The function of human resource in business is changing. For this reason, the tasks of human resource top managers become much more complicated as well. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis is to seek and rank the roles of the human resource top manager. In this study, the framework of human resource top manager¡¦s roles is adapted from Schuler(1990). It becomes a five-role framework of the human resource top manager¡G business person, shaper of change, partner to line, strategy formulator and implementer, and talent manager. In order to elaborate the five roles, each role has added three to four particular activities. Through applying the Analytical Hierarchy Process to gather the opinions of 19 human resource top managers and analyzing the data, it can rank the five roles as below¡G strategy formulator and implementer, partner to line, talent manager, shaper of change, and business person. Furthermore, the ranks will change depends on the different of industries, business scales, and the ownership. From this study, it suggests that the human resource top manager should adjust his/ her roles according to the scenarios. Also, the chef of the business can peek the human resource top manager by evaluating the candidates¡¦ ability to play these five roles.

Under the trend of internationalization and changes of the competition sorts, the focus that the mankind regards to business management, shift from tangible assets management to human's intelligence and invisible managerial ability of the system gradually (Quinn et al., 1996). And most of the present administrators admit the human resources have already become the most important assets of firms. But that the human resources management practice is be influenced by the complicated situation factor of unique historical incident and other feelings, so that manifest the characteristic with indistinct cause and effect. Therefore, Wright & McMahan (1992) thought it was difficult for the human resources management practice to be imitated, moved or duplicated by other firms. So, it appears that whether the business management could be combined effectively with human resources management practices is difficult. This research shows that the complicated situation factor impact on firm's administrators have already turned into the invisible human resources values, and then influence the development of the human resource management practice. So, the composition of the values of human resources, the influence of human resource values on to organization, and situation factor that influencing the human resource values, become the subject hoped to explore in this research. This research investigates and analyses through the real examples, and gets the results as below: 1. Build up the frameworks (factors) of human resource values. (1) Human resource acquisition management: ¡§Talents attract¡¨, ¡§recruit honesty¡¨, and ¡§power consolidation¡¨. (2) Human resource development management: ¡§Talents development¡¨ and ¡§teamwork¡¨ (3) Human resource compensation management: ¡§Gain sharing¡¨, ¡§concern staff¡¨, and ¡§treating equally without discrimination¡¨. (4) Human resource maintenance management: ¡§Democratic and open¡¨, ¡§centralization¡¨, and ¡§self-restraint and acting on one's¡¨. (5) The entire human resource values: ¡§The staff acceptation¡¨. 2. Attitude that firms can be divided into three kinds of different types according to the difference of human resource values: (1) Firms with values of decentralization and achievement-induced; (2) Firms with values of centralization and respect to staff development; (3) Firms with values of conservatism, closed, and bureaucrat. 3. Firm's characteristics apparently influence on human resource values. ¡§Industry type¡¨ and ¡§staff's education¡¨ are the firm characteristics with main effect. Except the industry types and staff's education, firm characteristics apparently influence on the HR values through the reciprocal effect are ¡§staff number¡¨ and ¡§firm establish time¡¨. 4. Human resource values apparently influence on management performance ¡§Recruit honesty¡¨, ¡§treating equally¡¨, ¡§treats equally¡¨, ¡§self-restraint¡¨, and ¡§staff acceptation¡¨ are 4 values with apparent influence on managing performance. ¡§Gain sharing¡¨ show negative influence on staff productivity of the similar industry or more business in addition. 5. HR values types(clusters) apparently influence on comparative management performance of similar industry. Values clusters also apparently influence through the reciprocal effect on objective and subjective (or comparative) management performance in addition.

