Business Process Outsourcing or BPO project
on mahallah management at the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM)
has been done in order to overcome the staffing problem at the University
level. The BPO project has been done in several mahallah or hostel in the
International Islamic University Malaysia with two distinct effectiveness
levels. The project at Mahallah Zubair al-Awwam is a failure while the project
at Mahallah Maryam is a success. Agency theory (Eisenhardt 1989) has been used
to study the reasons behind the success and the failure of the BPO project.
Control theory that includes outcome control, managerial control, clan control
and self control shall be used to investigate the reasons behind the two
different outcomes. The study used qualitative methods using inductive
approach. The research objective were to understand the process of the
outsourcing of the vendor, measuring the understanding of BPO and to understand
the underlying issues based on the agency theory in implementing effective BPO
at the mahallah. The findings reveal weak outsourcing process, problematic
staff, and failure to follow University procedures as the main course of the
failure of the BPO project at Mahallah Zubair al-Awwam. The success at Mahallah
Maryam is contributed by a strong management control by the principal towards
the vendor, strong relationship between the principal and vendor and better
staff compliant with the University procedures.
