Factors affecting turnover rates of public child welfare front line workers: comparing cohorts of title IV-E program graduates with regularly hired and trained staff

ABSTRACT

The purpose of the study is to examine the impact of a statewide intervention (BSW level Title IV-E Program) on both the workers’ intent to leave the job and their actual exit from a state administered public child welfare agency. Employees completed an extensive survey including scales assessing individual, team, and organizational variables that might impact turnover. Results show that more Title IV-E graduates stay with the agency than do regular hires and leave at a slower rate. Different variables impact intent to leave compared to actual exit and vary across type of employee. Implications for the workforce are discussed.     

Views on workplace culture and climate: through the lens of retention and Title IV-E participation

ABSTRACT

Retention of public child welfare (PCW) workers is the focus of much scholarly research. Examinations of the topic have ranged from assessments of workers’ background to job factors and attitudinal components about the workplace. Unlike most studies, the present study uses agency administrative data on retention. In it, 502 PCW workers responded to a point-in-time survey covering a wide range of topics including job satisfaction, commitment to child welfare, perceptions of culture and climate, Title IV-E status, and demographic variables. While Title IV-Es were more likely to leave the agency, several significant interactions between Title IV-E and retention status showed that Title IV-Es who left the agency had significantly lower supervisor satisfaction and influence than Title IV-Es who stayed; and lower efficacy scores than non-Title IV-Es who left. No such differences were found for non-Title IV-E stayers and leavers. Implications for these differences for county agencies and universities are discussed.     

论巴特勒小说《家族》中的历史书写和政治隐喻

美国科幻小说家奥克塔维娅?巴特勒的《家族》融科学幻想小说、新奴隶叙事与历史书写小说于一炉,以穿越的形式向人们展示了奴隶制的罪恶,引发对美国现实种族关系、两性关系的思考。小说通过新奴隶叙事的形式再现了不可再现之过去,通过科幻小说的形式言说了黑人无法言说之创痛。其历史书写隐喻着美国黑人和白人割不断的历史渊源和共生关系这一美国国族寓言。《家族》表明,黑白血脉相连,其历史经历交织,黑白的许多经历是共同体验的结果。为了避免历史重演,黑人和白人必须在历史记忆和重访过去中了解历史真相,并对美国当下语境下自由的概念和美国黑人乃至美国整个国族的整体命运加以关注与思考。     

The introduction of data breach notification legislation in Australia: A comparative view

This article argues that Australia's recently-passed data breach notification legislation, the Privacy Amendment (Notifiable Data Breaches) Act 2017 (Cth), and its coming into force in 2018, makes an internationally important, yet imperfect, contribution to data breach notification law. Against the backdrop of data breach legislation in the United States and European Union, a comparative analysis is undertaken between these jurisdictions and the Australian scheme to elucidate this argument. Firstly, some context to data breach notification provisions is offered, which are designed to address some of the problems data breaches cause for data privacy and information security. There have been various prominent data breaches affecting Australians over the last few years, which have led to discussion of what can be done to deal with their negative effects. The international context of data breach notification legislation will be discussed, with a focus on the United States and European Union jurisdictions, which have already adopted similar laws. The background to the adoption of the Australia legislation will be examined, including the general context of data privacy and security protection in Australia. The reform itself will be then be considered, along with the extent to which this law is fit for purpose and some outstanding concerns about its application. While data breach notification requirements are likely to be a positive step for data security, further reform is probably necessary to ensure strong cybersecurity. However, such reform should be cognisant of the international trends towards the adoption of data security measures including data breach notification, but lack of alignment in standards, which may be burdensome for entities operating in the transnational data economy.     

An approach to minimizing legal and reputational risk in Red Team hacking exercises

Robust cyber-resilience depends on sound technical controls and testing of those controls in combination with rigorous cyber-security policies and practices. Increasingly, corporations and other organizations are seeking to test all of these, using methods more sophisticated than mere network penetration testing or other technical audit operations. More sophisticated organizations are also conducting so-called “Red Team” exercises, in which the organization tasks a small team of highly skilled and trained individuals to try to gain unauthorized access to physical and logical company assets and information. While such operations can have real value, they must be planned and conducted with great care in order to avoid violating the law or creating undue risk and reputational harm to the organization. This article explores these sometimes tricky issues, and offers practical risk-based guidance for organizations contemplating these types of exercises.     

