Theodore K. Miller

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.

Federal Merit Pay, Round II: An Analysis of the Performance Management and Recognition System

A decade ago, Congress passed the U.S. Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 (CSRA). The merit pay provisions of the 1978 reforms were hailed as a means for making federal managers and their organizations more responsive, efficient, and effective. Merit pay proved instead to be demoralizing and counterproductive. Among its shortcomings were inadequate funding, pay inequities between managers and nonmanagers, and invalid performance appraisals.1 Congress sought to remedy these problems in 1984 by creating the Performance Management and Recognition System (PMRS), which covers grades 13, 14, and 15 supervisors and managerial officials and which was intended to strengthen pay-for-performance principles.

Using the Health Belief Model to Examine Differences in Adherence to Mammography Among African-American and Caucasian Women

Abstract Current studies indicate that rates of mammography use in the general population fall below objectives set by leading health agencies. This is even more true in the African-American community. This study used the health belief model as the theoretical basis of a secondary data analysis to establish differences in health beliefs among African-American and Caucasian women related to mammography. Data were obtained from members of the Indiana University Medical Group and from outpatients of the General Medicine Clinic, Barnes-Jewish Hospital, in St. Louis, Missouri. Data analysis was conducted using structural equation modeling. The results indicated that the health belief model explained approximately 13% of the variance associated with Caucasian womens compliance with mammography and approximately 9% of the variance for African-American women, with differences between specific variables that appeared to have the most explanatory power. These findings indicate that the model, although a good starting point, does not completely explain the differences that exist between health beliefs or behavior regarding mammography among the two groups of women.

A system model of stream-channel shape and size

Models of stream-channel development typically focus on the effects of discharge and sediment. Missing from the traditional models is an explicit representation of the mechanism through which channel cross-section elements interact and adjust. The multiple-equations model presented here includes the effects of mutual adjustment of channel characteristics, as well as of discharge and sediment. It incorporates both channel shape and size as endogenous variables. The results of analysis indicate that discharge has primarily direct effects on the channel, whereas sediment appears to have primarily indirect effects. Given that the adjustment mechanism is represented as a set of indirect effects, these results imply that the channel adjustment process is dependent principally on sediment rather than on discharge. The utility of this type of model in an impact assessment context is also discussed.

The relationship between channel shape and sediment characteristics in the channel perimeter

The hypothesis that channel perimeter sediment characteristics exercise control over the shape (width-to-depth ratio) of alluvial channels is well established in the literature. Schumm9s analyses of Great Plains streams constitute a particularly important set of evidence in this regard. A reanalysis of Schumm9s data using multiple regression techniques suggests that channel perimeter sediment characteristics play a minor role in the development of channel shape. Discharge appears to be the dominant factor controlling width-to-depth ratio in Great Plains streams.

An Assessment of the Equable Change Principle in at-a-Station Hydraulic Geometry

The at-a-station hydraulic geometry of stream channels that are in quasi-equilibrium has been associated with the minimum variance concept. In this study, minimum variance is viewed as a particular approach to implementing a more fundamental idea, that of equable change in at-a-station hydraulic geometry in response to change in discharge. An alternative approach to characterizing equable change is formulated in terms of variables transformed to z scores. The hypothesis of equable change is tested by imposing a restriction of equal exponents on a system of hydraulic geometry equations formulated in terms of these variables. This is equivalent to testing the hypothesis that the correlations between hydraulic geometry variables and discharge are all equal. The hydraulic geometry of 35 of 61 sites analyzed is consistent with the equable change principle, implying that these channels are in a quasi-equilibrium state. Constraints on width adjustment or velocity adjustment appear to operate in a large number of the remaining sites. Channels that are consistent with the equable change principle are compared across a number of characteristics with channels that manifest width and velocity constraints, in order to gain insight into the nature of these constraints.

The Senior Executive Service: Is It Improving Managerial Performance?

Stable URL:http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0033-3352%28199111%2F12%2951%3A6%3C554%3ATSESII%3E2.0.CO%3B2-OPublic Administration Review is currently published by American Society for Public Administration.Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTORs Terms and Conditions of Use, available athttp://www.jstor.org/about/terms.html. JSTORs Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtainedprior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content inthe JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained athttp://www.jstor.org/journals/aspa.html.Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printedpage of such transmission.JSTOR is an independent not-for-profit organization dedicated to and preserving a digital archive of scholarly journals. Formore information regarding JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.http://www.jstor.orgSun May 20 06:01:14 2007

STREAM CHANNEL PATTERN: A THRESHOLD MODEL

The focus of this research is the development of a model which explains channel pattern variability in streams. Since channel pattern is commonly regarded as a qualitative phenomenon, the research employs a logistic regression model, which is advocated as an alternative to traditional graphic/discriminant analysis, since the concepts of threshold and instability have very natural expressions in the logistic regression framework. The results demonstrate that channel gradient and mean discharge can effectively explain channel pattern (i.e., whether the channel is single or multithreaded) in an environment where there is a small range of bed material size. Sediment sorting is also shown to be related to channel pattern in the study environment. Models using valley gradient rather than channel gradient are shown to be distinctly inferior, and no advantage is found in using a stream power measure as opposed to separate gradient and discharge measures. [Key Words: fluvial geomorphology, stream channels, channel...

Multivariate empirical test of the Leopold and Miller stream order–hydraulic geometry hypothesis

The relationship between stream order and hydraulic geometry was tested using multivariate discriminant analysis. Data on the hydraulic geometry variables were collected for 103 streams of order 3 through 6 in the Pecatonica River drainage network in southwestern Wisconsin. The results indicate that the relationship is not as strong as suggested by L. R. Leopold and J. P. Miller. Channel width, depth, and gradient appear to account for the existing strength, whereas velocity and roughness make only a negligible contribution.