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INTRODUCTION
OBJECTIVE OF STUDY
T
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he purpose of this paper is to identify the corporate culture for Express Rail Link Sdn Bhd (ERL) to enable ERL to provide quality services at the Kuala Lumpur Sentral Station (KLSS). From this identification and analysis of ERL’s culture, we can identify the relationship between the corporate culture to the quality service to enable ERL to adapt and adopt to help further the Company’s services and to achieve the competitive edge.
THE IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY
For Express Rail Link Sdn Bhd (ERL), a company established by large organizations i.e. Yeoh Teong Lay Group of Company (YTL). TH Technologies Sdn Bhd (THT) and Abrar Group International (ABRAR), its corporation is to provide the following services to the public i.e. the Express Rail Link (ERL) and Commuter Rail Services (CRS) from the Kuala Lumpur Sentral Station (KLSS) in Brickfields to the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) in Sepang. As such, a corporate culture must be created to enable it to provide QUALITY SERVICE at the KLSS and be competitive among the companies in the services industry.
ERL’s High Speed Rail with Rail-Air Inter-Modality concept i.e. with check-in and check out (CICO) facility at KLSS would established ERL as the only company in the world at the moment providing this facility at its rail station.
Thus, to have a corporate culture to enable it to provide quality service is of great importance to ERL. Being a very young company and have yet to have a strong corporate culture have resulted to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) to be very much concerned on the nature and type of culture that the company would exist in. As culture and philosophy are always important management tools it is especially so in service organizations like ERL, since they provide not only the guide for daily operational behaviour but also the structure of long-term business strategy development. Other important features of any culture involves human resource management and human resource development, as well as the basic guidelines for business development.
ORGANISATION OF THE REPORT
The study report is divided in 5 main Chapters.
Chapter 1 provides an extensive and exhaustive literature review on Corporate Culture, Customer Service, Learning Organisation and Quality Service.
Chapter provides an insight of the high speed rail transportation business, new to the Malaysian but not in the overseas context. Background of ERL and the company’s vision, goals and plans are also included.
Chapter describes the feedback from questionnaires, interviews and analysis of the result from these questionnaires and interviews.
Chapter 4 presents the management risk analysis and also the corporate culture of quality service involving among others the integration of quality service with learning organisation.
Chapter 5 contains the conclusions of the findings and recommendations
LIMITATIONS AND ASSUMPTIONS OF THE STUDY
In order to translate the information obtained from the various questionnaires and interviews conducted, the following limitations and assumptions have to be noted -
While questionnaires were administered to staff pertaining to what they understood by corporate culture and quality service, interviews were also conducted with four management members of each of the selected divisions in the company. Separate questionnaires were also administered to eleven management members to obtain their assessment of their own and their managers’ attitude towards quality service.
Data were also collected from interactions with respondents individually and in group in their working environments. Personal interaction at the place of work provides a conducive environment for the respondents to be open and candid in answering the questions.
Hence, the findings and conclusions of this study are limited to the perception of those who actually completed the questionnaires;
At the time this paper was prepared, the economic slowdown have affected ERL which leads to the following i.e.
¨ Deferment on the completion of the project and as such the operations of the project;
¨ Right sizing
Project Deferment
Due to the currency turmoil that is currently plaguing the Asian region, the Ringgit Malaysia (RM) has weakened against most of the major currencies in the world including the Deutsche Mark (DM). The DM1 is now at RM.55 (as at 7th January 18). As such, the translated DM portion of the project has now appreciated to approximately RM74 million or 45% of the previous level assumed. The impact of the appreciation of the DM portion based on this rate has also resulted in a potential cost overrun of the Engineering Works, Procurement Works and Construction Works (EPC) Contract of RM05 million. The new EPC Contract price at the current DM level is now about RM,15 million.
The above unfavourable condition has therefore lead to
i) The exchange rate movements to increase the cost of the offshore portion of the project which made up 4% of the project cost in April 17 and up to 5% of the project cost in January 18.
ii) The current economic crisis has increase the interest rate from % in June 7 to 14% in January 18.
iii) The availability of capital for the project finance is now becoming scarcer in the current economic situation.
In view of the above conditions, the project which should be in operations by the year 000 has now to be deferred its operation to mid-year 001 (tentatively).
Right Sizing (Retrenchment)
In facing the challenges of the economic slowdown, ERL like so many other organisation in Malaysia have adopted several measures in the first and second quarter of 18. These include the reduction of administrative overhead such as power/energy cost, the use of recycled items, restriction of overtime work, freezing of recruitment except for some critical position or for replacement purposes, re-training and transfer/demobilisation to other departments/works and freezing of bonuses, increments and pay cut for all level of staff.
However, as the situation worsen with the deferment of the project, ERL has no option but to adopt the most radical and painful measures that is the closure of departments and down-sizing the company’s staff strength from 6 to employees.
Other Conditions
This dissertation is for academic purposes only. No part or portion of the dissertation to be reprinted or published. All information are confidential.
CHAPTER 1
OVERVIEW
T
he following chapter provide an overview and a review of literature four (4) different sections. The breakdown of the sections can be seen as follows
Section 1 Corporate Culture
Section Customer Service
Section Learning Organisation
Section 4 Service Quality
Culture building by its very nature cannot be undertaken in a fast or haphazard manner. By definition, it is the act of developing desired traits, with expert care and training. As ERL are well appreciative that productivity, quality, excellence and culture are closely related, its real challenge is to recognise these relationship and to operationalise them in an innovative manner in the organisational environment. Such a situation will establish the necessary conditions for the breeding of the appropriate corporate culture, which in turn will stimulate the growth of excellence as a corporate value and work culture resulting thereby in the ultimate objective of maximising productivity and providing quality service in the organisation.
CORPORATE CULTURE
Conversations often refer to different organisations having different cultures. For the average person culture may mean that they perceive the organisation they are involved with to be -
¨ pushy, harsh and authoritarian;
¨ very political with traps and pitfalls for people to fall into if they are not nimble and able to wheeler deal and hold their own;
¨ rule and ritual bound;
¨ cold and separated;
¨ brisk, dynamic, opportunities;
¨ exploitative, all take and no give; and
¨ caring and genuinely interested in people as people.
