This study used an electronic questionnaire to evaluate the levels of intrinsic motivation, compared to extrinsic motivation, in front-line local government employees. This research also evaluated the relationship between intrinsic motivation and public service motivation (PSM). Further, this research assessed the effects of performance appraisal systems (PAS) on intrinsically motivated front-line local government employees. Current research suggests that public sector employees are more intrinsically motivated than extrinsically motivated. This study found that, while the employees showed higher levels of intrinsic motivation over extrinsic motivation, most of the respondents showed moderately high levels of both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Additionally, the literature suggests that public sector employees place a high value on the missions and goals of public organizations, also known as PSM. This study found that, while both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation had an influence on PSM, intrinsic motivation had a greater affect on PSM for front-line local government employees. Current research also suggests that an employee's intrinsic motivation can be diminished by exposure to an external control mechanism such as PAS. However, there are elements of the performance appraisal process, such as employee participation, that may positively influence the employee's attitude towards the management practice. This study found that the type of PAS, whether participatory or non-participatory, caused a variation in the employee's attitudes towards the PAS for intrinsically motivated front-line local government employees.

On June 6, 2006 Virginia Governor Timothy Kaine ceremonially signed legislation creating the New College Institute in Martinsville, Virginia. Since achieving statehood in 1788, Virginia has directly created only three four-year colleges; the University of Virginia, Virginia Military Institute, and Virginia State University. With the exception of the College of William and Mary, created in 1693, all of Virginia’s other public four-year institutions began as branch campuses, state normal schools for women, or as acquisitions of independent institutions. In addition to the extraordinary occurrence of creating a new public college in the Commonwealth of Virginia, evidence preceding the enacting legislation suggested that Martinsville might not be an appropriate place for a new college. The economic conditions in Martinsville and the entire Southside region of Virginia have undergone a dramatic transition from a production and manufacturing economy to an area beset by unemployment and lack of industry. Once considered a thriving economy based on textile, furniture and tobacco related industries, Southside Virginia has suffered resulting in a number of interrelated social and economic problems. Would a new college re-vitalize this region of the Commonwealth? Legislative studies preceding the enacting legislation provided clear evidence of the social and economic problems facing Southside communities but often ambiguous and conflicting information about the role of public policy should play with regard to creating a public organization for economic development purposes. Contrary to the historical tradition of creating a new college to meet student demand, the proposed new college in Southside Virginia would have to create post secondary educational demand to meet the needs of a new public organization. Colleges and universities can transform communities through their symbolic and legitimate structure, activities, goals and purposes. In recent research, education is described as highly institutionalized; exhibiting a socially legitimate structure and both formal and informal patterns of socialization. Educational organizations are institutionalized because they are infused with value and provide a symbolic mechanism for re-socializing and transforming individuals and communities. Institutional norms, rules and cognitions enhanced and constrained policy conversations and ultimately the decision to build a new college in Martinsville. Beyond the technical and rational arguments for constructing a new public bureaucracy, the symbolic goals and purposes of education are united with the values, beliefs and aspirations of its founders. These beliefs and values do not exist in an ahistorical space but are a condition and consequence of viewing education as highly institutionalized. This study is both an exploration and explanation of the institutional themes that created the material conditions in which policy actors negotiated and compromised in consensual solution to the problems in Southside Virginia through the creation of the New College Institute.

