Brain Drain: Propensity for Malaysian Professionals to Leave for Singapore

180 Pages·2016·2.971 MB·English

by  Junaimah Binti Jauhar, Ahmad Bashawir Abdul Ghani, Rabiul Islam (auth.)

Junaimah Binti Jauhar 
Ahmad Bashawir Abdul Ghani
Rabiul Islam
Brain Drain
Propensity for Malaysian Professionals
to Leave for Singapore
Brain Drain
Junaimah Binti Jauhar
Ahmad Bashawir Abdul Ghani
Rabiul Islam
Brain Drain
Propensity for Malaysian Professionals
to Leave for Singapore
123
Junaimah Binti Jauhar Rabiul Islam
Graduate Schoolof Business Collegeof Business
Universiti Sains Malaysia University Utara Malaysia
Gelugor, Penang Sintok,Kedah
Malaysia Malaysia
Ahmad Bashawir AbdulGhani
Collegeof Law, Government,
andInternationalStudies
University Utara Malaysia
Sintok,Kedah
Malaysia
ISBN978-981-10-0976-1 ISBN978-981-10-0977-8 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-0977-8
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2016940003
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Contents
1 General Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.3 Background of Malaysia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1.4 Background of Singapore. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
1.5 Seriousness of the Problem. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
1.6 How Extensive Is Malaysia’s Brain Drain?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
1.7 Problem Statement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
1.8 Motivation of Study. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
1.9 Research Objectives. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
1.10 Research Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
1.11 Definition of Key Terms/Concepts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
1.12 Significance of the Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
1.13 Scope of the Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
2 Malaysia’s Development Policies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
2.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
2.2 Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
2.3 A Brief History of Malaysia’s Development Policy . . . . . . . . . . 36
2.4 The Government Transformation Programme (GTP). . . . . . . . . . 37
2.5 The New Economic Model (NEM) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
2.6 How Can Policies Address Brain Drain?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
2.7 The Impact of the Policies on Brain Drain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
2.7.1 Transforming the Malaysian Workplace . . . . . . . . . . . 42
2.7.2 Transforming the Malaysian Workforce . . . . . . . . . . . 43
2.7.3 Income Disparities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
v
vi Contents
2.8 Talent Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
2.8.1 Returning Expert Programme (REP). . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
2.8.2 Scholarship Talent Attraction and Retention
(STAR). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
2.8.3 Structure Internship Programme (SIP). . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
2.8.4 Residence Pass Talent (RPT). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
2.8.5 Career Fair Incentive (CFI). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
2.9 Malaysia’s Education Blue Print . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
3 Literature Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
3.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
3.2 Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
3.2.1 Diaspora Is Large, Mainly Concentrated
in Singapore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
3.3 How Is Our Salary Compared to Others? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
3.4 Old Perspective Model. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
3.5 Networks and Migration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
3.6 Researches on Brain Drain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
3.7 Literature Gap. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
3.8 Theories Underpinning the Brain Drain Issue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
3.8.1 Neoclassical Migration Theory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
3.8.2 Dual Labour Market Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
3.8.3 Human Capital Theory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
3.8.4 Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
3.8.5 Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB). . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
3.8.6 The New Economics of Labour Migration Theory . . . . 78
3.8.7 The Relative Deprivation Theory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
3.8.8 World System Theory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
3.9 Motivation Theories. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
3.9.1 Hierarchy of Needs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
3.9.2 ERG Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
3.9.3 Two-Factor Theory (Motivator-Hygiene Theory) . . . . . 82
3.9.4 Learned Needs Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
3.9.5 Expectancy Theory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
3.9.6 Quality Work Life (QWL). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
3.9.7 Ease of Immigration Procedures. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
3.9.8 International Exposure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
3.9.9 Two-Factor Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
3.9.10 Social Networks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
3.9.11 Personality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
3.9.12 Brain Drain. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
3.10 Theoretical Framework. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Contents vii
4 Research Methodology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
4.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
4.2 Area of Study. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
4.3 Research Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
4.4 Sampling Design. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
4.5 Literature Exploration and Initial Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
4.6 The Population . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
4.7 Unit of Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
4.8 Sample Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
4.9 Data Collection Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
4.10 Questionnaire Design. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
4.11 Research Variables and Constructs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
4.11.1 Higher Salary and Benefits Program. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
4.11.2 Quality Work Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
4.11.3 Ease of Immigration Procedures. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
4.11.4 International Exposure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
4.11.5 More Promising Job Opportunities and More
Challenging Job Scopes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
4.11.6 Social Networks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
4.11.7 Personality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
4.11.8 Brain Drain. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
4.12 Measurements of the Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
4.12.1 Higher Salary and Benefits Programme (Adopted
