<p>Abstract</p><p>Keeping the key individuals in a post merger and acquisition situation is vital to preserve the value of the investment. Yet it is not uncommon, in relation to mergers and acquisitions, that key individuals not only leave the organization but assumes a position with a competitor or even start a competing business. This problem was highlighted as a sug-gested topic for this thesis by Nordic Construction Company (NCC).</p><p>Findings from interviews with 4 key individuals at NCC and 6 individuals with a combined experience of the human resource management aspect of the merger and acquisition process and its aftermath, show that the primary reasons why key individuals leave is, even if the deciding factor differs, strongly linked to uncertainty that can be reduced with a suffi-cient communication strategy.</p><p>This thesis suggests a number of potential actions of improvement to the NCC merger and acquisition process and its aftermath. The following human resource influences should improve the NCC merger and acquisition process in order to prevent the loss of key individuals</p><p>• Introduce the human resource aspect into the strategy discussion during the merger and acquisition preparation phase.</p><p>• Infuse human resource related enquiries into the discussion with the target organization’s owners, during the initial due diligence phase.</p><p>• Conduct qualitative and quantitative human resource research that relate to the set human resource management strategy, during the due diligence phase as soon as access to the workforce individuals have been granted.</p><p>• Implement extraordinary PLUS conversations with key individuals shortly after the closing of the deal process.</p><p>• Modify the welcome package that is communicated in relation to the merger or ac-quisition so that it includes a list of communication channels, a contact information list and a message in alliance with the human resource strategy. This message should put the individual in the center by focusing equally on the expectations flowing from the individual to the new organization and vice versa.</p>

<p>Background: Going abroad for a number of years to live and work in a different country and culture is a major change for most people. To make this easier and minimize the risks of facing adjustment difficulties for these people going abroad, companies’ Human resource departments, in particular, have great responsibilities. It is also mainly their responsibility to ensure a smooth re-adjustment for employees returning to home country after a completed international assignment. Today many companies not only underestimate the problems related to an unsuccessful repatriation process, but also do not acknowledge the difficulties that the expatriates face upon return. Moreover, there is evidence showing that only a minority of companies invest substantial resources in the task of creating an Effective Repatriation process, even though researchers have confirmed repatriation to be more challenging than expatriation.</p><p>Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to find out how companies can improve and facilitate the repatriation of their employees. This will be done by examining factors affecting how an expatriate perceives the repatriation process and by identifying the most critical actions in achieving an effective repatriation process.</p><p>Method: In order to fulfill the purpose of this thesis a qualitative method was chosen. A case study was conducted over Volvo Construction Equipment in Eskilstuna, based upon personal interviews with expatriates as well as representatives of the Volvo International Assignment Management (VIAM) and Human Resource department of Volvo Construction Equipment in Eskilstuna. Further, the case study included a preliminary study based on a question and answer format, answered by 20 expatriates at Volvo CE in Eskilstuna. With support from information gathered through the preliminary study, later 10 personal interviews were carried out with expatriates at Volvo CE.</p><p>Conclusion: The findings of this thesis propose 10 main factors, which influence how an expatriate perceives the repatriation process. These are; (1) the Purpose for why an expatriate is sent abroad, (2) the Picture of the repatriation process and responsibility areas communicated by the home company, (3) the perceived Communication and support, (4) the utilization of Mentorship, (5) Reverse culture shock issues, (6) Career issues, (7) Organizational issues, (8) Practical issues, (9) Family issues and finally,(10) the existence of an Evaluation. Further, the result of this thesis suggest that there are four critical actions in achieving an effective repatriation process; preplanning, communicating and providing support, proactive repositioning process and finally, applying an evaluation.</p>

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Rutgers University, 2008. / "Graduate Program in Industrial Relations and Human Resource Management." Includes bibliographical references (p. 173-193).

This study investigates the interactions between the employment relationship and the employee rewards system. There is an implied and broadly accepted connection between these aspects of organisational life, yet the connection has not been clearly developed within either the employment relations or employee rewards literature. Employment relations research commonly prioritises certain features: organisational context; parties’ ideologies; processes concerning the interaction of the parties; and outcomes of the relationship. This study attempts to be located in this tradition: it regards rewards as an outcome of the employment relationship. However, whilst many studies of this type have tended to emphasise the interaction of isolated features, this study attempts to theorise the nature of the interactions between the reward outcomes and the other features of the relationship in a holistic manner. The study begins from an ontologically realist view of the employment relationship and employee rewards; however, it also acknowledges that these social facts are interpreted by parties, and that these interpretations are significant. The study adopts many of the features of mainstream employment relations research, reflected in a pluralist theoretical perspective. A predominantly inductive, multi-method, case study research strategy is utilised, focussing upon two unionised, private sector, manufacturing organisations. Data is collected from the parties to the employment relationship using research instruments derived from two primary conceptual models: Walton & McKersie’s (1965) behavioural bargaining framework, and Gomez-Mejia and Balkin’s (1992) algorithmic-experiential model of rewards. Analysis of this data indicates substantial commonality between the cases and suggests a complex set of interactions between the features of the employment relationship and employee reward outcomes. Key findings indicate the importance of understanding parties’ reward preferences as they provide insight regarding: the formulation of parties’ ideologies; the effectiveness of processes; and the interpretation of reward outcomes.

