Abstract ¡@¡@Being in a fast-changing medical market environment, hospitals usually face high uncertainty. The best strategy of keeping survive is being flexible. Human resource is the most important resource in hospital, so it is critical to realize the relationship between workforce flexibility and hospital performance. ¡@¡@The purposes of this study are discussing about the workforce flexibility in hospital. Questionnaire was mailed to 568 hospitals are accredited as district hospitals or above in Taiwan, and the answers are 117 with 21.0% answer percentage. Data is processed with the statistic software SPSS. The results of this research indicate that: 1. Different organization characteristics are significantly different in numerical flexibility in hospital. 2. Different organization characteristics are significantly different in wage flexibility in hospital. 3. Different organization characteristics are significantly different in soft performance in hospital. 4. Different organization characteristics are significantly different in the average growth rate of doctor in hospital. 5. Different organization characteristics are significantly different in the average rate of patient occupied in hospital. 6. Different organization characteristics are significantly different in the average productivity of employee in hospital. 7. The workforce flexibility has significantly positively influences on soft performance in hospital. 8. The workforce flexibility has significantly positively influences on the average growth rate of patient. 9. The workforce flexibility has significantly positively influences on the average rate of patient occupied in hospital. 10. The workforce flexibility has significantly positively influences on the average productivity of employee in hospital. Key words: workforce flexibility, functional flexibility, numerical flexibility, wage flexibility, performance

The Research on Flexible Staffing Arrangements in High-tech Industry Given the excess supply in the global market and the pressure of little gross margin in the foreign high-tech business, the major high-tech businesses can no longer enjoy a market with high growth rates and high profit earnings. The business, as the industry matures or even slows down, starts to seek for solutions to shorten its supply chain, to lower the cost of products, and to increase competitiveness. The technology industry has been facing cyclical fluctuations and fluctuations in demand in recent years. To sustain competitiveness in this market and to secure its core worker, it has to adjust with changes of time in the management of human resources, enhance the R&D and technology levels, and pay much more attention to long-term human resource development. Thus, in terms of human capital management, the major challenges the technology industry is currently facing are the issues of flexibility in the human resource department, the most efficient use of these resources, and how to adapt the planning and development of these departments. The goal of the thesis is to provide an in-depth study and analysis of 1) the status quo of the internal/external human resources management in the technology industry, 2) the relations between the characteristic of the organization and flexible staffing arrangements, and 3) the effect of flexible staffing arrangements on the organizational performance. This study uses the questionnaire adopted by Professor Jhy-Jer Ko in the study of The Flexibility of the Labor Market and the Atypical Work Arrangement(2003). 387 copies of the questionnaire were sent out to high tech companies and 115 were returned (112 valid, 3 invalid). The return rate was 28.9%. The results of the analysis are as the following: 1.Remarkable differences of functional flexibility are found among different characteristics of the organization. The larger the organization is, the greater functional flexibility it has. Organizations with over 500 workers have better functional flexibility than those with under 100 workers. 2.Remarkable differences of numerical flexibility are found among different characteristics of the organization. The lower the ratio of the labor cost to the total expenditure, the better for the organization to use outsourcing. 3.Remarkable differences of wage flexibility are found among different characteristics of the organization. The larger the organization is, the greater the wage flexibility is. Companies with lower ratios of labor cost compared to total expenditure have a higher tendency to adopt variable salary. 4.Functional flexibility has great effects on turnover rate of full-time employee. The greater functional flexibility is, the lower the full-time employee turnover rate is. In addition, the implementing of the practice of numerical flexibility can lower full-time employee turnover rate. 5.Functional flexibility and diversified skills-training opportunities have great effects on organizational performance. The greater functional flexibility is, the better the performance is. 6.Numerical flexibility has enormous effects on organizational performance. The use of outsourcing has a positive effect on the increase of the company¡¦s profit gains. Moreover, the use of dispatch has a positive effect on lowering employee turnover rate. 7.Wage flexibility has great effects on organizational performance. A higher rate of variable salary for full-time employees has a reverse effect on the lowering of labor cost. That is, adopting wage flexibility may increase labor cost. Keywords¡GFlexible Staffing Arrangements , Functional Flexibility, Numerical Flexibility, Wage Flexibility, Organizational Performance

