Suchergebnisse

The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the impact of public sector labor unions on member attitudes, beliefs, and values. I expect that as union members commit to the values of labor organizations they will perceive lower levels of bureaucratic red tape, exhibit higher public service motivation (PSM), and become more satisfied with the nature of public sector work. I devise and test nine hypotheses by analyzing qualitative data generated from interviews with 40 randomly selected union members in two large Kansas cities, and quantitative data collected from a survey instrument distributed to over 300 municipal union members in a single Kansas municipality. The qualitative findings indicate that the union context significantly influences perceptions of bureaucratic red tape and the motives that give rise to PSM. The findings from a series of structural equation models suggest that commitment to union values decreases perceptions of bureaucratic red tape, enhances all four component dimensions of public service motivation, and indirectly increases public sector job satisfaction via bureaucratic red tape and PSM. While this study supports the assertion that labor unions significantly influence the public sector workplace, I rebut the argument that unions primarily decrease organizational performance. Rather unions could increase the performance of public sector organizations by encouraging members to more favorably perceive the work context, promoting member actions designed to benefit others, and facilitating member job satisfaction.

Clemons reviews 'American Diplomacy and the End of the Cold War: An Insider's Account of U.S. Policy in Europe, 1989-1992' by Robert L. Hutchings.

'Stalinist Science' by Nikolai Krementsov is reviewed.

Abstract Background The fields of environment and health are both interdisciplinary and trans-disciplinary, and until recently had little engagement in social networking designed to cross disciplinary boundaries. The EU FP6 project HENVINET aimed to establish integrated social network and networking facilities for multiple stakeholders in environment and health. The underlying assumption is that increased social networking across disciplines and sectors will enhance the quality of both problem knowledge and problem solving, by facilitating interactions. Inter- and trans-disciplinary networks are considered useful for this purpose. This does not mean that such networks are easily organized, as openness to such cooperation and exchange is often difficult to ascertain. Methods Different methods may enhance network building. Using a mixed method approach, a diversity of actions were used in order to investigate the main research question: which kind of social networking activities and structures can best support the objective of enhanced inter- and trans-disciplinary cooperation and exchange in the fields of environment and health. HENVINET applied interviews, a role playing session, a personal response system, a stakeholder workshop and a social networking portal as part of the process of building an interdisciplinary and trans-disciplinary network. Results The interviews provided support for the specification of requirements for an interdisciplinary and trans-disciplinary network. The role playing session, the personal response system and the stakeholder workshop were assessed as useful tools in forming such network, by increasing the awareness by different disciplines of other's positions. The social networking portal was particularly useful in delivering knowledge, but the role of the scientist in social networking is not yet clear. Conclusions The main challenge in the field of environment and health is not so much a lack of scientific problem knowledge, but rather the ability to effectively communicate, share and use available knowledge for policy making. Structured social network facilities can be useful by policy makers to engage with the research community. It is beneficial for scientists to be able to integrate the perspective of policy makers in the research agenda, and to assist in co-production of policy-relevant information. A diversity of methods need to be applied for network building: according to the fit-for-purpose-principle. It is useful to know which combination of methods and in which time frame produces the best results. Networking projects such as HENVINET are created not only for the benefit of the network itself, but also because the applying of the different methods is a learning tool for future network building. Finally, it is clear that the importance of specialized professionals in enabling effective communication between different groups should not be underestimated.