Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

All Americans Not Equal: Mistrust And Discrimination Against Naturalized Citizens In The U.S., Alev Dudek

Alev Dudek

The Effects Of Frequent Exposure To Violence And Trauma On Police Officers, Ternarian Warren

Ternarian A Warren PhD

Police officers who maintain negative or traumatic information in long-term memory are vulnerable to mental illness, unstable emotional and behavioral responses, interpersonal problems, and impaired social relationships. The cognitive theory suggests that police officers externalize various negative or maladaptive behaviors as a result of frequent exposure to traumatic events. Researchers have found that police officers tend to either not seek mental health treatment, try to fix their own mental health problem, or if in treatment will not be forthcoming with internalized thoughts of psychological distress. The intention of this research was to examine the relationship between police officers' frequent exposure …

Creating A Culture Of Meaningful Evaluation In Public Libraries: Moving Beyond Quantitative Metrics, Bill Irwin, Paul St-Pierre

Bill Irwin

The current state of practice sees public libraries, like all public institutions, enduring funding challenges within the dominant political-economic environment, which is shaped by the tenets of new public management and the neoliberal audit society. Libraries, feeling threatened and unsure about their future stability, seek new ways to demonstrate their value. However, they face institutional cultural constraints when attempting to introduce new assessment methods to meet this challenge. The new dynamics require them to go beyond output measures (counts). With research findings supported by survey and interview data from Ontario public libraries, and in agreement with the current literature on …

Czars In The White House: The Rise Of Policy Czars As Presidential Management Tools, Justin S. Vaughn, José D. Villalobos

José D. Villalobos

When Barack Obama entered the White House, he faced urgent issues including the economy, health care, and climate change. Despite citizens’ demand for strong presidential leadership, the development and implementation of policy requires cooperation across a range of congressional committees, federal departments, and government agencies. Following a long-standing precedent, Obama appointed administrators—so-called policy czars—charged with directing the response to the nation’s most pressing crises.

Combining public administration and political science approaches to the study of the American presidency and institutional politics, Justin S. Vaughn and José D. Villalobos argue that the creation of policy czars is a strategy for combating …

The Role Of Leadership In Creating A Strategic Climate For Evidence-Based Practice Implementation And Sustainment In Systems And Organizations, Gregory Aarons, Mark Ehrhart, Lauren Farahnak, Marisa Sklar

G A Aarons

There is a growing impetus to effectively implement evidence-based practices (EBPs) in health and allied health settings in order to improve the public health impact of such practices. To support implementation and sustainment of EBPs, it is important to consider that health care is delivered within the outer context of public health systems and the inner context of health care organizations and work groups (3). This article identifies two relevant types of leadership for implementation and recommends steps that leaders can take in developing a strategic climate for EBP implementation and sustainment within the outer and inner contexts of health …

War Against Muslims Post 9/11?, Alev Dudek

Alev Dudek

Total Recall: A Demand For Accountability From Elected Officials., Chiehwen Ed Hsu

Chiehwen Ed Hsu

Efforts by the public to unseat an underperforming legislator on February 14 are the first steps in a campaign seeking to make all politicians more accountable.

Research Note: The Accuracy Of The Core Files For Studying Nonprofit Location: How Many Nonprofits Are There?, Lindsey Mcdougle

Lindsey McDougle

Studies show that the distribution of nonprofits varies considerably across communities. Affluent communities tend to have ample nonprofit resources and highly diverse nonprofit landscapes, while low-income communities often lack the variety of nonprofits found within wealthier areas. As a result of these differences, scholars have suggested that geographic unevenness in the presence of nonprofits may lead to extreme inequities and inefficiencies in how nonprofit services are accessed and administered. Although these concerns certainly warrant serious attention, several limitations have been acknowledged with the National Center for Charitable Statistic’s (NCCS) Core Financial Files—which have been the primary data source used to …

Location-Allocation Planning Of Stockpiles For Effective Disaster Mitigation, Jomon Aliyas Paul, Govind Hariharan

Jomon Aliyas Paul

In the existing framework for receiving and allocating Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) assistance, there are three noticeable delays: the delay by the state in requesting federal assets, the delay in the federal process which releases assets only upon the declaration of a disaster and lastly the time it takes to reach supplies rapidly from the SNS stockpile to where it is needed. The most efficient disaster preparedness plan is one that addresses all three delays taking into account the unique nature of each disaster. In this paper, we propose appropriate changes to the existing framework to address the first two …

Change.Gov, La Loria Konata

La Loria Konata

The Encyclopedia of Social Media and Politics explores how the rise of social media is altering politics both in the United States and in key moments, movements, and places around the world. The essay, Change.gov, gives an overview of the website, detailing how it was used to transition the presidency to President-Elect Barack Obama.

