Public Administration Commons^™

American Institution Of Public, K-12 Education: An Institutional Field Under A Complexity Paradigm, Jennifer Jean Joyalle

Dissertations and Theses

Institutional fields serve as foundational bedrocks that shape and govern behaviors, norms, and practices within distinct domains of societal and organizational interactions. The emergence of machine learning and the ability to manipulate large datasets offer researchers and decision makers the potential ability to model and visualize the behavior associated with institutional fields.

This proof of concept provides an example of visualizing the changing conditions in the institutional field of public K-12 education in America as a topology. By interweaving three primary strands of theory -- institutional fields, complexity in the guise of complex adaptive systems as a paradigm, and paradigms …

Developing Public Service Leadership: Understanding The Field Immersion/Comparative Cases Model For Mid-Career Professional Education In Environment And Natural Resources Leadership, Erin M. Steinkruger

Dissertations and Theses

Public administrators in the United States face increasingly complex challenges and are called to leadership by position and in practice. In a hyper-pluralistic society, individuals must lead from where they sit, arbitrating value differences in day-to-day functions and taking on adversity and uncertainty in pursuit of the public good. These individuals are served by a variety of leadership training programs both internal and external to their organizations. This study characterizes the field immersion/comparative cases (FICC) model for public service leadership development and uses a grounded theory approach to build understanding about how individuals learn about leadership; what learning outcomes emerge …

The Factors Contributing To The Resilience Of Thailand's Social Welfare Nonprofit Organizations Since The Onset Of The Country's Prolonged Political Crisis In 2005, Narttana Sakolvittayanon

Dissertations and Theses

Since 2005, nonprofit organizations in Thailand, a transitive country, have experienced survival challenges due to social, economic, and political changes. This study aims to explore the organizational attributes of nonprofit organizations in Thailand that contribute to resilient capacity, which is an ability to survive and continue providing goods and services to fulfill missions when facing challenges. The research questions of this study are what factors have affected the resilience of social welfare nonprofit organizations in Thailand since the onset of the country’s prolonged political crisis in 2005? And to what extent do theories of nonprofit resilience in advanced liberal democracies …

A Policy Proposal For Agricultural Data Governance, Ana Sofía Castellanos Santamaría

Dissertations and Theses

As the digital economy continues to grow and data becomes increasingly important, effective data governance is essential. A data governance framework enables the efficient management, sharing, and integration of data, resulting in better decision-making, increased productivity, and enhanced innovation across industries, including agriculture. However, the agricultural sector in the United States is lagging behind other industries in the adoption of effective data governance practices. Agricultural data governance presents a unique set of challenges due to the wide range of stakeholders involved and the ever-increasing volume of data generated by digital technologies in farming. One key challenge to achieving the benefits …

Stakeholder Engagement In Urban Public Transportation Agencies In The United States, Tyler Joseph Wolfe

Dissertations and Theses

Major urban public transportation agencies in the United States are often under pressure to engage stakeholders in order to improve both the legitimacy and effectiveness of their transit systems. Based on qualitative methods of directed content analysis, this dissertation answers three related questions: (I) How do internal organizational qualities affect stakeholder engagement? (II) How do external socioeconomic factors affect stakeholder engagement? and (III) Does stakeholder engagement lead to better performance? Using a most similar comparative case study design, this research studies stakeholder engagement in five major urban public transportation agencies (Denver, Oklahoma City, Seattle, Portland, and Memphis). It demonstrates the …

Connected Government: An Exploration Of The Department Of Education And King And Stiver’S Theory Of Connected Government, Lilia Iokhvidov

Dissertations and Theses

The frameworks of democracy and bureaucracy are becoming increasingly important in the political landscape. Considering the changes in policy and practice, primarily in education, administrators must contemplate the opinions and suggestions of the population at large. The need arises to initiate alternative legislative activities so the public can become more active in the political scene. The public is willing to voice their views when the policy directly affects the people. The participation process involves direct communication with bureaucrats during meetings among the public, stakeholders, and agency officials. The public participates in politics by being involved in civic duty, the rights …

Immigration Federalism In The United States: Constructing A Contemporary Institutional Framework Centered On Local Communities Through A Case Study Approach, Sara Kuehlhorn Friedman

Dissertations and Theses

This research study presents a new model of immigration federalism which integrates existing theories into a framework that emphasizes agency at the local level. Unlike dominant models of federalism that observe the cascading effect of higher-level policy on lower levels of government, this research focuses on empirical evidence at the local level to understand its relation to policy at higher levels. Immigration federalism is receiving substantial interest in scholarly work and in practice, but it lacks a cohesive and comprehensive theory explaining variation at the community level. There is little reason to expect sweeping changes in immigration policy at the …

