Development of effective school-based financial management profile in Malaysia / Norfariza Binti Mohd Radzi

School-based financial management is a concept derived from the financial decentralization reform which granted autonomy to public schools to manage their financial resources. In Malaysia, it is still at early stage as implemented by cluster schools. Therefore, this study was carried out for the purpose of developing the profile of effective school-based financial management in Malaysia. Specifically, the development of this profile included three phases of study. First, the phase of need analysis is aimed at identifying the need for performing this study. The second phase of profile design listed the main elements and practices of effective school-based financial management in Malaysia that are based on a high level of consensus among local experts. Finally, the phase of profile evaluation is to evaluate the designed profile through a survey of a group of cluster schools in Malaysia. The theoretical frameworks of this study were based on Institutional Theory (Meyer & Rowan, 1977), Education Production Function (Hanushek, 1979), the model of Financial and Resource Management in Open System of Organization (Levacic, 2000), Integrated Goal and System-Resource Model of Effectiveness (Hoy & Miskel, 2007) and the Dick, Carey and Carey Model of Instructional Design (Dick, Carey & Carey, 2009). The research design included three phases of study. First, the phase of need analysis used the qualitative method by conducting interviews with ten principals and head teachers of schools that have been granted guided financial autonomy in Klang Valley. Then, the second phase of profile design applied the Delphi study consisting of three round of studies. This method involved fifteen local experts in the School Finance area. For the last phase of profile evaluation, quantitative study was applied by the distribution of questionnaires to 170 leaders of cluster schools in Malaysia. In terms of data analysis, the qualitative data were analysed using thematic analysis to identify the themes and sub-themes. Then, the quantitative data were analysed using SPSS version 19.0 for the iv analysis of descriptive statistics such as mode, median and inter quartile range (IQR) and inferential statistics of the Wilcoxon Signed - Rank Test. The analysis of Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) used AMOS SPSS version 20.0 for the development of the profile of effective school-based financial management in Malaysia.This study found a need to develop a profile of effective school-based financial management in Malaysia and eight aspects in its implementation. In addition, research finding also emphasized the involvement of all school stakeholders, including principals or head teachers, teachers, financial administrators, parents and communities such as non-government organisations. Furthermore, the profile of effective schoolbased financial management has been developed which included 13 elements that are categorized under 4 financial functions of planning, financial acceptance, acquisition and disbursement, and control and evaluation. There are also 123 practices listed in the profile when the scores of Inter Quartile Range are between 0.00 through 1.00 (IQR=0.00-1.00). The evaluation study of cluster schools in Malaysia also found a high level of practice for 119 practices (mean≥3.80). The analysis of Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) has developed a structural equation model for the effective schoolbased financial management in Malaysia which fits with the collected data (CMIN/DF = 1.412, NFI, IFI, TLI, CFI > 0.09, RMSEA = 0.059). The implication of this study is that the schools that are granted guided financial autonomy can be assisted by a specific profile which takes into consideration the local context