Browsing by Author "Sedgwick, Donna Ann"

Now showing 1 - 7 of 7
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    A Critical Analysis of Family Leave Policies Across U.S. Universities
    Myers, Faith L. (Virginia Tech, 2023-06-01)
    The purpose of this study is to critically examine family leave policies across universities in the United States to determine whether and to what degree they rely on traditional notions of motherhood and family. Conversations surrounding the lack of equitable and adequate family leave should be continued by researchers, advocates, and policymakers, but the inclusivity of current family leave policies warrants critical attention. The reliance on reproduction to define motherhood excludes individuals who cannot or choose not to give birth. This reliance also attaches mothering behaviors and norms to feminine bodies which works to reify gender inequalities. This project utilizes a mixed methods approach. Using a qualitative content analysis of family leave policies from different universities, I examine if and how they rely on aspects of physical birth, heteronormativity, and gendered language. I compare family leave policies across states that are (and are not) considered LGBTQ+ friendly. Secondly, I used a binary logistic regression analysis to test institutional isomorphism, specifically examining to what extent coercive and mimetic pressures affect family leave policy inclusiveness. I found that most policies are gender neutral and do not rely heavily on reproduction, but the implications of those that are highly gendered and rely on reproduction are enlightening. I found that only 8% of policies included LGBTQ+ specific protections. The regression model revealed that isomorphism is not the greatest predictor of policy inclusiveness, and that universities in less progressive states are more likely to have inclusive policies
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    Milner's Theory of Status Relations and Cyberbullying Among U.S. Adolescents
    Yost, Lisa Robinson (Virginia Tech, 2020-09-17)
    This research examines the relationship between status and cyberbullying among U.S. adolescents. It distinguishes between several status variables and three categories of involvement in cyberbullying: bullies, victims, and non-participants. Utilizing Milner's (2016) theory of status relations, it was hypothesized that cyberbullying is a means by which high school students attempt to gain status among their peers and enforce the status hierarchy of their schools. The more rigid the differentiation between peer groups in a high school, the more likely there would be cyberbullying present. In addition, this research examined if any differences in cyberbullying existed based on the location of the high school in an urban or rural area. Using a multinomial logistic regression to analyze survey data collected from a university in southwest Virginia, partial support for Milner's (2016) theory was found as some status variables, in particular social association, group mobility, and individual mobility, were related to cyberbullying, but no significant results were found by location type. This research contributes a to new theoretical framework for examining cyberbullying and advances the discussion on the influence of peers in cyberbullying, which can impact prevention and intervention efforts aimed at curbing cyberbullying among adolescents.
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    Organizing Freedom: Collaboration Between the Freedmen's Bureau and Church-Supported Charitable Organizations in the Early Years of Reconstruction
    Lee, Kimberly Taylor (Virginia Tech, 2019-07-18)
    This case study examines why the Freedmen's Bureau, a Federal agency that existed within the War Department between 1865 and 1872, formed collaborative relationships with church-supported charitable organizations to establish schools during the Civil War Reconstruction Period in Virginia. This project examines the relationships between Freedmen's Bureau officials and the leadership of church-supported charitable organizations. Specifically, this project examines the formation of these relationships, the nature of the relationships that formed, the norms and values that shaped the relationships, and the impact those relationships had on education policy in the South. The examination of a historical federal agency through archival research methods generated findings that were consistent with current knowledge of the collaborative process. Preexisting relationships formed during the Civil War served as the foundation for collaborative relationships that formed between the Bureau and church-supported charitable organizations. These relationships were integral to the formation of schools that served formerly enslaved persons as well as other war refugees. Ultimately, political and social pressure facilitated the closing of the Bureau, but the schools remained, forming the foundation for public school systems throughout the South. Examining an extinct agency which worked alongside church-supported charitable organizations, shows that facets of collaborative governance occurred much earlier than presently identified, especially as it pertains to discrete steps in the collaboration process, specifically antecedent and initial conditions of collaboration, pre-existing relationships, and impacts of collaboration. The project also adds to the study of public administration as a field by extending the timeline of the practice of public administration. This dissertation also adds to the scholarship on the impact of race on policy implementation and administrative practice.
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    Professionalism in Policing: Do Increased Education Requirements Improve Police Performance and Procedural Justice?
    McMahon, Kelsey Peyton (Virginia Tech, 2021-06-25)
    With the increased attention to police brutality against people of color in recent years, the credibility of police departments is being called into question. Prior research suggests that a police force can improve their trustworthiness in the eyes of the public through prioritizing procedural and outcome justice. However, less is known about how to achieve these goals. Can education requirements play a role in increasing levels of procedural and outcome justice in police departments? By using rates of use of force rates as a measure for procedural justice and clearance rates as a measure for outcome justice, I investigate whether increasing the education requirements of police departments is associated with greater procedural and outcome justice. Data for this comparative quantitative analysis of police departments are drawn from the Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics survey (LEMAS), the Uniform Crime Reporting survey (UCR), and the US Census. Through multivariate analyses, I find that raising education requirements increases use of force and decreases clearance rates, and community policing training for police recruits increases clearance rates but also increases use of force. Community training was more likely to exist at departments with increased education requirements. These findings suggest that departments with evidence-based policing methods have higher clearance rates. Careerism from increased education requirements may cause use of force to increase, however, this situation may be improved by switching the department style from legalistic to service policing. I argue that police departments should implement higher education requirements while also altering the organizational goals of police departments to be service-oriented and requiring community policing training for all police recruits.
