In March of 2020, Canada, along with the rest of the world, declared the COVID-19 pandemic a national emergency and responded with society-wide lockdowns, granting exceptions only for essential workers. Canadians across all demographic categories were significantly impacted, and many parents of children under 18 faced the difficult task of caring for their children while simultaneously meeting their work obligations. Using novel in-depth interview data from 30 Canadian parents (in 15 couples) collected between April 2022 and May 2023, I explore three main changes to family life resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic: expanded family-friendly work practices, increased time with nuclear family members, and fathers' increased contributions to childcare. My work builds on previous research in two important ways. First, it utilizes qualitative data to deepen our understanding of these early shifts; and second, it provides evidence for the durability (or lack thereof) of family changes beyond the initial lockdown stage of the pandemic and into the 'new normal.' With this approach, I find that family life changed dramatically during the pandemic and some of these changes were durable while others were not.

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Organisations can create a competitive advantage through the way they design their human resource systems. High involvement work systems are considered to be a way to increase organisational performance and decrease employee turnover. However, the components involved are difficult and complex to define, and the synergy amongst the different components hard to evaluate. The literature suggests that the research is not uniform in its approach, and most research does not clearly define the variables involved or agree on the expected results of such systems. This research looks at high involvement work systems in the New Zealand organisational context, and relating these systems to employee turnover and organisational performance. The results of the study suggest that there does not appears to be a relationship between high involvement work systems, and employee turnover and organisational performance; but high involvement systems may contribute to increased labour productivity in New Zealand organisations.

The previous chapters described in detail the literature, theory and research on Co-alignment, RBV and SHRM that was the basis for the development of a construct for the conceptualization of HPWP in the casual theme restaurant sector of the US hospitality industry for management. Firms able to implement such HPWP systems possessing universality, i.e. complementary internal fit, have been shown to increase the intangible value of their human capital (employees) and create greater economic value (Delery, 1998). This study used the co-alignment principle in conjunction with concepts in SHRM and RBV to develop a theory for a HPWP system for casual theme restaurants in the US, which is named a High Performance People System (HPPS). The co-alignment model for hospitality organizations which is the foundation of the theoretical model for this research (Olsen, West, and Tse;1998) describes the relationship between four key constructs, i.e. the environment, strategy choice, firm structure, and firm performance. Briefly, the four constructs in the model must be in alignment with each other in order for the firm to produce the greatest value for its stakeholders. Co-alignment theory purports that, "if the firm is able to identify the opportunities that exist in the forces driving change, invest in competitive methods that take advantage of these opportunities, and allocate resources to those that create the greatest value, the financial results desired by owners and investors have a much better chance of being achieved" (Olsen et al. 1998, p.2). SHRM researchers have been advocates of the theory that supports the causal relationship between HRM practices, sustainable competitive advantage (SCA) and firm performance. Several strategic human resource management researchers such as, Cappelli & Singh (1992),Wright & McMahan (1992), Pfeffer (1994), Lado & Wison (1995), Huselid (1995), Jackson & Schuler (1995),Becker & Gerhart (1996), Delany & Huselid (1996), Boxall (1998), Pfeffer (1998), Schuler & Jackson (2000), Ulrich & Beatty (2001), Lepak & Snell (2002), Hartog (2004) and others have directly or indirectly made attempts to theorize the effects of single or multiple human resource management variables on firm performance. These efforts have led to the incremental development of the strategic human resource management literature that stresses the relationships between the HRM practices, SCA and firm performance. There is an emergent body of evidence demonstrating that "the methods used by an organization to manage its human resources can have a substantial impact on many organizationally relevant outcomes" (Delery, 1998, p. 1). Convoluting the research on HPWP is incongruity among researchers on the micro HRM practices which are included in the SHRM system; there is little concurrence among scholars with respect to specifically which human resource practices should be incorporated (Becker & Gerhart, 1996; Rogers & Wright, 1998; Chadwick & Cappelli, 1999). RBV is one of the ten schools of thought in the field of management theory (Mintzberg, 2000) and is predicated on the concept that in order to create a sustainable competitive advantage and produce value for the firm, individual policies or practices produce the greatest results when they operate in a complex system that is not easily imitated (Barney, 1995). Resources are the "physical things a firm buys, leases or produces for its own use or the people hired on terms that make them effectively part of the firm" (Penrose, 1959: 67). Wernerfelt (1984) defines a firm's resources as "tangible or intangible assets which are tied semi-permanently to the firm" (p. 172). Barney (1991) further suggested that resources which can be used to create a SCA must have value, rareness, inimitability and substitutability The research focused on the discovery of the components of a HPWP system construct in the US casual theme restaurant segment for operating managers and the performance metrics used to judge their effectiveness. An exploratory study, in part using the Delphi method, serves as the overall research approach. A cross section of restaurant industry experts including company executives, consultants, academics and investors/owners contributed to the study. The outcome is a list of HRM work practices that are common to the casual theme restaurant industry and performance metrics. Based on prior empirical work the study started with 14 HRM work practice dimensions (See Table 3.1) and 3 performance measurements of productivity, turnover and financial performance (Huselid, 1995; Huselid & Becker, 1995; Delery & Doty, 1996; Becker & Huselid, 1996; Huselid & Becker, 1997; Hartog, 2004). These dimensions and performance metrics were presented to the panel of expert's making up the pilot study group as a starting point in the development of the HPWP system construct for the casual themed restaurant industry. After compiling the results of the pilot study and pretesting the survey instrument, the first Delphi survey (see Appendix 3) and a subsequent reminder were sent out electronically to the preselected Delphi participants for the study. A consensus on the research questions was not reached from the first-round survey according to the protocol Therefore, the second round was administered which provide opportunity for participants to change their position to help the group reach a consensus. Since consensus was reached according to the protocol (see tables 4.9, 4.12 & 4.13), the Delphi was concluded at this point. In summary, figure 1.1 put forth a conceptual model to clarify the relationships between the above mentioned schools of thought and firm performance. Figure 1.2 presented a working theoretical model which expounds on the relationships between the key concepts in the conceptual model and firm performance. Finally, figure 5.1 displays the results and the relationships of the study which methodically confirms the components of a HPPS for unit level managers, and identifies appropriate evaluation criteria for determining the performance of HPPS in the US casual restaurant market. / Ph. D.

Today, the effective management of people is assuming prominence as a source of sustained business performance improvement. The rationale for this trend is that other significant aspects of business, such as marketing, new technology, market niche, trademarks and brand image have generally been mastered. Therefore, business enterprises are being encouraged in seeking to gain comparative advantage by reliance on their human resources because this aspect of business is arguably more difficult to imitate or understand than the more conventional resources. As a result, there is an awakening of the need to introduce management practices that will concentrate on the added value which a highly motivated work force may provide to the organisation. The idea of added value from a highly motivated work force assumes even greater significance when the main business hinges almost entirely on the attitudes and approaches of people. This concept applies most forcibly to Barbados and the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (BOECS), the region covered by this study. This research therefore, explores the idea of gaining comparative advantage through appropriate people management methods and follows the trend in the developed and more industrialised nations of the world in an effort to determine whether there is a useful model of effective management practices which may be replicated in the BOECS and thus lead to improved business performance in the micro states which constitute this ii region. However, this study is mindful of the limitations of the research methodology which a vast number of contributors to this intriguing topic have employed. Nevertheless, this exploratory attempt examines the issue in the light of its possible positive effect on a previously uncharted area, viz., Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean (BOECS) as far as it relates to scholarly treaties on Human Resource Management. The idea is that even in the absence of clear unequivocal empirical evidence about its benefits, it may be useful to pursue the strategic approach to Human Resource Management including expansion of employee involvement, for it own sake.

Agile work practices have been adopted by most software development organizations and by many large organizations from other industries. The introduction of agile work practices is assumed to positively affect work characteristics and, in turn, well-being of employees. So far, there is only very little and methodologically limited empirical research on this topic. Based on job demands–resources theory, we developed and tested a model on the direct and indirect relationships between agile work practices, job demands and resources, and occupational well-being. Data were provided by 260 employees working in agile development teams who participated in two surveys that were approximately six weeks apart. Results of structural equation modeling provided support for the hypothesized model, suggesting that agile work practices have a negative indirect effect on emotional fatigue through lower job demands. At the same time, agile work practices also had a positive indirect effect on emotional engagement through higher job resources. Our research contributes to the literature by integrating agile work practices with job demands–resources theory, bridging an important gap between research and practice. Overall, the findings suggest that the implementation of agile work practices may have a positive impact on occupational well-being by improving employees’ perceptions of key work characteristics.

