Patrice M. Mareschal

Central-City/Suburban Inequality and Metropolitan Political Fragmentation

To test the proposition that metropolitan governmental structure has social, economic, and racial consequences, the authors assume that the proliferation of local governments in a metropolitan area and the boundary constraints imposed on the central city have adverse effects, especially on the core city. Analyzing 97 large U.S. metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs), they found only limited support for this proposition. Of three measures of fragmentation, only two were of any consequence, one in the opposite direction predicted. The lower the central city’s share of MSA population, the higher the level of fiscal health for the inner city. Also, municipal boundaries have racial consequences.

Innovation and Adaptation: Contrasting Efforts to Organize Home Care Workers in Four States

This paper chronicles the SEIUs efforts to organize home care workers in California, Oregon, Washington, and New York. Drawing on inter views with union leaders and organizers as well as secondary source data, I compare the political strategies employed and the outcomes achieved in these states. Across the cases, the SEIU changed its orga nizing strategy to adapt to the unique environmental characteristics of each state. Despite the anti-union animus of federal labor law, the labor movement can still achieve important organizing successes, albeit at great expense in time and resources. Employees of private-sector companies that rely primarily on taxpayer funds may prove to be fertile sources of new union members, and unions with a track record of success in both the public and private sectors may be best positioned to stem the long-term decline in American union density.

Solving Problems and Transforming Relationships The Bifocal Approach to Mediation

Mediation is rapidly becoming the dispute resolution technique of choice in public administration. This researche xamines the ways in whichfeder al mediators approachdis pute resolution in labormanagement relations. The analyses are based on semistructured interviews that were conducted with 15 mediators at the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS). Mediators’descriptions of the mediation process are evaluated withr espect to three models: problem solving, transformative, and bifocal. Given the success of the FMCS at mediating a widening variety of disputes, the results of this study should generalize to other dispute resolution contexts. Practical implications of this research are as follows: (a) Mediators should adopt a bifocal approach, simultaneously attending to overarching relationship issues as well as the concrete, immediate issues in dispute; (b) the parties to a dispute must be actively engaged in the mediation process; (c) conflict resolution and collaborative problem solving is a long-term affair; and (d) public administrators involved in dispute resolution and collaborative problem solving should be prepared to take small steps.

Insights from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service

In recent years, mediation has become increasingly popular as a means to resolve conflict. One important issue that arises out of the recent explosive growth in the practice of mediation is. what do mediators need to know in order to assist the parties in resolving their conflicts? This research attemtps to identify the determinants of mediator competence by examining the knowledge, skills and abilities of mediators in public sector labor relations. The research focuses on the core competencies requirements for mediators with the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service and suggests which of the competencies may be applicable to mediation in other contexts.

E-Government Versus E-Business: A Comparison of Online Recruitment in the Public and Private Sectors

In this study, the authors assessed the usability of e-recruitment websites in the 50 states and the 50 largest American businesses. It is found that states were much less likely than businesses to accept online job applications. For example, it is impossible to apply online for a state government position in the three largest states. When it was possible to apply online for a state government job, the websites tended to be less user-friendly and informative than their private-sector counterparts. The major exception to this pattern was that the state government websites tended to be less secretive about pay rates. Because of the digital divide, state governments cannot rely exclusively on online applications. However, state governments should be able to offer a more advanced online job application process. The authors conclude by discussing implications for e-democracy, offering suggestions for research and practice, and identifying the two states with the least advanced recruitment practices.

How the west was won: an inside view of the seiuʼs strategies and tactics for organizing home care workers in oregon

Using participatory action research, this paper explains how the Service Employees International Union and community groups collaborated to organize home care workers in Oregon. The tactics used include policy borrowing and tinkering, a ballot initiative, coalition building, lobbying, and legislative politics. This approach to organizing low-wage human service providers has important implications for other unions. Home care workers are similar to many other human service providers because the funding stream for their jobs is public. In essence, they are quasi-public sector employees. The tactics employed by the SEIU may serve as a “handle” for organizing other human service workers, who are employed by nongovernmental organizations, but are paid through federal, state, and local government funds.

Technology-based approaches to preventing youth violence: a formative evaluation of program development and implementation in four communities

This study uses implementation research and case study methodologies to evaluate the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Services Youth Initiative in four communities. In each location, information technology was used to involve stakeholders in developing solutions to the youth violence problem. The purpose of this article is to document the different approaches to program development and implementation across cases and provide feedback to policy makers and program stakeholders that can be used to make future improvements. The programs are assessed using the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions Best Practices of Youth Violence Prevention, and feedback for improvement is provided. The biggest successes include assessing the nature and extent of youth violence in local communities, identifying those who would benefit from intervention, and deciding how to reach out to participants. Establishing clear goals proved to be the biggest challenge.

Contracting, performance management, and accountability: Political symbolism versus good governance

As state governments expand the use of private contractors to provide public services, they create challenges to performance management and accountability. Using the framework of accountability as a social relationship, we evaluate New Jersey’s oversight practices. We combine data from interviews and observation with a comprehensive analysis of the institutional framework. We raise two key questions. First, what causes New Jersey to neglect its performance management responsibilities? Second, how can New Jersey and other states strengthen their performance management and accountability practices? We posit that the state must retain some level of internal monitoring capacity as a core element of government. Effective oversight requires rebuilding administrative capacity and implementing ongoing, flexible, relational contract management that involves key stakeholders and does not put the entire burden of performance measurement on direct service providers. In this way, performance management and accountability can be linked together as tools for reflection and learning.

Predictors of Student Withdrawal from a Self-Paced Degree Program

Abstract Self-paced post-secondary studies are expected to become much more common in the near future, yet little is known about the causes of student withdrawal from such programs. This paper studies student withdrawal from an entire degree program rather than a particular course, examining both qualitative and quantitative data. We find that staff behaviors and perceived educational quality are related to the likelihood of withdrawal. Demographic characteristics (gender, full-time employment, and marital status) are unrelated to the likelihood of withdrawal. Implications for research and practice are also discussed.

Public sector unions, democracy, and citizenship at work

Abstract Since the 1970s, governments around the world have been engaged in a conflict over the appropriate role of public services in society. In the U.S. and elsewhere, public services have faced pressures to restructure, reduce the size of government, and make government more ‘business-like.’ This paper examines how the evolution of public services and public sector unions shaped the distinctive character of public sector industrial relations in the U.S. Next it demonstrates how this distinctive character made public services and public sector unions vulnerable to neoliberal attacks and New Public Management reforms. It concludes by theorizing about how the frameworks of citizenship at work and union renewal may be used to strengthen the essential identity and restore the positive role that public sector unions have traditionally played in society.