Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Conceptualising, Implementing, And Teaching Ethical Leadership For Nigerian Public Officials, Stella Benaiah Georgeson-Agege

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Unethical behavior of some Nigerian public officials has resulted in poverty of citizens and a lack of infrastructure such as shelter, electricity, and roads in the country. Researchers have noted that ethical leadership frameworks could address these issues. In Nigeria, there are no such frameworks. The aim of this study was to explore the views of experts on conceptualizing, implementing, and teaching ethical leadership for Nigerian Public officials. Using the Brown et al. ethical leadership theory as a conceptual framework, and the Delphi method, 3 rounds of questionnaires and interviews were administered to 20 experts. The research question included curriculum …

The Impact Of Medicaid Expansion Under The Affordable Care Act On Accessibility And Availability Of Primary Health Care, Aaron Amaning Boaitey

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) sought to provide universal health insurance coverage for Americans through a combination of Medicaid expansions, insurance market policies, advance premium tax credits, among other reforms. Lawmakers intended to enforce Medicaid expansion through the ACA at the federal level. However, the June 2012 United States (U.S.) Supreme Court decision in National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius allowed states to opt-out of Medicaid expansion. As a result, states took different approaches to expand Medicaid eligibility. This study uses data from the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) to analyze how opting in or out …

Essays On Economic Development Policies, Hakyeon Lee

Theses and Dissertations--Public Policy and Administration

Tax increment financing (TIF) policy is the most popular economic development policy in the United States. Despite the popularity of research on TIF, only a few comprehensive reviews of previous studies on TIF policy tool have been conducted. In light of this, the purpose of this paper is to review previous TIF studies relating to the controversy surrounding TIF programs. Specifically, previous studies do not provide clear answers about the efficacy of TIF and, indeed, raise more questions than answers. At the same time, this situation begs the question: why do local governments frequently use economic development policies? This is …

Study Abroad And Liminality: Examining U.S. American Collegiate Undergraduate Student Engagement In Risky Behaviors Betwixt And Between Borders, Jill L. Creighton

West Chester University Doctoral Projects

One of the most niche sub-arenas of public administration, higher education administration, involves preparing future leaders and scholars for global perspectives. This original research examined whether collegiate, traditionally-aged, undergraduate student risky behavioral choices rose during the study abroad experience as compared to when in the home collegiate environment. After investigating the literature an opportunity to connect the phenomena of domestic risky behavior, collegiate study abroad, and tourism materialized. The anthropological concept of liminality served as the theoretical perspective that anchored the construction of this research. This study was conducted using a post-positivist epistemology, a non-experimental design, and an original survey …

Rural Veterans Of Texas And Their Accessibility To Mental Health Care Services, Jeremy Buchanan

West Chester University Doctoral Projects

After their service commitment has concluded, United States servicemembers are evaluated to what medical ailments and afflictions, both mental and physical, are attributed to their military service. The Department of Veterans Affairs is the government agency that is specifically tasked with the treatment and care of that exam and continuously works on this overwhelming endeavor as military members transfer out from their respective branch of service. One area that is outside of the VA’s control is where veterans will reside upon their separation from the military. When it comes to rural areas, the access to resources, primarily for this study, …

Data-Driven Decision-Making: An Analysis Of Needs Assessment Methodology In Northwestern Pennsylvania Nonprofit Organizations, Jason Brady

West Chester University Doctoral Projects

This research examines the community needs of a specific region, Northwestern Pennsylvania, in order to determine how well the community’s current social needs are being addressed by nonprofit organizations in this area. A comprehensive review of related literature is provided in order to establish a theoretical framework for this topic. This background is utilized in the development and execution of a community needs assessment for the Northwest Pennsylvania region. This assessment, presented in the form of an online survey, resulted in 714 unique responses within the selected region. Quantitative and qualitative methods are applied to the gathered data in order …

Using Input From Landlords Participating In The Dothan Housing Authority's Housing Choice Voucher Program (Hcvp) To Streamline Operations And Increase Retention, Michael C. Threatt

West Chester University Doctoral Projects

The Housing Choice Voucher Program (HCVP) is a public-private partnership between a landlord, voucher holder, and a Public Housing Authority (PHA). However, this public-private partnership appears to be a two-sided partnership instead of a three-way partnership as the HCVP was designed. Over 110,000 landlords have withdrawn from the HCVP since 2009, which has negatively affected housing choices for voucher holders. This phenomenon of landlords leaving the HCVP is a catastrophe problem for the rental housing crisis that is a part of the larger affordable housing crisis. The perception of institutional bureaucracy for landlords is their reality, and the unintended consequence …

Evidence-Based Policy And Misinformation: Exploring The Public’S Processing Of Information, Amy E. Hann

West Chester University Doctoral Projects

As the online spread of misinformation increases, policymakers are finding it more difficult to ensure that the public is only exposed to the evidence they share and that their evidence is believed. Policymakers find they must now combat misinformation spread by a variety of entities. This dissertation explored thematic concepts regarding information in existing literature – information as a thing, information as a public good, information as propaganda, information use by elected officials, and information on social media. This dissertation exposed participants to conservative and liberal misinformation and corrective information to determine how they processed policy information. This study explored …

