Suchergebnisse

Poster presented at the IDCC14, the International Data Curation Conference, San Francisco, Feb. 25, 2014.

AbstractIntense competition can compel lobbyists to exaggerate the benefits the government would see in tax returns and social welfare if agency officials allocate such resources to the lobbyist's members. This incentive to misrepresent grows when information asymmetry exists between lobbyists and government officials. A large body of literature has investigated how interest groups compete and interact, but it disregards the interdependency of interests between competing groups and associated strategic behaviors of other players. Our signaling model of lobbying reveals ways in which agency officials can compel lobbyists for competing interests to lobby truthfully and what the policy implications of this compulsion can be. We also present case-study evidence of how this works in practice.

This article reports the results of a comparative analysis of the human resources management (HRM) autonomy of government agencies in Germany and Norway. Whereas the academic literature largely focuses on ministry–agency relations in countries where agencies have been only recently established, these two countries have a long tradition of delegation to agencies outside ministerial departments. However, although sharing a broadly similar administrative tradition, each country differs with regard to the management reform trajectory. This allows an empirical test to be carried out of the effects of management reforms on HRM autonomy, drawing on survey data. The article also discusses the literature on how task characteristics and formal agency structure supposedly affect agency autonomy and puts these claims to an empirical test. The empirical analysis reveals cross-country differences, a somewhat limited effect of task characteristics, and a clear effect of formal structure on de facto HRM autonomy, especially in the German context.Points for practitionersThe article shows that administrative traditions do not determine trajectories and effects of administrative reforms. Although both countries have a public sector dominated by public law and the principle of legality, the article shows that agency managers in Norway report more extensive autonomy for managing their staff. Thus extensive delegation of management autonomy to agencies is possible even in a 'Rechtsstaat' context. Moreover, the article shows that granting agencies extended formal autonomy and the possibility to generate additional income will also contribute to extended management autonomy. Thus, decision-makers may deliberately influence de facto agency autonomy by using different elements of institutional design.

This exploratory study investigates the auditing role of the Kuwaiti Audit Bureau (KAB) of government agencies from employees' perspectives, regarding rationalization of public spending, detecting deviations and violations, and taking timely corrective measures to stop any wrongdoing. The study was based on a questionnaire which was administered in the fall 2014 to a random sample of (500) employees of the KAB and audited government agencies. The study shows that employees evaluate highly the effectiveness of its role, and recommends how this role can be enhanced.

This article addresses three questions: To what extent is university research used in government agencies? Are there differences between the policy domains in regard to the extent of use? What determines the use of university research in government agencies? The data analysis is based on a survey of 833 government officials from Canadian government agencies. Comparisons of the magnitude of uptake of university research show large and significant differences across policy domains. The results of the multivariate regression analyses show that the characteristics of research and the focus on the advancement of scholarly knowledge or on users' needs do not explain the uptake of research. Users' adaptation of research, users' acquisition efforts, links between researchers and users, and users' organizational contexts are good predictors of the uptake of research by government officials.

This article modifies resource mobilization theory to emphasize interaction among social movements, countermovements, and government agencies. The framework developed for tracing social movement-state relationships gives special attention to movement and countermovement agency alignments. There are six stages of movement-state relationships illustrated with an analysis of the contemporary environmental movement.

Introduction -- Government agencies' environmental justice efforts : review and critical assessment -- "It is out of our hands" : the standard narrative -- "We do ecology, not sociology" : staff narratives that undermine EJ -- Other ways bureaucrats undermine proposed EJ reforms -- Explaining bureaucrats' resistance to EJ reforms -- EJ staff members' definitions of environmental justice -- Conclusion -- Appendix: Study design and research methods.

Cover title ; Includes bibliographical references ; Mode of access: Internet.

IntroductionSince 2008, our team has studied sites with strong track records of integrating cross-sector data to address complex social problems. We have identified best practices and are supporting 16 sites with individualized technical assistance and participation in a learning community to facilitate data sharing that leads to actionable intelligence.
Objectives and ApproachThis presentation will provide an overview of our findings in studying established integrated data systems from across the United States, and a summary of our efforts in supporting the development of new integrated data systems (IDS). Specifically, we will answer:

What are the core features of integrated data systems (IDS) needed to support data linkage across government agencies?
How can sites develop these core features to facilitate data sharing, and ultimately, actionable intelligence?
What are the common roadblocks to successfully sharing data across agency siloes?
How can these roadblocks be addressed to create a sustainable data sharing ecosystem?

ResultsAgencies collect vast amounts of data, yet struggle to assess program impacts due to data siloes. The ability to link data across agencies to develop potential policy and service improvements is difficult, and at times, impossible. This technical assistance supports a different approach.
Our Integrated Data System (IDS) Learning Community initiative is an 18-month engagement for sites selected through a competitive process. As of September 2018, sites will be 11 months into the IDS development process. This presentation will discuss site-based approaches to facilitate data sharing, with an emphasis on governance, foundational agreements, data management and security, and stakeholder driven processes that ensure ethical use of data. This discussion will include progress to date, common challenges and solutions to developing an IDS.
Conclusion/ImplicationsWhile there is broad agreement in the value of integrating data across domains, developing the capacity and skills necessary to link administrative data for policy evaluation and research remains an elusive goal. Initial results indicate that an individualized yet collaborative technical assistance approach is successful in developing data integration capacity.

As diversity increases among citizens and employees, human resource practitioners in the public sector have come to view diversity management strategies as essential for the effective performance of organizations. An examination of best practices among private and public organizations reveals common components necessary for successful diversity initiatives. While there have been numerous studies on diversity management in the federal government, far less is known about diversity management at the state and local level. In light of the best practices research on the factors necessary for successful diversity management, this study examines the extent of diversity initiatives at various state and local government agencies. Measures used to develop diversity strategies, diversity management practices, professional development initiatives, organizational policies, and perceptions of effectiveness are considered. The findings demonstrate a few variations based on level of government, region, and size of agency. In addition, the majority of respondents believed that the organization's diversity strategy was effective at recruitment, retention, development, and promotion; however, there was uncertainty about the effectiveness of the diversity strategy on organizational performance.