Amid the transformation of operating environmental conditions and the changes in market, a business organization must think how to construct flexible manpower in order to respond to the changes in industries and markets. The traditional organization of hierarchy, which lacks flexibility, doesn¡¦t induce the flexible use of manpower and thus is ineffective in meeting the trends of industries and the market. Atkinson advocates demolishing the rigid system and, based on the characteristics of business production activities, dividing the organization into the core and periphery manpower so that the two sections can be complementary and each possible combination of manpower can be optimal. However, there exists the combination of three types of manpower in the shamrock organization mentioned by Handy, namely, professional core worker, temporary worker, and subcontract worker. The professional core worker can be compared to the core manpower mentioned by Atkinson, and the temporary and subcontract worker correspond to Atkinson¡¦s periphery manpower. The combination of these three types of manpower can be used to produce the foundation of the business¡¦ profitability. In addition, the current human resource arrangement should be adjusted in order to respond to the changes in the market in a timely manner. It is available to implement task flexibility, numerical flexibility, working-time flexibility, and wage flexibility to meet the practical work demands. This research based itself on the preceding concept, conducted interviews with China Steel Corporation and its subcontractors, and collected data through survey questionnaires administered to the subcontractors. The survey was conducted to understand how China Steel Corporation and its subcontractors divided their core and periphery manpower, how they constructed the shamrock organization, and how they used their manpower flexibility. The research also investigated whether there existed differences between China Steel Corporation and its subcontractors with regard to manpower flexibility. The analysis and synthesis of the data have led to the following findings: China Steel Corporation (CSC): 1.China Steel Corporation adopted for its main production line the shift system and mutual support of manpower to meet the requirements of the changing market and job demands, while the engineering and the equipment department adopted subcontracting to meet the change in the demand of manpower. 2.China Steel Corporation did not use temporary workers, but its subcontractors employed a large number of temporary and subcontract workers. As a result, the workers of China Steel Corporation and the temporary and subcontract workers of its subcontractors operate together at CSC, like the operation of a shamrock organization. 3.Without the worry of impeding quality, quantity, and safety, the job at the technical level was divided into core and non-core, with the core job emphasizing the creation of additional value. 4.The non-core job was carried out by the periphery workers, who consisted of the employees of subcontractors specialized in operation, construction and environmental protection and of other contractors. 5.China Steel Corporation enhanced the use of task flexibility through the use of task grouping, task changing, and job rotation, and expanded the scope of task flexibility through transferring and assigning personnel to auxiliary companies. At the same time, education and training were implemented to support the use of task flexibility. 6.With respect to the use of numerical flexibility, China Steel Corporation adopted subcontracting as the major measure of response. 7.With respect to the use of time flexibility, China Steel Corporation adopted such systems as flexible reporting and leaving time, shift, overtime, and optional leave instead of overtime pay. 8.As to the use of wage flexibility, China Steel Corporation raised the percentage of mobile wage, added wage flexibility, and used the bonus system to reflect the merits of the company and individual employees. Subcontractors: 1.Faced with the changes in the market and job requirements, they used temporary and subcontract workers as the major measure of response. Dependent on networks of interpersonal relationships, they hired temporary workers and provided support to subcontractors so that they tied closely into a shamrock organization. 2.About 30% of the CSC¡¦s subcontractors cultivated their employees to become their own subcontractors. The success of this plan depended on the limiting conditions for fund investment, the vitality of the industry, and the support made available by the CSC¡¦s subcontractors. 3.Monetary compensation was the major factor of retaining the core manpower, and the promotion system accounted for only 29.4% of manpower retention, which was related to the flat organizational structure. 4.More than half of the CSC¡¦s subcontractors assigned additional work, work requiring less training, and unimportant work to temporary workers. More then 60% of CSC¡¦s subcontractors would complete work requiring special skills or equipment through subcontracting. 5.With respect to the use of task flexibility, 70.2% of the CSC¡¦s subcontractors that implemented task flexibility experienced such a difficult situation in which a new hand was unable to handle his work. Only 32.7% of the subcontractors would give relevant training in advance, indicating that education and training did not support the use of task flexibility. 