Managing For Excellence in
Malaysia
by Scott R. Ros ner and Brian H. Klei ner
In tro duc tion
This ar ti cle will dis cuss some rele vant top ics for man ag ers in Ma lay sia.
Man age ment tech niques and prob lems are dif fer ent in Ma lay sia when com -
pared with man age ment in the United States. Three fac tors con trib ute to this.
First, Ma lay sia is a de vel op ing coun try. As the coun try pro gresses through
vari ous stages of com plex ity and tech nol ogy, their level of man age ment ex -
per tise will also prog ress. Sec ondly, most Ma lay sians are poor, ru ral farm -
ers, and there fore, do not have highly de vel oped man age ment skills, and
fi nally, Ma lay sia is a pre domi nantly Mus lim coun try. Al though Ma lay sia al -
lows free dom of re lig ion, Is lam is the of fi cial state re lig ion. Is lam is more
than just a re lig ion. It is a life style and an eco nomic style. The meth ods used
vary in com pari son to those used in the United States.
Tak ing these fac tors into con sid era tion, this ar ti cle will dis cuss five
man age ment prob lems: 1. Plan ning; 2. Use of Re sources; 3. La bour Re la -
tions; 4. Authori tar ian Man age ment; and 5. The Con cept of Change.
Plan ning
1
There are ba si cally two types of plans. Short- term plans or plan ning strate -
gies and long- term plans or plan ning strate gies. Un der both gen eral type of
plans are many spe cific plans such as: 1. Mar ket ing Strate gies; 2. Fi nan cial;
3. Pro duc tion; 4. Ad ver tis ing Pro grammes; and 5. Pen sion Plans.
Plans are used to di rect the re sources and me chan ics of a firm to achieve
spe cific goals or ob jec tives. An in creas ingly popu lar method of plan ning in
Ma lay sia is called the Cas cade of Plans, a hi er ar chi cal method. It can be rep -
re sented in this fash ion:
1. Top Man age ment - Gen eral Goals
2. Mid dle Man age ment - Spe cif ics to help achieve gen eral goals
3. Low Man age ment - Tac tics to carry out the spe cif ics.
This method can be car ried out to fit any number of lev els of man age -
ment. It is ef fec tive for vari ous rea sons. First, most peo ple want to plan their
own fu ture. They want to plan their ac tions and re spon si bili ties. Rather than
hav ing one de tailed plan ning strat egy forced down from top man age ment,
each suc ces sive level is given the author ity to plan and im ple ment ex actly
what it will do to carry out the more gen eral cor po rate goals. The rate of
change in busi ness has been more rapid in the 80s than in pre vi ous years. To
ad just one de tailed, ex ten sive top man age ment plan to fit the new dy nam ics
of the econ omy would be al most im pos si ble and cer tainly un rea son able. By
25
Vol ume 21 Num ber 6 1998
Biographical Notes
Both authors can be
contacted at the Department
of Management, LH-640,
California State University,
Fullerton, 800 North State
College Blvd., Fullerton,
CA 92634, USA.