There is a pharmacist shortage in British Columbia that is considered particularly acute in rural and remote locations. As a result, the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of British Columbia has increased enrolment from certain geographic areas, assuming that students will return to these areas on graduation. The main objectives of this study are to determine where pharmacy graduates take their first jobs and the factors that influence their selection of job location. Survey methodology was used, with a written questionnaire being administered to the Class of 2007 after a validation process involving volunteers from the Class of 2006. Mean values of responses on rating scales were compared to assess for statistically significant (p≤O.O5) effects of location size and the demographic variables of age, sex, marital status, and ethnicity. Of 93 respondents who reported both a primary home town and ajob location, only 33(35%) planned to take jobs where they grew up and only 42 (45%) were taking jobs in the same area of the province. The most common migration patterns were from smaller to larger communities and from all over the province into Metro Vancouver. Those who grew up in Metro Vancouver did not leave. However, the majority of those who did take jobs in other areas of the province had lived there previously. The strongest influences on job location were familiarity with the location, ability to get an enjoyable job, pace of life, proximity to significant others, and career and relationship plans. Smaller community size, ability to practice in the manner desired, and pace of work were more important, and access to cultural, entertainment, and/or social activities were less important to those taking jobs in rural rather than urban areas. There were no findings of practical significance associated with the demographic variables examined. The selective admission into 12 specially funded seats in the program of students from geographic areas other than the province’s one large urban centre is modestly effective in ensuring a supply of pharmacists for these areas. However, the use of geography as a criterion for all seats and an increase in the total number of seats would ensure that the student body is more representative of the provincial population and would address both supply and demand aspects of the pharmacist shortage.

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Thesis (M.B.A.)--Boston University

Thesis (DTech (Philosophy (Human Resources Management))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2007 / With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1998 and the fall of the famous Berlin Wall, the final victory or triumph of capitalism over its alternatives, heralded a neoliberal economic system known as globalisation, which was postulated to address the problem. of humankind, including workers, on a global scale. This postulation· led many nations to rush to infuse themselves into the capitalist global system, which is reflected by the opening up of borders to the transnational juggernauts of globalisation. However, a few years into the euphoric global capitalist triumphalism, globalisation and internationalisation seems to have produced some negative consequences for human resources and industrial democracy, both in the North and South. As capital proceeds with its accumulation, expansion and profitability, unemployment has burgeoned, as the government's power to create lasting employment has been supIne owing to the privatisation of the public sector, retrenchment in the private sector, as a direct result of automation, re-engineering, outsourcing and the disastrous effect of global competition, which has eroded labour unionism. In the present state of affairs, labour has been requested to bear the burden of global capitalist hegemony, and the pro-globalist argument, that in the long-run the benefit of globalisation would yield a trickle-down effect to the worst affected workers, has turned a mirage, while the discontentment of the average working class and the majority who have lost out In the global economy, is the cause of renewed widespread global tensions. The current state of affairs has had a polarising effect on people's view, and has resulted in the development of two schools, namelythe pro-globalist and the anti-globalist camps. With the former persistently asserting that globalisation and internationalisation have positive repercussions for workers and industrial democracy, the latter strongly opposes the above assertion. The author of this study aligns more with the latter's view. Therefore, the aim of this research is to prove, beyond reasonable doubt, that there is actually a negative functional relationship between globalisation, internationalisation, human resources and industrial democracy, and to postulate some ameliorating mechanisms, which could enhance· the putative negative relationship, so that a higher human, social and economic order is realised

This thesis addresses an existing gap in the workplace bullying literature: how Human Resource Practitioners (HRPs) construct, interpret and respond to workplace bullying. Semistructured interviews were conducted with individual HRPs and a small focus group using two forms of data collection: HRPs’ unprompted interpretations of a vignette depicting a bullying situation and HRPs’ own experiential accounts of handling bullying claims. The HRPs were from private and public sector organisations, and all occupied roles that involved dealing with bullying claims. The interviews were analysed using Critical Discourse Analysis, and Bourdieu’s Theory of Practice provided the framework for interpreting the multilevel individual, organisational and social factors influencing HRPs’ bullying-related practice. The findings suggest that bullying is a complex and difficult issue for HRPs due to a combination of organisational pressure to protect managers, management-centric antibullying policies and the relative powerlessness of Human Resource Management and HRPs in organisations. HRPs applied a range of interpretive mechanisms that served to attribute blame to the target and legitimise the manager’s behaviour, even when the behaviour described met academic definitions of bullying. The way the HRPs constructed, interpreted and responded to bullying claims depended on whether the alleged bully was the target’s peer or manager. The HRPs consistently constructed peer-to-peer claims as interpersonal conflict and manager-to-employee claims as the target’s reaction to performance-management practices. The HRPs’ construct of ‘genuine bullying’ appeared to comprise four essential criteria: intentional and person-related behaviour between peers, which has significant negative impact on a trustworthy target. These findings have significant implications for research and practice. Firstly, HRPs’ construct of ‘genuine bullying’ is fundamentally different to academic and organisational definitions of bullying. Secondly, as a result of these constructs and interpretive mechanisms it appears very unlikely that any management behaviour in manager-to-employee claims would be constructed as bullying by HRPs.