6.With respect to the use of numerical flexibility, 69% of the subcontractors hired temporary employees, and 62% of them used subcontracting. 7.With respect to the use of working-time flexibility, most CSC¡¦s subcontractors used overtime, shift, and varied time block as the major measure, for they had to coordinate operation with CSC and could not be independent in terms of working time. 8.With respect to the use of wage flexibility, the percentage of wage base linked to merit was low, and skills were more important than merit in deciding the wage of a temporary worker. 9.There existed no significant differences in wage and promotion between the core and periphery workers of the CSC¡¦s subcontractors. 10.There existed differences in benefits and training between the core and periphery workers of the CSC¡¦s subcontractors. Differences in the Use of Manpower Flexibility Between China Steel Corporation and Its Subcontractors: 1.China Steel Corporation had a high percentage (64%) of core workers and a relatively low percentage (36%) of periphery workers. In contrast, its subcontractors had a high percentage of periphery workers (including 34% subcontracting and 28% temporary workers, totaling 62%) and a low percentage (38%) of core workers. 2.As to the difference in task flexibility, China Steel Corporation had subsidiary companies and could expand the scope of task flexibility. In contrast, their subcontractors had no subsidiary companies and their task flexibility was restricted to the same enterprise. In comparison, China Steel Corporation invested more in education and training and was more competent in supporting task flexibility. 3.With respect to the difference in numerical flexibility, China Steel Corporation cared about the legality of using temporary workers while its subcontractors neglected this issue more or less and was less bound by labor unions with regard to using temporary workers or subcontracting. In practice, the CSC¡¦s subcontractors had more numerical flexibility than China Steel Corporation. 4.With respect to the difference in working-time flexibility, China Steel Corporation abided by the regulations regarding working overtime while its subcontractors did not pay attention to these restrictions. 5.With respect to the difference in wage flexibility, the wage structure at China Steel Corporation is institutionalized, about 30% belonged to mobile wage and was linked to the company¡¦s operation and individual employees¡¦ merit. On the contrary, the questionnaire survey collected from its subcontractors indicated that only a few of them assessed the wage base on merit.

Abstraction In the trend of global labor flexibility, traditional concept of Lifelong Employ System is faint gradually. At the same time it arouse the rise of temporary work style. In 1965 dispatched employment has come into being in Japan. In research of American Temporary Assistance Service Association in 1996, there are about 90% companies which were employing employees of Atasa. On the other hand, in the course of economic development in Taiwan, traditional manufacturing industry controls management cost. And big corporations upstream externalize statutory responsibility and duty. From the beginning of eighties, employees have been requiring the most flexibility in arranging work time and style, and give stuff right of lawsuit(¸gÀÙ³¡°Ó·~¥q)also confirm dispatched employment and pass that enterprise can register as her dealing item. It¡¦s not hard to see that domestic dispatched employment is developing actively with global trend. The arrangement of research chapters and sections as follow: The first chapter is introduction. To analyze research purposes and problems to be solved in research motives and background, planning research construction. The second is investigation of documents. To sum up the research tied to the thesis and understand facts of labor and capital respectively in relative internal and foreign research, taking it as questionnaire design¡¦s reference base. The third is research design. First to analyze other relative research¡¦s method and then to show design way that the research use is questionnaire investigation. The fourth is data analysis, to analyze and settle data of recovered questionnaire .The fifth is conclusion and suggestion. As for the research data, to sort out research discovery and take it as conclusion This research shows that management and administration fundamental function of the principal staff has a great scale in whole, while that of the classification of research and development design is the highest. As for the present needs of personnel dispatch in our country, routine work in the main dispatched employment content. And has little effect on the work arrangement between principal staff and dispatched worker. Using dispatched worker is mainly to lighten the expenditure of multinomial personnel costs and reduce the cost of personnel administrative management, secondarily to lighten the burden of dispatched employment cost and retired pay. The company is not very strict with the dispatched worker on establishing customer relationship actively the secret level in business and the item degree. The dispatching user acts as the main decider of dispatch work and the dispatching work agency must asset the company on legal liability distribution, vacation, salary and work rule. Besides dispatch law has some disadvantages, we often meet with these problems in using dispatched worker: high flow ability, bad quality and insufficient training. To solve these problems, dispatching user, work agency and worker need to make joint efforts.

