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A Local Market Analysis Of Various Exempt And Non-Exempt Positions At A Community Mental Health Provider, Stephanie Wallace

Honors Theses

Market analysis of pay structure for employees of Summit Pointe using data from two surveys, CompData (Compensation Data Michigan) and ASE (American Society of Employers-Southwest Michigan Region).

Making Tanf Work: Organizational Restructuring, Staff Buy-In, And Performance Monitoring In Local Implementation, Frank Ridzi

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

While research suggests that staff resistance to change and intentional subversion have hampered prior welfare reform efforts, this does not appear to be the case for the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA). This paper draws on data from a study of East County, New York to explicate the mechanisms that have enabled the unprecedented transformation in local implementation practice in this case. Interviews, participant observation, and textual analysis of legislative and program documents identify new program creation, staff buy-in, and the environment created by stern performance measures as instrumental in bringing about the PRWORA's successful implementation …

Sustaining Innovation In Career And Technical Education, Brenda S. Clark

Dissertations

There has been little research done in education to determine what makes programs sustainable once the person who started the program has left or funding has decreased or disappeared. Innovative and successful programs are frequently started only to close or to reach a dead end. This study will seek to determine what components are necessary to sustain and grow a Career and Technical Education program. The primary audiences for the research study will be community college and university teacher preparation departments and career and technical education departments.

A survey was sent to Occupational Education Studies (OES) students and to OES …

Increasing Organization Capacity: A Systems Approach Utilizing Transformational And Distributed Leadership Practices, Patricia L. Reeves

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to test a transformational, systemic change framework designed by the researcher to assist school leaders who are attempting to incorporate the major elements of transformational leadership theory, systems theory, and organizational development theory into their school or school district operations. The study involved both the distillation and organization of the major theoretical elements from the literature into an operational framework for planning, conducting, and monitoring the systemic change process in K-12 school systems. This framework was, then, tested by the researcher for its descriptive power in a case study analysis of an actual school …

Use Of Evaluation Findings In Michigan’S 21St Century Community Learning Center Programs, Wendy L. Tackett

Dissertations

There is a lack of empirical evidence demonstrating the use of evaluation findings within grant programs such as the 21st Century Community Learning Centers programs (CCLCs). This study was designed using Michigan's federally-funded CCLCs to meet the following purposes: to explore the use of evaluation findings; to determine the relationship of the use of evaluation findings by local school administrators to the employment of an internal or external evaluator; to identify evaluator qualifications connected to evaluation use; and to determine whether there are relationships between the Program Evaluation Standards (Joint Committee on Standards for Educational Evaluation, 1994) utility domains and …

A Comparative Study Of Factors Related To Adoption, Management, And Impact Of Police Consolidation And Amalgamation In Norfolk, County, England, And Kent And Ottawa Counties, Michigan, United States, Terry Lee Fisk

Dissertations

The evolution of law enforcement in the United States has created a circumstance where thousands of smaller communities are served by a police agency, some of which may not have the capability or resources to provide adequate police service. Many of these are agencies operate within a geographical area where they are joined by common boundaries, yet each operates as an autonomous police force. One possible solution to this quandary is to consolidate those existing agencies experiencing difficulties in the provision of police services into single, larger departments with combined resources.

The purpose of this research was to determine what …

A Multimethodological Study Of Teachers’ Perceptions Of Technology Professional Development, James Brown

Dissertations

Technology has been pressed into the K-12 educational environment for decades, yet studies have revealed that successful implementation in the classroom has been limited. Numerous studies have focused on the issues of technology professional development from the perspectives of leadership, organizational culture, and student learning, but little has focused on the perspectives of teachers.

