The Development of a Self-leadership Model for Students’ Creativity at Universities in Yunnan Province, China

In a knowledge-based economy, creativity is important for maintaining a country’s competitiveness. As the main educational institution that provides fresh blood to the nation’s talent pool, universities need to find appropriate ways to nurture creative minds to enhance the nation’s competitiveness. The purpose of this study was to develop a self-leadership model to increase students’ creativity at universities in Yunnan Province, China. The research methodologies used in this study were literature synthesis, descriptive statistics, regression analysis, focus group discussion, and paired-samples t test. Through such a combination of qualitative and quantitative research, this model was developed with students’ self-leadership skills as the key, with activities for creativity, supervisor leadership and organizational structure as supporting factors for creativity development. After a four-week intervention, the model was proven to be effective in enhancing students’ creativity. The researcher recommends that university administrators in Yunnan Province, China, consider using this model as a means of increasing students’ creativity.

TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP AND OCCUPATIONAL STRESS: MEDIATING ROLE OF ORGANIZATIONAL POLITICS

The stress is main issue that affects the individuals’ life from each dimension like their social and professional lives. The occupational stress is employee anxieties and worries about his/her work which is basically the outcome of the various dynamic issues like the working environment, the working load and poor relationships with colleagues and immediate supervisor/leadership. Leadership is important concept whose main role is to inspire the followers/ employees towards attainment of certain well-defines and clear objectives. For this purpose, the leaders use different styles to motivate their employees by considering their needs and resolving their worries at workplaces in which leadership styles (transformational and transactional) is most comprehensive package for employees’ motivation and performance leading to stressless situation at workplace. The results of this study revealed that both leaders’ main responsibility is to encourage followers by using their main attributes to attain institutional aims by offering the suitable and friendly environment where they can contribute freely and deliver effectively efforts and potential by eliminating the politics.

Trickle-down effect of moral leadership on unethical employee behavior: a cross-level moderated mediation model

PurposeMoral leadership is a common leadership style in Chinese society and is of great significance to Chinese organizations. Unethical employee behavior also widely exists in all kinds of social organizations and brings great harm. The research on the relationship between moral leadership and unethical employee behavior has not been involved yet, but it is important. This paper studies how moral manager (senior leader) leadership trickles down to unethical employee behavior through moral supervisor (employee direct supervisor) leadership, and discusses the moderating effect of LMX and ethical climate.Design/methodology/approachThrough the questionnaire survey of 406 pairs of leaders and employees, and use multilevel path analysis, we test the hypothesis in this paper.FindingsThe research results show that (1) Moral manager leadership is negatively related to unethical employee behavior. (2) Moral supervisor leadership mediates the relationship between moral manager leadership and unethical employee behavior. (3) LMX positively moderates the relationship between moral manager leadership and moral supervisor leadership, and moderates the mediating effect of moral supervisor leadership. (4) Ethical climate positively moderates the relationship between moral supervisor leadership and unethical employee behavior, and moderates the mediating effect of moral supervisor leadership.Originality/valueFirst, this study further proves that moral leadership is a popular positive leadership among the three dimensions of paternalistic leadership that extends its influence to unethical employee behavior. Second, this study traces the source of the moral leadership of employees' supervisors and reveals the action mechanism of how moral manager leadership affects unethical employee behavior. Finally, LMX provides the organizational context of the trickle-down effect and the occurrence of unethical employee behavior.

The Trickle-Down Effect of Authoritarian Leadership on Unethical Employee Behavior: A Cross-Level Moderated Mediation Model

Authoritarian leadership is of great significance to eastern countries, including China. Meanwhile, unethical employee behavior also exists in all types of social organizations. The relationship between authoritarian leadership and unethical employee behavior is worth studying. Senior leaders (managers) often do not have a direct influence on employees except for through their immediate supervisors. The leadership style of senior leaders also influences the leadership style of their subordinates (employees’ direct supervisors). This paper studies how authoritarian manager leadership trickles down to unethical employee behavior through authoritarian supervisor leadership (through social learning theory and ASA theory) and discusses the moderating effect of leader member exchange (LMX) and an ethical climate. Through a questionnaire survey of 406 pairs of leaders, supervisors, and employees, the research results of the multilevel model show that (1) authoritarian supervisor leadership is positively related to unethical employee behavior, (2) authoritarian supervisor leadership mediates the relationship between authoritarian manager leadership and unethical employee behavior, (3) LMX positively moderates the relationship between authoritarian manager leadership and authoritarian supervisor leadership and moderates the mediating effect of authoritarian supervisor leadership, and (4), that an ethical climate negatively moderates the relationship between authoritarian supervisor leadership and unethical employee behavior and moderates the mediating effect of authoritarian supervisor leadership.

Factors Influencing the Improvement of Students’ Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving Skill: An Industrial Training Intervention

Critical thinking and problem solving skill is important for university students to increase their chances of securing a work placement. One way to improve this skill is believed through experiences gained from an industrial training. This study aims to investigate the impact of industrial training on the improvement of students’ critical thinking and problem solving skill. Further, it aims to explore the influence of selected factors on this skill improvement. These selected factors are demographic profiles of students, supervisors and organization, students’ motivation, job scope, supervisor leadership styles and organizational culture. The study adapted Belbin Team Role Self-Perception Inventory as the research instrument of the re-search. A total of 1,227 students and 485 students from six public universities in Malaysia, have completed the pre survey and post survey respectively. Using paired t-test analysis, result exhibited that students’ shown improvement in their critical thinking and problem solving upon completion of their industrial training. The results also exhibited that this skill improvement is best predicted when students performed independence job scope, being supervised by male supervisor and the supervisor and when the supervisors exercise transformational leadership styles. Some practical and empirical implications were drawn from the findings of this study.

Trickle-down effect of benevolent leadership on unethical employee behavior: a cross-level moderated mediation model

PurposeConducting research on the relationship between benevolent leadership and unethical employee behavior can help us find solutions to reduce unethical employee behavior. This paper also discusses how the benevolent manager leadership can be transmitted to the employee's unethical behavior through the benevolent supervisor leadership and the moderating effect of LMX and ethical climate.Design/methodology/approachThrough a questionnaire survey of 406 pairs of leaders, supervisor and employees, the authors use data aggregation test, confirmatory factor analysis, descriptive statistics and multilevel model (HLM) to test our hypothesis.Findings(1) Manager supervisor leadership is negatively related to unethical employee behavior, (2) benevolent supervisor leadership mediates the relationship between benevolent manager leadership and unethical employee behavior, (3) LMX positively moderates the relationship between benevolent manager leadership and benevolent supervisor leadership and moderates the mediating effect of benevolent supervisor leadership, and (4) ethical climate positively moderates the relationship between benevolent supervisor leadership and unethical employee behavior and moderates the mediating effect of benevolent supervisor leadership.Originality/valueFirst, based on previous studies, this study further proves that benevolent leadership is a popular positive leadership among the three dimensions of paternalistic leadership that extends its influence to unethical employee behavior. Second, the study traces the source of the benevolent leadership of employees' supervisors and reveals the action mechanism of how benevolent manager leadership affects unethical employee behavior (trickle-down effect). LMX and the ethical climate provide the organizational context of the trickle-down effect and the occurrence of unethical employee behavior.