Digital Commons Network^™

The New Securocracy And The "Police Concept" Of Public Sector Worker Identity, Cliff Oswick, Stephen Matthias Harney, Gerard Hanlon

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

In recent years we have seen the emergence of a "new securocracy," a generalization of responsibility for fighting terror within the public sector. Here we consider the nature and extent of this securocratic shift. In particular, the identity implications for the public sector worker are explored and we contend that there is an inherent tension between "serving" and "policing" the public in many public sector jobs. We also discuss the way in which a securocratic identity is simultaneously embraced and resisted. Finally, we present some tentative insights into an alternative way of thinking about identity work, which offers a means …

The Washington State Patrol, Accountability-Driven Leadership, And The Organizational Factors That Propelled Their Success: An Organizational Analysis, Timothy Carl Winchell

Dissertations and Theses

In January 2002, Washington State Patrol (WSP) Chief Ronal Serpas, Ph.D., implemented his Accountability Driven Leadership (ADL) philosophy throughout the entire statewide public safety agency. The initiative was intended to re-focus personnel on agency strategic goals, objectives, and performance. ADL stressed Computer Statistic (CompStat) management tenants, decentralized decision-making, and efficiency and effectiveness performance measures.

Most CompStat research has been anecdotal in nature, meaning little empirical analysis has scrutinized the implementation of these initiatives in policing. Additionally, the principal researcher could not locate any research that examined these changes in a statewide law enforcement agency. Therefore, this case study contributes to …

Boulder City, Nevada Revenue Generating Analysis, Mayra A. Castro, Dolores P. Leyva, Arnetta M. Meagher, Wade Zimmerman

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Boulder City (City) is unique in the State of Nevada as being a non-gaming city, maintaining a controlled growth ordinance, and steadfastly holding to its “small town” values and character. The City has been facing budgetary challenges as future expenditures are anticipated to continually exceed revenues if current services levels are maintained. Indeed, fiscal reviews indicate the City has been transferring contingency monies between funds to cover overages for the past several fiscal years. This “robbing Peter to pay Paul” methodology may offer a temporary solution to the shortage but may be detrimental as a long term solution.

Building Knowledge And Power With The Third Sector In Haifa Israel: A Report Of The Learning Exchange Research Project, Donna H. Friedman, Jennifer Cohen

Center for Social Policy Publications

A Report of the Learning Exchange Research Project. This report presents a model of Participatory Action Research (PAR) focused on the development of the third sector in Israel. The PAR methodology, combined with a learning exchange, intentional reflection, and community building opportunities, was used as a tool for enhancing Haifa Non-Governmental Organizations’ (NGO) capacities. The report describes the practical and conceptual impacts of this model's application in a pilot trial and discusses its possible use and importance for future participatory research and NGO capacity building work.

Organizational Change In Corrections Organizations : The Effect Of Probation And Parole Officer Culture On Change In Community Corrections, Shea Brackin Marshman

Dissertations and Theses

Current trends in the field of community corrections make it necessary for administrators to consider innovative organizational change strategies to increase public safety. However, criminal justice administrators face pressure to maintain the status quo even as they are expected to produce successful outcomes through innovative practices. The broader implication is that administrators will have to develop proficiencies in the interpretation of theoretical concepts to make meaningful decisions about how best to use scarce resources to measure organizational variables. This research uses a case study of one community corrections organization to demonstrate how administrators in community corrections might make use of …

Taking It To Scale: Evaluating The Scope And Reach Of A Community-Wide Initiative On Early Childhood, Robert L. Fischer, Nina Lalich, Claudia J. Coulton

Faculty Scholarship

In implementing broad community initiatives, the ability to assess the delivery of services is a distinct challenge. Yet, understanding both the magnitude and cross-usage of services by target populations is often a precursor to effective program evaluation, program improvement and additional program planning. This research examines the extent to which a comprehensive early childhood initiative successfully reached young children and their families in a large urban county. By linking birth records and administrative datasets at the level of the individual child, the study tracks the experiences of children in respect to engagement in program services and their receipt of public …

Police Organizations : An Empricial Examination Of American Sheriff's Offices And Municipal Police Agencies, Matthew Adam Jones

Dissertations and Theses

The landscape of American policing is comprised of a myriad of police organizations, each serving a distinct function and populace. Yet, police reformers rarely recognize this and continue to disseminate 'umbrella' policy prescriptions to all policing organizations. This body of research argues that public and police administrators must take into account the nature of the organization and its constraining forces before prescribing change or initiating policy. I argue that to intelligently construct police agencies, prescribe policy, and accurately diagnose police organization behavior we must first have a strong idea, if not solid understanding, of the factors that shape and constrain …

