Category: Public Administration

1. For your assignment this week, describe what sort of research design and method you might use to evaluate your hypothesis identified in the week five discussion post. This assignment should take between 500-750 words. Please remind the instructor of your original hypothesis in Discussion Post #5!
Here you might choose to utilize one of the following methods:
Experiment: What is the treatment group? What is the control group? How will participants be selected (sampling) and assigned to groups? How will you address issues of validity and reliability?
Survey: How will your participants be sampled and recruited? How will you ensure that your sample is representative of the target population and what population is that? If you decide to do a survey field experiment, describe how participants will be assigned to control groups vs. treatment groups. Describe the treatment and provide at least 5 sample survey questions (with answer choices if closed-ended): describe what type of variable you will be producing (nominal, ordinal, etc.) with each question.
Structured interviews: Describe whom you will interview (elite interviews vs. interviews which are representative of a population) and how participants will be recruited and chosen (snowball sample, convenience sample, etc.) Provide at least five interview questions you might use, tell whether they are open-ended or close-ended; how you will safeguard against issues like priming and bias in the questions. (NOTE: You do not need to ‘reinvent the wheel’. You may re-use questions that you have encountered in readings throughout this course, reproducing the wording. Think about why re-using a question might be a good approach – and how it allows you to compare your findings to those that others have produced in similar situations. For example, are there surveys that were carried out that interviewed people who survived an event like Hurricane Katrina which you might re-use in talking to people who were affected by the pandemic?)
Focus groups: How will your participants be recruited and chosen? How will you ensure that your sample is representative of a population and what population is that? If you choose to administer a survey, you need to furnish at least 5 sample questions with answers.
Analysis of Existing Data (Administrative data, archives, documents): What existing data, surveys, or archives will you use? if a preexisting survey, what questions and variables are you examining? What statistical tests will you employ to test your hypothesis?

2. For whatever research methodology you choose, describe any anticipated issues or problems and how you might correct for them
Use the following textbooks for a reference:
Powner, C. L. (2015). Empirical Research and Writing: A Political Science Student’s Practical Guide.
Sage. ISBN: 978-1-4833-6963-1.
Howard, C. (2017). Thinking Like a Political Scientist. University of Chicago Press. ISBN:
978022632754-9.

Review the contract and filed grievance provided by your instructor in the file below. Comment on the facts of the case as you see them. Discuss what you believe are the underlying issues that the grievance may suggest.

Please answer these questions using the Attached Paper…what data will be collected and compared? What references will it come from? Is it scholarly and/or authoritative?

Elaborate on the current grant funding that the agency/organization that you have selected is currently receiving today.
What are some of the needs of this organization/agency? What areas of service provision could be enhanced through future funding associated with the grant that you are going to be helping the agency develop?
I added a previous discussion paper for you to work off of if need be.

The interview will be with the Sheriff of the corrections department as a they will be the bargaining official against the union. The assignment is to write a summary report outlining the person’s position, the issues he or she deals with, and any other important information you gained during your talk. The focus of the interview is to be around the bargaining process (not a particular issue). Needs to fully answer these parts: Who are the stakeholders? What issues divide them or have divided them in the past? How do they approach the bargaining process? What or who influences their position? I have attached the guidelines for the interview project

Each student is required to complete a descriiptive research report, in APA format, detailing the following items related to fire prevention records and record keeping:

• Describe the fire prevention records retention policy of the organization you represent.
o Include a discussion on compliance with the Freedom of Information Act.
• Describe the value and benefits of a comprehensive fire prevention records retention process.
o Identify how the organization you represent might use data harvested through fire prevention records retention to quantify the value of the fire prevention bureau.

* Use Times New Roman font size 12 for your class project.

* Use the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association [APA], 7th edition as reference to complete the class project.
https://library.municode.com/tx/nederland/codes/code_of_ordinances?nodeId=PTIICOOR_CH46FIPRPR

Clean Water Act
https://www.epa.gov/laws-regulations/summary-clean-water-act
The instructions, template of an action memorandum and performance research tips will be attached as a file. Please follow the instructions.
Performance Measurement Critique
(1) Select a federal agency program to examine from the list.
(2) Identify the mission statement and purpose for the agency you have selected. The
mission statement may not be presented in the document you downloaded, be sure to
check the agency website to ensure you have the correct agency mission.
(3) Describe the agency’s system of measuring performance, including discussion of key
performance indicators (KPIs) that address its mission. Take time to review:
a) The type of data the agency reports on, and how frequently? Are there input,
output and outcome measures? Offer examples of each type.
b) Are measures reported for every major function of the mission? Offer examples
and, if you think some areas are not covered, explain why that might be and offer
ideas of what measures might capture this information well.
c) How are measures examined in the Measurement Memorandum? For example, are measures clearly
tied to: (i) the budget, (ii) performance assessments, or (iii) the agency mission.
Explain your thoughts.
d) Discuss the techniques applied to analyzing the data from the measures (with
examples). Are there more ways to review the data than presented? Are there
things you would do to improve on the analysis and presentation? If so, how?
e) Give your overall impression about the results of the analysis, as well as the
effectiveness of the presentation.
f) With the above review completed, identify a program that the agency administers
and discuss the program’s mission statement. If the program does not have a
mission statement construct one. If it does, consider ways to improve on what
already exists.
g) Develop and present a logic model for the program.
h) Develop and present some measures for important aspects of the mission and
logic model.
i) Explain what (if anything) you have learned from examining an agency and one
of its programs in this manner – both in terms of the actual entities as well as the
exercise of developing a system of performance measurement.

