Murali Sambasivan

The influence of corporate culture and organisational commitment on performance

This paper examines the influence of corporate culture and organisational commitment on financial performance in Malaysian companies. Based on the work of Deshpande and Farley on corporate cultural types and Allen and Meyer on organisational commitment, a structured questionnaire was developed and self‐administered to managers in Malaysian companies. A total of 202 managers in public listed companies participated in the study. The results show that there is a significant correlation between corporate culture and organisational commitment. Both corporate culture type and organisational commitment have an influence on the financial performance of these companies. The implications of the study are also discussed.

The influence of organizational culture on attitudes toward organizational change

This study investigates the influence of organizational culture on attitudes toward organizational change in Malaysia. Based on the work of Goffee and Jones and Dunham et al., a structured questionnaire was developed and self‐administered to 258 companies listed in the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturing directory. The results showed that there is an association between organizational culture and the affective, cognitive, and behavioral tendency of attitudes toward organizational change. The findings also showed that different types of organizational culture have different levels of acceptance of attitudes toward organizational change. This means that certain type of organizational culture could facilitate the acceptability of change, while other types of culture could not accept it. The implications of this research are also discussed.

Impact of interdependence between supply chain partners on strategic alliance outcomes

Purpose – The aims of this paper are: to argue the role of Kelleys personal relationship theory (PRT) in explaining the maintenance and success of alliance outcomes; to argue the inclusion of communication between supply chain partners as a major component of relationship capital in addition to trust and commitment; to test the impact of interdependence between supply chain partners on strategic alliance outcomes; and to test the role of relationship capital as a mediating construct between interdependence.Design/methodology/approach – A questionnaire was constructed and sent to 2,156 supply chain managers in Malaysia. The questionnaire captured three constructs: interdependence – task, goal and reward; relationship capital – trust, commitment, and communication; and strategic alliance outcomes – goal, value‐creation, and re‐evaluation. The companies were selected randomly from the Federation of Malaysian Manaufacturers (FMM) directory. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test the hypotheses.F...

Relationship between work‐family conflict and quality of life: An investigation into the role of social support

Purpose – The main purpose of this study is to link work‐family conflict, quality of work and non‐work lives, quality of life and social support (supervisor and spouse supports). Specifically, it seeks to address three different roles of social support that have theoretical and empirical support and the mediating roles of quality of work life and quality of non‐work life.Design/methodology/approach – The SEM‐based approach has been used to study supervisor and spouse supports as moderators between work‐family conflict and quality of life; independent variables of work‐family conflict; independent variables of quality of life. The study has been carried out in Malaysia.Findings – The main findings are: work‐family conflict has relationship with quality of life; quality of work life and non‐work life are “partial” mediators between work‐family conflict and quality of life; and, among the various roles of social support, its role as an independent variable of quality of life gives the best results.Research l...

User acceptance of a G2B system: a case of electronic procurement system in Malaysia

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to determine the factors that influence the intention to use and actual usage of a G2B system such as electronic procurement system (EPS) by various ministries in the Government of Malaysia.Design/methodology/approach – The research uses an extension of DeLone and McLeans model of IS success by including trust, facilitating conditions, and web design quality. The model is tested using an empirical approach. A questionnaire was designed and responses from 358 users from various ministries were collected and analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM).Findings – The findings of the study indicate that: perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, assurance of service by service providers, responsiveness of service providers, facilitating conditions, web design (service quality) are strongly linked to intention to use EPS; and intention to use is strongly linked to actual usage behavior.Practical implications – Typically, governments of developing countries spend...

Strategic alliances in a manufacturing supply chain: Influence of organizational culture from the manufacturer's perspective

Purpose – The basic purpose of this paper is to establish and test the relationship between organizational culture and strategic alliances in a manufacturing supply chain that consists of alliance companies (manufacturers) and alliance partners (suppliers and customers). The relationships have been analyzed from the manufacturers perspective.Design/methodology/approach – This paper specifically addresses: the relationship between the culture type of alliance company and the degree of integration (trust, communication, and commitment) between the alliance companies and partners; the relationship between the culture type of alliance company and value creation in the alliance company; and the relationship between the degree of integration and value creation in the alliance company. A questionnaire was constructed and distributed to 109 companies that had some form strategic alliance with their suppliers and/or customers. The data collected were tested using analysis of variance and correlation analysis.Find...

