This book is a critical guide to conducting investigations under time- and resource-pressured conditions, equipping readers with the key skills and approaches for research designed to influence or inform development policies. Unlike a simple 'how to' guide, Research Skills for Policy and Development also provides a critique of various methods and situates these approaches within 'real life' organisational settings, enabling those working in or studying development to locate, evaluate and use relevant information quickly but rigorously. The successor to Finding Out Fast (SAGE, 1998) it reflects the changes in development management theories and practice over the last seven years, and includes new material and advice on critical use of the web as a resource and research tool. It is essential reading for development managers in NGOs and public sector agencies as well as students of development management and development studies more generally.
This two volume set on Governance provides a one-stop point of reference for the diverse and complex topics surrounding governance for the period between the collapse of the post-war consensus and the rise of neoliberal regimes in the 1970s. This comprehensive resource concentrates primarily on topics related to the changing nature and role of national governments in recent times and the ways in which their roles have been conceptualized in the areas of political science, public administration, political economy and sociology. Key features include: - an examination the changes in national governments associated with the transfer of powers, rights and functions to organizations within the private sector and with the rise of new types of regional and international linkages and problems therein; - an exploration of how national governments have become both increasingly dependent on organizations inthe private sector and increasingly constrained by international linkages. The Encyclopedia of Governance avoids the jargon that characterizes most of the writing in this field and translates the common language used into a more familiar and commonsense vocabulary, so as to make it intelligible to the broadest possible audience. This collection is an essential purchase for all reference libraries around the world.
To determine when and how a catastrophic event serves as a catalyst for true policy change, this work examines four categories of disasters: aviation security, homeland security, earthquakes, and hurricanes. It explores lessons learned from each, focusing on three types of policy change.
Looks at the influence of performance measurement on the effectiveness of the federal government. This title examines the influence of the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 (with consideration of the later Program Assessment Rating Tool of 2002) on federal performance measurement, agency performance, and program outcomes.
The largest social change in the last 50 years has been the increase in the number of women, especially mothers of young children, in the formal work force. The May 2006 and June 2006 volumes of American Behavioral Scientist look at how this powerful transformation has impacted the venerable foundations of work and family, and reflect on the changes needed in organizational practices, social and public policy, families, and society in general to adapt to the changing 21st century workforce. Changes at the Intersection of Work and Family: Organizational and Worker Perspectives, Volume 1 (May 2006), edited by Diane F. Halpern and Heidi R. Riggio, focuses on organizational and worker perspectives. Many studies have shown that there is a substantial and practical return-on-investment for employers that adopt and commit to policies that help employees better manage the needs of both work and family, including fewer missed days of work, fewer "come late" or "leave early" days, reduced employee turnover, improved morale, and a better commitment to the employer. Volume 1 emphasizes topics such as the need for improved work-life policies, successful and promising public policy approaches, long-term work-life case studies from IBM, the dual-earner 60-hour work week, work-family and obesity and other health issues, the real and perceived negative consequences of taking advantage of family-friendly policies, the differences between male and female caregivers, and a whole-life approach to managing work and family. Changes at the Intersection of Work and Family: Family Perspectives, Volume 2 (June 2006), edited by Heidi R. Riggio and Diane F. Halpern, highlights family perspectives and issues such as working parents' expanding need for child care, after-school care, elder care, and medical leave. The six articles in this volume examine how policymakers and organizations can help maximize working families' health, productivity and happiness. Volume 2 covers subjects such as maternal employment and healthy child and young adult development, how working affects mothers' self-identity and other positive factors, the stress of parents coping with after-school child care, why community programs and support such as after-school programs are so necessary to working families, and how dual-earning households mutually influence each others retirement planning. The same important point is made in all of the articles in both volumes: there are tremendous changes taking place in families and in workplaces, and social, organizational, and public policies must be better aligned to meet to the needs of and to benefits from the greater diversity in today's families and workforce. Written by outstanding scholars and researchers in public policy, economics, sociology, psychology, business, and family studies, including Barbara Gault, Vicky Lovell, E. Jeffrey Hill et al., Tammy D. Allen, Jeremy Armstrong, Robert Drago et al., Noelle Chesley, Stewart D. Friedman, Allen W. Gottfried, Adele E. Gottfried, Patricia M. Raskin, Rosalind C. Barnett, Karen C. Gareis, Marcie Pitts-Catasouphes, and Phyllis Moen, the articles in both volumes ask critical questions and offer some interesting and sensible solutions to the changing realities of work and family. These volumes should be in the library and in the classrooms of everyone interested in Public Policy, Business/Management, Psychology, Family Studies, Sociology, and Economics.
Americans love their cars and loathe cities, and developers and politicians scramble to give them what they want. But what we are getting, argues Anthony Flint, is runaway sprawl: car-choked highways leading to a numbing sameness of subdivisions, strip malls, and office parks. We cling to the notion of a suburban utopia of bigger houses, safer ......
Explores public administration's ideas and issues and questions whether contemporary efforts to "reinvent government", promote privatization, and develops public management approaches that constitute a coherent political theory capable of meeting the challenges of governing in a democracy.
Explores public administration's ideas and issues and questions whether contemporary efforts to "reinvent government", promote privatization, and develops public management approaches that constitute a coherent political theory capable of meeting the challenges of governing in a democracy.
The intelligence failures exposed by the events of 9/11 has made one thing perfectly clear: change is needed in how the US intelligence community operates. This title argues that transforming intelligence requires as much a look to the future as to the past and a focus more on the art and practice of intelligence.