The major purpose of study is to know the main human resource function role which is performed currently by the subsidiary of Multinational Corporation (MNC) in Taiwan and the concept of multiple-role model is adopted in the study. This study is done by the quantative survey to find out the factors which could influence the human resource function role and the current multiple-role model, meanwhile the cluster analysis is used to investigate the main model of current human resource function role. Human resource activities within the subsidiary of MNC in Taiwan are influenced by both external and internal environments, because there¡¦re many environmental factors to be considered and they are not easy to be controlled, so the study focuses on the discussion of the variables of internal environment in the organization. According to the characters of the variables, the study divides the variables into organization character and management character to investigate the influence of internal environment on human resource function role. After passing through the examination and analysis , the study result is presented as here below: 1. The major human resource function role performed by current subsidiary of MNC in Taiwan is Administrative Expert, the next is Strategic Partner, Change Agent and the last is Employee Champion. It represents that the human resource department of the subsidiary of MNC in Taiwan still do lots of works in the administration. But it¡¦s also found from the result that the roles of Strategic Partner and Change Agent are elevated after comparing with the previous studies. So it¡¦s assumed the position of human resource department becomes higher, human resource department involves more in the strategic management. 2. The cluster analysis is used in this study to evaluate the multiple-role model of Business Partner. The samples in the study are divided into 3 groups and named as High Level Business Partner, Middle Level Business Partner, and Low Level Business Partner. 3. The study finds that two variables, ¡§the position of human resource supervisor¡¨ and ¡§if human resource supervisor joins the management team¡¨, influence the performing level of human resource role.

M & A indeed is one of speedy growing methods for enterprise. But not every one enterprise can get its effectiveness as expectation after conducting merger. There is usually a huge organizational change is hidden behind M & A. The retained employees after the merger face the new company, seems like new employees that just inaugurated, filled with strange and a sense of uncertainty. In 1998, Watson Wyatt Company made a survey and found most of the merger failed to achieve the strategic target as expectation, M & A will ultimately lead to failure or poor performance, in addition to cultural differences, "people" issues can not be integrated effectively by the system is a major key factors, such as the leave of excellent talents, staff remaining in the low efficiency, So triggered the human resources issues discussed after M & A. The purpose of this study was to research successful key factor of human resources integration in the process of M & A which through an interview with qualitative, considering the time appropriateness and the difficulties of backtracking information validity to avoid making poor effectiveness. Especially to choose a case of retailer Taiwan in 2006 as example, French Carrefour merged with British Tesco to study. Also considering the impact of mergers and acquisitions on the acquired employees are greater than the acquiring ones, especially the employees under the middle management level, we selected the remained employees under the middle management level in the acquired corporation as the sample. This empirical study found that the unmet expectation of acquired employees not only from job regulations and benefit, but also from the person-organization fit of the acquiring corporation. The unmet expectation may both affect the psychological and behavioral stress of acquired employees. It also affects the organizational commitment of acquired employees to the acquiring corporation. The unmet expectation has a direct effect on the job stress and organization commitment. It also has an indirect effect on the performance positively through the perceived organizational support. The purpose of this study is to explore the human resources integration challenges under merger and acquisition of the pharmaceutical company A. The findings are from focused interview with employees of different backgrounds including acquired company employees, acquiring (A) company employees and top management team of the A company. The research results indicate that¡G 1.Under M&A, the internal integration team with outsider consulting firm¡¦s professional assistance will minimize the resistances. 2.Under M&A, the specific HR integration structure is needed. 3.Under M&A, the comprehensive communication plan is needed to erase the rumors and gossips. 4.Under M&A, the talent deployment must retain all the talents from both-side companies and eliminate the poor performers in the acquiring company. 5.Under M&A, for ensuring every colleague in the new company move forward to the same goals, the enterprise has to review the performance appraisal and management system.

