Theory of Planned Behavior (tpb) in Management Thinking

Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) in Management Thinking

Here comes to a question how’s TPB applying in management thinking? As previous discussed, TPB links intention to behavior. It means that a person’s behavior is determined by his or her intention to perform the behavior. However, there are 3 factors lead to intention, which includes attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control. But, how it’s applying in real life organization? Usually, this theory will implemented by marketing department in order to know the customer behavior toward their organization product. So that they know what customers expected from them and also could execute a planning that would influence change of customer. As below, we will discuss 2 examples of applying the TPB to predict customer intentions. First of all, will discuss applying the TPB to predict internet tax filing intention and followed by the application of TPB to understand sustainable transport acceptance behavior.

Applying the TPB to Predict Internet Tax Filing Intention

E-Filing is very common to many other countries and it could speed up and simplify the process of income tax return. Therefore, Malaysia government was thinking to make it possible for taxpayers to file their income tax through e-Filing or continues by manually. The main objective of Inland Revenue Board (IRB) introduce e-Filing are to facilitate tax compliance and to provide improved taxpayer service through administrative improvement. (Ming-Ling et al., 2004) This system could compute the tax payable automatically, instantly and accurately. Therefore, taxpayers will feel convenient, fast and accurate tax computation.

        To investigate taxpayer’s intention toward the e-Filing, Malaysia government conduct a study to examine factors that determine which two methods taxpayers will choose by using the theory of planned behavior. They found 125 taxpayers to complete a specially developed questionnaire and examine their attitude, perceived behavioral control and subjective norm that influence their behavioral intention. The 125 taxpayers are from the Malaysian states of Kedah, Perak, Johor, Penang, Malacca and KL. TPB suggests that human action is guided by 3 considerations. It same goes to the taxpayer’s intention to use e-Filing.

The first consideration is attitude. Attitude toward the act is a function of the perceived consequences people with the behavior. Personality factors can be the reason for affecting the relationship between attitude and behavioral intention. (T.Ramayah et al., 2009) The positive attitude is needed to taxpayers before he or she is willing to try a new system.

The second consideration is perceived behavioral control (PBC). PBC reflects the belief of taxpayers to access the resources and opportunities needed in order to perform e-Filing. It may encompass two components. (Ajzen, 1991; Taylor & Todd, 1995). The first component reflects the availability of resources needed and the second component reflects the person’s self-confidence in the ability to using e-Filing. The resources needed such as a computer with minimum Pentium III processor or above, Internet Connection, Microsoft Window 2000 or latest, Internet browser. However, the person’s self-confidence reflects of they believe whether they got ability to use the technology or not.

The third consideration is subjective norm. Subjective norm is a function of belief about the expectation of important referent and his/ her motivation of complying with these referents. (T.Ramayah et al., 2009) In this case, government plays very important roles for provision of facilitation conditions such as access to computers, manuals or guides. Besides, government should provide more facilities to facilitate the user to get on the using of e-Filing. For example, government could rise up the effort to promoting the use of e-Filing by step by step. Therefore, the effort will enhance the image of the system leading to more usage and eventually it shaping the intention of user use e-Filing.

        In a nutshell, the study was completed and found that TPB is applicable in the Malaysian setting to significantly explain intention to use e-Filing. Among them, PBC was the strongest predictor, followed by attitude. However, subjective norm had a relatively small but still significantly influence on intention.

Application of TPB to Understand Sustainable Transport Acceptance Behavior

         The increasing of vehicle brings many impacts such as traffic jam on road and air pollution. A sustainable transport plays an important role in a developing country. Sustainable transportation refers to the transportation that is “Go Green” and has low impact on the environment. For instance, sustainable transportation includes walking, cycling, transit, carpooling, car sharing and green vehicles. Here, we will discuss transit that can help reduce potential adverse environment and social impact. Malaysia government believes in playing an active role in advocating a sustainable transport system. In term of public transport investment, they have announced a plan to construct a mass rapid transit (MRT) system. Therefore, a research is conducted to investigate the factors that influence public acceptance of sustainable transport in Malaysia by using the theory of planned behavior (TPB).