Construction is complex and comprises a multitude of knowledge-driven activities and business interests from participating organisations with the people involved being subject to different organisational and disciplinary practices. People are fundamental to success because human capabilities in learning, innovating and changing creative directions are vital to long term development of organisations. In the last two decades, researchers have found that human resource (HR) management has positive effects on the organisational performance. However, the processes through which HR management lead to organisational performance are contested. This research proposes a framework to investigate the effects of employees' behaviours and organisational learning on organisational performance and the impacts of HR practices on those effects in the context of Chinese construction enterprises. The research design adopts a multi-method approach, integrating positivism and interpretivism, to understand the complex relationship between HR practices, organisational learning, individual behaviour, and organisational performance. By consulting two experienced academic researchers and industry experts, the pilot study improves the understanding and implementation of the measurement instruments employed. Both quantitative and qualitative approaches are adopted in data collection and analysis: 326 valid respondents through questionnaire survey are received, and structural equation modelling is adopted to test individual behaviour and organisational learning as mediating variables of the relationship between HR practices and organisational performance respectively. Middle-level managers in Chinese construction firms are interviewed, and a cognitive map is produced to reveal the possible mediating variables and the cause-effect relationships between organisational learning and individual behaviour. The cause-effect route identified from the cognitive map is tested by structural equation modelling method, i.e., individual in-role behaviour as a mediating variable between organisational learning and performance. In conclusion, from the theoretical perspective, the results reveal the following. (1) Individual in-role behaviour has highly significantly positive effect on organisational performance. Organisational learning has very highly significantly positive effect on organisational performance. Both individual in-role behaviour and organisational learning have mediating effects on the relationship between HR practices and organisational performance. (2) HR practices positively affect individual in-role behaviour indirectly through organisational learning. Individual in-role behaviour mediates the relationship between organisational learning and organisational performance. (3) HR practices also affect organisational performance via the path-way of social capital, individual perceived organisational support, organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB), and co-worker productivity. For the practical implications, Chinese construction companies should implement the following to improve organisational performance. (1) Recognize the importance of employees' in-role behaviour, and design HR practices to motivate employees to apply their knowledge, skills and abilities in job-related performance, and to retain qualified and experienced staff. (2) View organisational learning as an important component of competitive advantage in the process of organisational development, and motivate and enhance organisational learning by the employment of HR practices and the creation of social capital. (3) Recognize the importance of OCBI (i.e. organisational citizenship behaviour directed toward the benefit of other individuals), and try to elicit employees' OCBI by improving employees' perceived organisational support.

The internal marketing concept speciefies that an organization's employees is its first market. The demands on companies to meet employee needs increases with the skills and knowledge employees possess, which acts as a competitive advantage. The internal marketing terms "Employer Branding" and "Employer Attractiveness" are still considered to be underdeveloped. Employer Branding refers to the process of marketing that companies use to target desired employees and retain current employees. To find and attract the right work force effectively, companies are required to have a strong Employer Brand. The IT consulting industry shows that job seekers have more power than employers, which creates a intense competition for labor. The aim of this study is to examine how employees at an IT consulting firm perceive the organization's Employer Brand along with what the company's recruitment target market is seeking in a potential employer. Based on a theoretical model; Employer Brand Predictive Model and with the help of two empirical studies, research can demonstrate whether or not the IT consulting firm’s existing Employer Brand is considered to be compatible against recruitment target market’s conditions. The study shows empirical indications that the IT consulting firm’s lacks external brand awareness and absence of a clear strategic aim for selecting the appropriate recruitment target market. / Det interna marknadsföringskonceptet anger att en organisations anställda är deras första marknad. Kraven på företag att uppfylla anställdas behov ökar i och med den kompetens och kunskap de besitter vilket utgör en konkurrensfördel. Inom intern marknadsföring är begreppen ”Employer Branding" och "arbetsgivarens attraktionskraft" fortfarande underutvecklade. Employer Branding hänvisar till den process av marknadsföring som företag använder sig av för att attrahera en önskad målgrupp och behålla personal. För att hitta och attrahera rätt personal krävs det att företagen har ett starkt Employer Brand. IT-konsultbranschen visar på att arbetssökande har mer makt än arbetsgivare, vilket skapar en tydlig konkurrens om arbetskraft. Denna studie undersöker hur medarbetarna på ett IT-konsultföretag uppfattar organisationens Employer Brand samt vad företagets rekryteringsmålgrupp söker hos en potentiell arbetsgivare. Utifrån en teoretisk modell; Employer Brand Predictive Model och med hjälp av två empiriska undersökningar kan studien påvisa om IT-konsultföretagets existerande Employer Brand anses vara homogen gentemot rekryteringsmålgruppens villkor. Studien visar empiriska bevis på IT-konsultföretagets brist av extern varumärkeskännedom samt avsaknad av en tydlig strategisk avgränsning för val av rekryteringsmålgrupp.

