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1 – 10 of 985Hoi Kam Quinnci Wong, Elana Chan, Tak Ming Charles Chan, Yung Li and Ming Ki Henry Wan
This paper aims to examine the forms and experiences of victimization of foreign domestic helpers (FDHs) in Hong Kong, the effects of victimization on FDHs and FDHs’ coping…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the forms and experiences of victimization of foreign domestic helpers (FDHs) in Hong Kong, the effects of victimization on FDHs and FDHs’ coping strategies.
Design/methodology/approach
The main findings are based on semi-structured interviews with a sample of 12 FDHs in Hong Kong.
Findings
The findings uncovered a continuum of violence ranging from relatively mundane abuses on an everyday basis to acute events at the time of termination. Some respondents also experienced secondary victimization from police and/or pending criminal justice proceedings after contract termination.
Research limitations/implications
Victimization exerted significant adverse physical and psychological effects on FDHs in our study. Nevertheless, contrary to common assumptions about FDHs as passive victims, our findings suggest that some FDHs experienced a degree of empowerment, as they found ways to cope with their difficulties by individualized and social strategies depending on the degree of victimization and the resources available.
Originality/value
The findings suggest there is an urgent need to review the existing laws and policies that, at best, are ineffective and, at worst, create far more problems than they solve.
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Hugh Koch, Don White and Charles Chan
Senior managers from several of Hong Kong′s 36 hospitals gave their views, during a management development programme, as to what issues were relevant to the ongoing quality of…
Abstract
Senior managers from several of Hong Kong′s 36 hospitals gave their views, during a management development programme, as to what issues were relevant to the ongoing quality of hospital care in Hong Kong. Results indicated different priorities for five main areas: corporate culture, staff involvement, staff recognition, quality systems and consumerism.
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Nan Liu, Rui Zhou, Ruoyu Jin, Qing Xiao and Zhipeng Hu
The purpose of this paper is to summarize the research of construction conflict from 1991 to 2020 and propose research directions for future scholarly work. During the recent…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to summarize the research of construction conflict from 1991 to 2020 and propose research directions for future scholarly work. During the recent decades, it is widely accepted that construction conflict is inevitable, and conflict management has become an important component of project management. However, few works were done to map the global study in this field, there is limited review that evaluates the current stage of construction conflict research.
Design/methodology/approach
This study adopted a holistic literature review approach that incorporates bibliometric search and scientometric analysis. A total of 698 bibliographic records from the Web of Science core collection database were collected for the scientometric analysis. CiteSpace5.7 was adopted for the science mapping purpose in this study.
Findings
Through co-authorship analysis, co-word analysis and co-citation analysis, influential scholars and journals are identified. Several research trends are highlighted according to the scientometric analyses of the construction conflict topics. For example, the application of simulation and algorithms to the study of construction conflict management systems.
Practical implications
Construction is a resource-intensive, multi-participant and multi-targeted industry. Conflicts always exist in the whole life cycle of construction projects, it is important for industry practitioners to be updated of the latest movement and progress of the academic research.
Originality/value
This study contributed to the body of knowledge in construction conflict and bridge the research gap in the thorough review of previous research work.
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Enforcement as a concept imports compulsion to comply with a particular norm. Of course, the nature of enforcement might vary considerably with the norm in question or society…
Abstract
Enforcement as a concept imports compulsion to comply with a particular norm. Of course, the nature of enforcement might vary considerably with the norm in question or society within which action is desired. Professor Gower, in his ‘Review of Investor Protection’, expressed the view that a rule that could not be or was not enforced brought the system, within which that rule was supposed to operate, into disrepute. Whether this is true or not may be a matter for debate. Most systems of control envisage rules that in practical terms are unenforceable, but that are expected to have a normative or educational effect. Such functions, in the context of securities regulation, may be thought to be of some significance. Thus, the fact that simply because a rule cannot either in its terms or in practice be sanctioned by a predictable and determinate action intended to promote compliance, does not necessarily undermine that rule let alone the system within which it exists. To assume without more that a rule that cannot be enforced is not a legal rule, or to be precise a rule of law, while no doubt appealing enough to the positivist school of jurisprudence, is simplistic and outdated. Furthermore, in the context of the sort of economic regulation that we are discussing, whether a rule is characterised as one of law or not may or may not have significance. While there is a problem with determining the appropriate degree of interface between rules bearing differing qualities, purely in terms of achieving a defined regulatory objective it might well be that a rule which is not law in the formal sense of having been promulgated by an authority with legislative power, promotes a satisfactory degree of compliance. Therefore, many of the rules that pertained prior to the creation of the regime of regulation under the Financial Services Act 1986 were essentially non‐legal in the sense that they did not carry determinate sanctions ordained by a legal process consequent upon a violation and were not promulgated by an authority with legislative power. However, to dismiss them because they were unenforceable at law would give a very false picture of the efficacy of what was for many years a satisfactory regulatory structure. Even today, although the interrelationships of legal and non‐legal rules is very much more complex, it is still the case that significant areas of regulation have been left to non‐legal authorities.
