A implementação e operação de um Escritório de Gerenciamento de Projetos (Project Management Office - PMO) requerem mudanças organizacionais, em especial quanto ao modo como a empresa planeja, executa e controla seus projetos. As empresas modernas, inseridas em um mercado de grandes transformações e de competição, não conseguem dominar toda a cadeia de suprimento das competências necessárias ao desenvolvimento de seus projetos, por conseguinte dos produtos entregue aos seus clientes. Diante disso, há uma importante constatação quanto ao crescimento da utilização de recursos externos, mesmo em áreas consideradas estratégicas. Este projeto de pesquisa busca compreender os mecanismos que influenciam na tomada de decisão para adoção de conceitos de serviços de outsourcing em atividades relacionadas às competências organizacionais, em especial na operação dos PMO. A pesquisa é um misto de confirmatória e exploratória, tendo o survey como método utilizado, pela coleta de dados através de um questionário auto-administrado pelos respondentes, hospedado na internet (web-based). A população da pesquisa são empresas industriais e de serviços que atuam no mercado brasileiro. Para análise dos dados foi utilizado o tratamento estatístico não-paramétrico e aplicados testes de independência em tabelas de contingência. O resultado do trabalho, com 78 casos válidos do survey, indica que apesar de não poder-se estabelecer uma relação entre o posicionamento das competências do PMO, em ser realizada por fornecedores externos, com a percepção dos clientes, os casos empíricos demonstram uma forte tendência de que as competências do PMO sejam realizadas por recursos internos da organização. Na mesma linha, não se pode estabelecer uma relação positiva entre a cultura de serviços externos praticada pela organização e a possibilidade de utilização desse modelo (outsourcing) para a operação do PMO. A despeito das limitações do projeto de pesquisa, fica claro que a realidade das organizações é um tanto complexa e, portanto, reafirma-se a necessidade de imprimir um desenvolvimento constante à área de conhecimento e de recursos relacionados às competências organizacionais em gerenciamento de projetos, e de seu modo estruturado, através de seus PMO. A conquista dessas competências, ao tempo desejável para o posicionamento da organização na luta por seu espaço e sobrevivência, por certo que passa pela utilização de recursos externos, para que seus preciosos recursos especializados se dediquem àquilo que é o seu núcleo de competências, que está ligada a sua identidade. Assim, cabe indicar as crenças no desenvolvimento e aperfeiçoamento de teorias que contribuam para a compreensão e devida intervenção sobre a realidade das organizações, indicando possíveis cenários e meios para superação de desafios presentes. A contribuição do desenvolvimento deste trabalho de pesquisa é oferecer uma abordagem teórica para a compreensão do processo de identificação do posicionamento do PMO em termos das competências organizacionais pela aplicação de outsourcing, como uma alternativa viável para a operação de PMO. / The implementation and the operation of Project Management Office (PMO) involves organizational changes, in the way how the enterprise plans, executes and control its projects. The modern enterprises, which were put in a market of big transformations and competition, cannot dominate the whole chain of supplies for its costumer products and services. Considering all that it is possible to observe a important growth in the use of services executed from external resources, even in areas considered strategic. This research project intends to understand the mechanism which can influence the decision to take on services of outsourcing in activities related to organizational competences. The type of research is a combination of confirmatory e exploratory, and uses a web based survey for the collection of data. The project is designed to enterprises which work in the brazilian market. It was used the practical nonparametric statistic of data, by independence test in the r x c contingence table. The research showed that, in 78 of the survey valid cases, the utilization of PMO in organizational competences comes from the organization\'s internal resources. In the same line, still based on the research, it is possible to conclude that it is unlikable to establish a positive relation between the culture of external services used by the organization and the possibility of utilization of the outsourcing model to the operation of PMO. In spite of the limits that appeared in the research project, it is clear that the reality of the organization is very complex, and therefore, confirm the need of showing a constant development of the knowledge area and the resources related to the organization\'s abilities in project management, and of its structured mode, using its PMO. The achievement of these abilities, at the desired time for the organization\'s positioning in the fighting for its survival in the market, definitely make use of external resources to dedicate its precious specialized resources to its core competence, which is connected to its identity. In this way, it is possible to indicate the belief in the development and the improvement of theories that can contribute to the understanding and the necessary interventions in the reality of the organizations, showing possible situations and ways to solve the present problems. The contribution of this research assignment is a theoretical approach to a better comprehension of the identification process of PMO positioning in terms of organizational competencies by the application of outsourcing as a possible alternative to the operation of PMO.

In the realm of globalization, international sourcing of services contributes to reshape firm’s value chains as the physical dispersion of these activities increases. This reorganization does not simply lead to the replication of domestic activities in a destination providing resource advantages, but, in most cases, it implies profound modifications of the flows of activities, including the reconsideration of the boundaries of the firm. Global sourcing strategies, also called offshoring, seek to increase firm’s efficiency by combining the exploitation of foreign locational advantages with process redesign. When aggregated, these firm-level strategies translate into considerable international exchanges to a point that flows of intermediate services represent about 73% of the total of international trade in services for 2005 (OECD, 2009). These activities present a high degree of heterogeneity in terms of functions concerned, the related domestic industries, motivations, destinations, organizational structure or scope. This wave of internationalization, because of its relative novelty, growth and rapid diversification, draws the interest from the public, political and academic spheres but the comprehension of the determinants shaping the configuration and organization of these activities still remain largely unknown. Based on four essays, this PhD thesis addresses the impact of host-country characteristics and distance factors on the configuration of international sourcing activities in the dimensions of location, governance model and scope of activities.<p><p>The first paper studies the country-specific determinants of the interdependent choices of destination and governance model in the global sourcing of services. I explore the simultaneity of these decisions and I jointly estimate their determinants using implementation-level data. Derived from comparative advantages, host-country uncertainty and the global dispersion of tasks, I present three classes of factors driving global sourcing configurations: resource arbitrages, host-country risk and communication barriers. Empirical results confirm that locations with resource or capabilities advantages specific to services – low labour cost, education and labour supply – attract more offshoring activities. However the pursued resource advantages differ depending on the governance model. Country attractiveness for captive implementations presents a higher positive sensitivity to the education-intensive resources, while outsourcing strategies have a greater cost-cutting orientation coming from labour cost arbitrages. Furthermore, the risks inherent to the host-country, in the form of weak formal institutions and inexperience in the destination, have the dual effect of deterring location attractiveness, while they foster the adoption of the outsourcing model compared to the captive one. Communication barriers coming from geographic distance, cultural and linguistic differences have the simultaneous effect of discouraging global sourcing in those locations while, to overcome these constraints, firms favor higher integration with the use of captive models. <p><p>This second paper further explores the mechanisms through which home-host country distances affect the choice of governance mode in service offshoring. Using a Transaction Cost Economics approach, I explore the comparative costs of the hierarchical and contractual models to show that different dimensions of distance (geographic, cultural and institutional), because they generate different types of uncertainties, impact offshore governance choices in different ways. Empirical results confirm that, on the one hand, firms are more likely to respond to internal uncertainties resulting from geographic and cultural distance by leveraging the internal controls and collaboration mechanisms of a captive offshore service center. On the other hand, they tend to respond to external uncertainties resulting from institutional distance by limiting their foreign commitment and leveraging the resources and local experience of third party service providers. Finally, I find that the temporal distance component (time zone difference) of geographical dispersion between onshore and offshore countries plays a dominant role over the spatial distance component.