Bakgrund: Balansen mellan objektivitet och subjektivitet i rekrytering- och urvalsprocesser har diskuterats inom forskningen i över hundra år. Vid offentliga rekryteringsförfaranden får vissa principer inte förbises, bland annat objektivitetsprincipen som innebär att iaktta saklighet och opartiskhet samt beakta allas likhet inför lagen. Om beslut i rekryteringsprocesser baseras på felaktiga grunder riskerar organisationen att en felrekrytering kan ske, vilket resulterar i kostsamma konsekvenser. HR-funktionen har genomgått betydande förändringar under de senaste tre decennierna. Från att ha fungerat som en mer administrativ och underhållsinriktad funktion beskrivs HR numera som en strategisk affärspartner och kärnverksamhetsfunktion. HR-funktionen besitter vanligen expertkunskap inom kompetensförsörjning och kan bidra med att utveckla strategier angående personalhantering inom organisationen. Empirisk forskning visar emellertid att HR-avdelningar, inom specifikt den offentliga sektorn, inte nödvändigtvis lyckats transformeras till att fylla en sådan strategisk position utan främst fortsätter att fylla administrativa funktioner. Syfte: Studiens syfte är att skapa förståelse kring de möjligheter och utmaningar som följer strävan efter opartiskhet i en rekryteringsprocess inom offentlig sektor. Vidare är syftet med studien att undersöka vilken funktion HR-personal fyller i den strävan efter att nå opartiskhet. Studien fokuserar specifikt på olika kommuners rekryteringsprocesser. Metod: Till studien har en kvalitativ metod använts, där nio semistrukturerade intervjuer genomfördes med nio olika kommuner med personal inom HR och rekrytering. Slutsats: Studiens resultat visar på att de intervjuade respondenterna anser att olika metoderoch verktyg, såsom arbetspsykologiska tester och kompetensbaserad rekrytering, kan bland annat bidra till att de sökande blir mer likvärdigt bedömda. Det i sin tur kan förebygga riskenför felrekryteringar samt diskriminering. Objektiva metoder kan dock uppfattas begränsa bedömningen och inte ta hänsyn till de arbetssökandes åsikter och känslor, vilket kan leda till att rekryteringsprocessen upplevs av humaniserad. Därav utifrån studiens resultat kan mänsklig interaktion anses nödvändig och väsentlig, trots dess utmaningar med risken att subjektiva åsikter påverkar bedömningen. Utifrån studiens resultat uppfattas HR-funktionen inom den offentliga sektorn, när det gäller rekrytering, inte fullt ut besitta en strategisk roll utan främst vara en mer administrativ funktion. HR har en central roll som en stödfunktion och anses rikta fokus i beslutsfattandet, från det subjektiva till de mer objektiva faktorerna. / Background: For over a hundred years, research has discussed the balance between objectivity and subjectivity in recruitment and selection processes. In public recruitment procedures, certain principles must not be overlooked, including the objectivity principle, which means observing objectivity and impartiality and considering everyone's equality before the law. If adecision in the recruitment process uses incorrect grounds, the organization risks that the wrong person gets recruited. The consequences of that can be costly. The HR function has undergone significant changes over the past three decades. HR has functioned as a more administrative and maintenance-oriented function. Now HR is described as a strategic business partner and a core business function. The HR function usually possesses expert knowledge in competence supply. HR can contribute to developing strategies regarding personnel management within the organization. However, empirical research shows that HR departments, specifically in the public sector, have not necessarily succeeded in transforming to fill such a strategic position but primarily continue to fulfill administrative functions. Purpose: Creating an understanding of the opportunities and challenges that follow the pursuit of impartiality in a public recruitment process is the purpose of this study. Furthermore, the purpose of the study is to investigate the role that HR staff fills in this quest to achieve impartiality. The focus of this study is specifically on different municipalities' recruitment processes. Method: For this study, a qualitative method where used. With staff in HR and recruitment in nine different municipalities, were nine semi-structured interviews conducted. Conclusion: The results of the study show that the interviewed respondents believe that various methods and tools, such as work psychological tests and competency-based recruitment, can, among other things, contribute to more equally assessed jobseekers. That can prevent the risk of incorrect recruitment and discrimination. However, objective methods can limit the assessment and not consider the jobseekers' choices and feelings. That can lead to the recruitment process perceived as dehumanized. Therefore, based on this study's result, human interaction can be considered necessary and significant, though its challenges with risking subjective choices affect the assessment. Based on this study's results, HR functions in the public sector, when it comes to recruitment, are not perceived to fully play a strategic role without primarily being a more administrative function. HR has a central role as a support function. The role of HR can help the decisionmaking focus from the subjective to the more objective factors.

The response of the atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) secreting cells from both rat atria and the apex of the ventricles to dexamethasone (DEX) was analyzed by the plaque assay. In right atrial cardiocytes, 25% of the cells secreted ANP basally; DEX treatment did not alter this percentage. However, in the left atrial secretory population, a discordance between the basal (15%) and DEX stimulated (25%) percent plaque formation was found. ANP secreting cells from the ventricular apex responded similarly to DEX exposure (26%), with 8% of the cells basally releasing the hormone. These data suggest that in both the left atria and apex of the rat ventricles, exposure to DEX recruits ANP secretory cells from a non-secreting population. Consequently, the release of ANP from these tissues would increase after glucocorticoid stimulation.

Today’s society is developing in a high paced environment and in line with this high pace an expansion is occurring in the accounting profession which is also creating a development in the industry. Since there is a possibility of scarcity in the future the demand for the accounting profession has increased. Thus, back in 2018 the authority changed the qualification requirements to become a certified accountant. Hence, to attract the population to apply for an accounting degree. The purpose of this study is to identify the requirements desired by the employer while in an accounting recurring process, both prior and subsequent the amendment of the law, furthermore whether a change has occurred. The data collection method has been in the form of document study, by reviewing job advertisements designed for the accounting profession then examining the requirements on personal abilities, experiences as well as knowledge desired before and after amendment of the law. 100 job advertisements were examined, the first 50 refer to prior and the remaining 50 refer to following the amended education requirements. The result was visualized on separate tables and charts. The study shows that the desire for personal abilities has reduced on the advertisements since the change in the requirements. Hence, after the change in law the employers are focusing on education and work experiences as these are more demanded in the job advertisements. Though, the view on the ideal characteristic in comparison with the previous research has not changed much. The personal characteristics that were mentioned in the previous research was ability to work as part of a team, independent, communication, analytical and ability to work professionally. However, the difference between the prior research and this study, demonstrates the importance characteristics in a professional accountant also includes the ability being driven, business behavior, service oriented, flexible, accurate and goal oriented. As a suggestion this study can be used for future studies and to take a further step into performing an interview for an accountant profession. For the reason being to comprehend a detailed image of how the accounting profession has been affected by the amendment of the law. This study is written in the Swedish language. / Dagens samhälle utvecklas i en hög takt och i takt med denna utveckling sker det en tillväxt inom revisorsprofessionen men även en utveckling. Då allt fler revisorer behövs och det finns risk för brist på yrket i framtiden, ändrade regeringen år 2018 utbildningskraven för att bli auktoriserad revisor. Detta för att locka fler till att söka sig till utbildningen. Denna studie syftar till att identifiera vilka krav som arbetsgivarna eftertraktar vid rekrytering av revisorer, både innan och efter lagändringarna samt om det har skett någon förändring. Datainsamlingsmetoden har varit i form av dokumentstudie, genom att granska platsannonser riktade mot revisorer och studera kraven på personliga egenskaper, erfarenheter samt kunskaper som efterfrågades i platsannonserna både före och efter lagändringarna. Totalt granskades 100 platsannonser, där 50 av dessa berör innan ändrade utbildningskrav och resterande 50 platsannonser avser efter ändringarna av utbildningskraven. Dessa analyserades och resultatet visualiserades i separata tabeller och diagram. Resultatet av studien visar att efterfrågan på personliga egenskaper har minskats i platsannonserna sedan lagändringarna. Detta beror på att arbetsgivarna har efter lagändringarna fokuserat mer på utbildning och arbetslivserfarenhet då dessa efterfrågas mer i platsannonserna. Däremot har synen på ideala egenskaper i jämförelse med tidigare forskningar inte ändrats så mycket. De personliga egenskaperna som hade nämnts i tidigare forskningar var samarbetsförmåga, självständig, kommunikativ, analytisk samt professionell. Dock är skillnaden mellan tidigare forskningar och denna studie när det gäller viktigaste egenskaperna hos revisorer att det har även inkluderats egenskaperna driven, affärstänkande, serviceorienterad, flexibel, noggrann och målfokuserad. Förslagsvis kan framtida studier ta denna studie steget vidare genom att utföra intervjuer inom revisorsprofessionen. Detta för att få en mer detaljerad bild av hur revisoryrket har påverkats av lagändringarna.

