Dana R. Vashdi

Bridging bureaucracy and democracy in Europe: A comparative study of perceived managerial excellence, satisfaction with public services, and trust in governance

The cross-country study of public administration based on citizens’ surveys in Europe is a relatively novel approach to analyzing the social and political dynamics of the continent. The goal of this study is to examine some aspects of bureaucracy and democracy as perceived by knowledgeable citizens in six countries (Ireland, Israel, Lithuania, Norway, Slovakia, and Spain). A rationale is developed to support hypotheses about the relationship between democracy and bureaucracy. The study also proposes hypotheses about differences between the countries in terms of satisfaction with public services, trust in governance and public administration agencies, and a set of managerial-oriented variables of the public sector (i.e. perceived innovation, responsiveness, professionalism, organizational politics, leadership and vision, ethics and morality). The study’s findings indicate that various aspects of bureaucracy and democracy differ across countries and that democratic longevity may be a good explanation for these differences.

Screening older, blue-collar workers for drinking problems: an assessment of the efficacy of the drinking problems index.

The authors examine the performance of the Drinking Problems Index (DPI) as a screening instrument for the identification of drinking problems among older blue-collar workers. Performance was assessed using a random sample of 1055 retirement-eligible blue-collar workers with the CAGE as a problem-drinking criterion. The authors also assessed the relative performance of the DPI versus the CAGE on the basis of each instruments sensitivity, specificity, and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) with regard to other alcohol-related criteria. DPI was found to offer reasonable levels of sensitivity and specificity, although its sensitivity varied by age. Moreover, for older, blue-collar workers, the DPI was found to more effectively screen for problematic patterns of alcohol consumption than the CAGE.

Innovation in multidisciplinary teams: The moderating role of transformational leadership in the relationship between professional heterogeneity and shared mental models

Research on the effectiveness of multidisciplinary teams has been equivocal. In an attempt to understand when a team’s professional heterogeneity (PH) is positively related to innovation (INN), we proposed an integrative model in which shared mental models (SMMs) are theorized as a mechanism to leverage INN in highly multidisciplinary teams. In addition, we claim that transformational leadership (TL), which is usually regarded as a factor contributing to team effectiveness, will attenuate the effect of teams’ PH on team SMM. In a field study of 55 R&D teams in Israel, we found that SMMs mediated the relationship between PH and INN, and that TL moderated the relationship between PH and Team SMM. We discuss the theoretical and practical implication of these findings.

Retirement and drug abuse: The conditioning role of age and retirement trajectory

Although recent research on the link between retirement and drinking behavior among older adults suggests that retirement may also serve as a risk factor for drug abuse, the latter association has yet to be subject to rigorous research. We examined this association, as well as the possible conditioning effects of age and retirement trajectory, using a sample of 978 retirement-eligible workers (some having retired, others deferring their retirement) from 3 blue-collar employment sectors: (e.g., construction, manufacturing, and transportation). The findings indicate a weak but significant positive association between retirement and the severity of drug abuse. Age moderated the retirement-drug abuse relationship with - among older workers - higher rates of drug abuse found among those deferring retirement and lower rates among those actually retiring, and the exact opposite pattern found among younger retirement-eligible workers. Also, as hypothesized, the moderating effects of age on the association between retirement and drug abuse were weaker among those opting to return to work post-retirement as opposed to those fully retiring.

Effects of job control and situational severity on the timing of help-seeking.

Studies suggest that the psychopathological effects of involvement in critical incidents among emergency service workers failing to seek help in a timely manner may be detrimental both for the individual and for the organization. However, little is known as to the factors governing when individuals seek such help. Consequently, drawing from the help-seeking and coping literatures, we generate a theory explicating how job characteristics (namely, job control) and situational factors (namely, the severity of incident involvement) combine to influence help-seeking delay or, in other words, the amount of time that passes before employees seek help for incident-related distress. Using data collected from firefighters who were involved at varying degrees of intensity in the events in and around the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, we demonstrate that increasing levels of situational severity influence the relationship between job-control and help-seeking delay with job control having a curvilinear association with help-seeking delay under conditions of high situational severity.

The Individual’s Level of Globalism and Citizen Commitment to the State

The article inquires about the role of globalization on individual commitment to the state by studying the tendency of high school students to evade obligatory military service in Israel. We define five dimensions of the individual’s level of globalism (ILG) and examine their impact on degrees of military service commitment. We suggest a new nondichotomous approach by considering, in addition to full evasion and full commitment to combat service, the option of quasi-evasion: to serve, but in a risk-free role. Investigating a sample of 2,705 eleventh and twelfth grade students, we find that quasi-evasion is widespread, involving 54 percent of all respondents and 40 percent of all males. More “globalized” individuals, those lacking active local ties and those with high levels of consumerism show a significantly greater tendency to evade military service. Counter to our expectations, students with lower levels of individualism also show a significantly greater tendency to evade military service.

The Individual’s Level of Globalism and Citizen Commitment to the State: The Tendency to Evade Military Service in Israel

The article inquires about the role of globalization on individual commitment to the state by studying the tendency of high-school students to evade obligatory military service in Israel. We define five dimensions of the Individuals Level of Globalism (ILG) and examine their impact on degrees of military service commitment. We suggest a new non-dichotomous approach by considering, in addition to full evasion and full commitment to combat service, the option of quasi-evasion: to serve, but in a risk-free role. Investigating a sample of 2,705 11th and 12th grade students, we find that quasi-evasion is widespread, involving 54% of all respondents and 40% of all males. More ‘globalized’ individuals, those lacking active local ties and those with high levels of consumerism show a significantly greater tendency to evade military service. Counter to our expectations, students with lower levels of individualism also show a significantly greater tendency to evade military service.

The psychological effects of cyber terrorism

ABSTRACT When ordinary citizens think of cyber threats, most are probably worried about their passwords and banking details, not a terrorist attack. The thought of a shooting in a mall or a bombing at an airport is probably more frightening than a cyber breach. Yet terrorists aim for mental as well as physical destruction, and our research has found that, depending on who the attackers and the victims are, the psychological effects of cyber threats can rival those of traditional terrorism.

Teams in Public Administration: A Field Study of Team Feedback and Effectiveness in the Israeli Public Healthcare System

ABSTRACT Over recent years, public organizations have increasingly adopted work teams as an organizational tool for improving task coordination, communication, and knowledge transfer. In this research, I discuss action teams in public organizations and the importance of team feedback for the effectiveness of such professionally heterogeneous public teams. I examine two alternative approaches to team feedback, guided team reflexivity and peer assessment, and hypothesize regarding their effects on team processes and performance. Using a field-based, experimental design involving surgical teams in a large public tertiary health care center, I compared the effects of team reflexivity and peer assessment on specific team-related processes and task duration. I found that guided team reflexivity is related to higher levels of team attention to detail, cooperation, and psychological safety than peer assessment, and that team attention to detail mediates the relationship between feedback type and performance.

Evidence‐based disparities: examining the gap between health expectations and experiences

Context  In a time of economic austerity, one of the most daunting questions is who decides on healthcare rationing? In the current study, we sought to examine if the public can in fact provide meaningful information regarding healthcare policy issues. Based on theories of public policy, this paper tries to find out if patients behave akin to ‘responsible citizens’ and can provide differentiated expectations between three healthcare dimensions.