communication in Majlis Bandaraya Melaka Bersejarah

COMMUNICATION FOR ADMINISTRATIVE PROFESSIONALS II

….THE BACKGROUND OF THE
COMPANY….

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BACKGROUND OF HISTORICAL MALACCA
CITY COUNCIL (MBMB)

The history of Historical Malacca City Council (MBMB) is closely related to the history of

Melaka. Although Malacca has gone through its ups and downs, the city of Malacca has

continued to exist. In year 1824, it was called “The Town and The Fort of Malacca”,

administrated by the “Committee of Assessors” under the English Government. In year 1848,

The East India Act XIX recommended the formation of a Municipal Committee to replace the

Committee of Assessors. The act allocated five council members led by a Resident Councilor

which were known as City Councilmen.

The East India Act XXVII gave power to these City Council men as trust holders in which

they could indict or be indicted. On January 1st, 1887, the Straits Settlement Municipality

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Ordinance has approved the municipal area of 1.4 square miles and was enlarged to 4.2 square

miles in 1930 under Act 133 in year 1913.

On 1st January 1977, through Act 171 (1976), the Melaka Municipality Area was merged

with the Historical Melaka City Municipal Council (MPMBB) with an administrative power over

an area of 114.7 square miles (303 square kilometers).

MPMBB was the main factor in making Melaka a dynamic, progressive, and beautiful

city. Its administration has developed at the same rate with Melaka where focus has been given

towards the agricultural, industrial, and currently the tourism sectors. The infrastructural growth

is substantial, equaling to any developed state in Malaysia. This condition has increased the

rate of which investors have come to invest and therefore increase the number of jobs available.

On 15th April 2003, MPMBB was upgraded to Historical Melaka City Council (MBMB).

With this recognition, MBMB will continue to improve its quality of service towards people of

Melaka and tourists.

On 1st January 2010, another Local Authority was created namely the Hang Tuah Jaya

Municipal Council (MPHTJ). MPHTJ administration area covered 57.66 sq km from Melaka

Historic City Council administration area (MBMB). Whereas MBMB area is 246.34 sq

km. Proposed MBMB new administration area totaled 30.86 sq km.

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…LOGO, MISSION AND

VISION…

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LOGO OF MBMB

Historical Melaka City Council logo is specially designed to mark the beginning of

Melaka declared as a historical city era. The logo represents cooperation between citizens and

administration towards development and prosperity. The logo design themed historical

transition from Melaka Malay Sultanate, collapse and colonization epochs and reemergence to

modern development era towards Vision 2020.

MISION

To make Historical City Council as a prime mover towards existence of Dynamic,

Progressive and Excellent City.

VISION

To make Malacca as a Heritage, Progressive and Beautiful City.

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…ORGANIZATIONAL CHART…

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ORGANIZATIONAL CHART OF MBMB

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…CONTENT…

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CONTENT

(FINDINGS FROM MBMB)

For this group project, we had chose the Historical Malacca City Council or commonly

known as MBMB as a chosen company for doing our research. Based on our research there,

we have found several results regarding their work cultures and also their communication styles.

We came out with a few structured questions to be asked to Puan Noor Fadzlina binti Mohd.

Shariff who is the Assistant Manager of Management Services of MBMB to gather the

information related to our topic. The following are the findings that we had gathered from the

organization.

Differences in Customs and Behavior – Gender Roles

Organizational culture is the workplace environment formulated from the interaction of

the employees in the workplace. Organizational culture is defined by all of the employees‟ life

experiences, strengths, weaknesses, education, upbringing, and so forth. Executive leaders

play a large role in defining organizational culture by their actions and leadership. In MBMB,

their organizational culture is quite similar with the other organization whereby it is relatively

stable, shared set of rules about how to behave and set of values about what is important.

Cultural differences in doing business are actually a norm in today organization. We can

obviously see the differences in many aspects such as the level of formality, social customs that

being practiced by the organization, the differences in gender roles and so on. Normally, people

have a typical perception regarding gender roles whereby men are always seen as a leader. In

MBMB, the situation is slightly different because there are certain departments where the leader

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is a woman. For example, the leader of Management Services Department is Puan Fadzlina

binti Mohd. Shariff who is responsible to handle any issues regarding the management services.

Even though the leader of this department is a woman, there are no issues related to

gender roles raised in this organization. The subordinates will respect their superior regardless

their gender. Once the employee is given a task or work by his or her upper manager, they will

do every single task or work that has been assigned to them properly. It means, gender role is

not applied in this organization because both men and women can be a leader as long as he or

she is qualified for the position.

Dimension of Organizational Culture – Conflict Tolerance

MBMB provides Customer Service Counter to make it easier for public to deal any

related business with them. When it comes about handling customers, MBMB had found many

types of customers. Some of them were very polite and respectful while the others were quite

aggressive. Usually, the aggressive customers will create some problems or conflicts and make

them hard to handle. For instance, some people who have been compounded by the MBMB

will act aggressively to show their rebel.

