Introduction
Top Glove Corporation Berhad is a well-known company among rubber glove manufacturers.
Between 2020 and 2021, the glove manufacturer giant was involved in a major outburst which affected its
reputation immensely. Various sources all pointed their fingers at Top Glove by accusing them of exploiting
their workers to the maximum level which is a form of forced labour (Pattisson, 2022).
It is all because of the virus, Covid-19. A global pandemic caused a lot of uproar among all industries,
nonetheless, it also affected Top Glove’s reputation. Their lack of results in the business scene and how they
treat their employees have been highlighted throughout the pandemic period.
As the world's largest rubber glove manufacturer, they were also accused of underpaying their factory
workers to meet the shortage of gloves in the supply chain. A 27-year-old Nepali, Yubaraj Khadka was also
fired when he exposed the extremely poor Standard Operating Procedure of the pandemic precautions which
were not practised among the workers in their workplace (Lee & Ananthalakshmi, 2020). Moreover, lousy
working and living conditions were also one of the downfalls of the glove giant’s reputation (Szeto et al.,
2021).
Top Glove used the “Covid-19 Heroes” scheme to cheat workers into working 7 days a week, forcing
them to work on off days. Not only that, but they also underpay them by paying the normal rate during offday work. This deception is considered forced labor (Razak, 2020).
Analysis of Problem
The remaining problem has always been a mystery and the pandemic helped debunked a whole bunch
of truths behind the exploit manufacturing workers. Likert’s system IV is the theory that Top Glove
Corporation Berhad has been applying throughout its organization system. One of the characteristics of
System I is the exploitative authoritative organization.
As stated above, the exploitive scheme is to cheat their workers into working seven days on a
“voluntary basis” which is considered a combination of cheating while exploiting them (Razak, 2020). Their
motivation for workers to continue working is assumingly threatening them of losing their job if they did not
fulfil their role within the employer’s standard. The news of the Nepali whistleblower very much proved the
point of workers not exposing the higher hierarchy of Top Glove because they were in debt, and they fear of
losing their job (Pattisson, 2022).
To state the obvious, Top Glove does not listen to the lowest hierarchy, which is why they have
inaccurate communication. Indecisive communication can cause their manufacturing performance to drop.
Moreover, the top-level decision-making is seemingly apparent that the upper hierarchy oversees all the media
outputs, news, stocks, and a lot of external things.
Their management approach is a classical approach which consists of organizational design, worker
training, chains of commands and division of labor. However, they executed it in a wrong manner, which
they’ve been exploiting the workers and it concludes as the worst kind of classical approach. In this context,
the communication flow is downwards and is barely going upwards. The problem of exploiting workers, and
underpaying them are all solved through the media and their unethical act eventually was investigated and
exposed to the public.
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System III in Likert’s system IV would be the ideal type of management approach Top Glove should
practice. It contains the concept of “everyone is the boss” which the employees could also voice out their
opinion and this leads to the communication system of Top Glove.
Effectiveness of The Flow of Communication
For Top Glove, the initial flow of communication was just downward communication which consist
of cons for both parties from the higher and lower hierarchy. The problem may be miscommunication towards
the lower hierarchy parties which might not receive the task or instructions. The initial communication flow
is not good enough for the welfare of the workers.
To benefit the workers and enhance their working culture, upwards communication is highly
recommended. If the upper management is to accept the opinions, the message from downwards should be
positive, timely, supported by current policy, sent to the right people and intuitive appeal (Okunyev, 2022).
Upwards and downward communication could also give workers opportunities to voice out their opinions and
may affect the company’s management decisions in a good way. Communicating back and forth is the
champagne on-ice strategy to maximize the work rate, motivation and output of the organization.
As for media relations, Top Glove handled the situation by investigating the whistleblower in the
company. Hence, they did fire him which could portray themselves as the villain in the whole incident. The
better option is not to fire the whistleblower per advice from their consultation company (Chie, 2020).
References
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Chie, K. G. (2020, December 23). Whistleblowers won’t be sacked from now on - Top Glove. Malaysiakini.
https://www.malaysiakini.com/news/556264
Lee, L., & Ananthalakshmi, A. (2020, December 14). INSIGHT Malaysia’s Top Glove fired whistleblower
before virus outbreak. Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/insight-malaysias-topglove-fired-whistleblower-before-virus-outbreak-2020-12-13/
Okunyev, D. (2022, September 6). The Importance of upward communication and how to get there. Mexico
Business. https://mexicobusiness.news/entrepreneurs/news/importance-upward-communication-andhow-get-there
Pattisson, P. (2022, October 19). US bars rubber gloves from Malaysian firm due to “evidence of forced
labour.” The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/mar/30/us-barsrubber-gloves-malaysian-firm-top-glove-evidence-forced-labour
Razak, A. (2020, May 1). Top Glove accused of underpaying & deceiving Malaysian factory workers in bid
to meet global rubber glove demands amid COVID-19. Business & Human Rights Resource Centre.
https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/latest-news/top-glove-accused-of-underpaying-deceivingmalaysian-factory-workers-in-bid-to-meet-global-rubber-glove-demands-amid-covid-19/
Szeto, E., Taylor, C., Tomlinson, A. (2021, January 19). Malaysia: Hidden cameras reveal poor working &
living conditions at Top Glove factory, fuelling forced labour concerns in glove industry; incl.
company comments. Business & Human Rights Resource Centre. https://www.businesshumanrights.org/en/latest-news/malaysia-hidden-cameras-reveal-poor-working-living-conditions-attop-glove-factory/
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