The eternal pursuit of impartiality : A qualitative study of recruitment processes in the public sector

Bakgrund: Balansen mellan objektivitet och subjektivitet i rekrytering- och urvalsprocesser har diskuterats inom forskningen i över hundra år. Vid offentliga rekryteringsförfaranden får vissa principer inte förbises, bland annat objektivitetsprincipen som innebär att iaktta saklighet och opartiskhet samt beakta allas likhet inför lagen. Om beslut i rekryteringsprocesser baseras på felaktiga grunder riskerar organisationen att en felrekrytering kan ske, vilket resulterar i kostsamma konsekvenser. HR-funktionen har genomgått betydande förändringar under de senaste tre decennierna. Från att ha fungerat som en mer administrativ och underhållsinriktad funktion beskrivs HR numera som en strategisk affärspartner och kärnverksamhetsfunktion. HR-funktionen besitter vanligen expertkunskap inom kompetensförsörjning och kan bidra med att utveckla strategier angående personalhantering inom organisationen. Empirisk forskning visar emellertid att HR-avdelningar, inom specifikt den offentliga sektorn, inte nödvändigtvis lyckats transformeras till att fylla en sådan strategisk position utan främst fortsätter att fylla administrativa funktioner. Syfte: Studiens syfte är att skapa förståelse kring de möjligheter och utmaningar som följer strävan efter opartiskhet i en rekryteringsprocess inom offentlig sektor. Vidare är syftet med studien att undersöka vilken funktion HR-personal fyller i den strävan efter att nå opartiskhet. Studien fokuserar specifikt på olika kommuners rekryteringsprocesser. Metod: Till studien har en kvalitativ metod använts, där nio semistrukturerade intervjuer genomfördes med nio olika kommuner med personal inom HR och rekrytering. Slutsats: Studiens resultat visar på att de intervjuade respondenterna anser att olika metoderoch verktyg, såsom arbetspsykologiska tester och kompetensbaserad rekrytering, kan bland annat bidra till att de sökande blir mer likvärdigt bedömda. Det i sin tur kan förebygga riskenför felrekryteringar samt diskriminering. Objektiva metoder kan dock uppfattas begränsa bedömningen och inte ta hänsyn till de arbetssökandes åsikter och känslor, vilket kan leda till att rekryteringsprocessen upplevs av humaniserad. Därav utifrån studiens resultat kan mänsklig interaktion anses nödvändig och väsentlig, trots dess utmaningar med risken att subjektiva åsikter påverkar bedömningen. Utifrån studiens resultat uppfattas HR-funktionen inom den offentliga sektorn, när det gäller rekrytering, inte fullt ut besitta en strategisk roll utan främst vara en mer administrativ funktion. HR har en central roll som en stödfunktion och anses rikta fokus i beslutsfattandet, från det subjektiva till de mer objektiva faktorerna.Background: For over a hundred years, research has discussed the balance between objectivity and subjectivity in recruitment and selection processes. In public recruitment procedures, certain principles must not be overlooked, including the objectivity principle, which means observing objectivity and impartiality and considering everyone's equality before the law. If adecision in the recruitment process uses incorrect grounds, the organization risks that the wrong person gets recruited. The consequences of that can be costly. The HR function has undergone significant changes over the past three decades. HR has functioned as a more administrative and maintenance-oriented function. Now HR is described as a strategic business partner and a core business function. The HR function usually possesses expert knowledge in competence supply. HR can contribute to developing strategies regarding personnel management within the organization. However, empirical research shows that HR departments, specifically in the public sector, have not necessarily succeeded in transforming to fill such a strategic position but primarily continue to fulfill administrative functions. Purpose: Creating an understanding of the opportunities and challenges that follow the pursuit of impartiality in a public recruitment process is the purpose of this study. Furthermore, the purpose of the study is to investigate the role that HR staff fills in this quest to achieve impartiality. The focus of this study is specifically on different municipalities' recruitment processes. Method: For this study, a qualitative method where used. With staff in HR and recruitment in nine different municipalities, were nine semi-structured interviews conducted. Conclusion: The results of the study show that the interviewed respondents believe that various methods and tools, such as work psychological tests and competency-based recruitment, can, among other things, contribute to more equally assessed jobseekers. That can prevent the risk of incorrect recruitment and discrimination. However, objective methods can limit the assessment and not consider the jobseekers' choices and feelings. That can lead to the recruitment process perceived as dehumanized. Therefore, based on this study's result, human interaction can be considered necessary and significant, though its challenges with risking subjective choices affect the assessment. Based on this study's results, HR functions in the public sector, when it comes to recruitment, are not perceived to fully play a strategic role without primarily being a more administrative function. HR has a central role as a support function. The role of HR can help the decisionmaking focus from the subjective to the more objective factors

