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Article
Publication date: 1 November 2003

Evia O.W. Wong

The 1990s are an important era of the Hong Kong education system. The introduction of school‐based management arouses a number of school reforms to keep up with the changing…

2911

Abstract

The 1990s are an important era of the Hong Kong education system. The introduction of school‐based management arouses a number of school reforms to keep up with the changing demands of the community which synthesizes into a global and knowledge‐based economy emphasizing the development of attitudes towards life‐long learning and multiple intelligence. The school reforms arouse a number of critical impacts on the school governance and management targeting at providing students with learning opportunities in an authentic and meaningful context. This in turn raises the importance of leadership style for effective school‐based management covering the aspects of vision, mission and goals; change and strategic thinking; people as well as school culture.

Details

International Journal of Educational Management, vol. 17 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-354X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 December 2003

Evia O.W. Wong

Sustainable development is considered by many to be an essential direction for our world to move towards. To educate for sustainability is not an easy task and it is essential for…

1736

Abstract

Sustainable development is considered by many to be an essential direction for our world to move towards. To educate for sustainability is not an easy task and it is essential for all the education practitioners to make their contribution. It is important to accept and adapt changes for sustainable development, and continuing education sector itself has undergone dramatic changes in development since the formulation of the concept by the United Nations Education Scientific and Cultural Organization in the 1960s. Coping with the metamorphosis of society and its increasing demand for multi‐disciplinary, continuing education in the tertiary institution is a continuous learning process on its own. Leadership empowerment becomes one of the sharpening tools for bringing about the change in the institutions. Looks at an integral and practice‐oriented approach of one of the subject areas to introducing sustainable development into continuing education in Hong Kong as well as to explore the significance of leadership empowerment in bringing change and learning to the continuing education in the tertiary education.

Details

International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, vol. 4 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1467-6370

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 August 2005

Evia O.W. Wong

Hong Kong continuing education has encountered vigorous change in recent years. It is not limited to the mode of teaching and learning. Changing government policies, fund cutting…

2741

Abstract

Purpose

Hong Kong continuing education has encountered vigorous change in recent years. It is not limited to the mode of teaching and learning. Changing government policies, fund cutting to the higher education system and the entry of overseas university degrees increase the intensity of competition in the environment to an extraordinary extent. There is a large increase in demand upon internal capabilities of both the continuing education institutions and their leaders to confront the challenging conditions. Aims to examine this situation.

Design/methodology/approach

The alignment theory emphasizing strategic fit among the four elements – market competitiveness, business strategy, organizational culture, and leadership style – stresses the significance of matching the four elements within the same logic which are defined as “production”, “administration”, “development”, and “integration”. Strategic fit of four elements within the same logic enhances the organization's performance level. However, the phenomenon is limited in its way of operation. The researcher substitutes the phenomenon with an operationalization model of strategy fitting the four elements within the same logic by attempting an intensive case study of the strategic change process brought forward by the leader of the Built Environment Unit (BEU) of the School of Professional and Continuing Education of the University of Hong Kong.

Findings

The research concludes with a strategic change model of the BEU which emphasizes continuous learning, affection, participation and understanding. The model is built on a groundwork comprising academic identity building and culture management. Its concrete block structure is made up of contextualization in the aspects of program diversification, progression ladders and professional recognition. The whole work is reinforced by Built Environment Sustainability Symposia and a Qualifications Framework to confirm the loyalty of their students.

Originality/value

The model can be referred to as a framework by continuing education institution leaders who cope with similar market‐changing conditions.

Details

International Journal of Educational Management, vol. 19 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-354X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 3 March 2020

Michalis Skordoulis, Stamatis Ntanos and Garyfallos Arabatzis

The purpose of this paper is to explore citizens’ willingness to invest in photovoltaics.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore citizens’ willingness to invest in photovoltaics.

Design/methodology/approach

To meet the aim of the research, a questionnaire survey was conducted in the island of Evia in Greece using the method of random stratified sampling. A total of 366 responses were analyzed using both descriptive and inductive statistics methods, such as principal components analysis, K-means cluster analysis, discriminant analysis and binary logistic regression.

Findings

The research results indicate that 73per cent of the respondents would invest in renewable energy sources, whereas 55per cent of them would specifically invest in photovoltaics. Regarding their views on photovoltaics, three components were extracted; photovoltaics positive effects, facilitations for investments in photovoltaics and photovoltaics’ performance. Area of residence, annual income and the above-mentioned three components of views on photovoltaics were found to be statistically significant for the dichotomous variable of willingness to invest in photovoltaics. Among the examined variables, photovoltaics performance found to contribute the most in increasing respondents’ willingness to invest in photovoltaics.

Originality/value

The study filled the literature gap concerning citizens’ willingness to invest in photovoltaics in Greece. Furthermore, the research results made feasible to understand the factors that can lead in an investment decision for photovoltaics.

Details

International Journal of Energy Sector Management, vol. 14 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1750-6220

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 30 August 2022

Pinsheng Duan, Jianliang Zhou and Wenhan Fan

Effective construction safety training has been considered to play a significant role in reducing the incidence of accidents. However, the current safety training methods pay less…

Abstract

Purpose

Effective construction safety training has been considered to play a significant role in reducing the incidence of accidents. However, the current safety training methods pay less attention to the relationship between workers' personalized characteristics and their learning needs, which results in workers' low learning participation and poor training effect. The purpose of this paper is to improve the participation and effect of safety training for construction workers with a persona-based approach.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper presents a persona-based approach to safety tag generation and training material recommendation. By extracting the demographic characteristics and behavior patterns tags of construction workers, a neural network algorithm is introduced to calculate the learning needs tags of workers, and the collaborative filtering recommendation method is integrated to enrich the innovation of recommendation results. Offline experiments and online experiments are designed to verify the rationality of the proposed method.

Findings

The results show that the learning needs of workers are closely related to their background. The proposed method can effectively improve workers' interest in materials and the training effect compared with conventional safety training methods. The research provides a theoretical and practical reference for promoting active safety management and achieving worker-centered safety management.

Originality/value

First, a persona-based approach is introduced to establish a novel framework for solving the problem of personalized construction safety management. Second, an artificial intelligence algorithm is used to automatically extract the learning needs tag values and design a hybrid recommendation method for construction workers' personalized safety training. The collaborative filtering method is integrated to enrich the innovation of recommendation results.

Details

Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, vol. 31 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0969-9988

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 November 2022

Zechen Guan, Tak Wing Yiu, Don Amila Sajeevan Samarasinghe and Ravi Reddy

The aim of this paper is to review and analyze the research literature on the health and safety issues of migrant workers in the construction industry from 2000 to 2022.

Abstract

Purpose

The aim of this paper is to review and analyze the research literature on the health and safety issues of migrant workers in the construction industry from 2000 to 2022.

Design/methodology/approach

5 steps method is used to conduct a systematic review to achieve the objectives. After scanning two authoritative search engines “Web of Science” and “Scope”, 60 articles are selected from 225 publications for identification and review. These identified articles are classified by research fields, countries and time span.

Findings

The review finds that with the increasing influence of migrant construction workers, the number of publications on the health and safety of migrant workers has shown a rapid upward trend. Moreover, language barriers are the most dominant safety risk factors encountered by on-site migrant workers. This systematic literature review also summarizes the definition of migrant workers and solutions to reduce safety risk factors.

Originality/value

The research data on the health and safety issues and risk factors of migrant workers in the construction industry is still limited. This literature review summarizes the research trends and contributions of the literature in this field in the past 22 years and provides theoretical support for future research on the safety management of the migration construction field.

Details

Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, vol. 31 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0969-9988

Keywords

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