Abstract In the best of Worlds, Covey (1995) writes, corporate revolutions will yield invigorated employees who can ¡§interdependently in cross-functional teams¡¨ and who are ¡§able to generate creativity, performance and innovation beyond the total of their individual capacities.¡¨ Cross-functional mobility (i.e., job rotation) can help to ¡§program in ¡§ an organization-wide perspective and integration of corporate goals (Hall, 1984). Therefore, in order to get successful career-related outcomes (especially in promotion rate and salary growth) in the future, an employee has to have different multi-capacities in the organization. One of the most progressive career development strategies, known as job rotation, is used to proactively enhance the breadth of work experiences (Campion et al., 1994). The objective of job rotation is to provide managers assignments in different areas at company to gain an overall appreciation of organizational goals, to create a broad knowledge base of different areas in business, to develop a network of organizational contacts, and to increase problem-solving and decision-making skills (Noe & Ford, 1992). Therefore, the purpose of this study was to develop and test a conceptual framework for the relationship between job rotation and potential career outcomes. I set up a framework and hypotheses through a review of related literatures and then empirically tested the hypotheses in the motor companies in Taiwan. In this framework, I tried to find out that organizational factors of job rotation (i.e., degree of emphasis, developing and training support on rotation in the organization) directly or indirectly through personal factors of job rotation (i.e., preference of rotation and rotation rate) improved their acquirement of the individual knowledge and skill for employees, and finally through the effect of the interaction between acquirement of the individual knowledge and skill and interfered with the personal career backgrounds (i.e., age, tenure, education, department, and position) to affect their career-related outcomes (i.e., promotion rate and salary growth). After the statistic analysis, the results are summarized as following¡G To begin with, the organizational factors of job rotation including the degree of emphasis, developing and training support on rotation in the organization are all directly related with acquirement of the individual knowledge and skill. However, there is only a directly positive relationship and effect between the degree of development on rotation in the organization and acquirement of the individual knowledge and skill. Second, the degree of developing on rotation in the organization also can be indirectly through preference of rotation, which is one of the personal factors to affect acquirement of the individual knowledge and skill. Third, there is a positive relationship and effect between acquirement of the individual knowledge and skill and career-related outcomes, which include promotion rate and salary growth. At last, the effect of the interaction between acquirement of the individual knowledge and skill and interfered with the personal career backgrounds affects the promotion rate and salary growth. There are some outcomes as following: 1. The lower is the tenure and the higher is the acquirement of the individual knowledge and skill, the higher is the promotion rate and salary growth. 2. The higher is the degree of education and the acquirement of the individual knowledge and skill, the higher is the promotion rate and salary growth. 3. The higher is the position and the acquirement of the individual knowledge and skill, the higher is the salary growth. Key words: Job rotation, the acquirement of the individual knowledge and skill, career-related outcomes.

Job rotation is recommended to prevent musculoskeletal disorders (MSD). The premise is by involving different tissues a “working rest” for other tissues is created. The possible health benefits from this relief have not been investigated with regards to different grips in hand intensive jobs. The purpose of this study is to investigate hand intensive tasks and determine whether rotating between the power grip and lateral pinch grip can provide a benefit. A psychophysical load adjustment protocol was used. To investigate the effect of rotation, three different trials were collected. These included: power grip only, lateral pinch only, and alternating the two grips. Each trial was 60 minutes in duration, with a 12second cycle time, and 25% duty cycle. Fourteen subjects were recruited and pre-screened for any upper extremity disorders. Subjects were instructed to “work as hard as you can without straining your hand, wrist or forearm”; by adjusting their resistance settings to achieve a maximum acceptable force (MAF). Grip forces were exerted on an adjustable system using a hand grip dynamometer. Ratings of perceived discomfort were reported every 10minutes. Electromyography (EMG) was collected on eight forearm muscles during the combination trial. The demand for both lateral pinch and power grip tasks were at self selected levels and no fatigue was reported within MAF, EMG recordings, and discomfort reports. The rotation between lateral pinch and power grip had no apparent effect on MAF. However, EMG data hinted that there was a rotation of activation between first dorsal interossei and the forearm flexors (not statistically significant). Less discomfort was reported within the combination trial than the single grip (not significant). The study found no measurable difference in MAF when rotating between the power grip and lateral pinch. Considering there was no increase in demand, there is potential benefit to rotation, with trends to rotating activation between muscles, less discomfort being reported, and a general preference for the rotation. Given the high rates of MSD, and rotation being an effective tool to lower exposure, further investigations are required to understand relationships between similar muscles groups within hand intensive work environments.