The eternal pursuit of impartiality : A qualitative study of recruitment processes in the public sector

Bakgrund: Balansen mellan objektivitet och subjektivitet i rekrytering- och urvalsprocesser har diskuterats inom forskningen i över hundra år. Vid offentliga rekryteringsförfaranden får vissa principer inte förbises, bland annat objektivitetsprincipen som innebär att iaktta saklighet och opartiskhet samt beakta allas likhet inför lagen. Om beslut i rekryteringsprocesser baseras på felaktiga grunder riskerar organisationen att en felrekrytering kan ske, vilket resulterar i kostsamma konsekvenser. HR-funktionen har genomgått betydande förändringar under de senaste tre decennierna. Från att ha fungerat som en mer administrativ och underhållsinriktad funktion beskrivs HR numera som en strategisk affärspartner och kärnverksamhetsfunktion. HR-funktionen besitter vanligen expertkunskap inom kompetensförsörjning och kan bidra med att utveckla strategier angående personalhantering inom organisationen. Empirisk forskning visar emellertid att HR-avdelningar, inom specifikt den offentliga sektorn, inte nödvändigtvis lyckats transformeras till att fylla en sådan strategisk position utan främst fortsätter att fylla administrativa funktioner. Syfte: Studiens syfte är att skapa förståelse kring de möjligheter och utmaningar som följer strävan efter opartiskhet i en rekryteringsprocess inom offentlig sektor. Vidare är syftet med studien att undersöka vilken funktion HR-personal fyller i den strävan efter att nå opartiskhet. Studien fokuserar specifikt på olika kommuners rekryteringsprocesser. Metod: Till studien har en kvalitativ metod använts, där nio semistrukturerade intervjuer genomfördes med nio olika kommuner med personal inom HR och rekrytering. Slutsats: Studiens resultat visar på att de intervjuade respondenterna anser att olika metoderoch verktyg, såsom arbetspsykologiska tester och kompetensbaserad rekrytering, kan bland annat bidra till att de sökande blir mer likvärdigt bedömda. Det i sin tur kan förebygga riskenför felrekryteringar samt diskriminering. Objektiva metoder kan dock uppfattas begränsa bedömningen och inte ta hänsyn till de arbetssökandes åsikter och känslor, vilket kan leda till att rekryteringsprocessen upplevs av humaniserad. Därav utifrån studiens resultat kan mänsklig interaktion anses nödvändig och väsentlig, trots dess utmaningar med risken att subjektiva åsikter påverkar bedömningen. Utifrån studiens resultat uppfattas HR-funktionen inom den offentliga sektorn, när det gäller rekrytering, inte fullt ut besitta en strategisk roll utan främst vara en mer administrativ funktion. HR har en central roll som en stödfunktion och anses rikta fokus i beslutsfattandet, från det subjektiva till de mer objektiva faktorerna.Background: For over a hundred years, research has discussed the balance between objectivity and subjectivity in recruitment and selection processes. In public recruitment procedures, certain principles must not be overlooked, including the objectivity principle, which means observing objectivity and impartiality and considering everyone's equality before the law. If adecision in the recruitment process uses incorrect grounds, the organization risks that the wrong person gets recruited. The consequences of that can be costly. The HR function has undergone significant changes over the past three decades. HR has functioned as a more administrative and maintenance-oriented function. Now HR is described as a strategic business partner and a core business function. The HR function usually possesses expert knowledge in competence supply. HR can contribute to developing strategies regarding personnel management within the organization. However, empirical research shows that HR departments, specifically in the public sector, have not necessarily succeeded in transforming to fill such a strategic position but primarily continue to fulfill administrative functions. Purpose: Creating an understanding of the opportunities and challenges that follow the pursuit of impartiality in a public recruitment process is the purpose of this study. Furthermore, the purpose of the study is to investigate the role that HR staff fills in this quest to achieve impartiality. The focus of this study is specifically on different municipalities' recruitment processes. Method: For this study, a qualitative method where used. With staff in HR and recruitment in nine different municipalities, were nine semi-structured interviews conducted. Conclusion: The results of the study show that the interviewed respondents believe that various methods and tools, such as work psychological tests and competency-based recruitment, can, among other things, contribute to more equally assessed jobseekers. That can prevent the risk of incorrect recruitment and discrimination. However, objective methods can limit the assessment and not consider the jobseekers' choices and feelings. That can lead to the recruitment process perceived as dehumanized. Therefore, based on this study's result, human interaction can be considered necessary and significant, though its challenges with risking subjective choices affect the assessment. Based on this study's results, HR functions in the public sector, when it comes to recruitment, are not perceived to fully play a strategic role without primarily being a more administrative function. HR has a central role as a support function. The role of HR can help the decisionmaking focus from the subjective to the more objective factors

