The global semiconductor industry had gone through a consecutive years of prosperity in the 1990s due to the strong demand in personal computer as well as the enormous internet investiment. Even more, it gained an eruptive growth in years 1999 and 2000. The semiconductor fabrication companies¡¦ capital spending in new equipment segment grew year by year. The equipment suppliers¡¦ revenue and gross margin had then set record high. However, combined the internet bubbled in 2000 with the shortage of killer application, the chip makers¡¦ capital spending had thereafter dramatically slowdown for years and hence seriously impacted the equipment suppliers¡¦ financial performance. Ever after the great recession in year 2000, the equipment suppliers have been taking steps to alleviate the industry downturns¡¦ impact in their financial report. Meanwhile, the companies have also identified ways to further grow their business. Besides, the semiconductor industry has been introducing advanced nanomanufacturing technologies which demand huge resource commitment as well as capital investiment. The chip makers have therefore urged the equipment suppliers to assist them in area about cost reduction and productivity improvement. This study takes the world biggest semiconductor frabication equipment maker, Applied Materials, as an example, to investigate the company¡¦s strategically responsivenesses against the business cycles, the current industry environment and its desire in business growth. The conclusions are: 1)Applied Materials has been taking joint ventures, outsourcing and global development center establishments to reduce its operation cost. It had also entered the fab service market to create a new niche. 2)In response to the customers¡¦ demand in productivity improvement , Applied Materials has been activating differentiation strategies to develop high-productivity products. It has also been performing Continuous Improvement Plans (CIP) to further reduce its products¡¦ Cost Of Ownership (COO) to meet the customers¡¦ requirement in cost reduction. 3)The equipement suppliers have been conducting related constrained diversification strategies to extend their business scope. They mostly used the Mergers & Acquisitions to enter the new markets. 4)The strategy effectiveness (in view of the shareholders¡¦ return on investment), is positively related to its consistency with the company¡¦s core competencies. In other word, the higher the consistency is, the better the ROI will be. Keyword: Internal Environment Analysis, External Environment Analysis, Strategic Responsiveness, Diversification Strategy, Differentiation Strategy, Mergers & Acquisitions

The development of Taiwanese steel industry has entered into decline stage. The domestic steel consumption is small plus being lack of steel strong demand industries. The factors mentioned above make Taiwanese steel industry shortage of supply in the upstream crude steel industry, while over-supply in rolled steel market. It would be the great chance to revitalize the steel industry to shift the oversupply capacities to the market that needs this product. Globalization and regional integration are two issues and trends in world¡¦s economic and trading perspective. The purpose of Free Trade Agreement (FTA) is to liberate the trade, service and investment among the member countries. The spirit of FTA is consistency with that of WTO. Both are the vehicle of promoting trade liberation among global countries. Both Taiwan and Mainland China are member countries of WTO. However, there are still many limitations in trading between two countries. Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement, ECFA, would be considered as a FTA between Taiwan and Mainland China. Compare WTO with ECFA, ECFA could provide better clauses, schedule in trade liberation and tariff reduction in goods. Furthermore, the tariff of some goods can be fully eliminated. ECFA could be perceived as an opportunity and a threat to Taiwan. It could be a great ¡§opportunity¡¨ to create substantial trading and investment opportunities through industry investing to Taiwan. However, this agreement could also result in trade diversion effect, and it would be a ¡§threat. This study is trying to explore how ECFA impact on steel industry in Taiwan through secondary data collection and analysis. Some foreseeable impacts are listed and some response measures are suggested. Any agreement has benefits and lost. ECFA is like a two-side blade. It might bring new trading opportunities or lead the trading diversion effect. Using Taiwanese competitive edge is the key to succeed. Taiwanese steel industry should take this chance to reconsider its¡¦ product value and positioning. Trying to differentiate its steel products to others, increase the value of the products and enhance the product quality. Taiwanese steel industry could create sustainability and profitability by increasing the competitively of steel industry.

In recent years, due to rapid changing environment, the focus of maintaining organizational competence has shift from innovation of products and technology to efficient management of knowledge. There are many factors which will influence the way an organization engage in knowledge management. The study is about if external factor of organizational external environment and internal factors including organizational culture and organizational strategy will influence the process of knowledge management. And the study is also about if these factors will have effect of organizational knowledge management strategies selection. In the part of external environment, the measurement is based on environmental heterogeneity and environmental hostility. The research result reveals that organizations with high environmental heterogeneity and high environmental hostility tend to adopt the organized market knowledge management governance structure and knowledge creation strategies of knowledge exploitation and knowledge exploration. In the part of organizational culture, the study is based on the organizational culture typology of Wallach¡]1983¡^. The research result reveals that innovation organizations tend to adopt the extended organized market and the firm knowledge management governance structure and knowledge creation strategies of knowledge exploitation and knowledge exploration. In the part of organizational strategy, the study is based on the organizational strategy typology of Miles & Snow¡]1978¡^. The research result reveals that prospector organizations tend to adopt the extended organized market and the firm knowledge management governance structure and knowledge creation strategy of knowledge exploration. The results can be reference of organizational knowledge management strategies selection.

