Testing for heteroscedasticity in a dynamic simultaneous equation model

This paper generalizes the Lagrange multiplier test for heteroscedasticity to a dynamic simultaneous equation model. A proof ofthe validity of the test is given. Small sample proper- ties of the Lagrange multiplier test and its 'studentized' version, under normal and non-normal errors, are investigated using a Monte Carlo experiment.     

Repositioning Risk in Social Work Education: Reflections Arising from the Threat of SARS to Social Work Students in Hong Kong during their Field Practicum

The social work profession has always been involved in dealing with uncertainty and risk in the life politics of clients. However, it is not easy for young social work students to translate this philosophical disposition into their real life practice with clients. In spring 2003, when the SARS epidemic broke out in Hong Kong, a group of social work students from the Chinese University of Hong Kong were doing their fieldwork practicum. Suddenly confronted by a collective sense of risk in their role as social workers, the students went through a period of unrest, as performing their helping duties brought with it a simultaneous exposure to personal risk. This paper is based on four focus group interviews with these social work students, to understand how they processed their experience of risk during their exposure to the SARS crisis, and how they connected the experience to their social work practice with clients. It is found that the predicament arising from the exposure to personal risk brought about by the SARS crisis during the students' field placement engendered the reflective process that enabled a renewed and personalized meaning of professionalism. The results provide a basis for reflection among social work educators on the role of risk in the training of prospective social workers, and on how social work education can better prepare students for practice in a high‐risk environment.     

Identity work of welfare service users in participatory spaces

The popularizing user participation agenda has encouraged the creation of discursive spaces for collaborative decision‐making with the welfare service users. Despite the claim of partnership with the service users, these participative spaces do not always promise parity of participation. Based on a qualitative study conducted in Hong Kong, this paper discusses the manifestation and constitution of identity among the welfare service users who took part in organizational spaces for participatory management. The analysis uncovers the tensions and promises in participatory management with the welfare service users.     

Affect and leader-member exchange in the new millennium: A state-of-art review and guiding framework

The idea that affect plays a key role in leader-member exchange (LMX) processes is not new, but it has become a subject of considerable research attention since the turn of the Millennium. This interest has, however, resulted in a multiplicity of views that have tended to obfuscate rather than clarify the affect-LMX nexus. To deal with this lack of clarity, we conducted a systematic integration of affect-LMX literature published in leading journals since 2000, including the role of personal affectivity, discrete affect, emotional intelligence, emotional labor, and affective climate. We structured our review using a multilevel framework of affect that encompasses five levels of analysis: (1) within-person, (2) between persons, (3) interpersonal, (4) team, and (5) organizational levels; as well as consideration of cross-level effects. We address in particular three fundamental issues that we argue may have hampered the development of the affect-LMX nexus in the literature: theoretical diversity, problems of data analysis, and measurement issues. We conclude by discussing opportunities for future research across the different levels and develop a set of research questions that we hope will help to promote research into the role of affect in LMX.     

Evaluating the effectiveness of four Hong Kong antismoking cartoon posters with humor and threat elements

Although cartoons are widely used in health communication, their effectiveness has seldom been tested. In this study, the effects of four humor–threat antismoking cartoon posters are evaluated in a sample of 12- to 15-year-olds (n = 183) in Hong Kong. The five-group comparison (including the control group) revealed that these posters did not increase antismoking attitudes in the sample but did decrease antismoking behavioral intentions. The better liked, more humorous, and more frightening posters did not produce increased antismoking attitudes or behavioral intentions. These findings warrant the development of theories to clarify the role of humor in health communication. Although cartoons are well liked by adolescents, practitioners must be aware of the possible negative effects of humor in cartoon-based messages.     

Relative leader–member exchange,negative affectivity and social identification: A moderated-mediation examination

We argue that leader–member exchange (LMX) standing relative to the LMX relationships of other coworkers (RLMX) in workgroups may influence employees' job performance. Based on social comparison and social identity theories, we develop a moderated-mediation model of the psychological processes linking RLMX and job performance, and test it on a sample of 252 employees and 42 managers working in two large banks. Results of hierarchical regression analyses provide support for the model. We found that RLMX was positively related to social identification after controlling for perceptions of LMX; and also that social identification mediated the relationship between RLMX and job performance. We found further that negative affectivity moderated the relationship between RLMX and social identification which, in turn, also mediated the interactive effect on job performance.     

Administrative Buy-in for User Participation in Managing Social Services

Abstract

This paper reports the findings of a study conducted in Hong Kong on the value position of the social service providers regarding user participation in service management. Using a survey instrument to collect data from 642 service providers in an elderly service organization, the study explored whether or not the value position had an effect on the views of the service providers on the structural set-up for user participation, and whether the value position of the professional staff was significantly different from that of the non-professional staff. Exploratory factor analyses (EFA), confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM) were applied in the analysis. The findings identify that administrative buy-in needed to support shared decision-making with the welfare service users has not been achieved in the studied organization, owing to the absence of value commitment to the user participation cause. As the professional staff was more supportive of values favoring user participation, the paper calls for an acculturation process that would be stimulated and led by professionals to develop a participatory culture. The paper also recommends conducting similar study on a larger scale and qualitative inquiry into factors influencing the formation of values about user participation in future research.     

Why does transformational leadership matter for employee turnover? A multi-foci social exchange perspective

Drawing on social exchange theory, the present study investigates the underlying mechanisms through which transformational leadership influences employee turnover. Leader–member exchange (LMX) and affective commitment (AC) are proposed as supervisor-based and organization-based social exchange mechanisms respectively, exemplifying how social exchange processes occur between an employee and his/her supervisor, and between the employee and his/her organization as a whole to underpin the effect of transformational leadership on turnover outcomes. Results of structural equation modeling on a sample of 490 full-time employees working in a large telecommunication company in the PRC provided support for the notion that transformational leadership is related to both social exchange mechanisms – LMX and AC – turnover intention and turnover behavior. Furthermore, the results revealed that AC rather than LMX mediated the link between transformational leadership and turnover intention. Turnover intention also only mediated the relationship between AC and turnover behavior over time.     

Assessing local cluster influence in generalized linear mixed models

This paper investigates local influence measures for assessing cluster influence in generalized linear mixed models. Several cluster-specific perturbation schemes are considered. The proposed local influence diagnostics are applied to analyse maternity length of inpatient stay data where individual observations are nested within hospitals and the relative performance of hospitals is of interest.     

Estimation of p(y<x) in the gamma case

We consider estimation of P(Y<X) when X?Γr(M,λ) and Y?Γ(N,μ) are independent with M and N known. A concise representation of the UMVUE and several representations for the MLE are derived. Closed-form exact expressions of both MSE's and the bias of the MLE are obtained. Large-sample results are given and numerical comparison of the two point estimators is made. Confidence intervals are given.