In the late 1980s, governments in New Zealand and Australia began to deregulate their telecommunications markets. This process included the corporatisation and privatisation of former state owned telecommunications monopolies and the introduction of competition. The Telecom Corporation of New Zealand (TCNZ) was corporatised in 1987 and privatised in 1990. Its Australian counterpart, Telstra, was corporatised in 1989 and partially privatised in 1997. This thesis examines and compares TCNZ and Telstra's changing organisational and workforce restructuring strategies, as they responded to these changes. It further examines how these strategies influenced the firms' employment relations (ER) policies. Strategic human resource management (SHRM) and transaction costs economics (TCE) theories assist in this analyse. TCE links organisational restructuring to the make/buy decisions of firms and the asset-specificity of their employees. It suggests that firms will retain workers that have developed a high degree of firm-specific skills, and outsource more generic and semi-skilled work. Firm strategies are also influenced by national, contextual, factors. From a TCE perspective, these external factors alter relative transaction costs. Hence, different ownership structures, ER legislation and union power help to explain differences in TCNZ and Telstra's organisational restructuring and ER strategies. During the decade from 1990 to 2000, TCNZ and Telstra cut labour costs through large-scale downsizing programs. Job cuts were supported by outsourcing, work intensification and the introduction of new technologies. These initial downsizing programs were carried out through voluntary redundancies, across most sections of the firms. In many instances workers simply self-selected themselves for redundancies. TCNZ and Telstra's downsizing strategies then became more strategic, as they targeted generic and semi-skilled work for outsourcing. These strategies accorded with a TCE analysis. But TCNZ and Telstra engaged in other practices that did not accord with a TCE analysis. For example, both firms outsourced higher skilled technical work. TCNZ and Telstra's continued market domination and the emphasis that modern markets place on short term profits, provided possible reasons for these latter strategies. This thesis suggests, therefore, that while TCE may help to predict broad trends in 'rational organisations', it may be less effective in predicting the behaviour of more politically and ideologically driven organisations aiming for short term profit maximisation. Some TCNZ and Telstra workers were shifted to subsidiaries and strategic alliances, which now assumed responsibility for work that had previously been performed in-house. Many of these external firms re-employed these workers under more 'flexible' employment conditions. TCNZ and Telstra shifted to more unitarist ER strategies with their core workers and reduced union influence in the workplace. Unions at Telstra were relatively more successful in retaining members than their counterparts at TCNZ. By 2002, TCNZ and Telstra had changed from stand-alone public sector organisations, into 'leaner' commercially driven firms, linked to subsidiaries, subcontractors and strategic alliances.

The present diploma thesis is focused on description and comparison of strategic management of human resources in kindergarten and kindergarten with remoted institutions in Carlsbad Region. The theoretical part introduce the fundamental terms connected with the strategic management of human resources from different perspectives, and the methods of strategic management of human resources in school institution. The empirical research reveals and compares the strategic management of human resources in kindergarten and kindergarten with remoted institutions. Further, the empirical research of strategic management is focused on the size of kindergarten in terms of number of classes. Two research methods were chosen: questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. The semi-structured interviews were added due to obtaining of more specified and detailed information concerning given topic. Based on the results, it may be stated that the management of kindergarten and kindergarten with remoted institutions is strategic as regards human resources. However, the management differs one from another. The most important condition, affecting the strategic management of human resources, is the number of classes in the kindergartens.

