Today's challenge for workforce management lies in providing a healthy, safe and productive working culture where people are valued, empowered and respected. Workforce diversity is becoming an essential aspect of the global workforce, and ageing is the most prominent and significant factor in this regard. Diversity brings many opportunities and challenges, as workers with different backgrounds, cultures, working attitudes, behaviours and age work together, and in future, the key to organizational effectiveness and sustainability will heavily depend on developing and sustaining inclusive work environments where people with their differences can co-exist safely and productively. Manufacturing organizations expect the highest levels of productivity and quality, but unfortunately the manufacturing system design process does not take into account human variability issues caused by age, skill, experience, attitude towards work etc. This thesis focuses on proposing an inclusive design methodology to address the design needs of a broader range of the population. However, the promotion and implementation of an inclusive design method is challenging due to the lack of relevant data and lack of relevant tools and methods to help designers. This research aims to support the inclusive design process by providing relevant data and developing new design methodologies. The inclusive design methodology suggested in this thesis is a three step approach for achieving a safe and sustainable work environment for workers, with special concern for older workers. The methodology is based on the provision of relevant human capabilities data, the capture and analysis of difference in human behaviour and the use of this knowledge in a digital human modelling tool. The research is focused on manual assembly through a case study in the furniture manufacturing industry and joint mobility data from a wide-ranging population has been analysed and the task performing strategies and behaviours of workers with different levels of skills have been recorded and analysed. It has been shown that joint mobility significantly decreases with age and disability and that skilful workers are likely to adopt safer and more productive working strategies. A digital human modelling based inclusive design strategy was found to be useful in addressing the design needs of older workers performing manufacturing assembly activities. This strategy validates the concept of using human capabilities data for assessing the level of acceptability of any adopted strategy for older workers, and suggests that the strategies adopted by skilful workers are more likely to be equally acceptable for older and younger workers keeping in view differences in their joint mobility. The overall purpose of this thesis is to present a road map towards the promotion and implementation of the inclusive design method for addressing workforce challenges and in future the same strategies might be implemented within a variety of other industrial applications. The proposed three step inclusive design methodology and getting a reasonable understanding of human variability issues along with the use of human capabilities data (joint mobility in this case) in a human modelling system for design assessment at a pre-design stage can be considered as the major contributions of this research.

In this dissertation, we first examine the relationship between performance of the bank holding company and several board characteristics. We use five proxies for bank performance including Tobin’s Q, ROA, loan loss reserve ratio, non-performing asset ratio, and net charge-offs ratio. Board characteristic variables we include are board size, proportion of outsiders, CEO power, CEO tenure and board tenure. We find that a large board enhances bank performance, as proxied by Tobin’s Q and loan quality variables. We find no evidence that board structure or CEO power influences firm performance. We see that CEO and board tenure have a positive effect on firm performance. We further employ a crisis dummy during the period 2007 through 2009 to determine if the relationships between firm performance and board characteristics changed during the crisis. Our crisis results show us that board size has a negative effect on Tobin’s Q and the non-performing asset ratio during the crisis. Further, we find that board structure decreases the non-performing asset ratio during the crisis. We next examine the relationship between risk-taking of the bank holding company and several board characteristics. We use four accounting based proxies for bank risk-taking including credit risk, liquidity risk, capital ratio and operational risk. We also use three market based proxies for bank risk including market beta, idiosyncratic risk and the standard deviation of its stock return. Board characteristic variables we include are board size, board independence, CEO duality, CEO tenure and board tenure. We find that a large board reduces both balance sheet and market risk. We further investigate the relationships between risk-taking and board characteristics changed during the financial crisis of 2007-2009. We find that our results are robust during the crisis.

No description available.

This thesis deals with the safety of engraving machine. The main contribution of this thesis is the detailed implementation of the risk assessment according to valid standards. Further detailed design of measures to meet all safety requirements. Part of this thesis is familiarity with the machine and its current state and the procedure of risk analysis. Another part is the risk assessment. Conclusion of this thesis includes the documentation and ES certificate of conformity.

