Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Community College Leadership At The Intersection Of Strategic Planning And Resource Management, Roxy Traxler

School of Business Student Theses and Dissertations

This study seeks to determine the competencies that college leaders need to possess in the intersection of finance and strategic planning. For this purpose, I am using resource management as a construct to define the competencies. This is important because one area rarely mentioned in the research is how the budgeting process, policies and practices that guide financial decisions are used to support student success and the strategic plan. There is literature related to the need for financial or fiscal leadership skills but not about what those skills are and how they are used to accomplish strategic goals to improve …

Leadership Challenges With Mental Health Literacy And Cultural Stigma In The Hmong Community, Yeng J. Vang

School of Business Student Theses and Dissertations

It has been nearly 50 years since Hmong refugees started arriving here in the United States, as a result of the Vietnam War. Currently, the Minneapolis-St. Paul area is home to the largest concentration of Hmong Americans here in the states, approximately 81,000 (Pew Research, 2019). Because of the war atrocities that many Hmong refugees experienced, scholars and researchers conducted diagnostic assessments during early resettlement, but the data was disaggregated and combined all Southeast Asian refugees together. This made it difficult to determine mental health needs among the different Southeast Asian ethnicities, specifically Hmong Americans. Many years later, the Wilder …

Somalia’S State Institutions’ Administrative Capacity Building In Education, Health, Judiciary Services, And The Central Bank, Asad Aliweyd

School of Business Student Theses and Dissertations

Aiweyd, A. (2023). Somalia’s State Institutions’ Administrative Capacity Building in Education, Health, Judiciary Services, and the Central Bank.

Since independence in 1960, Somalia has experienced sustained clan conflict, political challenges, prolonged civil war, and famine, severely hindering the development and maintenance of a stable federal government. Research on state-building in Somalia has focused on conflict resolution, civil war, piracy, and state failure. Further research is needed on building administrative capacity in Somalia to help develop well-functioning and stable government institutions. Administrative capacity involves the ability of governments to manage human, physical, financial, and informational resources to deliver on objectives …

Impact Of Targeted Diversity, Equity, And Inclusion (Dei) Initiatives On The Retention And Graduation Rates Of Students Of Color At Community Colleges, Momoh Sekou Dudu

School of Business Student Theses and Dissertations

In the United States of America, students of color (SOCs) encounter significant barriers when they seek higher education. As a result, many institutions of higher learning pursue diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives to enhance these students’ chances at social and academic attainment. For community colleges across the nation, because they enroll a disproportionately large number of SOCs due to their combination of open enrollment policies, low tuition and geographic proximity, targeted DEI initiatives are a strategy of choice in dealing with their abysmal retention and graduation rates among this student demographic. This dissertation, anchored in sociological-based theoretical frameworks—specifically William …

The Public Administrator’S Role In Public Art Collaborations: A Case Study Of Public Art In Minnesota Communities, Kurtis Ulrich

School of Business Student Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

The public Administrator’s Role in Public Art Collaborations:

A Case Study of Public Art in Minnesota Communities

By Kurtis G. Ulrich

Hamline University 2021

This study focuses on the planning and implementation of public art in small cities, and the public administrator’s role in public art collaborations within that context. The research highlights the public administrator’s role in public art collaborations and analyzes how public art projects are implemented and sustained in small cities. The study methodology relies on the qualitative case study method to describe the subjective real-world experiences of city managers in public art collaborations within three …

The Phenomenology Of Independent Living: Examining The Lived Experience Of Young Adults From Out-Of-Home Care In Wisconsin, Mary M. Mcmanus

School of Business Student Theses and Dissertations

Abstract:

Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis was used to examine how young adults with prior out-of-home care experience make meaning of the Independent Living (IL) process (Smith, Flowers & Larkin, 2009). Participants had been in foster care, kinship care, and informal care settings. All participants were enrolled at the university or had recently graduated from the university. All participants were female, white, and from mixed geographic background. None registered as having disability, although evidence of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES) was shared. Only one study participant had prior experience with an IL contractor.

