Yhteiskuntavastuuraporttien ulkoinen varmentaminen

Tutkimuksen päätavoitteena oli tutkia miten suomalaiset suuret pörssiyritykset ulkoisesti varmentavat yhteiskuntavastuuraporttinsa. Lisäksi tavoitteena oli tutkia miten yritykset arvioivat varmentamisen vaikuttavan raporttien luotettavuuteen. Työn teorian muodosti kansainväliset ja kotimaiset kirjat ja artikkelit. Empiirinen aineisto kerättiin yritysten yhteiskuntavastuuraporteista, yritysten internetsivuilta ja haastatteluilla. Teemahaastatteluja tehtiin neljälle yrityksen edustajalle ja kahdelle tilintarkastusyhteisön ulkoi-selle varmentajalle. Tutkimusmenetelmä oli kvalitatiivinen ja kuvaileva. Yhteiskuntavastuun huomioiminen ja siitä raportoiminen on yleistynyt Suomessa ja maailmalla 2000-luvulla. Yritykset koetaan tänä päivänä merkittäviksi tekijöiksi yhteiskunnassa ja näin ollen yrityksiltä vaaditaan vastuullista ja ehdottoman luotettavaa toimintaa. Vastuun kantamista vaa-ditaan erityisesti kansainvälisiltä yrityksiltä. Sidosryhmät odottavat yritysten yhteiskuntavastuuraporttien tarjoavan luotettavaa tietoa päätöksenteon tueksi. Luotettavuuden ja uskottavuuden lisäämiseksi, jotkut yritykset ovat alkaneet käyttää yhteiskuntavastuuraporttien ulkoista varmennusta. Ulkoisella varmentamisella tarkoitetaan sellaista toimintaa, jossa kolmas riip-pumaton taho varmentaa yrityksen ei-taloudellisen raportin.

Hallituksen ja toimitusjohtajan välisen suhteen kehittäminen listaamattomissa suomalaisissa osakeyhtiöissä

Työn tavoitteen oli selvittää mitä erityspiirteitä suomalaisissa listaamattomissa osakeyhtiöissä on ja niiden pohjalta ymmärtää minkälainen hallituksen ja toimitusjohtajan välinen suhde on. Tutkimusmetodologia oli empiirinen eksploratiivinen tutkimus ja tutkimusmenetelmä oli kvalitatiivinen perustuen seitsemään teemahaastatteluun. Tutkimuksen tuloksena oli, että osakeyhtiöt ovat erilaisia perustuen yhtiön omistajamäärään, omistuksen hajaantumiseen ja omistajien aktiivisuuteen. Pääsääntöisesti omistajat ovat lähellä yhtiön toimin- taa. Omistajat rakentavat yrityskulttuuria palkkaamalla hallituksen jäseniksi kulloiseenkin tilanteeseen sopivimmat henkilöt. Suomalaisia toimitusjohtajia pidetään ihmiskäsitykseltään pääsääntöisesti stewardeina ja ihmiskäsitykseen vaikuttaa olennaisesti kulttuurimme. Luottamus on hallituksen ja toimitusjohtajan välisen suh- teen kulmakiviä.

Educational resources offered by the European Board of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine (EBPRM)

Background .- Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine (PRM) is a very demanding medical speciality. To ensure high standard of research and care in PRM all across Europe, it is crucial to attract gifted trainees and offer them high quality education. At undergraduate level, many medical schools in Europe omit to offer teaching on disabled persons and on basic PRM knowledge. Thus PRM is hardly known to medical students. For postgraduate trainees access to evidence-based knowledge as well as teaching of research methodology specific to PRM, rehabilitation methodology, disability management and team building also need to be strengthened to increase the visibility of PRM. Action .- To address these issues the EBPRM proposes presently a specific undergraduate curriculum in PRM including the issues of disability, participation and handicap as a basis for general medical practice and postgraduate rehabilitation training. For PRM trainees many educational documents are now available on the EBPRM website. A growing number of educational sessions for PRM trainees take place during international and national PRM Congresses which can be accessed at low cost. Educational papers published regularly in European rehabilitation journals and European PRM Schools are offered free or at very low cost to trainees.

