Search results

The purpose of the study is to examine the crossover effect of leader's role overload on employee's negative affect. More importantly, the stuy will identify the buffering role of self-concordance goal on the relationship between leader's role overload and employee's negative affect.

The study builds the crossover impact of leader's role overload on employee's negative affect as well as the moderating effect of self-concordance goal. By a two-wave and paired data from 51 leaders and 225 employees, the study examines the hypothesis using cross-level analysis.

Results show that leader's role overload tends to reduce negative affect for employees who pursue high-level self-concordance goal and increase negative affect for employees who pursue low-level self-concordance goal.

It is important for employees to get rid of negative affect in the workplace. The study informs managers the benefits of pursuing self-concordance goals in helping employees alleviate the negative effect of leader's role overload.

Findings of the present study can enrich the literature of the crossover process from leader to employee and offer management strategy for enterprises about how to buffer the damaging effect of leader's role overload on employees.

This study aims to investigate the relationship between leader group prototypicality and intergroup conflict, as well as its mechanisms and contextual factors using the social identity theory.

The research model was empirically tested using multi-phase, multi-source and multilevel survey data in China. The final sample consisted of 75 group leaders and 231 group members. Multilevel structural equation modelling and a Monte Carlo simulation were used for hypothesis testing.

The results showed that leader group prototypicality would engender intergroup conflict via intergroup distinctiveness. Further, leaders’ benchmarking behaviour moderated this indirect effect. In particular, leader group prototypicality resulted in higher intergroup distinctiveness and intergroup conflict, only when the leaders’ benchmarking behaviour was higher rather than lower.

First, this study addresses the question of whether leader group prototypicality would lead to intergroup conflict to provide theoretical and empirical insights to supplement extant literature. Second, the study advances the understanding of mechanisms (intergroup distinctiveness) and the consequences (intergroup conflict) of leader group prototypicality in an intergroup context. Third, the study shows that leaders’ benchmarking behaviour moderates the effect of leader group prototypicality on intergroup conflict through intergroup distinctiveness. As such, the findings are of value to future management practice by offering precise, practical interventions to manage the intergroup conflict caused by leader group prototypicality.

With the development of Web 2.0 virtual communities, the authors see a useful platform for knowledge sharing. However, knowledge sharing in virtual communities still remains a big challenge given the concern of knowledge quantity and quality. The purpose of this paper is to explore the effect of individual differences on knowledge contributing, knowledge seeking, trust and norm of reciprocity. This study also explores the mean difference between knowledge seeking and knowledge contributing as well as the correlations between knowledge seeking, knowledge contributing, trust and reciprocity so as to provide some guidance for knowledge management practice in China.

Data collected from 430 users of Web 2.0 virtual communities were used for data analysis. The independent samples t-test, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), paired samples t-test and correlation analysis were employed.

The independent samples t-test and one-way ANOVA present the effect of individual differences on knowledge contributing, knowledge seeking, trust and norm of reciprocity. The paired samples t-test suggests that employees are more likely to seek knowledge from than contribute knowledge to Web 2.0 virtual communities. The correlation analysis suggests there are positive correlations between knowledge contributing, knowledge seeking, trust and reciprocity.

Knowledge management initiatives in Chinese organizations are encountered relatively less frequently, compared with western countries. The authors suggest the findings of this study provide useful insights into the informal knowledge sharing in Web 2.0 virtual communities, which is helpful for guiding knowledge management practice in China.

Based on knowledge quantity and knowledge quality whose significance cannot be over-emphasized in virtual communities, this study explores employee perceptions of Web 2.0 virtual communities from the perspective of knowledge sharing, which the authors think provides a new view for knowledge sharing research and practice alike in China.

An organization is broadly defined to be a formally co‐ordinated effort by groups of individuals to realize specific goals. A university, as an organization, can be distinguished from a wide range of business organizations and government agencies, both by the manner of co‐ordination and the goals of profession. Reviews some characteristics of university academic and administrative organizations in both Australia and China. Includes a comparative examination of supervising organs above the university; governing bodies within the university; teaching organizations of the university between Australia and China, and the classification of China′s universities.

