Henkilöstön kehittäminen henkilöstön silmin, Case Oy Gust. Ranin

Tässä tutkielmassa on tarkasteltu case- yrityksen henkilöstön näkemyksiä henkilöstön kehittämisestä sekä case- yrityksen kehittämisestä. Tutkielman tavoitteena on ollut selvittää kuinka Oy Gust. Raninin henkilöstöä voitaisiin kehittää, jotta yritys kykenisi kehittämään toimintojaan, lisäämään työntekijöiden viihtyvyyttä ja ammattitaitoa sekä vastaamaan kilpailuun. Tutkimus on laadullinen case- tutkimus. Tutkimusmenetelmänä on käytetty teemahaastatteluja, joita tehtiin case- yrityksen eri henkilöstöryhmien edustajille. Tutkimus tehtiin Oy Gust. Raninille. Henkilöstön mielestä parhaita tapoja kehittää osaamista ovat erilaiset yrityksen ulkopuolisen ammattilaisen pitämät läheisesti työtehtäviin liittyvät kurssit joilta saa mukaan kurssimateriaalia. Työntekijät haluavat itse valita ne kurssit joihin he osallistuvat. Toinen suosittu kehittämistapa on työn- tai tehtävien kierto. Suurimmaksi ongelmakohdaksi koettiin puutteellinen tiedonkulku sekä esimiehiltä alaisille että työntekijöiden välillä. Muita kehittämiskohteita ovat atk- taidot sekä kielitaito. Henkilöstön suhtautuminen kaikenlaisiin kehittämistoimiin on positiivista ja henkilöstö on halukas kehittämään työtehtäviään.

Acquisition Failure: The case of a multinational enterprise from an emerging market failing in Indonesia.

The escalation in the number of mergers and acquisition transactions involving emerging market firms is a relatively recent phenomenon; as a consequence academic research in such topic is rather limited. The purpose of this research study was to discuss the possible reasons that led the acquisition failure of an emerging multinational firm and an Indonesian player. Extensive theoretical research was performed and it had been achieved, based on this, the finding of a framework that facilitated to understand the way in which the concepts of cultural distances and relate liabilities of foreignness in the process of acquisitions of foreign companies in emerging markets. The theoretical background collects literature related to acquisitions, models of cultural studies between nations and liabilities of foreignness. It has been generated a variety of frameworks that aid to understand the way that the institutional distance and cultural factors together with the concept of liabilities of foreignness can affect the process of market entry of an emerging multinational company to the extent that the best way to stop losing money is to abandon the project. The empirical research consisted of selective semi-structured interviews and an extensive research in available public data on the chosen study case of this research. There were several factors that were identified as the cause of the failure in the market entry of a Mexican multinational firm in Indonesia. The weakness shown by the local government authorities was used by the local community leaders who rioted because of discomfort. These groups were the ones who made the government submit to the extent that the agreements reached at the beginning of the deal were either canceled or modified in a way that favored always the local community. The contributions of this study fall into the knowledge field of emerging multinational firms and market entry process.

Improving Intraorganizational Knowledge Sharing

The objective of this research was to find how the critical factors enabling intraorganizational knowledge sharing could be implemented to be part of case organization’s actions. The theoretical framework of the research was constituted based on previous scientific discussions concerning knowledge and its dimensions, knowledge sharing and its linkage to organizational learning. The intraorganizational knowledge sharing critical factors form an essential part of the theoretical framework. The study was a qualitative case study. The data was collected using focus group interviews and analyzed using theme analysis. In the empirical part of the study case organizations characteristics to the intraorganizational knowledge sharing were researched, intraorganizational knowledge sharing goals were mapped and finally improvement actions were suggested. The most significant suggestions were creating an organization wide knowledge sharing strategy, facilitating the development of social networks and communicating the top management support for knowledge sharing activities.

