There is intensive research in international business studies exploring strategic decisions relating to the choice of entry mode. As a frontier issue the choice of entry mode has been widely recognised as being one of the critical decisions in a firm's internationalisation. However, most of the research primarily focuses upon Western multi-national enterprises (MNEs) rather than small-medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Recently, interest in the international business activities of SMEs has been increasing. Nevertheless, little has been done in light of the choice of entry mode in the SME sector, especially for SMEs from developing countries. This study explored how Chinese SME managers make their strategic market entry choices when entering the UK to address the issue of whether Western MNEs' foreign investment theories are applicable to Asian SMEs. The decision making of entry mode choices involves complicated social processes such as social relationships both in and outside the firm. This research takes a social constructionist paradigm, trying to understand and interpret the Chinese SMEs decision maker's unique experiences, perceived values and embedded Chinese culture that can have great impact on their choice of entry modes. Cohering with this philosophical stance, 10 Chinese SMEs managers in the North East of the England were involved in qualitative interviews and data was analysed through template analysis. The findings of this thesis offer a more holistic picture of SME managers' decision making in terms of their entry mode choices. This study is inconsistent with the more classic motives of firms' internationalisation, such as securing raw materials and seeking low-cost labour as it reveals 2 previously unrecognised motives of Chinese SMEs' internationalisation, namely `seeking entrepreneurial freedom' and 'building their own international teams'. Moreover, 4 entry modes were used by the Chinese SMEs' entering the North East of England markets, including direct exporting, joint venture and wholly-owned subsidiary and internet entry mode. Interestingly, the joint venture mode used by Chinese SMEs in this study is operationally different from traditional joint ventures. Furthermore, a number of influencing factors emerged from the Chinese SME managers' accounts: firm-specific factors, strategy-factors, product-specific factors, networks and social culture factors and the decision maker's personal characteristics. In drawing upon their motives, influencing factors, and entry modes a 3-stage decision making process was discovered which combined rational and cybernetic strategic approaches that have been adopted by Chinese SMEs managers at different levels. Contributively, this study offers alternative understandings of the choice of entry mode. By drawing upon experiences of Chinese SME managers it extends the foreign investment theories based on Western-MNEs and offers a contribution to practice grounded in an Asian-SME context. Significantly, this thesis develops a practice-based framework by integrating factors into the whole decision making process, providing practical guidance for SME managers to inform their entry mode choices.

This study investigates the characteristics of first line managers (FLMs) required to manage absence 'effectively' within Gateshead Metropolitan Borough Council. An important theoretical contribution to knowledge is made by focusing specifically on the role and impact of FLMs which is an issue that has previously been identified as being important, but has not been researched specifically. A wide range of literature was explored from the fields of health management, psychology and business management to present a clear picture of the key issues involved in absence management. Discussions are provided on personal, organisational and group level characteristics which have been found to have an association with levels of employee absence, before looking at best practice in the management interventions that can be used. Five major hypotheses were generated from the literature and were further broken down into 21 testable sub-hypotheses. A positivist approach was taken using a quantitative methodology in order to meet the objectives of this study. This consisted of a range of research methods including a survey to FLMs, policy analysis and analysis of internal organisational documents. Using this variety of methods a clear picture of existing practices was developed and then analysed. This extensive methodological approach makes an interesting contribution to this research field and is in response to some earlier criticisms of research designs in this area. The survey results show multiple statistically significant relationships between variables and levels of absence including; the age of the FLMs; the division (p=0.01) and departments (p=0.02) in which the FLMs work, and their levels of knowledge of the organisation's absence management policy and procedures (p= 0.048). This allowed the rejection of the null hypotheses and states that there is an association between these variables and levels of absence of the FLMs' employees. However, there are also other interesting results that are of high practical significance despite the results not being statistically significant. This includes looking at relationships between variables such as career history and relationships with other stakeholders, when correlated with the absence levels of the FLMs' employees. The main results from the other research methods utilised in this study demonstrate that there is some ambiguity over responsibilities for managing absence and that absence management is not fully integrated into associated HR policies. Despite attempts to implement best practice interventions, there remain some indications of differences between rhetoric and reality. Recommendations for the organisation include the need to include supplementary details in their absence management policy and to condense the seven existing documents into one comprehensive policy guide. In addition the organisation needs to support their FLMs so that they understand exactly what their role in absence management entails and how and when they should work in partnership with other stakeholders.