Efter avregleringen av det svenska apoteksmonopolet uppstod en konkurrensbaserad arbetsmarknad för farmaceuter. Från att det bara fanns en aktör på marknaden finns det nu flera kedjor samtidigt som det är brist på farmaceuter i landet. Detta leder till att apotekskedjorna måste jobba aktivt med att vara en attraktiv arbetsgivare för att behålla sin personal och rekrytera ny personal. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur en apotekskedja arbetar med intern Employer branding och att jämföra om ledningens vision av Employer branding-arbetet stämmer överens med hur arbetstagarna upplever sin arbetssituation. Vi vill även få en inblick i hur apotekskedjan arbetar med extern Employer branding. Utifrån teorier om bland annat Employer branding, talangprogram, motivation och arbetsglädje använder vi oss av en kvalitativ metod för att undersöka hur respondenterna upplever arbetssituationen. Vi har under studiens gång intervjuat åtta personer från en apotekskedja. Tre personer från HR-avdelningen och fem farmaceuter från olika orter i Sverige. Resultatet visar att HR-avdelningen arbetar mycket med både intern och extern Employer branding. Resultatet visar även att arbetstagarnas situation stämmer överens med ledningens vision om att vara en attraktiv arbetsgivare.

We present new astrometric measurements from our ongoing monitoring campaign of the HR 8799 directly imaged planetary system. These new data points were obtained with NIRC2 on the W.M. Keck II 10 m telescope between 2009 and 2014. In addition, we present updated astrometry from previously published observations in 2007 and 2008. All data were reduced using the SOSIE algorithm, which accounts for systematic biases present in previously published observations. This allows us to construct a self-consistent data set derived entirely from NIRC2 data alone. From this data set, we detect acceleration for two of the planets (HR 8799b and e) at >3 sigma. We also assess possible orbital parameters for each of the four planets independently. We find no statistically significant difference in the allowed inclinations of the planets. Fitting the astrometry while forcing coplanarity also returns chi(2) consistent to within 1 sigma of the best fit values, suggesting that if inclination offsets of less than or similar to 20 degrees are present, they are not detectable with current data. Our orbital fits also favor low eccentricities, consistent with predictions from dynamical modeling. We also find period distributions consistent to within 1 sigma with a 1:2:4:8 resonance between all planets. This analysis demonstrates the importance of minimizing astrometric systematics when fitting for solutions to highly undersampled orbits.

Understanding the plastic deformation mechanisms in polycrystals is a long-standing fundamental problem and its improvement has significant potential impact on the increase in materials resistance to typical failure modes such as fatigue cracking and stress corrosion cracking and hence the increase in the materials strength. However many deformation models are yet to be validated as quantitative experimental results at mesoscale to correlate dislocations and microstructure features are limited. This thesis furthers the High Resolution EBSD (HR-EBSD) technique in Geometrically Necessary Dislocation (GND) density measurement from qualitative analysis with a typical map size of 100 μm x100 μm to quantitative analysis with a map of 500 μm x500 μm by determining the optimised scanning step size (0.5 μm) and detector binning level (4x4 binning). This allows a statistically large number of grains to be sampled. Combining with obtained crystallographical information from a conventional EBSD system, systematic studies on GNDs behaviours with respect to a range of microstructure features such as grain boundaries and triple junctions were conducted on monotonically deformed polycrystal copper samples under tension. Relatively high GND density points were found near triple junctions and some grain boundaries whereas the low GND density points tend to appear near the grains’ interiors. These tendencies are particularly profound in low and moderately deformed samples. Hence more detailed analyses were performed to investigate the relations of GND density and the properties of grain boundaries and triple junctions. These quantitative analyses were complemented with direct visual assessment. The visual inspection provides interesting findings such as the strong GND structure dependence on grain orientations and GND structure development through increasing deformation; grain-grain interaction influences on GND structure development and GND structures near triple junctions. These GND density studies provide experimental results to validate some of the existing plastic deformation models for instance Ashby’s model of hardening and Hall-Petch relation. However, some of the new observations on GND structures at mesoscale cannot be fully rationalised by existing proposed mechanisms. Hence new models have been proposed that these GND structures might be generated from the intersections of different slip systems which occurred in various parts of a grain, or by the dislocation piling-up at some microstructural features e.g. triple junctions and twin boundaries.

Thèse numérisée par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

This Master Thesis copes with current phenomenon - Corporate social responsibility and as a base it uses the Stakeholder theory. The Thesis continues with defining the concept of Corporate social responsibility in general and then devotes small part to present activities under Corporate social responsibility which aims mainly at external stakeholders of an organization. Nevertheless the core of this Thesis is an interconnection between Corporate social responsibility and human resources management which is later on examined from several different points of view and an overview of tools that work with this interconnection is given. It also describes employees from the stakeholder perspective, follows with investigating corporate social responsibility aspects within individual personnel activities in an organization and confronts them with real attitudes of Czech university students.

The main aim of the thesis is to explain the essence and benefits of using a marketing approach, tools and means for the area of human resources and analyze the content and interdependence of two parts of HR marketing, external and internal. Thesis has also the ambition to apply the theory of brand building on the specific case of employer brand. Part of the thesis forms research on FMCG company Nutricia, which should show what the company does for its HR marketing and how it is perceived as an employer both on the internal and external labor market. The principal methods of work includes analysis of Czech and foreign literature and papers on the theme. Materials provided by Nutricia and written questionaires were analyzed in the practical part of the research. The conclusion sums up the benefits of marketing aproach to HR, its coherence within the general framework of marketing mix and current actual state.

This master thesis discusses the possibilities of outsourcing (in Czech also displacement of activities) in a human resources area, it also considers its forms and applications in companies. The main goal is to determine whether and to what extent HR outsourcing is worth to be implemented into small to medium sized companies and what steps are needed to be done to benefit from HR outsourcing. The work is divided into two parts. The first part is based on theoretical foundations. It contains a summary of general information regarding HR outsourcing and its types. It defines advantages and disadvantages, and the current situation of HR outsourcing in the world and in the Czech Republic as well. It also describes what phases a company must go through in the process of HR outsourcing implementation into its processes. The second part uses the knowledge and experience summarized in the theoretical part and shows a concrete example of its use in practice. It specifies the possible solutions for HR outsourcing within a medium-sized organization. Selected personnel services in a company are analyzed and considered for outsourcing as separate "projects". The conclusion summarizes the answer to the question to what extent spoken hypothesis is filled.

The dissertation thesis investigates the most up-to-date subject matter of contemporary business life, both internationally and locally -- Human Resources outsourcing, which appears to have become a new strategic tool for Human Resources Management. The concept means the strategically motivated external execution of some or all HR processes, which would otherwise be performed by internal staff, along with the assignment of the responsibility for those processes to external providers. Effective outsourcing initiatives have the potential to bring about significant benefits for the company, both operational and strategic. The dissertation thesis introduces a comprehensive and objective analysis of the global HR outsourcing model, including its microeconomic implications, the history of outsourcing, its evolution, benefits and possible risks, its different types of delivery models, suppliers'analysis and supply models, the cost aspects, the principles of effective management of the outsourcing project or the relationships of outsourcing with information and communication technologies. Another part of the thesis focuses on the phenomenon of offshoring, which represents one possible way outsourcing can be executed. Employees' outsourcing, its cost efficiency, legislation framework and private agencies' industry impact on the labour market is a subject of another part of the thesis. The consequent section includes empirical research executed with the aim to investigate the principles, models, scope and trends of HR outsourcing activities in the Czech republic. The results of the research are compared with scientific hypotheses that are based on the knowledge of the HR outsourcing global model which results in defining a local model of HR outsourcing. The concluding part of the dissertation thesis summarizes both the theoretical knowledge and practical findings and formulates a number of recommendations and advise for company top management about how to implement effectively HR outsourcing in the company or how to improve its quality if already implemented.