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Sensegiving is inherently a sociopolitical activity through which leaders shape their subordinates’ understanding of organizational change. However, it remains unclear as to why and which leaders actively engage in and effectively perform sensegiving during organizational change. This study employs social/political influence theory and develops a two-stage moderated mediation model to address this question. The study aims to examine the antecedent (leader’s willingness to support change) and outcome (team commitment to change) of sensegiving as well as the moderating role of the leader’s political skill in the relationships between the leader’s willingness to support change and sensegiving, and between sensegiving and team commitment to change.

This study utilized a two-stage, dual-source survey method. In the first stage, data were collected from 56 leaders. In the second stage, data were collected from 271 team members. Regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses.

The results show that a leader’s willingness to support change positively affects sensegiving, and sensegiving positively affects team commitment to change. The leader’s political skill moderates the effect of the leader’s willingness to support change on sensegiving as well as the effect of sensegiving on team commitment to change. Moreover, a two-stage mediated moderation model shows that the relationship between a leader’s willingness to support change and team commitment to change through sensegiving is moderated by the leader’s political skill.

This study, for the first time, investigates why leaders engage in sensegiving and the collective-level effects of sensegiving during organizational change, deepening our understanding of the antecedents and consequences of sensegiving. Furthermore, by revealing the role of a leader’s political skill in both the engagement in sensegiving and its effectiveness, this study extends our understanding of which leaders actively engage in and effectively perform sensegiving. These findings also contribute to the literature on collective-level change response.

Based on the collective agentic perspective of social cognitive theory and supplemented by social support theory, this study aims to investigate how the entrepreneurial collective efficacy of entrepreneurial teams impacts team effectiveness. Specifically, this study hypothesizes that entrepreneurial collective efficacy is a critical factor affecting effectiveness through the mechanism of instrumental support to varying extents, depending on team size.

The hypotheses were tested on a Chinese sample of new venture teams (N teams = 81; N individuals = 335). A multisource questionnaire that included questions for team leaders and other team decision makers was designed. The data on entrepreneurial collective efficacy (six items) and instrumental support (four items) comprised the aggregate responses from all team members; the data on team effectiveness (seven items) was reported by team leaders.

The findings indicate that entrepreneurial collective efficacy is positively associated with team effectiveness through instrumental support, especially in small teams.

This study makes important contributions to the research related to exploring in uncertain environments (entrepreneurship) how (instrumental support) entrepreneurial collective efficacy impacts team effectiveness, as well as more particularly under what conditions (team size), all within the specific context of collectivistic cultures (China).

The process of fostering and enhancing employee creativity (EC) is multifaceted and involves various challenges and contradictions, with paradoxical leadership (PL) playing a crucial role. However, previous research has neglected the importance of employee emotions, resulting in an incomplete understanding of the underlying mechanisms. To address this gap, this study draws upon the triadic reciprocal determinism of social cognitive theory to construct a moderated mediation model. The objective is to investigate the mediating role of harmonious work passion (HP) in the relationship between PL and EC. Furthermore, the study aims to explore the moderating effect of proactive personality (PP).

Two surveys were carried out in eight enterprises situated in China. A total of 337 employees took part in the questionnaire survey to explore the correlation between PL, PP and HP. Additionally, 42 supervisors participated in evaluating the creativity of their subordinates. To test the proposed hypotheses, this study utilized hierarchical regression analysis on a sample of supervisor-subordinate pairs.

Paradoxical leadership is positively correlated with employee harmonious work passion. Harmonious work passion is positively correlated with employee creativity. Harmonious work passion plays a mediating role between paradoxical leadership and employee creativity. Proactive personality moderates the relationship between paradoxical leadership and harmonious work passion. Proactive personality moderates the indirect effect of harmonious work passion on the relationship between paradoxical leadership and employee creativity.

The results of this study provide practical suggestions for improving EC. For example, organizations can select supervisors who exhibit PL qualities and enhance the training programs for leaders in the domain of paradoxical thinking. Furthermore, it is crucial for leaders to prioritize the development of employees' HP and to be attentive to the distinct individual variations present within their workforce.

This study enriches the research on the mediating and moderating mechanism between PL and EC and opens the black box from the perspective of emotion. Moreover, this research examines the boundary condition under which PL functions. The study reveals the interaction of environment, personality, cognition and emotion on creativity and provides a new perspective and empirical support for future research.

The purpose of this paper was to prepare a ternary hierarchical rough particle to accelerate the anti-corrosive design for coastal concrete infrastructures.

A kind of micro-nano hydrophobic ternary microparticles was fabricated from SiO₂/halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) and recycled concrete powders (RCPs), which was then mixed with sodium silicate and silane to form an inorganic slurry. The slurry was further sprayed on the concrete surface to construct a superhydrophobic coating (SHC). Transmission electron microscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy mappings demonstrate that the nano-sized SiO₂ has been grafted on the sub-micron HNTs and then further adhered to the surface of micro-sized RCP, forming a kind of superhydrophobic particles (SiO₂/HNTs@RCP) featured of abundant micro-nano hierarchical structures.

The SHC surface presents excellent superhydrophobicity with the water contact angle >156°. Electrochemical tests indicate that the corrosion rate of mild steel rebar in coated concrete reduces three-order magnitudes relative to the uncoated one in 3.5% NaCl solution. Water uptake and chloride ion (Cl^-) diffusion tests show that the SHC exhibits high H₂O and Cl^- ions barrier properties thanks to the pore-sealing and water-repellence properties of SiO₂/HNTs@RCP particles. Furthermore, the SHC possesses considerable mechanical durability and outstanding self-cleaning ability.

SHC inhibits water uptake, Cl^- diffusion and rebar corrosion of concrete, which will promote the sustainable application of concrete waste in anti-corrosive concrete projects.