Packaging plays a key role in product success within the highly competitive food and drinks sectors of the Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) industry. However, relatively little has been written about packaging in the marketing management literature. The majority of published research focuses on the marketing communications aspects of packaging. As a result, whilst there is substantial literature revealing the significance of packaging in purchasing decisions and perceptions of the product, its role in product development and the creation of new opportunities has been largely overlooked. Against this background, the research examines the management of packaging development within the FMCG industry: in particular, the food and drinks sectors. The purpose of the study is twofold: to examine how the development of a new product’s packaging is managed and integrated into the new product development (NPD) process of firms; and to explore how firms in the industry manage the opportunities that new packaging development may provide. The research finds that in their packaging development, most firms focus on ‘skindeep’ issues, such as the development of the label, and aesthetic modifications to the body of the packaging, such as changing the colour of a bottle. The analysis reveals three distinct levels of packaging development and argues that the development of new packaging formats and genuine packaging innovation is being overlooked by firms. The framework developed from the research reveals that the orientation of packaging development (skin-deep, aesthetic body modifications, or technological format change) is influenced by internal packaging capability, perceptions of the production process, the role of buyers, and concerns over the impact of changes on the product’s retailing. This in turn impacts on the role of the consumer and suppliers in development. This study contributes to the existing literature by providing new insight into the relationship between packaging development and NPD. The framework generated contributes to the existing stage based models of NPD by revealing that previous research has largely failed to analyse packaging development at the level of technological and format change. The findings also have implications for firms, identifying a need to re-examine their packaging development activities, to ensure that these address all three levels; not merely ‘skin-deep’ packaging.

M.Phil. (Human Resources Development) / The transfer of learning after training courses is relevant to Human Resource Development (HRD) professionals, human resources divisions and managers within organisations. HRD managers in particular must secure a suitable training budget, present learning interventions, and employ qualified HRD practitioners who add value to a company’s turnover and profitability. When the HRD unit assists employees in improving their performance with training, this enables the Human Resources (HR) division to be a strategic business partner to the organisation. HRD practitioners should ensure that the learning provided to employees improves their performance in delivering strategic results without any obstacles or barriers. The aim of the study was to conduct an investigation into the potential learning transfer barriers that could have an impact on the successful transfer of learning within the financial services sector. This study sought to identify the predominant barriers to transfer of learning when employees return to the workplace after attending training. The literature review on the transfer of learning and the barriers to the transfer of learning highlighted an international survey instrument designed to measure the workplace barriers to effective learning transfer. This instrument was used in conducting the research for this study. The unit of analysis of this study included financial services managers from one bank operating within three provinces of South Africa: Gauteng, Kwa-Zulu Natal and Western Cape. The mixed method approach used in this study favours a dominant quantitative approach with a secondary qualitative component. Data was obtained using the adapted, international survey instrument, the Learning Transfer Systems Inventory (LTSI) questionnaire. The LTSI is a validated instrument that is used to diagnose factors affecting successful transfer of learning. HRD professionals are able to use the LTSI to identify potential transfer barriers after administering a learning intervention. The findings reveal that line managers are key role players in the learning transfer challenge. Line managers who fail to support and encourage the application of learning after training represent a barrier to employee transfer of learning. This report recommends that managers play the role of performance coaches, and become enablers of rather than barriers to employee transfer of learning.

Archival research was conducted on the inception of preemployment psychological testing, as part of the background screening process, to select police officers for a local police department. Various issues and incidents were analyzed to help explain why this police department progressed from an abbreviated version of a psychological battery, to a much more sophisticated and comprehensive set of instruments. While doubts about psychological exams do exist, research has shown that many are valid and reliable in predicting job performance of police candidates. During a three year period, a police department hired 162 candidates (133 males and 29 females) who received "acceptable" psychological ratings and 71 candidates (58 males and 13 females) who received "marginal" psychological ratings. A document analysis consisted of variables that have been identified as job performance indicators which police psychological testing tries to predict, and "screen in" or "screen out" appropriate applicants. The areas of focus comprised the 6-month police academy, the 4-month Field Training Officer (FTO) Program, the remaining probationary period, and yearly performance up to five years of employment. Specific job performance variables were the final academy grade average, supervisors' evaluation ratings, reprimands, commendations, awards, citizen complaints, time losses, sick time usage, reassignments, promotions, and separations. A causal-comparative research design was used to determine if there were significant statistical differences in these job performance variables between police officers with "acceptable" psychological ratings and police officers with "marginal" psychological ratings. The results of multivariate analyses of variance, t-tests, and chi-square procedures as applicable, showed no significant differences between the two groups on any of the job performance variables.

The thesis deals with two factors that influence ability of a company to achieve competitive advantage thanks to its employees. These factors are satisfaction, that influences ability of a company to attract and retain good employees and motivation, that is prerequisite for their high performance. After introduction of main theories of work motivation and factors, that influence employee satisfaction, the theoretical knowledge is used on example of specific Czech production company.

The thesis focuses on the proposal of changes in a motivation system in the chosen company. The theoretical part explains basic terms, definitions and procedures that are connected to the analyzed topic. Second part of the paper introduces the company and analyzes the current state of a motivation system via company’s documents and a questionnaire. The last part includes the writer’s own suggestions of solutions resulting from the second part’s analysis.

Följande studie, författad av Emma Heldring och Ida Vestlin med titeln Digitala verktyg inom Human Resources, ämnar undersöka HR-anställdas inställningar till digitala verktyg i HR-arbetet. Personliga inställningar till digitala verktyg inom HR-arbetet undersökts utifrån insamlat material från åtta semistrukturerade kvalitativa intervjuer. Tidigare studier på området har främst undersökt de digitala verktygens bidrag ur ett managementperspektiv med fokus på effektivitet och produktivitet, mindre forskning har gjorts om hur de anställda som arbetar med verktygen känner inför dem. Robert Blauners (1964) teoretiska begrepp powerlessness samt delfaktorer ut Bosse Angelöws (2010) modell för en lyckad organisationsförändring utgör, tillsammans med tidigare forskning om digitala verktyg, studiens teoretiska ramverk.   Studiens resultat går i viss linje med tidigare forskning om digitala verktygs bidrag till effektivare arbetssätt och visar att användningen samt behovet av dessa är omfattande. Vidare antyder resultatet att nya digitala verktyg som rekryteringsrobotar och chatbots medför risker men att fördelarna med dem tenderar att överväga nackdelarna, vilket resulterat i en generellt positiv inställning till digitala verktyg inom HR-arbetet. Den mer ingående analysen visar den återkommande reflektionen över fördelar och nackdelar med digitala verktyg, vilket frambringat den ambivalenta inställning som präglar resultatet. Sammantaget har studien bidragit med kunskap om HR-anställdas inställningar till digitala verktyg. / The following study, written by Emma Heldring and Ida Vestlin with the title Digital tools within Human Resources investigates HR-employees attitudes towards digital tools within HR-work. Personal attitudes towards digital tools within HR are intended to be identified with eight semi-structured qualitative interviews. Earlier studies in the field has a management perspective with a focus on increased efficiency and productivity, less research has been done on how the employees working with the tools feel about them. Robert Blauner’s (1964) theoretical concept powerlessness and parts from Bosse Angelöws (2010) reorganizational model, together with previous research about digital tools, constitutes the theoretical framework.   The study's results are in accordance with previous research about digital tools impact on efficiency and show that the use and need of them are comprehensive. The results suggest that new digital tools such as recruitment robots and chatbots entail risks, but their benefits tend to outweigh the disadvantages, which has resulted in a generally positive attitude to digital tools in HR-work. A thorough analysis shows the reoccurring reflection on the advantages and disadvantages of digital tools, which has created the ambivalent attitude that characterizes the result. The study contributes with knowledge of HR-employees attitudes for digital tools.

>Magister Scientiae - MSc / In this chapter, we provide the motivation and background behind the automatic optimisation of an operating system. We begin with a discussion of some of the difficulties of automatic operating system optimisation and the benefits of automatic optimisation technology which inspired our research. We then describe the research problem and aims. Thereafter, our approach and methodology are explained. Finally, the organisation of the thesis and summary are presented. 1.1 Background and Motivation In today's networking world, a mission-critical server requires consistently good performance [2] . To this end, almost all operating systems which run on such a critical server are managed by system administrators who should be skillful and experienced in tuning operating systems by adjusting system configuration and performance parameters of the operating system to run a specific system workload. This involves system capacity planning, performance metrics, workload characteristics, system settings, etc. Skillful system administrators are scarce and expensive. As computer hardware becomes cheaper and free critical computer software becomes more viable, e.g., Linux, Samba, Mysql, Apache, the total cost of ownership for building and maintaining a mission-critical server becomes more and more dominated by the cost of human resources. Furthermore, with the increasing number of new applications and services, a modern operating system offers more system parameters with larger ranges for more system classes than ever before. This situation serves as our motivation for a new generation of automatic optimisation technology for operating systems. The potential benefits of the automatic optimisation technology will be amplified as future applications and operating systems become more complex.

