This thesis examines the complex power structures that underscore the migration and employment of Indonesian women as foreign domestic workers (FDWs) in Singapore. The main objective is to highlight the power of individual Indonesian FDWs and the collective power of these women in negotiating these structures of power in the context of a migration study as well as a `resistance' study. I argue that Indonesian FDWs are active agents who exercise individual agency and collective `resistance' in the migration system. As labour migrants they exert power in shaping the nature of the migrant institution. One of the means in which they do so is by perpetuating the informal networks of migration. Individual Indonesian FDWs are also capable of exerting power in circumventing elements of exploitation and domination they encounter during their migration process and employment in Singapore. Crucial to this capability is the ability to have access to a network of agents within the migrant institution. Some Indonesian FDWs are also active in exerting power as a group to present a collective resistance against negative stereotyping of their identities as the immigrant other in Singapore. They do so via a formal religious based social group. This group encourages other Indonesian FDWs to portray the image of the disciplined worker couched within the moralising discourse of Islam by participating in productive activities on rest days. The aim of this is so that Indonesian FDWs can be treated with respect and dignity in Singapore. In general, my data show that Indonesian FDWs as active agents of the migration system do not attempt to challenge the overall structures that underscore their subordination and domination as overseas contract workers (OCWs) in Singapore. / The power exerted by individual Indonesian FDWs is focused at ensuring their continued employment as FDWs under more desirable employment conditions. Their individual agency aimed at improving their work conditions is at a personal level and is based on personal goals that are thus too fragmented to challenge the institutionalised structures of employment. Moreover, my case studies reveal that some Indonesian FDWs endure more restrictive work conditions in order to achieve desirable aspects of working in Singapore. Their collective `resistance' against condescending treatment by the host society project an image of the disciplined FDWs desired by employers, maid agents and Singaporeans. Their subjective ambivalence and the ambivalence in their individual and collective acts of `resistance' in challenging aspects of subordination and domination show the complexity of the power relationships in which they are caught. I draw upon two bodies of theory to provide a framework for my analysis and argument. First, I draw upon the `migrant institution' framework espoused by Goss and Lindquist (1995) that is based on Giddens' structuration theory to illustrate the power exerted by individual Indonesian FDWs within the field of migration studies. I also draw upon Foucault's notion of power as a framework to examine collective ,resistance' displayed by Indonesian FDWs in Singapore. The data presented in the thesis are drawn from two sources, ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Singapore as well as relevant newspaper and other media accounts.

Within the last decade, more organizations are utilizing a non-traditional workforce. Specifically, these organizations are utilizing contract workers as resources to provide services and manufacture products. While this change in workforce provides benefits to organizations, the change also presents numerous challenges such as turnover. The turnover involved in such a relationship along with the addition of newcomers translates into an organizational socialization and knowledge transfer (KT) issue, because contract workers as well as employees need to be efficiently brought into a new organization, and knowledge needs to be shared with these new individuals so that they can effectively contribute to the work process. It is contended that organizations follow a typical, informal organizational socialization "policy" which involves KT in getting new contract workers and employees up to speed. This study addressed the typical organizational socialization policy as it is represented by formal knowledge transfer (FKT) via instructor-led/classroom training (ILT) and computer-based training (CBT) and by informal knowledge transfer (IKT) via a social network. The study focused on IKT, because companies understand this type of KT the least. In order to evaluate the organizational socialization of contract workers for this study, the contract worker population was compared to a baseline population of employees which was broken up into two employee groups: "rookies" and experienced hires. The formal and informal transfer of three types of knowledge (job task, role, and organizational norms) was assessed by using surveys and interviews (including social network methods) on a research population consisting of 166 employees (both rookies and experienced hires) and contract workers from a Fortune 100 company. The findings include: (a) Job task knowledge was transferred more often than role and organizational norms knowledge, (b) coworkers were used more than managers a source of knowledge overall, (c) worker classification as well as job task and role knowledge explained significant amounts of variance in performance, and (d) network size impacted performance.

leadership styles homogeneous versus heterogeneous manufacturing leaders contractor workforce

This paper provides an account of early Japanese immigration to Canada in the years between 1877 and 1908 from the point of view of the Japanese Imperial government of the time. Drawing on Japanese diplomatic correspondence uncovered by Toshiji Sasaki in his 1999 work "Nihon-jin Kanada imin-shi" and accounts from Japanese-language newspapers published in Vancouver during the period, I examine the Japanese experience in Canada and describe how Japanese officials and emigrants responded to Canadian efforts to restrict Japanese emigration to Canada, culminating in the Vancouver Riot of 1907. I show how, when faced with this diplomatic crisis, Japanese officials reacted only reluctantly and, for the most part, ineffectually to limit emigration to Canada. The result of such restrictions as ultimately were imposed on the emigration of Japanese workers was not the end of Japanese emigration but the beginning of permanent settlement by Japanese families in Canada.

