Peihua Dai, Mingming Feng and Jing Wang
The authors investigated the impacts of differentiated transformational leadership (TFL), including team-focused TFL and individual-focused TFL, on team creativity through the…
Abstract
Purpose
The authors investigated the impacts of differentiated transformational leadership (TFL), including team-focused TFL and individual-focused TFL, on team creativity through the mediating effect of team conflict, consisting of task conflict and relationship conflict.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors designed and conducted a close-to-reality experiment, enrolling 180 students and six professors from a large Chinese university. Student participants worked on a real marketing project and professor participants imitated the behaviors of transformational leaders. Using the computed values of team-focused TFL, individual-focused TFL, team creativity, task conflict and relationship conflict, the authors assessed the relationship among differentiated TFL, team creativity and team conflict.
Findings
Team-focused TFL has a significantly positive impact on team creativity through the mediating effect of task conflict, whereas individual-focused TFL has a significantly negative impact on team creativity through the mediating effect of relationship conflict.
Originality/value
From a new perspective of team conflict, the authors revealed the “black box” of the differentiated TFL–team creativity relationship. Moreover, other determinants were well controlled in the experiment, and thus, the authors effectively clarified the intervening mechanism of differentiated TFL on team creativity through the mediating effect of team conflict.
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Sainan Lyu, Carol K.H. Hon, Albert P.C. Chan, Arshad Ali Javed, Rita Peihua Zhang and Francis K.W. Wong
Previous studies have highlighted that communication barrier was one of the major safety problems faced by ethnic minority (EM) workers. This study aims to model the predominant…
Abstract
Purpose
Previous studies have highlighted that communication barrier was one of the major safety problems faced by ethnic minority (EM) workers. This study aims to model the predominant safety communication networks of EM crews and explore the relationships among safety communication networks, individual attributes, safety climate, near misses and injuries of EM crews.
Design/methodology/approach
Case studies were conducted with EM crews in the Hong Kong construction industry. Demographic attribute, network, safety climate and accidents data were collected through questionnaires and analyzed by a combination of social network analysis (SNA), cross-case comparison and nonparametric tests.
Findings
The results revealed that language proficiency, network density and level of reciprocity were contributing factors of distinguishing high and low safety performing EM crews. EM management received more safety information from EM workers than local management. The centrality of EM workers was significantly related to their age, the perceived priority of safety and language ability.
Practical implications
The research findings regarding the impact of safety communication network characteristics on the safety performance of EM crews provides insights to employers on how to cultivate effective safety communication patterns within EM crews that can lead to better safety performance. The connections between personal attributes and their positions in safety communication networks could help the employers identify the EM workers who are positioned on edges of networks and need more attention.
Originality/value
This study contributes to knowledge by enriching the limited research on analyzing safety communication of small construction crews using SNA and expanding the research object to EM construction crews in the literature, who are more vulnerable to construction accidents. This research also extends the existing body of knowledge from studies mainly carried out in Western culture to Eastern culture. Although safety communication has been regarded as important for EM workers, there is a lack of quantitative analysis on this at a crew level. The present study provides empirical research to reveal authentic safety communication networks and their connections with safety performance and personal attributes.
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A flexible manufacturing system (FMS) is a complex manufacturing system and it demands a robust control software for its scheduling, planning and control functions. This paper…
Abstract
A flexible manufacturing system (FMS) is a complex manufacturing system and it demands a robust control software for its scheduling, planning and control functions. This paper describes the development of an agent‐based infrastructure for the control of a cellular FMS. The FMS in this project is a flexible assembly cell (FAC), comprising two assembly robots and a conveyor system. The aim is to establish a multi‐agent control system with good expandability and to be able to cope with dynamic changes in the FAC. The proposed agent‐based FAC control system comprises a collection of agents implemented in a distributed control network. The approach of the agent design is based on the object‐oriented modelling technique. According to the proposed control architecture, a standard agent template has been designed for the establishment of individual agents in the agent‐based system.
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Yang Yang, Weijing Zhang, Zheng Liu and Peihua Zhang
The purpose of this work is to investigate the effect of filament composition with different specifications on the thermal comfort properties of bi-layer knitted fabrics.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this work is to investigate the effect of filament composition with different specifications on the thermal comfort properties of bi-layer knitted fabrics.
Design/methodology/approach
In this paper eight bi-layer knitted fabrics with the same knitting structure but different filament compositions were prepared, and the thermal-wet comfort properties of these fabrics were examined. According to experimental data, the effect of filament composition on the thermal comfort properties of fabric was analyzed.
Findings
The increasing difference of hydrophilicity between inner and outer layers resulted in the enhancement of moisture management properties. Better thermal-physiology performance was exhibited by fabrics made up of finer and circular section fibers. Excellent thermal transfer, drying performance and one-way water transport capacity benefited the improvement of dynamic cooling effect of fabrics.
Originality/value
This work provides a useful and effective method for the development of bi-layer knitted fabric applied for sports and summer clothing.