This thesis investigates the public sector in Latvia and the research question is “what is the nature of transition of Human Resource Management ideologies and paradigms against the backdrop of larger scale dynamic development in Latvia?” The interest within this research is that of the contextual paradigmatic view of Human Resource Management (HRM) (Brewster et al., 2010; Brewster, 1999; Moreley, 2004) exploring the contextual factors, or surrounding antecedents of HRM (Brewster, et al., 2010). The research is a case study of the public sector within the State of Latvia for what became a journey through the complex history of this country revealing a state with a varied and dramatic past which has been subject to various invasions, occupations and subjected to the control and command society of the Soviet Union for a considerable number of years. The journey from Soviet control of the politically motivated ‘cadre’ system into independence has provided a rich source of research exploring how human resource management (HRM) has developed within the public sector. This was investigated as a case study since it is a ‘constant’ in relation to changes and a good indicator of attitudes to management from a national perspective. As well as past ‘models’ or attitudes to HRM from a Soviet perspective, various models of HRM have been explored and discussed, particularly in relation to the universalistic nature of Westernised typologies. The concept of a European model has been considered and discussed with consideration of various ‘clusters’ of practices which take into account cultural aspects, in particular national culture, as an important element within the study. Overarching this is the growing interest in convergence or divergence of HRM as the Central Eastern European states have developed post-independence (Brewster, 2004). The mixed methods approach used is firmly place within the qualitative field or phenomenological approach and explores aspects such as behaviour, perspectives, experiences and feelings (Atkinson et al., 2001; Marshall and Rossman, 2006). The research utilises grounded theory building (Glaser and Straus, 1967; Charmaz, 2014; Bryant and Charmaz, 2007; Strauss and Corbin, 1997; Glaser, 2002)) combining multiple data collection methods taking a pragmatic approach to research. The level of analysis explores the macro, meso and micro level environments of the Latvian public sector. The macro-level concerns interactions between state and society from a broad perspective, fundamentally this is the level where decision-making takes place, the meso-level explores individual ‘behaviours’ embedded in every day social practices shaped or constrained by material and infrastructural contexts and the micro-level of individual behaviour and action). Exploratory research has considered historical accounts along with what was sparse research within the area. A Soviet perspective was considered for the period immediately preceding independence. Elite interviews were carried out followed by a survey questionnaire. The opportunity to enter the organisation and undertake observations was thwarted by a change of government and therefore ‘access’ afforded to the researcher. The findings are integrated throughout this work as is the nature of grounded theory building, and given the paucity of research has become part of a wider social study of a system finding its identity through difficult times. The results and analysis takes into account not only elite interviews and the survey questionnaire but also background historical research. The result is a fertile breeding ground for investigation which offers many avenues for further research. Various questions for future research are raised within the thesis and remain an interest of the researcher to take forward.

Staff turnover is an endemic issue in the hospitality industry, worldwide. Voluntary staff turnover has been the focus of many studies in the past decades and many researchers have constantly intended to connect a number of variables to it. This study deals with a human perspective of staff turnover and the aim was to add to the understanding of staff turnover within the hospitality industry. This was achieved by conducting in-depth interviews with hotel workers in three and four-star hotels in Reykjavík, Iceland. The causes and impacts of the turnover was examined with qualitative method. Investigation of the factors influencing employees’ intention to leave their current organization and the impact staff turnover causes to the remaining staff was carried out. The results revealed that professional advancement is a critical predictor for the employees to leave, along with factors such as work content, personal reasons, organizational factors and the nature of the tourism industry. Furthermore, the impact staff turnover causes on the staff are factors such as social connections, increased responsibilities and time and energy consumption.

Unveiling the factors which drive the seasonal workforce in a family-park tourism destination setting through interviews with previous workers of those destinations, and to understand the challenges of working seasonally opposed to working full-time.

The main aim of this work is to analyze human resource management and knowledge economy in a selected company and to propose steps to improve the situation. I divided the thesis into two parts. In the first part I concentrated on theory. After the study of technical literature I described the basic theoretical concepts regarding human resource management and knowledge economy. I then conducted a questionnaire survey. I used a questionnaire VSM 1994 and 2013 by Geert Hofstede for determining the desirable cultural dimensions. I used TBSD to identify the most shared words in the chosen company. Finally there were proposed some steps to improve the situation.

