Digital Commons Network^™

1995 Commencement Program, Thomas Erlich

Commencement Archives 1990-99

The program for the Portland State University Spring Commencement ceremony on June 10, 1995.

Thomas Ehrlich, LL.B., delivered the commencement address; Monroe M Sweetland, B.A. and John Eliot Allen, Ph.D., received Presidential Citations from PSU President Judith Ramaley.

Implementing Community Policing: A Documentation And Assessment Of Organizational Change, Emmajean Williams

Dissertations and Theses

Four research questions guided this documentation and assessment of the Portland Police Bureau's conversion to community policing. These questions generated a description of the events and circumstances that created the perceived need for change in the Bureau's role and function; a search for justification for selecting community policing as an alternative policing approach; a comparative analysis of past attempts to implement innovative change of a similar dimension in police organizations; and an assessment of the process by which the Bureau implemented this new policing strategy.

The findings indicate that the prominent factors driving this change are first, the limitations of …

A Non-Decision-Reaching Decision-Making Process, Wei Wei Lou

Dissertations and Theses

Decision-making processes are among the most important activities within human organizations. This dissertation is a case study of decision-making in the review of high school graduation standards in an urban school district. The review process lasted three years and was terminated before any decision was reached concerning graduation standards. The purpose of this study is to answer three questions: Why would a decision-making process be terminated before any results are achieved? Under what circumstances do decision makers choose to let the process die? What do such decision making processes reveal about the organization? This case study employs the rational choice …

Performance Appraisal In Organizational Cultural Context, Unoda C. Moyo

Dissertations and Theses

This study examined the relationship between an organization's culture and its performance appraisal (PA) system and process. The initial phase of this study involved examining an organization's culture and the properties of its performance appraisal system from organizational archival information. Information derived from this phase of the study was later utilized to formulate interview questions, guide the search for the organizational culture survey instrument, and to construct the performance appraisal perceptions measuring instrument. This latter instrument is a quantitative measure that was later employed in testing the primary hypothesis that stated the performance appraisal process had a positive effect on …

Perceived Communication During Organizational Change, Paula Blunck

Dissertations and Theses

Organizational change often involves the creation of work teams. This research examines how the creation of self-managed work teams within a particular organization affects perceived communication. Previous research suggests that self-managed teams would socially construct a different view of the organization especially as it relates to power than would those in traditional organizational departments. Attitudes about communication and power within the organization are analyzed in nine self-managed teams and five traditional departments. This analysis is conducted through both qualitative and quantitative means. Group comments and discussions are used in a qualitative analysis. Multidimensional scaling is used to reveal underlying attitudinal …

Total Quality Management: The Case For The Public Sector: A Comparative Study Of The Implementation Of Total Quality Management In Three Health Care Organizations, Zayed Mohammed Abu

Dissertations and Theses

Total quality management [TQM] is an approach to improving the competitiveness, effectiveness and flexibility of the whole organization through the improvement of the organizational processes and those who perform them. There has been a rising interest among public sector professionals in examining the applicability and usefulness of TQM methods to public organizations. This research provides descriptive information about the experience of three health care organizations that vary in terms of ownership, whether being publicly or privately owned, with implementing TQM. Participants at these organizations were interviewed, and/or surveyed and observed. The study provides a narrative description of each organization's experience …

Case Studies Of The Structure, Dynamics, And Outcomes Of Interdisciplinary Team Organization In Oregon Middle Schools, Gail Lyon

Dissertations and Theses

Middle school literature advocates interdisciplinary team organization as a structure that enhances student learning and teacher satisfaction. In an interdisciplinary team, teachers responsible for different content areas collaboratively plan the instructional program for a shared group of students. Yet, fewer than fifty percent of the nation's middle schools use an interdisciplinary team structure, and research indicates that teams are fragile and temporary. Few studies were found that described interdisciplinary team organization at the team or individual teacher level.

The purpose of this case study is to describe the structure, dynamics, and outcomes of interdisciplinary teams of teachers in middle schools. …

A Study Of Community College Instructional Stakeholder Attitudes Toward Student Outcome Goals, Linda Ann Gerber

Dissertations and Theses

This study sought to determine the importance community college instructional stakeholders--teachers, administrators, and support staff--ascribe to 23 student outcome goals and to examine the relationships between biographical variables and stakeholders' perceptions.

