Thesis (M.S. or Ph. D.)--University of Florida, 2004. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 30-32).

In a freedom, international and global market, companies are under an intense competitive environment and with hi-pressure than before, besides increase the product and service quality, cost is a very important factor for operation. Since the margin of product is uncontrollable, personnel¡¦s cost controlling becomes a surviving criterion for businesses; therefore the typical employment relationship is no longer applicable to current challenging environment. In order to keep flexible to rapidly response the environment and sustain competitiveness, company¡¦s organization and staff placement are demanded adjustment. The goal of the thesis is to provide a retail business study and analysis of: 1) The status of the l human resources management in supermarket and hypermarket. 2) The relations between the characteristic of the organization and flexible staffing arrangements, and 3) The effect of flexible staffing arrangements on the organizational performance. 4) The influence of different management attitude between standard and non-standard workers. During this study, there are 38 copies of the questionnaire were sent out to HR supervisors of supermarket and chain-hypermarket stores, 30 were returned (no invalid). The return rate was 78.9%, nine of the HR supervisors had accepted an interview for opening questions about outsourcing training and flexible manpower policy. The results of the analysis are as the following: 1. Remarkable differences of numerical flexibility are found among different characteristics of the organization. The lower ratio of the labor cost of the organization is, the greater functional flexibility it has. 2. Remarkable differences of management attitude are found among different characteristics of the organization. The fewer layers of the organization is, the little difference of management attitude between various type workers. 3. Remarkable differences of organizational performance are found among different characteristics of the organization. The fewer layers of the organization has a positive effect on the higher customer satisfaction. 4. Functional flexibility has enormous effects on organizational performance. The diversified job arrangement of full-time worker has a positive effect on management effectiveness. 5. Functional flexibility has enormous effects on organizational performance. The independence of job arrangement of full-time worker has a positive effect on the increase of staff productivity. 6. Functional flexibility has enormous effects on organizational performance. Training supply of full time worker has a positive effect on the increase of staff productivity, company¡¦s profit gains, management effectiveness, customer satisfaction and decrease the ratio of labor cost. Base on the result of this research, here are our suggestion to business: 1) Considering company¡¦s long-term objective when planning the functional flexibility to cultivate and retain core workers. 2) Continue conducting training to increase organizational performance.3) Design a complete human resource management policy to increase effort and decrease the negative effect of non-standard worker. 4) Apply Wage flexible in company.

The purpose of this study, which took an example of the School Land To Be in Kaohsiung City, was to understand the attitude cognition of the community residnets to the management and the present situation of the satisfaction degree on the Green beautified policy, and to investigate the relationship between residents¡¦ attitude cognition to the management and the satisfaction degree on the Green beautified policy. Hopefully, this study might offer related suggestions as a reference and to boost the school predetermined green beautified for the Kaohsiung City and other cities and counties . The methodology of this study was using questionnaire survey to collect data on the school predetermined in Kaohsiung City for analysis. The subjects of this study were the community residents on the ten school predetermined places in Kaohsiung City. ¡§Questionnaire about the Kaohsiung citizens¡¦ satisfaction degree on the Green beautified policy¡¨, which was developed and based on related literatures, was adopted as tool for this survey. 460 questionnaires were issued while 412 valid questionnaires were received, with valid sample rate 89¢H. The main conclusions of this study are as follows: 1. Residents of the community to the management of the school predetermined have the above average degree on attitude cognition, especially on the ¡§the school predetermined has fixed hoeing up weeds and the clean maintenance¡¨ domain, but the domain of¡§the administrative personnels are unable the effective management predetermined ground to walk a dog and trash question¡¨ in need of improvement. 2. The satisfaction degree on the Green beautified policy among the residents¡¦ are above average degree with the highest on the domain of ¡§ground function¡¨ and the lowest on the domain of ¡§ground installations¡¨. 3. The Siaogang district family monthly total income 30,000 - 50,000 dollars have the higher degree approval on the attitude cognition to the school predetermined management. 4. The residents including women, high schools, junior colleges and universities, Siaogang district and Lingya district, and income 30,000 - 50,000 dollars have higher degree of satisfaction on the Green beautified policy of the school predetermined. 5. There is a positive correlation between the attitude cognition of the community residnets to the management and the satisfaction degree on the Green beautified policy. Based upon the above conclusions, this study offers several related suggestions to the governments, and future researchers for their reference to boost the green beautified on the school predetermined places and researches.

Magister Commercii - MCom (Business and Finance) / This master's thesis report is a record of my action research study conducted at a traditional bank in South Africa. The report follows a narrative writing style. It contains my personal learnings and reflections. In it I record my practices aimed at promoting Islamic banking products of a traditional bank. In undertaking this action research, I employed interventions whereby I improved my own learning and behaviour through practice. This action research took place within the customer facing division of a national traditional bank in the Western Cape. While conducting my situational analysis, I found that front-line employees lacked knowledge and awareness about Islamic banking products, which negatively impacted their attitude and willingness to promote the Islamic banking offering. As the action research progressed, another concern was identified, namely, the lack of awareness of Islamic banking by customers. In order to guide activities that are directed at improving the behaviour of front-line employees and customers, I drew insights from the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) by Icek Ajzen (1991) for my theoretical framework. Observations, interviews and interview schedules were used to collect data and continuously analysed using content analysis and univariate analysis for the respective data types. Evidence was generated by measuring the data against a standard of judgments as required for an action research project. This resulted in the identification of key factors that influence front-line employees' willingness to promote the Islamic banking products. These factors were their attitudes and perceived behavioural control. It was further identified that the lack of awareness by customers had a negative impact on their attitudes towards using the Islamic banking offering. Both issues were addressed, by following the cyclical approach of action research. In order to influence front-line employees' behaviour, with the support of the necessary stakeholders, I implemented internal marketing programmes such as training and development. To increase the level of customer awareness, I implemented activities directed at external customers such as brochures and poster displays within branches. The study finds that through my ethical and political practices, front-line employees were motivated and stakeholders actively participated in planning and executing interventions designed to improve the performance of Islamic banking sales. The practices implemented by myself, as an Islamic banking product champion, were identified as a key influence in the promotion of Islamic banking. I also identified that senior management and middle management influenced front-line employees' acceptance and implementation of internal marketing practices.