Business Culture in Singapore

Guide to Singapore Work Culture for Newcomers

Once you've landed your new lucrative, dream-come-true job in Singapore, you'll need to prepare to move overseas so that you can take up your assignment. Before you book your tickets, you should do some intensive research on where you're going and what you can expect in Singapore. This report will help you better understand the work culture in Singapore. For other aspects of life in Singapore, refer to other relevant sections of this website. Although just a tiny dot in map of the world, Singapore - one of the world’s freest economies and an international modern city-state, is not just a dot in map of the world economy. According to IMD World Competitiveness Scoreboard 2007, Singapore came in second just behind the United States of America. |

|

|

Singapore's workforce was ranked highly in the international surveys of the International Institute for Management Development (IMD), Business Environment Risk Intelligence (BERI) and Political & Economic Risk Consultancy (PERC) and World Economic Forum (WEF). In these surveys, Singapore came in first in labour market, first in labour force, first in human resources and second in labour market efficiency.

Working Singaporean Way

Singapore work culture is a unique mix of Asian and Western cultural influences. Singapore is often called as a place where east meets west. These cultural themes bring about unwritten cultural rules and regulations that govern the way Singaporeans act in a place – and in this case, your workplace. The non-interventionist approach taken by the Singapore government provides a relaxed environment for cultural tendencies to predominate.

Large western MNCs located in Singapore will often exhibit predominantly western-style work culture whereas majority of the local government and private companies will have greater influence of traditional Asian culture in their work environment. Local firms are mainly influenced by cultural...