Job rotation is recommended to prevent musculoskeletal disorders (MSD). The premise is by involving different tissues a “working rest” for other tissues is created. The possible health benefits from this relief have not been investigated with regards to different grips in hand intensive jobs. The purpose of this study is to investigate hand intensive tasks and determine whether rotating between the power grip and lateral pinch grip can provide a benefit. A psychophysical load adjustment protocol was used. To investigate the effect of rotation, three different trials were collected. These included: power grip only, lateral pinch only, and alternating the two grips. Each trial was 60 minutes in duration, with a 12second cycle time, and 25% duty cycle. Fourteen subjects were recruited and pre-screened for any upper extremity disorders. Subjects were instructed to “work as hard as you can without straining your hand, wrist or forearm”; by adjusting their resistance settings to achieve a maximum acceptable force (MAF). Grip forces were exerted on an adjustable system using a hand grip dynamometer. Ratings of perceived discomfort were reported every 10minutes. Electromyography (EMG) was collected on eight forearm muscles during the combination trial. The demand for both lateral pinch and power grip tasks were at self selected levels and no fatigue was reported within MAF, EMG recordings, and discomfort reports. The rotation between lateral pinch and power grip had no apparent effect on MAF. However, EMG data hinted that there was a rotation of activation between first dorsal interossei and the forearm flexors (not statistically significant). Less discomfort was reported within the combination trial than the single grip (not significant). The study found no measurable difference in MAF when rotating between the power grip and lateral pinch. Considering there was no increase in demand, there is potential benefit to rotation, with trends to rotating activation between muscles, less discomfort being reported, and a general preference for the rotation. Given the high rates of MSD, and rotation being an effective tool to lower exposure, further investigations are required to understand relationships between similar muscles groups within hand intensive work environments.

M. Tech. Business Administration / The aim of the study is to determine the influence of the implementation of job rotation on employees perceived job satisfaction and to identifiy the key factors that would influence the adoption of a job rotation strategy by the Registrar's environment of the Tshwane University of Technology.

M. Tech. Business Administration / The aim of the study is to determine the influence of the implementation of job rotation on employees perceived job satisfaction and to identifiy the key factors that would influence the adoption of a job rotation strategy by the Registrar's environment of the Tshwane University of Technology.

