Background: The Hong Kong Hospital Authority (HA) has adopted the Australian Council on Healthcare Standards (ACHS) scheme for their public hospital accreditation program. Continuous improvement is a vital aspect of the ACHS criteria and facilitates the movement from status quo to the desired state; therefore, change is necessary, and change management may be useful. Objectives: To identify the current level of evidence regarding change management with respect to hospital accreditation and to identify the common change management tools that may be relevant to hospital accreditation. Methods: The primary method was a search of MEDLINE and PubMed for articles published between January 2001 and April 2011. Grey literature was identified via a Google search. Unpublished data was retrieved from an on-going qualitative study of hospital accreditation in Hong Kong. Results: No literature with the keywords “change management” and “hospital accreditation” were found in MEDLINE or PubMed. By adjusting these keywords to identify articles about change management in healthcare, 84 citations were identified, 18 of which were included for review. The majority of the literature described increased communication as a change management intervention. Change management framework and tools were also found in the grey literature review. Results: No literature with the keywords “change management” and “hospital accreditation” were found in MEDLINE or PubMed. By adjusting these keywords to identify articles about change management in healthcare, 84 citations were identified, 18 of which were included for review. The majority of the literature described increased communication as a change management intervention. Change management framework and tools were also found in the grey literature review. / published_or_final_version / Public Health / Master / Master of Public Health

published_or_final_version / Public Health / Master / Master of Public Health

published_or_final_version / Public Health / Master / Master of Public Health

Heritage values are multivalent. To make informed decisions in conservation, a comprehensive understanding of all types of values that a heritage place holds is essential. Among these heritage values, social values have come to the foreground of heritage conservation recently. It is recognized that there is a lack of methods to assess social values. Social values have not been successfully integrated into the study of a heritage place. Neglecting the social values poses risks to the comprehensive and successful conservation. To understand and gauge social values, several questions should be answered first: What are social values? What define them? How would they be measured? By exploring answers to these questions, this paper aims to develop some key assessment indicators for social values. Then, these proposed assessment indicators will be tested out on a case study: the Peel and Graham Street Market in the Central District in Hong Kong. The process and the findings will also be discussed and presented in the paper. To go through the process of measuring social values is another aim of this paper. In the concluding chapter of this paper, the importance of a comprehensive understanding of heritage values, including social values will be reiterated. Lessons learned from the assessment of social values will be presented and discussed. / published_or_final_version / Conservation / Master / Master of Science in Conservation

In the past decade, the government has been planning to further develop Lei Yue Mun into a more popular tourist spot. Works had been carried out to beautify the public areas such as erecting signage and re-paving the streets and open spaces. However, emphasis has been put mainly on the image of “Seafood Paradise”. In 2003, new plan was announced by the Tourism Commission for discussion by the public. This proposal involves construction of new public landing facility, observation deck, new street paving and lighting, etc. But it seems that these proposals do not take into account the potential heritage resources of the area. In fact, a substantial extent of the physical characters of this village can still be found even under such rapid urban development. It is partly due to the inaccessibility of the area and discontinuity with the larger urban core of Kowloon. In view of this, it is necessary to have a proper documentation of the historical development of Lei Yue Mun and to identify the values. Only through this historically grounded approach in introducing conservation principles and guidelines, that future development of the area can be made more successful in retaining its historical merits of the area. The dissertation will examine the identified heritage resources in Lei Yue Mun and explores the current challenges and opportunities. / published_or_final_version / Conservation / Master / Master of Science in Conservation

This dissertation shows the way in which movies, as a form of popular culture and contemporary medium, can be used as a tool for facilitating an alternatively impressionable approach in understanding social history in context, which can be complementary to the purely historical approach in conducting research in the field of heritage conservation. 6 representative post-war Hong Kong movies from the 1950’s to 2000’s are selected for discussion through textual analysis of key cinematic frames based on 5 specific criteria. The ‘cinematic reality’ of each is discussed against the ‘historical reality’ of the year of its release, so as to facilitate a contextual understanding of the social-economic, architectural-geographical and ideological-political conditions of Hong Kong for the past 5 decades. / published_or_final_version / Conservation / Master / Master of Science in Conservation

