Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Attitudes Of Canadian Citizens Toward Farm Animal Welfare: A Qualitative Study, Jeffrey M. Spooner, Catherine A. Schuppli, David Fraser

David Fraser, PhD

As part of a larger project to determine if there are animal-welfare-related values shared by some commercial food–animal producers and non-producers in Canada, open-ended, semi-structured interviews were conducted to elicit opinions about animal welfare among 24 urban and rural residents not involved in commercial animal production. All participants possessed a self-described interest in food animal well-being and were therefore assumed to represent the views of Canadian non-producers most apt to engage in efforts to shape the animal welfare policies of governments and businesses. Participants described animal welfare in moral or ethical terms, expressed virtually unanimous support for animals having access …

Appraising Performance In Public Sector Organisations: Critical Discourse Perspectives, Christa Wood

Christa Wood

This paper examines the performance appraisal system that has been implemented in some public service organisations in line with the changes to a more commercialized structure. In an effort to change the behaviours and attitudes of public servants, performance appraisal systems have incorporated the new values and desired behaviours. Although a myriad of studies exist in regards to the new public management and on the topic of performance appraisal systems, there are few critical management studies of the implementation and operation of performance appraisal in the public sector. To date, most critical studies of performance appraisal have concentrated on the …

Are Low-Skill Public Sector Workers Really Overpaid? A Quasi-Differenced Panel Data Analysis, Peter Siminski

Peter Siminski

Public–private sectoral wage differentials have been studied extensively using quantile regression techniques. These typically find large public sector premiums at the bottom of the wage distribution. This may imply that low skill workers are ‘overpaid’, prompting concerns over efficiency. We note several other potential explanations for this result and explicitly test whether the premium varies with skill, using Australian data. We use a quasi-differenced Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) panel data model which has not been previously applied to this topic, internationally. Unlike other available methods, this technique identifies sectoral differences in returns to unobserved skill. It also facilitates a …

Introduction To The Book Governing Academia, Ronald G. Ehrenberg

Ronald G. Ehrenberg

[Excerpt] During recent decades tuition for undergraduate students has risen at rates substantially higher than the rate of inflation at both public and private colleges and universities in the United States. These high rates of tuition increases led Congress to establish the National Commission on the Costs of Higher Education in 1997 to conduct a comprehensive review of college costs and prices and to make recommendations on how to hold tuition increases down. Parents of college students, taxpayers, and government officials all wanted to know why academic institutions can't behave more like businesses—cut their costs, increase their efficiency, and thus …

Usability Testing Of Public Health Web-Based Information Systems, Sumayya Banna, Kholoud Alkayid, Helen M. Hasan, Joseph A. Meloche

Sumayya a Banna

While the Internet provides many opportunities for increased levels of care and access to information services in the area of public health, many web designers are not yet taking full advantage of its potential. This study looks at Intensive Care and Palliative Care, as important instances where health informatics could improve public web-based services, in meeting the particular information needs of family members of critically and chronically ill patients. This study is significant in adopting an approach to the usability testing of websites based on concepts from Activity Theory. This takes a realistic and practical approach, which identifies the purpose …

Opportunities For Interactivity In Public Health Websites: A Content Analysis Approach, Sumayya Banna, Helen M. Hasan, Joseph A. Meloche

Sumayya a Banna

The Internet has many advantages over other media in the provision of information services in the area of public health. However many designers are not yet taking full advantage of its potential for interactivity. This paper examines the development of interactivity in public health websites in the increasingly important area of Palliative Care. Content analysis is used here to map the interactivity in a sample of 30 existing websites along with Heeter’s six dimensions (content and availability of choice, effort users must exert, responsiveness to the users, and the ease of adding information, monitoring the information and the system use, …

Accounting, New Public Management And American Politics: Theoretical Insights Into The National Performance Review, Ann Watkins, Cecil Arrington

Ed Arrington

Borrowing from the work of political theorists Sheldon Wolin and William Connolly, this essay seeks to provide additional rationalization for the expansion of accounting within domains like the public sector. We suggest that such an expansion is intimately linked to social and cultural transitions which have led political theorists to not only question modern political theory but to also recognize the political significance of practices like accounting to political theory. We contend that these same transitions also make possible expansions of accounting through NewPublicManagement (NPM) initiatives like the U.S.'s NationalPerformanceReview (NPR). Seen in this way, accounting theory begins to move …

Late-Modern Politics And The Ubiquity Of Accounting: The Expansion Of New Public Management Within The Us Public Sector, Ann Watkins, Cecil Arrington

Ed Arrington

No abstract provided.

Usability Testing Of Public Health Web-Based Information Systems, Sumayya Banna, Kholoud Alkayid, Helen M. Hasan, Joseph A. Meloche

Helen Hasan

While the Internet provides many opportunities for increased levels of care and access to information services in the area of public health, many web designers are not yet taking full advantage of its potential. This study looks at Intensive Care and Palliative Care, as important instances where health informatics could improve public web-based services, in meeting the particular information needs of family members of critically and chronically ill patients. This study is significant in adopting an approach to the usability testing of websites based on concepts from Activity Theory. This takes a realistic and practical approach, which identifies the purpose …

Opportunities For Interactivity In Public Health Websites: A Content Analysis Approach, Sumayya Banna, Helen M. Hasan, Joseph A. Meloche

Helen Hasan

The Internet has many advantages over other media in the provision of information services in the area of public health. However many designers are not yet taking full advantage of its potential for interactivity. This paper examines the development of interactivity in public health websites in the increasingly important area of Palliative Care. Content analysis is used here to map the interactivity in a sample of 30 existing websites along with Heeter’s six dimensions (content and availability of choice, effort users must exert, responsiveness to the users, and the ease of adding information, monitoring the information and the system use, …

Microeconomic Reform And Public Sector Labour, Robert Castle

Robert G. Castle

No abstract provided.

A Technique For Measuring Efficiency Changes In The Provision Of Non-Market And Intangible Public Output, James Hagan, Robert Castle

Robert G. Castle

No abstract provided.

Trends In Australian Public Sector Employment, Robert Castle

Robert G. Castle

No abstract provided.

Prospects For Public Sector Employment, Robert Castle

Robert G. Castle

No abstract provided.

The Role Of The Law In The Availability Of Public Transit And Affordable Housing In Atlanta’S West End, Elliott Lipinsky

ELLIOTT LIPINSKY

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) is a branch of the U.S. Department of Transportation that administers federal funds and provides technical assistance for the support of locally operated public transit systems. MARTA / Atlanta metro area are part of FTA Region IV (the Southeast). FTA would be involved, for instance, in financing the federal grant monies discussed above. But actual regulation of operations (i.e., what MARTA does each day, or what MARTA will plan to do regionally) is more closely regulated by Georgia agencies.

Until recently, the Atlanta metropolitan area had no powerful central agency to coordinate regional transit. The …