No description available.

The close proximity of students learning, living, socializing and working on university and college campuses presents a unique setting to understand organization responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. This concurrent, mixed methods qualitative study explored how one institution of higher education demonstrated resilience and how its health promotion activities pivoted and adjusted to reduce virus transmission and maintain safety while continuing to promote learning and education. Based on the organizational resilience conceptualization developed by Duchek (2020), data collection methods combined individual interviews with university leaders, self-interview and reflection, and a review of organization documents a connection between health promotion, organization resilience, and critical incident response was found. Data analysis revealed a set of themes unique to this university, but also supports recent literature on organization resilience. Findings suggest that organization preparation, the use of reflection in the response process and the expression of organization values, (care and compassion) provide opportunities for the organization to practice adaptive resilience. In addition, the study findings suggest the importance of health promotion to assist in the critical incident response planning. The analytical process of combining stakeholder interviews, self-interviews, and organization documents provides one path for deeper learning of the connection between health promotion and organization resilience.

This study applied the policy window theory through punctuated equilibrium and resource dependency theories to analyze the perception of nationwide fire service leaders and the impact that defunding law enforcement can have on the fire service in managing an active shooter mass casualty incident (ASMCI). As police reform remains the center of discussion throughout the nation, many community leaders have explored ways to re-appropriate police funding. This comes at a time when the paradigm of law enforcement and Fire/Emergency Medical Services (EMS) interdependency has become the standard response to ASMCIs as defined by the National Fire Protection Association 3000 Standard for an active shooter event. Using John Creswell's (2018) approach to mixed-methods design, a nationwide survey was sent to 1352 fire departments with open and closed-ended questions to measure their perception of ASMCI joint training and response impact. Survey data was collected, and through parametric testing, results were converged with qualitative data. This research explored the perception of the fire service in training and response to an ASMCI through the reliance on law enforcement and whether the fire service could evolve its response practices to address any delay in ASMCI response as outlined in NFPA 3000. The results reveal that fire officials regard training as a preparation tool to address the threat of an ASMCI and recognize that the community would expect the fire service to explore new models to evolve their role if required. This research area is emergent to policy discourse as the movement to defund law enforcement or funding reform can affect fire/EMS in managing an ASMCI emergency.

Four years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a group of Public Administration scholars met in New York's Adirondack Mountains to discuss the future of the field. At this gathering, the Minnowbrook I Conference, scholars acknowledged the need for social equity. Today, more than fifty years later, there is still a need for social equity. There is still a need to understand the history and role of oppression within Public Administration. Apropos, in this dissertation, I interrogate oppression, by way of postcolonialism and critical discourse analysis, to learn about the field's darkness and splendor. This project aims to help administrators reimagine a field and democracy for all. This dissertation is both an exercise in self-reflection and an invitation to become self-conscious about colonialism in our discourse. Explicitly, this project's central research question is: Does the American Public Administration Discourse (APAD) exhibit colonial discourse as a basis of power? Herein, discourse means a set of relationships between people, institutions, language, and rhetorical practices within Public Administration in the United States, post-1968. To answer the main research question, I used qualitative content analysis to analyze, via NVivo12, a purposive sample of 38 vital journal-length texts from the field. To inform and guide my study, I developed a deductive coding frame for colonial discourse. The frame includes three main categories and seven subcategories: Eurocentrism (Historicism, Developmentalist Fallacy and the Cult of Progress, Parochiality of Scientism, and Orientalism), the Civilizational Mission (Didactic Despotism and Neocolonial Prosperity Mission), and the Colonial Difference (Binarism). Per my qualitative content analysis, across the sample, colonial discourse is commonplace and taken for granted. While several texts challenge colonial discourse, they are often ambivalent in that they attack one dimension of colonial discourse while reinforcing another.

