Public Administration Research Colloquiums
The Department of Public Administration has developed regular public administration research colloquiums. The aim of the colloquiums is to bring together faculty expertise, students, and community for an intellectual dialogue with prominent researchers on topics relevant to public affairs and administration. Faculty members and featured speakers with national and international reputations discuss their research and the research process. Student research in the Public Administration Department and the College of Health and Public Affairs has been enhanced through the initiation of these monthly Public Administration Research Colloquiums. The research colloquiums focus on the current topics in public administraton and bring community leaders, scholar, and students together.
2009 - 2010 Series:
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MEASURING THE IMPACT OF PHILANTHROPY USING MARKET DATA
November 19, 2009; HPA II, Room 247; 4:00 - 5:30 p.m.
The new philanthropy marketplace is changing rapidly due to the economy and the 5 living generations of our population. The Community Foundation of Central Florida’s DonorEdge initiative is the tool to bridge the gap between the old marketplace of giving from the heart and the new marketplace of investment.
INCREMENTALISM AFTER THE STORM: MEASURING THE SUCCESS OF THE EVACUATION OF NEW ORLEANS DURING HURRANCE GUSTAV - HAVE WE LEARNED ANYTHING?
November 12, 2009; Business Administration Room 221; 6:00 - 7:30 p.m.
Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath have become the touchstone for failure at every level. Subsequently, the measure of hurricane preparedness and response is now compared to the experience of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Hurricanes are complex events, from the warnings to the evacuation, response and recovery. This lecture will discuss the observed changes made in evacuation planning in the New Orleans region since Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and measured during the evacuation for Hurricane Gustav in 2008.
GOVERNMENTAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT CAPACITY IN RESPONSE TO DISASTERS IN CHINA
November 5, 2009; HPA II, Room 247; 4:00 - 5:30 p.m.
High performance in response to disasters requires an ability to assess and adapt capacity rapidly, restore or enhance disrupted or inadequate communications, utilize uncharacteristically flexible decision making, and expand coordination and trust of emergency response organizations. The presentation will focus on diffusion of disasters and government prevention strategies before they become uncontrollable using China as example. China is one of the countries which have a wide range of disasters and suffer more serious losses.
THE IMPACT OF INCOME INEQUALITY ON SOCIAL CAPITAL AND ADVERSE SOCIAL OUTCOMES
October 22, 2990; HPA II, Room 247; 4:00 - 5:30
An interdisciplinary approach to policy and governance recognizes that many social welfare problems are interrelated, and policy-makers seeking solutions have long recognized a need to address the root causes of these problems. There is much evidence that income inequality is one of these root causes but theorists caution that the relationships are complex and causal arrows could run in any direction. Recent research suggesting the effect of income inequality is mediated by social capital has further complicated the relationship. This session will discuss on-going research utilizing structural equation modeling (SEM) to investigate the contextual pathway between income inequality, social capital and selected outcomes in the four disciplinary areas of health care; criminal justice; social work and public administration. One of the key problems in this relationship involves the difficulty of measuring social capital. This session will present preliminary results of a test of a social capital measurement model at the county level.
PERCEIVED SCHOOL QUALITY AND ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH MONETARY HOUSING VALUE: SCHOOL FACILITY AGE AND ITS ASSOCIATON WITH HOUSE SALE PRICE / A STUDY OF THE ORLANDO AREA
September 24, 2009; HPA II, Room 247; 4:00 - 5:30 p.m.
Schools are seen as an access of future opportunity for children. Consequently, school quality is often identified as a significant influence on housing choice and thereby monetary housing value. This cross-sectional study employs multivariate regression analysis to assess the relationship between school attributes on single-family housing values in the Orlando, Florida metropolitan area. The model includes facility age as a measure of perceived school quality, along with a series of control variables, to assess the relationship between public school facility age and the corresponding housing values within the associated school attendance zone. The key findings demonstrate that there is a relationship between school attributes, including age, on single-family housing values in the sample. It was found that facility age correlated with housing sale price, with both newer and historic school facilities being positively associated with monetary housing value. These findings are intended to aid community development and urban revitalization policy discourse. The implication is that if communities invest in new schools, or renovate schools in older communities, then this could aid in community development initiatives and urban revitalization efforts in those neighborhoods.
CIVIC ENGAGEMENT IN PUBLIC SERVICE IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE
August 27, 2009; HPA II, Room 247; 4:00 - 5:30 p.m.
Public administration has a multi-dimensional process. Public service delivery is complex and requires partnership with other organizations (public and private) and citizenry. Democratic understanding and participatory social culture is very important for democratic societies. Collaborative or participatory governance can be described as active involvement of citizens and civic organizations in government decision making processes. The term “governance” is, generally viewed as steering, the process that influences decisions and actions within the private, public, and civic sectors. This presentation will describe collaboration and governance in the perspective of deliberative democracy and citizen participation. The presentation uses civic engagement examples from Metropolitan Orlando Region and Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, Turkey.