Lean production prescribes training workers on all tasks within the cell to adapt to changes in customer demand. Multi-skilling of workers can be achieved by cross-training. Cross-training can be improved and reinforced by implementing job rotation. Lean production also prescribes using job rotation to improve worker flexibility, worker satisfaction, and to increase worker knowledge in how their work affects the rest of the cell. Currently, there is minimal research on how to assign multi-skilled workers to tasks within a lean production cell while considering multi-skilling and job rotation. In this research, a new mathematical model was developed that assigns workers to tasks, while ensuring job rotation, and determines the levels of skill, and thus training, necessary to meet customer demand, quality requirements, and training objectives. The model is solved using sequential goal programming to incorporate three objectives: overproduction, cost of poor quality, and cost of training. The results of the model include an assignment of workers to tasks, a determination of the training necessary for the workers, and a job rotation schedule. To evaluate the results on a cost basis, the costs associated with overproduction, defects, and training were used to calculate the net present cost for one year. The solutions from the model were further analyzed using a simulation model of the cell to determine the impact of job rotation and multi-skilling levels on production line performance. The measures of performance include average flowtime, work-in-process (WIP) level, and monthly shipments (number produced). Using the model, the impact of alternative levels of multi-skilling and job rotation on the performance of cellular manufacturing systems is investigated. Understanding the effect of multi-skilling and job rotation can aid both production managers and human resources managers in determining which workers need training and how often workers should be rotated to improve the performance of the cell. The lean production literature prescribes training workers on all tasks within a cell and developing a rotation schedule to reinforce the cross-training. Four levels of multi-skilling and three levels of job rotation frequency are evaluated for both a hypothetical cell and a case application in a relatively mature actual production cell. The results of this investigation provide insight on how multi-skilling and job rotation frequency influence production line performance and provide guidance on training policies. The results show that there is an interaction effect between multi-skilling and job rotation for flowtime, work-in-process, in both the hypothetical cell and the case application and monthly shipments in the case application. Therefore, the effect of job rotation on performance measures is not the same at all levels of multi-skilling thus indicating that inferences about the effect of changing multi-skilling, for example, should not be made without considering the job rotation level. The results also indicate that the net present cost is heavily influenced by the cost of poor quality. The results for the case application indicated that the maturity level of the cell influences the benefits derived from increased multi-skilling and affects several key characteristics of the cell. As a cell becomes more mature, it is expected that the quality levels increase and that the skill levels on tasks normally performed increase. Because workers in the case application already have a high skill level on some tasks, the return on training is not as significant. Additionally, the mature cell has relatively high quality levels from the beginning and any improvements in quality would be in small increments rather than in large breakthroughs. The primary contribution of this research is the development of a sequential goal programming worker assignment model that addresses overproduction, poor quality, cross-training, and job rotation in order to meet the prescription in the lean production literature of only producing to customer demand while utilizing multi-skilled workers. Further contributions are analysis of how multi-skilling level and job rotation frequency impact the performance of the cell. Lastly, a contribution is the application of optimization and simulation methods for comprehensively analyzing the impact of worker assignment on performance measures. / Ph. D.

Numerous aspects of job scheduling in manufacturing systems have been the focus of several studies in the past decades. However, human factors in manufacturing systems such as workers’ mental conditions are still neglected issues and have not received adequate attentions. Job boredom and mental fatigue are both aspects of workers’ mental condition. They affect work performances by increasing sick leave duration and decreasing work productivity. On the other hand, job rotation could be an alternative strategy to cope with such human issues at work. The benefits of job rotation for both employees and firms have been widely recognized in the literature. Although some studies found job rotation as a means to reduce workers' physical work-related traumas, they did not consider the effect of variable mental conditions on workers. Despite the proven importance of boredom and mental fatigue at the workplace, they have not been a combined precise objective of any job rotation problem in current literature. The study of mental conditions proposed in this paper attempts to extend the previous works by addressing new methods and developing a feasible solution to increase manufacturing productivity. A new job scheduling program has been designed specifically which combines a new job rotation model and a job assignment method.

Numerous aspects of job scheduling in manufacturing systems have been the focus of several studies in the past decades. However, human factors in manufacturing systems such as workers’ mental conditions are still neglected issues and have not received adequate attentions. Job boredom and mental fatigue are both aspects of workers’ mental condition. They affect work performances by increasing sick leave duration and decreasing work productivity. On the other hand, job rotation could be an alternative strategy to cope with such human issues at work. The benefits of job rotation for both employees and firms have been widely recognized in the literature. Although some studies found job rotation as a means to reduce workers' physical work-related traumas, they did not consider the effect of variable mental conditions on workers. Despite the proven importance of boredom and mental fatigue at the workplace, they have not been a combined precise objective of any job rotation problem in current literature. The study of mental conditions proposed in this paper attempts to extend the previous works by addressing new methods and developing a feasible solution to increase manufacturing productivity. A new job scheduling program has been designed specifically which combines a new job rotation model and a job assignment method.

