This document is a reflective case study on Malaysia's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It discusses how an effective team was formed in response to the crisis. The team includes frontline workers, government officials, and citizens working towards common goals. It analyzes the team's characteristics, advantages, and challenges. Some problems with coordination and aid distribution are identified, along with recommendations to address transparency and communication issues. Overall, the study finds that Malaysia's response demonstrates how teams can tackle unexpected crises through unity and coordinated efforts, despite inevitable challenges.

1. FACULTY OF BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR (MGT534)
ASSIGNMENT TITLE:
INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT 1 - REFLECTIVE CASE STUDY
PREPARED BY:
MAIZATUL AKMAL BINTI MOHAMAD (2016315435)
GROUP:
NBS6A
PREPARED FOR:
MS HAIRUNNISA BINTI MA MOR
DATE OF SUBMISSION:
JUNE 21, 2020

2. i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This work would not have been possible without the guidance from The Almighty; the
supportive MGT534 lecturer, Ms. Hairunnisa binti Ma Mor for her patient guidance, enthusiastic
encouragement and useful critiques of this research work; my beloved families and friends. A
sincere thank you note to my employer for giving me the flexibility to complete this e-PJJ
assignment and by allowing me to concentrate on this assignment as well as never waiver at
conducting my own core task at workplaces. Their genuine supports have made my life as an e-
PJJ student is much at ease. I am especially indebted to all of them who have shown their support
and encouragement, directly or indirectly, to keep my spirit uplifted in order to finish this
individual assignment. Many people, especially my fellow classmates, have made valuable
comment suggestions on this work which gave me an inspiration to improve my assignment.
Finally, I wish to thank my parents for their support and encouragement throughout my study.

3. ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER TITLE PAGE
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT i
TABLE OF CONTENTS ii
DECLARATION iii
1 INTRODUCTION 1-2
2 DISCUSSION
2.1 Team Formation
2.2 Team Type and Characteristics
2.3 Informal Group and Team Cohesiveness
2.4 Team Advantages
2.5 Team Challenge
3-4
4
4-6
6
6-7
3 PROBLEMS AND RECOMMENDATION 8-9
4 CONCLUSION 10
5 REFERENCE 11

4. iii
DECLARATION
I hereby declare that the Individual Assignment 1: Reflective Case Study entitled
“OBSERVATION ON THE 2019 NOVEL CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC (COVID-19
PANDEMIC) SITUATION IN MALAYSIA” is a record of an original work done by me under
the guidance of Ms. Hairunnisa binti Ma Mor, the course facilitator for Organizational Behavior
(MGT534), and this Individual Assignment 1 is submitted in the partial fulfillment of the
requirements for Program Bachelor in Office Systems Management (Hons),
MAIZATUL AKMAL BINTI MOHAMAD
2016315435

5. 1
1 INTRODUCTION
Back in December 2019, a cluster of cases of pneumonia was reported in Wuhan, China
which then was identified as a novel coronavirus. A few days after, news regarding the unfamiliar
disease was reported by the World Health Organization (WHO) on social media thus attracted
major cities in the world’s focuses towards the city of Wuhan and the ongoing disease.
Coronaviruses (CoV), as defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) are a large
family of viruses that are known to cause illness ranging from the common cold to more severe
diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and Severe Acute Respiratory
Syndrome (SARS). It is agreeable that CoV are zoonotic, i.e. patients get the viruses from animals
but the virus could have undergone a or a few genetic mutations that permit it to infect then
multiply inside humans, hence the transmission between humans. The next characteristic of CoV
is it is transmitted through the air.
An emergency traction was established within the WHO in order to effectively monitor
and deal with the outbreak. WHO had also issued comprehensive packages of technical guidelines
online with advice all countries on how to detect, test and manage potential cases. As on January
13, 2020, officials had confirmed a case of COVID-19 in Thailand, marking it as the first recorded
case outside of China.
Within the same month, an Emergency Committee was convened under the International
Health Regulations (IHR 2005) in order to assess if the outbreak constituted as a Public Health
Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). A consensus was reached in which the committee
had advised for the outbreak to be regarded as the former. By constituting the outbreak as PHEIC,

6. 2
the coronavirus since then was identified as a pandemic; an epidemic occurring worldwide and is
affecting a large number of people. The identification was also due to the rapid increase in the
number of cases outside China within a short period of time since it first took place.
COVID-19 Pandemic had first reached Malaysia in January 2020 when it was detected on
travelers from China arriving via Singapore. During the first few weeks, reported cases remained
fairly low and mostly associated to imported cases. The situation however had drastically changed
soon as localized clusters emerged in March, with the largest cluster was associated to a religious
gathering held in Sri Petaling (TablighiJamaat cluster). The cluster had led to massive spikes in
local cases and an exportation of cases to neighboring countries. Within a few weeks, the nation
had reported the largest cumulative number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Southeast Asia.
Medical responses to the outbreak is carefully and effectively superintended by the
country’s Director-General of Health, Noor Hisham Abdullah under the Health Ministry of
Malaysia. The outbreak has resulted in crises, not only to the nation but to the world generally as
it takes quite a toll to the global economy and politics. The ruling government is seen to tackle the
situation and its parallel impacts by taking every possible measure they could.
As far as the situation has taken place, it is fair to deduce that Malaysia is holding strong
by doing every bit they could to fight and embrace the non-visible pandemic. Malaysia was
recently acknowledged as top 5 best countries across the globe in tackling COVID-19 Pandemic
thanks to the effective high-spirited and never-give-ways-to-the-pandemic teams that were
naturally built from the very first day the battle was set and fought against. An in-depth
analysisrelating to the teams is further discussedin the following chapter.

