Analysis of the managing contingent workers at an outsourcing system ¡VA case study of the China Steel Corporation and its subcontractors Abstract Nowadays, employment flexibility and Labor Cost Reduction are highly emphasized in the competitive business environment. As the job design becoming more and more specific and professional, the labor cost becoming higher and higher, companies cannot but change their operation style, and contingent workers have become an important source of competitive advantage. This case study was intended to understand the mutual relationship between China Steel Corporation and its subcontractors: why it uses subcontractors, and how it manages them. This study also explored the benefits and working conditions of contingent workers to find out the potential problems of outsourcing. This study has the following preliminary findings. First, Two factors are important determinants on outsourcing decisions: Strategically, the goal is to reduce labor cost and enhance the employment flexibility. Technically, the demand of professional skills, rudimentary skills and special facilities can be satisfied through outsourcing. Second, the relation between China Steel Corporation and its subcontractors has changed after its privatization. According to China Steel Corporation, their interaction has become better because of the flexibility gained after privatization (for example, the budget is no longer controlled by legislative yuan.) But from the subcontractors¡¦ point of view, their interaction has become more difficult because the elimination of their profit and increasing constraints on outsourcing projects. Third, the employees of China Steel Corporation enjoy better wages, benefits, working conditions and training opportunities than employees of subcontractors. Fourth, among the two kinds of employees of subcontractors¡Xpermanent and temporary¡X permanent employees have better wages than temporary ones. As for training, there is not much difference. Fifth, safety is the most serious problem on contingent workers management. The reasons include highly dangerous work environment, workers¡¦ unfamiliarity with the environment, and being recklessness about the work environment rules. One other important management issue for China Steel Corporation is that outsourcing does not necessarily reduce labor cost. High turnover rate among contingent workers and low quality resulting from insufficient skills are combined together to increase the labor cost of China Steel Corporation on supervision, coordination, and quality control. Key words: human resource management, contingent working arrangement, outsourcing, subcontractor, temporary workers.

This study focuses on contractors of petrochemical companies in Kaohsiung. It tries to understand the working conditions of contractors¡¦ workers and practices of human resource management of contractors. After interviewing and surveying to on-the-spot directors in petrochemical factories, contractors, and their employees, we found the following results: The characteristics of petrochemical factories using contractors are specialized field, labor service outsourcing, and regular practice. Short of labor and lack of specialization are the major reasons for using contractors. Advantages of using contractors for the most part are efficiency, employment cost, and employment flexibility. On the other hand, disadvantages are low safety consciousness, hard to manage, poor work quality, and high turnover rate of contractors' workers. On the working status of contractors, they undertake many contracted projects simultaneously, and deliver projects over to subcontractor (nearly 30%). The contents of contracted projects are extensive, and the main type is technical work (nearly 75%). Due to contracted periods differ in length, these projects are very unpredictable ,which pushes contractors employ temps to cope with high turnover rate. Contractors hire temps more than permanent workers on average (1.2 times). There are 80% contractors use temps, and the major reason is to meet working demand, the next is financial consideration. That temps have more variations on working contents and places reveals they face higher working uncertainties than permanent workers do. Besides, those temps' income source and average salary are lower than permanent significantly. That shows their economic pressure is higher. They have no job security, so their job satisfaction are lower, and attitude about future are pessimistic. This research also found that job functions, contracting experience, and contracting quantity of contractors would affect their tendency of using temps based on logistic regression analyses. On the human resource management aspects of contractors, most contractors use temps hiring as a way of screening and recruiting formal employees. It is different on recruiting temps and permanent workers. With regard to the source of temps, contractors mostly depend on social network; about 15% were through dispatching labor agency. The educational background of temps is lower, and contractors assign miscellaneous jobs to them mainly. Cleaning and carrying are the next. Most temps have worse fringe benefits (such as labor insurance, health insurance, group life insurance, working bonus, special vacations, etc.). There are 20%~30% workers of contractors have no labor and health insurance, and about 50 % workers have no accident insurance in this high risk area. Considering two facts about temps, high turnover rate and easiness of replacement, the job security of temps is worse. Overall, workers' conditions of contractors were not good at all in this study. It is obvious that they are in greet need of intervention and protection of government, especially in working conditions. On the aspect of risk of about occupational safety, petrochemical factories benefited from contracting but it also raise their safety risk. The accidental rate of contractors is 80%, and temps' is higher than permanent workers¡¦. This kind of fact is also shown in contractors' attitude. They think workers should be responsible for accident. This phenomenon reveal that labor safety and hygiene here is still worth striving.

