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21 – 30 of 49Mingze Li, Wenxing Liu, Yi Han and Pengcheng Zhang
The purpose of this paper is to build a link between empowering leadership and change-oriented organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) based on the theory of the socially…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to build a link between empowering leadership and change-oriented organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) based on the theory of the socially embedded model so as to explore why empowering leadership has an impact on change-oriented OCBs and for whom this effect may be amplified or alleviated.
Design/methodology/approach
Using data collected from 203 employees and 80 supervisors in one information technology company, the authors examined the mediating role of thriving at work and the moderating role of autonomy between empowering leadership and change-oriented OCBs. The authors used statistical methods such as hierarchical regression, bootstrapping test, and so on to analyze the data.
Findings
The results indicated that empowering leadership was positively related to thriving at work, and thus in turn influenced change-oriented OCBs. In addition, employees’ autonomy orientation moderated those relationships such that when employees were had high autonomy orientations, they thrived at work to a high degree and were more likely to perform change-oriented OCBs.
Research limitations/implications
The authors collected the data of this study within a single organization, and that may limit the observed viability and decrease external validity.
Practical implications
The findings suggest that leaders’ empowering behaviors are a critical factor for simulating employees’ change-oriented OCBs. They also indicate that leaders are better off empowering individuals with high autonomy orientations.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the literature by linking empowering leadership and change-oriented OCBs. It clarifies how and why empowering leadership can stimulate employees’ change-oriented OCBs.
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Donghong Li, Zhenning Yang, Pengcheng Ma and Hang Chen
The purpose of this paper is to document the relationship between intra-group coopetition and subsidiaries' innovation performance and the moderating impact of the intensity of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to document the relationship between intra-group coopetition and subsidiaries' innovation performance and the moderating impact of the intensity of external competition.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from 75 subsidiaries in China through a questionnaire survey of their R&D and general managers. The total number of individual respondents was 205. We tested our hypothesis by using ordinary least squares regression.
Findings
Intra-group cooperation was found to promote a subsidiary's performance in product and process innovation. Intra-group competition was found to have a U-shaped relationship with product and process innovation. Intra-group cooperation strengthens the U-shaped relationship between intra-group competition and process innovation.
Research limitations/implications
This study involved firms from more than one industry. Studies of specific industries might reach more specific conclusions. And all of the data were self-reported by the managers of the firms concerned. Future studies would be well-advised to consider more objective data describing pairs of parent firms and subsidiaries.
Practical implications
Subsidiaries ought to build their internal networks to cooperate with each other. That can bring significant advantages in terms of information and synergy in innovation. Subsidiaries are also suggested to take full advantage of the opportunities that intra-group competition brings.
Originality/value
This study is the first one to explore coopetition phenomenon in the context of business group. By taking Chinese business group subsidiaries as the research samples, this research not only extends the coopetition research but also reveals that cooperation and competition are co-existed and exert influence in subsidiaries.
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Guanjun Bao, Kun Li, Sheng Xu, Pengcheng Huang, Luan Wu and Qinghua Yang
This paper aims to avoid the precise modeling and controlling problems of rigid structures of hand recovery device, by proposing a hand rehabilitator based on flexible pneumatic…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to avoid the precise modeling and controlling problems of rigid structures of hand recovery device, by proposing a hand rehabilitator based on flexible pneumatic actuator with its safety and adaptability.
Design/methodology/approach
The hand rehabilitator is designed based on a flexible pneumatic bending joint. The recovery training program for an injured finger is developed via forearm sEMG (surface electromyogram) sampling, analysis, classification and motion consciousness identification. Four typical movement models of the index finger and middle finger were defined and the corresponding sEMG signals were sampled. After simulation and comparative analysis, autoregressive (AR) model back propagation (BP) network was selected for sEMG analysis and hand recovery planning because of its best recognition performance. A verification test was designed and the results showed that the soft hand rehabilitator and recovery conception are feasible.
Findings
AR model BP network can identify the index finger and middle finger movement intention via an sEMG analysis. The developed flexible pneumatic hand rehabilitator is safe and suitable for finger recovering therapy.
Research limitations/implications
Because of the limitation of experimental samples, the prototype rehabilitator of this work may lack generalizability for other situations. Therefore, for further study and application, systematic structure revising, experiments, data and training are necessary to improve the performance.
