by Jackie Ching-yuen Yeung. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1988. / Bibliography: leaf 66.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1969. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (p. 211-213).

M.Com. (Business Management) / Arising from the increasing complexity in the building industry, the co-ordination between the various disciplines becomes the primary problem. With the integration of disciplines into one organization, it seems that the proper structuring of the organization tend to obstruct coordination and effective collaboration. Because of the need to address this problem, this study was undertaken to present management of a multidisciplinary organization in the building industry with the necessary theoretical background regarding all the organizational aspects in order to accomplish the effective structuring of their activities ...

Master of Science / Department of Statistics / Michael Higgins / The amount of data generated from stock market trading is massive. For example, roughly 10 million trades are performed each day on the NASDAQ stock exchange. A significant proportion of these trades are made by high-frequency traders. These entities make on the order of thousands or more trades a day. However, the stock-market factors that drive the decisions of high-frequency traders are poorly understood. Recently, hybridized threshold clustering (HTC) has been proposed as a way of clustering large-to-massive datasets. In this report, we use three months of NASDAQ HFT data---a dataset containing information on all trades of 120 different stocks including identifiers on whether the buyer and/or seller were high-frequency traders---to investigate the trading patterns of high-frequency traders, and we explore the use of HTC to identify these patterns. We find that, while HTC can be successfully performed on the NASDAQ HFT dataset, the amount of information gleaned from this clustering is limited. Instead, we show that an understanding of the habits of high-frequency traders may be gained by looking at \textit{janky} trades---those in which the number of shares traded is not a multiple of 10. We demonstrate evidence that janky trades are more common for high-frequency traders. Additionally, we suggest that a large number of small, janky trades may help signal that a large trade will happen shortly afterward.

Commentary on skilled trades occupations in Canada has been framed by two main paradigms: The dominant policy discourse has applied human capital theory to the dynamics of the skilled labour supply, often concentrating on intractable “problems” such as low apprenticeship participation and completion rates and an extreme gender imbalance in the trades. Sociological research has portrayed trades occupations as positions of structurally reproduced social disadvantage. This study adopts an alternate, neo-Weberian framework centred on the theory of economic social action. Social structure is treated in strictly nominalistic terms, and social action is rooted in the interest-oriented behaviour of socially embedded individuals. The study, undertaken in a large public-sector shipyard, involved both a pen-and-paper survey (N=509) of skilled trades workers and ten focus group interviews with 49 respondents from labour and management. The research questions addressed indicators of structural (dis)advantage and reproduction, as well as the specific mechanisms of social action operating within the study environment. The population shows a very distinct profile in terms of gender, ethnicity, and educational investment. Data on earnings, job security, and working conditions dispel any suspicion of economic disadvantage. Although a high proportion of incumbents have family connections to the skilled trades, an analysis of their siblings’ occupations refutes the supposition of structural determinism through the family. Instead, it is argued that both the social profile of the workforce and the high density of family and network connections reflect the use of “bridging” and “bonding” social capital strategies by study population members. The operative mechanisms include formal elements of the organization’s hiring practices, as well as institutionalized group norms and workplace culture. Through a “separatist” discourse that invokes notions of both “trade stigma” and “trade pride,” incumbents ascribe a particular set of cognitive and moral attributes to trades workers, which also contribute to defining the formal and informal membership requirements for their occupations. By approaching occupations as sites of economic social action, this research concludes that some of the intractable “problems” in Canada’s apprenticeable trades reflect individual behaviours that are enabled and incited by institutional features integral to the present skilled trades system.

Commentary on skilled trades occupations in Canada has been framed by two main paradigms: The dominant policy discourse has applied human capital theory to the dynamics of the skilled labour supply, often concentrating on intractable “problems” such as low apprenticeship participation and completion rates and an extreme gender imbalance in the trades. Sociological research has portrayed trades occupations as positions of structurally reproduced social disadvantage. This study adopts an alternate, neo-Weberian framework centred on the theory of economic social action. Social structure is treated in strictly nominalistic terms, and social action is rooted in the interest-oriented behaviour of socially embedded individuals. The study, undertaken in a large public-sector shipyard, involved both a pen-and-paper survey (N=509) of skilled trades workers and ten focus group interviews with 49 respondents from labour and management. The research questions addressed indicators of structural (dis)advantage and reproduction, as well as the specific mechanisms of social action operating within the study environment. The population shows a very distinct profile in terms of gender, ethnicity, and educational investment. Data on earnings, job security, and working conditions dispel any suspicion of economic disadvantage. Although a high proportion of incumbents have family connections to the skilled trades, an analysis of their siblings’ occupations refutes the supposition of structural determinism through the family. Instead, it is argued that both the social profile of the workforce and the high density of family and network connections reflect the use of “bridging” and “bonding” social capital strategies by study population members. The operative mechanisms include formal elements of the organization’s hiring practices, as well as institutionalized group norms and workplace culture. Through a “separatist” discourse that invokes notions of both “trade stigma” and “trade pride,” incumbents ascribe a particular set of cognitive and moral attributes to trades workers, which also contribute to defining the formal and informal membership requirements for their occupations. By approaching occupations as sites of economic social action, this research concludes that some of the intractable “problems” in Canada’s apprenticeable trades reflect individual behaviours that are enabled and incited by institutional features integral to the present skilled trades system.