A European option is a contract in which the seller of the option grants the buyer the right, but not the obligation, to purchase from or sell to the seller the underlying asset at pre-specified price at maturity date. Herewith the buyer should pay out a premium for the value of flexibility that he was granted. Such premium as the compensation to the seller was provides in close form by Black and Scholes (1973) and Merton (1973). Even since then the option pricing methodology, or otherwise known as ¡§contingent claim analysis¡¨ has found its application in many prospects. Otherwise known as the real option analysis first induced by Myers (1977) and the structure form model of the credit risk analysis first induced by Merton (1974). In the thesis, we consider the application of the optional pricing methodology to the rationality and valuation of penalty in a contract and extent the penalty to the money back guarantee. In the former, we provide the general form solution to illustrate the both parties all hold the right to default the contract, and prove the existence of the optimal penalty is a policy to protect the disadvantaged minority such as to make the trade contract to be fair. In the latter, we prove the suitable way to evaluate that the consumer buy a good and long a MBG is the call option but the put by reviewing the final cash flow of the replicated strategy and the put-call parity at firstly, and then we find out the better way to grant the consumer to return the good to the vendor is penalty if the good is normal and the utility function of the consumer is concave. In sum, we integrate the penalty and in the MBG with the contingent claim analysis in this thesis, we find out we can use the uncomplicated model to explain the real world. Herewith we consider the option pricing model as another methodology to illustrate the social environment.

Numerous studies have shown a discrepancy between how much an individual will accept to give up an object and how much an individual will pay to acquire the same good. This discrepancy is more commonly known as the endowment effect. Although scholars have generated a vast literature demonstrating the existence of the endowment effect, the underlying psychological mechanisms that account for this phenomenon remain a source of controversy. In the following dissertation, two different psychological processes are proposed to account for the WTP/WTA discrepancy: the use of a bargaining script and cognitive engagement through object interaction. Experiment 1 explores how the use of a bargaining schema affects buyers' and sellers' valuations of a mug. Experiment 2 examines the role object interaction plays in an individual's decisions about an object's value. Each of these studies presents new data that provide novel insights into the potential psychological processes that underlie the endowment effect. / text

As the past twenty years of justice research have demonstrated, perceiving the workplace as fair is associated with higher levels of organizational commitment, job satisfaction, work-related effort, acceptance of work-related policies and procedures, and decreased absenteeism. However, although not always explicitly stated in theories of fairness, there has been a tacit understanding that justice perceptions are not static, but influenced by a variety of factors. In short, extant justice theories assume there are underlying dynamic elements within the construct, but the measures and previous research examining justice has assessed it as if it were a stable and static perception. The purpose of this research, therefore, was to take the first step to explore and describe the frequency and intensity of injustice perceptions at work and how individuals' affective states and traits influence these perceptions. A snow-ball sample of working individuals from across the United States provided ESM data by responding to palmtop computers at randomly scheduled intervals several times a day for 3 work weeks. Additionally, participants provided event-contingent injustice data when they perceived unfair events during their workday. The results of this examination, as well as the use of experience sampling for the study of dynamic workplace injustice, are discussed.

The face of the workplace has changed dramatically over the past decade and most organisations have to survive in a fiercely competitive global economy. The impact of the competitive changes, especially in the service environment has become critical and quality service is considered an essential strategy for success and survival in today's competitive environment. Organisations are continuously searching for ways to improve their performance and create a sustainable competitive advantage. Consumers are also continuously being made more aware of their rights and in today's fast paced world, with time constraints and increased stress, tolerance levels have been considerably eroded. In view of this, customer satisfaction has become a focus area, in particular, to investigate ways that it can be enhanced to gain a competitive edge. A better understanding of how organisations can apply resources to achieve these goals will be a useful instrument towards gaining sustainable competitive advantage. One way of doing this is for service firms to manage their capacity to achieve maximum and/or optimum utilisation at all times, if possible. But having trained staff on hand at the right times is no easy task. Overstaffing can lead to budget blow-out, while understating adds to staff stress levels, and can contribute to both customer and staff dissatisfaction. As a possible solution many employers tackle this problem by employing casual staff who are more flexible in their working hours and can be deployed to meet peak demands in service. The objective of this study was to investigate the importance of customer satisfaction and whether the utilisation of temporary staffing solutions could positively contribute in improving service levels. A survey research design was used with a questionnaire as data-gathering instrument. The study population consisted of customers (N=507) that visited Absa branches in the Vaal Triangle and were serviced by either permanent or flexi tellers. Contingency tables were used to record and analyse the relationship between the different variables, and statistical significance tests were used to show that the results are significant. Chi-square and Cramer's phi or V test were used as the basis of the analysis. The research confirmed that customer satisfaction has definite financial benefits for an organisation and that the effective application of temporary staffing solutions could further enhance these benefits. The results of the statistical analysis of the survey further confirmed that there was no significant difference in the perceived level of service received from either permanent or flexi tellers. Limitations in the research are identified and recommendations for future research are made. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2008.

