Titel: Humankapital i kunskapsintensiva konsultföretag - En kvalitativ studie om hur humankapital värderas och redovisas i kunskapsintensiva konsultföretag Bakgrund: Humankapital är en del av företagets intellektuella kapital som kan definieras som färdigheter, kompetenser och utbildning som de anställda besitter. Trots vikten av humankapital i företag och specifikt inom kunskapsintensiva företag, har värderingen och redovisningen av det som en tillgång i företagets balansräkning varit en komplex och kontroversiell fråga i decennier. Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att få en bättre insikt i hur svenska kunskapsintensiva konsultföretag värderar och redovisar sitt humankapital, vi vill även undersöka hur likheterna ser ut mellan företagen. Vi vill till sist också få en insikt i vilka intressenter som kunskapsintensiva konsultföretag redovisar humankapital till och varför. Metod: En kvalitativ studie har utförts med en abduktiv ansats. Data var baserat på åtta intervjuer med antingen VD eller ekonomiansvarig i kunskapsintensiva konsultföretag. Insamlade data analyserades med en tematisk analys där vi identifierade och analyserade teman. Resultat och slutsats: Företagen värderar humankapital baserat på hur mycket personalen genererar genom branschspecifika nyckeltal. De värderar också humankapitalet kvalitativt och narrativt. Detta redovisas främst till interna intressenter så som företagsledningen, styrelsen och ägare. Den enda externa kommunikationen av humankapital sker till kunder för att del av konsulternas kompetens, erfarenhet etcetera. Två konsultföretag berättar också att deras kunder har krav på humankapitalredovisning genom CV vid uppdrag. / Title: Human capital in knowledge-intensive consulting firms – A qualitative study about how human capital is measured and reported in knowledge-intensive consulting firms Background: Human capital is a part of a firm’s intellectual capital which can be defined as the skill, competence and education of its employees. Despite the importance of human capital in firms and particularly within knowledge-intensive firms, the measuring and accounting of it as an asset in the firm’s balance sheet has been a complex and controversial topic for decades. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to gain a better insight into how Swedish knowledge-intensive consulting firms measure and report their human capital. Furthermore, we also want to investigate how the similarities is shown between the firms. Finally, we want to gain insight into which stakeholders that knowledgeintensive consulting firms report human capital to and why. Methodology: A qualitative study has been conducted with an abductive approach. The data was based on eight interviews with the CEO or the CFO in knowledgeintensive consulting firms. The collected data was analyzed with a thematic analysis where we identified and analyzed themes. Results and conclusions: The firms measure human capital based on how much the employees generate through industry-specific performance indicators. They also measure human capital qualitatively and narratively. This is mainly reported to internal stakeholders such as management, board and owners. The only external communication of human capital is to clients in order to share the consultants’ expertise, experience etcetera. Two consulting firms also say that their clients have requirements for human capital accounting through CV’s.

This study explores student-consulting firms and how a strong organizational culture can be a key to mitigate their particular challenge of high employee turnover and how their management can work with different dimensions of organizational culture as tools to embed a strong organizational culture. A student-consulting firm is a consulting firm operated by students still engaged in regular educational programs that can be considered a form of knowledge-intensive firm (KIF). This study investigates how management in these firms work with organizational cul- ture through four dimensions, symbols, heroes, rituals and ceremonies, and values. These dimensions are based on Schein [1990] and extended by input from Hofstede et al. [1990] and Bolman and Deal [2003]. The findings of this study are based on three detailed case studies conducted at the three largest student-consulting firms in Sweden where semi-structured interviews were performed to investigate how manage- ment work with different managerial tools in these four dimensions. This study concludes that there are at least eleven discreet management tools that are used in these firms to mitigate the challenges that their high employee turnover implies. The findings provide in-depth insight into these tools and their usage and effect, thereby enhancing the understanding of the role of organizational culture and providing a framework for management.

