Student outcomes associated with service-learning in a culturally relevant high school program

The Hawaiian Studies Program (HSP) integrates the learning of Hawaiian culture with more traditional secondary curriculum in science, social studies, and English. Students also participate in weekly community service-learning sessions. Fifty-five HSP students and 29 peers (who were not involved in the program), completed a survey measuring: students' connection to, pride in, and responsibility for their community; civic attitudes; and career knowledge and preparedness. HSP teachers, community members, and students were also interviewed about program outcomes. Compared to other peers, HSP students tended to report feeling more connected to their community and school and to agree that they had career-related skills. Participants believed that service- learning contributed to these outcomes by making connections between school and community life and by exposing students to a variety of careers.     

Revisiting the Motivational Bases of Public Service: Twenty Years of Research and an Agenda for the Future

How has research regarding public service motivation evolved since James L. Perry and Lois Recascino Wise published their essay “The Motivational Bases of Public Service” 20 years ago? The authors assess subsequent studies in public administration and in social and behavioral sciences as well as evolving definitions of public service motivation. What have we learned about public service motivation during the last two decades? What gaps in our understanding and knowledge have appeared with respect to the three propositions offered by Perry and Wise? This essay charts new directions for public service motivation scholarship to help clarify current research questions, advance comparative research, and enhance our overall understanding of individuals’ public service motives.     

WOMEN AND MANAGEMENT IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR

Abstract: Although welcome gains have been made towards greater equity for women in the public service in recent years, many issues have yet to be tackled adequately. The paper is essentially concerned with the problems which arise because EEO programs have been couched in managerial terms, as part of the recent management reform and improvement programs within the public sector. This technocratic approach is very masculine in style and largely requires assimilation to the dominant male form of management. In concentrating on formal organisational issues. EEO programs can deflect attention from a direct engagement with the relevant value matters. Nor is the relationship between the work environment and other institutions, most importantly the family, dealt with in the managerialist approach.     

The Impact of Officer and Agency Characteristics on the Likelihood of Arrest in Domestic Violence Situations among Rural Law Enforcement Officers

Domestic violence cuts across all demographic groups. The factors related to why police officers arrest in some domestic violence situations but not others have been often studied. Little research, however, has been conducted on the arrest views of rural police officers. One hundred seventy line officers in six rural Midwestern counties were surveyed to determine the impact of officer personal characteristics and agency type on arrest decisions in various hypothetical domestic violence scenarios. First, the same situational factors appeared to be important in shaping the arrest decision in domestic violence calls of rural officers as have previously been found with urban officers. Second, the characteristics of officers and the type of agency had some impact on the likelihood of arrest, particularly if there was evidence of a physical assault. Third, the presence of evidence of a physical assault helped shape the arrest decisions of rural officers. Fourth, situational factors were more important than officer characteristics and the type of agency. Nancy Hogan and Shannon Barton contributed equally to the paper. The authors thank Janet Lambert for editing and proofreading the paper. The authors also thank the anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions.     

Women and Men in Jail: Attitudes Towards and Experiences of Domestic Violence

This study explores the pre-arrest domestic violence victimization and attitudes towards domestic violence reported by women and men confined in a Midwestern metropolitan jail. Results indicated that women in the jail sample had more fear for the safety of battered women than men in the jail sample. Women in jail were more likely than men in jail to view the legal system as a deterrent to domestic violence. Logistic regression models were constructed to explore associations between jail detainees’ pre-arrest experiences of domestic violence and their gender, age, education, race, parental status and other violent victimizations. The variables associated with pre-arrest domestic violence victimization were being a woman, a parent, a victim rape and a victim of threats with a deadly weapon.     

Implementing pay reform in the public sector: Different approaches to flexible pay in sweden and the united states

A set of implementation criteria drawn from the United States experience provide a framework for examining pay reform in the Swedish public sector. The study finds that the Swedish approach is quite distinct and this may be attributable to unique features in the Swedish labor market. The reform toward flexible or individualized pay in government agencies appears to be based on an assumption of greater cost efficiency in human resource management and a broad unwillingness to employ objective measures of individual or organizational productivity. Consequently the study calls into question the utility of an analytical framework based on the Anglo-American experience for examining the Swedish case.     

A comparison of the effects of witnessing community violence and direct victimization among children in Cape Town, South Africa

This study is based on a sample of children from the Cape Town area in South Africa. The study compares the effects of witnessing school or neighborhood violence compared with being victimized in each context on psychological distress. The findings suggest that in the context of the school, victimization has a somewhat stronger effect on distress than witnessing violence. However, in the neighborhood, the opposite was the case. "Unknown locus of control" was also analyzed as a moderating variable. The findings are interpreted in the context of violence in South African society. The study also investigates the overlap between witnessing violence, victimization, and perpetration in the child's school and neighborhood. The vast majority of victims had been witnesses as well as perpetrators. Longitudinal research, which could track involvement in various forms of violence starting at a very early age, is needed to clearly assess the differential impact of each form of violence.