ThinkInnovation - A Business Plan for Sustainable Development in Singapore

Purpose

1. In the 2006-2007 Global Competitiveness Report[1], Singapore is ranked the 5th most competitive and the 9th most innovative nation in the world. However, Singapore is behind other innovation-driven economies, like Japan (1st), Israel (8th), Taiwan (9th) and Austria (12th) in the quality of innovation factors necessary in sustaining this level of competition in the long run. These factors include company spending on research and development, availability of scientists and engineers, intellectual property protection, and capacity for innovation. At 15th, Singapore is 7 places ahead of Malaysia with just a difference of 0.10 point between them.

2. ThinkInnovationTM likes to see Singapore becoming the most innovative nation in the world and sustains this leadership position over a long period. To obtain this position, we want to make Singapore the showcase of sustainable development in ASEAN and the Asia-Pacific. This is our purpose.

Vision

3. To fulfil this single purpose, we have to bring to life the following three interrelated visions:

• Small and medium-size enterprises (SME) in Singapore attain sustainable performance through innovative management practices,
  
• Singaporeans have the capability and capacity to sustain high level of personal productivity and well-being in the workforce, society, and community, and
  
• Singapore continues to harbour a rich biosphere that adds to and renews the biological integrity of the planet.

Mission

4. We want to pride ourselves as the leading learning and research centre for sustainable development in the region. We are in the business of Training and Education, Advisory, Facilitation and Coaching, and Consulting (TAFCTM). Our learning specialists and intervention experts will provide these engagements to enterprises, groups, and individuals who want to work towards realising their sustainable futures.

5. ThinkInnovationTM assists these stakeholders by:

• Influencing their mindsets and attitudes for a more sustainable economy, society and ecology through the adoption and diffusion of innovations that sustain development,




• Shaping the behaviours of organisations, groups, and individuals by publicly acknowledging and recognising their work and contribution in creating sustainable futures,




• Building creativity, innovation and entrepreneurial capability and capacity in sustainability oriented organisations, groups, and individuals,




• Providing pathways for ideas of sustainability to mature into innovations for commercial adoption and diffusion,




• Bringing commercially viable innovations to the market in a effective and efficient manner, and




• Developing an innovation process, which organisations, groups, and individuals could adopt and benchmark for driving sustainable development and growth.

Values

6. We recognise the need for cooperation and collaboration by many different entities and stakeholders bring these three visions into existence, and therefore, we encourage parties undertaking in this venture to ascribe to the following values:

• We do not do anything we do not want others to do on us.
  
• When we feel it is not right, it is not necessary the same for the rest.
  
• Openness is in the space of the listener. Feel free to speak your mind.
  
• We help. We do not sell. Not everyone wants us and it is alright. There are always other ethical ways to help.
  
• We do not give up when we did not get it right the first time. We will try again because we are fighting for a future for ourselves and for the children of our children.

Goals

7. Our goals in the next 5 years are to:

• Establish Singapore as the centre for learning and research on sustainable development in Asia-Pacific,
  
• Create the Singapore chapter of the Sustainable Development International [2], culminating to the organisation of the 1st Asia Pacific Sustainability Conference in Singapore in 2010, and
  
• Create an on-line community of learning specialists, intervention experts, and practitioners of sustainable development from different parts of Asia-Pacific for the purpose of exchanging knowledge, sharing best practices, and benchmarking performances.

Objectives

8. To start meeting the requirements of the 5-year goals, ThinkInnovationTM has the following objectives for this financial year, starting from September 2007 and ending on 31st August 2008:

• Form the Community of Practice (CoP) of learning specialists, intervention experts and practitioners who advocate the use of enterprise, social, and personal innovations for sustainable development,




• Introduce the Sustainable Development Framework in Singapore (SDF@SGTM), and through this framework, launch of the first wave of learning and intervention services for individuals, teams and enterprises for business, societal and community, and ecological sustainability. and




• Create a platform that generates and showcases innovations in sustainable development in Singapore.

ThinkInnovationTM’s Boarder Environment

9. By analysing the political, economical, social and technological issues surrounding sustainable development and sustainable futures, we are able to unveil several pivotal considerations for ThinkInnovationTM. I will highlight only the key elements in this essay. The header at the beginning of each section in this segment of the essay is the summary of the key elements presented in that section.

Need for Sustainability is Gaining a Political Voice and Will

10. The democratisation of technology, information, and finance [3] has helped raise the concerns of global warming and its impact on societies. Increasingly, these concerns have moved into the public domain and mainstream debates.

11. The sciences surrounding global warning have went past arguments on whether the planet is in a state of entropy struggling for homeostasis or the change is irreversible. Scientists have recognised the debilitating effects of erratic climate on ecology and societies. They are lobbying for businesses to restraint practices that hurt these entities, and calling governments to prepare their populace for the impact of the change.

12. As people are becoming aware of the change and learning there is no escape from its impact. They are making their governments responsible for the past and present policies that caused the mismanagement their natural resources, which brought them calamities. Constituents have moved from rhetoric to voting for management practices and industrial regulations that enable progress and growth in the long run.

13. This voice and will of the people, as shown in the recent massive turn out of supporters at the 24-hour Live Earth, the Concerts for a Climate in Crisis [4], that was televised globally and streamed over MSN, has been acknowledged by the politicians and they are using sustainability and sustainable futures as their political ticket [5] into government.

Evidence of Business Economies in Sustainable Development

14. Increasingly, studies have shown that management practices [6] that are friendly to her workforce, society, community, and ecology help deliver profit performance in businesses. In some industries, like the energy sector, best practices are shared and performances are benchmarked through sustainability dashboards at the industry level.

15. Business leaders in various industries are either making sustainable development their signature management process [7] or deploying technologies that promote sustainability [8]. Their involvement is expected to have multiplier effects within their immediate business community and catalytic influence on adjacent industries as well.

16. Developed countries and their corporations, which had depended on traditional sources of energy, are facing nationalistic third world countries willing and wanting control over the exploration, exploitation, and distribution [9] of their natural resources. Faced with this supply squeeze, developed nations are keen to work with friendly countries to generate alternative energy sources to rebalance their bargaining power with these nationalistic countries. To sustain the new balance, these governments have instituted regulations and incentives to encourage their multinationals to adopt operational models that exploit the use of these new energy resources. Given the cost of maintaining the old practices, it makes business sense to move into production methodologies that are sustainable in nature and come with lower operating costs.

Effects of Global Warming are Felt Everywhere

17. The weather system has changed significantly to affect crop production and yield [10]. This impacted the distribution of wealth in the region. Countries have to face cyclical rounds of early or late seasons, frequent and stronger tropical storms, rising temperature and melting ice caps, and drying rivers caused by the disappearance of glacial. The droughts, floods, hunger and diseases have devastated lives, even by those far removed from these events.

18. There has been a significant change in the way people see corporate performance, social well-being and global warming. Instead of making third world nations culpable for the destruction of their rainforests, people in the developed nations are taking to lobbying their own governments to recognise that capitalism is equally culpable in this vicious cycle of change [11].

Rise of Eco-Innovations for Sustainable Development

19. Many technologies useful for sustainable development have matured. Either their production technology has attained a certain level of economies that drives production costs down, thereby allowing for mass adoption and diffusion of the technology, or the performance of the technology has reached an acceptable level of efficiency to rival the current ones, making the cost of switching to alternatives sensible [12].

20. The early success in the adoption and diffusion of these technologies in the market has attracted many investments [13] into creating alternative ways of organisation and capitalism [14]. These economic benefits motivate corporations to continue the use of these eco-innovations. Government regulations and incentives have made their commercialisation conduced at greater ease.

ThinkInnovationTM‘s Immediate Environment

Industry Analysis

21. According to the general household survey conducted in Singapore in 2005 by the Department of Statistics (Ministry of Trade and Industry), as of June that year, Singapore’s population was 4.35 million. This represents a 1.6% growth per year since 2000. The resident population has grown older and about 1.2 million are between ages of 25 and 44 years (Table 1), which is 33.7% of nation’s total population. This represents an average annual growth of only 0.2% since 2000.

Table 1: Resident Population by Age Group
(Source: General Household Survey 2005. Statistical Release 1: Socio-Demographic and Economic Characteristics. Release date: 14 Jun 2006. © Department of Statistics, Ministry of Trade and Industry, Republic of Singapore)

22. The survey also shows that the nation’s total labour force is 2.37 million (Table 2) with more female joining the workforce in the last 5 years (an average annual growth of 2.3%) and more males becoming economically inactive (an average annual growth of 4.4%) in the same period.

Table 2: Persons Aged 15 Years and Over by Sex and Activity Status
(Source: General Household Survey 2005. Statistical Release 1: Socio-Demographic and Economic Characteristics. Release date: 14 Jun 2006. © Department of Statistics, Ministry of Trade and Industry, Republic of Singapore)

23. In these numbers, those with secondary and upper secondary qualifications (Table 3) have a higher tendency to continue their education, and males are more likely to do this than females.

Table 3: Proportion Who Acquired Technical, Commercial or Vocational Qualification Among Resident Non-Students Aged 15 Years and Over By Highest Academic Qualification and Sex
(Source: General Household Survey 2005. Statistical Release 1: Socio-Demographic and Economic Characteristics. Release date: 14 Jun 2006. © Department of Statistics, Ministry of Trade and Industry, Republic of Singapore)

24. The survey also found that younger adults in their twenties and thirties (Table 4) have a higher propensity to advance their education.

Table 4: Proportion Who Acquired Technical, Commercial or Vocational Qualification Among Resident Non-Students with Upper Secondary or Lower Qualification by Age Group
(Source: General Household Survey 2005. Statistical Release 1: Socio-Demographic and Economic Characteristics. Release date: 14 Jun 2006. © Department of Statistics, Ministry of Trade and Industry, Republic of Singapore)

25. The survey reported that the occupational groups with the largest employment gains are from the higher skilled managerial, professional and technical occupational groups (Table 5).

Table 5: Occupations with Largest Increase in Number of Resident Working Persons Between 2000 and 2005
(Source: General Household Survey 2005. Statistical Release 1: Socio-Demographic and Economic Characteristics. Release date: 14 Jun 2006. © Department of Statistics, Ministry of Trade and Industry, Republic of Singapore)

26. In these occupational groups, 63% are male while the rest are females (Table 6)

Table 6: Resident Working Persons Aged 15 Years and Over by Occupation and Sex
(Source: General Household Survey 2005. Statistical Release 1: Socio-Demographic and Economic Characteristics. Release date: 14 Jun 2006. © Department of Statistics, Ministry of Trade and Industry, Republic of Singapore)

27. In addition, 61% of the workforce between ages of 25 and 34, and 48% of the workforce between ages of 35 and 44 held these managerial, professional and technical positions (Table 7).

Table 7: Resident Working Persons by Age Group and Occupation, 2005
(Source: General Household Survey 2005. Statistical Release 1: Socio-Demographic and Economic Characteristics. Release date: 14 Jun 2006. © Department of Statistics, Ministry of Trade and Industry, Republic of Singapore)

28. This data and information leads us to conclude that:

• Singaporeans, who are economically active, male, between ages of 20 and 34, and in high growth managerial, professional and technical occupational groups, are suitable target audience for the TAFCTM services. This is because they have the discretionary income to advance their education after joining the workforce.
  
• However, the population growth for this age group has almost stagnated (an average annual growth of only 0.2% since 2000) and coupled with a deficit in growth rates for the under 15’s in the last five years, the market is unlikely to grow in size in the foreseeable future.
  
• While the number of female managers, professionals, and technicians entering the labour market has increased and this growth is 3.4 times more than their male counterparts, they tend not to invest in their own education after joining the job market. Therefore, we have a potential market that is increasing in size which demands less of the TAFCTM services.

Competitor Analysis

29. After analysing the demand side of the industry, we will now look at the supply side and the nature of the competition there. According to the Singapore Yellow Pages [15], there are 81 TAFCTM sole proprietors and companies providing design and development services for training. Unlike the medical and legal services, there are no regulatory bodies administrating and enforcing ethical and service standards on these TAFCTM practitioners. This caused the industry to be highly unstructured and fragmented. Sole proprietors and companies providing these services tends to operate less professionally and eschewed towards servicing the public sector, which is the key spender of TAFCTM services of every nature in Singapore.

