Lina Vyas

Frazzled care for social workers in hong kong: Job stress circumstances and consequences

The meaning and nature of work has undergone significant change across the world, making job related stress a routine part of employment for many people. Social workers who are charged with the task of easing the chaotic lives of service users can also be subject to considerable job stress which adversely affects their personal lives. The current research identifies the stressors experienced by social workers serving in an NGO and also considers their consequences. Job stress was found to negatively influence not only social workers’ self-development, family life and job satisfaction, but also their physical and mental health.

Expectations and performance: assessment of public service training in Hong Kong

There are different ways in which training providers and recipients assess the value and outcome of training programmes. Generally, evaluations by clients of training services in the public sector do not receive serious attention as one cohort of officials succeeds another. Such an approach restricts the prospect of improvement, particularly since the providers are not subjected to undergo self-assessment of their programmes. This article seeks to achieve a better understanding of the assessment by soliciting opinions of both clients and providers of training programmes offered by the Civil Service Training and Development Institute in Hong Kong. The views of both the trainers and recipients were collected through a number of surveys and interviews. The response from trainees and trainers reveal significant differences about the expectations and actual content of the training programmes. Interestingly, there were similarities as well in their assessment in some areas. A common position declared by the trainees is that training keeps them informed about the latest developments but does not help them to adjust to changing circumstances. The other complaint was that adequate training was not provided for performing on the job. Trainers expressed different views, but agreed on the fact that the institute is unable to cope with the task and responsibility of training the entire public service and conceded that it is difficult to anticipate the future training needs in the rapidly changing environment in which public administration takes place.

Utilization of family-friendly policies in Hong Kong

Abstract Employees in Hong Kong, like those in many other industrialized societies, face the competing demands of work and family. Long working hours and the associated problem of work–family conflict is a serious problem for the workforce. Although a number of family-friendly policies, such as the five-day working week, paternal leave and so on, have been introduced, they are not necessarily used to their fullest extent. This paper examines the utilization of family-friendly incentives using a telephone survey of 661 employees in Hong Kong with access to such measures. Its major strength is the use of a well-established model of health care utilization, the Andersen model, to conceptualize the factors associated with the uptake of family-friendly policies. The results indicate that the Andersen model works very well in this context, and further demonstrate that access to family-friendly policies in Hong Kong is not equitable. The study makes a number of significant contributions to the literature on work–life balance and the uptake of supportive measures, and shows that enabling (such as perceived effectiveness) rather than need factors explain most of the variance in such use.

Delivering Better Government: Assessing the Effectiveness of Public Service Training in India

This article examines the effectiveness of training delivered by Lal Bhadur Shastri Academy of Administration (LBSNAA) in India. The dawn of new public management has brought with it a number of changes that affect the compilation and approach of public services. The emphasis on performance of training institutes and the satisfaction of their customers has become even more crucial. The most common approach of evaluating the performance of public agencies is to obtain the attitude of the consumers (trainees) of a particular training. LBSNAA conducts different levels of evaluation involving the participation of its clients, i.e. the trainees and the organization they serve, to evaluate the effectiveness in improvising enhanced administration.

CPR knowledge and attitudes among high school students aged 15-16 in Hong Kong

Background Sudden cardiac arrest is a serious public health problem in Hong Kong, with up to 85% of victims not surviving to hospital admission. International research findings show that teaching cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) to lay bystanders can significantly improve out-of-hospital survival rates. A particular target group for CPR training and education is high school students. Since the commonest site of sudden cardiac deaths in Hong Kong occur at home, school-age adolescents are likely to be the only available bystanders in many emergent situations. Design Questionnaire survey. Methods This study investigated CPR knowledge and attitudes of 383 students aged 15-16 years across 18 schools in Hong Kong to understand barriers and facilitators for CPR delivery. A questionnaire pilot tested and validated by a panel of health professionals was distributed to students, using a convenience sampling methodology. Results Most students (87%) had not received CPR training, with common reasons for not attending being lack of time, lack of interest and not sure where to attend a course. Results of Mann Whitney U tests indicated that students who had received training scored significantly (p<0.05) higher on factual knowledge and also attitudes toward CPR training than those without training. There were no gender differences. Most students reported that they would attempt to perform CPR in a cardiac arrest situation, even if they had not received training, because they believed that CPR could increase the survival rate and it was morally the right thing to do. Conclusions Teaching CPR to Hong Kong school students is an effective way to develop the next generation of emergency first responders. (Hong Kong j.emerg.med. 2015;22:3-13)

