Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 12 of 12

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Qualitative Mapping For Understanding The Collective Judgment Building Process : A Study Of The Federal Open Market Committee, Hyunjung Kim Jan 2009

Qualitative Mapping For Understanding The Collective Judgment Building Process : A Study Of The Federal Open Market Committee, Hyunjung Kim

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This study develops a mapping method for studying a collective judgment building process in a decision-making group. Environmental uncertainties and a lack of information require a decision maker to make judgments about various issues relevant to the decision task. In a group setting, the members together weave their structural model of the system with available information to build a collective judgment for the decision task.


The Effects Of Organizational Culture And Climate On Employee's Turnover In Public Child Welfare Agencies, Miseung Shim Jan 2009

The Effects Of Organizational Culture And Climate On Employee's Turnover In Public Child Welfare Agencies, Miseung Shim

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Background & Purpose: Employee's turnover in child welfare agencies negatively influences remaining employees, clients, and organization itself as well as losing skilled or trained employees. For example, employee's high turnover tends to be cyclical, in that high turnover gives additional workload burden to remaining employees and causes lack of continuity of services for vulnerable children and families. Moreover, child welfare agencies have to bear financial costs, including hiring and training. Although current literature increasingly emphasizes the importance of organizational factors in employee's turnover issues, more empirical research is needed to be conducted to understand organizational effects on employee's turnover. This …


A Case Study Of Intended And Implemented Tanf Policies In The New York State Bridge Program, Yi-Jung Wu Jan 2009

A Case Study Of Intended And Implemented Tanf Policies In The New York State Bridge Program, Yi-Jung Wu

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

In 1996, the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act changed public policy. Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) replaced Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), affecting both educational policy and social welfare policy. Simultaneously, policy implementation responsibilities devolved to states.


Leadership Behaviors In Cross-Boundary Information Sharing And Integration : Comparing The Us And China, Lei Zheng Jan 2009

Leadership Behaviors In Cross-Boundary Information Sharing And Integration : Comparing The Us And China, Lei Zheng

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This study comprises a comparative analysis between the US and China regarding public sector leadership behaviors in the context of cross-boundary information sharing and integration. Based on the literature on leadership, public sector information sharing, and cross-cultural analysis, the research begins with an original case study in China set in the product safety and food safety policy domain. The case explores leadership behaviors of middle-level information leaders in the technological, organizational, and legal context of cross-boundary information sharing in this domain. Qualitative data were collected from in-depth interviews and government documents. The data were analyzed with an inductive approach to …


Collaboration As Paradox : The Case Of The Patuxent River, Md Nutrient Control Strategy, Morris Bidjerano Jan 2009

Collaboration As Paradox : The Case Of The Patuxent River, Md Nutrient Control Strategy, Morris Bidjerano

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Collaboration has increasingly emerged in recent years as a new paradigm in public management. This collaborative trend, however, has contradicted the longstanding American political tradition of conflictual contestation of competing interests and adversarial legalism. Consequently, it has presented public managers with the challenge of dealing in reality with the "tensions between alternative forms of management practice" (Huxham and Vangen 2005, 245). In most accounts, watershed management has recently become a particularly active arena for that clash of opposing collaborative and conflictual managerial practices.


Organizational Learning And Nursing Home Quality Of Care In New York State, Ting-Wei Chiang Jan 2009

Organizational Learning And Nursing Home Quality Of Care In New York State, Ting-Wei Chiang

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The primary purpose of the present study is to examine the relationship between organizational learning (OL) and nursing home quality of care (NHQC). The present study addresses OL through both descriptive and prescriptive approaches. The descriptive approach proposes a prism model that defines OL from psychological perspectives, structural perspectives, and cultural perspectives. The prescriptive approach illustrates how each dimension of OL can be improved by its corresponding organizational learning mechanisms (OLMs).


Sexual Harassment In Public Schools : Policy Design, Policy Implementation, And The Perceptions Of Employees Participating In Investigations, Katrina Lynn Bratge Jan 2009

Sexual Harassment In Public Schools : Policy Design, Policy Implementation, And The Perceptions Of Employees Participating In Investigations, Katrina Lynn Bratge

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This study of two cases of sexual harassment investigates employee perceptions and organizational characteristics associated with policy and implementation procedures in two public school districts in New York State which experienced different outcomes to litigation in response to formal complaints of sexual harassment.


