Adjustment of a given age distribution to a desired age distribution within a required time frame is dynamically performed for the purpose of Human Resource (HR) planning in Human Resource Management (HRM). The adjustment process is carried out by adding the adjustment magnitudes to the existing number of employees at the selected age groups on the yearly basis. A model of a discrete dynamical system is employed to emulate the evolution of the age distribution used under the adjustment process. Genetic Algorithms (GA) is applied for determining the adjustment magnitudes that influence the dynamics of the system. An interesting aspect of the problem lies in the high number of constraints; though the constraints are fundamental, they are considerably higher in number than in many other optimization problems. An adaptive penalty scheme is proposed for handling the constraints. Numerical examples show that GA with the utilized adaptive penalty scheme provides potential means for HR planning in HRM.

Выпускная квалификационная работа состоит из введения, трех частей, заключения, библиографического списка и приложений. В теоретической части представлена важнейшая роль культуры безопасности в отрасли производства железнодорожного оборудования. Основное внимание в нем уделяется усилиям компании L по совершенствованию практики управления безопасностью полетов в условиях строгих правил техники безопасности и конкурентного давления на рынке. Основной целью данного исследования является анализ и оптимизация культуры безопасности в компании L для повышения ее отраслевых стандартов, операционной эффективности и общей конкурентоспособности. В практической части анализируется многогранный исследовательский подход, который включает опросы сотрудников, анализ показателей безопасности и сравнительные отраслевые показатели. Это исследование дает всестороннюю оценку существующей культуры безопасности, выявляет недостатки и предлагает действенные улучшения. Содержание проектной части раскрывает взаимосвязь корпоративной культуры и культуры безопасности и рассматривает внедрение эффективного обучения, расширенных коммуникационных стратегий и участие руководства в разработке протоколов безопасности в качестве ключевых компонентов. Продвигая эти инициативы, компания L стремится не только поддерживать высокие стандарты безопасности, но и создавать инклюзивную и гибкую рабочую среду, которая может значительно снизить количество несчастных случаев на производстве и повысить благосостояние сотрудников, тем самым повышая общую устойчивость и конкурентоспособность компании. В заключение, результаты подводятся в соответствии с поставленными задачами, способствуя более широкому пониманию культуры безопасности как ключевого элемента, имеющего стратегическое значение в отраслях с высоким уровнем риска, и предоставляя конкретные практические рекомендации для компании L, которые могли бы послужить образцом для аналогичных предприятий, стремящихся к совершенству в управлении безопасностью и корпоративной устойчивости. / The final qualifying work consists of an introduction, three parts, a conclusion, a bibliographic list, and appendixes. The theoretical part presents the critical role of safety culture within the railroad equipment manufacturing industry. It focuses on Company L's efforts to enhance its safety management practices amidst stringent safety regulations and competitive market pressures. The core objective of this study is to analyze and optimize Company L's safety culture to elevate its industry standards, operational efficiency, and overall competitiveness. The practical part analyzes the multifaceted research approach that includes employee surveys, safety record analysis, and comparative industry benchmarks. This research delivers a comprehensive assessment of the existing safety culture, identifies deficiencies, and proposes actionable improvements. The project part contents articulate the interconnectedness of corporate and safety cultures and explore the implementation of effective training, enhanced communication strategies, and leadership engagement in safety protocols as key components. By advancing these initiatives, Company L aims not only to uphold high safety standards but also to foster an inclusive and responsive working environment that can significantly reduce workplace accidents and enhance employee well-being, thereby improving overall corporate resilience and competitiveness. In conclusion, the results are summed up in accordance with the tasks set, contributing to the broader understanding of safety culture as a pivotal element of strategic importance in high-risk industries, and providing specific, actionable insights for Company L that could serve as a model for similar enterprises striving for excellence in safety management and corporate sustainability.

