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Public organizations have long sought to increase workforce diversity and employee inclusion, a goal that has only increased in recent years. The study examines a racially diverse state government agency to explore how employee perceptions of diversity and inclusion relate to workplace happiness, employee engagement, and job satisfaction. Using original survey data of over 1,800 workers, this study explores how employees perceive diversity and inclusion, how these perceptions relate to overall workplace happiness, and examines the factors that may lead to more positive perceptions of diversity and inclusion. The analysis employs principal component analysis and multilevel regression modeling. The findings underscore the connections between overall workplace happiness and positive perceptions of diversity and inclusion. The key takeaways for public organizations include the importance of senior leadership when it comes to cultivating a diverse and inclusive environment. Finally, a notable finding is the statistically significant increase in positive feelings around inclusion and diversity for historically underrepresented racial groups and that low pay for long-term employees decreases these feelings.

"Along with such traditional management tools as budgeting, HR, planning and leadership, The Practice of Government Public Relations, Second Edition demonstrates that the 21st century government administrator needs new tools to address the changing context of government communication. It provides public managers with an understanding of the uses of public relations as tools to advance the goals of public agencies, including media relations, contributing to an informed public, public branding, listening to the citizenry, and crisis management. While no manager can be an expert in all aspects of public administration, this book will help managers know what external communications tools are available to them for advancing the mission and results of their agencies. The authors argue that government public relations activities can serve three broad purposes: mandatory activities, which support governance; optional activities, which offer a pragmatic means of improving policy outcomes, inputs, and impacts; and dangerous but powerful activities, which may serve political interests. The book focuses on practitioners throughout the public sector, including the US federal government, state and local governments, and public administrators outside of the US. Several new chapters address the use of digital communications as social media and the resultant rapid diffusion of information has transformed the responsibility, accessibility, and vulnerability of government communications. In addition, two new chapters examine the topic of branding, its growing influence in the public sector, and how it can be used to connect with citizens and increase public engagement. The Practice of Government Public Relations, Second Edition is designed to help government managers are various levels of administration looking to specialize in public relations, those assigned to communications offices, and program managers seeking innovative and cost-effective ways to implement their programmatic missions. It will also be of interest to students of publication administration who will become the government workers of the future"--

This research provides insight into how reentering citizens reintegrate into society through prisoner reentry programs. Specifically, we examine the personal and economic benefits to reentering citizens and how these interventions impact their trust in government. Through a survey of participants in a South Carolina prisoner reentry program, we gained former inmates' perceptions of the programs' services on their social, economic, and political lives. We found that levels of trust in government were lower for all of the formerly incarcerated men. However, participants that were placed in governmental positions through the re-entry program recovered a substantial amount of trust in government compared to participants working in non-governmental positions or those who were unemployed.

In the 2005 APSA Teaching and Learning Conference's Diversity Track,
some 30 participants representing a wide range of colleges and
universities came together to discuss issues related to teaching and
learning about diversity. Diversity-focused pedagogy recognizes
commonalities of individual and group experience defined by race,
gender, ethnicity, class, sexual orientation, age, and ability, but
it touches much broader circles. One of the most important aspects
of the track was the diversity of its participants—not usually one
of the discipline's strong points. The wide range of backgrounds and
experiences reflected by the track's participants highlighted the
value of diversity to the profession, as well as the fact that
political scientists carry different burdens at a wide range of
institutions. Participants in this track found that our senses of
what defines diversity, the importance of teaching about diversity,
and what teaching techniques effectively illustrate diversity were,
well, diverse.

Municipal governments' efforts in preparing for possible terrorist events are critical to effective homeland security. Using data gathered from a nationwide sample of municipal officials, the authors identify determinants of homeland security preparedness in U.S. cities, across several attitudinal and behavioral indicators. The authors find that perceptions of terror threat vulnerability and response capacity are tied to factors such as city size and budgetary constraints. Perhaps more important, the authors show that administrative capacity demonstrates consistent explanatory power for both perceived policy commitment and specific preparedness actions. From these analyses, the authors outline several key policy implications for homeland security policy making.