Thesis (MA)--University of Montana, 2009. / Contents viewed on November 29, 2009. Title from author supplied metadata. Includes bibliographical references.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Umeå : Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet, 2009. / Härtill 5 uppsatser.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Rutgers University, 2008. / "Graduate Program in Industrial Relations and Human Resource Management." Includes bibliographical references (p. 173-193).

This study investigates the interactions between the employment relationship and the employee rewards system. There is an implied and broadly accepted connection between these aspects of organisational life, yet the connection has not been clearly developed within either the employment relations or employee rewards literature. Employment relations research commonly prioritises certain features: organisational context; parties’ ideologies; processes concerning the interaction of the parties; and outcomes of the relationship. This study attempts to be located in this tradition: it regards rewards as an outcome of the employment relationship. However, whilst many studies of this type have tended to emphasise the interaction of isolated features, this study attempts to theorise the nature of the interactions between the reward outcomes and the other features of the relationship in a holistic manner. The study begins from an ontologically realist view of the employment relationship and employee rewards; however, it also acknowledges that these social facts are interpreted by parties, and that these interpretations are significant. The study adopts many of the features of mainstream employment relations research, reflected in a pluralist theoretical perspective. A predominantly inductive, multi-method, case study research strategy is utilised, focussing upon two unionised, private sector, manufacturing organisations. Data is collected from the parties to the employment relationship using research instruments derived from two primary conceptual models: Walton & McKersie’s (1965) behavioural bargaining framework, and Gomez-Mejia and Balkin’s (1992) algorithmic-experiential model of rewards. Analysis of this data indicates substantial commonality between the cases and suggests a complex set of interactions between the features of the employment relationship and employee reward outcomes. Key findings indicate the importance of understanding parties’ reward preferences as they provide insight regarding: the formulation of parties’ ideologies; the effectiveness of processes; and the interpretation of reward outcomes.

Poster presentation from the Living the Future 8 Conference, April 23-24, 2012, University of Arizona Libraries, Tucson, AZ. / Like most academic libraries in this difficult economic climate, the UA Libraries have had to cope with constant budget pressures and challenges. Due to diminishing resources, the information resources management component of the Library is one of the areas that has had to be reevaluated regarding how to maximize existing resources to better meet users' needs. The poster will highlight some of the new approaches and strategies that the Library is utilizing to meet users' needs with limited resources in the changing environment.

<p> Sharp-tailed grouse habitat on the Dakota Prairie Grasslands are assessed by habitat structure with the use of the Robel pole to measure visual obstruction readings (VOR). The purpose of this study was to determine 1) if all selected ecological sites (loamy, thin loamy, and claypan) are biologically capable of producing high structure (VOR > 3.5 in) with 3 years of protection from livestock grazing and 2) if strong and consistent correlations exist between standing crop and visual obstruction among ecological sites and across years. Results showed that 1) all selected ecological sites were biologically capable of producing high structure, 2) strong correlations between standing crop and visual obstruction were not consistent among ecological sites and across years, 3) year effects were evident in plant community composition, and 4) 2,534 kg/ha (se &plusmn; 205.3) of standing crop provides the mean threshold to determine if the selected ecological sites are biologically capable. </p>

De senaste årtionden har medfört en förändring på arbetsmarknaden som har bidragit till att det krävs en ökad förståelse för vilken betydelse medarbetarna i ett företag har för att öka sin konkurrenskraft och framgång. Denna insikt har skapat ett behov av ett arbete med HRM (Human Resource Management) som kan attrahera, utveckla och behålla rätt medarbetare för att öka sina konkurrensfördelar. Det handlar om att identifiera och ta vara på talanger i verksamheten samt lyckas finna nya potentiella medarbetare. Denna strategi heter Talent Management (TM) och växte fram under 1990-talet, men har inte någon tydlig definition.   Det innebär att företag utformar och anpassar sitt TM utifrån sin egen verksamhets förutsättningar. Det finns många faktorer som påverkar hur denna strategi och dess aktiviteter tillämpas. Framför allt handlar det om verksamhetens storlek och typ, geografiskt läge samt vilken bransch verksamheten tillhör. Därutöver spelar ledningens förståelse för hur värdefulla medarbetarna är för verksamheten en viktig roll. Det är följaktligen ledningens integration som utgör grunden måste skapas för ett gemensamt arbete mellan HR-avdelning, TM-strategin och samtliga individer på alla nivåer.   Studien visar att TM framstår som en utmaning i sig men innebär även många utmaningar inom arbetet och dess aktiviteter. Vilka dessa är och varför de uppstår är kopplat till de ovan nämnda påverkningsfaktorerna. Därmed var studiens syfte att få förståelse för hur TM används i två helt olika företag samt vilka utmaningar dessa står inför för att utveckla ett så framgångsrikt TM-arbete som möjligt. För att undersöka detta valdes en kvalitativ ansats och semi-strukturerade intervjuer som metod, där två HR-specialister på två olikartade företag etablerade i Sverige intervjuades. Därigenom kunde detaljerad information om verksamheternas användning, synsätt, och utmaningar inom TM samlas in, som sedan analyserats tillsammans med studiens teoretiska grund.   Utöver utmaningen att få ledningen involverad, har studiens underlag visat aktiviteter och utmaningar som behövs för en stark TM-strategi. Dessa är: moget ledarskap, performance management, employer branding och kompetensutveckling och kan skapa drivkraft och engagemang – något som går hand i hand med samtliga aktiviteter igenom hela strategin. Processens alla delar har visats ha stor inverkan på varandra och bör således kombineras och hanteras på bästa sätt utifrån varje organisations komplexitet.