With the increased use of online recruitment websites, many organizations have started building up these services to serve various kinds of users. There are some forms of usability evaluations that measure web applications. The inspection method is the most widely used, especially the heuristics evaluation. However, when facing substantial market demands, there is no set of heuristics to guide web designers on how to offer users a good user experience.  Therefore, developing usability heuristics for online recruiting websites is very necessary. According to existing research, Nielsen ten heuristics are the most widely used and well known. However, with the continual emergence of new technologies, these ten heuristics cannot continue to satisfy designers who are looking for more focused heuristics that apply to a specific domain. There exists no working strategy for developing specialized guidelines to ensure specialized heuristics actually work better than using general heuristics.  This thesis aims to develop usability heuristics for online recruitment website domains. Even though there are no appropriate theories or models for developing heuristics in a specific domain, we established a proposal of 21 usability heuristics for online recruitment based on the existing heuristics and methodologies to develop new specialized heuristics. These new heuristics offer evaluators smoother operations with higher efficiency (problems/time spent) in heuristics evaluation.

Master of Public Health - MPH / Men comprise about 10% of the nursing population globally and approximately 15% of the nursing workforce according to the South African Nursing Council. There has been an increase noted in the number of males entering the nursing profession. However, it is reported that male nurses experience discriminatory encounters related to gender bias, nursing culture, lack of equity in learning opportunities, and the stigmatisation of male nurses by the media. Although figures indicate that men remain a minority within this female dominated profession, a university in the Western Cape reported an increased enrolment of males in the nursing programme. However, little is known about what motivates them to enter this female-dominated profession and the challenges they face within the nursing profession. Therefore, the aim of this study was to compile a profile of the current male student nursing population at his school of nursing. The objectives were to identify factors motivating male students to choose nursing as a profession; identify the perceived challenges of male students in the nursing programme; and determine any associations. A quantitative, descriptive study design was used to collect data from the study population, 218 male students registered for the undergraduate nursing programmes in 2018. Stratified sampling was used to select male students for participation in the cross- sectional survey and 143 completed the self-administered questionnaire. The tool in this study was adapted from studies conducted by Bartfay et al (2010) and from O’Lynn (2003, 2013). The Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient for the Likert scale questions to determine the motivation for choosing nursing was 0.700 -and 0.905 for the perceived challenges. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25 was used to calculate descriptive and inferential statistics. Spearman’s correlations to calculate the strength of the relationship between the dependent variables. Mann-Whitney U test and the Kruskal- Wallis tests were used to determine the associations between the different variables. A response rate of 65.5% (143) was obtained. The majority of the male students, 84% (120) were aged between 18-25 years and 13% (18) between 26 and 33 years. The majority, 77% (110) were Blacks, 19% (27) Coloureds and 1% (2) White. Forty four percent (63) resides in the Eastern Cape, whilst 39% (56) is from the Western Cape. The spread across the different year levels from 1st to 4th year of the B. Nursing programme are 25% (35), 27(39), 21% (29) and 20% (28) respectively. The majority, 88% (126) had no previous nursing experience before commencing the nursing programme but 53% (76) were studying. The majority, 95% (137) were single and 79% (114) indicating no dependents. The desire to make a difference in society (97%, n=137) and always wanted to be a nurse (38%, n=54) were identified respectively as the most and least important intrinsic factor for entering the nursing profession. The highest rated extrinsic factors for choosing nursing ranging from 92% -76% included having a stable career; variety of career paths; travelling abroad; career mobility and using nursing as a steppingstone to other careers. However, 39% (56) were encouraged by family to do nursing. In terms of perceivedchallenges, the majority of male students indicated that media portrayed nursing as a female profession, 86% (122) and male nurses as gay or effeminate, 71% (102). Challenges in the clinical settings reveal that 71% (102) of the respondents fear being accused of inappropriate touching of female patients, 82% (118) indicated that female patients were reluctant to receive care from male nurses, and 78% (112) perceive that female colleagues utilize male nurses primarily to lift heavy objects or heavy patients. Finally, the results indicate that extrinsic motivations were significantly associated with the respondents’ race (p = 0.004) and province (p = 0.047). A significant association was found between intrinsic motivation and the age of those respondents who considered nursing as a profession (p = 0.000). There was a significant association between extrinsic motivations and the age when the respondents considered nursing (p = 0.016). The main recommendation that nurse educators and clinical staff be informed of the challenges and gender-based issues that male student nurses face and implement remedial actions in both the classroom and clinical areas.