A structural approach to integrating total quality management and knowledge management with supply chain learning

The aim of this study is to integrate total quality management (TQM) and knowledge management (KM) into a unified framework to study supply chain learning among partnering firms. The impacts of TQM practices (e.g. leadership, strategic planning, customer focus, information analysis, people management and process management) and KM practices including KM process, leadership in KM, KM culture, KM technology and KM measurement on supply chain learning were examined. In this study, mail questionnaire have been sent to the managers consists of the Malaysian manufacturing and service firms. A total of 202 firms participated in this study. While greater level of TQM practices tends to enhance KM practices, we found that both TQM and KM are significantly positively related to supply chain learning. The findings of this study empirically tested and confirmed the proposed integrated model. It is hoped that findings from this paper can provide greater understanding in the areas of quality and knowledge management, and illustrate how these practices can enrich the supply chain learning among partnering firms.

Performance measures and metrics for e‐supply chains

Purpose – e‐Supply chains are fast becoming a reality. In order to manage such supply chains efficiently and effectively, traditional measures of supply chain performance are not adequate. The literature search revealed lack of measures and metrics for e‐supply chains. The purpose of this paper is to develop new measures and metrics for monitoring the performance of e‐supply chains.Design/methodology/approach – A framework based on the benefits of e‐supply chains has been used to develop the metrics and measures. The study makes use of focus group discussion by assembling eight experts and practitioners in the field of e‐supply chain to come up with the measures and metrics. A questionnaire is designed with these measures and metrics and is sent to about 300 electronic component manufacturing companies in Malaysia to obtain feedback from the industry practitioners. Appropriate reliability and validity tests are conducted to measure the reliability of the instrument and validity of the constructs.Findings ...

Training and Organizational Effectiveness: Moderating Role of Knowledge Management Process.

Purpose – Training alone is not sufficient to enhance organizational effectiveness to a greater level because not all knowledge obtained from the training is properly transferred and applied to the organization. This study aims to investigate whether efforts invested by Malaysian manufacturers in employee training and knowledge transfer affect organizational effectiveness. Design/methodology/approach – This study adopted a quantitative research design. The questionnaire developed for this study captured the training related to individual/managerial skills, the knowledge management process in place to capture and apply the knowledge obtained through training, and the organizational effectiveness. A closed-ended online survey was sent to 1,000 members of the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM) throughout Malaysia and 88 manufacturers responded. The unit of analysis was an organization. Findings – The study found the following: training employees to acquire individual/managerial skills and process sk...

Intention to adopt clinical decision support systems in a developing country: effect of Physician’s perceived professional autonomy, involvement and belief: a cross-sectional study

BackgroundComputer-based clinical decision support systems (CDSS) are regarded as a key element to enhance decision-making in a healthcare environment to improve the quality of medical care delivery. The concern of having new CDSS unused is still one of the biggest issues in developing countries for the developers and implementers of clinical IT systems. The main objectives of this study are to determine whether (1) the physician’s perceived professional autonomy, (2) involvement in the decision to implement CDSS and (3) the belief that CDSS will improve job performance increase the intention to adopt CDSS. Four hypotheses were formulated and tested.MethodsA questionnaire-based survey conducted between July 2010 and December 2010. The study was conducted in seven public and five private hospitals in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Before contacting the hospitals, necessary permission was obtained from the Ministry of Health, Malaysia and the questionnaire was vetted by the ethics committee of the ministry. Physicians working in 12 hospitals from 10 different specialties participated in the study. The sampling method used was stratified random sampling and the physicians were stratified based on the specialty. A total of 450 physicians were selected using a random number generator. Each of these physicians was given a questionnaire and out of 450 questionnaires, 335 (response rate – 74%) were returned and 309 (69%) were deemed usable.ResultsThe hypotheses were tested using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Salient results are: (1) Physicians’ perceived threat to professional autonomy lowers the intention to use CDSS (p < 0.01); (2) Physicians involvement in the planning, design and implementation increases their intention to use CDSS (p < 0.01); (3) Physicians belief that the new CDSS will improve his/her job performance increases their intention to use CDSS (p < 0.01).ConclusionThe proposed model with the three main constructs (physician’s professional characteristic, involvement and belief) explains 47% of the variance in the intention to use CDSS. This is significantly higher than the models addressed so far. The results will have a major impact in implementing CDSS in developing countries.