7. 3
2 DISCUSSION
The secret weapon to Malaysia’s effective actions in tackling the pandemic is a strong-
cored team that was contingently emerged due to the unfamiliar outbreak. This chapter is broken
down into a chain of explanations focusing on how team dynamic works throughout the outbreak.
2.1 Team formation
Teams are defined as groups of two or more people who communicate with and influence
each other, and they are mutually accountable to achieve common goals set that are aligned to
organizational objectives, hence perceive themselves as a social entity within an organization
(McShane & Von Glinow, 2018). From the definition, teams are concluded to exist in order to
fulfill some purposes, and are held interdependent to each other. There is also a need for
collaboration to achieve the common goals. McShane et.al. (2018) suggested three characteristics
that distinguish a team, i.e. team permanence, skill diversity and authority distribution.
Following closely the COVID-19 Pandemic situation in Malaysia, a team had emerged as
the outbreak took place in January 2020 and had ever since shared common goals of flattening the
COVID-19 confirmed infections curve, ensuring there are no panic attacks (e.g. panic buying of
necessities) across the nation, stimulating the nation’s economy that is, too, greatly affected by the
current global economic crisis, ensuring the nation’s political imbalance would not be a hindering
factor to tackling the pandemic etc.
The common goals listed are attainable as the formed team takes proactive actions and
never seem to let the burdens on their shoulders tear off their spirit away from day one of the battle.
This team is composed of honorable front liners (medical team members, security team members,
media workers, cleaning workers), the serving government led by the King as well as every citizen

8. 4
in Malaysia regardless his or her nationality, whereabouts or even political stand. The diversity of
the population that makes the team becomes stronger as every entity views him or her self to hold
significance in battling the disease, hence making each one of them interdependent to each other.
2.2 Team type and characteristics
It is fair to infer the team created in the midst of contingency is based on task force. When
the single team is analyzed from a micro level, there are actually cross-functional teams whose
members are drawn from several expertises to solve a major and specific problem. The team is
expected to disband once the problem is resolved. The team’s authority dispersion is medium as
the team often has someone with formal authority but members have moderate power due to their
expertise and functional representation. A team is also characterized by its skill diversity. The
statement is supported as the team merged during the outbreak consists of people with different
set of skills and knowledge, and are dependent to each other. The diversity allows the team to
function ultimately hence achieve the team’s objectives, both in short and long runs.
2.3 Informal Group and Team Cohesiveness
Asides from the formal team, an informal group is said to be established within the same
timeframe. This informal group is generally associated to all citizens as they feel the need to
provide emotional supports especially to all frontliners who are sacrificing their energy and time
every day to protect the nation. Theoretically, informal groups exist because they enable people to
accomplish personal objectives that cannot be achieved by individuals working alone. The
personal objectives however may be true for some people and may be mutual to many. For
instance, every social member has the same objectives of winning the battle against COVID-19
Pandemic, and at the same time feels the urge to ensure they do their part in stimulating the

9. 5
economy within the locals while the set of rules and regulations established by authorities are
abided to.
Many business owners struggle throughout the breakout soon as Malaysia’s Prime
Minister; Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin announced the government’s major leap in controlling the
situation back in March 2020. The leap, known as Movement Control Order (MCO), witnessed
major changes and impacts to all as businesses were to temporarily closed down until further notice
and only those of in important industries (food, healthcare, mass communication etc.) were
allowed to operate, given the standard operation procedures (SOP) released by National Security
Council were strictly followed.
Malaysia is a multicultural and multiconfessional country, whose official religion is
Islam.It is fair to mirror the holy month as a month where people, aside from focusing on offering
their worship more intensely, spend most of their money on food. The month itself is a celebration.
Malaysians are known to enjoying their food very much and such month is usually associated to
food bazaars, hence contributes majorly to food vendors’ incomes. The odd however prohibited
food bazaars from being publicly open as mass gatherings and crowded locations were flagged as
forbidden at the moment.
Besides serving the function of providing emotional support, informal groups are
recognized to provide informational support to their members. Following the major shifts on how
to conduct and maintain existing businesses, numbers of alternative were soon creatively crafted
by the group. Such alternatives were made to sustain the economic feasibility amongst
communities. Such alternatives were seen to be enthusiastically impactful as the month of
Ramadan was approaching and later followed by the month of Shawwal. Online bazaars were held
instead of holding traditional bazaars. Online delivery platforms were utilized completely as