Artificiell Intelligens (AI) är idag mycket omtalat. Det finns flera olika användningsområden för AI, det kan vara bild-, ljud- och ansiktsigenkänning, personliga personalassistenter, robotik med mera. AI har på senare tid även börjat implementeras inom HR-arbetet och har påverkat den traditionella rekryteringsprocessen. Rekryteringsarbetet upplevs idag som problematiskt, 72% av näringslivet uppger att de har svårt att hitta rätt arbetskraft. Arbetsgivare uppger även att det administrativa arbetet är mycket tidskrävande. Det finns även en problematik gällande rationalitet och etik, då beslutsfattandet ofta påverkas av mänsklig bias. Vår studie visar att implementeringen av AI kan resultera i minskade kostnader samtidigt som det sker tidsbesparingar hos personalen. Det finns även mer tid för att utveckla personliga relationer med de nyanställda. En av intervjuerna visar att implementeringen av AI inom rekrytering kan bespara rekryterare 10 timmar i veckan. Studien visar även att det är vanligt att tro att rekryteringen blir mer rättvis och etiskt korrekt vid implementering av AI, dock finns det forskare som menar att detta är en stor utmaning. Syftet med denna rapport är att på ett kvalitativt sätt undersöka hur svenska företag använder sig utav AI i sin rekryteringsprocess samt om AI kan förändra arbetet inom rekryteringsprocessen beträffande rationalitet och etik. Informationssökningen kommer att ske genom tidigare forskning samt intervjuer för att kunna besvara forskningsfrågorna. / Artificial intelligence (AI) is today widely spoken about. There are several different uses for it. AI can be image-, sound- and face recognition, personal staff assistants, robotics and more. AI has recently become implemented within the HR work and has come to influence the traditional recruitment process. The recruitment work is today perceived as problematic, 72% of the business sector report that they find it difficult to find the right workforce. Employers also state that the administrative work is very time-consuming. There is also a problem concerning rationality and ethics, since decision-making is often affected by human bias. Our study shows that the implementation of AI can result in reduced costs while saving time for staff. There is also more time to develop personal relationships with the new employees. One of the interviews shows that the implementation of AI in recruitment can save recruiters 10 hours a week. Our study shows that the implementation of AI can result in reduced costs while saving time for staff. There is also more time to develop personal relationships with the new employees. The study also shows that it is common to believe that the recruitment becomes more fair and ethically correct when implementing AI. However, there are researchers who believe that this is a great challenge. This qualitative study aims to examine how Swedish companies use AI in their recruitment process and whether AI can change the work within the recruitment process regarding rationality and ethics. The information used was conducted through previous research as well as interviews in order to answer the research questions.

The aim of this thesis is to define and study harvesting models of fish populations. These models are applied to particular fish species e.g., haddock and cod. The thesis is divided into five chapters: The first chapter is considered as an introductory one. In it, basics of fish biology and the recruitment process are defined. Two simple recruitment models known by the names Ricker and Beverton-Holt are used. In the second chapter the generalized Leslie model or Usher model is introduced. In section 2.2, some matrix theory is presented. For this matrix model, the net reproductive number is defined and studied in section 2.3. It turns out to be more useful than the spectral radius. In section 2.4, this study is extended to nonlinear matrix models. The nonlinearity, however, is defined only by the recruitment process. This allows to determine the equilibrium components. Finally section 2.5, the local stability of nonlinear matrix models is analyzed. Harvesting of such general matrix model is defined in chapter 3. We distinguish three different harvesting models (selective, net and semicontinuous harvesting models). In chapter 4, these harvesting models are then applied to concrete fish populations and analyzed with respect to its various parameters. In chapter 5, the stability is studied again along the lines of the paper of Levin, Goodyear [18]. The key results in this study are: 1) The maximum sustainable yields for selective harvesting and net harvesting are rather close. 2) Semicontinuous harvesting is more realistic harvesting models. 3) From a quantitative point of view, the choice of the recruitment function is important. 4) Harvesting process increases mortality and stability when we used Ricker recruitment model. 5) Stability of populations always holds if we use Beverton-Holt recruitment model.