This work constructs a bridge across the "knowing-doing gap" of international staff exchange: the gap between strategy formulation and its execution within the constraints of a post-1992 university business school in the UK. It goes beyond the common, well-intentioned and yet vague statements involving the "encouragement" of international staff exchange to propose a model of execution through strategic entrepreneurship. The promotion of international staff mobility is a founding principle of the "Bologna Process", designed to create a converged system of higher education across Europe. Many UK "new" (ie post-1992) universities are engaged in the development of internationalisation strategies which include staff exchange. Meanwhile, the failure to execute strategy is increasingly acknowledged as a major problem in organisational performance. Using a first-, second and third-person Insider Action Research (AR) approach, the author initiated, planned, organised and implemented an international staff exchange between universities in the UK and France. Data generated were subjected to a double process of analysis in order to construct the new model. A policy of "subjectivity with transparency" and transcontextual credibility throughout enables the reader to judge transferability. Duality is the nature of this "bridge" and the simplistic transplant of the expatriation policies of commercial organisations is avoided. Concepts from the theoretical literature in three domains - strategic management and entrepreneurship in higher education, internationalisation of higher education and strategy execution through strategic entrepreneurship - are combined with the research analysis to propose that "strategic entrepreneurs" can execute the riskier elements of an internationalisation strategy, such as staff exchange. Members of the creative class, strategic entrepreneurs are attracted and motivated by the foundation of a diverse environment and entrepreneurial culture promoted by a university's values-driven, holistic approach to internationalisation. Their autonomous strategic behaviour must be facilitated by an execution-focussed organisational architecture. In a university, the overall approach to staff exchange should combine central and local (school-based) functions and resource both to develop strategic initiatives and to exploit tactical opportunities. This work broadens AR from education into strategic management, specifically linking the areas of strategic execution and strategic entrepreneurship.

Syftet med uppsatsen är att studera det växande behovet av International Human Resource Management (IHRM) i syfte att skapa förståelse för företagets interna resurser och hur dessa kan bidra till företagets utveckling. För att uppnå uppsatsens syfte har vi utformat följande huvudproblem; I vilken utsträckning kan ett företags strävan efter internationell framgång förstås genom dess ledare? För att besvara det formulerade huvudproblemet har vi valt att använda en kvalitativ ansats och tillämpat fallstudie som forskningsstrategi. Den teoretiska referensramen innefattar en beskrivning av olika etableringsstrategier och medföljande ledarpositioner samt behandlar det resursbaserade synsättet vilket är relevant för vårt ämnesval och vår frågeställning. Vidare består av teorikapitlet av en deskription av IHRM och tillsättningsstrategier. Det empiriska kapitlet behandlar den information som tillhandahållits genom fallföretaget och dess informanter rörande ledarpositioner och efterfrågade kompetenser hos en internationell ledare. Kapitlet är strukturerat utefter de informanter vi utsett; företagets VD, marknadschef samt försäljningschefer. I analyskapitlet diskuteras och analyseras den teoretiska referensramen tillsammans med det empiriska utfallet. Kapitlet belyser de olika ledarpositioner som medför de valda etableringsstrategier samt vilka kompetenser som prioriteras vid tillsättning av den internationella ledaren. Från vår analys framgår det att de främsta kompetenser en kvalificerad försäljningschef bör besitta är förmågan till social kompetens och ett tekniskt kunnande, goda förhandlingskunskaper samt en stark drivkraft. Vidare i kapitlet analyseras de faktorer som kan bidra till företagets internationella framgång. Uppsatsens slutsats visar att NORDENs ledande position inom tubfyllningsbranschen har uppkommit tillföljd av försäljningschefernas ovärderliga erfarenhetsbaserade kunskaper samt förmågan att anpassa företagets globala strategi till lokala kunders önskemål. Avslutningsvis presenteras förslag till fortsatt forskning inom IHRM samt rekommendationer till fallföretaget.