United States Department Of Defense Acquisition Of Leading-Edge Information Technology Services And The Impact Of Public Market Research On Efficiency And Effectiveness, Thomas Denning

West Chester University Doctoral Projects

This dissertation examines the acquisition of leading-edge IT services (LEITS), like those associated with cyber, agile software development, and cloud migration. In an effort to build on previous research, the purpose of this dissertation is twofold: to examine how Public Market Research impacts the LEITS acquisition process in the DoD and to discover strengths and value-added components that exist in the current government acquisition process leading to greater efficiency and effectiveness. Through a mixed methods approach, this dissertation provides recommendations for how to conduct the most efficient and effective LEITS acquisitions, striving to maximize a constrained budget, minimize time to …

Carnegie Classification Of Institutions Of Higher Education & Perceived Administrative Biases In Funding Review Processes, Emily Devereux

West Chester University Doctoral Projects

Previous research on social equity performance in the distribution of funding mechanisms across institutions of higher education has found biases in reputation and administrative capacity contributing to peer reviews during the funding process. Further research is now necessary to identify what contributes to these perceived biases and what enables an institution to signal competitiveness to funding sponsors based on the Principal-agent and resource dependency theories. A quantitative analysis was used to analyze data from publicly available datasets to explore relationships between Carnegie Classification rankings, institutional control types of public or private, administrative capacities, and sponsored research and foundation funding levels …

Relationship Between Economy, Education, Population, Healthcare And Prevalence Of Hiv/Aids In Nigeria, Bernard Odelola

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

HIV/AIDS has been described as one of the deadliest epidemics of our lifetime. With the global efforts to scale down the effect of this disease through innovative programs, scientific researches and medical advancement, little success has been recorded in least developed nations. Nigeria is still one of the nations that is yet to achieve huge success in the fight against HIV/AIDS and meet Millennium Development Goal on HIV. Arguably, government needs to intensify more efforts in searching for factors that increase the prevalence of the disease.

To further understand the epidemic, this thesis is designed to study and answer research …

Higher Education And Police Officers: The Effects On Citizen Complaints, Evan D. Brown

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

This study was conducted to examine the effects that different levels of education may have on the number of citizen complaints filed against police officers. There are many literature articles pertaining to the education of police officers but few studies have been conducted to measure the specific effects of higher education in law enforcement. The analysis in this paper will show relationships between higher education of police officers and if it has a relationship with the number of officer complaints.

Illuminating Regulatory Guidance, Cary Coglianese

All Faculty Scholarship

Administrative agencies issue many guidance documents each year in an effort to provide clarity and direction to the public about important programs, policies, and rules. But these guidance documents are only helpful to the public if they can be readily found by those who they will benefit. Unfortunately, too many agency guidance documents are inaccessible, reaching the point where some observers even worry that guidance has become a form of regulatory “dark matter.” This article identifies a series of measures for agencies to take to bring their guidance documents better into the light. It begins by explaining why, unlike the …

Factors Influencing The Likelihood Of Women Winning Elections, Natalie Browning

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This study analyzes variables that increase the likelihood of women winning an election for the United States Congress spanning from 1970 to 2020. This study analyzes the relationship between how liberal the United States is and the likelihood of women winning elections. A dependent relationship was found between the level of liberalism rising in the US and women winning elections. Some of this study is also used to analyze a possible relationship between women being more likely to win open seats or those with incumbents seeking reelection. A possible relationship was found between those two variables, but it was decided …

Contracting Out For Performance Of Democratic-Constitutional Values And Procedural Tasks In Federal Agencies : Evidence From The Equal Employment Opportunity Discrimination Complaint Process, Iseul Choi

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Contracting out has been considered one of the main performance management strategies for reducing costs and bringing more expertise into government agencies. Previous studies have examined the effects of contracting use on agency performance, but have focused more on measurable, traditional performance in the public sector. There is a lack of research analyzing the influence of contracting use on non-traditional performance outcomes, which are usually non-mission based and difficult to measure, such as fairness, nondiscrimination, due process, and individual rights. Scholars have pointed out that performance measurement processes pay less attention to these non-mission-based values and tasks.

The Dynamics Of Financial Condition In The U.S. State, Local, And Territory Governments : Financial Reporting, Public Service Delivery, And Tax Policy, Youngsung Kim

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

A large body of literature in public administration has demonstrated the importance of financial condition in managing government organizations. Scholars have found that financial condition affects many aspects of public management while governments actively respond to their financial conditions. Using data from varied levels of U.S. governments – states, localities, and territories – this dissertation examines the dynamic roles of financial condition in three important areas of public management: financial reporting, public service delivery, and tax policy. The first essay examines how financial condition affects the ways in which state governments communicate with stakeholders through official financial documents. It applies …

Local Renewable Energy Initiatives In Germany And Japan In A Changing National Policy Environment, Carol Hager, Nicole Hamagami

