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- Creator:
- Dees, Brian
- Description:
- American employees experience workplace bullying at rates four times higher than illegal harassment. The current literature approaches the problem as a descriptive analysis of the overall organizational environment or from an attempt to alleviate / understand the plight of those who have been bullied. This study examines management’s role in workplace bullying, given that the majority of bullying comes from management, most employees leave because management fails to adequately address the problem, and management is responsible for policy enforcement within organizations. The analysis concluded that: 1. Those who need anti-bullying legislation and policies the most are the least likely to follow them, so established guidelines give the organization legal and ethical recourse against the workplace bully; 2. Targeted workers should utilize informal methods of reducing workplace hostilities including emotionally detaching from the situation and aligning with other targeted individuals when workplace bullying is overlooked by management and reasonable formal options for redress are unavailable. This study offers guidance in clarifying management’s role in workplace bullying and shows the necessity of counteracting institutional complicity through enacting healthy workplace legislation / anti-bullying policies. Workplace bullying is manageable when acknowledged and properly treated, and needs consistent effort to keep it from getting out of control. Therefore, utilizing a team approach to handling bullying behaviors (as shown in the disruptive behavioral pyramid) through management enforced policies mandates accountability and disrupts the cycle of hostility.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Bakersfield
- Department:
- Public Policy and Administration
- Creator:
- Wheeler, Jim
- Description:
- Prior to 2000 most of the national conversation concerning homelessness revolved around approaches that focused on managing homelessness. Very few considered the idea that we could end homelessness. In 2000, the National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH) developed and distributed a 10-year plan to end homelessness altogether. This goal caught the attention of members of the Bush Administration which in turn made ending homelessness their goal. In particular, they focused on the chronic homeless population with a strategy called “housing first.” Housing first has been the de facto homeless policy for the last decade. While apparently successful in reducing the chronic homeless population several concerns have been raised about this policy, namely, the justification of time and resources to focus on the chronically homeless which make up only 17 percent of the homeless population. Additional concerns have been raised about the adaptability of the policy to include families, children and youth and whether current policy and resources should be shifted toward preventing homelessness. This paper looked at those questions and then researched possible alternatives that might be implemented to make homeless policy more comprehensive. An analysis of those alternatives was based on three criteria: the political priorities of the current Administration, fiscal constraints due to the current financial mood of the country and external factors relating to recent lessons learned and homeless services best practices. This analysis resulted in the recommendation that the best policy approach would be one that incorporates elements of housing first but also includes a greater emphasis on homelessness prevention and rapid rehousing. With this policy in place, the dream of ending homelessness could be within reach.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Bakersfield
- Department:
- Public Policy and Administration
- Creator:
- Jones, Sterling Nicholaus
- Description:
- Clinica Sierra Vista (CSV) is a non-profit health care corporation based in California. In 2009, the organization received $1.86 million from the State of California to implement electronic health records (EHRs), (US Department of Health, 2011). However, as of June 2012, only one of the 19 sites in Kern County has successfully converted; three more are scheduled to go “live” by year’s end. In order to stay in compliance with contract by-laws, CSV must make the conversion to EHRs and demonstrate “meaningful use” by 2014. If not, they will face funding reduction penalties. This project aims to develop recommendations that assist the organization to accomplish this goal. Although the research does reveal a number of obstacles that hinder the process, key strategies for successful implementation appear to be: 1. Adopting and Installing an appropriate Software program that compliments workflow at all of the Kern County Sites 2. Developing an Abstraction Team and completing medical record data abstraction of existing (and new patient) records 3. Training and Improving the Overall Staff Competency and Expertise with the software program 4. Establishing and introducing a program evaluation method in order to attain a baseline for future improvement measures
- Resource Type:
- Dissertation
- Campus Tesim:
- Bakersfield
- Department:
- Public Policy and Administration
- Creator:
- Lucero, Christopher Adam
- Description:
- This paper will propose a new policy that addresses California’s lack of law that requires recreational organizations to educate stakeholders about the severity of, protection and recovery/treatment processes and requirements of head trauma injuries amongst youth. It will encompass all youth that participate in supervised recreational activities from ages thirteen (13) to nineteen (19) years old. Specifically, the author argues that California needs to pass a policy that mandates proper education to stakeholders, which includes students, parents, organization administration, and most importantly coaches of head injuries. This paper traces the development of the problem of by utilizing John Kingdon’s multiple streams model (Kingdon, 2003). Kingdon’s model employs three streams that contribute to the policy window in advancing a policy solution. The streams are the problem, policy and political stream. In theory, the streams need to occur simultaneously for a proposed act to be made into law. By applying the streams in the model to the problem of head injuries amongst youth athletes, one can vividly see the policy proposed is necessary for the protection of health. To conclude, the author will recommend a policy for the state of California to pass. This will align California with the efforts of the professional leagues (NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB), National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), and seventeen states in the formalization of protection against head trauma injuries.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Bakersfield
- Department:
- Public Policy and Administration
- Creator:
- Giardina, M. Dolores
- Description:
- Congress created the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) in 1968 to help flood victims. The program was designed to reduce flood damages through mitigation, provide affordable insurance, and reduce the cost to taxpayers (FEMA, 2002). Before the NFIP, flood victims generally relied on disaster relief aid. Historically, the NFIP has been self-sustaining; borrowing money from the U.S. Treasury when it needed to and repaying the loan with interest. However, damage claims from the 2004 and 2005 hurricanes drained the NFIP’s fund. It is now $18 billion in debt, and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) reports that the NFIP will not be able to repay the U.S. Treasury and be solvent again unless Congress reforms the program (GAO-09-20). An analysis of the NFIP’s subsidies, specifically its Pre-Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs) and repetitive losses properties (RLPs), offer background information as to why the NFIP is now bankrupt and why the policy needs to be changed. The changes are necessary to enable the NFIP do what it was designed to do. Three policy alternatives were considered: (1) “do nothing,” (2) charge actuarial rates, and (3) mandate mitigation. The evaluation of the alternatives and employment of the criteria showed that mandating mitigation was effective and feasible, thereby making it the most appropriate alternative to consider.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Bakersfield
- Department:
- Public Policy and Administration
- Creator:
- Ordoñez Ocampo, Eric Diego
- Description:
- Probably not known to most of the general public are how many military commands are in actuality dual commands. There is a mixed working relationship between military and civilian federal employees, and in the case of leadership, both Senior Military and Civilian government employees (General Schedule-GS) function together in leadership positions. The uniqueness of this type of dual leadership in an organization creates advantages and disadvantages when compared to the typical private or public sector organizations. The private and public organizations can adapt to changing internal and external forces more so than ever before due in part to technological advances and the establishing and coordination of cross-departmental and cross-functional teams to achieve goals. Contrastingly, the military being primarily a traditional hierarchy is not as quickly adaptable to change. In the context of the current recession, the publicity of scandals involving fraud, waste, and abuse such as the recent GSA and Secret Service scandals, the future outlook of our Naval forces, and the results of Command Managed Equal Opportunity surveys and a focus group, this thesis explores leadership and organizational issues, problems, and implications as applied to a Navy Training Support Center.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Bakersfield
- Department:
- Public Policy and Administration
- Creator:
- Reyes, Dora Avitia
- Description:
- Americans have long held mixed feelings about the issues of immigration (Cox, 1995, p. 14). While some see it beneficial to the U.S., others see it as harm. Despite this, the immigrant’s population, mostly Latin Americans, has maintained an increasing trend during the last decade. The purpose of this thesis will be on identifying policy criteria to guide formulation of a new immigration reform that will grant amnesty to unauthorized immigrants settled in the U.S. if they meet certain requirements, i.e., reflecting social policy values broadly held among most Americans; this, towards facilitating these immigrants’ integration into American society, and boost their opportunities to improve their quality of life. The foundation of the current U.S. immigration policy system is still the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) of 1952, plus all amendments thereafter (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services [USCIS]). The current system works under two major mechanisms: (1) a visa system and (2) mechanisms for securing U.S. borders and ports. This study proposes criteria for a new immigration policy, which clarifies, ranks, and reflects key policy values, that take into consideration the conditions of the immigrants; i.e., longer term stable residence and work history and strong family connections in the U.S. This thesis concluded that there is evidence of incomplete immigrants’ integration into American society in terms of language proficiency, socioeconomic attainment, political participation, residential locale, and social interaction. Therefore, it is recommended that our policymakers start working on a new comprehensive immigration reform utilizing the visa system criteria established in this thesis’ proposal. On the other hand, additional research is recommended in order to develop effective mechanisms for controlling future immigration.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Bakersfield
