Full Paper Int. J. on Recent Trends in Engineering & Technology, Vol. 05, No. 03, Mar 2011
Foreign Professionals Involvement in Malaysian Construction Industry P. Earnest Ponnusamy1, Mohamad bin Ayob2, Muhamad Azani Yahya3 1,2
Department of Civil Engineering, School of Engineering Technology Infrastructure, Kuala Lumpur Infrastructure University College, Malaysia. 3 Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Pertahanan Nasional Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Email:
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected] it brings positive result for construction industries. Many studies have been conducted in order to show the number of foreign workers in construction industries and even their contribution to the industry. But the attempt to classifying those workers is still not clear. These foreign professionals may cause different perhaps higher rate of impact to our nation comparing to lower degree foreign workers.
Abstract - Over the years many research of foreign involvement has been conducted but the study on foreign professionals in construction industry is few especially in Malaysia. This makes many to fail perceive the importance of local professional and endangers the local professional professionalism. In another hand the involvement of foreign professionals also bring benefits to local construction industry. This paper is mainly about foreign professional’s involvement specifically towards their roles in Malaysian construction industry. The perceptions are collected through questionnaires survey among local professional. It is shown that the involvement of foreign professionals in local construction industry can be falls into procurement, design and monitoring phase in construction. Finally, foreign professionals are still needed for dedicated projects in Malaysian construction industry but no urgent need required for that matter. Foreign professionals bring changes in Malaysian construction but it doesn’t mean that local professionals professionalism endangered or should not being concern much.
II. RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
Index Terms - Local professionals, foreign professionals, construction industry
The aim of study is to investigate the foreign professional and their involvement in Malaysian construction environment. The aims are supported by the objectives listed below: 1. To study on the contribution made by the foreign professionals in construction industry; 2. To evaluate the area of expertise for foreign professionals; and 3. To identify the acceptance of their involvement among our local professionals.
I. INTRODUCTION
III. METHODOLOGY
Construction industry is one of the largest industries in most growing country. Malaysia is also categories under this list. In order to achieve the goal of year 2020, Malaysian government is taking all the necessary action. One of the actions is to increase the infrastructure and its quality. Infrastructure covers large area of needs as an example residential, office building, roads and many more. This provide the infrastructure many construction project need to be established. Many projects are being constructed in order to meet the needs. The issue start to arise when this industry start to lack in the need of manpower. However Malaysian government has made a solution on the issue by choosing to use foreign workers. At first the step taken was a solution, but soon or later it became a major concern to our society. The increasing number of foreign workers and the increasing number of unemployed graduates cause an imbalanced sociology. According to the research made by department of immigration till 30th June 2007 there were approximately 1.91 million of foreign workers in this country. At the same time, the number of foreign workers kept increasing 7000 people per month. Even though the intake of foreign workers gives major impact on Malaysian economy and social unbelievably
The first stage of this study involved studying and understanding of the topic area and to identify scope and objective of research proposal. This study also employed the survey method by using questionnaires. The questionnaire approach has been adopted in this study which enables to integrate the quantitative results on carrying out the research study. In order to produce an appropriate questionnaire, interview will be conducted with a local professional and also arising from the extensive literature search, the questionnaire is divided into two sections. Each part of section is designed with a different approach. The task in this stage is to identify project data and to conduct study for further details of the research. The data sources were classified into prime sources and secondary sources. Prime sources provide original data and latest information for the research. The respondents consist of top, medium and lower level management which is involved directly in construction industry. The secondary sources are journals, books and thesis from library, articles and journals published in the internet. The results of the questionnaires will be analyzed using SPSS Version 19 (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) software. SPSS provides a broad range of
© 2011 ACEE
DOI: 01.IJRTET.05.03.67
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Full Paper Int. J. on Recent Trends in Engineering & Technology, Vol. 05, No. 03, Mar 2011 highest paid or most rewarding employment. Others seek to take their skills where they feel they will be better able to use their capabilities and enjoy superior conditions of work and existence. In Malaysia, the flows of the highly skilled are associated essentially with the development of international business, transnational corporations and banks, and the transfer of government officials and international civil servants of one type or another. Foreign professional, technical and skilled workers working in Malaysia are commonly referred to as “expatriates” and they hold an employment pass. In the public sector, the expatriates mainly hold diplomatic posts in foreign embassies or as consultants for government agencies; while in the private sector, the expatriate managers are mostly positioned in multinational corporations that run business operations. Malaysia adopted more restrictive policies towards foreign professionals and imposed an annual business levy of several moneys in the early 1990s (Ruppert, 