ICP823 MANAGING PEOPLE

COURSEWORK 1:
A STUDY OF FLEXIBILITY AND
RIGIDIBILITY PRACTICES AT MMC
BERHAD

PREPARED BY:
ZULKARNAIN BIN DAHALAN (2015677696)
MUHAMMAD YUSOF BIN ABDULLAH (2013936257)
AZHAR
DATE OF SUBMISSION: 16 MAY 2015

Table of Content
1 - Introduction

2 - Literature Review

2.1-Scientific Management (SM)

2.2-Quality Working Life (QWL).

2.3-Learning (L)

3 - Case Study

3.1-MMC Bhd

3.2-Theoretical Framework

3.3-Potential Benefits

3.4-Challenges

3.5-Recommendations

4 - Conclusion

5 - References

1 - INTRODUCTION
The concept of flexibility and rigidibility in construction industry are meant to improve the
efficiency and also the productivity of such entity.It is important for the goals to be
established and the effective methods to be implement continuously in due-dilligence and
handling-care.
There are many ways to drive to the goals and various methods of implementation,researchs
over last 50 years has enlighten the path on the 3(three) refined methods of
1) Scientific Management (SM)
2) Quality Working Life (QWL)
3) Learning (L)
The big picture is likely to see in this study is a mean to move from the beaurocratic
construction model of scientific management with its fragmentation of jobs and hierarchical
control to a flexible, broadly skilled participative team.
This is a more effective way of managing market-driven construction work while protecting
the rights and dignity of employees.

2 - LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1

Scientific Management

Scientific management is a theory of management that analyses and synthesizes

workflows, with the objective of improving labor productivity. The core ideas of the theory
were developed by Frederick Winslow Taylor in the 1880s and 1890s, and were first
published in his monographs, Shop Management (1905) and The Principles of Scientific
Management (1911).
He began trying to discover a way for workers to increase their efficiency when he was the
foreperson at the Midvale Steele Company in 1875. Taylor believed that decisions based
upon tradition and rules of thumb should be replaced by precise procedures developed after
careful study of an individual at work. Its application is contingent on a high level of
managerial control over employee work practices.
Taylorism can be seen as the rigidibility-driven implementation for efficiency and productivity:
General approach

Shift in decision making from employees to managers

Develop the one best way as a standard method for performing each job

Select workers with appropriate abilities for each job

Train workers in the standard method previously developed

Support workers by planning their work and eliminating interruptions

Provide wage incentives to workers for increased output

Contributions

Scientific approach to business management and process improvement

Importance of compensation for performance

Began the careful study of tasks and jobs

Importance of selection criteria by management

Perspective of improving the productivity and efficiency of manual workers

Elements

Labor is defined and authority/responsibility is legitimised/official

Positions placed in hierarchy and under authority of higher level

Selection is based upon technical competence, training or experience

Actions and decisions are recorded to allow continuity and memory

Management is different from ownership of the organization

Managers follow rules/procedures to enable reliable/predictable behaviour

Criticisms
The strongest reaction against scientific management methods was from the workers who
found the work boring and requiring little skill. The strike at Watertown Arsenal led to an
investigation of Taylor's methods by a House of Representatives Committee which reported
in 1912. The conclusion was that scientific management did provide some useful techniques
and offered valuable organisational suggestions, but gave production managers a
dangerously high level of uncontrolled power.
Taylor's methods were banned by the Senate after an attitude survey was held among the
workers, which revealed a high level of resentment and hostility towards scientific
management.

Did not appreciate the social context of work and higher needs of workers.

Did not acknowledge variance among individuals.

Tended to regard workers as uninformed and ignored their ideas and suggestions.

Mass Production Methods

Taylorism is often mentioned along with Fordism, because it was closely associated
with mass production methods in manufacturing factories. Taylor's own name for his
approach was scientific management. This sort of task-oriented optimization of work tasks
is nearly ubiquitous today in industry, and has made most industrial work menial, repetitive
and tedious; this can be noted, for instance, in assembly lines and fast-food restaurants.

Taylor's methods began from his observation that, in general, workers forced to perform
repetitive tasks work at the slowest rate that goes unpunished. This slow rate of work has
been called by various terms, including "soldiering", (reflecting the way conscripts may
approach following orders), "dogging it", or "goldbricking". Managers may call it by those
names or "loafing" or "malingering"; workers may call it "getting through the day" or
"preventing management from abusing us". Taylor used the term "soldiering" and observed
that, when paid the same amount, workers will tend to do the amount of work that the
slowest among them does.

This reflects the idea that workers have a vested interest in their own well-being, and do not
benefit from working above the defined rate of work when it will not increase their
compensation. He therefore proposed that the work practice that had been developed in
most work environments was crafted, intentionally or unintentionally, to be very inefficient in
its execution. He posited that rational analysis and synthesis could uncover one best method
for performing any particular task, that prevailing methods were seldom equal to these best
methods, and that if the best methods were taught to workers and their compensation was
linked to output, their productivity would go up.
Taylor introduced many concepts that were not widely accepted at the time. For example, by
observing workers, he decided that labor should include rest breaks so that the worker has
time to recover from fatigue. He proved this with the task of unloading ore: workers were
taught to take rest during work and as a result production increased.
Todays armies employ scientific management. Of the key points listed, all but wage
incentives for increased output are used by modern military organizations. Wage incentives
rather appear in the form of skills bonuses for enlistments.
Division of labor
Unless people manage themselves, somebody has to take care of administration, and thus
there is a division of work between workers and administrators. One of the tasks of
administration is to select the right person for the right job:
the labor should include rest breaks so that the worker has time to recover from fatigue.Now
one of the very first requirements for a man who is fit to handle pig iron as a regular

occupation is that he shall be so stupid and so phlegmatic that he more nearly resembles in
his mental make-up the ox than any other type. The man who is mentally alert and intelligent
is for this very reason entirely unsuited to what would, for him, be the grinding monotony of
work of this character. Therefore the workman who is best suited to handling pig iron is
unable to understand the real science of doing this class of work. (Taylor 1911, 59)
This view match the worker to the job has resurfaced time and time again in management
theories. Many theories have been applied to the business.
Extension to Sales Engineering
Taylor believed scientific could be extended to the work of our salesmen. Shortly after his
death, his acolyte Harlow S. Person began to lecture corporate audiences on the possibility
of using Taylorism for sales engineering. (Dawson 2005). This was a watershed insight in
the history of corporate marketing.

