[pt] O coaching executivo entrou no mundo corporativo em algum momento no final dos anos 80. As mudanças nas relações de trabalho e no crescimento da competitividade mostraram que a verdadeira vantagem competitiva das organizações residia no seu capital humano. Embora bastante usada no mundo corporativo e sendo uma das ferramentas que mais crescem no processo de desenvolvimento do aprendizado do adulto, a literatura prática do coaching executivo está à frente da pesquisa acadêmica sobre o tema. Esse fato demonstra que, na academia, o estudo sobre o coaching executivo ainda é incipiente quando comparado com outras ferramentas de desenvolvimento de recursos humanos. O presente estudo, por meio do método fenomenográfico, buscou investigar se de fato o coaching executivo gera aprendizado individual. Para tanto, procederam-se revisões da literatura sobre aprendizado bem como sobre o coaching executivo, além de uma pesquisa com executivos de empresas que participaram do processo de coaching executivo. Foram realizadas quinze entrevistas durante os meses de janeiro e fevereiro de 2010. As entrevistas foram transcritas e analisadas. A análise do conteúdo revelou cinco categorias, a saber: fatores indutores, atributos do coach, mudanças comportamentais, tempo de transformação e avaliação da experiência. Os resultados mostram que o coaching executivo de fato gera aprendizado individual. / [en] Executive coaching appeared in the business world at sometime at the end of 1980s. Changes in working relationships and the increase in competion has shown that real competitive advantage of organizations lies in their human capital. Despite being much used in the business world and being one of the tools that has grown most in the process of the development of adult learning, the executive coaching’s literature is more advanced than the academic research in this area. This fact demonstrates that in the academic world, the study of executive coaching is still in his infancy when compared to the other development tools of human resources. The present study, by using the phenomenographic method, investigated whether the executive coaching resulted in individual learning. Consequently was necessary to revise literature about executive coaching as well as about learning. A research of executives dealing with executive coaching was also necessary. Fifteen interviews were carried out between January and February 2010. These interviews were transcribed and analyzed. Five categories could be indentified: causing factors, coaches charactics, behavioural changes, transformation time and evaluation of the experience. The results show that executive coaching really creates individual learning.

Magister Scientiae - MSc / This study employs the Human Capital Theory (HCT), which postulates that the education of women is positively related to the likelihood of their labour force participation, in order to investigate quarterly dynamics in the labour force. This approach is an advancement of knowledge gained from previous studies such as Serumanga-Zake and Kotze (2004) and Ntuli (2004) who investigated the annual dynamics in FLFP. Investigating quarterly dynamics in FLFP is prudent as the market economy is very dynamic particularly at a point when the world economy is experiencing recession. Data for the study are extracted from the 2008 Quarterly Labour Force Survey conducted by Statistics South Africa. Logistic regression analysis modeling was employed with the dependent variable, FLFP, as a binary outcome. Other variables controlled in the analysis are gender, population group, age, marital status, education status, sector, main industry, main occupation and province. The results show that there is association between education status and FLFP status. Findings from this research are expected to contribute to the knowledge about trends in FLFP in South Africa and aid in planning of interventions aimed at improving the status of women as one of the critical steps in achieving the Millennium Development Goals. / South Africa

Masters of Science / South Africa’s female labour supply increased substantially over almost the past two decades. Female labour force participation is an imperative indication of the extent to which females participate in the economic activities of any country. Female Labour Force Participation (FLFP) rates have gained interest among researchers and development specialists worldwide due to their significant contribution in measuring progress related to gender disparities across various economic settings. Amsden (1980) further posits that there has been an increase in women contribution to modern sector activities. Despite the advances in female educational attainment and the expansion of the market economy, FLFP rates are still low in comparison with the rates of their male counterparts. This study employs the Human Capital Theory (HCT), which postulates that the education of women is positively related to the likelihood of their labour force participation, in order to investigate quarterly dynamics in the labour force. This approach is an advancement of knowledge gained from previous studies such as Serumanga-Zake and Kotze (2004) and Ntuli (2004) who investigated the annual dynamics in FLFP. Investigating quarterly dynamics in FLFP is prudent as the market economy is very dynamic particularly at a point when the world economy is experiencing recession. Data for the study are extracted from the 2008 Quarterly Labour Force Survey conducted by Statistics South Africa. Logistic regression analysis modeling was employed with the dependent variable, FLFP, as a binary outcome. Other variables controlled in the analysis are gender, population group, age, marital status, education status, sector, main industry, main occupation and province. The results show that there is association between education status and FLFP status. Findings from this research are expected to contribute to the knowledge about trends in FLFP in South Africa and aid in planning of interventions aimed at improving the status of women as one of the critical steps in achieving the Millennium Development Goals.