This study examines the symbolic meaning of education in trades culture. It explores how trades culture in this context is infused with status, and how education is an element of how tradespeople experience status in everyday working life. Education is connected with status in two ways. First, education is associated with prominent status markers, specifically wealth, mental work, and textual authority. Second, in light of these associations, tradespeople see education as having nothing to do with their own lives and work. Trades education does not count as education the same way university does. In its status associations, and perceived irrelevance to trades life, education is a symbol of an elite, prestigious, "insiders" world, of which the trades play little part. This study is located within the interpretive tradition of social inquiry most influentially first articulated by the anthropologist Clifford Geertz. The perspective on status which frames the interpretation owes much to Michael Walzer's philosophical explorations of equality and distributive justice. The empirical basis of the interpretation is drawn from an ethnographic study of a single trades setting in the non-union sector of the building industry. The main participants in the study were a crew of carpenters and other tradespeople building an expensive custom-designed family home. Fieldwork took place between October 1992 and October 1993. Site visits took place several times per week for three to four hours per visit, and involved watching, talking, listening, taking notes and photographs, and helping with routine work tasks. Field observations were augmented by interviews with crew members and other tradespeople. During the interpretive stage of the research process, "backstage tales" and "textual authority" came to be seen as key cultural vehicles for the expression of status in everyday practice. The findings of this study suggest that the exclusive status associations of education in the trades are important to recognize for at least two reasons. First, they are counter to the prevailing discourse about education which emphasizes a direct, positive link between education, economic growth, and employment. Second, the status associations of education connect it not necessarily with knowledge and learning, but with a blockage in the flow of ideas. Because their status is lesser, tradespeople's work is not esteemed, and their conceptual input is seldom recognized, sought or credited. From the vantage point of trades culture, education does not look like the tool for economic success it is often portrayed as being. This perspective is important to take into account, if educational objectives are to be egalitarian, realistic, and able to achieve their desired ends.

Within educational research, postsecondary vocational education receives relatively little attention; within this sector, trades education is studied even less frequently. This research sought to address this gap through exploring the transition of master tradespeople who have completed a first apprenticeship in their trade and who then undertake a second apprenticeship as trades teachers. The research question explored: the motivation for career change; pre-existing competencies brought to the role of teaching; the methods used to learn to teach; negotiation of a new vocational identity; and sources of satisfaction in the teaching role. Using a constructivist paradigm, this qualitative-dominant crossover sequential mixed methods study surveyed trades teachers via a newly created instrument, distributed electronically to three Western Canadian polytechnic institutions. In addition to analysis of the full data set, the survey data were divided by respondents’ years of teaching to look for possible changes with experience. A summary was shared with survey participants who were willing to participate in follow-up discussions. Interpretation panel meetings were held with these volunteers; discussions were transcribed and analyzed for themes, comparing the results of this qualitative data set to that of the quantitative survey results. As the qualitative and quantitative data were combined, the following key insights about this group emerged. Tradespeople moving to trades teaching are motivated primarily by two factors. They take pride in their trade and want to see the craft continue through teaching and mentoring apprentices on a full-time basis. Secondly, they seek an improved work-life balance through teaching and will accept lower remuneration as a teacher in order to have more time for family and life outside of work. Tradespeople bring a strong sense of having been a teacher, as an aspect of being a journeyperson, to the role of trades teacher. They are self-reflective and wish to improve as teachers. They rate themselves as stronger in the general abilities, attitudes and traits associated with teaching than in pedagogical knowledge and skills competencies, but learn in these areas to gain confidence in their overall teaching competency over time. In learning to be a teacher, trades teachers prefer to replicate the informal learning methods of the apprenticeship model: mentorship, discussions, self-study, and trial and error. They reject overly-formal or academic training as impractical, not helpful toward improving teaching, and an expression of the lower status accorded to trades teaching within higher education. The transition from tradesperson to trades teacher is not a distinct change or linear process. It is an evolution, growing from the role of teacher imbedded within journeyperson, and subsuming the trades knowledge gained through apprenticeship and practice, to become a new identity that makes one more than a teacher, more than a tradesperson, but rather a teacher of the trade. Trades teachers are satisfied with their work. They find satisfaction primarily through interactions with students and through relationships with colleagues. Dissatisfaction comes from time constraints and from a sense of not being valued within the institution.

