Organizations In Singapore Research Articles

Deining Management Method: Subjecting Theory to Moderating and Contextual Effects

W. Edwards Deming's ideas on quality management, expressed in hypothetico-deductive theoretical form by Anderson, Rungtusanatham, and Schroeder (1994), have been empirically tested at the organizational level in the manufacturing and service sectors in a handful of Western countries and Japan. These studies show generally good empirical support for the theory, thus providing a plausible “road map” on how organizations succeed through quality management. The authors' study seeks to improve the validity and applicability of the theory. They used a standard measurement instrument to collect data from 367 civil servants from five public-sector organizations in Singapore. Using structural equation modeling data analysis technique, they established that these organizations generally appear to act in a manner consistent with the theory, but the patterns of relationships as predicted by the theory are not completely similar across these organizations. Also, individual-level factors (positional authority and length of tenure) have an impact on how well the theory holds. Further, since the study was in a new industry sector (public sector) and country context (Singapore), the generally positive results enable the authors to tentatively conclude that the theory applies to these contexts.

Tell Me Who You Want Me to Be: The Role of Collective Endorsements in Leader Identity Development

Research examining ‘leader’ as an individual role identity has gained prominence in recent years, yet our understanding of how individuals develop these leader identities in organizations is still relatively limited. Drawing on a qualitative interview study of leaders in a public organization in Singapore, I explore how receiving a collective endorsement of leader identity from the organization shapes how individuals come to see themselves as leaders, finding that these endorsements influence not only the strength of the leader identity, but also the content of the identity and its development over time. Specifically, using selection and non-selection for an organizational ‘High Potential’ program as two different forms of collective endorsement (i.e. a selection endorsement and a non-selection endorsement), I found that individuals experiencing these different endorsements developed leader identities that were built upon different orientations towards others (i.e. reflecting either a collective or relational orientation). I discuss implications of these emergent findings for research on leader identity construction and ‘High Potential’ programs in organizations.

A Birthday Party for a Sacred Text

For over a decade, various Hindu organizations in Singapore have joined to celebrate an extraordinary series of events, called the Gita Jayanti. The term jayanti literally means "victory" or "victorious" but more usually indicates celebration of the birthday of a holy figure or a deity. Put simply, this is a birthday celebration for the Gita, a compact text that increasingly functions in the Hindu diaspora much like the Bible—a portable compendium of teachings, a deeply poetic source of individual comfort, a text to be memorized, chanted, studied. I know of no other Hindu text with such a birthday, nor had any of the people whom I interviewed about it encountered this celebration outside of Singapore. As part of the celebrations, the Gita undergoes a ritual that parallels the consecration of a deity for use in a temple. In this case the Gita takes on the body of Krishna who is understood to have spoken these holy words many centuries ago. In this sense the Bhagavad Gita, here treated as the Holy Book of contemporary Hinduism, is an iconic body of Krishna just as the bronze murti is also an iconic body—the ultimate iconicity.

Media, Religion and the Marketplace in the Information Economy: Evidence from Singapore

In this paper we suggest that the exchange of communication in a mediatized environment is transforming the nature of transactions in the religious marketplace. In this economy of religious informational exchanges, digitalization facilitates a process of mediatization that converts religious performance into forms suitable for commodification and commoditization. The intersection of digital media, religion, and the marketplace is demonstrated in the context of mega Protestant and Buddhist organizations in Singapore. We show how these large organizations embed media relations in their sacred spaces through a process of hybridization. In turn, hybrid spaces are converted into material outputs that may be readily transacted in real and virtual spaces. Hybridization attends to a postmodern audience and consumers who value experience and sensorial stimulations. It integrates retail, entertainment, and the aesthetics into a space of ascetic performance that is digitally transportable. Digital transactional spaces thrive on the abundance of information, and information multiplies when communication is unfettered by the absence of proprietary safeguards. The religious marketplace may therefore be understood as a medially driven performance space where points of interaction are digitally convertible for further reproduction, reconsumption, and redistribution in media form.