1999). The process of entering Malaysia as a foreign skilled labour takes a period of time. An initial step requires that persons satisfy employment requirements before their applications for migration are assessed. Principal applicants must meet one of the three employment criteria: occupation must be on an approved general occupations list; on a designated occupations list; or they have employment in Malaysia. The movement of skilled labours is not restricted by a numerical li mit but they must have pre-arra nged employment with a Malaysian employer in one of the occupations covered by the agreement. Normally, they arrive as contract workers to meet shortages or as skilled transients. Skilled migrants can enter the country only as designated employees. Records on expatriates started only in mid-1997 with an estimated 12,600 labours (Tan, 2010). Malaysia received expatriates from well over 100 different countries with the majority coming from the United Kingdom, Japan and India. Generally, they were found occupying top managerial and executive positions in the private sector, mostly multinationals. In Malaysia, expatriates whose professions are related to Information, Communication and Technology sector are allowed to enter into Malaysia at the age of 21 years and above as compared to other professions in which their age must be 27 years and above (Immigration Department, 2004). The expatriate may hold the post for up to ten years. Within one year of the expatriates’ arrival, a training program must begin for a Malaysian to fill the position (The Economic Intelligent, 2005).
capabilities for the entire analytical process. All data and information from the questionnaires were entered into SPSS Version 19 program for statistical analysis in order to obtain mean and mode of variables. Descriptive analysis was conducted to describe and to interpret data. The descriptive analysis used in this study was frequency analysis to examine the respondents’ demographic factor, mode and rank data. Based on frequency test, the reason of selecting foreign professionals, the rank of factors affecting of construction organization and the recommendation for the problems solution were obtained whereby the conclusion for the study could then be made. IV. LITERATURE REVIEW The geographical circulation of intellectual elites and the transfer of knowledge, is a phenomenon of the twentieth century (Ash & Sollner, 1996). In fifty years, the movement of skilled people has gone from “brain drain” to the “international exchange of human resources”. While much skilled migration was once forced by conflict or by ethnic discrimination, it now includes a search for greater opportunities, better life chances and lifestyle and the globalisation as well as liberalisation of opportunities in newly developing countries, such as Malaysia. A global labour market now exists in some occupations where a person’s skill is his or her greatest asset to be bought and sold. As a developing country and moving towards achieving the status of a newly industrialised country, the level of local technology and skills in Malaysia is relatively low as compared to countries like Singapore, Hong Kong, Republic of Korea, and Taiwan (Tan, 2010). To move up the chain value, via the ladder of dynamic comparative advantage, Malaysia needs to produce goods based on higher value added in terms of improved product design and development which in turn, requires not only substantial inflows of foreign financial resources but also the training of higher skilled professionals and workers. Moreover it is also imperative for Malaysia economy to improve labour market c competitiveness through maintaining competitive wages, and providing a sufficient supply of manpower and skilled workers. Although levies are still imposed on foreign professionals, the government is considering offering incentives for work in the information technology industry in Malaysia as part of that country’s efforts to play a central role in the information “super highway” (Manning, 2000). A.
Skill immigrants in Malaysia Skilled or highly skilled labour is usually defined as having university degrees or extensive experience in a given field. It includes highly skilled specialists, independent executives and senior managers, or trades-people, investors, physicians, business people and sub - contract workers (Steiner and Mohr, 1998; OECD SOPEMI, 1997). Individuals in these categories may seek to maximise return on investment in their education and training by moving around the world in search of the
B. Challenges perceived by the expatriates It is inevitable that the necessity of learning new customs and often, a new language is a must for international migrants. Expatriates tend to bring along their “culture baggage” and when cultural clashes occur, misunderstanding and misconceptions may result out of it (Hatifah, et. al., 2007). Living in a new environment, expatriates are bound to face challenges and make adjustments in their life-styles in order to stay and work 2
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Full Paper Int. J. on Recent Trends in Engineering & Technology, Vol. 05, No. 03, Mar 2011 effectively. There are expatriates who find that the challenges have an influence towards their decision to reconsider staying in the host country. Specific institutional policies in the host country could also be important. The intake of expatriates in Malaysia has always been governed by strict criteria aimed at ensuring technology transfer and fair promotion opportunities for Malaysians. Firms are required to prove that suitable Malaysians are not available for these careers, and that Malaysians are being trained to take over. In Malaysia, a very fair share of immigrants obtains a Malaysian citizenship. It takes a very long and arduous process so much so that the immigrants interest to be naturalized wears off in the end. Not many studies have been done on the arena of expatriates in Malaysia. Most of the research focused on the unskilled foreign labour and illegal immigrants explored challenges faced by the expatriates and adjustments made to the challenges. The study highlighted the psychological, socio-cultural and work challenges. Adjustments wer e based on individual initiatives based on the psychological and mental strengths of the expatriates, combined with efforts of peer expatriates, parent firms and host organizations.