Criticism
Applications of scientific management sometimes fail to account for two inherent difficulties:

Individuals are different form each other, the most efficient way of working for one

person may be inefficient for another.

The economic interests of workers and management are rarely identical, so that both
the measurement processes and the retraining required by Taylors methods are
frequently resented and sometimes sabotaged by the workforce.

Both difficulties were recognised by Taylor, but are generally not fully addressed by
managers who only see the potential improvements to efficiency. Taylor believed that
scientific management cannot work unless the worker benefits. In his view management
should arrange the work in such a way that one is able to produce more and get paid more,
by teaching and implementing more efficient procedures for producing a product.
Although Taylor did not compare workers with machines, some of his critics use this
metaphor to explain how his approach makes work more efficient by removing unnecessary
or wasted effort. However, some would say that this approach ignores the complications
introduced because workers are necessarily human: personal needs, interpersonal
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difficulties and the very real difficulties introduced by making jobs so efficient that workers
have no time to relax. As a result, workers worked harder, but became dissatisfied with the
work environment. Some have argued that this discounting of worker personalities led to the
rise of labor unions.
It can also be said that the rise in labor unions is leading to a push on the part of industry to
accelerate the process of automation, a process that is undergoing a renaissance with the
invention of a host of new technologies starting with the computer and the Internet. This shift
in production to machines was clearly one of the goals of Taylorism, and represents a victory
for his theories.
It may not be adaptive to changing scenarios; it overemphasizes routine procedures, i.e.
strictly following a given set of rules and regulations, work procedures, production
centredness etc.
However, tactfully choosing to ignore the still controversial process of automating human
work is also politically expedient, so many still say that practical problems caused by
Taylorism led to its replacement by the human relations school of management in 1930.
Others (Braverman 1974) insisted that human relations did not replace Taylorism but that
both approaches are rather complementary: Taylorism determining the actual organisation of
the work process and human relations helping to adapt the workers to the new procedures.
However, Taylor's theories were clearly at the roots of a global revival in theories of scientific
management in the last two decades of the 20th century, under the moniker of 'corporate
reengineering' or 'business process reengineering'. As such, Taylor's ideas can be seen as
the root of a very influential series of developments in the workplace, with the goal being the
eventual elimination of industry's need for unskilled, and later perhaps, even most skilled
labor in any form, directly following Taylor's recipe for deconstructing a process. This has
come to be known as commodification, and no skilled profession, even medicine, has proven
to be immune from the efforts of Taylor's followers, the 'reengineers', who are often called
derogatory names such as 'bean counters'.
Legacy
Scientific management was an early attempt to systematically treat management and
process improvement as a scientific problem. With the advancement of statistical methods,
the approach was improved and referred to as quality control in 1920s and 1930s. During
the 1940s and 1950s, the body of knowledge for doing scientific management evolved
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into Operations Research and management cybernetics. In the 1980s there was total quality
management, in the 1990s re-engineering. Today's Six Sigma and lean manufacturing could
be seen as new kinds of scientific management, though their principles vary so drastically
that the comparison might be misleading. In particular, Shigeo Shingo, one of the originators
of the Toyota Production System, believed that this system and Japanese management
culture in general should be seen as kind of scientific management. Peter Drucker saw
Frederick Taylor as the creator of knowledge management, as the aim of scientific
management is to produce knowledge about how to improve work processes. Although
some have questioned whether scientific management is suitable only for manufacturing,
Taylor himself advocated scientific management for all sorts of work, including the
management of universities and government.
Scientific management has had an important influence in sports, where stop watches and
motion studies rule the day. (Taylor himself enjoyed sportsespecially tennis and golfand
he invented improved tennis racquets and improved golf clubs, although other players liked
to tease him for his unorthodox designs, and they did not catch on as replacements for the
mainstream implements.)

2.2

Quality Of Working Life (QWL)

The Quality of Work Life, (QWL) is a philosophy, a set of principles, which holds that people
are the most important resources. Straw, R.J., and C.C. Heckscher, (1984) stated that in an
organisation, people are trustworthy, responsible and capable of making valuable
contribution, and they should be treated with dignity and respect.
The elements that are relevant to an individuals quality of work life include the task, physical
work environment, social environment within the organization, administrative system and
relationship between the life and job (Cunningham, J.B.and T. Eberle (1990). The QWL
consists of opportunities for active involvement in group working arrangements or problem
solving that are of mutual benefit to employees and employers based on labour
management cooperation.

People also conceive of QWL as a set of methods, such as autonomous work groups, job
enrichment, and high involvement aimed at boosting the satisfaction and productivity
of workers (Feuer D, 1989). The task requires employee commitment to the organization and
an environment in which this commitment can flourish (Walton, Straw, R. J and C.C.
Heckscher (1984).
Thus, QWL is a comprehensive construct that includes an individuals job related well-being
and the extent to which work experiences are rewarding, fulfilling and devoid of stress and
other negative personal consequences (Shamir, B. and I. Salomon, 1985).
The theories of motivation and leadership provided a sound base for the concept of QWL.
Maslow (1954) has depicted the complexity of human nature by describing various levels of
human needs and satisfaction. Maslows approach is general, direct, simple and practical.
There are five need clusters. They are:

Physical needs
Safety needs
Social needs
Esteem needs and
Self actualization needs.