This research focuses on the relationship between workforce flexibility and organizational performance of the cooperative subcontractors in the Steel Industry, and compares the differences between ¡§S¡¨ and China Steel Corporations. The questionnaires were mailed to 161 of the ¡§S¡¨ Steel Co.¡¦s subcontractors and 77 were returned; so the response rate is 48 %. Other 108 data were from survey data of the China Steel Co.¡¦s cooperative subcontractor, which are from my advisor. I deleted the overlapping cooperative subcontractors between the two steel corporations. Total survey size is 181. The results are shown as follows: 1. Deployment of workforce flexibility Characteristics of the functional flexibility of the Cooperative Subcontractors include development of multi-skill, horizontal and vertical mobility. The numerical flexibility is represented by the fact that average 80 percents of temporary workers among all the full time jobs, but there exists substantial difference. 16 percent of the subcontractors contracted out at least part of their jobs. The design of wage structure had flexibility. The ratio of variable wage is about 20 %. The subjective organizational performance was above average. As to the objective organizational performance, the contracting ratio of steel sales was nearly 50 %. The main reason for obtaining the deal were quality, customer satisfaction, delivery speed, and price. The turnover rate on average was not low (nearly 10 %). The reasons for the high turnover rate were the high proportion of temporary workers, and rapid change in demand, but the turnover rate was negatively related to the amount of capital and the number of regular workers. 2. The relationship between the organizational characteristic, the use of workforce flexibility and the performance of organization The different characteristics of organization including the number of divisions, the types of subcontractors, the number of regular workers, and the amount of capital have caused significant differences on the proportion of temporary workers and subcontractors. The smaller the size of regular worker of cooperative subcontractors is, the more likely the use of temporary workers will be. The labor subcontractors were more likely to use temporary workers, but the engineering subcontractors were more likely to outsource. The amount of capital and the dependence of subcontractors upon the steel company caused significant differences on the design of wage flexibility and the proportion of variable wage. The amount of capital of subcontractors has significant impact on the organizational performance, and the turnover rate. The number of regular worker caused significant differences on the operational performance and the turnover rate. The proportion of subcontracting from the steel company caused minor difference on operational performance. These show that the larger the amount of capital, the size of employees, the better the subjective organizational performance; whereas the smaller the organization, the higher the turnover rate. 3. The relationship between the use of workforce flexibility, other influential factors and the performance of organization The functional flexibility and the wage flexibility had positive association with the subjective organizational performance. The horizontal and vertical mobility had positive association with the turnover rate. The numerical flexibility was not associated with the organizational performance, but the proportion of temporary workers has significant positive impact on the turnover rate. The influential factors such as horizontal and vertical mobility, the dependence of subcontractors on the steel corporation, and the flexible wage design would influence the organizational operational performance. The influential factors such as wage flexibility, the amount of capital, and the length of time of cooperation with the steel company will influence the organizational production performance. But the proportion of temporary workers would directly influence the turnover rate.

In a freedom, international and global market, companies are under an intense competitive environment and with hi-pressure than before, besides increase the product and service quality, cost is a very important factor for operation. Since the margin of product is uncontrollable, personnel¡¦s cost controlling becomes a surviving criterion for businesses; therefore the typical employment relationship is no longer applicable to current challenging environment. In order to keep flexible to rapidly response the environment and sustain competitiveness, company¡¦s organization and staff placement are demanded adjustment. The goal of the thesis is to provide a retail business study and analysis of: 1) The status of the l human resources management in supermarket and hypermarket. 2) The relations between the characteristic of the organization and flexible staffing arrangements, and 3) The effect of flexible staffing arrangements on the organizational performance. 4) The influence of different management attitude between standard and non-standard workers. During this study, there are 38 copies of the questionnaire were sent out to HR supervisors of supermarket and chain-hypermarket stores, 30 were returned (no invalid). The return rate was 78.9%, nine of the HR supervisors had accepted an interview for opening questions about outsourcing training and flexible manpower policy. The results of the analysis are as the following: 1. Remarkable differences of numerical flexibility are found among different characteristics of the organization. The lower ratio of the labor cost of the organization is, the greater functional flexibility it has. 2. Remarkable differences of management attitude are found among different characteristics of the organization. The fewer layers of the organization is, the little difference of management attitude between various type workers. 3. Remarkable differences of organizational performance are found among different characteristics of the organization. The fewer layers of the organization has a positive effect on the higher customer satisfaction. 4. Functional flexibility has enormous effects on organizational performance. The diversified job arrangement of full-time worker has a positive effect on management effectiveness. 5. Functional flexibility has enormous effects on organizational performance. The independence of job arrangement of full-time worker has a positive effect on the increase of staff productivity. 6. Functional flexibility has enormous effects on organizational performance. Training supply of full time worker has a positive effect on the increase of staff productivity, company¡¦s profit gains, management effectiveness, customer satisfaction and decrease the ratio of labor cost. Base on the result of this research, here are our suggestion to business: 1) Considering company¡¦s long-term objective when planning the functional flexibility to cultivate and retain core workers. 2) Continue conducting training to increase organizational performance.3) Design a complete human resource management policy to increase effort and decrease the negative effect of non-standard worker. 4) Apply Wage flexible in company.

