.

6. Finally, external political interventions and pressures should be ignored and total focus on RMP’s

success in law enforcement should be the priority.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The researchers would like to acknowledge the amazing support and contribution of the Sabah police

personnel in completing the questionnaires, especially the Personal Assistant to the Commissioner of

Police, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah for her tireless effort in distributing and collecting the completed

questionnaires. IRDC/RMI deserved mention too for allowing this self-funded research to be registered.

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antecedents of computer attitudes: a case study of the royal malaysia police – sabah

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