The theory propounded by Maslow is known as need hierarchy theory. As the name
suggests these needs are arranged in a lowest to the highest hierarchy. Unless the lower
order needs are first satisfied, the physiological needs have to be satisfied before one move
up to the social needs, and so on. As soon as the lower-order needs are satisfied, people
seek the satisfaction of higher-order needs. But what really motivates the worker? Herzberg
(1968) went a step further, to describe Hygiene Factors (Job Context) and Motivating
Factors (Job Content). The hygiene factors include company policy, supervision, and
interpersonal relationships, working conditions, salary, status and security.
An employee would not experience long term satisfaction from favourable hygiene factors
but unfavorable hygiene factors would lead to long-term dissatisfaction.Which can improve
employee performance?.
McGregor, D. (1960) in his famous theory X and theory Y exposition presented two opposite
seats of assumption. Theory X is based on assumptions and beliefs which are based on the
study of many people at work and the nature and structure of many organizations and their
styles of supervision. These assumptions imply that the supervisor has low opinion of the

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workers and still lower expectations from them. Such beliefs reduce the superiors efforts to
enhance satisfaction.
Theory Y puts forward the opposites assumptions which provide a totally different picture of
human nature and therefore call for a different managerial strategy. McGregor in his theory
Y assumed that, under proper conditions, people have the potential to work with
responsibility.
Employees at the grass root level experience and feel a sense of frustration because of low
level of wages, poor working conditions, unfavorable terms, of employment, and inhuman
treatment by their superiors; whereas managerial personnel feel frustrated and alienated
with the job because of poor conditions of employment, interpersonal conflicts, job
pressures, lack of freedom in work, and absence of challenging work.
The QWL refers to the relationship between the worker and his environment adding the
human dimension to the technical and economic dimensions within which work is normally
viewed and designed. De (1975) stated in his book Contents and Discontents contended
that quality of work life is a major determinant of quality of life. Life without work has no
meaning; quality of life refers to the life of an individual outside or away from his work.
Working life is regarded as part of a larger ecological complex of human environment and
human resources. Psychologists have extraordinarily tried to concern themselves with the
quality of working lives of the people as a whole, and fitting the worker to the job and fitting
the job to the worker. Beinum (1974) in his study of QWL says that the quality of the
content of the relationship between man and his task. The different viewpoints of different
authors and the relevant researches lead us to the conclusion that quality of working
life is the degree of excellence brought about by work and working conditions which
contribute to the overall satisfaction and performance, primarily at the individual level
and finally at the organizational level.
Certain values rule the sincerity of working in the past. In the olden days, work was worship
and people had sincerity, and commitment to work. But nowadays, employees do not have
belief in such values of work. They work only for salary, work hard if the conditions of work
are useful and agreeable, and the terms of employment are favorable to them. Due to these
reasons, the work norms have been changing dynamically.

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The QWL is very significant in the context of commitment to work, motivation and job
performance. It is the degree of satisfaction the members of a work organization are able to
provide to meet the needs through their experiences in the organization. Management
expectations are strongly linked with the organizational quality of work life, and it is a means
to facilitate the gratification of human needs and goal-achievement. Improvisation and
change in QWL arise, when the existing quality of work life frustrates human efforts towards
self-actualization and advancement.
Robert H. Guest (1979) a noted behavioral scientist expressed the feelings of an employee
about his work while defining QWL. He further pointed out the effect of QWL on a persons
feelings about every dimension of work including economic rewards, and benefits, security,
working conditions, organizational and interpersonal relations, and its intrinsic meaning of a
persons life. It is the process by which an organization attempts to unlock the creative
potential of its people by involving them in decisions affecting their work lives.
Walton. R.E. (1979) who has taken up extensive research on measuring the Quality of Work
Life has made it easy and practicable with the eight factors/elements proposed by him.
He devised an eight point criteria to measure the Quality of Working Life. The categories
are: (i) adequate and fair compensation, (ii) safe and healthy working environment, (iii)
opportunity to develop human capabilities, (iv) growth and security, (v) Social integration, (vi)
constitutionalism, (vii) total life space and (viii) social relevance.
According Lippitt, G.L. (1978) the term QWL broadly referring to the degree to which work
provides an opportunity for an individual to satisfy a wide variety of personal needs to
survive with some security, to interact with others, to have a sense of personal usefulness, to
be recognized for achievement and to have an opportunity to improve ones skills and
knowledge.
Nadler, D. A. and Lawler, E.E. (1983) defined QWL as an individuals perception of and
attitudes towards, his or her work and the total working environment. In simple words, QWL
can be defined as an individuals evaluative reactions to satisfaction with his/her work and
the total working environment.
Beukema, L. Groningen et al. (1987) expressed that QWL is defined as the degree to which
employees are able to shape their jobs actively, in accordance with their options, interests
and needs. It is the degree of power an organization gives to its employees to design their
work.
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Havlovic, S.J. Scobel, D.N et al. (1991) expressed that the QWL include job security, better
reward systems, higher pay, opportunity for growth, and participative groups among others.
Knox, S. and J.A Irving (1997) stated that the QWL practices and policies of the QWL
determine the organization environment, and organization development and interventions
operationalise the constructs. Individual employees perceptions concerning strengths and
weaknesses in the total work environment and what is or is not desirable in the workplace
are other foci for research.
Gilgeous, (1998) says that the Quality of life could be defined as an individuals satisfaction
with his or her life dimensions comparing with his or her ideal life. Evaluation of the quality of
life depends on individuals value system and on the cultural environment where he lives.
Lau, Wong, Chan and Law (2001), it describes that QWL is the favorable working
environment that support and promote satisfaction by providing employees with rewards, job
security and career growth opportunities.
Hanna Sutela (2006) opines that the Quality of work life is evaluation about four categories,
namely, physical work environment, psychic and social factors in the work environment,
health and stress symptoms, labour market position, and family background variables.
Elisaveta, S. (2006) is of opinion that the QWL has the correlative relationship between
quality of work life and satisfaction with definite job attributes in regard to job contents and
work environment.
From Above Summarise Factors Influencing the Quality of Working Life
Many different factors influence the quality of an individuals working life.
These factors include working conditions, workplace-stress and job satisfaction.
1.Job satisfaction refers to how far the individuals are satisfied with their position of
employment. Factors such as workplace environment, peers, income and work duties
influence how satisfied an employee is with the job. When job satisfaction is positive, this
contributes to a better quality of working life. An individual who is satisfied with their job is
more likely to experience a higher quality of working life than an employee who is
dissatisfied or even resentful of the work.
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2. Workplace-stress refers to the amount of stress experienced by an employee in

the work environment. Workplace-stress is caused by numerous factors, including what
duties an individual must perform, or their peer group in a company, and their overall
workload. An employee who has stressful work related duties, such as an emergency room
doctor who is responsible for the lives of countless people each day, is more likely to
experience workplace stress. An employee, who has a heavy workload, is also more likely to
experience workplace-stress. Workplace-stress often leads to the stress outside the
workplace due to the attending to other items of work in an individuals daily life. This stress
is the cause of experiencing lower quality of work life.
3. Other factors which influence quality of working life are:

individual employees wage,

An individual who is receiving a low wage, especially in comparison to how difficult
their job is, will have a lower quality of working life.

Their working hours,

The working hours can also influence the overall quality of working life. Employees
who work for too many hours, too few hours or unusual hours are more likely to
report that they have a lower quality of working life. An individual who has very few
working hours at the work place is not likely to receive enough money to maintain his
standard of living, while an individual who is working for too many hours is likely to
experience workplace stress and decline in social relationships. The unusual hours
can cause a decline in the quality of life due to the fact that individuals with unusual
hours are more likely to see a decline in social relationships as well as experience
difficulty in attending to normal activities.

Workplace conditions,
Work place conditions are influencing the performance of their work, and it consists
of all the factors which act and react on the body and mind of an employee. Working
conditions refer to these as properly maintained as per the norms of Factories Act
and other enactments.

Fairness in the workplace,

Fairness in the workplace refers to how fair a workplace is and how fairly it is
maintained. When a workplace is not managed fairly, it generally means that every
individual in the workplace is not treated equally. For example; if a certain employee
is continually late for work but does not receive a reduction in pay or any other
warning or punishment, while other employees are punished for being late to work
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even once and their pay is cut for these days, then this is considered unfairness in
the workplace. When a workplace is considered unfair, this leads to a decline in the
quality of working life because an individual worker may feel resentment at being
unfairly punished or fired due to the workplace unfairness.

Personal characteristics such as anxiety or depression.

Quality of working life may be affected by personal characteristics exhibited by an
employee. Personal characteristics can affect a workplace through how it is
perceived, or how job duties are performed. An individual who is anxious in social
situations, for example, will report a lower quality of working life if this situation
requires constant, daily interaction with other people. Other personal characteristics
such as shyness, depression and general happiness can also affect the overall
quality of working life as these characteristics influence the way the individual
performs the duties sincerely.

A number of attempts have been made to identify various dimensions of QWL by the
Philosophers and Research Scholars. Some have emphasized the importance in working
conditions leading to better quality of work life while others feel a fair compensation and job
security should be emphasized (Mirza, S. Saiyadain, 1995).
Hackman and Suttle (1977) described the QWL from various viewpoints:

from a professional viewpoint, it is an industrial democracy increased worker

participation in corporate decision-making, or a culmination of the goals of human
relations;

from the management perspective, it is a variety of efforts to improve productivity

through improvements in the human, rather than the capital or technological inputs of

production,
from the stand point of the characteristics of individual workers: it refers to the degree
to which members of a work organization are able to satisfy important personal

needs through their experience in the organization,

from union's perspective: it is a more equitable sharing of the income and resources

of the work organization and more human and healthier working conditions,
as a philosophy, it means the quality of the content of relationship between man and

his task in all its diversity;

the relationship can be approached from divergent view points, including the man,
the organization and the society, embracing job design work organization basic
human needs and values and societal concepts.

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Gadon (1984) suggested that the QWL efforts include the areas of personal and professional
development, work redesign, building of teams, work scheduling, and total organizational
change. Michall Maccaoby (1984) identified four factors to measure the QWL, such as:

Security (right to work and working conditions),

Equality (distributive justice),
Democracy (autonomy and opportunity to use abilities) and,
Individualization (perception of uniqueness).

Klott, Mundick and Schuster (1985)36 suggested 11 major QWL issues:

pay and stability of employment,

occupational stress,
organizational health programs,
alternative work schedules,
participative management and control of work,
recognition,
congenial worker supervisor relations,
grievance procedure,
adequacy of resources,
seniority and merit in promotions and
employment on permanent basis.

Havlovic (1991) found in his study that the key elements of QWL include:

job security,
job satisfaction,
better reward system,
employee benefits,
employee involvement and organizational performance.

Arts et al. (2001) focused on job satisfaction, involvement in work performance, motivation,
efficiency, productivity, health, safety and welfare at work, stress work load, burn-out etc. to
improve the QWL.
Sangeetha Jain (1991) viewed it as consisting of a whole parcel of term and notions all of
which really come under the quality of working life umbrella. She includes industrial
effectiveness, human resource development, organizational effectiveness, work restructure,
job enrichment, socio-technical system, group work concepts, labour management,
cooperation, working together, workers involvement, workers participation and cooperative
work statures.
Saklani D.R (2003) has chosen thirteen dimensions for analyzing the concept of the QWL:

adequate and fair compensation,

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fringe benefits and welfare measures,

job security,
safe and healthy physical environment,
work load,
opportunity to use and develop human skills,
opportunity for continued growth,
human relations and social aspect of work life,
participation in decision-making,
reward and penalty system,
equity, justice and grievance handling,
work and total life space, and
image of organization in the society.

