Volume 13, Issue 4 - Special issue: A tale of two innovative leadership programs in Hong Kong, China / Editors: Daniel T.L. Shek, Andrew M.H. Siu and Joav Merrick

A 14-week university course on Leadership and Intrapersonal development was taught in the fall of 2011 to a group of 49 undergraduate students. The teacher reflects on different aspects of the course, his experience as a teacher, his views on how the course impacted him and his students, and the need for such a course at the university. It was concluded that the course is an excellent platform to develop more critical-minded students who are better equipped to tackle university studies and life in general.

It is well known that intra-personal attributes and leadership styles are crucial elements of nursing education and practice. However, little has been done in these aspects, particularly in terms of students’ perspectives regarding various cultural influences on intra-personal development and nursing leadership. Six focus group interviews were conducted in Hong Kong to explore the meanings of intra-personal development and nursing leadership in nursing education and the clinical setting, and to analyze Chinese culture relevant to intra-personal and leadership development. The results revealed three themes (intra-personal development, nursing leadership, and cultural influence) extracted from the focus group interviews. Regarding intra-personal development, the findings from participants’ experiences suggested that they agreed with the importance of self-awareness, self-reflection, emotional competence, resilience, morality, and self-identity in nursing students. In addition, social competence, communication, team building and self-leadership, as well as crisis, conflict, and stress management, are crucial to nursing leadership. Some participants were also concerned with the cultural influence on gender barriers and hierarchism in the clinical setting. As intra-personal characteristics, leadership competence, and cultural values are crucial and fundamental in education, nursing programs should enhance these aspects for the holistic development of nursing students. Further studies across regions and time, interviews with nursing educators, and cross-cultural collaboration for nursing leadership and intra-personal development in nursing programs are recommended.

“Tomorrow’s Leaders” is a subject developed to satisfy the leadership and intrapersonal development requirement at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. After taking this subject, students were invited to use three descriptors and a metaphor to describe their experiences about the subject. Based on the reflections of 143 students, results showed that 94.4% of the descriptors used by informants were positive and 2.31% of the descriptors were negative. For the metaphors used to describe the subject, 92.7% were positive and 4.47% were negative. In conjunction with other findings, the present study suggests that Tomorrow’s Leaders is a subject that can promote the holistic development in Chinese university students in Hong Kong.

Under the new 4-year undergraduate curriculum, students admitted to The Hong Kong Polytechnic University have to take a course on “Leadership and Intra-personal Development”. A subject entitled “Tomorrow’s Leaders” was developed to help students satisfy this requirement. In the second piloting exercise, five outstanding students taking this subject were invited to write reflective journals. Several common themes from these reflections are highlighted from the analyses. First, students believed there was a need for this subject. Second, the students liked the course, and they identified many positive attributes in the subject and its implementation. Third, the instructors were appreciated by the students. Fourth, the subject was seen by the students to be beneficial to their development. Finally, some suggestions for improvement were noted. When the present findings are integrated with other evaluation findings, it can be concluded that the subject is able to promote psychosocial competencies in university students taking this subject.

The changes in university students after taking a subject on leadership and intrapersonal development (“Tomorrow’s Leaders” at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University) are presented in this paper. Adopting a pre-experimental design (one group pretest-posttest design), 1029 students responded to a questionnaire assessing different aspects of development, including measures of positive youth development and life satisfaction. While students showed positive changes in self-determination, thriving and life satisfaction, their scores declined in some measures of positive youth development. The present findings are consistent with the previous findings that the subject is able to promote the holistic development of university students in Hong Kong, but it also generated some odd findings to be clarified in future studies.

To investigate the perceived effects of a subject on leadership and intrapersonal development offered at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, a 48-item Subjective Outcome Evaluation Scale was implemented on a sample of first-year undergraduate students (n=800) in the academic year of 2012–2013. Consistent with our expectation, factor analyses showed that there are three dimensions (program, instructor, and benefits) intrinsic to the scale. Similar to previous findings, results showed that students had positive perceptions about the subject content and teachers, and most of the students perceived the subject as beneficial to their holistic development. Both perceived qualities of the program and instructor were significant predictors of the perceived effectiveness of the program. Perceived qualities of the program, instructors, and benefits predicted students’ overall satisfaction with the program.

Post-lecture subjective outcome evaluation findings of a university subject promoting the leadership qualities and positive youth development of students at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University are reported. Students were invited to respond to a 16-item post-lecture questionnaire gauging their perceptions toward the subject, lecture, and the teachers after each of the 13 lectures. Factor analysis demonstrated that three factors were abstracted from the scale, including subject attributes, lecture attributes, and teacher attributes. Normative findings showed that students had positive perceptions on each of the dimensions throughout the lectures. Multiple regression analyses revealed that subject attributes, lecture attributes, and teacher attributes predicted global evaluation of the lecture and teacher. Based on the subjective outcome evaluation findings, the present study provides further support for the effectiveness of this subject in promoting the holistic development of the students.

