Last summer break, I have worked on project in a subsidiary company in Malaysia. Although both companies are doing the same things and selling the same products, the companies culture are actually quite different.
The interpretations that I will mention later on is just my personal views with no offensive objective in mind. The culture in the companies is not an indication of the countries culture.
One very interesting observation I made in the Malaysia Company is, workers do not have to start work on time. Their normal start time is 9am, and I saw workers coming to work at 10am or 11am. I knew that they were not late as they are not panicking. It seems to be their normal routine. The first idea that came to mind is “Wah! They so relax one”. Whereas in the Singapore Company, punctuality is a crucial factor, as it sort of reflects your working attitude. This also reflects the “law by law” attitude created by Singaporeans.
I asked the manager during lunch about the incident, and I guessed I was too straight forward, and she seems a bit furious about my view on their culture. I tried to explain myself that I was curious and not scrutinizing Malaysian culture. Luckily, she was able to understand the point I am coming from. She explained that she trusts her workers and elevates various restrictions as long as they are able to complete their work. We can see the boss and workers have very effective communication between each other.
After this incident, I always tried to rephrase my questions on their cultures in a more neutral perspective to avoid any miscommunication. After awhile, the manager also gets used to my straight forward questions. :X
It was really interesting to work in a new environment as you can understand different cultural experiences in the process.
Hi Junwen :)
ReplyDeleteAfter reading your post, I guess I should really take an effort to know more about the (work) culture in the country if I were to work overseas in the future! Did you come across any other cultural conflict while working in Malaysia?
haha.. it not actually conflict? Just different companies culture.. Another thing I noticed is the height of the cubicle walls, in the Singapore company it is relative high such that colleagues have to stand up in order to see the adjacent or opposite colleagues, guess Singaporeans prefer the sense of privacy? While in the Malaysia company, it is more of a open space concept where everybody can see everybody. Their cubicles wall are relative low and those higher position will have a glass panel above the low cubicle walls.
ReplyDeleteHey, i thought the bosses in malaysia, like what you've mentioned about as long as they can complete the work, are pretty cool. It shows the trust they have in their staff. And i think this is really important. Haha, but hey, other than that, i think the food culture in malaysia appeals more to you eh!
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteI believe work culture not necessarily differs by countries. Probably different companies will have different work culture as well. Maybe one company is more target orientated while the other might be service, and for that, they might have a totally different work culture.
For eg, I believe Apple has a very customer orientated culture and for that, they might have a totally different work culture from other companies.
Hello.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Kenneth. It is difficult to say whether this is the Malaysian work culture in general. It's probably a different work culture in different fields. Schools and doctors in Malaysia are usually quite strict with time (but even this differs from institution to institution).
(The civil service is otherwise famous for being horribly inefficient)
Hi,
ReplyDeleteYea I think in general American companies are also quite relaxed regarding the working culture. The idea is that as long as things get done, they do not really emphasize on strict timings. As Kenneth has pointed out, different companies have different work policies too and depends a lot on the managing committee. Of course in my point of view, I think this kind of trust between employees and the managers are a good thing.