According to Royela et al. (2007)41, European Commission (EC) proposed ten dimensions
for the QWL:

intrinsic job quality,

skills, life-long learning and career development,
gender equality
health and safety at work,
flexibility and security,
inclusion and access to the labour worker involvement,
diversity and non-discrimination, and
overall work performance.

Gnanayaudam and Dharmasiri (2007) include the workers sense of belongingness to a

group, a sense of becoming oneself, and a sense of being worthy and respectable.
Huang et al. (2007) opined that the QWL is the favourable conditions and environments of
the workplace that address the welfare and well-being of employees.
Skinner and Ivancevich (2008) focused that QWL is associated with adequate and fair
compensation, safe and healthy working conditions, opportunities to develop human
capacities, opportunities for continuous growth and job security, more flexible work
scheduling and job assignment, careful attention to job design and workflow, better unionmanagement cooperation, and less structural supervision and development of effective work
terms.
Islam and Siengthai (2009) explained the QWL as the favorable condition and environment
of employees benefit, employees welfare and management attitudes towards operational
workers as well as employees in general.

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Benarjee and Roja Rani (2004) after careful examination have taken the following 11
dimensions as measures of the QWL:

working conditions,
autonomy,
relation with the organization,
pay structure,
work complexity,
welfare facilities,
personal growth,
group cohesiveness,
workers participation,
job stress, and
job design.

Padala S.P. and Suryanarayana (2010) have proposed that the QWL dimensions are broadly
divided into:

classical dimensions, and

contemporary dimensions.

Classical dimensions include physical working conditions, employees welfare, employee

assistance, job factors, and financial factors; whereas contemporary dimensions include
collective bargaining, industrial safety and health, grievance redressal procedure, quality
circles, work-life balance, and workers participation in management. The QWL
encompasses the characteristics of the work and work environment that influence
employees work lives.

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2.3

Learning

Learning in general can be classified to two (2) :

Individual learning
Group / Organizational learning

Hergenhahn (1982) stated that individual learning is a relatively permananent change in

behaviour or in behavioural potentiality that results from experience and cannot be attributed
to temporary body states such as illness, fatigue or drugs.
Ribeaux and Poppleton (1978) stated that organizational learning is a process within an
organisation which results in the capacity for changed performance which can be related to
experience rather than maturation.
The learning process can be composed of:
Internal factors (individual)

Perception
Ability levels
Motivations
Attitudes

External factors (in-situation)

Relationship
Rewards
Punishments
Environment

Outcomes of learning Knowledge, Skill And Attitude (KSA)

Knowledge (memorise the facts & understand the contexts)

Skills (able to do the prescribe processes and procedures)
Abilities (a settled opinion or way of thinking)

Honey and Mumford (1986) justified that the above can be further clarified on the individual
orientation in peers by several set of questionaires that classify the individual into:

Diverger-like
Assimilator-like
Converger-like
Accomodative-like

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All of the latter is very useful in positioning and developing human capitals in system
thinking, personal mastery, mental models, shared vision and team learning.
A learning organization is the term given to a company that facilitates the learning of its
members and continuously transforms itself. Learning organizations develop as a result of
the pressures facing modern organizations and enables them to remain competitive in the
business environment. A learning organization has five main features; systems thinking,
personal mastery, mental models, shared vision and team learning.

Systems thinking. The idea of the learning organization developed from a body of work
called systems thinking.This is a conceptual framework that allows people to study
businesses as bounded objects. Learning organizations use this method of thinking when
assessing their company and have information systems that measure the performance of
the organization as a whole and of its various components. Systems thinking states that all
the characteristics must be apparent at once in an organization for it to be a learning
organization. If some of these characteristics is missing then the organization will fall short of
its goal. However OKeeffe[2] believes that the characteristics of a learning organization are
factors that are gradually acquired, rather than developed simultaneously.
Personal mastery. The commitment by an individual to the process of learning is known as
personal mastery. There is a competitive advantage for an organization whose workforce
can learn more quickly than the workforce of other organizations Individual learning is
acquired through staff training and development, however learning cannot be forced upon an
individual who is not receptive to learning Research shows that most learning in the
workplace is incidental, rather than the product of formal training, therefore it is important to
develop a culture where personal mastery is practiced in daily life. A learning organization
has been described as the sum of individual learning, but there must be mechanisms for
individual learning to be transferred into organizational learning.
Mental models. The assumptions held by individuals and organizations are called mental
models To become a learning organization, these models must be challenged. Individuals
tend to espouse theories, which are what they intend to follow, and theories-in-use, which
are what they actually do. Similarly, organisations tend to have memories which preserve
certain behaviours, norms and values. In creating a learning environment it is important to
replace confrontational attitudes with an open culture that promotes inquiry and trust To
achieve this, the learning organization needs mechanisms for locating and assessing

20

organizational theories of action. Unwanted values need to be discarded in a process called

unlearning. Wang and Ahmed refer to this as triple loop learning.
Shared vision. The development of a shared vision is important in motivating the staff to
learn, as it creates a common identity that provides focus and energy for learning. The most
successful visions build on the individual visions of the employees at all levels of the
organization, thus the creation of a shared vision can be hindered by traditional structures
where the company vision is imposed from above. Therefore, learning organizations tend to
have flat, decentralized organizational structures. The shared vision is often to succeed
against a competitor, however Senge states that these are transitory goals and suggests that
there should also be long term goals that are intrinsic within the company.
Team learning. The accumulation of individual learning constitutes Team learning. The
benefit of team or shared learning is that staff grow more quickly and the problem solving
capacity of the organization is improved through better access to knowledge and
expertise. Learning organizations have structures that facilitate team learning with features
such as boundary crossing and openness. Team learning requires individuals to engage in
dialogue and discussion; therefore team members must develop open communication,
shared meaning, and shared understanding. Learning organizations typically have excellent
knowledge management structures, allowing creation, acquisition, dissemination, and
implementation of this knowledge in the organization.

