Xie Yizhong, Zhibin Lin, Yevhen Baranchenko, Chi Keung Lau, Andrey Yukhanaev and Hailing Lu
Graduate employability is a key concern for many observers particularly at a time when education is increasingly available for the masses. The purpose of this paper is to examine…
Abstract
Purpose
Graduate employability is a key concern for many observers particularly at a time when education is increasingly available for the masses. The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of graduate perceived employability on job search by integrating theory of planned behavior and to identify how job search self-efficacy, subjective norms, intention and intensity change over time.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from a six-wave survey study with a sample of Chinese university graduating students.
Findings
Results show that perceived employability has a positive and significant effect on job search self-efficacy, attitude, intention and intensity; and that all the repeated measuring variables (except job search attitude) decreased over time.
Practical implications
The study is useful for educators, employers and prospective students. It prompts discussion of reforms in the curriculum to increase graduate awareness of the complexity of the job search process and existing opportunities. The study could also help to explain how job search behavior changes over time.
Originality/value
The findings carry implications for both higher education research and the measures of improving graduate employability. The study fills the gap in the literature by integrating employability and the theory of planned behavior into one framework in order to analyze the process of Chinese university graduates’ job search behavior.
Details
Keywords
Xie Yizhong, Yevhen Baranchenko, Zhibin Lin, Chi Keung Lau and Jie Ma
The purpose of this paper is to examine the mediating role of job characteristics and social exchange in transformational leadership (TFL) and employability relationship.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the mediating role of job characteristics and social exchange in transformational leadership (TFL) and employability relationship.
Design/methodology/approach
The sample is composed of 760 participants employed in Yangtze Delta and Pearl River Delta in China. The participants have worked under their line manager for more than one year. In order to better prevent data from possible common method bias, two waves of surveys (in 2014) on a stratified sample, included a mix of industries, such as construction, manufacturing, finance, insurance and communications, were used to investigate the proposed relationship between TFL, job characteristics, social exchange and employability.
Findings
The research has empirically tested the relationship between TFL and employability. While previous research has analyzed the relationship between them, the authors have enriched existing literature by exploring the mediating factors and illustrating the importance of indirect effects. Besides the direct effect, the results of this study showed that TFL could also improve employees’ employability through job demands, skill discretion, decision authority, perceived organizational support and team–member exchange, but not leader–member exchange.
Originality/value
The study opens up a debate around the employability of employees as it stands apart from the performance measurement. The authors believe that this new mediating model can provide an insight into complex mechanisms of employability enhancement from the perspective of leader development.
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Jianlan Zhong, Yizhong Ma, Yiliu Tu and Xia Li
This paper aims to focus on supply chain quality (SCQ) in the hospitality industry in China, and to stress the importance of the synergy of quality management (QM) and supply…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to focus on supply chain quality (SCQ) in the hospitality industry in China, and to stress the importance of the synergy of quality management (QM) and supply chain management (SCM). The authors have investigated the relationship among QM practices, SCM practices, SCQ and hotel performance, and examined the effect of contextual variables.
Design/methodology/approach
This study mainly uses a questionnaire survey to collect data relating to the research hypotheses. Structural equation model technique is suited for our research purposes, and the LISREL software is implemented to test the conceptual model.
Findings
The results show that QM practices and SCM practices are significantly correlated. QM practices/SCM practices are positively related to SCQ, and consequently influence hotel performance. SCQ has the mediating effect between QM/SCM practices and hotel performance. Contextual variables truly play a moderator between QM/SCM practices and SCQ.
Research limitations/implications
Hotel managers should look beyond their own hotels into supply chain to manage quality, highlight the importance of interdepartmental or external (i.e. customers or suppliers) connectedness, such as building close and long-term relationships with well-chosen suppliers, encouraging customer involvement and establishing an effective interface for accumulating information regarding customers’ needs and feedback. Hotel managers are also able to realize the influence of contextual variables (e.g. the new normal state of the Chinese economy), and further to gain chance of hotel’s survival.
Originality/value
This study focuses on SCQ and tries to fill a gap in the exiting literature on SCQ management in hospitality industry.
Details
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Adaptive reuse of building assets is an important approach to sustainability. Adapting a building for new uses often involves complex factors in the decision-making process…
Abstract
Purpose
Adaptive reuse of building assets is an important approach to sustainability. Adapting a building for new uses often involves complex factors in the decision-making process, particularly in conservation areas. The paper aims to show an evaluation process of the adaptive reuse potential of historic buildings that are subject to change in the Grand Canal area, a world heritage site in Hangzhou, China.
Design/methodology/approach
For this purpose, a model has been established with aggregated views of professionals on the degree to which a variety of factors affect the buildings’ potential for adaptive reuse. The model intends to help prioritise some of the buildings in the area for adaptive reuse, which is important for effective allocation of public resources. Interviews with professionals, analytic hierarchy process and the Delphi method have been used to establish the evaluation model. It is then applied to the Grand Canal area to generate indices for buildings’ adaptive reuse potential and the ranking of priority. The indices are generated through public scoring of historic buildings against the variables and calculated through the model.
Findings
The paper concludes that the evaluation process is an effective way to engage the public in the decision-making process and to balance conflict interests of various stakeholders in the management of historic building assets in conservation areas.
Originality/value
The research has proposed an evaluation model to help set priority of buildings subject to adaptive reuse and to help distribute public fund effectively. It facilitates wide public engagement in the decision-making progress of adaptive reuse of historic buildings.