La síndrome de Burnout en els treballadors socials a Catalunya

Aquest treball de fi de grau constitueix una proposta d’investigació sobre el fenomen del burnout o síndrome d’esgotament professional que pateixen molts treballadors socials. Concretament, es pretenen analitzar els factors causants d’aquesta síndrome així com les seves conseqüències en termes estructurals i organitzatius, de qualitat en l’atenció a les persones i personals per part dels professionals del treball social. La necessitat i interès d'abordar el tema es deu a les evidències científiques, realitzades en d’altres països, que confirmen que l'exposició als factors de risc psicosocials afecten la salut del professional i a tota l'organització. Més encara en un moment de crisi econòmica en la qual els treballadors socials han d’atendre a una major quantitat d’usuaris amb diversitat de dificultats i en situacions més complexes. En el nostre país, la investigació sobre la síndrome del burnout en l’àmbit dels treballadors socials és pràcticament inexistent, raó per la qual es fa més necessari potenciar recerques que es focalitzin en aquesta realitat.Aquest document és el resultat d’un treball continuat que comprèn tant la cerca i lectura de la bibliografia existent i rellevant sobre el fenomen del esgotament professional, com una primera fase exploratòria per contrastar el marc teòric amb la realitat catalana, concretament la de la comarca del Gironès. Posteriorment, i a partir dels resultats obtinguts, es presenta el disseny d’una investigació que ha de cobrir tot l’àmbit català. En aquest cas, s’ha optat per fer una recerca amb una metodologia qualitativa (entrevistes i grups de discussió), ja que l’objectiu és copsar les vivències, percepcions i opinions dels treballadors socials sobre les causes del burnout i les seves conseqüències. Els resultats d'aquesta investigació són considerats una oportunitat per identificar àrees de millora en l'organització de la feina i altres aspectes rellevants com el disseny del lloc de treball, les relacions interpersonals i a nivell personal

La integración de Internet en la educación escolar española : situación actual y perspectivas de futuro

The main objectives and findings of this first research report are presented in this chapter."The Implementation of the Internet in the Spanish Education System: State of Affairs and Future Prospects" is a large-scale research project that seeks to obtain relevant data about the introduction and dissemination of Information and Communication Technology, particularly the internet, in the practical and organizational general procedures of the Spanish schools and high schools. The project articulates the processes of ICT implementation on the primary and secondary education levels embracing a holistic approach, propped up by an empirical and analytical research methodology. Thus, our survey does not intend to detect which is the impact of ICT on school activities but how all the agents involved in the school community incorporate ICT and what use they make of it. We are especially interested in identifying the teachers' pedagogical and professional uses of ICT, how students use it in their activities and to what extent it contributes in reinforcing teamwork and participation proceedings in the institutions, as well as the relations between the latter and their context. It is also of our interest to know the factors that exert the strongest influence on the way teachers, head teachers and students make use of ICT. Finally, we intend to identify the ways ICT may contribute to the improvementof educational practices.

La integración de Internet en la educación escolar española : situación actual y perspectivas de futuro

The main objectives and findings of this first research report are presented in thischapter. "The Implementation of the Internet in the Spanish Education System: State of Affairsand Future Prospects" is a large-scale research project that seeks to obtain relevant data about the introduction and dissemination of Information and Communication Technology, particularly the internet, in the practical and organizational general procedures of the Spanish schools and high schools. The project articulates the processes of ICT implementation on the primary andsecondary education levels embracing a holistic approach, propped up by an empirical and analytical research methodology. Thus, our survey does not intend to detect which is the impact of ICT on school activities but how all the agents involved in the school community incorporate ICT and what use they make of it. We are especially interested in identifying the teachers' pedagogical and professional uses of ICT, how students use it in their activities and to what extent it contributes in reinforcing teamwork andparticipation proceedings in the institutions, as well as the relations between the latter and their context. It is also of our interest to know the factors that exert the strongest influence on the way teachers, head teachers and students make use of ICT. Finally, we intend to identify the ways ICT may contribute to the improvement of educational practices.