Bakgrund: De senaste tjugo åren har HR-rollen fått en mer strategisk inriktning men inte haft en stark position i ledningsgruppsmöten. HR-chefer, framförallt inom den privata sektorn, kan känna sig marginaliserade i ledningsgruppsmöten. Deras deltagande i dessa möten kan vara utmanande eftersom de inte alltid får lika stort utrymme som de andra medlemmarna. Det kan bero på att det finns en okunskap och ett ointresse hos de övriga medlemmarna i ledningsgruppen om hur HR-chefen kan bidra strategiskt. Även om HR-chefen blivit tilldelad en stol vid ledningsgruppsmöten kan deltagandet ändå vara tufft. En stol vid ledningsgruppsmöten behöver inte betyda att funktionens frågor blir prioriterade.  Syfte: Studiens syfte är att skapa en förståelse om hur HR-chefen kan stärka sin strategiska roll i ledningsgruppsmöten. Studien riktar främst in sig på HR-chefer inom privat sektor som arbetar i olika branscher. Metod: I studien användes en kvalitativ metod där studiens författare genomförde åtta semistrukturerade intervjuer med olika HR-chefer inom den privata sektorn. HR-cheferna som intervjuades arbetar inom olika branscher och har flera års erfarenhet av HR-arbete. Samtliga HR-chefer som deltagit i studien är medlemmar i verksamhetsledningen och har varit det sedan flera år. En abduktiv ansats användes för att hitta kopplingar mellan det teoretiska och det empiriska materialet.  Slutsats: Studiens slutsats blev att HR-chefers strategiska roll kan stärkas på flera olika sätt. Dels kan HR-chefen själv stärka rollens position och dels kan den stärkas beroende påandras uppfattning och inställning till rollen. Den kan också stärkas av faktorer som HR-chefen inte kan kontrollera, som exempelvis digitaliseringen / Background: For the past twenty years, the HR role has taken a more strategic focus but has not had a strong position in management team meetings. HR managers, especially in the private sector, can feel marginalized in management team meetings. Their participation in this kind of meetings can be challenging since they do not always get as much space as the other members. This may be because there is an ignorance and a lack of interest on the part of the other members of the management team about how the HR manager can contribute strategically. Even if the HR manager has been assigned a chair at management team meetings, participation can still be tough. A chair at the management team meetings does not mean that the function's issues are given priority. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to create an understanding of how the HR manager can strengthen their strategic role in management team meetings. The study mainly focuses on HR managers in the private sector who work in different industries. Method: The study used a qualitative method where the study's authors conducted eight semi-structured interviews with various HR managers in the private sector. The HR managers who were interviewed work in different industries and have several years of experience in the HR function. All HR managers who participated in the study are members of the management team and have been for several years. An abductive approach was used to find connections between the theoretical and the empirical material. Conclusion: The study concluded that the strategic role of HR managers can be strengthened in several different ways. On the one hand, the HR manager themselves can strengthen the role's position and on the other hand, it can be strengthened depending on others' perception and attitude to the role. It can also be strengthened by factors that the HR manager cannot control, such as digitalisation.

Forskningen har visat kunskapsbrister när det gäller användningen och nyttan av headhunting som strategiskt kompetensförsörjningsverktyg. Studiens syfte var att undersöka vilka strategiska verksamhetsmål, behov och förutsättningar som utgör grunden för beslutet att framgångsrikt rekrytera chefer och andra affärskritiska roller via metoden headhunting. För att besvara forskningsfrågorna samlades data in med hjälp av kvalitativa semi-strukturerade intervjuer där fem respondenter var delaktiga. Studiens resultat tydde på att den strategiska kompetensförsörjningens omfattning samvarierar med företagens storlek. Studien visade även på att rationella, situationsberoende beslut är ytterligare en parameter som styr valet av rekryteringsmetod. De förutsättningar som studien visade ligger till grund för valet av headhunting som rekryteringsmetod är brist på intern kompetens, behov av specifika, komplexa kompetenser, affärskritisk roll samt riskminimering. Identifierade framgångsfaktorer är en tydlig kravprofil, ett gediget förarbete, intern rekryteringskompetens och god kommunikation. / The research has shown deficiencies in the use and utility of headhunting as a strategic competence tool. The purpose of the study was to investigate which strategic business goals, needs and conditions form the basis for the decision to successfully recruit managers and other business-critical roles via the headhunting method. In order to answer our research questions, data were collected by using qualitative semi-structured interviews in which five respondents participated. The results of the study indicated that the scope of strategic competence supply varies with the size of the companies. The study also showed that rational, situation-dependent decisions are another parameter that governs the choice of recruiting method. The prerequisites that the study shows are the basis for the choice of headhunting as a recruitment method is a lack of internal competence, need for specific, complex skills, business-critical role and risk minimization. Identified success factors are a clear requirement profile, solid preliminary work, internal recruitment skills and good communication.