Both the development and the effective operation of health and welfare services, public and voluntary alike, depend heavily upon public understanding and approval. Yet welfare services have changed so radically in recent decades that much misunderstanding and "cultural lag" exists. "Public opinion" comprises the expressions of interest and viewpoint of many different groups: there are many "publics" rather than one homogeneous citizenry. Trade unions are an important segment, not only as representing the increasing industrial sections of the working-force, but because of growing numbers and influence in public affairs. Accordingly, the present study is directed particularly to the attitudes, views, and information about health and welfare services among members in a large and representative trade union (International Woodworkers of America, Local 1-217). An original questionnaire was formulated and revised after some preliminary testing. After striking a random sample from membership lists, forty rank-and-file unionists and a group of officials were then interviewed in their homes or offices. Some of the most best-substantiated findings are as follows. (1) There is a high degree of unanimity concerning the assignment of welfare responsibilities to government, and in particular, the federal government, though there is doubt as to the best division between provincial and local. (2) The rank-and-file reveal favourable feelings towards the Community Chest, whereas officials' views question the need for its existence. (3) The Community Chest is identified almost wholly, by both rank-and-file and officials as a fund-raising organization. (4) There is singularly little recognition of the need for citizen participation in welfare planning. (5) Trade union members in general looked upon social workers with some respect, but ascribed low status to their professional role. Both the kinds of tabulations in this rather neglected area of opinion measurement, and the views brought to light in this pilot study, suggest there could be considerable value in continued research. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate

In times of shifting cultural and institutional priorities, the acquisition and preservation of private records by large publicly funded archival institutions is becoming increasingly problematic. Repositories are looking for new ways of meeting their cultural mandates while also dealing with reduced budgets and staffing levels. This thesis examines the issue from the perspective of who is to be responsible for the preservation of labour union records and where are they to be preserved. After putting the issue in context with an literature review and then by examining the juridical and social framework within which unions operate the thesis studies the question from two traditional perspectives: preservation solely by an archival institution and preservation solely by the organization or union. The thesis concludes by recommending a third option, a mixed or shared responsibility approach between the union and the institution, specifically, a cost-shared / partnership arrangement between the union and archival repository regarding the acquisition and preservation of labour union records. / Arts, Faculty of / Library, Archival and Information Studies (SLAIS), School of / Graduate

In this study, I examine the influence of unemployment insurance benefits on labour force participation, employment, and unemployment. Conclusions are developed concerning the consequences of the 1971 revision of the Canadian unemployment insurance programme, which differ from those of earlier writings in this field. My model estimates the proportions of the population in each labour force state (employment, unemployment, and "not in the labour force"). Each labour force state proportion is modelled as a function of the gross flows between the labour force states. This model resembles a Markov model and is similar to the model developed by Toikka (197 6). The decisions by employers and employees that generate the gross flows between labour force states are modelled as behavioural functions of economic variables. Unlike other studies, this study imposes strict consistency between equations due to the conservation of the population in the gross flows. Other studies have tended to be single equation models and the specification of the equations between studies and in one case, within a study, is not consistent. The model is estimated for ten age-sex populations. It is estimated using monthly' data for the period 1961 to 1975. The estimation method is Full Information Maximum Likelihood. Because the system of three equations is singular, one equation is redundant and may be dropped during estimation. Estimation is independent of which equation is dropped. This study brings evidence to support the position that different groups respond in different ways to changes in unemployment insurance. According to the model, prime age men are unresponsive to short-term fluctuations in incentives. Young and old men appear to reduce their labour supply when unemployment insurance benefits are increased. This is the net effect of changes in the gross flows between labour force states. The model suggests that the net labour force participation of women increases in response to increases in unemployment Insurance benefits. Men and women differ in their response to unemployment insurance in two additional ways. First estimated responses for women are generally greater than those for men. While women respond seasonally and non-seasonally to unemployment insurance, the response by men tends to be restricted to seasonal behaviour. These findings are consistent with earlier findings in that they suggest a general increase in unemployment and labour force participation due to increases In unemployment insurance. Although my findings suggest some unemployment insurance—induced quit behaviour, they do not suggest a decline in the aggregate level of employment. The dominant result in this study is that unemployment insurance Induces labour force participation, which places upward pressure on employment and unemployment. / Arts, Faculty of / Vancouver School of Economics / Graduate

This dissertation advances the claim that recent lack of progress in organization theory development has been due less to conceptual inadequacy or lack of rigor, than to unexamined assumptions and 'common sense' about what constitutes 'good' theory. Emerging work experience cannot be represented in theory because current theory itself reflects the values and problems of a specific (industrial) era. Using a form of poststructuralist textual analysis, Foucaultian genealogy, this dissertation establishes the need for understanding theory development as a form of representation, produced and sustained through socially constituted relationships which are undergoing transformational change. It is argued that, through these changes, organizational science itself could become a passing chapter in the history of work. To illustrate this claim, the study examines representations of "knowledge work," a term whose emergence appears to indicate attempts to speak of new work relationships. The main object of analysis in this study is structured observation of the work of an atypical, but apropos, group of knowledge workers--staff nurses in a university teaching hospital. Using genealogical methods, this structured observation is studied as a text created within the discourse of organization studies. One analysis of this text is a "history of the present," which follows the emergence and present operation of the disciplinary practices of the discourse of the employee. Another analysis studies contrasting representations of nursing work in the dominant discourse of science and the marginalized discursive voices of "caring/connecting." The claim advanced from these analyses is that the failure of the management disciplines to develop a self-reflexive dialogue about the active role of representation in theory development limits what can be said about knowledge work to what has already been said about the industrial employee. As one example of poststructuralist textual research, genealogy is presented as a means for bringing this problem into theory development.

