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

Abstract

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.

Citation

Abu Bakar, H. and Su Mustaffa, C. (2013), "Organizational communication in Malaysia organizations: Incorporating cultural values in communication scale", Corporate Communications: An International Journal, Vol. 18 No. 1, pp. 87-109. https://doi.org/10.1108/13563281311294146