Public Policy Commons^™

Data Quality (Video), Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

Workforce Analytics Resources

Data-driven decisions cannot be effective if they are based on poor-quality data. Thus, it is important to ensure that any data that will be used for workforce analytics are accurate and can be trusted.

Data Quality Criteria

There are many potential data quality criteria to consider. Below are 9 selected criteria that are relevant for workforce data. If there are others that are also important to you, they should be included as well. These questions should be asked of every variable for which data are collected.

1. Relevance: Are the data useful and relevant for business needs?
2. Granularity: Are the data …

Impact Of Work From Home Policies On Workplace Productivity And Employee Sentiments During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Jenna Wilson

Accounting Undergraduate Honors Theses

Workplace productivity can be defined as the level of efficiency in which tasks and goals are completed for a company (Kristina). It is well understood in all industries that workplace productivity is a vital factor for success in order to increase profitability and maintain employee satisfaction. Many companies attempt to positively influence productivity while maintaining high employee morale by making strategic changes to the office environment, such as providing comfortable break rooms, sophisticated technology, and employee well-being programs. But what happens when the workplace itself is redefined and an employee’s kitchen table becomes their office? Shortly after COVID-19 emerged in …

Predicting And Measuring Support For Populism, Jay Rumas

Senior Honors Projects

Through reading the most recent research and case examples, I have discovered that the conventional wisdom on how political actors appeal to voters is rather obsolete. I have done my best to establish a profile of the “populist voter” and predict which parties they may be inclined to support. Cas Mudde, an expert on populist movements, labels populism as the use of a narrative that constructs the struggle of “the people (the majority) vs “the elite'' for political purposes. It has neither a positive or negative connotation. Populist movements often appeal to those among groups that feel as though they …

Barriers To Hiv Testing Among Cameroonian Men : The Role Of Stigma And The Impact Of Covid-19, Heidi Iyok

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

ABSTRACT

Creating A Workforce Analytics Action Plan (Video), Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

Workforce Analytics Resources

An action plan can be a useful tool for implementing workforce analytics, especially if there are multiple people involved in the process. This resource provides some general advice on action planning, with specific examples for advancing the use of workforce analytics.

What is an Action Plan?

An action plan outlines the actions, resources, and people needed to achieve goals. It is vital to strategic planning. Action plans include the following components:

• A well-defined goal
• Tasks/steps needed to reach the goal
• Individuals or teams responsible for each task
• Task milestones and timeframes
• Resources and data needed to complete tasks
• Evidence or …

Profiles In Leadership: Women Of Color Elected To Office In Massachusetts, Center For Women In Politics And Public Policy, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Publications from the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy

In 2015, UMass Boston’s Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy released the first-ever publication exploring the elected leadership of women of color in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts largely to make known the contributions of female electeds of color across the Commonwealth. The publication also aimed to delve into what hinders and what facilitates the elected leadership of women of color. This 2021 updated publication contains profiles of the 174 women of color who have been elected to key policymaking positions and offers quantitative analysis to better understand office-holding patterns.

Evident in the profiles is the centrality of community …

Vision Zero And The Bay Area Response: Traffic Fatalities And Perceptions Of Pedestrian Safety In Local Politics And Public Policy, Christopher Farrell

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

In this study, I examine how the "Vision Zero" traffic safety plan has been implemented in the cities of San Francisco and San Jose and, employing qualitative interviews, I explore the perceptions of local elected officials and community leaders of local advocacy groups to understand their emergent appraisals of how effectively the policy is working, as well as assess the political implications and impact of the initiative. I find that local elected leaders have a range of perceptions, but the majority of local elected leaders and community leaders agree that getting more cars off the road, improving public transportation, and …

