6. MANAGEMENT

6.1 Man-Hour Worked

Total number of man-hours worked per month ranged from 150 for Respondent F to 790 for Respondent A. This large difference was mainly due to the different number of cages they worked on. This is clearly reflected in the monthly average man-hours worked per cage where it ranged only from 3.13 for Respondent F to 7.50 for Respondent C. A trend can be observed, i.e. the monthly average man-hours worked per cage differed marginally between respondents of the same area but distinctively between respondents of different areas (see Table 10). This however, does not indicate that the Bukit Tambun culturists were more devoted to the cage culture but rather it was due to the difference in the location of the cage culture farms. As mentioned previously, the cage culture farms in Penang east coast were very close to the homes of the culturists; it was easier for them to inspect the cages and thus spent less time on the cages. In addition, it was found that cage-nets in Penang east coast had a lower fouling rate than that of the Bukit Tambun, thus less time was spent in cleaning the cage-nets.

Table 10 also shows an interesting fact on the capability of the respondents. It is found that on average a respondent is capable of handling about 22 cages. (The difference ranged from 12 to 36 cages).

* (See Table 11 for the breakdown of the Average Man-hours Worked PerMonth)

The difference in the method of operation also determined the monthly average number of man-hours worked. For example, net cleaning in Bukit Tambun was done by two or four persons holding a net and beating it with a cane while standing whereas in east coast Penang, was it done by a single operator sitting down and beating the net with a stick.

There was a difference in security arrangement between Bukit Tambun and Penang east coast. The former culturists delegated two workers for 25 to 27 days per month to guard the cages at night, thus ranging from 486–600 man-hours spent per month. All the cage culture farms however, had at least one person working or guarding the cages for 24 hours a day everyday.

In the case of the Penang east coast culturists, the shareholders or close relatives were delegated this duty and only one person was on duty at any one time, thus giving 360 man-hours spent per month. The proximity of the cages to the shore and the easy assessibility of the cages via the jetty required trustworthy night guards. (See Table 12)

Note: Working shareholder = Sh
Hired worker = Wk

Note: Working shareholder = Sh
Hired worker = Wk

6.2 Assignment Of Duties

Generally, there was no classification of duties between the partners of the cage culture, i.e. all partners were expected to participate in various aspects of the operation. This included cleaning of nets, feeding, feed processing, grading of fish and marketing. Duties might be specified if they required skills for example mending of nets.

Hired workers in Bukit Tambun were also required to carry out all the daily maintenance work due to the fact that they were full-time workers. Some of the work that required more care might however be carried out with the supervision of the partners. These included grading of fish and disease control. Hired workers in Penang east coast, on the other hand had more specified duties like feed processing, feeding and cleaning of nets. This was so because of the part-time nature of their work. Again, works that required diligence and care were done by the partners or with the supervision of the partners.

Hired workers in Bukit Tambun received a monthly salary of not less than $250 while those in Penang east coast received a salary of not more than $250 a month. This was expected as the former were full-timers while the latter were part-timers. For working partners the trend was that they too would receive a salary on a daily basis although the amount paid per day differed between groups.

6.3 Management Decisions

Management decisions with regard to daily cage-culture operation were usually made by only one partner. Only in important cases were management decisions made through general consensus of the partners. In this way, decisions could be made and acted upon swiftly without delay.

6.4 Book-keeping

All respondents had some proper records of purchases and sales, input and output of stock. In addition, Bukit Tambun culturists also kept records of their expenses, purchase of equipment and other miscellaneous items. The Penang east coast culturists tended to omit these records and only kept the invoices.

Reasons for such differences were as follows:

1. Partners of the Bukit Tambun cage culture were from different families whereas in Penang east coast, the partners were members of the same families or were very closely related.

2. Bukit Tambun cage culture operations were generally larger than those of the Penang east coast.

3. The quantity of sales for Bukit Tambun culturists were much greater than those of the Penang east coast culturists.

Because of these reasons, the Bukit Tambun culturists were obliged to prepare a fuller set of records to avoid misunderstandings and disputes.

6.5 Stock Taking

Surprisingly, none of the culturists interviewed conducted physical stock taking of their fish at year end to avoid unnecessary transfer of fish. However, this did not mean that they did not know how many fish were in the cages for when they performed grading of the fish, they did make a quick count on the number of fish. To them, this was sufficient because they did not consider it to be of any importance. This could be very deceptive especially if unreliable workers were hired.

6.6 Security

Due to the nature of the operation, tight security measures were taken by all the culturists to prevent loss of fish, due to theft. For this purpose, night watchmen were hired, dogs were used and lighting provided during the night. At all time during the nights, at least one watchmen would be at the site.

Incentive was given to increase the level of devotion from the workers and night guard in the form of yearly bonuses. For night guard in Bukit Tambun, television entertainment were provided at night. They were also entitled to take a few days off per month.

Generally, the quality of the workers was accessed before they were employed. However, once they were employed, they were rarely put on a probation basis.