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2008 - 2009 Series:
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Thursday, March 19, 2009, HPA II, Room 247
4:00 - 5:30
The creation of public private partnerships (PPP)’s for infrastructure development in the United States has recently increased as more state and local governments realize their benefits in alternative means of financing new road and bridge construction. Long term leases, however, pose significant risks, as traditional means and mechanisms designed to ensure that private contractors act in the public interest are inadequate in the face of the vastly more complex PPP arrangements. In many cases procurement officials as well as public managers do not have the requisite knowledge to 1) clearly identify program goals, project objectives, and specifications; 2) use evaluation or selection criteria that are valid enough to choose the best private partner; and most important 3) cannot effectively administer contracts and monitor private partner performance over a multigenerational time period. These risks have led to an increased call for greater citizen/customer awareness and engagement to ensure greater acceptance of the final product, e.g., a toll financed roadway. Our presentation will assess the effectiveness of existing citizen participation mechanisms, e.g. those relevant to transportation planning. We will also propose additional engagement citizen roles and
structures, drawing from experiences in public procurement and other policy areas.
Thursday, March 5, 2009, HPA II, Room 247
4:00 - 5:30
Drs. Arrington and Marlowe will present their book: The Search for Sustainable Governance: An Overview. This book explores the rich meanings of “sustainability” and how it relates to “public leadership” and “governance” by studying one state, Florida. While these concepts have broader value, they are understood best by an in-depth examination in a limited arena. Moreover, Florida is often considered a “bellwether State” and a harbinger of things to come in America. The State is in an uncertain period of hopeful transition from the traditional vision to grow its population base to a new vision calling for a “sustainable Florida”. Success in realizing Florida’s new vision will demand understanding of the rich meanings of sustainability, and consensus in support of the precepts of “sustainable governance”. The authors’ purpose is to contribute to this understanding and consensus. Two areas of public policy are examined from a sustainability perspective, taxation and budgeting; and growth management. The book also examines what is labeled as the “shift from bureaucratic government to sustainable governance.” This is an analysis of current theory
and practice of new ways of building sustainable governmental institutions and
effective working relationships among public, private, and non-profit sectors.
LOW-INCOME HEALTH CARE NETWORKS: INITIAL CONDITIONS, EXTENT, AND INTENSITY RELEVANT TO COUNTY GOVERNMENT PARTICIPATION
Thursday, February 26, 2009, HPA II, Room 247
4:00 - 5:30
This research examines networks of counties and nongovernmental organizations in the delivery of low-income health care services. Using complexity theory and resource dependency theory, health care networks emerge as a possible adaptation for meeting community health care needs. Consequently, this study explores the existence, complexity, and intensity of health care networks for low income, uninsured, and underinsured county residents.
This study focuses on four aspects of low-income health care networks. First, the initial conditions under which low income health care networks may form will be examined. Second, the study will identify the impact of county involvement based upon county participation levels. Third, the numbers and types of health care providers that participate in the network will be examined. Finally, a model that explains the relationship between county conditions and the intensity of network functions will be tested.
THE APPLICATION OF STAKEHOLDERMANAGEMENT THEORY TO HEALTHCARE ORGANIZATIONS
Thursday, January 29, 2009, HPA II, Room 247
4:00 - 5:30
Stakeholder management theory represents a segment of Strategic Management Theory which was originated by Richard Freeman, in his 1984 book Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach. Freeman's conceptual framework was later extended, adapted and applied to the healthcare industry by John Blair and Myron Fottler in their 1990 book titled Challenges in Healthcare Management: Strategic perspectives for managing key stakeholders. This session will discuss the evolution of Stakeholder Management Theory as well as strategies for identifying, assessing and managing key stakeholders in healthcare organizations.
THE POLITICS OF PRESIDENTIAL DISASTER DECLARATIONS: EISENHOWE TO OBAMA
Thursday, January 15, 2009, HPA II, Room 247
4:00 - 5:30
Dr. Sylves’ talk and presentation will be about the old and new politics of presidential declarations of major disaster and emergency. I will demonstrate that while disasters and calamitous misfortunes of various types
are empirical realities, presidential decisions about whether or not to approve or deny governor-requested declarations for these events is also much about political and social constructions of reality.
EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT NETWORKS IN RESPONSE TO TERRORIST EVENTS: COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVES
Thursday, December 4, 2008, HPA I, Room 207
4:15 - 5:45
Bahadir Sahin will address the differences in emergency management networks in different countries. Emergency management networks of four countries will be examined for their efforts in response to extreme terrorist events hit New York City in 2001, Istanbul in 2003, Madrid in 2004, and London in 2005. Multi-organizational coordination in response to and recovery from terrorism disasters will be compared in these four cases. The four cases will also be compared in terms of efficiency/effectiveness of different crisis management systems and practice. The study uses complex adaptive systems theory in analyzing the cases.
POLICY NETWORKS AND LOCAL DEVELOPMENT DECISION
Thursday, November 20, 2008, HAP II, Room 247
4:00 - 5:30
Urban policy emerges from the network of interdependent government and non-government interests within metropolitan areas. Largely absent from the urban policy and public administration literature is analysis of how the structural relationships between actors in the regional policy network shape the competitive actions and development decisions of local governments. This study identifies the characteristics of the economic development network in a sample of large MSAs and explores how the relations among policy actors influence intergovernmental relations.
