Digital Commons Network^™

A Survey Of Perspectives On Intergovernmental Relations: A Comparative Analysis Of The Czech And Slovak Republics, Phillip J. Bryson, Gary C. Cornia, Scott M. Smith

Faculty Publications

The results of a survey of local government officials from the Slovak and Czech Republics taken in December of 2005 are presented and analyzed. Attitudes about and perspectives of intergovernmental fiscal relations in the two republics are probed. Differences and similarities in Czech and Slovak views are established regarding some of the perceptions of: local autonomy and the sufficiency of available funds; whether or not public services are supplied by the appropriate levels of government; the potential benefits of adopting a serious rather than a nominal property tax; and the flexibility of local budget planning in Czech and Slovak cities …

Diasporas: Exploring Their Development Potential, Liesl Riddle

Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review

No abstract provided.

How Do Academic Libraries Manage Change In The 21St Century?, Patrick Lo

Journal of East Asian Libraries

No abstract provided.

The Role Of Perceptions Of Female Administrators Regarding The Gender Regimes In Urban Co-Educational Secondary Schools In Uganda, Frances Naluwemba

Theses and Dissertations

Leaders and policy makers in Uganda developed a national strategy of placing female administrators in traditionally male-dominated coeducational secondary schools in the belief that their vision would promote equitable education by changing gender regimes that play in schools. Gender regimes are patterns of gender arrangements that could disadvantage the education of boys or girls (Connell, 2002). The purpose of this study was to discover if female administrators perceived and had developed strategies to change gender regimes in their schools. Participants were 13 female administrators of government-supported coeducational mixed/day secondary schools in Kampala and Wakiso urban districts. Participants ranged in age …

Ict Perceptions And Meanings: Implications For Knowledge Transfer, Anne P. Massey, Taylor M. Wells

Faculty Publications

Driven by global competition and economic pressures, organizations are increasingly interested in transferring and leveraging local expertise at the global level. While many of the challenges of knowledge transfer (KT) have been discussed in the literature (e.g., incentives, cognitive limitations), the challenge of KT in distributed, or “virtual”, settings and the role of information and communication technologies (ICTs) have received limited attention. While any given ICT may be described in terms of one’s perceptual awareness of its capabilities (e.g., richness, interactivity), it may also be described relative to the meanings an individual attaches to it, i.e., the idea of it …

The Influence Of Distributive Justice On Lying For And Stealing From A Supervisor, Elizabeth E. Umpress, Lily Run Ren, John B. Bingham, Celile Itir Gogus

Faculty Publications

In a controlled laboratory experiment, we found evidence for our predictions that participants who received fair distributive treatment were more likely to lie to give a supervisor a good performance evaluation than those treated unfairly, and those who received unfair distributive treatment were more likely to steal money from a supervisor than those treated fairly. We further proposed that the presence of an ethical code of conduct would moderate these relationships such that when the code was present these relationships would be weaker than when the code was absent, but we failed to find support for these moderating effects. Our …

Spirituality And Organizational Culture: Cultivating The Abcs Of An Inspiring Workplace, Stanley E. Fawcett, James C. Brau, Gary K. Rhoads, David Whitlark, Amydee M. Fawcett

Faculty Publications

Perhaps the greatest source of unique advantage is an organization’s workforce. Unfortunately, while many managers talk about the importance or their people, they often fail to cultivate a organizational spirit that leverages their people’s creativity, insight and passion. A senior executive at a Fortune 500 company commented on this reality, saying, “People are either the bridge or the barrier.” One of today’s primary leadership challenges is to overcome practices that limit workers’ involvement. The goal is to create a workplace that inspires creativity and contribution. The question becomes, “What practices cultivate a culture that can transform an organization’s workforce into …

Employing Adaptive Structuring As A Cognitive Decision Aid In High Reliability Organizations, Karlene H. Roberts, Kuo Frank Yu, Vinit M. Desai, Peter Madsen

Faculty Publications

The article begins by discussing processes contributing to high and low reliability decision making. It then discusses three cases, covering similar processes used in the three situations and notes what managers can take from this. Finally, the article argues for research that does not concentrate on a single organization but examines interactions among geographically distributed units addressing the same problem.

User Fees In Local Finance: Performance And Potential In Czech And Slovak Republics, Phillip J. Bryson

Faculty Publications

The Czech Republic and Slovakia, like other transition countries in Central and Eastern Europe, have given significant lip service to fiscal decentralization and engaged in public administration reforms. But the subnational governments of their public finance systems still lack relative autonomy, which could be addressed partly through developing independent revenue sources for their municipalities and regions. Currently, such independent revenue sources include the proceeds of a strictly nominal property tax as well as those of a small set of local user fees and taxes designed and approved by the central governments. Together they represent only about 5 percent of total …

Pioneers In Twentieth Century Mormon Media: Oral Histories Of Latter-Day Saint Electronic And Public Relations Professionals, Jonice L. Hubbard

Theses and Dissertations

The project consists of three parts: a summary of the research, a collection of sixteen oral histories of Latter-day Saint Electronic Media and Public Relations professionals who contributed to the development and growth of media in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and a one-hour documentary film, Pioneers in Mormon Media, which gives a brief history of the development of modern mass communications and its use by the Church. This qualitative study investigates who has been involved in Church media, what projects have been accomplished and provides some explanation as to why the Church uses media. The oral …

Mission Drift Understand It, Avoid It, James Copestake

Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review

No abstract provided.

The Korean Collection In The Library Of Congress, Sonya Lee

Journal of East Asian Libraries

No abstract provided.

Information Sharing And Supply Chain Performance: The Role Of Connectivity And Willingness, Stanley E. Fawcett, Paul Osterhaus, Gregory M. Magnan, James C. Brau, Matthew W. Mccarter

Faculty Publications

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to understand how information technology (IT) is used to enhance supply chain performance.

Design/methodology/approach – A large-scale survey and semi-structured interviews were used to collect industry data.

Findings – Two distinct dimensions to information sharing – connectivity and willingness – are identified and analyzed. Both dimensions are found to impact operational performance and to be critical to the development of a real information sharing capability. However, many companies are found to have placed most of their emphasis on connectivity, often overlooking the willingness construct. As a result, information sharing seldom delivers on …

Slovakia's Surge: The New System's Impact On Fiscal Decentralization, Phillip J. Bryson, Gary C. Cornia

Faculty Publications

Slovakia's transition history long paralleled that of the Czech Republic, but the former adopted bold new reforms early in tis decade. This paper is a comparative treatment of fiscal decentralization since 1993 and more recent reforms of public administration, the two efforts representing the foundation of the New System. Czech experience is invoked simply to provide an appropriate benchmark for the evaluation of Slovakia's New System introduced in 2004, including the 19% "flat tax" and other striking measures in local public finance. The second focus of the paper is on the macro-economic impact of the New System. It is too …

Understanding The Role And Organizational Value Of Employing An Interim University Of President During Presidential Transitions, Cameron Keith Martin

Theses and Dissertations

A common method for colleges and universities experiencing a transition between permanent presidents is to employ an interim president. A dominant perspective in related literature discussing the role, organizational value, and practices regarding the employment of an interim president has been based upon specific experiences of an institution or individual who had endured or fulfilled an interim presidency; absent, have been the insights of experienced interim presidents-individuals who have been a permanent president at least once and interim president multiple times at different institutions. Therefore, this research answers the following two questions: (a) what are the perspectives and insights of …

Bridging The Gaps Between Design And Use: Developing Appropriate Tools For Environmental Management And Policy, Brian Mcintosh, Alexey Voinov, Court Smith, Carlo Giupponi

