One nation, three cultures: exploring dimensions that relate to leadership in Malaysia

Abstract

PurposeMalaysia is a multicultural country with a distinct mix of three major races; Chinese Indians, and Malays. This paper sets out to explore the contribution of the three main ethnic groups to leadership in Malaysia.Design/methodology/approachSummated scales for the importance of Excellent Leader (EL), Personal Qualities (PQ), Managerial Behaviours (MB), Organisational Demands (OD) and Environmental Influences (EI) were developed using most of the items categorised by Selvarajah et al. and several other items rated highly in the study. A structural model was constructed to explain the relationship in excellence in leadership.FindingsFrom the three ethnic groups, 512 managers participated in the research. The findings suggest that Malaysian managers maintain distinctive leadership behaviour along ethnic lines and a Malaysian leadership identity is still in its infant stage.Practical implicationsMalaysia is a country with three distinct ethnic population groups and is yet to forge a single Malaysian identity. The findings are important for managers on foreign assignment in Malaysia and for others who engage with Malaysia.Originality/valueMost literature discusses Malaysian culture from a national perspective. The paper contextualises leadership of an Asian Tiger economy, which has since independence in 1957 politically developed the nation within three Asian national cultural frameworks.

Parental Beliefs and Fathers’ and Mothers’ Roles in Malaysian Families

“…The Malay family system is heavily infl uenced by Islamic customs and practices locally called adat (Kling 1995 ;Selvarajah and Meyer 2008 ;Tamuri 2007 ). The primary tenets of adat encourage the mother and the father to jointly raise children and inculcate values of a good moral character in them.…”

Organisational Leadership in Bangladesh: An Investigation of Managerial Response to A Change Environment

“…Selvarajah et al (1995) developed their EIL model in order to theorise leadership excellence in Asia and identified four behavioural dimensions of an excellent leader: personal qualities, environmental qualities, organisational demands, and managerial behaviours. With the inclusion of excellent leadership, the five-construct model has been applied to describe managerial leaders in Asia including Cambodia (Selvarajah, Meyer, & Davuth, 2012), China (Selvarajah & Meyer, 2008b), Indonesia , Malaysia (Selvarajah & Meyer, 2006;2008a), Singapore (Selvarajah, Meyer, Jeyakumar, & Donovan, 2013a), India (Selvarajah et al, 2014), and Thailand (Selvarajah, Meyer, & Donovan, 2013b). The five constructs, which are central to the EIL framework, are defined below (excerpted from Selvarajah, Meyer, & Donovan, 2013a: 359):…”

The Dynamism of Local Culture In Metagovernance - A Cursory Look at George Town World Heritage Site, Malaysia

“…The cultural domain that structures governance styles in Malaysia does apply in Penang [34], however [35] noted that approaches taken are dependent on the different cultural stances of local communities. While the more established NGOs were able to engage the state authorities in rationale discourse, the same does not apply to select local residents who are more antagonistic in nature.…”