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.
''The message of this book is one of cautious optimism. New challenges to planning are coming forth...These have caused some state legislatures to be reluctant to create or strengthen comprehensive-planning requirements. We do not think that such challenges necessitate a dismantling of these requirements. Instead, they require stronger ......
''In one slim volume, Feldman has managed to combine a history of U.S. water policy, two in-depth case studies on the politics of water, an analysis of the institutional biases affecting U.S. water policy, and a discussion of water policy in France. Nor is that all. The opening and closing chapters of the work set this panoramic view of water ......
''A thorough, extensively documented, and well-written description of . . . the Superfund program and an astute appraisal of its many flaws . . . The book is a valuable contribution to the literature on Superfund policy and politics.''--Policy Currents.''Hird has masterfully reviewed the superfund program.''--Environment.