<p> Dwindling freshwater resources are one of the largest challenges facing countries worldwide. For regional and local governments the task of managing fresh water resources falls the hardest. Reduced water quantity directly impacts water quality and thus preventing further depletion of freshwater levels is necessary for meeting existing and forth coming water quality regulations. Thus, finding effective ways to better understand water use at the local or regional level and better ways of communicating pressing water management issues with water users is imperative to the longevity of freshwater resources. Environmental communication campaigns are one way of reaching water users. Understanding water users personal relationship with water resources and nature in general can inform environmental campaigns in multiple ways. </p><p> This research provides insight into the ways in which environmental campaigns can be framed to effectively reach the target audience. Two methods of assessing stakeholder perceptions of water resources are also explored. First, systems thinking is used to compare the mental models of water managers and members of the development sector in order to find areas of common interest and importance regarding the management of freshwater resources in the Spokane-Coeur d'Alene Corridor of northeast Washington and northern Idaho. Second, a survey is used to evaluate characteristics of water use for residents in Spokane County, Washington. </p><p> This dissertation is centered on three primary research questions: (1) How are environmental communication campaigns framed?; (2) How do stakeholder groups who may appear to have very different values for a shared resource perceive a shared that resource?; (3) How do people's perceptions of nature, environmental issues, and their ability to impact those issues influence the way that they use water? Results of this research show that there are key areas of shared interest between water managers and developers suggesting that long-term water management goals do not have to conflict with the goals of local development. This research also suggests that residents who are willing to perform behaviors to reduce their water use are not necessarily doing so, pointing toward further research questions to bridge the gap between willingness and action.</p>

The water system on Maui Island in Hawaii is an integral part of the island’s infrastructure, affecting energy, agriculture, waste, and domestic systems. Both the built and the natural water systems are likely to be altered over the coming decades. Maui’s two major industries are agriculture and tourism, which compete for water and land resources. Maui faces high costs for food and fuel it must import, and agricultural efforts might shift from plantation-scale monocropping to energy production or diversified agriculture for food. Simultaneously, land use changes (like deforestation), climate change, and cyclical droughts affect Maui’s freshwater supply. Water planning and management based on careful assessment can be valuable tools for a community expecting that water will become increasingly scarce. Since water plays a large role in many other systems, choices about water allocation and use can help the island move toward solutions of multiple problems at once, including energy scarcity, coastal protection, and financial health. This work provides a dynamic snapshot of Maui’s current built and natural water systems, then analyzes two potential water management actions: pumped storage hydroelectric facilities built on existing reservoirs and use of secondary treated wastewater to irrigate biomass for power. Based on cost estimates and alternative solutions, neither of these applications are currently judged viable. / text

The Weber Basin Water Conservancy District is a state institution, but its primary function is collecting money for the U.S. Bureau of reclamation, to pay for the Weber Basin Project. Different classes of water users pay markedly different fees for identical Project services. More than half of the water developed by the Project is not used consumptively, yet supply facilities continue to be built in the Basin because they are less expensive to their owners than prices charged for the underused capacity of the Project. Paradoxically, some Basin residents are bitterly resentful to both the District and the Bureau, claiming that water rights formerly their own have, by means of the Project, been stolen. That is, both the enemies and the proponents of the Project adhere to the Western orthodoxy that water is scarce and drought imminent. The principal difficulty of this investigation lay in identifying the nature of the problem, for the situation seemed full of contradictions. Consequently, the primary contribution of the dissertation is an explanation of Basin circumstances that accounts for arresting observations without inconsistency or contradiction. The most important hypotheses are, therefore, empirical, or historical and institutional. Economics, according to Richard T. Ely and Frank H. Knight, is a set of principles concerning what ought to be, not empirical descriptions of what is. Consistent with that perspective, once the nature of the problem is clear, applications of economic principles is a prescriptive judgement of how the problem may be resolved. The most important empirical hypotheses are as follows: Water is not scarce in the Weber Basin; neither are storage and conveyance facilities. All are abundant, even redundant. Nevertheless in combination with certain institutional arrangements and sustained propaganda campaign, this very abundance contributes to persistence of the attitude that water is scarce. Redundant facilities thereby encourage even more unneeded development. What appears on first examination to be a case of misallocated water resources by discriminatory prices, turns out to be a problem of distributing the burden of paying for excessive, unwanted public works. Water itself is a free good in the Basin. Actual distribution of the repayment burden is partly ideological and partly pragmatic; partly a political choice and partly a bureaucratic decision; partly a manifestation of agrarian policy and partly what the traffic will bear. If water is free, it is not an economic good, and not a subject for economic analysis. The Basin has an ample water supply, but water may nevertheless be locally and periodically scarce. The water problem is therefore one of conveyance and timing. Control of timing requires storage. Conveyance requires energy, as well as aqueducts. In the Weber Basin, conveyance energy may be either the controlled flow of falling (mountain) water, or electrically powered pumps tapping abundant groundwater reservoirs. The water development problem is therefore, an issue of alternative capital facilities for the control and delivery of water (itself abundant). Efficient resource allocation in water development is consequently relevant at the investment level; it is not a matter of pricing water. In this case, the major investment decisions have already been implemented, and the problem is one of evaluating distribution of the repayment burden. The relevant economics literature is principles of equitable taxation, and of public utilities' pricing. Application to the basin situation produces a conclusion that present arrangements are as equitable as could be devised. Further redundant investment (inefficient use of resources), however, could be avoided if the State Engineer's Office took a harder line on requests to drill new wells. The information provided in this work could be the basis for making such a program popularly acceptable.