Monitoring Contracted Provider Service Delivery in the Hollow state: Understanding Barriers Preventing Proper Use of Service Monitoring Tools

The article discusses the barriers that prevent a contracted provider from using service monitoring tool, any source of information used by a government agency to monitor service inputs, outputs, and outcomes that a contracted provider is required to give to a government agency. A motivation barrier exists when the contracted provider is unwilling to use the tool properly. In addition, an ability barrier exists when the contracted provider lacks the resources or skills to use to tool

Getting What You Ask For: Barriers to Proper Use of Service Monitoring Tools

This article provides a greater understanding of the contract monitoring process by identifying barriers that prevent contracted providers from using service monitoring tools properly. To evaluate barriers to proper tool use, seven case studies were conducted on early childhood programs in three communities in upstate New York. The case studies specifically focused on the reporting forms that the early childhood programs completed. Data sources included (a) interviews with government agency and contracted provider employees, (b) content analysis of key documents relating to the service monitoring tools, and (c) attendance at meetings between government agencies and contracted providers on the service monitoring tools. This article identifies lack of contracted provider ability and misunderstandings between government and contracted providers as key barriers to proper tool use. This study also finds evidence suggesting a link between the overall strength of technical assistance systems and understanding problems

Looking beyond the Undergraduate Classroom: Factors Influencing Service Learning\u27s Effectiveness at Improving Graduate Students\u27 Professional Skills

This study provides a greater understanding of which factors influence the effectiveness of service learning projects at improving graduate students’ professional skills. Data for this study was gathered from students in eight Master of Public Administration (MPA) courses taught during two semesters at a large state university. Younger students were more likely than older students to believe that their service learning project was helpful in improving their professional skills. We also find that students who spent more time working on a service learning project outside of class reported their projects were more helpful in improving their professional skills. In addition, our ANOVA analysis indicates that for projects involving group activities, students who were members of groups that worked as teams reported that their projects were more helpful in improving their professional skills than students in less cohesive groups

Struggling to get it right: Performance measurement challenges and strategies for addressing them among funders of human services.

This paper examines the challenges public and nonprofit human service funders face in the performance measurement process and the strategies they use to address these challenges. We use survey and interview data to compare funders’ experiences across a region. Common challenges included dissatisfaction with formal data collection procedures, difficulty getting providers to comply with reporting requirements, provider performance problems and lack of capacity to use performance information. Capacity issues were a greater concern for smaller funders. Funders used a variety of strategies to address challenges. Use of some strategies depended on context. Practices were relatively consistent across funder groups

Expanding the Classroom: Investigating Local Government Practitioners’ Use of Academic Resources

Drawing on Boyer’s scholarship of teaching, we propose that public affairs education could be conceptualized as not just including the education of current students but also the education of public affairs practitioners throughout their careers. To explore knowledge diffusion from academics to public affairs practitioners, we conducted 40 phone interviews with county human resources (HR) directors in New York and North Carolina and examined the extent to which this population directly used academic resources. There was moderate use of academic resources from higher education institutions across the sample, with many North Carolina HR directors consulting publications and personnel from one university that has tailored services for local government officials in that state. Several HR directors currently not using academic resources indicated they were willing to use them. At the same time, many respondents were unsure what academic resources were available or when they would be helpful

How Valuable Are Capstone Projects for Community Organizations? Lessons from a Program Assessment

Many MPA programs use capstone courses as culminating experiences to assess students’ capacity to apply program knowledge and skills to challenges facing public or nonprofit organizations. This paper examines whether capstone projects in one university’s MPA program were beneficial to organizational partners. Using data from a survey of capstone supervisors and 10 follow-up interviews, the paper finds that supervisor engagement, project location, and faculty involvement were significant factors in determining whether projects were beneficial to host organizations. The findings indicate that closer relationships among the three primary participants in capstone projects (student, supervisor, and instructor) will lead to more successful capstones for partner organizations. This study adds to our knowledge about how to structure effective capstone programs; it also suggests that community partners can be valuable sources of information in assessing the effectiveness of MPA programs

Beyond community characteristics: a leader\u27s gender and local government adoption of energy conservation practices and redistributive programs

Most research examining factors associated with local government adoption of sustainability practices focuses on the impact of community characteristics. Little is known about whether adoption is also related to the characteristics of the leaders in these jurisdictions. To address this gap in the literature, this exploratory study uses data from a national survey of U.S. local governments (n = 1,672) to examine the potential correlation between adoption of certain sustainability practices and the gender of a jurisdiction’s highest elected official. Our regression models find that jurisdictions led by women were more likely to have adopted redistributive programmes and practices encouraging community-based energy conservation. But, there is no correlation between a local government’s adoption of measures promoting government energy conservation and its leader’s gender. Future research should explore whether female leaders’ greater openness to citizen involvement in the policymaking process and women’s socialisation to focus on communal rather than individual interests help account for our findings

The Development of County HR Policies: The Perspectives of Counties in Two States

We conducted 40 semi-structured interviews with county HR directors (20 in New York, 20 in North Carolina) to learn more about the development of internal HR policies. Key resources used by directors in both states include other jurisdictions, colleagues in other county departments, state and federal agencies, laws and statutes, professional associations, and information gathered from general internet searches. More than half of the HR directors reported using internal working groups, and almost two-thirds indicated that they systematically reviewed the implications of policies for specific departments. Yet, only a handful of HR directors reported utilizing other promising practices such as engaging rank-and-file employees in the policy process, reviewing a new or revised policy’s consistency with existing policy, and using evidence-based decision-making to develop policies. While there was little difference by state, our findings indicate the characteristics of HR directors can shape how a jurisdiction approaches policymaking

Lessons outside of the classroom: Examining the effectiveness of service learning projects at achieving learning objectives.

This paper investigates how the delivery of course material affects student learning. It explores whether service learningprojects are more effective than traditional classroom assignments at achieving different learning objectives. Student evaluations of their group projects and final exam scores from three sections of a MPA research methods course were compared as part of this study. One of the sections participated in a service learning project for their group project; the other two sections wrote mock research proposals for their group project. Based on the results from student evaluations of their group projects, there is some evidence suggesting that service learning projects may be more effective than traditional classroom assignments at helping students master course material and link theory to practice. However, participating in a service learning project did not have a significant impact on student performance on the final exam

Looking for Friends, Fans and Followers? Social Media Use in Public and Nonprofit Human Services

This article uses interviews and internet data to examine social media use among nonprofit organizations and county departments involved in the delivery of human services in a six-county area in South Central New York State. Social media use was modest; and nonprofit organizations were much more likely to use it than county departments. Organizations used social media primarily to market organizational activities, remain relevant to key constituencies and raise community awareness. Most organizations either had a narrow view of social media’s potential value or lacked long-term vision. Barriers to use included institutional policies, concerns about its inappropriateness for target audiences, and client confidentiality. The findings build on recent research regarding the extent to which nonprofit organizations and local governments use social media to engage stakeholders. Future research should investigate not only the different ways organizations use social media but also whether organizations use it strategically to advance organizational goals