Integrated Corridor Management: Operational Strategies under Interstate Diversion Scenarios

This thesis looks at operational strategies to increase capacity within the context of Integrated Corridor Management (ICM) under a non-recurring Interstate incident scenario. This incident scenario creates lengthy queues and increased delay and travel times on the Interstate, forcing a portion of Interstate traffic to utilize alternate routes throughout the corridor, changing the network traffic patterns. Particular operational strategies are tested under this premise to qualify and mildly quantify the benefits of relaying incident and diversion routing information to corridor drivers, mimicking ITS information dissemination elements such as changeable message signs, highway advisory radio, in vehicle navigation systems and etc. This thesis assumes idealized institutional ICM aspects, data-sharing, and technology integration. The experimental analysis for the corridor network was conducted in VISSIM microsimulation, with its NEMA signal interface, also making use of VISUM macrosimulation, and Synchro 6 signal timing optimization. Based upon the results of this analysis, it was concluded that for the study area, implementing ICM strategies pertaining to advance driver warning and routing information pertaining to an incident can mildly reduce travel time and delay at the entire network-level, but travel time and delay do increase on the incident roadway corridor level when compared to a do nothing scenario during the off-peak period. This research also successfully validates the ability to convert a regional planning-level model into a working microsimulation, operations-level model

Situated identity performance : understanding stereotype threat as a social identity phenomenon.

Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2011.Stereotype threat or boost (STB) is a situational modifier of task performance that occurs when a group stereotype becomes relevant to the performance of a stereotype-relevant task. This dissertation aimed to re-imagine STB in light of social identity theory. Ten studies were undertaken that each manipulated status and either identifiability, conflict or permeability and explored the effects on the performance of the Ravens Advanced Progressive Matrices. Additional identity and socio-structural constructs were also measured and explored, including stability, legitimacy and ingroup identification. The results showed that STB is not simply “activated” or “deactivated” when stereotypes become relevant to task performance. On the contrary, the specific features of identity, the contextual features of the social environment in which the identity performance takes place, and the performer’s strategic engagement with their identity resources and liabilities are important features of how STB impacts on performance, and how it is sometimes resisted and overturned by experimental subjects. Indeed, performance was generally not predictable on the basis of stereotype activation until resistance to the negative or positive status manipulations were also accounted for. Although the STB literature is tightly focused on the case of negative stereotypes undermining performance, incongruent effects in which negative stereotypes enhance performance and positive stereotypes undermine it have also been reported. In the present studies incongruent STB effects were frequently observed. Underperformance in boost conditions was most consistently predicted by perceived intergroup conflict, while enhanced performance under threat was consistently predicted by perceived group boundary permeability. Additionally, underperformance in boost conditions was often a result of ‘slipstreaming’ rather than ‘choking under pressure,’ since participants were evidently counting on their generally secure identity in the experimental context to buffer poor performance on the experimental task. Improved performance in threat conditions was most likely when participants perceived themselves to be representatives of their group and when they believed that their improved performance would make a difference for their own reputation or the reputation of their group. These findings challenge the common image of the passive subject in the STB literature and, instead, suggest that STB effects are an outcome of situated identity performance. This model of STB effects understands task-performance in a specific performance context as an active and strategic expression of situated identity oriented not only to the social features of the performance context (as argued by most SIT theorists), but also to the their own reading of that context, their total identity liabilities and resources (including individual ability and alternative identities) and their strategic motivations in the context.Research funded by the NRF under the Thuthuka/Researchers in Training programme and the UKZN research office under the competitive research grant programme

Industrial relations in West Germany: The operation of a works council in a predominantly white-collar small organisation in West Germany

This thesis describes the operation of a Works Council after initially reviewing the concept of co-determination and existing literature. It details the Company in which the study took place over a thirty month period and is written by a former Works Councillor employed by that Company. It is not, therefore, a pure academic study of a controlled experiment written by an academic; the great expansion of research into West German industrial relations particularly after the 1972 Labour Management Relations Act and 1976 Co-determination Act appears to have missed out the operation of Works Councils and concentrated on worker directors and the subsequent effect on them caused by the legislation. This study aims to fill the gap. Chapters 4, 5 and 6 respectively concentrate on problems encountered by the Works Council and employer in the areas of unequal treatment, grievances and job evaluation/performance appraisal. Each area encompasses the relevant articles of the legislation and their interrelated difficulties; emphasis is placed not only on the facts and the problems but on eventual solutions - if any - and how the system was, or was not, able to cope with them. In addition to describing issues and how they were handled by both Works Council and Management, I have tried to emphasise how Management tries to keep all activity within a largely inflexible legislative framework. Few, if any, studies exist that have been carried out or written by participants in the Works Council system (see Chapter 2). In particular there is a distinct lack of material written by Works Councillors in the white collar sector of smaller organisations with a multi-national background. Using for reference the International Labour Organisation translation of the 1972 L. M. R. A. under which the Works Council operation was governed, this thesis is the unique experience of an Englishman elected to two successive terms of office as a Works Councillor the second as Deputy Chairman of the Works Council. The results of the study may lead to a revision of the general conclusions about the Works Council system, particularly as a system of management accountability, a basis of employee involvement and participation as well as a major influence on co-operation and low levels of conflict; it may also provide realistic guidance as to whether the system is initiating or simply reactive, and whether a Works Council can be a stand alone body rather than simply part of a complex system. The reader is, therefore, invited to approach this study as the author has done - a new product

When the chips are down : attribution in the context of computer failure and repair.

Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2004.Cognitive attribution theories provide convincing and empirically robust models of attribution. However, critiques include the scarcity of empirical research in naturalistic settings and the failure of cognitive attribution theorists to account for why, when and how much people engage in attributional activity. The present study draws data from naturalistic recordings of the common experience of computer failure and repair. A simple content analysis explores the extent to which everyday attributional talk is modelled by the cognitive theories of attribution. It is found that everyday talk matches the cognitive theories of attribution reasonably well for socially safe operative information about the problem, but poorly for socially unsafe inspective information about the agents and their actions. The second part of the analysis makes sense of this empirical pattern by using conversation and discourse analysis to explore the social functions of observed attributional talk. Participants use attributional talk to achieve two broad social goals: to negotiate and manage the social engagement and to construct and defend positions of competence and expertise

How does the audience affect the way we express our gender roles?

Human beings adapt their language to suit their audience when interacting. While audience effects have been studied in theory and small-scale research, there is a lack of large-scale studies on naturally occurring audience effects. In this study, we examine audience effects in interactions with gendered contexts that emphasize different social identities (e.g. mother, father, and parent) by analyzing interactions on Reddit. We collected posts from three popular parenting subreddits (r/Daddit, r/Mommit, and r/Parenting), which cater to self-identified fathers and mothers (ostensibly single-gender) and parents (explicitly mixed-gender) respectively. By selecting a sample of users who have published on both single-gender and mixed-gender subreddits, we are able to explore both audience and gender effects. To analyze the posts, we used word embeddings and added the user as a token in the corpus. This allowed us to compare user-tokens to word-tokens and measure their similarity. Our results show that mothers and fathers behave similarly and discuss a diverse range of topics in a mixed-gender context, focusing more on advising each other on educational and family matters. In single-gender subreddits, mothers and fathers are more focused on specific topics. Mothers in r/Mommit distinguish themselves from other groups by discussing topics such as medical care, sleep and potty training, and food. Both mothers and fathers celebrate parenting events and describe or comment on the physical appearance of their children in front of a single-gender audience. In conclusion, this study demonstrates how mothers and fathers express different concerns and adapt their behaviour to different group-based audiences. It also highlights the potential of using Reddit and word embeddings to better understand the dynamics of audience and gender in a natural setting

Mindre virksomheders udbytte og strategiske orientering mod e-business: Et komparativt studie af UK og DK

Nærværende artikel belyser, hvorledes mindre og mellemstore danske og engelske virksomheder vurderer deres nuværende udbytte af deres e-business indsats, deres forventninger, og hvorledes de generelt prioriterer e-business i forhold til andre strategiske indsatsområder. Fra brancheorganisationer og regeringerne i både UK og DK er der megen fokus på at stimulere udbredelsen af e-business til at omfatte mindre og mellemstore virksomheder, men undersøgelsen her indikerer, at virksomhedernes – og ledernes – strategiske fokus slet ikke er rettet mod e-business, men mod generelle ledelsesmæssige områder. Endvidere omfatter ledelsens fokus ikke områder som udvikling af nye forretningsprocesser, innovationer eller produktudvikling – og slet ikke på e-business. Resultaterne fra et survey i England og Danmark med svar fra 140 danske og 256 engelske SME’s antyder også, at de virksomheder – i begge lande – som har udviklet kompetencer med hensyn til E-business, kun har opnået beskedne fremgange og mindre besparelser, og at de endnu mangler at høste besparelser med hensyn til både tid og omkostninger i forhold til de interne processer, og vi diskuterer om de manglende oplevede fordele i praksis står i modsætning til lærebøgernes, e-business forskernes, konsulenternes og regeringernes postulerende visionære drømme – og er forklaringen på den langsomme udbredelse til SME’s

The dynamic emergence of cooperative norms in a social dilemma

This paper addresses the formation of social norms of cooperation through interaction in repeated Public Goods Games, using novel multilevel techniques. Cooperation has traditionally been understood as the interplay of static factors such as shared social identity and pre-existing norms. This study investigates the dynamic emergence of cooperative norms in the presence or absence of social categorization. A small effect of categorization was found: Categorization helps initiate and maintain higher levels of cooperation. However, the differences in emergent cooperation between small groups were much stronger than the differences between the Categorization and Non-Categorization conditions. Using explorative analyses, three distinct classes of groups were found. Within groups, group members follow nearly identical rules for their choice of cooperative behavior. We argue that individual behavior converged because of the social interactions within these groups. Overall, the development of cooperation is best predicted by the process of norm formation that occurs when social identities emerge.</p