Search results

The purpose of this study was to explore school principals’ job crafting profiles during the prolonged COVID-19 crisis in 2021, and investigate profile differences regarding principals’ own perceived servant leadership, stress and work meaningfulness.

Using latent profile analysis (LPA), two job crafting profiles were identified: (1) active crafters (55%) and (2) average crafters (45%). By auxiliary measurement-error-weighted-method (BCH), we examined whether and how job crafting profiles differed in terms of servant leadership, stress and work meaningfulness.

Active crafters reported higher than the overall mean level of approach-oriented job crafting (increasing job resources and demands), whereas average crafters reported an overall mean level of approach-oriented job crafting. Avoidance-oriented job crafting by decreasing hindering job demands did not differentiate the two profiles. Active crafters reported significantly higher servant leadership behavior, stress and work meaningfulness than average crafters.

Study findings provide new knowledge and reflect the implications that the unprecedented pandemic had for education. This study contributes to the existing literature within the scholarship of job crafting through empirical research during the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic. For practitioners, these study findings reflect contextual constraints, organizational processes and culture, and leadership in workplaces.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of servant leadership on work engagement and affective commitment among academics in higher education. Moreover, the paper highlights the role of job satisfaction as an intervening mechanism among the examined variables.

Self-administered questionnaires were distributed to academics working in the Palestinian higher education sector. We used structural equation modelling to examine the hypotheses.

A positive relationship was found between servant leadership and affective commitment. The relationship between servant leadership and work engagement is fully mediated by job satisfaction, whereas partial mediation was found between servant leadership and affective commitment. Both work engagement and affective commitment have a positive impact on academics’ job performance.

The paper provides a fertile ground for higher education managers concerning the role of leadership in stimulating work engagement and organisational commitment among academics.

First, the paper is one of the few studies that empirically examines servant leadership in higher education using data coming from a non-Western context because most of the servant leadership research is conducted in the Western part of the world (Parris and Peachey, 2013). Second, we empirically provide evidence for the argument that servant leadership is needed in higher education. Third, the paper contributes to the limited body of research on work engagement and commitment in the higher education sector.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the medical incident responses from two public hospitals in Hong Kong, namely, Kowloon Hospital and Caritas Medical Centre, in order to improve the strategic preparation for crisis management in hospitals.

The paper analyses two medical incidents using Situational Crisis Communication Theory by Coombs (2007). The two case studies presented herein demonstrate the importance of consistency in terms of crisis responses.

For the first case, the crisis responses from different parties after the incident, including Hospital Authority, the doctor and the nurses from Kowloon Hospital, are contradicting to each other. First, Hospital Authority confirmed that the incident is solely an accident which is a denial response. Second, the doctor passed the responsibility to the nurses which is a scapegoating response. Third, the nurses tend to reduce the responsibility for the death of patient by excusing strategy. As a whole, their responses are inconsistent to each other. For the second case, Caritas had initially denied the responsibilities, but finally had given partial apology under public pressure. That makes people think that Caritas does not really regret.

Rebuilding posture should be used instead of denial and diminishment posture. However, public organization and civil servants are reluctant to use a full apology due to possible legal consequences. The apology ordinance would ease the pressure to express regret and sympathy.

Bolted joint is the most important connection method in aircraft composite/metal stacked connections due to its large load transfer capacity and high manufacturing reliability. Aircraft components are subjected to complex hybrid variable loads during service, and the mechanical properties of composite/metal bolted joint directly affect the overall safety of aircraft structures. Research on composite/metal bolted joint and their mechanical properties has also become a topic of general interests. This article reviews the current research status of aeronautical composite/metal bolted joint and its mechanical properties and looks forward to future research directions.

This article reviews the research progress on static strength failure and fatigue failure of composite/metal bolted joint, focusing on exploring failure analysis and prediction methods from the perspective of the theoretical models. At the same time, the influence and correlation mechanism of hole-making quality and assembly accuracy on the mechanical properties of their connections are summarized from the hole-making processes and damage of composite/metal stacked structures.

