Microfoundations of HRM effects: Individual and Collective Attitudes and Performance

Previous research on Human Resource Management (HRM) has focused extensively on the potential relationships between the use of HRM practices and organizational performance. Extant research in HRM has been based on the underlying assumption that HRM practices can enhance organizational performance through their impact on positive employee attitudes and performance, that is, employee reactions to HRM. At the current state of research however, it remains unclear how employees come to perceive and react to HRM practices and to what extent employees in organizations, units and teams react to such practices in similar or widely different ways. In fact, recent HRM studies indicate that employee reactions to HRM may be far less homogeneous than assumed. This raises the question of whether or not the linkage between HRM and organizational outcomes can be explained by employee reactions in terms of attitudes and performance, if these reactions are largely idiosyncratic. Accordingly, this thesis aims to shed light on the processes that shape individuals’ reactions to HRM practices and how these processes may influence the variance or sharedness in such reactions among employees in organizations, units and teams. By theoretically developing and empirically examining the effects of employee perceptions of HRM practices from the perspective of ‘HRM as signaling’ and psychological contract theory, the main contributions of this thesis focus on the following research questions: i) How employee perceptions of the HRM practices relate to individual and collective employee attitudes and performance. ii) How employee perceptions of HRM practices relates to variance in employee attitudes and performance. iii) How collective employee performance mediates the relationship between employee perceptions of HRM practices and organizational performance. Regarding the first research questions the findings indicate that individuals do respond positively to HRM practices by adjusting their felt obligations towards the employer. This finding is in line with the idea of HRM as a signaling device where each HRM practice, implicitly or explicitly, sends signals to employees about promised rewards (inducements) and behaviors (obligations) expected in return. The relationship was also confirmed at the group level of analysis. What is more, variance was found to play an important role in that employee groups with more similar perceptions about the HRM system displayed a stronger relationship between HRM and employee obligations. Concerning the second question the findings were somewhat contradictory in that a strong HRM system was found negatively related to variance in employee performance but not employee obligations. Regarding the third question, the findings confirmed linkages between the HRM system and organizational performance at the group level and the HRM system and employee performance at the individual level. Also, the entire chain of links from the HRM system through variance in employee performance, and further through the level of employee performance to organizational performance was significant.

Jauheiden erottuminen

Partikkelisysteemien segregaatio eli erottuminen on ilmiö, jossa tasalaatuisen jauheseoksen komponenteilla on taipumus erota toisistaan. Jauheen erottumistaipumus riippuu partikkelien ominaisuuksista, ympäröivistä olosuhteista ja partikkelien välisistä vuorovaikutuksista. Segregaatiomekanismeja on esitetty kirjallisuudessa valtava määrä ja pienetkin erot partikkelien välisissä ominaisuuksissa ja vuorovaikutuksissa voivat johtaa täysin eri segregaatiomekanismeihin. Segregaatioilmiö on lääketeollisuuden näkökulmasta hyvin keskeinen, eikä sitä tunneta vielä riittävän hyvin, jotta siltä osattaisiin systemaattisesti välttyä. Nykyinen segregaatiotutkimus perustuu suurelta osin yrityksen ja erehdyksen kautta tapahtuvaan oppimiseen. Todellisen segregaatioilmiön ymmärtämiseen tarvittaisiin innovatiivisia tutkimusmenetelmiä. Kokeellisen osan tarkoituksena oli kehittää ja perustestata menetelmä, jolla voidaan tutkia erilaisten partikkelisysteemien erottumiskäyttäytymistä, ja käyttää tätä menetelmää farmaseuttisten rae- ja pellettiseosten segregaation tutkimiseen. Tavoitteena oli todistaa kehitetyn Babel-laitteen toimintaperiaatteen soveltuvuus partikkelisysteemien erottumiskäyttäytymisen tutkimiseen, mutta suoritetut kokeet olivat lähinnä menetelmän ja laitteen testausta. Ongelmiksi muodostuivat Babel-laitteen asettamat rajoitukset, partikkelien sähköistyminen ja partikkelien väliset vuorovaikutukset. Käytetyt suoraviivaiset lähestymistavat eivät riittäneet segregaation aiheuttamiseen Babel-laitteella. Vertikaalisen ravistelun seurauksena syntynyt konvektiopyörre esti segregaation syntymisen. Johtopäätöksenä voidaan sanoa, että Babel-laite mittaa hyvin ja toistettavasti sekä se kykenee erottamaan erikokoiset partikkelit ja erilaiset kokojakaumat toisistaan. Laitteen kehittämistavoitteena olisi saada segregaatio paremmin näkyviin jauheseoksissa ravistelun seurauksena. Tällöin voitaisiin tehdä päätelmiä jauheseoksen erottumistaipumuksesta ja systeemissä vallitsevista erottumismekanismeista. Laitteen ja menetelmän jatkokehittäminen voisi tuottaa hyödyllistä lisätietoa, mikä edesauttaisi segregaation ymmärtämistä ilmiönä entistä paremmin