James L. Sanders, Kyle Bahr, Calvin Chan and Charles Hewetson
This paper explains how recent statements by the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC’s) leadership – including the new Chief of the SEC’s Foreign Corrupt Practices Act…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper explains how recent statements by the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC’s) leadership – including the new Chief of the SEC’s Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) Unit – signal the American regulator’s intent to “level the playing field” by stepping up its investigations and enforcement of companies worldwide and what non-US issuers can do to prepare.
Design/methodology/approach
Uses information included in the announcement naming Charles E. Cain as Chief of the SEC’s specialized FCPA Unit to lay out an argument that the Unit’s priorities may focus more on non-US companies than US companies.
Findings
Based on past statements and written accounts made by Mr Cain, and with the tacit support of other senior SEC officials, it can be assumed that non-US companies will experience additional scrutiny from the SEC, in the name of leveling the playing field. Furthermore, it can be assumed that the SEC will place additional pressure on anti-corruption regimes in other international jurisdictions to do their part in combatting corruption.
Originality/value
This paper is of value to personnel within non-US issuers who are responsible for creating and enforcing their organization’s anti-bribery or anti-corruption policies and internal controls. It is also of value to legal counsel interested in developing an understanding of the current priorities of the SEC as far as the FCPA is concerned.
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This paper provides an analytical account detailing the historical linkages between Chinese on both sides of the Sino-Hong Kong border from 1841 onwards and examining important…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper provides an analytical account detailing the historical linkages between Chinese on both sides of the Sino-Hong Kong border from 1841 onwards and examining important incidents of collective actions in the colony and Canton.
Design/methodology/approach
Using annual reports published by the colonial administration in Hong Kong, especially those focusing on years that witnessed major incidents of anti-colonial agitations, this paper analyzes how British policymakers were confronted by collective actions mounted by Chinese in Canton and Hong Kong. Building on the works of prominent historians and utilizing the theoretical frameworks of analysts such as Charles Tilly (1978), the author examines if a Cantonese regional solidarity served as the foundation for popular movements, which in turn consolidated a rising Chinese nationalism when Canton and Hong Kong were the focal points of mass actions against imperialism.
Findings
Hong Kong Chinese workers were vanguards of the modern Chinese revolutions that transformed not just their homeland, but their lives, allegiances, and aspirations as Chinese in a domain under foreign jurisdiction on Chinese soil, as their actions were emulated by their compatriots outside of South China, thus starting a chain reaction that culminated in the establishment of the Nanjing regime.
Originality/value
This paper reveals that popular movements of Hong Kong Chinese possessed national and international importance, especially when they were supported by their Cantonese compatriots and the two leading Chinese political parties, the Kuomintang (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
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Shawn H. Charles, Alice Chang-Richards and (Kenneth) Tak Wing Yiu
The purpose of this study is to elicit the success factors from empirical evidence, as construction industry requires an improved understanding of factors for managing projects to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to elicit the success factors from empirical evidence, as construction industry requires an improved understanding of factors for managing projects to positive outcomes. Increased stakeholder involvement, including the new technologies, achieving sustainability and safeguarding health and safety, whilst at the same time facing uncertainties, it is crucial to examine whether there are new factors that drive construction projects to succeed, especially from a value-driven perspective.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a systematic review approach, this research reviewed 172 studies published after 2004. When compared to a comprehensive project success factor framework presented by Chan et al. in 2004, 19 factors are considered new since 2004.
Findings
Though several scholarly outputs highlighted significant improvements to project operations and innovations in equipment and techniques, there has not been a comprehensive oversight since Chan’s et al. (2004) conceptual framework. This paper investigates 16 years of industry changes and identified two new success factors categories (innovation and sustainability) and 19 new factors that add to Chan’s et al. (2004) study. Consequently, a new framework of factors affecting project success was developed.
Originality/value
This paper was very specific in its attempt to find the new and additional success factors for managing construction projects. A new conceptual framework, which includes the newly identified factors, was then developed that will create a greater awareness of stakeholders’ concerns and ultimately contribute to significant improvement in developing project objectives and defining success measures.
