This research aims to investigate the extent to which media organisations in Taiwan apply human resource management strategies and policies to sustain their competitive advantage in a threatening environment. This study argues that human capital is the most valuable resource of media companies. As long as the human resource is optimally allocated and managed, it can facilitate media companies to outperform their competitors, and thus, enable media companies to achieve sustained competitive advantage. The first stage of this research analyses the Taiwanese media industry from a broad perspective. During the development of Taiwan’s media industry, the government and political parties played important roles. The key factors involved in the changes in the environment are examined from political, economic, social, and technological points of view. In addition, this research analyses the human resource management practices adopted by the two leading media groups in Taiwan. One of the groups is the United Daily News group, an old established media company with its interest in newspapers, and a newly established Eastern Broadcasting Corporation (EBC) group which is a multi-media company. Qualitative research approach was adopted as the framework for this research and also to explore and understand the links between specific human resource management indicators and media organisations’ sustained competitive advantage. Two Taiwanese media groups were selected as case studies. The case study approach involved in-depth interviews conducted with management staff and non-management staff, in order to understand the two companies’ human resource management policies and practices. Connecting the study as a whole, there are three important findings: (1) The deregulation which began from the late 1980s has transformed the Taiwanese media industry from a party-state domination to a fiercely competitive marketplace. (2) Consequently, Taiwanese news organisations have shown a greater propensity to pursue commercial performance. As such, in addition to journalists, advertising sales personnel were included in the talent pool by news organisations. (3) The view of human resources as a pool of capital implies a change in the perception of costs in media companies’ human resource management practices. HRM is practised by the two companies in different degree. Taiwanese media companies should pay attention to the different characteristics of their core workers, and maintain their core workers to convey their organisational culture, and achieve their companies’ SCA. In Taiwan, the HRM function had been ignored for a long time due to decades of regulation on new competitors. However, when the media proprietors spent a majority of their capital on the payroll and emphasized that ‘human capital’ is their most important asset, to some extent, Taiwanese media companies perceived HRM as a means to achieve their companies’ SCA. In this regard, Taiwanese media companies should make more effort to develop and nurture the HRM practices and policies which are suitable for the organisation’s unique culture, in improving the outcomes of their human resource investment and in turn providing sustained competitive advantage.

According to Bergue (2014) and the MPOG (2009), measuring outputs in public administration is one of the main tools to support managers in decision making, to establish parameters (ASSIS, 2012) and to compare results (POMI, 2002). However, even being aware of the importance and the need to develop, use and publicize these indicators, many of the Federal Institutes of Education, Science and Technology (IFETs) still lack indicators for personnel management. In this sense, the present case study aimed to develop a model of Human Resource Management Indicators for the Federal Institutes in order to contribute to management decision-making and to facilitate the transparency of information to society and to the regulatory agencies. This work is a descriptive and prescribed research of qualitative nature. Regarding the technical procedures, it was applied both bibliographical, documental and field research. The data was collected in 228 management reports, obtained from the TCU database, and from interviews with managers of three IFETs, and it was analyzed using content analysis. Initial results showed that currently only 15 (fifteen) of the 38 (thirty-eight) Federal Institutes have a model of Human Resource Management Indicators containing one or more indicators, and that the main difficulties encountered by IFETs in applying these indicators are related to: shortage of staff; lack of an information system; prioritization of other activities; lack of interest by management; and the absence of a standardized model of indicators. Subsequently, based on the results of the bibliographical and documental analysis, a model composed of 9 (nine) Human Resource Management Indicators was formatted, those being collected and considered in order of preference (practical application) and theoretical support: Absenteeism; Rate of accidents and occupational diseases; Remoteness rate; Retirement forecast; Retirement replacement; Capacity building; Variation in the number of staff; Qualification level; Turnover. This model was evaluated by personnel managers of three Federal Institutes (IF Farroupilha, IFRS and IF Sul) and, in general, the proposed indicators met the essential requirements recommended by MPOG (2010) and other authors. In addition, the respondents consider that almost all indicators presented have practical application, and that the model may contribute to management decision-making and can facilitate transparency of information to society and to the regulatory agencies. / De acordo com Bergue (2014) e MPOG (2009), a medição na gestão pública está entre os principais instrumentos para subsidiar os gestores na tomada de decisão, no estabelecimento de parâmetros (ASSIS, 2012) e na comparação de resultados (POMI, 2002). Contudo, mesmo cientes da importância e da necessidade do desenvolvimento, utilização e publicização destes indicadores, boa parte dos Institutos Federais de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia (IFETs) ainda não dispõe de indicadores para a área de gestão de pessoal. Nesse sentido, o presente estudo de caso teve como objetivo geral desenvolver um modelo de Indicadores de Gestão de Pessoas para Institutos Federais, de forma a contribuir com a tomada de decisões gerenciais e facilitar a transparência de informações à sociedade e aos órgãos controladores. Trata-se de uma pesquisa descritiva, prescritiva e de natureza qualitativa. A respeito dos procedimentos técnicos, foram adotadas as pesquisas bibliográfica, documental e de campo. Os dados coletados nos 228 relatórios de gestão, extraídos do banco de dados do TCU, e nas entrevistas com os gestores de pessoal de três IFETs, foram analisados por meio de Análise de Conteúdo. Os resultados iniciais demonstraram que atualmente apenas 15 (quinze) dos 38 (trinta e oito) Institutos Federais possuem um modelo de Indicadores de Gestão de Pessoas contendo um ou mais indicadores, e que as principais dificuldades encontradas pelos IFETs na aplicação destes indicadores estão relacionadas com: escassez de servidores; ausência de um sistema informatizado; priorização de outras atividades; desinteresse por parte da gestão; e inexistência de um modelo padronizado de indicadores. Posteriormente, com base nos resultados das análises bibliográfica e documental, formatou-se um modelo composto por 9 (nove) Indicadores de Gestão de Pessoas, coletados e ponderados por ordem de preferência (aplicação prática) e respaldo teórico: Índice de absenteísmo; Índice de acidentes e doenças ocupacionais; Índice de afastamento; Previsão de aposentadoria; Reposição de aposentadoria; Índice de capacitação; Variação no quadro de servidores; Nível de qualificação; Índice de rotatividade. O referido modelo foi avaliado pelos gestores de pessoal de três Institutos Federais (IF Farroupilha, IFRS e IF Sul) e, de maneira geral, os indicadores propostos atenderam aos requisitos essenciais recomendados pelo MPOG (2010) e demais autores. Além disso, os entrevistados consideram que quase todos os indicadores apresentados possuem aplicação prática, e que o modelo pode contribuir com a tomada de decisões gerenciais e facilitar a transparência de informações à sociedade e aos órgãos controladores.

In global corporations, work is increasingly organized around projects and individuals are constantly working with new constellations of partners across locational and temporal boundaries. In order to be successful in such settings, individuals have to form and maintain relationships with those they need to learn from and coordinate with. Recent studies suggest that these social ties provide resources and support as well as create normative pressures that strengthen the attachment of employees with the firm and lead them to stay with the firm. In contrast, the strength of an individual’s attachment with the organization given the departure of connected colleagues remains largely under theorized, and consequently, its implications have not been adequately studied. We address these gaps by examining whether ties to colleagues who leave the firm activate different mechanisms which can weaken their binds with the organization. This study assume significance in the context of contemporary free-agent labor markets where career trajectories are proposed to unfold in a series of short stints at multiple firms as opposed to life-long career in a single firm. We develop theoretical arguments predicting the effect of workplace relationships on career mobility decisions by building on prior research into distributed work, changing nature of careers, social comparison, homophily, and structural equivalence. The main contention of this study is that the departure of one or more coworkers serves as powerful signals that unsettle the feeling of belongingness the focal employee enjoys with other teammates who choose to stay with the firm. Further, we propose that the influence of those departed employees will be higher when they are collocated and occupied similar professional roles as the focal employee. To test the arguments, we analyze entire project co-assignment data across five years that linked 728 geographically distributed employees who were engaged in software development and delivery activities at a multi-national high technology firm. Our findings suggest that instead of seeking belonging and viability with coworkers, employees are actively seeking cues from their network of colleagues and continuously making subjective assessments of career success. In distributed work settings, such cues circulate more among physically proximate than distant employees and formal roles of coworkers serve as referent points for those signals. These mechanisms collectively influence voluntary turnover decisions. Using a classification model, we further demonstrate how insights from this study can be used by human resource management practitioners to assess and contain the flight risk of their valuable talent.

