Thèse numérisée par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

This Master Thesis copes with current phenomenon - Corporate social responsibility and as a base it uses the Stakeholder theory. The Thesis continues with defining the concept of Corporate social responsibility in general and then devotes small part to present activities under Corporate social responsibility which aims mainly at external stakeholders of an organization. Nevertheless the core of this Thesis is an interconnection between Corporate social responsibility and human resources management which is later on examined from several different points of view and an overview of tools that work with this interconnection is given. It also describes employees from the stakeholder perspective, follows with investigating corporate social responsibility aspects within individual personnel activities in an organization and confronts them with real attitudes of Czech university students.

The main aim of the thesis is to explain the essence and benefits of using a marketing approach, tools and means for the area of human resources and analyze the content and interdependence of two parts of HR marketing, external and internal. Thesis has also the ambition to apply the theory of brand building on the specific case of employer brand. Part of the thesis forms research on FMCG company Nutricia, which should show what the company does for its HR marketing and how it is perceived as an employer both on the internal and external labor market. The principal methods of work includes analysis of Czech and foreign literature and papers on the theme. Materials provided by Nutricia and written questionaires were analyzed in the practical part of the research. The conclusion sums up the benefits of marketing aproach to HR, its coherence within the general framework of marketing mix and current actual state.

This master thesis discusses the possibilities of outsourcing (in Czech also displacement of activities) in a human resources area, it also considers its forms and applications in companies. The main goal is to determine whether and to what extent HR outsourcing is worth to be implemented into small to medium sized companies and what steps are needed to be done to benefit from HR outsourcing. The work is divided into two parts. The first part is based on theoretical foundations. It contains a summary of general information regarding HR outsourcing and its types. It defines advantages and disadvantages, and the current situation of HR outsourcing in the world and in the Czech Republic as well. It also describes what phases a company must go through in the process of HR outsourcing implementation into its processes. The second part uses the knowledge and experience summarized in the theoretical part and shows a concrete example of its use in practice. It specifies the possible solutions for HR outsourcing within a medium-sized organization. Selected personnel services in a company are analyzed and considered for outsourcing as separate "projects". The conclusion summarizes the answer to the question to what extent spoken hypothesis is filled.

The dissertation thesis investigates the most up-to-date subject matter of contemporary business life, both internationally and locally -- Human Resources outsourcing, which appears to have become a new strategic tool for Human Resources Management. The concept means the strategically motivated external execution of some or all HR processes, which would otherwise be performed by internal staff, along with the assignment of the responsibility for those processes to external providers. Effective outsourcing initiatives have the potential to bring about significant benefits for the company, both operational and strategic. The dissertation thesis introduces a comprehensive and objective analysis of the global HR outsourcing model, including its microeconomic implications, the history of outsourcing, its evolution, benefits and possible risks, its different types of delivery models, suppliers'analysis and supply models, the cost aspects, the principles of effective management of the outsourcing project or the relationships of outsourcing with information and communication technologies. Another part of the thesis focuses on the phenomenon of offshoring, which represents one possible way outsourcing can be executed. Employees' outsourcing, its cost efficiency, legislation framework and private agencies' industry impact on the labour market is a subject of another part of the thesis. The consequent section includes empirical research executed with the aim to investigate the principles, models, scope and trends of HR outsourcing activities in the Czech republic. The results of the research are compared with scientific hypotheses that are based on the knowledge of the HR outsourcing global model which results in defining a local model of HR outsourcing. The concluding part of the dissertation thesis summarizes both the theoretical knowledge and practical findings and formulates a number of recommendations and advise for company top management about how to implement effectively HR outsourcing in the company or how to improve its quality if already implemented.

Syftet med studien var att undersöka vilka attityder högskolestudenter har till etnisk mångfald. Studien var kvalitativ och underlaget utgjordes av semistrukturerade intervjuer. Ett bekvämlighetsurval tillämpades och totalt deltog 17 respondenter (n=17). Det insamlade materialet analyserades genom en tematisk analys som resulterade i tre huvudteman: rädsla, samhörighet och den etniska mångfaldens inverkan för organisationer. Studiens resultat visade att samtliga respondenter hade en positiv attityd till etnisk mångfald. Samtliga respondenter ansåg att mångfald bör främjas inom svenska organisationer för att organisationerna ska kunna bli innovationsrika, konkurrenskraftiga och tillfredsställa en bredare marknad samt tillvarata den kompetens som mångfalden innebär.

Personalarbetet har på senare år genomgått förändringar som innebär att personalansvaret inte längre enbart anses tillhöra en organisations HR-avdelning, utan även mellanchefer eftersom deras centrala position anses vara av stor betydelse för HR-arbetets effektivitet. Syftet med studien var således att undersöka hur svenska mellanchefer upplever sin utökade yrkesroll och om upplevelserna av att också behöva ta sig an vissa delegerade HR-uppgifter stämmer överens med vad tidigare internationella studier har visat. Studien var av kvalitativ design och baserades på semistrukturerade intervjuer. Ett målinriktat urval tillämpades, vilket resulterade i att 14 mellanchefer intervjuades. Intervjuerna tolkades genom tematisk analys och det framkom fyra huvudteman som speglade mellanchefernas upplevelse av sin utökade yrkesroll: upplevelse av arbetsbeskrivning, involvering i HR-arbetet, stöd och problematik. I enlighet med internationell litteratur upplevde respondenterna att faktorer som tidsbrist, bristande verktyg och otydlig ansvarsfördelning i HR-processer kunde försvåra möjligheten att på ett adekvat sätt utföra vissa delegerade HR-uppgifter, men trots det såg respondenterna ändå sin involvering i HR-arbetet som en naturlig del av yrkesrollen som mellanchef och upplevde den utökade yrkesrollen positivt. Denna svenska studie stämmer således överens internationell forskning.

