The 2018 National Values Assessment survey, conducted by local business consultancy aAdvantage Consulting Group and Barrett Values Centre (BVC), asked 2,000 Singaporeans what qualities they would like to see in their desired society.

Both organisations jointly conducted similar surveys in 2012 and 2015.

The results were released and discussed on July 30 at a roundtable discussion organised by the Institute of Policy Studies.

Desired Society

The answers for what Singaporeans considered desirable values:

• Affordable Housing
• Care for the elderly
• Compassion
• Care for the disadvantaged
• Effective healthcare
• Caring for the environment
• Dependable public service
• Educational opportunities
• Concern for future generations
• Respect

Some way to go

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However, the survey also found that Singaporeans have quite a negative view of society today.

In case you can't see it, here are the words they chose to describe current society:

• Kiasu (Hokkien word for 'afraid to lose')
• Complaining
• Competitiveness (Hokkien word for 'afraid to die')
• Materialistic
• Educational opportunities
• Blame
• Kiasi (Hokkien word for 'afraid to die')
• Self-centredness
• Care for the elderly
• Effective healthcare

Although there are a number of negative values, educational opportunities, care for the elderly, and effective healthcare were also present on the "Desired Society" list.

It suggests that while the respondents liked some things about our current society, there is still room for improvement.

Higher order values

Associate Professor Tan Ern Ser from the NUS Department of Sociology, who spoke at the roundtable, said that he would give the Singaporean perception of Singaporean society a "C" grade, because it contained mostly negative values.

He added:

"We want society to be better, but we're not quite there yet."

However, Tan also said that the survey results for Singapore's "Desired Society" was encouraging:

"While basic needs will always be important, it is heartening the survey provides evidence that Singaporeans do want our society to be defined by higher order values like Compassion and Respect."

Values while working

Of the 2,000 respondents, 956 answered another two questions about their perception of their current and desired workplace.

All those who answered had worked for at least three months in organisations with at least five employees.

In their current workplace, Singaporeans went for values like "Continuous learning", "Information sharing" and "Balance (home/work)."

But for their desired workplace, Singaporeans cited values like "Employee recognition", "Employee engagement" and "Employee fulfilment."

Said Vincent Ho, Director of aAdvantage Consulting Group during the roundtable:

"There is a strong call for a more fulfilling work experience through coaching/ mentoring, open communications and employee engagement within the organisation.

It would be worthwhile to understand how these can be developed to sustainably meet desired organisational outcomes such as business growth, employee and customer satisfaction."

However, four of the top 10 desired values (Teamwork, Continuous Improvement, Continuous Learning and Home/Work Balance) are currently experienced by Singaporean employees in their organisations.

This suggests that workplaces are "laying a good foundation" that would put them in a good position to meet the needs of both organisations and employees moving forward.

Top image from Pixabay.