<p><p>The third section then concentrates on the impact of the institutional environment (regulative) on international sourcing activities. To exploit country-specific advantages, firms that source activities from abroad are forced to integrate the institutional environment into the choice not only of host-country, but also of governance model for their offshore activities. Considering inefficient institutions as drivers of transaction costs, this conceptual paper explores the impact of the host-country regulative environment in the interdependent decisions of country selection and governance model (captive or outsourcing) in firms’ global sourcing strategies. I consider two classes of assets: transferred assets for knowledge/information flows, and local assets sourced from the host location. I show that each class involves specific institutional risks for offshoring practices. In turn, because of the different institutional exposures of the captive model and the outsourced one, the institutional risks associated with transferred and local assets have different implications for the choice of governance model. Firms react to institutional risks relative to transferred assets by internalizing their activity, but they bypass inefficient institutions for local assets using outsourcing. Based on the interaction of the institutional risks relative to each class of assets, I then obtain sufficient conditions that give the firm-optimal combinations of country selection and governance model.<p><p>The last section studies how firm-level and country-level risks affect the scope of the process operated in the foreign unit. To prevent appropriation hazard for proprietary content, firms choose a particular disaggregation of the value chain. We argue that, in response to the lack of control offered by internalization and the lack of protection provided by host-country institutions for protecting proprietary content, firms reduce the scope of their activities. In other words, they exploit existing complementarities between the tasks of their value chain using a higher disaggregation of their process and therefore reducing appropriation value for outsiders. Based on a sample of 750 international sourcing projects, regression results on the scope of offshore activities confirm that firms prefer to source discrete tasks rather than entire processes when they lack the protection of internalization and external institutions. In addition, experience modifies these relationships. On the one hand, inexperienced firms do not rely on this slicing mechanism to prevent the loss of control implied by an outsourcing model. On the other hand, the effect of weak institutional protection is perceived as more stringent for inexperienced firms. When host-country institutions are deficient, these firms, compared to the experienced ones, have a higher propensity to operate discrete tasks rather than entire processes.<p> / Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Titel: Röntgensjuksköterskans upplevelse av att arbeta med externa granskare under jourtid Syfte: Att undersöka hur röntgensjuksköterskan upplever arbetet med externa granskare under jourtid. Material och metod: Sex stycken röntgensjuksköterskor från två olika sjukhus i mellansverige intervjuades under perioden januari till mars 2017. Inklusionskriterierna för studien var minst två års erfarenhet av yrket samt minst ett års erfarenhet av att arbeta med externa granskare under jourtid. Tillstånd från verksamhetschefer och samtycke från informanterna erhölls innan studien startade. Data samlades in genom en kvalitativ metod med semistrukturerade intervjuer bestående av öppna frågor. Den insamlade datan analyserades med kvalitativ innehållsanalys enligt Graneheim &amp; Lundman. Intervjuerna transkriberades och lästes igenom flera gånger. Därefter identifierades meningsbärande enheter och dessa kondenserades till koder. Genom koderna kunde kategorier och subkategorier identifieras. Resultat: I resultatet framkom fyra kategorier; Teleradiologi – tekniska aspekter, externa granskare jämfört med radiolog på plats, kommunikation och röntgensjuksköterskans kompetenser och egenskaper med tillhörande subkategorier. Konklusion: Informanterna upplever att det tar längre tid att kommunicera med externa granskare (EG) i jämförelse med att ha en radiolog på plats som kan ge svar direkt när röntgensjuksköterskan (RSS) är i behov av vägledning och snabba svar. I kommunikationen upplevs det också finnas språkbarriärer samt bristande kunskap, speciellt hos de sekreterare som tar emot samtal hos EG. Detta leder till frustration och blir ofta ett hinder i akuta situationer då RSS vill prata med en radiolog direkt. Under jourtid upplever RSS att denne får ta ett ökat ansvar samtidigt som förmågan att ta egna initiativ och beslut måste finnas. RSS upplever ingen förändring av bildkvalitén på de bilder som skickas i arbetet med EG. Informanterna upplevde i helhet att arbetet med EG fungerar bra och tillfredsställande under förutsättningarna att tekniken fungerar som den ska samtidigt som arbetsflödet inte ökar för mycket.

The main purpose of this Diploma thesis is to customize product portfolio of Synergie s.r.o. to be more suitable for small and medium enterprises. Diploma thesis gives also an overview over personnel agencies market in Czech Republic.

