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Corporate Resistance To Early Return To Work Policy, Roger J. Shoemaker

Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to discover the extent and patterns of resistance the concept of an early return to work policy is encountering in private corporations. Early return to work policies encourage and enable injured/disabled employees to return to duty before being fully recuperated. The degree of resistance was examined through variables which are component elements of the macro themes of corporate culture and corporate structure theory. Corporate culture embodies a set of beliefs and values collectively held and socialized by a corporation. Specific elements of corporate culture which were examined are corporate goals (to increase market share, …

Assessment Inequities Of Residential Properties In Nine Michigan Townships, Sivaswami Amarnath

Dissertations

Horizontal equity in property tax administration has been neglected by researchers in favor of research on incidence of the property tax. The present study, conducted within nine townships in Allegan, Barry, and Grand Traverse Counties in Michigan, investigated differences of practices in assessing residential properties. Three hypotheses test differences in ratio of assessed value to sale price for properties owned by nonresidents and residents, properties with water frontage and without water frontage, and properties of higher value and those of lower value. Both parametric and nonparametric statistics were utilized to test the research hypotheses.

The study findings were: (1) Properties …

The Impact Of Self-Esteem And Locus Of Control On Expectancy Theory Predictions Of Work Effort, Michael Kuan Tsai

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of Participative Management On Teacher Satisfaction During Periods Of Organizational Decline, Robert Michael O'Brien

Dissertations

Public school teachers and administrators are increasingly challenged to demonstrate effectiveness in the face of organizational decline. A management system proposed by researchers in organizational development to promote worker effectiveness is participatory management. This study investigated the effects of participatory management as they related to teacher satisfaction and productivity during organizational decline. Two local school districts that used a participatory management system, identified as Quality of Work Life (QWL) districts, were studied. Two similar local school districts that did not use a participatory management system were also studied. The results of the analysis indicate that there were no significant differences …

Determination Of A "Benchmark" Rate Of Return For Regulated Small Telephone Utilities In The State Of Michigan, Gondy Bhaskara Rao

Dissertations

This study presents an approach that is consistent with regulatory standards of fairness, and enables the Public Service Commission staff to determining "benchmark" rates of return for Michigan's small telephone utilities. It applies only where they are either subsidiaries of holding companies or independently operating but whose securities are not publicly traded.

The methodology developed in this research is couched in the capital asset pricing framework and is powerful enough to capture the parent-subsidiary relationship to the ultimate determination of benchmark rates of return for utilities that have similar risks.

To evaluate the methodology for consistency with the regulatory standards, …

Development Of Michigan Jtpa Title Iia Performance Standards Regression Models Under The New Federalism, Yung Sung Wu

Dissertations

The purpose of this study has been to make some contribution toward an understanding of the United States Department of Labor's (USDOL) JTPA Title IIA performance standards models and their policy implications. The major objective of the study has been to construct, evaluate, and document short-run econometric models which would be available for policy analysis and ex ante forecasting. The consequences of job training programs may have important effects on participants and the manpower service delivery system--hence, this study of the relationship between program activities and their consequences.

The State of Michigan has been using USDOL's JTPA Title IIA performance …

The Idea Of Good Government: The Evolution Of Administrative Thought And Practice In The American Republic, James Robert Wieber

Dissertations

This study analyzes the evolution of the proper role of public administration in American government. American public administration traces its roots to the founding of American constitutional government in 1789, but divergent opinions continue regarding the discipline's proper role in a democracy. This question has never been settled in the American experiment. Considering the size, scope, and complexity of today's administrative state, it may well never be. Recent efforts have sought to define public administrations's role as proactive on behalf of clients for reasons of social equity and human dignity. Further attempts have been made to define administration as a …

An Analysis Of The Use Of Special Masters For Assuring Compliance With Judicial Decrees In Corrections Litigation, Richard J. Liles

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to analyze the recent practice of judges appointing remedial special masters to oversee the implementation of consent decrees and court orders. These orders are a response to the spate of inmate suits demanding compliance with the constitutional guarantees provided in the Fourth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments. As more courts have become involved in adjudging the constitutionality of conditions in correctional institutions, there has been a trend toward the judge becoming a quasi-manager in assuring compliance with the court's orders. To conduct this oversight, they have turned more and more to the practice of hiring …

School District Current Operating Expenditures: A Comparative Analysis Of Michigan School Districts Having A Student Population Of 10,000 To 50,000 For 1984-85, James Ross Constandt

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to compare line item current operating expenses among school districts in Michigan having a student population of 10,000 but less than 50,000 and to present a budget model which establishes minimum and maximum line item current operating expenses for such school districts. Line item expenditures were compared and analyzed among those school districts within the same student population grouping.

