The study of the personnel and line managers' opinions and views about hum an resource management was carried out in the 11 SEDCs in West Malaysia in 1989 (June to September). Four organisations were again visited and interviews with personnel managers were repeated for clarification in 1990 (July to September).
At the end of May,1989, letters were sent to all the 13 SEDCs followed by ;| telephone reminders. The letters stated the objectives, focus and the m ethod of
the study to be carried out. Assurance was made that:
1. the findings would not be published for public reading.
2. the research was conducted solely for the academic purpose of conducting research in order to fulfill the degree requirement.
3. the research was not intended to discover, reveal and reflect features of the individual SEDC. This meant that the data would be aggregated and be treated as confidential.
This letter, attached with a letter from the research supervisor, was also copied to the‘ Dean of Social Sciences, University of Science Malaysia in Penang for acknowledgement. This type of letter is usual w hen dealing w ith public organisations controlled by the Federal and State government.
After about three weeks only a few replies had been received; Kelantan, Johor, Melaka, Sarawak and Perak accepted the research study. A ppointm ents w ith the other SEDCs were m ade through phone calls. Sabah (East M alaysia) refused to become involved in the study w ithout giving any reason. At the time of the study, Sabah was in a political crisis, particularly in the present ruling party. Secondly, Sabah is not closely associated with West Malaysians because of the state's geographical and ethnic background. In fact, the Sabah ruling party. Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) had pulled out of the ruling National Front coalition party (Barisan National) and joined the opposition front a few days before the general election which was held on 21th. October, 1990. By contrast, Sarawak SEDC in East Malaysia allowed the study to proceed, but with reservation's: only general information would be given. Terengganu, for instance, initially rejected the study. The second letter was sent to Terengganu SEDC explaining the intentions of the research. In the case of Perak, a further clarification of the study was requested and this was sent. Later both Terengganu and Perak agreed to accept the study. In all, after considerable persistence from the researcher eleven SEDCs in West Malaysia agreed.
Before the study was officially conducted, contacts were m ade w ith friends and colleagues who personally knew or had close friends of m anagers in various SEDCs. In the case of Kedah, the contact was made through a friend's
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colleague who personally knew both the general manager and administrative manager. The administrative officer was a University of Science Malaysia (USM) graduate. The contact with Perak was made through a cousin who is a personnel m anager at Perak SEDCs cement company. In addition, the personnel officer was a USM[ graduate. In Kelantan, there was no difficulty because the researcher, who is from Kelantan, had an old friend working as the corporate m anager, Penang SEDC had a close relation w ith USM in research and development. Furtherm ore, the USM colleague who sits together w ith the deputy general m anager in one of the federal committees, introduced the study to the organisation and then set up the appointm ent. The Vice-Chancellor and the D eputy Vice-Chancellor of USM are members of the Board of Directors of Penang SEDC. In Johor, the USM management graduate working as an. officer m ade the necessary arrangem ents w ith the personnel manager. In N egeri Sembilan, it so happened that a USM colleague’s cousin was working as an assistant accountant. In Pahang, a USM colleague knew the general manager and adm inistrative m anager. In Selangor, the personnel m anager's sister w as w orking at USM, so there was no reason why he w ould not support the research. In Terengganu, a senior marketing manager was a USM graduate and was also a friend of my colleague. In Perils the adm inistrative manager was a former USM masters degree student. His wife was also a former masters degree student in management. The deputy administrative manager was an old friend of the present dean of the school of Social Science, USM from the time when they were students at USM.
The participation of several SEDCs was encouraged by the author's use of various informal contacts and network. Suffice it to say that these informal contacts and intermediaries played a very important role in introducing, assuring and convincing the SEDCs' managers to give support and cooperation in the research. It should be realised how im portant these personal linkages, networks
and indirect approach are in Malaysia's cultural and social environm ent (see Gregory Thong 1991: 162) As a result of personal contact, introduction, recommendation, persuasion and assurance made by respective individuals, the research study was encouraged, supported and personally participated in by respective managers. The openness and willingness of managers to participate in the discussion helped to compensate for gaps in the coverage due to shortage of time and unavailability of few m anagers at the time of the visit to the organisations (see Storey 1992: 282).
