Employees’ continuous learning and job satisfaction - effects on productivity

In today’s knowledge intense economy the human capital is a source for competitive advantage for organizations. Continuous learning and sharing the knowledge within the organization are important to enhance and utilize this human capital in order to maximize the productivity. The new generation with different views and expectations of work is coming to work life giving its own characteristics on learning and sharing. Work should offer satisfaction so that the new generation employees would commit to organizations. At the same time organizations have to be able to focus on productivity to survive in the competitive market. The objective of this thesis is to construct a theory based framework of productivity, continuous learning and job satisfaction and further examine this framework and its applications in a global organization operating in process industry. Suggestions for future actions are presented for this case organization. The research is a qualitative case study and the empiric material was gathered by personal interviews concluding 15 employee and one supervisor interview. Results showed that more face to face interaction is needed between employees for learning because much of the knowledge of the process is tacit and so difficult to share in other ways. Offering these sharing possibilities can also impact positively to job satisfaction because they will increase the sense of community among employees which was found to be lacking. New employees demand more feedback to improve their learning and confidence. According to the literature continuous learning and job satisfaction have a relative strong relationship on productivity. The employee’s job description in the case organization has moved towards knowledge work due to continuous automation and expansion of the production process. This emphasizes the importance of continuous learning and means that productivity can be seen also from quality perspective. The normal productivity output in the case organization is stable and by focusing on the quality of work by improving continuous learning and job satisfaction the upsets in production can be handled and prevented more effectively. Continuous learning increases also the free human capital input and utilization of it and this can breed output increasing innovations that can increase productivity in long term. Also job satisfaction can increase productivity output in the end because employees will work more efficiently, not doing only the minimum tasks required. Satisfied employees are also found participating more in learning activities.

AQUAREL CONCEPT Aquatic resources for green energy realization

The AQUAREL project studied the availability and optional utilization methods for fish processing side streams and other aquatic biomaterial in the Republic of Karelia. Additionally processing aquatic biomaterial with manure and sewage sludge was studied. Based on the results, the most feasible option today is to process fish side streams to fish oil and dewatered oil-free residue and to use them for fish or animal feed production. However, it is necessary to highlight, that changes in e.g. economic environment, energy prices and demand may require re-evaluating the results and conclusions made in the project. Producing fish oil from fish processing side streams is an easy and relatively simple production process generating a valuable end product. The functionality of the process was confirmed in a pilot conducted in the project. The oil and solids are separated from the heated fish waste based on gravity. The fish oil separating on top of the separator unit is removed. Fish oil can as such be utilized for heating purposes, fish meal or animal feed production, but it can also be further processed to biodiesel. However, due to currently moderate energy prices in Russia, biodiesel production is not economically profitable. Even if the fish oil production process is not complicated, the operative management of small-scale fish oil production unit requires dedicated resources and separate facilities especially to meet hygiene requirements. Managing the side streams is not a core business for fish farmers. Efficient and economically profitable fish oil production requires a centralized production unit with bigger processing capacity. One fish processing unit needs to be designed to manage side streams collected from several fish farms. The optimum location for the processing unit is in the middle of the fish farms. Based on the transportation cost analysis in the Republic of Karelia, it is not economically efficient to transport bio-wastes for more than 100 km since the transportation costs start increasing substantially. Another issue to be considered is that collection of side streams, including the dead fish, from the fish farms should be organized on a daily basis in order to eliminate the need for storing the side streams at the farms. Based on AQUAREL project studies there are different public funding sources available for supporting and enabling profitable and environmentally sustainable utilization, research or development of fish processing side streams and other aquatic biomaterial. Different funding programmes can be utilized by companies, research organizations, authorities and non-governmental organizations.