Hiljaisen tiedon siirtämisen prosessi mentoroinnissa – näkökulmana kognitiivinen oppipoikamalli

Hiljainen tieto muodostaa organisaatioiden keskeisen kilpailutekijän, sillä sitä on vaikea kopioida. Hiljaista tietoa pyritään siirtämään erilaisia osaamisen kehittämisen menetelmiä hyödyntäen. Tässä tutkielmassa tutkitaan, miten hiljaista tietoa siirretään mentoroinnissa. Mentorointiin liittyvissä tutkimuksissa ei ole tutkittu sitä vuorovaikutukseen perustuvaa prosessia, jonka aikana hiljaista tietoa siirretään mentorilta aktorille. Tämä tutkielma toi lisää tietoa tähän tutkimusaukkoon. Tutkielman teoreettisessa osiossa esiteltiin kolme näkökulmaa, jotka muo-dostivat tutkielman viitekehyksen: hiljainen tieto ja sen siirtäminen, mentorointi sekä kognitiivinen oppipoikamalli. Tutkimusmenetelmänä käytettiin fenomenografista tapaustutkimusta. Tutkimuksen kohderyhmän muodostivat neljä mentori-aktori –paria, joita haastateltiin teemahaastattelulla. Empiiriset tulokset osoittivat, että hiljaisen tiedon siirtäminen mentoroinnissa tapahtui kognitiivisen oppipoikamallin vaiheita hyödyntäen. Kaikki kognitiivisen oppipoikamallin vaiheet esiintyivät mentorointiprosessissa. Siirrettävässä hiljaisessa tiedossa näyttäytyivät tiedon toiminnallinen, situationaalinen ja sosiaalinen luonne. Keskeisimmiksi hiljaisen tiedon siirtämisen menetelmiksi osoittautuivat mentorin läsnäolo, kuuntelu, kysymysten tekeminen ja aktorin oivalluttaminen. Tutkielman keskeisenä tuloksena ja toimenpide-ehdotuksena esitettiin hiljaisen tiedon siirtämisen malli mentoroinnissa, joka kehitettiin tutkimuksen teoreettisen viitekehyksen ja tutkimuksesta saatujen tulosten pohjalta.

Dynamic ecosystems under anthropogenic stress : how does macrotidal sandy fauna respond to green tides?

Highly dynamic systems, often considered as resilient systems, are characterised by abiotic and biotic processes under continuous and strong changes in space and time. Because of this variability, the detection of overlapping anthropogenic stress is challenging. Coastal areas harbour dynamic ecosystems in the form of open sandy beaches, which cover the vast majority of the world’s ice-free coastline. These ecosystems are currently threatened by increasing human-induced pressure, among which mass-development of opportunistic macroalgae (mainly composed of Chlorophyta, so called green tides), resulting from the eutrophication of coastal waters. The ecological impact of opportunistic macroalgal blooms (green tides, and blooms formed by other opportunistic taxa), has long been evaluated within sheltered and non-tidal ecosystems. Little is known, however, on how more dynamic ecosystems, such as open macrotidal sandy beaches, respond to such stress. This thesis assesses the effects of anthropogenic stress on the structure and the functioning of highly dynamic ecosystems using sandy beaches impacted by green tides as a study case. The thesis is based on four field studies, which analyse natural sandy sediment benthic community dynamics over several temporal (from month to multi-year) and spatial (from local to regional) scales. In this thesis, I report long-lasting responses of sandy beach benthic invertebrate communities to green tides, across thousands of kilometres and over seven years; and highlight more pronounced responses of zoobenthos living in exposed sandy beaches compared to semi-exposed sands. Within exposed sandy sediments, and across a vertical scale (from inshore to nearshore sandy habitats), I also demonstrate that the effects of the presence of algal mats on intertidal benthic invertebrate communities is more pronounced than that on subtidal benthic invertebrate assemblages, but also than on flatfish communities. Focussing on small-scale variations in the most affected faunal group (i.e. benthic invertebrates living at low shore), this thesis reveals a decrease in overall beta-diversity along a eutrophication-gradient manifested in the form of green tides, as well as the increasing importance of biological variables in explaining ecological variability of sandy beach macrobenthic assemblages along the same gradient. To illustrate the processes associated with the structural shifts observed where green tides occurred, I investigated the effects of high biomasses of opportunistic macroalgae (Ulva spp.) on the trophic structure and functioning of sandy beaches. This work reveals a progressive simplification of sandy beach food web structure and a modification of energy pathways over time, through direct and indirect effects of Ulva mats on several trophic levels. Through this thesis I demonstrate that highly dynamic systems respond differently (e.g. shift in δ13C, not in δ15N) and more subtly (e.g. no mass-mortality in benthos was found) to anthropogenic stress compared to what has been previously shown within more sheltered and non-tidal systems. Obtaining these results would not have been possible without the approach used through this work; I thus present a framework coupling field investigations with analytical approaches to describe shifts in highly variable ecosystems under human-induced stress.