Decentralization and ‘Consumerization’ of the Training Function: The ‘Re-invention’ of the Central Training Institute of Hong Kong

In Hong Kong, the central training agency, the Civil Service Training and Development Institute (CSTDI), played an important role in formulating training policies. However, under the public management reforms, training in the public sector has become more demand-driven. The original focus of CSTDI in providing training has been reduced and its advisory or ‘consulting’ role has been enhanced, while departments have acquired the autonomy to choose whether providing in-house departmental training or purchasing services from private providers. The article traces the implementation of these changes and assesses their impact on both the CSTDI and on the training system at large. This article argues that there is still a viable role for a central training institute in a modern, decentralized, ‘consumerized’ Human Resource Management (HRM) training regime.

Welcoming Immigrants with Similar Occupational Interests: Experimental Survey Evidence from Hong Kong

Recent studies in America and Europe suggest that individual economic self-interest plays little role in explaining individual attitudes towards immigrants. A key piece of evidence for this proposition is that natives do not show particular hostility towards immigrants whose skill levels are similar to their own. We conducted an experimental survey of Hong Kong residents to examine their attitudes towards immigrants from Mainland China. We found that positive attitudes towards low-skilled immigrants were more prevalent among local labourers – whose job security would presumably be under greater threat from them – than among executives and professionals. Similarly, the premium attached to highly skilled immigrants increases significantly with locals’ occupational prestige, suggesting that immigrants are more likely to find support among natives who share similar occupational interests. Our results remain robust even after controlling for a range of potential explanatory variables. We conclude with a critical discussion of the use of skill levels to estimate the occupational interests of natives and assess the value of relying on the conventional labour market competition model to generate hypotheses about the role of economic self-interest in shaping immigration preferences.

The protruding implications of privatization: attractive potentials leading to unpleasant consequences

Privatization has become a worldwide trend in public management for reducing the burden on public bureaucracies, ameliorating the fiscal deficits and contributing towards efficiency in service provision. Though the intention of the government carries attractive potentials, it results in unpleasant consequences. Like many governments worldwide, the Hong Kong government has followed this path too. A focus on the privatization launched by Hong Kong Housing Authority (HKHA) demonstrates that the reform failed to achieve its objectives. The article traces the implementation of these changes and assesses their impacts on the government at large.

Centralisation, decentralisation and outsourcing of civil service training: Hong Kong, Singapore and United Kingdom experience in comparative perspective

As a result of public management reforms, civil service training has undergone significant changes around the world. An important development is that ministries and departments are frequently empowered to choose in-house or external providers. Exploring the dynamics and complexities of centralisation, decentralisation and outsourcing in civil service training in Hong Kong, Singapore and the United Kingdom, this article traces the trajectories of the changes and, in doing so, reveals factors involved in the successful transformation of such training. The findings may be used to draw inferences about civil service training in other countries.

Customization in Civil Service Training: Implications for Outsourcing Human Resources Management

ABSTRACT In the public sector, central training institutes once played an irreplaceable role in formulating training policies and providing training programs to government employees. The introduction of new public management (NPM) has stimulated a reform agenda in human resources (HR) management, resulting in a shift from centralized training to decentralized or outsourced training; to be precise, making civil service training more demand-driven and lessening the role of central training institutes. Local-level governments and agencies have acquired more autonomy in deciding whether to provide training in-house, or to purchase relevant services from private providers. In addition, dramatic institutional, economic, and operational changes in the public sector in the twenty-first century have brought about competition among governments worldwide in terms of innovative and creative ideas, prompting them to equip their employees with the relevant skills for the governments to remain competitive. This study explores how civil service training in Hong Kong has been decentralized and customized from the viewpoint of civil servants being trainees, and assesses the role of the Civil Service Training and Development Institute as a centralized training institute for Hong Kong civil servants within the modern, decentralized, and consumerized HR management regime.