REACTION ENGINEERING 1 (CHE502)

ASSIGNMENT 2
JUNE 2020
INDUSTRIAL REACTOR DESIGN
(PO2, CO3, C6)

No Student’s Name ID No
1 AN UMILLAH BINTI MOHD APANDI 2018272896
2 NUR FATIN ALYA BINTI MASRI 2018801424
3 NUR SYAZANA BINTI MOHD KHAIRUL NIZAM 2018272952
4 NABIHAH BINTI NISTION 2018414206

Tasks Allocated Marks Marks

1. Process Background and Details 10

2. Reactor Selection 10

3. Kinetics 15

4. Detail Design 30

5. Discussion and Conclusion 15

6. Reactor Dimension 5

7. Safety Consideration 5

8. How to increase the conversion 5

9. List of references 5

TOTAL MARKS (%) 100

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TERM OF REFERENCES...........................................................................................................i
ABSTRACT..................................................................................................................................ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT...........................................................................................................iii
LIST OF FIGURES.....................................................................................................................iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS..............................................................................................................v
1.0 INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................1
1.1 BACKGROUND OF STUDY........................................................................................1
1.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT.................................................................................................3
1.3 OBJECTIVES OF STUDY.............................................................................................5
1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY................................................................................5
1.5 SCOPE OF STUDY........................................................................................................5
2.0 METHODOLOGY...........................................................................................................6
2.1 RESPONDENTS............................................................................................................6
2.2 INSTRUMENTS OF STUDY........................................................................................6
2.3 DATA COLLECTION PROCEDURE...........................................................................6
2.4 DATA ANALYSIS METHOD.......................................................................................6
3.0 FINDINGS.........................................................................................................................7
3.1...............................................................................................................................................7
3.2...............................................................................................................................................8
3.3...............................................................................................................................................9
3.4.............................................................................................................................................10
4.0 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATION...........................................................11
4.1 CONCLUSIONS..........................................................................................................11
4.2 RECOMMENDATIONS..............................................................................................13
REFERENCES...........................................................................................................................14
APPENDIX.................................................................................................................................15

[Date]
1.0 INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF STUDY

According to Wikipedia the term comes from Italian word nepotismo, which is based on Latin
root Nepos meaning nephew. Since the Middle Ages and until the late 17th century, some
Catholic popes and bishops, who had taken vows of chastity, and therefore usually had no
legitimate offspring of their own, gave their nephews such positions of preference as were often
accorded by fathers to son. The Business Dictionary define nepotism as a Practice of appointing
relatives and friends in one's organization to positions for which outsiders might be better
qualified. Nepotism and favouritism are very common behaviour in business life (Araslı, Bavik -
Ekiz, 2006 2 ). The human resources teams struggle to carry out their operations separately in
companies with extreme preferential treatment. Thus, promotions based on competency and the
development of expertise seem unlikely under these conditions.

If one examines family businesses, which are accepted as one of the important
sources of economic development and growth (Olson., 2003). It is said that, they are for
profit social organizations formed by people with kinship and business connections that
work together to develop a product or service. In family companies where family
members occupy important roles, a significant competitive advantage is perceived to be
the dedication of the family member workforces to the company. They are also
perceived not as persons with individual autonomy based on knowledge and skills, but
rather as persons under the protection of the family.

The concept of nepotism, when individuals in power or authority show

favouritism in the hiring of relatives and friends, is neither a rare or recent occurrence
(Jones & Stout, 2015). It is so commonplace “it seems that organizations and societies
cannot live with nepotism and yet cannot live without it” (Calvard & Raipaul- Baptiste,
2015). However, since nepotism discriminates against non-family members, it has been
characterized as detrimen-tal to society (Weber, 1958). Some studies show that
nepotism can be detrimental to the firm itself (Bloom & Van Reenen, 2007; Cialdini,
1996; Kets de Vries,1996). Yet, despite a long-standing belief that nepo-tism is harmful,
there have been surprisingly few studies that specifically examine nepotism (Vinton,
1998).
 As we can see nowadays, nepotism is not something not uncommon that occur
around us since there is no serious issue reported before. Nepotism allows firms to
inexpensively identify a pool of candidates for positions. It also can improve the loyalty
between family members. However, practicing nepotism bring negative impact toward the
bottom line and the company itself. For example, organizations that are known to engage in
nepotistic practices can be perceived by well-qualified applicants (or the organization’s
customers) as unjust organizations (Lansberg, 1983). While it is difficult to measure and
assess, organizations can face a possible loss when qualified applicants never apply to an
organization but rather seek employment from their competitors (Ponzo & Scoppa, 2010).
This is not surprising given that nepotistic practices tend to go against the value system of a
meritocracy.
 1.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT

