Yahoo Finance 
COMMENT: Future-proofing Singapore for the knowledge economy
(This is a continuation of “COMMENT: Is Singapore ready for the knowledge economy?”)
There are several broader reasons why the average Singaporean worker will, compared to his/her paper credentials, underperform in a knowledge-based role: the nature of meritocracy in Singapore, the country’s pedagogical approach, the socio-political climate, and materialism.
Meritocracy
“I suggest that meritocratic institutions for selecting and grooming elite labor will become increasingly counter-productive. They become so by increasing labor costs and the need to import highly skilled labor. They can also encourage the emigration of some of the most highly trained members of the labor force. Further, they can decrease productivity by discouraging a large proportion of the labor force.”
- Stephen J. Appold, National University of Singapore, 2001
There are several critiques of Singapore’s meritocracy vis-à-vis knowledge work:
Early sorting of potentially valuable workers out of the system
Singapore’s meritocracy sorts students based on relatively narrow educational criteria. As entry to one school can greatly influence admission into the next, students compete ferociously from a very young age.
This pre-sorting tends to demotivate students who do not make it into the elite streams. Some who can afford to will emigrate. Late bloomers have few pathways for educational or career mobility.
Meritocratic assessment not necessarily correlated with job performance
Performance in Singapore’s highly competitive educational system can be a poor predictor of eventual knowledge work quality. The argument here is not that paper achievements are irrelevant; but rather that there are many other desirable attributes that Singapore’s meritocracy does not incorporate in its selection process.
There are supply and demand elements at play here. On the labour supply side, there exists a parental and societal culture that greatly values paper achievements over other pursuits. In terms of labour demand, there are many managers in both public and private institutions that continue to place an excessive premium on educational performance from yesteryear—as opposed to current professional attributes.
Institutionalisation of performance and hiring norms
Over time, meritocracies can breed a strict adherence amongst managers and recruits to performance and hiring norms that can seem archaic in a knowledge economy.
All the common performance critiques—less willing to challenge convention or question authority; more afraid to take risks/move out of comfort zone; and more likely to display a silo mentality with poor cross-collaboration skills—are arguably as much symptoms of labour supply issues (e.g. educational system) as they are labour demand characteristics (e.g. bosses’ wishes).
Meritocracies can discourage creativity
Strict meritocracies can dull a person’s creative instincts. If educational and job assessments are based on narrowly defined criteria, there is little incentive to experiment; rather, students and workers are prone to improve themselves only along those fixed parameters.
In order to mitigate meritocracy’s negative effects, Appold’s suggestions from 2001 are as relevant today. “The alternative [to traditional meritocracy] entails softening the boundaries of credentialing, decreasing faith in early judgements, and tying rewards and position more closely to performance than to criteria.”
Pedagogical approach in schools
Singapore’s primary and secondary educational system is generally regarded as one of the best in the world. Despite these accolades, it is apparent that Singapore’s pedagogical approach may not be preparing Singaporeans well for knowledge work. The main issue is an over-emphasis on rote learning—as opposed to process learning—coupled with insufficient attention on developing critical thinking skills.
The government has spent much time over the years analysing these pedagogical challenges and tweaking the educational system to address them. Nevertheless, there is a long way to go: Singapore society—including parents, students and teachers—continues to place an excessive, unhealthy emphasis on rote learning, hampering efforts to groom knowledge workers.
Socio-political environment
There is a strong case to be made that Singapore’s brand of benevolent developmental authoritarianism was perfectly suited to the country’s early stages of development, but is completely ill-equipped to serve as a base for a knowledge economy. It has failed to foster the active, engaged citizenry that is the lifeblood of a knowledge society.
The government has for long seemed to believe that Singaporeans can grow into creative workers while having narrow, closed political minds. That seems like wishful thinking. According to Waltraut Ritter, a knowledge management consultant, “Although there is no hard substantive evidence, there are signs that a completely free mind—free of fear, free to think or say anything at all—will be able to better innovate than a partially closed mind.”
Compared to an authoritarian state, then, a more liberal democratic state is better at grooming citizens who will constantly challenge accepted wisdoms and can work with a lot of autonomy—ideal for a “knowledge work” environment.
Materialism
Another reason why Singaporeans may not be performing to the best of their abilities in a knowledge role is because their materialist instincts draw them away from their ideal vocation to the one with the highest pay.
“This ‘work for pay’ phenomena is also why companies hire expatriates over Singaporeans,” says a Singaporean who worked for many years in North America as a top executive at a global consumer goods firm. “My observation is that the culture in Singapore severely distorts the talent market. You have a bunch of natural cricket players trying to play soccer because Manchester United pays well.”
Conclusion
If this article’s thesis—that the average Singaporean worker will underperform in a knowledge role relative to his/her own paper credentials—is true, it implies a greater urgency for Singapore to enact specific reforms in order to better prepare Singaporeans for work in their own knowledge economy.
Among other things, this will boost Singapore’s overall productivity, lessen the dependence on highly-skilled foreigners and reduce resentment amongst Singaporeans against similarly-qualified foreigners who are currently being chosen over them for knowledge-based positions.
This Op-ed is an excerpt from a longer essay that you can read here. This essay will be part of a compilation, "A better Singapore? Reframing debates in the New Normal", edited by Donald Low and Sudhir Thomas Vadaketh, which will be published later this year.
Sudhir Thomas Vadaketh is an author, most recently of “Floating on a Malayan Breeze: Travels in Malaysia and Singapore”. He blogs at sudhirtv.com
More From Yahoo! Finance Singapore
