Dynamic technology leadership: The adaptive role of the CTO

OVERVIEW: The importance of the chief technology officer role is widely accepted, particularly in today's turbulent, global conditions. However, not enough is known about the key activities of CTOs or the factors that influence their priorities. Thirty in-depth interviews conducted with the CTOs in global firms identified key activities: aligning technology and corporate strategy and business models, determining technology entry and exit points, and preparing business cases to secure funding for technology development. The research also showed that priority areas for CTOs are related to technology transition points-major contextual and business discontinuities that impact the focus of the CTO. We conclude that the determination of priorities at these technology transition points is highly idiosyncratic and closely related to whether the CTO functions more or less strategically.

Physicians in leadership: the association between medical director involvement and staff-to-patient ratios

In a hospital environment that demands a careful balance between commercial and clinical interests, the extent to which physicians are involved in hospital leadership varies greatly. This paper assesses the influence of the extent of this involvement on staff-to-patient ratios. Using data gathered from 604 hospitals across Germany, this study evidences the positive relationship between a full-time medical director (MD) or heavily involved part-time MD and a higher staff-to-patient ratio. The data allows us to control for a range of confounding variables, such as size, rural/urban location, ownership structure, and case-mix. The results contribute to the sparse body of empirical research on the effect of clinical leadership on organizational outcomes.

Leadership of healthcare commissioning networks in England: a mixed-methods study on clinical commissioning groups.

To explore the relational challenges for general practitioner (GP) leaders setting up new network-centric commissioning organisations in the recent health policy reform in England, we use innovation network theory to identify key network leadership practices that facilitate healthcare innovation.

A 5GHz low power WLAN transceiver SiGe RFIC for personal communication terminal applications

A low-cost low-power single chip WLAN 802.11a transceiver is designed for personal communication terminal and local multimedia data transmission. It has less than 130mA current dissipation, maximal 67dB gain and can be programmed to be 20dB minimal gain. The receiver system noise figure is 6.4dB in hige-gain mode.

工作幸福感的结构、测量及作用机制

With the emergence and development of positive psychology, happiness has been the focus of academia and business. However, there is no uniform measure of happiness, because of many different theories of happiness, which are not compatible with others. It bounds the further development of happiness theory. It is also the same with the research of work well-being, which refers to the emotional experience and quality of psychological functioning of employee in the workplace. Subjective well-being (SWB) and psychological well-being (PWB) are two major theories of happiness. Prior research has demonstrated the integration of these two theories theoretically, but still needs more empirical support. Besides, in line with the development of positive psychology, a body of knowledge about positive leadership is advocated. Transformational leadership is treated as one kind of positive leadership, since it emphasizes the leader’s motivational and elevating effect on followers. But the extent to which the transformational leadership can enhance work well-being, and what the mechanism is, these are the questions need to be explored. Based on the integration of SWB and PWB, this research tried to investigate the structure, measurement and mechanism of work well-being, and combining with the theory of transformational leadership, this study also tried to investigate the relationship between transformational leadership and work well-being. The structure and measurement of work well-being, the relationships between work well-being and job characteristics (including job resources and job demands), the relationships among transformational leadership, job resources, work well-being and corresponding outcomes, the relationships among transformational leadership, job demands, work well-being and corresponding outcomes, and the relationships among transformational leadership, group job characteristics, group work well-being and corresponding group outcomes were explored by using content analysis, Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) discussion, and structural questionnaire surveys. More than 7000 subjects were surveyed, and Explore Factor Analysis (EFA), Confirm Factor Analysis (CFA), Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) and other statistics methods were used. The following is the major conclusions. Firstly, work well-being is a two high-order factors structure, which includes affective well-being (AWB) and cognitive well-being (CWB). AWB is similar to SWB, and CWB is similar to PWB. Besides, the construct of AWB includes sub-dimensions of positive emotional experience and negative emotional experience. And the construct of CWB consists of work autonomy, personal growth, work competent, and work significance. Secondly, the relationships between job characteristics and AWB and CWB are different. On one hand job demands are directly related to AWB, and are indirectly related to CWB through the full mediation of AWB, on the other job resources are directly related to CWB, and are indirectly related to AWB through the full mediation of CWB, which means AWB and CWB reciprocally influences each other in the model of job demands-resources. These results were concluded as the process model of work well-being. Thirdly, AWB and CWB are positively related to many workplace outcomes, including job satisfaction, group satisfaction, organizational commitment, turnover intention, job performance, organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), and general psychological health and general physiological health. Fourthly, transformational leadership is indirectly related to CWB through the full mediation of job resources, and is related to AWB through the partial mediation of job demands. Meanwhile, transformational leadership is related to many workplace outcomes through the mediation of job characteristics and work well-being. These results implied that transformational leadership is indeed one kind of positive leadership. Fifthly, in the group level, transformational leadership is indirectly related to group CWB through the full mediation of group job resources, and is related to group AWB through the full mediation of group job demands. Group AWB has positive influence on group CWB, but not vice versa. Group job characteristics and group work well-being fully mediate the relationships between transformational leadership and intragroup cooperation and group performance.

Public feedback - but personal feedforward?

Academic feedback is taken here as the reporting to student writers of the strengths and weaknesses of their submitted draft work, while academic feedforward refers to constructive advice regarding possible strengthening of students’ next work. Both originate from a tutor’s initial judgement of a student’s work. Feedback and feedforward on work showing need for improvement are problematic in a Confucian Heritage Culture. Even gently constructive advice within a programme seeking evidence for assessment of critical thinking may lead to perception of hurtful criticism by Taiwanese students. Some could withdraw from class activity accordingly. So the writers adjusted their response style. They now choose between different approaches featuring tutorial feedback or feedforward, depending on the standard of work being judged. When individual postings feature poor critical thinking, the writers opt for private messages concentrating on constructive feedforward. For better postings, they provide positive feedback with reasons for their judgements, and summarise to the class these exemplars of generic strengths in critical thinking. They also offer private prompting when they see scope for further enrichment of an able student’s critical thinking. This might also be a useful practice when tutoring solely in the West. (192 words) Keywords: Confucian Heritage Culture, public feedback, private feedforward, assessment

Dealing with affective needs in e-learning: Contrasting two cases in two cultures.

This chapter presents and contrasts descriptions of two cases of online affective support provided to support students engaged in higher level learning tasks. The cases are set in different cultures, centre upon different intended learning outcomes, and follow different tutorial styles. One (Eastern) tutor acted as a “shepherd leader” in response to needs arising in the Confucian Heritage Culture as the teacher promoted critical thinking, according to the Western model. The other (Western) tutor provided Rogerian facilitation of reflective learning journals, kept by students seeking to develop personal and professional capabilities. In both styles, affective support features strongly. The cultural and pedagogical comparisons between the cases have proved useful to the writers. These distinctions together with the similarities between the two online styles emerge in the comparisons. Keywords: affective needs, asynchronous discussion, Confucian Heritage Culture, constructivism, critical thinking, facilitation, reflection, reflective learning journals, Rogerian, shepherd leadership, social-constructivist, student-centred, support.