- Department:
- Public Policy and Administration
- Creator:
- Massey, Drake
- Description:
- According to the Army Corps of Engineers ACE, the Lake Isabella Dam is one of the highest risk dams for failure in the United States. Part of the reason for such a high risk factor is because the dam is positioned on top of an active earthquake fault line. In addition, the dam is over 60 years old and is slowly seeping water. The ACE has been tasked with developing a disaster plan should the dam fail. The plan includes the service of several public agencies throughout the county, to include the Sheriff’s Office. I am suggesting the ACE plan is adequate; however there are some critical areas that need to be addressed by the Kern County Sheriff’s Office (KCSO) to better ensure this agency acts accordingly should the dam fail. The areas to be addressed are as follows: Specific training related to disasters such as the dam failure, public awareness and preparedness, and ensuring specific policies relating to disasters/mutual aid are up-to-date and practical.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Bakersfield
- Department:
- Public Policy and Administration
- Creator:
- Brown, Michelle Sophia
- Description:
- Better health care for special needs children has been at the statutory basis of Federal Medicaid Law since 1967. The 1967 Federal Medicaid Law included as one of its fundamental rules – the provision of high quality care to children with serious and chronic health conditions, and in particular, children with special health care needs (Title V of the Social Security Act, 2012). The importance of Medicaid for special needs children can be examined from several different aspects. However, the overarching issue is that for this population of children, Medicaid is an integral component for enabling them to “be all that they can be”. This means that the levels of service to this population must be quality in nature, provided at the level and amount that each individual requires, and be of sufficient and timely amounts to ensure the appropriate effectiveness of the services required. Due to the complexity of this program and the number of relationships involved, I am focusing on the Kern County California Children’s Services program (CCS) as currently administered by the Department of Kern County Department of Public Health in California. This includes the policy changes that need to be made to achieve compliance with current state regulations and policy, and to position Kern County CCS to move to the next level as Health Care reform becomes a reality. The changes are necessary for the Kern County CCS to be in an optimum position to provide cost effective services to the number of children in Kern County who require these services, and at the level at which they require them, as Heatlh Care Reform becomes a reality. This paper’s purpose is to provide elucidating information about the strategies that need to be adopted and/or implemented. This is necessary to ensure that all of the needs of this population are met as a condition of/or prior to implementing Health Care Reform and expanding the populations to be served. The only outcome that is available that would ensure that special needs children do not receive a lesser level or amount of services is to require that Medicaid providers be required to give priority for services to special needs children. Inkelas states that the accepted definition of special needs children is based on the criteria included in Title V law and regulations. In summary, the focus of this project is to articulate the strategies that need to be addressed by Kern County CCS to enable them to have a level playing field when Health Care reform is implemented and to ensure that Special Needs children are not disadvantaged or disenfranchised by such legislation. The proliferation of literature regarding this issue clearly shows this population of children are currently not receiving the appropriate type and amount of services to which they are entitled and for whom they meet the threshold requirements. Ignoring this information when implementing Health Care Reform will result in disenfranchising this population from services to which they are clearly entitled based on all accepted criteria (Fowler, 2008).
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Bakersfield
- Department:
- Public Policy and Administration
- Creator:
- Burley-Abbey, Patricia
- Description:
- Today there is an achievement gap between white students and minority black students. According to the National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP) which has kept records since 1992 reading and math scores assessment of White 4th-8th and 8-12thgrade students found that White students scored significantly higher than Black students (2011). This study looks at the historical causes of the achievement gap and the reasons it still exists today. It focuses on the Antelope Valley School District, the high drop-out rate of African American males and makes recommendations as to what can be done to close the achievement gap.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Bakersfield
- Department:
- Public Policy and Administration