Mother-Infant Antibodies to Pneumococcal Polysaccharides and Proteins : Transfer and Persistence of Maternal Antibodies and Development of Vaccine-Induced and Naturally Acquired Antibodies in Infants

Symptomless nasopharyngeal carriage of Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcus) is very common in young children. Occasionally the carriage proceeds into mild mucosal diseases, such as sinusitis or acute otitis media, or into serious life-threatening diseases, such as pneumonia, sepsis or meningitis. Each year, up to one million children less than five years of age worldwide die of invasive pneumococcal diseases (IPD). Especially in the low-income countries IPD is a leading health problem in infants; 75% of all IPD cases occur before one year of age. This stresses the need of increased protection against pneumococcus in infancy. Anti-pneumococcal antibodies form an important component in the defence against pneumococcal infection. Maternal immunisation and early infant immunisation are two possible ways by which potentially protective antibody concentrations against pneumococci could be achieved in early infancy. The aim of this thesis is to increase the knowledge of antibody mediated protection against pneumococcal disease in infants and young children. We investigated the transfer of maternal anti-pneumococcal antibodies from Filipino mothers to their infants, the persistence of the transferred antibodies in the infants, the immunogenicity of the 23-valent pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine (PPV) in infants and the response of the children to a second dose of PPV at three years of age. We also investigated the development of antibodies to pneumococcal protein antigens in relation to culture-confirmed pneumococcal carriage in infants. Serum samples were collected from the mothers, the umbilical cords and from the infants at young age as well as at three years of age. The samples were used to determine the antibody concentrations to pneumococcal serotypes 1, 5, 6B, 14, 18C and 19F, as well as to the pneumococcal proteins PspA, PsaA, Ply, PspC, PhtD, PhtDC and LytC by the enzyme immunoassay. The findings of the present study confirm previously obtained results and add to the global knowledge of responses to PPV in young children. Immunising pregnant women with PPV provides the infants with increased concentrations of pneumococcal polysaccharide antibodies. Of the six serotypes examined, serotypes 1 and 5 were immunogenic already in infants. At three years of age, the children responded well to the second dose of PPV suggesting that maternal and early infant immunisations might not induce hyporesponsiveness to polysaccharide antigens after subsequent immunisations. The anti-protein antibody findings provide useful information for the development of pneumococcal protein vaccines. All six proteins studied were immunogenic in infancy and the development of anti-protein antibodies started early in life in relation to pneumococcal carriage.

Towards Understanding Powder Behavior Via Simulation

The aim of this study was to investigate powder and tablet behavior at the level of mechanical interactions between single particles. Various aspects of powder packing, mixing, compression, and bond formation were examined with the aid of computer simulations. The packing and mixing simulations were based on spring forces interacting between particles. Packing and breakage simulations included systems in which permanent bonds were formed and broken between particles, based on their interaction strengths. During the process, a new simulation environment based on Newtonian mechanics and elementary interactions between the particles was created, and a new method for evaluating mixing was developed. Powder behavior is a complicated process, and many of its aspects are still unclear. Powders as a whole exhibit some aspects of solids and others of liquids. Therefore, their physics is far from clear. However, using relatively simple models based on particle-particle interaction, many powder properties could be replicated during this work. Simulated packing densities were similar to values reported in the literature. The method developed for describing powder mixing correlated well with previous methods. The new method can be applied to determine mixing in completely homogeneous materials, without dividing them into different components. As such, it can describe the efficiency of the mixing method, regardless of the powder's initial setup. The mixing efficiency at different vibrations was examined, and we found that certain combinations of amplitude, direction, and frequencies resulted in better mixing while using less energy. Simulations using exponential force potentials between particles were able to explain the elementary compression behavior of tablets, and create force distributions that were similar to the pressure distributions reported in the literature. Tablet-breaking simulations resulted in breaking strengths that were similar to measured tablet breaking strengths. In general, many aspects of powder behavior can be explained with mechanical interactions at the particle level, and single particle properties can be reliably linked to powder behavior with accurate simulations.