(4) The critique paper should be 3 to 5 pages, and written in memo format to the agency
Director, single spaced. Use the Action memorandum format.
Performance Projects Research tips
Use government agency sources; academic articles and papers are not appropriate.
You should be using Federal agency websites and documents. You can go to the agency reports links.
You can also use Boolean searches using Google.
TIPS-
Examples of government document sources:
GAO
Government Accountability Office
https://www.gao.gov/browse/date/week
U.S Inspector’s General Offices
(just a few examples, for government waste, abuse or corruption)
Department of Education https://ed.gov/about/offices/list/oig/index.html?src=ft
Department of Homeland Security https://www.oig.dhs.gov/
DOJ https://oig.justice.gov/
FDA https://oig.hhs.gov/reports-and-publications/oas/fda.asp
HUD https://www.hudoig.gov/about/our-offices/office-of-inspector-general-oig
Treasury https://www.treasury.gov/about/organizational-structure/ig/Pages/default.aspx
NSA https://www.nsa.gov/about/oig/
http://www.nextgov.com/cio-briefing/2017/12/nsa-finally-gets-independent-inspector-general/144844/
Boolean searches
Using the google search engine, use the name of the entity with a space then the + sign, a space then a search term such as CDC, DOI, USDA, SEC or FBI or DOJ (Department of Justice). Example:
Rose Marie O’Reilly + sentenc*
• This will bring up recent articles on sentencing, sentence, sentenced. The DOJ report has not been posted as of this writing, but it will show up soon. Using the search term: sentenc*
brings up anything that starts with sentenc, such as sentencing, sentenced, sentence.
To get only and all government documents use this boolean search term adding:
+ site:gov
Corn Ethanol + site:gov
No child left behind + GAO
No child left behind + site:gov
name of individual + crime committed + site:gov
For example:
• Shivbir Grewal + insider trading + site:gov
You can also use multiple search items such as:
• Shivbir S. Grewal + insider trading + SEC
Don’ts:
• Wikipedia is unacceptable- I do check!
• Citing a source as: “per google” is quite unacceptable and will result in the paper being rejected.

A. Assume that Leslie Hunter, accounts payable clerk for Campland Inc., stole $185,000 by paying fictitious invoices for goods that were never received. The clerk set up accounts in the names of fictitious companies and cashed the checks at a local bank. Describe a control procedure that would have prevented or detected the fraud. B. The following data (in millions) were adapted from recent financial statements of Apple Inc (AAPL). Provides Business Data Compute the accounts receivable turnover for Years 1 and 2. Round to one decimal place. Compute days’ sales in receivables for Years 1 and 2. Round to the nearest day. Compute the inventory turnover for Years 1 and 2. Round to one decimal place. Compute days’ sales in inventory for Years 1 and 2. Round to nearest day. Compute the return on sales for Years 1 and 2. Round to one decimal place. Comment on Apple’s operations based upon the results in parts (1), (2), (3), (4), and (5)

Research and examine the Redistribution of Income and Wealth Theory. Discuss the following questions:
Is the theory clear and unambiguous? What clarity would you include to increase understanding?
Does the research on the theory support or fail to support the expectations? Explain your opinion.
How can others use the theory to explain events and test hypotheses derived from it?
How can you deduce predictions from it that can be tested in different circumstances?
How can you derive explicit expectations about real-world events from it? Is it related to the world in systematic ways?

Read Hassell & Settle (2017) The Differential Effects of Stress on Voter Turnout Hassell & Settle (2017) The Differential Effects of Stress on Voter Turnout – Alternative Formats
Listen to the podcast, https://soundcloud.com/user-735940457-95015381/anxiety) and answer each question please ensure you identify which question you are answering these questions
1. Consider the following hypothesis: “As stressors increase, voter turnout will decrease.”
i. What is the explanatory mechanism that the authors suggest accounts for the relationship between these two variables – “stressors” (IV) and “turnout” (DV)?
2. What is a moderating variable? Explain what the authors mean by the claim that “…differences moderate how stress affects an individual’s political behavior” on p. 534. Explain how the following intervening variables play a role in the relationship:
i. Opportunity costs
ii. resources to participate
3. Explain how the following concepts are defined and measured in the article
i. Habitual Voter
ii. Non-habitual voter
iii. Political efficacy
3. How convincing do you find the authors’ explanations and measures of the above concepts? How might you measure these variables differently? Be sure to suggest at least one alternative measure for each of the three variables.
5. In the podcast, what is the relationship between anxiety and trust in the podcast? Does anxiety have a negative or positive effect on people’s political behavior? List two positive and two negative outcomes.
6.Is stress an emotion, like anxiety is? (Could you measure stress and anxiety in the same way or in different ways?) What are some emotions that the authors mention in this podcast?
Please clearly number your responses and use the following textbooks as a reference.
The Effective Public Manager, 5th Edition
Editors: Steven Cohen, William Eimicke and Tanya Heikkila
Copyright 2013 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
ISBN 978-1-118-55593-4
The Effective Local Government Manager, published by the International City-County Management Association (ICMA