A new research model of Perceived Organizational Support (POS) was proposed and tested. This model proposed that moral reasoning would moderate the relationships between six justice constructs and POS. The six justice constructs were distributive justice for self, coworkers, and employees in general as well as procedural justice for self, coworkers, and employees in general. The model was tested using two studies. Study 1 consisted of 284 students at a large southeastern university, while Study 2 was comprised of 215 employees from multiple organizations. The hypothesized relationships of the model were tested using hierarchical moderated regression analysis. Overall, while the results were consistent with most prior research, there was no support for the moderating role of moral reasoning that was proposed. The findings and implications of both Study 1 and 2 are discussed. Directions for future research are also suggested.

To stay competitive within the market, organizations need to accurately understand the skills and competencies of their human resources to better utilize them and more effectively respond to internal and external demands for expertise. This is particularly important for most services organizations which provide a variety of products and services to multiple and changing clients. The ability to accurately locate experts is also important to knowledge workers. From this perspective, finding individuals with appropriate knowledge and skills is important for accomplishing knowledge intensive tasks and solving complex problems. This thesis focuses on the problem of representing and reasoning about skills and competencies over time for more effective human resources management and expert finding. Proper modeling of skills and competencies provides, among other things, a common language for assessments, a foundation for consistent interviewing, a linkage between performance management and learning, and a means for aligning business strategy and skills for driving organizational performance. It also improves knowledge management by making explicit what the organization knows and can perform. In this thesis, we present a framework for profiling human resources over time. In particular, we use first-order logic to represent and reason about expertise, skills and competencies and capture information about sources of skill and competency information. The framework provides: - a formal ontology for skill and competency management which specifies how individuals should be represented and evaluated against a skill, - a technique for inferring and validating skills and competencies over time using different sources of information, - a systematic way of evaluating human resources in order to provide a more efficient, structured, and consistent assessment process, and - techniques for identifying unreliable sources of information and revising trust in these sources. This work enhances the ability of organizations to better utilize their human assets and improves the task of expert finding required for accomplishing knowledge intensive tasks and solving complex problems.

To stay competitive within the market, organizations need to accurately understand the skills and competencies of their human resources to better utilize them and more effectively respond to internal and external demands for expertise. This is particularly important for most services organizations which provide a variety of products and services to multiple and changing clients. The ability to accurately locate experts is also important to knowledge workers. From this perspective, finding individuals with appropriate knowledge and skills is important for accomplishing knowledge intensive tasks and solving complex problems. This thesis focuses on the problem of representing and reasoning about skills and competencies over time for more effective human resources management and expert finding. Proper modeling of skills and competencies provides, among other things, a common language for assessments, a foundation for consistent interviewing, a linkage between performance management and learning, and a means for aligning business strategy and skills for driving organizational performance. It also improves knowledge management by making explicit what the organization knows and can perform. In this thesis, we present a framework for profiling human resources over time. In particular, we use first-order logic to represent and reason about expertise, skills and competencies and capture information about sources of skill and competency information. The framework provides: - a formal ontology for skill and competency management which specifies how individuals should be represented and evaluated against a skill, - a technique for inferring and validating skills and competencies over time using different sources of information, - a systematic way of evaluating human resources in order to provide a more efficient, structured, and consistent assessment process, and - techniques for identifying unreliable sources of information and revising trust in these sources. This work enhances the ability of organizations to better utilize their human assets and improves the task of expert finding required for accomplishing knowledge intensive tasks and solving complex problems.