Nepotism has been practiced in our society for such a long time especially in the workplace,
and it seems to be a very frustrating issue. Workers should be treated fairly according to their
achievement to make sure the company would not lose their most innovative and productive
workers. The top management must prioritize the most eligible candidates based on their
academic background and working experiences rather than their own relative who is lack of
knowledge in that specific position. Nepotism practise has been running in our blood since
our ancestors’ time, so it is hard to be part from it. Hence, the head of the company should
think the effect of his or her attitude not only to the company but also toward the staffs that
had being working together for company to succeed.

However, this scenario is no longer taken serious by our society. Without realizing it,
there are a lot of potential fresh graduates who did not manage to get a job due to this
unhealthy competition. Some company favour their own relative compare to stranger when
they want to hire a new employee. This attitude is unfair for eligible candidates who are
trying their best in order to get a job. It became worst if the relative that they hire is not
qualify for the job, they will not just shut down other people opportunity to get a job but they
will bring down the company with them as well. It is true not all nepotism practice is bad, but
mostly the person who has been hired is someone who does not deserve for the job. Just
because they have relative blood with the manager or CEO of the company, they been
accepted for the work. It will not be an issue if that person is accomplished enough and
highly experienced for the job but somehow, he just taking other person’s profit and unfairly
advantage the undeserving and unqualified (McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza, 2019) member.

The most important thing is that the act of nepotism will cause the difference in
quality of work done by the colleagues. If a manager employs his relative for the wrong
purpose and practices nepotism, it will affect not just among the colleagues but also the
working environment. This is because nepotism will damage employee morale (McCrary-
Ruiz-Esparza, 2019). The practice of favouring and promoting relatives or paramours, more
commonly known as nepotism (Virginia, 2008) will lead to unmotivated environment
between the colleagues. This happens because they feel like their hardwork will not pay off
because at the end of the day the favourable person is the one who will get the highlight. Due
to this issue, the hardworking workers will lose their passion towards their job. There is
nothing that they can do except accepting the reality that is happening. The job that they love
and proud of before just be their daily life routine which they need to go through without any
feeling.

In order to reduce this problem, the purpose of our study is to determine the effects of
nepotism at workplace. Besides, the purpose of this research is to study the perceptions
among students towards the practice of nepotism. This activity will be conducted through
questionnaire to see students’ perceptions on practice of nepotism in their future workplace.
The students will also be aware about the future that might happened scenario at workplace.
Next, to investigate the causes of nepotism in society. Last but not least, we are going to
identify the most ideal recommendations to cope with nepotism in the Malaysian’s
workplace.
 1.3 OBJECTIVES OF STUDY

 To determine the effects of nepotism at workplace

 To study the perception among students towards the practice of nepotism
 To investigate the causes of nepotism in the society
 To identify recommendations to cope with nepotism in the Malaysian’s workplace
scenario.

1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

Significance of this study is to provide better understanding among UiTM students about
nepotism which might be common situation that they have to face at the workplace. This
study also shows perspective of respondents towards nepotism and effect of practise nepotism
in the workplace. By understanding effect of nepotism, this research will provide
recommendation on how to cope with nepotism in the workplace.

1.5 SCOPE OF STUDY

This study is designed to acknowledge society that even though nepotism seems like common
in the working environment but it is something that illegal to do because of consequences by
practising nepotism involved company, government and to the new generation. A survey of
this study will be carried out among UiTM Shah Alam students and would be done through
utilization of questionnaire to the students as a survey and reference. The limitations faced
include the difficulty in finding respondents who really understand meaning of nepotism,
difficulty of obtaining feedback through various platform due to COVID-19 that occur during
our research and difficulty to elaborate the answer according to the question asked from
questionnaire.
2.0 METHODOLOGY

2.1 RESPONDENTS

75 students of UiTM Shah Alam were involved as the respondents. Majority of the
respondents (80%) were female while the others (20%) were male. 70.7% of the respondents
were aged between 21 to 23 years old, 20% of have aged between 18 to 20 years old and the
rest another 9.3% aged 24 and above.