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Syfte: Syftet med uppsatsen är att skapa en ökad förståelse för de konsekvenser som interna respektive externa ansatser till bemanningsflexibilitet och därtill hörande HRM-metoder får för verksamheten avseende flexibilitet, kostnad, kvalitet och leverans. Syftet är vidare att pröva teorin om bemanningsflexibilitet, HRM-metoder och dess effekter på verksamheten mot studiens empiriska material. Metod: Uppsatsens undersökning har genomförts med ett kvalitativt angreppssätt och grundar sig på en litteraturstudie samt egna primärkällor. Primärkällorna består av intervjuer med tre företag i e-handelsbranschen, en verksamhet där flexibilitet är av stor vikt. Slutsatser: Extern respektive intern flexibilitet fanns vara kopplade till skilda sätt att hantera personalresursen, vilket ledde till olika konsekvenser. Enligt resultatet av undersökningen påvisas extern flexibilitet vara förknippat med hårdare HRM-metoder och vissa negativa konsekvenser av detta, som t ex lägre motivation och lojalitet samt hög personalomsättning. Trots detta var den externa flexibiliteten i fokus hos samtliga företag i studien. Undersökningen tyder dock inte på att detta inverkade negativt på objektiva prestationsmått som produktivitet och kundnöjdhet. / Purpose: The purpose of this study is to create a greater understanding of the impact that internal and external approaches to staffing flexibility and associated HRM practices have on organizational performance measures like cost, quality, delivery and flexibility. A further aim is to test the theory of staffing flexibility, HRM practices and its effects on operations on the study's empirical material. Method: The study was conducted with a qualitative approach and is based on a literature review together with primary sources. The primary sources consist of interviews with three companies in the e-commerce industry. Conclusions: External and internal flexibility was linked to different ways of manageing staff resources, leading to different consequences. According to the results of the survey external flexibility is associated with tougher HRM practices and certain negative consequences of this, such as lower motivation and loyalty and high employee turnover. Despite this the focus on external flexibility was prominent in all companies in the study. The study does not indicate tough that this had a negative impact on objective performance measures such as productivity and customer satisfaction.

Purpose: The thesis has two objectives. First, from a theoretical perspective, it investigates the interrelationship between the theory of supply chain flexibility, the notion of leagility and the concept of 4PL. The second and primary objective is to explore the influence 4PLs have on leagile supply chain structures by integrating different types of both vendor and sourcing flexibility to analyse further whether 4PL providers facilitate a novel form of leagility. Design, Methodology & Approach: To suit the exploratory nature of the investigation, the thesis adopts an interpretivist, qualitative approach to research. Three semi-structured interviews were conducted with a sample of purposively selected 4PL providers. Furthermore, the study follows an abductive research approach because the underlying objective is not to test but rather to propose new theory in the field of supply chain management. The empirical findings are analysed based on a template analysis, while the quality of the research design is assessed by the criteria of credibility, transferability, dependability and conformability. Findings: From a theoretical perspective, a 4PL Leagility Framework is proposed that defines nine different types of leagility. These are generally interrelated; consequently, three particular categories were identified that determine the overall leagile configuration of a supply network: the family of sourcing leagility, vendor leagility or supplier leagility. Empirically, however, the framework could not have been tested to its full extent, meaning that none of the nine forms of leagility is validated. The study further concludes that 4PL providers may increase the level of flexibility within a supply network based on their expertise in coordinating and integrating the virtual supply chains and transportation networks. It is also argued that 4PL providers establish both sourcing leagility and leagile supply chain constructs, from the perspective of managing inter-organisational alliances. Limitations & Implications: The proposed framework may generally be applicable, although not without sacrifices. Practitioners would need to limit their service offerings to particular industry sectors and product categories. The framework neglects the coordination of 3PLs. Future research needs extend the sample of 4PLs to the fashion and beverage industry. Originality & Value: The thesis is a first attempt to integrate three different streams of research, namely, supply chain flexibility, the notion of leagility and the concept of 4PL. The thesis proposes a 4PL Leagility Framework that extends the leagility concept beyond the material flow decoupling point principle. Ultimately, the research illustrates potential approaches for 4PLs to facilitate leagile supply chain constructs.