Syftet med den här studien är att studera hur strategisk HR-personal resonerar kring den ojämlika könsfördelningen inom HR-branschen i allmänhet, samt könsfördelningen på deras egna HR-avdelningar. Vi har använt kvalitativ metod och utfört enskilda semistrukturerade intervjuer. Våra resultat visar hur respondenterna hänvisar den ojämna könsfördelningen till felaktiga föreställningar om att HR-yrket enbart betraktas som ett omvårdande yrke vilket de antar attraherar kvinnor i större utsträckning än män. Respondenterna påvisar att yrket idag innefattar betydligt mer business-orienterade och resultatfokuserade arbetsuppgifter, och hävdar att ökad medvetenhet kring denna verklighet hade lett till att fler män söker sig till HR-branschen. Intervjupersonerna förklarar också sin ojämna könsfördelning genom att peka på rekryteringsunderlaget och hänvisar till den rådande kvinnodominansen på personalvetarutbildningarna. Flera av intervjupersonerna menar att utbildningarnas innehåll kretsar för mycket kring beteendevetenskapliga ämnen och argumenterar för att en ökning av business-orienterade kurser både hade lett till en jämnare könsfördelning, men också en mer verklighetsförankrad bild av det faktiska HR-yrket. Samtliga intervjupersoner betonar värdet av könsblandade arbetsgrupper och uttrycker en unison önskan om att fler män ska söka sig till HR-yrket. Flera av intervjupersonerna ser dock inte deras egen avdelnings ojämna könsfördelning som ett problem. Vid rekryteringar framhåller de personlighet och kompetens som faktorer som väger tyngre än kön, och en jämn könsfördelning på avdelningen blir sedermera sekundärt. Följaktligen framstår respondenternas svar som en paradox, och kön tycks vara viktigt och oviktigt parallellt.

Employee engagement in the mission of the organization is a critical component of success. In fact, it strongly contributes to the workers’ satisfaction levels and motivation. Moreover, it forms the atmosphere in the organizations. Therefore, employee engagement is a critical concept met not only in management but also in sociology and psychology. Focusing on the human factor, the current research is aimed at examining the factors affecting historically black colleges and universities’ (HBCU) staff engagement. The research question for the study is, are employees who have favorable views of their career development opportunities more likely to be engaged than other employees? Three research hypotheses were defined accordingly to answer the research question. The quantitative approach was helpful in determining the areas that were interrelated. The interviews with 20 members of an HBCU staff were conducted online. With the chosen methods and statistical analysis, the evidence proved that career development opportunities increased the level of employee engagement at HBCUs. The results did not show any significant correlation between the employees’ engagement and communications. The perception of the organizational change was not an essential contribution to employees’ devotion. Thus, it is evident that the improvements in career management and planning could become effective to increase the satisfaction of employees with their work organization. The study was limited, as it relied on the results from only one university. It did not reveal the meaningful correlation between engagement and communications. However, the answers of the participants showed that the process of information distribution, planning, explaining, and executing organizational changes at HBCU are important. Therefore, it is highly recommended to investigate the same variables in different contexts and expand the research to be able to generalize the data. Paying attention to different positions and experience of the workers can also influence the results relying on the interviews conducted with more people.

This research explores the linkages between HR practices and business sales performance in a retail bank branch network. Whilst previous research in the last two decades has generally supported the notion that when appropriately designed HR practices can help enhance organizational outcomes, there is still ongoing debate regarding how such practices can actually influence business results. In particular, academics have highlighted the importance of the quality of HR implementation, because this can affect employee day-to-day experiences of and reactions to the HR practices which can impact on variance in the business results. In effect, it is crucial for research to take up the employee lens of the implemented practices and their reactions to these, if the HR-performance relationship is to be clearly understood. This thesis contributes to this research agenda by adopting the social exchange lens to shed light on the nature of the aforementioned relationship. A multidisciplinary and multilevel HR-performance model was employed for conducting empirical tests. Specifically, the empirical model was constructed from the literature in three different fields: strategic human resources management, social exchange theory and psychological contract, with the aim of eliciting the nature of employer-employee exchange relationships in the HR process. Subsequently, the model was tested using the data obtained from 1,286 employees in 149 bank branches and analysed so as to assess the multilevel process through which HR practices can influence business sales performance. The empirical results indicate that an organization can improve branch sales performance by paying careful attention to several processes pertaining to the implementation of HR practices. That is, through the psychological contract process, employees, based on their perceptions of the quality of the received practices (i.e. HR level and breach), reciprocate the organization with their discretionary performance, i.e. commitment attitudes and organizational citizenship behaviours and these outcomes have an impact on business results. Moreover, the findings also point to a boundary condition, whereby the HR-performance relationship can be enhanced by stressing the role of the key constituencies responsible for delivering these practices, namely: senior management and the line manager. That is, respectively, through the affective and relational processes, these agents can have an impact on employee perceptions of HR level and whether there has been a breach of the psychological contract, which in turn influence employee reactions in the causal chain. In summary, having applied the social exchange perspective to elicit the employee interaction with the different quality of HR implementation across bank branches, this study has contributed to the literature by identifying the key processes including psychological contract, relational and affective processes through which HR practices can impact on business sales performance, thereby illustrating how an organization’s human resources can serve as the source of sustained business competitive advantage.