Comparison of Provisions from Colorado's Blue Ribbon Commission for Health Care Reform and Federal Health Care Reform

A new issue brief commissioned by The Colorado Trust, and authored by the two lead staff members of the Colorado's Blue Ribbon Commission on Healthcare Reform (the 208 Commission), Tracy L. Johnson, PhD, Health Policy Solutions and Sarah Schulte, MHSA, Schulte Consulting, shows that there is significant agreement between our state's recommendations and the new federal law

Launch Vehicles: Current & Future Use

status: publishe

Career Mobility Patterns of Aspiring Female Leaders at California Community Colleges

Many women struggle to move up the career ladder. Women aspiring to executive positions in community colleges within the United States may face gender barriers, family-work life barriers, and barriers regarding their leadership ability. The problem studied was a gap in knowledge of how women succeeded in attaining executive positions in community colleges. The purpose of this study was to examine ways that female leaders at Southern California community colleges assumed executive-level roles at their institutions and the barriers they faced to attain those positions . The theory of upward mobility and the concept of self-efficacy comprised the study\u27s conceptual framework. The research questions in this qualitative case study focused on barriers to women\u27s upward mobility and ways that women overcame these barriers. Face-to-face structured interviews were conducted with a purposeful sample of 12 women who held positions of vice president or above at 8 Southern California community colleges within 2 counties. Interview data were coded using clustering and classification and resulted in 3 themes per research question. The results suggested that executive leaders must demonstrate communication savviness to address difficult situations, engage in active information searching and empower others through helpful communication. Findings of the study suggest formal mentorship was crucial for women in their quest for leadership roles. Prospective female leaders in higher education may be able to use the study results in navigating their careers. Positive social change may result with the greater visibility of women in executive leadership roles, thereby leading to reduced gender disparities and women achieving their highest potential in the workplace

Essays on Product Recall Strategies and Effectiveness in the FDA-Regulated Food Sector

This dissertation consists of two complementary essays that investigate current product recall strategies in the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulated food sector. These studies address operations and supply chain factors that influence recall effectiveness with two theoretically-based, empirical approaches. The first essay examines recall effectiveness as measured by time to recall, a proxy for potential consumer exposure to hazardous products (Hora, Bapuji and Roth, 2011) using duration analysis techniques. The unit of analysis is a recall event as documented by the product recall press release. Essay 1 addresses the following question: how do supply chain competencies related to integration and monitoring systems between supply chain partners, in addition to supply chain complexity factors, relate to time to recall? The second essay investigates individual consumer perceptions of operational and supply chain information in the context of a product recall announcement. Consumer perceptions of product recalls are important indicators of recall effectiveness since they are linked, theoretically and empirically, with future consumer behavior; and therefore can affect future market share (Siomkos & Kurzbard, 1994). The unit of analysis is the consumer and a behavioral experiment is implemented to capture the effects of salient factors on consumer perceptions. Essay 2 examines the following question: how does information provided regarding operational and supply chain management aspects of product failure affect consumer perceptions and repurchase intent when a product is recalled? The first essay, \u27An Econometric Analysis of Product Recall Strategies and Time to Recall in the Food Industry,\u27 subjects firms\u27 proactive versus reactive product recall strategies to rigorous empirical scrutiny. In addition, we operationalize supply chain recall detection competence (SCRDC), which reflects the combined operational monitoring, integration and coordination systems across supply chain business partners. We use detection entity as a proxy for SCRDC, with the notion that superior SCRDC will be reflected, in part, by recall defects that are detected internally (i.e., by a supplier or the firm conducting the recall) rather than externally (i.e., by a consumer or a regulatory agency). We integrate multiple secondary data sources and apply duration analysis methods to test our model. Time to recall is an important aspect of recall effectiveness, since perishable products have a finite shelf life; consequently, there is a small window of opportunity in which a recall can be conducted in a way that actually reduces consumer exposure. We find that internal detections (i.e., defects detected by a supplier, or the recalling firm, rather than a consumer or a regulatory agency) have a shorter time to recall than external detections. In addition, our proxy for a firm\u27s quality process maturity (i.e., the number of days of production affected by a particular defect) has a direct effect on time to recall (i.e., longer affected production periods are related to a longer time to recall). These findings have significant implications for future research, practice and policy, in part, because they suggest what types of supply chain strategies and governmental regulations might be implemented to reduce time to recall. Essay 1 contributes to operations and supply chain management theory and product recall research by extending quality management theory (Crosby, 1979; Juran, 1992; Roth, Giffi, Seal, 1992) via the notion of SCRDC, integrating notions of supply chain complexity (Bozarth, Warsing, Flynn and Flynn, 2009), and illustrating key differences between the applicability of proactive or reactive recall strategies to food products as compared to durable products (e.g., toys, medical devices, automobiles and other consumer products). The second essay, \u27Consumer Perceptions of Product Recall Strategies: The Effect of Attribution on Repurchase Intent, Recall Satisfaction, and Recall Responsibility,\u27 uses a vignette-based experiment to examine the effects of firm communication to the public regarding the causes of quality failures on consumer perceptions of recall responsibility, recall satisfaction, and repurchase intent. We conduct an exploratory study that manipulates these three dimensions based on attribution theory (i.e., locus, controllability, corrective action) as experimental factors. We find that external locus failures (i.e., defects that happened within a supplier\u27s operations) are related to higher levels of recall satisfaction and a shifting of responsibility away from the recalling firm and towards the supplier. Uncontrollable failures (i.e., failures outside of the volitional control of the recalling firm or supplier) appear to be better tolerated by consumers than controllable failures, as evidenced by effects on repurchase intent, recall satisfaction, and recall responsibility. Finally, providing information about a corrective action intended to address the underlying problem which caused the recall is linked to higher levels of recall satisfaction. Essay 2 contributes to supply chain management theory by adapting attribution theory to the context of operational and supply chain quality failures. In addition to providing preliminary implications for product recall research, this theoretical adaptation may be more broadly applicable to other situations where firms need to communicate to consumers regarding supply chain and operational events, including supply chain disruptions and corporate social responsibility issues. In summary, understanding the effectiveness of recall systems in removing potentially harmful products from the hands of consumers, as well as understanding the consumer perceptions of those systems, is not only important for the creation and maintenance of sustainable supply chain performance, it is important for public health and well-being. In addition, this research suggests potential avenues for policy intervention which could provide additional incentives for firms to improve their quality processes. Future research can determine how these findings may (or may not) be generalizable to other industries and product types