Re-Engaging Individual Capacities In Service Of Civic Capacity: A Model Of Holistic Civic Engagement Education For The University, Jane Gerald Carr

Dissertations and Theses

A healthy democracy requires active civic engagement. Effective civic involvement can be encouraged by education that helps students learn to respect diverging viewpoints and build skills such as critical thinking about policy frameworks. In higher education, we have seen progress in teaching for civic engagement despite pressures to focus narrowly on career preparation. However, it is important to build on this work in two ways. First, the noncognitive and holistic dimensions of civic engagement have not been thoroughly considered in designing civic education. Second, the field could reach its goals more effectively by adopting teaching strategies that directly help students …

The Role Of The Academic Analyst In Shared Governance, Rebecca Ann Mathern

Dissertations and Theses

This research explores the roles of academic professionals in higher education, specific to how they engage in decision-making processes. Academic professionals provide important functions in higher education work but there is little in the literature about these actors and their contributions to leadership and governance. A literature review triangulated role theory, organization theory, and the shared-governance field of study to bring together actors within higher education and compare their involvement based on the shared-governance model in operation at different institutions. The researcher introduced the hypothesis that when registrars are not involved in curriculum management, there may be negative effects on …

Accountability Models In Policy Design: Understanding The Explanatory Power Of The Four Major Accountability Models In Policy Tool Choices, David Seiler Jarvis

Dissertations and Theses

In the study of government accountability, there have long been arguments about which model is superior. These arguments, which are largely made by those in the performance and political accountability camps, state that their particular model is the best, and indeed only legitimate approach to ensuring accountable government. At the same time, there is growing research in policy tools but little in how accountability models and policy tools are linked in policy design.

This study makes use of the context provided by the critical cases of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). …

Women's Actions And Reactions To Male Migration: A Case Study Of Women In San Juan Guelavía, Oaxaca, Mexico, Julie Boyles

Dissertations and Theses

Using a mixed methods, interdisciplinary case study approach, this research project explores the benefits, risks, and challenges of male migration for women who reside in San Juan Guelavía, Oaxaca, Mexico. In a unique approach in the field of migration studies, this project considers not only women whose husbands have migrated--absent husbands--but also the impact of male migration on women whose husbands have returned as well as women whose husbands have never left--anchored husbands. Women with returned husbands and even women with anchored husbands feel the threat, worry, and fear that male migration could, at an unknown point in the future, …

City Management Theory And Practice: A Foundation For Educating The Next Generation Of Local Government Administrators, Scott Douglas Lazenby

Dissertations and Theses

Due to the retirement of the baby boom generation, many individuals, in a relatively short period of time, will need to be trained and educated to step into local government senior leadership positions. Ideally, the education and training of this new leadership cadre should be guided by a well known and proven body of theory that helps us understand the competencies the next generation of public service need to possess in order to be effective in their work. The purpose of this research is to assess whether such a body of work exists and, if so, whether it is successfully …

The Institutionalization Of Diversity And Gender Equity Norms And Values In Higher Education Settings, Rowanna Lynn Carpenter

Dissertations and Theses

Universities in the United States increasingly experience demographic, business, and community pressure to hire, retain, and educate women and ethnic minority faculty, staff, and students. Responses to this pressure have changed over time from isolated open-door initiatives to comprehensive diversity initiatives designed to create welcoming campus environments for people of all backgrounds. Current literature on the assessment of diversity initiatives in higher education suggests the need to use approaches that include attention to the entire university, and to institutionalize the norms and values associated with diversity initiatives as part of the change process. Despite this shift toward a comprehensive understanding …

How Organizational Arrangements Affect High Reliability In Public Research Universities: Perceptions Of Environmental Health And Safety Directors, Rita Finn Sumner

Dissertations and Theses

The American research university is composed of two related but relatively independent structures. The academic core composed of faculty guilds, has the primary responsibility for academic content and quality. The administrative shell is responsible for mobilizing and distributing resources that support the work of the guilds and it protects guilds from harmful external forces. Part of the complex relationship between the academic core and the administrative shell is enabling the creation of internal quality through arranging institutional conditions to prepare resources to better manage risk. The need for research universities to develop infrastructures regarding environmental health and safety (EHS) to …

Who Benefits? : A Multilevel Analysis Of The Impact Of Oregon's Volunteer Mentor Program For Postsecondary Access On Scholarship Applicants, Alisha Ann Lund-Chaix

Dissertations and Theses

Despite four decades of national policy interventions, equal access to postsecondary education has not been achieved. Though gains have been made, students of color, low-income students, and first generation students are still excluded from postsecondary participation. Early intervention programs and privately funded scholarships are among the many public and private voluntary responses to this problem.