Sähköisen rekrytoinnin hyödyt kuntaorganisaatioissa

Rekrytoinnin tavoitteena on täyttää avoin tehtävä kustannustehokkaasti mahdollisimman pätevällä ja organisaatioon sopivalla henkilöllä. Ovathan henkilövoimavarat yksi yrityksen tärkeimmistä resursseista. Viimeisten vuosikymmenien aikana tapa, jolla rekrytoimme ihmisiä, on muuttunut voimakkaasti. Nykypäivänä harva yritys julkaisee työpaikkailmoituksia sanomalehdissä ja vastaanottaa työhakemuksia sähköpostitse tai kirjeitse. Rekrytointi on siirtynyt internettiin. Puhutaan sähköisestä rekrytoinnista. Tässä tutkimuksessa käsitellään sähköisen rekrytointijärjestelmän hyötyjä kuntaorganisaatioissa. Tarkastelun kohteena on KL-Kuntarekry osakeyhtiön hallinnoima sähköinen rekrytointijärjestelmä, Kuntarekry.fi -palvelu. Tutkimus toteutettiin kirjallisuuskatsauksen ja haastatteluiden muodossa. Kuntarekryn yli 200 käyttäjäorganisaatiosta tutkimukseen osallistui 6 kunta-alan organisaatiota. Työn tulokset mukailivat hyvin aikaisempien tutkimusten kanssa. Kuntarekryn avulla saavutetut hyödyt organisaatioissa olivat kustannussäästöt, rekrytoinnin nopeutuminen ja tehostuminen, pääsy laajemmille työnhakijamarkkinoille sekä hakemusten määrän kasvaminen. Lisäksi työssä havaittiin, että rekrytoinnin tehokkuuden mittaamisessa on kehitettävää.

A multimethod examination of contributors to successful on-the-job learning for vocational students

Rapid changes in working life and competence requirements of different professions have increased interest in workplace learning. It is considered an effective way to learn and update professional skills by performing daily tasks in an authentic environment. Especially, ensuring a supply of skilled future workers is a crucial issue for firms facing tight competition and a shortage of competent employees due to the retirement of current professionals. In order to develop and make the most of workplace learning, it is important to focus on workplace learning environments and the individual characteristics of those participating in workplace learning. The literature has suggested various factors that influence adults' and professionals’ workplace learning of profession-related skills, but lacks empirical studies on contextual and individual-related factors that positively affect students' workplace learning. Workers with vocational education form a large group in modern firms. Therefore, elements of vocational students’ successful workplace learning during their studies, before starting their career paths, need to be examined. To fill this gap in the literature, this dissertation examines contributors to vocational students’ workplace learning in Finland, where students’ workplace learning is included in the vocational education and training system. The study is divided into two parts: the introduction, comprised of the overview of the relevant literature and the conclusion of the entire study, and five separate articles. Three of the articles utilize quantitative methods and two use qualitative methods to examine factors that contribute to vocational students’ workplace learning. The results show that, from the students’ perspective, attitudinal, motivational, and organizationrelated factors enhance the student’s development of professionalism during the on-the-job learning period. Specifically, the organization-related factors such as innovative climate, guidance, and interactions with seniors have a strong positive impact on the students’ perceived development of professional skills because, for example, the seniors’ guidance and provision of new viewpoints for the tasks helps the vocational students to gain autonomy at work performance. A multilevel analysis shows that of those factors enhancing workplace learning from the student perspective, innovative climate, knowledge transfer accuracy, and the students’ performance orientation were significantly related to the workplace instructors’ assessment regarding the students’ professional performance. Furthermore, support from senior colleagues and the students’ self-efficacy were both significantly associated with the formal grades measuring how well the students managed to learn necessary professional skills. In addition, the results suggest that the students’ on-the-job learning can be divided into three main phases, of which two require efforts from both the student and the on-the-job learning organization. The first phase includes the student’s application of basic professional skills, demonstration of potential in performing daily tasks, and orientation provided by the organization at the beginning of the on-the-job learning period. In the second phase, the student actively develops profession-related skills by performing daily tasks, thus learning a fluent working style while observing the seniors’ performance. The organization offers relevant tasks and follows the student’s development. The third level indicates a student who has reached the professional level described as a full occupation. The results suggest that constructing the vocational students’ successful on-the-job learning period requires feedback from seniors, opportunities to learn to manage entire work processes, self-efficacy on the part of the students, proactive behavior, and initiative in learning. The study contributes to research on workplace learning in three ways: firstly, it identifies the key individual- and organization-based factors that influence the vocational students’ successful on-the-job learning from their perspective and examines mutual relationships between these factors. Second, the study provides knowledge of how the factors related to the students’ view of successful workplace learning are associated with the workplace instructors’ perspective and the formal grades. Third, the present study finds elements needed to construct a successful on-the-job learning for the students.