The progressive damage analysis method can accurately analyze and predict the static strength failure of composite/metal stacked bolted joint structures by establishing a stress analysis model combined with composite material performance degradation schemes and failure criteria. The use of mature metal material fatigue cumulative damage models and composite material fatigue progressive damage analysis methods can effectively predict the fatigue of composite/metal bolted joints. The geometric errors such as aperture accuracy and holes perpendicularity have the most significant impact on the connection performance, and their mechanical responses mainly include ultimate strength, bearing stiffness, secondary bending effect and fatigue life.

Current research on the theoretical prediction of the mechanical properties of composite/metal bolted joints is mainly based on ideal fits with no gaps or uniform gaps in the thickness direction, without considering the hole shape characteristics generated by stacked drilling. At the same time, the service performance evaluation of composite/metal stacked bolted joints structures is currently limited to static strength and fatigue failure tests of the sample-level components and needs to be improved and verified in higher complexity structures. At the same time, it also needs to be extended to the mechanical performance research under more complex forms of the external loads in more environments.

The mechanical performance of the connection structure directly affects the overall structural safety of the aircraft. Many scholars actively explore the theoretical prediction methods for static strength and fatigue failure of composite/metal bolted joints as well as the impact of hole-making accuracy on their mechanical properties. This article provides an original overview of the current research status of aeronautical composite/metal bolted joint and its mechanical properties, with a focus on exploring the failure analysis and prediction methods from the perspective of theoretical models for static strength and fatigue failure of composite/metal bolt joints and looks forward to future research directions.

This article analyzes the implementation of anti-corruption reforms in Taiwan by two former presidents, Chen Shui-bian (2000-2008) and Ma Ying-jeou (2008-2016).

A three-tier research approach, including in-depth interviews, questionnaire survey, and descriptive and inferential analysis, is adopted. In addition to Chen and Ma, 11 senior anti-corruption officials who served under both presidents were interviewed by the author. The survey questions cover 12 factors which are later grouped into the five dimensions of ethical leadership, considerate leadership, delegating leadership, participatory leadership, and performance to illustrate the causal relationship between these dimensions and performance.

Ma’s personal ethics are distinct from Chen’s in kind but Ma’s overall leadership and performance outshine Chen’s in degree rather than in kind. While the gap of ethical leadership between two Taiwan presidents is significantly wider than other dimensions of leadership, the outcome of the national integrity is not proportionate to the ethical leadership gap. In other words, personal ethics are not automatically transformed into political will for enhancing anti-corruption effectiveness. Three popular forms of corruption, red envelopes (bribing), influence-peddling, and vote-buying are analyzed in the context of changing political culture through national leadership. Unfortunately, both Chen and Ma produce insignificant contributions based on public surveys.

Policy-makers and scholars can use these research findings to further explore how ethical leadership can enhance a country’s anti-corruption performance.

While most language departments of the university offer service-learning (SL) subjects based on language teaching, such as “Teaching Chinese as a Second Language in Local Schools” and “Serving the Community through Teaching English,” this paper aims to argue that teaching students to teach language(s) is yet to be the best strategy to serve the service recipients.

SL is widely understood as an experiential learning pedagogy that integrates academic focus, reflection and community service and is shown to be impactful. In Hong Kong, the first university that has made SL a graduation requirement is the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (the University). Considering this, new SL courses have proliferated over the past decade. Adopting a narrative inquiry approach, this paper examines personal narratives from a new SL subject aiming to raise awareness of refugees in Hong Kong. The data includes students’ reflective journals, co-created personal narratives and podcasts and semi-structured interviews.

This paper finds that crafting and recording narratives of shared experiences deepens cultural understanding, cultivates empathy and facilitates language learning in a genuine setting.

Ultimately, this paper advocates a well-designed SL that combines language, content and technology as a powerful, transformational experience for both college students and service recipients.

This paper focuses on a brand new SL course, “Storytelling for Understanding: Refugee Children in Hong Kong,” offered in Semester 1, 2022–2023. The subject was developed by the two authors from a language division affiliated to the University. The deliverables were podcast recordings, co-authored and co-edited by the students and the children.