2014年4月8日星期二

Reply to all the comments on assignment 2

I consider you topic highly relevant to China, since it is the largest manufacturer in the world according to Jin Bei, Prof. and Editor-in-Chief of China Economist. Also is relevant to Hong Kong, since 45% of the imports correspond to China, according to Trading Economics-Hong Kong imports indicators. So, of consumers start buying with products that have been through environmental friendly processes, the contamination rate due to manufacturing will decrease.

The images shown in the video are highly persuasive. I consider they achieved the Pathos rhetorical Strategy. On the other hand, I think the Logos and Ethos strategies lacked of reliable data. When I watched the video I understood the purpose of the label but not how it works. I consider that is important to include some of the criteria that the China Environmental Labelling Program applies to certificate the companies or products with the label. In the website they have all the criteria for different products, so mentioning 2 or 3 will make a more clear picture to the audience on how they are contributing to the environment. You can also include activities that the Green Council perform, as the following consultancy that they mention:
" It also assists enterprises not to be wasteful in using resources and non-renewable energy, encourages the development and production of green products which are friendly to the environment and not harmful to human."

Furthermore, at first I though that the target audience of the video were people from the Hong Kong government, to persuade them to implement the label in Hong Kong. Since I understood that this label is only applied in China. (Please correct me if I understood wrong). However, I found that the Green Council has also a Hong Kong Green Label Scheme. Showing also this label, would help that people in Hong Kong feel that they are the target audience of the video.
By the way, I forgot to sign ;0)
53270566_Francesco d'Assisi

it is our repay for the comment.

Dear Francesco d’Assisi

Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to give us a comment.

What we did in this video was about China environmental labeling’ definition, function and influence. Undoubtedly, environment of some areas in China is terrible, because of the regulation weakness, excessive pollution, and weak awareness of environmental protection. At the meantime, pollutional production leaves several negative influence in China, which affects the human health, air environment, rivers, and so on. Since the China environmental labeling applying in China, its restrict control and monitor program directly affects the good production and contributes to a positive effect to the environment. As we can see, there are large amounts of product importing to HK, which come from China. If the China environmental labeling could be used and cooperated with Hong Kong eco-label, more and more products from China would become higher quality and environmental friendly, which would be beneficial to not only mainland but also Hong Kong.

For your suggestion towards our video, I would like to explain the reason why we not show how the China Environmental Labelling works, Firstly, we would like to control the time of the video, the main target of the video is make people realize how terrible the environmental problems are, if the video is too long, the audiences will feel boring, and don’t want to watch it anymore. Secondly, actually we try to attract the audience interested in the China Environmental Labelling, so we try our best to show products as much as we can, in our opinion, if the audience interested in one of the products which have the China Environmental Labelling, they would like to find some useful information by themselves, and the detail have been shown in the project, lastly, the China Environmental Labeling are mainly used in China, However, the firm in other counties can also apply for this label if they want, and the China Environmental Labelling also be accepted by many country such as EU and USA because they share the same approval standards(ISO14020).

At last, thank you very much for watching our video of China Environmental Labeling, we want to say that your comment is really practical and suggested. Your approval gives us a huge encouragement since we have spent a lot of time in designing and produce this video. According to your suggestion, we notice that it is indeed too simple to understand how the label works for the audiences in their first contact with this ecological label. We pay more attention in how to awake audience’s sense of environmental protection so that ignore to explain the part of how it works. What’s more, thanks for sharing the information of the Green Council. The activities of local organizations give us an inspiration to advertise China Environmental Labeling in Hong Kong.

2014年4月6日星期日

The inter-professional collaboration


The inter-professional collaboration


A.    Introduction

Historically speaking, the definition of inter-professional collaboration has been very narrow. It is about “Multiple health workers from different professional backgrounds work together with patients, families, caregivers and communities to deliver the highest quality of care” (WTO, 2010).

In the past, professionals with different backgrounds worked independently, such as doctors were only responsible for treatment while nurses were just responsible for nursing and transfusion.  However, because of the challenges of diversified market and complex knowledge, the requirement in inter-professional collaboration has been increased significantly. Also, the definition of collaboration is no longer uses to describe the partnership in health care narrowly, but extends to each corner of social relations, such as in engineers and architectures, or even in university and industry.

Collaboration enables organizations to achieve levels of performance and innovation far superior to what any one person or unit could do alone (Tapscott et al., 2009). Through the inter-professional collaboration, there are more knowledge management and information sharing among independent professionals. Therefore, not only some unnecessary risks can be reduced, but also operating efficiency would be increased. And with the academic and technology exchange in different areas, new ideas and inventions can be created during the process of collaboration.


B.     The classification of inter-professional collaboration


B.1 Inter-professional collaboration between Architects & Engineers


The change of inter-professional collaboration between Architects & Engineers
In mid-eighteenth century, there were an innovation about the engineering schools separating into two different disciplines which were engineering and architecture. Since then, the importance of inter-professional collaboration between these two areas was evolved and deep-going from the originally opposition in 1900s to close collaboration from 1950s to now.Collaboration can be a powerful driver of success in your business.
The importance of inter-professional collaboration
The most significant role of inter-professional collaboration of A&E is effectiveness and efficiency. Firstly, the big influence of decisions on the cost/quality ratio. Secondly, the potential contribution is knowledge and experience for the society. Thirdly, the growing complexity of building projects is well developed in the world. Fourthly, to satisfy wishes of different parties as well as the diminution of building failures.One way is seeking to find commonground, by listening to and understanding theinterests of the other party. (Kandarp, 2012) Fifthly, waste of time and money is reducing in the actual design process.
In the modern society, developing more methods of inter-professional collaboration is essential necessity. Firstly, educational integration of constructive performance between architecture and engineering are highly enthusiastic in the higher-education environment nowadays. Although teams that are diverse and composed of highly educated specialists are increasingly crucial with challenging projects. (Lynda, 2007)  Secondly, the web-based system should make a communication interaction system for engineers, architects or designers, and other stakes holders. Thirdly, change management model is quite beneficial for the common adjustments and changes from design to construction.

B.2 Inter-professional collaboration between Doctor & Nurse


The change of collaboration between doctor and nurse
The collaboration is a small number of people with complementary skill who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable, Traditionally, the doctor and nurse take separately roles in the treatment, the doctor take the actions such as physical examination, and the nurse execute the treatment plan which made by doctor, in conclusion, the doctor can be seen as a planner, and the nurse is an executer, nowadays, Because of instability, uncertainty, and variability, the collaboration between the doctor and nurse is more and more important.

The motivation for the collaboration between doctor and nurse
There are several motivation for the doctor and nurse, the first one is bringing benefit for each side. The doctor can receive more information during the planning time, while the nurse can also learn more professional knowledge about the treatment, even the patient can receive better service with the inter professional collaboration, it is really a win-win-win model, and then, the collaboration can reduce the risk of the treatment, a monitor system can be built in the team, everybody try to find out the loophole of the treat plan through different sight, and a treatment which include suggestion from different areas is more reliable.

Building the inter professional collaboration between doctor and nurse
Firstly, the collaboration should base on fee for service, it means the payment should base on the contribution, not the time or energy, it is fair for all the people participate in the collaboration, and keep the collaboration process smoothly, secondly, we should reinforce the communication, the knowledge management can help team members share the difficult problems easier, including the  explicit and implicit knowledge, and the daily meeting can built closer relationship between members in team. Lastly, inter professional education is also significant for people to understand how to make collaboration, and the doctor and nurse should take part in different steps of education based on their requirement.

B.3 University-Industry Collaboration


The topic of university-industry collaboration is not new, but since 1970s it has become more system and formal. In traditional conception, the task for university has been to involve in research and purely conduct to educate new academics (Alfares et al., 2005). In traditional U-I collaboration, there are five models, namely consultancy and technical services provision, cooperative R&D agreement, licensing, contract research and spin-off companies. All the models are building the form of partnerships that universities provides brains while industry provides funds and other resources.

There are two shifts during the development of U-I collaboration. First, due to the increased consciousness of innovation in industry, there is a requirement for universities to provide more innovative services than simply technology transfer. And the knowledge transfer expands to social sciences and humanities in terms of the demand of organizational level innovation support. Second, U-I collaboration combines with government to receive support from policy, regulations, government funds etc.