30. There are several key operating characteristics that define the competition:

• There is a gestation period between the acquisition of an intervention methodology or technology to its local commercialisation. The purpose of this delay is to ascertain their usefulness, and to determine the ability of the learning specialist and intervention expert in delivering the outcomes under local conditions. Since their reputation is largely based on their successful delivery of the promised outcomes, should they fail, the reputation of the TAFCTM companies and future of the product in the market will be affected. Only larger TAFCTM companies which are more professionally run are able to create product and service portfolios to spread their reputation and financial risks.
  
• As most TAFCTM services have to be delivered personally by the learning specialist or intervention expert, there will be limitations as to where the service could be delivered and frequency the same service could be delivered by the same provider in a given period. This is a problem of time, space and location. If they choose not to licence the methodology or technology, the TAFCTM companies will have difficulties using the product to penetrate the market quickly.
  
• TAFCTM companies depends on the learning specialists and intervention experts to provide their time and service. Their earning abilities depend on how efficient this capacity is deployed. This discourages companies’ and subject matter experts from putting aside time to acquire knowledge beyond their current specialisation. This reduces their flexibility to move to other more profitable branches of management science.
  
• With low start-up and maintenance costs, these learning specialists and intervention experts can easily enter the market. However, they do not have access to a variety of pricing schemes, like cross pricing and subsidising, which are available to larger TAFCTM companies. They will have to compete mainly on price. This creates intense rivalry among TAFCTM companies in the market. As the services and quality of the delivery are undifferentiated, buyers face very low switching costs when moving between different TAFCTM companies, and are highly price elastic.
  
• There has been flux of outsourcing since 2000 in both the public and private sector. This has concentrated human resource functions, include training and development, to a few key players in the market, and they are able to negotiate for better prices for the TAFCTM services given the volume of the purchase they now command.

31. There have been some recent developments that begin to cause the development of some structure in the industry. There developments are:

• SMEs in Singapore have absorbed many of the unemployed workforce caused by the scale down of operations in multi-nationals in Singapore. However, SMEs contribute only 14% of the nation's GDP. There is a renewed interest in upgrading their productivity, and recently, funds have been set aside by the government for training and development.
  
• As more private sector companies progressively developing temporal and contractual based working arrangement with their workforce, and organisations in the public sector shift from long term employment to employability, we are seeing more people entering the TAFCTM industry to either supplement their income or to stay permanently to continue serving their previous organisations in a different capacity.
  
• With more Free Trade Agreements concluded and favourable immigration policies to reverse the nation's declining and ageing population, we will see an influx of TAFCTM providers from overseas entering the supply chain.
  
• The economies of regional countries are growing phenomenally. China and Vietnam reported double digit performance, and even Cambodia are benefiting from tourism and the rise of the middle class. The demand for TAFCTM services will rise exponentially. This prompted a governmental effort to sell Singapore's brand of effective and efficient resource management philosophies and methodologies in these developing countries. This has led to foreign businesses and foreigners coming to Singapore to provide and receive training and development.
  
• With lower start-up and operating cost, the Internet has been used to overcome the constraints of time, space and location. It has provided wider reach of the TAFCTM products and services beyond the shore of the nation.

32. These have forced the TAFCTM providers in Singapore to organise themselves into loose networks and tight alliance to better position themselves to ride the business opportunities arising from these developments. The market has begun to structure along these lines (Table 8) in the past 12 months - ‘level of specialisation’ and ‘level of generalisation’:

Table 8: Structure of the TAFCTM Market

ThinkInnovationTM‘s Internal Environment

33. While looking at the internal environment of ThinkInnovationTM, the following strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats are uncovered. Again, like in the previous segment, the headers describe the conclusions drawn from the sections in this analysis.

An Unlocked Position to Experiment

34. ThinkInnovationTM is not locked in any kind of old management paradigms, legacy practices, or expired operating architectures that restrict her from organising herself in the most effective and efficient way to meet the needs [16] of the industries.

35. The founding members are eclectic but they have the passion, commitment, knowledge, capabilities, and competencies to help individuals, groups and enterprises to adopt sustainable practices to attain their own sustainable futures. Given their diverse background, they are able to bring together a unique blend of organisational and social capital from various sources from which the knowledge could be brought to the industries.

Challenges of a Start-up

36. Being a new start-up enterprise, ThinkInnovationTM does not have the advantage of being a brand known and recognised for educating and intervening for sustainable development.
37. While there are some funds brought together by the founders to begin basic operations like marketing and generating leads, the need to meet regular financial demands like client and product development to day-to-day operations beyond the three months after the start-up continues to be a challenge.

Demand for Business Performance Sustainability

38. The local government will continue to lead, regulate, and mandate [17] businesses to operate in a sustainable way. Already, criteria for sustainability are imbued into the national certification programmes like Singapore Quality Class [18]. Tax breaks have been given to businesses with socially responsible and environmentally sound practices. Companies have been recognised for having human resource practices that are pro-family [19].

39. These government level interventions have resulted in the demand for the know-how in kick starting sustainability in enterprises [20].

Dangers of Subnormal Profits

40. The more established TAFCTM companies in Singapore could leverage on their pool of TAFCTM providers, current level of market penetration, and brand reputation to conduct product and service extensions to enter and skim this niche market. Given the low entry barriers, sole proprietors could enter the market at ease. ThinkInnovationTM has to operate between these two kinds of competitors. There is a possibility that we could earn subnormal profits within 6 months of operation if we do not have any anti-rivalry strategies.

41. As there are not many local consultants capable of delivering in depth solutions for sustainable development, the competition for the supply of these kind of intervention experts will increases the cost of hiring them and this either reduces the profit margin or put the tender price out of reach of many clients..

Key Success Factors

42. To succeed in the TAFCTM market, we must have control of:

• Production. We must have the capability and capacity to create, customise, develop, and deliver the methodologies and technologies of intervention in the local market. This mastery helps us to avoid the pitfalls of overly relying on the learning specialists and intervention experts. This reduces their bargaining power.
  
• Source. We have to control the sources from which the unique vehicles of intervention are created. This assures the company an uninterrupted supply of intervention vehicles over the long run. It also restricts the flood of competitive products and services in the market. We seek to collaborate with the source to co-create interventions that are adapted to location conditions, and in the process acquire the rights to exclusively use the. This can be carried out through dealership, establishment of representative offices, acquisition of their intellectual property rights, or licensing agreements.
  
• Reputation. The company has to fulfil all her delivery promises, and value-add her clients. Besides quality of delivery, reputation can be established through serious attempts to associate ThinkInnovationTM with regional and international organisations already known for researching, developing, and creating sustainable futures for organisations, groups, and individuals. The company will establish itself as the leading learning and research centre for sustainable development in ASEAN and the Asia-Pacific in the next 5 years. We should also lobby for the regulation of TAFCTM professionals to increase the barriers into the industry. We should co-opt our competitors into our operations to reduce the rivalry in the industry.
  
• Mindspace. We should create social platforms for the exchange of ideas and knowledge between researchers, policy makers, practitioners and lobbyists of sustainable development and futures so that we can be positioned as the voice in this branch of organisational, social and ecological development.
  
• Blue Ocean. We will make every attempt to adopt blue ocean strategies to create new uncontested markets for the TAFCTM of sustainable development and futures. In doing so, we can enlarge the scope of the market, which will increase our flexibility in repositioning ourselves should the current market becomes heavily competitive.

Market Entry Strategy

43. The market can be segmented by the types of entities (enterprises, groups, or individuals) in sustainable development and the types of sustainable outcome (business productivity and profitability, societal and community well-being, or ecological stability and growth) these entities are striving to achieve.

44. Along these lines, we can divide the market into nine distinct groups and each of these is described in the table (Table 9) below:

Table 9: Nine Distinct Segments of the Sustainability Market

45. In thinking about the ambitious goals and objectives to be achieved in the next five years and within this financial year respectively, ThinkInnovationTM will springboard from the ‘Business-based Groups’ segment of the market. Given the time horizons, this is the best place where our resources could be combined in a way that gives us the best multiplier and catalytic effects in penetrating the segment, gaining a foothold, and building enough of strength to launch effectively and efficiently into adjacent market segments.

The Business Strategies for ThinkInnovationTM is withheld for confidentiality reasons.

This article was first written on 24 Jul 2007.

References

[1] 2006-2007 Global Competitiveness Report, http://www.weforum.org/en/initiatives/gcp/Global%20Competitiveness%20Report/index.htm

[2] Sustainable Development International, http://www.sustdev.org/

[3] Thomas Friedman, The Lexus and the Olive Tree

[4] Live Earth, the Concerts for a Climate in Crisis, http://www.liveearth.org/event.php

[5] President Bush Discusses Global Climate Change, http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/06/ 20010611-2.html

[6] Hargroves & Smith (2005), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainability

[7] BP sustainability assessment could blaze a trail. CIMA-funded research highlights a BP model that could lead the way in calculating sustainability. By Liz Murby, technical issues manager, CIMA. , http://www.cimaglobal.com/cps/rde/xchg/SID-0AAAC564-4401A18/live/root.xsl/Insight051888_2578.htm

[8] Roundtable on Science and Technology for Sustainability, http://www7.nationalacademies.org/sustainabilityroundtable/Sustainability_Roundtable_Homepage.html

[9] Energy Dreams and Energy Realities, Stephanie Cohen, The New Atlantis The Journal of Technology and Society NUMBER 5 ~ SPRING 2004, http://www.thenewatlantis.com/archive/5/cohen.htm

[10] Will Global Warming Improve Crop Production? Science Daily, September 19, 2002, http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/09/020919065913.htm

[11] Capitalism and Global Warming, Feature Article by Jacob Middleton, November 2005, Socialist Review, http://www.socialistreview.org.uk/article.php?articlenumber=9583

[12] Hart SL. 2005. Capitalism at the Crossroads: The unlimited business opportunities from solving the world's most difficult problems, Wharton School Publishing, Pennsylvania. Wharton School Publishing, Upper Saddle River, NJ, 2005.

[13] Government support for sustainable innovation and environmental technologies, http://www.sustainable-development.gov.uk/advice/business/innovations.htm#innovation

[14] James P. Walsh, Alan D. Meyer, Claudia Bird Schoonhoven, A Future for Organization Theory: Living in and Living with Changing Organizations. Walsh et al. ORGANIZATION SCIENCE.2006; 17: 657-671, ORGANIZATION SCIENCE Vol. 17, No. 5, September-October 2006, pp. 657-671 http://orgsci.journal.informs.org/cgi/content/abstract/17/5/657

[15] http://www.yellowpages.com.sg/newiyp/yp/jsp/index.jsp

[16] Keynote address on "Major trends in sustainable energy in Asia" by Guest-of-Honour, Dr Amy Khor, Senior Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources, at the Sustainable Energy Asia Congress and Exhibition on 12 June 2007 at 9.25am, MEWR News Release: 28/2007
Date of Release: 12/06/2007, http://app.mewr.gov.sg/view.asp?id=CDS5456

[17] Singapore Retailers Go Green, 11 stores join campaign to use fewer plastic bags, JOINT NEA-SRA-SEC PRESS RELEASE, NEWS RELEASE NO: 42/2002, DATE OF ISSUE: 29 November 2002
http://app.nea.gov.sg/cms/htdocs/article.asp?pid=2068

[18] Singapore Quality Class, http://www.spring.gov.sg/Content/WebPage.aspx?id=891ae682-fca7-4645-b868-3538d0e09902

[19] Singapore Unveils Scheme To Accredit Pro-Family Businesses, EnterpriseOne, Thursday, 26 October 2006 http://www.business.gov.sg/EN/News/Oct2006/20061026Singapor.htm

[20] Singapore to invest in 'clean energy' industry, Sustainable Investment Research Platform, 16 March 2007, http://www.sirp.se/home/news.asp?sid=933&mid=3&NewsId=15379&Page=5

Copyright 2007. Anthony Mok. All Rights Reserved.

A Folio Presentation - Research Interest & Researchable Questions

Research Interest

Innovative enterprises are more predisposed to engage in practices of sustainable development.

