This thesis deals with strategic cost management of human capital. The theoretical part describes the essence of human capital. Subsequently, attention was focused on the possibility of using human capital in an enterprise and the ways of its measurement. In the practical part of the thesis were analysed payroll costs in a particular company. In the first part of the empirical research were described company, its structure and history, organizational and economic characteristics and selected financial indicators. In the next section were analysed costs incurred on human resources in this company. An important part of this chapter is a description of the deficiencies of the existing management of personnel costs. In conclusion of the practical part were presented some variants for optimizing the payroll cost system of the company.

The Master's thesis deals with analysis of cost, revenues, and the would-be problem correcting model. For this analysis I have chosen a company Jitona, Inc. established in the furniture industry, located in Trebic.

The diploma thesis deals with cost analysis, determination of cost functions, cost evaluation and creation of proper model of solution. It compares theoretical knowledge with reality in society, specifies possibilities of their changes and techniques used to optimize costs. The analyzed company – ABB s.r.o.

The subject of this thesis are the costs of a specific company, their monitoring and ma-nagement. The theoretical part summarizes the information that served as the default resources. These findings have been applied in the practical part, for the selected com-pany. In the final section are formulated suggestions, which should lead to better ma-nagement of the costs.

Diploma thesis deals with an evaluation of indirect costs as a competitive factor in the construction industry. Notions like construction market, construction company, costs, their structuring and the way of their calculation, then competition, competitive advantage and competitiveness are theoretically defined in the first part of the thesis. The second part of the thesis deals with an evaluation of the questionnaire survey and the guided interviews. The questionnaire survey results and the results of guided interviews are compared and subsequently, recommendations are determined at the end of the thesis.

Master’s thesis deals with analysis of costs of the selected company. Theoretical part brings on fundamental that is later elaborated in the second part. The selected company is introduced and also the current economic situation is evaluated in the practical part. Later the costs are analyzed and important part of the thesis is dedicated to the project of utilization of the Activity-Based Costing method. Conclusion of the thesis evaluates the results of this method.

Detta examensarbete är det avslutande momentet för programmet ”Byggteknik och Design” på ”Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan” i Haninge. Arbetet utfördes för byggföretaget Einar Mattsson Byggnads AB. Uppgiften var att ta reda på varför kalkylerade och verkliga kostnader för nybyggnadsprojekt skiljer sig. Studien baserades på produktionskalkylerna för fyra projekt och ntervjuer med minst en inblandad från varje projekt.   De fyra poster som påvisade de största negativa avvikelserna i produktionskalkylerna för respektive projekt identifierades och orsaker till att dessa projektspecifika poster avvek utreddes. Utöver detta jämfördes, mellan projekten, vanligt förekommande poster med negativa differenser. Orsakerna till avvikelserna för dessa gemensamt avvikande poster utreddes även.  Det slags fel som låg till grund för största delen av avvikelserna på de projektspecifika posterna var kalkyleringsfel. Undersökningen visar även att många enhetstider generellt är mer eller mindre felaktiga för företaget och att erfarenhetsåterföring därför är viktigt. Därför rekommenderas företaget t.ex. att lägga mer fokus på erfarenhetsåterföringen. / This thesis is the final moment for the program “Byggteknik och Design” on ”Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan” in Haninge. The work was done for the construction company “Einar Mattsson Byggnads AB”. The task is to find out why the calculated and actual costs for building projects differ. The study is based on production estimates of four projects and interviews with at least one involved from each project.  The four entries that showed the largest negative deviations in the production estimates for each project were identified and the reasons why these project specific entries differed were investigated. In addition comparisons were made, among the given projects, of common entries with negative differences. The reasons for the deviations of these common deviating entries were investigated as well.  The kind of error that was the basis for most of the deviations in the project specific entries were errors in calculus. The survey also shows that the calculated times that are invested per unit of element are generally wrong for the company and that therefore feedback of experience is important. The company is therefore recommended, for instance, to put more focus on feedback of experience.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explain how the share of independent boardmembers, controlling for different forms of independence, and agency costs correlate within Swedish firms listed on the Nasdaq OMX Stockholm list for large firms. The goal is to extend the understanding of board independence in relation to agency costs while adding empirical insight into the Swedish Code requirements on the board of directors. Theoretical Perspective: With a theoretical anchor in agent theory, this study presents the two conflicts assumed to exist between the agent and the principals within the firms. The first conflict is between agent and principal, and the second is between principal and principal. The agency perspective is used to explain how agency costs arise, within which conflict they arise, and how board members' independence should mitigate these. Method: This study applied a positivistic, deductive research approach using a quantitative strategy. Data was collected from annual reports and the databases Orbis, Holdings, and Retriever Business. Proxies were used for measuring agency costs. The statistical analysis ofthe data consisted of Pearson correlation, linear regressions, and binary logistic regressions. Conclusion: No unambiguous negative correlation could be confirmed between independent board members and agency costs when examined separately. A tradeoff in board members'independence and total agency costs can be confirmed. This implies that when coexisting board members’ different independence works in opposing directions for reducing the residual loss tied both to the agent-principal conflict and the principal-principal conflict

