Suzhi development: Indigenous approaches to enhancing the quality of human resources

Purpose- This paper aims to examine the Chinese indigenous concept of suzhi ((ProQuest: Non US-ASCII text omitted)) by analyzing its historical evolution and its contemporary implications for human resource management (HRM) research and practice at the national and organizational levels.Design/methodology/approach- An integrated review of literatures in sinology, political science, anthropology and sociology concerned with suzhi-related research, combined with recent incidents associated with suzhi.Findings-Suzhi is an indigenous concept embedded in the centuries-long historical context of China.Suzhi development has been focused on three key dimensions, moral, physical and mental, as a way of building quality employees and citizens. Yet developing and quantifying the moral aspects ofsuzhi is more challenging than measuring its physical and mental dimensions. Linkingsuzhi development to human capital theory enriches the understanding of this indigenous concept at both organizational and national levels.Research limitations/implications- By analyzing a three-dimensionalsuzhi composite, the article offers an example of howsuzhi may be linked to human capital theory and identifies directions for future research.Originality/value- By analyzingsuzhi at organizational and national levels for HRM purposes, this article broadens thesuzhi literature from its place in the political sciences and social anthropology to encompass a theoretical analysis in HRM and development for the benefit of organizations and the society.

The four national taps of Singapore: a holistic approach to water resources management from drainage to drinking water

 Water resources in Singapore are managed following the principles of a closed loop hydrologic cycle by one agency, the Public Utility Board (PUB), which promotes its management philosophy through the Four National Taps of Singapore program. The four national taps are: water from local catchment areas; imported water (from Malaysia); reused water (known as NEWater); and desalinated water. Given the uncertainty of water imports, the remaining three national taps have become increasingly important and this paper begins with a general overview of the innovative programs implemented by PUB in support of these three taps. Stormwater runoff is captured from two-thirds of Singapore’s land area and stored in reservoirs for subsequent use. Stormwater management is an important component of the catchment area tap and extensive low impact development (LID) implementation has become a priority through the ABC (Active, Beautiful, Clean) Waters Program. Examples of several ABC Waters projects are discussed. NEWater currently supplies 30% of the country’s demand and this is projected to increase to 50% by 2060. NEWater plants take treated wastewater through the additional steps of microfiltration, reverse osmosis and ultraviolet treatment for use primarily in industry, although a portion also is blended into the municipal reservoirs. Singapore’s single desalination plant currently meets 10% of its demand, with a second plant to be completed in 2013 that will more than double production. Also discussed are the results of recently completed pilot projects related to stormwater management including testing of E. coli in runoff from high density residential areas, a blind taste test and survey on acceptance of NEWater, and a survey of Singaporean understanding about stormwater management issues.Water resources in Singapore are managed following the principles of a closed loop hydrologic cycle by one agency, the Public Utility Board (PUB), which promotes its management philosophy through the Four National Taps of Singapore program. The four national taps are: water from local catchment areas; imported water (from Malaysia); reused water (known as NEWater); and desalinated water. Given the uncertainty of water imports, the remaining three national taps have become increasingly important and this paper begins with a general overview of the innovative programs implemented by PUB in support of these three taps. Stormwater runoff is captured from two-thirds of Singapore’s land area and stored in reservoirs for subsequent use. Stormwater management is an important component of the catchment area tap and extensive low impact development (LID) implementation has become a priority through the ABC (Active, Beautiful, Clean) Waters Program. Examples of several ABC Waters projects are discussed. NEWater currently supplies 30% of the country’s demand and this is projected to increase to 50% by 2060. NEWater plants take treated wastewater through the additional steps of microfiltration, reverse osmosis and ultraviolet treatment for use primarily in industry, although a portion also is blended into the municipal reservoirs. Singapore’s single desalination plant currently meets 10% of its demand, with a second plant to be completed in 2013 that will more than double production. Also discussed are the results of recently completed pilot projects related to stormwater management including testing of E. coli in runoff from high density residential areas, a blind taste test and survey on acceptance of NEWater, and a survey of Singaporean understanding about stormwater management issues.