Political Science Faculty Research and Scholarship

Our article explores the contribution of local initiatives to the creation of path dependencies for energy transition in Germany and Japan in the face of resistance from entrenched incumbents at the national level. We use a process-tracing methodology based partly on interviews with local participants. In particular, we explore the role of local initiatives in securing "socio-political space" for the expansion of renewable energy (RE) and in embedding themselves in "ecosystems" of public and private institutions. German energy activists were more successful than their Japanese counterparts in expanding this space and creating positive feedback in part because they were able …

The Experience Of Children's Mental Health Leaders During Times Of Constraint: A Narrative Study, Jody Levison-Johnson

Antioch University Full-Text Dissertations & Theses

Across the United States, each state has a public mental health system that is designed to support children and youth with emotional and behavioral challenges. This is critically important as recent estimates show that one in six children in the United States has a diagnosed mental health condition (Whitney & Peterson, 2019). The design and structure of these systems vary by state, but consistent across them is the presence of a state-designated leader who is faced with an array of constraining factors that influence their behavior and shape the resulting system. This study describes the experience of leaders in children’s …

The Construction And Impact Of Power In Cross-Sector Partnerships: An Interpretive Phenomenological Study, Kimberly Allyn Walker

Antioch University Full-Text Dissertations & Theses

In the United States, cross-sector partnerships, a form of collaboration, are becoming increasingly common in practice (Gray & Purdy, 2018). However, questions remain regarding the effectiveness of these partnerships and if the many challenges of using them can be overcome. In particular, the intersection of cross-sector partnerships and power, which can deeply impact these partnerships, needs more attention. This study used interpretive phenomenology to understand, from the participant perspective, (a) the experience and construction of power, (b) the impact of power on participants, and (c) how power dynamics in these initiatives compare to dynamics in organizations. Seventeen participants from four …

Popular Culture Informing Public Administration: Messages And Prospects For Social Equity, Sean Mccandless, Nicole M. Elias

Publications and Research

In the discipline of public administration, popular culture remains under-examined in scholarship and under-utilized in pedagogy. However, the field would benefit from greater integration of popular culture to expand understandings of governance, especially in that it provides important representations of and messaging about some of today's most pressing social equity issues. To contextualize popular culture in public administration, we use critical discourse analysis as a frame to demonstrate how popular culture can inform public administration, especially regarding social equity. We argue that popular culture should be more extensively covered in public administration, because it offers a lens for better understanding …

Investigating The Municipal Nudge Unit: How Behavioral Interventions Have Quietly Emerged And Made Their Mark On American Cities, Melanie Wolfe

CMC Senior Theses

Since Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein published Nudge in 2008, policy makers and behavioral economists have applied their theory of behavioral interventions in offices called nudge units across the world. In the U.S., three models of operating nudge units have emerged in cities, and their work helps generate revenue and improve the welfare of citizens. However, the limited media attention and academic analysis dedicated to municipal nudge units has left many unresolved questions about the ethical implications and empirical challenges associated with government-sponsored behavioral interventions. Analyzing the behavioral design teams in New York City, Chicago, and Philadelphia reveals a lack …

A Case Study: The Role Of Compassionate Cities, Healthy Cities, And Un Sustainable Development Goals In City Leadership And Planning, Lisa A. Berkley

Antioch University Full-Text Dissertations & Theses

This research is a case study examining the relevance of three holistic city frameworks—Compassionate Cities, Healthy Cities, and UN Sustainable Development Goals—to the intentional or tacit thinking of city leaders, community leaders, and activists of Marina, California. Beginning with a discussion of the origin and development of the three frameworks, the study occurred in three phases: Phase I involved interviewing the five elected leaders, city manager, community development leaders, and two planners; Phase II consisted of a survey of appointed city leaders and community organizers and activists; and Phase III was an analysis of relevant public discourse, drawing from local …

What Factors Influence The Success Of Soft Story Retrofit Programs? The Example Of San Francisco’S Program, Thanh Thuy Nguyen

Master's Projects

In the event of an earthquake, one of the types of structures that is most susceptible to collapse is soft-story buildings (Association of Bay Area Governments [ABAG], 2016). Built before current regulation and codes were enacted, a soft-story residential building is a building that has commercial space or open parking on the first floor, with units built above it (ABAG, 2016). The first floor has a weak structure and the units above the first floor weigh heavily on it (Arroyo, 2019). Due to their building structure, these properties may sway or collapse during an earthquake, ultimately causing fatalities and damage …

A Marriage Of Intersecting Needs: The Procurement Of The Canadian Patrol Frigates By The Pierre Trudeau Government, 1977-1983, Garison Ma

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

In December 1977, the Liberal government of Pierre Elliot Trudeau authorized the Department of National Defence to begin the acquisition of new warships for the navy. The decision to acquire fully combat capable warships was a shocking decision which marked the conclusion of a remarkable turnaround in Canadian defence policy. The navy, which had grown into a substantial and capable force during the early Cold War in the 1950s, had been in a steady decline since the mid-1960s as a result of the shifts in defence policy, cuts in personnel, and still deeper cuts to the capital funding needed to …