Making case conferences more effective: a checklist for monitoring and training

SUMMARY. The effectiveness of children's case conferences has been called into doubt. This article presents an observiation checklist for participants that may be used in training and may be adapted by individuals and groups in the field for monitoring their own effectiveness. It proposes a detailed examination of the preparation of a conference, the way discussion is initiated, the decision forming process, the behaviour of participants, including oneself and the involvement of parents, guardians and children.     

Auditing Nonphysician Providers' Visits through a Computer-Assisted System

Abstract

The Medical Department is using a computer-assisted system for auditing care provided by mid-level practitioners. Standards of care and corresponding checklist forms have been developed for six common ambulatory problem areas. These include: Respiratory complaints, headache, gastrointestinal disorders, urinary tract infections, male genitourinary problems, and minor trauma. The standards for the diagnostic process and treatment of each complaint were developed by a working group of physicians and mid-level practitioners. Providers complete a checklist form for each patient presenting with problems covered by the protocol. The checklist serves as the medical record for the visit. Checklist data is entered into a computer which audits the visit record against protocol standards. The computer identifies records containing discrepancies in the appropriateness of diagnosis, treatment plan, and physician consultation. The computer output is not the end of the audit process. It identifies encounter records which need further review. Because a discrepancy from the programmed standards does not necessarily reflect faulty medical judgement or care, these records are referred weekly to a physician-nurse audit team. The computerized system allows the auditors to focus their efforts on problems which may make a significant difference in patient care.

As a result, the Medical Department's audit process is both more comprehensive and more thorough than it was prior to the inception of this program. Since April 1, 1977, more than 15,000 encounters have been audited through this system.     

Toward working hypotheses of effective management: Conditions,thought processes,and behaviors

The purpose of this article is to develop a set of working hypotheses about the conditions, thought processes, and behaviors that define managerial effectiveness. The Deacon and Firebaugh model of managerial behavior is extended to form the basis for the hypotheses developed. The overall hypothesis is that differences in managerial effectiveness are specifically linked to the timing, completion, frequency, and duration of particular thoughts and actions performed by the manager that are focused on the allocation of resources to meet value-based goals and events. If it is assumed that meeting demands is an appropriate measure of managerial effectiveness, then validation of the hypotheses, the next logical step, can occur by correlating the conditions, processes, and behaviors thought to represent managerial effectiveness with objective and subjective measures of demand responses.An earlier version of this paper was discussed at the annual meeting of North Central Region Project 116, Family Resource Management, April 20–21, 1982, Columbus, OH.Deanna L. Sharpe is Assistant Professor, Department of Consumer Sciences, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487. Her research interests are focused on the effective allocation and use of time and money through the family life cycle. She received her Ph.D. from Iowa State University in 1988.Mary Winter is Professor, Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011. Her research interests include family resource management in the U. S. and Mexico. She received her Ph.D. from The Pennsylvania State University in 1970.     

Ethos et légitimité professionnels à l’épreuve d’une approche managériale : le cas de la justice belge

The conditions of legitimating and introducing a managerial approach in the Belgian judicial system are examined, along with their limits and consequences on legal professionals. The professional culture in Belgian courts has, for a long time, been reluctant to cost-analysis and an organizational approach from a managerial perspective. As in many other Western lands however, the judicial system in Belgium is now confronted with the growing impact of a rationale of efficiency. Accepted by certain legal professionals even though specific arrangements came under question, this process of change has brought to light a juxtaposition and competition between various types (legal, political, managerial) of regulations. It has led to: redefining the professional identity of magistrates, increasing the complexity of the judiciary's legitimacy and altering the balance of power between legal professionals. Models of the “good” magistrate and “good” justice have thus been redefined.     

Using a balanced set of measures to focus on long-term competency in internal communication

To advance our knowledge on measurement efforts in internal communication, this paper presented the findings from two research projects related to how we can measure the effectiveness of organizations’ internal communication initiatives and their contributions to organizations’ business performance. Integrated findings from in-depth interviews and a content analysis suggested that although limited financial metrics have been applied to the evaluation process, traditional measurement approaches such as feedback survey, focus group, and qualitative analysis have been widely used. Measurement efforts in employee communication have been largely focusing on employee participation, engagement, satisfaction, and productivity. The paper was concluded with suggested implications for corporate communication measurement challenges.     

