Table of Contents

Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 1 Industrial Sectors .................................................................................................................. 2 Perception of organization and workplace ......................................................................... 3 Management and leadership styles ................................................................................... 3 Working hours and the effects of working hours have on managers .................................. 4 Strategic Performance of Organizations ............................................................................ 4 Recommendations............................................................................................................. 4 Public Sectors ....................................................................................................................... 5 Leadership and management capability ............................................................................ 6 A productive workplace culture .......................................................................................... 6 Innovation and use of technologies ................................................................................... 6 Investing in people and skills ............................................................................................. 6 Measuring what matters .................................................................................................... 6 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 7 References ........................................................................................................................... 7

Introduction In 2012, Malaysia has successfully strengthened its gross domestic product (GDP) to 5.4 percent up to second quarter supported by the expansion in the service and manufacturing sectors. The growth in manufacturing sector was led by the improved demand on national production from United States, Japan and China. Meanwhile the construction statistics shows remarkably increase from 15.5 percent in previous quarter to 22.2 percent supported by the improved performance in the civil engineering and residential. These figures indicate the positive improvement in national productivity. Currently Malaysia is at 25th spot in Global competitiveness ranking and noted for its efficient and competitive market for goods and services. Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA) in their promotional to lead foreign investment states that Malaysia is a country with an educated workforce as well as developed infrastructure. MIDA pointed out that Malaysia has talented, young, educated and productive workforces. These productive workforces in Malaysia have led harmonious industrial relations with minimal trade disputes. In order to maintain and improve on national productivity, the burden will fall on every organization to ensure both their productivity sustained. The statistics of increasing GDP does not necessarily reflect the standard of living. National productivity should be reflected as fewer working hours rather than robust rise in output. A country could have a very high GDP but on the other hand it might have lower standard of living. For most developed countries, the implementation of

technology in their production is a huge advantage to their national productivity. For example, what if two labors are needed to produce one output, on the other hand with the implementation of technology will require only one labor to produce one output. Put another way, what if one labor have to produce two outputs but with lower wage as compare to one labor producing two outputs with slightly higher wage. Base on the example, the lower unit labor cost means higher productivity, but the standard of living of the labor will be different for above situations. A country might have high productivity but with lower standard of living. After all, higher productivity is threatening employment in short term, and in long term it will cost the standard of living. Productivity is directly related to economic growth. In addition to productivity, employment rate is also the sources of economic growth. Employment rate could be affected from the standard of living which is primarily based on income. Many other terms have been used instead of standard of living, Malaysia for instant use the term 1

quality of life representing the term standard of living. Malaysia Quality Life Index (MLQI) has been published since 1999 which evaluates the general well-being of individuals, families and communities. MQLI comprises 45 indicators from 11 components that constitute the well-being of a community. Preliminary study on Quality of Work Life (Malaysia) carried out in 2012 by some of the research institution have studied the perception of managers about their workplace and how they attribute the changes in the evolving patterns of work and organizational structures that affect their working and non-working lives in other words this also affect their productivity. The study explores four themes such as: Perceptions of organization and workplace; Management and Leadership Styles; Working hours and the effects of working hours have on managers; and Strategic Performance of Organizations

Industrial Sectors Malaysian industry previously has recorded productivity growth over three year intervals (2007-2009 and 2009-2011). Major economic sectors in Malaysian industry include agriculture, mining, manufacturing, construction and services. During the year intervals productivity was broad-based across all these major economic sectors except mining which recorded a decline in 2011. Thus in order to increase national productivity, all these major economic sectors should be thoroughly focused to improve the quality of life or standard of living of the employees whose are the source and the asset of every organization that contributes to the national productivity. One of 11 components highlighted in MQLI is working life condition, which look at the unemployment rate and trade dispute as the indicator. Malaysia currently as promoted by MIDA, has minimal trade dispute which indicates harmonious industrial relationship between the employee and the industry. Nurturing happy and productive employees is one of the ways in finding the solution for greater productivity. Higher productivity could threaten employment in short term. Thus one of the challenges in nurturing harmonious work-life condition is to improve the quality of life for the sake of long term benefits.