Techno-Economic Assessment of LNG and Diesel Production and Global Trading Based on Hybrid PV-Wind Power Plants and PtG, GtL and PtL Technologies

With growing demand for liquefied natural gas (LNG) and liquid transportation fuels, and concerns about climate change and causes of greenhouse gas emissions, this master’s thesis introduces a new value chain design for LNG and transportation fuels and respective fundamental business cases based on hybrid PV-Wind power plants. The value chains are composed of renewable electricity (RE) converted by power-to-gas (PtG), gas-to-liquids (GtL) or power-to-liquids (PtL) facilities into SNG (which is finally liquefied into LNG) or synthetic liquid fuels, mainly diesel, respectively. The RE-LNG or RE-diesel are drop-in fuels to the current energy system and can be traded everywhere in the world. The calculations for the hybrid PV-Wind power plants, electrolysis, methanation (H2tSNG), hydrogen-to-liquids (H2tL), GtL and LNG value chain are performed based on both annual full load hours (FLh) and hourly analysis. Results show that the proposed RE-LNG produced in Patagonia, as the study case, is competitive with conventional LNG in Japan for crude oil prices within a minimum price range of about 87 - 145 USD/barrel (20 – 26 USD/MBtu of LNG production cost) and the proposed RE-diesel is competitive with conventional diesel in the European Union (EU) for crude oil prices within a minimum price range of about 79 - 135 USD/barrel (0.44 – 0.75 €/l of diesel production cost), depending on the chosen specific value chain and assumptions for cost of capital, available oxygen sales and CO2 emission costs. RE-LNG or RE-diesel could become competitive with conventional fuels from an economic perspective, while removing environmental concerns. The RE-PtX value chain needs to be located at the best complementing solar and wind sites in the world combined with a de-risking strategy. This could be an opportunity for many countries to satisfy their fuel demand locally. It is also a specific business case for countries with excellent solar and wind resources to export carbon-neutral hydrocarbons, when the decrease in production cost is considerably more than the shipping cost. This is a unique opportunity to export carbon-neutral hydrocarbons around the world where the environmental limitations on conventional hydrocarbons are getting tighter.

Effect of nitrogen fertilization, grass species and cultivar on sod production on Valkeasuo peat bog - a case study

Selostus: Typpilannoituksen, kasvilajin ja lajikkeen vaikutus siirtonurmikon tuotanto-ominaisuuksiin Valkeasuon turvetuotannon jättöalueella

The application of agricultural land rating and crop models to CO2 and climate change issues in Northern regions : the Mackenzie Basin case study

Selostus: Viljelyvyöhykkeiden ja kasvumallien soveltaminen ilmastonmuutoksen tutkimisessa: Mackenzien jokialue, Kanada

The total material requirement -concept applied to agriculture : a case study from Finland

Selostus: Luonnonvarojen kokonaiskäyttö sovellettuna maatalouteen: esimerkki Suomesta