From analyst to negotiator: The OMB's new role

Dramatic changes in the executive and legislative budget processes over the last ten years have elevated the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to a new position of power and importance. Within the executive branch the budget process has become more highly centralized in the president's office; and within the Congress a similar centralization has occurred. In both branches the OMB has become the key institution for coordinating the actions of the budget-making powers. At the same time, the much-discussed “iron triangles” explored by analysts of the budgetary system have lost much of their power to control the process. Although the OMB's active involvement in the congressional budget process diminished in 1983, the institutional relationships necessary for a more centralized budget process remain and can be reactivated to deal with the predicted enormous deficits.     

Organization and environment: The case of correctional personnel training programs

An intensive field study of 17 correctional personnel training programs was conducted to assess the organization-environment context in which these programs emerged and operated. Content analysis of site visit data revealed that correctional training programs less often served specific organization goal achievement purposes, and more often served as general strategies for coping with external environmental demands and pressures. A theoretical framework for examining organization-environment relations is described, and then used to analyze correctional training programs as a boundary-spanning activity that relates correctional organizations to environmental conditions. Organizational responses to environmental demands are placed along a continuum of adjustment ranging from survival, to adaptation, and innovation. Organizational responses to environmental demands, in turn, are related to training patterns that dovetail with the major needs of organizations and their personnel in efforts to adjust to the environment.     

Correlates of adolescent pessimism: A study of the beck hopelessness scale

This study examines correlates of the Beck Hopelessness Scale within an adolescent population. Consistent with studies employing adults as subjects, Hopelessness scores were found to be associated with depression and external locus of control. Additionally, a significant positive correlation was found between Hopelessness scores and an index of general maladjustment. The Hopelessness measure was, however, found to be unrelated to self-reported health status.Data for this study were collected as part of a larger investigation involved with the development and validation of an adolescent measure of life stress which was funded by a grant to the senior author from the University of Washington Graduate School Research Fund.Received Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Northern Illinois University. Major interests are clinical-child psychology and psychopathology of children and adolescents.Major interests are clinical-child psychology and suicide.     

The OMB Budget Examiner and The Congressional Budget Process

This is the second of a two-part retrospective on the evolving role of the OMB budget examiner. The examiner has become more active in negotiations with the legislative branch and tracking the legislative status of various fiscal measures. A new central budget management system was created to monitor appropriation bills. The OMB budget examiner has also been increasingly used to provide information for advocacy purposes before Congress and the public. The institutional effect on OMB of these changing roles is examined and suggestions for organizational reform are made.     

Technology transfer — A view of what works

Technology transfer works now as an applied art for many skilled practitioners. This is a brief review of some of the salient approaches to technology transfer that have been found to be effective. Discussed are personal contact, conferences, brokering, technical publications, patents, contracts, application teams and other related techniques. The discussion is rich with examples of what to do and what not to do.