2.2 INSTRUMENTS OF STUDY

The method chosen for preparing the research is survey by using questionnaires to
gain the respondents’ feedback regarding nepotism issues at workplace. Therefore, the
questionnaires which contains 8 questions has been designed and was divided into two parts.
The first part will be asked for the respondents’ personal information while the other part will
be asked for the respondents point of views toward the nepotism issues. This survey
questionnaire combined two open ended questions and six multiple-choice questions with
predefined answers offering respondents the possibility to choose and rank among several
options or the possibility to grade on a “very low” and a “very high” scale. There were two
questions that required respondents to give their opinion on this issue. The open-ended part
question is considered the most important part in the survey since it will contribute to
improve the interpretation results and provides additional ideas and information.

2.3 DATA COLLECTION PROCEDURE

75 questionnaires will be distributed among students in UiTM Shah Alam for three days starting from
28th April 2020. Due to the COVID-15 problems, the questionnaires will be in Google Form
which they can respond using any electronic devices such as smart phone and laptop and will
be distribute through various social media platform such as Facebook, Instagram and
WhatsApp.

2.4 DATA ANALYSIS METHOD

The data were analysed from frequency count. The results will be tabulated and analysed by
using percentage graph.
3.0 FINDINGS

3.1 Effects of nepotism

Figure 3.1: Respondents’ opinion on nepotism

Figure 1 describe the respondents’ opinions about nepotism in the workplace. Based on the
figure, most of the respondents (65.3%) said that nepotism should not continue at the
workplace. They believe that if this situation still happened in society, a lot of eligible
graduates would be unemployed just because they do not have someone working in the
management department of a company. In addition, the respondents also said that the
employees might have depression or mental health problems due to unfairness in the working
system.

However, 4% of the respondents agreed to continue nepotism at workplace. This is

because they thought that it was a safe way for the employer to recruit new employee they
knew to fill an important position in the company since they were more trusted than other
people. In other words, they can ensure the loyalty of the new employees. From this finding,
majority of respondents agreed that nepotism should not be practice at workplace.
 3.2 Perception of respondents towards nepotism

Figure 3.2: Perception of respondents towards nepotism

Figure 3.2 describe the respondents’ perception towards the practice of nepotism. The
majority of respondents (78.78%) said they were not agreed with the practice of
nepotism at workplace. Based on the chart above, 38.46% of them said they were not
agreed because nepotism is not a good practice in a company or any workplace, 32.69%
said it was unfair to the ones who are more qualified for the job, 23.08% said it can
reduce the job opportunities for fresh graduate, 5.77% said the selection for the job not
based on their skills. We can conclude that the majority of respondents’ not complied
with the nepotism policy as it was not a good practice at the workplace.
 3.3 Causes of nepotism

Figure 3.3: Causes of nepotism

Figure 3 describe the respondents’ opinions about the causes of nepotism in the workplace.
Based on the figure, majority of the respondents with 81.3% agreed that nepotism occur due
to the relative favorable to maintain the ownership. They believe family members is a strong
candidates to run the company and were mainly the causes of nepotism. Some of the
respondents, with 13.3% thinks nepotism occur because of the company wanted to reduce the
recruiting cost, and only a few with 5.3% of respondents thinks higher level of loyalty is the
causes.
From the findings, I found that most of the candidate vote the main causes of nepotism was
due to family favorable to maintain ownership of the company.
 3.4 Recommendation for the victim of nepotism

Figure 3.4: Recommendations for the victim of nepotism

Figure 4 shows the results of survey through google form about nepotism in the workplace.
The question referred to recommendations for victim to cope with nepotism. Respondents
were given four choices which is talk to someone in Human Resources (HR), take legal
action, be brave by say something to someone but keep it professional and seek advice from
counsellor or family members to get moral support.