10. 6
people rather stayed in during the MCO. Such alternatives during the inevitable situation were not
only favoring both vendors and buyers, they also opened a room of opportunities to many citizens
who were willing to work as delivery personnel specifically during the dark hour tainted with all
the risks.
2.4 Team Advantages
There are numbers of advantages of having teams to work on a specific project. The same
notions are also applicable to such team that exists during the COVID-19 Pandemic. The
advantages are quite apparent as better decisions are able to be made especially during the
unwanted yet inevitable emergency situation. Such decisions require the involvement of personnel
from variousexpertise as one decision being made would affect the rest of the parties. By working
in a team, information sharing is performed excellently smooth. Each authorized department is
held accountable to share valuable information or progress to public. Thus, daily press conferences
by particular departments were held to ensure such information reach every citizen. To conclude,
press conference has become one of the mainstream means of communication.
2.5 Team Challenge
Although working in a team has always manifested as being potentially productive, a team
is not always as effective as working alone. Such cost is regarded as the challenges of working in
a team. For example, process losses are inevitable. Process losses are referred to resources,
including time and energy, expended on team development and maintenance rather than task.
These losses include misunderstandings, disagreements as well as divergent viewpoints while
coordinating the team. This is especially true when the team was built at instant instead of
following the standard brainstorming and the like processes when establishing a team for the first

11. 7
time. Such instant creation is due to the urgency situation. The situation could have gotten worsen
when the political imbalance situation and ones’ hidden agenda in conjunction to such affairs are
factored in.

12. 8
3 PROBLEMS AND RECOMMENDATION
Working in a team does not guarantee perfection while progressing towards the team’s
objectives. Through the observation, a number of apparent problems are identified and these
problems are mainly associated with the team dynamic. A problem to be highlighted is the process
losses as mentioned in the team challenge section. Such process losses are visible as
miscommunications often occur when the authorized personnel – the people whom citizens would
trust their expertise with, speak loud and clear on a matter that later would be refuted by other
professionals from the same expertise. The inconsistency when addressing an issue to public would
not only taint the image of both personnel and the team or organization they represent, but also
would cost the audience confusion and trust issues. One way to address such problem is by making
sure correct information is correctly communicated between the particular personnel before being
projected to the nation.
Not all people were born with a golden spoon in their mouth. Not every household is able
to survive the outbreak with additional global pressures and crises on their shoulders. Government
on the other hand is giving their best to provide aids to everyone in the country and these people
are expected to feel relieved the most. Amongst the aids is help of necessities and a certain
monetary amount is allocated to each household. However there are certain people who were
assigned to such noble act of giving are not that transparent when doing their deeds. There are
complains circulating the air where the help given is far from being worth the value the giving
basket is supposed to have. There were also delays in distributing giving baskets to every
household. The issue had worsened to the extent of when the giving basket reach a particular
household, the items were no longer edible or suitable to be consumed by. Such issues should be
tackled at the instant by every responsible personnel because the affairs could later be pointed out

13. 9
as integrity matters, as they involve ones’ very own behaviors. The responsible body should ensure
the distribution process is executed excellently and evidently.

14. 10
4 CONCLUSION
COVID-19 Pandemic is a global affair that evidently is testing every affected country’s
administration and management specifically. The coronavirus came unannounced to these
countries and it somewhat has successfully taught every living person that dealing with situations
with plans crafted beforehand are totally incomparable to dealing ones that occur out of sudden.
Risk management is applied and every member of the nation is undoubtedly entitled to carry out
their role in battling against the pandemic. Although the role may seem ambiguous, there are no
reasons for any of us to not care, consequently to exclude ourselves from being part of the
responsible fighters.
Throughout the observation, I have come to realize no matter how perfect ones are trying
to attain, there is no such thing as perfection. Even working in a team that looks rather promising,
inspiring and effective, there are unavoidable loopholes. Such loopholes should be dealt instantly,
otherwise the team is a mere shipwreck from the inside, and will rupture at once.
Analyzing the team dynamic from a micro perspective, the team is strong because the
members are united and conformed though there is however a small population rather exempt
themselves from playing their role vitally. As the observation is leveled at a macro view, more
insights on how the team operates and then these insights are compared theoretically, in accordance
to what being learned during in-class lessons. By observing and comparing the theory and reality,
greater inputs are discovered and these help me to comprehend the topic I chose more.

15. 11
5 REFERENCE
COVID-19 pandemic in Malaysia. (2020, June 17). Retrieved June 19, 2020, from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_pandemic_in_Malaysia
COVID-19 virus in Malaysia: Here's everything you need to know-updated daily. (n.d.). Retrieved
June 19, 2020, from https://www.buro247.my/lifestyle/health-fitness/wuhan-virus-
malaysia-updates-2020.html
I. (n.d.). Malaysia Ranked As Top 5 Best Countries In The World In Tackling COVID-19
Pandemic. Retrieved June 19, 2020, from https://www.msn.com/en-
my/news/national/malaysia-ranked-as-top-5-best-countries-in-the-world-in-tackling-covid-
19-pandemic/ar-BB15tFHT?li=BBr8Mk9
WHO Timeline - COVID-19. (n.d.). Retrieved June 19, 2020, from https://www.who.int/news-
room/detail/27-04-2020-who-timeline---covid-19