Housing the skilled migrants in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area : International attractiveness of housing, neighbourhoods and the city region

The aim of this thesis is to examine the skilled migrants’ satisfaction with the Helsinki Metropolitan Area. The examination is executed on three scales: housing, neighbourhoods and the city region. Specific focus is on the built environment and how it meets the needs of the migrants. The empirical data is formed of 25 semi-structured interviews with skilled migrants and additionally 5 expert interviews. Skilled and educated workforce is an increasingly important resource in the new economy, and cities are competing globally for talented workers. With aging population and a need to develop its innovational structure, the Helsinki Metropolitan Area needs migrant workforce. It has been stated that quality of place is a central factor for skilled migrants when choosing where to settle, and from this perspective their satisfaction with the region is significant. In housing, the skilled migrants found the price-quality ratio and the general sizes of apartments inadequate. The housing market is difficult for the migrants to approach, since they often do not speak Finnish and there are prejudices towards foreigners. The general quality of housing was rated well. On the neighbourhood level, the skilled migrants had settled in residential areas which are also preferred by the Finnish skilled workers. While the migrants showed suburban orientation in their settlement patterns, they were not concentrated in the suburban areas which host large shares of traditional immigrant groups. Migrants were usually satisfied with their neighbourhoods; however, part of the suburban dwellers were unsatisfied with the services and social life in their neighbourhoods. Considering the level of the city region, the most challenging feature for the skilled migrants was the social life. The migrants felt that the social environment is homogeneous and difficult to approach. The physical environment was generally rated well, the most appreciated features being public transportation, human scale of the Metropolitan Helsinki, cleanliness, and the urban nature. Urban culture and services were seen good for the city region’s size, but lacking in international comparison.

Helsingin lämpösaareke ajallisena ja paikallisena ilmiönä

The urban heat island phenomenon is the most well-known all-year-round urban climate phenomenon. It occurs in summer during the daytime due to the short-wave radiation from the sun and in wintertime, through anthropogenic heat production. In summertime, the properties of the fabric of city buildings determine how much energy is stored, conducted and transmitted through the material. During night-time, when there is no incoming short-wave radiation, all fabrics of the city release the energy in form of heat back to the urban atmosphere. In wintertime anthropogenic heating of buildings and traffic deliver energy into the urban atmosphere. The initial focus of Helsinki urban heat island was on the description of the intensity of the urban heat island (Fogelberg 1973, Alestalo 1975). In this project our goal was to carry out as many measurements as possible over a large area of Helsinki to give a long term estimate of the Helsinki urban heat island. Helsinki is a city with 550 000 inhabitants and located on the north shore of Finnish Bay of the Baltic Sea. Initially, comparison studies against long-term weather station records showed that our regular, but weekly, sampling of observations adequately describe the Helsinki urban heat island. The project covered an entire seasonal cycle over the 12 months from July 2009 to June 2010. The measurements were conducted using a moving platform following microclimatological traditions. Tuesday was selected as the measuring day because it was the only weekday during the one year time span without any public holidays. Once a week, two set of measurements, in total 104, were conducted in the heterogeneous temperature conditions of Helsinki city centre. In the more homogeneous suburban areas, one set of measurements was taken every second week, to give a total of 52.The first set of measurements took place before noon, and the second 12 hours, just prior to midnight. Helsinki Kaisaniemi weather station was chosen as the reference station. This weather station is located in a large park in the city centre of Helsinki. Along the measurement route, 336 fixed points were established, and the monthly air temperature differences to Kaisaniemi were calculated to produce monthly and annual maps. The monthly air temperature differences were interpolated 21.1 km by 18.1 km horizontal grid with 100 metre resolution residual kriging method. The following independent variables for the kriging interpolation method were used: topographical height, portion of sea area, portion of trees, fraction of built-up and not built-up area, volumes of buildings, and population density. The annual mean air temperature difference gives the best representation of the Helsinki urban heat island effect- Due to natural variability of weather conditions during the measurement campaign care must be taken when interpretation the results for the monthly values. The main results of this urban heat island research project are: a) The city centre of Helsinki is warmer than its surroundings, both on a monthly main basis, and for the annual mean, however, there are only a few grid points, 46 out of 38 191, which display a temperature difference of more than 1K. b) If the monthly spatial variation is air temperature differences is small, then usually the temperature difference between the city and the surroundings is also small. c) Isolated large buildings and suburban centres create their own individual heat island. d) The topographical influence on air temperature can generally be neglected for the monthly mean, but can be strong under certain weather conditions.