Multiplicity within Singularity: Racial Categorization and Recognizing “Mixed Race” in Singapore

“Race” and racial categories play a significant role in everyday life and state organization in Singapore. While multiplicity and diversity are important characteristics of Singaporean society, Singapore's multiracial ideology is firmly based on separate, racialized groups, leaving little room for racial projects reflecting more complex identifications. This article explores national narratives of race, culture and belonging as they have developed over time, used as a tool for the state, and re-emerging in discourses of hybridity and “double-barrelled” racial identifications. Multiracialism, as a maintained structural feature of Singaporean society, is both challenged and reinforced by new understandings of hybridity and older conceptions of what it means to be “mixed race” in a (post-)colonial society. Tracing the temporal thread of racial categorization through a lens of mixedness, this article places the Singaporean case within emerging work on hybridity and recognition of “mixed race”. It illustrates how state-led understandings of race and “mixed race” describe processes of both continuity and change, with far-reaching practical and ideological impacts.

Front-End Planning Implementation in Singapore: Status, Importance, and Impact

AbstractFront-end planning (FEP) is relatively new to the Singapore construction industry, and its importance is not yet well recognized or emphasized. Technological advancements and continuous fragmentation in the construction industry have resulted in a rapid increase in the complexity of projects, and yet this has not been matched by a concomitant increase in planning efforts. This study aims to identify the importance of FEP and its impact on project outcomes in order to encourage more organizations in Singapore to practice and benefit from it. To achieve this objective, a questionnaire was developed, and the responses from 27 companies were analyzed. The analysis revealed that only about 44% of the responding companies practiced FEP on their projects. In addition, the study quantified the amount of the budget allocated to FEP as well as the level of improvement in project performance achieved by implementing FEP. Once companies recognize their FEP implementation status, they will be at a starting poi...

Five‐Factor Model of Personality and Job Satisfaction: The Importance of Agreeableness in a Tight and Collectivistic Asian Society

Results from predominantly US‐based research have shown that personality can partly explain job satisfaction. As the issue of globalisation grows in importance for organisations, I researched in this study whether meta‐analytic findings on the relationships between job satisfaction and the Big Five personality traits extraversion, conscientiousness, and neuroticism would hold in a tight and collectivistic Asian society. Additionally, I expected that in a tight and collectivistic society the personality trait agreeableness would have a strong positive relationship with job satisfaction. Study participants were 354 employees from organisations in Singapore. Results confirmed that extraversion, conscientiousness, non‐neuroticism (emotional stability), and also agreeableness were related to job satisfaction. The study advises scholars and practitioners that even in a tight and collectivistic Asian society—despite situations that demand abiding by norms and fulfilling obligations—job satisfaction is related to stable personality traits.

Leveraging socio‐culturally situated tacit knowledge

PurposeThis study seeks to investigate how a more lateral style of working, such as the Swedish model of management that reflects a more linear manner of managing organizational knowledge, is carried over and transferred to Swedish managed organizations in Singapore.Design/methodology/approachA total of 33 top‐level managers (23 Scandinavians and ten Asians) who worked in Swedish managed organizations in Singapore were interviewed for this study. It was necessary that the respondents were in top‐level management positions, the assumption being that it was their decisions and actions that steered the organization to its goals. The respondents were selected randomly and came from a variety of industry backgrounds.FindingsThe Swedish style of handling information and knowledge within the organization has proven more open, flexible and accessible than Singaporeans might initially expect or understand. This cultural difference of who gains access to timely information and who should use that information to make decisions, for example, first met with a lack of understanding and even inaction on the part of the Singaporeans and active measures are needed such as re‐structuring the organization or a constant communicative strategy by the Swedes to first make a change in direction in organization behaviour. This means that the organizations in this study, in keeping a high standard of employee satisfaction, get to retain, harvest and profit from their organization's knowledge base while enjoying a low turnover rate in human capital.Originality/valueThis study aims to take a complementary approach of exploring the Swedish management style via discourse analysis, with the transcribed long interview data sorted with the coding procedures adapted from grounded theory.

Work and nonwork outcomes of workplace incivility: Does family support help?

This study extended incivility research beyond the confines of the workplace by exploring the relationships between incivility, work-to-family conflict and family support. Data collected from 180 employees from various organizations in Singapore showed that incivility is not a rare phenomenon in Asian cultures. Employees experienced more incivility from superiors than coworkers or subordinates, and these experiences were related to different outcomes. Coworker-initiated incivility was associated with decreased coworker satisfaction, increased perceptions of unfair treatment, and increased depression. On the other hand, superior-initiated incivility was associated with decreased supervisor satisfaction and increased work-to-family conflict. Results also revealed that employees with high family support showed stronger relationships between workplace incivility and negative outcomes, compared with employees with low family support.