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Integrated assessment models, decision support systems (DSS) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are examples of a growing number of computer-based tools designed to provide scientific decision and information support to people within environmental management and policy organizations. It is recognized that end-user organizations are often not as receptive to using such tools as desired but that little research has been done to uncover and understand the reasons why. As part of the process to understand what tools are used and why, and conversely what tools are not used and why, this paper presents some views on the issues involved. No …

Bridging The Gaps Between Design And Use: Developing Appropriate Tools For Environmental Management And Policy, Brian Mcintosh, Alexey Voinov, Court Smith, Carlo Giupponi

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Integrated assessment models, decision support systems (DSS) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are examples of a growing number of computer-based tools designed to provide scientific decision and information support to people within environmental management and policy organizations. It is recognized that end-user organizations are often not as receptive to using such tools as desired but that little research has been done to uncover and understand the reasons why. As part of the process to understand what tools are used and why, and conversely what tools are not used and why, this paper presents some views on the issues involved. No …

Charting The Course: President Clark's Charge To Religious Educators, Scott C. Esplin

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

No abstract provided.

Exploring Cultural Competence In The Lived Experience Of Instructional Designers, Paul Clinton Rogers

Theses and Dissertations

There has been a limited amount of research concerning culture and online education. Although human beings have the ability to transcend past and current environments, helping professions are recognizing the influence of cultural epistemologies on themselves and those they intend to serve. The purpose of this study was to explore the nature of additional challenges and concerns present when designing online instruction in a cross-cultural context. The data collected in this study stands as preliminary work to creating a substantive theory regarding the importance of cultural influences in the thinking, practice and lived experience of instructional designers, specifically those who …

Multicultural Education In The Mental Health Professions: A Meta-Analytic Review, Timothy B. Smith, Madonna G. Constantine, Todd W. Dunn, Jared M. Dinehart, Jared A. Montoya

Faculty Publications

The American Psychological Association and many other professional mental health organizations require graduate programs to provide education in multicultural issues. However, the effectiveness of multicultural education has been debated in the literature over the past several years. The overall purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of multicultural education using meta-analytic methodologies. Findings revealed that multicultural education interventions were typically associated with positive outcomes across a wide variety of participant and study characteristics. Multicultural education interventions that were explicitly based on theory and research yielded outcomes nearly twice as beneficial as those that were not. Priorities for future …

School Psychologists' Perceived Concerns Regarding Crisis Intervention With Diverse Populations, Ana E. Kemple

Theses and Dissertations

With the ever-increasing diversity among students in the United States, American schools are seeing more of a mismatch between school personnel and students. Service provision has traditionally addressed multicultural competencies in the area of assessment and more recently in counseling procedures. With the increased attention given to school-related crises, the role of school psychologists has expanded to include crisis intervention. The current study will present information on the need for multicultural competencies in crisis intervention and assess the current concerns of nationally certified school psychologists in this area of service provision. Responses from a random sample of school psychologists (n= …

Pricing In The New Economy: Lessons From The Period Of The E-Commerce Bubble, Phillip J. Bryson

Faculty Publications

The New Economy increased U.S. productivity sharply after 1995. The latest economics literature on the topic, which generally forecasts a secure future for the information economy, is reviewed. The down side of the New Economy were the strategies, especially the pricing strategies of NASDAQ and virtual firms. The critique of Michael Porter regarding the non-strategic price cutting common to those firms is reviewed. Traditional models by Sweezy and Baumol, which focus on pricing in imperfectly competitive industries, are applied to provide a cogent theory as to why those firms made mistakes that were once viewed as common for neophyte industries.