Organizational Conflict Within The Department Of Homeland Security, M. Katherine Manderson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis seeks to explain why the Department of Homeland Security had difficulty fulfilling its roles when it was formed, specifically its role as grant administrator. Role theory surmises that conflict arises from unclear expectations, conflicting expectations, and too many roles. This study utilized various public testimonies, legislation, and other government documents to examine how the missions of the twenty-two agencies that were merged together to make up DHS changed. Even though DHS has changed continually over the five years since its existence most employees seem to be clear on the mission of the organization in which they work. However, …

Repositioning Postnatal Care In A High Hiv Environment: Swaziland, Charlotte E. Warren, Rachel Shongwe, Allen Waligo, Mohammed Mahdi, Goldy Mazia, Indira Narayanan

HIV and AIDS

This Horizons report from the Swaziland Ministry of Health and Social Welfare discusses findings from an intervention which aimed to reposition postnatal care within the context of a high HIV prevalence environment. The objectives were to determine if changes to the sexual and reproductive health guidelines on postnatal care would result in the timely and quality provision of key components of essential maternal and newborn care in the postnatal period, increase utilization of postnatal care services among all postpartum women, and improve the care and follow up of HIV-positive postpartum women and their infants. The study confirms that the introduction …

Lessons From India In Organizational Innovation: A Tale Of Two Heart Hospitals, Barak D. Richman, Krishna Udayakumar, Will Mitchell, Kevin A. Schulman

Faculty Scholarship

Recent discussions in health reform circles have pinned great hopes on the prospect of innovation as the solution to the high-cost, inadequate-quality U.S. health system. But U.S. health care institutions--insurers, providers and specialists--have ceded leadership in innovation to Indian hospitals such as Care Hospital in Hyderabad and the Fortis Hospitals around New Delhi, which have U.S.-trained doctors and can perform open heart surgery for $6000 (compared to $100,000 in the United States). The Indian success is a window into America's stalemate with inflating costs and stagnant innovation.

Measuring Community-Engaged Departments: A Study To Develop An Effective Self-Assessment Rubric For The Institutionalization Of Community Engagement In Academic Departments, Kevin Kecskes

Dissertations and Theses

Change in American higher education is occurring at a rapid pace. The increasing reemergence of civic or community engagement as a key component in the overall landscape of American higher is emblematic of that change. Academic departments play a critical role in higher education change, including institutionalizing community engagement on campuses. Yet, designing a way of measuring community engagement specifically at the level of the academic department has not been undertaken.

Based on advice from national expert/key informant interviews and the recognition of the importance of the role of academic departments in the overall institutionalization of community engagement in higher …

Managing With Foresight And Insight, Christine G. Springer

Public Policy and Leadership Faculty Research

As we begin the New Year, it is important to look at the trends that need to be considered in the future and how or if these driving forces will define what strategic management means in 2008. It is also important to understand that looking to the past alone for guidance may skew our view of present facts even when those facts are supported by sound data. Strategic managers make sense out of what is going on around them and what is possible in the future by looking and listening to forecasts for the future, to what is critical for …

Managing With Foresight And Insight, Christine G. Springer

Public Policy and Leadership Faculty Research

The article shares the author's views on managing with foresight. According to her, strategically managing with foresight has always required with informed understanding. She stresses that one of the most effective disciplines for learning from experience is After Action Review (AAR). She expresses that AARs are examples of tools for foresight because it seeks to learn more from what have happened and apply the learning to an organization's understanding of the future.

North American Business Strategies Towards Climate Change, Charles Jones, David Levy

Management and Marketing Faculty Publication Series

Business has become a key part of the fabric of global environmental governance, considered here as the network which orders and regulates economic activity and its impacts. We argue that businesses generally are willing to undertake limited measures consistent with a fragmented and weak policy regime. Further, the actions of businesses act to create, shape and preserve that compromised regime. We examine three types of indicators of business responses in North America: ratings by external organizations, commitments regarding emissions, and joint political action. We find business response to be highly ambiguous, with energetic efforts yielding few results.

Putting A Face On Organizational Innovation, Christine G. Springer

Public Policy and Leadership Faculty Research

The article discusses the author's view on the importance of fostering continuous innovation and renewal in public agencies for the success in public management. The author shares that she has come to understand that there are 15 types of teams and individuals that feed innovation inside organizations, outsiders and insiders. She said that by developing such innovation personalities, public managers have the chance to support new concepts in improving processes.