Education for Students with Visual Impairments in Singapore: An Overview of Primary and Secondary Programs

Special education schools in Singapore provide education to children with disabilities, including those with intellectual, physical, or sensory impairments. Most of these schools cater to children aged 4 to 18. There are 20 special education schools run by various voluntary welfare organizations in Singapore; included in these 20 schools is the primary education provision for children who are visually impaired (Ministry of Education, 2009a). This arrangement is in line with the government's Many Helping Hands policy, which involves a tripartite relationship between the government, the citizenry, and the voluntary sector. The objective is to promote active participation in the care of people with disabilities (Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports, 2005). PRIMARY EDUCATION FOR STUDENTS WHO ARE VISUALLY IMPAIRED Since 1956, the Singapore School for the Visually Handicapped (SSVH) has been the only school that has provided special education for students with visual impairments up to the primary level. However, over the past 50 years, the school has seen a gradual decline in its student enrollment from its height of some 100 children in the 1960s and 1970s (P. K. Koh, personal communication, April 3, 2009) to 56 in 1988 (Quah, 1993). Today, the school serves 40 children, of whom 18 have multiple disabilities in addition to visual impairment. Thus, strictly speaking, there are only 22 students with visual impairments and no other disabilities (P. K. Koh, personal communication, April 3, 2009). To justify the economics of operating the school, in 2003, SSVH began to broaden its curriculum to include children with visual impairments and additional disabilities, children with heating impairments, and children with autism spectrum disorder (SSVH, 2008) to mitigate its operational costs. This change of curriculum was a significant transformation from its origins. Naturally, the previous name was no longer adequately representative of its new curriculum and the students it served. Consequently, the school adopted its new name, the Lighthouse School, in 2008 to reflect the change. The goals of the Lighthouse School are as follows: * to ensure that the developmentally intact children with visual impairments and hearing impairments perform well in their Primary Six Leaving Examination (PSLE, national streaming examinations at the end of primary school); * to ensure that the developmentally intact children with visual impairments and hearing impairments are given as rounded an education as possible; * to ensure that children with multiple disabilities have adequate preparation in reading, writing, and arithmetic and in daily living skills; * to encourage children with visual impairments who are having difficulties in a general education school to benefit from the individualized programs it provides; and * to maximize the potential of every child to the fullest (see Lighthouse School, 2009a). To achieve these goals, the Lighthouse School (2009b) offers the following programs: 1. Normal Program, whose curriculum parallels the mainstream school curriculum 2. Vision Development Program 3. Visual- and Hearing-Impaired Program 4. Special Class Program 5. Autistic Spectrum Disorder Program The variety of programs reflects the challenge of having to cater to a diversity of needs. These programs range from a curriculum to foster independent living and study skills for children with visual impairments to more specific skills for children who are deaf-blind to a class for children with multiple disabilities including visual impairments, to preparing children for PSLE. Beyond these specific programs for children who are visually impaired, the school also offers a class for children with autism spectrum disorder. POSTPRIMARY EDUCATION In 2007, the Ahmad Ibrahim Secondary School (AISS) marked its 40 years of supporting students with visual impairments. …

Extent of environmental disclosures - a case of sensitive industries in Singapore and Malaysia

The purpose of this comparative study is to examine the extent to which information is available to stakeholders on the environmental issues from the annual reports of listed companies in Singapore and Malaysia focusing on Sectors (Construction and manufacturing) that are environmentally sensitive. Many studies in the past had tried to capture the relationship between environmental reporting against financial performances, management motives and effects on share prices of the companies operating in respective countries. This study is striving to capture the extent of information on environmental aspects available to stakeholders in Malaysia and Singapore focusing only on Sectors (Construction and manufacturing) that are environmentally sensitive. The researchers used cross sectional content analysis based on the annual reports of companies listed in the Construction and manufacturing/ industrial sector for the year 2007. The companies were selected from Stock Exchange of Singapore (SGX) and Bursa Malaysia (KLSE). A framework developed by Adams & Frost (2007) identified seven parameters to perform content analysis and observed performance related disclosure among organizations in Australia against organizations in the U.K. This study also used similar framework with addition of just one more parameter. It was found that the extent of information disclosed by organizations in Singapore for both construction and Manufacturing /Industrial sector is lower compared to organizations in Malaysia in both the sectors. This alerts the analysts that while talking about green accounting, one could walk the talk better by disclosing more information and making environmental issues or concerns more transparent.