While the mission and ‘core business’ of schools has always been directed towards the education and pastoral support of the children, the staff who work to fulfil the mission and business have received less attention. With recent media reporting on anticipated teacher shortages, pedagogical issues and the quality of teaching the focus has shifted to the staff in schools. With evidence linking student achievements and academic outcomes to teacher impact, recruitment and retention have become significant issues, particularly in independent schools where parental expectations are high. Expertise in relation to human resource (HR) activities such as recruitment and retention, staff management and staff development, however, is not well developed in schools. This study therefore seeks to explore and understand staff management using a framework based on human resource management (HRM). It also examines the recent trend of appointing dedicated Human Resource (HR) practitioners to independent schools and the reasons behind these appointments. A qualitative research approach was adopted in order to better understand the issues and reveal the complexity that surrounds them. In all, seven independent schools were purposely selected from urban Western Australia, and the principals, finance directors and HR practitioners from these schools were interviewed to gain their perspectives. The conceptual framework draws on the business-derived human resource management (HRM) and the HR activities within this domain. The analytical framework used was that of the ‘hard’/ ‘soft’ duality contained within HRM, which allowed tensions, such as that between ‘independent schools as businesses’ and independent schools as ‘communities with heart’, to be highlighted and examined. The interviews revealed a broad understanding and knowledge by respondents of HR activities considered ‘necessary’ for the recruitment, and the day-to day management of staff, including remuneration, and to some extent, induction and performance management systems. Most revealing in these schools was the lack of structure and strategy in the implementation of the various HR activities and ways to work through the hard/soft duality. By way of contrast, the HR practitioners appointed to five of the independent schools had a broad based knowledge of all HR activities and were attempting to ‘educate’ those in schools about HRM and what the function, collectively applied, could do for them. They encountered entrenched attitudes and, in some schools, resistance caused by misunderstandings associated with both the role and function. The thesis concludes with implications and recommendations for independent school leaders on the application of HRM in their schools. By re-thinking the paradigm of staff management in this way, and through the adoption of a systematic and holistic approach using the suite of HR activities, both hard and soft, the research points to the potential for improvements in the quality of teaching staff recruited and retained, and ultimately also in student outcomes.

The topic of this thesis is the management of human resources in a certain company. I am explaining the concepts of human resource management and describing this set of problems in the company. As a method of getting information, I used interviews, questionnaires for the staff and I gathered other information from internal documents of the company.

This thesis examines the transfer of HR practices in the Nigerian subsidiaries of MNCs from emerging countries. It aimed to address a number of gaps identified from the literature, especially as there is a dearth of study in this area in developing countries in contrast to developed countries. Specifically, the study attempts to shed light on the nature of the HR practices, the process of the transfer of HR practices, the factors that influence the transfer process and the role of HR in the transfer process. The study utilised 48 semi-structured interviews conducted between November 2012 and March 2015 in the Nigerian subsidiary of the four case companies. The data was predominantly gathered using an in-depth semi-structured interview of HR managers and specialists, line managers of other functional departments, senior managers and others who are involved with people-related issues on the nature of HRM policies applied in subsidiaries of MNCs from emerging economies and their approach to the management of their human resources in overseas subsidiaries. Generally, the findings from this study reveal that these MNC case companies display more similarities than differences. In particular, similarities were found to be the increasing emphasis on training and development, which was used to develop employees extensively, implementing standard appraisal systems which are more target-oriented and standardised communication. However, differences existed in the areas of compensation and benefits, and recruitment and selection. Additionally, expatriates are appointed in key positions and are used to facilitate the transfer of these practices. Furthermore, similarities and differences are influenced by a number of factors. Overall, the study’s findings contribute to knowledge in several ways. First, they extend knowledge on the convergence debate and show that there is convergence among EMNCs themselves and with western MNCs, and this convergence is with regards to the adoption of Anglo-Saxon practices that are known to be globally accepted standard practices. The study also contributes to the Upper Echelon Theory in that it confirms that the education and experience of top and senior managers affects the nature of HR practices adopted. This study can be extended into other contexts. Secondly, it contributes to knowledge on the approaches adopted by the MNCs and the findings reveal that various IHRM approaches could be used depending on the policy or practice that is considered of “strategic importance”. It reveals that an exportive approach was adopted by the parent companies.

In the contemporary business world firms are being transformed into project-based organisations when majority of functions are performed through projects while administrative support is provided by permanent organisational structures. Moreover, variety of industries develop characteristics of Project-Based organizations which implies that HR practices need to be adjusted to help project employees to acquire necessary skills to adapt technology and help company embrace changes in business environment. Therefore, the current research through empirical investigation seeks to explore up-to date understanding of required competences for project members in IT industry in France. Further, it aims to explore how and what HR practices contribute to development of project team members’ competences. The research employs multiple case study of four companies operating in France and IT industry is chosen as it best represents the project-based organisations. Data is collected through six semi-structured interviews and qualitatively analysed by two authors of the current research. Findings of the current research provide an understanding of which and how HR practices are used in IT industry in France to enhance project team members’ competences. Empirical data analysis allowed to identify key HR practices employed in project-based IT companies to support competence development of project team members which are knowledge-sharing, training, induction, lesson-learned and internal rotation. Besides, social media and dedicated website were identified as major knowledge-support tools in IT industry in France. Findings bring new insights to the relationship between HR practices and competence development in IT industry and highlights some discrepancies between literature and reality. Finally, they help to bridge the gap in the existing literature and to formulate some recommendations to the practitioners.