Integrating Lean in a process has become increasingly popular over the last decades. Lean as a concept has spread through industry into other sectors such as service, healthcare, and administration. The overwhelming experience from this spread is that Lean is difficult to integrate successfully. It takes a long time and requires large resources in the integration, as it permeates all aspects of a process. Lean is a system depending on both tools and methods as well as human effort and behavior. There is therefore a need to understand the integration process itself. As many companies have worked with the integration of Lean, there should be a great deal of accumulated knowledge. The overall intent of this research is therefore to examine how a current state of a Lean integration can be established, that takes into account the dualism of Lean regarding the technical components of Lean, as well as the humanistic components of Lean. Both issues must be addressed if the integration process of Lean is to be efficient.  Through a literature review, eight views of Lean are established. Taking into consideration historical, foundational, and evolutionary tools and methods, systems, philosophical, cultural, and management views, a comprehensive model of Lean at a group level in a process is proposed. Through two multiple-case studies, the experiences of actual Lean integrations are compared with Lean theory to establish a current state of a Lean integration. There were large similarities in the experiences but also differences due to context and the complexity of Lean as a system. The current state is described in: 9 instances of strongly positive findings. They are often simple tools and methods. 11 instances of weakly positive findings. They are often of a system nature in the dependencies between the Lean methods. 3 instances with vague findings. Seems to be due to lack of focus on the intent of integrating Lean. 3 instances of mixed findings. Can often be connected to personal commitment and the creation of efficient islands. 3 instances of conflicting findings. Seem to be connected to contextual factors. 3 instances of insufficient data. The indications are too few to draw any conclusions.  Accurately establishing the current state of the Lean integration process is seen as a necessary first step of a Lean integration of Lean.

Software evolution is an important and expensive consequence of software. As Lehman's First Law of Program Evolution states, software must be changed to satisfy new user requirements or become progressively less useful to the stakeholders of the software. Software evolution is difficult for a multitude of different reasons, most notably because of an inherent lack of evolveability of software, design decisions and existing requirements which are difficult to change and conflicts between new requirements and existing assumptions and requirements. Software engineering has traditionally focussed on improvements in software development techniques, with little conscious regard for their effects on software evolution. The thesis emphasises design for change, a philosophy that stems from ideas in preventive maintenance and places the ease of software evolution more at the centre of the design of software systems than it is at present. The approach involves exploring issues of evolveability, such as adaptability, flexibility and extensibility with respect to existing software languages, models and architectures. A software model, SEvEn, is proposed which improves on the evolveability of these existing software models by improving on their adaptability, flexibility and extensibility, and provides a way to determine the ripple effects of changes by providing a reflective model of a software system. The main conclusion is that, whilst software evolveability can be improved, complete adaptability, flexibility and extensibility of a software system is not possible, hi addition, ripple effects can't be completely eradicated because assumptions will always persist in a software system and new requirements may conflict with existing requirements. However, the proposed reflective model of software (which consists of a set of software entities, or abstractions, with the characteristic of increased evolveability) provides trace-ability of ripple effects because it explicitly models the dependencies that exist between software entities, determines how software entities can change, ascertains the adaptability of software entities to changes in other software entities on which they depend and determines how changes to software entities affect those software entities that depend on them.

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Recent research has shown that flexibility is an essential characteristic of successful enterprises in a highly competitive and rapidly changing business environment. Management and accountants should not only understand flexibility but also be able to create flexible organisations and measure the flexibility levels and mixes. Flexibility is however a nebulous, elusive and multidimensional concept which is poorly understood and seldom measured and monitored in organisations. The aim of this research is to define the construct flexibility, to demarcate its borders and to propose a framework which explains its multiple attributes in organisations. The framework is then used as a basis to develop flexibility measures and indicators for management and accountants to identify current levels of flexibility, determine flexibility targets, monitor progress in meeting targets and signal direction. It is suggested that the accounting information system can be used as the means of recognising, measuring and communicating information on flexibility to stakeholders of organisations. The introduction of information on flexibility into Accounting may also serve to address some of the criticism levelled at accounting discipline. This may result in Accounting becoming more flexible and able to adapt to the changing demands of a competitive business environment. / Dissertation (DComm(Accounting Sciences))--University of Pretoria, 2003. / Business Management / unrestricted