Singapore
"SINGAPORE HAS BEEN INCREDIBLY WELL-MANAGED. IT WAS CREATED OUT OF THE SWAMP, WITH A STRONG EMOTIONAL IDEA: A SAFE PLACE...ACCEPTING OTHER CULTURES AND OTHER RACES."
AUTHOR: NICOLAS BERGGRUEN
Singapore: The Facts
Singapore is an island city-state located off the coast of Malaysia. It is a very small country, only measuring 719 square kilometers, yet it hosts over 5 million people. This makes it the second most densely populated sovereign state in the world.
Singapore served as a central point of trade between the East and West in the 19th century, coming under British colonial rule until 1963. Today, it is independent of Britain. However, the influence of its past British governance means that it is one of the most Westernized countries in Asia. English is the common language spoken among all ethnicities. Singapore is consistently rated as one of the top ten safest countries in the world (World Population Review 2021).
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Singaporeans are relatively spiritual people where 70% see religion to be particularly important to their daily lives. The 2010 Census showed that 33.9% of Singaporeans are Buddhist and 18.1% are Christian (Pier n.d.).
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Culture, Communication and Leadership
Singapore is known as a very friendly culture. That said, Singaporean culture is also hierarchical. Interactions between people are tiered as a result of Chinese influences. This hierarchical structure strongly influences leadership methods. Singaporeans will not disrespect elders or those in higher positions. This hierarchal order is established early in relationships and carries on in daily interactions.
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Another core concept underpinning Singaporean culture is that of face. Face is the quality embedded in most Asian cultures that indicates a person's reputation, influence, dignity and honour. By complimenting people, showing them respect or doing something to increase their self-esteem, you give them face. Similarly, people can lose face and save or build face. Therefore, individuals in Singapore usually act deliberately and with restraint to protect their self-worth and peer perception. Conservative conduct is the norm, as people don’t want to stand out and/or risk losing face by doing something inappropriate.
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Personal relationships are crucial to conducting business in Singapore and, as such, Singaporeans must like you and feel comfortable with you to do business. Business negotiations happen at a slow pace and patience may be a necessary cross cultural attribute. Singaporeans are non-confrontational. Singaporeans tend to lean towards an indirect communication style. As part of this, they will not overtly say "no"; likewise, their "yes" does not always signify agreement. Singaporeans give a respectful pause of up to 15 seconds before answering a question (Resources n.d.)
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In the book Shaping the Global Leader, the authors cite a GLOBE study on past, present, and future time orientation from country to country (Biggs et al. 2020). This is very relevant for Singapore, as the country has the highest future orientation of any country in the world. The GLOBE authors define future orientation as "Culture future orientation is the degree to which a collectivity encourages and rewards future-oriented behaviors such as planning and delaying gratification (House et al. 1999)... cultures with high future orientation have a strong capability and willingness to imagine future contingencies, formulate future goal states, and seek to achieve goals and develop strategies for meeting their future aspirations. Singapore has taken steps to avoid uncertainty which in turn has defined a culture of future-oriented thinking both at the organization and societal level (Biggs et al. 2020).
Team, Teamwork, and Team Leadership
One of the most important things to remember when doing business with a Singaporean person is that, though you may distinguish them as an individual, they may regard themselves as a representative or spokesperson for their company and of Singapore. This group orientation means that an individual may not be able to decide on matters there and then without first consulting their colleagues. Decisions are made through group consensus after referring back to the head office. Because of this, the negotiation process is much slower than what most Westerners are used to. Be patient and expect these processes to involve a great deal of correspondence before any final decisions are made (Pier n.d.).
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In research cited by Stumpf, he found that cultural heterogeneity has a positive effect on team effectiveness (Stumpf 2010). This statement would position Singapore in a positive light relative to team work as those living in Singapore tend to be multicultural -- the country is a big expatriate hot spot and there are so many foreigners in Singapore that only about 60% of the population has citizenship (Pier n.d.). Singapore in general is used to business dealings with people from other countries.
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The positivity of Singapore's diversity is clear when considering that given their heterogeneous makeup, diverse teams often have more different perspectives, information, and ideas available than do homogeneous teams (Homan et al. 2020)
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In Singapore, it is important to remember that reputation plays an important role. The risk becomes amplified in a team or collaborative setting and if you would like to encourage participation it is important first to clearly establish a non-threatening work environment and communicate fully that their participation is desired (Resources n.d.)
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Additionally, many Singaporean businesses are family owned. This contributes to the trusted teamwork environment that is found throughout Singapore.
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References
Biggs, H., Bussen, T., & Ramsey, L. (2020). Shaping the global leader: Fundamentals in culture and behavior for optimal organizational performance. New York, NY: Routledge.
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Stumpf, S. (2010). Intercultural Teams. In Thomas, A., Kinast, E., and Schroll-Machl (Eds.), Handbook of intercultural communication and cooperation. Oakville, CT: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. (pp. 301-312)
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Homan, A. C., Gündemir, S., Buengeler, C., & van Kleef, G.,A. (2020). Leading diversity: Towards a theory of functional leadership in diverse teams. The Journal of Applied Psychology
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(n.d.). Retrieved April 15, 2021, from https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/safest-countries-in-the-world
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Pier. (n.d.). Singaporean Culture. Retrieved April 15, 2021, from https://culturalatlas.sbs.com.au/singaporean-culture
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2021 World Population by Country. (n.d.). Retrieved April 15, 2021, from https://worldpopulationreview.com/
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Resources. (n.d.). Retrieved April 15, 2021, from https://www.commisceo-global.com/resources/management-guides/singapore-management-guide