Effects of physical activity and fitness on the psychological wellbeing of young men and working adults: associations with stress, mental resources, overweight and workability

Background: A positive association has been suggested to exist between physical activity and psychological wellbeing. However, the association between physical fitness, especially muscle fitness and psychological wellbeing, has not yet been fully elucidated. Aims: The objective of the present thesis was to assess the relationship between physical activity and physical fitness with stress symptoms, mental resources and workability among young men and working adults. Subjects and methods: Volunteers of young men (n=831, mean age 25-y (±4.0)), underwent a cardiorespiratory (CRF) and muscle fitness (MFI) test and completed leisure time physical activity (LTPA) and Occupational Stress Questionnaires (OSQ). The participants were divided into tertiles according to LTPA, CRF and MFI. A 12-month exercise intervention evaluated 371 working adults (exercise group, n=338, mean age 45-y (±8.8)); control group, n=33, mean age 41-y (±6.9)).The exercise group underwent a 12-month exercise program followed by a 12-month follow-up. The OSQ, Workability Index (WAI) and CRF were evaluated at baseline and at 4, 8, 12 and 24 months. Results: Physically inactive subjects reported more stress and less available mental resources than the subjects who reported high physical activity levels. Improved physical fitness was associated with less stress and more mental resources among normal weight men, but not in overweight men. After a 12-month exercise intervention, employees in the exercise group increased their physical activity, improved workability, decreased stress symptoms and improved their physical fitness and mental resources. After the follow-up year, workability and stress were improved compared to baseline. Conclusions: In this thesis, good physical fitness was associated with improved psychological wellbeing among young men and working adults.

Evaluating the Strategic Objectives of Cameroonian Higher Education: An application of the Balanced Scorecard

Contemporary higher education operates in an environment of dwindling and parsimonious resources; the increasing need for accountability and relevance to varying stakeholders with differing expectations. These relatively new trends in higher education have been faced by business organizations which have developed different ways of operating in response. This study outlines one way by which business organizations have addressed similar circumstances to show how the Cameroon higher education (HE) could learn from business organizations to manage strategic objectives. The balanced scorecard (BSC) has been used by business organizations to address similar trends. This study evaluates the strategic objectives of Cameroonian higher education using the balanced scorecard. The system level is used to identify the general strategic objectives and one state university is used to represent the translation and implementation of the objectives at the institution level. The BSC principles used include: operational strategic objectives; organizational alignment to the strategy; making strategy everyone’s everyday job; making strategy continual and; mobilizing the leadership for change. The underlying concepts in these principles are communication, consensus, relevance, and a participatory approach. The study employs data from policy documents, relevant literature, websites and semi-structured interviews. The research approach is qualitative and the analyses are done by making meaning of phenomena in their natural contexts. The results show that there is a general knowledge of the strategic objectives but there is disagreement on the relevance of these objectives to HE and on the type of approaches used in implementing the objectives. It was also found that the relevant stakeholders are known, but not all the respondents agree on the importance of these stakeholders. All stakeholders do not have the same level of influence-the state is the most influential. Reporting is sufficiently done but there are insufficient provisions for feedback from stakeholders. The study concludes that the BSC principles can be applied to the management of strategic objectives in Cameroon HE. For Cameroonian higher education, it is recommended that the focus should be first, on developing tools for strategy before the strategy itself. Even though the need for the BSC is confirmed the context does not seem sufficiently ready to implement the BSC as a strategic management tool. The proposed BSC framework can only be used as a communication tool. The barriers to managing strategic objectives in Cameroon HE are related to the communication, consensus, clarity and relevance. However, the system has prospects for improved management and eventual adoption of the BSC as both a strategic management and communication tool. In line with other BSC applications to higher education, this study concluded that it is more feasible to apply the balanced scorecard to a single higher education institution than to a higher education system. The study makes a contribution to the BSC by showing how its principles can be used in a non-business context. The study also opens up possibilities for future research on the same topic in a different context or the same context with a wider scope (more institutions and respondents); the same study with a deeper focus on the interrelationships between the different strategic objectives (strategy maps). The study could also be extended by including the perspectives of the identified stakeholders who are not directly part of the higher education system but constitute the environment in which higher education operates.

