Thai, Khi V.

Research and a review of the related literature indicate that the United States defense industry has had a long history of unethical and illegal business practices. Recent polls find that most Americans believe that their nation's weapon acquisition system is one of the worst managed activities in the public or private sectors. The perception of our government as well as the general public is that the defense industry is neither efficient nor honestly managed. Although the defense acquisition process has been the subject of many reform efforts, it is reasonable to ask whether these reform efforts have had any success. The Defense Industry Initiatives on Business Ethics and Conduct, commonly known as DII, was the defense industry's program response to the concern regarding ethical business practices in defense procurement. This study performs an evaluation of the Defense Industry Initiative on Business Ethics and Conduct in an attempt to determine the impact of this self-governed compliance program. For an overall industry perspective regarding ethical business practices, interrupted time series analysis was employed to determine what effect DII had on reducing unethical behavior in defense procurement. In addition, members of the DII, non-DII member defense firms, government procurement agencies (all services), government oversight agencies, Pentagon officials, and Congressional staffs were surveyed to draw comparisons between the members of DII and these other non-DII groups. The survey addressed questions related to the Defense Industry Initiative, the existing regulations that attempt to deter unethical procurement practices, and the characteristics of the compliance program.

An information system is defined as "a system that uses information technology to capture, transmit, store, retrieve, manipulate, or display information used in one or more business processes" (Alter, 1996, p. 61). The use of information systems (IS) in local governments has dramatically increased and diversified over the past ten years. Because IS expenditures are expected to increase, IS management will be a key issue in city governments. In order to explore IS management and outsourcing in American city governments, three theoretical perspectives and three models are employed. The three theoretical perspectives influencing IS outsourcing are (1) economic factors, (2) diffusion of innovation, and (3) organizational factors. The three models focus on three factors: (1) the percentage of total city budget allocated to total IS expenditure, (2) the percentage of total IS budget allocated to IS outsourcing expenditures, and (3) the percentage of total IS budget allocated to each IS function. In Model 1, the findings show that the population size of city government is inversely related to the total percentage of city budget allocated to total IS expenditures: as the population size of city government increases, the percentage of the total budget of the city government allocated to IS expenditures decreases. In Model 2, three theories to explain decisions regarding IS outsourcing are used. Economic factors influencing IS outsourcing decisions are when: (1) pressure to reduce cost is important, (2) access to cutting-edge technology is important, (3) IS requires a long time for the in-house staff to learn, and, (4) IS facilities are not available. However, city administrators did not express a concern about the loss of control of strategic applications, about being locked into a contract, or even about added costs for business or technology changes when their IS is outsourced. Theories of innovation diffusion includes several factors. The findings show that city IS administrators do learn about IS outsourcing from neighboring governments. Organizational factors that can potentially influence the IS outsourcing decision include the type and population size of city government, available resources, and internal transaction costs. IS outsourcing expenditure as a percentage of total IS expenditure does not vary with the type and size of city government, a finding which requires further investigation. The analysis of different types and sizes of city governments appears in Model 3. When more resources are available to the IS department, the city government is likely to hire IS experts, provide facilities, and engage in a higher rate of insourcing. Internal transaction costs measured by time delays are inversely related to the expenditures on IS outsourcing. In Model 3, IS outsourcing expenditure by function as a percentage of total IS expenditure, three theoretical perspectives are employed to explain this analysis. In the category of economic factors influencing IS outsourcing, asset-non specific IS functions such as data processing/operations and network/telecommunications are outsourced in order to reduce cost while asset-specific IS functions, such as application development/maintenance, are outsourced in order to gain access to cutting-edge technology. With respect to whether theories of innovation diffusion explain the IS outsourcing decision, the findings show that city governments investigate other neighboring governments to determine whether there have been IS outsourcing decisions in the areas of data processing/operations, network/telecommunication, and application development/maintenance. According to the findings, first, small city governments tend to allocate a higher IS outsourcing expenditure as a percentage of total IS expenditure to than do large city governments. Second, large city governments tend to allocate a lower percentage of IS outsourcing expenditure to systems planning/management because large city governments tend to set up this IS function within the organization and, thus, spend money on maintaining this function. Third, the council-manager type of city governments tend to allocate a higher rate of IS outsourcing expenditure to network/telecommunication and application development/maintenance than do the mayor-council type of city governments.

The study examines the implementation of managed competition in Florida as a legislated, decentralized, public-private partnership having the characteristics of a network. The policy subsystem model of Milward and Wamsley was used to examine the network, the network structure, the reasons and rewards for participation, and the normative theory that holds the CHPA network together. A snowballing interview procedure was used to reconstruct the unit of analysis and data were analyzed using grounded theory (open coding, axial coding, selective coding), descriptive statistics, and a matrix for network analysis. Findings on network structure, organizational and/or individual roles and participation provide public administration with important clues on how to survive in an increasingly networked world. In addition, the study demonstrates the usefulness of the policy subsystem model in examining public-private partnerships.

This study was conducted to analyze the impact of the budget deficit on key macroeconomic variables in the seven major industrial countries (G-7): Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Four models were developed to test the impact of the budget deficit on the variables of importance within the economies of the countries in question. The first model tested the relationship between the budget deficit and the short-term interest rate. The second explored the impact of the budget deficit on the long-term interest rate. The third model examined the impact of the budget deficit on the trade balance. The fourth and final model was specified to explain the relationship between the budget deficit and economic growth. The data utilized in this study covered the period from 1964 to 1993 and were gathered mainly from the international statistics of the International Monetary Fund. The data were standardized in the form of the percentage of the gross domestic product and the percentage change over the previous year in order to compile similar data across the seven countries. Multiple regression analysis as well as meta analysis were used to analyze the data. The multiple regression results indicated that the budget deficit leads to higher short-term interest rates in Japan and the United States. With respect to the long term-interest rate, the budget deficit led to an increase of this rate in France, Germany, and the United States. The budget deficit, however, appeared to worsen the trade balance in Canada. In Italy and the U.S., the trade balance improved with the budget deficit. With respect to the economic growth, the budget deficit is a significant variable of growth in France, Germany, and Italy. When the data for the seven countries were combined in meta analysis, the results showed that the budget deficit led to higher short-term interest rates in the seven countries. The budget deficit, however, did not manifest any impact on the long-term interest rates. The trade balance was worsened by the budget deficit and the economic growth improved in all the seven major industrial countries.

This dissertation explores the factors that have shaped the attitudes of department heads in the public sector of Saudi Arabia towards privatization. The study assumes that Saudi Arabia's privatization initiative is not ideologically motivated. Therefore, the attitudes of the study sample toward privatization must have been influenced by factors similar or identical to those found in the literature to influence the attitudes of other people outside Saudi Arabia. The results show that the attitudes of the study sample have in fact been influenced by two groups of factors. The first group is related to the private sector. These factors are: The superiority of the private sector's managerial practices, the importance of improving the image of the private sector to draw migrating and foreign investments and reduce international pressures for economic reform, the increases in the capabilities of the private sector, the need to widen the investment base and increase the participation of Saudi citizens in the local economy, the need for a more competitive economy, the need to create new jobs, the need for developed local markets, the need to improve the levels of effectiveness, productivity, and competitiveness in the economy, and the need to strengthen the local economy. The second group is related to the public sector. These factors are: The importance of solving the government's financial difficulties, the need to limit government interventions in the marketplace to give it more time to concentrate on other roles in society, and the need to reduce, or at least limit, the growth of the public sector.

This study analyzes the current practices of capital budgeting in American county governments. The analysis includes a determination of the factors believed to influence the use of a capital budget in counties. The bulk of the data for the study were gathered by means of survey research. A questionnaire was designed, pre-tested, and administered to a select group of county finance officers across the United States. Stratified random sampling procedures were employed in the selection of the sample frame. Limited supplementary data obtained from secondary sources were also used. Descriptive statistics, measures of association, and logistic regression procedures were used in the analysis and interpretation of the data. The analysis of the data using contingency tables and measures of association reveal a significant relationship between the dependent variable, i.e., the use of a capital budget, and several independent variables, notably: degree of urbanization, form of government, state requirements, capital improvement program (CIP), federal grants, state grants, and a periodic inspection program. No significant relationship was established between the use of a capital budget and the following independent variables: geographic region, risk and uncertainty, and size of capital budget or capital investments. Moreover, the analysis of the results reveals that counties with capital budget in contrast to counties without a one have a higher incidence and are more predisposed to: (1) utilize a CIP, (2) receive intergovernmental grants for capital investments, (3) consider risk and uncertainty in evaluating capital investment proposals, (4) have their infrastructure facilities in fairly good physical condition, (5) employ a periodic inspection program, (6) tend to have a large population (urban), and (7) have an elected or appointed professional administrator. Furthermore, logistic regression analysis was used to determine the covariates that have a strong explanatory power of the dependent variable. After testing several models, the parsimonious and best fitting model contained the following variables, and interaction terms: urbanization, state requirements, use a of CIP, interaction of federal grants and urbanization, and interaction of state grants and state requirements. Overall, the results from descriptive statistics, measures of association, and logistic regression analysis, seem to suggest that county governments that use a capital budget performed slightly better than counties without a capital budget when the independent variables are considered as performance indicators.