When managers seek to have or change the culture of the organisation, what they are therefore tying is to shape the way that people behave, feel, contribute, interact, perform as employees of the organisation. New policies, methods and roles are introduced to shape behaviours encourage, promote and etc - to push certain expectations of performance in business and thus to control.
All organizations, and by definitions all social systems, possess a culture. We are born into a culture and when we work, we take up employment in a culture. The culture of an organisation affects the type of people employed, their career aspirations, their educational backgrounds, their status in society. They culture of the organisation may embrace them. It can also reject them.
What Is Culture?
Culture is the set of beliefs, norms and values which forms the basis of collaborative human behaviour and makes human actions to some extent predictable and directed towards a set of commonly held purposes or the maintenance of some commonly accepted state. For organisations, corporate culture would includes, among other things, the values, beliefs, and behavioural norms and expectations shared by an organisations members (Schein, 10). Behavioural norms can be conceptualised as components of culture rather than distinct from culture. As components of organisation culture, behavioural expectations can be characterised as shared and enduring phenomena that influence the thinking and behaviour of organisational members. These cultural norms are also hypothesized to influence organisational member’s motivation, performance, satisfaction and stress levels (Cooke & Szumal, 1).
Values and beliefs can vary across different countries and regions (Hofstede, 184), across organisations (Beyer & Trice, 187; Schein, 10) or within an individual organisation (O’Reilly, Chatman & Caldwell, 11) Schwartz and Davis (181) define culture in organisation as “a pattern of beliefs and expectations shared by the organisation’s members. These beliefs and expectations produce norms that powerfully shape the behaviours of individuals and groups in the organisation”. E.H Schein, in his book Organisational Culture and Leadership, defined culture as a “pattern of basic assumptions - invented, discovered or developed by a given group as it learns to cope with its problems of external adaptation and internal integration - that has worked well enough to be considered valid and therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think and feel in relation to those problems”.
As mentioned earlier, every organisations has a corporate culture. The culture may be strong and cohesive, in which employees identify with the goals of their organisation and work together to achieve them OR the culture may be weak and disconnected and one in which staff work primarily for the money and loyalty is minimal. Pierce and Newstrom state that “the culture of a corporation affects most of the companies’ policies, decisions and activities and thus has a major effect on the success of the business”.
Visionaries or corporate leaders need to understand the importance of a strong corporate culture. They believe that people make their businesses work and that the day-to-day environment of an organisation has a powerful effect of the staff members’ lives. When corporate cultures is managed well and considered a priority by those at the top of an organisation, employees than appreciate the goals of their company and the feeling of esprit de corps is therefore established.
Corporations with strong cultures do not rely exclusively on the rational tools of scientific management for their productivity. These companies in fact support their staff with a rich menu of supportive rituals and ceremonies as well as a set of deeply shared beliefs and values that are communicated and reinforced at all levels of the hierarchy.
In contrast, to weak culture companies that put all emphasis on the products that they manufacture, strong culture companies spotlight the individuals whose labours culminate these products. Strong culture companies identify corporate heroes who personify the values of the organisations and tell stories about their triumphs, leaving no doubt for newer employees that they too could succeed in such organisations by following the example set by these high achievers.
Kotter and Heskette in “Corporate Culture and Performance” “Corporate or organisational culture is the social glue that binds members of an organisation together. It operates on two levels varying in terms of outward visibility and resistance to change. At the less visible level, corporate culture reflects the values shared among organisational members and these values tend to persist over time and are more resistant to change. At the more visible level, corporate culture represents the normative behaviour patterns accepted by organisational members. These patterns are passed on to others through the socialisation process. Culture is more susceptible to change at this level”.
Corporate culture has four basic elements of shared values, heroes, rites/rituals and networks.
¨ Rite
Rite is a relatively elaborate, dramatic planned set of activities that combines various forms of practices/beliefs; such expression often have both practical and expressive consequences.
¨ Ritual
Ritual would reflect a standardized, detailed set of techniques and behaviours that manages anxieties but seldom produces intended, practical consequences of any importance.
¨ Hero
Hero provides the role models for people aspire to. Being a hero means providing a lasting influence within an organisation. Indeed there are occasions when tales of the exploits of a hero are told long after he has left his organisation. Heroes are great motivators, and sometimes charismatic in character, that everyone counts on to come through when things get though.
¨ Shared Values
Shared values can take the form of honesty, loyalty, fairness and maximum effort or striving for excellence. These values are often reflected or expressed in a corporate motto or mission statement. Delta Airline has the “Delta family feeling” describing the extraordinary efforts made by the corporation to avoid layoffs of employees and paying higher salaries than their competitors.
Perhaps to the above four attributes, as described by Beyer and Trice in “Organisation Dynamics”, it is meaningful to add the other specific manifestation like myth, saga, folktale, symbol language, gesture, artifact and physical setting.
The term gesture means movements of parts of the body used to express meanings, while artifact is any material object manufactured by people to facilitate culturally expressive activities. Myth refers to a dramatic narrative of imagined events, often used to explain origins or transformation of something. It is also an unquestioned belief about the practical benefits of certain techniques and behaviours that is not supported by demonstrated facts. Symbol would be any object, act, event, quality or relation that serves as a vehicle for conveying meaning, usually by representing another thing. Physical setting are those things that physically surround people and provide them with immediate sensory stimuli as they carry out culturally expressive activities. Saga is a historical narrative of some wonderful event that has a historical basis but has been embellished with fictional details. The word language in a culture refers to a particular manner in which members of a group use vocal sounds and written signs to communicate with one another, while folklore infers a completely fictional narrative or a legend.
When is a corporate culture in an organisation more apparent?
Organisational culture may be visible -
¨ in the type of buildings, offices, shops of the organisations
¨ in the image projected in publicity and public relations in general.