The Internet Highway and Religious Communities: Mapping and Contesting Spaces in Religion-Online

We examine “religion-online,” an underrepresented area of research in new media, communication, and geography, with a multilevel study of the online representation and (re)presentation of Protestant Christian organizations in Singapore, which has one of the highest Internet penetration rates in the world and also believers affiliated with all the major world religions. We first critically discuss and empirically examine how online technologies are employed for religious community building in novel and diverse ways. Then we investigate the role religious leaders play through their mental representations of the spatial practices and scales through which their religious communities are imagined and practiced online. We show how churches use the multimodality of the Internet to assemble multiple forms of visible data and maps to extend geographic sensibilities of sacred space and create new social practices of communication.

Adding value to organizations: An examination of the role of senior public relations practitioners in Singapore

A key characteristic of public relations excellence in organizations is ensuring that the senior public relations practitioner – the head of the communication function – has the competencies to enact the strategic role of a manager. It is only when the top communicator possesses strategic management knowledge and engages in managerial work with support from colleagues who are technically skilled in traditional craft work can public relations work be considered to be value-generating. This paper presents the findings of the examination of the role of senior public relations practitioners in organizations in Singapore. It also explores the importance of core communication activities to the role of top in-house communicators, examines the time they allocate to managerial and technical work, and assesses if the managerial role which the practitioners play adds value to organizations. Data collected from both in-depth interviews and self-reported log of daily activities showed that although top communicators in Singapore enjoy strategic reporting and unhindered access to senior management, it also revealed, paradoxically, senior management's mixed worldviews of public relations; and that Singapore's top in-house practitioners lack the strategic knowledge to enact the managerial role as they are too focused on technical work. The paper concludes with recommendations on how the level of public relations professionalism can be raised in Singapore, starting with the practitioners themselves having to be fully equipped with the relevant academic knowledge of what makes communication excellent.

Sustaining Islamic Activism in Secular Environments: The Muhammadiyah Movement in Singapore

This paper attempts to fill the lacunae in the scholarly literature surrounding Islamic activism in Singapore by providing a critical historical analysis of the Muhammadiyah movement. Utilizing insights and concepts borrowed from social movement theorists, I argue that four processes have been crucial in the sustenance of the Muhammadiyah movement within a non-Muslim dominated and politically conservative environment: the symbiotic relationship between the leaders and the led, the formulation and subsequent revision of the movement’s ideational frames, political opportunity structures which were judiciously exploited and the availability of a wide array of mobilizing structures. The Muhammadiyah movement, as will be shown, provides an informative sample of an Islamic activist organization in Singapore that has been successful in transcending the limits imposed by the secular state. By illuminating the interplay between local Islamic activism and international movements and the ways in which global Islamic discourses and paradigms were appropriated within a local context, this study of the Muhammadiyah movement in Singapore serves as a ground for comparison in the research on Islam in other parts of Asia.

THE COOPERATION OF RELIGION AND STATE IN SINGAPORE: A COMPASSIONATE PARTNERSHIP IN SERVICE OF WELFARE

Singapore's government prevents religious control of the state but remains open to religious participation in public life on a pluralistic basis—a pattern that can be seen especially clearly in the area of social services. To engender a self-help ethos, rather than welfare dependency, the government encourages the privatization of compassion, through encouraging volunteerism, partnering with voluntary welfare organizations, and aiding their work through government subsidies and legal frameworks. Social services provided by voluntary welfare organizations in Singapore include elder care, educational services, support for the disabled, rehabilitation services for drug addicts, residential institutions for the destitute, and family counseling services.

Winning Respect: Transformation to Professionalisation of Public Relations in Singapore

Studies analysing the state of public relations (PR) in Singapore (Chay-Nemeth, 2003; Yeap, 1994; Yeo and Sriramesh, 2009) have consistently argued that PR has remained at the “pre-professional” stage, one that emphasises on the technical rather than strategic roles. Is PR in Singapore going to be perpetually mired in this sorry state while the other pillars of the organisation continue to flourish in a dynamic and evolving business environment? This study examines the systemic problems facing the profession, and suggests how PR can be transformed from a “pre-professional” to “professional” stage—albeit mostly by the confluence of circumstances and by default rather than by design. Three scenarios that fall into this wave of confluence are suggested, namely, the changing media landscape, endorsement of the profession through education and changing mindsets. These three scenarios were exactly the confluence of circumstances that propelled the transformation to professionalisation of PR in a quintessential Singapore organisation. If the experience of this organisation can be replicated in other organisations in Singapore, the future looks bright for the profession.

