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The Study Of Leadership In Chesapeake Bay Watershed Associations : A Case Study In Citizen Leadership, Joanne Demoss

Honors Theses

There are many watershed associations such as the James River Association or the Chicahominy Watershed Alliance throughout the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, but it is unclear how these organizations function and what makes one more effective than another. I have evaluated these organizations through surveys and interviews in an attempt to develop a guideline of leadership best practices of these various organizations.

A Look At The Leadership Of The Valentine Riverside Museum, Carlo Arjona

Honors Theses

An evaluation of the Valentine Riverside Museum's short attempt to revitalize history in Richmond, VA, and why it failed.

University Of Richmond Fraternities : A Plan For The Future, Josh Murray

Honors Theses

Colleges and Universities across the country grant students the opportunity for development in all areas of life. Within these educational institutions, student organizations play a major role by challenging students to become more involved and contribute to the University community. Social fraternities exemplify one popular means of student involvement. However, the appeal fraternities have on first-year students is unclear and individualistic. For some freshman students amidst an intense phase of transition, Greek organizations fulfill a desperate need for affiliation. They provide incoming students with a support structure and a network of friends who aid in the adaptation to an entirely …

Power Of The People : The Creation Of A Citizens Advisory Council For The Richmond Juvenile And Domestic Relations Court, Molly Haining

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Total Quality Management: Bridging Theory To Practice, Richard Ross Brydges Edd

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the practice of Total Quality Management (TQM) in an organizational culture using Deming's System of Profound Knowledge (1993) as a construct that combines the philosophical and methodological dimensions of TQM. As with TeleServices Resources (TSR), the evaluative case study subject for this research, organizations worldwide have adopted TQM to establish a culture that would make them more capable of producing quality products and services. Many of these efforts never realized their potential. My premise for this study is that the potential of their efforts are not fully realized, because organizations do not …

Leadership From The Perspectives Of Filipino-Americans: A Delphi Study, Pablo J. Mendoza Edd

Dissertations

The majority of the texts and other materials on leadership have been written from the perspective of people from Western culture. A number of scholars have called attention to this lack of a more diverse literature, inquiring as to the reasons why academicians primarily offer leadership literature that has a predominantly Western culture perspective. Since social and political contexts represent diverse cultural views, leadership literature should also reflect that diversity. This issue is particularly important in the San Diego area for Filipino-Americans because of their increasing numbers and active participation in social and political endeavors. The absence of culturally and …

A Measure Of Perceived Power In Influencing Change Among Selected Education Participants In Alberta, Frederick Arnold Preston Edd

Dissertations

The educational landscape in the province of Alberta is undergoing change. The government's agenda includes changes in funding, reducing the number of school jurisdictions and local school boards, the provincial appointment of superintendents, increasing school-based decision making and accountability, and increasing parent, community, and business involvement in the delivery of education. It is expected that these changes will be completed during 1997. Considering the climate of change in Alberta education, it is of paramount importance that in the implementation process, participants in the change recognize their personal power to operationalize what is proposed. Government legislation can demand compliance, but without …

Organizational Change And Inclusive Practices: Promoting Access For Diverse Populations In The Canadian Mental Health Association (Waterloo Region Branch) (Ontario), James W. Taylor

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This research began a process and generated information that would help guide the Canadian Mental Health Association/Waterloo Region Branch (CMHA/WRB) in developing services that meet the needs of all residents in the area it serves. This project was comprised of two phases. The phases were conceptualized as being intervention cycles consisting of information, awareness and action-building components. The first phase consisted of work done within the agency itself, to help articulate the goals, attitudes, and possible barriers seen by the paid/non-paid staff towards the new multicultural emphasis. This work involved three focus groups with paid and non-paid staff. As well, …

Flirtation With Autobiography, Jonathan A. Freedman

Clinical Sociology Review

No abstract provided.

The Political Behavior Of California Community College Nursing Facilities In Response To Budget Cutbacks, 1982-1987, Karen J. Berger Edd

Dissertations

This study explored the political behavior of community college nursing faculties during a unique period of California history, 1982-87, when the community colleges were struggling to adapt to the economic and political consequences of Proposition 13. Using a two-phase qualitative design, it examined the effects of budget cutbacks on the nursing programs at 38 community colleges statewide, including twelve targeted for faculty layoffs, and identified the political behavior of their nursing faculties in response. It then focused on six districts, varying in size, structure, and location, for a series of in-depth case studies. In four districts, nursing programs were targeted …

Romanticizing Leadership: A Historical And Cultural Critique, Elisa Maureen Sandra Carlson Edd

Dissertations

Romanticism, a cultural and intellectual ideology of the late 18th and early 19th century, left a historical legacy of ecstasy and disaster upon subsequent generations. Manifestations of neo-romanticism are evident in many areas of contemporary culture. These modern manifestations, which include an infusion of the spiritual into everyday life, pantheistic adoration of nature, glorification of the self, fascination with the irrational, focus on the power of the imagination, subjugation of the individual to the common good, and apocalyptic hope for a new world, are influencing, theories and practices of leadership. This research set out to find out whether leadership studies …

