TERM PAPER

Title: How to Enhance Productivity of Workers In Public Sector

Employee productivity is an assessment of the efficiency of a worker or group of

workers. In general, the productivity of an organization relates to effectiveness and efficiency
of time, people, finance, information, space, energy, and materials. Zainiah (2006), states the
public sector is an important catalyst in pushing the country’s economy. Since the year 1957,
reformation in public sectors in Malaysia always a government’s agenda to create a better
nation. The government has taken several measures to improve the existing procedures and
systems, technology and administration. Each effort was taken by Government to improve the
quality of productivity offered by public sector agencies. The Government also placed great
emphasis on developing good values among civil service as an example to the public.
Nevertheless, public services mostly in front liners always received complaints from the
citizen. According to Kosmos!Online(Aduan Kakitangan awam biadab meningkat), Datuk T.
Murugiah state that Biro Pengaduan Awam (BPA) receive more than 60 complaints from all
state every month involving civil servant. Therefore civil service is an important agency to
measure productivity growth of management in the organization.
Weaknesses or shortcomings in the service delivery will give rise to negative
perception towards the public service. For instance, the recent complaint received when an
immigration officer went viral on social media after his act violently against the foreigner at
the counter. Regarding that action of unprofessional attitude of a civil servant has proved that
reformation in the public sector must be continued. In order to cope with the issue,
enhancement is needed in the administration of the public sector. This study aims to discuss
low productivity in the public sector and propose solutions from two perspectives which are
work ethics and motivation.
There are many reasons why the public sector in Malaysia is less productivity due to
weak work ethics. At the moment, there are quite a high number of complaints filed by the
public due to delays in taking actions and providing services to them by the Malaysian public
organization. Headlines of some main newspapers also highlighted complaints from the
public regarding t their dissatisfactions with the provided services. This matter is a concern to
the public since they are the taxpayers and therefore; they expect good services are provided
to them as the return (Abdullah, 2006). A result of the studies conducted by Aliah and
Harmonize (1998, pp. 69-92) showed the significant gaps between the expectations of the
income taxpayers and the services they accepted such as reliability, responsiveness, and
empathy. On the other hand, other studies like Hazilah and Phang used an instrument which
was developed by the Institute of Health Management (IHM) (2007, p. 11). The
questionnaires were distributed to in-patients and out-patients using convenience sampling.
About 646 useable questionnaires were collected and the rate of response was 71.8 percent
for the out-patients whereas for the in-patients 570 responses were collected and the rate of
response was 63.3 percent. For both types of patients, they managed to extract two
dimensions of healthcare service quality which they labeled as physical and clinical
dimensions of service. They also found that there is a positive relationship between waiting
for time and out-patients satisfaction. Patients' expectations in public hospitals were low since
they were aware that they were paying a minimal fee in comparison with private medical
care.
Ilhaamie et al.(2010) conclude that the results which score the lowest of respondents'
perception are a tangible and responsiveness of the public services. Furthermore, this shows
that the expectations of the respondents are higher than their perceptions and therefore, their
expectations are not met when the item and construct levels were examined. It is important
to improve work ethics to increase efficiency and effectiveness in the public sector. It helps to
enhance ethical value in our society, the government should enforce policy to strengthen the
efficiency in work deliver. Despite all the effort provided by Government, the Malaysian civil
service has less professionalism in term of delivering the services. This is the public sector is
a bloated civil service of 1.6 million people, or about 5% of the total population, with low
levels of productivity. The fact that the public service pledge is supported by a set of values
knows as The 12 Pillar, established in 1992 to create a group of exemplary ethical workers.
Also, the government had gone through various changes in its style of administration but
there is certain area to be focus on, is:
(a) Measuring efficiency and effectiveness
(b) Improving performance in delivering task
(c) Total quality management
(d) Attitude and behavioral changes
(e) District administration
However, this issue is not just for organization concern, but it has started in the society itself
to create changes in work ethics. A society has to start to develop basic ethics like queue up,
throw rubbish into the right place, smoking area, give the seat to someone needed, friendly to
everybody, and be punctual. Japan’s work ethics is a good example can be followed by
Malaysia to restructure reformation in the public sector. The Japanese efficiency in
productivity not only from advance technology but more to their work ethics, mind and value
system, has built a strong and good image of society in the country. (Thye, 2018)
In fact, an increasing number of complaints have been made by the public due to
delays in services might happen due to the lack of work motivation and resulted in poor work
performance. In motivation perspective, on the other hand, refers to the public sector that is
less motivates compare with the private sector. As the result, the public sector has less
motivation effort towards the employee to perform a good work. Frank states that work
motivation will engage a person to work well—to the arousal, direction, and persistence of
efforts in work setting (2004). The key problem in public administration in Malaysia is the
low institutional capacity to analyze the unit cost of services and to define their quality
parameters, which are inherently connected with costs. Implementation of the performance
budget on a larger scale seems to be the right solution here, as it supports an effective