1. In this research, I am interested in finding out if enterprises that are innovative are more predisposed to engage in practices of sustainable development.

2. If this hypothesis is true, it may confirm that enterprises that are innovative do develop along some pre-determined lifecycles, and it suggests that after becoming innovative enterprises, in their next stage of growth, they are more likely to adopt sustainable development strategies to achieve favourable but balanced financial, social, and environmental bottom-lines.

3. This knowledge may encourage practitioners of organisational development and transformation to focus their efforts in making enterprises innovative than sustainable, and let the natural lifecycles of enterprises push these entities toward sustainability.

Research Purpose

Methodologies could be developed to replicate this switching action in innovative entities currently looking for new avenues of growth.

4. In September 2002, I led a small team on an overseas tour to study and understand the mechanisms that made an individual creative, and a group and an organisation innovative. We were looking for methods that could help public entities in Singapore which were steeped in the culture of continuous improvement to innovate.

5. The trip took us from the east to the west coast of the United States of America. We visited government agencies, like the Pentagon and the US Navy Strategic Studies Organisation; Universities and research centres like Harvard, MIT, George Washington University, Berkeley University, and Cap Gemini Ernest and Young's Centre for Business Innovation; and global companies, like Solectron, General Motors, General Electric, and 3M.

6. Although a large number of entities we had visited were practicing innovation, had innovative cultures, or were creating innovative products and services, these entities were at lost in describing and explaining how they reached this state of development. They were unable to advise aspiring organisations on how they too could be innovative. I believe this research could inform on the changes to this situation six years on and provide the answers to my research questions, which I will present later in the essay.

7. At about the same time I was overseas, the literature on innovation that I studied was found to be fragmented and overly specialised. They covered the peripheral elements of innovation but none was able to provide a complete articulation of what made entities innovative. At the end of the trip, the team was able to postulate that entities that wished to be innovative had to build, manage, and sustain through time at least ten critical cultural factors. I like to find out, through this research, if our findings in 2002 remain valid after six years.

8. More importantly, I hope my efforts could help me uncover newly published research works on innovation that describe and explain the relationships between innovation and sustainability. If the hypothesis of innovative entities having higher tendency to engage in sustainable activities could be established, efforts could be carried out later to study why and how these entities made the switch. Methodologies could be developed to replicate this switching action in innovative entities currently looking for new avenues of growth.

Researchable Questions

Explain why these make them more likely to engage in practices of sustainable development.

9. To do this research, I need to look for answers for the following related questions. I hope that by answering these, I am able to explore the inner workings of innovative enterprises, describe the organisational dynamics at work, and explain why these make them more likely to engage in practices of sustainable development. These questions are:

• Is there such a thing as an innovative enterprise?
  
• What are the unique attributes that make these enterprises innovative?


• What does the literature inform on the lifecycles of enterprises?
  
• Are innovative enterprises more predisposed to engage in practices of sustainable development?
  

Why are innovative enterprises more inclined to do so?

Research Information Type

10. The research will engage two main types of information. These are:

• Primary Information. I will use the original and first hand presentations of speeches, interviews, surveys, memoirs, autobiographies, articles, and books that describe an event to enable me to 'return' to the past to get a closer look at the historical events or time periods that are of interest to this research.
  
• Secondary Information. Most of the literature used in this research will fall in this category. These are reports, analyses and commentaries which are second-hand interpretations of the actual events. I will use this collective wisdom to examine the phenomenon of innovative entities to draw my own conclusions about what I am searching for.
  

11. I will access these two types of information through the university’s wide collection of databases available on the on-line library (Picture 1). I have been using ERIC and ProQuest for most my searches and they will continue to be predominantly applied for the rest of the assignment. I have found that the Endnote Programme is useful and it will be the only referencing tool engaged for this piece of research (although I hope that the developers come up with the PDA version given how mobile Singapore students are). The initial keywords used for the searches will be – ‘creativity’, ‘innovation’, ‘innovative’, ‘enterprises’, ‘organisation’, ‘organizations’, ‘characteristics’, ‘non-innovative’, ‘lifecycles’, ‘life cycle’, ‘sustainability’, ‘sustainable development’ and ‘sustainable practices’. Picture 2 shows an example of a search carried out with ERIC using some of these keywords.

Research Information Strategy

12. From this body of knowledge, I like to look for information that:

• Provides evidence that innovative enterprises exist as a separate management category. I will do a count of the number of literature written on innovative enterprises. The count will be sliced according to the prestige of these journals and the accumulated number of literatures on innovative enterprises found in these publications. I will limit my initial search to five journals to get a sense if this search needs to be widened. Picture 3 and Table 1 show the results of this search.

• Informs on the unique attributes of innovative enterprises. I will look for literature that informs on the characteristics of innovative enterprises, like organisation cultures, group norms, and work preferences. During the search, I will try to uncover if there are commonalities and differences in these characteristics among enterprises of varying sizes, organisational arrangements, industrial categories, and economic systems. Picture 4 and Table 2 are the outcomes of this phase of the research exercise.
  
  

Expounds the lifecycles of enterprises. I will need to study the sciences behind business or enterprise lifecycles. It will be interesting to find out the propositions and oppositions of this management theory. Picture 5 and Table 3 provide a record of the work done for this section.

• Shows innovative enterprises are more predisposed to adopt practices of sustainable development. The availability of empirical evidence in explaining the reasons for this tendency will be extremely useful. I have to inspect their methodologies to determine if their conclusions are believable and cross references will be made to determine their reliability. Picture 6 and Table 4 provide evidence of the preliminary work carried out for this stage of the research.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Conclusion

More information is needed before the exact wordings of my researchable questions could be fixed.

13. The initial work I have conducted suggests that there are many gaps in my knowledge about my research interest. There are many other questions arising in the process of collecting information from the databases, like, ‘why are innovative organisations different from the non-innovation ones?’ and ‘is it important to study the factors that drive enterprises to adopt sustainable practices?’ More information is needed before I decide if I wish to stick with the current set of research questions or rework them.

14. Also, there is a need to re-examine and narrow the research interest as the initial literature review suggests that there are several kinds (technological, social, and organisational) of innovation driven enterprises. My sense is that I may not have to generalise the research.

15. Finally, I have to accept that there may not be sufficient information and evidence in the literature to suggest that innovative enterprises has a higher propensity to adopt sustainable practices and eventually become sustainable organisations. I may have to go beyond desk research to establish the link.

Reflections

……. but nothing is wasted as I am building on the shoulders of others and those of my own.

16. I feel that the assignment and the associated deadline provide me the space to think about my research interest. It forces me to examine the body of knowledge and the collective wisdom found in the literature, and to question what exactly I am trying to do through my research. It is objective because the facts present the options but is it also heart wrenching because after struggling to get the words onto paper, I realised that I may have to put all these 3,000 plus words aside to start afresh as clarity refines the research interest and the researchable questions.

17. It is this danger of having to go back to the drawing board that really excites me because I have, in the process, not just acquired knowledge but also created new ones. It is from these offshoots that my eventual research may begin. However, nothing is wasted as I am building on the shoulders of others and those of my own. I like to thank you and the University for creating the experience and motivation in me to think critically about these.

This initial research proposal was first written on 4 Sept 2007.

Copyright 2007. Anthony Mok. All Rights Reserved

The Key Sustainability Arguments Underpinning the Triple Bottom Line Approach to Resource Management

Background

1. I am required to write an essay of 3,000 to 4,000 words to describe and analyse the key sustainability arguments that underpin the triple bottom line approach to resource management. I have to draw on an organisation, which I am familiar with, to provide examples and evaluate to what extent the organisation is planning and developing sustainable resource management.

Introduction

2. Drawing on recent research, I will:

a. Highlight the key aspects of sustainability, sustainable development, and the triple bottom line approach to resource management,

b. Make the relationships of these elements in creating sustainable futures the focus of the essay,

c. Examine the issues arising from these relationships from a number of perspectives, and

d. Evaluate an organisation and using the insights from my readings to critically demonstrate my knowledge on sustainability.

3. Given these objectives, the essay will be developed in the following manner with these sub-headers:

a. Definitions – Understanding the Terms. Here, the generic descriptions of sustainability, sustainable development, sustainable futures, and sustainable corporation are provided,

b. Relationship – The Triple Bottom Line Approach to Resource Management and Sustainable Futures. In this segment, the relationship of resource management, sustainable futures, and triple bottom line is discussed and ascertained,

c. Sustainability – The General Argument. Towards the middle of the essay, a layman view for sustainability is presented to provide an access into a more in-depth and insightful discussion of the issues at hand,

d. Issues – Looking from Different Perspectives. Three key perspectives - self interest, instrumentation, and integration, on the arguments for sustainability are presented to provide a deeper appreciation of the complexities of the issues involved, and

e. An assessment - Organisation X[1]’s Triple Bottom Line. A critical evaluation of Organisation X’s planning and development approaches to sustainable resource management.

f. Conclusion – Putting It All Together. At the end of the essay, I will round off with a summary of all that have been presented.

Definitions – Understanding the Terms

‘Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’
Brundtland Report (WCED, 1987)

4. While I agreed with Diesendorf (Dunphy, Benveniste, Griffiths, & Sutton (2000):22) that sustainability, sustainable futures, sustainable development, and sustainable corporation may not be as accurately defined as ‘the standard metre’ but for the sake of presenting my ideas in the essay, I will take the risk of doing so by drawing on recent research on sustainability. These four terms could be viewed in the following ways (Figure 1):
[1] The identity of Organisation X is not exposed owing to the sensitivity of the information to be revealed.

a. Sustainable futures are futures that have attained sustainability through the process of sustainable development. Achieving this end goal is not an overnight occurrence but an event that is developed through a number of phases, which begins with rejection, to compliance, and to the final phase of ideological commitment (Dunphy, Benveniste, Griffiths, & Sutton (2000):15). The general attributes of these futures include the:

i. Understanding that the economy and society will depends ultimately on the integrity of the biosphere and the ecological processes occurring within it. These futures are not off-springs of competitive trade-offs but of synergistic co-existence,

ii. Balancing of the intra-generational and inter-generational aspirations and needs of the organisations, human beings and communities, and ecology, and

iii. Co-operating and collaborating organisational, human and ecological resources to enhance economic performance and promote social well-being while protecting and renewing the ecology at the same time.

b. In order to reach these sustainable futures, we need sustainable development. The Brundtland Report (WCED, 1987) describes sustainable development as not allowing the current generation, in the process of meeting their needs, from depriving the ‘ability’ of future generations from ‘meeting their own needs’. It does not say that the current generation has to sacrifice itself for the future. However, it does strongly suggest the need for creativity in finding ideas, innovativeness in creating solutions (Dunphy, Benveniste, Griffiths, & Sutton (2000):41), and entrepreneurship in bringing the solution to where they are needed in the spirit of building a inclusive ‘us’ and ‘them’ future than resolving the conflicts and tension arising from the exclusive divide of ‘us’ or ‘them’. In addition, Diesendorf (Dunphy, Benveniste, Griffiths, & Sutton (2000):23) stated that any economical and social development that does not protect and enhance the environment and social equity is not sustainable development. His definition includes, in the process, the role of protecting and enhancing the natural environment and social well-being. Therefore, sustainable development is the process where these missions are carried out in ensuing that there is equity between current and future generations, and that today’s practices of sound environmental management, just society, and healthy economy are installed to ensure that future generations continue to enjoy economic, social and ecological well-being. In doing so, both intra-generational and inter-generational aspirations are given equal considerations.

c. In the end, sustainability is a state of affairs, where the process of sustainable development allows the earth, corporation, and society to reach homeostasis (Dunphy, Benveniste, Griffiths, & Sutton (2000):6). In this equilibratory world, the biosphere is protected and renewed, human capability and skills are built for community and societal well-being, and organisations are able to continue high level of economic performance.

d. Corporations, besides the government and society, is now the most powerful establishment in the world to affect change (Spiller (2000)). Sustainable corporations are those establishments capable of infusing the concepts of sustainable development into the management consciousness (Dunphy, Benveniste, Griffiths, & Sutton (2000):272), organisation and structures for resource management, and processes and operations of resource deployment to reach sustainable outcomes.