The main aim of this thesis is to explore the structured use of behavioural science in helping to frame employment research. This structured framing intended to help stimulate more interdisciplinary interaction between sub-disciplines that study employment and behavioural science, setting out new empirical and theoretical applications to the study of employment decision-making. Firstly, the application of specific behavioural science concepts to employment scenarios, structured around the core facets of behavioural science, introducing the types of bias studied in behavioural science in turn. These core facets are cognitive and social biases, risk preferences and biases, time preferences and biases. These were combined with illustrative examples of how these biases might affect employment decision-making. The employment cycle is then used to demonstrate how the concepts in behavioural science may play out across a range of employment scenarios, unearthing potential theoretical and empirical applications. A behavioural science framing was then used to investigate factors related to the addition or omission of low rated journal publications in the assessment of academic resumes. The results of these investigations showed that low rated journal publications are still of some value, albeit journal ratings play a crucial role. Importantly, the extent to which additional low rated journal publications are valued could depend on unconscious social biases that are based on prior expectations, potentially dictated by organizational and ideological learning over time. The empirical work presented data collected from 1,011 psychology and management faculty based at U.K. and U.S.A. universities. The data was collected using an online randomized control trial survey experiment designed to test the assessment of publication records on academic resumes. Only faculty at levels likely to be involved in academic appointment panels and reviewing academic resumes were contacted to take part.

Connecting Human Resource Management (HRM) and knowledge transfer through motivation is a new research area. Out of the few existing studies there is a predominance of quantitative studies, which are showing inconclusive results. As a response, this study uses a qualitative micro perspective to investigate how HRM practises influence intrinsic- and extrinsic motivation to share knowledge. It is important to divide motivation into intrinsic and extrinsic, as it impacts knowledge sharing differently. Former studies have identified a need to study the whole HRM system, therefore, to capture differences in motivation among employees exposed to the same system, this thesis takes on a single case study approach. Qualitative interviews were held with employees at an MNC that relies on knowledge intensive activities. The findings showed that employees were motivated intrinsically through career development and extrinsically by the performance management system. The supportive climate showed to influence motivation to share knowledge, both directly and indirectly. Job design was shown to work well in combination with other practises. Finally, a key finding was the importance of having an aligned HRM system.

Dans le cadre de leurs démarches de modernisation, les entreprises tunisiennes sont à la recherche d’un modèle de gestion efficace de leurs Ressources Humaines permettant, au-delà de la flexibilité et des restructurations nécessaires, d’assurer un développement de leurs performances, ainsi qu’une sécurisation des parcours professionnels de leurs salariés. L’hypothèse centrale que nous avons déterminée comme réponse à cette problématique est la suivante : la rénovation de Gestion des Ressources Humaines, par la mise en place d’une politique de développement de l’employabilité, aide les entreprises tunisiennes à faire progresser leur performance sociale et économique et à sécuriser les parcours professionnels de leurs salariés.Les résultats de cette recherche mettent tout d’abord en évidence les principales difficultés de modernisation de Gestion des Ressources Humaines au sein des entreprises tunisiennes (managériales, structurelles, institutionnels et culturelles), puis l’apport de développement de l’employabilité pour la rénovation des pratiques de GRH et à l’accroissement de performances sociales et économiques à moyen et à long terme et, enfin, les conditions nécessaires à l’intégration d’une politique de développement de l’employabilité à la GRH. / As part of their efforts to modernize the Tunisian companies are looking for a model of effective management of their human resources with, beyond restructuring and flexibility necessary to ensure development of their performance and a career security of their employees. The central hypothesis we have determined as a response to this problem is: the renovation of Human Resource Management, for the establishment of a policy of development of employability, with Tunisian companies to advance their performance social and economic security and career paths for their employees.The results of this research are first identified the major challenges of modernizing human resources management in the Tunisian firms (managerial, structural, institutional and cultural) and the provision of employability development for renovation Human Resource Management practices and increasing social and economic performance in the medium and longer term and finally the conditions for the integration of a development policy employability of HRM.

The significance of capacity development programmes, as key driver for sustaining development goals, is anchored in all international fora. This research complements and extends our present understanding of the contribution of capacity development approaches to development and achievement of the SDGs. This is achieved by critically assessing the impact of capacity development initiatives sponsored by the World Bank. This thesis has focused on analysis of implementation strategies and critical assessment of the impact of the projects using multidisciplinary approach, utilising a range of quantitative and qualitative methods. It provides a sound empirical basis for assessing the complexities of these projects. This empirical investigation has identified a wide range of disparities of implementation strategies utilised for capacity development initiatives among the major international players (World Bank and UNDP). These findings clearly indicate that there is no single strategy for the implementation of capacity development initiatives. Thus, based on empirical evidence, as well as a critical review of the literature, the study proposes a model for achieving critical sustainable capacity development based on broad and long-term strategies; input, process, output, and outcome which defines the appropriateness of policies and practices that support sustainable development. It is concluded that capacity development initiatives are relevant and essential ensuring national development and sustainable results. The recommendations include the focus on individual, organisational, and societal factors when planning, developing and adopting strategies for implementing all government/national programmes.

I arbetslivet har första linjens chefer haft stora inslag av direkt ledarskap med en traditionellt hög närvaro hos de underställda. Studier visar på en ökad andel administrativa, ekonomiska och personalledande uppgifter för första linjens chefer som får till följd en minskad delaktighet i den dagliga verksamheten men också sämre möjligheter att motivera sin underställda, vilket negativt påverkar verksamheten. I Försvarsmakten har administrativa uppgifter som tidigare genomfördes högre upp i organisationen flyttats till en lägre nivå. Uppsatsens syfte är att öka förståelsen för och kunskapen om plutonchefens arbetssituation efter införandet av anställda soldater och den delegerade arbetsgivarrollen till plutonchefen. Studiens fokus är på plutonchefens avvägning mellan deltagandet i underställdas verksamhet för att utöva direkt ledarskap kontra att genomföra bl.a. personaladministration. I studien används rollteori från socialpsykologin som analysmodell, med utgångspunkt i tidigare forskning och litteratur om första linjens chefer och Försvarsmaktens ledarskapsmodell. Inledningsvis beskrivs Försvarsmaktens ”utsända” rollförväntning, därefter inhämtas plutonchefens upplevda arbetssituation och rollförväntning med en enkät till 141 plutonchefer (90 svar). Slutligen jämförs rollförväntningarna med varandra samt med teorin.  I empirin framkommer att plutonchefernas situation är pressad där upplevda tvingande administrativa arbetsuppgifter prioriteras före direkt ledarskap. Hälften (48 %) av plutoncheferna deltar i underställdas verksamhet mindre än 20 % av sin arbetstid och endast 20 % av plutoncheferna använder mindre än 20 % av arbetstiden till administration av underställda. Resultatet antyder att det finns en skillnad i rollförväntningar på plutonchefen mellan Försvarsmakten och plutoncheferna själva, främst kopplat till faktorn överbelastning av arbetsuppgifter samt yrkesrollidentiteten.

Made available in DSpace on 2010-04-20T20:08:08Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 1998-12-22T00:00:00Z / O principal propósito deste trabalho é propor e conceituar as seguintes dimensões competitivas da estratégia de recursos humanos sob a ótica contemporânea dos conceitos de estratégia competitiva e de estratégia de manufatura: a constituição de rede de trabalho baseada em equipes, a aprendizagem organizacional e a gestão da cultura organizacional. No contexto da gestão estratégica de negócios, propõe-se que estas dimensões competitivas sejam estabelecidas juntamente com as estratégias das unidades de negócios e das prioridades competitivas da estratégia de manufatura, ou seja, qualidade, desempenho das entregas, flexibilidade e custo. Em estudo de casos, envolvendo quatro empresas manufatureiras do setor metal mecânico do interior do estado de São Paulo, identificam-se as dimensões competitivas das estratégias de recursos humanos e as prioridades competitivas das estratégias de manufatura, assim como sua combinação dentro das estratégias das unidades de negócios das empresas pesquisadas, com o objetivo de analisar a aplicabilidade das duas proposições teóricas deste trabalho: as dimensões competitividade da estratégia de recursos humanos e a sua combinação com as prioridades competitivas da estratégia de manufatura no contexto das estratégias de negócios. / This paper aims at proposing and conceptualizing the following competitive dimensions of the human resource strategy by using the contemporary concepts of competitive strategy and manufacturing strategy: the formation of a network based on teams, the organizational learning and the management of organizational culture. Within the strategic business management, these competitive dimensions must be established simultaneously with the business unit strategies and the competitive priorities of manufacturing strategy, i.e., quality, delivery perfomance, flexibility and cost. Four manufacturing companies of the metal mechanical industry, located at the interior of São Paulo state, have not only the competitive dimensions of their human resource strategy and the competitive priorities of their manufacturing strategies, but also their arrangement within the business unit strategies identified. The feasibility of applying the following theoretical propositions of this paper to manufacturing companies is analysed in this case study: the competitive dimensions of the human resource strategy and the arrangement of these dimensions and the competitive priorities of manufacturing strategy during the formulation of company strategies.

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)