Prevention of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) in office work: a case study

Twelve recently built office work stations, where jobs imply continued use of information and communication technologies, were analyzed for ergonomic risk factors. Based on a literature review of ergonomic recommendations for computer and general office work, a checklist was devised for assistance in identifying inadequate ergonomic situations, a process that was informed by pain complaints information. RULA (Rapid Upper Limb Assessment) was selected to estimate the risk of MSDs, considering the criteria of applicability and appropriateness to the case studied. This method was applied by an occupational health and safety technician to the most critical job observed in the workplace. Criticality was estimated through observations aided by the systematic use of a checklist tailored to the specific office scenario. Recommendations for change were provided for implementation in all workplaces in the office, in order to improve work conditions, and guide the setup of a MSD prevention training program.     

Nonprofit fundraising with virtual reality

An increasingly competitive fundraising environment and the new media ecosystem have prompted nonprofit organizations to strengthen their digital marketing capabilities. Recently, a few nonprofits have used virtual reality (VR) technology in fundraising, which raises questions about its effectiveness. Does VR work, and if so, through what psychological mechanisms? Through a lab experiment, the usefulness of VR as a digital fundraising tool was investigated. Specifically, we compared the media effects of experiencing the same fundraising video on two different devices: (a) a head‐mounted VR and (b) a tablet. The results revealed that donation intention, perceived vividness, perceived interactivity, and social presence were all significantly greater with the VR medium than with the tablet medium. Next, we tested and successfully verified the mediation effect of social presence on donation intention. Finally, we verified that a viewer's sensation‐seeking tendency served as a moderator when the device type influenced donation intention. Specifically, the media effects of VR were stronger for high sensation seekers than for low sensation seekers. This study contributes to theory and research by verifying the VR fundraising effect and identifying the key role of social presence, and it also provides important managerial guidelines for media design in VR fundraising campaigns.     

Validity in an evaluation of Healthy Families Florida—A program to prevent child abuse and neglect

Evidence-based continuums have become a guide for identifying the level of evidence in evaluations of home visiting programs conducted to determine their effectiveness in preventing child abuse and neglect. While randomized controlled trials are required for the highest levels of evidence, quasi-experimental designs have also been specified as an appropriate alternative. Using a quasi-experimental evaluation of a home visiting program to prevent child abuse and neglect that adheres to the Healthy Families America model, this paper describes and illustrates how types of validity can be improved. More specifically, we address how threats to internal validity can be identified and reduced through statistical techniques; how construct validity may be strengthened using state records to measure the outcomes; and how external validity is affected by including or excluding study participants. After applying a variety of statistical adjustments to reduce selection bias, we found that the outcomes favored the home visiting program and increased after accounting for covariates that contributed to child abuse and neglect. This was true across the statistical techniques (traditional covariate and propensity score adjustment) used. For evaluations using quasi-experimental designs, recommendations relevant to the illustrations in the paper are also presented.     

Intervention fidelity in psychosocial oncology

Intervention fidelity refers to strategies that practitioners and researchers use to monitor, enhance, or evaluate the accuracy and consistency of the delivery of an intervention to ensure that it is implemented according to how it was planned. The purpose of the authors in this article was to evaluate intervention fidelity in the psychosocial oncology intervention effectiveness research. Twenty-eight studies located in a previous systematic review on psychosocial oncology intervention effectiveness comprised the sample for this research. A treatment fidelity checklist was applied to each study independently by each author (MP & PB). Percent agreement between raters ranged from 68% to 100% (M = 89%). Overall, the mean proportion of adherence was 0.57 (SD 0.12), which may be considered to be moderate fidelity. Critical examination and applicability of the checklist in examining and assessing intervention fidelity were highlighted and discussed. Overall, intervention fidelity was adequately addressed in the psychosocial oncology intervention effectiveness research, and integrity was confirmed in the majority of studies reviewed. Suggestions for future psychosocial oncology effectiveness research were made.     

Constructing merit in the civil service: The French Ministry of Culture (1880–1980)

Merit-based procedures for evaluation and grading in the French Civil Service have often been studied with the idea that concepts and practices circulate between public and private sectors, domestic and foreign organizations. Less attention has been afforded the in-house origins of procedures for assessing the work of civil servants. This article focuses on the procedures gradually built up to evaluate government employees in the French Ministry of Culture. Light is shed on the difficulties of making good the Republic's promise to base merit on differences in talent alone. How is a civil servant's work to be measured? Are qualifications evaluated while seeing to it that as many employees as possible can be promoted? Focusing on procedures – imagined or actually implemented – for grading, evaluating and promoting museum personnel shows that the process follows a timing and modality that vary depending on one's position in the hierarchy. The evaluation process nevertheless creates ties between socio-occupational groups that all else separates. Ways to measure civil servants’ activity existed before the neomanagerial objection to bureaucratic rules and regulations of the 1960s; the French system for evaluating merit is, thus, not simply an importation of anglo-saxon managerial methods.     

