Haslina Halim

Measuring Communication Styles in the Malaysian Workplace: Instrument Development and Validation

The aim of the present study is to access communication style in the Malaysian workplace through the development and validation of a communication scale appropriate to the Malaysian workplace. The analysis involved data from 200 state development employees, and construct and criterion-related validation using data from 510 employees, representing three organizations in Malaysia. The results provided support for the use of language (pekerti) and communication and interaction (bicara) as crucial communication dimensions for the Malaysian workplace, which are identified from the item-generation procedure.

Relationships Differentiation: Cross-ethnic Comparisons in the Malaysian Workplace

Abstract This research examines how Malaysian managers and employees interpret and embody leader–member relationships differentiation. To analyze this question, we conducted a thematic analysis of top management, middle management and supporting dialogue group discussions. Results showed that leader–member relationships differentiation is a symbol that is essential for the creation and sustenance of leader’s conceptual skills, communication openness, respect, trust, and age differentiation. These findings validate our proposition of leader–member relationships differentiation in Malaysian workplace and empirical support for the central roles of communication exchange processes in workgroups.

Shared Cultural Characteristics Similarities in Malaysia’s Multi-ethnic Society*

Abstract The dimension of cultural characteristics is essentially ignored by the growing literature on organizational diversity, focusing on demographic diversity and general perceived similarity instead. This study aims to identify the similarities in cultural characteristics among ethnic groups in Malaysia. Ergo, conducted within the context of interethnic relations in Malaysia based on a phenomenographic approach; thence, found four categories namely the community embeddedness, the survival culture, the conformity culture and the respect culture. These exemplify the interethnic relations based on cultural characteristics and norms similarities. The cultural characteristics similarities between major ethnics in Malaysia in this study are indications of dynamic and interactive exchange occurring between ethnics. The consequences of these findings are discussed and elaborated in this article.

The Relationship between Individual, Organizational and Non-Work Factors and Cross-Cultural Adjustment: The Mediating Role of Communication

This study examines the mediating effects of communication and interaction on the relationships between individual, organizational and non-work variables and expatriate adjustment. We tested the model by using structural equation modeling with data obtained from 203 hotel expatriates in Malaysia. The analyses found that the link between previous international experience (individual), social support (organizational) and family adjustment (non-work) and expatriate adjustment was partially mediated by perceived communicative and interaction adaptability. These findings validated the proposed model and, in particular, the central role of communication in cross-cultural adjustment processes in workplace is empirically confirmed. Practical implications are also discussed in the paper.