High rates of employee turnover in the legal sector are an internationally recognized problem. Despite persistent efforts from business law firms, many lawyers choose to leave their employer. This suggests these business law firms struggle with talent management and employee retention. Based on several concepts from organizational theory, this study investigates which motivational forces contribute to employee retention at Swedish business law firms. Data has been collected through semi-structured interviews with six respondents; working as associates, senior associate and partner at their respective firms. The empirical findings show that affective, contractual and calculative forces contribute most to lawyers choosing to stay at their law firms. Meanwhile, normative, alternative, behavioral, moral/ethical and constituent factors contributed little or nothing to employee retention. Complementary factors such as compensation, fringe benefits and work-life balance were also not regarded as decisive in the lawyers’ decisions to remain.

This research is a qualitative case study at the knowledge-intensive start-up company Magstrom. The purpose of the study is to investigate and thus understand how knowledge management processes can be utilized to facilitate dynamic capabilities within a knowledge-intensive start-up context. Therefore, the following research question has been formulated: How can knowledge management processes be utilized to facilitate dynamic capabilities within a knowledge-intensive start-up company? To answer the research question, data was collected through semi-structured interviews with the employees of Magstrom. The collected data was then analyzed using a thematic analysis. The findings correlate with the literature and connects knowledge management processes to dynamic capabilities in a start-up context. More specifically the knowledge management processes of absorptive capacity, knowledge transfer, and knowledge application to the micro-foundations of dynamic capabilities that are sensing, seizing, and reconfiguring respectively. The knowledge management processes are identified to create a foundation for dynamic capabilities to develop from. Furthermore, the empirical data identified many factors of importance for knowledge management processes in a start-up context. Most significant were increasing customer interactions, open formal and informal communication, enabling access to the stock of knowledge, a flat organizational structure, decision-making, continuous innovation, putting effort into recruitment, and interactions between departments creating inter-functional teams. An important challenge is managing the ambiguity, the tacit nature of the technical knowledge, and organizing the scattered knowledge within the organization. Also, being able to handle the uncertainty of the start-up context and having confidence to use knowledge to make informed decisions. To conclude, dynamic capabilities can, according to theory and the findings of this study, be facilitated by knowledge management processes in a start-up context. More specifically, by improving the absorptive capacity, knowledge transfer, and knowledge application by exploiting the important factors identified.

Bakgrund och Syfte: Tidigare forskning inom employer branding menar att det finns ett behov för ytterligare forskning vad gäller hur företag i praktiken tillämpar employer branding och vilka processer och arbetsmetoder som används. Syftet med vår studie är att utifrån ett styrningsperspektiv skapa förståelse för hur kunskapsintensiva företag genom tillämpning av employer branding hanterar konkurrensen om kompetenta medarbetare, med avseende på employer branding som process och dess arbetsmetoder.   Metod: Denna studie är en kvalitativ flerfallsstudie som utgår från en abduktiv ansats. För att skapa förståelse har vi antagit ett hermeneutiskt synsätt. Det empiriska materialet har samlats in genom semi-strukturerade intervjuer, som sedan sammanställts utifrån de teman som vår teoretiska referenram är uppbyggd kring. I analysen har vi ställt empiri mot teori, samtidigt som vi jämfört företagen mot varandra.   Resultat och Slutsats: Studien har påvisat tillämpning av arbetsmetoder i praktiken inom employer branding arbetet som tidigare forskning inte nämnt. Genom att vi kartlagt och identifierat nya arbetsmetoder menar vi att vi skapat ökad förståelse för tillämpning av employer branding som process och dess arbetsmetoder. Därav menar vi att syftet i studien besvarats.   Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Då vi funnit att det finns en viss problematik med att mäta effekten av employer branding menar vi som förslag att det vore intressant att undersöka hur företag i praktiken upplever och hanterar mätningar inom employer branding över tid. Vi föreslår även att vidare forskning bör undersöka hur företag säkerställer att medarbetare lever upp till företagets EVP, i de fall då EVP innefattar värdeord som förutsätter medarbetarnas efterlevnad.     Studiens bidrag: Vår studie bidrar med att minska det gap som finns i forskningen genom att vi i praktiken identifierat processer och arbetsmetoder som teorin tidigare inte nämnt. Vidare bidrar vi även med att tydliggöra och konkretisera tillämpningen av employer branding för företag i praktiken. / Aim: Previous research within employer branding suggests there is a need for further research regarding how companies use employer branding in practice and what processes and working methods they use. The purpose with our study is to, from a management-perspective, create an understanding for how knowledge-intensive companies through use of employer branding handle the competition of talented co-workers, regarding employer branding as a process and its working methods.   Method: This is a qualitative multiple case study with an abductive approach. To create a deeper understanding we have applied a hermeneutic approach. The empirical data has been gathered through semi-constructed interviews, and then been analyzed from the themes in our theoretical framework. When analyzing, we have compared the empirical findings against the theory, and also compared the companies to each other.   Conclusions: The study has demonstrated that the practitioners of employer branding are using working methods which previous research within the field have not mentioned earlier. We suggest, that through mapping the working methods, and through the fact that we have identified new working methods, we have created a deeper understanding of the use of employer branding as a process, and for the working methods used in practice. By doing so, we claim that we have responded to the purpose of our study.   Suggested future research: We have discovered a problem regarding measuring the effect of employer branding. Therefore, we suggest that it would be interesting to study how companies handle and experience the measurings over time within employer branding. We also suggest further research regarding how companies ensure that co-workers conform to their employers´ EVP, in the case where the EVP implicates words that presume co-workers conforming to it.   Contribution of the thesis: Our study contributes to the research by decreasing the gap we found in the research, by identifying processes and working methods within practice that previous research within the field have not mentioned earlier. We also contribute to practice by clarifying and concretizing the use of employer branding.

我國經濟發展早期建立於價格低廉且素質高的勞力密集生產，政府的出口導向貿易政策，促使台灣成為製造業為發展重心的經濟型態，台灣經濟成長動力來源遂以製造部門為主，但在面對全球知識經濟發展的競爭壓力下，謀求轉型升級成為亟欲探討的課題。另外，全球化的發展趨勢下，開發中國家擁有大量的廉價勞力，在比較利益的原則之下，使得台灣長期以來依賴製造與出口為經濟重心的發展模式受到了相當程度的影響。因此在製造部門為了維持企業競爭優勢而將工廠外移的隱憂下，台灣如何以知識密集服務業造就下一波經濟成長的動力，此為亟欲探討的課題。 服務業占我國經濟結構比重已超過三分之二，但是我國服務業之整體知識密集度仍有提升的空間。長期以來我們對於創新的認知大多集中於製造業的範圍，忽略了服務業創新與創新過程中服務所扮演的重要角色，因此，我國對於研發與創新的理解也須跳脫硬體和製造的層次。 本研究由服務系統與創新構面的角度切入，探討選取個案中的服務創新因子，並歸類出其創新驅動的形式。研究問題如下： 1.創新服務核心技術應用在服務系統發展的關鍵點為何？ 2.知識密集服務業的創新成果與服務創新之間有哪些重要的構面？構面之間的互動對創新成果的影響為何？ 3.知識密集服務業的創新驅動可能因子有哪幾種形式？ 本研究以個案訪談及蒐集次及資料為主要分析來源，本研究選取對象，以策略性服務業科專計畫中，工研院能資所開發的全溫層保鮮系統服務為主，其中包括工研院能資所開發技術的過程，以及大榮貨運、台灣宅配通、中華郵政三家移轉服務系統的宅配業者。而本研究主要結論如下： 1.知識密集服務業創新服務技術發展的關鍵，在於與服務業者的共同開發合作。 2.服務創新構面中新服務觀念、新交付系統、新顧客介面等三構面會影響服務創新的成果，服務創新構面需互相配合。 3.服務創新構面中技術選擇不具關鍵性，服務決定技術，而非技術決定服務，但技術採用可加速新服務創新的實行。 4.服務創新驅動因子來自供應商、服務業者、客戶端。不同創新驅動因子有不同創新驅動形式，如客戶導向的創新驅動、供應商支配的創新驅動、服務業者的創新驅動與共同合作開發的創新驅動。 5.技術層次與對服務的認知決定服務創新驅動的形式。

Submitted by JOSIANE SANTOS DE OLIVEIRA (josianeso) on 2017-09-27T14:45:26Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Maria Eloisa Karolczak_.pdf: 1695577 bytes, checksum: df665bf3850b52bb83bfcbe42a0ca82e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-09-27T14:45:26Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Maria Eloisa Karolczak_.pdf: 1695577 bytes, checksum: df665bf3850b52bb83bfcbe42a0ca82e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-06-13 / CAPES - Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / UNEMAT - Universidade do Estado de Mato Grosso / Este estudo tem como propósito oferecer entendimento para o fenômeno da disponibilidade/escassez