Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Nationalist Sentiments And The Multinational Enterprise: Insights From Organizational Sociology, Jesper Edman, Ilya R. P. Cuypers, Gokhan Ertug, Ruth V. Aguilera

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

International business scholars have recognized the impact of political and economic nationalism on the multinational enterprise (MNE). We complement these approaches by highlighting the sociological manifestations of nationalism and their implications for the MNE. We argue that nationalist sentiments, i.e. widely-shared assumptions of superiority over other nations and cultures, constitute an under-researched but critical element in international business (IB). Drawing insights from organizational sociology, we elucidate how nationalist sentiments manifest in the MNE’s external and internal environment. Specifically, we suggest that nationalist sentiments accentuate national institutional logics, generate status-based categorizations of foreign and domestic firms, and heighten emphasis on national …

Lifetime Adversity Predicts Depression, Anxiety, And Cognitive Impairment In A Nationally Representative Sample Of Older Adults In The United States, Sangnam Ahn, Kim, Hongmei Zhang, Aram Dobalian, George Slavich

Research Collection School Of Economics

Objective: Although life stress and adversity have emerged as risk factors for mental health problems and cognitive impairment among older adults, prior studies on this topic have been cross-sectional and based on relatively homogeneous samples. To address these issues, we examined prospective associations between lifetime adversity and symptoms of depression, anxiety, and cognitive impairment in a nationally representative, longitudinal sample of older adults in the U.S. Method: We analyzed data from the Health and Retirement Study (1992-2016). The sample included 3,496 individuals (59.9% female), aged ≥64 years old (M age=76.0 ±7.6 years). We used the individual-level panel data and ordinary …

Gender Divergence In Premarket Skill Acquisition And Wage Inequality, Sunha Myong

Research Collection School Of Economics

I study the changes in premarket skills and the evolution of the wage distribution across two cohorts using the NLSY79 and NLSY97. To estimate the relative importance of changes in premarket skills and changes in skill prices in explaining the evolution of the wage distribution, I apply the DiNardo, Fortin, and Lemieux decomposition method (DiNardo et al. 1996). I find a substantial gender divergence in premarket skill acquisition and wage gain across the two cohorts. Women's wage gain associated with changes in premarket skills is greater than that of men's at all levels of the wage distribution. Changes in premarket …

3 Groundless Myths That Get In The Way Of Workforce Inclusivity, Kenneth T. Goh

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

In a commentary, SMU Associate Professor of Strategy & Entrepreneurship (Education) Kenneth Goh discussed and debunked three groundless myths that get in the way of workforce inclusivity. He also called for companies to seek expert advice from relevant agencies and explore partnerships with institutions of higher learning, such as SMU, to pursue inclusivity in a sustainable manner. He added that SMU provides its students opportunities to work with companies and examine the feasibility of their inclusivity initiatives as part of their coursework.

Wealth Accumulation By Hypogamy In Own And Parental Education In China, Cheng Cheng, Yang Zhou

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Objective: This study examines how household wealth accumulation varies by different types of hypogamy on the basis of couples' own and parental education. Background: Educational hypogamy (wives having more education than their husbands) is increasingly relevant in many societies, given the reversal of the gender gap in education. Prior research has studied how marital sorting on couples' own education shapes their individual earnings trajectories. Few have examined the implications of marital sorting on parental education for family-level economic well-being. Method: Using data from the 2010–2018 China Family Panel Studies and multilevel growth curve models, this study examined how household wealth …

The Resilience Of Diversified Clusters: Reconfiguring Commodity Networks In Rural China During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Zhanping Hu, Qian Forrest Zhang

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

We conceptualize typical rural communities in China as diversified economic clusters. In normal times, economic actors in these communities rarely cooperate with each other, but are integrated into separate commodity chains. These “diversified clusters”, however, show resilience and flexibility when an external shock—the COVID-19 pandemic—disrupts the spatial connections throughout the existing commodity chains. In this study, we use primary field data collected from one typical rural community in Northern China to show how economic diversity, aided by social networks and space-shrinking technologies, allowed for the vertical commodity chains to be reconfigured temporarily into localized horizontal commodity networks to cope with …

Why Companies Practice Corporate Social Responsibility, Shawn Pope, Alwyn Lim

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The article discussed why companies practice corporate social responsibility (CSR) and their meta-analysis of 200 surveys over 20 years found that CSR is often embraced as a “halo” strategy.