Today, the effective management of people is assuming prominence as a source of sustained business performance improvement. The rationale for this trend is that other significant aspects of business, such as marketing, new technology, market niche, trademarks and brand image have generally been mastered. Therefore, business enterprises are being encouraged in seeking to gain comparative advantage by reliance on their human resources because this aspect of business is arguably more difficult to imitate or understand than the more conventional resources. As a result, there is an awakening of the need to introduce management practices that will concentrate on the added value which a highly motivated work force may provide to the organisation. The idea of added value from a highly motivated work force assumes even greater significance when the main business hinges almost entirely on the attitudes and approaches of people. This concept applies most forcibly to Barbados and the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (BOECS), the region covered by this study. This research therefore, explores the idea of gaining comparative advantage through appropriate people management methods and follows the trend in the developed and more industrialised nations of the world in an effort to determine whether there is a useful model of effective management practices which may be replicated in the BOECS and thus lead to improved business performance in the micro states which constitute this ii region. However, this study is mindful of the limitations of the research methodology which a vast number of contributors to this intriguing topic have employed. Nevertheless, this exploratory attempt examines the issue in the light of its possible positive effect on a previously uncharted area, viz., Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean (BOECS) as far as it relates to scholarly treaties on Human Resource Management. The idea is that even in the absence of clear unequivocal empirical evidence about its benefits, it may be useful to pursue the strategic approach to Human Resource Management including expansion of employee involvement, for it own sake.

Small-scale fisheries are learning contexts of importance for generating, transferring, and updating ecological knowledge of natural environments through everyday work practices. The rich knowledge fishers have of local ecosystems is the result of the intimate relationship fishing communities have had with their natural environments across generations (see e.g. Urquhart and Acott 2013). This relationship develops strong emotional bonds to the physical and social place. For fishing communities and fishers – who depend directly on local ecosystems to maintain their livelihoods – fishing environments are natural places for living, working and defining themselves. Previous research on fishers’ ecological knowledge has mainly been descriptive, i.e., has focused on aspects such as reproduction, nutrition and spatial-temporal distribution and population dynamics, from a traditional view of knowledge that only recognises scientific knowledge as the true knowledge. By doing this, fishers’ ecological knowledge has been investigated separately from the learning contexts in which it is generated, ignoring the influence of social, cultural and historical aspects that characterise fishing communities, and the complex relationships between fishers and the natural environments they live and work in. This thesis investigates ecological knowledge among small-scale fishers living and working in the ecosystems of Lake Vättern and the Blekinge Archipelago (Baltic Sea) in Sweden and explores how ecological knowledge is generated with particular regard to the influences of work and nature on fishers’ knowledge of ecosystems. The aim of this thesis is to contribute to the knowledge and understanding of informal learning processes of ecosystem complexity among small-scale fishers. This knowledge further contributes to the research field of ecological knowledge and sustainable use and management of natural resources. It addresses the particular research questions of what ecological knowledge fishers generate, and how its generation is influenced by their fishing work practices and relationships to nature. The thesis consists of three articles. Article I focuses on the need to address the significant lack of theoretical and methodological frameworks for the investigation of the cognitive aspects involved in the generation of ecological knowledge. Article II deals with the need to develop theoretical, methodological and empirical frameworks that avoid romanticising and idealising users’ ecological knowledge in local (LEK), indigenous (IEK) and traditional (TEK) ecological knowledge research, by rethinking it as being generated through work practices. Article III addresses the lack of studies that explicitly explore theories linking complex relations and knowledge that humans form within and of ecosystems. It also addressed the lack of attention from environmental education researchers to theory and empirical studies of ‘sense of place’ research, with a particular focus on environmental learning. Research into the question of what ecological knowledge fishers generate shows differences in their ways of knowing ecosystem complexity. These differences are explained in terms of the influences of the species being fished, and the sociocultural contexts distinguishing fishers’ connection to the fishing profession (i.e., familial tradition or entrepreneurship) (Article I), but also by the fishing strategies used (Article II). Results answering the research question of how work practices influence fishers’ knowledge of ecosystem complexity show a way of rethinking their ecological knowledge as generated in a continuous process of work (Article II), thus, far from romantic views of knowledge. Results answering the research question of how fishers’ relationships to nature influence their knowledge of ecosystem complexity demonstrate the complex interconnections between psychological processes such as identity construction, proximity maintenance and attachment to natural environments (Article III). Finally, more similarities than differences between fishers’ knowledge were found, despite the variation in cases chosen, with regards to landscape, target species, regulations systems and management strategies, fishing environments scales, as well as cultural and social contexts. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following paper was unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 2: Manuscript.</p><p> </p> / Ecological knowledge and sustainable resource management: The role of knowledge acquisition in enhancing the adaptive capacity of co-management arrangements