Regardless of whether organizations are in the private sector or in the public sector, there is a general agreement that human resources are critical to keeping organizations effective as well as maintaining a high level of organizational performance. While more serious effort has been made to empirically examine how human resources influence organizational performance (e.g., studies about turnover consequences, studies about the relationship between human resource management practices and organizational performance) in the private sector, it is rare to find similar empirical studies in the public sector partly because it is hard to define public organizational performance. In my dissertation, I basically investigate how human resources are critical to organizational performance in the public sector with a question, "Do human resources really matter in the public sector, too?" Focusing on the crime control performance of municipal police departments, I examine the relationships among turnover, police performance, and human resource management (HRM) characteristics by surveying police departments of the U.S. cities whose population range is between 100,000 to 500,000 (Out of 205 surveyed cities, 65 cities participated). Firstly, I explore how human resource management practices (individually and systematically) influence crime control performance of the police. Based on universalistic HRM perspective (i.e., best HRM practices) and control theory perspective, I hypothesize that commitment HRM system (and individual practices) will have positive effect on crime control performance of the police. Secondly, I investigate more specific questions such as if turnover has significant effect on crime control performance and if HRM system has moderating effect on turnover consequence. Results about turnover effect confirm human capital theory that predicts the negative effect of turnover when employees with specific knowledge quit. However, no significant relationships are found between commitment HRM system (and individual practices) and organizational performance. The results might help municipal police departments deal with sworn officers' turnover as well as set up proper HRM practices.

Mergers and acquisitions have received much attention through the years due to the waves of modernity it has implicated. Three crucial aspects that can shape a merger or an acquisition are culture, leadership and human resource management. These aspects are studied and analyzed in a Swedish company that has been involved in an acquisition process with a French company.  The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the role of culture, leadership and human resource management in an acquisition process between a French/Swedish company. An abductive research approach is adopted for the research since a mixture between inductive and deductive research approach is used. The method chosen was semi-structured interviews, which was fulfilled with the management team in the chosen company as well as with a consultant.  The findings of the study are that the three aspects have an impact on the acquisition process where culture is the most central. The culture had a significant impact on the acquisition process and affected the leadership and the human resource management within the company as well. In the company studied, the human resource management was lacking and found that communication is crucial during an acquisition process.  The limitations are that only one company is studied and the aspects are limited to culture, leadership and human resource management. The original value of the study can give a clearer picture on how the three aspects affect each other and the total acquisition process. Suggestions for further research include analyzing additional processes and cultures, not only the ones chosen in this dissertation.

For many years the traditional point of view about principals was that they were the so-called teachers in a leadership role. They took the lead with the teaching of the curriculum and they had to be responsible for controlling the whole educational process. With the changes over the past few years, not only over the entire globe, but also specifically here in South Africa, the role of the principal has also changed. In terms of the new Schools Act and changing education legislation, the principal has many more responsibilities being a representative of the department at the school and a member of the school’s governing body. Human resource management is one of the most important aspects of school management. The purpose of this research is to determine which educational juridical determinants play a role in human resource management at schools. To succeed in the purpose of this research it is firstly determined which statutory common-law and judicial determinants are applicable and secondly the determinants’ implications for human resource management in education are emphasized. Subsequently a literature study was done about the work environment of the principal in the management of human resources at a school. The specific areas of human resource management at a school and the related role of the principal formed an essential pall of the research. After a questionnaire had been sent to a sample of principals and their responses had been statistically analysed, it was possible to deduce findings and compile recommendations. The general impression that came to the fore from the responses was that school principals experience a critical lack of competence as managers of human resources. This is possibly caused by a shortage of proper empowerment in the basic elements of human resource management as well as in the aspects of policy as determined by the Department of Education. The conclusion can justly be made that it will not only presently, but also in the future be absolutely necessary to pay formal attention to this important aspect. The training of teachers must without doubt include elements of human resource management as well as related educational legislation. When the preceding requirements are met and when the Department of Education continuously present empowerment workshops on this crucial subject, it will definitely lead to more effective and purposive management of schools. Furthermore it will also probably lessen the pressure on principals that will lead to a more stable management environment. / Thesis (M.Ed.)--Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education, 2003