Purpose. The purpose of this study was to examine the third quarter 1992 employment rates and average wages of individuals who were Targeted Jobs Tax Credit (TJTC) certified in Florida during the third quarter of 1987. The employment rates and average wages were compared to a select group of individuals who were released for employment in Florida by the Jobs Training Partnership Act (JTPA) during the same time period. The primary research question concerned the effectiveness of the TJTC program, a tax expenditure program, compared to the direct budget program JTPA. Problem. The social goal of both programs was to encourage firms to hire those individuals who traditionally experience high unemployment rates. The TJTC approach was intended to increase employment incentives to employers to recruit, hire, and train members of specific target groups. In general, JTPA provides training then releases the individual for employment. Critics of TJTC have claimed that the employers have hired individuals who they would have hired anyway (windfalls) or that they have laid off non-target group members (substitutions). Employers have also been criticized for not providing the necessary training to provide for long term employment. Methodology. The study examined the employment records of four sets of individuals: (1) individuals who were TJTC vouchered but not certified, (2) individuals who were TJTC certified, (3) individuals who completed JTPA training and were not TJTC eligible, and (4) individuals who completed JTPA training, were TJTC eligible but not vouchered. This study included five target groups: disadvantaged youth; disadvantaged ex-convicts; AFDC recipients; disadvantaged Vietnam veterans; and vocational rehabilitation referrals. The economic status was identified as employment rates and mean wages. Both chi-square and log-linear analysis were used to compare the employment rates for each target group and each race, for both TJTC and JTPA one program was more effective in increasing the probability of future employment. Variance analysis was used to determine if one program was more effective in increasing future compensation for members of a target group. Findings. TJTC served many more individuals than JTPA across of the five target groups. JTPA may increase the probability of employment for AFDC recipients and Whites. The mean wage was found to be independent of both TJTC and JTPA. The disadvantaged Vietnam Veterans had the highest mean wage and the AFDC recipient the lowest. The mean wage for Blacks was found to be lower than that of other races.

After many years of substantial investments by the Saudi Arabian government in the education of its citizens, the results, especially in the area of employment, are felt by many to be less than satisfactory. While various factors may be contributing to the rising problem of unemployment in the country, the one focused on in this study was the relationship between self-efficacy and career choices. Specifically, the study examined the relationships between career decision-making self-efficacy, occupational preferences, and gender. Career decision-making self-efficacy was measured with an existing scale (CDMSES-SF). An instrument was designed in this study to measure occupational preferences. The surveys were administered to 476 male and 424 female undergraduate students at King Saud University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The results of the study found no significant relationship between gender and career decision-making self-efficacy. There were, however, a significant relationship between gender and career preferences for such occupations as accounting/finance, administration, computer technology, engineering, security, and social services fields; while in the education, health, and law fields no significant relationships were found. Career decision-making self-efficacy was not related to occupational preferences for any of the fields in this study. The relationship between career decision-making self-efficacy and occupational preferences is not affected by gender. The results show that, for males and females, there is no relationship between career decision-making self-efficacy and occupational preference within gender for traditionally male-dominated fields, for traditionally female-dominated fields, or for the neutral fields. The negative results of the study provide evidence that the general level of CDMSE is low for males and for females. The study concluded that the results of this study were inconsistent with previous studies that have reported gender differences in career self-efficacy in general and in self-efficacy for the female-dominated versus the male-dominated occupations. The study concludes with policy recommendations directed at helping students improve their CDMSE scores. These recommendations are career development programs, career counseling, job fairs, database information, and government financial support. Further research is suggested to enhance the findings and validity of this study.