Abstract
Intellectual capital has been postulated as an essential element for firms survival and competitive advantages (Riahi-Belkaoui, 2003). Competitive success of businesses is depending more on strategic management of intellectual capital and less on the strategic allocation of physical and financial resources. Nevertheless, in a different economic set up where there exists different technological advancements (Chen et al., 2005) and differences in views on the metaphors of knowledge between the West and Asia (Andriessen and Boom, 2007), a different implication of intellectual capital may exist. Thus, the research contributes to the intellectual capital literature of the ASEAN countries where culture, politics, economics and social environment provide different perspectives and challenges. Distinct from the existing intellectual capital studies, the current study highly considers the role of organisation culture in the intellectual capital - organisation effectiveness relationship. Malaysia with its multiracial, multi religious and multilingual integration provides a good culture model for the purpose of the study. The culture values of multiethnicity which build the Malaysian workforce, influence the managerial practices in Malaysia. A country's culture has a strong effect on the way people behave and thus is very significant in deciding and cultivating the culture of the organisation, its norms and practices (Abdullah, 1992). Based on the results through questionnaire survey, the study reveals that significant moderation effects between human capital with low consistency and mission culture which implies that in the event that coordination among the employees is low and the business direction or vision is not clear, the human resources are able to execute task without risking their firms performance. On the other hand, the significant interaction effects between relational capital with high consistency and mission culture on organisation effectiveness implied that knowledge which embedded in the relationships among employees, customers, suppliers, affiliations and others is vital to determine high performance when the shared beliefs or the ability to reach consensus among members and when clarity on the directions or organisation goals are high.