For the purpose of survival and maintaining excellent performance, the hospitals are seeking to adopt suitable strategies to fulfill organization development. By the uprising speed of economic development in China with the increasing demand of medical care, it is eager for us to understand what proper strategies the hospitals should take in order to fit the external environment and internal environment. Moreover, linking human resource development strategies such as training and career development with hospital business strategies to examine if there is any relationships. The result of research is pointed out: According to different inside and outside environment, the medical organization can develop a suitable operation style by itself. For example, the large-scale comprehensive tertiary hospital can choose the tactics trends of the difference or grouping strategies, and the medium and small-scale clinic or the section hospital can choose to refine the tactics specially. In human resource development, with the difference of the domestic and foreign environment, the medical organization also different methods. Especially on the employing mechanism, the public hospital has sounder system, bigger development space and brand benefit, but comparatively speaking, the private hospital has more flexible wages and promotion system. However, this research was conducted in qualitative method which case details were collected from two different government owned hospitals in Shanghais area in regard to investigate the linkage between hospital business strategies and human resource development strategies they apply. Since they are both owned by the government, this research found specific phenomenon for business practices and future research implications.

Background Developing, emerging and developed countries are vulnerable to disasters and might require external assistance to cope with their aftermaths. It is forecasted that disasters will increase five-fold over the next 50 years. In an environment, which is characterized by many uncertainties, humanitarian supply chains are created to provide disaster relief in a highly complex and dynamic setting. This environment is unique for every disaster, where infrastructure, government, physical, socio-economic and security situational factors can either facilitate or restrict humanitarian operations. Agile supply chain principles enable humanitarian organizations to quickly respond to disasters. Purpose The purpose of this thesis is to explore and analyze the impact of external situational factors on the agility of humanitarian supply chains and humanitarian organizations’ actions taken to address those external situational factors during the immediate response phase of an emergency event. Methodology For the purpose of this study a combination of an inductive and deductive research approach was applied. The study was of exploratory and qualitative nature with a single case study in its focus. Empirical data was collected by conducting semi-structured interviews with nine respondents involved in the disaster relief operations of Haiti Earthquake 2010. Empirical findings were analyzed by using the template analysis. Conclusion External situational factors have a strong impact on capabilities enabling humanitarian supply chains to be agile during the immediate response phase. Humanitarian organizations are able to reduce the negative impact of external situational factors while in other cases the negative impact of external situational factors is further intensified by actions taken by humanitarian organizations. Furthermore, humanitarian organizations are able to utilize and enhance some of the positive impacts of external situational factors. However, the initially positive impact of some external situational factors may be reduced by inappropriate actions taken by humanitarian organizations. Therefore, understanding the context of the disaster’s broader environment is a prerequisite to an effective emergency response.