De senaste årtionden har medfört en förändring på arbetsmarknaden som har bidragit till att det krävs en ökad förståelse för vilken betydelse medarbetarna i ett företag har för att öka sin konkurrenskraft och framgång. Denna insikt har skapat ett behov av ett arbete med HRM (Human Resource Management) som kan attrahera, utveckla och behålla rätt medarbetare för att öka sina konkurrensfördelar. Det handlar om att identifiera och ta vara på talanger i verksamheten samt lyckas finna nya potentiella medarbetare. Denna strategi heter Talent Management (TM) och växte fram under 1990-talet, men har inte någon tydlig definition.   Det innebär att företag utformar och anpassar sitt TM utifrån sin egen verksamhets förutsättningar. Det finns många faktorer som påverkar hur denna strategi och dess aktiviteter tillämpas. Framför allt handlar det om verksamhetens storlek och typ, geografiskt läge samt vilken bransch verksamheten tillhör. Därutöver spelar ledningens förståelse för hur värdefulla medarbetarna är för verksamheten en viktig roll. Det är följaktligen ledningens integration som utgör grunden måste skapas för ett gemensamt arbete mellan HR-avdelning, TM-strategin och samtliga individer på alla nivåer.   Studien visar att TM framstår som en utmaning i sig men innebär även många utmaningar inom arbetet och dess aktiviteter. Vilka dessa är och varför de uppstår är kopplat till de ovan nämnda påverkningsfaktorerna. Därmed var studiens syfte att få förståelse för hur TM används i två helt olika företag samt vilka utmaningar dessa står inför för att utveckla ett så framgångsrikt TM-arbete som möjligt. För att undersöka detta valdes en kvalitativ ansats och semi-strukturerade intervjuer som metod, där två HR-specialister på två olikartade företag etablerade i Sverige intervjuades. Därigenom kunde detaljerad information om verksamheternas användning, synsätt, och utmaningar inom TM samlas in, som sedan analyserats tillsammans med studiens teoretiska grund.   Utöver utmaningen att få ledningen involverad, har studiens underlag visat aktiviteter och utmaningar som behövs för en stark TM-strategi. Dessa är: moget ledarskap, performance management, employer branding och kompetensutveckling och kan skapa drivkraft och engagemang – något som går hand i hand med samtliga aktiviteter igenom hela strategin. Processens alla delar har visats ha stor inverkan på varandra och bör således kombineras och hanteras på bästa sätt utifrån varje organisations komplexitet.

Date June 04, 2008 Level Master Thesis EFO705, 10 points (15 credits) Authors Pornratchanee Sethakaset Tanawan Santimataneedol Bangkok, Thailand Bangkok Thailand Date of Birth: 28 October 1982 Date of Birth: 5 March 1984 Title The Application of Human Resource Management in Thai SMEs – A Case Study of Albatross Company Limited Supervisor Mona Andersson Problems : How can the entrepreneur of SMEs manage their human resources? Can previous research and studies about HRM in SMEs be applied in the Thai entrepreneurial SME? Does the HRM in the company change and transform over time? Purposes : The purposes of this study are to review the relevant studies and research about HRM in SMEs in order to investigate how human resources are managed in SMEs and to determine if the previous studies are applicable to Thai entrepreneurial SMEs. Methodology : This master’s thesis is based on a qualitative approach in order to investigate HRM in SMEs and easier to understand the behavior in a certain case. The main secondary data is also collected from website which is the utilizing material for this thesis. Conclusion : In this study, it was concluded that this Thai SME manages its human resource in a mixture between informal and formal way. HRM is used and practiced more as the company grows which the entrepreneur plays a central role in the Human Resource Management in SMEs.

The importance of human capital is rising tremendously since the last few decades. Human capital is now rewarded as the most important factor in an organization on the way to success. Nowadays in the Netherlands talents need to be able to show employers that they possess certain qualities and employers need to be able to show that they offer something worthwhile for talents. The match is: You can employ men and hire hands to work for you, but you must win their hearts to have them work with you. —Tiorio This research project is primarily about the initial screening within the matching process, where both parties (employer &amp; talent) need to express themselves to each other without having live contact. The strategic question throughout this research is: How can we explain problems between employer and talent during the initial screening phase in the matching process, in terms of measuring, explicating and expressing qualities? Within this question perspectives of both parties are included: to understand the position, requirements and expectations of qualities. The objective of this research is to explore, get insight in and elaborate on the process taking place in the initial meeting. This is researched through qualitative research in the form of a mix of interviews, experiments and text analyses. The result of this research conducts of several tips based on the analyses of this research. The tips are for talents as well as employers. Even though the results of this research were very diverse from the talent‘s perspective, some patterns could be seen. From the employers’ perspective the answers were less diverse and more clear patterns emerged. Altogether many interesting aspects are highlighted in this research.