The purpose of this study was to examine the students’ reflections on a subject on leadership and intrapersonal development at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Based on 66 personal reflections collected, the data were analyzed using the “framework analysis” methodology. The respondents generally showed positive attitudes toward the subject and the lecturers, and they perceived that the subject promoted their overall development in different domains. With particular reference to their reflections on the instructors teaching the subject, several emerging themes were identified, including (a) caring and supportive attitude, (b) professional pedagogical arrangements and (c) personal engagements and connections. Exemplars are presented in this paper to support the conclusions. The findings are in line with previous research that teachers play an important role in positive youth development programs.

This paper examines the perceived benefits of a university subject on leadership and intrapersonal development (“Tomorrow’s Leaders” at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University) from the perspective of the students. Based on the reflections of 62 students, several perceived benefits of the subject were identified, including promotion of self-understanding, enhancement of intrapersonal and interpersonal qualities, improvement of relationships with peers and their families, cultivation of new perspectives towards life, development of moral and ethical decision-making capacities, having better adjustment to the university life, acquisition of knowledge and skills to become effective leaders, and building up of competencies that will be useful in their future lives and career. These findings illustrate the importance of an effective university subject that attempts to promote the holistic development of young people.

Adopting a static group comparison design, this study examined the effectiveness of Project P.A.T.H.S. (Positive Adolescent Training through Holistic Social Programs) using social survey data. In a longitudinal study, 3328 students were recruited from 28 secondary schools for the wave 1 data, with 16 participating schools (P group) and 12 nonparticipating schools (NP group). The data were collected roughly 4 months after the inception of Project P.A.T.H.S., and the data collection time for the two groups was similar. Results showed that the two groups did not differ in their school characteristics, with the exception of student age, length of stay in Hong Kong and family functioning. Analyses of covariance were conducted with the removal of the effects of age, length of stay in Hong Kong and family functioning. Compared with students in the nonparticipating schools, students participating in the Project P.A.T.H.S. had better positive youth development and displayed less adolescent risk behavior. Acknowledging the limitations of a static group comparison as a pre-experimental design, the present study provides supplementary evidence on the effectiveness of the Project P.A.T.H.S. in Hong Kong.

The relationships between subjective outcome evaluation and objective subjective evaluation measures were examined in this study. In a positive youth development program (Tin Ka Ping P.A.T.H.S. Project), 1083 high school students responded to objective outcome measures, including the Chinese Positive Youth Development Scale (CPYDS) and measures of thriving and life satisfaction at posttest. The respondents also responded to the Chinese Subjective Outcome Scale (CSOS) at posttest. Results showed that different measures derived from the CSOS (lessons, subject, sharing and benefits) had significant relationships with different measures of the CPYDS, thriving and life satisfaction. The different dimensions of the CSOS scores also predicted different objective outcome measures. The present findings provide additional evidence supporting the linkages between objective outcome and subjective outcome measures.

At The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, a 2-credit General Education subject entitled “Service Leadership” was developed to promote service leadership qualities (including leadership competencies, moral character, and caring disposition) in university students. The subject was piloted in one class with 60 students in the 2012/2013 academic year. Pretest and posttest data utilizing measures of positive youth development, life satisfaction, and service leadership qualities were collected. Positive changes in the program participants were found, particularly for measures in behavioral competence, moral competence, character strengths, general positive youth development qualities, and overall service leadership qualities. The present study provided preliminary support for the effectiveness of the subject in nurturing service leadership qualities of Chinese university students in Hong Kong.

This study examined the perceptions of students taking a subject entitled “Service Leadership” at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. After taking the subject, the students were invited to respond to a subjective outcome evaluation measure assessing the perceived program qualities, instructor qualities and perceived benefits of the subject. Regarding the descriptive profile of responses to the items, students displayed positive perceptions of the subject content and teachers, and most of them regarded the subject to be beneficial to their development of service leadership qualities. While the three dimensions of subjective outcome were significantly correlated, perceived program qualities but not perceived instructor qualities predicted perceived effectiveness of the program.

This study examined the perceptions of students taking a subject entitled “Service Leadership” at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University which was developed using the model proposed by the Hong Kong Institute of Service Leadership and Management (HKI-SLAM). After taking this subject, students were invited to participate in a qualitative study where they used three descriptors and a metaphor to describe their experiences about the subject. Based on the reflections of 50 students, results showed that 96.1% of the descriptors and 90% of the metaphors used by the students were positive. In conjunction with the objective outcome evaluation, subjective outcome evaluation and process evaluation findings, the present study suggests that “Service Leadership” is a subject that can promote holistic development in Chinese university students in Hong Kong.

To promote the holistic development of university students under the knowledge economy, a subject entitled “Service Leadership” was developed and piloted at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Process evaluation was carried out for 10 lectures, with each lecture observed by two independent observers who were registered social workers. Inter-rater reliability across the two observers was high, suggesting the observations were reliable. Results showed that program adherence was high in these lectures (mean=97.8%) and ratings on the implementation quality of the subject were also high. Some of the qualities of program implementation were significant predictors of the overall quality and success of the program. Consistent with other findings, the present study suggests that the implementation quality of “Service Leadership” was high.