Human Resources Management Commons^™

Merit, Diversity, And Performance: Does Diversity Management Moderate The Effect Of Merit Principles On Governmental Performance?, Sanghee Park, Jiaqi Liang

Public Policy and Administration Faculty Publications and Presentations

The compatibility of merit principles and diversity management is particularly intriguing in theory and practice. Although theoretical arguments for merit-based practices and diversity management are well established, the effect of their dynamics on governmental performance remains an empirical issue. This article examines the effect of merit principles, workforce diversity, and diversity management on government performance, and inquiries about whether diversity management efforts moderate the effect of merit-based practices. Analyzing a combined data set on federal agencies, this study finds that merit-based practices and diversity management have independent positive impact on organizational performance, but there is no significant relationship between workforce …

Situational Judgment Tests, Megan Paul

Umbrella Summaries

What is a situational judgment test?

A situational judgment test (SJT) is a hiring tool that measures knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics by assessing test takers’ responses to various job-related situations. They are typically administered in paper-and-pencil or video format, and each item presents a scenario and various potential responses or actions to take. Instructions tend to fall into one of two categories: knowledge or behavioral tendency. Knowledge instructions require judgments about the efficacy of different options, and they ask test takers to choose, for example, the best option, the best and worst option, or the most effective option. …

Realistic Job Previews, Michelle Graef

Umbrella Summaries

What is a realistic job preview?

A realistic job preview (RJP) is a strategic organizational communication designed to provide job candidates with positive and negative information about the job and the organization, for the purpose of influencing employee perceptions, attitudes, job performance, and ultimately, retention. Although the first published examples of organizations providing realistic information to job candidates or new employees appeared in the 1960s, Wanous (1973) is credited with popularizing the term. An RJP should be based on a thorough diagnosis of the job and the organization, so that the content of the preview targets the relevant information that …

Coach Ohio- The View From The Site Implementation Manager, Vincent Ciola

Other QIC-WD Products

Vincent Ciola: I am the Site Implementation Manager in Ohio for our QICWD initiative, Coach Ohio, and work for the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. Ohio is a county administered system, so I work with nine diverse counties on this project. It has been inspiring to see the dedication to the child protection workforce in each of these different places. I also work on Ohio’s improvement plan for round three of the Child and Family Services Review (CFSR). In that work, I focus on strategies to achieve comprehensive assessment and planning with all our families. I’ve been intrigued …

Recruitment, Megan Paul

Umbrella Summaries

What is recruitment?

Recruitment refers to efforts by organizations to make potential job candidates aware of job openings and influence whether they apply, maintain interest in the job until an offer is made, and accept an offer (Breaugh, 2008). Note that although applicants may be affected by strategies used to assess their qualifications and potential (e.g., interviews), those activities are not considered part of recruitment and will not be covered in this summary. Further details will be provided in the umbrella summary on employee selection.

Why is recruitment important?

The most obvious reason that recruitment is important is because vacancies …

Evaluation Of Unm's Parental Leave Policy, Julia Fulghum, Karlyn A. Edwards, Charlie Christian, Steven Verney, Lisa A. Marchiondo, Teagan Mullins

ADVANCE Reports

Experiences with UNM’s parental leave policy C215 have been evaluated using the ADVANCE 2018 Main Campus Faculty Climate Survey, a series of junior faculty interviews, and concerns brought to the ADVANCE leadership. Key findings are:

• Women and STEM faculty are more hesitant to use family-leave policies, and perceive greater disadvantage in using them than men and non-STEM faculty
• Sharing of information about, and implementation of, parental leave varies significantly between units
• The attitude of the department chair and senior faculty strongly influence the experience of faculty who use parental leave
• Appropriately implemented, the parental leave policy contributes to faculty recruitment …

Texas Decreased Caseworker Turnover. The Qic-Wd Is Implementing And Testing Some Of Their Strategies And Building Evidence, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

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The QIC-WD is dedicated to building evidence. Foundational work in the early years of the Center included combing the literature from multiple fields (e.g., business, education, industrial-organizational psychology) to inform strategies to strengthen the child welfare workforce. In 2018, Casey Family Programs reported on how the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) reduced caseworker turnover by implementing multiple changes to system operations (How did Texas decrease caseworker turnover and stabilize its workforce?). This post discusses how the QICWD is working with eight other jurisdictions and building on what was learned in Texas. According to the report, Texas initiated …

Salary History And The Equal Pay Act: An Argument For The Adoption Of “Reckless Discrimination” As A Theory Of Liability, Kate Vandenberg

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

The Equal Pay Act (EPA) purports to prohibit employers from paying female employees less than male employees with similar qualifications; however, the affirmative defenses provided in the EPA are loopholes that perpetuate the gender pay gap. In particular, the fourth affirmative defense allows for wage differentials based on a “factor other than sex.” Many federal circuits have read this defense broadly to include wage differentials based on salary history. That is, an employer can pay a female employee less than her male counterparts because she was paid less by her previous employer. While salary history was once viewed as an …

Identifying The Leadership Skills Needed To Develop The Competencies To Lead In A Postcrisis Organization: A Delphi Study, Paul Turgeon

Dissertations

Purpose: Organizational leaders play a pivotal role in postcrisis activities. There is abundant research in the actions of leaders in a crisis; however, there is limited research regarding the leadership competencies required postcrisis, and a gap remains in knowing which leadership skills are needed postcrisis. The purpose of this Delphi study was to identify the leadership skills needed to promote organizational resilience, to act with integrity, and to possess a learning orientation of organizational leaders in the postcrisis phase.

Methodology: This study used a 3-round Delphi technique to identify the leadership skills that support the possession of the competencies needed …

Development Of A Broader Conceptualization And Measurement Scale Of Ethical Leadership (Bels), Fahad Shakeel, Peter Mathieu Kruyen, Sandra Van Thiel

The Journal of Values-Based Leadership

This study presents a broader construct of ethical leadership as an alternative to existing understanding of the term. The study divides the existing literature into classical and contemporary thoughts. The study brings forth limitations of the existing classical conceptualization based on several shortcomings. Synthesis and development of existing studies lead to a broader narrative that essentially addresses the limitations posed in this study. This broader viewpoint is based on the categorization of ethical theories by Van Wart (2014). A new definition of ethical leadership is presented and a survey scale of ethical leadership based on this conceptualization is developed. This …

From Muhammed To The Jobup: Engaging Malemployed Immigrants Through Journalism, Tiziana Rinaldi

Capstones

I focused my graduate work on the local community of malemployed immigrants. They are foreign-educated newcomers — medical doctors, pharmacists, teachers, lawyers and engineers, to name a few of their professions — who lack the resources to find skill- appropriate work in the U.S. They end up either unemployed or working at "jobs for which they’re overqualified or overeducated or both,” I wrote for NJSpotlight in 20171.

Using the social journalism method2 of engaging members of a chosen group to fill important if not crucial information gaps, I developed The JobUp, a series of free, offline educational events, as my …

Recent Research To Build Knowledge Of The Child Welfare Workforce, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

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Child welfare worker turnover is costly and can negatively affect the relationship between families and the child welfare agency. The Quality Improvement Center for Workforce Development (QIC-WD) aims to build the body of evidence in the child welfare field to better understand worker turnover and strategies to address it. Although turnover is a widely acknowledged problem, there has not been reliable data to calculate staff turnover, caseloads, and workforce capacity. A recent study and article, Characteristics of the Front-line Child Welfare Workforce (Edwards & Wildeman, 2018), makes available a new data source and provides an analysis of workforce data from …

The Effect Of Organizational Tenure, Bargaining Unit Status, And Union Membership On Local Government Employee Public Service Motivation, Ty Ryburn

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Two of the largest challenges public organizations face in motivating their workforces are the aging workforce and the strong union influence (Lavigna, 2014). On June 27, 2018, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Janus vs. AFSCME to abolish agency fees, and gave public service employees in bargaining units the right to choose whether they want to pay union dues or pay no fees at all.

In examining the unique motivational factors of employees in the public sector, Perry and Wise (1990) developed a theory called Public Service Motivation (PSM). Later, Perry (1996) developed a survey instrument which despite criticism, …

Seven Steps To Successful Change: How A Large Academic Medical Center Prepared Patients For Organizational Change, Brian Carlson, Madison Agee, Terrell Smith, Paul Sternberg Jr, Jason Morgan

Patient Experience Journal

Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) launched a new electronic health record (EHR) in a “big bang” implementation that saw the new software go live across multiple hospitals, clinics and geographic locations in a single morning. The organization rightly focused most of its energy on preparing its nearly 25,000 employees for the impacts of the transition, but it also considered the effects that would be felt by its patients and families. Survey data indicate that patient satisfaction scores demonstrably dip before, during and after an EHR implementation, and take approximately a year to recover. A team at DMC employed a seven-step …

Using Technology To Reduce The Burden Of Paperwork: Preliminary Lessons Learned From The Qic -Wd Virginia Site, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

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The Quality Improvement Center for Workforce Development (QIC-WD) partnered with the Virginia Department of Social Services (VDSS) in 2017 to conduct research examining the efficacy of technology interventions aimed at reducing child welfare staff turnover and improving child welfare outcomes. Virginia is a state-supervised, countyadministered child welfare system. The state elected to study the implementation of and outcomes from job modernization technology interventions in 18 localities. These 18 localities represent a workforce of approximately 450 of the state’s 2,200 frontline staff. The intervention is occurring in multiple phases: (1) transcription services; (2) a mobility technology application; and (3) a Comprehensive …

Introducing Virginia’S Mobile Solution, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

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The Virginia Department of Social Services (VDSS) and the 18 local departments of social services (LDSS) identified the lack of technological supports to help child welfare workers complete the administrative tasks of their job as a cause of turnover. The Virginia site rolled out the first part of their intervention (transcription services) in 2018 and is now preparing to roll out a mobile application in late fall 2019. This one-page summary describes COMPASS, Virginia’s mobile app designed to make it easier for workers to manage the administrative aspects of their job.

Designing Rigorous Tests Of Workforce Interventions In Complex Environments, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

Other QIC-WD Products

Public child welfare agencies continually struggle with how to address issues of staff recruitment and retention. Furthermore, very little evidence exists regarding what works to attract, select, and retain talented staff. Much of what agencies do to address workforce issues is never formally evaluated and successes are not published widely. Thus, agencies confronted with urgent retention needs have little to go on to identify an intervention that is likely to succeed. The Quality Improvement Center for Workforce Development (QIC-WD) was funded by the Children’s Bureau to begin to address this issue, in part through carefully selected, and rigorously evaluated interventions …

Secondary Traumatic Stress Among Child Welfare Workers, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

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There is growing evidence to suggest that child welfare workers are experiencing high levels of secondary traumatic stress (STS) as a result of exposure to traumatized clients in crisis (e.g., Barbee, et al, 2018). The Quality Improvement Center on Workforce Development (QIC-WD) surveyed 1,113 front line child welfare workers in 13 jurisdictions between November, 2017 and March, 2018 using the Bride (2007) Secondary Traumatic Stress Scale as part of a comprehensive workforce needs assessment. An average of 54% of participants reported clinical levels of STS. When these elevated numbers are compared to the original Bride research of social workers, they …

Effectively Using & Sharing Data, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

Workforce Analytics Resources

The QIC-WD recently had the opportunity to talk with a group of human services training evaluators in Baltimore about how to effectively use and share data. The QIC-WD has a dissemination plan and data visualization experts to help our team and our sites use and share data for a variety of purposes. We shared the following tips to help evaluators determine what to share, when, and why.

• Plan for dissemination – that is, identify who needs the information and how best to get it to them.
• Consider who is in your target audience and how they like to receive information. …

Using A Logic Model To Guide Workforce Interventions, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

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The QIC-WD uses logic models—visual representations that depict the resources that go into and expected results that will come out of the implementation of a program—to guide the implementation and evaluation of the selected interventions. A logic model is developed after the intervention is selected and must fit within the overall theory of change, as part of the exploration phase of the project. Read this summary (originally developed on behalf of the Center for States) by Dr. Megan Paul, the QIC-WD Workforce Team Lead, to learn more about why a jurisdiction should create a logic model and see what a …

Supportive Supervision And Resiliency Ohio - Guidance For Coaches Supporting Resilience, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

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I. Preparation for Coaching Session A. Preparation of Supervisor ➢ Review Coaching Skills and Coaching Process (see Pgs. 4-5 Coaching in Child Welfare Participant Guide from the Supervisor’s Coaching Training) ➢ Reflect on how coaching builds a trusting relationship ▪ Commitment to confidentiality ▪ Clear mutual understanding of coaching, the process and expectations ▪ Modeling the coaching mindset/skill set ➢ Review the basics of Resilience Alliance (Handout of Slide Deck provided at the Supervisor’s Coaching Training) B. Preparation of Caseworker (can be done by supervisor in unit/team meeting) ➢ Discuss how Resilience coaching is a part of supportive supervision ➢ …

Examining The United Kingdom’S Soft Law Approach For Women On Boards With Regard To Gender Diversity And The Gender Pay Gap: A Regression Discontinuity Design, Silvana Chambers

Human Resource Development Theses and Dissertations

In an effort to remove barriers that hinder women’s advancement in the workplace, legislators have adopted gender quotas and targets to increase the numbers of women on boards (WOB). In 2011, the Davies Review rolled out the guidelines of the United Kingdom’s soft law approach for increasing the proportion of WOB in the largest publicly listed organizations. Promoted by advocates and proponents of WOB initiatives, the assumption that inequality is perpetuated by men and not women, has resulted in the expectation that WOB initiatives are a top-down approach to achieve gender equality in the workforce. This study examined the effects …

Supervisor-Subordinate Conflict Negotiation: Examining The Core Concerns In Light Of Communication Accommodation And Gender Roles, Piyawan Charoensap-Kelly

