Work changes are alterations to the original scope of a contract. Work changes are inevitable in a typical construction project due to the complex nature of the construction industry. It is not possible to foresee these changes at the pre-construction or bidding stages. The changes may affect originally planned means and methods and, thus, may impact the quantity and type of the originally allocated resources such as time, labor, and equipment. In other words, work changes may involve time, money or both. Proper quantification of the impacts solely introduced by changes is therefore vital to all parties and to the success of a project. Failing to quantify impacts due to changes may have adverse consequences that may sometimes result in litigation. Several techniques are currently employed by the construction industry to quantify the impacts of changes. There are also a few simulation case studies used for productivity-related impact analysis. Certain simulation techniques and capabilities, such as modeling flexibility, involvement of historical data, and capability to compare alternatives enable simulation to be a promising tool for quantifying impacts due to changes. Despite the fact that simulation is becoming popular in the construction industry, up to this point in time, there are no established guidelines for the use of simulation in quantifying impacts due to work changes. Simulation still needs exploration with further research and applications that are specific to the problems of the construction industry. There is a solid need to explore the opportunities for employing simulation in quantifying impacts. The objective of this work is to explore the use of simulation in quantifying work change impacts. The study consists of a literature review on the relevant topics. It also analyzes and quantifies a case study in depth. The lessons learned from the case study showcase the procedure and potential of the methodology. The output of the research is valuable for practitioners who wish to employ simulation in quantifying impacts due to work changes. / Master of Science

The social work has change from a voluntary dedication to an established profession. Social work is a profession in constant change and development. This study is about how social work has changed over time and how these changes have affected social workers professional practice. Our study highlights the changes in Sweden in the last 30 years. Our study is a qualitative study with an individual perspective and was conducted through semi-structured interviews with social workers over 55 years old. The results were consequently analyzed by using organizational theory, new institutonalism, professionalism and specialization. The result showed mainly three changes. These changes were digitization, streamlining and specialization. The result showed that these changes have contributed to both positive and negative consequences. Some of the consequences are; less client contact, high workload and more administrative work. The social work is changing as society develops. The result also shows that the professional identity is complex and associated to many other things. The disadvantage of the social worker's professional profession is the complexity, because social workers are a professional group with broad knowledge who can work in many different fields, which means that a professional identity can be  difficult to create.

Despite their continuing importance to the UK economy and their employment of significant numbers of workers from a range of professions, the utilities have received scant attention from critical scholars of work. This neglect represents a missed opportunity to examine the impact of nearly twenty years of privatisation and marketisation on workers, their jobs and their unions. This thesis aims to make a contribution to knowledge here by investigating, contextualising and explaining changes in the labour processes of a privatised utility in the United Kingdom. The research is informed by oral history methods and techniques, rarely adopted in industrial sociology, and here used alongside labour process theory to reconstruct past experiences of work. Drawing on qualitative data sets, from in-depth interviews with a cohort of employees who worked continuously over three decades at the research site, British Gas’s Granton House, and on extensive company and trade union documentary evidence the research demonstrates how British Gas responded to restrictive regulation and the need to deliver shareholder value by transforming pre-existing forms of work organisation through introducing call centres. The call centre provided the opportunity for management to regain control over the labour process, intensify work and reduce costs. In doing so, the study identifies the principal drivers of organisational change, documents the process of change evaluates the impact on workers’ experience. Thus, as a corrective to much recent labour process theory the research offers both an ‘objective’ and ‘subjective’ account of change over an extended time. The contrast between workers’ experience of working in the clerical departments and in the call centre could not be starker. Almost every element of work from which workers derived satisfaction and purpose was abruptly dismantled. In their place workers had to endure the restrictive and controlling nature of call centre work. The relative absence of resistance to such a transformation is shown to be a consequence of failures in collective organisation, rather than the totalisation of managerial control, as the postmodernists and Foucauldians would have it.

There is a revolutionary change in the world of work that impacts on the individual, work and society. The future of work suggests flexibility, boundary less communities and change in work, as we know it today. As the world of work changes from a worker intensive industrial society towards an automated information society, the retention of technological advantages e.g., human, intellect and knowledge capital is no longer assured. Employers struggle to retain their valuable high technology employees due to a general shortage of experienced candidates and aggressive recruitment tactics by others in the high technology arena. The purpose of this study is to investigate specific retention factors that induce organisational commitment and can thus increase the retention of high technology employees. High technology industries operate in volatile market and experience accelerating growth and rates of change. High technology employees are educated, have a strong preference for independence and hold a large portion of the organisation's intellectual capital. A core belief in human resources is to retain and develop employees to obtain a competitive advantage. In order to retain these valuable employees it has become necessary for organisations to transform from using an employee controlling to a more employee commitment driven strategy. To gain employees' commitment to the organisation and increase retention, the employer needs to identify which retention factors induce organisational commitment. Compensation, job characteristics, training and development opportunities, supervisor support, career opportunities and work/life policies were identified as the top six retention factors in the content analysis done on high technology literature. Organisational commitment has been defined as a mindset, which ties the individual to the organisation. Different forms and foci of organisational commitment are discussed with the approach developed by Meyer and Allen's three component model (1991). The consequences of organisational commitment benefit the organisation in terms of increased job performance, intention to stay, increase in attendance, loyalty, decrease in turnover, greater creativity, more co-operation (particularly across discipline specialities), more volunteerism and more time devoted to productive work on behalf of the organisation. This study focused on a 100% South African owned telecommunications company based in the Gauteng province. A questionnaire was developed and a population of 94 telecommunications professionals, technicians and associated professionals were selected to investigate the influence of various identified retention factors on organisational commitment. The statistical analysis of the data culminated in a regression analysis that measured the significance and the strength of the relationship between the identified retention factors and organisational commitment. The main conclusions were that compensation, job characteristics, supervisor support and work/life policies were significantly related to organisational commitment. On the other hand, in this study training, development and career opportunities were not related. High technology organisations are not just interested in the retention of employees but also creating a mutually beneficial interdependence with employees. The identified retention factors might serve as a means to demonstrate the organisation's support for, or commitment to, their employees and in turn cultivate a reciprocal attachment by employees. Employees' organisational commitment is related to their belief that the identified retention factors are motivated by the desire to retain good employees and to be fair in the treatment of employees. Future research needs are discussed. / Dissertation (MCom (Human Resources Management))--University of Pretoria, 2004. / Human Resource Management / unrestricted