Benefits:
The main benefits are;

Maintaining levels of innovation and remaining competitive

Being better placed to respond to external pressures

Having the knowledge to better link resources to customer needs

Improving quality of outputs at all levels

Improving Corporate image by becoming more people oriented

Increasing the pace of change within the organization

21

Barriers:
Even within or without learning organization, problems can stall the process of learning or
cause it to regress. Most of them arise from an organization not fully embracing all the
necessary facets. Once these problems can be identified, work can begin on improving
them.
Some organizations find it hard to embrace personal mastery because as a concept it is
intangible and the benefits cannot be quantified;, personal mastery can even be seen as a
threat to the organisation. This threat can be real, as Senge[3] points out, that to empower
people in an unaligned organisation can be counterproductive. In other words, if individuals
do not engage with a shared vision, personal mastery could be used to advance their own
personal visions. In some organisations a lack of a learning culture can be a barrier to
learning. An environment must be created where individuals can share learning without it
being devalued and ignored, so more people can benefit from their knowledge and the
individuals becomes empowered. A learning organization needs to fully accept the removal
of traditional hierarchical structures.
Resistance to learning can occur within a learning organization if there is not sufficient buy-in
at an individual level. This is often encountered with people who feel threatened by change
or believe that they have the most to lose. They are likely to have closed mind sets, and are
not willing to engage with mental models. Unless implemented coherently across the
organization, learning can be viewed as elitist and restricted to senior levels. In that case,
learning will not be viewed as a shared vision. If training and development is compulsory, it
can be viewed as a form of control, rather than as personal development. Learning and the
pursuit of personal mastery needs to be an individual choice, therefore enforced take-up will
not work.
In addition, organizational size may become the barrier to internal knowledge sharing. When
the number of employees exceeds 150, internal knowledge sharing dramatically decreases
because of higher complexity in the formal organizational structure, weaker inter-employee
relationships, lower trust, reduced connective efficacy, and less effective communication. As
such, as the size of an organizational unit increases, the effectiveness of internal knowledge
flows dramatically diminishes and the degree of intra-organizational knowledge sharing
decreases

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Some problems and issues(Awanish Kumar) In our discussion of Senge and the learning
organization we point to some particular problems associated with his conceptualization.
These include a failure to fully appreciate and incorporate the imperatives that animate
modern organizations; the relative sophistication of the thinking he requires of managers
(and whether many in practice they are up to it); and questions around his treatment of
organizational politics. It is certainly difficult to find real-life examples of learning
organizations (Kerka 1995). There has also been a lack of critical analysis of the theoretical
framework.
Based on their study of attempts to reform the Swiss Postal Service, Matthias Finger and
Silvia Brgin Brand (1999) provide us with a useful listing of more important shortcomings of
the learning organization concept. They conclude that it is not possible to transform a
bureaucratic organization by learning initiatives alone. They believe that by referring to the
notion of the learning organization it was possible to make change less threatening and
more acceptable to participants. However, individual and collective learning which has
undoubtedly taken place has not really been connected to organizational change and
transformation. Part of the issue, they suggest, is to do with the concept of the learning
organization itself. They argue the following points. The concept of the learning organization:
Focuses mainly on the cultural dimension, and does not adequately take into account the
other dimensions of an organization. To transform an organization it is necessary to attend to
structures and the organization of work as well as the culture and processes. Focussing
exclusively on training activities in order to foster learning favours this purely cultural
bias .
Favours individual and collective learning processes at all levels of the organization, but
does not connect them properly to the organizations strategic objectives. Popular models of
organizational learning (such as Dixon 1994) assume such a link. It is, therefore, imperative,
that the link between individual and collective learning and the organizations strategic
objectives is made. This shortcoming, Finger and Brand argue, makes a case for some form
of measurement of organizational learning so that it is possible to assess the extent to
which such learning contributes or not towards strategic objectives

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3 CASE STUDY
3.1

MMC BERHAD

MMC Berhad is a big company that serves various industry namely infrastructure, buildings,
port and etcs.
The value of this company is accounted at RM and has .. workforce.
The Managing Director , ; stated that Our success will be measured not only by our financial
performance. It will also be measured by our ability to manage responsibly and to re-invest
in the communities in which we operate.
The General Manager

; stated that Whenever we operate, MMC is commited to serve

our shareholders, employees and host communities in a transparent, accountable and

professional manner
A review of this company growth has a lot of to do with the modern management preparation
in strategising their goals towards productivity efficiency and sustainability in short and long
term period.

24

3.2

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

A continuous theoretical framework has been developed within the corporate human
resource group to resolve and keep track of the company growth and to establish a dynamic
resolution in the competitive market of human capitals.
Problems
Not satisfied with pay

