This study explores the nature of skills forecasting in nuclear decommissioning and that which makes skills forecasting information useful. The study adopts a pragmatic approach using an interpretative, qualitative case study research design and draws on aspects of a critical realist approach to uncover, deconstruct and challenge some ‘norms’ in skills forecasting. The study makes an original contribution to knowledge through the identification of nineteen factors that influence skills forecasting in the nuclear industry. It also generates a baseline of knowledge on the theory and practice of skills forecasting and management through a review of the literature on skills, forecasting, skills forecasting and workforce planning and relevant aspects of public sector management and HRM. The study documents and compares current skills forecasting practice amongst UK site licensed companies and selected supply chain companies. Such research has not previously been conducted in the nuclear decommissioning industry. This answers research questions about why, and how, different groups in the sector perform skills forecasting and how variations in approaches affect the information produced. It also answers research questions about who uses skills forecasting information, and how. Together with a review of current problems with skills information, this contributes to an understanding of what makes skills information useful. The research evidences that while the industry has some common features with other High Reliability Organisations, there are unique dimensions which make this research significant. Some ‘norms’ operating in skills forecasting were challenged including how it is being used, eg as an agent for change by some groups, and assumptions about the potential availability of skills from the supply chain. The literature review was used to construct a practical-ideal type, an approach derived from classical pragmatism offering a version of a nearly ideal process, on the understanding that this is socially constructed and subject to continual change. Existing practice is evaluated against this practical-ideal type in a unique application of this methodology in the nuclear decommissioning context.

Made available in DSpace on 2009-11-18T19:01:28Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Schubert.pdf: 1815206 bytes, checksum: dcc9ffbbe4d4279235dcc90fbc7e1600 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006 / The present study of case empirically investigates the existence of indicators that suggest the social exclusion preoccupation from the organizations with a strategic management of human resources focus. The objects of study are two subsidiaries of a multinational enterprise in emergency and first-aid services area. One of them is Portuguese and the other is a Brazilian one. This exploratory research has used a sectional way with a longitudinal perspective, since it has considered a specific verified data referring to 2004 and 2005 years, beyond the deeper interviews with actual managers to an evaluation of these studied perception and its authentication. Our indicators identification sources were principally the individual and social rights and duties broaching and the fundamental guarantees disposed in the Brazilian and Portuguese Constitutions as such as the European Constitution project. The results appoint to great differences of management between both subsidiaries, being the Brazilian one closer to our research proposes, as such as suggest us that the human resource areas, still acting in an instrumentalist way, establish a great barrier to better practices in social inclusion and they would be unprepared for a management with the focus in the employees. Although our study has been realized in a specific activity enterprise, we believe that our results can stimulate the realization of other investigations with the same objectives. In this way, we contribute to a better comprehension of the social exclusion causes and the organizations participations in this process. / O presente estudo de caso investiga, empiricamente, a existência de indicadores que sugiram a preocupação com a exclusão social a partir das organizações, com o foco em gestão estratégica de pessoas. Os objetos de estudos são duas subsidiárias de uma empresa multinacional da área de serviços de assistência emergencial, uma portuguesa e uma brasileira. Tal pesquisa exploratória utilizou um corte seccional com perspectiva longitudinal, já que considerou dados levantados referentes aos anos de 2004 e 2005, além de entrevistas de profundidade com gestores atuais, para a avaliação da percepção do tema em estudo e respectiva validação. Utilizaram-se como fonte de identificação dos indicadores principalmente as abordagens sobre os direitos e deveres individuais e sociais, e direitos e garantias fundamentais dispostas nas constituições brasileira e portuguesa, assim como no projeto de constituição européia. Os resultados apontam para diferenças de gestão entre ambas as subsidiárias, estando a brasileira mais alinhada às propostas da pesquisa, assim como sugerem que as áreas de recursos humanos das empresas, ainda agindo de uma forma instrumentalista, constituem uma grande barreira para as melhores práticas da inclusão social, e que estariam despreparadas para uma gestão com o foco nos funcionários. Embora tal estudo tenha sido realizado em uma empresa de uma área de atividade muito específica, acreditamos que seus resultados possam servir de estímulo para que outras pesquisas com os mesmos objetivos possam ser realizadas, de forma a contribuir para uma melhor compreensão das causas da exclusão social e da participação das organizações neste processo.