Facial expressions appear to have a powerful influence on the perception of leadership. The aim of the five studies presented here was to add to our knowledge about the contribution of facial expression to the perception of leadership. In particular, these five studies were used to explore which facial expressions influence perceptions of leadership and how these facial expressions influence leadership perceptions. Participants’ prototypes of leadership were examined by assessing implicit leadership theories. Furthermore, facial expression stimuli (videos and pictures) were used in two research phases. Phase 1 (studies 1 and 2) used different research designs applied to different populations, to pilot the design and also to examine how leadership perceptions are formed from facial expression. Participants’ prototypes of leadership were assessed. Additionally, the participants were asked to evaluate pictures of different facial expressions. In Study 1, leadership perceptions were investigated based on basic facial actions. Study 2, extended this approach by using context activation in a facial expression scenario. Perceived leadership from the facial expressions was compared to the participants’ prototypes. The results indicated that the participants used all available information, including facial appearance, expression, context of communication, appropriateness, and authenticity of expression to form complex prototypes. When the facial expressions in the studies matched the participants’ prototypes, perception of leadership tended to be higher. In phase 2 (studies 3, 4, and 5), the feedback from phase 1 was used to refine the instruments, and applied to different research designs on a large, culturally and organisationally homogenous sample. The aim of the three studies of the second phase was to further add to our knowledge about the contribution of facial expression to the perception of leadership. Similarly to phase 1, participants’ prototypes of leadership were assessed. In addition, participants were shown photo sequences or videos of different facial expressions. Study 3 used manipulations of static facial expression sequences, transferring some well known impression formation tests (see Asch, 1946) to the research of leadership perception from facial expression. Study 4 used videos of a leader’s/actor’s facial expressions in an organisational context. Finally, study 5 used photos extracted from the videos of study 4 with some additional manipulations. Perceived leadership from the facial expressions was compared to the participants’ prototypes. The results revealed that when the facial expressions in the studies matched the participants’ prototypes, perception of leadership was higher for the majority of the cases examined. Furthermore, the facial expression manipulations appeared to cause significant changes in perceptions of leadership. Particularly, participants considered those facial expressions that transmitted negativity as less leader-like than the ones transmitting positive emotions. Moreover, static facial expressions were perceived differently from dynamic facial expressions in terms of leadership perceptions. Changing the order of the sequence of specific facial expressions did not yield significant differences for the photo-sequences investigated. Finally, although gender differences were found in almost all participants ILTs dimensions, when they had to evaluate the facial expressions, men and women showed much more agreement. In conclusion, the evidence from the current research suggests that facial expressions significantly influence the perception of leadership. However, making sense of that influence was a matter of understanding what is inside the perceiver’s mind. On the basis of the studies included in this thesis, it is recommented for leaders and organisations to shift attention from developing certain leadership skills to increasing perceptual awareness.

This research is concerned with the Human Resource contribution to High Performance Work Systems in High Performing Human Resource Offshoring and Business Process Offshoring organisations in India. Indian Business Process Offshoring organisations offer knowledge intensive services dependent on human resources for delivery. Technology underpins the delivery of services and processes; however, the employees of Human Resource Offshoring Business Process Offshoring are central to organisational resources and represent a cornerstone for value creation. The management of Human Resources is therefore central to overall performance and success. There is a lack of research on High Performance Work Systems strategies adopted and adapted by successful Indian firms in this sector. This study bridges this gap through an empirical longitudinal study. Methodologically, longitudinal qualitative reflexive case study examinations have been rare in management and organisation research. Previous studies have concentrated on being ‘snap-shot’ whereas this study’s longitudinal nature enabled a more holistic and contextualised view of the Human Resources processes. Fieldwork was conducted in three phases, (ten visits) over five years. Data gathering methods included interviews and focus groups. A longitudinal reflexive research methodology using inductive and deductive approaches was utilised via an innovative and robust combination of ‘template’ ‘processual’ and ‘systematic’ analysis. Findings suggest a complex, global, networked and dynamic business context, wherein Human Resource Management is understood and enacted in different forms, characterised by 'shape-shifting', a dynamic 'entanglement' of problem solving and strategic adoptive and adaptive approaches to attrition and performance. Phase 1 of the research witnessed attrition anxiety drive both a focus on employer branding and perceived sophisticated Human Resources. In Phase 2, an 'attritioncentric' approach that integrated both employer branding and other Human Resources practices took hold and in Phase 3 a distinctive blend/bundles of attrition-centric Human Resources and employer branding emerged. Influences were seen to include the complexities of life cycle, leadership ambitions, economic and market fluctuations, cultural, social, socio-cultural, national, sub-national and institutional contexts. Theoretically, this phenomenon suggested a unique Human Resource Management-performance link in the Indian Business Process Offshoring industry and was grounded and premised on the ‘evolutionary resource-based view’, as an alternative to the traditional human capital versus resource-based view. This idiosyncratic theoretical form is supported by six identified dimensions including tacit knowledge, the knowledge based view, resource dependency, core competencies and core- related specificity, casual ambiguity, and social complexity, thus contributing to academic knowledge.

Although there is consensus that national Human Resource Development policy is important, in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) the ways in which strategic human resources development (SHRD) is undertaken by employing organisations remains under-researched. The study investigated the value attached to learning in multinational private and also public organisations in Saudi Arabia. The three research objectives were to: examine the strategic value of learning from CEO managers‟ and HRD practitioners‟ perceptions in multinational private and public organisations in Saudi Arabia; establish the extent to which the value attached to learning in the public sector is different from that in the multinational private sector in Saudi Arabia and, to examine any differences in the value attached to learning by HRD specialists and senior managers of organisations in KSA. Making use of a constructionist ontology the thesis explores how these senior staff value and evaluate strategic learning and its contribution to their organisations. An inductive approach is taken with elements of both comparative and cross sectional design. This thesis builds on O‟Driscoll et al. (2005) in the USA and Anderson (2007) in the UK. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken in twenty organisations, with thirty-seven senior participants. Findings were analysed through thematic analysis. The data suggest that respondents in many KSA organisations evaluate learning through individual performance measured by trainees‟ satisfaction and changes in employee capability, focusing more on short term operational issues rather than organisation strategy. Although the context for HRD in Saudi Arabia is different to that of Western developed economies there are similarities between the finding from this thesis and O‟Driscoll et al, (2005) and Anderson (2007) which suggest that there is a range of challenges associated with putting strategic HRD into practice in employing organisation.

This thesis addresses an existing gap in the academic and practitioner knowledge of the repatriation process of international assignees. The study highlights the disparity between intended HR policy and implemented HR practices within the banking sector across Europe, USA and Asia. Repatriates are defined as an employee who has returned home after spending more than six months abroad (Linehan & Scullion, 2002: 650). The major contribution of this research is developing existing theory; previous research has focused upon readjustment and knowledge transfer of repatriates (Black et al, 1991; Bossard & Peterson, 2005; Brewster & Suutari, 2003; Sanchez Vidal et al, 2007). This study contributes to academic knowledge through an enhanced understanding and identification of how the repatriation process works and is perceived by the various stakeholders including repatriates, Human Resource Business Partners, International Human Resources and line managers. The methods utilised generated data via in-depth semi-structured interviews in order to gain insights into how the repatriates perceived the process as well as interviews with HRBPs, IHR function and line managers. The data was then analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). The findings highlight that the objectives for an assignment are not evaluated. Thus currently there is no provision to define success from the organisation‟s point of view. Additionally, the research indicates that there are numerous lost opportunities to gather information about the newly acquired skills and knowledge of the repatriate. The poor repatriation process and implementation of policy clearly impact upon the perception from each of the stakeholders‟ view of whether an assignment has been successful. Consequently the research strives to present a more inclusive look at the effect of the company‟s HR policy and practices and how this impacts upon the repatriation process. The results of the study highlight the opportunity for HR to add transformational practices to facilitate an improved repatriation experience for not only the repatriates but also in identifying the additional stakeholders‟ experience. The contribution to existing knowledge provides additional opportunities for further research to investigate variables beyond the traditional organisation and repatriate perspective highlighting further areas for future research into multiple stakeholders.

This thesis is about interactivity. It is about the dimensions of interactive communication which have become a major element of contemporary marketing practice. The concept of interactivity has been explored in the fields of advertising research, and communication and media studies. However, there is an overall absence of any published work concerning research into the dimensions of interactivity, in the marketing domain. This thesis seeks to correct this situation and investigates the relative effectiveness of the dimensions of interactivity, set in the context of travel weblogs. The aim is to determine how three principal dimensions of interactivity namely, active control, two-way communication, and real-time communication, affects users‟ attitudes and usage intentions. This thesis also examines the effect of motive factors, such as social interaction, information of travel weblogs, and enjoyment, upon a user‟s attitudes and usage intentions. The relationships among these variables are examined within a research framework provided by this study. Data was collected through an online questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. The findings verify that the dimensions of interactivity and motivation factors can have positive influence upon users‟ attitudes and usage intentions.