remuneration system. Tasks become clearer and better defined and work performance
becomes easier to evaluate. Low capacity to analyze costs and quality of services in
administration results in a limited possibility to create standards for services and improve
those standards. Other problems of local government offices in Malaysia are a reluctance to
plan public services on annual basis and generally on a long-term basis as well as limited
leverage of non-public organizations in providing public services. The problem of motivation
to work is directly connected with ways of making an employee feel engaged in work.
Rizwan (2009) has conducted a study on the impact of rewards and recognition
towards motivation. There are many possible contributing factors to work motivations in
public sector. First, a manager should provide recognition to employees. By having a good
manager or leader in the organization can build motivation among the employees. For
example, a manager can reduce the gap between employees by sitting with them to have
informal talks, spending time with them in form of a combined dinner or else in other
activities like asking about their families and other crucial aspects related to their personal
life. For instance, Mark Zuckerberg is a good example of a manager regarding his
motivational methods. He likes to approach his employees and remove the barriers.
Zuckerberg is also generous with perks and believes in empowering his employees. Indeed,
leadership skills are needed in every manager. This implies that transformational leadership is
deemed suitable for managing government organizations.
Besides that, work practice of reward within an organization can motivate employees
to excel in their performance. Locke (1976) defined job satisfaction as a positive or pleasing
emotional state from the appraisal of one's job or experience. This definition suggests that
employees form their attitude towards their jobs by taking into account their feelings, beliefs,
and behaviors (Robbins, 2005; Akehurst, Comeche, & Galindo, 2009). Spector (1985, pp.
693-713) found that if the employees find their job fulfilling and rewarding, they tend to be
more satisfied with their jobs. Employees’ satisfaction is generally regarded as an important
ingredient for organizational success. From Rudzi, Izwan and Baharom (2013) findings show
that organizational rewards system has positive influences on the employees’ satisfaction at
the organization they worked for. The following research tasks concerning performance goals
for employees to help them to compete with each other. The public sector should be
practicing reward or incentive as the method to motivate employees. As far we know, public
sector recognition and reward is lesser than the private sector. The private sector offers much
higher pay and explicit reward based on the annual assessment. Salary was found to be the
most important factor that contributes to employees' satisfaction while incentives were found
to be the second important factor.
Next, a way to improve the quality of productivity in the public sector, a continuously
efforts should be taken by the government. Zainiah (2006) states that the public sector is a
secure job making less competitiveness among employees. A government of Malaysia
implements a bureaucracy in public sector management. A bureaucracy follows a consistent
set of rules that control the functions of the organization. Management controls the lower
levels of the organization's hierarchy by applying established rules in a consistent and
predictable manner. Authority and responsibility are clearly defined and officially
sanctioned. Due to that the government can reduce the bureaucracy in administration by
simplifying and streamlining systems and procedures and the use of the key performance
indicators (KPIs) accountability. Since the government needs to provide more career growth
in civil service. According to Zainiah by providing training could help the public servant to
upgrade their knowledge, skills, and mindset (2006). In particular, implementation of policies
in each organization of public sectors such as the introduction of quality initiatives such as
Benchmarking, Continuous Improvement, Quality Control Circle (QCC), Management by
Objectives (MBO), Total Quality Management (TQM), ISO9000, e-Government Assessment,
and more to mention. Compare with the public sector, the KPIs have been practiced in the
private sectors many years ago. In private sectors, KPIs often act as a tool to measure the
performance of individual and departments and also to assess the consequences of performing
above expectations, meeting expectations or a complete failure to meet expectations.
Culturally, private sectors operate their business as profit-oriented and they are solely
responsible for their operations to the shareholders as well as stakeholders they serve. This is
the reason why performance measurement system such important issues for them.
In conclusion, public administration plays important roles in the transformation of
public policy and it is part of the political process. With the aim of progressing towards self-
determination after independence, the Malaysian Public Service has undergone many changes
to reform and evolve into a civil service structure that is relevant and progressive through the
introduction of planned improvements and innovations to cope with the developments at that
time as well as future needs. To date, the Malaysian Public service has a staff strength of 1.2
million employees covering 28 schemes of service including the Federal Public Service, the
State Public Services, the Joint Public Services, the Education Service, the Judiciary, the
Legal Service, the Police and Armed Forces. This study has mentioned two perspectives of
solutions which both are needed as a factor to enhance the productivity. The first perspective
which is work ethic is required for an employee to be responsible and ethical in what they
work for. And second perspective mention on motivation factor where needed to sustain the
employee productivity. Based on this study conclude that both perspectives are important to
promote accountability and combating inefficiency productivity in the public sector. By
enhancing the quality of work performance, in civil service, could change citizens' mindset
towards the public sector. Since the majority of Malaysians are demanding change, we must
play our role to take Malaysia to a higher level in national and economic development,
including national and social integration, and social justice.
References