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This paper interrogates the relationships between tacit knowledge (of professionals) and performance measurement regimes (of post-modern organizations). Drawing on Polanyi’s…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper interrogates the relationships between tacit knowledge (of professionals) and performance measurement regimes (of post-modern organizations). Drawing on Polanyi’s (1958, 1968) ideas about tacit knowledge and Lyotard’s (1984) theory of performativity with regard to criteria such as profit-performance the applicability and relevance of tacit, working knowledge in the internet age is assessed. The paper examines: the effects of context on knowledge management (KM); tacit knowledge and performativity around the production, validation and assessment of knowledge within organizations; KM and the mercantilization of knowledge and critical questions as to how performativity impacts tacit knowledge and KM in the digital era.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper deconstructs popular and fashionable narratives around tacit knowledge and KM to critically appraise approaches to knowledge construction and transfer in contemporary and commercial contexts. The study draws on various specific critical incidents in commercial practice to assess where (and why) things went wrong with KM practices in the aftermath of the global financial crisis and in more recent attempts at large scale corporate fraud.
Findings
KM should not trade exclusively in instrumentalized, performative knowledge. Tacit knowledge involves a sense of what is going on and this is not easily measured or codified. Experiential understanding of what is required when engaging with clients, colleagues, senior partners, other businesses (and cultures) and the political contexts in which employees work is central to tacit knowledge. So too are performance measures and reward systems and herein lies the “uneasy dynamic”. The nature of any transfer of tacit knowledge is problematic, but such employee know-how remains critical to organizational performance and validating the use-value of knowledge for the purposes of KM.
Originality/value
Researchers have used the theories of Polanyi and Lyotard, but rarely combined them to investigate KM practices critically in post-modern organizations. By using the two theories, this paper critically examines the contemporary construction of tacit knowledge from perspectives that include the different discourses and localized practices through which it is produced and consumed.
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Shangzhi (Charles) Qiu, Mimi Li, Anna S. Mattila and Wan Yang
This study aims to investigate the moderating effect of in-group social presence on the relationship between face concern and hotel customers’ behavioral responses to service…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the moderating effect of in-group social presence on the relationship between face concern and hotel customers’ behavioral responses to service failures.
Design/methodology/approach
Participants were randomly assigned to two conditions: in-group presence vs control group. They read a scenario describing a hotel check-in service failure and answered questions regarding their behavioral intention after the failure and level of face concern.
Findings
The results indicate that face concern is positively associated with the intention to voice a complaint, to spread negative word-of-mouth and to post negative online reviews. While the impact of face concern on complaint intention became insignificant in the presence of an in-group, its effect on posting negative online reviews was enhanced when surrounded by an in-group.
Research limitations/implications
It addresses the long-lasting debate about the association between face concern and various types of behavioral responses to service failure. Practically, extra attention should be paid to the process quality when serving face concerned customers, particularly when they are accompanied by important others.
Originality/value
This study enriches the literature on cultural effects by identifying the situational effect of face concern on customers’ service failure responses. A model that describes the situational effect of face concern on different types of behavioral intention has been built.
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Olaf Timmermans, Roland Van Linge, Peter Van Petegem, Monique Elseviers and Joke Denekens
This study aims to explore team learning activities in nursing teams and to test the effect of team composition on team learning to extend conceptually an initial model of team…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore team learning activities in nursing teams and to test the effect of team composition on team learning to extend conceptually an initial model of team learning and to examine empirically a new model of ambidextrous team learning in nursing.
Design/methodology/approach
Quantitative research utilising exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, and correlation and multiple regression analyses, were used for empirical validation.
Findings
Principal component analyses of the team learning activities scale revealed a five‐factor model, explaining 78 per cent of the variance on the team‐learning scale. Being a nursing team in a community hospital, having high team longevity, and having a high percentage of female nurses explained 33 per cent of team learning.
Research limitations/implications
Data aggregation in a cross‐sectional design can be criticised for potential biases. However, statistical assumptions for aggregation were met, and the concepts used in this study were clearly formulated at team level. Thus, a valuable instrument is provided for further quantitative research on team learning in nursing.
Practical implications
The team learning activities in nursing teams reflected the ambidexterity of teams in modern nursing practice. The findings provide a rationale for managers to create infrastructures that support both productive, as well as developmental learning tasks in teams.
Originality/value
The study provides new insights regarding how team learning activities occur in ambidextrous teams in nursing. Contrary to prediction, the results show that team composition has little effect on team learning activities. This is valuable knowledge for researchers, trainers, teams and management in nursing.
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