Process evaluation of an environmental walking and healthy eating pilot in small rural worksites

Small Steps are Easier Together (SS) was a pilot environmental intervention in small rural worksites in Upstate New York in collaboration with Extension educators. Worksite leaders teamed with co-workers to select and implement environmental changes to increase walking steps over individual baseline and to choose healthy eating options over 10 weeks. Participants were 226 primarily white, women employees in 5 sites. A mixed methods process evaluation, conducted to identify determinants of intervention effectiveness and to explain differences in outcomes across worksites, included surveys, self-reports of walking and eating, interviews, focus groups, and an intervention log. The evaluation assessed reach, characteristics of recruited participants, dose delivered, dose received, and context and compared sites on walking and eating outcomes. Emergent elements of participant-reported dose received included: active leadership, visible environmental changes, critical mass of participants, public display of accomplishments, accountability to co-workers, and group decision making. Participants at sites with high reach and dose were significantly more likely than sites with low reach and dose to achieve intervention goals. Although this small pilot needs replication, these findings describe how these evaluation methods can be applied and analyzed in an environmental intervention and provide information on trends in the data.     

"Show me your impact": evaluating transitional justice in contested spaces

This paper discusses some of the most significant challenges and opportunities for evaluating the effects of programs in support of transitional justice - the field that addresses how post-conflict or post authoritarian societies deal with legacies of wide spread human rights violations. The discussion is empirically grounded in a case study that assesses the efforts of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and one of its Guatemalan partners to evaluate the effects of a museum exposition that is attempting to recast historic memory and challenge racist attitudes in post-conflict Guatemala. The paper argues that despite the increasing trend to fund transitional justice programs, many international aid donors are stuck in traditional and arguably orthodox paradigms of program evaluation. This is having a negative effect not only upon the administration of aid but also upon how transitional justice research is perceived and valued by local populations. The case study experience indicates that there is no perfect evaluation model or approach for evaluating transitional justice programming - only choices to be made by commissioners of evaluation, evaluators, and those being evaluated. These are profoundly influenced by the extreme politics and moral values that define transitional justice settings as contested spaces in which calls to remember the tragic past must be balanced with aspirations to re-build a hopeful future.     

A critical review on current practices of the monitoring and evaluation in the preparation of strategic urban plans within the Egyptian context

Worldwide, strategic urban planning is found in very different contexts and planning schemes, where it is always a tool strongly linked to enhancing urban management. Under the umbrella of strategic urban planning different approaches can be perceived, in which within these broad shared characteristics there are significant variations. A key component in the strategic urban planning process is the monitoring and evaluation (M&E) element and these differences can be seen in the way that M&E is approached. Egypt is currently on the track to reform its planning system shifting from the conventional master plans towards strategic urban plans (SUPs). This paper reflects on the current practices of M&E the preparation of SUPs within the Egyptian context. It sheds light on the strengths and weaknesses of the employed techniques and concludes with some recommendations to improve the process of M&E, which builds upon the strengths in the employed techniques.     

Potential of decentralized wastewater management for urban development: Case of Bangkok

Decentralized wastewater management (DWWM) has recently gained much attention in wastewater management (WWM) due to its build-as-you-go principal. Rapid urban development and the widespread impact of wastewater require sustainable ways to test the DWWM approach. This paper aims to examine and discuss the potential of Bangkok’s current WWM approaches for urban development, focusing on decentralized management approaches. General WWM approaches were examined using case study research methods. Three WWM cases were selected for detailed investigation. Residential wastewater user surveys and expert interviews were used to support system performance findings of service providers and recipients, as well as to draw lessons learned. Results show that DWWM is economically and technically efficient, demonstrating potential for sustainable urban development (SUD) in the study area. The competitive cost found is a result of less sewer line, simple technology, and limited additional costs, while the high efficiency is a result of good operation and maintenance. Also the reclaimed water has been used for landscape irrigation of the urban greenery. Sustainability of the system lies in social value of public amenity it provides, and the urban planning implication that it could be an option for smart growth. The results also show that even in an inner urban area DWWM does not conflict with any SUD considerations. Thus, the study recommends using DWWM for new development within both public and private properties based on Bangkok’s case as part of long-term urban development.     

