Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1966. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

D.Comm. / South African organisations seem to do very little to enhance business ethics, nor do they seem to promote employees' ethical behaviour. The possibility that the human resource management (HRM) practitioner may act as facilitator of organisational ethical behaviour was proposed as a possible solution to the aforementioned problem. This possibili~y was formulated in the form of a research question. An interdisciplinary approach which consisted of the fields of business ethics and industrial psychology, with the latter being operationalised as human resource management (HRM), was applied as theoretical foundation. It was also decided to utilise a literature study as research method. The analysis was conducted at the micro level, i.e. the intra-organisational level of business ethics analysis. The type of ethical analysis chosen for this purpose was descriptive ethics. An exploration of the importance of business ethics, and the necessity to do something about it, yielded, the following findings amongst others: empirical proof that ethics is also good business exists, it is a cost-effective option to invest in morality, and the cost of immorality is frighteningly high. It was also found that it is indeed possible to learn ethical behaviour in an organisational setting. This may be accomplished as a result of the reciprocity of social interaction which presupposes moral learning. The aspects that determine ethical behaviour in organisations were categorised as individual, external environmental and organisational determinants. Managerial interventions which can be applied at the strategic and systems levels to facilitate ethical behaviour and to create an ethical organisational culture, were identified and described. An analysis of the nature and role of the HRM function in organisations, as well as a critical exploration of the question relating to the possible role of the HRM practitioner being the most suitable candidate to assume responsibility for managing ethics in organisations, revealed that the practitioner does indeed have such a role. HRM practitioners have a responsibility for human ethical behaviour, by virtue of their knowledge of and functional involvement with human behaviour in the organisational setting. It was further determined that the HRM practitioner features as the most prominent contender to facilitate ethical behaviour in the organisation. HRM practitioners may use the principle of stewardship as the main source of energy in the establishment of an ethical orientation to enable them to facilitate ethical organisational behaviour at the strategic, systems and operational levels. Should the HRM practitioner assume such a role, a number of attitudinal, competence and accountability implications may apply. In addition to this, several factors that may inhibit the optimal fulfillment of this "new" role were identified, e.g. generic factors, factors specific to the HRM profession as well as factors unique to the South African situation. The most significant finding of this research endeavour was that despite their existing high workload, HRM practitioners are the suitable candidates to act as business ethics functionaries, e.g. as organisational ethics officers. This finding remains valid irrespective of the possibilities that this may only be a temporary• role and that practitioners may not necessarily embrace this role without reservation. The role was explained by means of a descriptive model. It is shown in the model how certain determinants (as inputs), can be transformed by practitioners possessing a specific orientation and attributes, to produce certain outcomes, which may be typified as characteristics of an ethical organisation. This transformation is executed despite the presence of some inhibiting factors.

The purpose of the study was to identify and describe the nature of change, relative to the roles and responsibilities of personnel administrators in selected Indiana public school corporations, resulting from mandated teacher collective bargaining.Personnel administrators with seven or more years of experience were selected to insure that participants in the study had had experience both before and after the enactment of Public Law 217. In-depth taped interviews were conducted with nine personnel directors.The responses of personnel directors participating in the study were compared, correlated and contrasted with statements made by authorities in the field relative to private and public sector personnel administrators. Major findings were:Additional Time Requirements1. Personnel directors are devoting additional time to record keeping activities, such as:a.Formulating reduction in force lists and call back lists.b. Reviewing and revising student enrollment by building and class as necessary.c. Developing expanded salary schedules which reflect broader range of teacher educational preparation.d. Maintaining information relative to the number of graduate hours taken and advanced degrees earned by teachers.e.Maintaining information relative to teacher fringe benefits.f.Maintaining information relative to compensation for extracurricular responsibilities.g.Maintaining information relative to number and type of leave days taken by teachers.h.Maintaining teacher requests for transfers.i.Maintaining detailed information relative to teachers holding temporary contracts.j.Maintaining information relative to teacher seniority by school system and building.2. Personnel directors are devoting additional time to activities required for the collective bargaining process, such as:a. Collecting and organizing financial and personnel information.b. Providing and explaining financial and personnel information to the chief spokesman.c. Preparing salary schedules to determine cost of various teacher group and board proposals.d. Compiling and analyzing statistics relative to the number of various teacher leave days taken and days on which leaves occurred.e. Developing expanded salary schedules which reflect broader range of teacher educational preparation as required by the agreement.3. Personnel directors are devoting additional time to consultation, such as:a. Providing guidance to building administrators relative to teacher evaluations.b. Advising building administrators regarding granting of teacher leave days.c. Discussing the status of negotiations with building administrators, superintendent and board members.d. Providing guidance to building administrators relative to contract implementation.4. Personnel directors are devoting additional time to grievance activities, such as:a. Reviewing teacher evaluations to prepare for grievance hearings.b. Meeting with union officials to hear grievances.Preparing for grievances and arbitration hearings.5. Personnel directors are devoting additional time to inservice training activities, such as:a. Explaining evaluation procedures and instruments to building administrators.b. Explaining the intent of contract language to building administrators to insure uniform contract implementation.6. Personnel directors are devoting additional time to cooperative activities with union officials, such as:a. Providing personnel and financial information relative to teacher seniority, salaries, and fringe benefits.b. Developing and revising teacher evaluation instruments.c. Hearing grievances and jointly determining equitable settlements.7. Personnel directors are devoting additional time to other activities, such as:a. Considering leave requests of teachers.b. Planning for staffing needs and teacher vacancies.Changed Organizational Relationships1. The majority of personnel directors have been placed in the grievance structure and now represent the superintendent, usually at the second or third step of the grievance procedure. Therefore, personnel directors now have more line authority to make binding decisions regarding grievances.2. Because personnel directors now have line authority in the grievance structure, personnel directors may support or reverse the decisions of building administrators regarding grievances. Therefore, building administrators are now consulting more with the personnel director relative to the handling of employee grievances at the initial step of the grievance structure.3. Building administrators are now seeking advice and approval of personnel directors regarding teacher evaluations and granting of leaves.4. The majority of personnel directors participate in the negotiation process either as chief spokesman or members of the negotiating team. As the administrative representative in the collective bargaining process, personnel directors are now the main communication link between the teacher union, superintendent and board of education.5. As the administrative representative in the collective bargaining process, personnel directors have been given the additional responsibility of insuring that principals understand the intent of contract language and implement the contract accordingly.Direct Participation in the Negotiations Process1. The majority of personnel directors participate in the negotiation process either as chief spokesman or members of the negotiating team.a. As chief spokesmen, new roles and responsibilities of the personnel director include:(1) Consultation with the superintendent relative to the selection of negotiating team members.(2) Consultation with the superintendent and other administrative personnel concerning the collecting, organizing and writing of board proposals for negotiations.(3) Consultation with the superintendent and other administrative personnel relative to the development of a negotiation strategy.(4) The presentation of school board proposals.(5) Receiving teacher union proposals during negotiations.(6) Communications between the teacher union, superintendent and school board.(7) Consultation with the superintendent and board members concerning the development of school board counterproposals.(8) The equitable and expeditious conclusion of negotiations.b. As members of the negotiating team, new roles and responsibilities of the personnel directors included:(1) Providing relevant and necessary personnel and financial information to the chief spokesman.(2) Explaining and describing pertinent conditions surrounding negotiations, personalities of the individuals involved in negotiations, and attitudes within the community.