The topic of high performance workplace practices and their impact on organizational performance has been extensively researched in US and UK. Increasingly evidence with regard to diffusion of high performance workplace practices is emerging from fast developing Asian economies. However, very little is known about the state of diffusion of high performance workplace practices in Pakistan, a South Asian economy on route to industrialization. This study attempts to explore the diffusion of high performance workplace practices among the multinational and local firms in the important industrial sectors of banking, information technology and pharmaceutical in Pakistan that are characterized by high level of inward foreign direct investment. Recently the Pakistani Government has passed laws to encourage greater use of HPWS practices amongst domestic firms. This study compares the prevalence of HPWS practices in domestic firms to that in multinationals. MNCs are chosen as a competitor because they have been seen as being at forefront of HPWS use. First of all, the study explored an overall diffusion of high performance workplace practices in Pakistan and determined the state of differences with regard to diffusion of the practices between the establishments of multinational and local firms. Secondly, the study further explored the differences by taking into account the role of control variables such as age, size, percentage of non-managerial employees and nature of business at the establishment. The most important argument underpinning the high performance paradigm is that practices have substantial impact on human resource and performance outcomes of a firm. Thus the third objective of the study was to test and report the association of individual practices with various performance outcomes for a sample of local firms in Pakistan. The study observed whether such claims are valid for the local Pakistani establishments that implement such practices in hope of achieving better performance outcomes. The study found that a number of practices had a consistent and significant association with various performance outcomes across the industrial sectors in Pakistan. The results of the study suggest that latest innovations in human resource management in advanced industrial economies have fast spread among establishments in Pakistan. Moreover the results also suggest that arguments of high performance theory, in particular the universalistic/ best practice model hold ground when it comes to the diffusion of such practices in developing economies such as Pakistan with some caveats.

The research investigates individual human resource capacity building for local governance within the context of decentralised human resource management in Thailand by profoundly examining its current implementation of recruitment, selection, training and development and performance management after the decentralisation policy was enacted. The human resource capacity building process in this research includes five stages of core capabilities building: committing and engaging, performing and accomplishing, building relationships and attracting resources, learning and adapting and managing trade-offs and dilemmas. The research firstly focuses on examining the consequences of decentralised human resource practices implementation in Thai local governance. Secondly, it aims to explore the ways in which human resource practices are supportive to individual human resource capacity building. Finally it proposes the prospective implications of effective capacity building through human resource practices for potential policy formulation. This research is based on three related theories: capacity building, human resource management and decentralisation. The research was conducted by using qualitative methodologies. The case study of Thailand was selected because of the uniqueness of its paradoxical decentralised-Unitarian state. Municipal officials were chosen as the unit of analysis. The first findings have illustrated that the decentralisation initiative has certainly affected the HRM at the local level of Thailand. However, this scheme has launched some degree of re-centralisation and partially confirms the pseudo-decentralisation in Thai public administration. Secondly, the research also found that HR practices can be supportive and compatible as a capacity building strategies. However, these HR practices must be designed, conducted and evaluated for the purposes of the local government only. The aim of capacitating individual staff must be taken into account as a part of policy to develop the human side of the organisation. Therefore, there have been both challenges and opportunities for human resource capacity building through HR practices. To conclude, this research has contributed to fill the theoretical gap by examining the capacity building processes through HR practices and it provides the practical suggestion that local context is decisive. The capacity building issue has never been investigated through human resource practices, especially recruitment and selection, training and development and performance management. Moreover, in practice, the research has focused on the development of the local government unit in a country of paradoxically decentralised-Unitarian state like Thailand.