Even though U-I collaboration have many successful practices in worldwide, it has several issues happened in the process of U-I collaboration. Culture differences can influence business negotiations in significant and unexpected ways (Sebenius, 2002). And the problem of argument in intellectual property rights and the recognition of time used in research also create friction between universities and industry and limit the collaboration. So there still need more measures to avoid the conflicts and make the collaboration smoother and deeper.


C.    Conclusion 


Inter-professional collaboration is hot and meaningful topic for society while its definition firstly developed in Doctors-Nurses collaboration to all kinds of industries. In this project, we analyze the inter-professional collaboration not only Doctors-Nurses industry, but also Architects & Engineers and Universities & Industries. Purposes in Inter-professional Collaboration are different, like reducing risks in D&N, improving efficiency and effectiveness in A&E, creation and innovation in U&I. Undoubtedly, inter-professional collaboration had changed a lot in different industries, like from lake of collaboration to tightly collaboration, from the single industries to cross-industries; however, changes do not mean separation and isolation but collaboration andintegration, which will greatly benefit to the whole society and the development of human-being’s life!




Reference


Cyert, R. M. & Goodman, P. S. (1997).Creating Effective University-Industry Alliances: An Organizational Learning Perspective. Organizational Dynamics, pp. 45-57.

Dahlander, L. & Gann, D.M. (2010). How open is innovation. Research Policy, 39(6): 699-709.

Brenowitz, R. (2003). Obliterating Myth About Teams. issue of HR.com

Gratton, L & Erickson, T. (2007). 8 ways to build collaborative teams, Harvard Business Review

Mehta, K. (2012). Five Essential Strategiesfor Creative Negotiations. IESE insight.

Sebenius, J. (2002). The Hidden Challenge of Cross-Border Negotiations.Harvard Business.

Siegel, D. S., D., Waldman, D. A., Atwater, L. E., & Link, A. N. (2003). Commercial knowledge transfers from universities to firms: improving the effectiveness of university–industry collaboration. Journal of High Technology Management Research, 14, pp. 111–133.

Society for Human Resource Management, Leveraging HR and Knowledge Management in a Challenging Economy,p3


2014年3月16日星期日

China Environmental Labeling,Our best friend

What our friend looks like?

The story about China Environmental Labeling


The committee of China Environment Labeling is founded in the May, 1994, which is composed of the experts who come from the State Environment Protection Administration (SEPA) and General Administration of Quality Supervision Inspection and Quarantine the People’s of China (AQSIQ) [1], it can be seen as the only national organization for green product certification authority and award the China Environmental Labeling for the products.





Why our friend so credibility?
The characteristics of China Environmental Labeling


The characteristic of the China Environment Labeling is authority which makes the public trust it. As a well-known global ecological label, several things have been developed by China Environment Labeling to help it credibility.


Firstly, the experts come from SEPA and AQSIQ, who can be regarded as the highest level of environment protection around the world, they can determine what kind of products is deserve to receive the China Environment Labeling, and explain the reasons for the public.



And then, the company which received the China Environment Labeling should obey ISO14000 and ISO9000 international environment standards, and they should also be inspected every year to determine whether it have the qualification to keep the China Environment Labeling or not [2].

Last but not the least, the third party inspection institutions also be developed for determining of the China Environment Labeling, all the things mentioned above have made the China Environment Labeling to be a reliable label because of the authority, and it is also easy for the public to trust the production which have this kind of label.


How does other friends work in Hong Kong?

Hong Kong culture and history of the ecological labels


The Hong Kong citizens’ sense of environmental protection




With the air pollution and problem of waste treatment in worldwide, environment also becomes a social issue in Hong Kong. More and more Hong Kong citizens have the environmental awareness. From the publishing perspective, in 1998, the words “environmental protection” only mentioned once per 2 days. Therefore, the frequency increased 12 times until 2008 [3].