Coral reef recovery following a disturbance relies heavily on the restoration of coral cover, via growth of existing colonies and the successful recruitment of new corals. In well-connected reef networks, recruits may be sourced from neighboring reefs. In contrast, coral recruitment on geographically isolated reefs is reliant on adult corals at that location, which may limit recovery rates following mass coral mortality events. Such mortality events are increasingly caused by climate change induced temperature anomalies, which are overlaid on the local chronic human disturbances that already affect most of the world’s coral reefs. In this thesis, I exploit a natural ecosystem-scale experiment to examine how multiple anthropogenic stressors impact densities of coral recruits and small corals (e.g., juveniles; 5 cm) on Kiritimati (Christmas Island, Republic of Kiribati), an isolated atoll in the central equatorial Pacific Ocean. Specifically, I used benthic survey videos from before, during, and one year following the 2015-2016 El Niño and coral settlement tiles deployed during the three years after the event at 22 sites across the island, to quantify small corals and coral recruits, respectively. Local chronic stress negatively impacted small corals, with densities 47% lower at sites exposed to very high levels of chronic stress prior to the heat stress. The El Niño further resulted in a 56% loss of small corals, particularly for competitive coral species. Following the event, stress tolerant small corals rebounded to pre-El Niño densities within a year, whereas competitive and small corals overall had non-significant increases. I also quantified a low recruitment rate of 8.31 recruits m-2 per year (± 1.9 SE) during the three years following the El Niño compared to previous studies around the Pacific; recruits were genetically identified as primarily belonging to the stress tolerant family Agariciidae and the competitive genus Pocillopora. Local human disturbance also impacted coral recruitment with densities significantly lower at those with the greatest local chronic disturbance, together suggesting that local disturbance impedes post-settlement survival of recruits and the resilience of young corals during acute stress events. With increased net primary productivity, densities of both small corals and recruits (non-significant) also increased, which could reflect the positive influence of coral heterotrophic nutrition supplements during and after stress events, increasing survivability. Despite very low overall coral recruitment, all island regions did have some recruits, but Vaskess Bay (a bay region on the southern part of the island) had the highest densities. Overall these results indicate the negative consequences combined chronic and acute stressors can have on coral recruits, small corals, and accompanying coral resilience. When viewed together, this work suggests how the resilience is compromised by chronic stressors on Kiritimati and that the recovery trajectory may be variable across the disturbance gradient. Thus, local reef management may provide an avenue for enhancing recovery rates as acute temperature anomalies increase in frequency under our current climate trajectory. / Graduate / 2021-01-14

Recruiting and retaining physicians to work in rural emergency departments (EDs) have reached a crisis level, threatening the availability of services to rural residents. In this study, a case study design was used to explore strategies that rural ED administrators use to recruit and retain physicians to work in their facilities. The study population consisted of 5 rural hospital administrators operating EDs in central Mississippi. These administrators were charged with the responsibility to recruit and retain ED physicians. The on-going staffing of ED physicians, with no lapses in coverage, was evidence that these administrators successfully recruited and retained ED physicians at their facilities. The conceptual framework that grounded this study was strategic human resource management. Semistructured interviews were used to collect data from participants, and the modified van Kaam method of data analysis was used to create and cluster themes, validate data, and to construct and describe textural meaning. One of the dominate themes that emerged from the study was the challenge of maintaining rural ED physician coverage. Deterrents to maintaining ED coverage included insufficient pools of available physicians, changing technological demands, and financial constraints. A second dominate theme permeating the study was the insufficient focus on retention of rural ED physicians. Study findings may contribute to social change by providing a replicable recruitment and retention model for recruiting and retaining rural ED physicians. The most successful strategies to recruit and retain ED physicians, as identified in this study, were provision of financial incentives and development of a sense of family and community.

Law enforcement organizations have been facing a challenge with maintaining an adequate level of personnel due to an increased rate of employee turnover, which has been shown to have a negative impact on an agency's ability to reduce both property and violent crimes. The purpose of this cross-€sectional, quantitative study was to examine job embeddedness as a predictor of turnover intentions among municipal law enforcement officers by using the human capital theory as the theoretical foundation. To collect the data, a survey link was distributed to all personnel of a large, municipal law enforcement agency in the southeastern United States; only full-€time, commissioned law enforcement personnel were included in the study, which resulted in a sample size of 107. Linear regression was used to analyze the data. Job embeddedness and turnover intentions had a statistically significant and negative correlation (r = €.656, p < .001). In addition, the bivariate linear regression model significantly predicted turnover intentions, F(11, 106) = 79.135, p < .001); job embeddedness was responsible for 42.4% (adjusted R2 = .424) of the variance in turnover intentions. When job embeddedness decreases, turnover intentions increase, and when job embeddedness increases, turnover intentions decrease. The study has implications for positive social change as it established the relationship between job embeddedness and turnover intentions among law enforcement officers. The results provide support for using the concept of job embeddedness to inform retention programs aimed at reducing voluntary turnover. Reducing voluntary turnover has the potential to maximize the ability of an agency to meet its crime control mission and to reduce costs associated with recruitment and training new employees, which will allow for more funding to go directly to the provision of services.