Organisations can create a competitive advantage through the way they design their human resource systems. High involvement work systems are considered to be a way to increase organisational performance and decrease employee turnover. However, the components involved are difficult and complex to define, and the synergy amongst the different components hard to evaluate. The literature suggests that the research is not uniform in its approach, and most research does not clearly define the variables involved or agree on the expected results of such systems. This research looks at high involvement work systems in the New Zealand organisational context, and relating these systems to employee turnover and organisational performance. The results of the study suggest that there does not appear to be a relationship between high involvement work systems, and employee turnover and organisational performance; but high involvement systems may contribute to increased labour productivity in New Zealand organisations.

À l’heure où les entreprises, confrontées à de nombreux bouleversements, sont plus que jamais en recherche de performance, et à l’heure où les salariés, dénonçant les conditions de travail et les pratiques managériales, n’ont jamais été aussi demandeurs de bien-être au travail, réconcilier le bien-être des salariés et la performance de l’entreprise est un sujet d’actualité et un enjeu stratégique pour les entreprises.La revue de la littérature et les résultats d’une analyse qualitative exploratoire menée à l’aide d’entretiens semi-directifs auprès de 55 salariés du groupe RESSIF (Réseau des Services Sociaux Interentreprises de France) nous amènent à envisager le « bien-être au travail » et la « performance de l’entreprise » en termes de méta-perspective paradoxale et à proposer des voies de résolution de ce paradoxe organisationnel.Pour ce faire, nous avons mené deux études quantitatives. La première étude est basée sur 5300 observations issues de l’enquête « conditions de travail » du Ministère français du travail. La deuxième est basée sur les réponses de 270 entreprises à un questionnaire en ligne portant sur les pratiques de gestion des ressources humaines.Finalement, nos résultats empiriques concluent que les facteurs permettant de concilier le bien-être au travail et la performance de l’entreprise sont, parmi les conditions de travail, la lutte contre l’intensité et l’insoutenabilité du travail et, parmi les pratiques de ressources humaines, le développement de la participation des salariés aux décisions de l’entreprise, la formation, les promotions et perspectives de carrière et, dans une moindre mesure, l’évaluation de la performance.Pour conclure ce travail, sont présentées les contributions théoriques, méthodologiques et managériales, ainsi que les voies futures de recherche. / At a time when companies, faced with many upheavals, are more than ever in search of performance, and when employees, denouncing working conditions and managerial practices, have never been so demanding of well-being at work, reconciling employee well-being and company performance is a topical issue and a strategic challenge for companies.The literature review and the results of an exploratory qualitative analysis conducted using semi-directive interviews with 55 employees of the RESSIF group (Réseau des Services Sociaux Interentreprises de France) lead us to consider "well-being at work" and "company performance" in terms of paradoxical meta-perspective and to propose ways to resolve this organizational paradox.To do this, we conducted two quantitative studies. The first study is based on 5300 observations from the working conditions survey of the French Ministry of Labor. The second is based on the answers of 270 companies to an online questionnaire on human resources management practices.Finally, our empirical results conclude that the factors that make it possible to reconcile well-being at work and company performance are, among working conditions, the fight against work intensity and unsustainability and, among human resources practices, the development of employee participation in company decisions, training, promotions and career perspectives and, to a lesser extent, performance evaluation.To conclude this work, theoretical, methodological and managerial contributions are presented, as well as future research paths.