Using concept mapping as a planning tool: Child welfare citizen review panels

Citizen Review Panels (CRPs) are groups of citizen volunteers authorized by U.S. federal law to examine state child welfare agencies. These groups inspect policies and practices related to child protection responsibilities and are tasked with making recommendations for systemic improvement. Despite the federal mandate for each state to develop a CRP and the potential of these groups to positively impact child welfare practices, there is a dearth in the literature related to CRPs. Consequently, planning and evaluation processes of these groups vary widely. This study reports on the use of concept mapping (CM) to outline a framework for planning and subsequently evaluating the CRP in one southeastern state. CM is a mixed-method research approach that uses multi-dimensional scaling and hierarchical cluster analyses to explore an area of study. Through these analyses, the method creates visual depictions of conceptual relationships between ideas. Data yielded a seven cluster concept map that CRP members (N = 36) utilized for planning processes, and subsequently for developing an internal evaluation tool. Results from this study offer a unifying framework by which CRPs, and similar groups in other areas can utilize for planning and evaluation purposes. After a review of pertinent literature on CRPs, this article explicates CM processes utilized in this study, describes results, discusses lessons learned, and outlines apposite areas for future CRP research.     

经济全球化影响下的中国计划生育发展趋势

中国的计划生育是在计划经济体制下形成的,其特点多数与经济全球化的规则有着较大的差距。因此,经济全球化和中国加入世贸组织对中国计划生育的影响是全面而深刻的。在经济全球化的影响下,中国计划生育的发展趋势主要体现在六个方面。     

村民自治中的村级计划生育干部队伍建设

计划生育村民自治后村级工作职责明显加重,但是,当前村级干部队伍的整体素质尚不能完全适应工作要求,因此,建立一支高素质、与履行职责要求相适应的村级计划生育干部队伍是当务之急。建议在稳定村级干部队伍的基础上,加强培训和作风建设,并切实解决其待遇工资问题。     

国际合作计划生育结合项目与社区发展——云南罗平县结合项目实践的分析

根据云南省罗平县结合项目实施情况的实地考察,从社区发展方法的视角,对项目实施过程中的社区宣传、社区组织、资金筹措、效果评估和基层总体项目管理能力等方面进行了分析.     

Involving constituents in agency priority setting: a case study

Many government agencies have "constituents" who believe the agencies should hear and consider their needs and desires in establishing program priorities. This article describes how one involves interested constituents (consumers, industry, medical professionals, and state organizations) in the agency's annual priority-setting process. This participation has produced a number of beneficial results-some expected and some unexpected.     

稳定低生育水平与中国家庭养老关系的再思考

稳定低生育水平不会对家庭养老功能带来负面影响。主要理由是 :1.衡量家庭养老功能的标准已经变化。2 .家庭养老的本质是国家性家庭养老。 3.稳定低生育水平与家庭养老的关系不是单因素对单因素的关系 ,而是系统与系统的关系     

基层民主自治进程中乡村计划生育政策落实的困境及出路——基于基层治理中“不出事逻辑”的分析视角

本文对基层民主自治进程中乡村计划生育政策落实的困境及出路进行了探讨。基层民主自治是我国的一项基本政治制度,实行基层民主自治是发展中国特色社会主义民主政治的重要内容。但是在乡村推行基层民主自治的过程中,乡村计划生育政策的落实陷入一些困境,这些困境集中表现为计生政策与村民生育愿望、与村委会选举、与社会保障体系、与利益导向机制及与其它相关部门和政策的冲突与矛盾。鉴于此,本文相对应地提出了加强宣传教育、完善村民自治、健全社会保障体系、健全舆论导向机制以及加强政策的同向性与协调度等对策建议,以期推动计划生育政策在乡村进一步落实。     

基层政府的政策变通逻辑 ——以H县“不再生育合同”为个案

本文通过H县“不再生育合同”的个案分析基层政府在社会治理中的政策变通逻辑。政策变通不是对政策目标的背离,而是为了政策具有可行性。政策变通是社会治理中政策制定上的普遍主义和政策执行上的特殊主义相结合的体现。基层政府政策变通的初始逻辑是为了实现国家的政策目标,政策变通范围的扩散逻辑是为了尊重政策对象的习惯,基层政府不断扩大政策变通适用对象范围是出于自利动机以筹集工作经费,除了以上三种逻辑外,政策变通延续还有一个重要逻辑,即基层政府面临对象要求兑现知情选择法定权利的压力。这些多元复合逻辑驱动的政策变通不仅没有偏离政策目标,反而使取得良好的政策预期效果。     

Master Production Rescheduling Policy in Capacity-Constrained Just-In-Time Make-To-Stock Environments

This paper describes a simulation experiment to evaluate the relative effectiveness of rescheduling policies in capacity-constrained, just-in-time (JIT) make-to-stock production environments. Three performance measures were analyzed: average finished goods inventory, total units of sales lost, and a measure of schedule instability. Among the three loading methods we studied (level loading, front loading, and back loading), none was superior across all three performance measures. Level loading was the most robust, while back loading had an interaction effect with forecasting model and capacity level. Time fence scenario was found not to be as significant a factor in system performance as reported by previous research. Once an acceptable time fence scenario is selected, attempts to optimize this factor do not appear to offer significant improvement. It was found that higher demand variation, larger forecast errors, and tight capacity lead to the degradation of system performance. Judicious use of slack capacity helps a system to incorporate the periodic schedule changes typical of JIT systems.     

A Stochastic Goal Program for Employee Scheduling*

Deterministic goal programs for employee scheduling decisions attempt to minimize expected operating costs by assigning the ideal number of employees to each feasible schedule. For each period in the planning horizon, managers must first determine the amount of labor that should be scheduled for duty. These requirements are often established with marginal analysis techniques, which use estimates for incremental labor costs and shortage expenses. Typically, each period in the planning horizon is evaluated as an independent epoch. An implicit assumption is that individual employees can be assigned to schedules with as little as a single period of work. If this assumption violates local work rules, the labor requirements parameters for the deterministic goal program may be suboptimal. As we show in this research, this well-known limitation can lead to costly staffing and scheduling errors. We propose an employee scheduling model that overcomes this limitation by integrating the labor requirements and scheduling decisions. Instead of a single, externally determined staffing goal for each period, the model uses a probability distribution for the quantity of labor required. The model is free to choose an appropriate staffing level for each period, eliminating the need for a separate goal-setting procedure. In most cases this results in better, less costly decisions. In addition, the proposed model easily accommodates both linear and nonlinear under- and overstaffing penalties. We use simple examples to demonstrate many of these advantages and to illustrate the key techniques necessary to implement our model. We also assess its performance in a study of more than 1,700 simulated stochastic employee scheduling problems.