de recursos humanos capacitados nas áreas de Ciências, Tecnologia, Engenharia, Matemática e afins, os profissionais STEM, na perspectiva da Teoria do Capital Humano (TCH). A THC provê os seguintes pressupostos teóricos para este estudo: a) quanto maior a qualificação e as habilidades dos profissionais STEM, maior possibilidade de mobilidade; b) o estoque de capital humano depende de políticas organizacionais independentemente do valor investido; c) o capital humano especializado é visto como um investimento em educação feito pela organização, pelo funcionário ou por ambos; d) os indivíduos podem ter autonomia sobre suas qualificações que alavancam a vida profissional. Com base nesses pressupostos, este estudo discute quatro proposições: P1 – As políticas públicas influem na formação, na qualificação e na criação de ambientes propícios e não propícios ao desenvolvimento do conhecimento e das habilidades de profissionais STEM; P2 – As políticas do setor privado desenvolvem, assimilam e retêm os conhecimentos de profissionais STEM; P3 – Os elementos conhecimento e habilidades impactam na decisão do profissional STEM para empreender mobilidade e estão associados à busca por qualidade de vida; P4 – Diferentes modalidades de retorno de investimento interferem no estoque de capital humano das organizações. A metodologia desenvolvida neste estudo é caracterizada como uma pesquisa de campo, com análise de documentos e entrevistas semiestruturadas realizadas com gestores e diretores de organizações intensivas em conhecimento (OIC), localizadas em parques tecnológicos brasileiros e para Instituições de Ensino Superior. Constatou-se que existe uma carência de profissionais STEM e uma assimetria entre o perfil profissional que o mercado necessita e o que é entregue pela academia. Verificou-se que as políticas públicas e privadas não são eficazes para reter os profissionais e, embora existam recursos e políticas que contribuam, também há aquelas que dificultam as operações, sobretudo, as políticas trabalhistas. O estudo conclui que, embora existam políticas públicas e instituições capazes de formar profissionais STEM no Brasil, as organizações intensivas em conhecimento que atuam no país têm limitações na retenção desses profissionais. / This study aims to offer an understanding of the phenomenon of availability/dearth of skilled human resources in the areas of Sciences, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and the like, the STEM professionals, in the perspective of the Human Capital Theory (HCT). The HCT provides this study with the following theoretical arguments: a) the higher the qualification and the skills of the STEM professionals, the higher the possibility of mobility; b) the asset of human capital depends on organizational policies, no matter the invested capital; c) the skilled human capital is seen as an investment in education provided by the company, by the employee or by both; d) individuals can be autonomous in terms of their qualifications, which enhances the professional life. Based on these premises, this study discusses four proposals: P1 – The public policies influence the formation, qualification and creation of environments, or not, favorable to the development of knowledge and abilities of STEM professionals; P2 – The policies of the private sector, develop assimilate and retain the STEM professionals; P3 – Knowledge and ability impact the decision of the STEM professional to undertake mobility and is associated to the search for life quality; P4 – Different ways of return on investment interfere in the asset of human capital in the organizations. The methodology developed in this study is characterized as a field research, with documents analysis and partially structured interviews with managers and directors of knowledge-intensive organizations, (KIOs), located in Brazilian science parks and higher education institutions. It was verified that there is a shortage of STEM professionals and an asymmetry between the professional profile that the market needs and what is delivered by the academy. It was found that public and private policies are not effective in retaining professionals, and although there are resources and policies that contribute, there are also those that hamper operations, especially labor policies. The study concludes that, although there are public policies and institutions able to train STEM professionals in Brazil, the knowledge-intensive organizations working in the country have limitations in terms of retention of these professionals.

