Governments around the world are investing heavily in smart card infrastructure to enhance transport services. Studies show that smart card technology can improve reliability, reduce maintenance costs, provide a longer life span, and allow more applications to be incorporated in a transit card. As a result, policy makers and transport owners are interested in extending the use of smart cards from transit to non-transit systems to capitalise on their investment. However, little is known about the conditions under which customers would adopt transit cards for non-transit transactions. In Singapore, a contactless transit smart card (ez-link card) was launched in April 2002 to replace the magnetic stored-value card, which was commissioned in December 1990. The ez-link card was introduced as an integrated public transport card for use both on buses and Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) and Light Rail Transit (LRT) trains. This study was undertaken to evaluate customers' response to the use of the ez-link card for non-transit transactions. As the ez-link card is an information technology (IT) product and the first of its kind in the Singapore public transport system, there is a need to understand and appreciate how customers would respond to the change in its use. Various theories and models such as the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), Theory of Diffusion (TD), Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) and Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) were reviewed for their potential to understand and predict customers' intentions to use the ez-link card for non-transit transactions. After much review, the TPB was adopted for identifying the research model and hypotheses in this study. The TPB was used to develop the research model and hypotheses comprising one dependent variable (intention – INT) and three independent variables (attitude - ATT, subjective norm - SN and perceived behavioral control - PBC). The TPB was also used to design the questionnaire comprising 16 items to collect data from customers using the ez-link card at bus interchanges and train stations located around Singapore. A pilot survey was conducted on 21 respondents using the intercept interview technique. The data were collected and analysed. With slight modifications, the questionnaire was then used with 300 respondents in the final survey. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the data collected from 293 respondents (seven were outliers) using the intercept interview technique in the final survey. Regression analysis explained 80% of the variance in the customers' intention to use the ez-link card for non-transit transactions. While the results provided initial support for the TPB, further examination of the data using exploratory factor analysis revealed high correlations between the ATT and SN. This study concluded that a more parsimonious model would only extract two independent variables (Desirability - DES and Perceived Convenience – PEC) to predict customers' intention to use the ez-link card for non-transit transactions. DES and PEC were used to develop a new

In spite of widespread critiques about the neoliberalisation of higher education and its production of citizenship in relation to the market, transformation of students into profit-maximising individuals, and the vitalisation of a self-enterprising subjectivity, many of these claims remain under-examined with respect to cultural production. The objective of this research is to explore the neoliberal production of middle-class citizenship through the lens of educated non-elite local youth in Singapore. By combining geographical, sociological and anthropological insights about education and youth, I develop a theoretically informed ethnographic case study to examine how this segment of young people reproduce themselves as middle-class citizens. The research is based on eleven months of fieldwork at a local private institute of higher education, where I hanged around, talked to, and observed Singaporean young people between ages 18 and 25 studying for their first degree. The ethnographic materials are written up into four substantive papers, demonstrating the ways in which educated non-elite Singaporean youth in private higher education engage with state disseminated ideas around neoliberal accumulation and human capital formation. I argue that these students draw on class-based sensibilities and feelings to produce vibrant forms of normativities, subjectivities, and politics that pose a challenge to dominant assumptions of a "hollowed out" citizenship under neoliberalism. The research makes two overall interventions in geographic and social scientific writings about neoliberal restructuring of higher education and its implications for youth citizenship. First, it cautions against a straightforward claim that neoliberal technologies of control have extended market values into citizenship subjectivity and, with it, the erosion of progressive political projects. Second, it provides a much-needed analysis of middle-class citizenship formation among young people caught at the losing end of a diversifying educational landscape.

published_or_final_version / Social Work / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Business Administration / Master / Master of Business Administration

published_or_final_version / Asian Studies / Master / Master of Arts

published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

Approved for public release: Distribution is unlimited / After the attacks of September 11, 2001, officials of the United States government realized that this was a new type of war that would be fought on all fronts, including inside the United States. For this reason, the Bush Administration reorganized a large part of the bureaucracy and spent billions of dollars to protect its citizens. This problem of terrorism, however, is a global problem and one that the United States shares with countries all over the world. The People's Republic of China and Singapore are the focus of this thesis in order to determine what if any homeland security policies developed by their governments could be used to better protect citizens of the United States. Several policies such as legislation, education and internal security measures were evaluated for the United States to institute. Each chosen policy is followed by a brief description of how these laws might come into being within the U.S. governmental system. / Civilian, Center for Civil Military Relations