Oregon's state-supported, school-based, volunteer mentoring program for equalizing postsecondary opportunities grew out of a long-standing partnership between a state administrative agency and statewide community foundation. Key program features reflect its origin: open eligibility for any student who wants to participate and reliance on a primary …

Multi-Level Environmental Governance : A Comparative Case Study Of Five Large Scale Natural Resource Management Programs, Shpresa Halimi

Dissertations and Theses

Globalization is occurring at an unprecedented pace through the end of the twentieth century and into the new millennium. In such a world, governance is increasingly shared among governments, civil society organizations and businesses. Globalization has placed new demands on environmental management across national borders. Hence, changes in the environmental governance frameworks are required to create the enabling conditions for the effective management of the natural resources and the environment.

This study seeks to develop an integrated "Multi-level Environmental Governance" (MLEG) framework and to explore the relationship between the core characteristics of the framework and the achievements of large scale …

The Washington State Patrol, Accountability-Driven Leadership, And The Organizational Factors That Propelled Their Success: An Organizational Analysis, Timothy Carl Winchell

Dissertations and Theses

In January 2002, Washington State Patrol (WSP) Chief Ronal Serpas, Ph.D., implemented his Accountability Driven Leadership (ADL) philosophy throughout the entire statewide public safety agency. The initiative was intended to re-focus personnel on agency strategic goals, objectives, and performance. ADL stressed Computer Statistic (CompStat) management tenants, decentralized decision-making, and efficiency and effectiveness performance measures.

Most CompStat research has been anecdotal in nature, meaning little empirical analysis has scrutinized the implementation of these initiatives in policing. Additionally, the principal researcher could not locate any research that examined these changes in a statewide law enforcement agency. Therefore, this case study contributes to …

Creating A Theoretical Framework For Understanding Homeland Security Using Multiple Frame Analysis, Linda Ann Kiltz

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study was to begin the effort to build a theoretical foundation for homeland security policy by analyzing the 1993 World Trade Center terrorist attack using multiple frame analysis (MFA). MFA consisted of three conceptual lenses: (I)-Homeland Security as a Criminal Justice Problem/Terrorism as Crime, (II)-Homeland Security as a International Relations Problem/Terrorism as War, and (III)-Homeland Security as an Organization Design Problem/Terrorism as a Network. These lenses were applied to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing using a case study methodology, thus creating a framework to analyze a singular critical event from multiple perspectives.

This research was …

Emerging Governance At The Edge Of Constrained Federalism : Public Administrators At The Frontier Of Democracy, Gary Lloyd Larsen

Dissertations and Theses

President Reagan and each succeeding President exerted significant effort to scale back the size and scope of federal executive branch agencies, a pressure that can be characterized as constrained federalism. This phenomenon is described by Kettl (2000) as the theory of New Public Management. I observe and theorize that a new form of governance is emerging as an unintended consequence of constrained federalism's attempt to replace governance with management in the name of efficiency.

This new form of governance arises when federal public administrators and citizens work together in partnerships to mitigate the immediate and more subtle adverse effects …

George Lakoff"S Theory Of Worldview : A Case Study Of The Oregon Legislature, Catherine Law

Dissertations and Theses

George Lakoff's theory of worldview presented in Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think (2002) has been a topic of interest and discussion in certain political and academic circles. To date, however, it appears that no empirical test of his theory exists. In this dissertation, Lakoff's theory of worldview is explored, using the Oregon Legislature as a case study. A survey instrument to test his theory was created and administered to members of the 2005-2006 Oregon House of Representatives. Cluster analysis and chi-square analysis were used in the data analysis to examine how well Lakoff's theory explains politics. It was …

Representation Without Taxation : China's Rural Development Initiatives For A New Millenium, Minzi Su

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this research is to assess the prospects for China's rural revitalization programs now in their initial stages of formulation and implementation. The study seeks to discover, primarily on the basis of field research in several different rural locations, what capacities and political-economic conditions seem to hold the greatest promise for success. The research was occasioned primarily by two key factors: First, China's party and government are now engaged in a massive program to create nothing less than a harmonious society, a key element of which is a "new socialist countryside." The second factor is that despite numerous …

Lost In Translation : Ideas Of Population Health Determinants In The American Policy Arena, Maria Gilson Sistrom

Dissertations and Theses

A growing body of research reveals the determinants of population health to be social, political and economic, yet health policy in the United States remains largely individualistic (Evans, Barer, & Marmor, 1994). At the same time research is revealing these structural determinants of health, measures of population health in the United States are worsening in comparison to other developed countries (Bezruchka, 2001). Explanations for this include the influence of culture, medical, public health and governmental institutions and historic development and processes on health policy. Researchers hold to a view of the policy process that is informed by science, yet policy …

Organizational Complexity In American Local Governance: Deploying An Organizational Perspective In Concept And Analytic Framework Development, Charles David Crumpton

