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The paper aims to highlight the key factors that can optimize the organizational performance of private higher learning institutions (HLIs). Undeniably, organizational performance is crucial for the business sustainability of private HLIs in Malaysia.

This paper presents the authors’ views on the key factors for the organizational performance of private HLIs based on personal experiences and review of past research literature conducted on organizational performance.

The higher education sector plays an important role as it is seen as a potential engine of growth and source of global competitiveness. As one of the main players in the higher education sector, private HLIs need to optimize its organizational performance. Unfortunately, at present, the disruptive dynamic changes and uncertainties in the business landscape are affecting the organizational performance of HLIs. Therefore, the key factors highlighted in this paper are meant to provide insights into how private HLIs can optimize organizational performance while operating in the current turbulent business environment.

The paper provides new insights into key success factors that are pivotal to the business sustainability of private HLIs in Malaysia.

The purpose of this study is to examine the organisational capabilities needed for strategic agility among private higher education institutions (HEIs) in Malaysia that are operating in a turbulent business environment. In addition, the study also intends to determine the area of prioritisation for these institutions.

A two-month data collection was carried out on 375 private HEIs via a Web-based survey, which garnered a response rate of 41.33%. The data were subsequently analysed with the partial least squares structural equation modelling to establish the validity and reliability of the research model and to test the postulated hypotheses. The assessment of importance and performance matrix analysis (IPMA) was also carried out to highlight the areas of significance for improvement.

The study discovered that all three constructs of organisational capabilities, i.e. environmental scanning, marketing and organisational learning, attributed significantly to strategic agility. This in turn enabled strategic agility to significantly influence the organisational performance of private HEIs in Malaysia. Finally, IPMA revealed that private HEIs need to prioritise organisational learning to strengthen their strategic agility, thus optimise organisational performance.

Aside from business and management research of strategic agility in other industries, the current study manages to establish that strategic agility also plays an important role in the private higher education sector. Furthermore, the use of IPMA provides fresh insight into the importance and performance of the organisational capabilities examined against strategic agility.

This paper aims to enable students craft a winning corporate strategy applicable for organizations in various contexts. The practical approach consists of conducting scenario planning based on internal and external environment analysis, identifying the winning factor, proposing an implementation strategy of entry and exit strategies, and future customers, and evaluating matching of business ethics and legality.

Wesley Chen, the executive director and group chief executive officer, has the ultimate challenge of leading his management team to operate from a sole proprietorship management style to a listed large company in the Malaysian Stock Exchange. He identified the gap in the need to craft a winning corporate strategy for business sustainability. The corporate strategy should address expansion of their service offerings and needs to be carefully crafted to suit TopSteel’s risk appetite and overall business strategy. The strategy must also consider the internal and external factors that TopSteel faced with, identify the core competency of TopSteel, build in strategic agility in the implementation plans to address the dynamic business landscape, and most importantly ensure the corporate strategy must be in compliance to ethical and legal standards. The case study documents the one year of transition of TopSteel’s operations with a strong focus on the strategic management process direction for a winning OEM+ model through the use of SWIM concept.

This case is suitable for undergraduate or postgraduate programs or even executive courses in strategic management.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

CSS 11: Strategy

This case is to familiarise students with the peculiarities of managing people by focussing on human capital development (HCD). Through the case, students are exposed to the critical recruitment and retention issues faced by METAL STAR Limited Company (METAL STAR), which have a detrimental impact on their business operations. Through the novel use of the transformer-transactor-performer (TTP) profiling tool, students are able to recognise the importance of matching the right candidate to the right job as a solution for recruitment and retention issues. At the end of the case analysis and discussion, students would have a clear idea of the TTP Profiling tool and how to identify core elements needed for an effective and holistic recruitment-retention-separation strategy for a company. The knowledge gained is most valuable for the students as it can be applied to other companies having similar HCD issues.

Carina Yew is the General Manager of METAL STAR, a sheet metal fabrication company in Penang, Malaysia. After more than 28 years of operations, METAL STAR has been adopting the same human resources (HR) processes and has failed to keep up with the current HR trends. Yew has to decide the best way to lead her company in transforming the HCD strategy to enable smooth and profitable business growth.

The case is relevant for undergraduate, postgraduate or even executive students taking courses pertaining to HCD or human resource management.

CSS 6: Human resource management.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of technology on organizational performance of private higher learning institutions (HLIs) in Malaysia and to determine the area of focus for private HLIs in Malaysia.

Data collection was carried out over two months through an online self-administered questionnaire and yielded 155 samples. Subsequently, the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to test the reflective measurement model and the structural model for validity, reliability and hypotheses, respectively.

This paper discovered that between the two constructs of technology tested (technology management and technology usage), only technology management influenced organizational performance.

As Industry 4.0 is disrupting the existing business environment, inquiring into the influence of technology is of critical importance for the organizational performance of private HLIs in Malaysia. This paper provides a different perspective of how technology affects the overall organizational performance of private HLIs which differs from past studies which focused more on the effects of technology on individuals such as teachers/instructors and learners.

The purpose of this research is to examine the effect of kaizen culture on innovation and operational performance of electrical and electronic manufacturing companies in Malaysia. A research framework, with underpinning theories of dynamic capabilities and socio-technical systems, was conceptualized to investigate the interplay of these relationships.

Data were collected from 123 manufacturing companies using an online survey and analyzed with IBM SPSS Statistics version 24.0 and the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) (SmartPLS) version 3.2.8.

Ultimately, the findings proved that kaizen culture is crucial for organizations to optimize their operational performance and can be nurtured through the implementation of process innovation and organizational innovation.

Unlike past studies, this research examines the concepts of innovation, kaizen culture and operational performance in a single study; thus, provides further opportunities for new discoveries through such relationships. Also, the novelty is identifying that kaizen culture can be nurtured via innovation.