Mary Tschirhart

Examining Empirical Evidence on Diversity Effects: How Useful Is Diversity Research for Public-Sector Managers?

This article reviews the body of empirical research on work-related consequences of human diversity and presents an agenda for future investigations. Ideally, a synthesis of research findings to inform managing-for-diversity efforts should enable managers to interpret events in their own administrative contexts. Our assessment of the diversity literature suggests that managers are using largely untested assumptions as a basis for diversity policies, strategies, and actions. We call for greater contribution from public administration scholars to the body of research focusing on how human diversity can best be managed to produce positive results for individuals and their work organizations.

Public information campaigns as policy instruments

Considerable controversy surrounds public information campaigns: government-directed and sponsored efforts to communicate to large numbers of citizens in order to achieve a policy result, or what might be called government propaganda. We analyze the use of campaigns as policy instruments in three ways: (1) effectiveness in achieving substantive outcomes; (2) political benefits for public officials; and (3) consequences for democratic processes. Our review of 100 campaigns from these three perspectives reveals significant advantages and disadvantages of using campaigns in practice. We conclude that the advantages of public information campaigns justify their use as policy intruments when used appropriately and with care to mitigate the disadvantages.

Stipended Volunteers: Their Goals, Experiences, Satisfaction, and Likelihood of Future Service

Goal setting theory predicts that the initial needs, interests, and aspirations that volunteers bring to organizations are guiding forces in their work behaviors. Other theorists argue that environmental constraints and conditioned responses to positive or negative reinforcement of earlier behaviors are better predictors of subsequent behaviors than initial goals. In this study, the relationship of initial goals to subsequent service outcomes, satisfaction, and intention to volunteer was empirically investigated. Among a sample of 362 AmeriCorps members, the goals that stipended volunteers brought to their service were found to influence outcomes related to those goals 1 year later. Self-esteem was an important moderator of the relationship between goals and outcomes. The overall match of goal importance to goal achievement predicted both satisfaction and likelihood of future volunteering. The results have implications for research on volunteers and volunteer management.

When and Where? Facilitating Group Work beyond the Borders of the Classroom.

Group assignments for management courses sometimes require students to work together outside regular class sessions. The authors present a six-step practical exercise and tools designed to help student groups with the challenges they encounter in coordinatingwhen and where to meet outside of scheduled class time. The exercise and tools facilitate student learningby helpingstudents determine good times and places for their group meetings, thus improving the quality of the project outcome and group process.

The determinants of NLRB decision-making revisited

The authors develop a model of NLRB decision-making that, unlike the models employed in previous studies, distinguishes between decision-making in more important, complex cases and less important, simpler cases. Using a representative sample of Board decisions over 1957–86, they find that in deciding the minority (20%) of disputes that were particularly important or complex, Board members were influenced by their personal preferences and those of Presidents who appointed them—a finding consistent with the results of previous studies. In the remaining cases (about 80%), however, Board members were influenced in their decisions by little more than the recommendations of regional offices and administrative law judges. Another finding that substantially modifies the conclusions of earlier studies is that Board members appear to have been highly influenced by their accountability to the public when deciding more important, complex cases.

Responding to a Diverse Class: Insights from Seeing a Course as an Organization

Abstract This article provides a new perspective to help public affairs faculty with diversity management. In the context of the need for faculty to consciously address diversity issues and develop methods for managing diversity, we consider courses as organizations that have social structures, technologies, goals, participants, and environmental contexts, and examine each organizational element in order to develop insights and diagnostic questions. The model of the course as an organization, insights for managing diversity, and questions for course design and delivery offer tools for faculty to deal with diversity while teaching a variety of public affairs courses.

Advancing Scholarship on Membership Associations: New Research and Next Steps

This special issue on membership associations publishes eight articles from a variety of disciplines that illustrate the continuing advancement of scholarship related to member-based nonprofit organizations. Each addresses one or more enduring questions about the existence and influence of associational activity. The articles are ordered according to the level of analysis from the cognitive/intrapersonal to the systemic/societal. Taken together, they demonstrate the scholarly and practical value of explicitly addressing membership dynamics and associational structures within the broad field of nonprofit studies. They also suggest important areas for future study. After introducing the special issue and articles, to further build understanding of membership association dynamics, we review recent publications that complement the issue and offer ideas for additional research.

Service-Learning Programs: What Are Universities Selling to Students?

ABSTRACT Service-learning, in which students learn course concepts as they carry out community service, is becoming more common in higher education. This paper analyzes promotional material for service-learning opportunities found on twenty-one university Websites. The study reveals that the Websites are promoting a range of benefits from participation in service-learning. The paper concludes with a discussion of ethical as well as practical implications of how service-learning opportunities are being marketed online.

The paradox of inclusion and exclusion in membership associations

We use interviews and a focus group with leaders of a sample of nonprofit professional and trade membership associations based in the United States to understand what the leaders recognize to be their membership association’s diversity challenges and initiatives. We identify incentives, identity and power challenges as fundamental influences on the diversity of potential and existing members. Our analysis reveals a paradox in which attempts to increase the association’s inclusiveness are met with countervailing desires to maintain the membership association’s exclusiveness. We find that leaders may attempt to manage the paradox through strategies that legitimize diversity initiatives, change the membership association’s identity to reflect the valuing of diversity, and take advantage of organizational structures to embed diversity-related practices and accountability. These strategies have been discussed in the diversity management literature but without our paradox perspective. Additionally, paradox literature emphasizes the importance of ambidextrous (‘both/and’) approaches to paradox management, but these strategies may reflect an ‘either/or’ approach as leaders push their agenda forward, potentially in direct conflict with the desires of some current members.

Diversity and Service-Learning: A Call for More Research

ABSTRACT This paper reviews what we know about participants, practices, and outcomes related to service-learning. Research findings are drawn from the service-learning and diversity literatures. The paper ends with a call for more research to enrich understanding of how consideration of diversity issues may contribute to better design and implementation of service-learning programs.