I dagens föränderliga värld står SME ofta inför en mängd varierande utmaningar, där det krävs en rad olika strategier och lösningar för att lyckas navigera igenom de utmaningarna som företagen ställs inför. En av de händelser som ofta förknippas med stora och komplexa utmaningar är tiden av hög tillväxt. Tillväxt skiljer sig mellan företag men även på individnivå och behöver mer teoretiskt stöd för att minska riskerna som är associerade med tillväxt. Det är av stor vikt att växa som företag, då det minskar riskerna och/eller är ett sätt att skydda sig mot exempelvis ökade kostnader för råvaror, konkurrens, konjunkturförändringar eller brister på kompetens. Tillväxt ska inte enbart förknippas med framgång utan medför även risker då dålig hantering annars kan leda till minskat förtroende, personalomsättning eller i värsta fall konkurs för företag. En stor del av att lyckas med hög tillväxt är kopplat till kompetenshantering och finansiellt kapital och beroende på hur bra företagen är på att effektivt arbeta med dessa faktorer kan vara skillnaden mellan en lyckad och en misslyckad tillväxt. Hur hanterar företagsledningen i SME balansen mellan att attrahera och behålla kompetens på ett finansiellt hållbart sätt under perioder av hög organisk tillväxt? Syftet med denna studie är att utvärdera hanteringen av kompetens inom företag som genomgått hög tillväxt, med särskilt fokus på att attrahera och behålla kompetens och personalkostnader. Där målet med studien är att bidra med praktiska rekommendationer på effektiva strategier till företagsledare som står inför eller är i en period av hög tillväxt. För att ta reda på dessa strategier kommer studien genom ett deduktivt angreppssätt identifiera huvudteman utifrån redan befintlig forskning och teori. Teorigenerade teman kommer sedan att undersökas genom en kvalitativ undersökning med semistrukturerade intervjuer. Respondenterna i studien är företagsledare inom den kunskapsintensiva branscherna som är verksamma i företag som har haft en eller flera perioder av hög tillväxt. Slutsatsen av undersökningen var att det skiljer sig en del från vad tidigare teorier säger och hur företagslandskapet är idag där attraktionsvärdet hos företaget tidigare har fokuserat på lönenivåer som nu har bytts ut mot vikten av företagskultur och utvecklingsmöjligheter i samband med att kompetenskraven ökar i takt med teknikens framgång.

The study employed a quantitative research method, which is descriptive in nature, to determine the role of Human Resource Management in supporting the strategic objectives of the Department of Environmental Affairs. This interest was explored with particular reference to the Environmental Programmes branch of the Department of Environmental Affairs. Data was gathered from senior, middle and junior managers through self-administered questionnaires and it was then analysed using statistical methods and graphs. The findings reveal that the role of Human Resource Management in supporting the strategic objectives of the Department of Environmental Affairs is not efficiently elevated or viewed to have any influence on the desired goals of the Department of Environmental Affairs. As a result, the Human Resource Management component is not considered a strategic partner. Furthermore, the senior, middle and junior managers know very little about the Human Resource Management strategy and there exists a lack of emphasis on the development and implementation of joint strategic human resource management plans between the managers and the Human Resource Management component. / Public Administration / M.P.A.

Research in training and development at organisations has produced important results in the previous two decades. The results indicate that higher motivation and satisfaction levels of employees are the result of training and development effectiveness with relation to work and employees’ productivity. The aim and purpose of the study was to investigate the effectiveness of training and development in enhancing organisational productivity. The researcher wanted to determine whether training and development did in fact enhance the productivity of employees. A non-probability sampling method was employed when conducting the research. The research methods used were a combination of observations, a questionnaire, a workshop, a survey and interviews with participants. A qualitative research approach guided this process in order to accomplish the aim and purpose of the study and was based on data collection and analysis of information, documents and interviews to determine training and development for performance improvement. / Human Resources Development / NM. Tech. (Human Resources Development)