The Role Of The Kurds In U.S. Foreign Policy, Davis Mccool Iii

Honors Theses

The Kurdish people in the Middle East have played a valuable role in furthering U.S. policy interests in the region. The U.S. has aligned itself with various Kurdish groups in a series of strategic partnerships dating back to the early 1970s, yet has never considered the Kurdish nation an ally. As such, the U.S. has reneged on multiple different pacts with the Kurds and opened the door for state-sponsored conflict against a supposed ally, despite mutual interests between both groups. This thesis aimed to assign a formal role to the Kurds within U.S. foreign policy, and to analyze the function …

5g Technology, U.S. - China Race, And The Competition For Dominance, Rhodes M. Walker

Honors Theses

For much of the 21^st century, the United States and China have been competing to determine which world superpower will have the upper-hand for decades to come.The creation of 5G networks has raised new questions which are imperative to understanding the outlook for the competition between the United States and China for global dominance. This thesis sought to answer the question: Why would implementing the first 5G networks be the key to global dominance for the next decade or longer? In addressing this question, this thesis discusses the current state of 5G networks in China, the U.S., and Europe …

Brain Drain In Mississippi, Clifford Adam Conner

Honors Theses

Brain drain is the out-migration of educated individuals from an area. It is a problem with which Mississippi is overly familiar. This thesis uses data gathered from a survey of 965 respondents to identify who is leaving the state and for what reasons. The data gathered suggest confirmation that brain drain is an issue for the state, with roughly two-thirds of respondents having left the state or seriously considering doing so. The impetus for this varies with each individual, but respondents underscore economic and societal factors within Mississippi as pushing them away from the state. Quality of life factors are …

‘Con Los Brazos Abiertos’: Venezuelan Migration And The Humanitarian State Under Ecuador's Moreno Administration, Madeline Cook

Honors Theses

In its 2008 Constitution, Ecuador enshrined radically inclusive principles of universal citizenship and legal protections for migrants, written in a moment of historic Ecuadorian emigration. Yet in the wake of the Venezuelan migrant crisis and President Lenin Moreno’s shift towards austerity, how has his administration (2017-2021) responded to the Venezuelan migration in policy and in political discourse? Through an analysis of legal documents including ministerial agreements, legislation, executive decrees, and the VERHU visa, this paper outlines a pattern of legal restrictions levied on Venezuelan migrants. Additionally, this paper employs a qualitative content analysis of the Moreno administration’s political discourse, including …

Duality In Digital Discourse: The History And Future Of The American Public Forum, Nicholas Weaver

Honors Theses

From the onset of the republic, the liberty to speak freely and debate openly has stood guard and helped preserve all other American rights. While this concept has endured, the means by which it exists in society has changed immensely. As the public forum has evolved to fit the modern needs of the citizenry, political discourse has become less a defense against tyranny and more a chaotic space of conflicting opinions.

In the United States, privately-owned social media companies have grown at an unprecedented rate, yet lawmakers have been slow to exercise any authority to regulate these corporations. For public …

Evaluating Urban Parks Accessibility And Equity: A Case Study Of Hartford, Ct And New Haven, Ct, Natalie Roach, Mara Tu

Honors Scholar Theses

Public parks provide cities with environmental benefits, positive health effects, recreational opportunities, community building, educational spaces, and public amenities. However, certain populations have been systematically denied their fair share of these benefits because of unjust practices in the creation and maintenance of urban parks. With a lens of environmental justice, the goal of this research was to assess park quality and accessibility of two Connecticut cities, Hartford and New Haven, by gathering publicly available information as well as using GIS tools.

The Trust for Public Land (TPL) has an existing ParkScore rating system that evaluates the quality of a city’s …

Mamás Trabajadoras: An Evaluation Of Policies That Incite Maternal Participation In The Labor Force In Spain And The European Union, Anna Kate Ferrell

Honors Theses

While the past few decades have seen women advance their labor force participation, formal work still remains less accessible to them—often as a result of their responsibilities to care for young children at home. This paper investigates the effect that Early Childhood Education and Care policies have on female labor force participation rates across Spain and the European Union through a mixed research design, with both quantitative and qualitative analysis. After a cross-national comparison of case studies, it concludes that these policies increase female labor force participation rates, allowing women to reconcile their identities as both mothers and career women.