Implementation Of Continuous Quality Improvement In A Community Mental Health Care Center: Effect On Morale, Gary Dean Zomalt Edd

Dissertations

Morale is important to all service organizations because quality is dependent upon the nature of face-to-face interactions. Because the workers in mental health service organizations must care for patients, morale is especially important. Although studies suggest that rapid change due to cutbacks, privatization, and managed care, have demoralized mental health workers, the literature suggests that management is the problem. Mechanistic organizations with top-down, command-control management typically exclude and alienate workers. Continuous quality improvement (CQI) can improve morale as well as the bottom-line. However, there are no studies of how to implement CQI, from the perspective of workers, to improve morale …

Managed Care: The Questionable Triumph Of Financial Management, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Managed Care is a generic term for a broad and constantly changing mix of health insurance, assistance and payment programs which seek to retain quality and access while controlling the cost of physical and mental health services. The introduction of managed care fundamentally transforms the traditional “agency” relationships on which modern social work was built. Little research on its impact on social services is currently available. The managed care model, with its distinctive external patterns of accountability, raises serious questions about the continuing viability of the “social agency” model of practice to which social work has been committed for most …

Gay And Lesbian Adoptions: A Theoretical Examination Of Policy-Making And Organizational Decision Making, Thom Reilly

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Most of the inquiry into gay and lesbian adoptions has focused on the rights of this population toadopt, the constitutional issues surrounding gay and lesbian parenting, and the outcomes of children raised by homosexual parents. There has been scant focus at the policy-making or organizational level on this issue. Why have public adoption agencies failed to provide either regulation or written policy on the topic of adoption of children by gays and lesbians?

This article pursues a theoretical examination of policy-making and organizational decision making to explore this issue. Additionally, a survey was distributed to adoption officials in each of …

Work Redesign And Its Influence On Employee Motivation And Job Satisfaction, John Koscielniak

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Reengineering and work redesign have become the buzzwords of the healthcare industry giving rise to the unprecedented growth of reengineering / work redesign consultants who offer cookbook methods to make the organization efficient and reduce costs. The unfortunate consequence of this rush to redesign is that the employer accepts recommendations to change the organization without knowing the state of the workforce. The purpose of this research is to test the effects of work redesign as implemented at two for-profit hospitals using a measurement tool developed specifically for work redesign. The intent is to compare the hospitals separately as each work …

Solitas: An Evaluation Of A Non-Government Organization's Approach To Gender Needs In Latin America, Tara J. Vette

Masters Theses

This study is an evaluation of a project conducted by a non-government organization working with single women in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. The focus of the evaluation was how Solitas, a non-government organization project approached gender-specific needs of the women. More specifically this study will ascertain if the skills learned by the women were sustainable, the amount of participation in decision making for the project and if the skills taught by the organization led to the participants organizing independently.

This evaluation was conducted by examining the organization's own reports concerning the progress of the project and the organization's gender policy. In …

Implicit Beliefs About Change: A Theory-Grounded Measure Applied To Community Organizations Serving Children, Youth, And Families, Susan B. Silverberg, Sherry C. Betts, Angela J. Huebner, Sonia Cota-Robles

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The aim of this study was to design and evaluate a theory-grounded measure that taps staff beliefs about the possibility for change in an organization which serves children, youth and families at the community level. The rationale for measuring staff beliefs about change derived from a motivation theory that features two contrasting beliefs structures (entity vs. incremental), and the goals and behavioral dispositions associated with each (Dweck & Leggett, 1988). Twenty-nine individuals associated with the community-based organization completed the newly developed Implicit Beliefs About Change Scale (IBACS) and participatedi n a semi-structured interview. Quantitative analyses indicated that the IBACS has …

Institutional Climate And Institutional Effectiveness At Three Community Colleges, Connie S. Buckner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was twofold: (1) to explore the impact of employee morale, as manifested in institutional climate data, upon institutional effectiveness; and (2) to determine the extent to which information generated by climate survey data was used in developing and implementing change initiatives at each of the institutions studied. Three institutions were selected for this multiple site case study. Four sources of data from each institution were used to provide a "picture" of institutional climate. These sources of data were (a) the Personal Assessment of the College Environment (PACE) climate survey, (b) institutional self-study reports, (c) reaffirmation …

Researching Organisational Change And Learning: A Narrative Approach, Carl Rhodes

The Qualitative Report

This paper explores a qualitative research approach to organisational change and learning based on the gathering and reporting of stories. Particular emphasis is placed on reporting research findings in the "voices" of the organisational actors involved in the research. The paper starts by identifying learning, socialisation and diversity as a context for research and goes on to examine the power relations implicit in organisational learning. A pluralistic approach to the use of storytelling in organisational analysis is discussed and a research process is described. Issues of how research findings are represented are examined as are some unresolved and potentially unresolvable …

Issues Related To The Emergence Of The Information Superhighway And California Societal Changes, Iistps Report 96-4, Jan L. Botha, Roger Salstrom, R. Benjamin Knapp

