Author:
Au Wee Chan,Ahmed Pervaiz K.
Abstract
Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to explore the harmful effects of negative externality at both national and firm level by identifying practices that impact Malaysian Chinese
'
s well-being in the form of work-life imbalance.
Design/methodology/approach
– This paper adopts an emic approach using phenomenological enquiry to investigate what factors influence and shape work-life balance experience of Malaysian Chinese working adults. Emic approach, which takes into account elements that are indigenous to a particular culture, is useful to explore the uniqueness of the Malaysian context. Semi-structured interviews with six Malaysian Chinese working adults were conducted to understand their experience of work-life balance in the Malaysian Chinese context.
Findings
– The findings highlight how contextual elements in the macro-environment (such as government legislation and policy, societal values, and practices) and the firm environment (owner and leadership values, superiors’ attitude) come together to shape the overall experience of work-life balance among Chinese Malaysians. The findings show that current work-life practices in Malaysia fall short in a number of ways, which ultimately leads to an unsustainable human resource position for Malaysian firms.
Practical implications
– From a practical perspective the paper highlights the need to focus on employees’ work-life balance as a means to create sustainable and productive workplaces.
Originality/value
– Given that the concept of work-life balance is grounded in western literature, it is important to explore the nature and relevance work-life balance in sustaining human resources in nonwestern, especially less developed business settings. Findings of this study contribute to the work-life literature by exploring the work-life balance experience in Malaysia through emic approach using a phenomenological lens. The findings identify a shortfall in sustainable people management arising through the interplay of unique negative externality multi-level contextual factors.
Subject
Public Administration,General Business, Management and Accounting
Reference80 articles.
1. Abdullah, A.
(1992), “The influence of ethnic values on managerial practices in Malaysia”,
Malaysian Management Review
, Vol. 27 No. 1, pp. 3-18.
2. Abdullah, A.
(1996),
Going Global: Cultural Dimensions in Malaysian Management
, Malaysian Institute of Management (MIM), Kuala Lumpur.
3. Acedo, F.J.
,
Barroso, C.
and
Galan, J.L.
(2006), “The resource-based theory: dissemination and main trends”,
Strategic Management Journal
, Vol. 27 No. 7, pp. 621-636.
4. Ansari, M.A.
,
Ahmad, Z.A.
and
Aafaqi, R.
(2004), “Organizational leadership in the Malaysian context”, in
Tjosvold, D.
and
Leung, K.
(Eds),
Leading in High Growth Asia: Managing Relationships for Teamwork and Change
, World Scientific Pub, River Edge, NJ, pp. 109-138.
5. Aryee, S.
,
Fields, D.
and
Luk, V.
(1999), “A cross-cultural test of a model of the work-family interface”,
Journal of Management
, Vol. 25 No. 4, pp. 491-511.
Cited by
25 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献