De auro e septentrione Job. XXXVII: v. 22

Invokaatio: I.N.J.

Henkilöstöraportointi strategisen henkilöstöjohtamisen tukena - Case Eteva kuntayhtymä

Organisaatiot kohtaavat jatkuvasti uusia ja vaativia haasteita. Organisaatiot tarvit-sevat henkilöstön asiantuntemusta ja osaamista, jotta voisivat menestyä kaiken aikaa kovenevassa kilpailutilanteessa. Henkilöstön osaaminen, tiedot ja taidot on tunnistettu organisaation tärkeimmäksi voimavaraksi. Tämän tutkimuksen tavoit-teena oli selvittää, millaista tietoa henkilöstä organisaatiossa johtamis- ja esimies-työtä tekevät tarvitsevat strategisen henkilöstöjohtamisen tueksi. Tutkimus suoritettiin tapaustutkimuksena kehitysvammapalveluja tuottavassa or-ganisaatiossa. Empiirinen aineisto kerättiin ja analysoitiin määrällisin menetelmin kyselytutkimuksena. Analysoinnissa käytettiin lisäksi sisällön analyysia. Tutki-muskysely kohdennettiin kohdeorganisaatiossa johtamis- ja esimiestyötä tekevil-le. Kohdeorganisaation johtamis- ja esimiestyötä tekevät tarvitsevat strategisen hen-kilöstöjohtamisen tueksi monipuolista laadullista ja määrällistä tietoa henkilöstös-tä ja taloudesta sekä palautetta oman esimiestyön laadusta. Tieto henkilöstön työhyvinvoinnista ja työtyytyväisyydestä koettiin tärkeäksi. Tuotetut tiedot tulisi olla saatavissa yhdestä paikasta. Esimiehet tarvitsevat myös osaamisen vahvistamista tuotetun tiedon tulkintaan ja käsittelyyn.

Translating with the Web. Professional translators' information-seeking behaviour in translation with online resources