from Khoo et al. 2009). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
4.12.2 Quality Work Life (Adopted from Huang
et al. 2007). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
4.12.3 EaseofImmigrationProcedures(AdoptedfromKhoo
et al. 2009). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
4.12.4 International Exposure (Adopted from
Khoo et al. 2009). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
4.12.5 More Promising Job Opportunities and
More Challenging Job Scopes
(Adopted Khoo et al. 2009). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
4.12.6 Social Networks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
4.12.7 Moderating Variable. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
4.12.8 Dependent Variable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
4.13 Measurement Model Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
4.13.1 Validity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
4.13.2 Reliability. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
4.13.3 Common Method Variance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
4.14 Assessment of Structural Model. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
4.14.1 Predictive Relevance Q2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
4.14.2 Effect Size F2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
4.14.3 Bootstrapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
viii Contents
5 Results and Data Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
5.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
5.2 Response Rate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
5.3 Data Preparation for Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
5.4 Preliminary Data Analysis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
5.5 Sample Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
5.6 Missing Data. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
5.6.1 Outliers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
5.6.2 Multivariate Normality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
5.7 Multicollinearity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
5.8 Descriptive Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
5.9 Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
5.9.1 Describing the Approaches for Higher-Order
Construct Models HOC in Partial Least Squares
Modelling (PLS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
5.10 Common Method Variance Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
5.10.1 Validity of Measurement Scales. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
5.10.2 Reliability Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
5.11 Component Validity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
5.11.1 Convergent Validity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
5.11.2 Discriminant Validity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
5.12 Structural Model Assessment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
5.12.1 Predictive Relevance Q2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
5.12.2 Effect Size F2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
5.13 Moderation Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
5.13.1 Proactive Personality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
5.13.2 Extraversion Personality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
5.13.3 Agreeableness Personality. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
5.13.4 Conscientiousness Personality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
5.13.5 Neuroticism Personality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
5.13.6 Openness Personality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
5.14 Summary of Results. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
6 Discussion, Recommendations and Conclusions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
6.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
6.2 Recapitulation of the Study Findings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
6.3 Discussion of Findings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
6.3.1 Better Pay Offered in Singapore Has a Positive
Relationship to Malaysia’s Brain Drain
to Singapore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
6.3.2 Better QWL in Singapore Has a Positive
Relationship to Malaysia’s Brain Drain
to Singapore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
Contents ix
6.3.3 Ease of Immigration Procedures in Singapore Has a
Positive Relationship to Malaysia’s Brain Drain to
Singapore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
6.3.4 Desire for International Exposure Has a Positive
Relationship to Malaysia’s Brain Drain
to Singapore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
6.3.5 Promise of More Challenging Job Scopes Has a
Positive Relationship to Malaysia’s Brain Drain
to Singapore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
6.3.6 Social Networks Have a Positive Relationship to
Malaysia’s Brain Drain to Singapore . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
6.3.7 Personality Has a Moderating Effect on Malaysia’s
Brain Drain to Singapore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
6.4 Opinions Derived from Accounting Experts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
6.5 Recommendations on How to Overcome Brain Drain. . . . . . . . . 168
6.6 Limitations of the Study. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
6.7 Recommendations for Future Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
6.8 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
About the Authors
Junaimah Binti Jauhar holds a Ph.D. from University Utara Malaysia. She is a
senior lecturer at University Science Malaysia (USM). Her articles have been
publishedinawiderangeofvariousjournals.Sheisinterestedindoingresearchin
international trade, brain drain to overseas, etc.
Dr. Ahmad Bashawir Abdul Ghani is currently an associate professor in inter-
national business management in the College of Law, Government and
International Studies at University Utara Malaysia, where he has taught interna-
tionalbusinessfor15 yearsandhassupervisedabout10businessresearchprojects.
HeholdsanMBAinfinancialmanagementfromtheUniversityofHull,UK,anda
Ph.D. in commerce from Murdoch University, Australia. His research and con-
sultancyinterestscoverthetheoreticalandappliedaspectsofinternationalbusiness,
business research, strategic alliances, strategic/policy modelling and business eco-
nomics.Hehasalsopublishedinawiderangeofinternational,AustralianandNew
Zealandjournals.Inaddition,hehasspokenatconferencesthroughouttheworldon
mattersdealingwithinternationalbusinessmanagement.PriortojoiningUniversity
UtaraMalaysia,hehaspreviouslyworkedinanumberofpublicandprivatesector
organizations in Malaysia and abroad, where he has been involved in economic,
strategic and business research projects spanning most sectors of the economy. He
is currently “The Dean of School of International Studies” in University Utara
Malaysia.
Rabiul Islam holds a Ph.D. in environmental economics under the Institute for
EnvironmentandDevelopmentatUniversityKebangsaanMalaysia(UKM).Heisa
senior lecturer in the Department of Economics at University Utara Malaysia.
HewasPostdoctoralFellowinInstituteforEnvironmentandDevelopment,UKM.
His main area of expertise is the application of Global Forest Products Model
(GFPM).Hisarticleshavebeenpublishedinawiderangeofvariousjournals.Heis
interested in doing research in international trade, trade and environment, tourism,
migration, water, poverty and food security, urban agriculture, sustainable devel-
opment, climatic hazards and green economics.
xi