Opinion Mining

In this thesis we study the field of opinion mining by giving a comprehensive review of the available research that has been done in this topic. Also using this available knowledge we present a case study of a multilevel opinion mining system for a student organization's sales management system. We describe the field of opinion mining by discussing its historical roots, its motivations and applications as well as the different scientific approaches that have been used to solve this challenging problem of mining opinions. To deal with this huge subfield of natural language processing, we first give an abstraction of the problem of opinion mining and describe the theoretical frameworks that are available for dealing with appraisal language. Then we discuss the relation between opinion mining and computational linguistics which is a crucial pre-processing step for the accuracy of the subsequent steps of opinion mining. The second part of our thesis deals with the semantics of opinions where we describe the different ways used to collect lists of opinion words as well as the methods and techniques available for extracting knowledge from opinions present in unstructured textual data. In the part about collecting lists of opinion words we describe manual, semi manual and automatic ways to do so and give a review of the available lists that are used as gold standards in opinion mining research. For the methods and techniques of opinion mining we divide the task into three levels that are the document, sentence and feature level. The techniques that are presented in the document and sentence level are divided into supervised and unsupervised approaches that are used to determine the subjectivity and polarity of texts and sentences at these levels of analysis. At the feature level we give a description of the techniques available for finding the opinion targets, the polarity of the opinions about these opinion targets and the opinion holders. Also at the feature level we discuss the various ways to summarize and visualize the results of this level of analysis. In the third part of our thesis we present a case study of a sales management system that uses free form text and that can benefit from an opinion mining system. Using the knowledge gathered in the review of this field we provide a theoretical multi level opinion mining system (MLOM) that can perform most of the tasks needed from an opinion mining system. Based on the previous research we give some hints that many of the laborious market research tasks that are done by the sales force, which uses this sales management system, can improve their insight about their partners and by that increase the quality of their sales services and their overall results.

Venäjään liittyvän markkinatutkimustiedon markkinapotentiaali Suomessa

Tämän diplomityön tavoitteena on tehdä markkinatutkimus suomalaisista yrityksistä, jotka toimivat tai aikovat lähiaikoina aloittaa toiminnan Venäjän markkinoilla. Tutkimus tehdään kaksiosaisena kyselytutkimuksena ja sen avulla selvitetään, minkälaisia Venäjään liittyviä tietotarpeita eri toimialojen yrityksillä on. Tuloksien avulla työn teettäjä Tutkimus- ja Analysointikeskus TAK Oy pystyy kartoittamaan potentiaalisia uusia asiakasyrityksiä. Diplomityön alussa tutustutaan markkinatutkimukseen ja luodaan katsaus Venäjän markkinoiden erikoispiirteisiin sekä esitellään TAK Oy. Tämän jälkeen läpikäydään vaiheittain markkinatutkimus, jonka toteutus perustuu diplomityön alussa esiteltyihin taustatietoihin. Työn lopussa kerrotaan tutkimuksen tulokset sekä niiden pohjalta tehdyt johtopäätökset ja suositukset TAK Oy:lle. Viimeisenä osana tässä työssä on yhteenveto tutkimuksen keskeisimmistä asioista. Diplomityön tuloksena saatiin aikaiseksi tutkimus suomalaisten yritysten Venäjän kauppaan kohdistuvasta kiinnostuksesta ja Venäjän markkinoihin liittyvistä tietotarpeista. Lisäksi tutkimuksien perusteella saatiin laadittua lista yrityksistä, jotka voisivat olla kiinnostuneita TAK Oy:n tuottamista tutkimuspalveluista.

