The Diffusion of ICT in Urban Malaysia: How Nature of Job Influencing the Usage of ICT Among the Urban Working Population

This paper is based on a questionnaire survey that was conducted on the working population in the service sector in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Our objective is to find out to what extend do the effect of nature of job in contributing to the usage of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) by the Malaysian urban working population. By using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), we establish a causal effect relationship focusing on “nature of job”, as well as “income/wealth effect” and “geographical effect” as the factors that will encourage the urban working population to use the ICT services. The result of the analysis confirmed that “nature of job” is the most influential factor for this segment of the population to be networked. However, different level of competency in using ICT is proven from our further analysis (of the collected data) to widen the digital gap among the urban working population across the different level of hierarchy within the organizations. Even though “nature of job” is influencing the urban working population to use the ICT, at the same time it is creating a digital gap that is based on ICT skill among the workforce within/outside the organizations. Finally, we come up with practical recommendations on how to bridge the skill related digital gap among the urban working population in service sector in Kuala Lumpur.