Relationship – The Triple Bottom Line Approach to Resource Management and Sustainable Futures

‘Firms……, will perform better in the long run than those that are not able to achieve this synergy between exploitation and creation’ Connor (2002:p309)

5. Traditionally, I would define a resource as a factor of production that is tangible but scarce. In my recent readings, this view of resource took on a dramatic change. Products and services, and the material used to create them are no longer seen as resources capable of creating sustainable value themselves (Connor (2002)). Factors that are capable of producing catalytic and multiplier effects on any other given set of resources have become the new strategic resource in today's fast changing economical, social and ecological environment. They are characterised by their ability to uniquely bind traditional resources together and have the capacity to affect their catalytic and multiplier potential as an entity. The lead component that constantly and consistency appears in the readings are the ability of humans (Connor (2002)) in combining and recombining these resources to produce beyond their capacity. This knowledge-based and intangible resource is not necessary naturally endowed by the size or the quality of the land, but arrived through long term policies of nation building. With the world in acute globalisation, this production unit is highly transportable even though the competency and skills embedded in it may not be transferable. Securing this production unit is the new competitive advantage of the 21st century.

6. This is crux that differentiates the popular model of fitting organisation to the environment (Porter (1997)) from the resource based view of looking internally at what the organisation has to offer as resources and applying them creatively and innovatively to the environment to make them work for the organisation. As employees take over from the organisations the rein of value creation, we also see the switch in the bargaining power from the buyers to sellers. Employees can now choose to withhold value until the right environment exists (Dunphy, Benveniste, Griffiths, & Sutton (2000):100), just like organisations can choose to withhold products and services from the market. It is therefore important that they are encouraged to stay loyal and committed to their organisations in order that the organisations are capable of maintaining high performance through their productivity and contribution.

7. However, in the search for productivity and profitability, organisations in the past decade had engaged in measures of mergers, acquisitions, downsizing, and outsourcing to maximise shareholder value, which has eroded the traditional relational and transactional based psychological contracts with their employees. In a resized and restructured organisation, the employer is no longer able to guarantee long term employment and offer promotions as incentives in return for commitment and personal output. The reactions to these developments have been vast for both the ‘victims’ and ‘survivors’ (Dunphy, Benveniste, Griffiths, & Sutton (2000):108) of organisational restructuring. They have begun withdrawing their loyalty, commitment and productivity from their organisations (Connor (2002)), and there is a ‘battle’ to regain the trust of the employees that is lost to the employers because of these changes. While there are attempts to replace the old psychological contracts (Maguire (2002)) with a more relationship based version, the transition between the two may take some time as Baby Boomers and Generation X are still not acquainted with the reality they are facing in the new age of Click and Go. In the meantime, these employees will choose to survive with the incentive-based transactional aspects (Dunphy, Benveniste, Griffiths, & Sutton (2000):93) of the contract while letting go the relational component in order to re-establish the equity between rewards and contribution. It is here that the dilemma begins. We know that human is the most important part of the productivity and profitability equation in any organisation but the business environment calls for the break up of the psychological contracts, which destroys the old relationship human has with their organisations. The challenge to organisations is the establishment of a new social compact with their employees that could bring their loyalty and commitment back to the table so that management could continue to meet their shareholders expectations.

8. On another front, the very ecology that keeps humans alive is falling apart. Industrialisation and it scientific exploitations have pushed out traditional practices of working in harmony with the natural environment. Not only resources are taken from nature, it also becomes the buffer that absorbs the wastes arising from consumption and accumulation of wealth. As a result, species have extinct and others are in the process of doing so. The democratisation of finance, information and technology (Friedman (1999)) has enable globalisation, which make the world flatter (Friedman (2005)). The ecological impact from global warming in one region affects others and the hardship of surviving as a human race has became more difficult, especially in developing and third world countries. There have been calls from environmentalists for investments in natural resource management to make development sustainable. These requests are made on the awareness that when the environment can support the societies and communities, there will prosperity and this is translated into higher living standards, income, and purchasing power for the products and services of the organisations.

9. The few paragraphs in this section of the essay show that organisations cannot make the economic bottom line the main focus of the business. Business leaders have to include human sustainability and ecological sustainability into their business model. Only organisations that consider these in totally have the capacity to be sustainable corporations.

Sustainability – The General Argument

10. There was plenty of media hype and numerous public education programmes at this year’s International Earth Day in Singapore. The objectives were to dispel the notion that infinite economic growth and consumption is sustainable and that the earth’s finite resource base means some activities of organisations and humans have to be limited in order that the planet continues to be habitable for future generations.

Issues – Looking at Different Perspectives

11. While the argument in the preceding paragraph may come across as simple and straightforward, the underlying issues of sustainability are not. There are also contextual considerations. Matters become more complex when activists choose to stand on different contexts where their differing interests and needs clash and compete with each other for attention. The readings suggest that we could view sustainability from three broad perspectives:

a. Self Interest. The general focus in this perspective is 'me' – How could I, as the owner of an organisation, employee in the workforce, leader of a local community, or activist against deforestation in the region, promote and sustain my cause? (Dunphy, Benveniste, Griffiths, & Sutton (2000):45) In this world, you are either with me or against me. In such a polarised world, each entity justified their need for sustainability at the expanse of others. This frequently results in verbal and physical clashes that in some occasions led to deaths and imprisonments. In this world of self-interest, ones birth right is more important than the other, and it is from this stem, the differences in ideologies create stove-pipe like separations that prevent understanding and complicate communication. The lack of platforms for different stakeholders to get together to exchange ideas further enhances the ‘us’ versus ‘them’ mentality. These are how things worked out in the self-interest world:

+ It has been accepted that the only reason for organisation is to configure factors of production in such a way to make them productive and return profits for its investors. In this view, management's key responsibility is exploiting its capacity to generate value for the shareholders in order to sustain the business over time, even if it is at the expense of the well-being of its customers, workforce, and environment.

+ There have been calls from the government and trade unions for businesses to adopt non-discriminatory human resource practices – employment of older workers, maintenance of minimum wage for semi-skilled workers, protection of unskilled labours, equal portion of local and foreign talents hired, equal opportunity for women employed, and attainment of balanced work life . Recent proposed revisions to the Employment Act and proposed extension of the Workmen’s Compensation Act show that the government chooses to take a more hard-line approach to correct these imbalances since businesses are slow in responding to the changing requirements. She has ignored the insistence by businessmen that such interventions would increase operational costs and reduce competitiveness

+ It has been reported that the number and magnitude of natural disasters will continue to rise. It is very clear that in this century we, as humans, will see an escalation of climate change, which had killed many animal species in the last century. This time, we maybe occupying the centre stage as the banner of extinction is passed from animals to humans. This is Century Zero and the people living the land are feeling the impact. This caused the formation of local interest groups, which some have gained an unprecedented international appeal and become highly politicised.

b. Instrumentation. There is empirical evidence to suggest that sound human resource and environmental practices help organisations sustain their economic performance over the long run (Spiller (2000)). Managers recognise that the well-being of the workforce (Raiborn & Payne (1996)), ecological environment, and communities has an impact on the purchasing power of the goods and services produced by the organisation. Complying with environmental standards (Raar (2002)) help organisations avoid the potential dangers of legislation, bad publicity, and law suites that may turn away customers. While this is a better perspective than the 'me' view, it views other entities as something to be use for the further promotion of the self. In this perspective, the human and ecological bottom line is seen as leverages that can be manipulated and instrumented for continuing organisational productivity and profitability. The intent here is not exploitation but creating a situation where no one is to lose too much. The settlement is transactional in nature and containing a number of negotiated trade-offs. While this perspective of sustainability is less confrontational when compared to the self-interest one but, I will show towards the later part of this essay that there are issues in this kind of settlement where people is able to detect the instrumentalism (Iles (1997)) in the practices. It also rises ethical issues of what is consider as right behaviour when management leverages on the well-being of others for the preservation of the self (Spiller (2000)).



c. Integrated Perspective. In this viewpoint, sustainability is examined from an integrated manner (Dunphy, Benveniste, Griffiths, & Sutton (2000):51). It takes on a more inclusive approach of using creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship as a means to address all the concerns relating to organisational, human/societal and ecological sustainability (Figure 2). The start point is not exploitation or trade offs, but a genuine attempt to develop a sustainability framework where all interest groups co-exist. Organisations have the personal, collective and corporate capabilities to achieve this (Dunphy, Benveniste, Griffiths, & Sutton (2000):129). The strategies and plans for resource management are developed together with the formulation of the business model to avoid development as an afterthought or ‘at the end of the pipeline’ (Dunphy, Benveniste, Griffiths, & Sutton (2000):170).

An assessment - Organisation X’s Triple Bottom Line

‘This demands the transformation of corporations along with other social institutions. However, none of this will be possible without the transformation of human consciousness.’ Dunphy (2002:p272)

12. Organisation X, which has more than 500 employees, is a strategic service provider to a large public sector enterprise in Singapore. Since 2000, the organisation has been adopting management practices in anticipation of a leaner government and in preparation for the rise of the knowledge worker. These practices intend to decentralise authority and accountability to the frontline, operationalise new human resource policies to encourage employability of the workforce, and increase her transparency and responsiveness to her community.

13. I will describe three practices that resemble the efforts of triple bottom line approach to resource management. After which, I will talk about the true nature of their planning and development strategies and the resulting impact.

Internal Job Market - Instrumentation of the System

14. The organisation launched an electronic job posting system onto their Intranet in 2000. The system allows the managers to advertise job vacancies, which internal employees to search for these jobs and apply for them. Usually, these jobs are kept on-line for two weeks before advertisements are placed in the national papers. The objectives for the launch were to decentralise hiring decisions to the frontline managers, pass the responsibility of professional development and growth from the Human Resource Department to the employees, and promote a market of skills and competencies to increase staff employability and deployability, and thus mobility within the organisation.

15. On the whole, the initiative is commendable as Organisation X chooses employability as the new operating paradigm while most organisations at that time were struggling to stay afloat after the 1997's Asian Financial Crisis, which caused three years of lacklustre economic performance, bankruptcies and unemployment. However, in reality, it has caused distrust and cynicism amongst staff because of the lack of transparency in the process and the instrumentation of the process by the management.

16. It was uncovered that the managers, in many ways, have decided who they wanted to hire before posting the job on-line. Some did this in order to recognise the contribution of their current staff. Others justified their actions on the tedious process one has to take to bring suitable candidates into the departments. The worst that was witnessed was in the use of the job posting system as a means of removing staff or blocking staff from being transferred because of political or economical reasons. As such, there has been a rise of exceptions that were exempted from the posting requirements. These restricted the flow of labour and caused unhappiness in the internal workforce, who believed that they were victims of unfairness and policy manipulations.

Paper Consumption - Power of the office

17. In 2005, a government-wide programme was introduced to control operational costs. Cutting waste is a key leverage in the programme and the control of paper consumption becomes the focal point. Active-base costing methods are introduced to 'float' the cost of paper consumed in the departments instead of accounting it at the Central Purchase Office. The change has motivated departments to include their expenditure on paper into their cost centres.

18. Staff is conscious of the expenditure and attempts have been made to control unnecessary consumption. There are even attempts to transfer reams of paper between different parts of the department to rationalise usage. When such measures failed, rationing of paper has been implemented.

19. On the surface, the approach, while contains an economic agenda, does seemed to have positive ecological benefits. However, it causes several unintended social consequences. It creates tension between units within the department, as well as between departments. This impacts the social capital and in turn constraints the workings in the organisation. One such 'battle' to contain paper cost is in the production of hardcopies of meeting materials (drafts of policy papers, minutes of the last meeting, and print outs of presentations). The usual practice of sending digital version of these documents has continued with the change but because the receiving end is also subject to the cost restrictions, they employ the political power of the office to pass the responsibility of printing back to the issuing units instead of letting the value-adding process to flow through the value chain. This has led to inaccuracies in accounting the use of paper and wrongful application of control measures on issuing units, which causes rising stress in the workforce.

Organisational Climate Survey - From a Mechanism for Development to Control

20. Another human resource practice that was introduced in the same year was the organisational climate survey. This is a 360° feedback mechanism which allows the staff to provide senior management information about the leadership and organisational abilities of their middle managers. The purpose of the mechanism is purely for managerial development.