This study's main question is as follows: What are the effects of internal and external environmental factors on public value expressions found within Florida county and municipal governments' strategic plans? This study uses Moore's (1995) Public Value Theory and its main propositions, as Dong (2015) described. This study also adheres to the tradition established by DiMaggio and Powell (1983) by focusing on homogeneity, not variation, between strategic plans under study. Data for this dissertation were obtained from 77 official strategic plans of Floridian counties and municipalities. Furthermore, the dissertation proceeded in two distinctive phases. The first phase relied on content analysis to prove the presence of public value theory's main components of collaboration, collectiveness, and responsiveness in 785 excerpts from almost all the 77 official strategic plans understudy. The second phase of the study was built on the findings from Phase One. The second phase quantifies the findings from the first phase to examine the within-group and between-group isomorphic tendencies among Floridian counties and municipalities' strategic plans under similar internal and external environmental conditions. The dissertation calculated the differences between the average and actual percentages of public value theory components in each strategic plan understudy to calculate the within-group isomorphic tendencies. Isomorphic tendencies were found in the strategic plans of Florida's counties and municipalities with extreme fiscal health, in the Southeast region, and with a population size between 200,000 and 500,000 residents. To calculate the between-group isomorphic tendencies, this dissertation relied on the Kruskal-Wallis H test. The Kruskal- Wallis H test results between groups were all insignificance, which indicated similar isomorphic tendencies between groups with similar internal and external environmental conditions. The findings of this dissertation will expand the knowledge base on its topic.

This study assesses factors influencing the responsiveness of government officials in Alabama, Mississippi, and South Carolina regarding the public display of the Confederate Flag on state grounds in the aftermath of the Charleston, South Carolina shooting. The purpose of this dissertation research is to understand the factors influencing how government officials make decisions during racially/culturally sensitive events. Two research questions frame this study: 1) What factors are relevant to understanding state government officials' decision- making regarding the display of the Confederate Flag on public grounds? 2) Under what conditions of public decision making regarding the Confederate flag is executive authority, vote/referendum, or legislative processes used? Employing grounded theory across newspaper content in Alabama, South Carolina, and Mississippi, 117 articles were examined to provide insight into the research questions. The themes which emerged from this analysis are: 1) Key factors in the decision-making regarding the display of the Confederate Flag on state grounds are: a. The response to a triggering crisis event b. A desire for inclusiveness c. A perception of outside attention or scrutiny d. A concern for the economic well-being of the State e. The political agency of the decision maker 2) Economics, standing law, and political expediency influence decisions of whether executive authority, vote/referendum, or legislative processes are used in decision-making regarding the display of the Confederate Flag on public grounds. This study introduces a detailed model of decision-making for public officials in racially/culturally sensitive matters to navigate the handling of issues with similar schema-forming symbols which can call forth dynamic and polarizing responses. The findings from this research study can be used to foster improved government efforts at responding to matters of a highly charged emotional nature.

This study further expands current knowledge on responsiveness in the public administration field and examines factors that contribute to more responsive public service delivery networks. This research reconceptualized the concept of responsiveness under the lens of New Public Governance as a legitimate democratic public value and answered the following research questions: What constructs constitute to the concept of public service responsiveness? How can public service responsiveness be measured at the network level? Does the complexity of public service provision affect perceived public service network responsiveness? How do collaborative processes across network partners, community support, and resource munificence affect the responsiveness of public delivery networks? The study utilized a multi-method case study approach. The case of the study is focused on the cross-sector efforts in response to the crisis, caused by the massive displacement of the Puerto Rican population to Central Florida after Hurricane Maria. The data was collected using surveys administrated to the displaced population, and interviews conducted with the managers of service delivery organizations. Using quantitative methods, this study developed a valid and reliable model for measuring perceived public service network responsiveness, which is built on the constructs that include the sufficiency of service provision, dignity, clarity of communication and public engagement. The findings suggested that the displaced population that sought a higher number of low complexity services had a more negative perception of public service network responsiveness. The study suggested that negative perception in low complexity service provision can be caused by the low capability of the public service system and low level of public input, and can be characterized as "consumeristic" approach. The qualitative findings showed that collaborative processes can affect the responsiveness of public service networks. Increased community support proved to be a positive factor for public service network responsiveness, while a lack of flexible funding is a negative factor for public service network responsiveness.

