Socio-cultural issues in manpower planning

Abstract

Sabah is basically an agricultural state and has plenty of land still underdeveloped. The state has a population of about 1.3 million and the majority live in the rural areas. In addition, there are about 50 ethnic groups with different cultures, life styles and standard of living in the state. When considering manpower planning in Sabah, one has to take into account a number of factors. As far as the economic factor is concerned, it provides for the manpower needs in the market. In other words, it provides information on quantity and quality of manpower needed in Sabah. In addition, one would also need to consider the socio-cultural aspect in manpower planning, and this is what I am going to discuss in this paper. For the purpose of this paper, when we talk of manpower planning we are primarily concerned with problems relating to the shortage and surplus of manpower. If we have an excess supply over demand of labour, we could try to relocate the excess labour to sectors having a serious shortage. If this is not done, the state will have a serious unemployment problem. Prolonged and widespread unemployment could lead to other social problems such as increase in the crime rate, and widespread feeling of helplessness and uselessness. Unemployment problem, therefore, is not only an economic problem. It is also a social, cultural and political problem. As far as crime rate is concerned, according to police records, from 1983 to October, 1986, 7,684 Sabahans have been convicted for various crimes. Kota Kinabalu and Sandakan (urban) have the highest crime rates.