Source: http://www.foe.org.hk/uploaded_files/16062007Anniversery/10years%20chi.jpg [4]

However, with the growing attention, there is no evidence show that Hong Kong people’s behaviors and practices are changed as equal. Lacking of personal consciousness of environment protection, citizens tend to wait for government or some environmental organizations to hold relevant activities. According to the data from Green Council, the increase of per capital residential water and electricity consumption is 15.62% and 18.15%, while the increase of population in Hong Kong is only 5.89% [5]


The Hong Kong citizens’ purchasing customs

As a commercial center, Hong Kong is portrayed as a consumption city. Both government and consumer market prefer to regard consumption encouragement as a good way to develop economy rather than mention the negative impact of ecological problem and social value behind the economic growth. With the concept of over-consumption and shallow understanding of environmental protection, Hong Kong citizens do not have the environmental preference during shopping.

What’s more, products made in China are widely used in Hong Kong people’s daily life. Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China, has import kinds of consumption from Mainland China. Due to high cost in labor market and limited resources, Hong Kong is heavily relying on other countries to satisfy its consumption needs. So it is very common for Hong Kong citizens to buy imported products, especially those made in China (58.7 billion dollars in 2012 [6]), during the purchasing process.


The practice of other Hong Kong ecologic label

 

In Hong Kong, the well-known ecological labels have long-term history, which includes the Hong Kong Eco-label, Hong Kong Water-saving Label, Hong Kong Energy Label and so on [7]. These labels have their own history and details application and operation process. Like the Hong Kong Eco-label, it is a kind of evincive label which marks on the products or the packaging of the products and can prove that the products, not only in good quality but also confirming to the certain environmental requirements in the process of producing, use and recycle, are superior to the parallel products on energy conservation and less poison and damage to environment. Hong Kong Eco-label is a type of product certification that validates if the environmental performance of the product confirms to the relevant technical standard about environmental protection. And the Hong Kong Eco-label would like to participate in the global environment cooperation organization not only because of the terrible environment problems in east, but also they want to absorb the advanced technology and ideas from the western side.


Other NGO working in HK and what the influence they are

There are a lot of environmental protection organizations in Hong Kong, like WWF Hong Kong, Friends of the Earth, the Conservancy Association, Society for Protection of the Harbour and so on. Undoubtedly, these non-government organizations had organized a lot of meaningful activities, which includes about out-door activities and operating with government and enterprises activities and most of them reached a positive result giving a far-reaching influence to Hong Kong and improving citizens’ sense of environmental protection.


For example, the plastic bag pricing plan, which is held by the whole Hong Kong environmental organization and accepted by the local government, has become one of the most effective and successful environmental protection activities, including local citizen investigation, enterprise encouragement and cooperation, award ceremony, student education, and so on. And the result was very remarkable, the amount of plastic bag usage from 2572 per person annually reduced to 162 per person annually now [8].



Why we need this friend in Hong Kong?

The necessity and feasibility about the China Environmental Labeling using in Hong Kong



(Source: Trade between Hong Kong and the mainland of China, Hong Kong Monthly Digest of Statistics, 2013 [9])

In the beginning, as we can see in the preview tables, the product import from Mainland China has placed a significant role of the import trade in Hong Kong, which percentage has kept over 40% from 2003 to 2012. And it seems that the percentage is improving gradually. It proves that Hong Kong citizens have formed the customs about purchasing Chinese product for a long time. And we know that the standard between Mainland China and Hong Kong are different, where the follower is stricter. With the China Environmental Labeling developing rapidly, the qualification process becomes stricter than ever before, it should go out of Mainland China and be shown to the whole world, where Hong Kong is a good place for the first step.

Secondly, issues of environmental protection in Hong Kong are being talked much, which we can see the environmental protection organizations are strongly encouraged by the society, government and citizens and the citizen have positive sense of taking actions to environmental protection. With the enthusiastic sense of environmental protection, it will become a suitable place to practice the China Environmental Labeling for the mainland product, which may become a sustainable success.

Thirdly, the culture between mainland China and Hong Kong is becoming more similar than before. Language, value, live style or even senses of environmental protection are similar, where Mainland China is going through an international development road.

Last but not least, both of China Environmental Labeling and Hong Kong ecological label have the same goal about communicating with other ecological labels in the world and setting criteria for and certify products and services with lower environmental burdens and impacts than comparable products/services with the same function. So it is feasibility for Hong Kong to connect the mainland ecological label and Hong Kong ecological label, which beneficial for the trade between Hong Kong and Mainland China and be advantage for improving the quality of product.