Today, the effective management of people is assuming prominence as a source of sustained business performance improvement. The rationale for this trend is that other significant aspects of business, such as marketing, new technology, market niche, trademarks and brand image have generally been mastered. Therefore, business enterprises are being encouraged in seeking to gain comparative advantage by reliance on their human resources because this aspect of business is arguably more difficult to imitate or understand than the more conventional resources. As a result, there is an awakening of the need to introduce management practices that will concentrate on the added value which a highly motivated work force may provide to the organisation. The idea of added value from a highly motivated work force assumes even greater significance when the main business hinges almost entirely on the attitudes and approaches of people. This concept applies most forcibly to Barbados and the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (BOECS), the region covered by this study. This research therefore, explores the idea of gaining comparative advantage through appropriate people management methods and follows the trend in the developed and more industrialised nations of the world in an effort to determine whether there is a useful model of effective management practices which may be replicated in the BOECS and thus lead to improved business performance in the micro states which constitute this ii region. However, this study is mindful of the limitations of the research methodology which a vast number of contributors to this intriguing topic have employed. Nevertheless, this exploratory attempt examines the issue in the light of its possible positive effect on a previously uncharted area, viz., Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean (BOECS) as far as it relates to scholarly treaties on Human Resource Management. The idea is that even in the absence of clear unequivocal empirical evidence about its benefits, it may be useful to pursue the strategic approach to Human Resource Management including expansion of employee involvement, for it own sake.

本研究旨在了解男性公務人員申請育嬰留職停薪之歷程，及復職或離職後的感受，並對公務人員育嬰留職停薪政策所產生的政策問題意涵加以分析討論。為有效達成上述目的，本研究採取深度訪談法，訪談10名男性公務人員申請育嬰留職停薪者, 並將所得結果詮釋及賦與意義，歸納研究發現如下： 1.男性公務人員在潛意識裡仍有性別分工之意識，然而他們也逐漸體認到性別主流化所倡導的觀念，且願意參與家務，因此性別分工論仍然存在，但似乎有鬆動的跡象。 2.男性會申請育嬰留職停薪去從事其他事務（如進修）者，多數在其原有職務上都產生疏離的現象。另外，其申請過程的順利與否，端視任職機關在機關首長的帶領下，形成的組織文化如何運作。 3.男性公務人員雖會以申請育嬰留職停薪方式從事其他活動，但應可以鼓勵代替防弊，漸進地誘導男性參與家庭來改善，並應建全托育制度，及規劃育嬰留職停薪的相關配套措施。 / This study explores the track of male public servants who took parental leaves and attempts to understand their feelings when they returned to work or resigned. Based on such understanding, the study further analyzes the problems behind parental leave policy. The author conducted in-depth interviews on ten male public servants who took parental leaves and the results of the interviews were interpreted and assigned meanings. The findings are as follows： 1.The male public servants had consciousness of division of labor by gender. However, they were aware of the concept of gender mainstreaming gradually, and were willing to participate in housekeeping. Therefore, the gender division of labor still exists, but it seems to be oscillated. 2.When the male public servants took parental leaves but did other affairs（like studies）, most of them had the sense of alienation from their jobs. Besides, whether their applications for parental leaves went smooth or not depended on the culture of the organization. 3.When dealing with the problem that some male public servants take advantage of parental leaves for other purposes, instead of averting their cheating, we should encourage them to participate in family duties. Thus we can improve the situation gradually. Finally, we should amend the childcare policy and formulate supporting measures for the current parental leave policy.

The primary goal of this study was to identify key success factors for the management of a conference centre in South Africa. This goal was achieved by firstly portraying an overview of the conference industry in South Africa. Secondly, a literature study was conducted in order to determine the aspects in the literature that are regarded as of vital importance in managing a conference centre. Thirdly, the results of the empirical research were discussed. Lastly, conclusions were drawn from the research and recommendations were made with regard to further research. From the literature study, aspects of strategic management, financial management, marketing management, human resource management and management of operational aspects were identified as being important in the management of a conference centre. These aspects were used to compile a questionnaire. The objective of the questionnaire was to measure the importance that conference centre managers attach to the identified elements. Questionnaires were e-mailed to 250 conference centres. A total of 100 questionnaires were received back. The study population consisted of a database as compiled by the researcher from the Direct Access Conference Handbook (2004) and the Africa Conference Directory (2006/7). Questionnaires were also handed out personally to exhibitors at the INDABA Tourism Exhibition (2006). From the responses to the questionnaire it can be deduced that conference centre managers regard the aspects of strategic management, financial management, marketing management, human resource management and management of operational details as important to very important. A factor analysis was done to determine the key success factors in managing a conference centre. The following factors were identified, namely to: • Provide a conference centre with a functional layout and the correct variety of activities; • perform marketing management; • ensure that operational aspects are in place; • do proper planning; • provide an attractive venue and conduct a post-conference evaluation; and • perform human resource management. Conference centre managers have to apply the above-mentioned key success factors to ensure that the conference centre is successful over the longterm. / Thesis (M.A. (Tourism))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

