Department of Management & Organisation

A short report from Zhao Xiuxi on her research findings presented in the conference.

Zhao Xiuxi at Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall

Abstract: With the growing economic competition and influx of women into the workplace, work-family conflict has attracted more and more research attention. Especially for those individuals who are in dual-earner marriages, oscillating between emphasizing career and family roles can be very stressful. Previous literature has discussed both spillover effect and crossover effect of work-family conflict. The former is an intra-personal contagion process that occurs when emotion or satisfaction is transferred from one domain to another while the later is an inter-personal contagion process that occurs when emotion or satisfaction is transferred from one person to another.

In this study, we examine both spillover effect and crossover effect. More specifically, we propose that the work-family conflict will lead to employees’ burnout. Moreover, such negative experience will be perceived by other family members and will have a negative impact on them. Previous research mainly examined the crossover effect between couples. Our study further argue that negative experience of work-family conflict will influence youths’ life satisfaction negatively.

Data were collected from a sample that included undergraduates and their parents in Singapore. Results of the structural equation modelling analyses supported both spillover effect and crossover effects. Parents’ work-family conflict leads to their burnout. Parents’ burnout was in turn significantly related to their children’s perceived work-family conflict. Youths who perceive parents’ work-family conflict experienced lower level of life satisfaction.

Doctoral consortium 14th Dec. 2008

The doctoral consortium was a full-day event held in the National Cheng-Chi University. Five prestigious scholars in the management field gave talks in various topics that are most relevant to Ph.D. students. I will summarize below.

09:00 am Kwok Leung, City U of Hong Kong “Publishing in leading journals”

Prof. Leung is an experienced researcher in my field. He has a psychology background. He has published and served in the editorial board in many top journals. He shared with us how to publish in such top journals as JAP. He listed four key points: strategic publication plan, brilliant research ideas, superb craftsmanship, and effective working habits. Around these key points, Prof. Leung gave us some samples to help us think how to produce good papers.

10:15 am Bernard Yeung, National U of Singapore “Publishing from an Asian perspective”

Prof. Yeung’s speech was no doubt the most enlightening one. Based on his knowledge and experience, he advised us not on “how to publish and get ahead in career” but on “how to be a real scholar”. He pointed us to the potential of doing research in Asia, he encouraged us to be curious of the basic questions, he also gave us some helpful advice. I was very much motivated by his speech as well as his personality.

11:30 am Mike Peng, U of Texas -Dallas “Working with reviewers and editors”

I read Prof. Peng’s papers when I was doing research on Chinese firms. He is one of the most influential Chinese scholars in the field of strategy. His papers were well-written and widely-cited. How? After listening to his talk, I found the reason. He is passionate, has clear goals, and knows how to “sell” his ideas. He compared doing research to marketing. The metaphor, I think, is right to the point. He also requested us to repeat out loud that “I make a contribution!” Oh, he is definitely eloquent. He shared with us his experience of “surviving the review process”, which is very helpful.

13:30 pm Ming-Jer Chen “Developing a research program”

Prof. Chen has a different personality. He is such a nice person and he is so “Chinese”. He wrote a paper titled “Reflecting on the process: Building competitive dynamics research” especially for us, the participant students of this doctoral consortium. In this paper, he shared with us his experience of doing research and publishing on competitive dynamics. He also showed us a table in which he listed the review and revision history of all his publications. I loved this table because it reminded me of the story that I had always told myself during the tough time. I remember a famous Chinese pianist once said: “look at my CV, it only tells you how many championships I have won, but it never tells you how many competitions I have participated”. As scholars, we should know, working hard does not guarantee publication, but if we do not make any effort, failure is guaranteed.

14:45 pm Shige Makino “How to shape a discipline”

Prof. Makino is the final speaker. He shared with us his understanding of good theory and good research. He is an interesting person.