PUBLIC SERVICE & LEADERSHIP PROGRAM AT UCF's DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
Thursday, November 6, 2008, HPA II, Room 345
4:00 - 5:30
Public Service and Leadership Development (PSLD) Program aims to contribute to developing, strengthening, and maintaining highly skilled, competent, and professional public service leaders. This program help meet the current and future leadership needs of the core public administration. The program offers leadership development programs and courses that will help to strengthen the participants’ leadership and management capacities. This is third consecutive group of officials visiting the University of Central Florida in the last two years. There are currently nine (9) participants in the program who are Chief Inspectors from Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Turkey. The colloquium presentation will describe the PSLD program within the Department of Public Administration as well as a presentation from one of the Chief Inspectors, Dr. Erkan Toprak on personal experiences as an administrator abroad and the participant.
THE ROLE OF ANALOGICAL REASONING IN DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN POLICYMAKING
Thursday, October 23, 2008, HPA II, Room 247
4:00 - 5:30
In recent years a large literature has appeared on the role of analogical reasoning – the use of historical analogies as a cognitive aid to decision-making – in the field of foreign policy analysis, a body of work to which the author has contributed. This literature has been inspired mainly by research drawn from cognitive and social psychology, and most of all perhaps by the bounded rationality tradition of scholars like Herbert Simon. However, the application of analogical reasoning to domestic (as opposed to foreign policy) cases is still in its infancy. This talk suggests that the application of cognitive models to domestic policy analysis is long overdue, and that we can expect such approaches to bear fruit in domestic situations (such as major crises like Hurricane Katrina and the Detroit riots of the 1960s) which in many ways ‘mimic’ the cognitive demands placed on decision-makers confronting foreign policy situations.
COMMUNITY VALUES AND RENEWABLE ENERGY ALTERNATIVES
Thursday, October 16, 2008 - HPA II, Room 247
4:00 - 5:30
The clean energy revolution is an opportunity for communities to choose technologies that serve broader goals of community development. Dr. Canan will present an award-winning research approach that measured the structure of community values and used that structure to recommend alternatives for renewable energy production.
GLOBALIZATION OF DISASTERS: A FIRST-HAND REPORT ON THE WENCHUAN EARTHQUAKE IN CHINA IN 2008
Thursday, October 9, 2008 - HPA II, Room 247
4:00 - 5:30
Disasters require coordinated action among multiple actors, including international organizations, across many jurisdictions under conditions of urgent stress, heavy demand and tight time constraints. The problem is socio-technical in that the capacity for inter-organizational coordination depends upon the technical structure and performance of the information systems that support decision making among the participating organizations. Interactions among human managers, computers, and organizations under stress are complex and not well understood. Yet, coordinating response operations to extreme disasters is an extraordinarily complex task for public emergency managers. This presentation will focus on the interactions among multiple organizations that evolved in response to the Wenchuan Earthquake in China in 2008, examining the relationships among organizations in terms of timely access to information and types of supporting infrastructure.
CAN (WILL) SOCIAL NETWORKS TRANSFORM GOVERNMENT?
Thursday, October 2, 2008 - HPA II, Room 345
4:00 - 5:30
The biggest challenge in government's use of social networks starts with a basic question tied to the role of public participation in the government process itself: Do we want public participation because we
authentically believe that it will improve governmental processes, or do we encourage public participation because "we have to?" Public participation provides elected officials with a diversity of knowledge and experience to help them debate policy issues and make better decisions. While the Internet presents challenges (real and perceived) to government to engage constituents, its dramatic influence on citizens' preferences and expectations to communicate and receive information cannot be ignored. Both sides have very different perceptions of what public participation means and should be. Enterprise social networks address these problems by enabling constructive participation designed to provide government with new and diverse information to expand solution choices and a better sense of possibility.
SOCIAL CAPITAL AS A SUCCESSFUL METHOD FOR PREVENTING SUBSTANCE USE
Thursday, September 18, 2008 - HPA II, Room 345
4:00 - 5:30
Substance use, such as alcohol, cigarette, and marijuana, is a threat to the health and well-being of the youth, their families, and society as well. Government supports and implements several programs to protect youth from substance use. The aim of this study is to explain youth behavior with social capital in terms of their social interactions with peers, community, and parents. Social capital refers to individuals embedded in web of social relations and their behaviors guided by social structure. The study focuses on bonding and bridging social capital. The type of activity children participate in, the time and type of activity they interact with their family and the type of peer groups youth interacted with are considered as predictor indicators of youth behavior. This study focuses on the relationship between youth substance use and the impact of parents, peers, and youth activities. The study uses the United States Department of Health and Human Service, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Office of Applied Studies collected in 2006. National Survey on Drug Use and Health was analyzed with Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Findings show that there is a relationship between youth substance use and bonding social capital (interactions with close relatives). Correlation varies for age, gender, and ethnicity. The study contributes to the social capital literature and demonstrates social capital as a policy and intervention tool.
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