Strategic Management and the Performance of Public Organizations: Testing Venerable Ideas against Recent Theories

Miles and Snow, among others, argue that strategy content isan important influence on organizational performance. Theirtypology, applied recently to public organizations in the UnitedKingdom, divides strategic actors into four general types: prospectors,defenders, analyzers, and reactors. This article begins by integratingwork on strategy content or strategic management into the O'Toole-Meierformal theory of public management. This study shows that strategycontent is a subset of generally accepted management functionsin public organizations. The article then proceeds to test thestrategic management concepts in a large, multiyear sample ofpublic organizations. The results show that strategy can beseparated out from other elements of management for a distinguishableassessment of its impact on organizational performance. Unlikethe predictions of Miles and Snow and the empirical findingsof Boyne and Walker, however, we find that the defender strategyis the most effective for the primary mission of the organizationand that the prospector and reactor strategies work best inregard to the goals of the more politically powerful elementsof the organization's environment.     

Transforming gompertz's function for fertility analysis: The development of a standard for the relational gompertz function

Summary The relational Gompertz function improves upon the Gompertz for fertility analysis by achieving a better fit in the tails of the distribution. This is obtained by a transformation of the age scale corresponding to an empirical standard. This standard is developed from Coale and Trussell's model and is appropriate for use with populations of high fertility. The model is tested on two sets of data and is shown to produce good estimates of completed fertility even for data truncated at quite early ages. Good results are also obtained for declining fertility.     

Estimating multivariate random effects without replication

This paper considers the estimation of multivariate random effects that are measured with error, but for which there are no replications. Using structural simplification of the correlation of the data, separate estimates are generated for the covariance of the random effects and the covariance of the error. An estimator of the random effects based on a truncated eigen structure is defined, and matrix mean squared error and its trace (risk) are analyzed, with comparison to the maximum likelihood estimator (m.l.e) and also to the Stein-like estimator of Efron and Morris (1972). It is shown that the estimator has risk which is smaller than the risk of the maximum likelihood estimator and the Efron-Morris estimator in most cases.     

Statistical quality control at statistics canada

Over the past several years statistical quality control methodologies at Statistics Canada have evolved frotn forrnal Product Control (k Acceptance Sampling By Attributes) to a more complete use of all quality control information obtained to achieve what is now called Acceptance Control. The use of this additional information allows us to continually adapt our quality control methods to the existing conditions of survey operations. In this context this paper reviews the general approach to statistical quality control and its relation to survey processing operations in Statistics Canada.     

Naming Your Child in a Same‐Sex Parenting Situation: Identity of the Child,Parental Status,and Kinship Ties

In Quebec, since the adoption in 2002 of the Act instituting civil unions and establishing new rules of filiation, same sex partners can be officially recognized as the parents of a child. They are invested with all the rights and obligations related to parentage and parental authority, including naming. From a qualitative analysis of interviews realized in 2014 in Quebec with 18 mothers and fathers in lesbian and gay couple relationships, this article examines the nomination processes of children born from gay or lesbian couples in terms of the modalities of entry into parenthood (biological, social, adoptive). Beyond innovations and specificities related to means of family formation where filiation is only partially or not at all rooted in biology and their categorization as same‐sex families, the name passed to the child is often considered by those parents as a means to consolidate “social” parental statuses and fraternal links.     

The etiology of low back pain in military helicopter aviators: prevention and treatment

Low back pain (LPB) is a major health problem among military rotary-wing aircrews worldwide. In order to define the etiology and propose remedies to LBP in helicopter aviators a review and critique of the literature was conducted. In-flight sitting posture and vibration generated by the aircraft were identified as high risk factors for LBP. Consequently, researchers recommended ergonomic modifications to the crew stations. The efficacy of these technical interventions has not been proven. As well, these design changes are not financially practical. Following an in depth kinesiological analysis of the physical demands of this type of flying, and preliminary experimentation, an alternative aeromedical approach focusing on the aircrew rather than the craft is presented. The authors propose a set of flight-specific exercises that might effectively deal with this problem. A thorough testing of this approach is envisioned.     

Social Status and Minority Recruit Performance in the Navy: Some Implications for Affirmative Action Programs1

Aptitude, motivation, training completion, and job survival measures were compared for 1,091 blacks, 192 Hispanics, 186 Asian, and 1,785 white recruits who entered Navy paramedical training during 1973. The minority groups were found to have lower aptitude and motivation scores, on the average, than the majority group, but tended to do as well as, and in some cases better than, the majority group on the performance measures. The effect of social status on recruit expectations of the working environment is hypothesized to account for the apparent discrepancy. Based upon these data, it is suggested that the Navy can select minority group personnel for technical training whose chances of remaining on the job are quite good irrespective of their aptitude and motivation scores.