Question 1: How do you describe Malaysian Management?

For example, the management style that can be described as typically Malaysian. Think of the unique and distinctive features of managing in Malaysia. Answer: The management style in Malaysia rates high on group collectivism, power distance, and low on gender egalitarianism or equality. Based on two separate researches by Gupta et al (2002) and Bakacsi et al (2002), the management style tend to highly group oriented, male dominated and hierarchical. Quoted from Hodgetts and Luthans (1997), the Malaysian culture has been described as high in power distance and high in uncertainty avoidance. According to their studies 10 years ago, Malaysian employees tend to accept that power is distributed unequally and they will obey orders from their supervisors without questions. The expected tendencies are for Malaysian managers to avoid ambiguous situations, desire security and feel more comfortable with structured, clearly defined bureaucracies. According to a research made by Maheshkumar P. Joshi from George Mason University, Hugh D. Sherman and John R. Schermerhorn from Ohio University (2004), the management styles vary according to the level of authorities ones have. The research indicated that middle managers in Malaysia tend to opt for authoritarian management styles even in proactive strategic change situation. However, the research also had found out that managers with less work experience were to have lower tendencies to use an authoritarian style of implementation. The similar scenario takes place when top managers exhibit an aggressive strategic posture. Kennedy (2002), Gupta et al. (2002), and Bakacsi et al. (2002) shared the same view on the factor that influenced such management orientation. They suggested the Malaysian Cultures that drive the management orientation style in this country. Bounded by the Asian cultures, Malaysian values relationship building, cooperation, collectivism, and teamwork. Their idea of collectivism and teamwork come with the objective to avoid risks and reduce responsibilities. Having said this, Malaysian managers tend to value relationship more than a contract as according to them contract can be reasonably modified according to changes. A recent study on leadership style and organizational culture was carried out by C. Wang and H. Abdul-Rahman (2010) has emphasized the idea of teamwork and collectivism. They had made a research on the cultural practices influencing business performance in

over 327 Malaysian contractors. They categorized the culture practices into sets of animal names such as Tiger Culture, Rabbit Culture, Monkey Culture, Elephant Culture, and Dragon Culture. Their findings came to the conclusions that the Monkey Culture is considered as the most applicable type for the organizational culture in Malaysia. Monkey Culture is epitomizing teamwork and loyalty within the organizations. They also found out that People Management oriented style has many supporters than the Task Oriented Management style among the Malaysian contractors. They appreciate People Management that rates high on Decisiveness, Aggressiveness, Goal and Action Oriented, Self-Confident, Energetic, Optimistic, Readiness for changes and Hardworking. With the correct mindset, bosses will have less worry on monitoring issues as the employees can run tasks on their own without close monitoring. At the same time, Management Style in Malaysia tends to avoid the high level of risks and prone to opt for a safe play. The managers have strong avoidance of uncertainties and Chinese is said to be the race whom to be highly related to it as they tend to be more inclined towards details and precisions. The risk avoidance strategies are also implemented by the big leaders in this country. For instance, former Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad had to take the risk of pegging the Ringgit against the US Dollar during the Asian Financial Crisis instead of taking the easy way out by borrowing from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). However, the management style may vary between generations. The Baby Boomers, born between 1946 and 1964, were brought up in an abundant, healthy post-war economy, becoming an egocentric generation. They witnessed the world revolving around them and more than anything, work has been a defining part of both, their self worth and their evaluation of others. Their lifestyle revolves around the fact that they live to work and that may create significant tension between them and newer generations as they expect others to have the same work ethic and rigid work hours. On the contrary, Generation X, born between 1965 and 1980, was the first generation raised on to-do-list and grew up with high rate of blended families. They were brought up in the shadow of the influential boomer generation as they witnessed their parents sacrificed greatly for their works. As a consequence, they developed behaviors of independence, resilience, and adaptability more strongly than previous generations. Unlike Baby Boomers, Gen X work to life and view the world with a little cynicism and distrust. Generation Y on the other hand, born between 1981 and 2000, has been portrayed as the next big generation, an enormously powerful group that has the sheer numbers to

