Future of Work in Asia

One of a series of titles on the Futures of Asia, this book explores diverse facets of Asia’s work landscape during the transformative 2020s, offering insights into pivotal transformations and potential trajectories. The covered topics include future work models, the role of technology in the future workplace, the dynamics of the future workforce, and the evolving landscape of work. Examining the topics from corporate foresight and past-future to technological trends and environmental shifts, this book showcases a collaborative effort from multidisciplinary researchers navigating the complexities of forecasting and envisioning Asia’s work futures. This book offers valuable insights into the dynamic discourse on future studies, while offering a nuanced understanding of the work possibilities that lie ahead of Asia as well as deciphering Asia’s evolving impact and roles within the broader global context. This is an insightful read for scholars with an interest in Asian work and future studies.

Chorng Yuan Fung is the Head of School (Business) at the Faculty of Business, Design and Arts, Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus, Malaysia. He has over 25 years of academic and industry experience as a chartered accountant. Fung is currently a member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) Malaysia Advisory Committee and the Malaysian Institute of Accountants Sarawak Regional Committee. He holds a PhD in Education and an M.Sc. in human resource development. His research interests include corporate reporting, human resource development, and higher education pedagogy. Fung also supervises postgraduate students and regularly contributes to several high-impact disciplinary journals. 

Agnes Siang Siew Lim is a Human Resource Development (HRD) expert at the Faculty of Cognitive Sciences and Human Development, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS). She served as an Academic Coordinator and is currently the Program Coordinator for the MSc HRD postgraduate program. She has experience in multinational organisations and has led training system enhancement and continuous improvement (Kaizen). Her research focuses on HRD and TQM, and she has received various professional accolades and certifications such as Accredited Trainer, Certified Mentor, and Lean Green Belt. Actively engaged in community and research projects, she contributes thought leadership through media publications and as a speaker at international seminars. 

Weng Marc Lim is a Distinguished Professor and the Dean of Sunway Business School at Sunway University, an ASU-Cintana Alliance Global Partner Affiliate Faculty at Arizona State University in the United States of America, and an Adjunct Professor at Swinburne University of Technology in Australia and Sungkyunkwan University in the Republic of Korea. Professor Lim is the Record Holder for “Youngest Professor” in the Malaysia Book of Records and features in the Academy of Sciences Malaysia’s Top Research Scientists Malaysia and JCI’s Ten Outstanding Young Malaysians. With over 100 publications in prestigious “A*” and “A” ranked journals, Professor Lim’s research has been cited more than 30,000 times. As a thought leader, Professor Lim has led high-level discussions at AppliedHE, Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), Association of MBAs (AMBA), Business Graduates Association (BGA), Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), Times Higher Education (THE), United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and Principles of Responsible Management Education (UNPRME), and World Economic Forum (WEF). Professor Lim holds a Bachelor of Business and Commerce with First Class Honors and a Doctor of Philosophy from Monash University, and multiple certificates post-PhD, including a Graduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching (Higher Education) with High Distinction from Swinburne University of Technology and a Certificate in School Management and Leadership from Harvard University.

Huey Fen Cheong is a Senior Lecturer at Universiti Malaya, Malaysia. Her interests have been multidisciplinary, mainly linguistics, sociology, education, marketing, and psychology. Driven by a cultural and postcolonial perspective, she collaborated with a group of established scholars to initiate this Futures of Asia series (which contains this book) and the earlier COVID-19 in Malaysia series. These initiatives aim to promote Global South research and publications, especially on significant events such as the COVID-19 pandemic, post-pandemic normality and transformations, and the rise of AI, which equally matter to non-Western regions and deserve equal scholarly attention (and acceptance) beyond Western-centric frameworks in academia.