How can we invite our friend to help Hong Kong citizens?

The strategies about broadcasting China ecological labels

Government & Corporate encouragement and application

The indicated that establish a As we can see, in other be a well-known ecological label in Hong Kong, China Environmental Labeling should cooperate with Hong Kong government and corporates, encouraging them to apply China Environmental Labeling and using it for the product importing in Mainland China. Conger (1998) indicated that an effective persuader should establish credibility at the first step by expertise and relationship development. And as the international qualification of ISO14020, ISO14021 and ISO14024, China Environmental Labeling has proved its authority and credibility through historical successes in environment protection and when the product from Mainland China has been qualified by it, Hong Kong government will be encouraged to apply this label, which will be beneficial for more good quality products and environmentally friendly products importing from Mainland China. Also, the cooperation with Hong Kong government would enhance the image of China Environmental Labeling to become more acceptable and reliable in Hong Kong citizens’ mind. And the other hands, corporate will be more concentrated in improving the product quality. For both Hong Kong imported products and corporates from Mainland China, this would be a win-win strategy.


Out-door publicity and citizen activities and investigation


In order to broadcast the China Environmental Labeling, another strategy which is out-door publicity and citizen activities and investigation should be used to achieve the goal. Garvin and Roberto (2005) mentioned that leaders must pay close attention to employees’ emotions and work hard to preserve a receptive climate for change. Because the public in Hong Kong would like to participate in the out-door activities, especially the environmental protection ones, it seems to be much easier to raise concern and gain popularity by holding publicities in outside. From what have been mentioned above, the activities which hold by other NGO have already attracted many people, and help them to be understand by more and more people. If we keep the out-door activities and investigation as interesting as others, provide the activities such as China Environmental Labeling Marathon, or the storytelling about knowledge of China Environment Labeling to prepare people for change needs to evoke the future and conjure up a direction for getting there, but without being too precise (Denning, 2004), it can help the China Environmental Labeling to be famous around the Hong Kong. 


Cooperating to the whole world and communicating with other eco-label

It will be more efficient to combine the different criteria of ecological label between Mainland China and Hong Kong in terms of the reinforced contact economic and trading activities and similar culture. As we mentioned above, both Mainland China and Hong Kong have ecological labels, but the standards are not the same. It means that a product entitled with Chinese Environmental Labeling cannot be the environmentally friendly one in Hong Kong because of without local ecological certification. In other words, if a product wants to be regarded as eco-friendly no matter in Mainland China and Hong Kong, it should be examined by two sides. So it is more efficient to build a uniform standard to reduce the repeated checkouts to make Chinese Environmental Labeling have the same effect as Hong Kong ecological labels in Hong Kong market. Furthermore, Hong Kong residents could have broader choices when choosing a green product under the same effect of ecological labels. After the former education and publicity strategies, people who have deeper consciousness of environment protection may prefer to choose environmentally-friendly products during shopping. When they want to purchase a eco-friendly product, they can choose the one with either Chinese Environmental Labeling or local certification because of the same criteria.




Video

The video will be effective to help us reach the goal, First of all, we put the logo of China Environmental Labeling at the beginning of the video, with the help of the description, people will understand what the China Environmental Labeling is, and then, we make the comparison between the landscape of mainland China, it can make the audience understand that after the China Environmental Labeling are widely used in the products, the environment become better and better, after that, we use some scenery picture of Hong Kong to make people image that, if the China Environmental Labeling is introduced in Hong Kong, it can help people make great contribution to the environment, and people can keep this beautiful scenery forever. Lastly, we use the sentence “using the CEL, have bright future , you can do it” and “CEL, our best friend” to help people believe the China Environmental Labeling looks like a friend to help us deal with the environmental problems together. From these four steps, it can help the audience to be attracted, and change their consumption behavior.





