Today, it seems that informal relationships in the workplace are more important for employees than ever. Furthermore, we have seen a rising interest for staff work, even in small companies. Research has shown that staff work in small companies can be described as ad hoc. However, what influence the informal relationships have on the staff work is a rather unexplored topic. In this study, we wanted create a deeper understanding of how the informal relationships are expressed in a small company and their potential influence on the staff work. To achieve this we conducted a qualitative study with 14 in-depth interviews in a small company with about 30 employees in the south of Sweden. In the beginning of this study we believed that we would find many informal relationships with a high impact on the staff work. The result of this study has shown that informal relationships in a small company can be shallow in their character but still be perceived as good. Moreover, the study has shown that shallow informal relationships can have a similar impact in organizations as earlier research has shown that deeper informal relationships can. The impact that these informal relationships has shown in this study, is interpreted to be engagement, trust and wellbeing. But also negative aspects such as frustration founded in a lack of communication. The informal relationships has also shown an impact on how the staff work is constructed. The informal relationships that are not interpreted as well-functioning has in this study been interpreted to have a negative impact on the ad hoc staff work that the company is conducting. With this study we want to create an awareness around informal relationships and its impact on small companies and their staff work. All this to give small companies good conditions in conducting a beneficial staff work.

Syfte: Syftet med detta arbete är att undersöka vilken påverkansfaktor personalpolicy och personalhandböcker har i ett medelstort företag i Sverige. Det är även av intresse att se hur dessa dokument är utformade och hur de implementeras i verksamheten. Metod: Forskningsansatsen är en kvalitativ metodtriangulering. En fallstudie med semistrukturerade intervjuer samt en dokumentstudie av policydokument och personalhandböcker från organisationen i fråga. Ett abduktivt synsätt har tillämpas i och med att vi har dragit slutsatser från vårt resultat för att applicera på koncernen, men även utgått från teori ur litteraturen för att kunna tillämpa dessa på studieobjektet. Ett hermeneutiskt perspektiv har tillämpats under den genomförda dokumentanalysen, för att se materialet både i delar och som en helhet. Empiri: Datainsamlingen har genomförts med hjälp av fem intervjuer där respondenterna representerade fem separata verksamheter inom koncernen. Respondenterna har olika roller inom organisationen men samtliga innehar en ledarposition med ett personalansvar. Slutsats: Enbart ett välarbetat dokument bidrar inte med effektivitet utan faktorer som ledarskap och organisationskultur behöver även ingå i ekvationen för att policyn ska bidra med värde till organisationen. / Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of the documents on personnel policy and personnel manuals in a medium-sized company in Sweden. It is also of interest to see how these documents are designed and how they are implemented in the organization. Method: The research approach is a qualitative method triangulation. A case study with semistructured interviews and a text study of policy documents and personnel manuals from the organization in question. An abductive approach has been applied as we have drawn conclusions from our results to apply to the group, but also based on literature theory in order to apply these to the study object. A hermeneutic perspective has been applied during the completed text analysis, to see the material both in parts and as a whole. Empirics: The data collection was carried out by means of five interviews, in which respondents represented five separate operations within the concern. Respondents have different roles within the organization, and all of them have a personnel responsibility. Conclusion: Only a well-worked document does not contribute to efficiency. Factors such as leadership and organizational culture also need to be included in the equation for the policy to contribute value to the organization.

Depuis leur identification comme structures favorisant l’apprentissage et le transfert de connaissances entre les membres de l’organisation, les Communauté de Pratique (CP) ont attiré l’attention de plusieurs praticiens en management, mais aussi des chercheurs qui ont mis en avant leurs rôles opérationnels dans les organisations (Lave et Wenger 1991 ; Brown et Duguid, 1991 ; Wenger 1998 ; Smith et Farquhar 2000 ; Lesser et Stork 2001 ; Mc Dermott 2002 ; Guérin 2005 ; Schenkel et Teigland, 2008 ; Hemmasi et Csanda, 2009), et d’autres se sont efforcés à identifier leurs caractéristiques épistémiques et structurelles (Wenger 1998 ; Chanal 2000 ; Cohendet et al., 2003 ; Blunt, 2003 ; Josserand et St Leger, 2004 ; Guérin 2005 ; Thompson 2005.). Cependant, il existe peu d’études systématiques sur la contribution des Communautés de Pratique (CP) à la performance de leurs membres. Ce lien reste encore à caractériser. Ceci a amorcé donc notre volonté pour nous pencher sur ce sujet. La CP est toujours présentée comme émergente et ancrée dans l’organisation dans laquelle elle évolue. Son émergence est principalement expliquée par l’écart qui existe dans les organisations entre le travail prescrit et le travail réel auquel les salariés font face (Lave et Wenger, 1991 ; Brown et Duguid 1991 ; Wenger, 1998 ; Schenkel et Teigland, 2008). Notre petite expérience en tant que salarié dans le front-office d’une organisation de service nous a permis de constater ledit écart et nous avons commencé alors à nourrir notre réflexion à propos de ce contexte. Les théoriciens s’intéressant aux entreprises de service ont présenté le contexte de ces dernières comme marqué par des situations multiples et variées, imprévisibles et délicates à gérer. C’est ce qui provoque un écart entre ce qui est prescrit par les règles organisationnelles et le travail réel tel que réalisé par les agents. En d’autres termes, les modes opératoires prescrits ne couvrent pas toutes les situations possibles et se montrent parfois incapables de résoudre certains problèmes. L’instabilité des situations qui provoque cet écart dans le contexte des relations de service, est due et imputée essentiellement à la participation du client au processus d’élaboration de service : la « coproduction » du service (Eiglier et Langeard, 1987 ; Hatchuel, 1996 ; Gadrey 1996 et 2002 ; Hanique et Jobet, 2001 ; Pichault et Zune, 2000 ; David, 2001 ; Bouzit, 2001 ; Hubault et Bourgeois, 2001 ; Zarifian, 2002 ; Jeantet, 2003, etc.). Ce contexte des relations de service nous a semblé particulièrement pertinent pour mener notre analyse relative aux CP. Toutefois, la multiplication des divisions dans les entreprises de service (front-office et back-office) rendait difficile d’aborder les relations de service dans leur globalité. Ceci nous a conduit à délimiter notre terrain et à centrer notre étude davantage sur une des sphères la composant. Nous avons alors choisi de nous intéresser à l’univers des front-office. Enfin, et étant donné que notre thèse s’inscrit dans les sciences de gestion, et plus précisément dans le volet relatif à la Gestion des Ressources Humaines (GRH), nous avons alors pensé à tirer quelques enseignements pour les pratiques de GRH dans les organisations. En fait, il s’agit d’une tentative de rapprochement du concept de CP et la GRH qui donne une certaine originalité à notre travail. Ceci nous permet de sortir un peu du courant commun et dominant dans le champ d’étude des CP, où les contributions sont souvent inscrites essentiellement dans l’approche du management des connaissances dans les organisations. / The Communities of Practice (CP) are identified as conductive structures for learning and knowledge transfer between members of the organization. Besides practitioners in management, many researchers were interested in these groups. Some have highlighted their operational roles in organizations (Lave et Wenger 1991 ; Brown et Duguid, 1991 ; Wenger 1998 ; Smith et Farquhar 2000 ; Lesser et Stork 2001 ; Mc Dermott 2002 ; Guérin 2005 ; Schenkel et Teigland, 2008 ; Hemmasi et Csanda, 2009), and others have tried to identify their structural and epistemic characteristics (Wenger 1998 ; Chanal 2000 ; Cohendet et al., 2003 ; Blunt, 2003 ; Josserand et St Leger, 2004 ; Guérin 2005 ; Thompson 2005.). However, the link between such communities and employee performance is seldom investi¬gated, especially in service firms. This has encouraged us to conduct our study on the relationship between CP and member’s performance in the context of service relationships and more specifically in the front office of these companies. Furthermore, our thesis is part of the Human Resource Management sciences, and we aim to draw some lessons for HRM practices in organizations. This is an attempt to bring the concept of CP and HRM that gives a certain originality in our work. This allows us to get some current common and dominant in the field of study of CP, where contributions are often recorded mainly in the approach to Knowledge Management in organization. • Our problemOur problem is based on the understanding and analysis of the CP's links with the performance of its members. The CP does contribute to the performance of its members in service relationships? To develop these questions, we decided to decompose it as follows:- Is there link between membership of an employee to a CP and its performance in the context of service relationships?- If this link exists, how this last one is built? What are the different mechanisms by which it was constuct in service relationships?- If this link exists, what are the lessons that may have drawn some HRM practices in organizations? • Our Method Following several authors’ advices, we turned in our empirical part to the case study approach. Un empirical work investigating a contemporary phenomenon in its context of real life (Yin, on 1994; Eisenhardt, on 1989 ; Baumard and Ibert, on 1998; Hoepfl, on 2007; Giordano, 2003) Our study is led in the front-office of two public organizations and in a bank (private sector). Eight units composing these devices of reception were studied : four call centers and four reception desks. Our study revealed interesting results. They have greatly enriched the knowledge in the various areas covered, as well as lessons for certain practices in organizations.

Esta pesquisa exploratória investigou como a filosofia de gestão de pessoas influencia a estratégia e a performance organizacional -_ um fenômeno contemporâneo de bastante interesse, não apenas da academia como também do ponto de vista da prática organizacional, devido à distância considerável entre a teoria e a prática da gestão estratégica de pessoas. Utilizou-se o método de estudo de multicasos com abordagem qualitativa, enfoque indutivo e perspectiva histórica, possibilitando, assim, maior abrangência analítica entre diferentes aspectos do fenômeno ocorrido ao longo da trajetória das quatro organizações estudadas. Trata-se de empresas de sucesso internacionalmente reconhecido que operam em diferentes setores, possuem configurações organizacionais distintas e têm suas origens na Austrália, Brasil, Canadá e Dinamarca. Os dados, oriundos de múltiplas fontes, foram coletados por meio de quatro técnicas distintas, incluindo a condução de 45 entrevistas semi-estruturadas e em profundidade com gerentes e não gerentes das quatro organizações. Os dados foram organizados por temas e categorias utilizando-se software específico para análise de pesquisa qualitativa. O mapeamento visual de dados longitudinais contribuiu para a síntese dos casos investigados e para a geração de insights. Os resultados desta pesquisa ilustram que a filosofia de gestão de pessoas, ou seja, o significado das pessoas no trabalho para os dirigentes da organização pode influenciar tanto a política e a estratégia de gestão de pessoas, como também, de forma significativa, o processo da estratégia e a performance organizacional ao longo da trajetória das empresas. A filosofia de gestão de pessoas pode também interferir na forma de interpretação do conceito de profissionalização ou modernização da gestão e na aplicação das ferramentas e modelos de gestão propostos pela academia. É curioso observar que, enquanto a literatura defende o alinhamento da gestão de pessoas a partir da estratégia empresarial como fórmula para o sucesso da organização, este estudo empírico aponta o sentido inverso da relação. Ou seja, a força motriz que define o alinhamento entre estratégia e gestão de pessoas nas empresas estudadas não tem sua base na estratégia empresarial, mas, sim, na filosofia de gestão de pessoas, aspecto esse que influencia de forma significativa, para não afirmar que determina a estratégia e o sucesso das organizações. Apesar de fazer sentido e de ocorrer na prática organizacional, tal possibilidade não está presente nos modelos de integração propostos pela literatura. / The theory and practice of strategic human resource management this research question is a contemporary issue of great interest not only from academics but also practitioners. On one hand researches and executives consider people as strategic assets and the source of sustainable business, but on the other hand the considerable gap between theory and practice remains a challenge. Therefore, this international muticase study investigated how the HR philosophy influences organizational strategy and business performance. By applying qualitative and inductive approach with a historical perspective, this exploratory research allowed a comprehensive analysis of various aspects of the research phenomenon occurred along the course of the four organizations. They are successful companies operating in different sectors, with very different organizational configurations. The cases are from Australia, Brazil, Canada and Denmark. The primary and secondary data, from multiple sources, were collected by four different techniques, including 45 semi-structured and in-depth interviews with managers and non-managers from these four organizations. Data were organized by themes and categories using specific software for qualitative research analysis. The visual mapping of historical data helped build and present the case studies and generate insights. The results of this research show that the HR philosophy, that is, the meaning of people at work for the leadership, influences not only the HR policy & strategy, but significantly the organizational strategy process and business performance over the organizational life time, including the way leadership interprets the concept of management professionalization and implements management models & tools proposed by the academy. It is interesting to note that while the literature suggests the alignment of HRM from the business strategy, this empirical study shows the opposite direction of the relationship, that is, the driving force that defines the alignment between strategy and HRM is not the business strategy, but the HR philosophy, which strongly influenced, not to say that determined the strategy and success of organizations. Despite making sense, this possibility is not considered in the many models of people strategy performance integration proposed by the literature.

In Southeast Asia, many small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) fail each year; in 2010, SME failure rate exceeded 50%. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore strategies that some SME business leaders use to decrease the failure rate of SMEs in Southeast Asia. The target population consisted of 5 SME business leaders in Southeast Asia who demonstrated success in using strategies to decrease the failure rate of SMEs. The conceptual framework for this study was the Ulrich model, which supports the notion that a human resource manager needs to be involved in overall organizational decision making as a strategic partner, administrative assistant, employee champion, and a change agent for business continuity and sustainability. Data collection sources included semistructured interviews and analysis of company documents. Using Yin's 5-step data analysis approach resulted in 3 themes: governance, marketing and branding, and integration of information technology. The governance theme included employee engagement and leadership strategies, which could help business leaders to create an agile work environment and work commitment to decrease business failure. The marketing and branding theme included social media and networking strategies that could promote the brand and enhance company image. The implication for social change is that business continuation could lead to economic development, employment opportunities, and tax revenue for local governments, leading to an improved standard of living and overall prosperity of local communities.

To overcome the curse of dimensionality, dimension reduction is important and necessary for understanding the underlying phenomena in a variety of fields. Dimension reduction is the transformation of high-dimensional data into a meaningful representation in the low-dimensional space. It can be further classified into feature selection and feature extraction. In this thesis, which is composed of four projects, the first two focus on feature selection, and the last two concentrate on feature extraction. The content of the thesis is as follows. The first project presents several efficient methods for the sparse representation of a multiple measurement vector (MMV); some theoretical properties of the algorithms are also discussed. The second project introduces the NP-hardness problem for penalized likelihood estimators, including penalized least squares estimators, penalized least absolute deviation regression and penalized support vector machines. The third project focuses on the application of manifold learning in the analysis and prediction of 24-hour electricity price curves. The last project proposes a new hessian regularized nonlinear time-series model for prediction in time series.

The significance of capacity development programmes, as key driver for sustaining development goals, is anchored in all international fora. This research complements and extends our present understanding of the contribution of capacity development approaches to development and achievement of the SDGs. This is achieved by critically assessing the impact of capacity development initiatives sponsored by the World Bank. This thesis has focused on analysis of implementation strategies and critical assessment of the impact of the projects using multidisciplinary approach, utilising a range of quantitative and qualitative methods. It provides a sound empirical basis for assessing the complexities of these projects. This empirical investigation has identified a wide range of disparities of implementation strategies utilised for capacity development initiatives among the major international players (World Bank and UNDP). These findings clearly indicate that there is no single strategy for the implementation of capacity development initiatives. Thus, based on empirical evidence, as well as a critical review of the literature, the study proposes a model for achieving critical sustainable capacity development based on broad and long-term strategies; input, process, output, and outcome which defines the appropriateness of policies and practices that support sustainable development. It is concluded that capacity development initiatives are relevant and essential ensuring national development and sustainable results. The recommendations include the focus on individual, organisational, and societal factors when planning, developing and adopting strategies for implementing all government/national programmes.

Esta pesquisa exploratória investigou como a filosofia de gestão de pessoas influencia a estratégia e a performance organizacional -_ um fenômeno contemporâneo de bastante interesse, não apenas da academia como também do ponto de vista da prática organizacional, devido à distância considerável entre a teoria e a prática da gestão estratégica de pessoas. Utilizou-se o método de estudo de multicasos com abordagem qualitativa, enfoque indutivo e perspectiva histórica, possibilitando, assim, maior abrangência analítica entre diferentes aspectos do fenômeno ocorrido ao longo da trajetória das quatro organizações estudadas. Trata-se de empresas de sucesso internacionalmente reconhecido que operam em diferentes setores, possuem configurações organizacionais distintas e têm suas origens na Austrália, Brasil, Canadá e Dinamarca. Os dados, oriundos de múltiplas fontes, foram coletados por meio de quatro técnicas distintas, incluindo a condução de 45 entrevistas semi-estruturadas e em profundidade com gerentes e não gerentes das quatro organizações. Os dados foram organizados por temas e categorias utilizando-se software específico para análise de pesquisa qualitativa. O mapeamento visual de dados longitudinais contribuiu para a síntese dos casos investigados e para a geração de insights. Os resultados desta pesquisa ilustram que a filosofia de gestão de pessoas, ou seja, o significado das pessoas no trabalho para os dirigentes da organização pode influenciar tanto a política e a estratégia de gestão de pessoas, como também, de forma significativa, o processo da estratégia e a performance organizacional ao longo da trajetória das empresas. A filosofia de gestão de pessoas pode também interferir na forma de interpretação do conceito de profissionalização ou modernização da gestão e na aplicação das ferramentas e modelos de gestão propostos pela academia. É curioso observar que, enquanto a literatura defende o alinhamento da gestão de pessoas a partir da estratégia empresarial como fórmula para o sucesso da organização, este estudo empírico aponta o sentido inverso da relação. Ou seja, a força motriz que define o alinhamento entre estratégia e gestão de pessoas nas empresas estudadas não tem sua base na estratégia empresarial, mas, sim, na filosofia de gestão de pessoas, aspecto esse que influencia de forma significativa, para não afirmar que determina a estratégia e o sucesso das organizações. Apesar de fazer sentido e de ocorrer na prática organizacional, tal possibilidade não está presente nos modelos de integração propostos pela literatura. / The theory and practice of strategic human resource management this research question is a contemporary issue of great interest not only from academics but also practitioners. On one hand researches and executives consider people as strategic assets and the source of sustainable business, but on the other hand the considerable gap between theory and practice remains a challenge. Therefore, this international muticase study investigated how the HR philosophy influences organizational strategy and business performance. By applying qualitative and inductive approach with a historical perspective, this exploratory research allowed a comprehensive analysis of various aspects of the research phenomenon occurred along the course of the four organizations. They are successful companies operating in different sectors, with very different organizational configurations. The cases are from Australia, Brazil, Canada and Denmark. The primary and secondary data, from multiple sources, were collected by four different techniques, including 45 semi-structured and in-depth interviews with managers and non-managers from these four organizations. Data were organized by themes and categories using specific software for qualitative research analysis. The visual mapping of historical data helped build and present the case studies and generate insights. The results of this research show that the HR philosophy, that is, the meaning of people at work for the leadership, influences not only the HR policy & strategy, but significantly the organizational strategy process and business performance over the organizational life time, including the way leadership interprets the concept of management professionalization and implements management models & tools proposed by the academy. It is interesting to note that while the literature suggests the alignment of HRM from the business strategy, this empirical study shows the opposite direction of the relationship, that is, the driving force that defines the alignment between strategy and HRM is not the business strategy, but the HR philosophy, which strongly influenced, not to say that determined the strategy and success of organizations. Despite making sense, this possibility is not considered in the many models of people strategy performance integration proposed by the literature.

Several malignant diseases, such as colorectal, pancreatic, breast or ovarial cancers, are primarily treated with cytostatics 5-fluorouracil (5-FU). 5-FU undergoes biotransformation in human body and arising metabolites induce the damage and subsequent apoptosis in the target cells. The main aim of this diploma Thesis was the determination of methylation in promoter regions of 14 candidate genes participating on 5-FU biotransformation: TK1, PPAT, RRM1, RRM2, UCK2, UCK1, UMPS, TYMP, UPP1, UPP 2 SLC29A1, UPB1, DPYS and DPYD. We hypothesize that the methylation in promoter regions regulates mRNA transcription of the above candidate genes. We have conducted appropriate analyses in 128 colorectal cancer patients, for whom both tumor and nonmalignant adjacent tissues were available. Sample processing and analysis involved DNA isolation, bisulfite conversion of unmethylated cytosines to corresponding uracils, methylation-specific analysis of melting curves with high resolution for theproper methylation analysis and gel electrophoresis to separate PCR products. For the majority of the studied genes (TK1, PPAT, RRM1, RRM2, UCK2, UCK1, UMPS, TYMP, UPP1, SLC29A1 and DPYD) we did not detect any aberrant methylation in promoter regions. In genes DPYS, UPB1 and UPP2 we recorded various degree of promoter...

Immunomagnetic separation is based on binding of antibody with antigen, where antibody is bound to magnetic particle. In this thesis there were used particles of magnetic pearl cellulose with antiLactobacillus and antiBifidobacterium antibodies. Immunomagnetic separation method was optimalized and verified for its efficiency and specifity with bacterial and yeast cells. This cells were identified by polymerase chain reaction. Efficiency of immunomagnetic separation was verified on probiotic meat product, where Lactobacillus cells were isolated. With DNA from isolated Lactobacillus cells the high resolution melting was performed. The results show presence of several bacterial strains of Lactobacillus species.