However, according to E H Schein (Journal of Conselling & Development - July/August 1) report entitled “Clinical research in study of organisation culture”, “Cultural assumptions assert themselves through socialisation of new employees, subculture clashes and top management behaviour.” Examples A new employee who shows up late for an important meeting is told a story about someone who was fired for repeated tardiness; Conflict between product design engineers who emphasise a product’s function and the marketing specialists who demand a more stylish products, reveals an underlying clash of subculture values; top management - through their behaviour and the administrative and reward system they create - prompt a significant improvement in the quality of the company’s product.
Strength of a culture
According to many organisational psychologist, the strength of a culture can be defined in terms of
i) the homogeneity and stability of group membership;
ii) the length and intensity of shared experiences of the group
If a stable company has had a long, varied and intense history (inferring that it has successfully coped with many difficult survival problems), that company would have a strong and highly differentiated culture.
By the same analogy, if any organisation has had a constantly shifting membership, or has been together only for a short time (ERL?) and has not faced any difficult issues, that organisation, by definition has a weak culture. It is very important to recognise that cultural strength may or may not be correlated with effectiveness. According to Peters and Waterman in “In Search for Excellence”, “Strength might be desirable but the culture and effectiveness relationship is far more complex”.
Any organisation’s culture may be taken for granted, assumed, a status quo that employees live and participate in but do not question. Elements of the culture may be questioned where individual or group expectation do not correspond to the behaviours associated with the prevailing values of those who uphold “the culture”
CUSTOMER SERVICE
The purpose of a business is to create and retain customers (Theodore Livitt, 18). Due to the ever increasing number of markets, differentiation by design, quality and packaging is becoming more and more difficult to achieve.
Hence, good customer service is gradually being recognized as an option which can greatly enhance the value of a product or service and thus gain an advantage over competitors.
Customer Service is defined as “a system organised to provide a continuing link between the time an order is placed and the goods received, with the objective of satisfying customers’ needs on a long term basis”. Definitions are concerned with the types of service attributes to provide, levels of service and other commitments of resources both in the long and short terms. Customer Service is both decision and process. Thus, Customer Service is a balancing component which incurs costs in providing a distribution system performance to meet customers’ needs.
Customer Service has become important for the following reasons
¨ The concept of system intergration
The essence of physical distribution is that the functional activities involved in the movement of goods to market are interrelated that decisions in any one area may have significant impact on other areas as well. This also extends to relations between the firms where the actions are taken within the functional areas of a supplier. The system relationship makes the decision by a supplier significant to th customers, both in planning their internal activities and in the customers’ evaluation of potential suppliers.
¨ Customer Service as a Product
When a firm sells and processes the order for a product, it is actually creating two products i.e. one the customer expects to buy and the other is the output of the seller’s distribution system, the order-processing and delivery activities which place the product where the customer expects it to be. The first product determines the initial order. The second product, however, not only determine the volume of repeated business but it also involves the sustained output of an interactive system. The attributes that customers prefer in customer service generally reflect in the long-term consistency of the system in particular, reliability of delivery within specified time constraints and maintaining the product standard is crucial for the firm because it affects the customer’s cause of doing business with them.
The elements of customer service can be categorised in various ways. La Londe and Zinszer (176) made a distinction between three groups of customer service elements
¨ Pre-transaction elements
This are concerned with customer service policy as a basis for process decisions.
¨ Transaction elements
This involve the activities in the actual processing of order. The order process is generally described by a set of performance dimensions which include among others product availability; order cycle time; order status information; order preparation and order size frequency.
¨ Post transaction elements
This elements support the product while in use, for example, customer complaints, product recall and replacement.
However, in order to outperform competitors and to gain a competitive edge, organisations need to provide not good but exceptional customer service.
LEARNING ORGANISATION
A “Learning Organisation” is one in which people at all levels, individually and collectively, are continually increasing their capacity to produce results they really care about. Peter Senge, in his book the Fifth Discipline define Leaning organisation - an organisation that is continually expanding its capacity to create its future. For such an organisation, it is not enough merely to survive. “Survival learning” (adaptive learning) is necessary. But for a learning organisation, “adaptive learining” must be joined by “generative learning”, learning which enhances our capacity to create” (Senge, 10).
According to the learning organisation, vision, organisation can be very much better in terms of effectiveness including customer satisfaction, quality and productivity and better as places to work; better for investors and better for customers and also better for workers of all kinds, managers and others.
Peter Senge’s have overview the practice and theory of the Learning Organisation in terms of five disciplines, which are
Personal Mastery - A special level of proficiency in which individuals become committed to hear to their own lifelong learning
Mental Models - Deeply ingrained assumptions that influence how we understand the world and how we take action
Shared Vision Building - Sharing a picture of the future you want to realise.
Team Learning - the ability for individuals collectively to produce extraordinary results and allow individual members to grow more rapidly than they could otherwise. Using dialogue and the suspending of assumptions, the team tries to think together. Team learning may be more important in a company than individual learning because without it, the organisation cannot learn.
Systems Thinking - a conceptual framework that sees all parts as interrelated and affecting each other. This fifth discipline is crucial so that all the elements develop together. It integrates all of the theory and practice; one cannot be separated from the other.
Cultural Bases of Learning Organisation
As Learning Organisation is one which has a climate in which individual members are encouraged to learn and to develop their full potential, people perform beyond competence, taking initiatives, using and developing their intelligence and being themselves in the job. It extends the learning culture to include customers, suppliers and other significant stakeholders whenever possible which is a continuous process of organisational transformation. A Learning Organisation harness the benefits of individual learning to make fundamental changes in assumptions, goals, norms and operation procedures on the basis of an internal drive to self direction and not simply a reaction to external pressures. The key part of organisational transformation is the emphasis placed upon the process in which the organisation develops itself rather than being changed by outside interventions. In an Information age era, an organisation need knowledge workers who can access all available information inside and outside the organisation with the ability to anticipate change rather than being caught unprepared. With a more rapid pace of change, organisation that cannot adapt well due to its organisation culture, bounded by its tradition and the fear of change will eventually lose out to their competitors. The ability to adapt quickly stems from the ability to learn, i.e the ability to assimilate new ideas and to transfer those ideas to action faster than a competitor. In creating a Learning Organisation, it need the sponsorship, their leadership styles, coaching and mentoring of the Owner, CEO and top management involving every members in the organisation which is considered as the cultural bases of a Learning Organisation.