In the SEDCs, all administration and personnel matters are handled by the adm inistrative managers. Thus my first contact was with the adm inistrative manager. After finishing the interview, the administrative manager contacted the respective departm ental managers. However, in the case of Penang, I first m et w ith the deputy general m anager who explained about the SEDC, pertaining to its managem ent philosophy and corporate objectives. H e then allowed me to conduct interviews with respective line and personnel managers. 4.4. RESPONDENTS
The respondents were managers and senior officers em ployed in the personnel departm ent and in other functional departments (Table 4.4. & Table 4.5).
Table 4.4
Number of Respondents (By positions)
Position Number Percentage
Senior M anagers 27 36.5
Middle Managers 27 36.5
Senior Officers 20 27.0
1 0 0 Table 4.5
Number of Respondents in each SEDC ( By departments )
SEDC Total nos. of
Department No. of M anagers interviewed / questionnaire answered Selangor 161 8 Johor 12 7 Penang 11 11 Pahang 6 6 Perak 9 8 Terengganu 7 3 Kelantan 10 6 Kedah 4 8 Negeri Sembilan 6 7 Melaka 3 6 Perils 41 6 Total 88 "74 (84.1%)
There were cases when departmental managers were not available for the interview. 33 questionnaires were left w ith the adm inistrative managers who then gave them to respective managers. These questionnaires were returned to my office. Some questionnaires were completely answered and some were not returned : there were 3 incomplete returns while 14 were not returned. There was only one case where the technical manager refused to be interviewed. This is a drawback. Of the 74 respondents, 69 (94.5 %) were married, 54 (72.6 %) were
PKNS, Petaling Jaya only
male and 20 (27.0 %) were female (Table 4.6). They were 27 senior managers, 27 managers and 20 senior officers of whom there were 69 Malays, 4 Chinese and 1 Indian (Table 4.7). The predom inance of Malay respondents reflects‘their numerical dominance in the SEDCs. In only one SEDC, did I find Chinese in the senior managerial positions.
Table 4.6. SEX Male Female Respondent Number Percentage 54 20 72..6 27.4 Malay Chinese Indians Total Table 4.7 Ethnicity Respondent Number 69 4 1 74 Percentage 93.2 5.4 l A 100.00 3.5 CONCLUSION
All in all, the personnel and functional managers contacted co-operated in the research project. As expected, there were differences in the quality of response betw een the personal interview and mailing questionnaire survey approaches. Face to face or personal interviews tend to be more reliable and accurate because of the openness, social relationship developed, willingness of respondents and the comfort of the interview process. Thus the personal
a
1 0 2
interview using both closed and open-ended questions and document analysis tended to provide both more and relatively more accurate and im portant information beyond the questions asked. The face to face approach allowed the respondents to counteract and clarify certain inform ation which was being
gathered from other external sources such as the media and reports. Certain i inform ation w hich was seen as being sensitive could be discussed "off the
record". In contrast, the mailing questionnaires received from those respondents who were not available during the visit was, in fact, a one-way communication in which the accuracy and reliability of the data was solely dependent on the respondents' willingness and seriousness to answer the questions posed. The following Chapter 5 is the first empirical chapter.
CHAPTER 5
THE "MALAYNESS" OF THE SEDCs AND THE ABSENCE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT
5.0 INTRODUCTION
This first empirical chapter introduces the research respondents, outlines some of their key characteristics and most importantly highlights some of their central values and assum ptions. In doing so, the chapter also reveals the pervasiveness of Malay culture in many of the SEDCs. It shows how the Malay respondents identified very closely w ith the dom inant Malay culture and reproduced this culture in their everyday personnel practices.
The managers' tendency to identify w ith the dominant Malay culture also constituted a significant barrier to progressive m anagem ent practices in the SEDCs. The chapter demonstrates that Malay managers are relatively satisfied w ith m any aspects of the personnel practices that affect them. Indeed, a considerable degree of reluctance to change was discernible in the m anagers' accounts. Accordingly, this level of satisfaction discourages the m anagers from pressing for significant changes regarding personnel matters. Hence this chapter first highlights m anagem ent's commitment to the reproduction of the Malay culture in m ost SEDCs. It identifies their reluctance to change despite poor career opportunities.
The final section of the chapter then identifies an interrelated key factor in the failure to generate organisational change, namely the low status of persormel departm ents and the ineffectiveness of their practices. This section reveals that line managers consistently regarded personnel specialists as marginal to current organisational procedures. On the basis of this important finding, future chapters go on to explore some of the negative consequences of ineffective personnel
' ,
1 04 practices, some of the other organisational barriers to more effective practices and also some of the facilitators of more effective personnel practices discovered in certain relatively successful SEDCs.