The principle behind outsourcing is that an organization outsources tasks it strategically elects not to do within the organization. It is estimated that outsourcing has become a $4 trillion a year business (Corbett, 2005). In today's competitive healthcare marketplace, many sponsors outsource functions that were once considered core to the organization. U.S. Census data show that 10% of all business-to-business sales originated from outsourced sales (Rogers, 2008). The objective of engaging in outsourcing of sales is to improve sales efficiency and gain an edge in today's challenging market. Competition within the pharmaceutical industry coupled with increased regulatory uncertainties and cost concerns have necessitated outsourcing of sales to maintain competitiveness and to apply internal resources more effectively. This research will contribute to the current available works specific to the outsourcing of pharmaceutical sales.

Small, new or foreign firms inherently have a lower likelihood of surviving in the market. Frequently, this is due to the existence of resource constraints, such as the liabilities of smallness, newness or foreignness. Consequently, to survive in the market, small, new or foreign firms need to find efficient ways to use their resources. Multiple ways to alleviate these problems have been discussed in the literature, which include digitalization, internationalization, or outsourcing relationships. The usage of digital technologies, entering foreign markets or partnering with established organizations have been found to have compelling advantages and, thus, are promising practices for small, new and foreign firms in overcoming those constraints. It is, however, surprising that little is known about relevant aspects of these practices. For instance, research has just begun to investigate the influence of digital technologies on small and new firms, misses to investigate the success factors in the internationalization of small, new and foreign e-commerce firms, or has not fully investigated methods to improve performance of small firms in outsourcing relationships. Drawing on extant research on digitalization, internationalization, and outsourcing this cumulative dissertation presents four research papers. Each paper contributes to fill existing research gaps in the respective literature. All papers investigate a particular type of small firm and examine potential ways to handle scare resources. Beyond the theoretical and practical contributions of each research paper, this dissertation in its entirety presents several implications for practitioners in small, new and foreign firms that will help them to overcome resource constraints. Furthermore, the thesis discusses implications for theory, limitations, and avenues for further research.

The United States Department of Defense spends billions of dollars annually on outsourcing functions to private contracted companies without knowing if their actions are effective. Guided by Feigenbaum, Henig, and Hamnett's theory of privatization and President Eisenhower's warnings of the impending military-industrial complex, the intent of this grounded theory study was to develop relevant theory regarding how the Department of Defense might accomplish missions through outsourcing during current and future fiscal constraints. This study sought to understand the perceived effectiveness of outsourcing Department of Defense functions through the perspectives of 2 employment groups directly affected by such outsourcing: federal employees and privately contracted employees. In this study, 24 federal employees and 20 privately contracted employees completed qualitative surveys about their perceptions of effectiveness in regards to outsourcing Department of Defense functions. Data were inductively analyzed through open, axial, and selective coding via constant comparison. Findings from this study generated a grounded theory, one positing that 2 distinct elements are important in outsourcing during fiscal constraint: well defined legal requirements and private sector technical expertise. Evidence from this study suggests that when these elements are in place, outsourced Department of Defense functions can progress, regardless of fiscal restrictions. The implications for social change include assisting political leaders with better decision making in support of effective national security policies, while providing good stewardship of tax payer funds.

