Research And Practice In Human Resource Management
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RESEARCH AND PRACTICE IN HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Chew, Y. T. (2005). Achieving Organisational Prosperity through Employee Motivation and Retention: A Comparative Study of Strategic HRM Practices in Malaysian Institutions, Research and Practice in Human Resource Management, 13(2), 87-104.
Achieving Organisational Prosperity through Employee Motivation and Retention: A Comparative Study of Strategic HRM Practices in Malaysian Institutions Yin Teng Chew
ABSTRACT
A growing concern among companies operating in the Malaysian
labour market with high job mobility is how to maintain a workforce
capable of fulfilling corporate exigencies. This study compares and
contrasts how strategic human resource management activities from
different country origins are implemented in Malaysian companies
to motivate and retain talented cadres. The findings reveal there
were significant differences across the study countries. Moreover,
the study results demonstrate that, while an attractive pay package is
effective in manifesting job motivation, complementary strategic
human resources practices are profoundly important in reducing
staff turnover. These findings are discussed in terms of the other
application aspects of well integrated human resource practices.
INTRODUCTION
Human resources (HR) are the backbone of an organisation (Gerhart & Milkovich 1990, Pfeffer 1998). Moreover, the continuing prosperity of a firm is likely to be enhanced by employees who hold attitudes, value and expectations that are closely aligned with the corporate vision (Borman & Motwidlo 1993, Spector 1997, Cable & Parsons 2001, Feldman 2003). Clearly, hiring capable people is an attractive point of
departure in the process, but building and sustaining a committed workforce is more likely to be facilitated
by the employment of sophisticated human resource management (HRM) infrastructures (Schuler &
Jackson 1987, Beechler, Bird & Raghuram 1993). Arguably, HRM policies and practices can be strategically
designed and installed to promote desirable employee outcomes, which include the enhancement of the in
role and extra role behaviours of employees. Yet, despite such costly investments, corporations are
continually searching for techniques to improve and cement the linkage between employees and their
organisations.
Weak employee organisational linkages are often displayed as the phenomenon of turnover. Indeed, people
are likely to job hop to obtain better monetary rewards and career development opportunities. However,
traditional approaches that rely heavily on competitive monetary rewards often have limited success in
staff retention and job motivation in the long run. This limitation has brought practitioners to consider,
along with the facilitation of sophisticated HRM infrastructures, other techniques to enhance employee
attachment towards their organisation (i.e., person organisation fit selection approach, performance based
incentives, extension of the attractive executive perks to all employees). With proper implementation, these
techniques often facilitate a more committed workforce. This effect can be achieved through the
enhancement of in role (i.e., organisational commitment) and extra role (i.e., organisational citizenship)
behaviours (Allen & Meyer 1990, Organ 1990). The form of organisational attachment and in role
behaviour, the organisational commitment that psychologically characterises an employee’s relationship
with the organisation for which he or she works, has implications for whether or not an employee will
choose to remain with the organisation. Past research (Porter & Steers 1973, Allen & Meyer 1990) found
that organisations with strong employee attachment, or organisational commitment, tend to have lower
turnover or intention to leave than would those with weak employee attachment. Organisational
citizenship behaviour (OCB), a form of extra role behaviour and reciprocation of fair treatment by
employees (Colye-Shapiro, Kessler & Purcell 2004), is considered as part of work related activities
performed by employees that contribute to organisational prosperity, and yet, are beyond the regular scope
of job descriptions and contractual sanctions or incentives (Organ 1990). Past work found fair
management of the reward distribution and procedures in an organisation would foster employees’
intention to display OCB (Organ & Konovsky 1989), and further enhance the employees’ intention to stay
with the current firm (Carsten & Spector 1987).
The issues of staff retention and job motivation have continued to plague organisations in Malaysia.
Annual surveys by Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF 2004, 2005) report that the annual labour
turnover rates for 2003 and 2004 were high, approximately 17 per cent and 16 per cent respectively.
Another survey (Lim 2001) reports that Malaysian respondents are only willing to stay with their current
organisations for less than three years. Considering the need for HRM to address low organisational
linkages
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