The application of leadership theories on Malaysian companies

Abdul Wahab, R

Abstract

The objective of this study is to find out whether the leadership theories that are being widely practised by Western countries are being universally
accepted in Asian countries, which have different local cultures and values. Both local and multinational companies, situated in Klang Valley,
Malaysia, were approached and asked to participate in the quantitative and qualitative surveys. Employers and employees from numerous sectors ranging from banking, plantation, highway and manufacturing sectors participated in this research.
Two well established researched sets of developed questionnaires established by renowned management practices, that are the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (Bass and Avolio (1990)) and a slight
modification of Leadership Behaviour Questionnaire Form XII (Stodgill, 1963) cited in Cook et. al. (1981) were used as a survey instrument.
Descriptive and factor analysis, multiple regression and other statistical analysis were used to make the data more viable to the readers.
The study will focus on Malaysia to determine what leadership styles are practised by managers and to determine whether there are any constraints that might hinder the Malaysians from accepting existing leadership theories. The survey will also seek to determine what factors or aspects will motivate both employees and employers to work together effectively to attain a company's vision.
It is hoped that the answers derived from the analysis will be of importance to the multinational and local managers enabling them to determine appropriate leadership styles. This could help to boost employees productivity and thus contribute significantly to the overall country productivity, as the international and local companies venture into globalisation and into fragmented local markets.

Citation

Abdul Wahab, R. The application of leadership theories on Malaysian companies. (Thesis). University of Salford

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: Oct 3, 2012
• Award Date: Jan 1, 2000