Practical implications
The paper includes implications for the development and application of a new style, safe and dexterous hand rehabilitator.
Originality/value
The paper tries a new approach to design a safe, flexible and easily controlled hand rehabilitator.
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Feng Zhou, Zixuan Wang and Yuxiang Zhao
The purpose of this paper is to study the pipe-type electromagnetic induction heating device under power frequency condition.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to study the pipe-type electromagnetic induction heating device under power frequency condition.
Design/methodology/approach
To reduce eddy current loss and improve heating efficiency, the structure of a pipe-type power-frequency electromagnetic heating device was optimized. Based on the maximum load flow formula, a parallel excitation winding structure is designed, and the distribution of electromagnetic field under four different powers is analyzed by simulation. Four heating modes were proposed according to the structure of diversion ring, inner wall and outer wall. Two heating modes with better heating effect were obtained by comprehensively considering the factors such as magnetic field distribution, thermal power and energy consumption.
Findings
The double-wall structure of the pipe-type electromagnetic heating device can make the heat source distribution more uniform, and the use of power-frequency power supply can increase security, the installation of diversion ring can make the heating more sufficient and the heating efficiency of the two heating methods selected according to the structural performance is more than 90%.
Originality/value
In view of the medium or high frequency of pipe-type electromagnetic heating device, it is necessary to configure high power electronic frequency conversion drive system, and eddy current can only be produced on the tube wall, resulting in uneven distribution of heat sources. A pipe-type power-frequency electromagnetic heating device with double-wall structure was proposed.
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Wenxing Liu, Pengcheng Zhang, Jianqiao Liao, Po Hao and Jianghua Mao
Prior researches have indicated that leadership had an important impact on employee creativity. However, the authors know little about the link between the dark side of…
Abstract
Purpose
Prior researches have indicated that leadership had an important impact on employee creativity. However, the authors know little about the link between the dark side of leadership-abusive supervision, and employee creativity, as well as its underlying mechanisms. Combining psychological safety theory and social identification theory, the purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between abusive supervision and employee creativity and the mediating role of psychological safety and organizational identification between abusive supervision and employee creativity.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted a multi-source and time-lagged data collection. At Time 1, team members evaluated abusive supervision and psychological safety, and at Time 2, team members evaluated organization identification, and team leaders evaluated members’ creativity. Abusive supervision, psychological safety were evaluated at first stage and organizational identification, creativity were evaluated at second stage, being conducted 2-4 weeks later after the first stage. Finally 423 participants completed two waves of data collection.
Findings
The results suggested that, abusive supervision had negative effects on psychological safety and organizational identification, and psychological safety partially mediated the relationship between abusive supervision and organizational identification, and organizational identification fully mediated the relationship between psychological safety and creativity, and the negative effect of abusive supervision on employee creativity was mediated by psychological safety and then by organizational identification.
Originality/value
This study identifies and examines the mechanism underlying the effect of abusive supervision, and suggests that psychological safety and organizational identification are two important mediators of the complex relationship between abusive supervision and employee creativity. Therefore, this study not only re-examines the inconsistent effect of abusive supervision on employee creativity, but also represents the first attempt at integrating the psychological safety perspective and social identification theory to study employee creativity and offers important implications for theory development.
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Mohammadreza Mirzahosseini, Pengcheng Jiao, Kaveh Barri, Kyle A. Riding and Amir H. Alavi
Recycled waste glasses have been widely used in Portland cement and concrete as aggregate or supplementary cementitious material. Compressive strength is one of the most important…
Abstract
Purpose
Recycled waste glasses have been widely used in Portland cement and concrete as aggregate or supplementary cementitious material. Compressive strength is one of the most important properties of concrete containing waste glasses, providing information about the loading capacity, pozzolanic reaction and porosity of the mixture. This study aims to propose highly nonlinear models to predict the compressive strength of concrete containing finely ground glass particles.
Design/methodology/approach
A robust machine leaning method called genetic programming is used the build the compressive strength prediction models. The models are developed using a number of test results on 50-mm mortar cubes containing glass powder according to ASTM C109. Parametric and sensitivity analyses are conducted to evaluate the effect of the predictor variables on the compressive strength. Furthermore, a comparative study is performed to benchmark the proposed models against classical regression models.