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The face of the workplace has changed dramatically over the past decade and most organisations have to survive in a fiercely competitive global economy. The impact of the competitive changes, especially in the service environment has become critical and quality service is considered an essential strategy for success and survival in today's competitive environment. Organisations are continuously searching for ways to improve their performance and create a sustainable competitive advantage. Consumers are also continuously being made more aware of their rights and in today's fast paced world, with time constraints and increased stress, tolerance levels have been considerably eroded. In view of this, customer satisfaction has become a focus area, in particular, to investigate ways that it can be enhanced to gain a competitive edge. A better understanding of how organisations can apply resources to achieve these goals will be a useful instrument towards gaining sustainable competitive advantage. One way of doing this is for service firms to manage their capacity to achieve maximum and/or optimum utilisation at all times, if possible. But having trained staff on hand at the right times is no easy task. Overstaffing can lead to budget blow-out, while understating adds to staff stress levels, and can contribute to both customer and staff dissatisfaction. As a possible solution many employers tackle this problem by employing casual staff who are more flexible in their working hours and can be deployed to meet peak demands in service. The objective of this study was to investigate the importance of customer satisfaction and whether the utilisation of temporary staffing solutions could positively contribute in improving service levels. A survey research design was used with a questionnaire as data-gathering instrument. The study population consisted of customers (N=507) that visited Absa branches in the Vaal Triangle and were serviced by either permanent or flexi tellers. Contingency tables were used to record and analyse the relationship between the different variables, and statistical significance tests were used to show that the results are significant. Chi-square and Cramer's phi or V test were used as the basis of the analysis. The research confirmed that customer satisfaction has definite financial benefits for an organisation and that the effective application of temporary staffing solutions could further enhance these benefits. The results of the statistical analysis of the survey further confirmed that there was no significant difference in the perceived level of service received from either permanent or flexi tellers. Limitations in the research are identified and recommendations for future research are made. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2008.

This dissertation addresses issues in non-market valuation related to preference uncertainty and to the divergence between willingness to accept (WTA) and willingness to pay (WTP) in contingent valuation method. The contributions are two fold. First, the dissertation contributes to development in non-market valuation by comparing emerging approaches addressing preference uncertainty in the standard contingent valuation framework and by introducing a promising approach, the fuzzy random utility maximization model. Further, the study provides empirical support for the observed divergence between WTA and WTP using a simultaneous equation regression model. Second, the dissertation provides policy implications. The non-market valuation model was calibrated with a survey of western Canadian landowners in 2000 to determine their willingness to accept compensation for planting trees to mitigate climate change. WTA values were then used to analyze the cost effectiveness of sequestering carbon by converting agricultural land to forestry. While estimates of WTA are less than foregone agricultural values, average costs of creating carbon credits still exceed their projected value under a C02-emissions trading scheme. Another results from the survey of Nevada ranchers that asked about WTP for public forage and WTA compensation to part with grazing rights indicate that ranch size, public grazing allotment, financial distress, and long term commitment to ranching are all significant influences on the disparity between WTA and WTP, which gives valuable information to ranch policy.

In Cuba, the act of growing flood in the city has become a way of life. Since the beginning of the "Special Period in Time of Peace", brought about by the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989, Cubans have engaged in many forms of urban agriculture (UA) to cope with the food crisis affecting the Island. In Havana, the popular garden movement occupies 8% of total urban land in agriculture (3.4% of urban land) and is practiced by 18,000 gardeners who produce vegetables and fruit, and raise small livestock to increase food security and generate income. The purpose of this study was to provide estimates of the user benefits of UA, as well as qualitative and quantitative information related do this activity. The contingent valuation method (CVM) was used to elicit users' willingness to pay (WTP) for the land they use, that is currently provided at no charge by the stale. The average WTP was estimated at 23.5 pesos/1000 m2/month under current conditions and 34.4 pesos/1000 m2/month with improvements in water and anti-theft services. These amounts represent about 11% and 14% of monthly household income, respectively. Aggregate WTP for popular gardens in the city of Havana was estimated to be 6.88 million pesos/year (344,000 $US) and 10.07 million pesos/year (503,500 $US) with the proposed improvements. The study has produced important results that give an indication of the use and non-use value of UA for gardeners of Havana. Results also suggest that CVM is a non-market valuation technique that can be successfully applied in Cuba, and can provide information to be integrated in cast-benefit analysis frameworks that assess the importance of UA.