Sustainable Pathways For Successful Small Businesses In Chelsea, Massachusetts, Fabián Torres-Ardila, Lorna Rivera, Carolina Rojas-Pion, Daniela Bravo, Henry Chavez

Gastón Institute Publications

This report focuses on the critical role that small business owners and entrepreneurs play in the socioeconomic development of a predominantly Latino community like Chelsea, Massachusetts.

This report compiles the key findings and recommendations that resulted from conducting a qualitative study with small business owners and other individuals who play important roles in advocating for and supporting this community. Assuming an asset-based approach rather than a deficit-based one (Green & Haines, 2011), our study focuses on the skills and knowledge of small business owners and identifies a myriad of possibilities for City administrators to build upon existing practices and behaviors …

Gender Equality And Democratization: How Greater Gender Equality Helps Explain Tunisian Success In The Arab Spring, Hannah Miller

Sigma: Journal of Political and International Studies

No abstract provided.

The Double Edge: Contradictory Functions Of Civil Society Organizations In The Tunisian Democratic Process, Dhia Ben Ali

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

“Democratic transition,” the act of becoming democratic, and “democratic consolidation,” the subsequent actions that solidify the achievement of becoming democratic, are two separate processes that go hand in hand. While several Arab Spring nations overthrew their dictators, fewer underwent a democratic transition, and only one – Tunisia – achieved democratic consolidation (Bouchlaghem and Thepaut, 2019; Sadiki, 2019; Gianni, 2019). Tunisia constitutes the sole Arab Spring country to have: 1) created and adopted a new constitution; 2) formed and institutionalized political parties that peacefully share power; and 3) achieved multiple rounds of free and fair elections (Al-Anani, 2014; Yerkes, 2019). Scholarly …

Addressing Food Insecurity In The United States During And After The Covid-19 Pandemic: The Role Of The Federal Nutrition Safety Net, Sheila Fleischhacker, Sara N. Bleich

Journal of Food Law & Policy

Food insecurity has been a direct and almost immediate consequence of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and its associated ramifications on unemployment, poverty and food supply disruptions. As a social determinant of health, food insecurity is associated with poor health outcomes including diet related chronic diseases, which are associated with worst COVID-19 outcomes (e.g., COVID-19 patients of all ages with obesity face higher risk of complications, death). In the United States (US), the federal nutrition safety net is predominantly made up of the suite of 15 federal nutrition assistance programs that the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) administers and …

Increasing Mississippi’S Hpv Vaccination Rate: A Proposal Based On Providers’ Insights, Madison N. Thornton

Honors Theses

Despite high childhood vaccination rates for required vaccinations for kindergarten, including the MMR vaccine, Mississippi has the lowest HPV vaccination rate in the nation. This is so even though the HPV vaccine can prevent multiple cancers, including cervical cancer, of which Mississippi has the nation’s highest mortality rate. This study seeks to understand the factors surrounding Mississippi’s low HPV vaccination rate as well as potential policy solutions to increase this rate. To accomplish this, the author conducted interviews with 13 Mississippi physicians in various specialties to gather qualitative data. As a result of these interviews, the author found that the …

Mapping Renewal: How An Unexpected Interdisciplinary Collaboration Transformed A Digital Humanities Project, Elise Tanner, Geoffrey Joseph

Digital Initiatives Symposium

Funded by a National Endowment for Humanities (NEH) Humanities Collections and Reference Resources Foundations Grant, the UA Little Rock Center for Arkansas History and Culture’s “Mapping Renewal” pilot project focused on creating access to and providing spatial context to archival materials related to racial segregation and urban renewal in the city of Little Rock, Arkansas, from 1954-1989. An unplanned interdisciplinary collaboration with the UA Little Rock Arkansas Economic Development Institute (AEDI) has proven to be an invaluable partnership. One team member from each department will demonstrate the Mapping Renewal website and discuss how the collaborative process has changed and shaped …