This study examines the relationships between interorganizational network development and sustainability, organizational capacity for emergency management, technology utilization, and community disaster resiliency. It is proposed that cross sector and interorganizational collaboration (i.e., network development and sustainability), information communication technology (ICT) utilization, and organizational capacity have a positive impact on disaster resiliency. Disaster resiliency is measured with a three dimensional metric which includes effectiveness of disaster response, effectiveness of disaster recovery, and adaptive capacities. A questionnaire was sent to organizations that are part of the emergency management system in 11 counties in Central Florida. These organizations were identified by each county's comprehensive emergency management plans. County emergency managers served as the liaison people to reach organizations. They distributed the questionnaire and sent reminders to participants. The study aimed to reach an entire population of 855 emergency management affiliated organizations. The survey had a 25.28% response rate. Structural equation modeling was used to determine the impact of interorganizational network development, interorganizational network sustainability, information communication technology utilization, and organizational capacity on community disaster resiliency. The results of the study show that one third of the total variation in disaster resiliency was explained with the exogenous variables in the structural equation model (R2=.31). There was no statistically significant relationship between network development and disaster resiliency. Also, a correlation was hypothesized between organizational capacity and ICT utilization, according to the study findings no correlation was found between these two variables. Network development, organizational capacity, and ICT utilization were found to be positively associated with disaster resiliency. Among all the variables, organizational capacity had the highest impact on disaster resiliency (β=.36). ICT utilization and network development had almost equal regression weights (β=.25, β=.26 respectively). A correlation was also found between network development and ICT utilization with β=.23. The results suggest that organizations that are part of emergency management systems in Central Florida counties could enhance disaster resiliency of their communities by focusing on interorganizational and cross-sector network development, information communication technology utilization, and organizational capacity. Managerial craft has a critical role in developing relationship as most of the interorganizational ties are established with informal connections and mutual trust. Building relationship, installing technological systems, and carrying out joint trainings often exceeds financial capacities of organizations. Enabling more funding for these initiatives is another key point to which policy makers may pay attention.

In much the same way as the racial integration movement, advocates for students with disabilities (SWD) have cultivated an active and vocal lobby seeking to establish and then implement legal mandates to integrate classrooms in the hope that social acceptance would follow. Through federal mandates such as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), conceptually initiated in 1975 and revised in 2004 as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEIA) along with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, these students have a voice to cry out for access to the experiences of work, conversation and play with their peers. This study explores the impact that classroom efforts to offer "inclusion" have on their nondisabled peers' intent to include their fellow SWD in their lives as students. Using survey research methods and guided by the Theory of Planned Behavior (Aizen, 1985), 593 responses were obtained from a convenience sample of 936 third, fourth and fifth grade students educated in 52 classrooms spread across 6 different schools in two counties (Seminole and Orange) in Central Florida. Survey results were also collected from the students' parents and their teachers and used to add a richer depth to the data analysis. The data was compiled and analyzed using mean comparison tests (T test and One & Two way ANOVA tests) and a multinomial logistic regression equation. SPSS 13.0 was used to compute the impact that independent variables (integration and interaction) had on the dependent variable (intent to include). The results suggest that the integration of SWD had a significant impact on nondisabled peers; yet efforts to promote peer interaction seemed to have a mixed result. Additionally, the students' gender (female), the students' prior exposure to SWD and a positive teacher attitude toward people with disabilities also had a significant impact on the response of students' intent to include SWD. The results of this analysis are presented along with a discussion of these findings in relation to public policy initiatives to promote the social inclusion of community members. Limitations and recommendations for future research are also indicated.