Det finns en djupt rotad allmän uppfattning om att de nya kunskapsintensiva företagen är föredömliga vad det gäller struktur samt hur man styr och kontrollerar förhållanden inom organisationen. Åsikten tycks vara att medarbetaren inom kunskapsintensiva företag får en betydligt mer framträdande roll och stor beslutsmakt över sina egna arbetsvillkor.Studiens syfte är att undersöka hur två företag inom konsultbranschen är uppbyggda rent strukturellt och hur dessa organisationer styrs. Det ska utmynna i en jämförelse mellan verksamheterna. Studien är baserad på företagen Deloitte och PricewaterhouseCooper (PwC) som är två ledande företag i konsultbranschen.Den teoretiska referensramen presenterar bland annat litteratur inom organisationshierarki och organisationskultur där en rad författare resonerar kring sin syn på struktur och styrning. Alvesson i sin tur återger istället ingående beskrivningar på begreppet kunskapsintensiva företag. Studien har utförts utifrån ett kvalitativt angreppssätt där empirin har samlats in genom personliga intervjuer med kontorscheferna på de båda företagen.Den empiriska datan som samlades in har sedan analyserats i jakten på att finna likheter och skillnader mellan fallföretagen. Analysen genomfördes också för att få en klarare bild av vilka teorier som fortfarande är relevanta i ett samhälle och en bransch som präglas av ständig rörelse och utveckling.De slutsatser som vi har kommit fram till är att styrningen inom PwC och Deloitte sker med ungefär samma verktyg, men att det ändå finns en del intressanta olikheter som skiljer de båda företagen åt. Vad det gäller strukturen fann vi även där en del olikheter som dock var skarpare ”på pappret” än i praktiken.

Bakgrund: "There is a war for talent, and it will intensify" skrev McKinsey Quarterly redan 1998 och syftar på den ökade konkurrensen som råder på arbetsgivarmarknaden om talangfull och kompetent personal som kan driva företaget framåt. Vikten av humankapital blir särskilt märkbart i dagens framträdande kunskapsintensiva företag, däribland revisions- och konsultföretagen, samtidigt som demografiska skiftningar gör att trenden går mot ett talangunderskott. Generation Y anses samtidigt vara karriärlystna och aktiva CV-jägare. Därför råder en kamp bland arbetsgivarna i att finna och vinna talangerna bland dessa. Detta kan göras genom utvecklandet av ett starkt arbetsgivarvarumärke och genom att lära känna sin målgrupp och skaffa kännedom om deras motivationsfaktorer och preferenser. Syfte: "Att ur en grupp ekonomstudenter identifiera talangegenskaper och förklara vilka avgörande faktorer som gör en arbetsgivare attraktiv ur de ansedda 'talangernas' perspektiv." Problemformulering: Vilka är nyckelfaktorerna när de ansedda "talangerna" väljer sin framtida arbetsgivare? Metod: Studien har antagit en huvudsakligen kvantitativ forskningsdesign och har en deduktiv inriktning. Vidare tar studien ett objektivistiskt ontologiskt ställningstagande och en positivistisk kunskapssyn i sin epistemologiska ståndpunkt. Datainsamlingen har skett genom en surveyundersökning och två samtal med medarbetare hos fallföretaget har legat till grund för utformandet av den enkät som delats ut via ett icke sannolikhetsurval digitalt via webben till 100 respondenter och fick en svarsfrekvens på 52 procent. En egenkonstruerad talangbedömningsmetod uppfördes för att identifiera talangegenskaper bland respondenterna. Detta talangvärde analyserades och jämfördes sedan med övriga frågor kring attityder till framtida arbetsgivare. Resultat/slutsatser: Av studien framgick att det går att identifiera talangegenskaper i en grupp studenter och att det finns stora skillnader mellan studenter i denna aspekt. Studien identifierade också flera skillnader och tendenser till skillnader mellan värderingarna av de med högre ansedd talang och de med lägre. De egenskaper som visade sig ha ett samband med "talang" var, sammanhållning mellan kollegorna på arbetsplatsen, att studenten delade värderingar med företaget och att utveckling och kompetensutveckling av företagets medarbetare var i fokus. / Background: "There is a war for talent, and it will intensify" McKinsey Quarterly wrote back in 1998 and referred to the increased competition on the market of employers among talented and skilled employees who can help the company develop. The importance of human capital has