Malaysian Diaspora and Talents

Gathering of Minds, Recognising Talent, Creating

National Wealth

Limkokwing University of Creative Technology, London

6 October 2010

Incentives vs. Quality of Life: Perspectives

from Malaysians Abroad on the Issue of
Government’s Brain Gain Programme
David Wong

Disclaimer:

All views and opinions represented by these slides and delivered during the
live presentation on 6 October 2010 are solely those of the author, and do
not necessarily represent those of the Relationships Foundation.

© 2010 David Wong

1
Why do Malaysians go abroad?

Education

Job opportunities, better income prospects, better

career prospects, lifestyle, marriage

Why do many Malaysians remain abroad?

Is it all about money?

Well, partially
Money is definitely something, but not everything,
particularly for the highly-skilled
Inertia

2
 There must be something more
Quality of life / life satisfaction / happiness / wellbeing

Increasing realisation that there is more to life satisfaction than merely income

Easterlin paradox, Sarkozy Commission, UK’s National Accounts of

Wellbeing, European Quality of Life Survey

What influences life satisfaction / wellbeing?

Absolute income (Diener Social relationships

and Biswas-Diener, Personality (DeNeve (Helliwell, 2003)
and Cooper, 1998)
2002)
Physical characteristics, e.g.
Relative income (Alesina et weight and height (Cummins
Unemployment (Di et al., 2004)
al., 2004; Easterlin, 2005)
Tella et al., 2001)
Ethnicity (Thoits and Hewitt, 2001)
Education (Stutzer, 2004)
Health (Michalos, Zumbo Genetics (Lykken and Tellegen, 1996)
and Hubley, 2000)
Gender (Clark and Oswald, 1994) Social and political
Age (Ferrer-i-Carbonell and
Gowdy, 2005)
factors (Inglehart and
Family life (Martin and
Klingemann, 2000)
Westhof, 2003)

3
Quality of life / wellbeing

The triple bottom line

Economic

Environmental Social

Quality of life is inextricably linked to RELATIONSHIPS

What relationships?
Malaysians in power
(the Government, politicians, policymakers)

Malaysians abroad Local Malaysians

(highly-skilled, (Malaysians in
professionals) Malaysia)

Until we address the strength and quality of these tripartite

relationships, it is difficult to envisage that the perceived quality of life
in Malaysia will significantly improve.

4
The Domains of Relationship

Communication

Purpose Time

Domains
C
of
Relationship

Information/
Power
knowledge

The Relational Proximity Model

Directness

Commonality Continuity

Relational
C
Proximity

Parity Multiplexity

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What state of Relational Proximity?

DIRECTNESS
the extent to which Accurate and
Communication presence or communication Connectedness
informed decisions
is mediated or filtered

CONTINUITY
the extent to which
Meaning and Momentum and
Time interactions last and the
gap between interactions belonging growth

MULTIPLEXITY
Information / the extent to which people Mutual Situational
knowledge actually know each other understanding intelligence

PARITY
Power the extent to which power is Participation and
Mutual respect
used fairly and justly loyalty

COMMONALITY
the extent to which there is Synergy and Motivation and
Purpose shared purpose unity commitment

So what can “Malaysians in power” do?

Ever more incentives?

Inflate wages?

Improve the standard of education?

Restrategise and restructure the Brain Gain Programme:

introduce flexibility?

Talent Corp?

6
To achieve genuine progress

The MOS factor: motivation, opportunity, support

Move with the times: genuine change of the system is needed

Address the state of the tripartite relationships

It’s the whole package, not piecemeal interventions!

The classic dilemma

Libertarian
Non- paternalism
interventionist/
reactive

Paternalistic/
prescriptive

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Otherwise…

…there are only two cards left that can be played

Patriotism Ageing family

About the author

David Wong is a Senior Researcher at the Relationships Foundation, the Cambridge-based think tank for a better
connected society. The Foundation studies and promotes the benefits of strong and effective relationships, and
develops novel solutions to social and organisational problems by engaging with a wide range of leaders in business,
politics, the public and the third sectors, and the academia. David also heads the Foundation’s Consulting & Leadership
Development practice. His areas of specialism include organisational culture, cross-cultural management, and
dilemmas and paradoxes. His work at the Foundation has included the development of a behavioural model that helps
business leaders as well as policy-makers understand how relationships can be influenced towards the attainment of
higher outcomes. He has also published on the impact of policy on time, relationships and wellbeing; argued for the
adoption of a family perspective in policy-making; and suggested a multi-layered method to family-proof policy.

David was previously the Director of the Centre for Knowledge & Business Leadership at the Asian Strategy &
Leadership Institute, Kuala Lumpur, and has taught at the Judge Business School, Cambridge, where he is currently
researching for a PhD. David took first class honours in Business Administration at the University of Malaya and read
for an MPhil in Management Studies at the University of Cambridge.

Contact:
Relationships Foundation (Registered charity no. 1106460)
3 Hooper Street
Cambridge CB1 2NZ
United Kingdom
Direct dial: +44 (0)1223 341273
Fax: +44 (0)1223 566359
Email: d.wong@relationshipsfoundation.org
Web: www.relationshipsfoundation.org