A.Frank, S. (2004). Government employees wroking hard or hardly working? . American Review Of
Public Administration , 36-51.

A.G.A. Ilhaamie, Member, IAENG. (2010). Service Quality in Malaysian Public Service: Some Findings.
International Journal of Trade, Economics and Finance , 1 , 45.

A.M. Noor Hazilah and S.N. Phang. (2007). Patient satisfaction as an indicator of service quality in
Malaysia public Hospitals. Proc. Of 10th QMOD , 11.

Abdullah, A. (2006). Human Capital Development, KL. INTAN .

Aduan Kakitangan awam biadab meningkat. (n.d.). Retrieved 07 24, 2018, from Kosmo!Online:
http://ww1.kosmo.com.my/kosmo/content.asp?y=2010&dt=1130&pub=Kosmo&sec=Negara&pg=n
e_07.htm

Akehurst, G., Comeche, J. M., & Galindo, M. (2009). Job satisfaction and commitment in the
entrepreneurial SME. Small Business Economics , 32, 277-289.

H.M.S. Aliah and A.A.R. Tarmizi. (1998). Jurang Harapan-tanggapan pengguna; suatu pengukuran
kualiti perkhidmatan pembayaran cukai pendapatan di Malaysia. Jurnal Pengurusan , 17, 69-92.

Julie.C. (2007). Generational Learning Styles. LERN Books.

Locke, E. (1976). The nature and causes of job satisfaction. . Handbook of Industrial and
Organizational Psychology , 1297-1349.

Rahman, D. N. (2006). National Competitiveness: Role of The Public Sector In Malaysia. Jurnal
Pengurusan Awam .

Rahman, D. N. (2006). National Competitiveness: Role Of The Public Sector In Malaysia. Jurnal
Pengurusan Awam .

Rizwan. (2009). Effective Communication Positively Impacts Employee Motivation Levels, Employee.
Retrieved from Opinion Research Corporation Suggests: www.opinionresearch.com

Robbins, S. P. (2005). Essential of organisational behaviou , 8th ed.

Rudzi Munap, Muhammad Izwan Mohd Badrillah and Baharom Abdul Rahman. (2013).
Organizational Rewards System and Employees’ Satisfaction at Telekom Malaysia Berhad. Journal of
Educational and Social Research .

Spector, P. E. (1985). Measurement of human service staff satisfaction: Development of the job
satisfaction survey. American Journal of Community Psychology , 13, 693-713.

Thye, T. S. (2018, June). Japanese work ethic can make us better nation. Retrieved July 2018, from
New Straight Times: https://www.nst.com.my/opinion/letters/2018/06/382709/japanese-work-
ethic-can-make-us-better-nation