Innovation is vital to employing resources in times when the complexity and the demand for public goods and services strain organizational capacities. While innovation in the private sector is the subject of intense academic interest, the study of this phenomenon in the public sector pales in comparison. This is troubling because innovation is an important tool for overcoming resource limitations that plague the public sector. This dissertation's unique contribution to the field is the creation and empirical validation of a model that explains and predicts the co-production of public sector innovation. The model explains the causal mechanism of innovation and has predictive value. No generally agreed upon or empirically tested theory exists for understanding or predicting the social interactions that lead to public sector innovation. This dissertation closes this gap by using prior research and empirical observations to build and validate a model that explains the co-production of public sector innovation at the nexus of leadership, the organization, and the customer or client of the organization. The findings, conclusions, and recommendations of this study bridge theory and practice to define the conditions that lead to co-production of public sector innovation. This dissertation employed a deductive-inductive typological approach that used grounded theory to describe the conditions present when innovation occurs. These conditions exist as antecedents that include adaptive interest alignment, client-based prioritization, co-production readiness, organizational incentives, and organizational structure and culture. This study defined and then measured six independent variables that indicate the antecedents' presence. These antecedents served to predict the opening of a pathway to co-production of public sector innovation. Empirical measurement of the six independent variables served to indicate the presence or absence of the antecedents that operate in three intersecting domains (leadership, organization, and clients or customers). The independent variables are present when the dependent variable of co-produced public sector innovation emerged. The creation of two unique indices provided an aggregate summary of the variables. The indices served as proxy measures of co-produced public sector innovation. Special districts served as the empirical setting for this research. A case study approach served to validate the model using indices of the expected and actual measurement of co-production of innovation in the public sector. This dissertation validated the theoretical framework that served as a heuristic tool for conceptualizing the dynamics that moderate the co-production of public sector innovation within a defined political economy. The findings, conclusions, and recommendations that emerged from this research contribute to the ongoing dialogue about the conditions necessary for public sector innovation to occur.

Chromium hydroxide sludge is the end product of the aluminum phosphate coating process used by a truck manufacturer in the Pacific Northwest. This sludge is listed as an (F019) hazardous waste by the Environmental Protection Agency, and must be landfilled in a hazardous waste landfill site. The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate the characteristics of this sludge, and to then recommend suitable methods for handling and disposal. The chemical analysis of the sludge found total chromium to be 5.4% by weight. Industrial hygiene monitoring found the highest concentrations of 0.002 mg/m3 total chromium and 0.00006 mg/m3 hexavalent chromium at the waste treatment plant. The eight hour permissible exposure limit for total chromium is 0.5 mg/m3 and 0.05 mg/m3 for hexavalent chromium. Given the chemical analysis and industrial hygiene monitoring, a management plan is proposed for this truck manufacturer that discusses possible options for handling the (F019) waste, and provides a cost analysis for each of the options. The options that were investigated were onsite treatment, recycling, no change, and delisting. Onsite treatment was not required since the sludge passed the TCLP extraction test. Recycling costs were determined by contacting four recycling firms. Costs were found to be $600/ton and above, which exceeded the current disposal costs of $466/ton. Delisting the sludge from the hazardous waste listing was determined to be the most feasible from a management, cost, and environmental standpoint. Delisting would reduce the costs of handling the waste, would allow a reduction in landfilling costs, and reduce recycling costs. A literature survey provides background information on industrial uses of chromium, health problems associated with chromium, and discusses the regulations that govern disposal of these chromium sludges. / Graduation date: 1991

Environment, safety and health (ESH) research has a strong tradition of conducting research in manufacturing to improve workplace ESH conditions and has tied its management strategy and technical practices to many significant priorities: illness and injury prevention, environmental sustainability, corporate social responsibility, compliance with regulatory and insurance requirements, and dealing with NGO (non-governmental organization) pressures. ESH research rarely examines ESH management strategy in the broader context of business/operations. This oversight makes it difficult to make accurate recommendations for practice and regulation because ESH researchers and business/operations researchers tend to function as if the other does not exist with the very great possibility that key relationships remain undiscovered. In this study, case study methods were used with five manufacturing facilities in the Pacific Northwest to evaluate the usefulness of the Development Levels Rating System (DLRS). Data were collected using interviews, site tours, and publicly available records. Within case and cross-case analysis were used to analyze the data. Consistent patterns were found in how the facilities structured, organized, and financed the ESH function. Moreover, important insights were found regarding the facilities' levels of ESH management strategy and their levels of risk. The results support the DLRS model as being useful in assessing ESH management strategy in relation to a facility's level of risk. Moreover, several new pathways were uncovered including: the significance of multi-stakeholder approaches in EHS and operations research; the importance of joint management strategies; and the faulty nature of compliance-based ESH management strategies. Future research should be considered to test the DLRS tool using focus groups and quantitative methods. This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB). / Graduation date: 2012

Increasing diversity among community college students and the rising demand for a culturally competent workforce necessitate community college faculty across all disciplines to adjust their pedagogical choices to effectively serve diverse students while preparing all students for the new global era. The purpose of this narrative study was to explore what culturally competent pedagogies effective community college instructors use and reasons behind their choices. The study was conducted at a large community college in the Pacific Northwest. Data was collected through in-depth interviews with ten instructors teaching in different disciplines. In addition, the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) was used to measure participants' intercultural competency. The findings revealed that the participants were cognizant of the growing diversity in their classes and made a number of pedagogical choices to accommodate their students' needs. The findings also revealed that the participants' teaching in the Humanities and the Adult Basic Skills departments had more latitude in engaging diversity and choosing materials to fit the needs of their students compared to science and vocational field instructors.

In contemporary American society, the nursing profession is predominantly made up of white women. Currently, males make up only 6.8 percent of the three million nursing professionals in the U.S. and they are considered gender minorities within the nursing profession and within nursing education. As gender minorities, male students are identified as experiencing nursing programs and the practice of nursing differently than their female counterparts. The purpose of this single instrumental, within site case study was to explore the learning environment for male nursing students and to investigate the nature of the interactions between nursing faculty and male undergraduate students in a Pacific Northwest medical university nursing program. Data was collected in the educational setting through observations, participant interviews, and document analysis. In addition, this study used Kanter's theoretical framework of tokenism to uncover if male nursing students were perceived as tokens in the educational environment. The findings showed that the faculty-student interactions were largely positive; they also revealed that having other males in the class was an instrumental factor in their positive perception of their educational experience. However, the male nursing students also identified areas of discomfort in the educational setting, specifically when practicing clinical skills with female peers, feeling pressured to volunteer and to expose skin during in-class demonstrations, and anticipating that they would be excluded from certain clinical situations. This research indicated that gender differences are present within nursing education and contributed to instances of discomfort for male students. Specific barriers occurred most often when men engaged with female peers and were in clinical settings. These findings provide new insight into when and where men begin to experience gender barriers in the educational environment and are pertinent to understanding the educational environment for men in nursing. Recommendations specifically geared towards assisting students in their first term are suggested for nursing faculty and administrators to ensure that the learning environment is welcoming for men. These recommendations include consciously placing males together in cohort groups and in clinical experiences, reducing instances of visibility and pressure on men in the clinical setting, building faculty awareness of perceived and real barriers for men in the educational setting, and providing faculty with tools to assess and address barriers that are present in the classroom environment.