One hundred and forty-six women, most of them young immigrants, died in the fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company in New York City's Lower East Side on March 25, 1911. One of the worst industrial disasters in the history of the United States, it confirmed the belief of progressives that unregulated industrialism had gone awry. This tragedy, however, have rise to a campaign for protective labor legislation in the Empire State and provided historians with an example of the reform impulse in the years prior to World War I. This dissertation makes the case, both implicitly and explicitly, that this disaster, if examined in both a social and a political context, can be used to increase our understanding of three broad aspects of the history and historiography of the progressive era. First, it can help us to evaluate the debate among historians over the true extent and effectiveness of the reform movement. Secondly, it will help us examine how coalitions of diverse and incompatible groups temporarily united to demand reform legislation, and finally it can allow us to interweave many histories of the era--the immigrant experience, American radicalism, trade unionism, the suffrage movement, and progressive reform--that formerly have been analyzed as separate stories. The idea of limitations is emphasized in each of the dissertation's predominate themes. The reform initiative, in terms of both its liberalism and the effectiveness of the legislation it produced were limited. Furthermore, the degree of cooperation generated by the reform coalition that responded to the Triangle Fire was temporary and produced few enduring associations. The ongoing historical debate regarding the meaning and the results of progressivism has produced extensive but incoherent opinions which call for further scholarly clarification. This dissertation not only provides a framework for further analyzing the events surrounding the Triangle Fire, it also produces additional information about progressivism--its membership, its goals, its achievements, and the political and social environment which produced the movement.

This dissertation addresses the lack of attention to work in organization studies (Barley, 1996), and to change processes as they unfold from the perspectives of those attempting to incorporate changes into their own work. Research was conducted "from the inside" (Evered & Louis, 1981). Two periods of fieldwork during the years 1992-1997 provided qualitative data. Q-methodology was incorporated, allowing analysis to flow back and forth between qualitative and quantitative data. This dissertation is based on an empirical examination of how people made sense of attempts at changing their working practices in a company facing pressure from customers to perfect quality, increase speed, and lower costs. Men and women working in this mature, mid-sized manufacturing firm needed to continue to make product--fluid handling components supplied to several industries--while changes were going on around them. Following a major restructuring in the late 1980s, the organization acquired a reputation for forward-thinking management practices. A planned change initiative focusing on teamwork and on introducing kaizen techniques was begun early in 1997. The dissertation experiments with different ways of representing experiences of working and changing (and not changing) in a manufacturing organization. It presents the following stories: a chronological description of changes in ownership, structure, and management practices; reflections on changes in worklife as told by three employees; an account of a kaizen event; cynical and hopeful ways of talking about the teamwork initiative; and expressions of perspectives on changing. Interpretation considers people's responses to the constant flip-flop of demands, changes in structure and technology, and sense-making on a daily basis and in reference to publicity surrounding the previous restructuring. Although based in a single manufacturing organization, results suggest implications. For organizational behavior researchers, practices of shamming and taking shortcuts deserve research attention. Change practitioners may want to consider sense-making processes in order to highlight what they want people to notice and focus on. This was an ordinary organization, experiencing some success despite ever increasing pressures from outside. Men and women working there continued to do their work, making just enough sense to get through the workday.

The first chapter explores the link between inequality and longer work hours. It shows that desire to keep up with the consumption standard set by the rich provides a link between inequality and work hour. In an attempt to provide an empirical support for this idea, I find that coefficient of inequality is statistically significant in both OLS and fixed effects estimates and its effects are large and estimates are robust across a variety of specifications. The second chapter further develops the idea of Veblen effect by showing relationship between earnings inequality of men and labor supply decision of their wives. This result not only confirms the proposed effect of earnings inequality on individual labor supply decision, it also discriminates emulation effect from other explanations about the potential link such as rat-race model. The third chapter provides a cost-benefit analysis of relationship banking. When banks can acquire ex post informational monopoly on borrowing firms, banks may increase the number of firms they initially finance by offering lower loan rates. At the same time, banks have an incentive to limit the size of loans granted to young and untested firms, preventing the potential over-investment problem that may arise from the lower loan rates they offer. Therefore, relationship banks can effectively prevent over-investment that has been suggested as a potential problem of relationship banking. Using NSSBF data set, I show that the young and small firms in a concentrated banking market display relatively lower debt-to-asset ratio and less institutional debt while the interest rates offered to them are lower.