The study addressed the following research questions: (a) Which of the 23 student outcomes do instructional stakeholders as a whole perceive to be most important?; (b) Can these outcomes be factored into a set underlying constructs?; (c) Does the perceived importance of student outcomes vary in relationship to the type of student the stakeholder serves?; (d) Which outcomes do stakeholders serving different types of students value most highly?; (e) …

Anti-Bolshevism And The Advent Of Mussolini And Hitler: Anglo-American Diplomatic Perceptions, 1922-1933, Lisa Kay Walker

Dissertations and Theses

The history of World War II has led many Americans to view Benito Mussolini's Fascist Italy and Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany as European variants of a single Fascist ideology. However, in the early years of the Mussolini and Hitler regimes, the conceptual category of international Fascism was by not so well-established, particularly where the Nazis were concerned. American and British diplomats stationed in Germany in the early 1930s only occasionally interpreted the rising Nazi party as an offshoot of Fascism, but frequently referred to it as a possible form of or precursor of Bolshevism in Germany. Published and unpublished American …

Perceived Administrative Support For Teachers Of Urban At-Risk Students, Betsy Bennet-Costi

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study was to investigate effective administrative support for successful teachers of urban at-risk students. The main difficulty in studying administrative support is that it comes in so many ways. Johnson’s (1990) theory of workplace variables and Butterworth's (1981) social exchange theory were the basis for this study. Failures of at-risk students threaten the well being of public schools and have become a generally recognized social problem of national priority. This study explores how principals act to influence the success of teachers as they work with at-risk students. It is grounded in the following four assumptions: 1. …

Regional City And Network City: Portland And Seattle In The Twentieth Century, Carl Abbott

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Although Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington, have comparable early histories, similar economic bases, and parallel demographic profiles, their responses to the rise of a global economy in the 20th century differ. Both were regional capitals in the first half of the century. Since then, however, Portland has kept its traditional role and has gained ground as a regional capital, while Seattle has become a network city transferring goods, services, and ideas reaching beyond the Pacific Northwest. [Western History Association best article award for 1993]

Simulation Design, Role Identification And Attitude Change In A High Technology Culture, Terry Robert Schumacher

Dissertations and Theses

Gaming-simulations (G-S) are those in which participants play roles, make decisions and receive feedback while interacting with a simulation model. This study used attitude change to measure of G-S effectiveness in exploring questions relating simulation design and effectiveness. To define participant attitudes and the content for a simulation, the organizational culture of a software engineering firm was studied using an ethnographic approach. Inconsistencies between the existing culture and expressed ideals were measured using an 40 item attitude questionnaire drawn from statements made during interviews. Simulation structure and participant cognitive style were factors hypothesized to influence identification with a simulation role. …

Teacher Adjustments To Multiple And Continuous Change, Cheryll Brounstein

Dissertations and Theses

This study examined the phenomenon of multiple and continuous change and the adjustments teachers made in response to the phenomenon. The research questions posed by this study are: 1. Is there a phenomenon of multiple and continuous change and if so how is it characterized by the participants? 2. Is there an effect of multiple and continuous change on the participants, if so, how do the participants adjust to the phenomenon and how can these adjustments be described? Methodologically, the strategy for this study was designed to allow for the generation of theory since multiple and continuous change has not …

The Impact Of Organizational Climate On The Relationship Between Job Characteristics And Job Satisfaction: An Empirical Assessment Of Public Sector Managers, Unsuk Song

Dissertations and Theses

The central purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between job characteristics and job satisfaction, and the impact of organizational climate on that relationship in the public sector. The subjects of the study were all Oregon State Government managers at and above the level of supervisor in all of the state agencies and the judicial branch.

This study was conducted with the use of a survey. Six hundred and fifty-six (656) questionnaires were returned for a response rate of 66 percent. The questionnaire consisted of four parts. The first part was drawn from the Organizational Climate Questionnaire; the …

Development And Analysis Of A Model For Change In The Workplace, Using Quasi-Experimentation With Computer Professionals In Northwestern Investor Owned Utilities, John Ronald Thompson

Dissertations and Theses

Computer professionals have been agents of change in many organizations. In some cases the role inadvertently became theirs as they were the ones at the vanguard of implementing the new information processing technology in organizations. While in other cases they were the catalysts for change, to force new methods/procedures onto lethargic organizations. While introducing change on others in the organization and adapting to new technological changes themselves, the computer professionals have not really had to face a significant change in their status, power, or importance to the organization. The introduction of the personal computer has brought about significant change in …

