Thèse--Paris. / Bibliography: 3d p. l.

Thesis--Stockholm. / Summary in English. Includes bibliographical references (p. 462-470).

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1969. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--Wisconsin. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 69-72).

Thesis--Wisconsin. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 155-123).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1982. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 262-266).

Human assets are a source of competitive advantage to the firm. Studies have found that to attract and retain talented employees, firms need to offer more than just money – they need to offer challenging roles and development opportunities. However, the more organisations invest in an employee’s growth and development the more the employee is able to contribute to organisational goals, but their attractiveness to alternative employers and their capability of finding alternative employment (their employability) also increases. This is the paradox central to this study. The study explores the dilemma of employability and how the employer can meet the needs of the knowledge worker whilst realising a firm specific competitive advantage through protecting the firms return on investment in employee development. The information obtained from the literature was used as a basis for the construction of a de jure model, which indicates which strategies or best practices used by firms in responding to or managing the employability paradox, meet the needs of the knowledge worker and/or employing firm. This model was utilised as a discussion framework during eighteen expert interviews. The outcome of the primary data allowed for the validation and extension of the de jure model into an integrated and more robust de facto model. The research affirms the existence of the employability paradox and provides examples of how the paradox is manifested within firms. Strategies and best practices used by firms in managing this paradox are integrated into a practical framework which indicates whether these strategies meet the needs of the firm and/or the knowledge worker. Copyright / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

For public assistance agencies in the United States, administrative suggestion and legislative direction has been increasingly focused on the encouragement and even coercion of mothers of dependent children to take paid employment. This has been concurrent with increasing public assistance costs during a period of relative prosperity. A common concern of social work, however, is that maternal absence from the family, whether for employment or for other reasons, promotes, under certain circumstances, family failure. This has occasioned value conflict for social work oriented personnel in public welfare agencies, and a searching after a refined methodology to apply to determinations of employability. The methods and results of the implementation of such a legislative directive to remove employable ADC mothers from grants in Washington State In 1959 are explored. A sample of 800 cases in which mothers had been removed from grants because of employability between July 1, 1959 and January 1, 1960 was read to schedule. The study is concerned with what criteria seemed to have been selected by caseworkers as relevant to employability. In relation to the desired result of self-support for employable mothers, the study explores what criteria seemed to have been most relevant. The criteria used and the criteria most effective are analyzed. Certain popularly expounded criteria were found to be valid and others invalid. The study applies value assumptions and theory to certain practical aspects of casework and proposes that success or lack of success relative to an employment goal can be predicted through an understanding of the value system of the public assistance recipient. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Withers, John Robert / Graduate

The lack of sexual discrimination in hiring employees has been observed to be a function of organizational policies with respect to discrimination, the degree to which policies are communicated to members and adhered to by senior members, and the bureaucratization of hiring decisions. When the organization does not establish both a commitment to equal employment opportunities for women and men and the procedures to carry out that commitment, individual bias and beliefs about sex and work performance are used in selection. These beliefs pertain to the relation between the sex of the employee and job qualifications and the differential work performance of men and women workers. These beliefs, when systematically examined, however, are not supported empirically. An in-depth study of hiring practices was conducted in one organization, utilizing a number of research techniques. Demographic data for the labour force as a whole and descriptive statistical data for the organization studied were utilized to demonstrate the degree and persistence of the sex-segregation of occupations. Formal documents, records and policies of the organization pertaining to hiring were examined, and following a one month period of observation in the Personnel Office, loosely structured interviews were conducted with the Personnel officers. Then, to permit a more detailed examination of hiring practices, interviews were conducted with supervisors hiring employees for a sample of twenty-four positions. It was found that the organization does not have explicit policies against discrimination and that there are no written procedures governing the communication of job openings to applicants. Further, the procedures for selecting among applicants were demonstrated to be inadequate to insure unbiased selection. The lack of developed policies and procedures was attributed in part to the work load of the Personnel Office, the distribution of responsibility and authority for hiring in the organization, and the consequent decentralization of decision-making. In lieu of formal, standardized procedures for recruitment and selection, informal and sex-biased standards have developed. The differential communication of job openings to female and male applicants reflects the sex-typing of jobs in the organization. Job requirements and selection criteria are primarily defined by supervisors in individual departments and routinely include the specification of the sex of acceptable applicants. This specification is demonstrated to be based on contradictory and untested beliefs about the differential capabilities of women and men workers. Some limitations of the research project and suggestions for future research are discussed. The implications of these findings for a restructuring of the hiring process to restrict;: the use of sex are also discussed. / Arts, Faculty of / Sociology, Department of / Graduate

No description available.