Middle managers' attitudes toward employee assistance programs in the corporate setting

Several studies have shown that successful Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) have strong management endorsement. Strong management endorsement is defined as positive support in utilizing EAP services for themselves and their employees. This study focuses solely on middle management as opposed to upper or general management support. The study further examines success or lack of success of an EAP by the utilization rate defined as the number of employees over a year period who access EAP services.^ A analytical cross-sectional design was used to compare and observe differences between two groups of middle managers (utilizers and nonutilizers). Middle manager data was collected through a mail questionnaire. The study focused on identifying predictors that influence middle managers' utilization rate specifically: attitude toward EAPs, EAP knowledge level, attitude toward mental health professionals, age, gender, years worked as a middle manager, education level, training, and other possible predictors of utilization. The overall hypothesis states middle manager utilizers of EAP services have more positive attitudes and a better understanding of their EAP than middle management nonutilizers.^ As predicted, nonparametric bivariate results showed significant differences between the two groups. Middle managers in the utilization group (n = 473) tended to show more positive attitudes toward their EAP and mental health professionals and demonstrated greater EAP knowledge compared to the nonutilization group (n = 154). These findings support past studies on variables that influence EAP utilization rates.^ Further variables found to influence middle management utilization were identified by multivariate logistic regression results. These variable were gender (female supervisors), educational levels of employees supervised (employees with lower levels of education), number of employees supervised (greater the number supervised, more likely to utilize), managerial EAP training (trained supervisors) and awareness that problems do influence an employee's productivity.^ These findings strengthen the assertion that middle management's attitudes, as well as other variables may influence utilization. Study findings add new information about important variables specifically influencing middle management who utilize EAPs. An understanding of these variables is essential in developing competent EAP program training and orientation programs for middle managers. ^

Cost-benefit analysis: The ``gold standard'' re-examined

The dissertation reviews the recommendations of the Panel on Cost Effectiveness in Health and Medicine (Panel) convened by the US Public Health Service in 1993 in four areas: aggregation of costs and benefits, methods of estimating resources used, definition of population impacted and perspective used in cost benefit analysis. Financial data from a clinical trial was used to test whether different approaches in each of the above four areas would change the net benefit resulting from a cost benefit analysis. Differences in aggregation of cost and benefit resulted in the same net benefit, but not the same cost/benefit ratios. Differences in resource use estimation methods, population subgroups definitions and perspectives all produced different net benefits. Difference in perspective resulted in different and often opposing decisions as to whether the proposed intervention from the clinical trial should be implemented. ^

Disziplinarische Verantwortlichkeit im öffentlichen Dienst: Analyse der gesetzlichen Regelung im Bund und im Kanton Zürich

Ziel vorliegender Arbeit ist, das Disziplinarrecht und dessen tendenzielle Abschaffung aufzu-arbeiten. Dazu wird im ersten Teil der Arbeit geprüft, ob die Grundlagen des Disziplinarrechts - die disziplinarrechtliche Verantwortlichkeit, das besondere Rechtsverhältnis sowie die Treuepflicht - nach wie vor bedeutsam sind. Weiter wird das Disziplinarwesen als rechtliches Institut begründet und die Restbestimmungen des Disziplinarrechts werden veranschaulicht. Gegenstand der Aufzeichnung des Ist-Zustandes ist weiter, den Inhalt des Disziplinarrechts aufzuzeigen und dieses von der Administrativuntersuchung, dem Strafverfahren, dem perso-nalrechtlichen Verfahren und der Umsetzung ethischer Standards abzugrenzen, um festzu-stellen, ob eines dieser Verfahren in der modernen Verwaltung dazu geeignet ist, die Funkti-on des Disziplinarverfahrens zu übernehmen. Im zweiten Teil der Arbeit werden die gewonnenen Erkenntnis verarbeitet, indem der Rege-lungsbedarf aufgezeigt und ein gesetzlicher Lösungsvorschlag präsentiert wird. Obwohl seit dem Abschluss der Dissertation wesentliche Änderungen in der Gesetzgebung vollzogen wurden, bleibt die Analyse in den Grundzügen relevant und die darauf gestützte Diskussion grundsätzlicher Fragen als Diskussionsgrundlage der disziplinarrechtlichen Ver-antwortlichkeit wesentlich. Die gewonnenen Erkenntnisse dienen dazu, interdisziplinäre Lö-sungen zu entwickeln, welche langfristig institutionelle Ordnung sicherzustellen und das Ver-trauen der Bevölkerung in staatliche Institutionen aufrecht zu erhalten vermögen.

Public service motivation and performance: a critical perspective

Purpose – A growing body of literature points to the importance of public service motivation (PSM) for the performance of public organizations. The purpose of this paper is to assess the method predominantly used for studying this linkage by comparing the findings it yields without and with a correction suggested by Brewer (2006), which removes the common-method bias arising from employee-specific response tendencies. Design/methodology/approach – First, the authors conduct a systematic review of published empirical research on the effects of PSM on performance and show that all studies found have been conducted at the individual level. Performance indicators in all but three studies were obtained by surveying the same employees who were also asked about their PSM. Second, the authors conduct an empirical analysis. Using survey data from 240 organizational units within the Swiss federal government, the paper compares results from an individual-level analysis (comparable to existing research) to two analyses where the data are aggregated to the organizational level, one without and one with the correction for common-method bias suggested by Brewer (2006). Findings – Looking at the Attraction to Policy-Making dimension of PSM, there is an interesting contrast: While this variable is positively correlated with performance in both the individual-level analysis and the aggregated data analysis without the correction for common-method bias, it is not statistically associated with performance in the aggregated data analysis with the correction. Originality/value – The analysis is the first to assess the robustness of the performance-PSM linkage to a correction for common-method bias. The findings place the validity of at least one part of the individual-level linkage between PSM and performance into question.