Household food budgets offer a window on consumers' demand for convenience. During the 1980s and 1990s, three shifts likely promoted an increase in the share of the food budget devoted to convenient meal options, namely meals out and prepared foods: the growing number of hours that women spent in paid work, the growing opportunity cost of women's time spent doing housework, and the drop in the price of food relative to all other goods. I test whether the impact of these economic trends (on food budget allocation) was mediated by a change in the impact of children on household meal allocation. I find support for this hypothesis in a model of food away expenditures, which likely reflects two unmeasured shifts. First, (own) child care and household production of meals apparently became substitutes rather than complements. Second, a range of both prepared foods and family-friendly restaurants became available. The growing demand for time-saving meal options, including frozen food and meals out, has important implications for a core determinant of living standards: the ability to harness scale economies from home production of meals. I test whether greater reliance on convenient meals reduced household-level economies of scale. Other factors could mediate against, or even offset such a loss, including technological advances in the production and distribution of food. Using Engel curve analyses, I find that scale economies fell from 1980 to 2000, thereby reducing living standards; my lower- and upper-bound estimates of the drop are 44 percent and 110 percent respectively. Economies of scale are not simply a function of household size and composition, as standard equivalence scaling techniques suggest; they are affected by the ways that households trade non-market work and market substitutes. This dissertation contributes to the small literature that challenges the validity of fixed-parameter equivalence scales, such as the per capita scale, which ignore household production. I first attach plausible values to scale parameters and then compare equivalent-income trajectories of parents and non-parents across (standard) fixed parameter and (non-standard) time-varying equivalence scales. I present plausible lower- and upper-bound estimates of the rise in income inequality between parents and non-parents.

The broad area of interest for this study is the nature of justice in organizational life. More specifically, it focuses on human resource managers and the ways in which their everyday activities create and sustain fair organization for themselves and for others. The linking of justice with human resource management is manifest in an extensive body of theory and research. In general, inquiry concerns the perceptions of employees about the fairness of organizational policies and procedures. My study diverges from this approach in both its theoretical position and its research focus. As a researcher, I maintain a different philosophical position regarding the nature of reality, knowledge, and human nature. In so doing, I offer different conceptualizations of human resource management and justice that shifts attention to each as socially constructed by organizational actors. My project is grounded in a micro-sociological orientation and draws upon two theoretical traditions, ethnomethodology and symbolic interaction. Within this framework or intersubjective approach, I use observations and interviews to describe human resource management as being defined by and through interactivity. In addition, I suggest that certain types of interactions ("justice occasions"), involving the making or applying of organizational policy or procedure, are of particular interest as local interactive sites of doing justice. The specific research question addressed in this study was: What are the verbal practices of human resource managers that serve to create and sustain fair organization as a shared definition of reality? I draw upon observations and interviews to develop the HR managers' understanding of justice as consistency. Then, using audiotaped conversations between HR managers and other organizational members during justice occasions, I document three interactional methods employed by these professionals to establish consistency as a quality of organizational life: (1) Projecting the Future, (2) Recalling the Past, and (3) Defining the Situation. I suggest that these interactional practices are not only how human resource managers do fairness, but that they are defining elements of human resource managing. This research contributes to justice and HRM scholarship by attending to the activities of human resource managers. It extends our knowledge about human resource management by explicating the ways in which HRM is defined and sustained by those who practice it. Further, it demonstrates that fairness, as a quality of organizational experience, is constructed in the everyday activities of organizational life.

This dissertation claims that from 1879 until the early 1970s organized baseball players labored under a unique form of slavery. An analysis is provided of the economics surrounding organized baseball, the culture interpreting and describing the treatment of players, and the laws and rules structuring organized baseball to argue that the baseball industry resembled slavery more than it resembled any other social structure. The dissertation also discusses the struggle that took place within and outside of this slavery to liberate the “boys of summer” from their contractual bondage. This struggle culminated in 1976 with the introduction of free agency and the elimination of the reserve clause in organized baseball, setting in motion a transition to capitalism from this slavery. Ironically, ballplayers had previously labored under capitalism in the nineteenth century until escalating labor costs and player movement from team to team led to a transition to the slavery from which the players would not be liberated until 1976. Following this discussion, the dissertation turns to a careful analysis of this new capitalist economic structure that emerged after 1976. It examines how clubs become complex sites of revenue flows not only from baseball, but also from broadcasting, the state, concessions, luxury seating, etc. The dissertation then examines the impact of these flows on the actors and structures inside and outside of organized baseball. Through its study of organized baseball, this dissertation allows for a new way of thinking about the organization of an industry and the struggles between labor and management within that industry. It also offers a new way to conceptualize the relationship between the law, culture, and economics. By studying organized baseball, this dissertation provides a new and unique understanding of the labor struggles in organized baseball, the relationship between baseball and the state, and the relationships between individual clubs. It thus allows for a more generalized understanding of labor-management conflicts as well as conflicts between industry and the state.