Critical Mass Or Critical Acts? : An Empirical Test Of The Relationship Between The Presence Of Women In State Legislatures And Their Policy Impact On Agenda Setting And Legislative Success In Fifty Sates, 1995 And 2005, Angela Chen Dalton Jan 2009

Critical Mass Or Critical Acts? : An Empirical Test Of The Relationship Between The Presence Of Women In State Legislatures And Their Policy Impact On Agenda Setting And Legislative Success In Fifty Sates, 1995 And 2005, Angela Chen Dalton

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Research on gender and politics often invokes Kanter's (1977) critical mass theory to draw a linkage between women political leaders' descriptive representation and substantive representation. Using the 50 state legislatures as the unit of analysis, I empirically tested the validity of the critical mass theory by investigating the relationship between women's share of legislative seats within lower chambers of state houses and their impact on legislative agenda setting and legislative success in 1995 and 2005. Based on the findings, I argue that the critical mass theory is of limited value in explaining women's policy impact and the field of gender …


Federalism, Intergovernmental Relations And Implementation : A Broad Examination Of The Politics Of Medicaid Disenrollment, Kathleen Marie Dalton Jan 2009

Federalism, Intergovernmental Relations And Implementation : A Broad Examination Of The Politics Of Medicaid Disenrollment, Kathleen Marie Dalton

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Variation in the Medicaid program has frequently been studied across states, and considered a product of political, fiscal and administrative factors. Few studies have considered variation in Medicaid as a product of federal bureaucratic behavior. This study examines federal variation, and uses federalism, intergovernmental relations and public policy lenses to compare two cases where classes of recipients were being disenrolled from Medicaid, in apparent conflict with federal regulations. In one case, when individuals moved from county-to-county and became disenrolled in Medicaid, the federal bureaucrats used most of the implementation tools at their disposal to try to bring states back into …


Harm Reduction In Outpatient Drug-Free Substance Abuse Treatment Settings, Michael Eversman Jan 2009

Harm Reduction In Outpatient Drug-Free Substance Abuse Treatment Settings, Michael Eversman

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

In the United States, drug-free substance abuse treatment programs generally operate under an abstinence-only, disease model based service orientation. Citing several reasons, critics suggest disease model approaches hinder client utilization and retention within such services. The framework of harm reduction offers an alternative approach to substance abuse treatment services and may have potential for improving utilization and retention outcomes. Yet little is known about how harm reduction is perceived by practitioners in drug-free substance abuse treatment settings, and the circumstances in which harm reduction may or may not be accepted. In addition, despite a body of narrative literature suggesting harm …


Explaining Torture And Its Reduction In A Police Department : A View From Below, Ahmet Guler Jan 2009

Explaining Torture And Its Reduction In A Police Department : A View From Below, Ahmet Guler

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This is an ethnographic study of police deviance and police reform. This study investigates how organizational members rationalize the torture they perpetuated in the past, how they explain their sensemaking process and organizational identity change during the change process using empirical data from a counterterrorism division of the metropolitan police department (MPD) in a prospective member state of the EU.


Measuring Street-Level Bureaucrats' Use Of Behavioral Discretion Over Information, Transaction Costs, And Stigma In U.S. Welfare Policy Implementation : A Comparative Analysis Of Public Management In State And Local Government, Do Han Kim Jan 2009

Measuring Street-Level Bureaucrats' Use Of Behavioral Discretion Over Information, Transaction Costs, And Stigma In U.S. Welfare Policy Implementation : A Comparative Analysis Of Public Management In State And Local Government, Do Han Kim

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This study uses content analysis to investigate caseworkers' use of discretion during application interviews for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Food Stamp (FS), or Medicaid (MA). One hundred twenty two application interviews were observed in 2000 for three local offices in both Michigan (1 metropolitan, 1 suburban, and 1 rural office) and Texas (2 metropolitan and 1 suburban office). Previous literature suggested that caseworkers had discretion in three areas--1) manipulating information, 2) distributing transaction costs, and 3) stigmatizing clients.