Professional identity: How communication management practitioners identify with their industry

This paper explores the current status of professionalization of communication management practice which emerged from a content analysis of 360 responses to questions exploring the nature of practitioner identity (or dis-identity) with communication management. The results revealed that positive identification arose from an ability to influence, emulate the professional values of peers, and cohesion with the wider practitioner community. Conversely, dis-identification arose from the poor performance of colleagues, advice not being taken, and media ‘spin’.     

Examining the interplay of an organization's prior reputation,CEO's visibility,and immediate response to a crisis

In one of only a few crisis communication research studies taking a relational approach, examining the effects of a company's prior reputation in publics’ responses to a given crisis situation, Lyons and Cameron (2004) found that both reputation and response profoundly affected publics’ attitude and behavioral intentions toward an organization involved in a crisis situation, using hypothetical, fictitious organizations and crises. Using actual organizations and crises, our research team designed a 2 (reputation: good vs. bad) × 2 (crisis response: apologetic vs. defensive) × 2 (CEO visibility in immediate crisis response: visible vs. invisible) within-subjects experiment (N = 102) to examine the variances in stakeholders’ attitudes and behavioral intentions toward a company after being exposed to online video that delivered a corporate crisis response. Findings were counter-intuitive: a defensive response to a crisis is as acceptable to crisis stakeholders as an apologetic response if the CEO is visible (or audible) in the response and if the pre-crisis company-stakeholder reputation is positive. Good reputation, defensive crisis response and CEO visibility in immediate response to a crisis resulted in the best stakeholder attitudes and purchase intentions.     

How organizational characteristics affect the adaptive tactics used by human service nonprofit managers confronting financial uncertainty

The way that nonprofits respond to funding uncertainty is crucial to their ability to meet goals and position themselves for future success. This article investigates how structural, managerial, and financial characteristics affect the adaptive tactics used by human service nonprofits during times of financial stress. These tactics include adding new programs, reducing programs or staff, expanding or starting joint programs, pursuing earned income, and expanding advocacy involvement. Using longitudinal data on human service nonprofits collected on either side of the 2002–2003 economic downtown, we find that larger size provides organizations with a unique ability to choose among different adaptive tactics, as larger size was significantly predictive of adding new programs, reducing programs, expanding advocacy, and pursuing earned income. Strategic planning was positively associated with innovative tactics such as starting joint programs or pursuing earned income. Financial stress or declines in an organization's major funding source led to cutbacks, as expected, but managers who foresaw these challenges were able to respond proactively by adding programs or starting joint programs. However, managers with more training did not respond much differently than did other managers, and organizational age and use of performance management tools had no effect in guiding organizational responses to financial uncertainty.     

“一体两翼”人才培养模式下《财务管理》课程教学改革

所谓的"一体两翼","一体"是以学校培养为主体,"两翼"是以满足面向国内、国际人才需要进行培养为两翼。对于广西地方高校来说,面向国际市场主要是满足面向中国—东盟自由贸易区对人才的需要进行培养。文章初步总结了"一体两翼"人才培养模式下《财务管理》课程教学方法、教学内容以及考核方式的一些尝试,以期对改革财会人才的培养机制起到一定的作用。     

ISO9000标准族在新建高职院校质量管理中的应用——以柳州铁道职业技术学院为例

十一·五以来,许多新建高职院校在规模扩张的同时,内涵建设却并没有得到有效改善,人才培养质量难以符合市场需要。适时导入ISO9000标准族,构建"全员参与、全面实施、全程控制"质量管理体系,实现依法治校,质量立校的要求,对新建高职院校提升内涵建设水平、提高教育教学质量起到了推动和促进作用。     

人力资源管理专业结构化职业技能培养方案设计

从培养目标、培养内容、培养方式、技能考核等方面出发,着重探讨了基于校企合作的能力培养模式,提出了人力资源管理专业结构化职业技能培养的整体方案。