situations (Hecker, 1996). Ng and Chow (2004) made separate investigations from both perspectives of clients and of engineering consulting firms, and strove to explore their different requirements with regard to consultant’s performance. D. Typical work activities Within civil engineering area, consulting engineers are the designers and contracting engineers turn their plans into reality. Consulting civil engineers provide a wide range of services to clients. During the early stages of a career, work will involve taking responsibility for minor projects, but the size of the projects may increase as experience is gained. Table I summarized the work activities that involved by foreign professionals in civil engineering tasks. V. ANALYSIS The analysis phase was done to discover the level of satisfaction from local construction player against foreign professional’s involvement in Malaysian construction environment. Meetings with construction players were held to assist in completing the questionnaires survey. Several topic was discussed during the meeting such as the why foreign professional are being used, their experience and the method of management and followed by the pilot test. Questionnaires survey were sent out to the few respondents who had relating with the construction projects namely contractor, engineer and project manager. The purpose for conducting pilot test is to assess the entire questions is under stable, intelligible, easy to answer, unambiguous, suitable and focus on the objectives of the study. The data obtained from the survey being analyzed using Statistical Package for social science 19 (SPSS) in order to measure the reliability analysis.
C. Area of foreign professional involvement As a knowledge-intensive business, the construction industry has divided into a multidisciplinary industry featuring professional and collective activities, in one with increasingly growing complexity and demands of engineering technology. The characteristics of this industry include: i. High Contract Risk The principle of “trading first and then production” is observed by the contract between engineering consulting firms and clients. However, the standard of performance and the acceptance check may be affected owing to different interpretations of clauses. The long-term business operations are vulnerable to a lot of external variables, such as economic fluctuations and government policies etc.
A. Contribution made by the foreign professionals The questionnaire surveys were designed to measure the contribution made by foreign professionals. In this section the question was clustered into three major parts which fits to real local’s construction environment which:
ii. Knowledge-intensive industry Engineering work is knowledge-intensive since the engineering design depends much upon knowledge. To solve the problems and difficulties encountered in the project, multidisciplinary know-how must be integrated to meet client requirements by achieving diversified and multifunctional projects.
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iii. A variety of professionals Engineering consulting services require support from a variety of professionals in many fields, such as civil engineers, electromechanical, computer engineers as well as accountants and lawyers. The engineering consulting staff must master abundant know-how and information technology in order to ensure project quality and safety. In the future, the engineering consulting industry will face fiercer competition due to lack of qualified engineers and changes in the industrial environment. Consequently, the top management must realize that a proper human resource strategy could help them meet new © 2011 ACEEE
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Procurement: The question was more on knowing the methods of foreign professionals are hired into the organization and their requirements to be placed in organization; Designing: This part was more on the foreign professionals experience in times of designing. The questions weight more on IT tools and using software. Monitoring: This part of question was designed based for site-work; where the question was about methods of foreign professionals’ deals with projects.
Full Paper Int. J. on Recent Trends in Engineering & Technology, Vol. 05, No. 03, Mar 2011
As shown, for the contribution of procurement majority choose foreign professionals job description is on own their initiatives which explain on the scope of work. Foreign professionals are given the advantages of sketching their own job description towards the organization or project. And they enter the organization with a special designed contract, as it ranked second. A minority chooses foreign professionals rate was paid using international rate, which explains the payment for foreign professionals is as same as local professionals. Table III show the mean value on the involvement of foreign professional in design stage for construction.