Amid the transformation of operating environmental conditions and the changes in market, a business organization must think how to construct flexible manpower in order to respond to the changes in industries and markets. The traditional organization of hierarchy, which lacks flexibility, doesn¡¦t induce the flexible use of manpower and thus is ineffective in meeting the trends of industries and the market. Atkinson advocates demolishing the rigid system and, based on the characteristics of business production activities, dividing the organization into the core and periphery manpower so that the two sections can be complementary and each possible combination of manpower can be optimal. However, there exists the combination of three types of manpower in the shamrock organization mentioned by Handy, namely, professional core worker, temporary worker, and subcontract worker. The professional core worker can be compared to the core manpower mentioned by Atkinson, and the temporary and subcontract worker correspond to Atkinson¡¦s periphery manpower. The combination of these three types of manpower can be used to produce the foundation of the business¡¦ profitability. In addition, the current human resource arrangement should be adjusted in order to respond to the changes in the market in a timely manner. It is available to implement task flexibility, numerical flexibility, working-time flexibility, and wage flexibility to meet the practical work demands. This research based itself on the preceding concept, conducted interviews with China Steel Corporation and its subcontractors, and collected data through survey questionnaires administered to the subcontractors. The survey was conducted to understand how China Steel Corporation and its subcontractors divided their core and periphery manpower, how they constructed the shamrock organization, and how they used their manpower flexibility. The research also investigated whether there existed differences between China Steel Corporation and its subcontractors with regard to manpower flexibility. The analysis and synthesis of the data have led to the following findings: China Steel Corporation (CSC): 1.China Steel Corporation adopted for its main production line the shift system and mutual support of manpower to meet the requirements of the changing market and job demands, while the engineering and the equipment department adopted subcontracting to meet the change in the demand of manpower. 2.China Steel Corporation did not use temporary workers, but its subcontractors employed a large number of temporary and subcontract workers. As a result, the workers of China Steel Corporation and the temporary and subcontract workers of its subcontractors operate together at CSC, like the operation of a shamrock organization. 3.Without the worry of impeding quality, quantity, and safety, the job at the technical level was divided into core and non-core, with the core job emphasizing the creation of additional value. 4.The non-core job was carried out by the periphery workers, who consisted of the employees of subcontractors specialized in operation, construction and environmental protection and of other contractors. 5.China Steel Corporation enhanced the use of task flexibility through the use of task grouping, task changing, and job rotation, and expanded the scope of task flexibility through transferring and assigning personnel to auxiliary companies. At the same time, education and training were implemented to support the use of task flexibility. 6.With respect to the use of numerical flexibility, China Steel Corporation adopted subcontracting as the major measure of response. 7.With respect to the use of time flexibility, China Steel Corporation adopted such systems as flexible reporting and leaving time, shift, overtime, and optional leave instead of overtime pay. 8.As to the use of wage flexibility, China Steel Corporation raised the percentage of mobile wage, added wage flexibility, and used the bonus system to reflect the merits of the company and individual employees. Subcontractors: 1.Faced with the changes in the market and job requirements, they used temporary and subcontract workers as the major measure of response. Dependent on networks of interpersonal relationships, they hired temporary workers and provided support to subcontractors so that they tied closely into a shamrock organization. 2.About 30% of the CSC¡¦s subcontractors cultivated their employees to become their own subcontractors. The success of this plan depended on the limiting conditions for fund investment, the vitality of the industry, and the support made available by the CSC¡¦s subcontractors. 3.Monetary compensation was the major factor of retaining the core manpower, and the promotion system accounted for only 29.4% of manpower retention, which was related to the flat organizational structure. 4.More than half of the CSC¡¦s subcontractors assigned additional work, work requiring less training, and unimportant work to temporary workers. More then 60% of CSC¡¦s subcontractors would complete work requiring special skills or equipment through subcontracting. 5.With respect to the use of task flexibility, 70.2% of the CSC¡¦s subcontractors that implemented task flexibility experienced such a difficult situation in which a new hand was unable to handle his work. Only 32.7% of the subcontractors would give relevant training in advance, indicating that education and training did not support the use of task flexibility. 6.With respect to the use of numerical flexibility, 69% of the subcontractors hired temporary employees, and 62% of them used subcontracting. 7.With respect to the use of working-time flexibility, most CSC¡¦s subcontractors used overtime, shift, and varied time block as the major measure, for they had to coordinate operation with CSC and could not be independent in terms of working time. 8.With respect to the use of wage flexibility, the percentage of wage base linked to merit was low, and skills were more important than merit in deciding the wage of a temporary worker. 9.There existed no significant differences in wage and promotion between the core and periphery workers of the CSC¡¦s subcontractors. 10.There existed differences in benefits and training between the core and periphery workers of the CSC¡¦s subcontractors. Differences in the Use of Manpower Flexibility Between China Steel Corporation and Its Subcontractors: 1.China Steel Corporation had a high percentage (64%) of core workers and a relatively low percentage (36%) of periphery workers. In contrast, its subcontractors had a high percentage of periphery workers (including 34% subcontracting and 28% temporary workers, totaling 62%) and a low percentage (38%) of core workers. 2.As to the difference in task flexibility, China Steel Corporation had subsidiary companies and could expand the scope of task flexibility. In contrast, their subcontractors had no subsidiary companies and their task flexibility was restricted to the same enterprise. In comparison, China Steel Corporation invested more in education and training and was more competent in supporting task flexibility. 3.With respect to the difference in numerical flexibility, China Steel Corporation cared about the legality of using temporary workers while its subcontractors neglected this issue more or less and was less bound by labor unions with regard to using temporary workers or subcontracting. In practice, the CSC¡¦s subcontractors had more numerical flexibility than China Steel Corporation. 4.With respect to the difference in working-time flexibility, China Steel Corporation abided by the regulations regarding working overtime while its subcontractors did not pay attention to these restrictions. 5.With respect to the difference in wage flexibility, the wage structure at China Steel Corporation is institutionalized, about 30% belonged to mobile wage and was linked to the company¡¦s operation and individual employees¡¦ merit. On the contrary, the questionnaire survey collected from its subcontractors indicated that only a few of them assessed the wage base on merit.

Abstract After Joining WTO (World Trade Organization), being in international, versatile and global conflict, it is critical for enterprises to research new organization architecture and management in flexible way. That is to say, the functional flexibility, numerical flexibility or wage flexibility plays a very important role to improve capability, reduce cost and increase profit. Nevertheless, the strategy will be meaningful to improve performance when closely connecting with employees¡¦ satisfaction and involvement. This study is developed via the questionnaires on the highest executive and basic employees from 40 branches of case company. To investigate the interaction effect between human resource flexibility and performance by the highest executive survey, and to investigate the interaction effect between job satisfaction and job involvement after flexibility strategy executed by the employees¡¦ survey. Finally the analysis was done by reliability analysis, descriptive statistics analysis, one-way Anova (analysis of variance), correlate analysis and regression analysis, and find the following results: 1. The functional flexibility has significantly influences on organization performance. 2. The wage flexibility has significantly influences on organization performance. 3. Different point view on human resource flexibility will happen due to different characteristic. 4. After human resource flexibility executed, different organization performance will happen due to different characteristic. 5. Different point view on wages flexibility will happen due to different characteristic. 6. After wage flexibility executed, different job attitude will happen due to different characteristic. 7. After wage flexibility executed, job reward satisfaction has significantly effect on job attitude. According to the research result, we find a safe and fair wage reward system will have significant effect on employees¡¦ job satisfaction and job involvement. ¡§No pain, no gain¡¨, a friendly consideration will enable to improve organization performance.