transform every life stage it enters. They were brought up during the empowerment years where everyone won and everyone got a meal. Raised by parents who nurtured and structured their lives, they were drawn to their families for safety and security. They were also encouraged to make their own choices and taught to question authority. These youngsters are also the first to grow up with computers and the Internet as a significant part of their lives. Some of them have already climbed the management leader and step into the middle management category. Thus, their approaches of management are more on computer oriented, quality work life, and believe in the workforce with networking, multiprocessing, and global-minded skills that the baby boomers could not have imagined. Thus, the management style in Malaysia is also influenced by the generations attributes. At the moment, most of the upper management levels are filled in by the Baby Boomers and their approaches rule the organizational management style. However, in the next 10 or 20 years, the management styles are bound to change as the newer generations will take the lead in the future. The styles are expected to lean towards Quality Work Life environment as the Generation Y will be the future leaders. Question 2: Relating to the above, how do we make managing in Malaysia a success? Answer: As per reference to Question 1, the Management Styles are kind of unique as Malaysian Culture plays the big influence. The Malaysian leaders value teamwork and collectivism at workplace as Malaysian Culture rates high in relationship building. This value has been shared and believed by everyone across generations in Malaysia despite changes in the management style. However, we can see the style changes as time goes by when leaders were more power distance in early 2000 and before, and People Management is more applicable in the next decade. The changes may be influenced by the transformation of leaders from different generations. Baby Boomers are the hardworking clan within the generations hence they are more power oriented in ensuring results, meanwhile Generation X and Y values Quality of Work Life. All of the management styles between these generations have their own advantage and disadvantage. The well-blend between these styles perhaps can drive toward the

success of Organizational Management in Malaysia. The Quality of Work Life orientation may create higher satisfaction among the employees but at the same time the managers cannot let the workers to be complacent and compromise their performance. A balance between the two will increase the chance of more successful Management style. Adapting the computerized and digitalized lifestyle of Generation Y may be beneficial as works can be done more effectively and at the same time increases the satisfaction level among the younger ones. The leaders have to be more creative in tailoring towards the expectations of their employees from all walks of generations. Gen X and Gen Y are making a big impact on the changes in organizational culture. They are empowered, consumer oriented, technology savvy, and they are not afraid to speak their mind for change in the workplace. They tend to advocate more fluids use of time in their workday. In their minds and in their always-on world, they see this flexible working hours as perfectly legitimate as long as they get their work done and meet customers expectation. For Baby Boomers, they may not be the technology savvy type but it will not harm anyone to respect their opinion. They may be expressing formative serious thoughts but they would appreciate that their voice to heard and respect, thus to manage the gap between generations, the leaders need to be wise in balancing the contrasting needs between them. Perhaps in ensuring the success in managing organization in Malaysia, the managers and leaders need to know the tactic and know-how of motivating, and effective training of the employees from various generations. For instance, Gen X is motivated by the prospects of independence, the lack of corporate structure and lack of rigidity. They are also motivated by the possibility of the latest technological advances and probably the leaders may give them space to question the experts and authority as they prefer to be made clear of what they are looking for. Likewise, Gen Y prefers another option in managing their needs and expectations. They love challenges, and function well as team members, but at the same time they also love to be heroes. The leaders need to be sensitive towards their needs of wanting to be surrounded by bright, creative people. Thus, the traditional way of doing things which may be implemented by the Baby Boomers may seem to be obsolete to them. At the same time, Gen Y expects their want to be fulfilled promptly and they also are looking for empowerment. Thus, here comes the role of Malaysian leaders and managers to creatively know how to train these younger generations effectively. For instance, the leaders can leverage the experience of the Baby Boomers to be the example for the younger generations. They may

not agree with the way of Baby Boomers doing things but allow these younger ones to aim for the same result by embedding new and creative ideas. These younger generations love acknowledgement and empowerment, thus the managers must be wise enough to leverage these young and fresh intelligence so that they can achieve their target embedding the fresh touch. The leaders can train Gen X by allowing them to ask questions and challenge the concepts. At the same time, the managers can please them by offering multi-media learning opportunities. On the other hand, Gen Y thrives in multimedia environment and they can learn anywhere, anytime. Thus, grant them flexibility, multitasking environment, and Internet enabled reliance such as IM, Podcasts, and YouTube. Perhaps the managers can earn higher satisfaction level from them by enabling social networking at workplace such as Facebook and Twitter. The challenge in making managing in Malaysia a success is it requires the managers and leaders creativity and intelligence to integrate the capabilities of their human resources from various generations. Being Malaysian, despites the contrasting generations and age groups, the employees in this country are more comfortable with teamwork and collectivism. Thus, it is up the judgments of the managers to leverage this advantage and satisfy the needs from all walks of generations so that these human resources can be managed effectively. Question 4 How to make our organization achieve a standard that can be described as World class. Answer: According to Business dictionary, world class can be define as Goods, services, and processes that are ranked by customers and industry-experts to be among the best of the best. This designation denotes standard-setting excellence in terms of design, performance, quality, and customer satisfaction and value when compared with all similar items from anywhere in the world. As for world class organization it can be defined as An organisation which has acquired the position of Best of the Bests in the world in its given business and continuously strives for beating its oven standards so as to retain that position Characteristics of a world class organization: 1. Best of the Bests:

A world class organisation is like a world champion having beaten all business champions throughout the world. Additionally such type of organisation possesses such level of strategic and operational excellence, which is not matched by any other organisation in the world. Classic examples of Best of the Best organisations include Motorola, Federal Express, Microsoft etc. 2. Continuous Improvement:The second most important trait of a world-class organisation is the importance it attaches to continuous improvement. This type of organisation do not sit on their laurels rather continuously indulge in self-reinvention process. It is rightly said that success is a journey and not a destination and for successful companies improvement is a continuous journey. Those organisations, which practice continuous self-improvement, live longer, while those who become complacent and forget about it ultimately end up with closures. 3. Relentless Focus on Customer Satisfaction: In the game of business umpires are customers and winning thus lies in their satisfaction. In this era customers have become increasingly demanding, asking for the best quality, cheapest possible price and superior service back up. So to win the hearts of their customers globally acclaimed companies satisfy customers and in most of the cases delight them by offering fabulous quality, charging surprisingly lowest possible prices and providing angel like service. It must be mentioned here that excellent organisations develop excellent relation with their clients and treat them with respect and high esteem. I would like to mention here a personal experience of a Malaysian company called First Training. First Training is a video training company, which sells and rent out management and educational videos and multi-media programmes. A small company consisting of half a dozen employees and managed by an excellent manager Thomas Teo can be rightly called as a world class company when it comes to customers satisfactions. A couple of days I visited their office and I was indeed treated like a king. After finishing my meeting I had to attend another meeting and when I asked for the direction of the place of my next meeting I was extremely touched when Thomas told that he would guide me there and asked me to follow his Jeep. I can never forget this kindness as a customer and frankly who would if treated like that by any company. Strategies for Developing World Class Organisations: World-class organisation do not happen by chance rather people build them by design that way. They are created by visions, nurtured by ambitions ad perfected by actions. For reaching the zenith of excellence companies need to carefully formulate strategies and deliberately implement them so as to arrive the desired destination. 1. Knowledge of Global Economy:The first requirement to venture into this journey is to acquire knowledge and understanding of global business environment. As such, today any business, which wants to be a global

player, must know the nature of global market place. A sound knowledge of different countries and their economies, managing cross cultural teams, predicting global market upheavals and getting prepared for forecasting them are some of the things which a business firm must understand, without which it will be impossible to succeed. 2. Obsession with Quality: Quality is a dynamic state associated with products, service, people processes, and environments that meets or exceeds customers expectations. In todays market place quality is one of the greatest weapons, which determines winning. Our organization must continuously work on improving the quality of their products and services, which indeed is one of the keys to attain a universal status. 3. Developing the Most Professional Employees: The quality of an organisation depends on the quality of its people and their professionalism. One of the best practices of winning organisations is developing the most professional employees through continuous training and development. A very healthy trend pioneered by world-class organisations like Motorola, Solectron, Microsoft etc. is that these companies have started training and development centre, which they call universities. These universities not only train their employees but also award them with formal certificates and degrees, which helps in enhancing employees self esteem as well as their employability. 4. Innovation and Reinvention: Our organization need should strive to continuously improve its present performance. But at the same time should also use deliberate strategies so as to reinvent the organisation in the time to come thus the end of the present declining curve get connected to a new curve of new products, services, systems and structures which propel the organisation to growth. In dynamic business environments like ours reinvention exercise by companies is the only way to avoid demise and obtain eternal organisational life, which is thus practiced by most of the top industries in the world. 5. World Class Leadership: The success of every world class organisation without fail can be traced back to a visible or invisible leader who possessed world class leadership qualities. For example Honda Motors the Japanese automaker is one of the companies, which is gifted with world class leadership. Of all the Japanese automakers, Honda Motors has achieved excellent international presence due to the companys dynamic leadership. Honda defined products with the intention of gaining success not only in Japan, but across the world Honda was the first Japanese company which started international manufacturing facility in Belgium by manufacturing mopeds in that country. Today Honda Motor has earned itself a formidable placing in the auto-making industry. This success of Honda Motors can be directly traced to the visionary leadership of Mr. Honda the founder of the company.

The often repeated and usually mentioned theme Globalisation of todays business world is not just a fashionable world but a hard reality which businesses through out the world whether small or big must learn to live with. And to successfully live with this reality companies must raise their standards from domestic to international levels, strive for excellence not only in their oven industry but other industries as well. This stature and standard is what is known as world class standard. For any organisation to be truly called a world class organisation it must have the desire, will and above all the strategies for reaching that position. Thorough knowledge of the global economy, fanatic obsession with quality increased focus on employee professionalism, undergoing self reinvention, and above all possession or acquisition of global leaders are some of the strategies which can give birth to thorough bred companies, rightly known as world class organisations.