Mineta Transportation Institute

The Norman Y. Mineta International Institute for Surface Transportation Policy Studies (IISTPS) at San José State University (SJSU) conducted this project to review the continuing development of the Internet and the Information Superhighway. Emphasis was placed on an examination of the impact on commuting and working patterns in California, and an analysis of how public transportation agencies, including Caltrans, might take advantage of the new communications technologies. The document reviews the technology underlying the current Internet “structure” and examines anticipated developments. It is important to note that much of the research for this limited-scope project was conducted during 1995, and …

Measuring Organizational Climate For Diversity, Amy L. Vick

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The Climate for Diversity Index measures three dimensions associated with the ability of organizations or units to create an environment that allows members of all sociocultural backgrounds to participate and fully develop. The climate for diversity impacts individual outcomes such as general job satisfaction, affective commitment, identification with a psychological group/department, organizational citizenship behavior, and the intent to turnover. Several structural models depicting the relationship between the climate for diversity and the individual outcome variables were examined. Significant differences in perceptions of the climate for diversity are predicted by ethnicity, disability, and position. Data were provided by 319 members of …

Downsizing The Massachusetts Mental Health System: The Politics Of Evasion, Richard A. Hogarty

New England Journal of Public Policy

For the past three decades the topic of the proper role of state mental hospitals has been vigorously debated as a major public policy issue in Massachusetts. The state has had two runs at hospital closings: the first between 1973 and 1981, when the deinstitutionalization policy flourished, the second between 1991 and 1993, when the privatization policy was developed. In making the case for this seismic shift, a governor's special commission concluded that the state had too many hospitals for too few patients at too high a cost. This study provides a detailed analysis of the problems that beset the …

Review Of The Youth Gang Problem: A Community Approach. Irving A. Spergel. Reviewed By James Callicut, University Of Texas, Arlington., James W. Callicutt

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Irving A. Spergel, The Youth Gang Problem: A Community Approach. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995. $24.00 papercover.

An Investigation Of Strategic Planning And Organizational Change: Halton Regional Police Service, Laurie Mcginn

MPA Major Research Papers

This paper examines the strategic planning process used by the Halton Regional Police Service to assess its effectiveness in terms of counteracting staff resistance to change. Case studies of the process that was used in 1991 and repeated in 1995 were conducted. The findings reveal that the working philosophy of strategic planning would be better served by fully recognizing and anticipating employee resistance to change within the strategic planning process and developing solutions to help overcome its effects.

Midlands Institute For Non-Profit Management: Building A Solid Foundation, Center For Public Affairs Research (Cpar)

Publications

Agenda and material from the Midlands Institute for Non-Profit Management - Building a Solid Foundation Conference, July 8-10, 1996.

Cross-Cultural Differences And Intercultural Cooperation In The Context Of Change And Uncertainty: Americans And Finns In The Workplace, Maija Llisa Herweg

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

American and Finnish workers in financial institutions in the United States and in Finland were interviewed in their respective languages to explore cross-cultural differences in response to change and uncertainty in the work place. Changes were explored in the domains of organizational, process, procedure and work content, and technological changes in the work place. As a point of departure for this study, Hofstede's IBM study, as it pertains to Uncertainty Avoidance--a measure he used to evaluate culture-based resistance to change--was used for this study.

Differences in the kinds of change considered difficult to adjust to were found in the cross-cultural …

An Organizational Profile: Members' Understanding Of Discrimination, Debra Cay Hornibrook

Dissertations and Theses

Cultural diversity in the United States is an issue of concern and organizations must now learn to function effectively with an increasingly diverse workforce. Since the history of U.S. organizations is a history of institutional discrimination against most ethnic and racial groups of people and the privileging of a dominant group, managing workforce diversity now constitutes one of the most difficult and important issues human resource professionals address. This study is concerned with the issues of workforce diversity, most specifically with how organizational members understand and respond to discrimination, and the utilization of this understanding to discuss implications for diversity …

Piece Rate Payment Schemes And The Employment Of Women : The Case Of Hong Kong, John S. Heywood, Xiangdong Wei

Centre for Public Policy Studies : CPPS Working Paper Series

Past studies unanimously confirm that establishments with high shares of women workers are much more likely to adopt piece rate schemes. This result follows the presumption that women are poorly motivated by deferred compensation because of their shorter expected tenure. An original survey of establishments provides the first test of the determinants of piece rates in Hong Kong. Unique survey questions identify the presence of deferred compensation for which the share of women was presumably a proxy. Despite these controls and their significance, the share of women fully retains its role. We suggest an alternatives to the received theory behind …

Special Libraries, Spring 1996, Special Libraries Association

Special Libraries, 1996

Volume 87, Issue 2

Reflections On Evaluation Of Service-Learning Programs, Maryann Jacobi Gray

Evaluation/Reflection

Somewhere between a thorn in the side and a bloom on the rose of service-learning is evaluation. Whatever one's personal attitude toward evaluation, pressures to demonstrate effectiveness are increasing for practitioners and proponents of service-learning at the postsecondary level. This article describes the factors driving interest in assessing program outcomes and reviews some of the challenges facing evaluators of service-learning programs. Although this discussion focuses on the higher education environment, many of the principles examined are also applicable to high school and middle school programs.