Measuring Organizational Safety And Effectiveness At Nasa, Daniel S. Wong, Vinit M. Desai, Peter Madsen, Karlene H. Roberts, Anthony Ciavarelli

Faculty Publications

Many project managers may be fully aware of the safety risks within their organizations. What they may not know, however, is that many of these risks are caused by the underlying safety culture of the organization rather than human individual differences in the organization. This article argues that managers can mitigate safety risks by obtaining a better understanding of their organizations’ culture. The researchers created a management metric that enables engineering/project managers to identify positive and negative aspects of safety that are tied to their organizations’ cultures. The article presents a process that managers can use to increase safety and …

Asian Values: A Pertinent Concept To Explain Economic Development Of East Asia?, Dong Hyeon Jung

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

Public Sector Transition In Post-Communist Economies: The Struggle For Fiscal Decentralization In The Czech And Slovak Republics, Phillip J. Bryson, Gary C. Cornia

Faculty Publications

Transition studies have often been studies of transitioning private sectors. How centralist governments withdraw from the business of micromanaging a nation's enterprises is a fascinating story indeed. The other side of the coin, how the public sector is to be brought to decentralization and democracy, is likewise of great moment for the peoples of the transitioning countries. Under central planning the tradition was to provide all public goods and services under the direction of the central government and its ministries. There were no genuine subnational governments, since all policy decisions pertaining to taxation and the distribution of public services were …

Modelling Self-Organization Processes In Socio- Economic And Ecological Systems For Supporting The Adaptive Management Of Forests, Alexander Kaufmann, Ernst Gebetsroither

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Managing the numerous and interrelated processes between man and nature in order to userenewable resources in a sustainable way is confronted with conflicting objectives, external effects, complexinterdependencies, uncertainty and other features that make it nearly impossible to come to unambiguousoptimal decisions. Self-organization in socio-economic and ecological systems - the process of structuring asystem by the elements of the system themselves without hierarchical or external control - is often the reasonfor ambiguity and uncertainty. Adaptive management is an approach to deal with these challenges. Thisnatural resource management method is permanently monitoring both socio-economic and ecological systemsin order to be able to …

Empirical Evaluation Of Decision Support Systems: Concepts And An Example For Trumpeter Swan Management, Richard S. Sojda

International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software

Decision support systems are often not empirically evaluated, especially the underlying modelling components. This can be attributed to such systems necessarily being designed to handle complex and poorly structured problems and decision making. Nonetheless, evaluation is critical and should be focused on empirical testing whenever possible. Verification and validation, in combination, comprise such evaluation. Verification is ensuring that the system is internally complete, coherent, and logical from a modelling and programming perspective. Validation is examining whether the system is realistic and useful to the user or decision maker, and should answer the question: “Was the system successful at addressing its …

Enhancing Bibliographical Records By Adding Amazon Url Links - Lingnan University Library's Experience, Patrick Lo, Joe Chow

Journal of East Asian Libraries

No abstract provided.

Research Opportunities In Internal Auditing, Douglas F. Prawitt

Faculty Publications

This chapter discusses staffing and managing the internal audit function (IAF) as a component of organizational governance, and has two main purposes. First, it familiarizes interested practitioners and researchers with current trends and issues in staffing and managing the IAF. Second, it suggests questions and topics for future thinking and research among practitioners and academics. Managing and staffing an IAF is a vast and complex undertaking that remains relatively unexplored by rigorous research. The chapter contains several citations to practitioner information and academic research, but it does not attempt to include a comprehensive literature review of all relevant articles or …

The Ecosystem Of Partnerships: A Case Study Of A Long-Term University-Community Partnership, Gary Daynes, Scott L. Howell, Nathan K. Lindsay

Faculty Publications

This article presents a case study describing a robust fortyeight- year partnership between the Boy Scouts of America, Brigham Young University, Utah Valley State College, and others in an annual merit badge Powwow1 for Boy Scouts. Service-learning occurs as five hundred university students and faculty prepare for and teach merit badge classes to five thousand Boy Scouts as part of this Powwow. The article presents the history and operation of the Powwow, describes benefits to participants, and identifies some of the factors that contribute to the enduring nature of the partnership. The case study suggests that partnerships are similar to …