The questions were basically required respondents to rank the factors that they believe suitable. The question was already given in the list of according to the five-point scale (where 1,2,3,4 and 5 stands from lowest to highest level of agreement). Respondent is only need to rate with one point. On the other part there was also an open ended question which was optional for the respondent to fill up. The question was regarding opinion on involvement of foreign professionals in Malaysian construction industry. Table II show the mean value on the involvement of foreign professional in procurement stage for construction.
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Variable grouped under expertise needed in guiding local professionals. Means, foreign professionals more efficient in advanced technology, using software, design made by them produce optimum cost and more convincing for organization. Foreign professionals more literate using IT tools, always design in time saving manner and design made producing minimum error.
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Full Paper Int. J. on Recent Trends in Engineering & Technology, Vol. 05, No. 03, Mar 2011 Therefore, respondents appear to feel that local professionals need foreign professionals in designing process and second foreign professionals are more efficient in advanced technology. Whereby respondent ranked foreign professionals produce minimum error designing as last. Table IV show the mean value on the involvement of foreign professional in monitoring stage for construction.
Figure 1 shows the questionnaire respondents appear to feel that foreign professionals are still needed in Malaysia construction environment. Even though, majority was more to the option “Yes”, yet the difference with the group choose “No” was a small; approximately 6%. Therefore foreign professionals are needed for dedicated projects in Malaysian construction industry but no urgent need.
For the contribution of foreign professionals in monitoring, majority ranked involvement foreign professionals in project provide a new cultural to site as first place, second as foreign professionals focus more towards output rather than process flow and last for the point where foreign professionals utilize more project management tools. Involvement of different professionals or person in charges in organizations always brings changes either towards improvement or other way round. Same goes to foreign professionals involving in Malaysian construction industry, they brings many new culture for the organization or to project site (e.g. the level of safety management in a particular site, it will be more strict). B.
Acceptance of foreign professionals among local professionals Based on the findings that have being analyzed in Table V, majority of respondents says local professionals able to work along with foreign professionals and they agree with the point of foreign professionals brings improvement in construction industry as they rank the second in the table. Not forget to mention of the work structure which is in third place, respondents says that foreign professionals work structured more organized compared with local professionals. Respondents disagree that foreign professionals endanger local professional’s professionalism by the lowest ranking among all.
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DOI: 01.IJRTET.05.03.67
Figure 1. Perception on the need of foreign professionals in Malaysian construction industry.
VI. CONCLUSION Malaysian construction industry has professionals to run projects successfully till beginning to the very end. Yet involving foreign professionals in Malaysian construction industry is one alternative to solve the professionals need. This alternative doesn’t meant to local professionals are not as better foreign professionals into serving Malaysian construction; concerning certain value enables local professionals performing similarly foreign professionals standards or even much better. Now days, most work need not much thinking; it’s all about utilizing the software’s and the end result is in hand. Time and cost is the 5
Full Paper Int. J. on Recent Trends in Engineering & Technology, Vol. 05, No. 03, Mar 2011 two major characteristic of project, and even organization is also hoping for achieving optimum time and cost. The only solution is to be more literate on utilizing software. Alternative ways is to design and submit a well structured task and method to contractors and wait for the finals result. A normal progress visit should take place but not stressing on the process. Engineers (civil, mechanical and etc.) are advices to be more forward looking more then what has being practice. They are advice to be able to implement on advance technology of completing a task rather than using traditional method. Advance technology may be high at risk compared to traditional method at first due to unfamiliar; but it always will produce a time and cost saving as discussed above; and during the monitoring, always think of use intensive monitoring methods. A minor amendment to organization will also help generate more local professionals for Malaysian construction industry. Local professionals also use the same standards to study as most foreign professionals refer. Most local professionals complain they are not given the priority as a first person in decision making. Therefore its advice organization must give opportunity for local professionals to make decision in certain major situations, which would help them to improve the input of information towards elements of construction; which later on will benefit the organization. Finally, involving foreign professionals in Malaysian construction would benefit in many senses but using them in a selective organizations or project would be a wise decision. Foreign professionals bring changes in Malaysian construction but it doesn’t mean that local professionals professionalism endangered or should not being concern much.
© 2011 ACEE
DOI: 01.IJRTET.05.03.67
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