Dr Samuel Johnson, the celebrated 18th century British writer, is famously quoted as saying, "No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." While the seriousness of his words has been the subject of some debate down the centuries, the broader question of to what degree creativity comes from within, or is driven by external rewards, has long been an ... Read More

Customer mistreatment towards customer service employees is a problem both for the employee and the organisation. There is substantial evidence that it leads to employee burn-out, emotional distress and absenteeism. Changing such customer behaviour is difficult if not impossible. But new research shows that companies may be able to help their employees cope ... Read More

Creativity is the foundation of organization innovation that enables firms to compete in the dynamic and competitive marketplace. In this talk, Prof Yaping GONG will present research-based findings on what promote or inhibit employee creativity in the workplace. He will discuss key motivational, knowledge, and skill drivers of employee creativity (e.g ... Read More

Employee creativity is an obvious and essential ingredient for firm innovation, but it has usually been framed as a product of an employee’s intrinsic (internal) motivation. Now, new research has revealed that something else matters, too: the human resources systems, and the ownership of the firms in which these systems are implemented. Dong Liu, Yaping ... Read More

Management teams are critical drivers of the performance of business units. Is it possible to increase performance – that is, revenue – by engaging in “collective organizational citizenship behavior” (COCB)? “Upper echelons theory” suggests that management team characteristics influence the strategic decisions that determine business unit performance, yet ... Read More

For customer service employees, it is an unfortunate fact of life that some days they will encounter verbal abuse, unfair demands, disrespectful behaviour and other mistreatment by customers. What’s more, the impacts can linger. Previous research has shown that the short- and long-term well-being of some service employees may be affected by mistreatment ... Read More

Managers that want creative ideas and solutions from their teams should consider how their trust relationships with their staff may help or hinder employees in taking risks and suggesting new ways of doing things. That was a key recommendation in a study by Yaping Gong, Tae-Yeol Kim, Deog-Ro Lee and Jing Zhu on the conditions and factors that encourage ... Read More

Expatriates are a costly investment for multinational corporations (MNCs). They are meant to bring valuable skills and knowledge to subsidiaries to improve performance, but studies have shown mixed results. So much seems to ride on the “expat” and their technical or functional capabilities, but what about their ability to transfer their knowledge to others ... Read More

Creativity can be a valuable quality in employees. It can lead them to generate new ideas and approaches, refine existing procedures, and find alternatives, thus boosting their - and their company's - performance. A new study provides evidence of this phenomenon and identifies factors that enhance employee creativity. Yaping Gong and Jiing-Lih Farh of HKUST ... Read More