Journal of MIM

The Journal of The Malaysian Institute of Management
Malaysian Management Review July-December 2006 Vol 41 No 2
	The Ninth Malaysian Plan (9MP) which was unveiled by our Prime Minister on 1 April 2006 underscored the vital role of human capital as the impetus for the nation's developmental leap in this knowledge era of globalisation. While the theme of human capital development is broad, this edition of the Malaysian Management Review focuses on entrepreneurship and the organisational environment within which human capital is developed. Many industry captains have either explicitly or tacitly expressed the importance of having entrepreneurial skills or being enterprising as a leader, among other attributes. The subject of entrepreneurship is thus aptly highlighted in the first two articles.

What is the edge that successful Chinese entrepreneurs possess? Might it be their depth of emotional intelligence (EQ) and spiritual intelligence (SQ)? In her research on "Emotional and Spiritual Intelligence: The Perspective of Chinese Entrepreneurship", Dr Shelen Ho investigates the relationship between EQ and SQ among ethnic Chinese entrepreneurs in comparison to non-entrepreneurs of Chinese ethnicity.

What about Malay entrepreneurs? Where do they stand when benchmarked internationally? Professor Madya Jaafar Muhamad and Dr Khairudin Damhoeri submit "Leadership Traits and Expectations among Malay Business Owners: Some Factor Analytic Findings" which provides some insight on the leadership traits among Malay entrepreneurs, which have enabled them to remain resilient amid the economic slowdown of 1997 and 1998.

Human capital development is urgently becoming a crucial, non-negotiable reality, without which we cannot nurture leaders and managers who are relevant for the future that is fast descending upon us. To this end, the subject of organisational learning generates special interest. "Perspectives in Organisational Learning" presented by Norbani Che Ho and Saad Mohd Said constitutes a comprehensive, though not exhaustive, literature review on organisational learning (OL) in which the authors de-mystify the concept of OL while clarifying that OL is often used interchangeably with another term, learning organisation. In addition, Norbani and Saad provide readers with an overview of the different perspectives and approaches to OL.

Can we "predict" employees' intention to stay with an organisation from their workplace attitudes? To address this question, a quantitative study titled "Examining the Relationship between Employee Workplace Attitudes and Intention to Turnover: An Exploratory Analysis" was conducted among six major semiconductor contract manufacturing organisations in Malaysia by Ooi Keng Boon, Dr Nooh Abu Bakar and Dr Veeri Arumugam. The researchers show that "organisational commitment" was perceived as a dominant workplace attitude variable, and it was strongly associated with the employees' decision to stay. Other workplace attitude variables such as "job involvement", "career satisfaction" and "job satisfaction" were found to have indirect effects on the employees' intention to stay.

What about the issue of employees' pay - is there something else employers should take into consideration to address the delicate matter of employee remuneration more effectively? In their paper titled "Distributive Justice as a Moderator in the Relationship between Pay Distribution, Work Attitudes and Behaviours", Azman Ismail, Faizil Faisal, Asfah Roziati Ismail and Mohd Noor Mohd Shariff advocate the consideration of "distributive justice". They examine the role of "distributive justice" (i.e. pay level, pay amount, pay type and pay increases) as a moderator in the relationship between "pay distribution" (i.e. monetary and non-monetary rewards) and "work attitudes and behaviours" (i.e. job satisfaction and job commitment). Statistical analyses of the data demonstrate that the interacting variables - "pay distribution" and "distributive justice" - significantly correlated with "work attitudes and behaviours".

How is it possible that in today's widely touted "flat world", teleworking has gained little significance even in a highly developed nation like Japan, what more Malaysia? To examine this phenomenon, Dr Abdul Azeez Kadir and Professor Masao Miura investigate a few significant factors responsible for the decision to accept teleworking. Their findings are reported in "A Preliminary Investigation of a Model on the Decision to Implement Teleworking in the Japanese Business Organisations" based on a survey conducted among 600 organisations in the Greater Tokyo Metropolitan Area (GTMA).

Regular health checks are important to pre-empt any untoward condition befalling us. By the same token, there is a need for organisations to assess their organisational health. In "Accelerating Performance: Framework for Assessing Organisational Health", Mohamad Hanapi Mohamad and Nagarajah Lee have identified some critical success factors for high performance and have developed an instrument to assess current performance management practices and overall performance.

Allow me to conclude with the following excerpt from the 9MP report, which supports the Institute's consistent endeavour as the national management organisation to develop world-class human capital through the training, development and management of leading talents in the context of 21st century corporations: