Malaysian Business Structures

Malaysian Business Structures

After independence was gained in 1957, the Malaysian government placed great emphasis on the development of businesses owned and run by indigenous Malays to counter-balance the fact that up until that time most businesses had been developed by ethnic Chinese and Indian families.

However, the last currency crisis in the area saw a relaxation of this policy and restrictions on non-Malays buying into local organisations have been eased.

Despite the positive discrimination policies pursued by the government for a number of years, many local businesses are still dominated by Chinese interests and many senior employees of multi-nationals are also of Chinese extraction.

Most Malaysian businesses are extremely hierarchical in nature and indeed the three main religions of Islam, Confucianism and Hinduism all stress the over-riding importance of respect and duty. This need to show respect to whoever it is due will obviously manifest itself in a desire for a clearly defined hierarchy to be established where reporting lines are transparent and where bosses make decisions and then instruct their subordinates accordingly. (Many Western companies have had great difficulties in trying to introduce more of a matrix approach, which can leave local employees feeling confused and vulnerable.)

The impact of this hierarchical approach will form the basis of several of the following sections.

Author

This country-specific business culture profile was written by Keith Warburton who is the founder of the cultural awareness training consultancy Global Business Culture. 

Global Business culture is a leading training provider in the fields of cross-cultural communication and global virtual team working.  We provide training to global corporations in live classroom-based formats, through webinars and also through our cultural awareness digital learning hub, Global Business Compass.

This World Business Culture profile is designed as an introduction to business culture in Malaysia only and a more detailed understanding needs a more in-depth exploration which we can provide through our training and consultancy services.