QUALITY SERVICE
Today, the relationship between service provide and customer seems to have reached an acute condition and is the source of much debate and publicity. Quality for service has now become such an important issue. Everyone knows what quality is and why it is important. Almost every public and private organisation today has conducted training programmes and seminars to ensure that their employees, including bosses knows this. Everyday, in newspapers, magazines, brochures and other media of the need for quality in people, process, products and procedures and of the importance of the customers. However, despite all this awareness and knowledge, there are still complaints about poor quality of the service industry performance. Why is this so?
Customers are now getting more and more critical of the service they receive. Many customers are not only wanting, but expecting better service. However, a service is normally perceived in a subjective manner. Customers when describing services, the expressions such as experience, trust, feeling and security are used. The reason for this of course, lies in the intangible nature of service; because of the high degree of intangibility, it is frequently difficult for customers to evaluate a service. Although, there are many other services include highly tangible elements as well, example, the food in a restaurant, the documents being used by a forwarding company, the essence of service is however, the intangibility of the phenomenon itself.
But what is a service? There are many attempts to define this complicated phenomenon. The word has many meanings ranging from personal service to service as a product. There are a range of definitions of services suggested in the literature. These definitions look very narrowly upon the service phenomenon and include more or less only those services rendered by so-called service firms. Here are a variety of definitions from past decades
“Service are activities, benefits or satisfactions which are offered by sale, or provided in connection with sale of goods” (American Marketing Association, 160).
“Services represent either intangibles yielding satisfactions directly (transportation, housing), or intangibles yielding satisfactions jointly when purchased either with commodities or other services (credit, delivery)” (Regan 16)
“Marketed Services - A market transaction by an enterprise or entrepreneur where the object of the market transaction is other than the transfer of ownership (or title, if any) of a tangible commodity” (Judd, 164)
“For the consumer, services are any activities offered for sale that provide valuable benefits or satisfactions; activities that he cannot perform for himself or that he chooses not to perform for himself” (Bessom 17)
“A service is an activity or a series of activities which take place in interactions with a contact person or a physical machine and which provides consumer satisfaction” (Stanton 174)
“A service is any activity or benefit that one party can offer to another that is essentially intangible and does not result in the ownership of anything. Its production may or many not be tied to a physical product” (Kotler & Bloom 184, and Kotler 188)
“The meeting of customer expectations in the course of selling and post-sales activity through providing a series of functions which match or better the competition in a way which provides an incremental profit for the supplier.” (Free 187)
Each of the definitions above has its benefits and its drawbacks. However, it points out one of the basic characteristics of services, that is, that they can be exchanged although they often cannot be experienced in a tangible sense.
A whole range of characteristics of services has been suggested and discussed (example, Gronroos 18a, Lovelock 18, Normann 184, Seithaml, Parasuraman & Berry 185). As services is usually compared with physical goods, four basic characteristics of most services can be identified as follows -
1. Services are more or less intangible.
. Services are activities or a series of activities rather than things
. Services are at least to some extend produced and consumed simultaneously.
4. The customer participates in the production process at least to some extent.
CHAPTER TWO
HIGH SPEED RAIL
INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCE
B
ased on international experience, the role of rail transport serving as public transportation and socio-economic development is becoming increasingly pronounced. This is attributable in the growth of economic activities and the increasing value placed on time, as well as advances in rail transport technology, saturation of road space and the resultant perceived inefficiency of road based transport.
Through the advancement in rail systems technology, travel times are being increasingly shortened and passengers’ safety and comfort are continuously enhanced. The advent of high speed rail links capable of achieving top speeds in excess of 00 km/h, providing superior passenger comfort and safety levels have made rail transport a superior alternative to not only road travel but particularly to air transportation over distances up to 800 km. Many cities worldwide have adopted the operations of high speed rail system as the airport primary transportation link. The following table and examples illustrates the extensive use of express rail systems for airport city centrelinks.
AIRPORT CITY
KansaiNaritaHeathrowGatwickCharles De GaulleFransfurtBrusselsZurichGaremoenChek Lap KokSchiphol Osaka, JapanTokyo, JapanLondon, U KingdomU KingdomParis, FranceFrankfurt, GermanyBrussels, BelgiumZurich, SwitzerlandOslo, NorwayHong KongAmsterdam, Netherlands
Japan
The world’s first high speed rail line - Japan’s “bullet train”- began operation in 164. The first trains travel at top speeds of 10 miles (10 km) per hour, while the more recent trains have operated at up to 186 miles (00 km) per hour.
Today, Japan has an extensive intercity rail network focused on city centre stations where there is convenient access to high speed rail services. Japan has exceedingly dense rail corridors that connect some of the most crowded urban areas in the developed world. Japan is a uniquely favourable environment for the operation o fhigh-speed rail. Nonetheless, the country’s airline deregulation proceeds, may result to the high speed rail could to be hard pressed to maintain its market share.
France
Like Japan, France built high-speed to accommodate growing demand on its rail system. Operations on the first route, Paris to Lyon, began in 181. Three routes now radiate from Paris. One of the lines reaches the English Channel tunnel (Eurotunnel), through which the Eurostar service operates to London. France’s high speed rail serves is also an integral part of a much larger passenger rail network throughout Europe. However, as in Japan, France is facing competition from its domestic airline market which was deregulated sometime in mid of 17 resulting to the French high speed rail services to face more competitive challenges in the future. As such, in the long term, airlines are likely to win the market share from high speed rail.
Europe in General
While France has been the European leader in high-speed rail, lines have been or will be built in other European nations. Besides France, high speed rail is operating or is planned in countries such as the United Kingdom, Netherlands, Belgium, Span, Germany, Switzerland and Italy.
When completed, the European high speed rail system is expected to attract % of highway traffic, equal to one-year’s growth in European highway demand. When Sweden implemented high speed rail service 6% of the new ridership would come from airlines and only 8% from automobiles.
