Suchergebnisse

Decision Support Systems (DSS) are automated information systems designed to aid administrative decision making. This article reviews the literature on the design, implementation, and evaluation of DSS. Based on the review, the article suggests that evaluators act as liaisons between designers and managers, identify and collect data for DSS, and evaluate DSS. The DSS literature supports the value of collaboration between evaluators and users, and it suggests how to improve their relationships. The emphasis of DSS designers on decision-making styles may provide a new dimensionfor research on evaluation.

The study empirically examined the value of interorganizational rela tions to voluntary associations; the data are from questionnaires sent to rape crisis centers in the United States. Interorganizational cooperation was studied as it was associated with structural variations and as it affected organizational effectiveness. No relationship was found between structure and cooperation; however, centers with staff tended to have community ties and more of them. The more centralized the decision making, the more organizational contacts; the difference between this and previous research seems to be due to differences in conceptualization of centralization. Cooperation was not found to be related to demands for services or speakers; there was a relationship to the extent of programs designed to train agency personnel. The number of interorganizational contacts was directly related to the number of volunteers active in a center and to the number of minority-group members. It was concluded that there are no benefits from expending undue effort to make commun ity contact, nor are politically oriented groups, which eschew formal relations, necessarily handicapped.

This article describes an evaluation conducted on a single affirmative action training program. It demonstrates the type of information an evaluation contains, alerts readers to the possibility for evaluation in their own organization, and raises questions regarding whether training programs designed to change attitudes are sufficient if behavioral change is needed.

"Research Methods for Public Administrators introduces students to the methodological tools public administrators and policy analysts use to conduct research in the twenty-first century. Full of engaging examples and step-by-step instructions to illustrate common research methods and techniques, this book provides future administrators with an unshakeable foundation in model building, research design, and statistical applications. New to the Seventh Edition: Additional / expanded material on qualitative research; big data; metadata; literature reviews; and causal inference New material on experiments and experimental research. New examples / case studies including those dealing with public policy. Expanded material on using computers for data management"--

Practical Research Methods for Nonprofit and Public Administrators, Second Edition, covers basic principles of research design, data collection, data analysis, reporting and ethical principles of research. The discussion describes the skills as they would be used in practice in a not-for-profit or public administration environment. The book gives pragmatic instructions for designing research to ensure that results will be accurate and administrators can have confidence in them. It covers techniques to assure that researchers are measuring what they intend to measure and in a way that will be useful and manageable. Sampling methods to find out about larger populations are discussed as are survey, interview, and focus group data collection procedures. The book describes how Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are used to obtain information on the locations of service needs and providers and to draw maps showing these. Participatory research methods including community needs assessments and asset mapping are discussed. The book includes chapters on statistical analysis, visual displays of data, reporting of results and evaluation of programs. The use of computer programs for analyzing data is detailed and illustrated by examples. The appropriate software for analysis and mapping is discussed. A chapter updates the ethics and government requirements for research. Each chapter includes examples and exercises to enhance learning. The book is intended for administrators in not-for-profit and public administration organizations, providing practical skills that can be used in many situations. It is also intended for use as a text in academic programs in administration and management.