Information Technology Training In The Public Sector : Essential Planning Elements, Betty Jean Reynolds

Dissertations and Theses

Information technology (IT) has revolutionized the workplace and the provision of government services, and rapidity of change makes IT training essential. Planning, however, can be haphazard, and public sector training might not fulfill training needs. Elements that are essential to planning for the success of IT training in the public sector were identified from the literature: IT training organization structure/training provider, methods of IT training delivery, assessment of IT training needs, IT training expenditures, specific IT training needs, and strategies for improving IT training.

IT directors of Oregon state agencies and chief information officers (CIOs) of exemplar states were surveyed …

The Changing Paradigm Of Emergency Management : Improving Professional Development For The Emergency Manager, Robert Edward Grist

Dissertations and Theses

Throughout its short and remarkable history, emergency management has been subjected to a vast array of fast-moving and radical changes which have presented significant challenges to the men and women in this emerging profession. This study was designed to help determine the adequacy of their professional development to meet those challenges.

The study is framed within an environment where emergency managers face the pressure to professionalize; explore the world of risk, trust, and the distribution of power; confront revolutionary changes; and concern themselves with the social impact of disasters in their own communities. This study asks: "Do Emergency Managers feel …

Discovering And Assessing Desired Student Financial Services At East Tennessee State University., Lois K. Sams

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to discover and assess student financial services delivered to students enrolled at East Tennessee State University. The research was undertaken for institutional self-improvement. The research explored changes that have occurred in student financial services in the dynamic higher education market. The research revealed universities pursued best practices for the delivery of student financial services through expanded employee knowledge, restructured organizations, and integrated information technologies.

The research was conducted during October and November, 2006. The data were gathered from an online student survey of student financial services. The areas researched included: the Bursar office, the …

Managing Stakeholders During It-Enabled Organizational Transformation: A Case Study Of E-Government In South Korea, Hyun Jeong Kim, Gary Pan, Shan Ling Pan

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

The implementation of e-government is a burgeoning phenomenon across the globe. It improves and enhances the infrastructures and services provided to the citizens. However, a review of the IS literature reveals that research on the implementation of e-government is rather limited, which could be due to the general misconception of the public sectors as rigid and risk-averse establishments. The shortage of studies on e-government’s implementation presents a knowledge gap that needs to be plugged. This gap is significantly amplified by the increasing number of e-government initiatives being implemented by governments in recent years. This paper describes and analyzes South Korea’s …

Taking The Time To Rebuild Trust In Government, Christine G. Springer

Public Policy and Leadership Faculty Research

The author reflects on the importance of trust. She stated that trust is more significant than ever to public managers as trust in the government ebbs. It is important to public managers because it directly impacts the speed and cost of getting things done. Moreover, she considers command and control management and downsizing and reengineering as threats to any trust infrastructure.

The Impact Of Service Delivery Models On Non-Disabled Peers Intent To Include Their Peers With Disabilities, Michael Campbell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In much the same way as the racial integration movement, advocates for students with disabilities (SWD) have cultivated an active and vocal lobby seeking to establish and then implement legal mandates to integrate classrooms in the hope that social acceptance would follow. Through federal mandates such as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), conceptually initiated in 1975 and revised in 2004 as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEIA) along with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, these students have a voice to cry out for access to the experiences of work, conversation and play with …

Governance: The Collision Of Politics And Cooperation, Richard Callahan

Public and Nonprofit Administration

Three newly created public agencies built regional rail projects in Los Angeles County from 1978 through 2002. The Los Angeles County Transportation Commission, the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and the Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority, as newly created public agencies, were nothing less than experiments in regional governance. Conventional understanding of these agencies only partially explains their successes and failures. A path to improved understanding is to combine research on the politics of designing new public agencies with research on cooperation in dealing with collective action problems.