Individual interviews were conducted, followed by a focus group. The …

Sculpting The Public Land Base Of Northern Minnesota: Past, Present And Future, Lori A. Dowling-Hanson Dr

School of Business Student Theses and Dissertations

Sculpting the Public Land Base in Northern Minnesota Counties: Past, Present and Future. This 3-article dissertation addresses the large public land base in the Arrowhead Region of Northern Minnesota. One fourth of all lands in the state are public lands, with the overwhelming majority located in the Arrowhead Region. These counties have anywhere from 30% to 92% public lands. The region relies heavily on a natural resource economy. Methodology for research includes secondary data analysis from several preexisting research projects and studies. Data was acquired from state auditor government costs of maintaining and managing public lands. Data was also collected …

Pedestrian-Oriented Street Design: Measuring Whether It Affects Downtown Employment And Housing Growth, Jennifer Jordan

School of Business Student Theses and Dissertations

Urban design is hard to measure. Unlike the bottom line in a financial pro forma, the quality of urban design cannot yet be calculated in a simple manner. The urban design quality of a development project, a public space, and a place contains multiple combinations of dozens of inter-connected design attributes. Furthermore, each unique geographic place and their specific characteristics add another layer of complexity to quantitative measurement. However, planning and economic development researchers continue to chip away at developing metrics of a place’s urban design environment because it is an important component in a project, a public space or …

Tribal Governance In American Indian Country, Terry E. Mcdonald

School of Business Student Theses and Dissertations

Public Administrators seek to synthesize, comprehend, and clarify challenging problems of social progress as it relates to the administration of public services. We must, therefore, think about all forms of governance to have a comprehensive understanding of the discipline. If civilization ignored the prehistory of the past 600 million years, from the Late Precambrian Era through the Mesozoic, there would be a consequential loss of knowledge. A comprehensive understanding would be absent regarding one of the fundamentals in our evolution – life's ability to avoid demise by symbiosis and adaptation. In the same way, we may have overlooked an essential …

Exploring Tribal, County, And Municipal Cooperation In Minnesota, Mitchell Berg

School of Business Student Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

The need for tribal, county, and municipal cooperation is ever more important now as political dysfunctionality, partisan gridlock, and federal and state devolution are pushing complex societal problems to be resolved at the local level. However, the desire for tribes and non-tribal local governments to cooperate can be limiting given the past historic indifferences and barriers to cooperation. This need to help tribes and municipalities form better relationships is what prompted Dr. James C. Collard (2006) to create a model for tribal and municipal cooperation. Therefore, the purpose of this dissertation is to examine Dr. Collard’s model, along with …

Exploring Tribal, County, And Municipal Cooperation In Minnesota, Mitchell Berg

School of Business Student Theses and Dissertations

The need for tribal, county, and municipal cooperation is ever more important now as political dysfunctionality, partisan gridlock, and federal and state devolution are pushing complex societal problems to be resolved at the local level. However, the desire for tribes and non-tribal local governments to cooperate can be limiting given the past historic indifferences and barriers to cooperation. This need to help tribes and municipalities form better relationships is what prompted Dr. James C. Collard (2006) to create a model for tribal and municipal cooperation. Therefore, the purpose of this dissertation is to examine Dr. Collard’s model, along with the …

Child Support Collections To Offset Out Of Home Placement Costs: A Study Of Cost Effectiveness, Trish Skophammer

School of Business Student Theses and Dissertations

Families experiencing out-of-home placement (OHP) are in crisis. The fact that a child has been removed from the home means the family has become involved with the child welfare or juvenile justice system. Families that experience OHP are disproportionately poor, and the reasons for OHP often stem from poverty. Because OHP is expensive, and society values parental responsibility, federal and state laws require that parents be referred to the child support system to help offset the cost of OHP through child support collections. This study explores practices around OHP cases in the child support system and adds to the small …

Citizen Engagement In Local Government Management In Post-Colonial African Countries: A Case Study Of The Republic Of Burundi, Ngulwe K. Alfani

School of Business Student Theses and Dissertations

Literature on in-depth studies of citizen engagement in local government management in African post-colonial countries is scarce. This qualitative research sought to understand the practice of citizen engagement in four selected African countries, but due to financial constraint, the Republic of Burundi was selected for the study. Data consisted of documentary sources, observational field notes, focus group discussions, and 23 individuals’ semi-structured interviews with open-ended questions of Burundian local government, mainly, Marie de Bujumbura and its communes. Data were analyzed through detailed description, categorical aggregation, direct interpretation, and development of naturalistic generalization. The findings from the reading of governmental documents …

Reconfiguring Democracy And The Purpose Of Higher Education In China, Honglian Yang

School of Business Student Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation reconfigures Chinese democracy and the purpose of higher education through a conversation of its tradition, culture, and modern challenges in the context of civic studies, a new academic discipline focusing on civic renewal and citizens’ role as co-creators for a better society. Through analyzing the affinities between the Confucian tradition, Dewey’s communitarian form of democracy, the Chinese socialist tradition and public work, this dissertation explores the civic foundation for constructing Chinese democracy as collective agency. Recasting the "China Dream” as a collective work, it highlights important possibilities of developing civic professionals as the transformative force in modern China …

Edge County Syndrome: Rapid Growth And Conflict And The Challenges They Create For Public Administration, David N. Hamilton

School of Business Student Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

County government is an overlay of history striving to adapt to an uncertain future. Increasing arrays of complex issues face public administrators in counties as they grow and urbanize within metropolitan regions. Of the 3,031counties in the United States, 1,100 are now included within the 366 Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) and that number is growing as urbanization expands. As development pushes outward into the peripheral suburbs, county officials are confronted with emerging issues that existing policies fail. The challenge remains an open question that this dissertation attempts to address by exploring the theory that high-velocity growth in counties located …

The Efficacy Of Performance-Based Pay In Selected County Governments: What Motivates Adoption And Is It Achieving What Was Expected?, Timothy J. Houle Mapa, Dpa, Timothy J. Houle Mapa, Dpa

School of Business Student Theses and Dissertations

This exploratory study examines the degree to which counties had carefully thought-out motivations for the adoption of performance pay systems, the degree to which they were using objective measures to gauge whether it was achieving those objectives, and the degree to which they believed it was achieving its intended objectives. Results indicated that adopting a performance pay system is not something to be entertained lightly. It requires more work, more discipline, more managerial courage, more training, more support, and will cause more heated internal conversations about compensation than more traditional compensation system alternatives. It is equally clear that traditional compensation …

A Comparative Study Of Perceived Work Stress Among Police Officers Of Color And White Officers And Its Implications For Management., Booker T. Hodges Iv

School of Business Student Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the perceived work stress levels among police officers of color and white officers from three Midwestern law enforcement agencies. A perceived police job stress survey that consisted of five categories (police job stress, felt stress, coping strategies, adverse outcomes, and workplace participation) was sent out via Survey Monkey through participating agency email systems. The survey was emailed to 532 licensed police officers and correctional officers, the response rate was 57.7% (n=304). The results of the survey found that the racial composition of the command staff of a law enforcement organization influences the police organizational stress levels of …

Domestic Violence In The North Dakota Oil Patch: Barriers To Identifying And Serving Female Victims, Kristi Rendahl

School of Business Student Theses and Dissertations

This study explored domestic violence in energy boomtowns to answer the questions: What issues are confronting social service professionals who are in a position to identify and respond to female victims of domestic violence in rural North Dakota? What opportunities do professionals cite in identifying and responding to female victims of domestic violence in rural areas and boomtowns? Further, how has the professionals’ experience of the oil boom changed their methods of identifying and responding to female victims of domestic violence? The study used a qualitative approach through a focus group and interviews with the program directors of rural domestic …

Whites And The Active Representation Of Racial Minority Interests, Maykao Y. Hang

School of Business Student Theses and Dissertations

This study explored personal and organizational factors that contribute to White public administrators actively representing the interests of racial minority minorities. Data collection comprised of 15 semi-structured interviews. The average age was 54, and the length of service was 3-33 years. Subjects were asked about their personal background, what it means to be White, and work experiences in local county government.

