Stability not change: Improving frontline employee motivation through organizational reform is harder than it looks

As evidence mounts about the positive effects of autonomous motivation such as public service motivation, there is a growing case for public organizations to design reforms to better support public employees’ inherent desire to help others. But how feasible is this in reality? Most experimental evidence on autonomous motivation stems from interventions at the individual level, possibly exaggerating what government reforms can achieve in reality. We present a longitudinal study that analyses a three-year trial in Danish hospitals in which incentives and autonomy were changed to encourage autonomous motivation. This set-up offers a rare opportunity to observe the potential malleability of intrinsic, public service, user and external motivation. The results show little observable change in motivation due to the reform. We explore the practical difficulties of translating evidence about motivation into reforms given implementation challenges, contextual factors and a recognition that motivation might be less malleable than implied by research.     

Building Secure Elections: E-Voting, Security, and Systems Theory

The increased use of information technology promises to revolutionize both the provision of government services and the vibrancy of democracy. In the aftermath of the Florida voting controversy during the 2000 presidential election, governments have placed their faith in technology, adopting e-voting machines that offer enhanced voter convenience and eliminate the need for subjective recounts. However, the same underlying assumptions that apply to e-government theory do not apply to e-voting because of the severity of consequences if failure occurs and the loss of transparency traditionally associated with the voting process. A more useful theoretical guide is systems theory, which deals with complex, high-risk systems. This literature has been largely overlooked by adopters of e-voting technology, even though the practical criticisms of e-voting made by computer security specialists reflect an essentially systems theory perspective.     

Assessing present practices for defense conversion in small to medium-sized firms

This study found that in spite of increased calls for conversion from defense to commercial-based capabilities to enhance survival and growth opportunities, reduced dependency on Department of Defense (DOD) sales was negatively associated with sales growth for a sample of 90 Ohio-based small to medium-sized defense firms from 1990 to 1993. This implies that rather than converting to commercial production, most smaller defense firms are shrinking along with DOD procurement budgets. This finding is not surprising, since the structural characteristics of the defense industry make DOD-dependent firms' transitioning to commercial business extremely difficult if not impossible. The paper concludes by providing several recommendations for managers and policy makers to help these firms make the transition to a civilian economy.     

Should compensation be based on costs or benefits?

In restitution cases should the compensation be based on the benefit to one side or on the cost to the other side? For example, should a rescuer be compensated for the costs to the rescuer or for the benefits to the rescuee? A similar question can be asked regarding awards in nuisance and accident cases. For example, should a polluter be liable for the damage to the pollutee or for the benefit to the polluter from not having to install smoke scrubbers? In this paper we will show the critical role that asymmetries in information have on the choice of payment structure.     

Telling tales: Gender discrimination,gender construction and battered women who kill

This article is based on papers presented at the 1993 Critical Legal Conference in Oxford, and to the Critical Law Groups of Bristol and Lancaster Universities. I would like to thank Mary Barker, Eugene Mac Namee and Paul Skidmore for their comments on earlier drafts.     

Selected Federal Research Grants for the Fiscal Year 1987

Selected Federal Research Grants for the Fiscal Year 1987     

Antecedents of abusive personality and abusive behavior in wife assaulters

One hundred and forty men referred for wife assault and 45 demographically matched controls were assessed for psychological variables associated with abusive personality (anger, cyclical (borderline) personality organization (BPO) and chronic experience of trauma symptoms) and abusive behaviors (both physical and emotional) as reported by their female partners. Predictor variables for these abuse measures included the EMBU which assesses recollections of parental warmth and rejection and the Conflict Tactics Scale which assesses physical abuse in the family of origin. A composite of BPO, anger, trauma symptoms and fearful attachment called Abusive Personality (ABP) correlated .42 with wives reports of emotionally abusive behaviors. ABP was positively and significantly correlated with recollections of negative parental treatment by the abuse perpetrator. A compositive of parental rejection and verbal and physical abuse by parents correlated .41 with ABP. A discriminant function of high and low ABP found that ABP was predicted by paternal rejection, physical abuse, and absence of maternal warmth. Physical abuse by either parent correlated significantly with all subscales and total scores on the ABP measure. When combined with data showing ABP to correlate significantly with frequency of use of violence by wife assaulters (Dutton, 1995b, Dutton and Starzomski, 1993), the current study suggests a personality syndrome of assaultive males that has antecedents in the early experiences of these men. The present data suggest that family of origin experiences may have effects beyond modeling of abusive behaviors. These effects include development of a specific personality form associated with abusiveness.