Informatics Publishing Limited

Aida Idris ¹

Affiliations
1 No Affiliation

Abstract

Retaining talented employees is a predicament often faced in fast developing countries due to the highlycompetitive nature of their business environment. Since increasing financial benefits is considered as an unsustainable strategy in employee retention, firms have begun to consider flexible working as an alternative tool. The current study is concerned with the situation in the Malaysian banking industry. Using a qualitative approach, the potential effects of five types of flexible working practices - namely flex time, job sharing, flex leave, flex career and flex place - on employee retention were explored. Data gathered from personal interviews with local bank managers help in explaining how contextual factors such as the macro-environment, organisational culture, and human resource management systems can influence the effectiveness of each type of flexible working practice in employee retention. Findings of the study have contributed to a more refined framework of flexible working and employee retention particularly for developing countries and underline the importance of further research comparing societies and organisations of different backgrounds. The study has also raised the need to re-examine organisational culture and human resource management systems in the Malaysian work environment.

Keywords

Banking Industry, Developing Countries, Employee Retention, Flexible Working, Qualitative Analysis

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Aida Idris ¹, Mohd Najib Saad ², Zainal Abidin Mohamed ³

Affiliations
1 University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, MY
2 Graduate School of Business, University of Malaya City Campus, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, MY
3 Islamic Science University of Malaysia, 71800 Nilai, MY

Abstract

The Malaysian context presents a unique opportunity in entrepreneurship and economic development research due to substantial gaps in performance between indigenous-owned enterprises and those of other ethnic minorities. A low participation of indigenous small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in international business, despite huge government support, has been a source of anxiety for policy-makers. Given that many studies indicate a positive relationship between government support and internationalization, this situation has posed a puzzle for international business scholars. Mainly it suggests that, in Malaysia, there is a pressing need to incorporate ethnicity within existing frameworks of internationalization developed by western scholars. Thus in the current paper a more refined internationalization framework was developed which can help to explain, not only the overall internationalization status of Malaysian SMEs, but also ethnic differentials in SME internationalization and performance in the country. Drawing from a review of literatures in international business and ethnic entrepreneurship, as well as in-depth analyses of the research context, the proposed framework is expected to provide directions for future empirical studies in related areas.

Keywords

Ethnicity, International Entrepreneurship, Small and Medium Enterprises, Firm Performance, Malaysia.

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