This thesis is a comparative study of trades unions in the conscription debate in Australia and New Zealand during the Great War. The governments of Australia and New Zealand looked to conscription to maintain the supply of men in the war effort. However, when they declared conscription for overseas service was necessary, most unions opposed it, although some unions in both countries were divided over the issue. New Zealand’s unions fought for the repeal of the Military Service Act, which compelled men between the ages of 20 and 46 years to register for overseas military service. Australian unions fought for the defeat of two plebiscites conducted by the government of the day regarding the invocation of conscription. Several factors influenced unions to oppose conscription. Through the use of trades union and government archival material, particularly minutes of meetings, correspondence, annual reports, conference minutes, diary entries, government documents, pamphlets, biographies, union and contemporary newspapers, it is possible to establish why unions took their stance. In this thesis the factors that shaped the stance of unions on conscription are presented; including the circumstances of the formation of unions, their early history and influences, and their attitudes to compulsory military training. Evidence is also presented regarding the relationship between the union movement and the government of each country, and it is posited that these relationships were influential in the outcome of the conscription debate in the respective countries. Unions in both countries campaigned vigorously to stop conscription. Only in Australia were they successful. When war was declared in 1914, unionists from both countries balanced union beliefs against other factors. Unionists were concerned that this war was a class war, incorporating inequality of sacrifice. Unionists were also concerned about provisions for families of those serving, the cost of living and loss of civil liberties; none of which were addressed by the governments of the day in the opinion of unionists. Unionists feared economic and industrial conscription. Other unionists simply lacked a belief in war and opposed it. Unionists, in general, opposed the manufacture of war materials. However, this war was also considered to be a necessary evil. Opposition to conscription was counter-balanced with patriotism and belief in the evil of Germany, with the result that many unionists enlisted voluntarily for overseas service. When conscription became the issue, unionists in both countries opposed it. The New Zealand government legislated for a Military Service Act which the unions attempted to have repealed, but in Australia the government held two plebiscites on conscription to determine the wishes of the populace. Both were defeated, the unions claiming victory. / Thesis (M.A.) -- University of Adelaide, School of History and Politics, 2010

This thesis is a comparative study of trades unions in the conscription debate in Australia and New Zealand during the Great War. The governments of Australia and New Zealand looked to conscription to maintain the supply of men in the war effort. However, when they declared conscription for overseas service was necessary, most unions opposed it, although some unions in both countries were divided over the issue. New Zealand’s unions fought for the repeal of the Military Service Act, which compelled men between the ages of 20 and 46 years to register for overseas military service. Australian unions fought for the defeat of two plebiscites conducted by the government of the day regarding the invocation of conscription. Several factors influenced unions to oppose conscription. Through the use of trades union and government archival material, particularly minutes of meetings, correspondence, annual reports, conference minutes, diary entries, government documents, pamphlets, biographies, union and contemporary newspapers, it is possible to establish why unions took their stance. In this thesis the factors that shaped the stance of unions on conscription are presented; including the circumstances of the formation of unions, their early history and influences, and their attitudes to compulsory military training. Evidence is also presented regarding the relationship between the union movement and the government of each country, and it is posited that these relationships were influential in the outcome of the conscription debate in the respective countries. Unions in both countries campaigned vigorously to stop conscription. Only in Australia were they successful. When war was declared in 1914, unionists from both countries balanced union beliefs against other factors. Unionists were concerned that this war was a class war, incorporating inequality of sacrifice. Unionists were also concerned about provisions for families of those serving, the cost of living and loss of civil liberties; none of which were addressed by the governments of the day in the opinion of unionists. Unionists feared economic and industrial conscription. Other unionists simply lacked a belief in war and opposed it. Unionists, in general, opposed the manufacture of war materials. However, this war was also considered to be a necessary evil. Opposition to conscription was counter-balanced with patriotism and belief in the evil of Germany, with the result that many unionists enlisted voluntarily for overseas service. When conscription became the issue, unionists in both countries opposed it. The New Zealand government legislated for a Military Service Act which the unions attempted to have repealed, but in Australia the government held two plebiscites on conscription to determine the wishes of the populace. Both were defeated, the unions claiming victory. / Thesis (M.A.) -- University of Adelaide, School of History and Politics, 2010