Firms' use of external labor arrangements (ELAs), such as temporary, contract and seasonal workers, has become increasingly prevalent over the last two decades. Despite the increasing importance of this phenomenon, little is known about firms' reasons for using ELAs. Most research to date has been exploratory, using qualitative methods or archival data not well suited to the constructs. The result of this research has been a long and often contradictory list of proposed antecedents of ELA use. In this study, I tested the ability of the transaction costs theory to predict when firms will fill a given job using an ELA rather that a permanent employment relationship. According to this theory, three characteristics of the job will determine whether the job will be filled using an ELA: transaction-specific investment, likelihood of repetition, and uncertainty of performance. Firms will be less likely to staff a given job using an ELA when the job requires investment in idiosyncratic skills, when the firm is likely to require a person with that set of skills regularly, and when performance in that job is difficult to measure.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2008. / Title from first page of PDF file (viewed Feb. 14, 2008). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

The core of the research focuses on the Temporary Employment Services (TES) Industry and its ability to provide labour flexibility for a number of client firms. The underlying notion that work is changing and becoming more flexible creates an exploratory realm for the concept of non-standard employment. The thesis draws on the conceptual model of the „flexible firm‟ and argues that the rise in non-standard forms of employment, particularly temporary employment within the TES industry, is primarily a result of the demand for labour flexibility. The TES industry that offers „labour on demand‟ is found to be an extremely secretive industry that is diverse in both its structure and services. The thesis reveals that the clients within the triangular employment relationship (TER) are reaping the most benefits especially with regard to escaping their obligations as the employer. The thesis explores human resource practices, unfair labour practices and the extensive loopholes exploited by the TES industry because of poor regulation. Consequently, the industry creates an „underclass‟ that is unprotected, insecure and easily exploitable. Qualitative research techniques were used in the form of semi-structured interviews. The thesis provides insights into the demand and supply of temporary workers in Port Elizabeth and addresses the problems associated with a TER and the TES industry as a whole.

The aim of the presented diploma thesis called "Temporary protection of aliens in international and european law" is to introduce the concept of temporary refuge and temporary protection and tackle the various legal questions related to these concepts, both on the level and from the perspective of international law and the law of the European union. The first part of the thesis presents some (mainly doctrinal and UNHCR) defintions of temporary protection and temporary refuge as well as the definition of the concept of temporary protection enshrined in the EU's Temporary Protection Directive as the latter one represents the only case of regional and binding harmonisation of the temporary protection. The following part of the thesis deals with the minimum content requirements of temporary protection in international law, i. e. such requirements that should in every case be an inherent part of every legal instrument resembling temporary protection. This part focuses mainly on the issue of personal and temporal scope of temporary protection, the concept of mass influx is analysed in this part of the thesis as well as temporary protection as a legal instrument is usually intended to serve as a response to the situation of mass influx. Presented thesis also deals with the questions related to the extent...

There are over 5 million reported motor vehicle collisions annually in the United States, and while crash rates and fatality rates have declined in the past decades, rates in work zones are disproportionately high. There are strict standards for evaluating the crashworthiness of temporary traffic control devices, but not for evaluating drivers’ comprehension of existing or novel device deployments. This dissertation presents a series of three experiments evaluating driver comprehension for existing and novel traffic control devices conducted in a work zone setting. This evaluation is further expanded by decomposing the task of comprehending traffic control into the three subtasks of detection, localization, and identification. Methods are proposed for conducting a computer-based experiment with still image stimuli to measure participant performance at each of these subtasks. Next, procedures for categorizing localization responses and accounting for variation in participants physical responses are explored. Lastly, an application of Item Response Theory toward the evaluation and comparison of participant comprehension is demonstrated. It is hoped that these methods and procedures can be used by future researchers and experimenters to compare novel temporary traffic control devices and systems to inform future design.

M.B.A. / HIV/AIDS and the impact of this disease on the bottom line of companies is currently a very topical issue. This study deals with the economic impact of HIV/AIDS on companies, if they make use of the services of temporary employment service providers. The current impact of the disease on companies and the state of the temporary employment services industry in South Africa was analysed, based on existing literature. As part of the study a survey was conducted to determine the perceptions that currently exist in the market with regards to the use of temporary employment service providers and the impact of HIV/AIDS on companies. The results from the study showed that companies could obtain advantages from using temporary employment service providers. The study however further found that even though companies understood that there could be economic advantages for them in using temporary employment services, they were still reluctant to do so. Companies further indicated that the impact of HIV/AIDS on their bottom line would increasingly have a more negative impact over the next ten years.

Purpose: This thesis aims at exploring some of the possibilities,opportunities and challenges within the temporary agency work sector from boththe regular and the temporary agency workers points of view within the Swedish labourmarket. Background: Temporary agency work sector in the past two decadeshas been a fast growing sector that has got many young people into the labourmarket. With the current changes in the global economy, many organizations areturning more to these organizations to enable them adapt to changes in theirenvironment. In Sweden for instance, the growth and development of this sectorhas primarily been due to the constantly increasing rates of unemployment,massive job losses and also as a result of de-regulation of labour regulations. Methodology: A quantative survey was carried out using structuredquestionnaires in three companies that largely engage in hiring of temporaryworkers.  A total of 137 regular andtemporary agency workers, took part in the survey which was conducted through aweb-survey to e-mail addresses provided by client companies and temporary work agenciesand for those who had no access to e-mail received the questionnaires duringstaff meetings. Findings: Majorityof those engaged in this sector are young people of ages between 20 and 30years old, with high school education level and not married but maybe livingwith girlfriend or boyfriend. It resulted that many see these sectors asoffering an entry point into the labour market through which they feelrecognized and hopefully can advance their careers. Although all that glittersis not gold, those who work within this sector are also faced with variouschallenges that make it more of a stepping stone work place such as lack ofcontrol, complex interpersonal, insecurity and being treated as commodities andthe inability to decide when, where and how to work, with very little or nocontrol of when they can take off. Conclusion: On testing thehypothesis in relation to the possibilities, opportunities and challenges ofworking in the sector, it was not very obvious within the sector that ingeneral the regular staff had more favourable conditions than the temporary,but it did vary from one situation to the other and more often than not theyhad similar conditions. For instance, individualized flexibility was equallynot easy to achieve by the employees within the two groups. Keywords; Temporary Agency Work, Temporary Agency workers, Client Company, Regular/ordinarystaff, Motivation

Thesis (Ph. D.)--York University, 1998. Graduate Programme in Women's Studies. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 534-565). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/yorku/fullcit?pNQ39316.

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Japanese Studies / Master / Master of Philosophy

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