ABSTRACT A major change in longstanding police organizational behavior is increasingly evident in the recent emergence of computerized information-sharing networks in public safety. From both theoretical and empirical perspectives, a better understanding of the determinants that can explain and predict the rise and growth of this new and significant development in American policing is needed. A highly limited body of empirical studies has endeavored to validate effective predictors of adoption and utilization of electronic information-sharing networks by local law enforcement agencies. Utilizing an integrated theoretical framework largely built upon Rogers' diffusion of innovations theory, sixteen hypotheses were tested through logistic regression and multiple regression analyses of survey research data collected from local law enforcement executives in the three states of California, New York, and Georgia. Qualitative research organized and conducted through targeted telephone interviews with twenty law enforcement executives across the three study states and with responses to open ended questions within the study survey instrument aided in the examination of these hypotheses. 66.7% of the cases of agency adoption of information sharing were correctly classified by the predictors within the logistic regression model. Adoption was positively influenced by a chief executive who demonstrated strong leadership and possessed more extensive experience in law enforcement. Adoption was negatively affected by increasing the opportunity to experiment with this innovation and advancing age of the chief executive. Both quantitative and qualitative findings confirmed that law enforcement agencies that exhibited dedicated leadership are more likely to adopt information-sharing networks. 19.4-25.9% of the variation in the outcome variable of adoption was explained by the predictors within the logistic regression model. Utilization was negatively impacted by growing autonomy of police organizations within the network but benefited from innovation attributes such as the acquisition of an advantage in crime fighting capabilities and reduced complexity in employment of the information-sharing network. 9.1% of the variation in utilization of information-sharing networks could be explained by the predictor variables included within the multiple regression model. Qualitative research also cross-validated the positive effect of gaining an advantage over the criminal element as influential to utilization. A greater advantage in preventing and solving crimes, higher levels of inter-organizational trust between police agencies, and enthusiastic executive leadership were found by the qualitative inquiry to enhance both adoption and utilization. Knowing in advance which theoretically informed and empirically validated antecedents can facilitate or impede adoption and utilization of information integration networks could enable policymakers and law enforcement administrators to optimize strategies to attain successful outcomes.

State court systems function in much the same manner as any other government agency in terms of organization and management to utilize public resources in order to provide a public service. The question posed in the late 19th century was whether the courts should be organized and managed as they had been for centuries as local entities locally controlled and operated or transferred to the state level. The desired end was a more efficient use of public resources to achieve faster disposition of cases. This reorganization, called unification, was made up of three individual components: 1) consolidation required the reduction in the number of types of trial court in a state to one or two 2) centralization required the surrendering to the state's chief justice, later the newly created office of state court administrator, all managerial control over these courts, and 3) judicial rulemaking required removing from the legislature the power to create rules of practice and procedure in the courts, instead turning that power over to the courts themselves in the form of judicial councils or later state supreme courts. Unification, relying on principles of scientific management, served as the basis for state court reorganization for nearly a century, however the assumption that consolidation, centralization, and judicial rulemaking would lead to greater levels of efficiency in the courts remained effectively untested. Data for the year 2013 was collected to measure state court efficiency in two ways: case clearance rates (number of cases disposed divided by the number of cases filed) and case clearance rates per judge (number of cases disposed divided by the number of judges). An ordinary least squares regression found no apparent relationship between a state's level of unification and its ability to clear its trial court caseloads.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--George Mason University, 2007. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Oct. 29, 2007). Thesis director: Roger R. Stough. Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Public Policy. Vita: p. 154. Includes bibliographical references (p. 149-153). Also issued in print.

This diploma thesis is a comprehensive and up-to-date review of public private partnership (PPP) infrastructure projects at the municipal level in Germany. Public private partnerships use the know-how and the skills of the private sector for the construction and operation of infrastructure and for the long-term provision of public services. The overall goal of this thesis is to discuss the municipal government's approach to PPP infrastructure projects. The theoretical part of this thesis includes informations and fundamental characteristics of public private partnership project types and the most widely used financial instruments in Germany, as well as the obstacles, challenges and prospects of success for the PPP Programme. The thesis further deals with the legislation and the institutional framework of this cooperation, including the establishment of the Partnerschaften Deutschland und other PPP units in central and local government to promote and manage projects. In particular we focus on the possibility of the involvement of private partners in public private partnerships to clear the backlog of investment and to satisfy local authority investment needs. The empirical part of this work describes the efficient, beneficial and cost-effective delivery of what is currently one of Germany's biggest PPP projects in the field of public- sector building construction: refurbishing, financing and operating the 90 schools in the district of Offenbach in the south of Hesse.

