David Zhang

Benchmarks are important tools for tracking the rapid advancements in large language model (LLM) capabilities. However, benchmarks are not keeping pace in difficulty: LLMs now achieve over 90\% accuracy on popular benchmarks like MMLU, limiting informed measurement of state-of-the-art LLM capabilities. In response, we introduce Humanity's Last Exam (HLE), a multi-modal benchmark at the frontier of human knowledge, designed to be the final closed-ended academic benchmark of its kind with broad subject coverage. HLE consists of 2,500 questions across dozens of subjects, including mathematics, humanities, and the natural sciences. HLE is developed globally by subject-matter experts and consists of multiple-choice and short-answer questions suitable for automated grading. Each question has a known solution that is unambiguous and easily verifiable, but cannot be quickly answered via internet retrieval. State-of-the-art LLMs demonstrate low accuracy and calibration on HLE, highlighting a significant gap between current LLM capabilities and the expert human frontier on closed-ended academic questions.

Higher education plays an important role in supporting sustainability through teaching, research, advocacy or key projects and initiatives. One of the innovative ways to achieve this is using an intercultural approach to work-integrated learning (WIL). This research shows how an award-winning WIL program, “Eco-economy project: improving livelihoods above and below the surface” empowers domestic Australian students with real-world experiences in an international context - Indonesia. Aided by a hybrid mode of delivery, students partner with a local NGO (non-government organization) to help a disadvantaged fishing island community develop sound alternative business plans and strategies aimed at decreasing its reliance on shark fishing. Through analysis of three years’ data based on multiple sources including the program’s teaching and learning materials, the partner NGO’s responses, student reflective learning journals and interviews, videos of the study tour, and survey data from local communities, the findings of this research clearly show how the impact of an intercultural approach to WIL extends beyond academic learning in terms of enabling students to grow environmentally and socially conscious, enhancing their intercultural competencies, and boosting their global employability. Through hands-on engagement, they become agents of positive change, making a meaningful difference in the lives of others.

Nonaka's SECI model provides a clear demonstration of the continual cycle of knowledge creation and conversion within an organisation. However, the knowledge flows and exchanges across the organisational boundary have not been systematically taken into account. In order to address this limitation, this paper develops a revised knowledge creation model that includes such extensions as the acquisition of explicit knowledge through purchasing or collaborative arrangements (knowledge inflows); acquisition of tacit knowledge through interaction between the organisation and its stakeholders and learning-by-hiring (knowledge inflows); deliberate knowledge leakages through selling, licensing-out or spinning-off unused technologies and by-products (knowledge outflows); and unintended knowledge spillovers due to the mobility of skilled workers (knowledge outflows). This extended knowledge creation and conversion model aims to provide today's managers with a clearer picture of opportunities for knowledge creation and sharing within and across organisations based on inter-organisational knowledge flows and open innovation principles.

Purpose The thesis reports on a study aimed at exploring the ways Chinese management is adapting under the influence of Western cultures. Many companies have encountered problems when operating in China because of different management and cultural practices. Therefore, the research was driven by two needs; first was the need for Chinese organisations to update managerial practices to improve their management performance and second was the need of foreign companies to resolve difficulties when operating with Chinese managers and employees. This study aimed to explore whether the cultural values of Chinese managers were adapting due to the influence of western practices and whether change was influenced by management level, age cohort, education and the type of business organisation. Design/Method A multi-case study and qualitative constructivist methodology was chosen to investigate culturally related managerial practices. Interview data was collected from 74 managers from senior, middle and lower levels, across 8 organisations, with a balance of Foreign Owned, Joint Ventures, Chinese family owned or State Owned. The industrial sectors involved were construction, manufacturing, aviation, advertising and trading. The data was coded and analysed using both a constant comparative method and content analysis. Findings The findings suggest Confucianism continues to influence Chinese managers but the influences of communism are abating. Cultural values relating to promotion and reward allocation are converging, whereas values related to hierarchy and leadership remain divergent from the West. In addition, cross-vergence, which is the adaptation of some components, is occurring in regards to conflict management, Guanxi, loyalty and commitment. Together the findings suggest Chinese collectivism and equality are cross-verging with western individualism and equity, but Chinese managers' perception of hierarchy remains divergent to the Western concept of this. Another finding was that ownership determined the management culture and organisational practices and where these aligned to the national culture, they reinforced the national culture. The dominant management force and the profit driven nature of an organisation also influenced the level of cultural adaptation. The findings present an interestingly diverse portrait of contemporary Chinese managers and indicate that overall some cross-vergence is occurring. On the one hand, many managers are still attached to Chinese traditions; however, the younger and the well educated are adapting and are strongly influenced by western practices, particularly in relation to compensation. Although this group of managers are still traditional, they take a much more instrumental and situational approach, sometimes even more so than the older generation. While they are at ease with both Confucian and western traditions, the result is they are re-interpreting Confucian doctrines. These findings suggest that cross-vergent cultural adaptation will continue so that Chinese culture is enriched by the west, but will still be heavily influenced by reinterpreted Confucianism. Practical implications These findings should benefit both Western and Chinese organisations by promoting a better understanding of managers' cultural values, managerial attitudes and practices at individual and group levels. This understanding will help management practitioners better understand the behaviours of Chinese organisations. The changing workforce, workplace values and behaviours at individuals and group levels explored in this study help organisations and managers better reward and develop people through human resource management activities and change programs in planning, performance appraisal, compensation, career development, diversity management, employee motivation and employee relations. It should also be of significant benefit to foreign investors working with local Chinese human resources. Originality/value This study provides a benchmark for assisting those who wish for a better understanding of business organisations in China and will facilitate an improved interface of management practices for both Western and Chinese business organisations. From an academic perspective, the researcher's unique understanding of the interaction between Chinese culture and Chinese management traditions contributed to the research design and data interpretation. This produced more depth and insights than usually achieved by the majority of Chinese management researchers. Uncovering a dualistic model of cultural adaption, where cultural cross-vergence underpins management practices and changing values, provides a new framework for Chinese management research and offers a reference for future management studies.