From the chart above, the majority which is 41.3% of respondents recommended “say
something but keep it professional”, 33.3% of respondents prefer to talk to someone in
Human Resources (HR), 14.7% of respondent chose legal action to cope with nepotism. The
least preferred by respondents (10.7%) of respondent seek advice from counsellor or family
members to get moral support. From findings, I found that recommendation by be brave and
say something like what happen in the office to someone but keep it professional was most
agreed by the respondents.
4.0 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATION

4.1 CONCLUSIONS

Based on the findings, there are a few conclusions are made, first conclusion is, nepotism is a
practice of favoritism toward friends or family members. According to the survey, some
respondents agreed that nepotism commonly occurs in a workplace in Malaysia. Sadly, this
behaviour has been running in our blood since our ancestors' time. People favor giving this
opportunity to their circle even though there are some people who are more capable to carry
the position.

The second conclusion is, based on the survey, most of the respondents agreed that
acts of nepotism is not a good practice in our society and it seem unfair. This action shows
unfairness attitude towards candidates who is more capable and reliable for the specific tasks.
It also causes an unwell feeling among the coworkers and their surroundings. As a result, this
will effect on their quality on doing their jobs because they have no feeling towards their
occupation anymore.

Besides, the third conclusion is most respondents see the reason for this behaviour is
because they feel safer to give the position to someone they know rather than hiring a random
stranger. The company that has been running by their hard work can be continued by their
relatives or family members. Even though the act of nepotism is seen as bad and full of
unfairness toward people who are more capable for the position, some respondents think that
this behavior maybe should continue in the workplace. The reason for that statement is
because family members are more loyal and sometimes nepotism cannot be avoided due to
conditions at that particular time. Most of the respondents agreed nepotism should be stopped
from occurring. They believe this kind of attitude is unfair and it brings negative impact and
impression toward outsiders. The differences in opinion among respondent ware because that
there are pros and cons in applying nepotism in the workplace, if a company practices the act
of nepotism on one side, it actually benefits the owner because he gives the opportunity
toward their relative, who will be loyal to the company but maybe he or she is not capable
enough for the job. On the other hand, if he offers the position to a stranger, the allegiance
cannot be ensured but he got someone who is capable to run the company.
 Last but not least, the conclusion is most of the respondents agreed, a victim who had
to cope with nepotism should voice it out their opinion in a professional ways. This act of
nepotism should be taken seriously because it will affect the reputation and quality of the
works of an individual. The victim should not be treated unfairly because they also have their
right as he or she is one of the company members.
 4.2 RECOMMENDATIONS

It is recommended to the Ministry of Human Resources Malaysia that the management of

every company in this country to choose the most eligible candidate for a position based on
his working experiences and skills and they must practice anti-nepotism rules towards the
employees. Besides that, it is also recommended for the applicants to be honest during a job
interview by not taking shortcut such as asking help from current employees to enter a certain
company. The purpose of doing this is the employees will not have any unsatisfied issues and
to ensure a conducive working environment among the employees.

Next, in order to cope with nepotism, victims or employees who encounter this situation
are suggested to speak up and voice their opinions and keep it professional by informing the
higher levels about the situation. Since nepotism typically occurs in the higher levels of
business, it is hard to determine where to go with your complaint but basically anything
should be informed to a higher level first before submitting the report to the Ministry of
Human Resources. If there is no action taken by the company, it is recommended to the
victims to take legal action by documenting everything that happened in the company and
provide clear evidence before handing it to the Ministry of Human Resources. As a result,
you might get a letter of recommendation or a retroactive pay raise to the date when you
should have been promoted by the company. These actions definitely will help you put a stop
to the mistreatment and improve your work situation.
REFERENCES

 McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza, E. (2019, April 19). What to Say When You Encounter

Nepotism at Work. Retrieved from INHERSIGHT:
https://www.inhersight.com/blog/insight-commentary/nepotism-at-work?
_n=109464487

 Sriya. (2019, November 7). Adverse Effects of Nepotism In The Workplace. Retrieved
from Wikye: https://www.wikye.com/adverse-effects-of-nepotism-in-the-workplace/

 Sun, C. (2019, May 16). 5 Simple Ways to Handle Nepotism in the Workplace.
Retrieved from Entrepreneur: https://www.entrepreneur.com/slideshow/302245

 Virginia. (2008, OCTOBER 10). Nepotism and Its Dangers in the Workplace.
Retrieved from HR HERO LINE:
https://hrdailyadvisor.blr.com/2008/10/10/nepotism-and-its-dangers-in-the-workplace/
APPENDIX