This thesis approaches the theoretical concepts of public opinion, its history and origins of public opinion research in the Czechoslovak Republic and abroad. It describes the circumstances of the creation, operation and termination of the Czechoslovak Institute for Public Opinion Research, which was established under the leadership of Josef Kopta and came under the I. Department of the Ministry of Information. More particularly provides a detailed view of The Veřejné mínění Journal, which was published between 1946 and 1948 and the publisher was the institute. Among the personalities associated with the institute and the magazine belonged Čeněk Adamec, Bohuš Pospíšil and Milan A. Tesař. The journal represented a Europe-wide unique. No other institution published a similar format of the journal, which conceived as the major topic of public opinion. It was a professional and popularization journal, which was addressed to experts and the general public. Individual subsections describe the specific content of the journal, which, inter alia, consist of professional articles of various kinds, reports on domestic and foreign researches, comments from readers and other sections. Special attention is given to information related to the field of media.

Zugl.: Bayreuth, Univ., Diss., 2008

When Tony Blair's New Labour administration took control in 1997, it sought to establish a programme of organizational, performance, and democratic reform. Initially badged as the modernizing government programme, it was later developed in the Best Value regime for local government, which imposed a centrally-controlled performance regime on all local authorities. This was characterized by a managerialist regime of external inspections, league tables, and reliance on extensive performance management, overseen by the Audit Commission. One of the first acts of the 2010 Coalition government was to dismantle this regime, along with announcing the abolition of the Audit Commission. This research sought to examine the legacy of the 1997-2010 performance regime on six English local authority case studies, identified via a deviant case analysis. An examination of the literature developed a conceptual model of seven dimensions of reform, and the research used an exploratory approach to examine the legacy of the performance regimes through a range of qualitative interviews and focus groups. The inductive analysis of interview data found that financial austerity dominated the local government environment, and the impacts of these cuts were felt across the entire group of case studies. These savings requirements had effectively broken the expectation of continuous improvement explicit in the Best Value duty what we refer to here as the death of improvement . Authorities were reducing staffing, which resulted in the loss of expertise and skills. They were also scaling back many universal services through managed decline , and deregulation of performance regimes was stimulating divergent responses to performance management arrangements, as well as influencing the relationship between politicians and performance management, and central performance staff and departmental staff. There were challenges raised around the residual inspections, largely restricted to social care and education, and how these interacted with central performance team models. The discussion develops a three-part model of performance as a system of governance , which integrates three key areas of theoretical and empirical development: performance management frameworks, accountability, and value for money. This allows four main contributions to knowledge: The concept of public value for money , Further development of our understanding of multiple forms of accountability A new model of performance management zones that articulates different roles for performance management at points within the organization A categorisation of the main changes in reform paradigms It concludes that understanding the values underpinning public sector reforms through a range of interpretive lenses is essential to fully comprehending the impact of reforms at three levels: conceptualization, operationalization, and implementation. The legacy of Comprehensive Performance Assessment and Comprehensive Area Assessment can be seen in the increased capacity and capability of local authorities to engage with performance management, and data and evidence-driven policy making. Yet, these capabilities may not have prepared authorities sufficiently for the demands of significant budget cuts driven by the post-2010 political environment.

The diploma thesis aims to examine and compare public sector structures involved in managing the deals under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP)/Private Finance Initiative (PFI) in the UK and Spain as well as application of Public-Private-Citizen Collaboration (PC2) framework within the two systems in the era of post-New Public Management. The spread and use of knowledge and skills capacities and the overall ability of the national institutional models to protect the public interest in an effective and efficient way is assessed together with openness and transparency of PPP programmes using the Web 2.0 tools able to reach and engage citizens in the process of implementing the policy and procurement of individual schemes. Special attention is paid to the ways in which the private sector entities on the one side and citizens on the other can approach the public authorities and influence the shape and features of the partnership and its results. PPP has been widely used for financing of investments into the public infrastructure in many countries in Europe and elsewhere. Through PPP, private sector is invited to take care of financing, construction or modernization and subsequent maintenance of certain public assets over the life of the contract that usually lasts about 30 years. The programmes of...