发展公有制经济改革和完善国有资产管理体制

公有制是社会主义经济制度的基础,是实现最广大人民根本利益和共同富裕的重要保证.要确保国有经济控制国民经济命脉并对经济发展起主导作用,应从总体上提高国有经济的活力和控制力、竞争力,加强对国有资产的管理,改革完善国有资产管理体制.     

The New Geo-Economics of a “Rising” India: State Transformation and the Recasting of Foreign Policy

With a focus on India, and drawing on critical scholarship on geo-politics and geo-economics and “relational” state theories, this article examines the ways in which ideational and material processes of state transformation have shaped India’s international engagement in different periods. Prior to 1991, geo-political social forms linked to a national developmentalist state project shaped India’s engagement with global and regional multilateralism and the nature of this engagement fluctuated according to shifts in the legitimacy and viability of this state project. The erosion of the developmentalist state project from the 1970s laid the path for a deeper shift in the national social order in the 1990s with the recasting of statehood wherein India’s future was thought to be best secured through policies of economic openness, growth and competitiveness. This shift in India’s state project has given rise to new forms of global and regional engagement that are distinct to older forms of international engagement and reflect and further processes of state transformation in India. This is illustrated through a case study on energy policy.     

Achieving zero hunger: implementing a human rights approach to food security in Ethiopia

A human rights approach to food security seeks to empower vulnerable groups to claim their rights. It also reinforces a government’s obligations to respect, protect and fulfil the right to food. Furthermore, it encourages the integration of the right to food into the design and implementation of food security policies. This article examines the human rights approach to food security, with specific reference to Ethiopia. It assesses the historical causes of Ethiopia’s food insecurity, and examines the legislative and policy measures that the country has adopted over the last three decades in order to achieve food security. Food insecurity in the country is largely explained by the absence of government accountability. In 1973 and 1984, the hunger caused by drought was transitioned to famine not because of overall unavailability of food in the country, but because the government failed to provide food aid to the starved people and concealed the occurrence of famines from the international donors. Despite designing some food security policies over the last three decades, the country has not yet adopted sufficient legislative and judicial measures to enforce the right to food. This article argues that Ethiopia should introduce a framework law on the right to food to end hunger in the context of achieving national food security.     

Between emergency and routine – securitisation of military security in Iran and Indonesia

Abstract

The aim of this article is to explain the internal conditions of military security in a non-European context. It utilises securitisation as the theoretical perspective and investigates Iranian and Indonesian case studies to explore how the perception of internal threats and vulnerabilities determines the approaches to military security. It begins with a reiteration of securitisation theory assumptions, followed by clarifying the understanding of security in non-Western contexts. The case studies focus on the conditions which facilitate securitisation, including the nature of securitising actors, assumed concepts of security, and securitisation processes and their outcomes. The analysis indicates a necessity for several alterations in securitisation theory to realise its full potential. Civil–military relations in Asian states differ from those in the West, as both Iran and Indonesia show a high degree of military involvement in political affairs. Military security also becomes securitised as a result of internal political rivalries. The perception of threats is a tool in the struggle to extend the capabilities of security agencies or retain influences.     

Public-Sector Reform: Employment Security and Quality of Decision Making in the Australian Taxation Office

This article examines the impact of structural reforms and industrial relations changes on the employment security and decision behaviors of middle-level managers in the Australian Taxation Office (ATO). This article is based on an empirical study using focus group and survey data that investigated how structural change and public-sector reforms substantially altered the employment environment. This research reveals that the ATO environment can be characterized by low morale, risk aversion, fear, and distrust brought about, in part, by employment insecurity. Where middle managers perceived organizational threats to their employment security, they engaged in self-protective “survivor” behaviors even when no such threats to their employment security existed. The article concludes that a substantial number of middle-level managers, survivors of years of restructuring, downsizing, and organizational change, were unlikely to display high-quality decision-making behaviors.