The Administrative Organization Of Sustainability Within Local Government, Rachel Krause, Richard Feiock, Christopher Hawkins

Rachel M. Krause

Administrative structure can shape bureaucratic process, performance, and responsiveness and is a particularly important consideration when new bureaucratic functions and programs are being established. However, the factors that influence the assignment of these functions to specific government agencies or departments are understudied, particularly at the local level. The absence of empirical evidence regarding bureaucratic assignment in local government limits understanding of institutional design and the organizational choices available, particularly as they relate to specific policy areas. As an initial step in developing a theory of agency assignment at the local level, we examine the placement of sustainability programs in 401 …

Take A Flying Leap: The Ascent To Success, R. Maxfield, Rodger Broome

R. Jeffery Maxfield, Ed.D.

Have you ever wanted to have more influence on your family, friends, or work associates? Effective leadership is not created from some long-lost, dark secret, but rather the development and application of attributes in four areas of one's life. In Take a Flying LEAP: The Ascent to Success, you will learn about and how to develop these attributes from people who have not only studied leadership and influence, but have lived it.

The Metamorphosis Of Leadership In A Democratic Mexico (2010), By Roderic Ai Camp, José Villalobos

José D. Villalobos

No abstract provided.

Community Improvement Districts In Georgia: Administrators' Views On Their Effectiveness, Performance, And Accountability, Andrew Ewoh, Kristin Rome

Andrew I.E. Ewoh

Since the early 1990s, Georgia has been a leading participant in public-private partnerships, as exemplified by its many community improvement districts (CIDs). The goals and uses of CIDs vary, but commonly include fundraising, maintaining aesthetically pleasing business environments, controlling traffic flow, and infrastructural improvements. A survey research method was used to examine the effectiveness, performance, and accountability of CIDs in Georgia as perceived by their leaders. Lack of citizen participation was found to be a major problem of CID governance; this has serious public policy implications that can only be remedied by demands for inclusion by residents.

Oust The Louse: Does Political Pressure Discipline Regulators?, James Prieger, Janice Hauge, Mark Jamison

James E. Prieger

We consider a possible determinant of regulatory decisions by public utility commissioners: the desire to remain in office. We examine regulatory exit, where a regulator leaves a commission during a term or is not re-appointed/re-elected. With data from US states, we empirically investigate several hypotheses motivated by a political agency model of regulatory decision-making. Our empirical results generally support the hypotheses, including that higher electricity prices lead to ousting, that ousting is less common where it is more costly for the principal to whom the regulator reports, and that ousting is more likely where regulators are more accountable or are …

Corruption, Public Integrity And Globalization: Aspects And Trends In South-Eastern European States, Lucica Matei, Andrew Ewoh

Andrew I.E. Ewoh

In the past three decades, the developments of the processes and phenomena concerning corruption and public integrity highlight more obvious connections with globalization. More often, relevant analyses and studies reveal ”the globalization of corruption” or convergence of anti-corruption strategies etc. Those assertions are supported by the forms of expression of globalization in various fields, such as the economic, political or social fields. In this context, recently, the analysts have identified a ”corruption eruption”, whose causes are multiple but the political transformations induced by popular and social movements, political and economic liberalization are outstanding. For the South-Eastern European states, the fall …

Beyond The Barrio: Latinos In The 2004 Elections (2010), By Rodolfo O. De La Garza, Louis Desipio, And David L. Leal, Eds., José Villalobos

José D. Villalobos

No abstract provided.

Pay-For-Performance Reform And Organizational Discrimation: An Exploratory Analysis Of The United States Federal Agencies, Andrew Ewoh, Stephen Sonnenfeldt-Goddard

Andrew I.E. Ewoh

The federal General Schedule system, established under the Classification Act of 1949, has received increasing criticism within the past decade. Scholars and practitioners alike have decried it as being outdated, inefficient, and restrictive in allowing government to acquire the critical talent it needs to administer. With these challenges in mind, alternatives for replacing the General Schedule system have been offered. One of the most popular, prominent, and promising paths toward reform is the pay-for-performance approach. Using EEOC data published as a requirement of the Notification and Federal Employee Antidiscrimination and Retaliation (NO FEAR) Act of 2002, this article explores the …

Deil S. Wright In Memoriam, Jeffrey Brudney, Chung-Lae Cho Cho, Margaret Ferguson, Alfred Light, Jay Ryu, Nelson Dometrius, Cynthia Bowling

Jeff L. Brudney

Deil Spencer Wright, Alumni Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, passed away on June 30 2009, at the age of 79. Born on June 18, 1930, in Three Rivers, Michigan, to working-class parents, Deil received his BA, MPA, and Ph.D. from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. He spent time on the faculties of Wayne State University, the University of Iowa, and the University of California at Berkeley before landing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for the bulk of his career.

Beyond The Blue Podcast: Fact, Myth And Emotion Of Immigration, Greg Hill

Gregory C. Hill

Immigration is a super-charged, emotional issue that is not going away. In this podcast, Dr. Hill discusses what immigration policy is and its place in the American political landscape. He presents a brief history of immigration in the United States, followed by some ideas on thinking about immigration policy in a more systematic way. Dr. Hill also introduces the Optimal Immigration Framework, and discusses its features and utility. Also included is a look at his most recent work on undocumented students and educational performance, which seeks to address some of these issues using social scientific techniques.

The Trouble With Unity: Latino Politics And The Creation Of Identity (2010), By Cristina Beltrán, José Villalobos

José D. Villalobos

No abstract provided.

Comparative Analysis Of Municipal Public Services In Romania And The United States: The Case Of Water And Wastewater Services, Andrew Ewoh, Lucica Matei

Andrew I.E. Ewoh

Some of the most important basic services provided by any level of government are the primary responsibility of municipalities, and urban managers devote more time and attention in making sure that these services are delivered. The availability of public services in any local jurisdiction usually depends on location, history, laws and regulations. Some local governments use alternative service delivery such as public-private partnerships, intergovernmental agreements, and contracting out or privatization. Using an exploratory case study approach, this paper provides a comparative analysis of water and wastewater services in Romania and the United States. Six cities were selected from both countries …

Nixon’S Super-Secretaries: The Last Grand Presidential Reorganization Effort (2010), By Mordecai Lee, José Villalobos

José D. Villalobos

No abstract provided.

Information Workers In The Academy: The Case Of Librarians And Archivists At The University Of Western Ontario, Melanie Mills

Melanie Mills

For much of its history, the organizational culture for academic librarians and archivists at The University of Western Ontario was primarily a culture of the practitioner. While librarians and archivists supported teaching, research and service at Western, they did not directly engage in it. As a result of grassroots efforts undertaken by members of Western’s academic community in the mid-2000s however, the potential contributions of information workers to the teaching, research and service mandate of University began to garner recognition. Born out of this collective awakening, a successful union drive and shortly thereafter an inaugural Collective Agreement for The University …

The Role Of Public-Nonprofit Partnerships In The Delivery Of Public Goods And Services, Andrew Ewoh

Andrew I.E. Ewoh

While collaboration between public and nonprofit sector has a long history in the United States, such partnerships around the world have proliferated with the emergence of new public management that dates back to the early 1990s about a few years after the Romanian citizens gained the right to form nongovernmental organizations. Most scholars see the evolution of the nonprofit sector as a response to the failure of government to provide public goods and services. The purpose of this discourse as it relates to the 9th International Congress theme is to explore the role of public-nonprofit partnerships (PNPs) in accomplishing public …

Library Sector Leadership: Bridging Theory And Practice, Melanie Mills, Charlotte Innerd

Melanie Mills

Explore the issue of leadership in libraries with one current student and one graduate of The University of Victoria's Professional Graduate Certificate in Library Sector Leadership. Looking specifically at Kouzes and Posner's 'Five Practices of Exemplary Leaders' and Quinn et al.'s 'Competing Values Framework', we hope to share our own discoveries and insights and add to the important discussion of leadership in Libraries.

Pay-For-Performance Reform And Organizational Discrimination: An Exploratory Analysis Of The United States Federal Agencies, Andrew Ewoh, Stephen Stonnenfeldt-Goddard

Andrew I.E. Ewoh

The federal General Schedule system, established under the Classification Act of 1949, has received increasing criticism within the past decade. Scholars and practitioners alike have decried it as being outdated, inefficient, and restrictive in allowing government to acquire the critical talent it needs to administer. With these challenges in mind, alternatives for replacing the General Schedule system have been offered. One of the most popular, prominent, and promising paths toward reform is the pay-for-performance approach. Using EEOC data published as a requirement of the Notification and Federal Employee Antidiscrimination and Retaliation (NO FEAR) Act of 2002, this article explores the …

Searching For Contracting Patterns Over Time: Do Prime Contractor And Subcontractor Relations Follow Similar Patterns For Professional Services Provision?, Branco Ponomariov, Gordon Kingsley, Craig Boardman

Craig Boardman

This paper compares over a 12-year period (1) patterns of contracting between a state transportation agency and its prime contractors providing engineering design services with (2) patterns between these prime contractors and their subcontractors. We find evidence of different contracting patterns at each level that emerge over time and coexist in the same contracting context. While patterns at the agency–prime level are characterized by repeated contracts, patterns at the prime–sub level indicate fewer repeats and more contractor turnover. Implications for outsourcing practice and theory are discussed.

Organizational Confidence: An Empirical Assessment Of Highly Positive Public Managers, Mary Feeney, Craig Boardman

Craig Boardman

There is a great deal of research investigating public servants' perceptions of organizational problems (e.g., red tape, bureaucratic control); however, there is little research investigating public servants who have highly positive perceptions of their organizations. This article assesses perceptions of state employees to investigate individual- and organizational-level correlates with highly positive government workers, which we define as workers reporting high levels of pride in the organization for which they work, and who believe that the organization provides high-quality public services and operates by highly ethical standards. Using data from the National Administrative Studies Project III, we draw from formal theories …

Public Participation In Regulatory Decision-Making: Cases From Regulations.Gov, Thomas Bryer

Thomas A Bryer

Regulations.gov is an award winning government website that has democratized the rulemaking process by making it easier for citizens to search, read, and comment on proposed rules advanced by federal agencies. Submitted comments from three cases are analyzed; cases come from the Department of Health and Human Services, Environmental Protection Agency, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The issues in each are classified as low salience/high complexity, high salience/high complexity, and high salience/low complexity, respectively. Quality of comments submitted is analyzed across cases. It is suggested in conclusion that if costs are not accepted to better prepare citizens to be …