UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MARA

KAMPUS SUNGAI PETANI

FACULTY OF ADMINISTRATIVE SCIENCE AND POLICY STUDIES

BACHELOR OF ADIMINISTRATIVE SCIENCE (HONORS)
(AM228)

ADS 607 MANAGING CHANGE

PROBLEM SOLVING

KBASP8A

PREPARED BY :

NAME MATRIC NO.

SHAHIRAH BINTI SHAHIDAN 2018668204

PREPARED FOR :
DR. JUNAIDA BINTI ISMAIL

DATE OF SUBMISSION:
5 DECEMBER 2020
 TABLE OF CONTENT

CONTENT PAGE

1.0 INTRODUCTION 1

2.0 BACKGROUND OF THE ORGANIZATION 2

3.0 OVERCOMING THE PROBLEM 3-7

4.0 SUGGESTION AND RECOMMENDATION 7-8

5.0 CONCLUSION 9

REFERENCES
1.0 INTRODUCTION

Managing change can be defined as a movement away from a present state towards a
future state. In the other word, it is a change of wide range of issues that affect why and
how change occurs. However, changes made need an instructive review approaches to
change. As the world is having an outbreak of respiratory disease called Coronavirus
disease or COVID-19. It is an infectious disease caused by a newly discovered virus.
The World Health Organization announce people those infected with COVID-19 will
experience mild to moderate respiratory disease and will recover without special
treatment being needed. Older people are more likely to develop serious diseases, as
are those with underlying medical conditions such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes,
chronic respiratory disease and cancer. (World Health Organization, 2020). This disease
badly spread quickly across country including Malaysia. COVID-19 is thought to be
transmitted primarily through close contact between individuals, including individuals
who are physically close to each other in within 6 feet. (World Health Organization,
2020). Therefore, Malaysian government takes necessary action by announcing a
Movement Control Order (MCO) starting from 18 March 2020 in order to prevent the
spread of the disease. People are encouraged to practice a new routine in their
lifestyles. This order in controlling their movement from place to place seems to give
huge impact to their daily routine including the lifestyles at their working place. It also
gives impact to the Malaysia’s economic growth. Therefore, the organizations affected
need to made changes according to the current situation in order to survive. This task is
discussing an overview on how one of the public sectors in Malaysia which is The Royal
Malaysian Customs Department (RMCD) react and managing changes in order to
sustain their operation during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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2.0 BACKGROUND OF THE ORGANIZATION

The Royal Malaysian Customs Department (RMCD) is the agency of the Malaysian
government responsible in managing the indirect tax policy, border control and narcotic
crimes of the country. The Royal Malaysian Customs Department (RMCD) practiced
integrity, speed, professional, efficient, effective and dynamic as the values in operating
their business. The twentieth century ended and Malaysia declared the year 2020 as the
definitive year with the beginning of the twenty-first century, the year to declare that this
nation had achieved the status of a developed country. Therefore, the Royal Malaysian
Customs Department (RMCD) carries a huge responsibility in realizing Vision 2020. The
department not only has to continue to contribute as the main tax collector, but it also
has to raise revenue collection annually.

The revenue collected by the JKDM is in the form of indirect taxes which include import
duty, export duty, excise duty, vehicle levy and sales and service tax. At the same time,
preventive work must be carried out on an ongoing basis, in particular by preventing the
entry of negative elements that can endanger the stability of the country or those that
have caused moral decay. Therefore, an examination and monitoring of all of these
types of taxation is vital to ensuring that there is no diversion of revenue to the
government. However, in line with the Movement Control Order (MCO) to contain the
COVID-19 outbreak declared by the Prime Minister of Malaysia, YAB Tan Sri Muhyiddin
Yassin, the Royal Malaysian Customs Department (RMCD) has decided several
changes in their business operation.

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3.0 OVERCOMING THE PROBLEM

3.1 Work from Home System (WFH)

According to Palumbo (2020), a significant portion of public sector workers were
forced to operate remotely from home by the disturbances caused by the COVID-
19 pandemic. Home-based teleworking has ensured the continuity of public
service provision, thus reducing disruptions caused by the pandemic. The WFH
system enables employees to work conveniently from home either full-time or
part-time. As stated by Tan (2020, November 7), employers are urged by the
government to prioritize working from home. Permission from the police will be
required whether people crossing state borders via land, sea or air. It is possible
to render applications online. The Royal Malaysian Customs Department has
ensured all customs officers completing their work just from home as per the
ordered issued by our Prime Minister. However, there are several guidelines that
need to be followed by every officer while working remotely from home. Everyone
must ensure that they can always be reached during working hours. They must
also be prepared when been told to take part in working at the office at any time
during working hours. In addition, those working from home must prepared a
report to the person in charge based on the feedback from the customers and
agents. This is because, the Royal Malaysian Customs Department (RMCD) had
to deal with the outside agencies and suppliers when there is natural rubber
shipping transit especially from Thailand before shipping to China.

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Figure 1

Application Form to Work From Home During Conditional Movement Control

Order (CMCO)

Note. Jabatan Kastam Diraja Malayisa. (2020). From Sistem Pentadbiran Unit
Dagangan Keretapi.

Figure 2

Report During Working From Home. (WFH)

Note. Jabatan Kastam Diraja Malaysia. (2020). From Sistem Pentadbiran Unit
Dagangan Keretapi.

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3.2 Reduce the Strength of the Officers

Due to the increment in the case of infected, the government decided to extend
the Movement Control Order by replaced it with the Conditional Movement
Control Order (CMCO). The CMCO comes with several restrictions. However,
operating times for businesses will resume as usual and must be abide by tight
standard operating procedures (SOP) as the demand for natural rubber imported
from Thailand transit in Pulau Pinang, Malaysia before shipping to China.
Therefore, the person in charge of every unit in the Royal Malaysian Customs
Department (RMCD) had to ensure no close contact among the subordinates.
One of the initiatives taken is by reducing the number of strengths of the workers.
Royal Malaysian Customs Department (RMCD) operations and services at
Customs ports, airports and borders will continue to operate with limited
manpower resources. Let say if the unit consists of twelve workers, they had to
split into two groups and work for 2 or 3 days in a week at office according to the
set date while the other group is expected to be working from home. Therefore,
the Royal Malaysian Customs Department (RMCD) limit only 50% of the total
number of the strengths allowed working at office during CMCO.

3.3 Meeting and Training Through Online System

One of the implications of the COVID-19 virus has been that many in-person
events and meetings are getting cancelled or moved online. In addition, there are
limitations on our travel to attend meetings elsewhere. According to Kim, (2020),
COVID-19 leads number of individuals who normally meet face-to-face to meet
online now. Meeting online is more efficient, as it is possible to accommodate
individuals from across place, district and country. Fortunately, it is not important
for dispersed work to lead to disorganized meetings. A team can have online
meetings that are just as efficient and interactive as having everyone in the same
place, with some planning and a game plan. As the meeting in person is
discouraged, there are several medium that can be used among Customs officer

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 which are Google Hangouts Meeting and Zoom platform. By using these
mediums, all meetings, discussions and RTD’s between Royal Malaysian
Customs Department (RMCD) officers and taxpayers will be held remotely. Thus,
it is easy for people who are not able to join meeting face-to-face due to the
Movement Control Order (MCO).

3.4 Practice New Norm at the Workplace

According to The Star, (2020), we will have to adapt to a new normal which
means a new way of living and going about our lives, jobs and relationships with
other people as long as the world has not found a cure or a vaccine for Covid-19.
We may have to live in the new normal for a very long time. In spite of that, we
must learn to adapt our lifestyles to live with them. Thus, some alterations made
in the standard operating procedures in the workplace have been encountered by
Royal Malaysian Customs Department (RMCD) which are:

a) Obligatory to wear 3ply face mask when on duty and always sanitize their
hands.
b) Requires customers to give personal information by scanning the QR Code
by using MySejahtera application at every entrance.
c) Take customers body temperature at every entrance and those body
temperature exceeding 37.5 degrees Celcius are prohibited from entering the
premises.
d) Practice physical distancing among employees at work (minimum distance of
1 meter) and practice no-shakehand.
e) Avoid unnecessary meeting unless via online meeting. If a physical meeting
has to be held, ensure all processes and procedures. Control measures are
adhered to and air ventilation works well in the room.

3.5 Restrictions at National Border

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, quarantines, entry bans or other

restrictions have been imposed by many countries and regions on citizens of or

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 recent travelers to the most affected areas. Global prohibitions extending to all
foreign countries and territories or restricting their own citizens from traveling
abroad have been imposed by other countries and regions. Same goes to
Malaysia country. The Special National Security Council gives some restrictions
at the Malaysia border. They provide some standard operation procedures when
entering the country. As the Royal Malaysian Customs Department (RMCD) at
Padang Besar Malaysian-Thailand border need to operate the business as usual
as the demand for natural rubber from China increase during pandemic, thus,
some restrictions must be taken at the Malaysian-Thailand border. As stated by
Ministry of Health (2020), each person should be screened by a trained person or
nurse assistant equipped with PPE (facemask and glove protection). Anyone with
a body temperature of 37.5 °C or higher is not permitted to reach the workplace
and a body temperature test must be repeated. Those with body temperature
exceed 37.5 degree Celsius are prohibited from entering Malaysia. Use
MySejahtera application, other applications approved by MKN or manually record
the entry of employee, visitor or client into the workplace. Besides that, the
normal operation hour also has been reduce and been short. Therefore, all the

shippers of the natural rubber need to follow the time frame decided by the
Customs officers. In addition, only shippers of natural rubber and foods are
allowed to be transit in Malaysia before been ship out. Thus, those who fail to
follow the time frame given and against the rules will be compound.

4.0 SUGGESTION AND RECOMMENDATION

The Covid-19 outbreak gives changes to every organization and led the management to
cope on some issues relating to the manpower in motivating, encouraging and educating
an individual. It is quite challenging as the leader need to be more skillful. Due to the
Covid-19 pandemic, employees and companies alike will benefit from remote work,

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resulting in improved levels of morale and efficiency, but it is not a walk in the park.
According to “Performance Management” (2020), working remotely from home can be
challenging, frustrating and lonely at times to work remotely. In addition, for remote
employees, distractions may be a substantial problem. They are exposed to a million
small distractions when working from home, which all threaten to interrupt their work-
flow. The team leader can encourage employee to overcome distractions by setting and
stick to a daytime schedule and do not be distracted by housework or leisure events
while been supposed to be working.

Not everyone been hired are professional with their current task. There is more to the
qualifications of an individual than whether they know anything about the position for
which they have applied. Therefore, by practicing work in turn system may be barriers
for some organization. When those with less expert are on duty, they might have no
reference person to guide them in certain aspects. Thus, an employee is given training
to improve the output of a worker and thereby raise their level of productivity. Only after
determining the organization's needs can training program be initiated. Training
programs should be launched only after identifying the needs of the organization.
Employees will know exactly what skills they need to master to succeed in their roles
when handled correctly, as well as what training program to take in the business for pay
increases and promotions.

According to “Indeed Career Guide” (2019), communication skills are the abilities you use when
giving and receiving different kinds of information. Without communication, no workplace
can function effectively. What many managers fail to understand is that if there is no
conversation about results and issues, communicating to their workers does not
constitute effective communication. To ensure efficiency, as well as retention, interacting
with employees is critical. People would not feel secure in their job without it or even
know how to do it. An employee who was unable to connect with their supervisor would
continue to struggle on their own instead of simply asking for help. Thus, from the very
beginning, make the organizational structure and chain of command transparent and set
up the new employees with mentors that they can refer to if they have concerns about
their job duties. Therefore, a good leader must have well communication.

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5.0 CONCLUSION

Covid-19 really give greater impact to the whole world that force every organization do
some changes in order to sustain their operation. COVID-19 pandemic has not ended
yet. Until there is an effective vaccine or treatment, everyone remains at risk. We all
need to work together to protect ourselves and others. Our Prime Minister, YAB Tan Sri
Dato’ Haji Muhyiddin once said, our success in fighting the Covid-19 outbreak during the
movement control order is depending on everyone self-awareness. Meanwhile, the
leaders also play vital role in managing the changes effectively and efficiently based on
the standard operation procedure stated by our Special National Security Council.

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 REFERENCES

Covid-19: What Does the New Normal Mean?. (2020), May 21). The Star. Retrieved from
thestar.com.my/lifestyle/health/2020/05/21/covid-19-what-does-the-039new-normal039-
mean

Indeed Career Guide. (2019, September 16). Communication Skills: Definitions and Examples.
Retrieved from https://in.indeed.com/career-advice/resumes-cover-letters/communication-
skills#main

Kim, J. (2020, March 8). 7 Best Practices for COVID-19 Necessitated Online Meeting. Retrieved
from inside-highered.com/blogs/learning-innovation/7-best-practices-covid-19-
necessitated-online-meetings

Ministry of Health. (2020). COVID-19 Management Guidelines in Malaysia. Retrieved from

http://moh.gov.my/index.php/pages/view/2019-ncov-wuhan-guidelines

Palumbo, R. (2020, October 7). ‘Let Me Go to The Office! An Investigation to The Side Effects
of Working From Home on Work Life Balance.’ International Journal of Public Sector
Management, vol. 33, no 6/7, pp. 775-778. Retrieved from https://doi-
org.ezaccess.library.uitm.edu.my/10.1108/IJPSM-06-2020-0150

Performance Management. (2020, October 21). Common Obstacles Preventing Productivity in

the Workplace. Retrieved from https://talkingtalent.prosky.co/articles/common-obstacles-
preventing-productivity-in-the-workplace

Tan, R (2020, November 7). 10 Things to Know About the Conditional Movement Control Order
in Malaysia. Retrieved from https://www.buro247.my/lifestyle/news/conditional-
movement-control-order-malaysia-faq.html

World Health Organization. (2020). Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Advise for the Public.
Retrieved from who.int/health-topics/coronavirus#tab=tab_1

World Health Organization. (2020). How COVID-19 Spreads. Retrieved from

coronatracker.com/causes/