If such case happened, the Customer Service Counter will try their best to solve the

problem but in case the problem cannot be solved, they will refer the case to the Help Desk.

Help Desk is the highest unit provided by the MBMB in order to solve any problem issued by the

customers. Since the Help Desk is responsible for solving the customers‟ problem, so they

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need to know every single thing related to MBMB. These Help Desk people have the

advantages in order to access the information such as the internet connection and also direct

telephone lines. So, the customers‟ problem can be solve as soon as possible.

Differences in Custom and Behavior

MBMB is always welcoming their clients and helping their customers to settle their

business matters efficiently. According to the Assistant Manager, MBMB staff is using

monochronic attitude when dealing with customers. Every day, they are facing with different

culture including race, ethnicity, age, gender, identity and language. The staffs of MBMB have

been trained to solve the problem effectively. Tolerance for conflict is the most important

behavior that needs to be applied whereby they are helping to maintain harmony of the MBMB

society.

In the organization, Customer Service Department has the authority to maintain harmony

even though they will lose face or suffer from the embarrassment. From the situation, we can

truly define that there are a few of MBMB staff can learn to adapt and accept conflict so, it will

contribute them to appreciate the importance of maintaining harmony in cross cultural. Once

the staff masters in rules about how to express and handle disagreement, the process of

conducting becomes much easier.

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Dimension of Organizational Culture – Reward

Reward can be defined as something that is given or received in return for a deed or

service rendered. Reward can be a motivation to the employees to perform well in their job and

also one of the ways for the organization to show their appreciation towards their employees.

Like the other ordinary organizations, MBMB also provide rewards for their employees. Anyone

in the company has an equal chance to receive the rewards for their work performance.

Among the rewards provided by MBMB are The Best Employee Awards, promotion,

panel clinics and others. Basically, The Best Employee Awards are divided into two categories

which are Annual Best Employee Award and Monthly Best Employee Award. Besides that,

MBMB also will organize a ceremony which is known as „Hari Inovasi‟ or formerly known as

„Hari Kualiti‟ once in a year in order to celebrate their employees and also to reward the qualified

employees with „Anugerah Perkhidmatan Cemerlang‟.

Other than giving awards to the employees, MBMB also gives an equal chance for all of

their employees to get promoted. Employees who perform well will get a higher chance for

promotion regardless their gender or position.

Besides that, MBMB also provides some panel clinics for their employees to get

treatment. Usually, most organization will only provide one panel clinic for their employees but

MBMB provides more than one panel clinics since their employees are lives in different region in

Malacca. So, it will make them easier to get the treatment.

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How People Spend Their Time

Based on our observation, people in this organization will focus on their work during

working hours but sometimes they also will take some time for informal conversation. The

upper management allows their employees to do so in order to minimize the work stress among

their employees as long as the work given to them done on time.

Even though MBMB gives some benefits for their employees during working hours, but

this organization had restricted the access to any social network such as Facebook or Twitter.

They do not give the permission to their employees to access into such social network in order

to protect their integrity and also to avoid social loafing. But, the restriction is only during office

hours.

Co-Culture Dimensions of a Diverse Society – Disabilities

Society is made up of a variety of co-cultures which is groups that have a clear identity

within the majority culture. For instance, co-cultures in the aspect of language, regional

differences, ethnicity and also disabilities. According to Karen Stone, “Disability is a club

anyone can join, anytime”. By having disability, people may change how one is regarded.

Sadly, some organization did not aware about the needs and also the facilities for disabilities

person. They are also a part of society that which should not neglect.

Luckily, MBMB do provide some facilities for disability persons. For example, this

organization has a special room for disabilities person that called OKU Room. This room is

designed specially for disabilities person whereby the officer or the staff himself will go to the

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room to handle and entertain them. Plus, the elevators in the MBMB are also have the Braille

characters. Besides that, MBMB also provide a special wheel chair at the stair. The person just

needs to sit properly on the wheel chair and push the button that will bring them upstairs. Last

but not least, MBMB also provides special pathways to make it easier for the wheelchair to

cross on it.

Diversity and Ethical Issues

Some cultural differences may challenge some organization of what is normal or proper

behavior without raising ethical question. Like the other organization, same goes to MBMB

where the tendency of unethical issues is not impossible but so far there is no such thing

happened yet.

Even though such thing has never happened in the history of MBMB, but the rules and

regulation has been established in case of unethical issues. If any issue arises among the

employees, if possible they need to solve the problem among themselves first. But, if the issue

or the problem getting worse, they will be asked to see counselor that the organization provided.

This counselor is responsible to solve the problem between these particular employees and if

necessary, the punished will be imposed to them.

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…CONCLUSION…

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CONCLUSION

From our observation we can say that The Historical Malacca City Council or MBMB has

a quite good culture and communication style. MBMB can be considered as a good role model

for the other organization especially in the aspect of disabilities facilities. Even though not all of

the areas of MBMB are convenient to these disabilities person, but at least MBMB do provides

some facilities for this kind of people. It means that, this organization is still concern about the

charity or the services toward disabilities person. Actually, as a normal person, we should not

ignore or neglect the disabilities person because they are also part of the society. People

cannot deny their rights in getting facilities to help them move on in their lives like the abilities

person. People should remember that disabilities are actually a club for everyone where every

person has the risk to be a part of them. So, people have to admit their rights so that they will

not feel alienated in the society.

Besides that, MBMB also do not have any discrimination against women. This shows

that gender roles are not being practiced in this organization. This is actually a positive way in

order to increase the competency between men and women. If both men and women are given

the same chance to improve their selves, indirectly the women‟s credibility can be increased

because in some countries, gender roles are still being practiced. Gender roles can caused

many disadvantages since most people underestimated women roles especially as a leader.

This is actually can be considered as discrimination against women. Sometimes women are

better than men in certain things and vice versa. If people can see other people based on their

abilities, skills and knowledge that they have rather than put a certain gender roles, indirectly the

productivity can be increased and the work performance also will be better.

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Other than that, MBMB do provides reward for their employees. Reward can be

considered as a favorable benefits or recognition towards the employees. Actually, rewards that

are received by the employees may be a motivation for them to work better and to increase their

work performance. Like MBMB, it provides many rewards for the employees. One of them is

the award for the Monthly Best Employee and also the Annual Best Employee. This kind of

awards also can be a sign to the employees that the organization do realize and appreciate their

hard work and performance. So, it can boost up the employees spirit and also enjoyment

towards their work.

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…RECOMMENDATIONS…

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RECOMMENDATIONS

From our observation, we can honestly say that The Historical Malacca City Council or

MBMB has a quite good communication skill in their organization. So far, there is no such thing

related to communication problem in this organization since they do work hard in order to create

and to maintain a good organizational culture for all the employees and also people who

indirectly related to this MBMB such as their customers and also suppliers. According to these

reasons, we highly recommend the other organization to make MBMB as a role model in order

to increase their communication aspects. Plus, MBMB is also suitable for the students or any

party who intended to make research or findings regarding their communication style since their

communication aspects are competent and good enough to be followed.

Next, we also would like to recommend the MBMB to add up the facilities for disabilities

person. The current facilities that are provided by the MBMB such as the Braille elevators,

wheel chair at the stairs, special pathway for the disabilities person and also a room for the

disabilities people are quite convenient enough. But, if these facilities can be upgraded or can

be added up, it will be better for them. It will make it easier for the staffs of the MBMB to deal

with these persons since these persons do not have to 100 percent depend or rely on normal

people in order to manage their lives. Indirectly, it also can increase the self-confidence of

disabilities persons.

Last but not least, we are also would like to recommend the MBMB to take the initiative

in order to increase the employees‟ understanding especially the front desk employees such as

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the Help Desk and Customer Services Counter about the differences in cultural and behavior

among people. It is actually very important since they need to work and manage various types

of people who come with various types of culture and behavior. If they have a very lack of

knowledge or understanding about these kind of diversity in the culture and behavior, it will

make them to easily become stress in managing difficult or angry customer who has a different

style of communication which also can make them easily feel offended.

In a conclusion, there are no much things that we would like to recommend to the MBMB

since the communication and culture environment in the organization itself is effective enough.

So, hopefully that organization can maintain their good communication environment so that it

can benefits all the people who related to the organization.

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…REFERENCES…

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REFERENCES

About.com. Organizational Culture: Corporate Culture in Organizations. Retrieved on
March 12, 2011 from http://humanresources.about.com/od/organizationalculture/Organizationa
l_Culture_Corporate_Culture_in_Organizations.htm

Adler, R. B. & Elmhorst J. M. Communicating at Work: Principle and Practices for
Business and the Professions. 10th Ed. McGraw Hill. Pp. 35-62.

Historical Malacca City Council. (2011). Retrieved on March 10, 2011 from
http://www.mbmb.gov.my/home

Noor Fadzlina binti Mohd. Shariff. Assistant Manager of Management Services of
MBMB. Personal Interview.

Quible Z. K. Administrative Office Management. 8th ed. Pearson Education
International. pp. 40-42.

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…APPENDIXES…

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APPENDIXES

Questions

1. What are the responses of the employees who receive order from higher level rank

with different gender?

2. How the organization handle angry customers?

3. How the company handle the differences in custom and behavior among clients?

4. How the organization reward the employees?

5. How people in the organization spend their time?

6. Did the organization provide facilities for disability person?

7. Is there any unethical issues regarding cultural differences in the organization?

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PICTURES AROUND THE ORGANIZATION (MBMB)

(The above pictures are the facilities provided by the MBMB for disabilities persons)

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Special room for disabilities people Variety of achievement awards

Customers Service Counter Help Desk

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communication in Majlis Bandaraya Melaka Bersejarah

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