Tämän tutkielman aiheena on ammattikääntäjien tiedonhaku, kun käytettävissä on ainoastaan verkkolähteitä. Tutkimuksessa on tarkasteltu, mistä ja miten ammattikääntäjät etsivät tietoa internetistä kääntäessään lähtötekstiä englannista suomeen. Lisäksi tutkimuksen tarkoituksena on osoittaa, että tiedonhakutaidot ja lähdekriittisyys ovat käännöskompetensseja, joita tulisi sekä ylläpitää että opettaa osana kääntäjäkoulutusta. Tutkimuksen aineisto kerättiin empiirisesti käyttämällä kolmea metodia. Käännösprosessi ja sen aikana tapahtunut tiedonhaku tallennettiin käyttäen Camtasia-näyttövideointiohjelmaa ja Translog-II -näppäilyntallennusohjelmaa. Lisäksi tutkimukseen osallistuneet kääntäjät täyttivät kaksi kyselyä, joista ensimmäinen sisälsi taustatietokysymyksiä ja toinen itse prosessiin liittyviä retrospektiivisiä kysymyksiä. Kyselyt toteutettiin Webropol-kyselytyökalulla. Aineistoa kerättiin yhteensä viidestä koetilanteesta. Tutkimuksessa tarkasteltiin lähemmin kolmen ammattikääntäjän tiedon-hakutoimintoja erottelemalla käännösprosesseista ne tauot, joiden aikana kääntäjät etsivät tietoa internetistä. Käytettyjen verkkolähteiden osalta tutkimuksessa saatiin vastaavia tuloksia kuin aiemmissakin tutkimuksissa: eniten käytettyjä olivat Google, Wikipedia sekä erilaiset verkkosanakirjat. Tässä tutkimuksessa kuitenkin paljastui, että ammattikääntäjien tiedonhaun toimintamallit vaihtelevat riippuen niin kääntäjän erikoisalasta kuin hänen tiedonhakutaitojensa tasosta. Joutuessaan työskentelemään tutun työympäristönsä ja oman erikoisalansa ulkopuolella turvautuu myös osa ammattikääntäjistä alkeellisimpiin tiedonhakutekniikoihin, joita käännöstieteen opiskelijoiden on havaittu yleisesti käyttävän. Tulokset paljastivat myös, että tiedonhaku voi viedä jopa 70 prosenttia koko käännösprosessiin kuluvasta ajasta riippuen kääntäjän aiemmasta lähtötekstin aihepiiriin liittyvästä tietopohjasta ja tiedonhaun tehokkuudesta. Tutkimuksessa saatujen tulosten pohjalta voidaan sanoa, että myös ammattikääntäjien tulisi kehittää tiedonhakutaitojaan pitääkseen käännösprosessinsa tehokkaana. Lisäksi kääntäjien pitäisi muistaa arvioida kriittisesti käyttämiään tietolähteitä: lähdekritiikki on tarpeen erityisesti verkkolähteitä käytettäessä. Tästä syystä tiedonhakutaitoja ja lähdekriittisyyttä tulisikin opettaa ja harjoitella jo osana kääntäjäkoulutusta. Kääntäjien ei myöskään pidä jättää tiedonhakua pelkkien verkkolähteiden varaan, vaan jatkossakin käyttää hyväkseen niin painettuja tietolähteitä kuin myös henkilölähteitä.

Distributed energy resources in an electricity retailer’s short-term profit optimization

Liberalization of electricity markets has resulted in a competed Nordic electricity market, in which electricity retailers play a key role as electricity suppliers, market intermediaries, and service providers. Although these roles may remain unchanged in the near future, the retailers’ operation may change fundamentally as a result of the emerging smart grid environment. Especially the increasing amount of distributed energy resources (DER), and improving opportunities for their control, are reshaping the operating environment of the retailers. This requires that the retailers’ operation models are developed to match the operating environment, in which the active use of DER plays a major role. Electricity retailers have a clientele, and they operate actively in the electricity markets, which makes them a natural market party to offer new services for end-users aiming at an efficient and market-based use of DER. From the retailer’s point of view, the active use of DER can provide means to adapt the operation to meet the challenges posed by the smart grid environment, and to pursue the ultimate objective of the retailer, which is to maximize the profit of operation. This doctoral dissertation introduces a methodology for the comprehensive use of DER in an electricity retailer’s short-term profit optimization that covers operation in a variety of marketplaces including day-ahead, intra-day, and reserve markets. The analysis results provide data of the key profit-making opportunities and the risks associated with different types of DER use. Therefore, the methodology may serve as an efficient tool for an experienced operator in the planning of the optimal market-based DER use. The key contributions of this doctoral dissertation lie in the analysis and development of the model that allows the retailer to benefit from profit-making opportunities brought by the use of DER in different marketplaces, but also to manage the major risks involved in the active use of DER. In addition, the dissertation introduces an analysis of the economic potential of DER control actions in different marketplaces including the day-ahead Elspot market, balancing power market, and the hourly market of Frequency Containment Reserve for Disturbances (FCR-D).