published_or_final_version / Architecture / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Blogging has been one of the most popular means of computer-mediated communication in recent years. It is generally agreed that blogging has replaced traditional diary writing and functioned as a useful tool for individuals to present themselves and construct their self-images. Its popularity has also drawn the attention of many scholars and much research has been conducted to investigate the different issues related to the presentation of identities by bloggers particularly adolescents. Despite the significant impact of blogging on adolescent identity development, few attempts have been made to explore the role of contextual elements in identity construction. Moreover, most previous studies on blogs were conducted in separation from the bloggers and their offline world. The blogging world was not well-connected to the bloggers’ other aspects of lives. The current study has adopted a constructionist approach to explore the identity construction of a group of Hong Kong adolescents. The notion of communities of practice is used to conceptualize the nonymous context of the blogging world. More importantly, more attention is paid to various contextual elements which constitute the online community of practice so as to gain a more comprehensive understanding of online identity work. The analysis examines the textual and non-textual elements of blogs to investigate how the adolescents construct different forms of identity which manifest their engagement in the online communities of practice. It shows that the nonymous context has resulted in adolescents presenting a wide range of desirable qualities which include interpersonal-related qualities, academic related qualities, personal related qualities and family-related qualities throughout their blogs. The construction which enables the adolescents to fulfill numerous developmental tasks is not done in isolation but in response to their interaction with the members of the blogging community. The importance of audience as a contextual element is seen in their role as identity co-constructors who help reinforce or supplement the blog owners’ identity presentation from time to time. Furthermore, a strong connectedness between the adolescents’ online and offline identity is observed. The offline world serves as another community of practice which interacts with the online world – the community of practice under investigation. The study suggests that the diverse forms of identity constructed online are strong evidence showing the adolescents’ competence in performing sophisticated identity work. It is also expected that there will be more interaction between various communities and their contextual elements in the future development of identity construction with the rapid penetration of social-networking tools in our everyday lives, especially adolescents. An overlap between different online communities is seen in the current study. More thorough examination of adolescent identity work through social-networking tools can provide valuable insights into the emotional health and well-being of adolescents over time. / published_or_final_version / English / Master / Master of Philosophy

The emergence of Cantilever Neon Signage has accompanied with the grown-up of Hong Kong urban development after World War II. This enormous steel frame covered with bent neon lights has been erected onto the external wall over the streets of Hong Kong city in the past few decades. Its image has been firmly imprinted on every citizen’s memory by its multi-colored and eye-catching gesture. The signal itself embodies part of the social and urban development history of Hong Kong. However, its role in this city has been fading out following with the city’s renewal and advancement in information technology. It is afraid that the Cantilever Neon Signage will end up with a calamitous fate one day as all of them will be eradicated from our city. Throughout this dissertation, we tried to unveil some hidden stories behind this mysterious mask by unravelling the development history and exploring this fading industry in person throughout face-face site visits. The results were astonishing as less people would commit to this handicraft driven industry and it coupled with austere statutory controls which have inevitably halted further potential successors to enter into the industry. / published_or_final_version / Conservation / Master / Master of Science in Conservation

The benefits of engaging in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity have been documented in the literature. The neighbourhood environment, which could influence large proportions of population for sustained periods of time, has been associated with physical activity in Western countries. Yet, it remains unclear that how the neighbourhood environment in ultra-dense Hong Kong, especially with respect to proximity and availability of recreational facilities, is associated with physical activity of its residents. This study examines the associations between neighbourhood recreational facility, in both perceived and objective measures, and physical activity of residents in Hong Kong. The differences between perceived and objective availability of recreational facilities, and the perceived encouraging or discouraging features of a self-reported recreational facility were also examined. The availability of recreational facilities between high and low socio-economic status neighbourhoods was compared to identify inequalities of recreational resource allocation. A total of 480 participants aged 18-65 years, living in 32 neighbourhoods of different extremes of walkability and socio-economic status, were recruited to complete an interviewer-administered questionnaire in which the perceived aspects of neighbourhood recreational facilities were examined, and to wear a motion sensor which objectively measure physical activity for 7 consecutive days. Objective availability of 14 types of recreational facilities, categorized into combinations of indoor or outdoor and public, residential or commercial facilities, were quantified by direct observations. Geographical Information Systems further provided objective data regarding the number of parks, sports centres, sports grounds, playgrounds, swimming pools, bike lanes and pavilions available in the examined neighbourhoods. The objectively-assessed numbers of residential outdoor table tennis courts and public indoor swimming pools, and the presence of tennis courts, pavilions and swimming pools, as well as the perceived presence of bike lanes and swimming pools were positively associated with moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. In contrast, the objectively-assessed numbers of playgrounds, and the presence of soccer pitches, squash courts and playgrounds, were negatively associated with moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. Poor agreements between perceived and objective availability of volleyball courts, soccer pitches, walking trails, weight and cardio-training equipment were observed. In contrast, good agreement between perceived and objective availability of tennis courts was observed. The level of agreement between perceived and objective availability of specific types of recreational facilities was influenced by the types of neighbourhood where participants lived and socio-demographics characteristics, such as age, education level and monthly household income. Perceived encouraging and discouraging features of a regularly-used recreational facility were observed across different domains, including the conditions of changing rooms and toilets, environmental safety, and aesthetics. High socio-economic status neighbourhoods had higher numbers of pavilions and swimming pools, and had higher odds of having sports grounds, swimming pools and tennis courts than low socio-economic status neighbourhoods. The findings of this study imply that certain types of recreational facilities have the potential to promote physical activity. Public health policy makers should enhance public awareness of neighbourhood recreational facilities, improve their quality and equality in distribution among high and low socio-economic status neighbourhoods, in an attempt to promote physical activity. / published_or_final_version / Human Performance / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy