Thesis (M.A. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2006.

The current study assessed the moderating effects of Age and the mediating effects of Job Satisfaction on the relationship between antecedents Employee Engagement and Compensation Fairness and the outcome variable Turnover Intent. The theory of reasoned action and a theoretical framework for examining age-effects on employee attitudes were used as the theoretical underpinnings for the study. The study utilized a secondary data set with surveyed population including faculty (n = 1,229) from a land-grant institution holding the doctoral/research-extensive classification from the Carnegie Classification and serving about 42,000 students each year with graduates totaling more than 9,000 per year. Findings confirmed that 11 of the 12 items of the Gallup Workplace Audit loaded on the Employee Engagement factor. Findings also confirmed a 3-item solution for the Compensation Fairness factor. Both Employee Engagement and Compensation Fairness demonstrated an inverse relationship with Turnover Intent as expected. Job Satisfaction was found not to mediate the relationship between both Employee Engagement and Compensation Fairness with the outcome variable Turnover Intent. Finally, Age was not found to moderate the relationship between antecedent variables and Turnover Intent. Recommendations for research and practice were made.

<p>To have a functioning organization where there is a self-development for employees them selves, as well as between managers and employees, where employees are empowered and work for the organization and its goals. Feedback seems to be the main instrument to solve problems and create that organization. At the Military Academy Karlberg and the basic officers training there is a lot of discussions about feedback and how it is supposed to be carried out. This essay discusses the matter of how well we live up to the demands set by leadership classes at the Military Academy, what the platoon leaders do think about how feedback takes its expression. The questions about how feedback is used are to be answered by interviews with five platoon leaders and their thoughts about how feedback is communicated at the Academy. The results of the interviews have got differences but there are common points of view. All platoon leaders have the opinion that feedback is an instrument which is made for developing either the personell or the organization. Three of the platoon leaders use expressions when they give feedback, such as “i-expressions”:“When you act like this I feel like…etc”. How feedback takes its expression is in general manifested with big differences but all of the platoon leaders do agree that feedback is not used as much as it could be. With consideration to the differences in opinions, the conclusion, consist of how feedback takes its expression. It is important that everyone in the organization gets empowered and aligned with the common goals of the organization.</p>

In der wissenschaftlichen Literatur, in der betrieblichen Praxis und in der gesellschaftlichen Diskussion wird wieder zunehmend mehr die Bedeutung der Beschäftigten für den Unternehmenserfolg hervorgehoben und diskutiert. Unternehmen, die zielgerichtet geeignete Managementstrategien mit Blick auf den Umgang mit ihren Beschäftigten einsetzen, werden in bezug auf ihre ökonomische Wertschöpfung als erfolgreicher charakterisiert. Besonders im Bereich Human Resources Management lassen sich erste Belege finden, die es ermöglichen, den ökonomischen Erfolg von Unternehmen kausal auf einzelne Personalmanagementstrategien zurückzuführen. Ziel eigener Untersuchungen in der IT- und Softwarebranche war es, Unternehmenserfolg auf der Grundlage ökonomischer Erfolgsmaße und des subjektiven Erlebens der Beschäftigten in kleinen und mittleren Softwareunternehmen unter besonderer Fokussierung des Human Resources Management und der Unternehmenskultur zu untersuchen. / In scientific literature, operational practice, and societal discussion, the importance of the employees for the company success is increasingly accentuated. Organizations applying precise management strategies with focus on their employees are characterized more successful in terms of added value. Especially in Human Resource Management, research has shown that companies economical success can causally be ascribed by personnel management strategies.<br /> Aim of this study in the IT- and Software sector was the investigation of company success on the basis of economical success measures and the subjective experience of the employees in small and middle sized software companies, focusing especially on Human Resource Management.

The increased attention to performance measurements is evident in both private and public sector organizations and among both academics and practitioners. Although there is a strong belief in the possibilities of using measurements for managing organizations, both academics and practitioners have questioned measurements potential. This thesis takes part in debating the potentiality of performance measurements by attending to the development, use and consequences of non-financial indicators that are considered a specific form of performance measurements. When investigating the development of indicators, it became evident that several of the new indicators developed proved to be reformulations of non-financial measurements already used within the organizations before the development work. What had changed was primarily the meaning ascribed to the measurements. As a consequence of this ‘re-cycling’ of measurements, it is concluded that the meaning given to specific non-financial indicators change over time. The present investigation also reveals that three shifting rationales are informing the development of indicators. This finding contributes with insights into the construction of indicators and how the link between indicators and action are conceived and established in a development process. A main finding of the investigation concerns how indicators are used. In contrast to previous studies, the results show that indicators can have a negative impact on performance unless the indicators are used in a sophisticated way. Based on these results it is argued that it is insufficient to attend solely to if indicators are used, i.e. greater attention needs to be paid to the question of how they are used. The investigation also presents evidence suggesting that the often used adage “what gets measured gets managed” needs to be revised. It is argued that measuring is not a means to activate the organization per se. Rather, measurements support those issues that are already mobilized within the organization. In conclusion, this investigation suggests that the potentiality of indicators depends on the meaning ascribed to indicators, how indicators are assumed to link to action, how indicators are used and how indicators are related to other organizational activities.

Scandinavia comprises Denmark, Sweden and Norway. Twenty years ago, the concept of Scandinavian management was created (Grennes, 2003). Earlier research is referring to culture as the reason for different management styles around the world. It is also found that human resources are highly valued in Scandinavian manage-ment (Eriksen et al., 2006). This study aims at understanding what Scandinavian management is and see if this matches with the style of management actually practised in Sweden. The purpose of the thesis is to, through empirical examples, study what Scandinavian management is and if it is practised on the Swed-ish market. Included in the purpose is also to investigate how Scan-dinavian management is addressed in prior research. This study uses a qualitative method. Two earlier done case studies about Manpower and IKEA are used. Using a qualitative method, we have conducted five interviews to get accurate data to help us answer our purpose. Two of the interviews were conducted with representatives from both Manpower and IKEA. One interview was done with Schramm-Nielsen who is an expert in the field of Scandi-navian management. The last interviews were carried out with two persons with a wide range of experience in the field of management in Sweden. The study concludes that the main focus of Scandinavian manage-ment lies within human resources. Equality, communication, coop-eration, trust and consensual decision making are vital elements in the concept of Scandinavian management. Managers in Sweden are focused on their employees and feel that they need to satisfy them in order to motivate them. This motivation has proven to lead to better productivity and performance of the organization. Swedish managers are indeed focused on human resources and are practising Scandinavian management. Scandinavian management is necessary on the Swedish market as it increases the chances for having a pro-ductive company with satisfied employees and customers.

To have a functioning organization where there is a self-development for employees them selves, as well as between managers and employees, where employees are empowered and work for the organization and its goals. Feedback seems to be the main instrument to solve problems and create that organization. At the Military Academy Karlberg and the basic officers training there is a lot of discussions about feedback and how it is supposed to be carried out. This essay discusses the matter of how well we live up to the demands set by leadership classes at the Military Academy, what the platoon leaders do think about how feedback takes its expression. The questions about how feedback is used are to be answered by interviews with five platoon leaders and their thoughts about how feedback is communicated at the Academy. The results of the interviews have got differences but there are common points of view. All platoon leaders have the opinion that feedback is an instrument which is made for developing either the personell or the organization. Three of the platoon leaders use expressions when they give feedback, such as “i-expressions”:“When you act like this I feel like…etc”. How feedback takes its expression is in general manifested with big differences but all of the platoon leaders do agree that feedback is not used as much as it could be. With consideration to the differences in opinions, the conclusion, consist of how feedback takes its expression. It is important that everyone in the organization gets empowered and aligned with the common goals of the organization.

¡§Employees¡¨ are the most important factor to concern the business. However, love to go ease and hate to work hard is human¡¦s nature. If less to take care the workpeople for a long time, wasting resources, neglecting handling official papers, making excuses¡Ksuch events should be happened. It¡¦s an important issue to build up the good organize and harmonious atmosphere, make the employees willing and enthusiastic at work. On workpeople and affairs management, there are two important things ¡§trusty¡¨ and ¡§effectiveness¡¨. For examples, when you have a target practice, all of the shootings are on the bull¡¦s eye. It means good at ¡§trusty¡¨ and ¡§effectiveness¡¨¡F If all of the shootings are on one spot out of the bull¡¦s eye, it means good at ¡§trusty¡¨ but not at ¡§effectiveness¡¨. All of the bosses would hope their employees are good at ¡§trusty¡¨ and ¡§effectiveness¡¨ on their work field. Due to the competitiveness of Taiwan¡¦s industries, it is hard to avoid moving to overseas. Because of the enticements of cost down and prosper market, Mainland China is most of the industries¡¦ common investment choices. There are different politics and economic policies between two sides of straits. And the wide gap of social culture and values exist in Taiwan and Mainland China. As a result of politics and economic policies open and develop, especially industrial circles focus on pursuing achievements, it brings workpeople new thoughts. It also makes some problems at adapting to thoughts and behaviors of the workpeople. Therefore, the complexity and importance of human resources management are manifested. The passive components industries are widespread in Taiwan. To comply with the assembling factories generations alternating and products renewing, the attached business opportunities should be brought up. But Taiwan is just good at low technique production resistance and capacitance. The international main industrials use as low price to occupy the market. The materials and innovation skills are controlled by Japan, Europe and China. They become to the production center in the world year after year. The passive components industries in Taiwan must bring up the effective human resources management tactics to build up superiorly competitiveness to break through the difficult position. Otherwise the passive components industries in Taiwan will face the threat to be knocked out. This research is based on the passive components And try to find out the different and similar views on human resources management between two sides of strait. To contrast and analyze the advantage and disadvantage draft the different policies to suit different environment, to improve the satisfaction of employees. Furthermore, the passive component industrial in Taiwan should be raise on business effects and competitiveness.

