Designing Innovative Organizations in Malaysia: Do Structure and Culture Matter?

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to determine the influence of organizational structure (formalization and centralization and culture (participative decision-making, support and collaboration, learning and development) on innovation (technological and process, administrative, product and overall) among firms operating in Malaysia. Regression analyses of 123 responses revealed that only cultural variables have positive effects on two forms of innovation (technological and process, and administrative). Specifically, both participation in decision-making, and support and collaboration had significant positive effects on technological and process innovation. On the other hand, both support and collaboration, and learning and development were found to have significant positive effects on administrative innovation. Structural variables (both formalization and centralization) had no effect on all forms of innovation investigated. Implications for managerial practice and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Organizational Factors and Innovativeness of Housing Developers

“…The finding associated to the positive impact of adhocracy culture is consistent with those of previous studies (Cameron and Quinn, 2011). The existence of a strong and positive relationship between the firm's culture and innovativeness is also consistent with Jantan et al (2003) who examine the influence of culture and structure on innovativeness among manufacturing and service companies operating in Malaysia and further find out that the structural components of these firms do not have any significant impact on the organizational innovativeness. Similarly, the existence of a positive relationship between market orientation and innovativeness as discovered in the current study is consistent with previous studies (for example Jaworski and Kohli (1993).…”

“…Moreover, previous researches suggest that several characteristics will influence the innovativeness of a firm (Katz and Allen, 2004). There is however inconsistency in some of these results (Jantan et al, 2003). For example, while previous studies have shown that organizational culture influences innovativeness (Hurley and Hult, 1998), recently, Yusof and Abidin (2011) find that culture does not significantly influence the innovativeness among Malaysian public-listed housing developers.…”

“…The structural dimensions include the extent of the formalization, centralization and specialization. However, the common structural dimensions examined by scholars are formalization and centralization (Jaworski and Kholi, 1993;Jantan et al, 2003;Kirca et al, 2005;Meirovich et al, 2007;Katsikea et al, 2011). Additionally, Zheng et al (2010) note that centralization is one prominent dimension of the structural elements of firms.…”

“…Hilmi et al, (2010) examine the influence of the product, process innovativeness on the performance of Malaysian SMEs and have found out that although Malaysian SMEs are highly innovative in their products and processes, only process innovativeness shows to be an important determinant of their performance. In addition, Jantan et al (2003) examine the influence of structure and culture among electronic/electrical, textile and telecommunication organizations operating in Malaysia. Their findings suggest that structure has no influence on the overall innovativeness of the organizations.…”

Creating an organizational culture of innovation: case studies of Japanese multinational companies in Thailand

“…The term participative decision-making has been associated with other terms, such as empowerment, involvement, engagement and consultation (Jantan, Nasurdin, and Ahmed Fadzil 2003). Empowerment is commonly described in terms of the employee's self-control, freedom and autonomy over his or her work and responsibility for decision-making (Mullins 2002).…”