Carolina Machado

Dimension and organisational behaviour

The Portuguese economy is characterised by the existence of small companies, for which it is very difficult to find critical dimensions to obtain scale economies to production, distribution, and commercialisation. It became an interesting field to study. This article will study an important Portuguese traditional sector, where quality and know‐how is a reality: the production and commercialisation of the furniture sector. Characterised by a small dimension, almost 3,400 firms with an average of 20 persons each, this article tries to understand the reason why these firms could or could not be interested in co‐operation nets, mergers or acquisitions, compatible with a bigger organisational dimension. While some are interested in co‐operating, increasing their dimension, others resist these changes due to some human resources and organisational behaviour problems.

Human Resource Management: An Operational Perspective

The main aim of this chapter is to give some ideas about the relevance of human resource management (HRM) in nowadays organizations, with a special emphasis in the operational perspective of HRM. So, and beginning with a glance about the evolution and concepts, giving relevance to the transition from personnel management to HRM, the chapter follows with the discussion of some of the challenges presented to this management and the presentation of the main policies and practice of HRM that can be developed by the different types of organizations.

Effective Human Resources Management in Small and Medium Enterprises: Global Perspectives

Carolina F. Machado received her PhD degree in Management Sciences (Organizational and Politics Management / Human Resources Management) from the University of Minho in 1999, and Master degree in Management (Strategic Human Resource Management) from Technical University of Lisbon in 1994. Teaching in the Human Resources Management subjects since 1989 at University of Minho, she is since 2004 Associated Professor, with experience and research interest areas in the field of Human Resources Management, International Human Resources Management, Training and Development, Management Change and Knowledge Management. She is Head of Management Department, at Economic and Management School at University of Minho, as well as Head of Human Resources Management Master and Head of Human Resources Management Work Group at University of Minho. Released: November 2013 An Excellent Addition to Your Library!

Human Resource Management and the Internet: Challenge and/or Threat to Workplace Productivity?

Throughout the last few years, the Internet has become a common tool at the workplace. Companies, from different activity sectors, were quick to embrace the opportunities and potential given by the Internet and put them to good use to achieve their goals. However, despite having contributed to the efficiency of employees, by allowing them to have immediate access to information on a variety of topics and facilitating communication all over the world, it also contributed to never before encountered concerns to employers. Initial research into the use of the Internet for personal reasons during working hours stated that such use had a negative impact on productivity. The reasoning for such was that employees would be wasting time which could be used to further their work, thus possibly making them unproductive. On the other hand, recent research has shown the Internet to be quite valuable to productivity. Studies have shown that not only is the Internet a priceless tool which aids workers to accomplish their designated tasks, but also when used reasonably, allows those who are working to have moments of relaxation. This contributes to improvements in concentration and ultimately in productivity. Due to this ambiguity and the absence of works on this theme in Portugal, a decision was made to base this study on the impact of the Internet usage on productivity.

Training and Development of Human Resources: A Brief Contribution to a Better Understanding of Its Relevance

Integrated in a context characterized by deep changes, with increasing levels of competitiveness, organizations need well-trained and informed human resources able to answer quickly and effectively to the challenges that they are facing. Given this dynamic, this chapter seeks to study and highlight the importance of training and development in the context of current management, with particular emphasis on human resource management. In view of the nature of training and development as well as the key elements to be considered in the definition and implementation of a training program, we will look to study the different training and development methods with particular emphasis on those most frequently used today. Parallel to the process of workers’ development, we will also look to study the organizational development process, without neglecting the problem of diversity in work.

Global Talent Management: Reality or Utopia? A Special Glance Through a Portuguese Multinational Organization

In this global world that we live in, global talent management is one of the big challenges faced by the human resource management areas around the world. It constitutes a privileged and innovated way of aligning human resource management and business strategy. The main purpose of this study was to identify and analyze the talent management System presented by a Portuguese multinational organization. In addition, there were two other propositions with significant relevance for the case: the analyses of a conceptual framework about human resources roles in global talent management and the impact of contextual factors; and the analyses of the principles of effective global talent management. The theoretical construct was supported by a qualitative approach. Data collection approaches for this qualitative research involved data observation and individual semistructured interviews. All global talent management strategies, policies, frameworks, and practices adopted by the multinational company have been carefully examined in order to pursuit the goals of the research. It was concluded that global talent management is now a reality for this Portuguese company and the company’s global talent management system can be used as a model, as far as it concerns to the talent strategy and philosophy, influenced by the different roles played by the human resources area and the observation of the principles of effective global talent management. However, it is absolutely necessary to note that the success of each talent management system depends on each particular situation and on the organizational context as well as on the ability to innovate and on the creativity of the implemented policies and practices.