But whatever it is, maintaining market share in these countries are again likely to be difficult as the deregulated market increasingly provides higher levels of service at lower fares.
From the above, we can see that many developed countries are providing high speed rail system. However, they are facing stiff competitions from the automobiles and the airlines. In Malaysia, our concept of high speed rail system is integrated with our airline i.e. a Rail-Air Inter-Modality concept, whereby it provide a link between KLSS in Kuala Lumpur to KLIA in Sepang with a check-in and check out (CICO) facility at KLSS. This thus would established ERL as the only company in the world at the moment providing this facility at its rail station.
EXPRESS RAIL LINK SDN BHD
The following were obtain through either desk research, interviews and questionnaires. This is to ensure that the correct information are obtained in order to understand accurately and to define ERL’s problem/s -
Company’s Profile
Express Rail Link Sdn Bhd (ERL) was incorporated on th January 16 as a special purpose Company to develop and operate the Express Rail Link (ERL) and Coomuter Rail Service (CRS) system.
As stipulated in the Memorandum and Articles of ERL is to own, operate and manage railway undertakings of any kind and to carry passengers, mails and goods of all kinds in the course thereof.
The Concession Agreement (CA) between ERL and the Government of Malaysia was signed on 5 August 17. Under the concession terms ERL shall finance, design, construct, operate and maintain the ERL-CRS system and in additions hall undertake ancillary activities related to railway services. The Project is to be implemented on a Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) basis for a concession period of 0 years and subject to terms and conditions to be mutually agreed upon between the parties, the CA shall be extended for a further period of 0 years.
As stipulated in the CA, ERL shall provide the following services
¨ The Express Rail Link (ERL) service for high speed non-stop travel of approximately 0 minutes operating at a 15 minute frequency between Kuala Lumpur Sentral Station (KLSS) in Brickfields and KLIA, primarily for air passengers;
¨ The Commuter Rail Service (CRS) operating a 0 minute service frquency serving between KLIA, the planned townships of Salak tinggi, Putrajaya, Bandar Tasik Selatan (BTS) and the KLS.
¨ Facilities for check-in-check-through services at Kuala Lumpur Sentral Station (KLSS).
ERL’s Business Undertakings
ERL shall focus on the following business sectors
¨ Air Rail Intermodality
This will involve operations of the Main Terminal stations at KLSS and KLIA, developing and marketing the product in line with the airline industry’s expectations and forming strategic alliances with business partners in order to meet and maintain ridership and revenue forecasts.
In anticipated that 80% of ERL’s revenue will be from air passengers. It is therefore crucial that ERL’s business strategy be focussed on quality customer service to meet air passengers expectations incorporating internationally acceptable standards of service in order to capture the airlines business.
¨ Railway Operations
Providing and managing railway operations, facilities and maintenance of ERL’s assets.
¨ Ancillary Business Activities
New business opportunites which can contribute and support revenue derived from ERL’s core business at the same time to enhance ERL services. Planning and management of retail and advertising space at KLSS will provide ERL with additional non-rail related revenue.
ERL’s Vision
ERL’s vision is to be the premier and preferred surface transportation mode providing international standards of service and to be recognised internationally as the top service provider in air-rail intermodality.
Mission Statement
ERL service is not only to provide high speed rail transportation but also an integrated airline functions, as such its mission statement can be seen reflecting this sentiment i.e. ;
To be an innovative and customer oriented inter-modal operator providing an efficient and profitable world class rail air service between KLIA and KL City Air Terminal, ensuring customers comfort and benefit through seamless service - an extension of the airline experience.
Shareholder Structure
ERL was incorporated on th January 16. The shareholders in Express Rail Link Sdn Bhd (ERL) comprises of Yeoh Teong Lay Corporation Berhad (YTL) holding 40% shares, TH Technologies Sdn Bhd (THT) holding another 40% and Abrar Corporation Berhad holding the other 0%.
THE PROJECT - RAIL AIR INTERMODALITY
Kuala Lumpur City Air Terminal
The Kuala Lumpur (KL) City Air Terminal located with the KLSS will serve as an extended airport terminal. KL City Air Terminal is modeled on the concept of an airport within a busy business district providing convenience, comfort, efficiency and quality services to passengers.
The Kuala Lumpur (KL) City Air Terminal is not just a train station. The availability of airport facilities coupled with international customer service standards makes KL City Air Terminal special. The most unique service provided in KL City Air Terminal is the check-through services. ERL will be the first rail operator in the world to provide the check-through service at a station terminal.
The check-in facility at KL City Air Terminal would allow air passengers to check-in for their flights at KLIA. After checking-in, passengers can board the Aerotrain to KLIA, go through the immigration and from then on, straight for their flight. The check-through facility would allow air passengers to check-in their baggage from the point of origin, board the flight to KLIA, pass through the immigration, board the Aerotrain, pick up their baggage and clear customs only at Kuala Lumpur City Air Terminal.
Therefore, the Rail-Air Intermodality which comprises of Check-In and Check Out facilities would provide convenient, smooth and seemless connection between airline services in KLIA, the Express Rail Link and to mitigate interconnections between rail, air and road transportation.
To ensure the check-in and check out facilities meets its operational requirement, ERL would be providing other facilities which include at its KL City Air Terminal -
¨ Passenger information providing flight, train schedules and other useful information
¨ CIP lounge and Business Centre
¨ User friendly ticketing machines, able to handle coins and notes will be placed at strategic locations
¨ Customer service and information counters. The customer service staff will be on hand to assist customers both at the stations and onboard the Aerotrain
¨ Bureau de Change
¨ Retail and food and beverage outlets will be available at both the arrivals and departures concourse. Our retail outlets offer a wide range of goods to meet the needs of travelers.
¨ Arrival facilities such as car rental counters, hotel and tourist information counter, etc
¨ Facilities for the disabled. ERL is committed to caring for the disabled customers. The needs for the disabled customers have been considered in the planning of their stations and trains. Ramps, lifts and escalators and toilets are designed to accommodate our disable customers.
ERL have also looked into the design and accessibility of the ERL stations whereby the ERL station at KLIA will be located on the Ground floor of the Main Terminal Building and shall be accessible by elevators, escalators and stairs. All necessary facilities will be built to facilitate movement of the passengers and their baggage to and from the ERL service. Private vehicles and taxis will have direct access to the Arrival and Departure levels. Bus terminals will also be build adjacent to the ERL stations.
To further ensure that the rail-air intermodality reflects both the railway and civil aviation standards of comfort, speed, security and convenience, ERL would also be incorporating the following design criteria-
¨ simple, direct passenger flow
¨ minimum change of direction and level
¨ minimum walking distance
¨ minimum separation between domestic and international passenger flow
¨ strict control procedures to prevent overcrowding on platform and surging of passengers during peak hours.
In view of the above the above, ERL-CRS system will join the ranks of worldwide major airport city rail links by providing the primary transportation link between KLIA and the city of Kuala Lumpur. The ERL-CRS system will represents a significant step in the development of rail industry in Malaysia and promotion of the new airport as an attractive regional international hub. The airport rail link system will be positioned as a premium service, a gateway to the country, consistent with the high standard of customer service that will be Malaysia’s hallmark for its national airline at the new airport.
CHAPTER
STUDY METHODOLOGY AND ANALYSIS OF RESULTS
T
his section will describe how information gathered to answer the questions. Discussions will firstly focus on the questionnaire forms, followed by the sampling used to collect data
Sample Design
The sample comprise of the employees of ERLSB.
Questionnaire Forms
Two () sets of structured questionnaires were designed to gather data from the employees.
The first set of questionnaires as per Appendix 1 consisted of 18 statements. Respondents were required to indicate in the columns provided for Ideal Situation/Culture perceived by them and the Actual Situation/Culture perceived by them by rating each statement from 1 to 5 i.e. 1 - Almost Never; - Infrequently (Rarely/Hardly Ever); - Sometimes (Occasionally); 4 - Frequently (Regularly/Habitually) and 5 - Very Frequently. These questionnaires was e-mail to staff in First Quarter of 18.
While the second set of questionnaires as per Appendix was designed (with some modification based on the research undertaken by one of our local lecturer, Dr Mohan Guruthanam) and was e-mail to selected head of divisions/department towards the end of Second Quarter of 18. The questionnaires consisted of 15 statements, each ranging from 1 to 5. Respondents are encourage to circle one which correspond to themselves in their assessment of their attitudes to Quality Service.
Although the first set of questionnaires was administered to 58 employees only 1 or 6% actually responded. This was due to the down-sizing exercise undertaken by ERLSB towards end of First Quarter 18). The second set of questionnaire was administered to 1 head of divisions and sections, only 11 or 85% actually responded, (again, this was due to the down-sizing exercise undertaken by ERLSB towards end of First Quarter 18).
SURVEY FINDINGS
Ideal Vs Actual
¨ Statement 1 - Table 1 (Exhibit 1)
The result shows that .5% employees believes that the ideal for the above only transpired Sometimes as compared to 4.% employees believes that in the actual situation this is Sometimes taking place in the company. While although only .8% employees believe that the ideal for this is to be in the Frequently situation, 57.1% perceived that this situation is actually Frequently taking place. Even though, 66.7% believe that ideally this should be Very Frequently taking place in the company, non of the employees perceived that this is taking place in an actual situation,
Majority of the result on Ideal perceived that the above happen Very Frequently as compared to only .5% perceived the above only happen Sometimes. While, majority of the result on Actual is perceived by employees to be Frequently taking place against 4.% believe that this only taking place Sometimes.
¨ Statement - Table (Exhibit 1)
The result shows that 4.8% employees believes that the ideal for the above only transpired Sometimes as compared to 8.1% employees believes that in the actual situation this is Sometimes taking place in the company. While 55.% employees believe that the ideal for this is to be in the Frequently situation, non is perceived to be taking place. Similarly, while 40.0% perceived that the ideal is actually Very Frequently taking place, non is perceived to be taking place in an actual situation. The result further shows that in an actual situation 1.1% employees perceived that this Almost Never take place while 4.% believes that this Infrequently taking place.
Majority of the result on Ideal perceived that the above happen Frequently as compared to only 4.8% perceived the above only happen Sometimes. While, majority of the result on Actual is perceived by employees to be Infrequently taking place against 1.1% believe that this Almost Never take place.
¨ Statement - Table (Exhibit 1)
The result shows that 1.5% employees believes that the ideal for the above only transpired Sometimes as compared to 5.4% employees believes that in the actual situation this is Sometimes taking place in the company. While although 8.6% employees believe that the ideal for this is to be in the Frequently situation, .5% still perceived that this situation is actually Frequently taking place. Even though, 5.4% believe that ideally this should be Very Frequently taking place in the company, only 4.8% of the employees perceived that this is taking place in an actual situation. While non of the employees believe that this should Infrequently taking place, .% employees perceived that this Infrequently taking place in an actual situation.
Majority of the result on Ideal perceived that the above happen Very Frequently as compared to only 1.1% perceived the above only happen Sometimes. While, majority of the result on Actual is perceived by employees to be Sometimes taking place as compared to only 4.8% still believe that this taking place Very Frequently.
¨ Statement 4 - Table 4 (Exhibit )
The result shows that although non of the employees believes that the ideal for the above transpired Sometimes, 5.0% employees believes that in the actual situation this is Sometimes taking place in the company. While 47.6% employees believe that the ideal for this is to be in the Frequently situation, 4.% do perceived that this situation is actually Frequently taking place. Even though, 5.4% believe that ideally this should be Very Frequently taking place in the company, only 1.% employees perceived that this is taking place in an actual situation.
Majority of the result on Ideal perceived that the above happen Very Frequently as compared to 47.6% perceived the above only happen Frequently. While, majority of the result on Actual is perceived by employees to be Sometimes taking place against 1.% believe that this only taking place Very Frequently.