Reference

[4] [5] Green Peace, Hong Kong Environmental Protection in Ten Years, retrieved from December, 2007, <http://www.foe.org.hk/uploaded_files/16062007Anniversery/10years%20chi.jpg>
[9] Hong Kong Monthly Digest of Statistics, Trade between Hong Kong and the Mainland of China, retrieved from June, 2013, <https://www.censtatd.gov.hk/hkstat/sub/sp230.jsp?productCode=FA100252>
Conger, J. (1998). The Necessary Art of Persuasion. Harvard Business Review, 85-94
Denning, S. (2004). Telling Tales. First Person, 122-129
Garvin, D., Roberto, M. (2005). Chang Through Persuasion. Harvard Business Review, 104-112




2014年1月16日星期四

Assignment 1



  
Hey guys, it's a blog belongs to Niki, Ivan and Anli, they come from different place of china,but share the same category of culture, and they would like to bring all your guys to enjoy the fantastic journey through the collaboration world.




My name is SONG Anli, a boy who come from the mainland China, the Sichuan province, which is famous for the beautiful girl, because of this reason, I totally agree the sentence that It's not the lack of beauty in life, but the lack of the eyes to find the beauty, I would like to find the beauty of both the life and study.






My name is PENG Zhanming, Ivan. I am from Guangdong Province in mainland China. Studying in HK is one of my dreams and studying in CityU also is my honor in my life. In my spare time, traveling is one of my best favorites, which nurturing my habit about making friends from everywhere and enthusiastic in communicating with everyone.









My name is ZENG Yiqi (Niki), I was born in Jiangxi Province, mainland China. I am in an AB style with quite difference between appearance and inner world. I like to stay with friends, but still enjoy my own peaceful world. I can change my mind to support other people’ thought without hesitation when I think they are closer to the truth than me.











2) Our group name is Phoenix Legend, the Phoenix can be seen as one of the most beautiful birds in the Greek mythology, they always be regarded as a long-lived bird that is cyclically reborn. Associated with the sun, a phoenix obtains new life by arising from the ashes of its predecessor. we also want to get the useful information and knowledge to start our new life, and we want to catch the chance to reborn in our life through the study in CityU,  so that’s why we call our team the “Phoenix Legend”





3) The collaboration is important for not only the work but also the life, for the work we would like to understand that how to make the collaboration with your colleague, and in the someday future maybe we will become the leader of the team, and we need to make the collaboration with other team or organization, how to make the discussion with them, and how to make them feel happy during the time of collaboration, we all need to study through the course, for the life, collaboration help us to make win-win model in our daily life, we avoid the conflicts, and we all benefit from one thing, it can also be seen as what we learn from the course.



4)  Designing high performance team
   ② Engineering effective organizational culture
   ③ Resolving conflicts among group and organizations



5) The allocation between the multinational corporations



6) Our myth about the collaboration is the “Unity and Trust makes the collaboration”.








There is a saying about the collaboration ‘Many hands make light work.’ and the Chairman Mao in China had also said “much more people make more power’, believing in that the labor numbers are the excellent productivity, which would lead to the economy growth and society development. So in the 1950s, Mao had established the policy about inspiring the public to give more birth for new babies, which led to the human number increased dramatically. What’s more, there are a lot of stories about the importance and advantages for the number of members in the team making the team work. Furthermore, numbers also determines the time cost. Like the freight transport, there is no doubt that the same scale of goods will be delivered much faster by 10 workers than just 1 worker. Last but not least, numbers, in some extent, are the key of success. For example, in some competition, like Guinness, many world records are marked down by the numbers of people doing the specific activities. However, do the numbers of team members mean that it will offer the work efficiencies or collaboration?



Compared with quantity of a team, it seems that quality is more important in collaboration. The social psychologist John Darley and Bibb Latané demonstrated the concept of bystander effect that individuals would give more positive reactions when doing tasks independently than in a team. After a series of experiments, Darley and Latané contributed the bystander effect to the diffusion of responsibility and the influence of society. Just as “one boy is a boy, two boys half a boy, three boys no boy.”, members in a large team often follow the majorities or even do nothing according to their own interests and avoidance and unclear of responsibility. Furthermore, it not easy for a team, which pursuits to expand the number of members blindly, to make each member understands the vision of the team and makes balance between personal interests and common goals. What’s more, it would occupy higher operation cost to maintain a well-organized collaboration, especially in a team with surplus and unnecessary members.