Conceptualising the meaning of working for Singaporean graduates aligned with 21st century economic and social policy: “market, meaning & me”

• Main Authors: Chan, Kim Yin, Ho, Ringo Moon-Ho, Kennedy, Jeffrey C., Lim, Kwee Hoon, Lin, Jia, Uy, Marilyn A., Chernyshenko, Olexander Sasha
• Other Authors: School of Social Sciences
• Format: Conference or Workshop Item
• Language: English
• Published: 2023
• Subjects: Social sciences::Psychology::Applied psychology; Business::Management::Organizational behavior; Meaning of Working; Employability; Employment Policy; Future of Work; Career Attitudes; Scale Development
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/167565; https://www.anzam.org/events/2022-anzam-conference-proceedings/
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

We conceptualise the meaning of working for Singaporean university graduates aligned to contemporary economic and social policy that anticipates a changing future of work and society. Using data from 254 Singapore undergraduates, we report an early effort to develop self report scales measuring more contemporary (1) market-oriented/happenstance attitude to employment, and (2) intrinsic, non-economic attitudes to working, that are contrasted with more traditional (3) qualification/expertise-based attitudes to employment. Our new concepts/measures are independent of career attitudes, with the first two measures relating to protean/boundaryless career attitudes and employability and the last measure relates more to low organizational mobility preference. We discuss our research in context of ongoing employment policy transformations and social change, implications for graduate employability, and ongoing research directions.