The Archaeology Of The Longue Durée: Temporal And Spatial Scale In The Evolution Of Social Complexity On The Southern Northwest Coast, Kenneth M. Ames

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

The emphasis on temporal and geographic scale of the French Annales school of history (cf. Braudel 1980; Baker 1984; Lewthwaite 1988) is the inspiration for this paper. Braudel (1980) divides time into three durations: short term events (days, weeks, months, a few years), medium length conjunctures (years, decades, even major portions of centuries), and long term structures (which may last centuries, even millennia). This last duration is the longue durée. Basic to Annales' thought - and the longue durée - is the idea that to understand historical developments, to explain their causes and dynamics, one must know their temporal and …

The Small Business Development Center Program: From A Small Business Growth Stage And Adult Learning Perspective, Roy Otis Kruger

Dissertations and Theses

The study of the Clackamas Small Business Development Center's Small Business Management Programs (SBM) had three research objectives: to ascertain what information should be transferred to small business owners and how best to transfer that information; to ascertain what information is presently being transferred to clients and what methods are used in transferring the information; and to survey clients in order to develop a current demographic profile, measure their level of satisfaction with the assistance received, and ascertain what they perceived were the benefits of the program to their companies. Prior to the study, there had been little systematic research …

An Investigation Of The Relationship Between Training In Cooperative Learning And Teacher Job Satisfaction, Margaret Maloy Dutton

Dissertations and Theses

The research on cooperative learning has been conducted in terms of student achievement but little is known of how training in and use of cooperative learning affects teachers. The central purpose of this study was to examine the association between training in cooperative learning and teacher job satisfaction, with special attention to the subsets of collegiality and efficacy. A second purpose was to examine how levels of job satisfaction, efficacy, and collegiality vary as a function of the following training variables: (a) setting, (b) amount of use, (c) kind of training, (d) preparation for implementation, and (e) opportunity for skill …

Factors Affecting Persistence Of Non-Traditional Students In A Non-Traditional Baccalaureate Degree Program, Dixie Lee Lund

Dissertations and Theses

Limited theoretical research exists regarding attrition of nontraditional (older, part-time, commuter) students on American college and university campuses today. Thus, when colleges or universities seek to improve programs specifically designed for such students, there is no broad research base on which to rely. The present study sought to determine if there were differences, especially ones the institution could do something about, between non-traditional students who left such a program and those who completed it. A conceptual model of non-traditional student attrition, developed by adult educators/researchers, Drs. John Bean and Barbara Metzner, provided the theoretical base for the study. Data were …

Staff Development And The Process Of Teacher Change: A Case Study, Christene Kay Jones

Dissertations and Theses

This case study documented a staff development program which was the major component of a public school/university partnership between Portland State University and the Lake Oswego School District, a suburb of Portland, Oregon. A select group of 34 Lake Oswego teachers and 4 administrators participated in the Joint Ventures in Instructional Leadership Program which included classes in learning and instructional theory, techniques of peer sharing, instructional strategies and models of teaching, and approaches to the teaching of higher order thinking skills. The program included 7 full days and 4 evenings of instructional training which occurred throughout the 1986-87 school year. …

Governing And Managing Multi-Modal Transit Agencies In A Multicentric Era, Sy Adler, Sheldon Edner

Center for Urban Studies Publications and Reports

We explore the dynamics of governing and managing multi-modal regional transit agencies through a case study of the Tri-County Metropolitan Transit District (Tri-Met), which provides bus and rail transit services to the Portland, Oregon, metropolitan area (see map). Along with other similarly constituted firms in the United States transit industry, Tri-Met confronts the challenge of providing service in a geopolitical context that is quite different than when the agency was created. The critical new element in Tri-Met's operating environment is the emergence of several suburban business centers that effectively compete with the Portland central business district (CBD), and are seeking …

Hospital Responses To A Nursing Shortage : Policy Issues And Professional Implications, Marlene Lobracco Smith

Dissertations and Theses

This study addresses three policy issues found in the literature: How can hospitals best manage the problem of shortages of the nursing home resource, how have federal policy makers responded to the mounting shortages, and how has the unique character of nursing influenced policy.

An analysis of existing hospital policy making is presented. An analysis of the class conflict within nursing is also presented. Data have been generated from a case sample of six urban hospitals in the Pacific Northwest to assess their management of the nursing resource during the critical shortages of the late 1970s.