THE CHALLENGES OF FEMALE ENTREPRENEURS OPERATING IN THE MIDDLE EAST : Group 33

Background The Middle East is a region that consists of 17 countries: Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Cyprus, Yemen, and Saudi Arabia (Pariona, 2020). Due to the persistent presence of old social and cultural structures, inequality remains a problem within the region. Every day, females in the region are faced with discrimination in various forms - something which becomes evident in the existing statistics, which show that only 28 percent of all females in the MENA region are economically active (Hattab, 2012).    However, it has been possible to identify improvements within the development of society as well as in the work to counteract inequality. Hence, it becomes increasingly important to gain a greater understanding of the region as a whole as well as gain knowledge regarding the existing challenges that female entrepreneurs experience.    Purpose The purpose of this research is to gain an understanding of the different challenges that female entrepreneurs face when launching, managing, and developing a business in the Middle East region.    Method This research is a qualitative study in which an abductive approach has been used. Therefore, the conclusions will be drawn from the empirical findings in combination with the results in the existing literature. Furthermore, in order to obtain high-quality and truthful data, a case-study with a semi-structured interview technique was used. All six interviews were later analysed by all researchers individually as well as jointly in order to ensure that no important information was lost.    Conclusion Based on the empirical findings in combination with the existing literature, three contextual factors were identified as the main challenges of female entrepreneurs when operating in the Middle East region. The following contextual challenges were identified: 1) Lack of Finance, 2) Lack of Support, and 3) Discrimination

Cutoff levels of 17-alpha-hydroxyprogesterone in neonatal screening for congenital adrenal hyperplasia should be based on gestational age rather than on birth weight.

Item does not contain fulltextOBJECTIVE: In newborn screening programs for congenital adrenal hyperplasia, 17-alpha-hydroxyprogesterone (17OHP) cutoff levels are based on birth weight (BW) or on gestational age (GA). We investigated which approach would result in the greatest specificity and sensitivity. STUDY DESIGN: For the determination of 17OHP, a neonatal 17OHP assay was used in filter paper blood of 9492 newborns. The relationships between 17OHP and BW and between 17OHP and GA were studied by regression analysis. Reference curves with a specificity of 99.95% were constructed with the method that summarizes the distribution by three smoothed curves representing the skewness (L curve), the median (M curve), and the coefficient of variation (S curve). Median cutoff levels for BW and for GA according to the 99.95% reference curves were calculated. RESULTS: Regression analysis showed that GA is a better predictor of 17OHP than BW (R(2) was 50.6 vs. 35.8%, respectively). At a specificity of 99.95%, the calculated median 17OHP cutoff level was lower for GA [12.6 microg/liter (38 nmol/liter)] than for BW [17.6 microg/liter (54 nmol/liter)], thus leading to a greater sensitivity. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrates that GA is a better predictor of 17OHP in newborns and will result in greater specificity than BW despite the fact that the determination of GA might be less reliable than BW