This paper describes and analyzes how individuals and organizations that operate in careers in communications and marketing deal with the search for employees / employers, and how recruiting managers and recruitment consultants are working to create a match between the parties. The study was conducted on behalf of a recruitment agency that offers services in recruiting and staffing for organizations in communication and marketing. The empirical material consists of ten qualitative interviews from three different perspectives on the labor market, recruitment consultants, managers and employees. The interviews were analyzed from sociological and social psychological theories of organizations and individuals opportunities and strategies in today's western labor market. Conclusions that emerged are that organizations need for decreased amount of tied assets provides increased need for temporary employments. To plan and manage the strategic HR operation in the flexible organizations, with more temporary employments and decentralized structures, it has become important to increase factors of control. This generally applies to the entire recruitment process but also for potential employees. Employees increasingly aim to move on to new jobs in new organizations require that organizations develop strong employer brands. Unless employees have incentive to stay in the organization it is a risk of competence losses and the loss of control over HR work. Also people who are looking for jobs use strategies such as marketing to get a job. The study indicates a shift in responsibility for the search from organization to job applicant. A further trend is that today's leaders are looking for new employees with the "right" personality. Job applicant adjusts their self-presentation to their perception of what the employer considers to be a suitable personality in general, but also towards the specific job and organization and thus makes it matchable.

Aim: With the tendency of globalization, the field of the human resource management (HRM) in multinational companies (MNC) becomes a heated topic. Being interested in this field, we choose Bank of China (BOC) to investigate what factors influence the process of transfer and adaptation of HRM practices for a Chinese bank in a cross cultural environment. Method: This work has been adopted qualitative method as the primary data by interviewed six respondents of managers and employees from BOC in China and Sweden by means of the face-to-face interview, e-mail, Skype and the online instant messaging software (QQ). Extant literature, books and online resources are the secondary data. Result &amp; Conclusions: The result reveals that when transferring and adapting the HRM practices in a foreign country, MNCs are influenced by national and company level factors. At the national level, national culture and laws and regulations in the targeted country are the primary aspects while corporate culture of the targeted company and the strategic goals of the branches are the main factors at the company level. Suggestions for future research: This study only focuses on four main factors affecting the process of transfer and adaption of HRM process, which may not contain all factors. Besides, it is based on a case study with qualitative data, thus the research areas can be expanded to a broader domain and the research methods can be used in both qualitative and quantitative approaches. Last but not least, staffing performance can be a very interesting field to be investigated. Contribution of the thesis: We contribute with a model based on four factors to identify the process of transfer and adaptation of HRM practices in a MNC. We also make a unique contribution to empirical study of the process of HRM practices of a Chinese bank entering to Sweden. Finally, this model can be utilized as a tool of other MNCs when implementing HRM practices from the home country to the host country.

The aim of this study was to determine whether a relationship exists between job satisfaction and organisational commitment. A sample of 73 employees from the South African Police Services - Stanger was utilised. Data was collected using questionnaires and unstructured interviews. The job satisfaction questionnaire designed by Weiss, Dawis, Lofquist and England (1977) was used to measure the different dimensions of job satisfaction whilst the organisational commitment questionnaire developed by Allen and Meyer (1990) was used to measure the different dimensions of organisational commitment. The results indicated variations in the subject's levels of job satisfaction, whereas moderate levels of affective, normative and continuous commitment was found. The correlation analysis showed no significant relationship among the dimensions of organisational commitment (Affective, Normative and Continuance). In terms of job satisfaction, significant relationships occurred among pay, working conditions, supervision, opportunities for advancement and recognition but there was no significant relationship among pay and equitable rewards. No significant relationship occurred between the dimensions of job satisfaction and affective and continuance commitment but there was a significant relationship between job satisfaction dimensions and normative commitment. There was no significant difference in the organisational commitment dimensions and job satisfaction dimensions among gender. No significant difference was found between affective and continuance commitment among the other biographical variables. However, there was a significant difference in the level of normative commitment among the age group, home language group and ethnic group. A significant difference was found between the job satisfaction dimensions and the other biographical variables. According to the results of the multiple regression, opportunities for advancement was the best predictor of affective commitment, working conditions, supervision, relation with co-workers and equitable rewards were the best predictors of normative commitment and relation with co-workers was the best predictor of continuance commitment. / Thesis (M.Admin)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville, 2004.