Politics and performance: the implications of emerging governance arrangements for urban management approaches and information systems

Challenges to traditional public sector approaches to urban government have had an impact on various aspects of governance and management, including political arrangements, decision making processes, ways of ensuring accountability, the allocation of roles and responsibilities between public sector agencies and other potential service providers and between different levels of government, and the mobilisation and allocation of financial resources for urban development. These are discussed, drawing in particular on recent research on urban poverty and governance in ten cities in the South. The changing approaches to urban government and management have been accompanied by attempts to define criteria by which urban governance arrangements and performance can be assessed, which are summarised and critically evaluated. Finally, the potential value of a particular set of tools (GIS) for emerging approaches to urban governance is assessed. Their potential for improving the information available to all governance actors is recognised. However, because of their cost and technological and managerial demands, as well as the limited effectiveness of spatial planning and inequalities in access to information, plans for their use must be financially, institutionally and politically realistic.     

The Making of COBRS 2.0

Abstract

Recently introduced advances in microcomputer technology offer opportunities for improving child welfare agencies' access to powerful case assessment and program evaluation tools. This paper discusses the process of fitting a child behavior outcome measurement system to a menu driven microcomputer program. Traditional strategies for measuring outcome effectiveness, managerial priorities and operational constraints are examined in terms of their bearing on the introduction of new microcomputer technology. The developmental process is traced to show how these factors influenced the addition of a number of user options to the basic program to enhance its adaptability to specific agency needs. Initial user feedback indicated general satisfaction with the basic program and the applicability of its output, little or no experimentation, as yet, in adapting the system, and, a minor need to adjust the sequencing of operator activities to better fit the realities of agency work rhythms.     

Employees’ prosocial behavioral intentions through empowerment in CSR decision-making

This study theorizes and empirically tests a conceptual framework to understand how a company can better motivate its employees to carry out persistent prosocial behavior and develop positive organization-employee relationships through corporate social responsibility (CSR) involvement. A managerial approach, employee participative decision making in CSR, is examined for its impact on the prosocial behavioral outcome among employees and the relational outcome for the organization. Furthermore, a psychological mechanism that emphasizes employees’ perceived need satisfaction is examined as the underlying explanation that drives the effectiveness of the managerial approach. The study results support that empowering employees to co-construct CSR decisions with top management is effective in satisfying employees’ basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. This in turn increases the employees’ intention to maintain long-lasting involvement in CSR and improves their relationships with the company. This study provides important implications for public relations professionals and organizational leaders on how to improve their internal CSR communication and involvement practice and cultivate desirable organization-employee relationships.     

Ratings checklist for warnings: a prototype tool to aid experts in the adequacy evaluation of proposed or existing warnings

In the field of forensic human factors, experts are often called upon to assess and evaluate the adequacy of new or existing products' warnings or warnings systems. The usual goal of this evaluation is to arrive at a simple binary decision regarding the warning in question (i.e., does it "pass/fail", or is it "adequate/inadequate"). However, such a warning assessment process may in fact be quite complex and multidimensional in its execution. The existing warnings research literature has identified a fairly large number of warnings features or factors likely to have an impact on a given warning's effectiveness or adequacy. The tool addressed in this article is intended for use by a warnings expert (as opposed to one less knowledgeable and informed about complex warnings issues), and can serve as a reminder checklist to help ensure that the expert has taken into consideration the most relevant features or factors during such a warnings adequacy assessment.     

