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This thesis examines the recruitment of new graduates into trainee professional, managerial and technical occupations in eight UK based large-scale companies. The analysis began from a managerial position with the intention of developing a normative/prescriptive model of graduate recruitment and employment. The model postulated that 'best practice' graduate recruitment would involve an integrated sequence of stages: the development of a rationale for the graduate role, recruitment & selection, induction and finally, work socialisation. The graduate perspective was also considered by conceptualising 'transition' occurring as individuals went through four stages: career choice, job-hunting, joining and adjustment to work. However, this theoretical formulation proved to be inadequate to explain the data that the graduate survey, interviews and document analysis produced. This was because the starting point had insufficiently addressed questions of social reproduction, for example in the way in which graduates attitudes to and expectations of work were formed. Integral to this reconsideration of my methodology was a further assessment of the epistemological and ontological issues associated with this research. This provided the basis for the choice of more compelling theoretical perspectives and more appropriate data analysis methods. In particular, my revised methodology incorporated aspects of critical realism, social constructivism and semiotics. My position shifted from viewing graduate recruitment in terms of its own stated purposes as a rational means-end employment system to seeing HRM itself as a phenomenon requiring explanation. This meant that I gave more attention to questions about the way in which HRM and its associated rhetorical/discursive practices become viewed as normal and unproblematic by graduates, managers and in society more generally. In particular, I examined the emergence of employer branding as a core practice of Human Resource Management amongst private sector multinational companies. I show that both the supply and demand dimensions of the graduate labour market are shown to be constructed through inter-subjectively shared meanings and understandings. The extension of marketing practices to selling employment indicates that consumerism has influenced the graduate work ethic. In order to explain this empirical data I turned to theoretical ideas such as Gramsci's concept of hegemony and the associated notion of ideology. In fact, the notion of hegemony provides a conceptual lens through which the HRM literature can be reevaluated as propaganda & persuasion rather than a source of theoretical insight. My detailed empirical examination of work suggests that whilst graduates consume work, there is evidence of them being consumed by it. The labour process involved long hours, high levels of geographical mobility, loss of freedom and a requirement to accept both direct surveillance and to adopt self-governing behaviour. The limitations of the research methodology are acknowledged and the extent to which the study has been able to break free of its positivist moorings considered. The thesis closes by setting out further research opportunities.

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This study explored whether Employee Assistance Programmes (EAPs) could act as a mechanism for providing both counselling and support to employees and managers within the workplace. The aims of the study were to establish what motivated employers to purchase an EAP, as opposed to some other form of stress management intervention. Further, the study examined what individual and organisational benefits could be gained from the introduction ofan EAP. The setting for this study was two case studies; Organisation A and Organisation B where an employee assistance programme was introduced following a period of internal and external organisational change. A case study approach was adopted combining both quantitative and qualitative methods. It employed the use of interviews and focus groups with management and employees to investigate the management rationale for introducing the EAP. This was followed up with an employee survey using the Pressure Management Indicator (PMI) and the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) that targeted the clients who had used the programme, to establish the individual benefits ofthe programme. In order to make comparisons with this client group a random selection ofemployees (who had not used the EAP) was targeted using the same measures. Both case studies demonstrated that the motivation to purchase an EAP was driven by the need to provide a humanistic approach to employee problems following a period oforganisational change. Senior Managers viewed the EAP as a means of resolving potential problems with changes in work roles leading to absenteeism and increased stress levels. The EAP was identified as one of many strategies that could help to alleviate these problems. The findings demonstrated that the clients who had used the EAP demonstrated significant improvements in mental well-being and physical well being from pre to post counselling. The unmatched control group presented with higher levels ofmental and physical distress than either the clients from Organisation A or B, which demonstrated that the EAP was not necessarily targeting people that were most in need ofthe service. The study revealed that organisational benefits can be gained by introducing an EAP in terms ofreduced absenteeism as in the case of employees from Organisation A and reductions in stress levels as in the case of employees from Organisation B. This is contrary to previous research, which has found that employees' perceptions oftheir source of stress within the organisation did not change. The feedback from the interviews and focus groups revealed that managers need to be proactive as opposed to reactive before introducing an EAP. It also indicated that there is a need to identify the environmental causes and consequences of stress, and give serious consideration to the need for other preventative measures in addition to the EAP. Future research may seek to examine the changing nature of EAPs and workplace counselling including an examination of the use ofthe Internet as a medium for providing employee support.