Servant leadership and follower job performance: The mediating effect of public service motivation

This article advances our understanding of the effects of servant leadership, an employee- and community-focused leadership style, on followers' public service motivation (PSM) and job performance. Based on social learning theory, we argue that by emphasizing to their followers the importance of serving others both inside and outside the organization and by acting as role models by serving others themselves, servant leaders enhance job performance by engendering higher PSM in their followers. A multilevel analysis of three waves of multi-source data from a Chinese government agency reveals that PSM mediates the influence that servant leadership has on followers' job performance. The results are consistent with theoretical predictions that the altruistic behaviour displayed by servant leaders elicits higher levels of the altruistic behaviours that characterize PSM, which in turn increases job performance. Hence, this study contributes to our understanding of how leadership drives institutional change and performance in the public sector.

Motivation, responsibility and anxiety : parenting dispositions of Chinese mothers

One of the key principles in the ideology which underpins education is the value of children’s family experience. Central to this idea is the view of parents as important. Parenting has become a vital dimension in contemporary education. Parenting discourses traditionally focus on such concepts as parenting style, approach, attitude or practice. The main consideration behind these concepts is what parents appear to be doing at a single point of time, referring to parenting per se. This paper takes on the notion of disposition in order to understand urban Chinese mothers’ habitual and characteristic ways of child rearing. It presents evidence to show that a group of Chinese mothers had parenting dispositions of motivation, responsibility and anxiety. Data came from a series of conversations between 50 Chinese mothers of preschool children and five early childhood teachers through a synchronous online text chat. In the process of consulting the early childhood teachers, the parents expressed many concerns, questions and views of childrearing and early childhood education, thereby providing evidence about their thinking and behaviour. Drawing on the concept of ‘disposition’, the study provides insights into the common thinking threads that characterized Chinese parenting and the ways those threads were woven into their disposed approaches to child rearing and early education.

Complexity of English language learners’ autonomy, motivation and self

Complexity of English language learners' autonomy, motivation and sense of self in Vietnamese context.

The Motivation and maintenance of physical activity in women.

I examined the psychosocial factors motivating Australian women's physical activity. Generally, a focus on appearance enhancement failed to maintain physical activity over time and was associated with negative psychological indicators such as disordered eating, stress, anxiety and depression. Activity maintenance was best achieved by women with more diverse motivations regardless of their choice of activity type.

Mapping site-based construction workers' motivation: expectancy theory approach

The aim of this study is to apply a recently proposed model of motivation based on expectancy theory to site-based workers in construction and confirm the validity of this model for the construction industry. The study drew upon data from 194 site-based construction workers in Iran to test the proposed model of motivation. To this end, the structural equation modelling (SEM) approach based on the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) technique was deployed. The study reveals that the proposed model of expectancy theory incorporating five indicators (i.e. intrinsic instrumentality, extrinsic instrumentality, intrinsic valence, extrinsic valence and expectancy) is able to map the process of construction workers' motivation. Nonetheless, the findings posit that intrinsic indicators could be more effective than extrinsic ones. This proffers the necessity of construction managers placing further focus on intrinsic motivators to motivate workers.