Question 5 How do Malaysian managers differ from their foreign counterparts? Answer: Managemen t culture Work Group Characterist ics Malaysian Perspective Malaysian are relationaloriented countries in which people place great importance on personal relationship. Living in a collectivism society, the Asians view people differently as "in-group" and "out group". They have much higher confidence in "in-group" members than "outgroup" members. But the passing of time, and the development of relationship, the out group members may turn into in group members The Malaysian person does not consider contracts as seriously as the Foreign. They think there will always be changes and the contracts can be reasonably modified according to changes. Instead, they tend to pay more attention to relationships than contracts. strong avoidance of uncertainty, such Foreign perspective American managers may encourage their group members to learn from each other, to focus on task rather than on social and interpersonal relations, and to build the confidence required for superior performance (Sosik and Jung, 2002). They place a much higher importance on the task or business deal and hope to focus very quickly on specific business matters. They are achievement oriented, that is "work first". They don't think establishing personal relationship is necessarily Foreign place greater importance on contractual safeguards than the Malaysian. They believe that contracts can ensure that their partners' tendencies to focus on individual goals and aspirations do not interfere with their own individual goals and aspirations. Britain and the US are countries which demonstrate the opposite

Cooperation

uncertainty

as Chinese , people will be more inclined towards detail and precision Individualis m vs. Collectivism Strong Collectivism The Malaysian depend more on groups or institutions to determine what they should do and emphasize loyalty to the group. They are more likely to cooperate with others to avoid risks and reduce responsibilities. Their value systems appreciate duty to the group and harmony among its members while pursuing personal goals is viewed rather negatively in Malaysian. Malaysians in general are willing to accept the fact that inequality in power is considered normal (Tanveer Ahmad,2008)

characteristics, with their culture of weak uncertainty avoidance providing more freedom to innovate. Strong Individualism - They rely on their own view to determine what they should do. They tend to work alone and are reluctant to cooperate because their individualism and masculine culture view cooperation in general as a sign of weakness and place a high value on independence and control.

Power Distance

Relationshi ps

Decision Making

Language

Britain has a low power distance culture and members will strive for an equal distribution of power within the culture. The society emphasizes a lot on equality and is generally not status conscious. ( Thomas S.C. Yap,2007) Malaysian culture there is a Britain falls into a low-context need to build relationships culture, where both verbal and before getting to written communication styles are serious business direct and explicit. Information is often conveyed in a direct manner, specific and to the point (Abdullah, 2005) by the means of a more direct, confrontational, and explicit approach to ensure that the listener receives the message exactly as it was sent (Wurtz, 2005) Take some time to decide Risk- Fast decision making Risk-taking avoiding types for example, types former Malaysian Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad had to take the risk of pegging the Ringgit against the US Dollar during the Asian Financial Crisis instead of taking the easy way out by borrowing from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Government sector prefers English language is mode of

communication in Malay language but English has considered their second language. In private sector English had been use widely.

communication

Managemen Malaysian Perspective t culture Motivation Collectivistic cultures emphasize Systems cooperation, interdependence, and group goals, and thus prefer plans that support group harmony (Aguinis,2002). Most Asians believe that the sense of belonging to the group and devotion to the group are important. They hold the view that one's success is mainly based on group work, so one cannot claim the reward just for oneself. In that case, the equality principle is reflected in the motivation system.

Foreign perspective In American value systems, great emphasis is placed on individual achievement, and they are expected to achieve success only by their individual efforts. They value competition, achievement and personal goals, and therefore, desire to have plans that recognize individual contributions.

Question 6: How can we respond in the face of globalization? Answer: It is not easy for Malaysian to embrace the incoming agencies of globalization. A recent study by Samsudin A. Rahim and Latiffah Pawanteh (2011) has come to a conclusion that Malaysian are always be on our guards in accepting new environment such as globalization as we tend to take more cautious approach about opening ourselves to the world. Malaysians are always be vigilant and be reminded that globalization is not necessarily good for all countries. Thus, Malaysians always find the need to look at the context of pros and cons before globalization can be positively accepted in this country. Globalization has brought about liberalization and deregulation in many industries, for instance the communication industry. Normally, this industry will be among the first few that would be directly affected by any changes or transformation as it has the feature of carrying

information towards all parts of the world. People of the world will come to know about anything through communication industry as it has various communication channels such as Mass Media, Television, Radio, Internet and Telephone. Developing countries like Malaysia are cautious about the possibility of unregulated and ownership of the industry. Communication industry can be looked at as the important industry in dealing with globalization as its main commodity is information.