FACULTY OF BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT

BACHELOR IN BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION OF ISLAMIC BANKING (HONS.)

CLASS: BA2491A

PRINCIPLE AND PRACTICES OF MANAGEMENT (MGT 420)

INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT 1

“A FAMOUS CONTEMPORARY LEADER”

PREPARED BY:

HUSNA

11522

SUBMISSION DATE:

28th DECEMBER 2021

 TABLE OF CONTENTS

NO. CONTENT PAGE

I. INTRODUCTION AND LEADER’S BACKGROUND 3

II. LEADERSHIP TRAITS AND BEHAVIORS 4

III. LEADERSHIP POWER 5

IV. CONCLUSION 5

V. APENDICES 6-7
REFERENCES 6
TURNITIN REPORT 7

2|P age
 I. INTRODUCTION AND LEADER’S BACKGROUND

Datuk Dr. Maznah Hamid

Datuk Dr. Maznah Hamid was born at Jerlun, Kedah on April 18th 1955. She is a successful
entrepreneur, political figure, as well as a national motivator. Datuk Dr. Maznah Hamid, or
known as the ‘Iron Lady’ is also the Executive Chairman of Securiforce Group.

Securiforce is a security company that provides a vast range of security services.

Starting from a humble beginning, Datuk Dr. Maznah Hamid has successfully established and
led Securiforce to become the largest security provider in Malaysia, despite being a woman in
a male-dominated field. Due to her perseverance and leadership skills, Securiforce has
become a company with more than 65 branches and over 6,000 employees across the globe.
In this case study, we will look into the leadership traits, behaviour, and power that Datuk Dr.
Maznah Hamid possessed and implemented which has successfully led to Securiforce’s
success today.

3|P age
 I. LEADERSHIP TRAITS AND BEHAVIOR

One of the leadership traits that Datuk Dr. Maznah Hamid possessed is intelligence.
Intelligence is essential as it helps leaders to understand complex issues and solve problems.
Throughout her business journey, Datuk Dr. Maznah Hamid has dealt with many challenges
that require her to make wise judgments. For instance, in its early days, Securiforce only had
a small number of clients. To gain the trust of the public, she took the initiative to convince the
Governor of the Central Bank at that time to be her client and this led to an increase in the
number of clients. She claims that those challenges she faced helped her to grow intellectually,
which eventually led her to develop her expertise in business and politics. This is not a surprise
as leadership intelligence is also based on a leader’s experiences (Leonard and Green, 2019).

Next, Datuk Dr. Maznah Hamid heavily emphasized integrity and honesty. This
includes integrity among the internal and external relationships of the company. Internally, she
believes that to avoid any possible dispute between her and her employees, any
misunderstanding or complaint needs to be clearly addressed. As a security company, she
also believes that integrity is the key to the sustainability of her business as they are
responsible to look after their clients’ properties. As a result, not only that Securiforce manages
to gain the trust of many customers, but a healthy work environment for the employees was
also established.

As a leader, Datuk Dr. Maznah Hamid also engages in consideration. She respects
her employees on an equal footing and truly cares of their well-being. On top of treating her
employees fairly regardless of their gender, she also listens to her employees’ suggestions as
she believes that they are the key for the company to grow due to their own expertise.
Consequently, this contributes to an increase in employee engagement and participation
which has been proven to be influenced by the psychological experiences of those who sculpt
their work process and behaviour (Osborne and Hammoud, 2017).

4|P age
 II. LEADERSHIP POWER

Datuk Dr. Maznah Hamid possessed a high level of referent power. She is highly
respected by her employees due to her firm, yet caring behaviour in contrast to her title, the
‘Iron Lady’. In addition to treating her employees like family members, she also frequently
visits them at the company branches in order to meet them despite her high status.
Consequently, her employees hold high regard and trust towards her and always feel
motivated at work. This is not a surprise as trustworthy leaders may contribute to improving
the quality of the relationship between leaders and followers (Olanrewaju and Okorie, 2019).
Due to her being such an inspiring and respectable figure, she has been appointed with many
business and political titles such as the Vice President of the Women World Entrepreneur
Association (FCEM) and Member of Women Wing, UMNO Malaysia.

Finally, Datuk Dr. Maznah Hamid also practices reward power. Reward power can be
defined as a person’s ability to influence others’ behaviour by providing them with their
desirable things (Abdualaziz Awad et al., 2016). Datuk Dr. Maznah Hamid implements this
strategy by rewarding her employees with tangible and intangible rewards including giving
them reasonable salaries and gratitude words. Instead of using reward power as a way to
show her superiority, she uses this method to encourage her employees to strive for success
which makes them even more committed to the company. As a result, the number of staff at
Securiforce which started with only five employees has now surpassed 6000 employees and
various achievements have been achieved. The achievements include Securiforce being a
member of The Cooperative Logistics Network and the Brandlaureate 2007 award.

III. CONCLUSION

Throughout her career, Datuk Dr. Maznah Hamid has overcome many obstacles and
achieved various achievements due to her effective leadership. Starting from a humble
beginning, she proved that with firm determination, persistence, and excellent leadership,
nothing is impossible to be achieved. Even after her death, the public still regards her as a
role model for an effective leader as well as a great person in general. To conclude, it has
been proven that effective leadership is a key to an organization’s success.

(834 words)

5|P age
IV. APENDICES

REFERENCES

Abdulaziz Awad Ibn Twalh, Hazaz Abdullah Alsolami, Teoh, K., & Gazi Md Nurul Islam. (2016).
Power and Influence: CEO Power and the Use of Tactical Influence. Journal of
Management and Strategy. Vol. 7, No. 2;2016. 10.5430/jms.v7n2p46

Leonard, E. E., & Green, W. M. (2019). Leadership and Leadership Intelligence. Journal of
School Leadership. 29(4): 10.1177/1052684619845697

Olanrewaju, O. I., & Okorie, V. N. (2019). Exploring the Qualities of a Good Leader Using
Principal Component Analysis. Journal of Engineering, Project, and Production
Management. 9(2), 142-150.

Osborne, S., & Hammoud, M. S. (2017). Effective Employee Engagement in the Workplace.
International Journal of Applied Management and Technology. Volume 16, Issue 1,
Pages 50-67. 10.5590/IJAMT.2017.16.1.04

6|P age
TURNITIN REPORT

7|P age