As public administration evolved to encompass a strong focus on supporting safe growth and development for communities, the role and responsibilities of government became increasingly complex with aspects of emergency management becoming quintessential. The ability to assess resilience plays a strong role in understanding the capability of a community to face a range of threats. Additionally, issues with communication uncovered the need to understand how administrators collect, disseminate, and adapt critical information through understanding crisis type and local community needs. This dissertation discusses the connection between public administration and emergency management, the evolution of crisis communication and strategies, resilience and its measurement, along with Situational Crisis Communication Theory. This study conducted an online-survey of county, and county-equivalent, emergency managers across the United States. Results of Structural Equation Modeling included statistically significant relationships between Crisis Type and Local Community Needs on Crisis Communication Strategies as well as between strategies onto Community Resilience. Comparative analysis with the Baseline Resilience Indicators for Communities showed stark contrast in perceived resilience capacity. Follow-up, semi-structured interviews were conducted with voluntary respondents and analyzed via axial, deductive coding. Comparing quantitative and qualitative analysis highlighted the importance of county characteristics, critical relationships, overcoming obstacles, need for learning and adaptation, and importance of communication.

Bibliography: leaves 206-221. / In West Africa, where most countries attained independence in 1960 or around that time, Economic co-operation and integration have been pursued at different levels with varying degree of successes. This study addresses Nigeria 's policy in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) between 1979-1997. It is an investigation of the forces that have been driving the integration efforts in West Africa. The study focuses on the period between 1979-1997. The analysis proceeds through three phases: Firstly the Alhaji Shehu Shagari Era 1979-1983; secondly, the General Muhammadu Buhari era 1983-1984; finally the General Ibrahim Babangida/Ernest Shonekan/General Sani Abacha eras 1984-1998. The policy posture of Nigeria as a regional power-broker is the focal point of analysis in relation to specific Protocols of the ECOWAS Treaty. Three policy courses pursued by Nigeria during this period have been the subject of examination in this study: the expulsion of illegal immigrants most of whom were citizens of ECOWAS member states in 1983 and 1985, the land border closure of 1984-1985, and Nigeria 's role in ECOMOG. These policies are analysed in tandem with the Protocol on the free movement of goods; persons and services, the 1979 Non-Aggression Pact, the 1981 Mutual Assistance Protocol and the Protocol dealing with landlocked and Island member states. Other sub- regional forces like the linguistic barriers between the Anglophone, Francophone and Lusophone speaking states, the involvement of external powers like France, Britain and the United States of America and the regional rivalry between Cote d 'lvoire, Senegal, Ghana, Burkina Faso and Nigeria are also interrogated. The study concludes that regional integration is the most viable alternative for the socio-economic development and political stability of countries in the subregion. However, because of the disparity in the level of economic development, the issue of free movement of persons should be handled with high political tact in order to avoid a repetition of the 1983 and 1985 Nigerian expulsions. Such moves may not be a contravention of the Protocol in question but will dampen the spirit of 'oneness' that is a sine qua non for the success of the Community. Moreover the implementation of such a sensitive Protocol as the 1979 Non-Aggression Pact and the 1981 Mutual Defence Agreement needs a clear mandate to reduce the controversy that arises over the interpretation of such Protocols. This will reduce the regional tensions and acrimony as is manifested over Nigeria 's pivotal role in ECOMOG. Finally, the study concludes that Nigeria has a very significant role to play in ECOWAS. The realisation of the dreams of the founders of the Community is highly dependent on a consistent policy course by Nigeria in the affairs of ECOWAS.

The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between student leadership at the University of Central Florida, and the benefits and drawbacks that may result from this involvement. Student leadership is defined as the number of clubs and organizations a student is involved in and how many roles or titles a student has in those organizations. Student leadership benefits is defined as students feeling a higher sense of self efficacy, a greater chance of post-graduation success, and feeling as if they earned more opportunities due to their student leadership. Drawbacks of student leadership include feeling overworked, stressed, burnt out, and role strain. Work-life balance is defined as the number of hours a student spends working in their roles or collegiate responsibilities relative to the number of hours they spend on themselves. This study is going to explore the significance between student leadership and the benefits and drawbacks that students may experience from their leadership activities, as well as the relationship between their work-life balance and those benefits and drawbacks. This thesis will inquire upon the many facets of student leadership and the feelings that culminate due to these acquired responsibilities. For this research there are three Hypotheses. H1: The greater a student’s involvement in student leadership, the more likely they are to experience a higher sense of self efficacy and competence, as well as more opportunities and more confidence in post-graduate success. H2: The greater a student’s involvement in student leadership, the more likely they are to experience role strain, role overload, and feel more burnt out. H3: Students leaders who demonstrate the characteristics of a work-life balance are better able to reduce the negative impacts of student leadership than those who do not demonstrate the characteristics of a work-life balance. .