O Serviço de Atendimento Móvel de Urgência (SAMU) é o responsável pelo atendimento préhospitalar (APH) realizado no Brasil que é aquele que se desloca para atender as vítimas em casos de urgência-emergência, funciona através de uma rede telefônica e pode ser caracterizado como um sistema complexo por envolver as centrais de regulação e as bases com as ambulâncias. Essa dissertação é formada por dois artigos que versam sobre o SAMU. No primeiro deles o objetivo foi mapear as influências do ambiente externo do SAMU metropolitano de Porto Alegre sob a ótica dos sistemas sociotécnicos. Para tal foi utilizada a análise macroergonômica do trabalho – AMT (GUIMARÃES, 2010) que tornou possível o entendimento da influência do ambiente externo no atendimento da população. Foi destacada na pesquisa a falta de conhecimento da população quanto ao funcionamento do SAMU, o elevado número de trotes, a falta de integração entre os serviços públicos, entre outros. Além disso, dentro da macroergonomia, a percepção dos fatores de riscos a que estão submetidos os trabalhadores é fundamental para que durante o atendimento realizado à população não haja dúvida quanto aos procedimentos seguros a serem adotados, para se evitar que possa ocorrer algum acidente. No segundo artigo foi realizada uma pesquisa identificando a percepção dos trabalhadores quanto aos fatores de risco. Identificou-se que os fatores de riscos como levantamento de peso, esforço físico intenso, calor e contaminação biológica por fluidos corpóreos dos pacientes foram os mais significativos na percepção dos trabalhadores do SAMU. / The Mobile Emergency Service (SAMU) is the responsible for the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) in Brazil. The EMS system is that move to take care of the victims in urgencyemergency cases, it works through a telephonic net and can be characterized by a complex system that involving the central offices of regulation and the bases with the ambulances. This dissertation consists of two articles that focus on the SAMU. In the first article, the objective of the study was to analyze the influences of the external environment of the SAMU of the Metropolitan Region of Porto Alegre under the optics of the sociotechnical systems. In this study the method of analysis was the Macroergonomic Work Analysis – MWA (GUIMARÂES, 2010) that it made possible to understand the influence of the external environment in the attendance of the population. It was identified in the research: the lack of knowledge of the population on the functioning of the SAMU, the raised number of hoax, the lack of integration between the public services, among others. Besides, in the macroergonomics, the perception of the hazards for the workers is fundamental. Since during the emergency medical service for the population it must not have doubt on the safe procedures to be adopted, to prevent that some accident can occur. Therefore in the second article, a research was carried out to identify the perception of the workers on the hazards. It was identified that the hazards as weight lift, intense physical effort, heat and biological contamination for corporeal fluids of the patients had been those most significant in the perception of the workers of the SAMU.

Magister Commercii (Industrial Psychology) - MCom (IPS) / Organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB) has been documented as an important work outcome that correlates positively with positive job performance. Engagement in OCBs is not a random event, and it depends on a myriad of factors that include the organisation's ability to put in place measures to develop employees' emotional intelligence. Change-oriented leadership plays a pivotal role in fostering emotional intelligence and the engagement in OCBs as the 21st century organisation strives to adapt to changes in the external environment. The primary goal of the study was to conduct an investigation of the relationships between change-oriented leadership, emotional intelligence and OCB. The secondary aim of the study was to validate a theoretical model explaining the structural relationships between these variables in a South African University. A convenience sample consisting of 206 support staff at a selected university in the Western Cape Province was drawn. Generally, high levels of reliability were found in the sub-scales of the latent variables. In addition, the unidimensionality of the sub-scales was tested using exploratory factor analyses (EFA). The overall measurement and structural models were ascertained using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural modelling, respectively, using the LISREL 8.80 software. The Reasonable model fit was found for the overall measurement model of the specific latent variables through confirmatory factor analyses (CFA). Structural equation modelling (SEM) also showed reasonable model fit for the structural model.

O Serviço de Atendimento Móvel de Urgência (SAMU) é o responsável pelo atendimento préhospitalar (APH) realizado no Brasil que é aquele que se desloca para atender as vítimas em casos de urgência-emergência, funciona através de uma rede telefônica e pode ser caracterizado como um sistema complexo por envolver as centrais de regulação e as bases com as ambulâncias. Essa dissertação é formada por dois artigos que versam sobre o SAMU. No primeiro deles o objetivo foi mapear as influências do ambiente externo do SAMU metropolitano de Porto Alegre sob a ótica dos sistemas sociotécnicos. Para tal foi utilizada a análise macroergonômica do trabalho – AMT (GUIMARÃES, 2010) que tornou possível o entendimento da influência do ambiente externo no atendimento da população. Foi destacada na pesquisa a falta de conhecimento da população quanto ao funcionamento do SAMU, o elevado número de trotes, a falta de integração entre os serviços públicos, entre outros. Além disso, dentro da macroergonomia, a percepção dos fatores de riscos a que estão submetidos os trabalhadores é fundamental para que durante o atendimento realizado à população não haja dúvida quanto aos procedimentos seguros a serem adotados, para se evitar que possa ocorrer algum acidente. No segundo artigo foi realizada uma pesquisa identificando a percepção dos trabalhadores quanto aos fatores de risco. Identificou-se que os fatores de riscos como levantamento de peso, esforço físico intenso, calor e contaminação biológica por fluidos corpóreos dos pacientes foram os mais significativos na percepção dos trabalhadores do SAMU. / The Mobile Emergency Service (SAMU) is the responsible for the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) in Brazil. The EMS system is that move to take care of the victims in urgencyemergency cases, it works through a telephonic net and can be characterized by a complex system that involving the central offices of regulation and the bases with the ambulances. This dissertation consists of two articles that focus on the SAMU. In the first article, the objective of the study was to analyze the influences of the external environment of the SAMU of the Metropolitan Region of Porto Alegre under the optics of the sociotechnical systems. In this study the method of analysis was the Macroergonomic Work Analysis – MWA (GUIMARÂES, 2010) that it made possible to understand the influence of the external environment in the attendance of the population. It was identified in the research: the lack of knowledge of the population on the functioning of the SAMU, the raised number of hoax, the lack of integration between the public services, among others. Besides, in the macroergonomics, the perception of the hazards for the workers is fundamental. Since during the emergency medical service for the population it must not have doubt on the safe procedures to be adopted, to prevent that some accident can occur. Therefore in the second article, a research was carried out to identify the perception of the workers on the hazards. It was identified that the hazards as weight lift, intense physical effort, heat and biological contamination for corporeal fluids of the patients had been those most significant in the perception of the workers of the SAMU.