Personal factors found were racial consciousness, major life events, and significant relationships with people of color. Organizational factors included a diverse and inclusive work environment, bureaucracy, legal and compliance issues, and supervisor support. Findings included that Whites did not …

Suburban Sustainability: Favorable, Forgotten, Or Fantasy?, Tessia Melvin, Tessia G. Melvin

School of Business Student Theses and Dissertations

In the decades after World War II, the United States became a prosperous nation and world superpower. Reinventing itself through the development of suburbs, many communities were created by suburbs. Years later, criticized for suburban sprawl and aging communities, suburban communities today are faced with the dilemma of what changes to make in order to create sustainable suburban communities.

Most of the literature on sustainability and its success comes from the private sector. Much available literature provides sustainable indicators and concepts on corporate sustainability. As a result, many public administrators are faced with a reality that changes need to occur …

Disinvestment And Suburban Decline, Robert Streetar

School of Business Student Theses and Dissertations

Beginning in the mid-1970s, U.S. suburbs started to experience many of the same problems typically associated with earlier inner-city decline including accelerating income decline, increasing family poverty, falling housing prices, growing income polarization, escalating crime, and increasing racial and ethnic diversity.

Conventional wisdom often lays the blame for neighborhood decline on who moves in and who moves out. This is understandable, as neighborhood migration is easily observable. It is the hypothesis of this research, though, that the less visible disinvestment of capital from suburban neighborhoods is an initial cause of suburban decline that precedes and coincides with the more observable …

How Routing An Interstate Highway Through South Minneapolis Disrupted An African-American Neighborhood, Ernest Lee Lloyd

School of Business Student Theses and Dissertations

In 1959, the Minnesota Department of Highways (MHD), renamed the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) in 1976, commenced the construction of Interstate 35W proceeding North from Richfield through South Minneapolis to Lake Street (the Richfield-Minneapolis segment) which razed more than 50 square blocks of homes and businesses. The segment of this vast project built between Stevens Avenue South and Second Avenue South, completed in 1967, was part of the National System of Interstate and Defense Highways enacted by Congress in 1956. An area contiguous to the Interstate 35W project was located from Stevens Avenue South on the West, to Nicollet …

The Relationship Between City Manager Archetypes And Cities' Stages Of Development, Craig Waldron

School of Business Student Theses and Dissertations

This was an exploratory study that examined the different managerial archetypes among city managers in cities that were at different stages of their development cycles. Past research has identified the archetypes of the neutral management expert, community facilitator/broker, public entrepreneur/community builder, politician, and caretaker/conserver. In addition, the various management skills as identified by Riccucci (1995) and Linn (1984) were analyzed. These include political skills, management and leadership skills, situational factors, experience in government, technical expertise, and strategy and personality.

The cities studied, all in Minnesota, included two growing communities, two mature communities, and two communities that were in decline. Cities …

Urban Neighborhood Revitalization: Is There A Middle Ground Between Gentrification And Terminal Decay?, Jane Strauss

School of Business Student Theses and Dissertations

This problem analysis thesis compares two neighborhood revitalization projects, in Springfield, Florida and the other in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Analysis is based on geographic, aesthetic, social, economic and political success. This study is intended to analyze community viability growth and revitalization literature from the fields of Urban Studies and Political Science, and then to determine whether the plan utilized in Florida would be successful if applied in Minnesota. Appendices include maps, photos of typical structures, and interview questions. Submitted in partial fulfillment for degree of MA in Public Administration.