Skills, Labour and Training in the New Economy: A Case Study of Commercial Banks in Malaysia.
The Malaysian banking industry is experiencing massive restructuring and transformation that mirror global trends. This is due to Malaysia’s gradual shift into the New Economy – a new economic order shaped by forces such as technological innovation, deregulation and changing consumption patterns. With skills identified as the new factor of production in the New Economy, possessing the right mix of skills will ensure the banking industry’s competitive edge in the global economy.
The Malaysian banking industry’s impending deregulation in 2010 poses a major challenge to domestic banks as deregulation indicates increased competition from foreign banks. Additionally, the banking industry is faced with yet another national level (VISION 2020) challenge, that is, to transform Malaysia to a knowledge-based society and a developed nation by 2020. Evidently, skills formation agenda has taken centre stage to address both these challenges.
Considering the dearth of research in banking that originates from the field of development studies, this study of Malaysian commercial banks aims to fill this gap and contribute to existing scholarly literature. Specifically, this thesis examines how the abovementioned forces of the New Economy have reorganised the division of labour, skills requirements and training needs of Malaysian bank employees since the 1985 recession and 1997 Asian Financial Crisis. The data was collected from two prominent domestic banks in Malaysia located in two major urban areas: Kuala Lumpur and Penang.
The views of bank employees and key informants confirm the growing prominence of conceptual skills which currently represent a major skills gap within the banking industry. Significantly, this thesis seeks to examine how the three key social actors (i.e. the State, bank employers and labour) are renegotiating their roles and responsibilities in the New Economy with the introduction of neo-liberal measures in Malaysia. Though neo-liberal reforms advocate the diminishing role of the State, this thesis argues that the Malaysian State still maintains a decisive role in skills formation.