Construire le mérite dans la fonction publique d’État : l’exemple de la Culture (1880-1980)

Merit-based procedures for evaluating and grading civil servants in the French central government have often been studied from the angle of circulations of ideas or practices between the public and private sectors or toward foreign organizations. Less attention has been given to the internal origins of procedures for assessing the work of civil servants. This article focuses on the procedures gradually worked out to evaluate civil servants in the French Ministry of Culture. Light is shed on the difficulties of keeping the Republic's promise to base merit only a difference in talent alone. How to measure a civil servant's work? Are qualifications evaluated while seeing to it that as many government employees as possible receive promotions? This focus on procedures, imagined or actually used, for grading, evaluating and promoting the personnel in museums shows that these processes follow a timing and modality that vary depending on the level in the hierarchy. The evaluation process, however, does wield ties between socio-occupational groups that all else separates. Practices for measuring the work done by these civil servants existed before the neomanagerial objection to the bureaucratic system's rules and regulations in the 1960s. The French way of evaluating merit is not simply an importation of Anglo-Saxon managerial methods.     

Hip protectors in the elderly: lack of effectiveness or just suboptimal implementation?

Hip protectors seemed to be the only non-pharmacological intervention to effectively prevent hip fractures in high-risk populations. In contrast, recently published trials did not find hip fracture reduction through hip protector interventions. An updated Cochrane review concluded that the device is ineffective for community-dwelling elderly and of uncertain effectiveness for institutionalised elderly. However, some primary studies used suboptimal implementation of hip protectors, which has led to low adherence and ineffectiveness of the intervention. Shortcomings in implementation techniques have not been assessed by the Cochrane review. Therefore, reviewers should explicitly assess whether the intervention was well planned and competently administered. As a checklist cannot adequately assess individual, study-specific implementation flaws, we suggest narrative expert review and feedback to the authors of the primary study.     

A bereavement model for working with families of handicapped children

SUMMARY. This paper presents a model for counselling families of young handicapped children. It is argued that the process that parents go through following the birth of a handicapped child is akin to bereavement following loss. Therefore, professionals on a wide range of disciplines should be sensitive to the grief that parents are experiencing. The authors have used Le Poidevin s theory of adjustment to loss to structure their own theories and to devise a checklist to aid other professionals. Their experience indicates that the birth of the handicapped child may act as a catalyst for psychological growth in parents—mast particularly mothers.     

HAS ELECTRICITY REGULATION RESULTED IN HIGHER PRICES? AN ECONOMETRIC EVALUATION UTILIZING A CALIBRATED REGULATORY INPUT VARIABLE

The universalization of regulation has made it impossible to measure its effectiveness using traditional techniques. Researchers have used dummy variables, however, the spread of regulation has gradually eliminated the control group of unregulated firms needed for this technique. This explains why Stigler and Friedland (1962) concluded their study with 1937 data. The calibrated regulatory variable technique introduced here, on the other hand, can measure the effectiveness of regulation even when it is a universal condition. We find that electricity regulation raised prices during the period 1947–1966. A politically-motivated, naive policy designed to cross-subsidize residential users may have contributed to this failure.     

Lawyer and Counselor as an Interdisciplinary Team: Preparing the Father for Custody*

Traditionally, the mother received custody of the children unless she was clearly proven to be “unfit.“ The “unfit mother” concept has been superseded by a doctrine which would indicate that either parent has an equal right to custody, and the proper measure is what is in the “best interest of the children.” A father who seeks custody faces unique problems which the mother does not face because of her personal familiarity with the children, their needs and activities. Educating the father to fulfill these needs and to develop proper parenting skills is the role of the marriage and family counselor. Proving to the judge or jury who should be custodian is the duty of the lawyer with the guidance of the counselor. This article suggests areas which should be familiar to every father who is preparing for trial and provides a checklist for objective testimony.     

STILL FEELING PROUD TO BE WORKING FOR YOUR EMPLOYER? LONGITUDINAL CHANGES IN WHITE COLLAR EMPLOYEES' MORALE IN A TIME OF ORGANIZATIONAL RESTRUCTURING

Using two panels of employer-employee matched datasets, this study investigates the changes in work morale for white-collar employees—managerial, professional, and technical (MPT) workers—and how such changes are related to organizational restructuring. Findings suggest little changes in work morale of white-collar workers—more MPT workers in the 2002 data strongly agreed that they “feel proud to be working for their employers” than did their counterparts in 1991, but fewer of them agreed to the statement. Moreover, managerial employees have been increasingly akin to the tall organizational hierarchy, but display some resentment toward teamwork. In contrast, work morale of professional/technical workers is not related to the changes in organizational hierarchy and teamwork, but their positive reaction to internal labor markets has significantly declined from 1991 to 2002. The conclusion section summarizes major findings and discusses implications for future studies on this subject.