Sustainability is a term that is constantly gaining focus in our society and we are becoming more and more aware of the need to take the next generation into consideration when making decisions. The sustainable activity within the core business is growing and is also connected to profitability in ways that have not been seen before. However, the activities that are not included in the core business have not yet reached this long-term perspective. These non-core businesses within an organization goes under the term Facilities Management (FM). This paper focuses onReal Estate businesses, FM-suppliers and the relation between them.The purpose is to investigate current knowledge regarding outsourced FM-services and the real estate organisation’s use of these services. Furthermore, the purpose is to analyse what obstacles are currently restraining a sustainable way of working with FM-services and finally to present substantial suggestions for change. It is commonly agreed that acting in a sustainable way is a shared responsibility, and that acting accordingly will have great impact over the coming years. The Real Estate companies are facing an obstacle with lack of knowledge and awareness of the current situation. The FM-suppliers do not have the last say in the procurement process which prohibits them from using their knowledge effectively. Collaboration between the two parties is essential in order to achieve an improved result of sustainable development within FM. Five suggestions that will develop sustainability within FM have been depicted within this paper. The first suggestion is a plan of action with the foremost purpose of promoting sustainability and FM. Next follows a suggestion that shows the importance of early influence from proficient people. The third suggestion is to make sustainability measurable by creating a certification. Fourth, a law regarding sustainability reports can show how companies act in order to enhance the three dimensions of sustainability within their organization. The last suggestion is a template that will support both parties in the process of signing FM-contracts. In an ideal world, increasing the understanding and knowledge of sustainability and FM will prevent Real Estate businesses from buying services that are not sustainable as well as keeping FM-suppliers from delivering such services. / Hållbarhet får allt större fokus i vårt samhälle. Genom ett mer eftertänksamt beteende har ett agerande för en hållbar utveckling där nästa generation ges samma förutsättningar som denna påbörjats. Tankesättet växer sig starkare inom organisationens kärnverksamhet och i takt med detta ses hållbart agerande även i större grad som en del i organisationens ökade lönsamhet. Inom stödverksamheterna har utvecklingen dock inte nått detta långsiktiga perspektiv. Sammantaget utgör stödtjänsterna en stor del av en organisations totala omsättning varför det är av stor vikt att påbörja en hållbar utveckling inom dessa. En organisations samtliga stödtjänster sammanfattas i termen Facilities Management (FM). Detta arbete är inriktat mot FM-leverantörer och fastighetsbolag samt framställs med intresse för relationen dem emellan. Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka befintlig kunskap om outsourcade Facilities Management-tjänster och fastighetsbolags nyttjande av tjänsterna. Vidare är syftet att analysera vilka hinder som idag motverkar ett hållbart arbetssätt inom dessa tjänster samt framställa konkreta förslag till förbättringsåtgärder. En litteraturstudie samt sju intervjuer har legat till grund för de resultat som framställs. Ansvaret för att agera hållbart inom FM anses ligga på var och en gemensamt och intervjuobjekten är eniga om att hållbarhet kommer att bli allt viktigare i dagens samhälle. Hinder hos fastighetsbolagen är bristande kunskap och medvetenhet gällande den ohållbara situation som råder idag. För FM-leverantörerna finns ett hinder i rådande partsrelation, där fastighetsbolagen har sista ordet vid upphandling trots att FM-leverantörerna besitter mest kunskap. Det krävs ett samarbete mellan parterna för att nå ett förbättrat resultat av hållbar utveckling inom FM-tjänsterna. Fem förslag för att utveckla hållbarhetsarbetet inom FM framställs. Det första är en handlingsplan med främsta syfte att marknadsföra hållbarhet och FM. Nästa förslag belyser vikten av att ge personer med kompetens inom området möjlighet att påverka i ett tidigt skede. I det tredje förslaget framställs en möjlighet att certifiera hållbart arbete för att göra hållbarhet mätbart. Vårt fjärde förslag är att införa en lag om hållbarhetsredovisning där organisationer tvingas redovisa hur de arbetat med de tre dimensionerna av hållbarhet under året. Slutligen föreslås en mall som kan vara till stöd vid tecknande av FM-kontrakt. I den bästa av världar kommer ett aktivt arbete med att öka förståelsen och kunskapen gällande hållbarhet inom FM att leda till att fastighetsbolagen aldrig köper ohållbara stödtjänster samtidigt som FM-leverantörerna heller aldrig levererar sådana.