21. However, since its inception, the search for indicators that could define performance of middle management and differentiate the better performing departments from their lesser able counterparts, has caused the climate survey to degenerate into an instrument to help senior management decide how organisational rewards, like accolades, bonuses and increments, are to be distributed. Now, the organisational climate is broken down according to departments, and these are compared with the organisational averages and against each other to create a list of ranked departments.

22. Together with the middle management’s perception that they are in the mercy of their staff and the erosion of their traditional authority, power, and control, the outcome has been devastating. Managers decide to close ranks and create several schemes to encourage staff to speak well of them. As middle managers have power and control over the ways rewards are distributed in their departments, they are able to use these to ‘buy’ their staff into keeping quiet about the ways managers mismanage of their workforce. For those ‘errand’ individuals who are welling to speak up, there are informal social sanctions imposed on them. This has led to disenfranchised staff using the climate survey as a tool for revenge, thereby, negating the true intended purpose of the organisational climate survey.

23. All in all, each of the human resource practices of Organisation X were introduced with foresight. There was a genuine awareness among policy makers that the economy will change and preparations had to be made in anticipation of the change in order that the organisation continues to function as a key partner to the public sector enterprise.

24. All the three bottom lines seem to be given equal attention by management. However, the key driver of the strategies and plans for the management of resources is economical in nature. This bottom line actually takes precedence over the others. Human and ecology are seen as leverages that can be manipulated to sustain the organisation. As the workforce only experienced the form but not the substance of triple bottom approach to resource management, it is able to easily and quickly detect the instrumentality behind these practices and it turns sceptical, intransigent and hostile towards these transformational efforts. The aspirations of the senior management are not widely shared among the middle managers, who feel threaten by the erosion their traditional power bases through the introduction of these new management practices. In defence, they introduce new social norms and constraints to protect their current power structures and social capital, which increase the level of conflict between different interest groups. The struggle that is observed in the hierarchy is a 'war' to avoid the trade offs and to keep the power bases intact. This is an example of instrumentalism and a failure to take an integrated approach to resource management.

Conclusion – Putting It All Together

25. There are many drivers for sustainability. Only a balanced approach to the three bottom-lines provides a longer lasting performance outcome for the organisations, well-being of humans and their communities, and protection and renewal of the ecology as we are looking at the beginning of the pipeline, where we are more flexible in meeting the needs of different interest groups. If not, at best we get a positive rub-on effect but in the long run, people will see the instrumentation and stop supporting the management in its transformation efforts (Gowen & Tallon (2003)) and the organisation could come out worst off than before.

[1] The identity of Organisation X is not exposed owing to the sensitivity of the information to be revealed.

References

Connor, T. (2002). The Resource-Based View of Strategy and its Value to Practising Managers, Strategic Change, Vol.11, p307-316

Dunphy, D., Benveniste, J., Griffiths, A. and Sutton, P. (ed.) (2000). Sustainability – The Corporate Challenge of the 21st Century, Allen & Unwin, NSW, Australia

Friedman, T. (1999). The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalisation, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, USA

Friedman, T. (2005). The World is Flat – A brief History of the Globalised World in the 21st Century, Penguin Group, London, England

Gowen, C.R. & Tallon, W. J. (2003). Enhancing Supply Chain Practices Through Human Resource Management, The Journal of Management Development, Vol.22, Nos. 1/2, p32-44

Iles, P. (1997). Sustainable High-Potential Career Development: A Resource-Based View, Career Development International, Vol. 2, No. 7, p347-353

Maguire, H. (2002). Psychological Contracts: Are they Still Relevant?, Career Development International, Vol.7, No. 3, p167-180

Porter, M.E. (1979). "How competitive forces shape strategy", Harvard Business Review, March/April 1979

Raar, J. (2002). Environmental Initiatives: Towards Triple-Bottom Line Reporting, Corporate Communications, Vol. 7, No. 3, p169-183

Raiborn, C. & Payne, D. (1996). TQM: Just What the Ethicist Ordered, Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 15, No.9, p963-972

Spiller, R. (2000). Ethical Business and Investment: A Model for Business and Society, Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 27, No. 1/2, p149-160

World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) (1987). Out Common Future, Oxford University Press, Oxford

This essay was first written on 17 Jun 2007.

Copyright 2007. Anthony Mok. All Rights Reserved.

Critical Incident Analysis - Deadly Barriers - Bicyclist Didn't See Them in Dark (Full Article)

Introduction

1. The treatment for this completed essay will be the application of Tripp's technology of critical incident analysis on my chosen incident - DEADLY BARRIERS - Bicyclist (from here onwards will be referred to as cyclist) didn't see them in dark (Teh (2005)) to demonstrate its power of revealing the drivers that renders the incident critical, in showing the difficulties of policy development, and providing potential responses that may settle it.

2. The presentation of this article will contain the following five key headers. These are:

a. Outline of what I understood as ‘critical incident’,
b. Describe the incident under review,
a. Brief on the specific context of my workplace and broader political context within which the incident occurred,
b. Suggest the dilemmas for policy making evidenced by the incident, and
c. Present ways in which these dilemmas might be ‘settled’ under the notion of ‘policy settlement’.

Outline of What I Understood As ‘Critical Incident’

3. To understand the requirements for this activity, I believe I first must attain a degree of insight into what 'critical incident' is about. My original thought about ‘critical incident’ is just as it was - an incident of critical proportions.

4. However, on reading Burgum and Bridge (1997)'s article on their application of 'critical incident' as a tool for professional education to develop the skills on reflection and critical thinking amongst midwives, I discover that 'any event could be analysed to create a critical incident'.

5. My thoughts on the term achieve even greater clarity when I refer to Tripp (1993:24-25). He describes critical incidents as 'mostly straight forward accounts of very commonplace events that occur in routine professional practice which are critical in the rather different sense that they are indicative of underlying trends, motives and structures. These incidents appear to be 'typical' rather than 'critical' at first sight, but are rendered critical through analysis.' [I added the emphasis].

6. The stylised portion of the statement suggests that it is not how critical the impact of the event has on the stakeholders that makes it a 'critical incident'. It is the underlying currents of the incident as well as their ability to replicate and continue impacting others in future interactions that makes it critical. In order to understand these, we need to examine the occurrence, practices and discourses reflectively and critically.

7. By applying interpretation to the circumstances surrounding the incident and obtaining their broader meanings, I can learn from the occurrence, and with practice, the technique also creates a space (Tripp (1993):125-129) that withholds me from reacting instinctively to the event for its face value as it occurs. Metaphorically, this is like giving breathing a thought before inhaling the air.

8. In slowing time, I am helped to uncover options that are not available to me before, thereby increasing my flexibility in delivering a more comprehensive response and equitable settlement to an underlying need in a world of conflicting interests.

9. These suggest that the application of 'critical incident' analysis could:

Enhance Reflection. The need to analyse incidents provides the motivation to search for structures, which encourages better methods of looking at the incidents habitually, dedicating time for recalling the incident, and running through the sequence of the event reflectively. Tripp (1993:26) has advocated such an approach, which is what are asked for in this assignment.

Improve Critical Thinking. The most enlightening thing about Tripp's statement is that I don't have to wait for a critical incident to apply the analysis. Any ordinary incident is as good an item for analysis as long as we look at it critically through its contexts - political and social dimensions, to uncover its 'trends, motives and structures'.

Establish Positions. What is useful about the analysis is that the incident provides me an opportunity to determine a new stand on how I view the world, which I could apply in the future. The push to shift and establish new positions can challenge my long held values and beliefs systems, thereby encourages my professional development and growth.

Develop Strategies. From these new positions, more comprehensive and effective strategies and solutions could be developed to correct the errors in judgement, applied onto future events of a similar nature, and provide case studies for learning.

10. However, there is need for caution when using the technology:

a. The application of critical analysis does not lead to objectivity (Tripp (1993):30). The exercise may yield several meanings, which the practitioner must make a decision about choice. Therefore, we may have experienced the same incident but I could deliver a different set of intervention from you because of the differences in the space we operate from. Context is the king when applying 'critical incident' analysis.

b. The application of 'critical incident' analysis in practice must be carried out consciously. There are opportunities for me to understand the underlying currents, adopt a position, and introduce an intervention, which through time becomes routines, which could be problematic (Tripp (1993):14-15) itself.

Describe The Incident Under Review

11. Tripp ((1993):32:Figure 3) proposes the use of a diagnostic teaching cycle, which examines both the discourses and practices in teaching, as the strategy to observe an occurrence in order to describe it, and continue to analyse, interpret, act and evaluate it as an critical incident.

12. Burgum and Bridge (1997) demonstrates that the technology can be used beyond the field of education to training and development. I believe its application could even be more extensively applied to many other industries as long as it is related to the development of skills in reflection and critical thinking.

13. Bounded by the requirements of producing a detailed and systematic description of the incident, and ensuring that the details encompass properties of focus and enlargement (Tripp (1993):32-33), I decided to use a widely publicised incident that occurred in July of 2005. I will structure the description to meet the specifications of what deems as a good introduction to the incident for this assignment.

Deadly Barriers Incident

14. The metal barriers were installed to make the often used overhead bridge safer - by forcing cyclists to dismount and push their bicycles across the bridge. However, this did not happen in July 2005.

15. The contractors constructed the barriers on one side of the bridge, and a 40-year-old cyclist, who was on his way to a temple the next morning, came from the other side of the bridge and smashed into them. He, who reportedly didn't see the inverted U-shape metal frames, was badly injured and was paralysed from his neck down. The father of two young children frequently went down the ramp on his bicycle at about 6.30am every day.

16. News of the accident spread quickly in the neighbourhood, and here are the some of their reactions and responses as reported in the media:

a. Mr Ng, who was on the bridge at the time of the accident, said: 'There was an 80-year-old man who was going very fast. If I hadn't stopped him, he would have been hurt.

b. 'The authorities shouldn't do this. In the early morning, it's too dark to see. There should be flickering lights and warning signboards,' said Madam Ngoh, who uses the bridge daily to get to Pasir Ris Park for her morning exercise.

c. Another resident, Mr Goh Peng Hoon, 63, said he could easily have become a victim. 'My friend asked me to talk to him at the coffee shop, if not, I would also be cycling past here early in the morning,' said the retiree, who has been living in the area for 10 years.

d. Mr Ong Kian Min, the MP for Tampines GRC, said: 'They [the barriers] won't be put back up until LTA convinces us that it's safe.' He added: 'They rammed straight into the metal frames before even getting on the bridge. This is the stupidest device I've ever seen. It's right at throat level, it's suicidal. It may kill someone who is not aware [of its presence].'

e. Said Mr Tay: 'Such a serious thing has happened yet no action has been taken except by MP Ong Kian Min. What about those who approved of the barrier? I've only seen people taking pictures and making measurements.'

f. The LTA said: '[the contractor] did not follow the procedure of submitting a method statement on how they planned to install the barriers before starting work. They also did not complete the installation of the barriers on both ends of the pedestrian overhead bridge within the day, as he had planned to do. Had he done so, cyclists would have been forewarned of the barriers when they got on the pedestrian overhead bridge.'

g. As an immediate measure, the LTA will be improving the visibility of the barriers and installing signs to forewarn cyclists and pedestrians of the barriers. So far there have been no other incidents or any adverse feedback on the design. But the LTA said: 'We are sorry to learn of the cyclist's accident on 13 Jul.'

Brief On The Contexts Within Which The Incident Occurred

17. With the incident described, I will spend some time developing the infrastructure from which I start my analysis of the incident in the specific context of my workplace, which is the community that I live and work in.

18. Tripp (1993:124-141) mentions four kinds of judgement in professional teaching; namely, the practical, diagnostic, reflective, and critical judgement. While the given impression is that these are judgements made exclusively by teachers during their teaching practices, I believe they could have relevance in other professions even they may not be as necessary as in teaching or that there could be more than four judgements in professions outside of teaching.

19. Since this is the first time I am doing critical incident analysis, I will apply what Tripp (1993:27:Figure 2) introduces in teaching to guide me generate the questions to find the explanations and meanings within the immediate context to inform my judgement. From which, a position can be established to suggest ways that may cause a settlement.

20. Here is a list of questions to ask, information to acquire, and perspectives to draw on from the people involved:

Practical Judgement. The answers sought here relate to those judgements leading to instantaneous decisions and actions taken during the design, funding, installation and inspection of the barriers. Thus, the questions asked are very much procedural in nature:

§ What should the various stakeholders involved in finalising the design, funding, installation, and inspection of the barrier do?

§ What should be the specifications and standards in all these activities?

Diagnostic Judgement. Here, construction-specific answers are to be uncovered to look for information that could 'recognise, describe, understand, explain and interpret' (Tripp (1993):140) the practical judgements employed around the incident. These question are:

§ Descriptive

· What had happened?
· Who was mainly involved?
· Who was subsequently involved?

§ Causal

· What made it or could make it happen?
· Who acted or/and had not acted that could have caused the incident?
· What acted or/and had not acted that could have caused the incident?

§ Effectual

· What does it do immediately after incident?
· What does it do as an aftermath following the incident?
· For whom?

§ Affectual

· How does it immediately feel like for each type of participant involved in the incident?
· How does it feel like for each type of participant involved in the incident as an aftermath?

§ Semantic

· What does the incident mean to different stakeholders at different timeline?
· What does the incident mean to non-stakeholders?

Reflective Judgement. While both practical and diagnostic judgement looks at the facts of the incident, reflective judgement look at the reasons why I make it mean something a specific way. The information to uncover here relates to the values, mores and beliefs systems that are engaged before, during and after the incident.

§ Do I like what is unveiled in the diagnostic?
§ Is it a good or bad thing?
§ Why so?

Critical Judgement. This is what makes an ordinary incident critical. This is done by challenging and evaluating the values, judgements, and justifications revealed during reflection. This provides the information and stepping stone to determine the position I will take, from which all decisions can be made as planned respond to the given need.

§ What is it an example of?
§ Whose classification?
§ Is it just?
§ From whose perspective does this justice apply or does not apply?

Specific Context Of My Workplace Within Which The Incident Occurred

21. Armed with these questions, I will begin by offering, with the immediate context of the incident in mind, some of my initial explanations before suggesting the possible meanings.

22. There are several mindsets in operation that kept the stakeholders focused on one specific aspect of the issue and not the other. These unfocused components were not the kind the stakeholders habitually think of, which caused them to miss the 'implicit contradiction' (Tripp (1993):15) and opportunities to critically think about them when they were making professional judgements and decisions. I will list five of these below:

a. Deterrence-Safety Mindset. The objective of the barriers is to warn the cyclists against crossing the bridge while mounted on their bicycles. In order for the deterrent to work, it is important that the designers make the deterrence effective. The deterrent must present some elements of risk - potential injuries, restrictions to freedom of movement, or/and imposition of fines. Since handicaps are not the target of the barriers, the designers are willing to consider the feedback from the Handicapped Welfare Association and incorporate elements that do not impede their movements into the final design. For the handicaps, the barriers do not deter since there is little perceptible risks. The contradiction is that there must be a potential for harm in a given deterrence. Given this focus, safety of the mounted cyclist was not likely considered into the final design or deemed to be a priority of importance.

b. Legitimacy-Constituency Mindset. The Town Council, which represents the interests of its constituents, also funds the construction and installation of the barriers. Immediately, the contradiction is obvious. Cyclists, who cross the bridges like roads, are publicly frown at and socially sanctioned. Given this social stigma and status, the needs of cyclists' are largely unspoken, kept silenced, and ignored. They are not given the legitimacy to use the bridges as ordinary pedestrians, and the Town Council is keen to oppose them and have the matter resolved quickly. This is problematic because the Town Council focuses on protecting the legitimacy of the pedestrians over the rights of having all her constituents heard.

c. Exception-Responsiveness Mindset. The Land Transport Authority (LTA) is the agency that creates and responsible for the policies regarding the design, construction, installation, maintenance and inspection of these barriers. Their chosen mode of operation, which is management by exceptions, is problematic. Under such an arrangement, status quo is maintained until there are enough of complaints. This conflicts with responsiveness. While the contractor is blameworthy in the sense that the drawings were not submitted for approval prior to installation, LTA may not be freed from the responsibility of accepting a design that was not responsive to the realities of the kind of traffic on that bridge, and for not being responsive in ensuring closure in the approval process.

d. Cost-Quality Mindset. For the contractor, this was a piece of work that was of little difference from all others government tender projects. The pressure for efficient resource deployment, cost containment, and timeliness of completing the project may have kept contractor's focus on the installation and not on the users, who look for quality of the entire installation process..

e. Completion-Uncertainty Mindset. The need to establish policies that is complete and integral in an uncertain world saddled with diverse and ever changing viewpoints is problematic. This incident had led to a public outcry that strangely came not just from the community of cyclists but also from pedestrians and other motorists. This suggests that:

§ The pedestrians want their safety ensured but do not condone the use of instruments that hurt others. The designers took it on themselves to introduce barriers with strong deterrence attributes.

§ There was no universal agreement about the rights of mounted cyclists using the bridge. There are sympathisers but the Town Council chooses to respond to the more influential pedestrians lobby to complete the policy making exercise. LTA's mode of operation acerbated the situation.

23. So, what do all these undercurrents mean? They show that some deep seated values and beliefs are at work, which affected the judgements and decisions of the stakeholders. Let me point out five meanings detected during the analysis of the incident:

a. As long as we are doing something that is considered legitimate, generally accepted, and even celebrated, our rights will be recognised, protected and championed. We will continue to be heard, attended to, and cultivated. In the incident, the mounted cyclists are assigned no rights once they are on the bridge. Since their presence is considered a danger to the pedestrians and themselves, it has to be sanctioned, regardless whether they are constituents and have the same rights as pedestrians to have their needs considered into the final design of the policy.

b. The general accepted view is that cyclists are considered road users and should not be on the overhead bridges. There are a few high profile cases of cyclists injuring others, which caused many to perceive cyclists as a danger to themselves and irresponsible to others when on the bridge.

c. When there are good justifications against deviant behaviours, the deterrence used to discourage these tend to be effective and sometimes appear overkill. The incident showed that the barrier can kill as long as we choose to behave in a manner that is socially unacceptable.

d. There are also evidence suggesting the dependency on the government of the accepted constituent. Pedestrians left the problem to the authority to resolve; giving them full authority over the specifications relating to design, criteria for funding the project, methods of installing the barriers, and approaches of inspection and for obtaining feedback. The pedestrians left it to the authority to make all the judgement and decisions without asking if their demands are right, the barriers are safe, and if the cyclists should be given a fair opportunity to be heard.

e. As this is not a matter of national importance, LTA relegates the policies and their implementations to management by exception instead of active governance and community involvement.

Broader Political Context Within Which The Incident Occurred
2
4. To appreciate what the incident meant in the wider political context, I beg for the answers to four questions:

a. Why it matters to place barriers at the bridges in Singapore, and why the bridges matter to the mounted cyclists?

b. Are there dilemmas that caused such shortcomings, which are not attributable to the Town Council and LTA?

c. Are there non-events (Tripp (1993):24) that caused the incident?

25. I was surprised with the outcome after apply the 'Why Challenge' (Tripp (1993):46) to locate possible answers to the first question. It seems that the barriers are there not for the pedestrians but for winning of votes and taking of constituencies. These are what I came up with when the challenge was applied to 'Why it matters to place barriers at bridges in Singapore?'. It matters because:

a. The bridge is meant only for pedestrians.

b. The bridge is the least dangerous option available for circumventing the barriers installed at the road dividers. Others come with fines and accidents.

c. Afraid the pedestrians have another excuse for taking to the roads again, thereby causing pedestrian accidents and deaths.

d. This may cause an public outcry and gives the transport Minister, the Ministry of Transport and her statutory boards bad publicity and negative image.

e. For a performance based public service, this may signal that the Minister is not effective, and this affect his status and influence in the cabinet.

f. The opposition may pick this up as an issues in the next election, which may affect the Prime Minister's position as a politician and standing of political party in the country.

26. When I applied the same challenge to 'Why the bridges matter to the mounted cyclists?', I received another interesting outcome. Unlike cyclists in Japan, China and Australia, who are licensed road users, their counterparts in Singapore are not recognised as road users and accorded no rights and protection on the road. Given the obstructions laid at the road dividers, bridges become the only safe means to cross the roads for the cyclists.

27. By putting these two outcomes together, I observe a key contradiction (Tripp (1993):49) at work, which is cyclists are neither pedestrians nor motorists in Singapore, yet bicycles are designed as a steady mode of transportation but the roads are not made safe for their use. When there are no rules of engagement for cyclists when they are on the roads or on walking paths, they could only exist as a grey economy.

28. Since it is not clear if cyclists have their right of way, motorists and pedestrians alike do not know how to respond to cyclists when they are in their way. This poses a danger on the cyclists and other road and path users. The cyclists must have done some calculation about these risks and their needs travel, and concluded that between pedestrians sanction and motoring death, the use of pedestrian pathways is a safer option. It is this web of judgement and decisions that caused the injury and not the shortcoming of the policy itself, nor that of the Town Council and LTA.

29. There is some kind of ideology (Tripp (1993):56-57) in force. It suggests that the interests of pedestrians are protected. The protection created contradictions over the rights of different stakeholders, and bring them into conflict with one another other. The cyclists, who are the subordinated group, resist the rules that are imposed on them, which led to a public outcry from the dominated groups, which chastises the authorities for turning a blind eye on the cyclists. The pedestrians and motorists feel socially guilty for the incident and the tension is discomforting, which calls them into action. This demonstrates that the dominant group continues to seek ways of protecting its interests by speaking up for the subordinated cyclists.

Dilemmas For Policy Making Evidenced By The Incident

30. The analysis continues to reveal new dilemmas for policy making. The choice the current policy makers seem to take is to discourage the use of bicycle as a transportation device and relegate it to the sports. In doing so, they avoided the need for new discourses and practises that demand new resources. Considering the cyclists in the policy making process could opens new dilemmas which are problematic and is uncomfortable to the policy makers. These dilemmas are:

a. By recognising the cyclists, the authority may upset the equilibrium attained amongst the current set of road users. There could be a struggle for new definitions, relationships, resources and attention by the newly recognised road user. These may lead to new competition for space, distance, time and speed on the road. Given the overcrowded nature of our roads, this may bring forth new conflicts, contests, and arbitrations, which maybe socially and politically uncomfortable. Status quo is always good.

b. In recognising their rights, new policies will have to be put in place, and their implementation may call forth new infrastructures, rules, and regulations that cause road widening, rule changes to traffic lights, re-education of current road users, imposition of safety gears on cyclists and motorists, and the need for parking spaces, licensing enhancements, monitoring of use, and inspection of vehicles. These require public expenditure and have to be funded through taxes, which seems to be a sensitive matter in a country still faced with structural unemployment. The recent hikes in the Goods and Services Tax have unsettled Singaporeans, which raised heated debates on its pros and cons. Raising taxes do not go well with attracting foreign investments and talents to the nation in a highly competitive Asia Pacific.

c. There isn't a culture of safety amongst cyclists in Singapore. As cyclists exist in the grey economy, there is no impetus to cultivate safety in cycling and little investments are made by cyclists and other motorists to harden their vehicles and themselves against accidents. By recognising their rights, it is expected a certain degree of safety, in terms of gears, professional training and certification, and regular inspections, will be installed to ensure that bicycles and their riders are road worthy. These spell new legal and administrative costs, which may drive the cyclists underground instead of making them coming forward as a legitimate entity. Many may even abandon cycling entirely.

d. There was an attempt in the late 1990s to encourage pedestrians to convert to cycling. The idea was to encourage the use of bicycles as a method to connect the pedestrians to the Mass Rapid Transport (MRT) stations, thereby reducing the dependency on feeder buses, which were operation at a lost at that time. The experiment did not take off, and since 2000, parking lots for bicycles at the MRTs stations were removed. In a performance based civil service, attending to the needs of her constituents is important, but there are potential risks of failures where social experiments fail. This could be politically fatal for the individuals promoting and lobbying the rights of cyclists in their discourses.

Ways in Which These Dilemmas Might Be ‘Settled’

31. The current settlement is not consensual. Cyclists are not acknowledged and are dominated by the interests of pedestrians and motorists. This lack of legitimation causes the policy to take on temporarily status as crisis of outcries and indignations over the lack of rights and having to exist in the gray economy flare up regularly each time there are accidents leading to injuries and deaths. There are attempts to improve the situation by removing the barriers from the bridges and imposing the S$1,000 fine on cyclist for crossing the bridge on the mount. However, these efforts are highly contextual and are fixated at concealing the true nature of the problem. The authorities will continue to appeal to our common sense by highlighting that in a land scarce Singapore, cyclists do not have a place in the country and should be relegated to the fringes of the nation. We will continue to see cyclists circumventing the rules and regulations imposed on them because of their status.

32. Given this outlook, I propose three ways that maybe settlement for the incident:

Apply the ‘generative politics’ approach, which involves the community in meeting the needs of the cyclists. This includes providing guidelines to Town Councils on demarking areas with have amble space for cycling activities. The scheme has been place for some time at East Coast Road, where pedestrian walkways are shared with cyclists. The extension of this experiment to other parts of Singapore is useful. The community could be gravitated to increase the profile of bicycles as a viable and safe mode of transport, and communicate that bicyclists are as responsible as those motorised versions on the roads. Community centres are good outfits for generating adventure rides for cyclists wanting to take on to the roads. Such outings provide all motorists the experience of interacting with each other on the road.

Adopt a ‘structural policy’ response by shifting the burden of safety for the cyclists from the government to the merchants and owners of bicycles, cars and motorcycles. This shift helps start an economy of safety consciousness, which include hardening the transportation devices, drivers, passengers and other road users against accidents the cause damages, injuries and deaths. In addition, early settlements may include giving all motorists new rules of engagement with the cyclists and establishing the right of way for the cyclists. In doing so, all road participants have a common language to communicate with each other on the road.

Take to the ‘conjunctural policy’ response, which will charge the cyclists for using the roads. These charges may include licence fees, road taxes and toll fares, which could pave the way for the cyclists to go on the roads as a fully recognised user in the near future.

Conclusion

33. I have moments of hesitation over the choice of activity to submit for Assignment Two. Finally, I settle with critical incident analysis, and I am humbled by the experience of completing it.

34. The incident is critical in every way. It was a severe accident and someone was critically injured. On the face of it, the rider, Town Council and LTA are blameworthy. However, on closer examination, things may not be as simple. The web of values, judgement, decisions and actions have come into play, and created circumstances beyond the awareness and control of the stakeholders. It is as if the rider is destined to be paralysed from neck down. If the discourses continue to be closed and restrictive, settlement could be in a structure that is the same as the last. Another accident most likely will repeat in the near future as stakeholders continue to do more or less of what they have done before in creating policies, in adhering to rules of implementation, and in establishing governance. Breakthroughs could be difficult when the underlying currents continued to be sustained and played out, and where changes are applied to control the symptoms rather than the drivers of the incident. This is problematic and is making the incident very critical.

35. I am excited with the outcomes, discoveries, and experience. I believe these need not have to exist in this document. The insights can be practically applied through active engagement with the government and her communities.

Footnote:

Paralysed cyclist gets $800k (News Coverage Extracted from 27/3/2008's Today Newpaper)

MORE than two years after he was left paralysed from the neck down after crashing into a metal barrier at an overhead bridge in Tampines, a cyclist has finally been awarded nearly $800,000 in compensation.

Mr Koh Liep Hang, 43, had earlier sued the Land Transport Authority (LTA) and barrier contractor Koh Brothers for negligence, resulting in his injury and wanted about $1 million in compensation.

Last August, Mr Koh dropped the lawsuit against the LTA, and agreed to bear 35 per cent of the responsibility for the July 2005 accident, with Koh Brothers bearing 65 per cent, reported Lianhe Zaobao yesterday.

In an earlier Today report, the LTA had been quoted as saying that the contractor did not follow proper procedures when installing those barriers.

Mr Koh, a father of two young children, told the Chinese newspaper that it had been depressing period for his family. While he is able to lift his hands, communicate and eat normally, his fingers and legs have no strength.

When contacted, Member of Parliament for Tampines GRC, Mr Ong Kian Min, told Today that he was happy that the parties "have come to an amicable settlement". The "unfortunate incident" serves as a lesson that such barriers have to be carefully designed so that they will not harm the public. — Alicia Wong

Reference

Burgum, M. and Bridge, C. (1997). Using critical incidents in professional education to develop skills of reflection and critical thinking.

Teh Jen Lee (16 July 2005). DEADLY BARRIERS - Cyclist didn't see them in dark, Singapore: The New Paper.

Tripp, D. (1993). Critical incidents in teaching. Developing professional judgement. London: Routledge.

This essay was first completed on 19 Apr 2007 and updated with the Footnote on 28 Mar 2007.

Copyright 2007. Anthony Mok. All Rights Reserved.

Critical Incident Analysis - Deadly Barriers - Cyclist Didn't See Them in Dark

Introduction

1. This is a 300 to 800-word write-up on my initial thoughts, ideas and insights of what could eventually make up the layout and content of my final article.

Understanding ‘critical incident’

2. To understand the requirements for this activity, I believe I first must attain a degree of understanding of what 'critical incident' is about. My original thought about ‘critical incident’ is just as it was - an incident of critical proportions.

3. However, after reading Burgum and Bridge (1997)'s article on their application of 'critical incident' as a tool for professional education to develop the skills on reflection and critical thinking amongst midwives, I discover that 'any event could be analysed to create a critical incident'.

4. My thoughts on the term achieve even greater clarity when I refer to Tripp (1993:24-25). He described critical incidents as "mostly straight forward accounts of very commonplace events that occur in routine professional practice which are critical in the rather different sense that they are indicative of underlying trends, motives and structures. These incidents appear to be 'typical' rather than 'critical' at first sight, but are rendered critical through analysis." [I added the emphasis].

5. The stylised portion of the statement seems to indicate that it is not how critical the impact of the event has on the stakeholders that deem it an 'critical incident' but how critical we look at the causes to uncover the underlying currents of incident that renders it critical.

6. In doing so, I could learn from the occurrence, and with practice, it creates a space that prevents me from instinctively reacting to the event, as it occurs, for it face value, which is like giving breathing a thought before inhaling the breathe. This delayed-reaction mode could help me uncover options that are not available to me when I am in my instinct-reaction mode, thereby increases my flexibility for more comprehensive response.

7. This also indicates the application of 'critical incident' analysis could:

a. Enhance reflection. The approach provides a structure of looking at the incident reflectively. Tripp (1993:26) has advocated such an approach, which is what are asked for in this assignment. This allows me to habitually dedicate time for recalling the incident and running through the sequence in the event.
b. Improve critical thinking. The most enlightening thing about Tripp's statement is that I don't have to wait for a critical incident to apply the critical analysis. An ordinary incident is as good an item for analysis when we look at it critically through its contexts - political and social dimensions to uncover its 'trends, motives and structures'.

c. Establish positions. What is perhaps useful about the analysis is that the incident provides me an opportunity to determine a stand now, which I could apply in the future. Establishing and shifting positions could influence and shape my values and beliefs systems.

d. Develop strategies. From positions, strategies could be developed and applied onto events of a similar nature.

Conclusion

8. The direction for the completed 5,000-word document for Activity One of Assignment Two will be the application of Tripp's technology to a chosen incident ("DEADLY BARRIERS - Cyclist didn't see them in dark" By Teh Jen Lee (2005)) to demonstrate its power in revealing the drivers creating the incident, and providing responses to it.

9. One possible presentation of the article could contain five key headers. These are:

a. Outline of what I understood as ‘critical incident’,

b. Explanation of the incident under review,

c. Briefs on the contexts within which the incident occurred. Including:

· Specific context of my workplace, and

· Broader political context.

d. Dilemmas for policy making evidenced by these incidents, and

e. Ways in which these dilemmas were/might be ‘settled’, which include a discussion on the notion of ‘policy settlement’.

Reference

Tripp, D. (1993). Critical incidents in teaching. Developing professional judgement. London: Routledge.

Burgum, M. and Bridge, C. (1997). Using critical incidents in professional education to develop skills of reflection and critical thinking.

Teh Jen Lee (16 July 2005). DEADLY BARRIERS - Cyclist didn't see them in dark, Singapore: The New Paper.

This article was first written on 26 Mar 2007 and was further developed into a full article on 12 Apr 2007.
Copyright 2007. Anthony Mok. All Rights Reserved.

Policy Analysis - Influenza Pandemic Readiness and Response Plan

Introduction

1. I was to asked to conduct a policy analysis using in parts and/or in combination any of the following five approaches:

Contexts of policy making,
Discourse analysis,
Post-structural critique,
Critical policy sociology, and
Study guide questions.

2. The write-up is to be presented in the structure and style of articles found traditionally in academic journals.

3. I believe the final 5,000-word document would reveal the following:

Focused analysis in relation to a critical issue or question,

Review broad developments in the field to locate my analysis,

Clarify how I have approached my analysis, and

Present my analysis.

4. In this 300 to 800-word write-up, I will offer my initial thoughts, ideas and insights on a critical issue in question, which could be used for this activity.

Critical Issue in Question

5. Influenza, which is a seasonal epidemic, causes an average of 14.8 deaths per 100,000 Singaporeans or 600 deaths a year in Singapore. All over, the health authorities’ key concern is the H5N1 strain of the avian influenza, which maybe capable of mutating into a human influenza that could cause a pandemic that sweeps the world and reduces her population, like the 1918’s "Spanish Flu" or "La Grippe", a global disaster that killed 20 to 40 million people in just 18 months.

6. The first case of human infection was reported in January 2004 in Vietnam and Thailand. Since then, Cambodia, China, Laos, Indonesia, Turkey, Azerbaijan Iraq, Egypt, and Nigeria had reported H5N1 related human infection and deaths, while Japan, Romania, Serbia, Albania, and Poland had reported avian influenza in poultry.

7. WHO is particularly worried about the situation in Asia. Given the nature of poultry farming, proximity of bird and human, and poor sanitation, countries in Asia could become hot beds for incubating the virus and promoting efficient human-to-human transmission beyond the family cluster,

8. In addition, the rise of the middle income in Asia, and the rural occupants attracted to the affluence of cities, make the scare of another flu pandemic a very clear and present danger.

9. In light of these social developments, the Ministry of Health, Singapore, produced an Influenza Pandemic Readiness and Response Plan that lays out the policies for reducing avian flu intrusion and containment in Singapore.

Richness in the Analysis

10. The 22-page document with its ten annexes introduce me to the government’s polices on surveillance, education, containment, management, and communication of the pandemic

11. The plan, together with it briefing notes and ministerial press releases, provide a rich backdrop for policy analysis. For example:

Contexts of policy making - context of influence, of policy text production, of carriage of policy from one context to another

There are strong nationalistic and economic undertones influencing the construction of the policy, and the experience gained from the SARS incident, which killed 33 in Singapore in 2003, could be seen in the plan.

Post-structural critique - 5 questions of 'What', 'How', 'Why', 'Why Now', and 'What Are the Consequences'

The relations between H5N1, avian flu and the human influenza pandemic are concerns of the health authorities worldwide, and my research in the past flu pandemics, like the 1918 Spanish Flu, indicates catastrophic political, social and economical impact worldwide once human-to-human transmissions are efficient.

This article was first written on 26 Mar 2007 but was not further developed.

Copyright 2007. Anthony Mok. All Rights Reserved.

Essays on Policy and Governance - The References

For these essays:


1. Is there a difference between policy and governance?



2. Describe a particular approach to policy analysis, identifying its strengths and weaknesses

Here are the references:

Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy, Corporate Governance in the Public Services (London, CIPFA, May, 1994), p.6.

Colebatch, H.K. (2002) Policy (second edition). Concepts in the Social Sciences Series. Buckinghamshire: Open University Press, Chapters 2, 3, 5, 6 & 7.

Dean, M. and Hindess, B. (1998) Governing Australia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

D. Osborne & T. Gaebler. (1992) Reinventing Government. Addison-Wesley, p.34.

Hall, Land, Parker & Webb. (1975) Singapore, Monash University, EDF6821 Policy and Governance, Reading Guide 1-3, 2007), p.107.