An exploratory qualitative and quantitative analysis of Six Sigma in service organizations in Singapore

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual framework to facilitate widening the scope of Six Sigma implementation in service organizations.Design/methodology/approachUsing grounded theory methodology, this study develops theory for Six Sigma implementation in service organizations. The study involves a questionnaire survey and case studies to understand and build a conceptual framework. The survey is conducted in service organizations in Singapore and is exploratory. The case studies involved three service organizations which implement Six Sigma. The objective is to explore and understand the issues highlighted by the survey and the literature.FindingsThe findings confirm the inclusion of critical success factors, critical‐to‐quality characteristics, and set of tools and techniques as observed from the literature. In the case of key performance indicators (KPI), there are different interpretations about it in the literature and also by industry practitioners. Some literature explains KPIs as performance metrics whereas some feel it as key process input or output variables, which is similar to interpretations by practitioners of Six Sigma. The responses of “not relevant” and “unknown to us” as reasons for not implementing Six Sigma show the need for understanding specific requirements of service organizations.Originality/valueThough much theoretical description is available about Six Sigma, there has been limited rigorous academic research on it. This gap is far more pronounced about Six Sigma implementation in service organizations, where the theory is not yet mature. Identifying this need, the paper contributes by going through theory building exercise and developing a conceptual framework to understand the issues involving its implementation in service organizations.

Trends and challenges of developing human capital in Singapore: an analysis of current practices and future potentials

As one of the most vibrant nations of Asia, Singapore is well known for its dynamic and innovative human capital development initiatives. These are driven mainly by the government policies, with inputs from public sector organizations and large local companies. Human resource development (HRD) related legislations, financial incentives, infra-structural support and deployment of management and info-communication technologies (ICT) help to sustain the national HRD initiatives. This paper presents an analysis of the current practices and future trends and challenges faced by organizations in Singapore. Some of these challenges are: ageing workforce, talent retention and development, rapid technological changes and cross-cultural skills development for working in the emerging markets. Eight trends and challenges identified here are expected to significantly impact the HRD profession in future. Implications of the trends and challenges are also discussed for future research and professional practice.

Adopting organizational virtualization in B2B firms: An empirical study in Singapore

We empirically tested a parsimonious model that incorporates cost-benefit analysis/transaction cost theory, institutional theory, and organizational capability-based theory to predict organizational adoption of IT-facilitated virtualization in an Asian context. Virtualization implies the use of IT and communication technology by organizations in managing their interactions and key business operations with stakeholders, such as customers, suppliers and employees. Our research extends existing literature by using organizational structure adoption theories. The study should provide insights into the salient adoption issues of Asian firms. A survey was conducted of B2B organizations in Singapore. Results indicated that an increase in the level of net perceived benefits, external influences, and organizational capabilities had a positive effect on organizational decision makers’ intention to use virtualization. In particular, external influences were found to be the most important antecedents of intention to adopt virtualization in B2B organizations in Singapore.

The effects of employee services on organizational commitment and intentions to quit

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of the provision of employee services on employees' organizational commitment and their intentions to quit as well as their underlying reasons.Design/methodology/approachThe paper shows that questionnaires were administered at two organizations in Singapore to evaluate employees' attitudes resulting from the provision of employee services. Mediator regression analyses and structural equation modeling were used to test the relationships between the provision of employee services with construed external image of the organization, valence for employee services, organizational identification, organizational commitment, and intentions to quit.FindingsThe paper found that positive employee attitudes arising from the provision of employee services were the result of a positive construed external image of the organization. It also shows that, when employees perceived that outsiders viewed their organization positively, their level of identification with their organization increased.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper did not find a significant relationship between employees' valence for employee services and organizational identification, implying that receiving tangible benefits was less important to employees than working for an organization that is viewed positively by outsiders.Practical implicationsThe results in this paper suggest that employees' attachment to their organization is enhanced when they perceive that outsiders view their organization positively.Originality/valueThe results in the paper were explained in terms of social identity theory, which suggest that firms must continually invest in socially responsible activities and practices to create a positive corporate image. Employees' perceptions pertaining to how stakeholders view their organization affect their work attitudes.