China is a fast‐growing economy, and many multinational companies (MNCs) have found their ways to infiltrate that market. The competition among the MNCs has generated human resource management (HRM) problems. When formulating approaches in dealing with these problems, the expatriate management of the MNCs often “speak for” their local employees, as if the latter has no voice of its own. It is suspected that MNCs know partly what their local employees value. With such limited understanding, the former may be ineffective in managing their local staff. The purpose of this paper is to report a study that explores the HRM problems from local employees' perspectives. To understand Chinese employees, the conceptual lens, stemmed from Chinese philosophical traditions instead of that derived from western experience, is used.

Data were collected through semi‐structured interviews with Chinese employees working in MNCs.

The findings suggest that “asymmetrical understanding” exists between expatriate managers and their Chinese employees, and that the former may know much less about the latter than it is normally assumed.

The findings, illustrated through interviews, have shed light on how MNCs could manage their Chinese employees, and how a meaningful dialogue could take place: understanding the other (Chinese employees) on their own intellectual ground to overcome “asymmetrical understanding”.

By allowing the voice of the other to come forth rather than to keep it in the background as, at best, a whisper, the study helps create a platform for a meaningful cross‐cultural dialogue between voices from the west and the other.

Aluminium silicon carbide reinforced metal matrix composite (Al/SiC‐MMC) materials are rapidly replacing conventional materials in various automotive, aerospace and other industries. Accordingly, the need for accurate machining of composites has increased enormously. The present work analyzes the machining of Al/SiC composites for surface roughness. An empirical model has been developed to correlate the machining parameters and their interactions with surface roughness. Response surface regression and analysis of variance are used for making the model. The developed model can be effectively used to predict the surface roughness in machining Al/SiC‐MMC composites. The influences of different parameters in machining Al/SiC particulate composites have been analyzed through contour graphs and 3D plots.

The purpose of this paper is to provide theoretical guidance and an experimental basis for a smart anti-corrosion coating of halloysite nanocontainers loaded with benzotriazole (BTA) inhibitors on copper in a marine corrosion environment.

In the present study, the smart anti-corrosion coatings of halloysite nanocontainers loaded inhibitors on copper were synthesized by adding BTA inside the halloysite nanocontainers. Then, the halloysite carrier’s surface topography and composition in the halloysite were observed using scanning electron microscopy. After the successful synthesis of the coating, the inhibitor’s physical and chemical properties, as well as the mass change in halloysite, were evaluated in terms of temperature fluctuation and time using thermal gravity analysis (TGA). Finally, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy was used to check the pH selectivity for the self-releasing of BTA out of the nanocontainers.

The results indicate that the efficiency of the nanotubes was enhanced by calcination at high temperatures. The thermal gravity analysis by TGA shows that halloysite nanoparticles store inhibitors BTA and there are approximately 37.39 Wt.% BTA loaded in each nanocontainer. The release of the preloaded BTA from the halloysite nanocontainers is pH 7 in a 3.5% NaCl solution.

The development of a new environmentally safe coating for corrosion protection of metallic surfaces has attracted great interest in material science over the past few years. At present, halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) have become a research hotspot internationally and are widely used in nanocomposites, catalysis, nanofiltration, drug sustained-release and other fields. However, the application of HNT is limited by its modification methods. As the carrier of metal nanocorrosion inhibitor in the Marine corrosive environment, the modification research of HNT still needs to be further studied and improved so as to expand the practical application of HNT in the Marine corrosive environment. In this paper, the modification of HNTs was investigated and observed. Four different modification schemes were used to observe and compare the structural properties of the nanotubes under different conditions so as to provide a theoretical basis for the further loading of HNTs as corrosion inhibitors.

This chapter examines the case studies in this volume with a focus on concepts and methods used in the study of multi-organization networks and partnerships, motivations to join in multi-party collaboration, how multi-organization collaborations organized and managed, what kinds of value are created by collaborations, and the role of leadership therein.

A comparative look at four vertical networks (in health care and education); two “issue” networks/partnerships (sustainable seafood and water use); and the roles of government in collaboration in horizontal, vertical, and issue-based arrangements.

The chapter describes “lessons” learned about building both sustainability and collaborative capabilities in and across partnering organizations and about improving partnership structures, processes, and results.

The chapter sums and synthesizes the volume’s contributions.