This multimethodological study was conducted using a concurrent triangulated method. This study combined a 35-question survey administered online, and individual teacher interviews in order to understand teachers' perceptions of issues critical to successful technology professional development. Surveys were administered to teachers in an intermediate school district …

Responsive Regulation In Child Welfare: Systemic Challenges To Mainstreaming The Family Group Conference, Paul Adams, Susan Chandler

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The purpose of this article is to examine the challenges inherent in trans- forming child welfare services. We apply Braithwaite's model of responsive regulation to the restorative practice of family group conferencing in child welfare. Shifting the role of the state away from controller of families in the child protective services system to one of regulatory partner with them is extraordinarily difficult. The paper looks at the complexities of reorienting child welfare services through the use of family group conferences on a large scale.

Organizational Factors Contributing To Worker Frustration: The Precursor To Burnout, Cathleen A. Lewandowski

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This study examined the organizationalf actors that contribute to workers' frustration with their work situation. The sample included 141 service professionals who attended workshops on burnout in 2001. The purpose of the workshops was to increase awareness regarding the organizational factors that could contribute to burnout. Findings indicate that factors most directly affecting clients were predictive of frustration, rather than factors that may indirectly support service quality or factors impacting workers' professional autonomy. A sense of powerlessness and isolation was also predictive of frustration, suggesting that participants viewed workplace problems as a private rather than an organizational concern. To address …

Ethnic Federalism In Ethiopia: Background, Present Conditions And Future Prospects, Alem Habtu

International Conference on African Development Archives

In 1991 Ethiopia established an ethnic federal system that gave full recognition to ethnic autonomy, while maintaining the unity of the state. Its new constitution created a federal system largely consisting of ethnic-based territorial units. The constitution aspires to achieve ethnic autonomy and equality while maintaining the state. The federal system is significant in that its constitution provides for secession of any ethnic unit. It encourages political parties to organize along ethnic lines, and champions an ethnicized federal state with a secession option. As an exception to the general pattern in Africa, it is a worthy case study. The paper …

Open For Business: Exploring The Life Stages Of Two Canadian Street Youth Shelters, Jeff Karabanow

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Youth shelters have emerged as significant resources for homeless and runaway adolescents. Through participant observations of shelter culture, review of agency archival materials, and in-depth interviews with 21 shelter workers (front line staff, middle managers, and upper-level executives), this analysis explores the life stages of two Canadian street youth shelters, highlighting the dramatic transformations in their internal operations and external environments. This paper also offers an understanding of organizational evolutionary processes.

Organizational Alignment: A Tool For Obtaining Greater Organizational Efficiency And Effectiveness In A State Government Agency, Patricia A. Collins

Dissertations

This study focuses on the modem day use of TQM, reengineering and privatization initiatives to gain efficiency and effectiveness in government operations, and the impact of alignment on the successful implementation of these three initiatives. A large state government agency which is currently using TQM, reengineering and privatization was used as a case study. Two-hundred-and-twenty-four employees were voluntary participants. This study examined three research questions: 1. Could the level of alignment, as hypothesized by Labovitz and Rosansky, be replicated with a sample of public agency employees? 2. Is the agency aligned, based on the Labovitz and Rosansky model, to successfully …

Race, Welfare Reform, And Nonprofit Organizations, Michael Reisch, David Sommerfeld

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This article presents research on the impact of welfare reform on 90 nonprofit organizations in Southeast Michigan. Utilizing a refined survey instrument, in-depth interviews and focus groups with agency executives and staff, and the analysis of agency documents, it assesses how the racial characteristics of agencies' client populations affected the organizational consequences of welfare reform. The study confirmed that welfare reform has affected the ability of nonprofit organizations to meet the increased expectations generated by recent legislation. These effects have been particularly pronounced among agencies serving a high proportion of racial minority clients.

Visionary Leadership: The Importance In The Public Sector From The Perspective Of City Managers, Nancy L. Quarles

Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative study is to apply Sashkin’s Visionary Leadership model to City Managers, with an emphasis on how the city manager puts the vision into action in local government. There is much talk that government leaders need to have a vision so that their organization will work more efficiently and effectively. More government agencies should seek to instill visionary leadership, much as a growing number of businesses have done. The City Manager must cope with sweeping changes in city government that have resulted from rapid growth, elected officials’ expectations, new technology, unions, citizen demands, and the need …

The Effects Of Reengineering On Hospital Performance Indicators, Linda Rutgers Albery

Dissertations

Reengineering was a management tactic designed to reduce costs and increase efficiencies in the work place. Although many hospitals reported reengineering efforts were a priority during the latter part of the 1990s, little research has been done to determine the effects of reengineering on cost and quality performance indicators.