Using demographic multi-state, cohort-component methods, we produce projections for 120 countries (covering 93% of the world population in 2005) by five-year age groups, sex, and four levels of educational attainment for the years 2005-2050. Taking into account differentials in fertility and mortality by education level, we present the first systematic global educational attainment projections according to four widely differing education scenarios. The results show the possible range of future educational attainment trends around the world, thereby contributing to long-term economic and social planning at the national and international levels, and to the assessment of the feasibility of international education goals. (authors' abstract)

Sustainable development aims at improving human well-being, particularly by alleviating poverty, increasing gender equality, and improving health, human resources, and stewardship of the natural environment. Sustainable development is based on three pillars, namely, environmental protection and social progress and economic development. This study intended to contribute to sustainable development in the area of developmental social work practice by addressing the issues of new conceptualisations of social work practice, and in particular of intervention strategies, within the paradigm of sustainable social work practice. The purpose of this study was to explore and construct a foundation of general perceptions and tentative theories with regard to sustainable development and the position and value of the social work profession within the sustainable development paradigm. The goal of this research study was to explore current social work practice with regard to sustainable development and identify new challenges and opportunities for sustainable social work practice in the changing South Africa. The researcher utilised focus group discussions as a method of generating data and an exploratory research purpose as little is known about the topic of investigation and the utilization of focus groups are particularly useful in its ability to explore the topic. This study was a process of discovery and not the testing of a hypothesis. The researcher entered the realm of the participants’ everyday experience and through conversation extracted detailed descriptions of their perceptions, ideas and concerns. In this qualitative research the emphasis was on understanding the experiences, attitudes, assumptions and perspectives of the participants. The instrumental case study was used to provide insight into sustainable development as a new paradigm within the social welfare field and to discover the issues and challenges faced by the social work profession as it pertained to sustainable development. The data was organised around emerging themes and subsequently examined in relation to the literature. Based on the findings and conclusions drawn, the following recommendations were made: - The social work profession needs an information-sharing platform. - Collaboration and cooperation are crucial components in the process of sustainable development. - Social work practitioners have to become self-directed and lifelong learners who will be able to adapt to the changing circumstances in society. - Social work practitioners need to develop creative strategies within a multidisciplinary approach to address the issues of poverty, underdevelopment and unemployment in a sustainable manner. - Social work practitioners need to actively contribute to processes and structures that support the delivery of adult literacy and skills training efforts. - Social work practitioners need to explore ways and means of facilitating economic opportunities by addressing the obstacles and/or regulations that prevent people from accessing available markets. / Thesis (DPhil (Social Work))--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Social Work / unrestricted

A company’s ability to support its business strategy with it’s Human Capital is an important indication of the company’s future business performance. No standard or framework to enable the inclusion of Human Capital information in company reporting to demonstrate the effect on performance currently exists. Traditional HR metrics fail to report on the level of performance, knowledgebase or value of Human Capital, making it virtually impossible for stakeholders or valuators of companies to take this most important asset into account in valuing the company against it’s competitors. This exploratory study has been commissioned to add new theory which would span further research with the objective of improving the reporting systems and/or methodologies to value Human Capital for South African industry. The study poses the following questions: 1. What insight should investors and other external stakeholders have into the Human Capital employed by a specific organisation? 2. How best to ensure that Human Capital is reported and the information is trusted by investors and other stakeholders as seen as relevant, reliable and consistent, adding value to shareholders? 3. Which Human Resource Management components can form a basis for comparative external reporting on Human Capital (if any)? The study created an innovative framework for reporting which, is viewed as an improved, practical and theoretical approach and method relating to Human Capital and value creation for Human Assets. Triangulation was used to include a number of different metrics used by HR, linked to a framework that allows those who uses it to link quantitative calculations to Human Capital dimensions. Further testing may be required due to the limited insight and knowledge of current practitioners which may have skewed some of the results. This framework also links to a number of business questions and metrics which in turn, link to broader HR strategic themes and recommendations for reporting as part of company annual reports and which Human Capital aspects should be included as standard in such a report. The study provides Human Resource practitioners with the ability to counter the one-sidedness of viewing people as purely costs, demonstrating the value of Human Assets in quantitative terms. / Thesis (PhD (Organisational Behaviour))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Human Resource Management / unrestricted

Organisations are spending a large sum of capital by investing on physical assets in order to improve productivity and gain competitive advantage. It has become imperative that business leadership turn their attention to the development, implementation and sustenance of physical assets management strategies in order to eliminate operational and reliability risk.