Developing the environmental marketing of an industrial company

The objective of this study was to examine how the customers of Larox Flowsys value environmental issues and how environmental issues affect their purchasing behaviour. A comparison between Larox peristaltic pumps and competing pump brands and types was also made in order to find out whether LPP pumps possess some more environmentally beneficial features that other pumps do not have. Finally, if the answers to the first two research questions show that a need for a new marketing message does exist, then the final stage is to select the most appropriate environmental arguments for Larox Flowsys. The empirical data in the study was collected from several different sources, but the main sources were the customer interviews and the outsourced market research. The data was analysed mainly by using content analysis, but theme formation and quantification were also utilized. The results showed that the customers do not consider environmental issues as a main purchasing criterion, but they may well be the criterion that differentiates the product from competing ones. The comparison proved that LPP pumps do possess some significant environmental benefits over competing pumps and therefore, the prerequisite for the use of environmental arguments exists. The final stage in the study was to select the proper environmental arguments for Larox Flowsys.

Liiketoimintastrategisten vaatimusten syntyminen ja niiden toteutumisen arviointi keskisuurten yritysten toiminnanohjausjärjestelmähankkeissa. Tapaustutkimus kolmesta teollisuusyrityksestä ja aineistolähtöinen teoria

Tietojärjestelmien strateginen kehittäminen on ollut niin liike-elämän kiinnostuksen kuin akateemisen tutkimuksenkin kohteena jo pitkään. Aihe on edelleen ajankohtainen, eikä ajankohtaisuus osoita laantumisen merkkejä. Valtaosa tutkimuksesta on kohdistunut suuryrityksiin ja jonkin verran pk-yrityksiin yhtenä ryhmänä. Tutkimus on kohdistunut aiheeseen tarkastelemalla onko tietojärjestelmien ja liiketoimintastrategian välillä yhteyttä, ja jos, onko sillä merkitystä yrityksen menestykselle. Tämän tutkimuksen tavoitteena oli pureutua syvemmälle siihen tapaan, jolla yritys kytkee liiketoimintastrategiansa tietojärjestelmähankintaan. Kohdetietojärjestelmäksi tutkimuksessa valittiin toiminnanohjausjärjestelmät ja yrityskooksi keskisuuret yritykset. Toiminnanohjausjärjestelmän valintaa voidaan perustella sen kattavuudella yrityksen toiminnassa eri sidosryhmien suunnasta katsottaessa. Keskisuuret yritykset valittiin osittain sen vuoksi, koska niistä ei ole paljoakaan omaa tutkimusta, osittain sen vuoksi, että niiden luonne kehityspolun epäjatkumokohdassa haluttiin nostaa esille. Tutkimuksen empiirinen osa pohjautuu kolmeen tutkimustapaukseen, kolmen keskisuuren yrityksen toiminnanohjaushankkeeseen. Tapausyritysten liiketoiminta- ja ITjohtoa haastateltiin, ja lisäksi käytettiin kaikkea saataville ollutta kirjallista arkistoaineistoa. Tutkimuksen päämenetelmä oli Grounded Theory (GT). Tutkimustavassa ei, poiketen useista muista laadullisista tutkimustavoista, ole ennalta määrättyä viitekehystä, vaan tutkimus lähtee liikkeelle ns. puhtaalta pöydältä ilman esioletuksia luoden tutkimusprosessin kuluessa uutta teoriaa. Tutkimustavan etuna voidaan pitää ennakkoluulottomuutta. Aikaisemman tutkimuksen rooli tässä tutkimuksessa oli ensinnäkin kartoittaa tutkimusaluetta ja olla johdantona tutkimukselle, toisaalta tuloksia vertailtiin aikaisempaan tutkimukseen. Tutkimusaineisto analysoitiin tarkasti. Ensin aineisto käytiin läpi koodaamalla se aineistosta esille nousseiden käsitteiden alle. Seuraavaksi saatu tulos luokiteltiin aineistosta nousseisiin luokkiin sekä muodostettiin käsitteiden ja luokkien väliset yhteydet. Lopuksi muodostumassa oleva teoria konkretisoitiin 18 hypoteesin ja hypoteesit yhdistävän mallin avulla. Tutkimuksessa saatiin uutta tietoa siitä, miten vaatimusprosessi etenee ja miten keskisuuren yrityksen ominaispiirteet vaikuttavat vaatimusprosessiin. Lisäksi saatiin uutta tietoa siitä, mitkä ovat kriittisiä menestystekijöitä keskisuuren yrityksen toiminnanohjaushankkeessa. Keskisuuretyritykset näyttävät tämän tutkimuksen aineiston perusteella osaavan asettaa vaatimuksia toiminnanohjausjärjestelmälle liiketoimintastrategian, prosessikuvausten ja toiminnanohjausjärjestelmien tarjoamien mahdollisuuksien suunnista. Vaatimusten toteutumisenarviointi on keskisuurilla yrityksillä epäsystemaattista, kuten aikaisemmassa tutkimuksessa on todettu olevan myös suurilla yrityksillä. Resurssivaje vaikeuttaa toiminnanohjausjärjestelmän liiketoimintastrategisten vaatimusten toteutumista. Tutkimusaineiston perusteella voidaan päätellä, että keskisuurissa yrityksissä – huolimatta siitä, että niissä on olemassa prosessikuvaukset – ei ole varsinaista prosessiajattelua tai prosessijohtamista. Keskisuuret yritykset eivät tämän tutkimuksen aineiston perusteella näytä muodostavan poikkeusta, vaan mittariston käyttö on epäkypsää, eikä mittaristoa pystytä hyödyntämään tietojärjestelmähankkeen tukena. Tulosten pohjalta voidaan arvioida, että strategisen johtamisen komponentit ovat keskisuuressa yrityksessä toisistaan irrallisia. Vaikka toiminnanohjaushankkeen vaatimuksia asetettaessa liiketoimintastrategia on vahvasti mukana, jää vaatimuksenasettelu karkealle tasolle, eikä konkretisoidu prosesseihin ja mittarointiin. Sen seurauksena toiminnanohjausjärjestelmästä ei saada kaikkea sitä hyötyä ja tukea liiketoimintastrategialle, mikä olisi mahdollista. Tutkimuksessa tuli myös esille resurssi- ja osaamispuutteen haittavaikutuksia keskisuurten yritysten toiminnanohjaushankkeiden vaatimusprosessissa. Puutteet yhdistettynä hajallaan oleviin strategisen johtamisen komponentteihin muodostavat yhdessä vaikean lähtökohdan strategiselle toiminnanohjaushankkeelle.