董事會組成、結構與運作的特性影響董事會功能的發揮，而董事會功能的強弱則決定企業經營的良窳。董事會的策略功能若能發揮，應可增進公司績效；董事會若能盡到監督的職責，應可降低企業的風險。因此，本研究探討董事會特性對企業績效與風險之影響。有別於其他公司治理的相關文獻多以董事會的獨立性衡量董事會之效能，本研究額外針對董事會成員發展其專業性及參與程度等衡量董事會特性之變數，探討這些變數與公司績效及風險間之關聯性，並進一步納入市場競爭程度與研發強度，分析公司經營特性對董事會特性與公司績效、風險關聯性之影響。 本研究以資產報酬率(ROA)、股東權益報酬率(ROE)、Tobin’s Q (Q)、Jensen Productivity (Jensen)來衡量企業績效，以信用評等(TCRI、RankRisk)、資產報酬率的標準差(sdROA)、股東權益報酬率的標準差(sdROE)來衡量企業風險，從董事會之獨立性、專業性以及參與度探討其對企業績效與風險之影響。研究結果發現，董事會之獨立性可以提升企業績效(ROA、ROE)、降低企業風險(TCRI、RankRisk、sdROA、sdROE)。董監具備會計或法律專業可以提升投資績效(Jensen)，董監之聲譽可以提升企業績效(ROA、Q、Jensen)，但董監若兼職過於忙碌，反而會提高財務風險(sdROA、sdROE)，而董事會之參與度則可以提升企業績效(ROA、ROE)且降低信用風險(TCRI、RankRisk)。此外，市場競爭程度與研發強度影響董事會之獨立性、專業性以及參與度與企業績效、風險之關聯性。相對於低市場競爭程度，在高度市場競爭的環境下，董監具備會計或法律專業可以降低信用風險(RankRisk)，董監過於忙碌會增加企業風險(TCRI、RankRisk、sdROA、sdROE)，而董事會之參與度可以提升企業績效(Q)。相對於低研發強度，在高研發強度的環境下，公司需要內部董監的專屬知識，董事會之獨立性會降低投資績效(Jensen)，但董監具備會計或法律專業可以提升企業績效(ROA、ROE、Q、Jensen)且降低信用風險(TCRI)，董監之聲譽可降低信用風險(TCRI、RankRisk)，而董事會之參與度則可提升企業績效(ROA)。 / The board composition, structure and process influence the effectiveness of the corporate board. The strategy function of the board helps to improve firm performance, while the monitoring function of the board assists to reduce firm risk. This research investigates the impact of board characteristics on firm performance and risk. Different from prior studies that focused mainly on board independence, this research expands board characteristics to include the expertise and attendance aspects of corporate boards. Furthermore, this research incorporates market competition and R&D intensity to analyze their moderating effects on the association between board characteristics and firm performance and risk. This research uses ROA, ROE, Tobin’s Q and Jensen Productivity (Jensen) to measure firm performance, and uses TCRI, RankRisk, sdROA and sdROE to measure firm risk. The research results indicate that boards with higher independence have higher ROA and ROE and lower TCRI, RankRisk, sdROA and sdROE. The boards with accounting or legal expertise directors have higher Jensen, while the boards with more reputable directors have higher ROA, Q and Jensen. However, boards with busy directors have higher sdROA and sdROE. The more attentive boards are found to be associated with higher ROA and ROE and lower TCRI and RankRisk. In addition, the levels of market competition and R&D intensity affect the association between board independence, expertise and attendance and firm performance and risk. For firms operating in the high market competition environment, boards with accounting or legal expertise directors have lower RankRisk, boards with busy directors have higher TCRI, RankRisk, sdROA and sdROE, and more attentive boards have higher Q. For firms with high R&D intensity, boards with greater independence are associated with lower Jensen since these firms require insider directors who have firm-specific knowledge. Moreover, boards with accounting or legal expertise directors tend to have higher ROA, ROE, Q, and Jensen and lower TCRI and more reputable boards have lower TCRI and RankRisk, while more attentive boards have higher ROA.

ESG (Environmental, social, and governance) investing is an investment philosophy to inform holistic and sound decision-making of investors for the purposes of both, nourishing a stable economy with acceptable rates of return while at the same time addressing stakeholders' non-financial concerns to preserve an inhabitable planet. Some scholars in finance argue that institutions subject to norms, i.e. responsible investors pay a financial cost from engaging in ESG activities. Moreover, they see ESG investing as distracting, inappropriate, risky and legally challenging. In response, several studies have emerged to show that ESG investing is a growing interest with investors, helps to mitigate financial risks, and does not need to represent a financial cost. Despite convincing evidence in a growing body of academic literature, many questions are still open to debate. Therefore, the principal objective of this thesis is to explore three dimensions of ESG investing, namely corporate environmental responsibility, renewable energy, and ESG disclosure quality. The research questions address issues relating to pension funds' investment decisions and legal obstacles resulting from utilising ESG information, financial return and risk implications of investing in renewable energy, substitutability of renewable energy for fossil fuel investments, and the effects of ESG disclosure quality on the expected cost of capital. To answer these questions, the thesis employs several standard and alternative empirical methods from the asset pricing and risk literatures. The thesis concludes the following. First, the integration of environmental responsibility into pension fund investment decision-making processes does not impede the financial and risk performance of pension funds. This means that pension funds should be allowed to consider such information in their investment decision making processes as the information does not reduce the overall financial return of the tested portfolios and does not violate trust law, i.e. the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). Pension fund trustees have been prohibited to consider any non-financial criteria such as environmental, social, or governance criteria in their investment processes under trust law such as ERISA, when they could harm the finanical performance of the portfolio. To be more specific, a pension fund trustee breaches his fiduciary duties (the duty of loyalty and the duty of prudence), if he sacrifices the financial well-being of the pension fund for pursuing any other social goal (Langbein and Posner, 1980). In particular, the duty of loyalty is "... forbidding the trustee to invest for any object other than the highest return consistent with the preferred level of portfolio risk" (Langbein and Posner, 1980:98). Second, the thesis finds no evidence for sustained renewable energy equity premia. Furthermore, investments in renewable energy equity are considerably riskier than in fossil fuel energy equity, meaning that renewable energy firms are undergoing a period of high uncertainties related to their business model, low carbon prices, and lacking public and private infrastructure investment (Bohl et al., 2013; Kumar et al., 2012; Sadorsky, 2012b ). Finally, my thesis shows that companies with high ESG disclosure quality experience lower expected cost of equity and cost of debt financing, everything else equal.