This research aims at finding a foundation for assessment of capabilities and applying the concept in a human resource selection. The research identifies a common ground for assessing individuals’ applied capability in a given job based on literature review of various disciplines in engineering, human sciences and economics. A set of criteria is found to be common and appropriate to be used as the basis of this assessment. Applied Capability is then described in this research as the impact of the person in fulfilling job requirements and also their level of usage from their resources with regards to the identified criteria. In other words how their available resources (abilities, skills, value sets, personal attributes and previous performance records) can be used in completing a job. Translation of the person’s resources and task requirements using the proposed criteria is done through a novel algorithm and two prevalent statistical inference techniques (OLS regression and Fuzzy) are used to estimate quantitative levels of impact and utilisation. A survey on post graduate students is conducted to estimate their applied capabilities in a given job. Moreover, expert academics are surveyed on their views on key applied capability assessment criteria, and how different levels of match between job requirement and person’s resources in those criteria might affect the impact levels. The results from both surveys were mathematically modelled and the predictive ability of the conceptual and mathematical developments were compared and further contrasted with the observed data. The models were tested for robustness using experimental data and the results for both estimation methods in both surveys are close to one another with the regression models being closer to observations. It is believed that this research has provided sound conceptual and mathematical platforms which can satisfactorily predict individuals’ applied capability in a given job. This research has contributed to the current knowledge and practice by a) providing a comparison of capability definitions and uses in different disciplines, b) defining criteria for applied capability assessment, c) developing an algorithm to capture applied capabilities, d) quantification of an existing parallel model and finally e) estimating impact and utilisation indices using mathematical methods.

This thesis addresses the mechanics of executive remuneration from an unorthodox perspective; the view presented through the lens of imperfect market pricing. Whilst many of the criticisms of existing compensation arrangements are merited, they ignore the integrity of a crucial aspect of the way remuneration awards are calculated; the market pricing mechanism. The original contribution of knowledge of this thesis is to explain how imperfect market pricing undermines the utility of stock-based compensation awards, especially in light of the Global Financial Crisis of 2007-11 (‘GFC’).The existing position with regard to Anglo-American corporate governance emphasises the role of the market in determining optimal governance solutions. However, the market cannot regulate all conflicts. For example, the separation of ownership and control in modern corporations creates an agency problem whereby managerial and shareholder interests may diverge. Public companies therefore use performance-related pay to align the interests of management with those of firm owners. This performance-related pay often includes an element with a specific link to the price of company stock. A by-product of these arrangements is that incentives are created for executives to inflate the value of their companies in order to benefit from short-run price appreciation. This reduces the utility of stock-based pay and encourages market short-termism. There is however, a further fundamental flaw in the use of stock-based pay; it places complete faith in modern finance theory; a theory which asserts that market pricing is flawless (the so-called Efficient Capital Markets Hypothesis). However, financial and asset markets are susceptible to forces which drive prices away from intrinsic value for protracted periods and contribute to serious price distortion. Behavioural finance explains how these distortions occur and provides a more appropriate paradigm for securities market operation. The Financial Instability Hypothesis (‘FIH’) also explains how endogenous instability, emanating from the banking sector, arises as an inevitable consequence of the functioning of the capitalist economy. It further demonstrates how markets may be driven away from fundamental value, how asset bubbles occur, and how the market pricing mechanism is seriously distorted. The most serious recent crisis, the GFC, exhibited the FIH taxonomy. It exposed serious flaws in modern finance theory and revealed the dangers of flawed incentive systems in generating asset bubbles. Executives at financial institutions stand accused of short-termism, over-leveraging and poor risk management. Monitoring of management was impossible to perform effectively due to various behavioural and structural obstacles arising from the size and complexity of the institutions concerned. Moreover, a system of perverse incentives led to the failure of effective regulation of executive compensation.Reform is therefore required. The thesis will conclude with a critical analysis of recent amendments to the regulation of compensation systems at financial institutions. Based on this examination, the thesis will make some proposals for future remuneration packages in the wider economy. These proposals are designed to reduce the potential for financial instability through removing incentives for firm executives to concentrate on short-term results, and emphasize the role of qualitative indices of performance.

This study employs qualitative diaries and in-depth interviews with dual-earner couples in order to investigate how the demands of work and family responsibilities are negotiated on a daily basis. The methods used are novel in that in-depth interviews were conducted initially with both members of the couple present, and subsequently with each individual separately. Diaries were also completed by each individual privately, as a means of eliciting their experiences of decision-making in a real-time basis. It is argued that the use of such in-depth qualitative analysis enabled new and important findings to emerge, including distinguishing between different types of decision-making, uncovering important new decision-making cues, and gaining a greater insight into those cues previously acknowledged. The findings also demonstrate how these cues have an impact on decision-making in the context of both parties in the couple. In using both couples and individuals as levels of analysis it is possible to identify how this interdependence is manifested whilst also allowing for the discovery of important strategies used by the couples on a daily basis to resolve work-family conflicts. Balancing work and family is shown to be a continuous work in progress and the methodology used here allowed the daily dynamics of that work in progress to be revealed.

Cette thèse analyse les mutations du travail et de l’emploi et par conséquent, les mutations de la protection des travailleurs licenciés dans les Entreprises Publiques (EP) rendues privées au Gabon. Ce faisant, elle tente de lire les mutations (licenciements, pertes d’emplois) intervenues après la privatisation. Mais face à ces mutations, quelle est la politique d’emploi au Gabon? Quels accompagnements (plans sociaux) pour un retour à l’emploi ? Aussi, par quels processus et mécanismes la privatisation entraîne-t-elle les mutations d’emploi dans les EP rendues privées? L’hypothèse est que la faiblesse des politiques d’accompagnements et de protection des travailleurs initiées par le gouvernement en vue de lutter officiellement contre la précarité du travail et du chômage, lors des mouvements de privatisations au-delà des considérations du droit du travail, explique ces mutations. C’est ce que nous tentons de cerner au niveau de la SEEG, de la SETRAG et de la SUCAF-Gabon à partir d’une démarche qui prend en compte les approches quantitatives et qualitatives d'une manière empirique / This thesis analyzes the changes in work and employment and therefore the changes in the protection of workers dismissed in the Public Enterprises (EP) made private in Gabon. Thus this thesis tries to understand the mutations (layoffs, job losses, outsourcing, subcontracting) that occurred after privatization. But in front of these changes at work, what is the employment policy in Gabon? What social supports are used for returning into employment? By what processes and mechanisms, the privatization causes the transformations of employment in public enterprises made private? The assumption is that the weakness of social policies and protection of workers introduced by the government to fight officially against precarity and the unemployment during the movements of privatizations beyond the consideration of labor law policy explains these mutations. This is what we try to understand from the companies SEEG, SETRAG and SUCAF GABON by an approach that takes into account both quantitative and qualitative approaches in an empirical way.

Cette thèse a pour objectif de vérifier si les baby-boomers sont à l’origine d’une rupture de l’équité intergénérationnelle en France. Elle repose sur une application de la méthode des Comptes de Transferts Nationaux, ce qui permet d’obtenir une mesure par âge de la consommation, des ressources individuelles, de l’épargne et des transferts publics et privés entre 1979 et 2011. Des projections sont également réalisées à l’horizon de l’année 2060 grâce au modèle MELETE concernant les transferts publics reçus et le revenu disponible. Les résultats, qui sont établis au regard des principaux critères de justice intergénérationnelle, ne présentent pas de rupture manifeste et généralisée de l’équité entre générations, même si la société française se caractérise par certaines iniquités concernant la répartition des revenus d’actifs et la répartition des pensions de retraite entre générations. Par ailleurs, cette thèse apporte des résultats qui sont utiles à la compréhension de la solidarité familiale en France. Depuis trente ans, l’augmentation du poids économique des donations et des héritages coïncide avec une diminution du poids des aides en sein des ménages et une stabilité du poids des aides entre ménages. Il en résulte que les transferts privés entre ménages sont de moins en moins adaptés aux besoins des bénéficiaires, ce qui est corroboré par une analyse micro-économétrique en panel qui montre que les évènements vécus par les donateurs peuvent déclencher le versement de donations, contrairement aux aides entre ménages qui dépendent exclusivement des évènements vécus par les donataires. / The purpose of this dissertation is to asses if baby-boomers are responsible of intergenerational inequities in France. To answer this research question, the dissertation applies the National Transfer Accounts (NTA) methodology to the case of France, for the time period covering 1979-2011, therefore capturing national accounts aggregates such as consumption, individual resources, savings and transfers by age. Projections are conducted up to 2060 for public transfers inflows and for disposable income using the computable general equilibrium model “MELETE”, and the results are drawn from the main criteria of intergenerational justice. The results of this dissertation show that there is no obvious and widespread disruption of fairness between generations in the country. However, France is still characterized by intergenerational inequities seen through the allocation of asset income and publics pensions. The NTA methodology also provides useful results about private transfers in France. Since 1979, the role of wealth transfers increased over time, whereas the role of private transfers within households (intra-household transfers) decreased over this period and the role of regular, occasional and in-kind transfers between household (inter-household transfers) remained stable. It follows that private transfers are less and less responsive to the needs of transfer recipients. In fact, a micro econometric analysis using panel data shows that the life events experienced by transfer givers can trigger the payment of inter vivos wealth transfers, which is not the case for inter-household transfers that depend exclusively on the life events experienced by the recipients.

In recent years, the UK government skills policy has emphasised the role of workforce skills development as a key driver of economic success and improving productivity across all sectors of the economy. The importance of skills (as a vehicle for enhancing productivity performance) is highlighted within numerous government reports, such as Skills White Papers (2003 and 2005), in addition to the Leitch Review of Skills (2006) which coincided with the outset of this research. Thus, the aim of this research was to examine the relationship between skills development and productivity in the construction industry in order to assess the assumptions of government skills policy in the context of the sector. A multi-method approach was adopted in this research. This involved the analysis of: official construction statistics, levy/grant and financial accounts data of construction companies, in addition to a telephone survey. The main findings of the research are published in five peer reviewed academic papers, demonstrating the tenuous nature of the relationship between skills development and productivity performance, particularly when considering the heterogeneous nature of the construction industry. Government claims about the mono-causal relationship between skills and productivity should be treated with caution. A simple boost in qualification levels or participation rates of training is unlikely to lead to productivity improvements in the construction sector. However, skills development and training activities needs to be targeted and focused if the desired outcome of enhancing productivity performance is to be achieved. Construction companies needs to be proactive in addressing the skills and training needs of their business through drawing on the various support available through CITBConstructionSkills training grants or participating in appropriate skills/training initiatives, such as apprenticeship schemes. The provision of 'productivity-based' training grants should be considered by CITB-CS in order to prompt construction companies to consider training as a plausible means for enhancing their productivity performance. Finally, the recommendations presented in this thesis and areas for further research sets out the potential way forward in terms of advancing knowledge in this area.

Cette thèse porte sur les réformes des systèmes de retraite dans les pays en développement et s’articule autour de deux axes : l’efficacité des systèmes en place pour assurer aux affiliés un niveau de revenu suffisant à la retraite ; et l’extension de la couverture aux travailleurs informels et aux personnes âgées non couvertes. Nous faisons d’abord une étude de 7 cas de pays d’Amérique latine ayant mené des réformes de passage de la répartition à la capitalisation. Elle montre que les effets observés s’écartent de l’impact escompté en ce qui concerne le niveau des retraites obtenu et la formalisation de l’emploi. Nous considérons ensuite le cas du Maroc et le processus de réforme en cours. En nous appuyant sur les données démographiques et financières des régimes, nous analysons la capacité actuelle et future du système à garantir aux retraités un niveau de revenu proche de celui des actifs. Nous montrons notamment que la réforme actuellement envisagée est insuffisante. Nous effectuons enfin, à partir de données microéconomiques marocaines, deux études empiriques sur la question de l’extension de la couverture retraite. La première vise à mesurer l’emploi informel et à identifier ses caractéristiques et ses déterminants. Les résultats indiquent que les trois quarts des travailleurs hors secteur agricole ne sont pas affiliés au système de sécurité sociale et que cet emploi informel est largement subi et non le résultat d’un comportement d’évasion. La deuxième étudie la question de la pauvreté des personnes âgées et l’opportunité de créer une pension de solidarité. Les résultats montrent que les ménages où vivent les personnes âgées sont plus pauvres que les autres, que la cohabitation intergénérationnelle est forte et que la création d’une pension minimale permettrait de sortir un grand nombre de ménages de la pauvreté pour un coût inférieur à 0,5% du PIB. / This thesis investigates pension reforms in developing countries, their ability to provide retirees with a decent income, and the issue of extending their coverage to the entire population, including informal workers. The first two chapters assess the transition from pay-as-you-go to fully funded or multipillar schemes. A case study based on macro-data and pension funds data from 7 Latin American countries show that such reforms had very low effect on coverage rates and labour formalization and did not succeed in protecting people from old-age poverty. The third chapter describes the Moroccan pension system and shows that the reform currently in discussion is not sufficient either to achieve this goal. The last two chapters are empirical studies based on Moroccan labour force survey and household survey data. The first one draws a complete panorama of the non-contributing share of the population and estimates the probability of informal employment depending on both individual and professional characteristics. The second one studies the economic lives of the elderly. Overall results confirm that the informal labour market is heterogeneous and that most informal jobs are involuntary, not a choice made by workers to avoid paying taxes and social security contributions. It also appears that households that include aged members are poorer, the intergenerational cohabitation is high and therefore, creating a solidarity pension will help alleviate poverty at a cost not exceeding 0.5% of GDP.

Cette thèse analyse les effets redistributifs du salaire minimum. Le premier chapitre montre que l’introduction du salaire minimum en 1967 dans un certain nombre de secteurs de l’économie qui en étaient exclus jusqu’alors peut expliquer plus de 20% de la réduction des inégalités entre Blancs et Noir-Américains dans les années 1960 et le début des années 1970 aux États-Unis – la seule période (depuis la seconde guerre mondiale) au cours de laquelle les inégalités raciales sur le marché du travail ont diminué. Cette réforme a eu un rôle aussi déterminant dans l’évolution des inégalités raciales que l’augmentation du nombre d’années d’études pour les Noir-Américains ou les lois contre la discrimination. Le deuxième chapitre de cette thèse est consacré à l’estimation de la transmission des augmentations de salaire minimum dans les prix des produits vendus dans les supermarchés américains.Une augmentation moyenne de 10% du salaire minimum se traduit par une augmentation de 0.2% dans les prix des supermarchés entre 2001 et 2012. Cette elasticité-prix est cohérente avec une tranmission de l’intégralité de l’augmentation des coûts du travail dans les prix de vente aux consommateurs. L’augmentation des prix des supermarchés réduit les gains de revenu nominaux liés à l’augmentation du salaire minimum entre de 3 à 12%, selon le niveau de revenu du ménage. Le troisième chapitre calibre un modèle du marché du travail qui permet de simuler les effets d’une augmentation du salaire minimum au niveau fédéral à $15 d’ici 2024 aux États-Unis. Il s’agit de comparer les niveaux d’emploi obtenus si la réforme est adoptée aux niveaux d’emploi obtenu si la réforme n’est pas adoptée, et ce, selon les valeurs d’une série d’élasticités bien identifiées. / This dissertation studies the redistributive effects of minimum wage policies. The first chapter provides the first causal evidence of how the minimum wage has affected the historical evolution of racial inequality in the United States. It shows that the extension of the federal minimum wage to new sectors of the economy in 1967 can explain more than 20% of the decline in the racial earnings gap observed during the Civil Rights Era -- the only period of time (post World-War II) during which racial inequality fell in the United States. This effect is as large as previously studied policies and economic factors, such as the improvement in schooling for African-Americans or federal anti-discrimination policies. The second chapter estimates the pass-through of minimum wage increases into prices of US grocery stores, using high-frequency scanner level data. A 10% minimum wage hike translates into a 0.2% increase in grocery prices between 2001 and 2012. This magnitude is consistent with a full pass-through of cost increases into consumer prices. Depending on household income, grocery price increases offset between 3 and 12% of the nominal income gains. The third chapter estimates a calibrated labor market model to analyze the likely effects of a $15 federal minimum wage by 2024. It compares employment numbers if the policy were adopted to employment numbers if the policy had not been adopted using a wide range of well-identified elasticities.

This study examines and aims to disclose the current policies and practices of Training and Development (T&D) within Kuwaiti government and private/joint-venture organisations. The literature review indicates that although much attention has been devoted in studying Training and Development practices, a very few focus on T&D related factors on organisation performance in developing countries. The literature also indicates the need for considering these factors in order to have a better T&D effectiveness, and hence organisation overall performance. In this study the Training for Impact model was adopted and tested within Kuwaiti context in terms of training needs assessment and evaluation and follow-up. This research uses data collected from 100 organisations in Kuwait. 50 of these were government and 50 private /joint venture listed in Kuwait Stock Exchange. Therefore, all managers (100 training personnel) who are in charge of T&D function/programmes, were samples of the respondents of the present study. The main data collection methods adopted by this study were interviews (semi-structured) and "drop-in and pick-up" self-completion questionnaires. The data were quantitatively analysed and triangulation of quantitative findings was carried out in order to find out the difference between the two sectors in Kuwait in terms of T&D practices and related factors. To establish a causal connection between related factors and identified dimensions (T&D effectiveness, organisational rating, and satisfaction with evaluation process), a multiple regression technique was employed. The major findings of this study are noted below: Results indicate that the majority of the investigated organisations do not have a formal T&D system. T&D programmes are still carried out on a piecemeal basis rather than a systematic long-term policy. Findings which were common among the majority of the approached organisations were absence of a systematic organisational training needs analysis, use of conventional training methods, lack of effective procedures for T&D evaluation. The study explores the training personnel's way of thinking towards their T&D function and to the proposed T&D dimensions framework (integrated HRD strategy, top and line management commitment, a supportive formal system, T&D mechanism, organisational culture, and training budget). The findings indicate that most of the training personnel perceived these dimensions as providing motivation, commitment and support to their T&D function. Six main factors were found to influence T&D practices in government and private/joint venture organisations. These factors are: top management commitment, mutual support between organisational philosophy and T&D activities, line management support T&D involvement in organisation strategy, T&D policies and plans, and T&D effects on employees self-development. The study also identifies T&D effects on organisation performance in Kuwaiti organisations in terms of eliminating problems; increasing commitment and motivation; fulfilling individual needs and personal objectives, improving interpersonal and interdepartmental relations, improving quality of goods and services; and leading to effective utilisation and investment in human resources. In addition the study establishes a causal connection of T&D related factors with performance dimensions, organisation rating, and satisfaction of T&D evaluation. The author recommends that for the T&D function to be treated as seriously as other organisational functions, then Kuwaiti training personnel, as well as top and line management, need to be more willing to play proactive and strategic organisational roles in T&D activities.

Today, the effective management of people is assuming prominence as a source of sustained business performance improvement. The rationale for this trend is that other significant aspects of business, such as marketing, new technology, market niche, trademarks and brand image have generally been mastered. Therefore, business enterprises are being encouraged in seeking to gain comparative advantage by reliance on their human resources because this aspect of business is arguably more difficult to imitate or understand than the more conventional resources. As a result, there is an awakening of the need to introduce management practices that will concentrate on the added value which a highly motivated work force may provide to the organisation. The idea of added value from a highly motivated work force assumes even greater significance when the main business hinges almost entirely on the attitudes and approaches of people. This concept applies most forcibly to Barbados and the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (BOECS), the region covered by this study. This research therefore, explores the idea of gaining comparative advantage through appropriate people management methods and follows the trend in the developed and more industrialised nations of the world in an effort to determine whether there is a useful model of effective management practices which may be replicated in the BOECS and thus lead to improved business performance in the micro states which constitute this ii region. However, this study is mindful of the limitations of the research methodology which a vast number of contributors to this intriguing topic have employed. Nevertheless, this exploratory attempt examines the issue in the light of its possible positive effect on a previously uncharted area, viz., Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean (BOECS) as far as it relates to scholarly treaties on Human Resource Management. The idea is that even in the absence of clear unequivocal empirical evidence about its benefits, it may be useful to pursue the strategic approach to Human Resource Management including expansion of employee involvement, for it own sake.