Designing and developing interactive digital media mobile learning resources best practices and guidelines

Interactive digital media learning resources and mobile devices offer flexible teaching and learning options and experiences for the student and teacher. Recent technological advancements of mobile devices, release of forth generation mobile broadband and discussions of a fifth generation to come mean that interactive digital media rich content delivered over mobile devices will become mainstream. Given the popularity of mobile devices such as smartphones, laptops, netbooks and digital tablets all have capacity to deliver interactive digital media content, the design and pedagogical factors of mobile learning resources is fundamental. Course designers and education developers need to consider the design and pedagogical considerations involved in the creation of these learning resources. This paper provides best practices and guidelines that course designers and educational developers can use to help them design and develop interactive digital media learning resources for mobile devices.

The effects of perceived organizational support, perceived supervisor support and intra‐organizational network resources on turnover intentions: A study of Chinese employees in multinational enterprises

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of perceived organizational support (POS), perceived supervisor support (PSS) and intra-organizational network resources on the turnover intentions of the Chinese employees of multinational enterprises. Design/methodology/approach: The study utilized structured equation modeling to analyze survey data from 437 Chinese employees of five multinational enterprises operating in the Chinese service sector. Findings: The study found that POS was positively related to affective organizational commitment, which in turn was negatively related to turnover intentions. A direct relationship was revealed between PSS and turnover intentions, as well as a mediated relationship through POS. In contrast, the relationship between intra-organizational network resources and turnover intentions was fully mediated through POS. Research limitations/implications: The cross sectional design is a limitation of the study. Another limitation regards the generalisability of the findings outside the specific research context. Future research should be extended to different geographical and organizational settings. Practical implications: In order to promote employee retention, multinational enterprises operating in China could start by carefully targeting visible support on offer to their employees. Improving supervisor support is a relatively inexpensive and practical measure compared to the costly alternatives such as improving employee compensation, training and career development. Organizations should also consider improving co-worker support schemes in the workplace which enable individuals to build up their network resources. Originality/value: The study provided evidence for both a direct relationship between PSS and turnover intentions and a mediated one via POS, confirming the generalisability of previous findings to the Chinese context. In addition it made an original contribution by establishing that POS fully, rather than partially mediated the relationship between intra-organizational network resources and turnover intentions. This suggests that Chinese employees attribute instrumental and expressive support from others in the organization as coming from the organization itself.

A decentralized cloud firewall framework with resources provisioning cost optimization

Cloud computing is becoming popular as the next infrastructure of computing platform. Despite the promising model and hype surrounding, security has become the major concern that people hesitate to transfer their applications to clouds. Concretely, cloud platform is under numerous attacks. As a result, it is definitely expected to establish a firewall to protect cloud from these attacks. However, setting up a centralized firewall for a whole cloud data center is infeasible from both performance and financial aspects. In this paper, we propose a decentralized cloud firewall framework for individual cloud customers. We investigate how to dynamically allocate resources to optimize resources provisioning cost, while satisfying QoS requirement specified by individual customers simultaneously. Moreover, we establish novel queuing theory based model M/Geo/1 and M/Geo/m for quantitative system analysis, where the service times follow a geometric distribution. By employing Z-transform and embedded Markov chain techniques, we obtain a closed-form expression of mean packet response time. Through extensive simulations and experiments, we conclude that an M/Geo/1 model reflects the cloud firewall real system much better than a traditional M/M/1 model. Our numerical results also indicate that we are able to set up cloud firewall with affordable cost to cloud customers.

Pitfall trapping does not reliably index the diet or prey resources of Masked Lapwings

Vertebrate ecologists often assess invertebrate prey resources using techniques which sample invertebrate assemblages, and assume such sampling reflects the diet of their focal species. We compare the invertebrate assemblages as recorded by pitfall traps for Masked Lapwing Vanellus miles breeding territories in Phillip Island, Australia, and show that these differ from assemblages recorded in the stomach contents of local Masked Lapwings. Pitfalls traps did not reveal any difference in assemblages between sites where Masked Lapwings bred, and sites where they did not. Thus, pitfall trapping alone is unlikely to adequately index prey availability for Masked Lapwings.