The implications of introducing shift work and flexible working hours into the UK clothing industry were examined, with special reference to the effects on personnel, plant utilisation and garment costs. A total of 37 garment manufacturing establishments, within 17 companies, were visited; 91 managers (for production and economic data)and 1018 supervisors and operatives, 87% female and 13% male, (for social data) were consulted. The main points arising from the survey are:- 1 . Social (i) The average age and length of service of respondents were respectively 30.4 and 7.1 for women and 40 and 13.9 for men. Nearly three fifths were married and over half of the women had children, most of them at school or pre-school stage. (ii) Over four fifths were committed to some kind of housework; 3 to 5 hours between 17.00 and 24.00 hours were usually spent on this task but about 9% spent more than 5 hours on it. (iii) Over half would be very much bothered by the inability to carry on their individual and/or group social activities. About two thirds would also be concerned by a change in the period of and time for sleep and meal times. Nearly two fifths used public transport for the journey to work. (iv) Only 15% had worked on multiple shifts previous to their present employment and 16% left their previous job because of being on shifts or unsuitable hours. About one fifth worked currently part-time and only 13% wanted to change their existing working system so that they might gain extra convenience and leisure in their working life. (v) The unsolicited personal choice of working systems were mainly shifts (13%), flexible working hours (14%) and part-time day work (30%); working only in school hours appeared to attract the choice of about 40% of the women. (vi) From the points above, it seemed that a high proportion of married female workers, mostly with dependent children and committed to housework, would probably react against shift work. The availability of part-time work together with the normal day work habit acquired would also affect the employees' attitudes towards the acceptance of even flexible working hours. 2. Production (i) The main problems involved with introducing shift work were considered to be sharing of equipment, bonus and piece rate payment and responsibility for quality failures. Dislike of sharing machines by operatives was considered to be a severe problem in sewing section and the extent of this dislike seemed higher in traditional rather than non traditional clothing areas; the operatives' age and length of service appeared to affect their attitudes. The smaller the period of time for each job then the less the problem of sharing payment and responsibility could become. (ii) Introduction of flexible working hours could create the difficulties of shortage and/or excess of supply of work within the production flow with interdependent operations; the extent of the problem could vary with the amount of work in progress and the period of time spent by each operative on the garment and/or its parts. Economic (i) Garment cost elements are material, labour, variable and fixed overheads (survey averages 50.6%, 24.9%, 8% and 16.5%), of which labour and variable overheads would be affected by introducing multiple shifts and only fixed overheads by flexible working hours. There should be a decrease in variable overheads per garment because of sharing a fixed amount of cost between shifts, an increase in labour cost due to shift premium and an increase in fixed overheads because of longer opening hours of the plant on flexible working hours. (ii) The capital employed on plant and machinery, C, could often be divided by the number of shifts so that this could help to increase profitability by a factor of 2 or 3. (iii) General formulae were established, using the most relevant variables, for calculating the profitability and profitability ratios of different working schemes. Generally, if the number of shifts are increased then the profitability of the plant could be very greatly increased. This was well illustrated from the calculated profitability ratios of about 2 and 3 respectively, when industrial survey values were used, for 2 and 3 shift systems replacing a single shift system. Profitability of flexible working hours would, theoretically, be less than that of single shift, but there might be some economic gains, such as reduced rates of labour turnover and absenteeism (which are currently high in the garment industry), arising from the introduction of flexible working hours. / Iranian Ministry of Science and Higher Education and Teheran Polytechnic

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) is a major global health threat that results not only in health consequences but also economic consequences. Since 2015 the World Health Organization (WHO) has developed a strategy with the aim of ending the global burden of TB by reducing TB-related deaths, reducing TB incidence, and eliminating the burden of TB-related catastrophic costs for patients and their families. In order to reach these targets, we need to implement effective TB diagnostic and care strategies that are feasible for both patients as well as the health care system. -- Methods: This study consists of two manuscripts which assess the economic burden of TB - one from the patient perspective and the other from the health system perspective. The first manuscript is a systematic review aimed to determine the costs incurred by patients and their households while receiving TB care with direct (medical and non-medical) as well as indirect costs being examined for the pre-diagnostic, post-diagnostic and total phase of care. It analyzed studies with varying patient populations from low-, middle-, and high-income settings to help estimate key factors that drive patient costs. Furthermore, it assessed the proportion of patients that incurred catastrophic costs and the coping strategies that they resorted to in order to offset the costs of TB care. The second manuscript is a modelling study which aimed to develop, parameterize and analyze a decision analytic model to determine the cost, health outcomes as measured by disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) averted and the cost-effectiveness of second-generation lateral flow lipoarabinomannan assay (SG LF-LAM) diagnostic algorithms in people living with HIV (PLHIV) per DALY averted. This model examined four different strategies - 1) the standard of care (SOC) Gene Xpert MTB/RIF only, 2) Gene Xpert MTB/RIF plus LF-LAM for all patients, 3) Gene Xpert MTB/RIF plus LF-LAM for patients with a negative Xpert result, and 4) Gene Xpert MTB/RIF plus LF-LAM for patients who are symptom negative. -- Results: A systematic review showed that total patient costs related to TB care ranged from a mean of $2.80 to $19,153.80 (2019 USD) with costs largely dependent on geographic location as well as patient population, Direct medical and indirect cost components were the largest source of costs for patients and their families while receiving TB care. Direct medical costs included the cost of medication, consultations, diagnostics, follow-up testing, and hospitalization while indirect costs mainly consisted of loss of income. The costs of TB care were considered catastrophic for the majority of patients resulting in them using coping strategies to offset the burden of costs. In the second manuscript, the cost-effectiveness analysis Xpert only was found to be dominated by Xpert + FujiLAM conditional on a negative Xpert with an ICER of 1,000 USD/per DALY averted compared to the standard of care (SOC) Xpert only. Sensitivity analysis found that variations in the key model parameters had an impact on the cost and effectiveness calculations obtained through the model. -- Conclusions: The burden of TB-related costs impact both patients and the health care system at all stages of TB care. Novel diagnostic strategies like the inclusion of FujiLAM for TB diagnosis in PLHIV are cost-effective tools that can aid in case detection and reduce severe outcomes of TB. In order to reduce the TB burden and achieve the "End TB" strategy goals, studies need to work to understand the key components involved in these costs as well as work to develop and implement effective, feasible interventions for TB diagnostics and care.