Ai And The Future Of Work: What We Know Today, Steven M. Miller, Thomas H. Davenport

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

To contribute to a better understanding of the contemporary realities of AI workplace deployments, the authors recently completed 29 case studies of people doing their everyday work with AI-enabled smart machines. Twenty-three of these examples were from North America, mostly in the US. Six were from Southeast Asia, mostly in Singapore. In this essay, we compare our findings on job and workplace impacts to those reported in the MIT Task Force on the Work of the Future report, as we consider that to be the most comprehensive recent study on this topic.

Older Adult Employment Status And Well‐Being: A Longitudinal Bidirectional Analysis, Jonathan Louis Jie Sheng Chia, Andree Hartanto

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Mixed findings in the literature on the effects of older adult employment on well-being and the reciprocal influence of well-being on employment suggest the need for more careful methodology in teasing out this relationship. Moreover, as previous research has shown that different domains of well-being relate to constructs differently, more nuanced definitions of well-being may be appropriate. The present study examined the longitudinal bidirectional associations of employment and different domains of well-being, controlling for stable within-person variables. The present study sampled older adults from the Midlife Development in the US study at three timepoints on employment status and well-being, specifically …

Challenges To Social Mobility In Singapore, Kong Weng Ho, Marcus Kheng Tat Tan

Research Collection School Of Economics

Singapore had achieved impressive economic growth together with a high level of upward mobility since her independence in 1965. However, the growth process might have become more uneven, in addition to diminishing growth for a matured economy like Singapore, which is also a highly open city state subject to competitive forces from other economies. Singapore has fared well recently,
evident from the 2020 social mobility findings reported by the World Economic Forum and the decline in Gini coefficients for the past decade. We discuss the education system in Singapore and the recently formed National Jobs Council, both important institutions for …

A Clarion Call For Businesses To Do Right, Tan K. B. Eugene

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's National Day Rally on Sunday signalled a putative shift in the government's policy towards tackling workplace discrimination and supporting lower-wage workers. While the tripartite approach remains the bedrock in industrial relations, the government is prepared to adopt a more muscular approach through regulation by legislation. Businesses must recognise the concerns of workers amid the unpredictable arc of the global pandemic. It cannot be business as usual.

The Impact Of Temperature On Labor Quality: Umpire Accuracy In Major League Baseball, Eric Fesselmeyer

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

Using data from Major League Baseball, I compute an objective measure of the home plate umpire's work quality-the accuracy of his ball and strike calls during a game-and measure how it varies with temperature. I find that an increase in game-time temperature from between 70 and 80 degrees F to above 95 degrees F decreases an umpire's accuracy by a little less than a percentage point, which is a 5.5% increase in the pitch-calling error rate when evaluated at the mean error rate of 13.3%. Restricting the sample to borderline pitches increases the magnitude of the hot-weather effect on accuracy …

The Impact Of Temperature On Labor Quality: Umpire Accuracy In Major League Baseball, Eric Fesselmeyer

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

Using data from Major League Baseball, I compute an objective measure of the home plate umpire's work quality-the accuracy of his ball and strike calls during a game-and measure how it varies with temperature. I find that an increase in game-time temperature from between 70 and 80 degrees F to above 95 degrees F decreases an umpire's accuracy by a little less than a percentage point, which is a 5.5% increase in the pitch-calling error rate when evaluated at the mean error rate of 13.3%. Restricting the sample to borderline pitches increases the magnitude of the hot-weather effect on accuracy …

The Influence Of Masculinity And The Moderating Role Of Religion On The Workplace Well-Being Of Factory Workers In China, Quan Gao, Orlando Woods, Xiaomei Cai

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper explores how the intersection of masculinity and religion shapes workplace well-being by focusing on Christianity and the social construction of masculinity among factory workers in a city in China. While existing work on public and occupational health has respectively acknowledged masculinity’s influences on health, and the religious and spiritual dimensions of well-being, there have been limited efforts to examine how variegated, and especially religious, masculinities influence people’s well-being in the workplace. Drawing on ethnography and in-depth interviews with 52 factory workers and 8 church leaders and factory managers, we found that: (1) Variegated masculinities were integrated into the …

Studying Successful Ageing: A Showcase Of The Singapore Life Panel, Jee Yuen Yew, Jia Wei Gwee, Anirudh Srivathsan

ROSA Research Briefs

In this special issue of the ROSA Research Brief Series, we showcase two aspects of the work being done at the Centre for Research on Successful Ageing (ROSA). Firstly, we showcase the capabilities of the Singapore Life Panel (SLP) and the data that the SLP is able to obtain and measure on a monthly basis. Secondly, we showcase the amazing work of the SGUnited Traineeship Programme’s Research Assistants at ROSA who have proven themselves to be incredible assets in helping further ROSA’s aims of enabling successful ageing in Singapore. ROSA aims to measure well-being among older adults holistically in order …

The Cost Of Taking Charge At Work, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

CUHK research finds proactive employees have a higher chance of assuming leadership roles but they are also likely to have difficult interactions with co-workers

Selling A Resume And Buying A Job: Stratification Of Gender And Occupation By States And Brokers In International Migration From Indonesia, Andy Scott Chang

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This study examines how state and commercial actors construct gender, occupation, and nationality hierarchies in guest worker programs by comparing the migratory procedures for female domestic workers and male industrial operators from Indonesia. Based on 19 months of multi-sited ethnography and 86 interviews in Indonesia, Taiwan, and Singapore, I introduce the notion of multilateralism to theorize the stratification of global migration processes. In multilateral labor markets, governments, brokers, employers, and migrants in multiple countries contend for labor and employment. The homecare market is governed under the rubric of “selling a resume,” whereby Indonesian regulators and labor suppliers pass on recruitment …

Understanding International Immobility Through Internal Migration: ‘Left Behind’ Nurses In The Philippines, Yasmin Y. Ortiga, Romeo Luis A. Macabasag

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Migration scholars have tended to portray internal mobility as a step toward broader cross-border movement, reinforcing the notion of ongoing progress toward international migration. This article argues for a need to recognize how internal mobility can also explain international immobility, or why people do not move across national borders. Using the case of Filipino nurses, we argue that while internal migration does allow aspiring migrants to build the potential ability to emigrate, individual trajectories are much more diverse and multi-directional, often prolonging or reinforcing their international immobility. As a result, and in our case study, the costs and burdens of …

Crisis And Connection, Qiuyi Tan, Christy Davis, Dalvin Sidhu, Tania Nagpaul

Lien Centre for Social Innovation: Research

COVID-19 has bridged a longstanding disconnect between Singapore’s resident and migrant populations, showing that the health and well-being of everyone are linked in a pandemic. This paper reviews the available research on low-wage migrant workers in Singapore and unpacks the challenges using design thinking and its human-centred ethos. Transformative social change often starts with knowledge and understanding. We map out the research so you can use it.

The Impact Of Covid-19 On Asian Businesses And The Economy, Havovi Joshi

Asian Management Insights

The Covid-19 pandemic will likely end when a vaccine can be made available to everyone, or when we have achieved some measure of herd immunity. Unfortunately, both are as yet nowhere in sight.

Between Lives And Economy: Optimal Covid-19 Containment Policy In Open Economies, Wen-Tai Hsu, Hsuan-Chih Luke Lin, Yang Han

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper studies optimal containment policy for combating a pandemic in an open-economy context. It does so via quantitative analyses using a model that incorporates a standard epidemiological compartmental model in a multi-country, multi-sector Ricardian model of international trade with full-fledged input-output linkages. We devise a novel approach in computing optimal national policies in the long run, and contrast these policies with a baseline in which countries maintain their current policies until vaccine availability. The welfare gains under optimal policies are asymmetric as the gains for the set of countries which should tighten up the containment measures are much larger …

Providing Child Care, Christine Ho, Sunha Myong

Research Collection School Of Economics

Women’s economic empowerment has been hailed as one of the most remarkable revolutions in the past 50 years (Dunlop, 2010). Access to affordable childcare is one of the key determinants of fertility and maternal employment, with grandparents and governments often stepping up to provide much needed support to families. This chapter proposes a synthesis of the state of knowledge on child care and discusses policy relevant issues applicable to the Singapore context. Selected policies are documented and lessons from the international landscape are discussed. The chapter discusses how child care costs may affect fertility and maternal labour supply in Section …

Job Duration And Match Characteristics Over The Business Cycle, Ismail Baydur, Toshihiko Mukoyama

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper studies the cyclical behavior of job separation and the characteristics of matches between workers and jobs. We estimate a proportional hazard model with competing risks, distinguishing between different types of separations. A higher unemployment rate at the start of an employment relationship increases the probability of job-to-job transitions, whereas its effect on employment-to-unemployment transitions is negative. We then build a simple job ladder model to interpret our empirical results. A model with two-dimensional heterogeneity in match (job) characteristics has the same qualitative features as the data. Once the model is extended to include cyclicality in the offered match …

Strengthening Social Fabric And Quality Of Life, Singapore Management University

Research Collection Office of Research

In this booklet, read about our research in the area of “Strengthening Social Fabric and Quality of Life”.