Findings
The derived design equations accurately characterize the compressive strength of concrete with ground glass fillers and remarkably outperform the regression models. A key feature of the proposed models as compared to the previous studies is that they include the simultaneous effect of various parameters such as glass compositions, size distributions, curing age and isothermal temperatures. Parametric and sensitivity analyses indicate that compressive strength is very sensitive to the curing age, curing temperature and particle surface area.
Originality/value
This study presents accurate machine learning models for the prediction of one of the most important mechanical properties of cementitious mixtures modified by waste glass, i.e. compressive strength. In addition, it provides an insight into the effect of several parameters influencing the compressive strength. From a computing perspective, a robust machine learning technique that overcomes the shortcomings of existing soft computing methods is introduced.
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Ahmad Adeel, Zhang Pengcheng, Farida Saleem, Rizwan Ali and Samreen Batool
This paper aims to investigate relationship conflicts and creative idea endorsement to develop the understanding of managerial reactions towards ideas of those who develop…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate relationship conflicts and creative idea endorsement to develop the understanding of managerial reactions towards ideas of those who develop relationship conflicts with managers/supervisors at work. Taking a contingency perspective, the authors also investigated role subordinates’ political skills and implementation instrumentality play in determining supervisors’ endorsement of subordinates’ creative ideas.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors used two sources of data collected from 243 subordinates and their respective 41 supervisors of a multinational software company operating in an emerging economy (Pakistan) and analyzed the hypothesized model with Mplus using random coefficient modeling.
Findings
With this research, the authors contributed to management literature by investigating how the effects of relationship conflicts on creative idea endorsement depend on subordinates’ political skills and implementation instrumentality. They postulate a negative relationship between relationship conflict and creative ideas endorsement and predict that this negative relationship is augmented by subordinates’ implementation instrumentality but attenuated by subordinates’ political skills. They also give directions to decision makers in organizations that they must inform the managers/supervisors about negative effects of their relationship conflict with their subordinates and train supervisors and subordinates about reducing their relationship conflicts with each other for mutual benefits.
Originality/value
Organizations should take a relationship perspective when creating an environment for creativity: an environment based on mutual trust and respect so that exchange relationships can foster. With this research, the authors extended the list of potential detriment associated with relationship conflicts, that is the endorsement of creative ideas by supervisors. The authors also extended creativity literature by investigating social relationships for selection-focused creativity (idea endorsement) instead of variance-focused creativity (idea generation).
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In order not to affect the highway and railway traffic under the bridge during the construction process, bridges adopting swivel construction method are increasingly used at areas…
Abstract
Purpose
In order not to affect the highway and railway traffic under the bridge during the construction process, bridges adopting swivel construction method are increasingly used at areas where the traffic is heavy. Previous studies are mostly conducted by assuming that the bridge is under its own stability conditions, without considering the impact of construction error, changes of external condition and wind-induced vibration on the stability of the bridge, which poses serious challenges to the bridge construction process. This paper aims to analyze the extent to which static load and fluctuating wind effect influence structural stability and to test the credibility of the structure.
Design/methodology/approach
A finite element calculation method is used to analyze a T-shaped rigid frame swivel bridge. A full bridge model was built, and a local model of the turntable structure established; the two are then combined means of node coupling. Subsequently, the three sensitivity indexes – deflection rate, stress change rate and the change rate of spherical hinges – are used to evaluate in what way the bridge stability is influenced under various factors.
Findings
It is found that the stability of the swivel bridge is quite sensitive to unilateral overweight, steel beam tension and wind-induced vibration effects but less sensitive to the change of bulk density. Also found is that the change of elastic modulus exerts some effects on deflection but has negligible effects on other stability indexes. Furthermore, the transverse unbalanced torque on the bridge generated by wind-induced vibration is an important factor in determining the size of the turntable, indicating that it is not just controlled by the weight of the bridge.
Originality/value
All factors affecting the stability of swivel construction are analyzed, and solutions to reduce the influence are proposed. The influence of wind-induced vibration effects on swivel construction is analyzed for the first time. It is pointed out that wind-induced vibration effects have great influence on the structure, and its influence could not be neglected.
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