Saxenian (1994) made an interesting comparison between the development of Silicon
Valley, a major high-tech growth area, and Route 128 that has been experiencing a decline.
She observed that the latter’s growth was highly dependent on government contracts,
especially the military, and tend to be dominated by big companies such as Digital,
Honeywell, and RCA. On the other hand, the Silicon Valley area did not have such a
privilege and was dominated by small start-up companies. Her description of the work
practices of many of the companies in the Route 128 area indicates that they tend to resemble
more traditional HRM practices. Silicon Valley companies, however, tend to develop HRM
practices more akin to the HPWS needed to support the creation of an informated work place.
There is the need to examine whether the dependence on government-led initiatives in
Malaysia will lead to the creation of the informated work place