Adaptations: Expressions of sexuality, the law, and workplace sexual harassment [abstract]

Abstract only availableSexual harassment law within the US is unable to accurately handle the real life experiences of women, especially the workplace experience. Feminist theorists have suggested many options to deal with the laws' inefficiencies; however, many of the theories are confronted with modern obstacles upon application. In order to allow women to exist in the workplace while eliminating sexual harassment a balance between the workplace environment and the expression of feminine sexuality must be achieved. To strike this balance requires a redefinition of gender to breakout of the widely accepted false gender dichotomy that exists. In order for redefinition to take place theorists have suggested the necessity for a space in which the process can take place. Currently this space is imaginary. Overcoming the modern obstacles offers the possibility of a justice system that is more able to handle the variation of sexual harassment that faces women in the workplace. This project sets aside the redefinition aspect and moves into an area that involves the adaptation and application of the existing laws to address the varied experience of workplace sexual harassment. Through an analytical reading of feminist theoretical debates, case law, and court opinions multiple unaddressed issues have been identified within the law and the surrounding debates. Using current laws to work within the modern justice system can allow women to be heard and their experiences of workplace sexual harassment to be accurately taken up by the courts.McNair Scholars Progra

The Role of Trust in Electronic Market Access Forum (EMAF) Mediated Exchanges: A Contingency Based View

Research on interorganizational partnerships (IOPs) points to high levels of information-sharing, mediated by interorganizational systems (IOS), as a determinant of value creation. However, it is widely acknowledged that such interactions are characterized by opportunism, leading to transaction costs. Interfirm trust has been posited as one mechanism for reducing transaction costs and promoting rich information sharing. In this research-in-progress, we seek to understand the role of trust in facilitating information sharing in one form of IOS—electronic market access forums (EMAFs). We draw on transaction cost economics (TCE) to suggest that the dominant trust-based mechanism in an EMAF exchange is contingent upon the nature of information exchanged. This study will enhance understanding of how different types of trust influence information sharing in IOPs, and, potentially, offer guidelines on how EMAF providers can improve their margins by fostering different forms of trust-based governance

Implementation, context and complexity

Background - Context is a problem in research on health behaviour change, knowledge translation, practice implementation and health improvement. This is because many intervention and evaluation designs seek to eliminate contextual confounders, when these represent the normal conditions into which interventions must be integrated if they are to be workable in practice. Discussion - We present an ecological model of the ways that participants in implementation and health improvement processes interact with contexts. The paper addresses the problem of context as it affects processes of implementation, scaling up and diffusion of interventions. We extend our earlier work to develop Normalisation Process Theory and show how these processes involve interactions between mechanisms of resource mobilisation, collective action and negotiations with context. These mechanisms are adaptive. They contribute to self-organisation in complex adaptive systems. Conclusion - Implementation includes the translational efforts that take healthcare interventions beyond the closed systems of evaluation studies into the open systems of ‘real world’ contexts. The outcome of these processes depends on interactions and negotiations between their participants and contexts. In these negotiations, the plasticity of intervention components, the degree of participants’ discretion over resource mobilisation and actors’ contributions, and the elasticity of contexts, all play important parts. Understanding these processes in terms of feedback loops, adaptive mechanisms and the practical compromises that stem from them enables us to see the mechanisms specified by NPT as core elements of self-organisation in complex systems