Processes
Scientific Management
Quality Working Life
Learning

Outputs
Time Management Strategy
The Control Strategy
The Commitment Strategy

Not satisfied with benefits

Scientific Management
Quality Working Life
Learning

Time Management Strategy

The Control Strategy
The Commitment Strategy

Not motivated to work

productively

Scientific Management
Quality Working Life
Learning

Time Management Strategy

The Control Strategy
The Commitment Strategy

Not satisfied with the

technology

Scientific Management
Quality Working Life
Learning

Time Management Strategy

The Control Strategy
The Commitment Strategy

Perceived too much

supervisory control

Scientific Management
Quality Working Life
Learning

Time Management Strategy

The Control Strategy
The Commitment Strategy

Believed they were

mismanaged

Scientific Management
Quality Working Life
Learning

Time Management Strategy

The Control Strategy
The Commitment Strategy

25

Believed they were pusharound

Scientific Management
Quality Working Life
Learning

Time Management Strategy

The Control Strategy
The Commitment Strategy

Believed they were not

listened to

Scientific Management
Quality Working Life
Learning

Time Management Strategy

The Control Strategy
The Commitment Strategy

The spirit of service was

being eroded by the drive to
increase profit

Scientific Management
Quality Working Life
Learning

Time Management Strategy

The Control Strategy
The Commitment Strategy

Pitting culture

Scientific Management
Quality Working Life
Learning

Time Management Strategy

The Control Strategy
The Commitment Strategy

Lack of motivation

Scientific Management
Quality Working Life
Learning

Time Management Strategy

The Control Strategy
The Commitment Strategy

Lack of leadership

Scientific Management
Quality Working Life
Learning

Time Management Strategy

The Control Strategy
The Commitment Strategy

3.3

POTENTIAL BENEFITS

In this growing industries and for a corporate to survive across the lifespan lies the challenge
of sustainability and one cannot do without ingenuity at hand.
The MMC management has done its own research and practise the outcomes of the study
under the internal selected team of human resource management under the portfolio of
Improvement: From Control To Commitment In The Workplace.
At the returning end, they concluded three(3) strategic programmes to be implemented
based on the literature findings from Scientific Management (SM), Quality Of Working Life
(QWL) and Learning (L).
The outputs of their study are consolidated into three(3) strategic programmes to be
implemented:

Time Management Strategy

The Control Strategy
The Commitment Strategy

The Time Management Strategy

The study findings shown that most of the employees has some problems in facing the
reality of maslow-hierrachy and procrastinate. This is to say that the employees are not well
prepared when coming to the workplace and lost their track. The effort is minimize the focus
on the procrastination and give it a time of quality and togetherness.

26

The study findings shown that equipping and motivating the employees to participates in
group with periodical sessions of time management give the employees a sense of control
and freedom over their chores and duties.
Therefore, effectively managing time is very important. The following presents five timemanagement components practice in the MMC:
1. Prioritize your tasks
2. Get the job done right the first time
3. Do not waste time
4. Delegate tasks
5. Avoid procrastination

The brief rich-contents of the time-management programme are as per follows:

Prioritize Your Tasks
As an employee, there will be interruptions, questions, and probably some disasters
throughout the workday. The key is to remain focused on important tasks and small jobs that
must get done to prevent overlooking anything. One of the best ways to prioritize is create a
to-do list. Creating the list can be very important but there are a few dos and donts to
remember. The first step is to list all the tasks that need to be accomplished, then to be most
efficient, rank them in order of importance. Remember to keep the list realistic. If the list is
too long it will be discouraging and overwhelming. Some tasks may need to be carried over
to the next days list if they are not completed by the end of the day. If the high priority tasks
are large, break them down into smaller jobs, which will be less overwhelming.
The second step to prioritizing is asking what is important and what is urgent? When a task
or job needs attention immediately, it is urgent. Something is important if it relates to your
core values or motivations in life. Additionally, every decision you make falls into one of four
categories:
1. Urgent and important

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2. Important, but not urgent

3. Urgent, but not important
4. Neither important nor urgent
Decisions that are urgent and important will need immediate attention and will impact life
values. For example, you receive a telephone call that the conveyor belt at work has shut off,
and you have to make a big presentation in two hours. Both decisions need immediate
attention, and both are important.
Decisions that have no sense of immediacy are important but not urgent. For example, longterm strategic planning or associate evaluations are two cases of important and timely
decisions that need to be made, but are not necessarily urgent.
Decisions that do not relate to your key values are urgent, but not important. For example, a
colleague needs to talk to you about a client or there e-mails to answer.
All other decisions you make in the workplace are neither important nor urgent. Examples of
these decisions are reading the newspaper or surfing the Internet.
Once you are able to categorize your decisions you will be able to prioritize better, which
should help you manage your time more efficiently.

Get the Job Done Right the First Time

Thirty percent of an employees time is spent fire-fighting, this is, fixing problems that do
not have to be problems (Time Management Training Institute 2002). These problems are
usually due to mistakes that managers and workers make as they execute their jobs. The
key to avoiding mistakes is acknowledging the problems that cause the mistakes and then
correcting them and determining what to do or not to do in the future to prevent them from
reoccurring.
It is extremely helpful to question workers about what you are doing as a manager that is
adding complexity to their tasks. Be sure that you do not discipline the workers when they
criticize tasks. If the associate suggests a solution, it is imperative that you follow through
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with the request. The benefit to this approach is gaining respect and trust from workers,
solving problems in day-to-day tasks, and also minimizing the time spent on each job.
A watchful manager should be able to detect a pattern of mistakes and find a simple
resolution to the problem. For example, if workers are having difficulty remembering how to
use the photocopy machine, it may help to post instructions close to the machine to prevent
wasting time. If time could be saved every day, it could be used for additional tasks.

