Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation (KCRC) Chief Executive Officer-designate James Blake pledged on Friday to meet with staff to learn their concerns and work to ensure good morale after power struggle between managers had besieged the public company for a week.

Having worked with Hong Kong's KCRC for seven years in the past, Blake said the corporation has a proud reputation and its board has worked to solve the railway's recent problems.

Blake was appointed by the KCRC Managing Board on Thursday as the company's new chief executive officer, replacing Samuel Lai after Lai's dispute with Chairman Michael Tien over the company's management.

"My immediate objective is to get out and meet my former colleagues, understand their concerns and then sit down with the senior management to decide what is the best course of action," Blake told reporters during a press conference.

He said he has a "hands-on" management style and that he likes to meet staff and share their problems, adding he believed in trust between the senior management and middle-management staff.

"You have got to have confidence to allow your staff to come forward and raise their suggestions, their comments and ideas without fear of being criticized without reason," he said.

Along with his former KCRC colleagues, Blake said he also has a good working relationship with Chairman Michael Tien and believed the corporation's good service and image will be upheld.

Blake will be confirmed in the post once outgoing CEO Samuel Lai leaves.

Blake's appointment is expected to end the week-long KCRC management feud since Michael Tien, the company's chairman, first submitted resignation on March 12 but stayed on after Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Chief Executive Donald Tsang's intermediation.

The KCRC's image and the management's reputation have been under question since December, when cracks were found on mountings of compressors in several KCRC trains.

Investigation on the incident further revealed the KCRC's deep-rooted problems of bureaucracy and lack of transparency, and finally led to the row between Lai and Tien.

Assigned as KCRC chairman by former HKSAR chief executive Tung Chee Hwa in 2001, Tien has raised opposition among the company's senior executives for his direct and bold leadership style.

In a letter submitted to the managing board one week ago, Lai made his dissatisfaction against Tien in public, accusing him of infringing on the staff's professional fields.

Established in 1982, the KCRC has provided transport for over 1 million commuters daily, but also attracted constant media criticism for being bureaucratic and lack of transparency.

Source: Xinhua