Hogwood, B. & Gunn, L. (1984) Policy Analysis for the Real World. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, pp.12-31.

Kenway, J. (1990) Gender and Education Policy: A Call for New Directions. Geelong: Deakin University Press.

Offe, C. (1985) Disorganised Capitalism. Oxford: Polity Press.

Olssen, M. Codd, J. O-Neill, A. (2004) Education Policy: Globalisation, Citizenship and Demoncracy. London: Sage, pp.39-72.

Pierre, J. (2000) Debating Governance. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Rein. (1983) Singapore, Monash University, EDF6821 Policy and Governance, Reading Guide 1-3, 2007), p.110.

Rhodes, R.A.W. (1996) The New Governance: Governing without Government. Political Studies, XLIV: 652-667.

Rizvi & Kemmis. (1987) Singapore, Monash University, EDF6821 Policy and Governance, Reading Guide 1-3, 2007), p.113.

Smith. (1982) Singapore, Monash University, EDF6821 Policy and Governance, Reading Guide 1-3, 2007), p.111.

Taylor, S., Rizvi, F., Lingard, B. & Henry, M. (1997) Education Policy and the Politics of Change. London: Routledge.

Thompson, J.B. (1984) Studies in the Theory of Ideology. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Wilenski. (1986) Singapore, Monash University, EDF6821 Policy and Governance, Reading Guide 1-3, 2007), p.116.

Young. (1982) Singapore, Monash University, EDF6821 Policy and Governance, Reading Guide 1-3, 2007), p.107.

Describe a particular approach to policy analysis, identifying its strengths and weaknesses

Introduction

1. In this essay, I will list the various approaches of policy analysis, and briefly describe the 'analysis policy parts' approach. I will attempt to identify its strengths and weaknesses, and in the process, propose a more ideal approach to analysing policy.

Types of Policy Analysis

2. The literature indicates that policy analysis provides insights into the discourse, ideology, genre and settlement of a particular policy. It uncovers answers to the 'what', 'how', 'why' (Kenway, 1990, p.24), 'why now' and 'what are the consequences' (Taylor, Rizvi, Lingard & Henry, 1997, p.40) of a policy.

3. By understanding policy in this way, we are more able to appreciate the complexity of the policy, able to communicate its intent, motivate to bring the resources together to create its outcomes, and accurately refine the policy.

4. There are five different ways of analysing policy:

a. Analysing its parts
b. Focusing on particular contexts
c. Asking basic questions
d. Identifying its discourses
e. Looking through different lenses

Analysis Policy Parts

5. In this approach, policy is the target to which a set of questions are aimed at. These questions can be organised into five main areas:

a. Policy production. This is the 'springboard' to 'policy parts' analysis. Here, we uncover the actors behind the creation of the policy (Young, 1982), and unveil the processes (Hall, Land, Parker & Webb, 1975) and influences these actors and their stakeholders assert in rationalising it (Hogwood & Gunn, 1984). These actions leave a mark on the character (Hogwood & Gunn, 1984) as well as the type (Offe, 1975 & 1985) of policy created, which by themselves deserve their own set of questions and investigations.

b. Context. We can also examine a policy from it political, economical, ideological, historical, and contemporary context. Context is always paramount. Policies come into existence because their context calls for them (Rein, 1983). In execution, context continues to invoke constraints (Smith, 1982) on its approaches and methods. Without context, policy has no meaning, which renders the analysis improbable and meaningless. So, we are looking for the contextual drivers that bring the actors together who brought the policy into existence.

c. Content. In exploring the policy content, we take to deconstructing the policy document to understand its overarching principles, demonstrative power through its styles and language structures (Rizvi & Kemmis, 1987), and saliency of its goals, and reconstructing the policy discourses to discover the logic and interrelationships between context and discourses (Thompson, 1984). We may as well say that we are looking for the invisible hands exercised to enforce the policy.

d. Implementation. In analysing implementation, we look at the key success factors of proper policy implementation; we basically asking 'what caused the success or failure of the policy?' These include the exercise of political will, choice of implementation strategies (Wilenski, 1986), realistic time frame and number of stages in the adopted strategy (Rein, 1983), deployment of resources, and cultivation of supportive institutionalised structures.

e. Evaluation. Finally, in evaluation, we either try to predict the success of a policy or assess its success after implementation. The policy is assessed through pre-policy and/or post-policy research for its consistency and coherence throughout its formulation to implementation process, and by making evaluative comparisons to other contemporary policies and social realities, and ideal policy.

Strengths

6. Looking at the policy analysis framework described above, I can see two key strengths:

a. It is relatively structured with five distinct areas, which seems to trace a linear path from the birth of the policy to its implementation and eventual evaluations. Given these, we can examine the policy according to it distinct segments and understand the specifics of 'what', 'how', 'why' 'why now' and 'what are the consequences' of a policy with greater clarity. The eventual story about the policy does come across uncluttered and unambiguous.

b. As the stages and parts of this analysis framework is clear, it is also easy to determine and generate the questions to ask policy. We will be able to concentrate questions only about the originality of the policy during 'policy production' stage, and questions only about political will at the 'policy implementation' stage. This makes the investigation direct, distinct and uncompromising.

Weaknesses

7. However, it is the strengths of the mentioned approach that give rise to three obvious weaknesses:

a. It is not necessarily the case that the path of policy process follows the one shown in the 'analysis of policy parts' framework. Colebatch (2002, p.50, figure 5.1) shows a more comprehensive version of the 'stage' model of the policy process. Even if the framework truncates some of the stages, it does not seems to incorporate questions about 'problem recognition' in the analysis.

b. It cannot be assumed that the sum of the parts is a good indication of the total. In this case, we cannot make it mean that we understand the policy because we comprehend the parts. We cannot ignore the intra-actions within the parts and interactions between the parts for something as dynamic as policy creation, development and implementation.

c. Analysis by it parts is just one approach of policy analysis. There are four other approaches, which have their distinctive benefits. It is desirable to adopt a more inclusive approach by absorbing the flavours of approaches like 'identifying its discourses' and 'looking through different lenses' into the exercise. Also, according to Colebatch (2002, p.92), there are social sciences of structuration, institutional organisational theory and governmentality are useful and could add new insights into understanding of the policy, which are not addressed the described approach.

Conclusion

8. In this article, I have explained the reasons for analysing policy and the approaches to do so. I have also briefly described the 'analysis policy parts' approach and expounded on its strengths and weaknesses of the approach. Finally, towards the end of this write-up, I indicated the importance of being inclusive by allowing other approaches into the framework so that the weakness of one approach can be strengthen by another approach.

This article was first completed on 10 Mar 2007

Copyright 2007. Anthony Mok. All Rights Reserved.

Is there a difference between policy and governance?

Introduction

1. In this essay, I will describe my initial thoughts to the question. Following this, I will list some of the definitions of ‘Policy’ and ‘Governance’ presented in the literatures, and in the process I will highlight their differences. Towards the conclusion, I will present their similarities, and propose how policy and governance could be seen as grapevines and their trellis.

Personal Views

2. My initial views of policy and governance are simplistic and mutually exclusive. These are rooted in my memories and experience in dealing with my former organisation.

3. I see policies as documented statements expressing the important ‘concerns and activities’ (Colebatch, 2002, p.8) of an organisation. They are so important that these statements ‘set limits on the behaviours of’ (Colebatch, 2002, p.9) her workforce.

4. As for governance, I see it as frameworks of ‘overseeing and controlling’ (Rhodes, 1996) how these concerns are addressed and how these activities are carried out. I do not see governance as activities carried out to bring policy outcomes into existence. Rather, I see governance as separate occurrences (Rhodes, 1996, p. 654) that ensure policy related activities are done within certain accepted and agreed norms or boundaries.

5. After reading some of the articles on both topics, I found some alignments between my personal views and those provided in the literatures.

Defining Policy

6. Most of the readings suggest that at the macro level, policy could be defined in three board ways:

Policy as disposition, intervention, and allocation,
Policy as intention, documentation and in-use, and
Policy as text, discourse, (Ball, 1994) and ideology

7. Hogwood & Gunn (1984) was specific when they unveiled the ten different uses of the word ‘policy’. Of these, I find affinity with 'Policy as an expression of general purpose or desired state of affairs' since the intent of this statement seems to correspond with my initial view of policy as important ‘concerns’ of an organisation.

8. Colebatch (2002, p.9) described policy as ‘labelling thoughts about the way the world is and the way it might be, and of justifying practices and organisational arrangements…’. This definition denotes that policy has three central attributes of order, which gains consistency in behaviours; of authority, that enforces compliance; and expertise in using the policy to solve problems. These, I see as mechanisms in addressing the concerns in the form of 'activities' in the organisation.

9. Nevertheless, lt seems that there is no one definition of what policy really is. It comes across to me as if each author attempts to describe the boundaries of the envelope that keeps policy within, similar to describing a fish by talking about the aquarium that contains it.

10. However, by referencing these with the Colebatch’s vertical dimension of policy, these perspectives become clearer. I can see that these authors are trying to talk about the description, creation, and transmission of policies, their justifications and ‘authorised decisions’ (Colebatch, 2002, p.22) downwards to the subordinates to have them bring these policies outcomes into existence.

Defining Governance

11. Most usage of governance ‘denotes a more complex organisational framework for governing, but retaining a central role for the government’ (Pierre, 2000). The demands for greater social participation and engagement (Dean & Hindess, 1998) forces the public sector to adopt open market practises, managerialism, and new institutional economics (Rhodes, 1996), to delivery public services more effectively and efficiently. Since the government is now comprised of stakeholders not within her control in the traditional sense, governance is the only means affordable to the government some control over how police outcomes are produced responsibly and responsively. Thus, government can only steer now, and not row (Osborne & Gaebler (1992) like in the past.

12. Rhodes described six distinct meanings of governance, and I understand governance as 'corporate governance', 'New Public Management', and ‘Good Governance’ better as these clearly indicated governance is a separate activity from policy.

13. I think Rhodes’ simulative definition of governance as ‘self-organising, interorganisational networks’ as governing structures for authoritatively allocating resources and exercising control and co-ordination best describe the nature of governance from policing. By referencing this to Colebatch’s horizontal dimension of policy, it seems all these governance related activities are actions related to policy of ‘structuring of action’ (Colebatch, 2002, p.23) so that the accountability of non-governmental participants are addressed when public services are delivered to the public in an environment of shrinking government and influence vis-à-vis non-governmental entities.

14. In the face of these, it is quite clear that there is a striking difference between policy and governance. The formal addresses the contents in the form of 'what's', while the latter talks about the boundary in which the 'how's' are carried out.

Grapevines and Their Trellis

15. Up to this point, the impressions I get from these readings indicate that the academia is attempting to converge on an acceptable definition of what policy and governance should and could be. It is this need to converge that perhaps indicates that there are also many similarities between policy and governance.

16. One suspicion I harbour is that if policy involves behaviour as well as intentions, the same would apply to governance. The Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy recommended ‘holding individuals responsible for their actions by a clear allocation of responsibilities and clearly defined role’ (1994), which must be 'an expression of general purpose or desired state of affairs'. Maybe, there is no difference in policy and governance except for the frame of mind or the context the expected behaviour and purpose is intended for.

17. Going back to Colebatch’s ‘three central elements’ of order, authority and expertise in policy, I begin to understand that without setting the context, it is very difficult to differentiate policy from governance. Figure 3.1, the vertical and horizontal dimensions of policy (Colebatch, 2002, p.24), shows vertical policy and horizontal governance while separated by two boundaries, are overlapped in many ways, because there is order, authority and expertise related to statements found in policy as well as in governance.

18. We could see policies as grapevines. Controlled by its own set of rules called genes, it will grow and bear grapes, which are important outputs for our champagnes and wines. However, vines are basically weak bushes. They need physical support to govern the spread of the branches to keep the weight of the grapes off them. Trellis has specific rules that determine how the weight on the bush is supported and spread out without obstructing the growth of the grapes.

Conclusion

19. From the readings and writings, I proposed that policies and governance are different because of the context of their application. However, there are also significant similarities in their production and distribution.

This article was first completed on 10 Mar 2007
Copyright 2007. Anthony Mok. All Rights Reserved.