The literature presents us with two distinct, and at times opposed, approaches to strategic management: the use of strategic choice and determinism. This research shows that these approaches can actually be considered as two distinct variables, which create a space or framework in which it is possible to identify, according to the available different amounts of strategic choice and determinism, the four different ontological perspectives of determinism, hard incompatibilism, libertarianism and compatibilism. According to the literature, within each ontological perspective of the strategic choice/determinism framework, companies use different levels of strategic choice and determinism to produce organizational outcomes. This research provides empirical evidence of the real life existence of these ontological perspectives, in which companies’ performance of revenues is driven by a different amount of strategic choice or determinism according to the perspectives in which companies operate. This research also shows that other important performance indicators, such as EBITDA, depend only on deterministic variables, while ROA depends neither on strategic choice nor on deterministic variables. These findings suggest that future research could increase our knowledge on the internal environment of companies, as it could do from the hard incompatibilist perspective, which was not possible to study thoroughly within this research. The research conclusions provide several contributions to both academic knowledge and practice.

O Serviço de Atendimento Móvel de Urgência (SAMU) é o responsável pelo atendimento préhospitalar (APH) realizado no Brasil que é aquele que se desloca para atender as vítimas em casos de urgência-emergência, funciona através de uma rede telefônica e pode ser caracterizado como um sistema complexo por envolver as centrais de regulação e as bases com as ambulâncias. Essa dissertação é formada por dois artigos que versam sobre o SAMU. No primeiro deles o objetivo foi mapear as influências do ambiente externo do SAMU metropolitano de Porto Alegre sob a ótica dos sistemas sociotécnicos. Para tal foi utilizada a análise macroergonômica do trabalho – AMT (GUIMARÃES, 2010) que tornou possível o entendimento da influência do ambiente externo no atendimento da população. Foi destacada na pesquisa a falta de conhecimento da população quanto ao funcionamento do SAMU, o elevado número de trotes, a falta de integração entre os serviços públicos, entre outros. Além disso, dentro da macroergonomia, a percepção dos fatores de riscos a que estão submetidos os trabalhadores é fundamental para que durante o atendimento realizado à população não haja dúvida quanto aos procedimentos seguros a serem adotados, para se evitar que possa ocorrer algum acidente. No segundo artigo foi realizada uma pesquisa identificando a percepção dos trabalhadores quanto aos fatores de risco. Identificou-se que os fatores de riscos como levantamento de peso, esforço físico intenso, calor e contaminação biológica por fluidos corpóreos dos pacientes foram os mais significativos na percepção dos trabalhadores do SAMU. / The Mobile Emergency Service (SAMU) is the responsible for the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) in Brazil. The EMS system is that move to take care of the victims in urgencyemergency cases, it works through a telephonic net and can be characterized by a complex system that involving the central offices of regulation and the bases with the ambulances. This dissertation consists of two articles that focus on the SAMU. In the first article, the objective of the study was to analyze the influences of the external environment of the SAMU of the Metropolitan Region of Porto Alegre under the optics of the sociotechnical systems. In this study the method of analysis was the Macroergonomic Work Analysis – MWA (GUIMARÂES, 2010) that it made possible to understand the influence of the external environment in the attendance of the population. It was identified in the research: the lack of knowledge of the population on the functioning of the SAMU, the raised number of hoax, the lack of integration between the public services, among others. Besides, in the macroergonomics, the perception of the hazards for the workers is fundamental. Since during the emergency medical service for the population it must not have doubt on the safe procedures to be adopted, to prevent that some accident can occur. Therefore in the second article, a research was carried out to identify the perception of the workers on the hazards. It was identified that the hazards as weight lift, intense physical effort, heat and biological contamination for corporeal fluids of the patients had been those most significant in the perception of the workers of the SAMU.