This research studied a large regional medical center located in southwest Michigan, which implemented patient-focused care redesign. Within this medical center, ten separate and distinct patient care departments were studied over a 5-year period. These departments included critical care, medical, surgical, obstetric and pediatric areas. During the first year o f …

A Case Study Of The Effects Of The Strategic Planning Process On The Trust Level Of Administrative Staff In A K - 12 School District, Michael F. Paskewicz

Dissertations

Strategic planning is a process that has been used in the business world since the 1960s as a tool to build employee trust through the development of a shared vision and goals. Public education and other government agencies began to use the strategic planning process in the mid 1970s (Herman, 1994).

The study used data collected by a K-12 school district, two years into the strategic planning process. This study sought to determine if the trust level of administrators would be impacted by the level of participation in the strategic planning process. Trust level was defined by self rating by …

Fact Book 2000-2001, Western Michigan University

Western Michigan University Fact Books

• General Information
• Enrollment Information
• Institutional Comparison
• Student Information
• Faculty Information
• Budgets and Resources

Case Studies Of Organizational Evaluation In Community Foundations, Joyce Box Brown

Dissertations

Community foundations are classified as public charities (501(c) 3). They derive their funds from many donors rather than a single donor, and the board is made up of representatives from the community served. They are most often established to serve a specific geographic area. This study investigated and described how three different community foundations approach organizational evaluation— choosing proposals to fund, monitoring programs, improving programs, and assessing program impact.

The three community foundations approach evaluation not as a formal system of grant accountabilities, but as a way of systematically gathering information from various constituents for purposes of guiding important decisions. …

Implementing Organizational Change In A Public Agency, David E. Freed

Dissertations

A major challenge that faces most institutions is that of adapting to and managing change. The leadership of an organization is a key focal point for analyzing how change is accomplished.

This study examines both a theoretical and practical approach to the study of organizational and cultural change. The focus is a public agency and the actions and decision processes of the top leadership relating to organizational and cultural change during the period 1992 to 1995.

From the theoretical perspective, Karl Weick’s approach called sensemaking is examined and a model is created. Sensemaking is an activity that is an explanatory …

The Role Of Access In Evaluating Distance Learning Program Effectiveness, Carole A. Richardson

Dissertations

Distance learning technologies are increasingly used within public post-secondary institutions as a way to deliver courses to students remote from the home campus. Many proponents of distance learning argue that its use provides a method for reaching the educationally undeserved, i.e., those who lack access to higher education. If a distance learning program decreases access barriers, then it is congruent with traditional American values of providing universal access to education to all citizens. Distance learning program evaluation strategies, therefore, need to include a means of measuring the extent to which access goals are met.

The purpose of this study is …

Relationships Between Leader Characteristics, Planned Change And Organizational Culture In A Dynamic Manufacturing Environment, Matthew Chodkowski

Dissertations

The new economic era has been marked by profound global change. In response, researchers and practitioners have called for a rethinking of the conventional concepts of leadership, change, and organizational culture to improve our competitiveness in this turbulent world market. This study investigated the relationships between leader style, leader behavior, leadership paradigm, leader knowledge of change, organizational culture potency, and planned change efficacy in a manufacturing company implementing a high performance work system change initiative. This study intended to contribute to the reconceptualization of the leadership construct and the explication of the leadership-culture-change linkage.

Six hundred and eighty-nine subjects representing …

Faculty Senate Yearbook, 1999-00, Wmu Faculty Senate

WMU Faculty Senate Yearbooks

No abstract provided.