Local school districts in Michigan are categorized by the State Board of Education into 14 groupings based on pupil membership. School districts in Groups B and C were studied. Group B included four school districts …

An Historical Analysis Of Public Policy For The Care And Treatment Of People Who Are Mentally Retarded In Michigan, Kenneth O. Slater

Dissertations

This dissertation traces the historical development of Michigan's public policy associated with the residential care and treatment of mentally retarded people. Michigan laws and programs from 1830 through 1983 were studied after being compared to a national history. The central question was: What factors, over time, influenced public policy related to residential care and treatment of the mentally retarded?

Initially, care was the responsibility of families and friends of the mentally retarded. This responsibility shifted from townships to counties, then to the state during the nineteenth century. Until the late 1800s many mentally retarded people were housed on county poor …

Perceived Barriers And Proposed Solutions For Employment Of The Handicapped: Attitudes Of Employers And Employment Agencies, Leonard Robert Mcconnell Ii

Dissertations

The intent of this research was to analyze the employment barriers and to identify possible policy strategies for the unique employment problems faced by persons with handicaps. The study surveyed barriers to employment and proposed employment solutions for the handicapped as perceived by private- and public-sector employers and employment agencies. The handicapped and six disability groups were compared with women, blacks, and Hispanics on the same barriers and solutions. It was hypothesized that: (1) the handicapped as a protected group faced more and different employment barriers than did women, blacks, or Hispanics, and therefore (2) the handicapped needed more and …

The Implementation Of Deterrence: A Multi-Approach Assessment Of The Impact Of Recent Changes In Anti-Drunk Driving Legislation On Reducing Alcohol-Involved Fatalities, Josef R. Soper

Dissertations

The objective of this study is to determine if anti-drunk driving legislation, enacted between January 1979 and December 1983, has significantly reduced the number of alcohol-involved traffic fatalities.

At the macro-level, 60 consecutive months of alcohol-involved fatality data were requested from the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Sixteen states supplied the requested data. The Box-Jenkins technique for interrupted time-series analysis was used to determine if a change in the state's drunk driving law impacted the frequency of alcohol-involved fatalities in that state. Results are discussed in relation to the statewide impact of anti-drunk driver legislation.

At the micro-level, …

Predicting Agency Survival As A Function Of Constituency Support In The Michigan Mental Health System, R. Dee L. Woell

Dissertations

Two public facilities for the mentally ill, Michigan Institute for Mental Health and Lafayette Clinic were examined, using a framework provided by Douglas R. Boulter (1983). The basic research question was, why did Lafayette Clinic survive while Michigan Institute did not?

The following research propositions were explored: (1) Organizations that receive strong constituency and media support are more likely to survive than those which do not; (2) Program success or failure is dependent on the decision-maker's perception of the sum of public support; (3) The media serves both as a carrier of opinion and as an influential actor in its …

Beyond Contingency Theory: Environment, Structure, And Administrator's Coping Ability In The Public Sector, Shyu-Tu Lee

Dissertations

In the last two decades, organizational-environment contingency theory has attracted much attention. A great deal of research has been done on investigating the impact of environment on organizations, suggesting the appropriate design of organizational structure. In recent years, organizational theorists have moved to investigate proactive approaches to organizational environments.

Most empirical studies, however, have been conducted in the private sector. In order to transfer the knowledge to the public sector, it is necessary to investigate whether public organizations are also subjected to environmental influence and how public administrators interact with the environment.

This study investigated the following three questions: (1) …

Determinant Factors In The Utilization Process Of Social Services In Saudi Arabia, Fahd Abdullah Ali Dileym

Dissertations

The Deputy Ministry of Social Welfare and the Deputy Ministry of Social Security provide a spectrum of social service programs and activities. However, utilization of the designated services is incapacitated by the existing gap between the potential clients and the social service providers. Certain barriers have contributed significantly to the clients' underutilization behavior of the assigned services.

Accordingly, this study had two purposes: (a) to determine whether social services provided by the Deputy Ministries of Social Welfare and Social Security are perceived by administrators, social workers, and college students to be underutilized; and (b) to compare the perceptions of the …

A Descriptive Study Of The Leadership Styles Of Michigan Juvenile Court Administrators Utilizing The Application Of The Managerial Grid Theory, Zigmund S. Kryszak Jr.

Dissertations

This descriptive study investigated the 83 juvenile court administrators in the state of Michigan. Specifically, the study attempted to (a) collect biographical and professional data regarding the administrators, (b) establish a preferred leadership style utilizing the Managerial Grid Theory postulated by Blake and Mouton, and (c) test the relationship between key variables and the leadership styles demonstrated by the administrators as a group.

The instruments utilized to collect the data were the Style of Management Inventory copyrighted by Teleometrics International of Woodland, Texas, and a self-designed Personal Data Questionnaire. These instruments were mailed to all 83 juvenile court administrators. The …

Affirmative Action In A Governmental Agency: Michigan's Vocational Rehabilitation Service (Vrs), Linda Collins Johnson

Dissertations

No abstract provided.