What emerges is an untold story of American politics: the evolution of mechanisms …

An Investigation Into The Predictors Of Adoption And Utilization Of Information-Sharing Networks By Local Law Enforcement In Three States, Joe Conrad Saviak

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT A major change in longstanding police organizational behavior is increasingly evident in the recent emergence of computerized information-sharing networks in public safety. From both theoretical and empirical perspectives, a better understanding of the determinants that can explain and predict the rise and growth of this new and significant development in American policing is needed. A highly limited body of empirical studies has endeavored to validate effective predictors of adoption and utilization of electronic information-sharing networks by local law enforcement agencies. Utilizing an integrated theoretical framework largely built upon Rogers' diffusion of innovations theory, sixteen hypotheses were tested through logistic …

The Effects Of Eicu Technology On Clinical Outcomes Of Icu Patients: Analysis Of The Relationship Of Patient, Hospital, And Unit Characteristics To Proximal And Distal Outcomes, Michelle G. Chandler

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Each year approximately five million people are treated in the nation's intensive care units making intensive care one of the most expensive components of the U.S. healthcare system. Of these patients, 400,000-500,000 will die annually giving the ICU the distinction of having the highest rate of mortality and complications in the hospital setting. Studies have demonstrated that one in ten patients who die each day in ICUs might survive if intensivists were present to manage clinical care and direct treatment plans (Randolph & Pronovost, 2002; Dimick, Pronovost, Heitmiller & Lipsett, 2001; Pronovost et al., 2002). The utilization of supplemental remote …

Achieving High Performance In Local Government: Linking Government Outcomes With Human Resource Management Practices, Richard F. Huff

Theses and Dissertations

Historically public sector personnel policies and practices have been targets of reform. These reforms consisted of transferring private sector techniques to a public sector perceived to be more bureaucratic and less efficient. Private sector research is replete with evidence of a connection between "superior" human resource management (HRM) practices and the performance outcome of profitability. Public sector outcomes are more difficult to connect directly to management practices. As a result, the focus of public sector reform has become one of improving the processes of management rather than improving the outcomes of government. The linkage between reform and outcome is assumed.This …

Cornell University Presentation, Susanne M. Bruyere, Ph.D., Crc

Conferences, Panels, and Events

The Cornell Presentation: Workplace Flexibility, Accommodation and Disability: Tools for Workforce Productivity. Prepared by Susanne M. Bruyere, Ph.D. , CRC Employment and Disability Institute Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations Ithaca, New York on behalf of Workplace Flexibility 2010.

What We Don't Know Can Help Us: Eliciting Out-Of-Discipline Knowledge For Work With Intractable Conflicts, Jennifer Goldman, Peter T. Coleman

Peace and Conflict Studies

In this article, the authors present the results of a study in which a diverse variety of experts in fields outside the traditional conflict domain were interviewed about their ideas regarding intractable conflicts. The purpose of this study was to gather frame-breaking insights and practical approaches that could shed new light on complex, persistent conflict that has been particularly resistant to resolution. The authors argue that outsiders to the field are more likely to provide fresh perspective and radical approaches to the conflict field’s most intransigent problems because they are not constrained by the field’s pre-existing normative frames. This article …

Interest-Based Negotiation: Increasing Satisfaction Levels Among Critical Stakeholders, Neil H. Katz

CAHSS Faculty Articles

In an environment of competing demands for limited resources from critical stakeholders, government finance officers need to pay attention to not only what they negotiate, but also how they negotiate. This article presents some basic elements of an Interest-based Negotiation Approach to increase stakeholder satisfaction levels in terms of the agreement, the relationship among the parties, and the process itself.

The Economic Impact Of Early Life Environmental Tobacco Smoke Exposure: Early Intervention For Developmental Delay, Thaddeus R. Miller, Virginia A. Rauh, Sherry A. M. Glied, Dale Hattis, Andrew Rundle, Howard Andrews, Frederica Perera

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Early-life exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) can result in developmental delay as well as childhood asthma and increased risk of cancer. The high cost of childhood asthma related to ETS exposure has been widely recognized; however, the economic impact of ETS-related developmental delay has been less well understood.

METHODS AND RESULTS:The Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health (CCCEH) has reported adverse effects of prenatal ETS exposure on child development in a cohort of minority women and children in New York City (odds ratio of developmental delay = 2.36; 95% confidence interval 1.22-4.58). Using the environmentally …

The Evolution Of Community Policing In Chatham-Kent: Citizen Engagement, Organizational Change, And The Neighbourhood Policing Project, Dennis Poole

MPA Major Research Papers

This paper examines the factors that contribute to the successful implementation of community policing based on a case study of the neighbourhood policing program in Chatham-Kent. The findings reveal that police need to describe their mission in terms of crime prevention, fear reduction, and crime control and neighbourhood police officers can effectively address the local circumstances that lead to crime and disorder depending on the willingness of citizens to help them detect and solve crimes.