¨ Statement 5 - Table 5 (Exhibit )
The result shows that 4.1% employees believes that the ideal for the above Almost Never take place, however, non of the employees in an actual situation. While 7.5% employees believes that in the ideal situation this is Infrequently taking place in the company, only .5% employees believe that the actual for this is to be in the Infrequently situation. Under Frequently situation, only .1% perceived that it take place in the company. However, 66.7% employees believe that this Frequently actually taking place in the company.
Majority of the result on Ideal perceived that the above happen Almost Never happen as compared to .1% perceived the above only happen Frequently.. While, majority of the result on Actual is perceived by employees to be Frequently taking place as against .5% believe that this only taking place Infrquently.
¨ Statement 6 - Table 6 (Exhibit )
While 5.4% believe the Ideal for this is that it should be Sometimes taking place in the company. Ironically, 5.4% also believe that in an actual situation, this take place Very Frequently.
¨ Statement 7 - Table 7 (Exhibit )
While 5.4% believe in an Ideal situation this should be Frequently taking place in the company, however, 57.1% believe that in an actual situation, this take place only Sometimes.
¨ Statement 8 - Table 8 (Exhibit )
While 5.4% believe that in an Ideal situation this is Very Frequently taking place in the company, however, 57.1% believe that in an actual situation, this take place Sometimes.
¨ Statement - Table (Exhibit )
While 5.4% believe that in an Ideal situation this is Very Frequently taking place in the company, while, 5.4% believe that in an actual situation, this take Almost Never takes place.
¨ Statement 10 - Table 10 (Exhibit 4)
While 57.1% believe that in an Ideal situation this is Very Frequently taking place in the company, however, 75.% believe that in an actual situation, this take place only Frequently.
¨ Statement 11 - Table 11 (Exhibit 4)
While 61.% believe that in an Ideal situation this is Infrequently taking place in the company, 54.4% believe that in an actual situation, this take place Frequently.
¨ Statement 1 - Table 1 (Exhibit 4)
While 66.7% believe that in an Ideal situation this is Frequently taking place in the company, ironically only 4.% believe that in an actual situation this is Frequently taking place also.
¨ Statement 1 - Table 1 (Exhibit 5)
While 81.0% believe that in an Ideal situation this is Frequently taking place in the company, only 5.4% believe that in an actual situation similar occurrence is taking place.
¨ Statement 14 - Table 14 (Exhibit 5)
While 66.7% believe that in an Ideal situation this is Frequently taking place in the company, 5.4% believe that in an actual situation, this take place Infrequently.
¨ Statement 15 - Table 15 (Exhibit 5)
While 5.4% believe that in an Ideal situation this is Sometimes taking place in the company, 4.% believe that in an actual situation, this take place Frequently.
¨ Statement 16 - Table 16 (Exhibit 6)
While 64.5% believe that in an Ideal situation this is Very Frequently taking place in the company, 46.% believe that in an actual situation, this take place only Frequently.
¨ Statement 17 - Table 17 (Exhibit 6)
While 60.1% believe that in an Ideal situation this is Sometimes taking place in the company, 5.4% believe that in an actual situation, this take place Frequently.
¨ Statement 18 - Table 18 (Exhibit 6)
While 57.1% believe that in an Ideal situation this is Very Frequently taking place in the company, 44.8% believe that in an actual situation, this is also taking place Frequently.
Quality Service Spectrum (Exhibit 7)
The results from the statements shows (refer Exhibit 7) that the Total Average Score shows that as compared to the managers in the industries, ERL’s managers attitude towards Quality is well above average. However, they still have to convince their superior and/or subordinates in the organisation on the value of commitment towards Quality in ERL’s services.
CHAPTER 4
CULTURE OF QUALITY SERVICE
MANAGEMENT RISK FACED BY ERL
R
isks are unavoidable in any project whether small or multi-mega. The degree of risk however depends on many attributing factors such as contractual arrangement and the roles undertake by the parties involved. The wider the scope of works, the more risks the parties concerned assumes and likewise the more they borrow the more risks the project would assumes. Similarly, the lenders are also risk sensitive.
The risks inherent in a BOT project similar to ERL have commonly being categorised into technical, operation and financing risks. For the purpose of this paper, the focus of concerned is on the operations risks.
The availability or performance is an important project criteria in order to achieve reliability and this enhance customer confidence. This is particularly critical when the check-in service is in place. To achieve a high level of availability performance, ERL require a proven technology and rigorous maintenance philosophy and also sufficient level of backup/stand by rolling stock.
Operations and maintenance cost must be kept within a controllable level. Technology and infrastructure must be chosen, designed and allow for easy maintenance. Easy maintenance means less labour intensive as against labourious type of maintenance approach. Thus maintainability of the entire system, engineering and infrastructure is a crucial factor.
Availability of competence and controllable manpower cost is another important operational risks. Thus, the system selection is important in order to maximise local manpower and availability of capable local maintenance service provider.
Line capacity must be sufficiently designed to ensure management of peak hour and super peak hour demand. This is crucial and fundamental to the business, as airport traffic movement and patterns has high peaks and very high peaks.
These patterns can change from time to time of the day, month and year. Hence any form of operational limitation must be avoided to maintain flexibility.
Safety is another important factor as this also pose an operational risk.
THE CORPORATE CULTURE OF QUALITY SERVICE
The achievement of quality, productivity and excellence in management has been pioneered in the business environment. Although many service organisation have yet to applied this, for ERL it may use some of these in a creative manner to achieve excellence, increase productivity, quality service and a management which embraces these in its corporate culture.
Stages in Culture Building
However, before ERL or any other organisations plan to embark on the culture change, in the case for ERL shaping its corporate culture, it need to plod carefully to avoid the many traps that are install. To succeed, it first must require careful planning, full commitment of top management and meticulous execution of the plan.
As such before the culture building could incorporate and embraces the components of learning organisation and quality service, ERL’s change team have to observe the following four stages to the entire process of culture building process i.e. Evaluation, Envision, Empower and Excel.
¨ Evaluation
For ERL, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) realises that without a strong, good and excellent corporate culture, the organisation would not be able to operate and provide quality service when it starts its operation in the next millennium. However, since assumptions cannot be make that whatever the CEO’s wants he will get, in this case is the support of the others, at this evaluation stage, the change team still need to build a power case of cultural change, and getting a strong mandate from all the stakeholders (the shareholders, Executive Chairman, other senior management, employees, etc).