Dissertations and Theses

Organizational complexity is a distinguishing characteristic of local governance in America's urban areas. Organizationally complex arrangements among jurisdictions, agencies, and private for-profit and not-for-profit organizations are frequently involved in the production and delivery of local public goods and services in the United States. In this dissertation study the author seeks useful explanations regarding emergence, operation and consequences of organizational complexity found in local public economies in the United States. The study draws on the author's professional practice and researcher experience and organizational theory to develop a conceptual platform for better understanding local public sector organizational complexity. The conceptual platform is …

Police Organizations : An Empricial Examination Of American Sheriff's Offices And Municipal Police Agencies, Matthew Adam Jones

Dissertations and Theses

The landscape of American policing is comprised of a myriad of police organizations, each serving a distinct function and populace. Yet, police reformers rarely recognize this and continue to disseminate 'umbrella' policy prescriptions to all policing organizations. This body of research argues that public and police administrators must take into account the nature of the organization and its constraining forces before prescribing change or initiating policy. I argue that to intelligently construct police agencies, prescribe policy, and accurately diagnose police organization behavior we must first have a strong idea, if not solid understanding, of the factors that shape and constrain …

Measuring Community-Engaged Departments: A Study To Develop An Effective Self-Assessment Rubric For The Institutionalization Of Community Engagement In Academic Departments, Kevin Kecskes

Dissertations and Theses

Change in American higher education is occurring at a rapid pace. The increasing reemergence of civic or community engagement as a key component in the overall landscape of American higher is emblematic of that change. Academic departments play a critical role in higher education change, including institutionalizing community engagement on campuses. Yet, designing a way of measuring community engagement specifically at the level of the academic department has not been undertaken.

Based on advice from national expert/key informant interviews and the recognition of the importance of the role of academic departments in the overall institutionalization of community engagement in higher …

Information Technology Training In The Public Sector : Essential Planning Elements, Betty Jean Reynolds

Dissertations and Theses

Information technology (IT) has revolutionized the workplace and the provision of government services, and rapidity of change makes IT training essential. Planning, however, can be haphazard, and public sector training might not fulfill training needs. Elements that are essential to planning for the success of IT training in the public sector were identified from the literature: IT training organization structure/training provider, methods of IT training delivery, assessment of IT training needs, IT training expenditures, specific IT training needs, and strategies for improving IT training.

IT directors of Oregon state agencies and chief information officers (CIOs) of exemplar states were surveyed …

Global Civil Society Finding Collective Voice In Diversity, Kristen Marie Magis

Dissertations and Theses

The research question that forms the basis of this dissertation is: "What characteristics do members of Global Civil Society define as critical to the successful functioning of coalition processes designed to generate specific policy positions?" The dissertation's objective is to develop a canon of knowledge about these critical characteristics.

The relative lack of research on the question of the internal organization and operations of GCS coalitions necessitated the use of inductive methodology. Three sources of data were utilized; interviews with knowledgeable persons in Global Civil Society, a conference of GCS experts, and papers commissioned for the conference. The data were …

The Changing Paradigm Of Emergency Management : Improving Professional Development For The Emergency Manager, Robert Edward Grist

Dissertations and Theses

Throughout its short and remarkable history, emergency management has been subjected to a vast array of fast-moving and radical changes which have presented significant challenges to the men and women in this emerging profession. This study was designed to help determine the adequacy of their professional development to meet those challenges.

The study is framed within an environment where emergency managers face the pressure to professionalize; explore the world of risk, trust, and the distribution of power; confront revolutionary changes; and concern themselves with the social impact of disasters in their own communities. This study asks: "Do Emergency Managers feel …

From Prison To The Community : The Role Of Citizen Participation In Female Prisoner Reentry, Dana Roderick Torrey

Dissertations and Theses

Growing attention is being given to the design of programs for female prisoners to assist their successful reentry into the community upon the completion of their incarceration. However, current programs have been largely designed and implemented with the goal of seeking parolee compliance through mandatory rules and practices. Little emphasis is placed on preparing inmates to assume their duties as citizens and active participants in the lives of their community. In short, existing programs pay little attention to the importance of creating what I call for purposes of this study, “citizen participation”.

This study tests the importance of developing a …

Network Analysis Of A Shared Governance System, Debra Reifman Whitall

Dissertations and Theses

This study contributes to the growing body of literature on the role of networks in creating efficacious systems of governance. In particular, this study considers if, in addition to network structure, two network characteristics, network social capital and network management, each have direct and indirect effects on network performance. Also considered are the combined effects of these three network characteristics on network performance. The findings of this study re-examine the relationship between network characteristics and performance, especially the influence of network structure on performance. Thus, this study has practical implications for policy makers regarding effective collaborative strategies.

This study used …