The primary purpose of this study was to design an instrument, the Professional Support Survey (PSS), to assess one's extent of world view thinking relating to wellness programming. The secondary purpose was to use the Perceived Wellness Survey (PWS) and the PSS to determine if a relationship exists between HR professionals' personal wellness and their support for wellness programs in the work place. Face and content validity was established for the PSS, test-retest analysis confirmed significant reliability («T, = 0.9239 and «T2 = 0.9464), and a significance test found - = 0.846 and adjusted - = 0.8662. The study found that HR professionals' levels of personal wellness are reflected in their decisions to support wellness programs. Further, the more exposure HR professionals have to wellness management issues (i.e., the company having a formal program, the number of activities, and budget allocations for programming), the more likely they are to support wellness programs from a programmatic standpoint. / Fisher Institute for Wellness

Based upon the findings reported in this study, the following conclusions may be drawn. 1. It can be concluded that the personnel officials' sex did not significantly affect their attitudes toward secretarial workers. Male and female personnel officials responded in a similar manner to the 30 office situations described on the Situational Attitude Scale for Secretarial Occupations. These same attitudes were affected, however, by the sex of the secretarial worker described. The scores on the instrument that referred to secretaries as female (Form B) were significantly higher than those scores on the form that referred to secretaries as male (Form A) for both male and female personnel officials. Therefore, because of these higher sex"."role attitudes toward females, it can be concluded that both the male and female personnel officials view the appropriate sex-role of the secretary as female. The sex-role attitudes of both the male and female personnel officials are biased in favor of females. Thus, this study supports related literature that contends that a majority of both sexes believe that secretarial work is more congruent with the female sex role (Hesselbart, 1977: Fox, 1975; Levinson, 1975). 2. In view of their higher sex-role attitude scores on both forms of the instrument, the male personnel officials seemed to have a more positive sex-role attitude than female personnel officials toward both male and female secretarial workers. Likewise, the female personnel officials have a less positive sex-role attitude toward both their own sex and the opposite sex in secretarial positions. Contrary to the related literature (Shepard and Hess, 1975; Entwistle and Greenberger, 1972; Iglitzen, 1972; Spence and Helmreick, 1972), females were not "found to be more liberal at every age level than males." 3. The variables of: (1) location of the ASPA chapter, (2) age of the personnel official, (3) educational level of the personnel official, and (4) self-rating of the personnel official, were not closely related to the attitude scores. The question is raised as to whether these variables are important in predicting sex-role attitudes, as is suggested in the related literature. / Ed. D.

Personnel managers in different firms, industries and countries do not hold the same preferences for job applicant attributes. This research was aimed at understanding the cause of some of these differences. Survey questionnaires were sent to personnel managers in Norway (N = 195) and Quebec (N = 172). The personnel managers were asked to rate: (1) aspects related to their firms' organizational characteristics (business environment, strategy, and structure), and (2) the importance of different personality traits for applicants to managerial and professional positions. Consistent with earlier research (Rynes & Gerhart, 1990) the results indicate that preferences for different applicant attributes represent shared perceptions due to common organizational membership. These preferences are to some degree related to company strategy, organizational structure and national culture. In general, it was found that personnel managers currently seek candidates who can adapt to change and generate new ideas. The results are discussed in light of theories from industrial/organizational and cross-cultural psychology, and suggestions for further research are offered.

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2000. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 121-126). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 116-131).

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