Do Not Waste Time

When associates do not fully understand the purpose of their jobs, a lot of time is spent
questioning the significance of specific tasks. This can result in tasks being done incorrectly,
which wastes time. This is why it is important to spend some initial time explaining the
procedure of the task, its purpose, and also its significance. The associate should work more
efficiently if he or she understands the task.
Another way to eliminate wasting time is to reduce the time spent in meetings. Smith (1998)
lists quick tips for more efficient meetings. As a meeting organizer or chairman, everything
should be ready and prepared before associates arrive. Meetings should be organized so
that associates can review and process the information and prepare ideas or questions
before the meeting actually begins. This strategy would ensure more productive and
interactive meetings.
Delegate Tasks
Because the overall goal is effective time management, delegation can be a valuable tool in
your time management tool kit. While delegating tasks may not actually save time, its real
purpose is to give tasks to the appropriate people to increase management efficiency. For
example, if you as the manager spend a lot of time supervising associates, it would be
valuable to have an assistant to sort through messages, open your mail, and answer the
phone. This requires a certain level of trust and confidence, and you must let the assistant
accomplish the tasks in his or her own way.
It is also useful to swap or assign certain tasks to specific associates that complement their
actions (Cook 1991). If one person likes answering the phone but hates to file paperwork,
and the other prefers to file rather than answer the phone, assign the responsibilities
accordingly. Of course this would require observing your associates actions and engaging in
29

discussion with them regarding their likesand dislikes. As a result of this type of engagement,
the associates should be more motivated, efficient, and productive.
Avoid Procrastination
Time management is at its worst when people procrastinate. Some people procrastinate
because they simply do not want to do a particular job. The job could be as simple as filing a
stack of papers, or it present more complex behavioral components such as fear of failure,
lack of adequate information for the task, or engrained bad habits (Cook 1999).
Fear of failure is a common reason for procrastination. If fear has been identified as the
problem, focus on the source of the fear and try to determine the consequences of action or
lack of action. This should help reduce the fear so that tasks can be undertaken quickly
(Cook 1999).
If procrastination is due to lack of information, consult with a supervisor or research the task
to obtain the necessary information. Stop wasting time thinking about the problem and fix it.
Unfortunately, if procrastination is basically a bad habit, it is going to take effort to correct the
problem. One suggestion provided by Cook (1999) is to focus on the positive benefits of
completing the task.

In conclusion, focusing on these common areas of managing time should reduce the amount
of time spent on each task. Prioritizing is simple once a to-do-list is utilized that fits your
style; this requires the ability to distinguish what is important and/or urgent during the day.
Adjusting the way tasks are executed will save time and minimize procrastination.
Delegating tasks to the most appropriate person will reduce wasted time for you and others.
Finally, dealing with the sources of procrastination will go a long way to making you the
workplace a good balance of rigidibility and flexibility over time, hence improve productivity
and sustainability.

The Control Strategy

The idea behind this in MMC is to be able to operate in a transparent, accountable and
professional manner. This is deduced from the theoretical frameworks that some problems
faced by the management were mismanaging the workers in terms of right-compensation,
right-benefits, pitting-culture of demoralisation and status-quo.
30

At early attempt to solve this issues, it is quite difficult to differentiate as the matter of pittingculture is unambiguous. The General Manager has formulated a cleared goal towards
minimising this hidden gap by outlining the new culture of operating which is to be able to
operate in a transparent, accountable and professional manner.
This is realised by establishing and rearranging the corporate governances to four (4)
standing commitees as per below:

The Audit Committee

Without management in presence, this committee hold external auditors for financial
performance and economic-scalability review. It also took account for corporate
socio-responsibility on making a difference in the gap of pitting-culture of
demoralisation and status-quo.

The Executive Committee

It decides on strategic and operational plans with defined limits . This committee, also
review proposals before they are taken into board. This committee took part in
measuring the feedback and continuous growth in the content of time management
implemented and the projected goals targeted.

The Nomination Committee

It makes recommendations to the Board on new Board appointments and evaluates
the Boards effectiveness. The committee also reviews the succession planning
framework and training.

The Renumeration Committee

It reviews the performance of Executive Directors and employees annual bonuses
and increments.

For workers, it is transparent that there exist line of communication to make inquiry to the
group of accountable committee through the human resource line. All of these is without
prejudice, and in professional manner.
It can be further demonstrated that the commitees do not support the pitting-culture at the
current addressing of Code Of Ethics. In addition, a handbook of scale-salary is made
available under the human-resource management for further renumeration negotiation due
to the added-value of academic acheivements and excellence of service.

31

In conclusion, this is a success measured in providing the liberalisation of working

environment eventhough not as cheerful as Google Inc lesson but ample for a Malaysian
operated company to achieve this much. As there is a saying If One Took Care Of His
People, His People Will Took Care Of One , this is precious human factors been developed
at MMC Berhad.

The Commitment Strategy

The idea behind this in MMC is contained is the statement of the Managing Director :
Our success will be measured not only by our financial performance. It will also be
measured by our ability to manage responsibly and to re-invest in the communities in which
we operate.
This is driven by the needs to commit into continuously motivate and provide quality
leadership as per seen at the theoretical frameworks.
The undertakes are more focus on managerial roles and supervisory levels, the centre of the
focus for the workers is weighted on empathy as each group have a family bonds with a
father figure.
This reflects much on the Quality Working Life (QWL) where in the norm people come to
work for the pay. They work only for salary, work hard if the conditions of work are useful and
agreeable, and the terms of employment are favorable to them. Much of the QWL benefits
and facilities has been prepared, some through the enforcement by-laws and many from the
trend that been exposed through the media of the success-impacts of such efforts and been
followed worldwide.
As for MMC, the benefits and fringes can be provided but in return does the company get the
commitment towards efficiency and future sustainability. How it can be done effectively?
Across its lifespan, MMC do not really promote first step of attracting commitment as from
the old school point of view, workers loyalty shall bring upon the benefits and fringes over
the time.
This is very much the dynamic we have seen today and why not take a step further probing
collaborating trust through family-like platform to bring about long term commitment and
loyalty.
This new dynamic of delivering projected goals and financial goals are suggested at frequent
addressing to the workers in the tonation of taking-care of the immediate family prove to be
32

more effective method to drive in the motivation hence creating the missing the sustainability
link.
Here are the rational, the key of the future sustainability are creativity and innovation. The
seeds are in gaining strength, courage and confidence in each workers through harmonise
family-platform and evolute the mean of survival for continuous existence.
These are the platforms of commitments seeked by MMC in order to survive, easy to say,
now its time to go outside Malaysia, and is this commitment can be realise and do we have
the determination to do so.

33