Dissertations

This quasi-experimental study examined a supervisor-subordinate negotiation of an emotion-laden conflict from the lens of the core concerns framework, communication accommodation theory, and gender roles research. Results empirically support CCF that, by accommodating or attending to the employees’ core concerns, managers can stimulate employees’ positive emotion and integrative intention. However, under- and overaccommodating the core concerns can lead to distributive intention. Additionally, the employees’ perception of manager goodwill can strengthen or attenuate the positive effect of core concerns accommodativeness on outcome variables especially for male managers. Thus, moderate accommodation is recommended for male managers. For female managers, the results show …

“Greening” Worcester: Municipal Best Practices For Sustainability, Erin Mckeon, Charline Kirongozi, Jared Duval, Antannia Greene, Qianshu Sun, Zewei Yao

School of Professional Studies

In response to the urgent threat posed by climate change, more and more cities, including Worcester, are attempting to become more environmentally responsible and sustainable. Worcester is attempting to develop ways to become more sustainable; both to strengthen their communities and to protect the planet. The Green Worcester Working Group (GWWG) tasked the Clark Capstone Team with researching best practices for municipal sustainability. The GWWG has set the following priorities: climate change mitigation, resilience, open spaces, sustainable resource management, education and awareness. Taking these into account, the Clark Capstone Team researched the sustainability practices of cities in New England, across …

Worcester Chamber Of Commerce: Recruiting Minority Business Owners, Ryan Dimaria, Alexander Hull, Xikun Lu, Haopeng Wang, Jiacheng Hou, Danning Zhao

School of Professional Studies

Our capstone project was to help the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce identify how to re-frame their marketing so it would be appealing to immigrant and minority owned businesses. Based on interviews and external research, our group was able to create a tangible and resourceful data set that provided justified recommendations and ideas on how the Chamber could make adjustments to their marketing plan to attract more businesses of this particular demographic in the city of Worcester. By implementing these recommendations, we believe the Chamber has the opportunity to create a more diverse group of Chamber members, add value to …

Service Now: Cmdb Research, Monika Patel, Smita Patil, Katerina Tzanavara, Manish Chauhan, Yuhao Wang, Houmin Xie, Lei Shi

School of Professional Studies

The MAPFRE Capstone team has been tasked with reviewing and recommending roadmap on the existing CMDB configuration. Paper discusses the team’s overall research on ServiceNow CMDB, Client’s deliverables and introduction to the latest technological innovations. Based on given objectives and team’s analysis we have recommended key solutions for the client to better understand the IT environment areas of business service impact, asset management, compliance, and configuration management. In addition, our research has covered all the majority of the technical and functional areas to provide greater visibility and insight into existing CMDB and IT environment.

For One Child, Zion Bereket, Xin Huang, Yitong Lin, Ruobing Pei, Rachel White, Ziyuan Li

School of Professional Studies

The entirety of this project was completed on the foundation of the three focus areas, which were identified by our client as areas of high need. The client wanted to prioritize these three areas as they believed that these three areas were the most integral to the successful achievement of their mission, as well as to the overall health and longevity of the organization.

Hiv/Aids In The Latino Community Of San Francisco: Past And Present, Jessica Da Silva

School of Professional Studies

There are approximately 122,000 people of Latino origin in San Francisco, which account for 15% of the total population (Census, 2010). Historically, Latinos have and still face several barriers to access healthcare and improvements in health (Aguirre-Molina, Molina & Zambrana, 2001). When the world was exposed to the spread of a new and unknown virus, the broader population suffered from the epidemic. The Latino community in San Francisco was and still is one of the hardest hit by the virus.

Changing The Current Perception Of Affordable Housing In Worcester, Simone Mcguinness, William Roberts, Vaske Gjino, Tong Zhou, Mengxin Ma, Sarawadee Sonpuak

School of Professional Studies

One of Worcester Interfaith’s goals is to eradicate the stigma of affordable housing in Worcester. Currently, the perception of affordable housing is of an image of unkept and old residences filled with destitute citizens who cannot afford basic needs to live in a city, let alone housing. This image is perpetuated by media, stigma, and a lack of education of the true reality of affordable housing and who its recipients are. Affordable housing-qualified citizens represent a range of educations, professions, age, race, and income levels. Affordable housing units, too, represent a variety of homes, many of which are extremely well-kept …

Evaluating The Impact Of Training Employees To Identify Victims Of Human Trafficking, Emily Roman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Human trafficking is a global epidemic that steals the freedoms away from those who have been oppressed by it. Providing victims with resources begins with identifying them. Unfortunately, identifying victims is not an easy task. Trafficked victims are controlled and protected by their traffickers, and recipients may not even realize that they are victims of human trafficking. Also, the vague nature of trafficking makes it difficult for service providers, such as those in law enforcement, healthcare, and social services, to identify victims readily. Furthermore, research efforts imply a general lack of training provided for employees to know how to identify …