Perception of organization and workplace In order to nurture happy and productive employees, one of the factors that motivate the employees to greater productivity is aspect of work environment. Roughly about 70% of employees in Malaysia enjoy coming to work at their organization although about 53.1% blaming the existence of culture in organization. Even in Herzbergs two factors motivation theory has identified this workplace setting as one of the hygiene factor that lead to dissatisfaction in job context. Taking

consideration from physical working condition and other intangible factors such as employees status and sense of insecurity at workplace should be taken seriously in order to motivate the employees. Lack of resources also is the factor that leads to dissatisfaction in working in an organization. Thus the solution for these underlying causes should be redesigning of work implementation. Jobs should be enriched and simplified in order to hampers work-life effectiveness. The nature of the task should be revised and employees attitudes towards health and safety should be improved to increase the sense of security in workplace. Thanks to the evolving technologies, works and tasks and nowadays are easier to be conducted. Either in services, manufacturing or other sectors, with the implementation of technology has now enabled the automation of job and tasks. Employees should be provided with as many resources as available in performing their job. This will not only lead to better work-life experience but also improve effectiveness in targeting greater productivity. Management and leadership styles In every organizations leadership is a key factor that leads the direction towards the organizational goals. However this could be affected by the communication between the top management and the subordinates. Leaders need to communicate effectively in order to distribute the information needed in order to get their subordinates to do their jobs. Leaders are also seemed to be profit driven and showed lower concern for the subordinates. About 36% suggested that their managers merely look after their own interest. Employee input should be also considered and it can be valuable in creating more efficient works and thus improve productivity. Every leader should apply democratic styles and accepting their subordinates input or opinion to improve the work process. Managers should also play their role as work-life coaches by assisting and identifying the needs of their subordinates in performing and finding solution in performing their jobs. The subordinates confidence need to be motivated and improved towards the organizational goal and mission by their leader. These supportive leadership will lead 3

to better morale of the subordinates which also then lead to positive submissive to the leaders Positive submissive to the leaders will lead the organization to right direction of the goals set by the top management, thus leading to higher productivity. Working hours and the effects of working hours have on managers On average, Malaysian managers work 50 hours per week. In addition to this, they work eight hours of overtime per week. Long working hours will have negative impacts towards the social relationship especially in family relationship. The other impact of long working hours is also affecting the physical health especially for those who are working in a position that require physical strength in performing their job. The employees all come in variety of ages. Thus, the health factor should be considered upon the employees in having better productivity. In order to find the solution for this matter, one of the methods is to implement flexible working arrangement. Flexible working arrangements give many advantages in helping organization to compete with others in attracting and retaining valued highly educated employees. Flexible working arrangements include flexibility of the working hours, the places where the employee work, the employees access to technology, the professional development opportunities and mentors to help employees adjust to new ways of working. Flexible working time is good practice for age management in term of the flexibility working hours. Flexible working arrangements give the employees experience new needs that require a rethinking of the work-life balance. Strategic Performance of Organizations Other strategies that can be implemented by the organizations is to improve the perception of the organization performance. The organization should position themselves as one of the competitive organizations in the market. This will boost the self-esteem working in that organization and improve morale of the employees. Strong recognition of employees job in certain organization from the social view might help them to be loyal to the organization. After all, a happy employee towards their organization is also one of the factors that contribute to the greater productivity. Recommendations In addition to the other strategies discussed above on improving the industrial sector productivity is to balance the productivity gains. Organizations that successfully achieve greater productivity should reward their employees for their efforts. The gains from successful productivity should be shared between owner of 4

the capital and the workers. In most organization the gains will usually gone to the capital. This will not only works as a way to appreciate the employees of their hard work but also to motivate the employee in approaching better productivity. In addition, balance on shared gain of productivity will also improve the standard of living and reduce the level of income equality. As discussed earlier, higher productivity could lead to the threatening of employment. Since employees are the assets or the human capital of all organizations. Their needs to be appreciated should be taken care of. By implementing all these strategies will hopefully increase the industrial sector productivity then lead to improved national productivity. After all, the output is not only the main factor that contribute to the greater productivity but also the people that worked hard on achieving it. Either the unit labor cost or target output is the main focus of every organizations. The management should wisely make the right decision for the sake of the organization. Public Sectors Public sectors are also contributing to the total nation productivities. Over years in many countries have restructuring, reforming and privatizing the public sectors in order to increase the productivity. However public sectors productivity is difficult to measure. This is because; usually the productivity is measured from the output which is then measured in term of dollars and cent. Public sectors will usually engaged in services sectors. Thus it makes harder to evaluate the services in commercial sense. Thus the way of evaluating the productivity value in public sector is to measure it from how much people place on the services value through the use of public funds. Bare in minds, that public sector productivity should not be only considered from the people satisfaction. Some of the public sectors are even more valuable in sense of reducing negative social or environmental consequences in the future. In addition some public sectors even help the industrial sectors on improving the national productivity. Public sectors are still consisted from organizations with people working in it. Thus, the productivity in public sector are also able to be improved as other industrials sectors. Workplace productivity is identified as key area of focus for workplace in public sectors.

Leadership and management capability Because public sectors are also contributing to many workplaces., it is more common for public sector workplaces to have a formal management structure. Research into qualities public servants value in their managers include managers who communicate effectively, who allow staff freedom to use their initiative, who encourage staff input into decisions that directly affect them, who provide constructive feedback about their performance and who provide staff with information to do their job. A productive workplace culture Productive workplace cultures encourage cooperation, and recognize the contribution made by staff. The same strategy applies to the industrial sector where democratic leadership is essential to put the public servants to be submissive to their leadership towards the organization goals. Factors that were most important to them were being treated fairly, working cooperatively and having their ideas valued. Innovation and use of technologies The use of new technology is commonplace in the public sector, and is frequently used to improve access to services by service-users or to deliver services in remote areas. Automation in job context help the workers to engage their work faster and effective. Effective work will not only lead to better productivity but also gain satisfaction from both employees and citizens. Investing in people and skills Work undertaken in the public sector generally requires a high level of skill, and some work involves highly technical and specialist skills and knowledge. Either public or industrial sector, the management should provide their employees with skills and training. They also needed to be guided by their managers in achieving the organization goals. Measuring what matters Workplaces putting in place strategies for improving their productivity need to be able to measure how they are doing over time. This can include financial indicators (such as the total cost of providing a service) operational indicators (such as numbers of clients receiving a service, or end-user satisfaction rates) and human indicators (such

as job satisfaction, or employee turnover). It is clear that no single measure is adequate for assessing public sector productivity, and a key challenge for the future is developing measurement systems that adequately assess public value Conclusion Either in industrial or public sectors the productivity always be the issues. However in order to achieve better productivity, output is not only what matters. The human capital that works to achieve greater productivity should also be considered. A happy and satisfied workforce towards theirs job is one of the ways in maximizing the productivity. Better work flexibility, good leadership, and strong motivation and incentive are the key strategies in improving the total national productivity. References (2012). Malayisa Productivity Report 2011/2012. Malaysian Productivity Corporation. National Product and Expenditure Accounts Second Quarter 2012. (2012, August 15). Retrieved September 16, 2012, from Department of Statistics Malaysia: http://www.statistics.gov.my/portal/index.php?option=com_content&view=artic le&id=1699%3Anational-product-and-expenditure-accounts-second-quarter2012-updated-15082012&catid=116%3Aquarterly-gross-domesticproduct&Itemid=153&lang=en Helen, L.-Y. (2012, January 12). Maximising productivity at workplace. Work-life harmony. Introduction | Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA). (n.d.). Retrieved September 17, 2012, from Malaysian Investment Development Authority: http://www.mida.gov.my/env3/index.php?page=why-malaysia Key Economic Indicator. (n.d.). Retrieved September 16, 2012, from Malaysian Investment Development Authority:

http://www.mida.gov.my/env3/index.php?page=key-economic-indicators Malaysia at 25th spot in Global Competitiveness Ranking. (n.d.). Retrieved September 17, 2012, from Malaysian Investment Development Authority: http://www.mida.gov.my/env3/index.php?mact=News,cntnt01,detail,0&cntnt0 1articleid=1772&cntnt01returnid=109

van Dirk, D. (2010, March 5). Increased National Productivity: Better for Investors Than for Workers. Retrieved September 17, 2012, from Seeking Alpha: http://seekingalpha.com/article/192105-increased-national-productivity-betterfor-investors-than-for-workers