This thesis was focused on theme Human Resource Management. The aim was to idetify and assess the actual state of the selected organization, in the sphere individual personnel activities. On the basis of theoretical and practical knowledge, it was to show the faults in the human resource management. It was suggested to eliminate of the established faults.

Um programa de gestão da qualidade que ganhou evidência nos últimos anos foi o Seis Sigma. Este programa é resultado de uma combinação de fatores humanos e técnicos - ferramentas e metodologia. O objetivo principal deste trabalho é classificar as atribuições da gestão de pessoas estudadas para contribuir na resolução das dificuldades que podem ser encontradas quando da implantação e manutenção de programas Seis Sigma. Para realizar este trabalho foram contatadas empresas instaladas no Rio Grande do Sul que utilizam o programa e foram aplicados dois questionários. O primeiro para descrever o programa e o outro para verificar a contribuição da Gestão de Pessoas no sucesso do programa. Para análise dos dados foram utilizadas ferramentas estatísticas, análise de conteúdo, tabelas de relacionamento e análises qualitativas, de onde se observou nas empresas pesquisadas a predominância de utilização do método DMAIC, a heterogeneidade da formação do quadro dos especialistas e a quase inexistência de treinamentos para reciclagem dos Belts. Foi possível também evidenciar a existência das dificuldades potenciais do Seis Sigma listadas na literatura e a influência que algumas atribuições da Gestão de Pessoas podem ter para solucionar estas dificuldades. O resultado da pesquisa apontou que a Liderança participativa e comprometida com o programa e a Comunicação clara e objetiva das metas e objetivos são as duas atribuições da Gestão de Pessoas, dentre as estudadas, com maior contribuição para solucionar as dificuldades que podem ser encontradas na implantação e manutenção do Seis Sigma, nas empresas participantes da pesquisa. / Six Sigma is the quality program has gained evidence on the last years. This program is result of the combination of human's and technicals factors - tools and methodology. The main goal of this paper is classify what assignments of Human Resource Management can contribute to reduction of the difficulties that can be encountered on implementation and maintenance of Six Sigma program in companies that was situated in the Rio Grande do Sul. For carry this work was necessary contact companies of the Rio Grande do Sul that use this program and was applied two questionnaires. The first questionnaire intended to describe the program and the last intend to verify the contribution of the Human Resource Management for the success of Six Sigma. The data was analyzed with statistical tools, contents analyze, tables of relationship and qualitative analysis. It was observed in the companies of this research that the use of DMAIC methodology is predominant, the variation of the specialist formation and the lack of the recycle training for Belts. It's evidence in this research the existence of potentials difficulties of Six Sigma listed in the literature and the influence that some assignments of Human Resource Management can be for solve this difficulties. The result of the research indicate that the participative and compromised leadership and the clear and objective communication of program are the assignments of Human Resource Management among the studied that more contribute for reduction of the difficulties of Six Sigma in the companies of this research.