Contents:

Well-being of People, Groups, Organisations, Societies

• Serving the Underserved
• Does Family Background Affect Socioeconomic Mobility?
• Becoming a Happy Analyst
• Effective Childcare Subsidies
• Birds of a Feather Flock Together

Successful Ageing of People, of Populations

• Economic and Social Aspects of Ageing Successfully
• Exploring the Effectiveness of Smart Technologies in Eldercare
• Keeping our Silver Edge Sharp
• Sleep Quality & Dementia

Social Inclusion, Exclusion, Inequality

• The Helping Hand of Diversity
• Protecting Vulnerable Adults
• Finding the Path to an Inclusive Society
• Well-being of Singapore Youth …

The Benefits Of Exhibiting Family-Supportive Supervisor Behaviors: An Investigation Of The Effects Of Reducing Supervisors’ Work-Family Conflict, Jacky Jiang

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

The benefits of family-supportive supervisor behavior (FSSB) for subordinates’ work and family outcomes have been the focus of previous studies, but little research has examined the positive impact of FSSB on supervisors’ family outcomes. To address this research gap and contribute to the leader and family literature, the negative relationship between FSSB and work-to-family conflict (WFC) is examined in this study, focusing on the mediating role of personal skill development. In addition, I propose that emotional exhaustion moderates the main effect of FSSB on personal skill development and the indirect effect of FSSB on WFC via personal skill development. A …

When Losing Your Job Feels Like Losing Your Self, Aliya Hamid Rao

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

I interviewed Todd, a marketing professional, in 2014 for my forthcoming book, Crunch Time: How Married Couples Confront Unemployment, which focuses on the unemployment experiences of highly educated, married professionals with children in the U.S. Like dozens of other professionals I interviewed, Todd’s employment is key to his sense of self, determining how he measures his social status and self-worth. Yet, this self-worth is constantly threatened, because professionals like Todd have become recent casualties of a pervasive labor market uncertainty that existed long before the coronavirus pandemic.

Failures Of Flexibility: How Perceived Control Motivates The Individualization Of Work-Life Conflict, Alison T. Wynn, Aliya Hamid Rao

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Firms have increasingly used flexibility policies to facilitate work-life balance, yet existing research shows that employees are stigmatized for using these seemingly beneficial policies. In this article, the authors identify perceived control, that is, the sense of control employees feel they have over managing their work-life conflicts, as a key factor in their avoidance of flexibility policies. Through 50 in-depth interviews with management consultants from five firms, the authors find that employees frame managing their work-life conflicts as a test of their professional skills, emphasize their “natural” suitability for the consulting industry, use choice rhetoric to reframe oppressive work demands …

What’S Love Got To Do With It?: Passion And Inequality At Work, Aliya Hamid Rao, Megan Tobias Neely

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Emotion has become an increasingly important aspect of work in the 21st century. In this article, we take stock of the extant literature delineating the role of emotions, especially passion as a cultural schema, in white‐collar workplaces. Scholars have covered extensive ground on emotions at work, but the role of passion remains an underexplored yet significant area. Drawing from recent developments in research on white‐collar work, we argue that the passion schema has become a critical marker in the labor market for sorting individuals into occupations, hiring and promotion within organizations, and assigning value to people's labor. Emergent research suggests …

From Professionals To Professional Mothers?: How College-Educated, Married Mothers Experience Unemployment In The Us, Aliya Hamid Rao

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Unemployment influences life experiences and outcomes, but how it does so may be shaped by gender and parenthood. Because research on unemployment focuses on men’s experiences of unemployment, it presents as universal a process that may be gendered. This article asks: how do college-educated, heterosexual, married mothers experience involuntary unemployment? Drawing on in-depth interviews with unemployed mothers in the US, their husbands, and follow-up interviews, this article finds that the experience of job loss is tempered for mothers as they derive a culturally valued identity from motherhood which also anchors their lives. Husbands’ support emphasises that employment is one of …

The Stigma That Keeps Consultants From Using Flex Time, Alison T. Wynn, Aliya Hamid Rao

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Part-time options at McKinsey & Company. Mass Career Customization and 3-4-5 travelschedules at Deloitte. Predictable Time Off at Boston Consulting Group.