My thesis asks why Taiwan does not facilitate a path to citizenship to recent immigrants, despite the obvious advantages to do so, as the government’s attempt to promote its society as a model of civic nationalism in Asia, in relation to the pressing need to address labour shortages caused by population aging. I argue that the political economy of care provision that seeks to address the latter problem trumps concerns over national identity. I will look at the changes in the supply of labour in the sector of care since the 1990s as the evidence. Taiwan illustrates the case of East Asian nations’ rapid transition to post-industrial societies, which are now confronted with acute socio-demographic and care crises stemming from aging populations, low fertility rates and a traditional reliance on the family to provide social welfare. This thesis argues that this change in the supply of labour represents a key indicator of the multiple dimensions of the question of exclusion faced by migrant domestic workers in Taiwan. Civil society actors promoting Taiwan’s civic nationalism in the feminist and labour movements and in a few religious associations are unable to address the rights of foreign live-in caregivers because of the dynamics of the political economy of care in Asia and its dependence on migration for reproductive labour.

The evaluation of social worker performance is a problem that frequently confronts the social work profession because the profession continually seeks to discover what it is doing for, and with, the clients it serves in order to learn how to serve them better. A number of studies of effect have been launched to this end. The Area Development Project of Vancouver, British Columbia, is one such study. The project seeks to test a specific treatment method, "integrated family services", on a selected group of one hundred multi-problem families. The experimental design calls for one hundred families in the treatment group and two hundred families in two control groups in order to test the hypothesis that the demonstrating services of the project are more effective in improving the functioning of families with complex problems than the "usual agency services" of health and welfare agencies. Studies of effect on casework services too often assume that there is no significant variation in the performances of professionally trained social workers when there is little reason to believe this to be the case. This study, which was carried out in conjunction with the Area Development Project, aimed at developing a Q-sort measure of family centered casework performance that could be used to test the hypothesis that there are significant differences between the inputs of professionally trained social workers. The proposed instrument would also document any differences between social worker performances should the hypothesis prove true. The completed Q-sort of Family Centered Casework Performance was applied to the Area Development Projects' treatment group social workers to generate a performance score for each of the workers as well as a profile description of the ideal family centered casework performance. It was possible to demonstrate that the inputs of the social workers differed greatly, while at the same time develop a precise profile description of the projects' "integrated family services". The study also attempted to relate the performance levels of the treatment group social workers to client movement in the cases that the workers carried. The establishment of a definite conclusion in regard to this relationship was not possible because of limitations in time and data, however, a means of analysis was developed for use with final data from the Area Development Project when it becomes available. The introductory chapter gives a brief summary of the problem of social worker evaluation, alternative ways of dealing with the problem and a statement of the scope and limitations of the study. The Theoretical framework of the study and the methods utilized are outlined in Chapter II. In Chapter III, the study findings are presented along with descriptive data on the study sample. The thesis concludes with a brief summary of the study and its' conclusions followed by some proposals for dealing with final data on client movement when they become available. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate

Professional education leading to a Master of Social Work degree has been offered at the University of British Columbia since 1945. In this period of time, more than 350 people have been awarded this Masters' degree. A large majority of these people have been caseworkers, while a minority have been groupworkers. There are two major focuses of this study. The first is a descriptive survey of the graduates for the purpose of gaining background and professional information. The second focus of this study is a comparative analysis of the caseworkers and groupworkers, with particular emphasis on vertical and horizontal mobility and on the factor of genericism. From the information which was obtained in a mailed questionnaire, many similarities and differences were identified between the caseworkers and the groupworkers. They indicated basically similar, patterns of upward social and professional mobility. Caseworkers and groupworkers have similar experiences in regard to such aspects of their profession as number of jobs held, number of settings in which they have practiced, length of time spent in one position, and geographical locations of their jobs. There are a number of interesting differences in the patterns of vertical mobility experienced by caseworkers and groupworkers, for example, a much higher percentage of group-workers than caseworkers entered supervisory and administrative positions in their first job after M.S.W. graduation. The section on genericism first outlines the three perspectives from which the concept can be viewed. A "generic" practitioner is operationally defined as one who spends not more than 80% of his time engaged in one method and at least 10% engaged in a second method. Fairly large numbers of both caseworkers and groupworkers were found to be generic Social Workers, but a significantly higher percentage of groupworkers than caseworkers could be so considered. Conclusions are drawn from the findings on mobility and genericism and possible implications are drawn for training and for the field. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate

Personal essay and documentation of my work regarding flags and union organizing in the late 19th - early 20th centrury swedish workers movement.

With the ageing population in Sweden and the need for more working hours among older workers as background, this essay analyses labour demand for older workers. More precisely it tries to find a connection in employer perceptions of certain character traits for older contra younger workers and the propensity to hire older workers. Using a newly conducted survey sent out to Swedish establishments, this study finds two character traits where negative perceptions have an extra negative effect on hiring: creativity and endurance. Unfortunately, there is a presence of low t-statistics throughout the results which calls for further research on the subject. As a secondary objective, this study also briefly looks at the previously unexplored subject of how the age of an establishment affects labour demand. Results for this points to a small effect but in these results, there are also cases of low statistical significance.

Training and human resource development sponsored by the private sector has become increasingly important and topical in North America. Yet, the attention devoted to it by policymakers, academe and industry itself has not risen accordingly. Government and industry are faced with the challenge of formulating effective public and private policy to facilitate the qualitative and quantitative development of employer-sponsored training. There is a paucity of information on employer-sponsored training. Therefore, the intent of this study was to determine the nature and extent and qualitative issues of the phenomenon in one industry: the British Columbia electronics industry. The literature on employer-sponsored training was reviewed from three perspectives. First, the theoretical, historical and conceptual roots of the topic were presented. Second, the quantitative data on employer-sponsored training in North America was summarized. Third, an overview of the most pressing qualitative issues related to the subject was presented. As a result of this process, five main research questions were derived relating to the following aspects of the B. C. electronics industry: human resource requirements; sources of human resources; nature and extent of training; training decision-making; and public policy. A 15-page open-ended and closed questionnaire was developed and sent to 80 electronics companies in British Columbia. Forty-eight or 60% of the companies responded to the survey. The responses to individual questions yielded several interesting patterns in the data. The small sample size and the nominal nature of the data collected prevented any extensive statistical analysis of the results to test for relationships between variables. The chi-square test for independence was utilized and identified a few plausible relationships between key variables. A list of specific conclusions derived from the results painted an overall picture of the training and human resource activity in the British Columbia electronics industry. The limitations of the study and its implications for future research and public policy were outlined. / Education, Faculty of / Educational Studies (EDST), Department of / Graduate

This thesis explores the relationship between work environment and burnout by examining the question: Do workers experiencing burnout see their work environment more negatively than co-workers who are not burned-out? The goal is to explore the potential usefulness of measures of work environment and burnout to guide efforts at burnout intervention and prevention. Thirty-nine family and childcare workers from five sites in the Vancouver area responded to a survey to test hypotheses addressing this question. The work environment and burnout were found to be highly interactive with the work environment variables of supervisor support and clarity identified as key factors in burnout. The Maslach Burnout Inventory and Moos (1981) Work Environment Scale were found to be useful instruments for intervention and future research. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate

The general issue of defining job satisfaction and the adverse implications of low job satisfaction are discussed. This is followed by an application of the research to the specific problem of job satisfaction among child welfare line social workers in a provincial government agency. The needs satisfaction and values satisfaction model of job satisfaction theory are described and a rationale is provided for the selection of the needs satisfaction model for this research. A variety of research instruments are reviewed, including the Job Satisfaction Survey Questionnaire, the Job Descriptive Index, the Quality of Work Life Survey, and the Professional Satisfaction Inventory. A new quantitative measures questionnaire is introduced for use specifically among social workers. It was hypothesized that job-specific variables will be stronger correlates of a facet-free measure of job satisfaction than will variables not specifically related to social work. It was hypothesized that specific differences will exist between the importance attributed to variables between less experienced and more experienced workers. It was further hypothesized that specific differences will exist between the satisfaction with variables as reported by less experienced workers and more experienced workers. Finally, hypotheses were presented regarding specific differences in job related correlates of job satisfaction, between less experience and more experienced workers. The research proceded by way of questionnaire among child welfare line social workers in the Lower Mainland area of British Columbia. Extensive efforts were made to ensure confidentiality while allowing the opportunity for followup research. The methodology of this confidentiality plan is explained. A sample of 60 social workers resulted in 49 questionnaires being returned. Support was found for the hypothesis that job specific variables were better correlates of job satisfaction than were variables not specific to social work. There was neither confirmation nor disconfirmation for the hypothesis that there would be differences in the importance of variables between less experienced and more experienced workers. Satisfaction was higher for those variables under the control or influence at the local level than for variables which were controlled centrally. The few significant differences between less experienced and more experienced workers in satisfaction with variables were explainable by objective influences rather than subjective experiences. Only one variable, getting a sense of accomplishment from the job, was a significant correlate for both less experienced and more experienced workers. Less experienced workers also demonstrated correlations between job satisfaction and satisfaction with professional identification, while more experienced workers demonstrated correlations between job satisfaction and control of their work. Recommendations are made for the government which employs social workers, the agency which administers programs, supervisors of social workers, and the union which bargains on behalf of social workers. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate

The Workers' Compensations Board of British Columbia (WCB) operates 4 call centers in the province devoted to compensation services. This thesis describes a review of operations at the call center in the head office, located in Richmond, B.C. We identified the need for a mathematical model to schedule telephone operators (called CSRs in WCB) in order to minimize the workforce required, while assuring minimal staffing levels to provide good customer service. We developed two integer programming models and built an interface that would enable the supervisors to use the model interactively. We compared the results from the model to one of their schedules and found that the model used 5 fewer CSRs than currently in their schedule. The potential savings derived from such a test convinced management that WCB needed to acquire and implement software to schedule staff. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate

The goal of the project was to use the data in the Workers' Compensation Board (WCB) of British Columbia's data warehouse to develop a statistical model that could predict on an ongoing basis those short-term disability (STD) claims that posed a potential high financial risk to the WCB. We were especially interested in identifying factors that could be used to model the transition process of claims from the STD stratum to the vocational rehabilitation (VR) and long term disability (LTD) strata, and forecast their financial impact on the WCB. The reason for this focus is that claims experiencing these transitions represent a much higher financial risk to the WCB than claims that only progress to the health care (HC) and/or the short term disability (STD) strata. The sample used to investigate the conversion processes of claims consists of all STD claims (323,098) that had injury dates between January 1, 1989 and December 31, 1992. Although high-risk claims represent only 4.2 % of all STD claims, they have received 64.3% ($1.2 billion) of the total payments and awards ($1.8 billion) made to July 1999. Low-risk claims make up 95.8% of all the claims but only receive 35.7% ($651 million) of the payments and awards. Moreover, the average cost of high-risk claims ($86,200) is 41 times higher than the average cost of low-risk claims ($2,100). The main objective of the project was to build a reliable statistical model to identify high-risk claims that can be readily implemented at the WCB and thereby improve business decisions. To identify high-risk claims early on, we used logistic regression modeling. Since ten of the most frequently observed injury types make up 95.72% of all the claims, separate logistic regression models were built for each of them. Besides injury type, we also identified STD days paid and age of claimant as statistically significant predictors. The logistic regression models can be used to identify high-risk claims prior to or at the First Final STD payment date provided we know the injury type, STD days paid and age of claimant. The investigation showed that the more STD days paid and the older the injured worker, the higher the probability of the claim being high-risk. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate