As the struggle to attract, engage and develop talent in knowledge intensive firms increases, this paper sought to uncover succession-planning strategies professional services firms may employ to attract Chartered Accountants to partnership. Designed as an organizational action research study, this investigation elicited the perspectives of Chartered Accountants using a survey and interviews. Chartered Accountants at all stages of their career development at Collins Barrow Calgary LLP were targeted, including newly designated professionals, Managers, Senior Managers and Partners. The study found that although the role of partner is unclear to research participants, autonomy, compensation and an established firm infrastructure are enticing. Study recommendations included the creation of a compelling vision to educate and engage prospective partners, communicating attractants and barriers to advancement to partner and enhancing existing partnership talent development programs. This organizational action research project was designed in full compliance with Royal Roads University's (RRU) (2007) Research Ethics Policy.

Recent analyses of creativity in the North American economy have underscored the importance of city-regions in the generation of economic dynamism. These studies have been concerned with at least two principal assertions. The first assertion is that the social dynamics of city-regions constitute the foundations of economic success. The second assertion is that the distribution of human capital (talent) is a crucial element in regional economic prosperity; yet the distribution of human capital across cities is uneven. Therefore, the question emerges: what factors influence the locational choices of talented individuals? In recent years, this question has received considerable scholarly attention. This thesis has identified two existing gaps within this field of inquiry. Conspicuously absent from studies in this area are theoretical insights offered by cultural geographers in the field of whiteness and race. Economic geographers have created an essentialized reading of racial diversity in the economic performance of city-regions. Moreover, work in this area has been constrained by a quantitative focus and a lack of empirical evidence. Accordingly, the purpose of this thesis is to develop a more nuanced understanding of how social processes and institutions underlie and are shaped by the economic performance of city-regions. This is achieved by drawing on insights from an empirical study of 44 semi-structured interviews with academic talent in the City of Kingston, Ontario and 12 interviews with community insiders. The results on the one hand reveal complex dynamics linked to why academics live in particular places, but on the other hand point to one overriding explanation for why academics locate where they do: namely, academics are attracted to Kingston, first and foremost, because of academic jobs, not urban amenities or other characteristics of place. / Thesis (Master, Geography) -- Queen's University, 2009-07-22 11:33:21.839

Attracting prey by exploiting a visual sensory bias is a common theme in stationary predators across many taxa, particularly for obligate ambush predators, such as orb-weaving spiders, because they construct complex prey traps. Mimicry of UV-reflecting floral-guides has been suggested as the mechanism behind the tendency for spiders and silk web decorations (stabilimenta) to reflect in the UV, to attract pollinators that they then prey upon. Also, many insects are attracted to UV because it most commonly indicates open sky, or a safe flight path. My study focuses on the prey attraction function of stabilimenta, in Argiope trifasciata in eastern Ontario. Decorated webs were no more likely to contain prey than undecorated webs, but for adult spiders, longer stabilimenta were associated with increased likelihood of prey capture. For both adults and juveniles, larger webs were more likely to contain prey in undecorated webs, but for decorated webs, web size was not a predictor of prey presence. I interpret this as evidence for a trade-off between two alternative prey capture strategies: building a web with a large capture area, or building a small web with a stabilimentum. In further support of this trade-off, smaller webs were more likely to contain a stabilimentum, for both juveniles and adults. My data also suggest that close neighbours compete rather than cooperate with each other. Adult webs were spaced farther apart from each other than juvenile webs, more than would be expected based on web diameter difference. For juveniles, webs with a closer neighbour were more likely to be decorated, implying an increased need for prey attraction in the presence of a nearby competitor. For adults, prey was more likely to be found in webs that were more solitary. My results do not support the hypothesis that visually attractive spiders increased prey capture by aggregating. / Thesis (Master, Biology) -- Queen's University, 2009-09-28 10:57:18.156

Flexible work arrangements (FWAs) are widely implemented in organizations today. Yet very little information exists about why individuals are attracted to organizations that offer FWAs. The purpose of the current study was to tease apart the influence of the dimensions of FWAs: flextime and flexplace (both structural and perceived), as well as the combination of the two on organizational attraction and anticipated organizational support. Individual difference variables that have the potential to impact individuals’ attraction to organizations that offer FWAs were also examined as moderating variables. The mediating effect of anticipated organizational support was also examined. Upper level undergraduate students (N = 190) participated in a 3x3 within-subjects experiment in which they rated nine hypothetical organizations that varied in flextime and flexplace. Results from multilevel analysis indicated that significant variance in organizational attraction as well as anticipated organizational support is attributable to the type of work arrangement offered (both flexibility in time and place), with flextime having a stronger effect than flexplace. Contrary to expectation, effects were independent; there was not a significant interaction between flextime and flexplace. The relationship between (both structural and perceived) flexplace and organizational attraction was stronger for individuals who prefer to integrate their work and nonwork roles. Additionally, the relationship between (both structural and perceived) flextime and organizational attraction was stronger for individuals who reported a stronger need for medical treatment. Finally, the relationship between perceived flextime and organizational attraction as well as the relationship between perceived flexplace and organizational attraction were stronger for those who reported more role demands. Contrary to expectation, sociability did not moderate the flexplace-organizational attraction/anticipated organizational support relationships. Limitations and future directions for research on FWAs are discussed.

This thesis examines techniques that can be used to evaluate systems that solve the complex task of suggesting points of interest to users. A traveller visiting an unfamiliar, foreign city might be looking for a place to have fun in the last few hours before returning home. Our traveller might browse various search engines and travel websites to find something that he is interested in doing, however this process is time consuming and the visitor may want to find some suggestion quickly. We will consider the type of system that is able to handle this complex request in such a way that the user is satisfied. Because the type of suggestion one person wants will differ from the type of suggestion another person wants we will consider systems that incorporate some level of personalization. In this work we will develop user profiles that are based on real users and set up experiments that many research groups can participate in, competing to develop the best techniques for implementing this kind of system. These systems will make suggestion of attractions to visit in various different US cities to many users. This thesis is divided into two stages. During the first stage we will look at what information will go into our user profiles and what information we need to know about the users in order to decide whether they would visit an attraction. The second stage will be deciding how to evaluate the suggestions that various systems make in order to determine which system is able to make the best suggestions.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 41-45). / viii, 45 leaves, bound 29 cm

Thesis (Ph.D.) -- McMaster University, 2005. / Supervisor: Dr. Sigal Balshine. Includes bibliographical references (p. 103-126)

Thesis (M.S.W.)--Smith College School for Social Work, Northampton, Mass., 2007 / Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment for the degree of Master of Social Work. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 35-36).

Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Auburn University, / Abstract. Vita. Includes bibliographic references (p.135-154).

Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of St Andrews, February 2007.