The recent revival of debates concerning livestock development in Africa follows the more widespread acceptance of paradigm shifts within rangeland science, and maintaining pastoral mobility is now recognised as fundamental for the future survival of pastoralism and sustainability of dryland environments. However, in southern Africa communal pastoral drylands continue to be enclosed and dissected by large-scale barrier fences designed to control livestock diseases, thus protecting lucrative livestock export agreements. This interdisciplinary research examines the extent to which these veterinary cordon fences have changed people’s access to, and effective management of, natural resources in northern Botswana and how fence-restricted resource use by livestock, wildlife and people has changed the natural environment. Critical political ecology informed the approach, given its emphasis on socio-political and historical influences on resource access, mobility and user relationships. This enabled the biophysical effects of social changes to be investigated fully, thereby moving beyond a tradition of discipline-based studies often resulting in severely repressive rangeland policies. The research demonstrates how enclosure by veterinary cordon fences restricts patterns of resource access and mobility within pastoral drylands, with serious implications for both social and environmental sustainability. Enclosure increases the vulnerability of people to risks and natural hazards, while resource access constraints and pastoral adaptations to enclosure have favoured the increasing commercialisation of livestock production, thus obstructing pathways into pastoralism. While widespread environmental change in livestock areas cannot be attributed thus far to enclosure, the curtailment of wild migratory herbivores at the wildlife–livestock interface has caused some large-scale structural vegetation changes and there are indications that fence induced sedentarisation could be accentuating existing degradation trends. Given these changes, future rangeland policies in Africa should be aware of the social and environmental impacts associated with export-led disease management infrastructure and consider alternative, less intrusive, approaches to livestock development and disease control in extensive pastoral drylands.

Acknowledging the difficulties of achieving effective strategic management in practice, this thesis investigates how formal strategies quite often succeed in conditioning organisational actions even in firms such as professional service firms, which may lack effective measures for coercing action and which often depend on distributed decision-making. The fundamental question posed in this investigation is: what are the social processes that make strategies work? This thesis addresses that question by contributing to our understanding of strategy realisation as a continuing process of translating formal strategies into ‘strategies-in-practice’, i.e. the situated performance of strategies through choices, actions, and practices pertaining to the selection and accomplishment of concrete assignments. The thesis investigates this translation process in three small professional service firms, in which the responsibility for enacting the strategies lies with autonomous practitioners, making centralised strategy realisation difficult. Searching for integration rather than further fragmentation of different strands of strategy research, the thesis make use of Porterian activity systems theory, Giddens’ structuration theory, Wittgensteinian theory of rule-following, Searlean theory of intentionality, and the strategy-as-practice approach, in order to understand the translation process as the intentional structuration of practice. The thesis reports two main contributions, the first addressing a gap in strategy re-search, the second contradicting prevailing theories. The first contribution is an outline of a theory of strategy translation: how formal strategies are translated into strategies-in-practice, coping with insoluble strategic dilemmas, and achieving maintenance of strategic position and strategies-in-practice under pressure for unwanted change. Good strategies-in-practice are as much about managing dilemmas as about eliminating them. Second, in contrast to prevailing strategic positioning theory and generic strategies, this study documents the potential benefits of straddling strategically distinct services within a single activity system, in terms of: learning opportunities; work variation; better opportunities for attracting, developing, and retaining talented people; the possibilities of capitalising on client relationships; and the dynamics of routinisation of once-novel services.