If we take a step back to examine the influence of the larger cultural
environment, work-pace could be seen to positively influence both competitive
attitudes, with more than twice as large a relationship on Kiasu-positive
(g ¼ 0.54) than Kiasu-negative (g ¼ 0.20). The important influence of
work-pace on competitive attitudes should not be surprising, given the
nature of competitiveness which involves a notion of striving to win (Bing,
1999; Van Lange et al., 1997), and one which has also been argued here to be
related to the speed of work (Schriber and Gutek, 1987). However, what is
interesting is the more than twice as large influence of work-pace on
Kiasu-positive. This is very revealing of the nature of the Kiasu-positive
attitude, as it shows the centrality of work-pace in directing the effort of
Kiasu-positive towards performance. In other words, Kiasu-positive has a
“work fast” in addition to its already known “work hard” nature. Obviously, a
similar work-pace to Kiasu-negative relationship is also present in the results.
However, this other relationship is only half as strong and thus indicates that,
although the work-pace is significant, it is not as critical a component as it is in
Kiasu-positive.