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1 – 10 of 918Explores, from an insider’s perspective, human resource’s (HR’s) critical role in establishing spirituality practice at the Guangxi Institute of Public Administration, for…
Abstract
Purpose
Explores, from an insider’s perspective, human resource’s (HR’s) critical role in establishing spirituality practice at the Guangxi Institute of Public Administration, for enhancing academics and administrative staff’ intrinsic satisfaction.
Design/methodology/approach
Describes the various forms of spiritual human resource management (HRM) practice that the Guangxi Institute of Public Administration applied in the workplace.
Findings
Reports that various forms of spiritual HRM practice could improve the organizational productivity through employees’ engagement; for example, increased use of initiative, helping each other, making constructive suggestions for team work, reducing individuals level of workload and conflict resolution.
Practical Implications
Explains that HR managers could develop a highly committed and productive workplace through designing various forms of spiritual HRM practice, including connecting employees with nature by building natural featured campus and bringing in plants at workplace, encouraging employees to take exercise and/or breaks to develop their physical and spiritual wellness, celebrating important milestones and achievements, organizing informal teams to get to know each other better (hobbies, likes and dislikes), decorating office with employee-made art, acknowledging employees’ creative expression and promoting feelings of egalitarianism.
Originality/value
Offers interesting details of spiritual HRM practice, from an insider’s perspective, in a Chinese context.
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Keywords
Yong Han and Hongdan Zhao
The purpose of this paper is to describe family‐friendly policies at Shanghai Shuozhi Management Consulting Co. Ltd.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to describe family‐friendly policies at Shanghai Shuozhi Management Consulting Co. Ltd.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper examines the background to the policies, the form they take and some of the results they achieve.
Findings
The paper reports the role of stable monthly pay and perks; family‐supportive supervisors; family‐friendly colleagues; professional‐development programs; child‐related support programs; and physical health and psychological well being programs at Shanghai Shuozhi Management Consulting.
Practical implications
The view is advanced that organizations and employees in China who want to have a work‐family benefits workplace should adopt the strategies mentioned in this paper. The paper situates family‐friendly policies at Shanghai Shuozhi Management Consulting in the context of Chinese society as a whole.
Originality/value
The paper considers some of the similarities and differences between work‐life balance policies at Shanghai Shuozhi Management Consulting and those in the west.
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Fangjie Yu, Yunfei Liu, Longqing Fan, Linhua Li, Yong Han and Ge Chen
In this paper, a light-weight, low-power atmospheric multi-parameter sensor (AMPS), which could be mounted on small flying platforms such as a tethered balloon, a quad-rotor…
Abstract
Purpose
In this paper, a light-weight, low-power atmospheric multi-parameter sensor (AMPS), which could be mounted on small flying platforms such as a tethered balloon, a quad-rotor unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), a UAV helicopter, etc., is implemented and integrated to sample vertical distribution of aerosols with integrated parameters of aerosol particle concentration, temperature, relative humidity and atmospheric pressure.
Design/methodology/approach
The AMPS integrates three kinds of probes in an embedded system. A synchronous method based on GPS is proposed to drive the laser aerosol particle sensor, the temperature and humidity probe and the pressure probe to sample four channels approximately simultaneously. Different kinds of housing are designed to accommodate various flying platforms, and the weight is controlled to adapt the payload of each platform.
Findings
A series of validation tests show that while the AMPS achieves high precision, its power consumption is less than 1.3 W, which is essential for light flying platforms. The AMPS was mounted on different flying platforms and the difference was evaluated. For three times every five days, vertical profiles of PM2.5 and PM10 concentrations were observed by the AMPS mounted on a quad-rotor UAV, which revealed the significant correlation between the aerosol particle concentration and atmospheric parameters.
Originality/value
A new light-weight and low-power AMPS for small flying platforms is designed and tested, which provides an effective way to explore the properties of aerosol vertical distribution, and to monitor pollutants flexibly.
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Yong Han, Zhiqaing Wang, Geoff Sheard and Nada Kakabadse
The purpose of this paper is to critically review the extant western literature on political skill and impression management in human resource management and organisational…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to critically review the extant western literature on political skill and impression management in human resource management and organisational behaviour and applies an inductive approach to explore an equal Chinese concept of office politics in the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
Design/methodology/approach
An empirical study conducted in a wide range of Chinese organisational forms, employing an inductive approach based on critical incident technique.
Findings
Data collected from 173 employees supported this model and indicated the existence of 14 clusters of behaviours that characterise political skill, impression management and the overlap between the two. Extending impression management theory, the authors found that individual players’ political skill drives the dynamics of Chinese office politics and may help a subordinate gain a favourable image with superiors and serve as the overlap between individual political skill and impression management from the Chinese perspective.
Originality/value
The authors used a grounded theory approach to report the construct of a Chinese concept of office politics in the PRC, which is much similar to the western concept of political skill in organisation. Compared with western political skill literature, this study found both universal and cultural-specific phenomena on political perspective in Chinese organisations.
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Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the ozone risk introduced by the mixing air-supply mode, displacement air-supply mode and personalized air-supply mode, respectively, in commercial aircraft cabins.
Design/methodology/approach
In this study, a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model of aircraft cabin has been built to study the distribution of ozone mass fraction and the ozone surface deposition rate on passenger’s face and clothes under the three different air-supply modes, respectively. The distribution of ozone mass fraction has been obtained by calculating the mass concentration of ozone in different location. The ozone surface deposition rate on passenger’s face and clothes has been calculated according to the mechanism of the reactions between ozone and squalene, which is the primary reactant in human sebum.
Findings
By comparing the three air-supply modes, it was considered that the mixing air-supply mode made lower ozone concentration and ozone surface deposition risk in most area, but this was because of the thin air distribution in cabin. The displacement air-supply mode made an uneven distribution of ozone concentration and increased absorbing ozone risk in the breathing zone. The personalized air-supply mode was proper for avoiding ozone harm and making a comfortable air environment. The air supply from the inlet on seat back could not increase the ozone surface deposition risk on passenger’s face.
Originality/value
This paper provides the qualitative and quantitative analysis for ozone risk to the passengers under the different air-supply modes. Findings can provide some suggestions for the designers to optimize the air-supply mode of air distribution system for reducing passengers’ discomfort caused by high-altitude ozone introduction, such as breathing in too much ozone.
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Yong-Hwan Lee, Hyochang Ahn, Han-Jin Cho and June-Hwan Lee
This paper holds a big advantage to enable to recognize faces, regardless of time and place. Also this provides an independent performance of smart phone, because of its process…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper holds a big advantage to enable to recognize faces, regardless of time and place. Also this provides an independent performance of smart phone, because of its process by a computer of third party not by that of the mobile device. In addition, it is desirable to minimize the expensive operations in mobile device with constraint computational power (i.e. battery consumption). Thus, the authors exclude the process of transmission failed from the input device. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
In this paper, the authors have proposed a new face detection and verification algorithm, based on skin color detection to enable extracting the face region from color images of the mobile phone. And then extracted the facial feature as eigenface, verified whether or not the identity of users is right, applied support vector machine to the region of detected face.
Findings
The experimental results for two datasets show that the proposed method achieves slightly higher efficiencies at the detection and verification of user identity, compared with other method, where varying lighting conditions with complex backgrounds, according to be fast and accurate than any other previous methods.
Originality/value
The proposed algorithm enables to implement fast and accurate search using triangle-square transformation for detection of human faces in a digital still color images, obtained by the mobile device camera under unconstraint environments, using advanced skin color model and characteristic points in a detected face.
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Keywords
Jia‐ang Le, Jing‐jing Zhang and Yong Han
This paper aims to explore employee empowerment at the Shanghai Hanye Information Technology Company.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore employee empowerment at the Shanghai Hanye Information Technology Company.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper describes the various forms that employee empowerment takes at the company, its limitations and the advantages it has brought.
Findings
It reports that empowerment is serving to encourage: honest, open, co‐operative and harmonious communications and relationships in the workplace; loyalty to the company; greater participation in the cultural life of the organization and its decision‐making processes; and a more unified enterprise spirit.
Practical implications
The paper explains that employees are expected to: contribute ideas that could help to overcome organizational difficulties; sacrifice self‐interest in favor of the interests of the organization; work on regardless if misunderstandings or conflicts occur; and serve as intermediary for building relationships with other organizations.
Social implications
The paper reveals that this type of “spiritual” HR is part of the prevailing ethos in the People's Republic of China.
Originality/value
This study provides interesting detail, from an insider perspective, on employee empowerment in a Chinese context.
Details
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Yong Han, Xiaozhi Lu and Zhaozhong Li
Describes an organizational spiritual‐development program run for junior managers at the giant Guangxi State Farm Agriculture Group (SFAG).
Abstract
Purpose
Describes an organizational spiritual‐development program run for junior managers at the giant Guangxi State Farm Agriculture Group (SFAG).
Design/methodology/approach
Draws on the inside information of the author, who is a course tutor, and some of his trainees.
Findings
Reports how the program can help junior managers to avoid “counterproductive workplace behaviour” and find greater meaning in their work.
Practical implications
Reveals how the course can help to promote: honest, warm and harmonious relationships in the workplace; loyalty to the company and social sanctions against employees who try to undermine their colleagues and sabotage production; participation in the cultural life of the organization; and a more unified enterprise spirit.
Social implications
Details how the tenets of the course chime with the wider objectives of Chinese society.
Originality/value
Contains a particularly interesting section about two volunteers who, having practised counterproductive workplace behaviors the past (one served a prison sentence for it), now lead discussion groups on the program.
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Yong Han, Ian Brooks, Nada K. Kakabadse, Zhenglong Peng and Yi Zhu
This paper explores the “Western” concept of psychological capital in the People's Republic of China (PRC) and highlights critical areas of divergence and notable dimensions of…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper explores the “Western” concept of psychological capital in the People's Republic of China (PRC) and highlights critical areas of divergence and notable dimensions of similarity.
Design/methodology/approach
This is an empirical study conducted in a wide range of Chinese organisational forms, employing an inductive approach based on critical incident technique.
Findings
This research showed that the concept of psychological capital appears to have a degree of applicability and salience in China. A series of dimensions common in Western organisations were found in our research, including Optimism, Creativity, Resiliency, Self‐confidence, Forgiveness and Gratitude, Courage and Ambition (Hope). These were found to be common types of psychological capital both in China and in the West. However, the dimensions of Courtesy and Humility (Qian‐gong‐you‐li in Chinese), Self‐possession and Sincerity fell into the “different” category.
Originality/value
This paper is a first attempt to examine psychological capital in a range of organisational forms and industrial sectors in China using a grounded theory approach. It not only reports various dimensions of Chinese psychological capital, some unique to this research, but also compares and contrasts these dimensions between China and the West, highlighting further research opportunities.
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This paper aims to examine, from an insider's perspective, the ways in which Chinese organizational play may develop employee creativity.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine, from an insider's perspective, the ways in which Chinese organizational play may develop employee creativity.
Design/methodology/approach
Presents concepts based on research.
Findings
Reports how Chinese organizational play may help employees to relax physically, develop informal social relationships and support guanxi – business networks based on connections made by individuals.
Practical implications
Advances the view that managers in China who want a creative workplace should be prepared to put in the time and effort to provide their employees with opportunities for play.
Originality/value
Presents ideas from China that could be applied in some western organizations.
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