Termination: Extending The Concept For Macro Social Work Practice, Marcia P. Harrigan, David P. Fauri, F. Ellen Netting

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This article identifies the ways in which macro practitioners manage and respond to termination issues in organization and community arenas. To conceptualize and partialize problems related to termination, the authors developed a typology in which the purposes, roles, and tasks related to macro termination situations are identified and grouped by three levels of practice: The Technical; The Managerial; and The Institutional. Within each part of the typology the needs are articulated, objectives of the macro practitioner identified, and the role of the practitioner explicated. Several exemplars and an integrating vignette illustrate termination concerns, dilemmas, and the complexity of macro practice …

Discourse Analysis And Activist Social Work: Investigating Practice Processes, Karen Healy, Joan Mulholland

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Although discourse analysis methods have been used for the critical analysis of activist practice theories, the application of these methods to practice processes has remained a largely unchartered territory. A chief aim of this paper is to demonstrate the possibilities discourse analysis offers for the investigation of activist practice processes. The paper introduces a discourse model which combines poststructural discourse principles and conversation analysis methods. The model is then applied to the study of the effects of activist perspectives for service users and workers within a context of activist practice in which one of the authors has been involved as …

Journal Of Sociology & Social Welfare Vol. 25, No. 3 (September 1998)

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• DISCOURSE ANALYSIS AND ACTIVIST SOCIAL WORK: INVESTIGATING PRACTICE PROCESSES - Karen Healy and Joan Mulholland
• PROACTIVE RHETORIC - David Stoesz
• UNDERSTANDING THE DEBATE OVER THE PRIVATIZATION OF SOCIAL SECURITY - Eric R. Kingson and John B. Williamson
• THE RUSH TO MEASURE PERFORMANCE - Lawrence L. Martin
• "SAFE PLACES TO GO AND THINGS TO DO:" POLITICAL TEXTS FROM URBAN YOUTH OF COLOR - Amory Starr
• KNOWLEDGE UTILIZATION IN SOCIAL WORK AND LEGAL PRACTICE - Karen M. Staller and Stuart A. Kirk
• COMMUNITIES IN CONFLICT: RESOLVING DIFFERENCES THROUGH COLLABORATIVE EFFORTS IN ENVIRONMENTAL PLANNING AND HUMAN SERVICE DELIVERY - Thom …

The Effect Of Managers' Clarification Of Business Linkage Of Training On Trainees' Transfer Of Training, Elizabeth J. Benanzer

Dissertations

This study investigated the hypotheses that if managers were engaged in specific activities aimed at increasing their understanding of the linkage of employee training to business goals, then they would in turn create a more positive transfer environment, resulting in greater transfer of training received by their employees. Some managers of trainees participated in a workshop in which they used an “impact mapping” procedure to clearly explain the relationship between training of their employees and strategic goals of the business; another group of managers did not receive this impact mapping training. Then, all managers’ employees participated in a supervisory training …

A Test Of A Rapid Developer Model: Workplace Factors Associated With Learning And Development, James A. Alexander

Dissertations

The speed at which individuals and organizations learn and develop is a vital contributor to organizational change and organizational effectiveness. This study postulated the notion of "rapid developers”, those persons who learn and acquire job competence more quickly than their peers. The purpose of this study was to identify, define, and differentiate the factors associated with "rapid development."

The author constructed a rapid developer model based upon the review of the disciplines of training, performance technology, total quality, organization learning, and organization culture. The model identified and defined the contextual factors that could be expected, based on an understanding of …

Perceived Support For Change And Implementation Of Title I Of The Ada In Michigan’S Public School Districts, Truman S. Forest

Dissertations

Data for this study were gathered by survey from public school districts in the state of Michigan that employed more than one central office administrator. The survey was sent to human resource administrators as well as assistant superintendents and other central office administrators in 339 school districts. A total of 188 valid responses were received for a response rate of 55.8 percent.

The study tested five relational hypotheses. Ha1 through Ha4 were tested to determine if a relationship existed between the category of school district readiness to implement Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA Readiness) and such …

Faculty Senate Yearbook, 1997-98, Wmu Faculty Senate

WMU Faculty Senate Yearbooks

No abstract provided.

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 …