Organizational communication in Malaysia organizations: Incorporating cultural values in communication scale

• Published in: Corporate communications 2013-01, Vol.18 (1), p.87-109
• Main Authors: Abu Bakar, Hassan, Su Mustaffa, Che
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Bonding; Climate; Construction; Design engineering; Job satisfaction; Messages; Organizations; Segments
• ISSN: 1356-3289
• DOI: 10.1108/13563281311294146

Purpose - Research on organizational communication has shown significant associations with many important outcomes. Although these researches are appealing, there have been criticisms and suggestions for improvement of the organizational communication scales, developed in Western organization settings, to make them applicable to collectivist culture-based organizations. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to access the organizational communication construct through the development and validation of an organizational communication measure for Malaysian organizations. Design/methodology/approach - Item analysis for Malaysian organizational communication scale involves survey of 250 university employees, followed by construct and criterion-related validation using 346 employees, representing three organizations in Malaysia, resulting in a Malaysian organizational communication scale. Findings - Through the validation of a Malaysian organizational communication measure, support was found for the proposition that Malaysian organizations are composed of information flow, communication climate, message characteristics, and communication structure, as well as new dimensions, namely, the group bond and respect. Research limitations/implications - One of the weaknesses of the study was the size of sample used for the focus group. Another weakness was the organizations involved in the validation segment of the study, which were service-related organizations. Finally, current investigations limit themselves to job satisfaction. These results have to be handled carefully. Practical implications - The paper shows that group bond and mutual respect are salient work relationships in Malaysian organizations. Originality/value - The emergence of group bond and respect dimensions in the Malaysian organizational communication construct is consistent with the examination of organizational behavior.