As the new culture has been identified, the change team however still need to further make analysis of existing versus new culture. This task is difficult to undertake since very often, the top management perceptions of the culture is taken to be its culture which may not be necessary so.
¨ Envision
This state is where the change team design the target culture need to drive the organisation to achieve its vision. In the case of ERL, the target culture is in line with and is based on the business strategy and not on personal preferences or ideals of the top management.
Having design the target culture, the team members is now to identify the gaps between the existing and the target culture, segregating those aspects of the existing culture which should be retained. In the case of ERL, it has no problems in this area since due to its age factor the existing culture (if any) is definitely not strong.
The change team would develop the culture change plan and identify the shapers of culture which will reinforce those values from current culture which are to be retained (if any) or influence the development of new values.
¨ Empower
This stage is where the change plan is implemented. Various measures should be put in place to support and encourage the development of new culture.
Performance measure is a very powerful tool which can be used to influence these changes, however, it must be applied consistently to demonstrate management’s seriousness to the change and that behaviours which do not reflect the new culture are not rewarded at all levels.
¨ Excel
To sustain culture change, it is important to ensure the continuous commitment of senior management and sustained change efforts. It is not something which should stop after the targeted results are achieved. There should be continuous efforts to motivate stakeholders, communicate the success of the change, revisit areas to examine why changes were not effective. This is a long process which requires tremendous patience and commitment from the change team and senior management to see the change through.
ACHIEVING CULTURE TO PROVIDE QUALITY SERVICE
What is needed is a corporate culture that can be label a quality service culture? Such a culture can be described as a culture where an appreciation of good service exists and where giving quality service to internal as well as ultimate, external customers is considered a natural way of life and one of the most important norms by everyone. Schneider and Rentsch (187) says, service has to become “the raison d’etre for all organisational activities” and an oganisational imperative.”
A quality service culture means that the employees of the organisation can be characterised as service oriented. Service orientation has been defined by Hogan et al (184) as a “set of attitudes and behaviours that affect the quality of the interaction between… the staff of any organisation and its customers.”
The culture of an organisation is shaped over a long period of time since the reality is that we are dealing with human beings who are master of their habits. To change their values and beliefs will requires strong conviction from top management and motivation. Patience is a necessary ingredient for successful culture change. ERL is lucky in the sense that they are still young with not strong culture yet rooted in the company. Added to this, the CEO’s with his vision that the organisation should not only have a culture that provide quality service but embraced learning organisation paradigm has enable the organisation to look ahead objectively.
Creation of Learning Organisation With Quality Service Oriented Culture
Learning organisations do not just happen. Many of the thinkers, researchers and practitioners says a company can never becomes a learning organisation because by definition it means always evolving, always being in flux, always learning. Even Peter Senge acknowledges that his five disciplines are a foundation but do not tell you where to start. Although most theorist and practitioners agree on the following components i.e change in mindset that is necessary for management to undergo; a creative orientation that encourages individuals to be proactive rather than reactive to situations and an orientation towards systems thinking, experts believe that to be able to implement many of these ideas, they say it is most important to create an environment in which people can learn.
Senge further cites three key elements which are
1. The organisation need real commitment and a compelling business argument as to why its vital to have or change. In other words, organisations need to acknowledge that they are stuck. They need to be willing to direct a lot of energy and commitment toward something different.
. People must have the willingness to experiment but they also need to have a domain in which to take action. A domain therefore allows people to practice some of the ideas so that learning can become part of an ongoing process. The whole ideas of learning laboratories is to create managerial practice fields where people come together and practice as well as devise new products and services. Learning always involves taking action.
. People in the organisation need tools and methods so that they can put the ideas into practice. Organisations must be able to provide this, however according to theorists, this element poses a big problem since they are very few tools being develop.
As such in ERL the nurturing of a learning environment is important. Managers must be seen to promote a social architecture for the development of human potential - a quest for learning both from personal and organisation standpoint. ERL managers are therefore required to create a work setting where employees are encourage to learn and take responsibility for their own continuous learning needs. Top management needs to act as advocate of learning something new on the job. The reason for this is because of the unequal distribution of power between superior and subordinates. The promotion of a management system which is more focused on human development rather than on performance evaluation must be set.
Subordinates should be allow to experiment, explore and try out new work processes and practices. This would therefore mean the managers may have to initiate a supportive climate where asking questions and bring out ideas from their subordinates becomes a daily practice.
The current practice of ERL i.e. study tours locally and overseas, study leave are some of the steps initiated of promoting this share practice of learning and education. However, ERL has to evaluate and enhance further this to benefit all concerned.
Service Quality Management Framework
Figure 1 shows the general framework for managing service quality in a schematic form. As shown there are three () group of actors involved i.e.
Ø the management (M)
Ø the employees (E)
Ø the customers (C)
Note Letters and numbers in the text refer to letters and numbers in Figure 1.
On the Management Level (M), the policies to follows are set. Analysis of market demands and requirements concerning quality (1) and of internal perception of quality level and performance among employees () are initiated. This knowledge is needed so that quality specification can be decided upon () and internal marketing of such specifications and of desired performance can be implemented (4). ExternPlease note that this sample paper on THE CREATION OF A CORPORATE CULTURETO PROVIDE QUALITY SERVICE AT THE KUALA LUMPUR SENTRAL STATION is for your review only. In order to eliminate any of the plagiarism issues, it is highly recommended that you do not use it for you own writing purposes. In case you experience difficulties with writing a well structured and accurately composed paper on THE CREATION OF A CORPORATE CULTURETO PROVIDE QUALITY SERVICE AT THE KUALA LUMPUR SENTRAL STATION, we are here to assist you. Your cheap custom college paper on THE CREATION OF A CORPORATE CULTURETO PROVIDE QUALITY SERVICE AT THE KUALA LUMPUR SENTRAL STATION will be written from scratch, so you do not have to worry about its originality.
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