HBC101 Understanding Contemporary Society: The Social and Behavioural Sciences Assignment 01

HBC101 SUSS TMA01

The mandatory guidelines on flexible work arrangements (FWAs) by the Tripartite Alliance for Fair & Progressive Employment Practices (TAFEP) took effect in December 2024. Based on their diverse needs, employees can make formal requests to their employers for greater flexibility in their work arrangements in terms of working place, time, and workload. The mandatory guidelines were introduced to respond to challenges posed by Singapore’s ageing population, a shrinking talent pool for employers, and rising rates of poor mental health among employees.

• Tay, Hong Yi (2024, April 17), The Straits Times. https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/jobs/all-employers-in-singapore-must-fairlyconsider-flexi-work-requests-from-dec-1-under-new-rules
• Ministry of Manpower, National Trade Unions Congress, Singapore National Employers Federation (2024, April) https://www.mom.gov.sg/-/media/mom/documents/press-releases/2024/tripartite-guidelines-on-flexible-workarrangement-requests.pdf
This assignment is focused on the Singapore government’s balancing act between maintaining Singapore’s economic competitiveness and ensuring an appropriate standard of living for its population.

You'll need to provide and use reliable supporting evidence and statistics to prove your arguments throughout the essay.

(a) Explain the key challenges faced by Singapore in the following areas and their implications. How would FWAs help to alleviate or mitigate the implications?

• Rapidly ageing population
• Shrinking talent pool for employers to hire from
• Rising rates of poor mental health among employees

(b) Based on your understanding of workplace culture in Singapore, what are three key issues that could limit the effectiveness of the FWA guidelines and process to provide employees with greater flexibility to meet their diverse needs? What are some proposed solutions that can help to overcome the key limitations identified?

You can refer to academic literature, other sources and/or draw inspiration from solutions adopted by other countries and tailor them to Singapore’s context to buttress your responses.

Assignment Requirements

The assignment will be marked holistically. Please take note of the following:

• You must provide the word count, in-text citations, and a list of references at the end of the essay.
• You should have a minimum of three academic references.
• The word limit for this TMA is 1,600 words, excluding the bibliography.
• The essay should be a single continuous submission instead of being split into parts (a) and (b).
• Please submit your TMA in Word Document format (.doc or .docx).

Penalties

Please note the following penalties:

• Up to 10% of your grade may be deducted for poor language proficiency (including grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors) or incoherent structure.
• Up to 5% of your final grade may be deducted for exceeding the word limit, excluding the reference list and appendix.

Suggested Readings

• HBC101 iStudyGuide
• Colander, D., & Hunt, E. (2022). Social Science: An Introduction to the Study of Society (18th ed.). Routledge. https://search.library.suss.edu.sg/permalink/65SUSS_INST/sk51at/alma99407037004926

Resources for Writing

• Purdue Online Writing Lab (Purdue OWL)
• APA Guide
• Academic Integrity