Coping Strategies And Stress Management: Managers' Experiences With The 'Art Of Living' In Singapore

Studies have identified stress as a central factor that shaping the well-being of employees and organisational performance. As a result many organisations have implemented stress management programmes to enable employees to cope with and reduce stress. However, despite efforts and investment in stress intervention programmes, there is little literature that examines the benefits and impacts of the stress management coping strategies for employees. Using qualitative research methodology, this study examines a sample of working professionals who had attended a specific stress management programme run by the Art of Living (AOL) foundation in Singapore. The study focuses on the „transactional‟ model (Lazarus & Folkman, 1884) that explains the negative psychological state resulting from stress. The findings highlight a preference for stress management coping strategies that can be adopted flexibly to fit the time constraints and lives of workers. The participants identify coping strategies that are helpful, but remain embedded within an organisational and societal context that is the source of stress and remains unchanged. Implications for further research are discussed

School Leadership: A comparison of Singaporean and Indian cases

The role of the principal in transforming a school is a core theme within the education literature on leadership. However, such work is mostly developed in a "Western" cultural environment, representing a particular set of values. This ignores the possibility that although leadership may be universal, the way it is described and practised may differ from culture to culture. Drawing from research carried out in Singapore and India, we present in this article how the teachers and students perceive the transformational effects of the school principals from an organisational and cultural perspective. This qualitative research uses in-depth interviews supplemented by participant observations to understand the influence of cultural variables on the practice of transformational leadership. In one case, despite cultural tensions, the findings suggest that the practice of transformational leadership has facilitated a positive culture in terms of collective learning and connectedness to the workplace and a leader among the organisational members. In the other case, transformational actions influenced sharing and learning and enhanced motivation where the leader consciously focused on creating a culture through actions aimed at achieving the vision which itself was in tune with the context

One Size does not fit all: The Learning Organisation comes to Singapore

In this paper, we question the cross-cultural validity of the key propositions of Learning Organization (LO) theory. Using two Singapore-based case studies, we argue that LO theory as promoted by Senge cannot be culturally neutral nor universally applicable. Rather, it includes a number of assumptions about both 'learning' and 'organization' that are specific to western cultural contexts. After describing the study and key findings, we present two differing commentaries: one from an ‘insider’, a Singaporean practitioner who is the fieldwork researcher, and one from an ‘outsider’ - a non-Singaporean (New Zealand) academic. Our research suggests that the key constructs of the LO are seen as attractive in same ways, but as going against the grain of what is seen as Singapore’s national culture, and that the tensions between ‘Learning Organization’ and ‘Singapore Culture’ make a thorough-going adoption of Senge’s LO principles in Singapore organizations to be impossible

‘Culture’s Consequences’: Implementing Western ideas in an Asian Organisation

This paper briefly reviews the connection between knowledge management and the learning organisation, argues that both concepts rely on culturally embedded theories and practices, and presents a case study of the use of Senge’s learning organisation concepts in one large Singaporean organisation. The analysis of this case reveals the cultural challenges that emerged in the process of applying essentially Western management theories within an Asian culture. In conclusion we discuss the practical implication of these challenges for Singapore organisations, multi-national organisations, and for trans-national consulting advice. In particular, Singaporean respect for power, status and order impacts on knowledge management implementation strategies. Thus, for instance, we suggest same status groups be used for seeking feedback. At a more general level we discuss the choice knowledge management practitioners have between ‘best practice’ versus ‘best fit’ approaches to implementation

School Leadership: A comparison of Singaporean and Indian cases

The role of the principal in transforming a school is a core theme within the education literature on leadership. However, such work is mostly developed in a "Western" cultural environment, representing a particular set of values. This ignores the possibility that although leadership may be universal, the way it is described and practised may differ from culture to culture. Drawing from research carried out in Singapore and India, we present in this article how the teachers and students perceive the transformational effects of the school principals from an organisational and cultural perspective. This qualitative research uses in-depth interviews supplemented by participant observations to understand the influence of cultural variables on the practice of transformational leadership. In one case, despite cultural tensions, the findings suggest that the practice of transformational leadership has facilitated a positive culture in terms of collective learning and connectedness to the workplace and a leader among the organisational members. In the other case, transformational actions influenced sharing and learning and enhanced motivation where the leader consciously focused on creating a culture through actions aimed at achieving the vision which itself was in tune with the context