The purpose of this study is to determine whether major attitudinal factors are among the predictors of Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) in the Turkish National Police Organization (TNP). It investigates the influences of job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and organizational justice on OCB between two police regions (Region I and Region II) of the TNP. The results indicate that job satisfaction has a direct positive influence on employees’ OCB perception. Affective commitment is also positively related to OCB perception of TNP members. Only partial support was obtained for the relationship between normative and continuance commitments and OCB perceptions. Among organizational justice dimensions, distributive justice plays an important role in predicting TNP employees' OCB perception. The relationship between procedural justice and OCB was partially supported. However, interactional justice did not show any association with OCB. These findings indicate that major attitudinal factors are important predictors of OCB in the TNP. It provides guidelines to help TNP managers better understand how to use major attitudinal factors to improve OCB perceptions’ of their members. Some public policy implications should be establishment of OCB-Oriented Policing Unit within the existing organizational structure of the TNP and providing an innovative policy platform that can foster cooperation, coordination, and consultation between TNP and other private and public organizations.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between drug-related crimes in high-risk, rural Virginia counties (Brunswick County and Grayson County) and efforts to reduce them with a particular focus on a cost-benefit analysis of expenditures. Four independent variables were assessed in relation to drug-related crime: expenditures associated with (1) drug abuse prevention and (2) drug abuse treatment, (3) economic development, and (4) education. Drug abuse prevention and drug abuse treatment are traditional approaches to address the drug use and crime relationship, while economic development and education represent social determinants of health (economic and social factors that impact the health of people in communities). The literature suggests that strategies that build on traditional approaches to reduce substance use and addiction, while simultaneously addressing social determinants of health, are most effective at mitigating the drug use/crime relationship. The following demographic variables were also analyzed: unemployment rates, educational achievement, homeownership rates, median household income, and poverty rates. The theoretical framework used in this research was Paul Goldstein’s tripartite framework for explaining the drug use/violent crime relationship (psychopharmacological violence, economic compulsive violence, and systemic violence). Exploratory, descriptive and explanatory research designs were employed for examining the relationship between drug-related crimes and amelioration efforts in the areas of drug abuse prevention/treatment, economic development, and education. The research used a variety of secondary data amassed by local, state and federal governments, including basic demographic information, homeownership rates, median household income, poverty rates, and unemployment stastics. For example, audit documents from both Brunswick County and Grayson County, and the Virginia Tobacco and Indemnification and Community Revitalization Commission (VTICRC) were utilized to determine expenditures for the dependent and independent variables. The data collected from the secondary sources were reviewed and analyzed. The researcher found that drug abuse prevention was inversely correlated with drug-related crime expenditures and drug-related crimes for juveniles. In other words, drug abuse prevention expenditures predicted reductions in drug-related crime expenditures and drug-related crimes for juveniles. The researcher recommends that policymakers reprioritize limited funding to ensure maximum impact of reducing drug-related crimes and its consequences through drug abuse prevention policies and increased funding allocations.

Práce je zaměřena na metody zlepšování kvality ve veřejné správě. První část je věnována modelu CAF - jeho výkladu a zavádění především do místní veřejné správy. Druhá část je orientovaná na implementaci tohoto modelu hodnocení v Čechách a na území Evropy.

The objective of this thesis was to identify statistical issues that are commonly associated with evaluations of services for older people with a view to establishing the most appropriate methods of addressing them. This goal was achieved in two stages. In the first stage, a comprehensive literature review of studies that have reported such evaluations on populations of older people in the UK was conducted. The second stage involved demonstrating approaches for dealing with these issues on a dataset drawn from largest evaluation of intermediate care done and published in the UK to date. The approaches were adapted from the studies reported in the literature review and where appropriate, from other sources. This thesis identified a number of statistical issues including those associated with distributional characteristics of variables, missing data and the need to predict utility outcome measures from non-utility ones. Robust approaches of dealing with these problems were demonstrated. The results obtained underlined the importance of avoiding erroneous results and conclusions by applying methods with a sound theoretical background.

No description available.

According to a recent NYU study, Black Residential Migration in California: Implications for Higher Education, since the 1990s there has been considerable migration within the Black community from urban cities to the South and suburbs. In California, for example, a number of counties that have historically had the highest concentration of Blacks in the state have seen a high numerical decrease in the Black population in recent decades. Southern California is one of the more pronounced regions. The cities of Los Angeles, Compton, Inglewood, and Lynwood had the highest numerical decrease in the Black population; while cities San Bernardino and Rialto experiences significant proportional increases. These trends have significant implication in terms of the education of African American students. The study also reveals a high numerical increase in Black Enrollment between 1985 and 2005 at Rialto Unified and San Bernardino City Unified respectively. Whereas, historically, suburban communities have access to more opportunities and resources (including better schools) than their urban counterparts, recent census data reveals a considerable increase in poverty in U.S. suburbs as a result of the great recession. Considering these recent trends, are Black students “better off” in Los Angeles Unified School District or in San Bernardino County districts: Rialto Unified or San Bernardino City Unified? This study creates and assigns grades (A-F) for each of the districts using six variables: API performance, API improvement, College Readiness, Suspension Rates, Graduation/Dropout rate, and California High School Exit Exam Pass rate. Though all districts performed poorly, LAUSD received the high overall marks.

No description available.

Thesisn (M.A.)--Guo li Zheng zhi da xue. / Cover title. Mimeo. copy. Includes bibliographical references.