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    The Role of Community-Based Organizations in Sudden-Onset and Chronic Disasters: the Case of Jackson, Mississippi, USA
    Boyle, Erin Y. (Virginia Tech, 2024-05-24)
    In August of 2022, the Pearl River in Mississippi flooded and caused damage to the water treatment plant that serves Jackson, Mississippi. Jackson residents are familiar with water insecurity as there has been an ongoing water crisis for decades. The temporary closure of the O.B. Curtis Water Treatment Plant brought national attention and with it, an influx of funding and donations. This article uses the City of Jackson as a case study to learn from community-based organizations (CBO) representatives to understand different types of preparedness and response actions by using Organizational Learning as the primary motivating theory. This project uses 16 semi-structured qualitative interviews conducted between September 2023 and February 2024. All participants held a department director or CEO position within a CBO, and data was analyzed to document their responses and how they reacted in the wake of sudden-onset and chronic hazards and disasters. Numerous representatives shared their organization’s experiences responding to events spanning as far back as Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and as recently as the winter freeze of January 2024. The positions that many Jackson CBOs and their representatives occupy undoubtedly make them excellent contributors to learn from and better understand community-based disaster preparedness and response.
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    Smiling Under the Mask: How Emotional Labor Shapes Restaurant Workers' Experiences during COVID
    Thompson, Victoria Isabelle (Virginia Tech, 2024-06-13)
    This study examines whether front-of-house workers' experiences of emotional labor affected their turnover intentions while working a food service job during COVID. To investigate, I asked a sample of 14 tipped workers and two general managers about their experiences working in restaurants during the lockdown and reopening phases of COVID. I learned about participants' experiences working and their reasons for staying and quitting their job during the reopening phases. From interviews, I collected data on workers' perceptions of health mandates, their customer interactions, and their own assessments of COVID-related risks. I analyzed interview data to assess how organizational changes during COVID affected workers' performances of emotional labor and whether their reasons for leaving related to emotional labor being altered. Findings show that workers had to manage customers' heightened emotions while handling their own. From decreased income, increased negative emotions, and mask interference, workers' experiences of emotional labor were significantly changed. Importantly, organizational changes made many workers uncomfortable in their workplace and in following organizational demands, both related and unrelated to emotional labor. These experiences led seven participants to ultimately quit and six to desire to quit without doing so. I conclude that emotional labor was intensified for workers' whose wage predominantly rested on their capitalization of interactions with customers. Evidence reveals how organizational changes led to increased feelings of stress, emotional burnout, and exhaustion. However, the widespread occurrence of these feelings and intensified emotional labor make it unclear whether increased and intensified emotional labor directly created or heavily influenced desires to quit.
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    To Work Together or Not? Examining Public-Public Program Collaboration Between Head Start and the Virginia Preschool Initiative
    Sedgwick, Donna Ann (Virginia Tech, 2015-06-02)
    This dissertation investigates public-public program collaboration (PPPC) between Head Start and the Virginia Preschool Initiative and asks why and how, and to what extent PPPC occurs between these preschool programs. To frame an understanding of PPPC, the dissertation assays collaborative process dimensions, collaborative management techniques, and degrees of collaborative activity. In-depth interviews with Head Start and VPI administrators result in the analysis of 16 Head Start-VPI dyadic relationships and places the focus of this research on the micro-level actions of the program administrators. Each Head Start-VPI dyad is assigned a degree of collaborative activity along a continuum ranging from no relationship (one dyad), cooperation (four dyads), coordination (six dyads), or collaboration (five dyads), and is assessed in terms of the presence or absence of the collaborative process dimensions of governance, administration, organizational autonomy, norms of trust, and mutuality. Qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) is used to identify the underlying process dimensions that comprise collaboration at the varying degrees of collaborative activity. Collaborating dyads generally are found to exhibit all of the process dimensions, where the no relationship and cooperating dyads exhibit relatively few of the process dimensions. Coordinating dyads typically have strong structural dimensions but weak mutuality, or strong social capital dimensions, but weak administration. The dissertation shows how public administrators engage the collaborative management techniques of activating, framing, mobilizing, and synthesizing, and finds variation in management techniques across types of collaborative activities. It also argues for activation activity to include "history of collaboration" stories and identifies six framing types that intersect at being collaborative or non-collaborative in focus and mature or immature. The dissertation concludes with recommendations for current preschool administrators and future scholarship.