been specifically noticed in today‟s many knowledge intensive companies, among them the accounting- and consulting businesses, in the mean time as demographical changes contribute to an increased trend of talent shortage. Generation Y is known as career hungry and active resume hunters. Because of that there is a fight between the employers to find and attract the talents among these, this could be done by developing an attractive employer brand and by knowing their target group, this could be done by acquiring knowledge about their preferences and what motivate them in their professional role. Purpose: "From a group of business students identify talent qualities, and explain which are the key factors that make an employer attractive from the considered 'talents' perspective." Research question: Which are the key factors when the considered "talents" choose their future employer? Methodology: The thesis has taken a primarily quantitative research design that takes a deductive focus. Further on the thesis takes an objectivistic ontological statement and a positivistic view of what knowledge is when it comes to epistemology. The gathering of data has been done through a survey and by two meetings with employees at the case company which have influenced the construction of the survey that has been distributed to a non probability sample as a digital survey online to 100 respondents. The answering frequency was 52 percent. A method for talent estimation has been developed by the authors to estimate the talent qualities among the respondents. These "talent scores" were analyzed och compared with the questions concern-ing attitudes to future employers. Research findings: From this study it was clear that talent qualities were possible to estimate and that there were big differences among students in this aspect. The study also identified several differences and tendencies to differences among the more talented group compared to the less talented. The properties that had a relation to "talent" were a unity among the employees at the company, that the student shared values with the company and that development and professional training of the employees were in focus of the company.

This is a thesis about knowledge-intensive work and the organizational con-texts of such work. The specific objective is to analyze the geography of work. The geography of work may diverge from the geography of employ-ment when paid work is undertaken at the premises of client organizations, during commuting, on business trips, in external meetings, at home or in other places. The focus is on work practice and the perspective of everyday life. The study examines where knowledge workers are located and where knowledge work occurs. It is about what knowledge workers actually do. The everyday perspective is about the relationship between paid work and unpaid work. To understand the organization of knowledge-intensive work in a time–space context, different possibilities and constraints must be taken into con-sideration. This thesis has a time–geographical approach. The case study examines knowledge-intensive organizations located in central Stockholm. The organizations are in PR/communications, management consultancy, and research and development sectors. Both private and public sector organiza-tions are considered. The empirical study combines interviews, time diaries and questionnaires. The NVivo software program is employed to analyze the interview data. The main conclusion from the thesis is that in order to under-stand knowledge-intensive work, different factors such as relations, attitudes and norms need to be considered. These factors affect the organization of work, which in turn is affected by the choices, possibilities, constraints, ex-pectations and negotiations of different actors (i.e. employees, employers, family, clients and colleagues). The working time of the knowledge workers investigated in this study is mainly spent at the office of their employers. Social interaction with col-leagues and clients is an important part of their work. Work routines involve many meetings, both face-to-face and virtual. Face-to-face interactions play a crucial role in shaping the geography of work; teamwork is important. The knowledge workers in this study are “working long hours,” and the norm is to work more than what have been expected.