Over the past 28 years, as a human resource (HR) professional, I observed much writing and research on the need for the HR function to focus more on strategic outcomes and less on administration (Lawlerand Boudreau, 2012; OPM, 1999; PPS, 2010; Ulrich 1997). The shift in focus from administrative to strategic has been slow, demonstrated by the fact that from 1995 to 2010 the HR function appears to have has not changed how it allocates its time, has not increased focus on strategic outcomes, and is not engaging in higher value-added activities (Lawler and Boudreau, 2012). Absent from the literature is research on why the members of the HR function have been slow to embrace and demonstrate a strategic HR role (Beer, 1997; Lawler and Boudreau, 2012, OPM, 1999). This study was designed to address this knowledge gap by exploring the relationship between creativity and goal orientation and demonstration of strategic HR competencies based on self-assessed competencies. Understanding these constructs and their relationship to the demonstration of strategic HR competencies can inform the nature of interventions, to include selection, certification, training and development, to facilitate the movement of the HR function from an administrative to a strategic focus. Perceptions about creativity, goal orientation, and demonstration of strategic HR competencies were solicited from Department of Defense, Department of the Army civilian HR professionals. Correlational and multiple regression analyses were used to explore creativity and goal orientation and their relation to the demonstration of strategic HR competencies. Results showed that 17% of the variance in demonstrated strategic HR competencies was explained by creativity and a learning goal orientation, both characteristics of the individual HR professionals. After controlling for pay grade, these predictors still explained 13% of the variance in the self-assessed demonstration of strategic HR competencies. Suggestions for future research include replicating this study with a larger, diverse, randomized sample to validate and expand the findings of this study in terms of affects and generalizations. In addition, research exploring the work environment in organizations that have successfully made the transition from an administrative to a strategic focus. / Ph. D.

This present paper analyses how HR professionals construct and negotiate sustainable human resources management (HRM). The empirical data is collected through five interviews with six informants and in the Swedish working context. A Foucauldian inspired qualitative discourse analysis reveals how sustainability is seen as an important part of HR, and moreover, societal sustainability is seen as the main focus of HR. Contrary to most of the prior sustainability HR research, the discourse of ecological sustainability was not activated to the same extent as the other societal discourses. Instead, the study showed that in the Swedish work context, the matters of health promotion, equality and diversity are seen as more essential.

Inspirationen för denna uppsats är att HR-yrket ökat i popularitet vilket framgår från hur många som söker sig till personalvetenskapliga utbildningar årligen, samtidigt som det enligt tidigare forskning råder en oenighet kring vilken roll yrket ska fylla. Denna studie undersöker hur HR-utövare ser på HR-yrket och de definierar sin yrkesidentitet i jämförelse till vilka förväntningar de hade på yrket på förhand. Vidare utforskar den vilken roll deras utbildning haft i deras arbetsliv, en relevant fråga då utbildningsforskare finner att utbildningsexpansionen resulterar i högre efterfrågan på utbildning utan att de anskaffade färdigheterna nödvändigtvis är nödvändiga.Syftet med vår studie är att bilda en förståelse för hur dessa omständigheter påverkar HR-utövares yrkesidentitet samt vilken nytta deras utbildning ger dem i arbetslivet. Empirin som har att analyserats består av transkriberingar från tio kvalitativa semistrukturerade intervjuer med utbildade HR-utövare, och det teoretiska ramverket grundar sig i Collins (1979) kredentialism samt teorier om yrkesidentitet av bland andra Ibarra och Pritchard.Resultatet finner att respondenternas yrkesidentitet tar olika form och varierar mellan en betoning på mjuka respektive hårda värderingar och att de flesta upplever en dissonans mellan förväntningar på yrket och verkligheten. Dessutom visar det på en tendens på att respondenterna upplever att de kunnat utföra sitt arbete utan utbildning, men att deras utbildningsintyg låg till grund för att de erhöll sin anställning.