Trust in inter-organizational relationships

Trust in inter-organizational collaborative relationships has attracted substantial research interest among academics and practitioners. Previous studies have concentrated on the benefits of trust to business outcomes and economic performance, as it is considered to be a source of competitive advantage. Despite this increased level of interest, there is no consensus, much less overall agreement, about how it should be conceptualized or about the number of dimensions it incorporates. On the inter-organizational level there is an obvious challenge in defining both the trusting party and the objects of trust. Thus, the notion of trust as an under-theorized and poorly understood phenomenon still holds. Hence, the motivation of this study was fuelled by the need to increase our knowledge and understanding of the role and nature of trust in inter-organizational collaborative relationships. It is posited that there is a call for more understanding about its antecedents and consequences, as well as about the very concept in inter-organizational collaborative relationships. The study is divided into two parts. The first part gives a general overview, and the second part comprises four research publications. Both qualitative and quantitative research methodology is utilized. A multi-method research design was used because it provides different levels of data and different perspectives on the phenomenon. The results of this study reveal that trust incorporates three dimensions on both the individual and the organizational level: capability, goodwill, and self-reference. Trust develops from the reputation and behavior of the trusted party. It appears from this study that trust is clearly directed towards both individual boundary spanners and the counterpart company itself – i.e. not only to one or the other. The trusting party, on the other hand, is always an individual, and not the organization per se. Trust increases collaboration benefits and lowers collaboration drawbacks, thus having a positive effect on relationship performance. The major contribution of this study lies in uncovering the critical points and drawbacks in prior research and thereby in responding to the highlighted challenges. The way in which these challenges were addressed offers contributions to three major issues in the emerging theory of trust in the inter-organizational context: firstly, this study clarifies the trustor-trustee discussion; secondly, it conceptualizes trust as existing on both individual and organizational levels; and thirdly, it provides more information about the antecedents of trust and the ways in which it affects relationship performance.

”Kyllähän nyt pitäs olla jo semmonen aika, että pääsis niin kö keskustelemhan näistä asioista.” Tutkimus lappilaisten sotavankien, partisaanien uhrien ja huutolaisten elämänkulusta, voimavaroista, terveydestä ja sairauksista

Research into the course of life, mental stamina and health status of wartime prisoners, victims of Soviet partisan attacks, and paupers in Finnish Lapland The basis of this research comprised the issues raised during the interviews conducted in my work as a general practitioner in Lapland, regarding factors that have possibly affected the life stories and health conditions of Lappish people who had lived through the war as war prisoners, victims of partisan attacks, or paupers. The purpose of the study was to describe how the different life phases and experiences emerged from the interviewees’ stories and to identify their mental stamina. Another goal was to make observations on their health status, in which the main emphasis became to address mental symptoms. The cohort consisted of elderly Finns who lived in Lapland during the war and experienced war imprisonment, pauperism, or became victims of partisan attacks. All three groups consisted of 12 interviewees. The interview transcripts were read several times and then investigated using the content analysis methods applicable to the material. The research methodology was based on building awareness and understanding. Thematic tagging and data coding were used as structured analysis tools. In all three groups most of the interviewees clearly identified their mental stamina, the most fundamental of which were home, family and work. The war prisoners’ injuries and nervous sensibility symptoms had been shown in earlier studies on war prisoners, and on this basis they had been granted disability pensions. However, many of them had suppressed their traumatic experiences and mental difficulties, and they could not talk about these issues until at the time of these interviews held at old age. Four of them still suffered from a post-traumatic stress disorder. The victims of Soviet partisans had had to carry their mental load alone for decades before the cruel ravages on civilians in remote areas of Lapland became publicly known. Most of them still had disturbing nervous sensibility symptoms. Four interviewees had a post-traumatic stress disorder, and in addition to these, the mental symptoms of one had developed into a post-traumatic stress disorder during old age. Many of the interviewees who had been left paupers remembered their childhood as filled with grief and feelings of inferiority, and had nightmares relating to their wartime experiences. Yet none of them suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. The results showed that the exceptional suffering caused by the war, the wartime imprisonment and the devastating attacks by Soviet partisans had led especially to mental difficulties. These were left almost completely unnoticed in the post-war conditions, and the war victims were unable to seek help on their own. Based on the results, our health care for the elderly should focus on familiarization with the individual experiences and life stories of each elderly person. This can facilitate geriatric diagnostics and individual therapy planning. Empathic familiarization with the life experiences of the elderly may strengthen their mental stamina and improve the quality of successful aging.

Simulações computacionais e ferramentas de modelização em educação química: uma revisão de literatura publicada

This article presents a review of published literature concerning the use of computer simulations and modeling tools in Chemical Education. The findings about the possibilities of their application in the Chemistry curriculum, their effective implementation, the teaching methods involved, the research methodology and also the instruments of evaluation that were used and their results were described and analyzed. The need to develop adequate theory support to educators who want to start using this new technology in their Chemistry classes became evident along the research, as well as the lack of development of model perception among Chemistry educators and learners.