In modern urban Singapore, the variety of English spoken evolves through a continual negotiation of adhering to traditionally standard models and creating local norms in the environment of myriad social and substratum language influences. Singapore English (SgE) speakers constantly navigate a multilingual situation which requires them to simultaneously handle the language systems of the society’s main working language, English, and at least one other language while being immersed in a linguistic environment where interactions in countless other languages and varieties take place. Variation, thus, inevitably exists within SgE as depicted in models of variation developed throughout the years. While this variation manifests itself in many forms, this study focuses particularly on the sociophonetic variation of /r/ realisations, an area of SgE in which the little research done previously provides only impressionistic or preliminary descriptions. Here, /r/ variation is studied through an auditory and acoustic investigation of both read and conversational speech data collected from male and female SgE speakers of Singapore’s major ethnic groups (i.e. Chinese, Malay, Indian, and Eurasian). Through the use of an auditory perceptual strength index and a combination of fixed- and mixed- effects statistical modelling methods, this study reveals /r/ variation in SgE on several levels. Results show that SgE speakers produce a range of /r/ variants, both within and between speakers, and also highlight the intertwined roles of language-internal factors (e.g. phonological contexts, word class) and language-external factors (e.g. speech style, ethnicity, speaker sex) in determining variation in both the realisation and distribution of /r/ in SgE. Finer auditory and acoustic distinctions are found in approximant /r/, reflecting both the phonetic complexity of /r/ and the multifaceted nature of SgE. Additionally, supportive evidence for the presence of innovative trends in SgE /r/ realisation (i.e. labiodental /r/) and of fading ones (i.e. taps/trills) is also found. Taken together, these results provide the basis for discussions of a potential situation of natural /r/-weakening and the impacts of speech styles, cross-linguistic influences, and language dominance on /r/ variation. They also postulate trends of change in /r/ realisations in SgE affected by age, ethnicity and speaker sex. Besides contributing to the general on-going discussions of synchronic variation and diachronic change in the story of /r/, this study shares insights into the intricacies of studying linguistic patterns in multilingual urban communities and provides empirical evidence for the need of a multidimensional approach in researching multicultural varieties and/or ‘New Englishes’ like SgE.

In Australia, the employment destinations of new graduates are surveyed annually and descriptions of successful employment have become an indicator of quality within the higher education sector. The expectations that employers hold for graduate generic skills are of interest, therefore, to graduates and the institutions they attended. Communication and thinking are recognised widely as the most important generic skills, however the application of these skills will occur in the workplace where academic skills may not be totally appropriate. In addition, many graduates of Australian institutions; e.g., international students, are likely to be employed by foreign organisations. Therefore, not only is the workplace a very different environment to academia but graduates could be expected to satisfy the expectations of employers working in culturally different environments.This investigation describes the expectations participating Singaporean and Perth employers held for recently graduated business graduates with particular attention given to graduate communication and thinking. The exploratory research used interviews and surveys to assemble contextual descriptions of employer expectations. The interview data was used to construct a questionnaire that was administered across a larger sample of employers to see whether the surveys corroborated the interview findings. Contextual descriptions of the communication and thinking capabilities that the Singaporean and Perth employers expected recent business graduates to possess are provided by this study. Gaps between employer expectations and perceptions of graduate ability are discussed, together with useful graduate characteristics. During data analysis five themes were noted and they have been used to propose a model of employer expectations. Finally, seven recommendations for professional practitioners have been suggested ++ / and a list of employer concerns is provided.

For both large and small companies involved in the internationalisation of world-wide markets, the successful management of expatriate assignment is an important part of overseas commercial activities.This investigation was concerned with expatriate management in fifty, multinational and international organisations in Australia, Singapore and Malaysia to contribute to the enhancement of success and reduction of failure of expatriate assignments.Data was collected to heighten the awareness of practitioners and academics to the value of dealing differently with expatriates. In forecasting the value of expatriates and the importance of global trade in the future, it was shown that the most successful companies are those able to identify and select an ample number of appropriate international managers. Where suitable candidates for relocation are not selected, higher than normal turnover occurs.The unique Australasian models developed and tested in this thesis are a direct response to the results of current research and encourage current practice to be less static. resulting in the rate of expatriate failure being reduced substantially.