The purpose of this study was to explore how facial attractiveness of female job applicants influences the decision-making regarding a hypothetical employment evaluation in China. The study examined the effects of raters’ gender, job applicants’ facial attractiveness, and job applicants’ professional qualifications (education attainment and the years of work experience) on the interview selection, hiring, and salary decisions in a hypothetical situation. To examine the research hypotheses, a laboratory or “controlled” experiment was conducted in this quantitative study. There were two stages in this study. In Stage I, participants were recruited to rate 20 female facial photos, and based on the rating, the researcher selected two attractive photos and two unattractive photos to use in Stage II. In Stage II, college students of Human Resource Management (HRM) were recruited to evaluate six female job applications for an administrative assistant position in a hypothetical situation. Each application included one resume (high professional qualification or low professional qualification) and a photo indicator (an attractive photo, unattractive photo or no photo). Both Stage I and Stage II were within-subjects designs, also known as “repeated measures” designs. The study concluded that lookism or attractiveness bias existed in the hypothetical employment evaluations for the female applicants. Attaching an attractive photo on the resume was a benefit for the female applicants applying for the administration assistant position. Both male and female raters were more likely to interview, hire, and offer a higher salary to applicants with an attractive photo than the ones with an unattractive photo or without a photo in all of the hypothetical situations. However, male raters were more sensitive to the physical attractiveness of applicants than the female raters. Therefore, the issues of lookism or attractiveness bias in the workplace should be addressed. The author suggested that an application system should be designed and implemented which could prevent lookism at the early stages of the hiring process. Also, clarifying the definition of physical appearance discrimination and establishing legislation specific to physical appearance discrimination would be helpful to reduce the issues of lookism. Diversity training should be provided to employers and employees in the workplace to increase awareness of employment lookism. In future studies, the actual human resource (HR) professionals could be included to explore the effect of facial attractiveness on their employment decisions in the actual workplaces across different occupations and different cultures. In addition, future research could include several potential variables to control for a potentially significant aspect, such as rater’s attractiveness, rater’s age, years of rater in their professional field, or applicant’s gender.

Orientador: Charbel José Chiappetta Jabbour / Banca: Rosani de Castro / Banca: Jorge Henrique Caldeira de Oliveira / Resumo: O objetivo desta pesquisa é identificar e verificar como as melhores práticas de gestão de recursos humanos estão sendo desenvolvidas nas universidades estaduais de São Paulo junto aos funcionários técnicos administrativos. Para realização deste estudo, adotou-se a abordagem qualitativa, por meio da estratégia de estudo de caso, onde foram analisada as práticas, a nível macro, da Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP), Universidade Estadual Paulista "Júlio de Mesquita Filho" (UNESP) e da Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Para definir as melhores práticas, realizou-se uma análise teórico-empírica, além da triangulação das práticas entre os três casos, o que permitiu identificar práticas que: (a) aumentam a eficiência do processo de recrutamento e seleção, como a realização dos concursos por uma organização especializada na UNESP e o "processo seletivo sumário" na UNICAMP; (b) permitem maior rapidez na socialização e integração do novo funcionário na UNICAMP; (c) buscam aprimorar o conhecimento, as competências e promover o desenvolvimento, como o "Programa de Desenvolvimento Gerencial" e diversos outros programas da Agência de Formação Profissional (AFPU), o "Programa Institucional de Apoio ao Servidor/Estudante" do Grupo Gestor de Benefícios Sociais (GGBS), órgãos da UNICAMP, a "bolsa complemento educacional" e a promoção por escolaridade na UNESP, bem como palestras realizadas pelos professores da própria USP nas atividades de treinamento; (d) contribuem para a tomada de decisão quanto à treinamentos, carreira e remuneração, como o instrumento de avaliação de desempenho totalmente informatizado, com metodologia que visa atingir os objetivos organizacionais por meio do desenvolvimento das pessoas, através do planejamento, acompanhamento e avaliação, sustentado pela interação entre avaliador e avaliado na UNESP, bem como a existência... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: The objective of this research is to identify and determine how best practices in human resource management are being developed at the universities in the São Paulo state universities with the technical administrative staff. For this study, we adopet a qualitative approach, the strategy of case study, which analyzed the practices at the macro level, the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), São Paulo State University "Júlio de Mesquita Filho" (UNESP) and the University of São Paulo (USP). To determine best practice, there was a theoretical and empirical analysis, and tringulation of practice between the three cases, which allowed the identification of practices that: (a) increase the efficiency of the recruitment and selection, as invitations to tender by a specialized organization at UNESP and the "selection process summary" at UNICAMP; (b) allows for greater speed in the socialization and integration of new staff at UNICAMP; (c) seek to improve the knowledge, skills and foster the development, as the " Program Management Development" and various other programs of the Agency for Vocational Training (AFPU), the "Institutional Program Support Server/Student" Group Benefits Manager (GGBS), UNICAMP bodies, the "complement educational scholarship" and the promotion for education at UNESP, and lectures given by professors from USP own training activities; (d) contribute to decision making regarding training, career and remuneration as a tool for performance evaluation is fully computerized, using a methodology that aims achieving organizational objectives through the development of people through planning, monitoring and evaluation, supported by the interaction between evaluator and evaluated at UNESP, and the existence of a committee coordinating the process of evaluation units and acts as mediator between the manager and employee at the USP, and the team to evaluate the employee... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre

The doctoral thesis deals with corporate culture and human resource management. The main aim of the thesis is analysis of corporate culture state and appraisal its role in human resource management in chosen enterprises. Research is divided into three parts: exploratory research, field questionnaire research and elaborate (deep) questionnaire research. In exploratory research are organizational processes in 29 small and medium enterprises (SME) evaluated with aim to human resource management (HRM) risk analysis and determination of cultural types. Results shows that SME have main barrier of its future grow in problems with process of HRM and predominate type of its culture are clan and hierarchy. Based on results of exploratory research is field research focused on analysis of the corporate culture and its role in HRM. From questionnaires in the sample of 62 enterprises and results at level of organizational practice and organizational values follows that hierarchy cultures in enterprises are the most dominated. Results show that corporate culture plays important role in HRM too. Particularly stronger cultures, enterprises with standard Investor in People (IIP) and cultures of clan type have fundamental effect on characteristics of HRM. According to results of elaborate questionnaire research of 121 respondents in specific enterprise with standardized IIP and deep analysis are changes of corporate culture proposed and used for managing and changing of corporate culture.

Um programa de gestão da qualidade que ganhou evidência nos últimos anos foi o Seis Sigma. Este programa é resultado de uma combinação de fatores humanos e técnicos - ferramentas e metodologia. O objetivo principal deste trabalho é classificar as atribuições da gestão de pessoas estudadas para contribuir na resolução das dificuldades que podem ser encontradas quando da implantação e manutenção de programas Seis Sigma. Para realizar este trabalho foram contatadas empresas instaladas no Rio Grande do Sul que utilizam o programa e foram aplicados dois questionários. O primeiro para descrever o programa e o outro para verificar a contribuição da Gestão de Pessoas no sucesso do programa. Para análise dos dados foram utilizadas ferramentas estatísticas, análise de conteúdo, tabelas de relacionamento e análises qualitativas, de onde se observou nas empresas pesquisadas a predominância de utilização do método DMAIC, a heterogeneidade da formação do quadro dos especialistas e a quase inexistência de treinamentos para reciclagem dos Belts. Foi possível também evidenciar a existência das dificuldades potenciais do Seis Sigma listadas na literatura e a influência que algumas atribuições da Gestão de Pessoas podem ter para solucionar estas dificuldades. O resultado da pesquisa apontou que a Liderança participativa e comprometida com o programa e a Comunicação clara e objetiva das metas e objetivos são as duas atribuições da Gestão de Pessoas, dentre as estudadas, com maior contribuição para solucionar as dificuldades que podem ser encontradas na implantação e manutenção do Seis Sigma, nas empresas participantes da pesquisa. / Six Sigma is the quality program has gained evidence on the last years. This program is result of the combination of human's and technicals factors - tools and methodology. The main goal of this paper is classify what assignments of Human Resource Management can contribute to reduction of the difficulties that can be encountered on implementation and maintenance of Six Sigma program in companies that was situated in the Rio Grande do Sul. For carry this work was necessary contact companies of the Rio Grande do Sul that use this program and was applied two questionnaires. The first questionnaire intended to describe the program and the last intend to verify the contribution of the Human Resource Management for the success of Six Sigma. The data was analyzed with statistical tools, contents analyze, tables of relationship and qualitative analysis. It was observed in the companies of this research that the use of DMAIC methodology is predominant, the variation of the specialist formation and the lack of the recycle training for Belts. It's evidence in this research the existence of potentials difficulties of Six Sigma listed in the literature and the influence that some assignments of Human Resource Management can be for solve this difficulties. The result of the research indicate that the participative and compromised leadership and the clear and objective communication of program are the assignments of Human Resource Management among the studied that more contribute for reduction of the difficulties of Six Sigma in the companies of this research.