Managerial Careers in the IT Industry: Women in China and in Finland

This research focuses on the career experiences of women managers in the IT industry in China and Finland, two countries with different cultures, policies, size of population, and social and economic structures regarding work-life support and equal opportunities. The object of this research is to present a cross-cultural comparison of women’s career experiences and how women themselves understand and account for their careers. The study explores how the macro and the micro levels of cultural and social processes become manifested in the lives of individual women. The main argument in this thesis is that culture plays a crucial role in making sense of women’s career experiences, although its role should be understood through its interrelationship with other social processes, e.g., institutional relations, social policies, industrial structures and organizations, as well as globalization. The interrelationship of a series of cultural and social processes affects individuals’ attitudes to, and arrangement and organization of, their work and family lives. This thesis consists of two parts. The first part introduces the research topic and discusses the overall results. The second part comprises five research papers. The main research question of the study is: How do cultural and social processes affect the experiences of women managers? Quantitative and qualitative research methods, which include in-depth interviews, Q-methodology, interpretive analysis, and questionnaires, are used in the study. The main theoretical background is culturally sensitive career theory and the theory of individual differences. The results of this study are viewed through a feminist lens. The research methodology applied allows new explorations on how demographic factors, work experiences, lifestyle issues, and organizational cultures can jointly affect women’s managerial careers. The sample group used in the research is 42 women managers working in IT companies in China (21) and Finland (21). The results of the study illustrate the impact of history, tradition, culture, institutional relations, social politics, industry and organizations, and globalization on the careers of women managers. It is claimed that the role of culture – cultural norms within nations and organizations – is of great importance in the relationship of gender and work. Women’s managerial careers are affected by multiple factors (personal, social and cultural) reflecting national and inter-individual differences. The results of the study contribute to research on careers, adding particularly to the literature on gender, work and culture, and offering a complex and holistic perspective for a richer understanding of pluralism and global diversity. The results of the study indicate how old and new career perspectives are evidenced in women managers in the IT industry. The research further contributes to an understanding of women’s managerial careers from a cross-culture perspective. In addition, the study contributes to the literature on culture and extends understanding of Hofstede’s work. Further, most traditional career theories do not perceive the importance of culture in determining an individual’s career experience and this study richens understanding of women managers’ careers and has considerable implications for international human resource management. The results of this study emphasize the need, when discussing women managers’ careers, to understand the ways by which gendering is produced rather than merely examining gender differences. It is argued that the meaning of self-knowledge is critical. Further, the environment where the careers under study develop differs greatly; China and Finland are very different – culturally, historically and socially. The findings of this study should, therefore, be understood as a holistic, specific, and contextually-bound.

The Effect of Operational Disturbances on Reliability and Operation Time Distribution of NCmachine Tools in FMS

This thesis concentrates on studying the operational disturbance behavior of machine tools integrated into FMS. Operational disturbances are short term failures of machine tools which are especially disruptive to unattended or unmanned operation of FMS. The main objective was to examine the effect of operational disturbances on reliability and operation time distribution for machine tools. The theoretical part of the thesis covers the fimdamentals of FMS relating to the subject of this study. The concept of FMS, its benefits and operator's role in FMS operation are reviewed. The importance of reliability is presented. The terms describing the operation time of machine tools are formed by adopting standards and references. The concept of failure and indicators describing reliability and operational performance for machine tools in FMSs are presented. The empirical part of the thesis describes the research methodology which is a combination of automated (ADC) and manual data collection. By using this methodology it is possible to have a complete view of the operation time distribution for studied machine tools. Data collection was carried out in four FMSs consisting of a total of 17 machine tools. Each FMS's basic features and the signals of ADC are described. The indicators describing the reliability and operation time distribution of machine tools were calculated according to collected data. The results showed that operational disturbances have a significant influence on machine tool reliability and operational performance. On average, an operational disturbance occurs every 8,6 hours of operation time and has a down time of 0,53 hours. Operational disturbances cause a 9,4% loss in operation time which is twice the amount of losses caused by technical failures (4,3%). Operational disturbances have a decreasing influence on the utilization rate. A poor operational disturbance behavior decreases the utilization rate. It was found that the features of a part family to be machined and the method technology related to it are defining the operational disturbance behavior of the machine tool. Main causes for operational disturbances were related to material quality variations, tool maintenance, NC program errors, ATC and machine tool control. Operator's role was emphasized. It was found that failure recording activity of the operators correlates with the utilization rate. The more precisely the operators record the failure, the higher is the utilization rate. Also the FMS organizations which record failures more precisely have fewer operational disturbances.