Halimah Abdul Manaf

The aim of this current study was to analyze recent development of talent management among public service managers in Malaysia. The study brings understanding on talent management and broader human capital issues within Malaysia context by analysing the comprehensive literature. Government of Malaysia is emphasizing on development of talent in the public sector, as it is the most significant resource for the public service. The study found that the government has invested in various programs and initiatives to develop and produce key talented human capital within the public sector. However, despite the initiatives taken by the government, Malaysia is still short of talented people and struggling to develop talent, and talented skilful people are leaving. The study also indicated that year after year increasing number of graduates are being produced at the public universities, but the education system is not producing the right skilful individuals for the particular position or task, resulting in talent mismatch. Another key issue is the incapability to retain talented people that led to poor innovation and creativity within the country. Is key issue is part of the factors discussed in the 10th and 11th Malaysia Plan, and is a concern, as it plays a role in preventing the progress of Malaysia in achieving a developed nation by 2020. As one of the key aspirations of Malaysia is to enrich public service in Malaysia as a citizen centre that is having talented human capital. The study revealed that there is a need for in-depth quantitative and qualitative further research to discover new insights on talent management and retain talent among the public sector managers in Malaysia.

There is a call from society to examine the integrity behavior challenges of local government (LG) enforcement officers who work directly with citizens due to the nature of this job. One of the job requirements of enforcement officers is to investigate law enforcement directly to their customers, such as petty traders, hawkers, business owners, developers and contractors, and others. In executing their duties, particularly on law enforcement, high integrity behavior and professionalism of enforcement officers in LG administrative areas of responsibility are necessary. Based on the framework, the study aims to examine the integrity behavior challenges of enforcement officers from the citizens’ and staff’ perspectives, in particular, on to what extent the officers face the difficulties and challenges in executing their enforcement tasks. Thus, during the study, 30 respondents, namely the citizens and LG staff in Kedah, were surveyed. The data were analyzed using thematic analysis to gain specific dimensions related to integrity behavior. From the citizens’ perspective on LG enforcement teams’ integrity behavior, challenges were related to main aspects such as biasness, political intervention, and bureaucracy matters. Meanwhile, LG staff consider integrity behavior challenges to be affected by opportunistic attitudes among staff, workforce, and financial issues. The study suggests that enforcement officers should develop soft skills, employability skills, and upgrade academic levels to understand the current situation and develop negotiation skills to deal with grassroots society.