Text in Afrikaans / Suid-Afrika ondervind reeds geruime tyd hoe en stygende vlakke van werkloosheid. Gedurende die tagtigerjare bet die opkoms van vakbonde 'n fundamentele herstrukturering van die Suid-Afrikaanse arbeidsmark veroorsaak en die styging in werkloosheid gedurende die tydperk word dikwels aan vakbondoptrede toegeskryf. In die studie word verskillende oorsake van werkloosheid aan die hand van die klassieke, Keynesiaanse, natuurlike werkloosheidskoers- en nie-versnellende-inflasiewerkloosheidskoersbenaderings ondersoek ten einde die invloed van vakbonde en loononaanpasbaarheid op werkloosheid te probeer bepaal. Ooreenkomste sowel as verskille tussen die teoriee word geidentifiseer. Dit wil voorkom asof vakbonde gedurende die tagtigerjare in Suid-Afrika deur middel van bulle invloed op . loonverhogings 'n betreklik geringe invloed op werkloosheid gehad bet en dat loononaanpasbaarheid geensins 'n beduidende faktor was nie. Dit blyk ook dat die Keynesiaanse benadering die toepaslikste raamwerk hied vir die ontleding van hoe vlakke van werkloosheid en die invloed van vakbonde daarop. · / High and rising levels of unemployment have been experienced in South Africa for quite some time. The rise in trade union activity during the eighties caused a fundamental restructuring of the South African labour market and the increase in unemployment during this period is often blamed on trade union activity. In this study the classical approach, the Keynesian approach, the natural rate of unemployment and the non-accelerating inflation rate of unemployment are used to examine the different causes of unemployment with the purpose of assessing the influence of trade unions and wage rigidity on the level of unemployment. Similarities as well as differences between the theories are identified. It appears that trade unions had a marginal effect on unemployment in South Africa during the eighties through their influence on wage increases and that wage rigidity was not a significant cause of unemployment during this period. The Keynesian approach seems to be the most appropriate framework to analyse the causes of high levels of unemployment as well as the influence of trade unions on unemployment. / Department of Economics / M. Comm (Economics)

Text in Afrikaans / Suid-Afrika ondervind reeds geruime tyd hoe en stygende vlakke van werkloosheid. Gedurende die tagtigerjare bet die opkoms van vakbonde 'n fundamentele herstrukturering van die Suid-Afrikaanse arbeidsmark veroorsaak en die styging in werkloosheid gedurende die tydperk word dikwels aan vakbondoptrede toegeskryf. In die studie word verskillende oorsake van werkloosheid aan die hand van die klassieke, Keynesiaanse, natuurlike werkloosheidskoers- en nie-versnellende-inflasiewerkloosheidskoersbenaderings ondersoek ten einde die invloed van vakbonde en loononaanpasbaarheid op werkloosheid te probeer bepaal. Ooreenkomste sowel as verskille tussen die teoriee word geidentifiseer. Dit wil voorkom asof vakbonde gedurende die tagtigerjare in Suid-Afrika deur middel van bulle invloed op . loonverhogings 'n betreklik geringe invloed op werkloosheid gehad bet en dat loononaanpasbaarheid geensins 'n beduidende faktor was nie. Dit blyk ook dat die Keynesiaanse benadering die toepaslikste raamwerk hied vir die ontleding van hoe vlakke van werkloosheid en die invloed van vakbonde daarop. · / High and rising levels of unemployment have been experienced in South Africa for quite some time. The rise in trade union activity during the eighties caused a fundamental restructuring of the South African labour market and the increase in unemployment during this period is often blamed on trade union activity. In this study the classical approach, the Keynesian approach, the natural rate of unemployment and the non-accelerating inflation rate of unemployment are used to examine the different causes of unemployment with the purpose of assessing the influence of trade unions and wage rigidity on the level of unemployment. Similarities as well as differences between the theories are identified. It appears that trade unions had a marginal effect on unemployment in South Africa during the eighties through their influence on wage increases and that wage rigidity was not a significant cause of unemployment during this period. The Keynesian approach seems to be the most appropriate framework to analyse the causes of high levels of unemployment as well as the influence of trade unions on unemployment. / Department of Economics / M. Comm (Economics)