Expatriate Women: A Dream Waiting to Come True

In a context of a globalized economy, business is no longer limited by national boundaries. To maintain their competitiveness, organizations are increasingly establishing and strengthening their presence overseas. For this reason, and to accomplish their projects more successfully, many firms take the option to deploy employees from the home’s company to their subsidiary. This way, we have inevitably assisted to a strong rise of these professionals in international assignments. However, this rise has been very disproportional to men and women, with a clear disadvantage do women. Indeed, women represent a clear minority compared to men. What explains such a huge difference that sets apart men and women? The present critical literature review starts from this issue in order to obtain a greater understanding of the gender effect in the process and in the experience of the expatriation (one of the many international forms of mobility in the organizational contexts).

Corporate Social Responsibility Role in SMEs: A Critical Way of Thinking in Green and Lean Management Arena

Green and lean management is one of the higher challenges that today’s organizations are facing. However, and in order to better answer to these new challenges and develop new ways of management , organizations need to develop new ways of thinking as well as be more responsible in the society and environment where they are present. Taking into account the importance that the concept of social responsibility assumes in organizations, this present chapter looks to study the way in which corporate social responsibility is implemented in organizations, with a special emphasis to SMEs, in order to develop the green and lean management philosophy.

About the Expatriation Process in SMEs: A Portuguese Look at the HRM Role

This chapter seeks to develop a theoretical revision about human resource management (HRM) in micro, small and medium sized enterprises’ (SMEs) expatriation process. Structured in five steps, it begins with a brief contextualization of SME reality at national (Portugal) and European level, just followed by some considerations about globalization and internationalization as well as its relevance to SMEs. Thirdly, the expatriation concept is explored followed by the study of HRM role in the expatriation process management and the main challenges they are facing. Some HRM practices at SMEs expatriates’ level are also analyzed. The chapter finishes with some final reflections and considerations.

Resistência à Adopção de Tecnologias de Informação e Estratégias para a sua Superação: Estudo de um Caso de Implementação de um Sistema ERP