The aim of this diploma work is to find out the effectiveness of providing free-of-charge tertiary education to citizens of the Slovak Republic at Czech public universities. In the theoretical part, I will focus on researching motives of Slovak citizens to study in the Czech Republic from the point of view of theory regarding the expansion of human capital and the return on investment into education, as well as utilizing a questionnaire to research the preference in selecting schools outside Slovakia. Furthermore, I focus on the system of financing public universities in the Czech Republic. In the Czech Republic, students are provided with free-of-charge university education, if they complete the graduation examination from the Czech language or if they have another, officially verified, examination from the Czech language. As a result of the mutual agreement between both countries, citizens of the Slovak Republic have an exception negotiated in law 111/1998 Coll. about universities. The practical part focuses on calculating the costs to the public budget for the study of Slovak citizens as well as calculating the benefits, if they decide to work in the Czech Republic. The analysis arises from data of the MŠMT (Ministry of Education, Youth and Physical Education) and the ČSÚ (Czech Statistics Bureau) regarding the number of foreigners at universities as well as the system of financing universities from the statistics of the largest Czech universities, which I have obtained. From the collected data, I find out the representation of Slovak citizens in the individual years. I also attempt to calculate and generalize the approximate number of students, who completed their studies. I calculate the costs based on the individual years, where every student has a fixed sum in the given year, which the public budget incurs for him. I use these cohorts to calculate the benefits, which are divided based on the years and by means of the wage discount method, I find out the approximate amount of tax paid for the time period in which the Slovak citizens work in the Czech Republic.

The diploma thesis aims to discourse how China´s competitiveness has developed in the 21st century, with a special focus on human capital as one of the key factors of production that greatly fosters competitive advantage. The first chapter builds up a theoretical framework for the research part of the thesis. It reviews the concepts of competitiveness, Michael Porter´s diamond, and the theory of human capital. The second chapter examines trends and challenges of China´s competitive advantage according to Michael Porter´s diamond model. The third chapter evaluates the development of China´s human capital, its cultivation, current state, and surveys the generation Y´s attitudes to human capital.

This study investigates a broad range of factors which might be thought to influence the employment earnings of Canadian males. Micro-data drawn from the 1971 census are analysed, using as a frame of reference the human-capital model derived, and implemented for the United States, by Jacob Mincer. Opening discussion furnishes a detailed critique of the model itself, and of the auxiliary hypotheses required to make it perform empirically. Particular emphasis is laid upon the implicit assumption of perpetual long-run equilibrium and upon the neglect of variables arising on the demand side of the labour market. Generally, it is argued that although the human-capital paradigm may serve as a framework for empirical description, it is inadequate as a scientific theory because it fails to generate a wide array of hypotheses which are clearly susceptible to falsification. Earnings functions are estimated by ordinary least squares for a sample of almost 23,000 out-of-school males who worked, mainly in the private sector, at some time during 1970. Results yielded for Canada by the human-capital specification are compared with those reported by Mincer. The regressions are then expanded to include variables such as industry, region, and occupation, together with other personal attributes. These are found to rival the importance of the orthodox human-capital variables. Contrary to United States results, the elasticity of earnings with respect to weeks (or hours) worked is less than unity. In light of recent analyses which make human-capital investment and labour supply objects of simultaneous decision within a life-cycle context, further investigation is carried out using a simplified, two-equation, linear model in which earnings and hours are both endogenous. Estimates performed by the method of three-stage least squares indicate an elasticity of earnings with respect to hours considerably in excess of unity. However, within particular regional and industrial categories, wages and hours tend to be offsetting. Schooling coefficients, or "rates of return," fall in the 5.25-6.50% range. / Arts, Faculty of / Vancouver School of Economics / Graduate