What Does the New Economy Mean to Malaysian Tellers?

Abstract

The rise of the New Economy has restructured work,necessitated changingskills requirements, as well as spurred new training needs amongst employees.Such new skills and training needs are prerequisites to survive and thrive in theNew Economy. Importantly, these skills and trainingare also prerequisites forupward mobility in a system of inequality. This paper illustrates the case ofMalaysian tellers as the Malaysian banking industryoperates in the NewEconomy. Although the New Economy and the emergenceof the sales culturerequires Malaysian tellers to be more knowledgeable, this paper argues that dueto their unionised status and given their positionsat the bottom rung of theoccupational hierarchy, tellers in Malaysia are disadvantaged and often excludedin the process of training and knowledge acquisition.