O Acto de gerir adquiriu ao longo do tempo uma crescente complexidade. Cada vez sao mais as incertezas quanto ao seu resultado, e cada vez maior o numero de variaveis que tendem a influencia-la. Como tal, os Sistemas de Informacao sao hoje um recurso chave no apoio a tarefa “Gerir”. Nunca foi tao importante explorar ao maximo toda a informacao que prolifera numa dada organizacao. “Gerir e decidir em cenario de incerteza, com suporte probabilistico e intuicao, na procura constante de antecipar o futuro, actuando o mais cedo possivel, com um determinado nivel de risco. A informacao constitui o recurso-chave para a reducao da incerteza na gestao empresarial. Saber gerir a informacao de forma a apoiar a gestao global da unidade economica, e actualmente um dos principais desafios que se coloca as empresas” [Zorrinho, Carlos 1995]. Aproveitar os meios que as TIC (Tecnologias de Informacao e Comunicacao) disponibilizam, passou a ser nao somente um factor de sucesso mas essencialmente um factor de sobrevivencia.Apresenta-se um sistema de apoio a decisao (SAD) cujo principal objectivo e aplicar metodos formais de apoio a decisao, no âmbito da gestao de uma rede rodoviaria. Partindo de uma analise efectuada a dados disponibilizados pelo Instituto para a Conservacao e Exploracao da Rede Rodoviaria (ICERR), foi adaptada uma estrutura de dados que permitiu eliminar as redundâncias, inconsistencias e lacunas detectadas. O Sistema de Informacao (SI) desenvolvido corresponde aos requisitos fundamentais de um sistema de apoio a decisao (flexibilidade e interactividade), e permite a visualizacao dos resultados em ambiente grafico. Integra um Sistema de Informacao Geografica (SIG) – ArcView - e um Sistema de Gestao de Bases de Dados Relacional (SGBDR) - 4th Dimension. O metodo de apoio a decisao implementado foi o ELECTRE TRI, por se abordar este caso como sendo um problema de afectacao, de situacoes observadas, a classes que sao pre-definidas a partir de situacoes de referencia. A classificacao em classes tem por objectivo permitir ao Agente de Decisao (AD) tomar decisoes de forma coerente e fundamentada, no que respeita a afectacao de recursos (sempre escassos) para as operacoes de conservacao de uma rede de estradas.Neste artigo aborda-se o tema gestao do conhecimento nas organizacoes, apresentando-se o estudo de caso do Departamento de Informatica da Universidade da Beira Interior. Estuda-se o processo de geracao, transmissao e partilha de conhecimento no contexto deste Departamento e, propoe-se um Modelo de Gestao do Conhecimento que facilite a interaccao entre as pessoas, armazene e favoreca a partilha de informacao e conhecimento no Departamento. No modelo proposto, consideram-se dois niveis: o nivel organizacional e o nivel aplicacional/tecnologico. Ao nivel organizacional sao abordados os aspectos que devem ser considerados para implementar um processo de gestao do conhecimento no Departamento. Ao nivel aplicacional e desenvolvido um Sistema de Gestao do Conhecimento integrado na intranet do Departamento, suportado em tecnologias que facilitam o armazenamento e a partilha de informacao e conhecimento e que inclui, nomeadamente, documentacao cientifica e administrativa, fora de discussao e “melhores praticas”. O sistema serve de suporte ao modelo em termos organizacionais. Como abordagem metodologica adequada para o desenvolvimento deste trabalho, foi escolhido um estudo de caso explicativo e interpretativo, recorrendo-se a triangulacao de metodos, atraves da administracao de um questionario, da observacao participante e da analise documental.Com a finalidade de auxiliar os usuarios, proporcionando recursos e procedimentos para um gerenciamento eficiente das informacoes, a Universidade do Sul de Santa Catarina – Unisul implantou um Sistema Integrado de Gestao (Enterprise Resources Planning - ERP), apoiado por uma Arquitetura de Sistemas de Informacao (Information Systems Architecture - ISA). Este artigo apresenta algumas experiencias da implantacao do SAP/R3 e do uso do ARIS na reestruturacao da Unisul, para promover uma melhor integracao dos alunos, docentes e colaboradores aos processos de gestao universitaria, sendo que o aperfeicoamento e a manutencao destes sistemas e apoiada por um grupo de pesquisa, que tambem proporciona suporte e inovacao aos processos de aprendizagem que se vem praticando. Alem disso, descreve-se neste trabalho, uma abordagem do ensino de Reengenharia de Processos de Negocios (Business Process Re-engineering - BPR), considerando que mudancas tecnologicas possibilitam a execucao de tarefas, de modo bem diferente dos anteriores. Tendo em vista que a reestruturacao da universidade e a implantacao do ERP sao tarefas de longo prazo e que exigem melhorias continuas, o principal objetivo deste artigo e contribuir com a aplicacao de conceitos de integracao, mudancas organizacionais e tecnologicas nos procedimentos de ensino.Apresentamos um modelo para geracao automatica de programas para invocacao de transaccoes em sistemas ERP em operacao desconectada. O modelo estende estes sistemas para alem da sua natureza cliente-servidor tradicional, permitindo a existencia de um novo tipo de aplicacoes cliente, executaveis em PDA, capazes de invocar transaccoes das varias areas funcionais dos ERP. Este processo de geracao tem por base as API ja existentes nos ERP, permitindo a construcao de aplicacoes simples correspondentes aos processos elementares do negocio, com capacidade de sincronizacao com o sistema central.Compara-se neste artigo o papel dos Sistemas de Informacao e das Tecnologias de Informacao em duas industrias: texteis e do vestuario; e moldes de plastico. A comparacao e efectuada na optica da cooperacao entre empresas dessas industrias. A presenca mais intensa e generalizada de Sistemas Informacao e Tecnologias de Informacao na industria dos moldes de plastico favorece esta industria, na forma como se envolve em processos de cooperacao inter-organizacionais. A concentracao geografica das empresas das duas industrias em estudo, aponta para a existencia de clusters. No entanto, na industria de moldes de plastico, a evidencia de concentracao geografica das empresas ligadas a industria e mais forte do que para as industrias texteis e do vestuario. Este aspecto parece gerar maiores oportunidades de cooperacao.ERP implementation success is influenced by a large number of factors, which most of the times are difficult to measure objectively. User involvement and participation is one of the most cited critical success factors in ERP implementation projects, and one of the most critical ones for the their satisfactory outcome. This study attempts to define a set of metrics for monitoring user involvement and participation within ERP implementation projects by using the Goals/Questions/Metrics method. The results of this work are twofold. First, a literature review is presented on the user involvement and participation topic as related with ERP implementation projects. And second, a Goals/Questions/Metrics preliminary plan is proposed to monitor and control user involvement and participation within ERP implementation projects.