Preparing for assignment to Malaysia: cultural and religious considerations

¶ … Skills Project

Location of Resources

Evaluation of Resources

Being assigned for five months to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia is both invigorating and intimidating at the same time. The culture of Malaysia is known for being strongly religious and respectful of its Muslim heritage, and as a result appreciates it when visitors dress and act conservatively. It is common for concert promoters in Malaysia to request rock stars from westernized nations to dress modestly on stage, a request that has been made of everyone from Madonna to Mannheim Symphony's ballet troupe (Lee, 2009). According to the CIA Factbook, this nation clings to its religious beliefs, as 60% are of the Muslim faith. Fully appreciating the customs and expectations of moving into a heavily Islamic nation requires not only learning about Malaysia, but about the cultural beliefs that form the foundation of this nation's identity. The CIA Factbook also shows that this is a relatively lower income by global standards with a per capita income of $14,900, dropping from $15,500 in 2007 and to $15,400 in 2008. Clearly the information search needs to navigate between the information about the nation and also cover the Islamic traditions and values systemic to this nation as well. Working in this nation is going to be very interesting as the learning of ethical and religious customs most likely dominates many of the work places and companies there.

Problem Statement

Choosing to accept an assignment in a foreign nation that is so significantly different than any westernized one can be a daunting task. Not only are there the language differences, in Malaysia there are significant differences in religious and moral beliefs due to the majority of the nation being devote Muslims (60%). The study of travel in this nation becomes muli-0facted then, concentrating on the cultural, religious, economic, commercial and social aspects of the nation. Immersing oneself in this society blindly would certainly lead to severe culture shock and a minimizing of effectiveness on the job. Instead, what is needed is a thorough analysis of each dominant dimension of the country's culture. Beginning with the structure of the country's religious and social fabric, analysis of how beliefs are practiced and when, and what is expected by gender during these events is critical. The use of insights gained from country analysis reports and the use of secondary research on how the Malaysian flexes to take into account the beliefs and holidays of the Muslim community is very important as well (Malaysia, 2009). As the country is known for having political instability at times, being aware of the forms of government, how they are being debated, and the role of revolutionaries in the country is also very valuable to know as well (Malaysia, 2010). The aspects political strife and cultural divides must be studied very closely and understood extremely well so that out of ignorance one does not wander into these regions of this small nation where political conflict is simmering due to the slowing economy (Malaysia, 2010).

In addition to these cultural and political issues there are the logistics of choosing the best possible place to stay that will be comfortable, clean, safe and secure yet not extravagant, and which areas of the city of Kuala Lumpur are best for the preferences of the person moving there. There also needs to be an understanding of how effective the hotels are in delivering on the promises they make on their websites and brochures, as there is in some cases a major discrepancy in foreign hotel performance to promises especially in Asia (Poon, Low, 2005). From the research, it is clear that Malaysia has struggled with making the commitments and claims match the performance of their hotels and hospitality industry, where the image often varies from the property (Ing, Liew-Tsonis, Cheuk, Razli, 2010). The bottom line that out of the many sources of information available on Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia there is a percentage that deserves the most trust and focus, and there is much that can be discarded and not used. In making this judgment the trustworthiness of the information needs to be assessed using the series of sources provided in this analysis (Cho, Jang, 2008). Appendix A, a mind map for planning extended travel provides an overview of the issues related to planning and traveling.

Evaluation of Resources

EBSCO Host and ProQuest both provided useful background materials on the role of travel and tourism data on Malaysia and its position in the hospitality industry (Poon, Low, 2005) (Ing, Liew-Tsonis, Cheuk, Razli, 2010). Of the two however, EBSCO Host was much more effective in defining the specifics of the political and cultural conditions in Malaysia and how those conditions are driving change in political views in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia, 2009) (Malaysia, 2010). The articles from ProQuest were more academically oriented and showed how the Malaysian hotels at times tend to project inaccurate images of what their value propositions are (Ing, Liew-Tsonis, Cheuk, Razli, 2010) and as a result there is a skewed view of the country as a result (Poon, Low, 2005). The CIA Factbook provided the foundation to put these two different data elements into context. All three are critical for understanding the situation in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and what would most likely be the conditions when arriving there.