Three response patterns have …

Faculty Senate Monthly Packet April 1988, Portland State University Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Monthly Packets

The April 1988 Monthly packet includes the April agenda and appendices and the Faculty Senate minutes and attachments from the meeting held March 1988.

Focal Point, Volume 01 Number 03, Portland State University. Regional Research Institute

Research and Training Center - Focal Point

Therapeutic Case Advocacy (TCA) is one approach to helping emotionally handicapped children and their families. It is described here as a multi-level model to improve services for this population for two reasons. First, the approach typically requires planned, coordinated activity on three levels: the child and family, the lead organization providing services, and interagency collaboration. Second, the word "model" conveys the idea of what the real thing might look like.

The model is a preliminary pattern, a plan for guiding the actual process of helping emotionally handicapped children and their families. It is not a recipe. Any actual process of …

A Case Study Of A Nationally Recognized Middle School's Decentralized Participatory Governance Structure, Donna Lynn Carman

Dissertations and Theses

To effectively and substantively impact the realization of school improvement goals, there is a perceived need for the implementation of participatory processes that involve parents, patrons, students, and educators through decentralization of the planning, programming, and implementation phases. Related to this need is the pressing requirement of providing educational leaders with a greater understanding of what knowledge and skills they should possess to effectively guide and direct the implementation of decentralized participatory processes. An exploratory case study of a nationally recognized middle school's decentralized participatory structure was conducted. The purpose of this study was to provide the comprehensive context of …

Faculty Senate Monthly Packet December 1986, Portland State University Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Monthly Packets

The December 1986 Monthly packet includes the December agenda and appendices and the Faculty Senate minutes and attachments from the meeting held November 1986.

Rain: Journal Of The Center For Urban Education, Eco-Net

RAIN: Journal of Appropriate Technology

Volume 12, Number 4

The Northwest Information Economy; Communicating with a Laser; Management is a Team Sport; Liabilities and Responsibilities of Nonprofit Boards

RAIN began in October 1974 as a publication of ECO-NET, an environmental education network funded by the Hill Foundation and an Environmental Education grant. Its office was based in the Environmental Education Center at Portland State University. With a focus on the Pacific Northwest, particularly Oregon, RAIN originally described itself as a “bulletin board” with an “emphasis on environmental/energy related and communications kinds of information” and interested in “the evolutionary possibilities of inter-disciplinary connections.”

Transit Agency Characteristics: An Industry Profile, Charles R. White, Sheldon Edner, Kathi Arlene Ketcheson

Center for Urban Studies Publications and Reports

This study reports on a survey sent to 493 transit agencies in 1983. The survey instrument requested information concerning agency institutional type, operating characteristics, service area population, employment, management pool, finances and recruitment problems for the period 1979-1983. Surveys were returned by 207 agencies, 171 of which were accompanied by organization charts. The purpose of the survey was to solicit institutional information concerning agency structure to serve as background information for a subsequent study of respondent agency managers.

The study results describe a managerial context that si extremely diverse across agency characteristics, change in attributes and organizational patterns. Only the …

Producer Cooperatives And Industrial Democracy: A Comparative Study Of The Performance Of Cooperative And Conventional Plywood Plants, Youssef Khodaparast

Dissertations and Theses

Widely differing theoretical expectations exist concerning the economic performance of labor-managed firms or producer cooperatives (PCs). While a good number of theoretical studies of these firms by economists have been undertaken, there remain considerable gaps in the empirical record. This is especially true in the case of American PCs. In general, theoretical controversies have not been tempered by enough empirical analysis. While some expect good performance from PCs, others are much less sanguine. This study compares the economic performance of a group of eight worker-owned producer co-op plants with that of eight conventional mills in the Pacific Northwest softwood plywood …

Organizational Development: An Investigation Into The Knowledge Obsolescence Of Engineers In The Electronics Industry, Cheryl J. Hubbard

Dissertations and Theses

Purpose. This study investigated organizational development climate within the context of an organization experiencing rapid change in its environment resulting in employee knowledge obsolescence. Secondary purposes were: (1) determine current development methods and behavior; (2) identify preferred development methods; (3) examine the influence of educational background on development; (4) examine the influence length of service on development and (5) investigate reward preferences and their link to development. Procedure. The data were collected through a sample of 550 nonmanager engineers. The questionnaire consisted of individual background information and a modified version of the Work Description Questionnaire for Engineers (WDQE). Environment factors …