Xiang Yao

Bio: Xiang Yao is an academic researcher from Peking University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Psychology & Personality. The author has an hindex of 15, co-authored 36 publications receiving 718 citations.

Does the self drive mental time travel

Abstract: Research on autobiographical remembering has shown the intertwined relationship between the self and memory. Very little is known about the role of the self in the anticipation of the future. To investigate the association, European American (N=61) and Chinese (N=60) college students each reported two past autobiographical events and anticipated two future events, and described themselves in the past, present, and future. The results from a content analysis found that, regardless of culture, the future self and events were more positive and socially oriented than the past self and events. In general, European Americans provided more positive events and self-descriptions than Chinese. Men showed more personal focus in both experiences and self-descriptions than women at all time epochs. Importantly, independent of culture and gender, the self rather than the past events predicted the valence and personal focus of future events. These findings offer new insights into the dynamic relations between the self a...

The Role of Individualism-Collectivism in the Individual Creative Process

Abstract: This study is among the first to examine how individuals’ cultural value orientations impact 2 separate stages of creativity: idea generation and idea implementation. A total of 247 Chinese employees completed questionnaires including individualism–collectivism culture orientation and their idea generation behavior. Supervisor ratings of idea implementation were obtained to avoid single-source bias. Partial correlation results showed that both horizontal individualism and horizontal collectivism had positive influences on idea generation, but vertical collectivism had a positive impact on idea implementation. Although vertical individualism was not correlated to either idea generation or idea implementation, it moderated the relationship between these two stages such that idea generation predicted idea implementation better among high vertical individualists than among low vertical individualists. Theoretical contributions and practical implications are discussed.

The knowledge-creating company

Abstract: How have Japanese companies become world leaders in the automotive and electronics industries, among others? What is the secret of their success? Two leading Japanese business experts, Ikujiro Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi, are the first to tie the success of Japanese companies to their ability to create new knowledge and use it to produce successful products and technologies. In The Knowledge-Creating Company, Nonaka and Takeuchi provide an inside look at how Japanese companies go about creating this new knowledge organizationally. The authors point out that there are two types of knowledge: explicit knowledge, contained in manuals and procedures, and tacit knowledge, learned only by experience, and communicated only indirectly, through metaphor and analogy. U.S. managers focus on explicit knowledge. The Japanese, on the other hand, focus on tacit knowledge. And this, the authors argue, is the key to their success--the Japanese have learned how to transform tacit into explicit knowledge. To explain how this is done--and illuminate Japanese business practices as they do so--the authors range from Greek philosophy to Zen Buddhism, from classical economists to modern management gurus, illustrating the theory of organizational knowledge creation with case studies drawn from such firms as Honda, Canon, Matsushita, NEC, Nissan, 3M, GE, and even the U.S. Marines. For instance, using Matsushita's development of the Home Bakery (the world's first fully automated bread-baking machine for home use), they show how tacit knowledge can be converted to explicit knowledge: when the designers couldn't perfect the dough kneading mechanism, a software programmer apprenticed herself withthe master baker at Osaka International Hotel, gained a tacit understanding of kneading, and then conveyed this information to the engineers. In addition, the authors show that, to create knowledge, the best management style is neither top-down nor bottom-up, but rather what they call "middle-up-down," in which the middle managers form a bridge between the ideals of top management and the chaotic realities of the frontline. As we make the turn into the 21st century, a new society is emerging. Peter Drucker calls it the "knowledge society," one that is drastically different from the "industrial society," and one in which acquiring and applying knowledge will become key competitive factors. Nonaka and Takeuchi go a step further, arguing that creating knowledge will become the key to sustaining a competitive advantage in the future. Because the competitive environment and customer preferences changes constantly, knowledge perishes quickly. With The Knowledge-Creating Company, managers have at their fingertips years of insight from Japanese firms that reveal how to create knowledge continuously, and how to exploit it to make successful new products, services, and systems.

Organizational Commitment, Job Satisfaction and Turnover Among Psychiatric Technicians. Technical Report No. 16.

Abstract: Abstract : A study is reported of the variations in organizational commitment and job satisfaction, as related to subsequent turnover in a sample of recently-employed psychiatric technician trainees. A longitudinal study was made across a 10 1/2 month period, with attitude measures collected at four points in time. For this sample, job satisfaction measures appeared better able to differentiate future stayers from leavers in the earliest phase of the study. With the passage of time, organizational commitment measures proved to be a better predictor of turnover, and job satisfaction failed to predict turnover. The findings are discussed in the light of other related studies, and possible explanations are examined. (Modified author abstract)

The Nature of Creativity

Abstract: Discusses the problem of creativity and examines situations in the universe where it exists.