This paper provides an account of early Japanese immigration to Canada in the years between 1877 and 1908 from the point of view of the Japanese Imperial government of the time. Drawing on Japanese diplomatic correspondence uncovered by Toshiji Sasaki in his 1999 work "Nihon-jin Kanada imin-shi" and accounts from Japanese-language newspapers published in Vancouver during the period, I examine the Japanese experience in Canada and describe how Japanese officials and emigrants responded to Canadian efforts to restrict Japanese emigration to Canada, culminating in the Vancouver Riot of 1907. I show how, when faced with this diplomatic crisis, Japanese officials reacted only reluctantly and, for the most part, ineffectually to limit emigration to Canada. The result of such restrictions as ultimately were imposed on the emigration of Japanese workers was not the end of Japanese emigration but the beginning of permanent settlement by Japanese families in Canada.

本研究從勞動觀點出發，檢視台灣媒體組織中的非典型雇用新聞工作者的勞動樣貌，並探討在非典型雇用型態下勞資雙方在生產過程中的互動與關係轉變。非典型雇用新聞工作者則既是受雇於資方的勞工，同時也可視作個人企業。做為勞工，非典型新聞工作者的各項勞動條件幾乎都不如正職工作者；做為個人企業，非典型新聞工作者需獨自面對外在環境變動的風險。正向來看非典型雇用是對於僵化體制的抵抗與反動，脫離組織換取自主性與自由，甚至帶來權力翻轉改變；反向思考則以社會學家Buroway「製造甘願」的概念為基礎，說明非典型新聞工作者對於資方過度剝削的順服，心甘情願參與資方所組織的趕工競賽，透過官僚、科技與價值觀的控制形塑出順服的意識型態。 研究結果依契約型態將新聞媒體產業中的非典型勞動力分為派遣／約聘新聞工作者、自由新聞工作者與獨立／公民記者三種類型，一般非典型雇用新聞工作者勞動條件都比一般正職工作者差，而三種型態的非典型勞動力的契約嚴謹程度會影響到勞動條件與自主性。不同的自主程度會影響到工作者的職業認同感與甘願的機制，派遣與約聘工作者的勞動過程中充滿不甘願的元素但受限於理想與現實卻被迫甘願；自由新聞工作者看似自由自主，但對工作延續性的焦慮也迫使他們落入競爭的遊戲中並自我限縮；獨立與公民記者以無償勞動換取絕對的自主權，然而要在眾多論述中取得框架的定義權，只能以自我剝削換取主流與個人媒體的轉引與跟進，勞動所產生的價值與實際付出不成比例。 本研究建議未來新聞產業界建立良好的新聞鑑價制度，並大力推行公民委製新聞平台，藉此提升台灣新聞產業勞動者的勞動條件與新聞產出品質。 / This research examined the labor of atypical employed journalists in the news industry in Taiwan, discussing the relationship changing between the capitalist and the labor during the production process. Atypical employed journalists are on the one hand the temporary workers who suffer the worse labor condition than permanent employees. On the other hand, they viewed themselves as self enterprise that faced external risks alone. Positive speaking, atypical employment was the resistance of traditional rigid discourse. For the sake of freedom and autonomy, workers leaved organizations and anticipated power reversal. Negatively, based on Buroway’s concept of “manufacturing consent,” this study illustrated how atypical employees submitted to the capitalist’s over-exploitation, willing to making out organized by the capital through the ideology formed by bureaucracy, technology and value control. The results revealed that atypical employed journalists were separated into three kinds: dispatched/contract workers, freelancers and independent/citizen journalists. Generally speaking, those temporary workers’ the labor condition were worse that permanent employees and the type of contracts would affect their working condition and autonomy. Different degree of autonomy could therefore inference occupational identity and consent. Dispatched and contract workers were forced to make consent with the capitalists due to ideal and reality; freelancers seemed to enjoy the freedom and autonomy, but the anxiety to job sustainability forced them to join the competitive game and self-constraint; independent and citizen journalists’ free labor guaranteed the absolute autonomy, but they had to work hard and even self-exploit in order to take advantage of frame disputes in both main stream and personal media. The value conducted during the labor process and the effort they made were out of proportion. This study suggested establishing complete news valuation system, and supporting community-funded reporting to upgrade the labor condition and report quality in the news industry in Taiwan.