Whether it is Forbes, The Globe & Mail, The Wall Street Journal or Harvard Business Review, one can¡¦t help but notice that most accounts of business mergers are about what went wrong! In fact, over 70% of all mergers and acquisitions fail to achieve original financial expectations. That is a traumatic statistic. Additionally, although the merging entities give a great deal of importance to financial matters and the outcomes, HR issues are the most ignored ones. To be ironical, many studies have shown that most of the mergers fail to bring out the desired outcomes due to ¡§people-related¡¨ issue. The uncertainty brought out by poorly managed HR issues in mergers and acquisitions have been the major reason for these failures. The human resource issues in the mergers and acquisitions (M&A) can be classified in two phases the pre-merger phase and the post merger phase. Some literature provides ample evidence of difference in between the human resource activities in the two stages: the pre-acquisition and post acquisition period. However, we will focus on post acquisition period. The post acquisition period involves an assessment of the cultural and organizational differences, which will include the organizational cultures, role of leaders in the organization, and the management styles. The usual impacts, such as high turnover rate, decrease in the morale, motivation, and even lead to M&A failures. The other issues in the M&A activity are the changes in the HR policies, downsizing, layoffs, stress on the workers, and information system issues. As a result, human resource system issues in M&A activity are occupying a crucial position, indeed, human resource planning, compensation designs, performance appraisal system, employee development and employee relations should be given in the priority. Beside, the M&A activity also causes changes in their well defined career paths and future opportunities in the organization. Some employees also have to be relocated or assigned new jobs. Accordingly, HR will place employees in a completely different situation with new job profiles and work teams or design the job rotation programs. This may pose a tremendous impact on the performance of the employees. Therefore, HR may also need to develop a variety of training system and communication system to rebuild self-esteem of each employee. Those programs will enhance employees to obtain ability and create their potentials. Finally, the compensation structure among the organizations may also have a unavoidable difference, for example, one of firms may have performance based pay while other may have higher component of fixed pay; Hence the differences in compensation structure and performance appraisal systems also need to be re-evaluated so as to bring equity in the human resource systems and to treat employees at the equal level. Simultaneously, the employee relations issues will gain more importance in the acquisitions of Taiwan¡¦s industries. The power equation between management and unions is bound to change with the acquisition. The acquiring management also needs to keep track of number of unions in the workplace and equations between HR department and unions. Hence, developing a harmony relationship should be put in the first place. To sum up, this will require study of management-union equation, employee contracts, political linkages of the unions, compensation related clauses, number of union and dynamics between the unions. To sun up, once company accomplish those conditions, it will elevate the successful rate of M&A.

With the industrial economy and changing times demand for talent in the organization of work, employee would not only want the salary, but further hope to cultivate the ability to meet their own interest with organizational development. There are more and more companies also starting to focus on employee career development and nurturing of talent management policies, such as personal development plans, job rotation, mentoring, competency model, succession planning, and so on are also promoting inter-enterprise. However, the implementation of the organization's policies and implementation have to cooperate with the staff's participation and recognition. Employees identify with the company's personal development plan and job rotation, and whether it will improve job satisfaction? The questionnaire of this study were mainly to foreign companies as well as one thousand large companies for the study, 150 questionnaires were recovered, a recovery rate of 98%, and focuses on employees whether it will affect the company agree that the level of implementation of personal development plans and job rotation job satisfaction, come join competent support and personal growth needs two interference variables, whether due to personal development plans and job rotation the tone recognition revealed the level of work satisfaction interference effect, the findings were as follows: 1. Career planning have a significant positive impact on the autonomy employee satisfaction. But no interference effects supervisor support. 2.Personal development plan career planning, feedback, development, all employees perceived supervisor support have a significant positive effect on satisfaction, but interference effects supervisor support only for personal development plan. 3.The organization and implementation of the career development of personal development plans, improvement of job rotation have a significant positive effect on external satisfaction of employees and supervisor support interference effects. 4. Organization and implementation of the improvement of job rotation have a significant positive effect on satisfaction of employees a sense of accomplishment, and competent support interference effects. 5. Correlation personal development plan and job rotation and job satisfaction, personal growth needs are no interference effects. Keywords: personal development plans, job rotation, supervisor support, personal growth need, work satisfaction