Culture In Malaysia Case Study

2.2 Local business/ corporate, management and working culture in practice in Malaysia In Malaysia, we could say that there is two important outlines of key concept in business practices, and at the same time are also the Malaysian local culture in their daily lives. The first concept we would like to highlight is the “face” concept. “Face” concept is interpreted as what others would mean by self-esteem or self-respect of an individual. This concept is fairly seen and practiced in most of the countries in Asian continents.

In Malaysia, “face” is also considered to be essential and in some perception appears to be the key of success in business negotiation. For an instance, when doing business in Malaysia, one must be wary of their attitude

Thus, more information is in the physical context such as body language, eyes and facial expression, and also voice tone whenever Malaysians are communicating. Malaysia culture shows the ways of harmony and they value courtesy and tolerance, so direct answers such as negative ones are usually avoided for the purpose of harmony. For an example, whenever negotiation is undergoing, and local Malaysian is not satisfied with some of the contract details, he or she would not voice out explicitly due to courtesy. During these times, negotiator must be observant to notice something amiss from their indirect information of physical

Other than that, religion and beliefs regarding foods in Malaysia should also be known beforehand to avoid any misunderstanding or embarrassment. For an example, Malays that are Muslims do not take any pork; most of the Indians that are Hindus and as well as those of the Chinese that are Buddhists do not take any beef.

Concept of time management and punctuality is usually a bit lenient for Malays and Indians, but instead Chinese has strict attitude and expectation in it. Nevertheless, whenever there is any meeting, punctuality is to be expected by local management as punctuality is important for any business conduct. For an example, when a person is being late for a meeting, he or she would be given a bad impression to others, particularly to Chinese.

In addition, Malaysia official language is Bahasa Malaysia. Although most of the time English is being used for the purpose of communication as it is the second language of nation, ones should be getting to know some Malaysia official language as it would prove to be useful in the circumstance whenever dealing with government. Through official language, ones should also get to know that Malaysians address male as Encik and female as Cik, which is the counterpart of Mister and