Lim discusses the pros and cons of using extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. Which do you think is predominantly used in Singapore? What do you think are the impacts on the Singapore society of using such a mode of motivation?

In the modern society, government has learnt to implement several policies to try to motivate the population to work hard in order to improve the economy. This is no different in Singapore which has its own share of policies and regulations set to motivate the people. This will inculcate extrinsic motivation in the people which will result in negative impacts if this form of motivation becomes the main source of motivation for the people.
First of all, extrinsic motivation will mould a society of people who only work for short term benefits. Extrinsic motivation will make the people work hard only to reach materialistic goals and incentives which appear to be beneficial to them at that moment. As the text quotes, Intrinsic motivation, by contrast, drives people to perform an activity for which they receive no reward except the activity itself. Social psychologists have observed a phenomenon known as 'the hidden cost of reward', in which external incentives can actually cut away at people's inner motivation for doing what they consider worthwhile. As a result, the people may be over driven by extrinsic motivation, which applies to the current situation in Singapore. IN Singapore, several childcare policies and education policies are set in such a way that the people fulfill the ‘criteria’ just to reap the benefits from the policies itself. This will produce a new batch of population where work has to be balanced with equal incentives and not for the joy of accomplishing it.
To add on, I agree with Yiqi’s point that is that there will be no breakthrough in the society, where people only work for the sake of self benefits and do not wish to excel in the jobs they do when no benefits are given. For Singapore, there are several systems such as the L.E.A.P.S system in secondary schools where students score points by fulfilling its criteria such as serving community service. Most students serve these hours not out of the heart to serve the community, but rather to earn points so as to allow easier entry to junior colleges. As a result, more students will be driven by its extrinsic motivation rather than intrinsic as it is easier to aim at self benefits. Hence, the society will be unable to progress without a balance of feeding incentives to the people.
IN conclusion, I feel that Singapore is more dominated by extrinsic motivation which will have serious negative impacts when the people get over driven by short term incentives and confine themselves to be calculative. Creativity will not be needed as the people will only be interested in doing things that are beneficial to themselves.