The Mediating Role of Quality Leadership in Lean Practices and GLCs Performance

Lean practices are expected to eliminate wastes and consequently increase the bottom line profit of an organization. The benefits not only go to the organization, but also to the customers as well. The government-linked companies (GLCs) are always known for their big-sized establishment. Hence, managing the resources of the GLCs is very challenging. Therefore, investigating the leanness of Malaysian GLCs, and how lean practices affect the organizational performance are important. This paper would examine the relationship of lean and performance of the GLCs in Malaysia. A total of 281 managers in the GLCs were surveyed. The direct relationship and mediation effects were analysed using the Partial Least Square (PLS) structural equation modelling. The findings showed that the level of leanness was relatively high among the GLCs, while the lean management practice was significantly related to the organizational performance. The quality leadership partially mediates the relationship between lean practices and organizational performance. The findings suggest that lean practices are critical for the GLCs performance, while quality leadership is significant in order these companies to have better performance. The findings can also be applied to other organizations as well

MUDIM Enterprise: Finding the right strategy

Despite Shaarani’s efforts in positioning MUDIM as one of the successful Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Malaysia, his mind was not at peace. He visualized many business opportunities and risks involved in managing MUDIM, such as sluggish economic environment in Malaysia, turbulent market demand and technological changes and various competitive forces in the industry.For instant, competition from other firms, such as Habhal, Jalel and Adabi, and the increase in prices of raw materials used as the main ingredients for MUDIM’s products, such as dried soy bean and chilli, could also badly affect the company’s profitability.As the owner and Managing Director of MUDIM, Sharaani believed that business sustainability was very much dependent on the ability of the business strategy.To stay competitive, Shaarani had started to think to develop and penetrate to new market

The readiness level of firms in applying learning organization: A study on SMES of manufacturing firms in Johor Bahru, Johor

The purpose of this study is to investigate the readiness level of firms in applying learning organization. The study focuses on manufacturing SME firms in Johor Bahru, Johor.Obviously, this study is to examine whether the firms are ready for learning organization or not. The dimesions in Systematic Learning Organization Model (SLOM) namely dynamic learning, organizational transformation, empowering people, knowledge management and technology application become a basis to measure the readiness level of firms to apply learning organization.Through the Marquardt’s Learning Organization Analysis (MLOA), the mean value of SLOM variables from descriptive analysis are used to indicate the firm’s readiness for learning organization.By examining 102 respondents, the result shows positive outcomes in which SMEs manufacturing firms in Johor Bahru is ready for learning organization.Due to the lack of studies on this topic in previous literature especially in Malaysia, it is believed that this study will contribute to the body of knowledge and managerial implications. The paper concludes by providing the direction for the future research that work in this field

From Supplier Relations to Triad in the Automotive Industry

This paper presents a review of the literature of supplier relations in the automotive industry towards triad and how this has an impact on the supplier selection for buyers. This paper focuses on the automotive sector specifically. The paper suggest that triads reflect the supplier relations attributes in previous literature yet stress on the need for further emphasis on the supplier-supplier relationshi

Entrepreneurial orientation, strategic improvisation, talent management and firm performance

The Malaysian Government has acquired a large shareholding in several Malaysian companies to meet national aspirations, social concerns and global challenges.Known as ‘Government-Linked Companies’ or GLCs, have a part in ensuring Malaysia to achieve its ambition of becoming a developed country by the year of 2020.For the GLCs to sustain in the industry it is operated, it has to find ways to optimize the best practices such as in entrepreneurial orientation, strategic improvisation and talent management that can improve its organization competencies, particularly the performance. The sample includes all of the twenty six (26) public listed companies of the GLCs in Malaysia.The study uses a structured questionnaires to collect the data from the firms meeting the criteria of government linked companies or GLCs, the disproportionate sampling technique employed is to choose 5 executives from each company, making a total of 520 respondents.Results showed all hypotheses were supported; therefore, GLCs should ensure the favorable results to give the right priority to the implementation of the best practices in order to improve organizational performance

Disentangling the empirical evidence between personality, work experience, and improvisation among middle management government officers

This study examined the empirical association between personality traits, work experience, and improvisation. Big five personality traits (Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, and Openness) and individual work experience were the independent variables; whereas individual improvisation was the dependent variable.Data were collected from middle management level of government officers from various ministries in Putrajaya, Malaysia.Results revealed that Extra version and Openness had a significant and positive contribution towards improvisation while other traits (Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Neuroticism) did not demonstrate a significant association with improvisation.The findings of this study could contribute to the collective knowledge of management and be useful to both theorists and managers

From supplier relations to triad in the automotive industry

Recently, there are lots of cases regarding the use of fake account and cyberbullying. The irresponsible attitude is badly affecting the motivation of individual who being attacked and ruining the reputation of organization involved. This study is conducted among university students that aims to determine the factors of choosing fake account as a medium to raise an issue and to identify the impact of cyberbullying towards university’s reputation.About 380 samples were taken from undergraduate and postgraduate students.The data was analyzed using Decision Tree and Ordinal Logistic Regression (ORD) methods. The results show that there are students who have experienced cyberbullying or cyber victimization, which caused by the lack of parental support. The analysis from ORD method shows that fake account could affect university’s reputation. Hence, this research hopefully capable to create awareness among university students and help them to proudly present their university’s great name throughout the world. This is important to ensure the sustainability of community and university

Exploring the incidence of strategic improvisation: evidence from Malaysian Government Link Corporations

In today’s dynamic business environment, organizations have faced many challenges to stay abreast of changes in order to make wise decisions and best management system.This means that strategic improvisation can be one of the best ways to reconcile organizational tensions.However, the importance of strategic improvisation in the business remains unclear and research in this area is still relatively underdeveloped.To fill this gap, this research is central to explore the incidence of strategic improvisation (SI) in the context of Government Link Corporations (GLCs) in Malaysia. Specifically, this research seeks to examine the relationship of Talent Management (TM) and Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO) with the incidence of SI.Further, SI is also examined to have significant effects on GLCs performance. 281 managers from Malaysian GLCs were used as a sample of the study.The findings confirmed that TM and EO have a positive significant relationship with SI; and there is a positive significant link between SI and GLCs performance.Given the lack of studies on these relationships in previous literatures, it is believed that this research will contribute to the body of knowledge as well as the managerial implication particularly on the GLCs setting

Resistance to Change of Academics towards Accreditation

When universities makes the decision to go for accreditation to improve performance standards, there has been an impact on academics who are involved in the process. The literature suggests that for accreditation such as business programs such as AACSB, both positive and negative impact could occur for academics. This paper gives an overview on three areas of literature that is pertinent to this topic: resistance to change, accreditation impact on the university, and accreditation impact on business academics with balanced scorecard to measure accreditation impact