Den här studien syftar till att undersöka serviceerbjudande för logistisk outsourcing genom 3PL och 4PL leverantörer och deras roll i leveranskedjor. Detta med bakgrunden för de trender som finns inom branschen gällande outsourcing, där företag efterfrågar nya smarta lösningar för deras verksamheter och för att bibehålla och stärka sin konkurrenskraft.  För att undersöka dessa förhållanden har en kvalitativ studie genomförts, där fyra informanter har deltagit i semistrukturerade intervjuer mot frågor som framtagits med grund i de teorier som presenteras. Informanterna som deltagit har bakgrund inom företag som tillhandahåller tjänster inom både 3PL och 4PL. Vad som konstaterats i analysen är hur de olika alternativen skiljer sig, främst i det fysiska resursutnyttjandet, men även de likheter i hur större värden kan ges till kundorganisationer. Av studien så kan ett vidare behov av både forskning och utveckling av tjänsterna ses för differentiera de två alternativen för logistisk outsourcing. / This study seeks to examine the different service offers for logistical outsourcing through 3PL and 4PL suppliers and their role in supply chains. This with the background of the trends within the industry regarding outsourcing, where companies are seeking new and smart solutions for their business, and to maintain and strengthen their competitiveness. To examine these relationships of the suppliers, a qualitative study has been conducted, where four informants have participated in semi structured interviews with questions that have their base in the presented theories. The informants that participated in the study have their background in supplier-companies with services of both 3PL and 4PL solutions. The analysis of the empirical material gathered through the interviews has shown how the solutions differ, primarily in regards to their physical resource utilization, but also the similarities in how greater values can be created for the customer organizations. Through the study the need for both research and development of services can be seen, to be able to differentiate the two alternatives for logistical outsourcing.

Outsourcing är ett organisationsverktyg som kan ge möjligheten att utvidga kompetensen inom ett företag. Tidigare studier visar att SME-företag har ett större behov av att outsourca, men kan behöva stöd för att ta rätt beslut. Inom akademin förklaras verkligheten på ett förenklat sätt genom teoretiska modeller som inte alltid blir testade i praktiken. Denna studie utvärderar en nyskapad teoretisk modell om beslutsprocesser för outsourcing av digitala marknadsföringsuppdrag, för att undersöka vad som styr outsourcingbeslut inom SME-företag i Sverige. Fem företag deltog i studien genom semistrukturerade intervjuer och diskussioner om beslutsmodellen. I teorianknytningen behandlas huvudämnena marknadsföring, outsourcing och beslutsmodellen. Resultatet visar hur de deltagande företagen arbetar med huvudämnena marknadsföring och outsourcing, samt deras åsikter om beslutsmodellen. Resultatet har analyserats och tolkats till företagens olika attityder om huvudämnena samt företagens interna förutsättningar och hur det påverkar företagen. För att kunna besvara studiens frågeställningar diskuteras företagens finansiella brister, kompetensbrist, konkurrenskraft, tidsbrist, beslutsmodellen samt outsourcingbeslut mot teorianknytning. Tre av fem SME-företag anser beslutsmodellen som användbar, men beslutsprocessen är alltför generell för att appliceras på mediebranschens olika verksamhetsområden. / A way for a company to extend its competencies is to use outsourcing as a management tool. Previous studies show that SMEs have a greater need for outsourcing but also need support to make the right decision. Academia explains reality through simplified, theoretical models. It’s not always that these models are tested for their practical use. This study contains an evaluation of an newly created model of the decision-making processes to outsource digital marketing activities to examine what controls these decisions within SMEs in Sweden. Five companies took part in this study through semi-structured interviews and discussions about the decision model. The collected theory involves the main subjects: marketing, outsourcing, and the decision model. The result shows how the partaking companies conduct business relating to marketing and outsourcing, as well as their opinions about the decision model. The result has been analyzed and interpreted to the companies' different attitudes about the main subjects as well as the companies' internal qualifications and how this affects the companies. To be able to answer the study's framing of questions the following topics about the companies are discussed: lack of financial assets, lack of competence, competitiveness, lack of time, the decision model as well as the decisions to outsource in relation to the collected theory. Three out of the five SME companies perceive the decision model to be useful. However, the decision-making process is too general to apply to all the different areas of activity within the media industry.