Many researchers have examined the effect of formal mentoring on job satisfaction and organizational commitment. However, there has been little or no focus on an employee's intent to participate in a formal mentoring program based upon an employee's perceived organizational support, and/or affective reaction (job satisfaction and organizational commitment). In the current study, the researcher examined the relationship among cultural values, perceived organizational support (career and psychosocial support), affective reaction (job satisfaction and organizational commitment), and the intent to participate in a formal mentoring program in an oilfield services organization. A 44-item electronic survey was utilized to collect data. The questionnaire was sent to 831 Field Engineers 1 (FE1's) in forty-two countries within an oilfield services organization. The sample included 341 respondents. Descriptive statistics, Cronbach's alpha estimates for reliability, factor analysis, correlation analysis, regression analysis, path analysis, and structural equation modeling were the analyses used in the study. The researcher posited that cultural values amongst the FE1's do not differ significantly; moreover, the cultural values do not influence the FE1's perceived organization support. Further, it was found that FE1's perceived support (career and psychosocial) and affective reactions predicted the FE1's intent to participate in a formal mentoring program.

Företagens personal är idag en stor resurs, i många företag en av de största, men kan trots detta inte tas upp som en tillgång enligt dagens redovisningsstandards. Det finns idag många olika normgivande organ men det är FASB (Financial Accounting Standards Board) som har sammanställt de tre kriterier som en resurs måste uppfylla för att tillgodoräknas som en tillgång i företagens redovisningar. De tre kriterierna är: att resursen skall förväntas innebära ekonomiska fördelar för företaget i framtiden, den skall kontrolleras av företaget samt att den skall ha uppkommit som en följd av en inträffad händelse. Ett av problemen med humankapitalsredovisning idag ligger i att företagen inte anses kontrollera personalen på ett sådant sätt som FASB kräver. Detta kriterium brister i och med att personalen kan gå hem när arbetsdagen är slut eller säga upp sig när det så vill. Företagen kan idag synliggöra sitt humana kapital genom en tilläggsnot eller som ett supplement till de traditionella årsredovisningarna. Det har dock gjorts många försök att hitta lösningar på problemet med att tillgodoräkna humankapitalet som en tillgång, dock alla utan hållbara resultat. Det har emellertid tagits fram många modeller för att kunna värdera humankapitalet, bland annat SkandiaNavigatorn, IC-rating och The Intangible Assets Monitor. Dessa modeller användes flitigt under stora delar av nittiotalet men är idag inte alls lika omfattande. För externa intressenter kan utelämnandet av humankapitalsredovisningen innebära att de går miste om essentiell information, som bland annat påverkar deras beslutsfattande. Vårt arbete har dock påvisat att det råder stor brist på interesse bland de externa intressenterna, för de mjuka fakta som humankapitalet presenterar. Det bristande intresset ser vi som en stor anledning till att det har skett en depreciering av humankapitalsredovisningen över åren. Även bristen på tillförlitlighet och jämförbarhet, som är två viktiga termer i redovisningssammanhang påvisas vara en stark orsak till att värderingsmodellerna inte appliceras i så stor utsträckning av företagen. / Companies employee are today a large resource, in some cases even one of the largest. Because of the accounting standards of today the companies are not allowed to show the human resources as an asset in their accounting reports. Even though there are a number of normative institutions, it is FASB that has summed up the three criteria that a resource has to fulfil to be allowed to count as an asset. The three criteria are; the resource are expected to involve economic profits to the company in the future, it is supposed to be controlled by the company and also it has to arise due to an happened event. One of the accounting problems of today is that the companies do not seem to control the employees in a way that FASB (Financial Accounting Standards Board) demands. The criteria lack due to the fact that the employees are allowed to go home at the end of the workday or resign when ever they please. The companies of today are able to make the human resources visible in their accounting thru an addendum or a supplement to the ordinary annual financial report. However, several attempts have been done to find a solution of the problem to allow the human resources as an asset, still with no lasting results. Nevertheless, a number of models have been created to estimate the value of the human resources, among others there are SkandiaNavigator, IC-rating and The Intangible Assets Monitor. The models were frequently used under the majority of the nineties but today we are not using them in such a large-scale. For external partners could the leave out of the human capital accounting mean that they might loose essential information that might influence their decision-making. Our job has despite this, showed a large lack of interest from the external partners, for what the soft facts the human capital is an indicator of. The lack of interest could be a contributed fact to why it has been a depreciation of human capital accounting over the years. Even floss on reliability and comparison, which is two important terms in accounting context, seems to be a strong reason why the valuation models do not apply in a large scale by the companies.