Agency Culture Research Articles

INNOVATIONS IN HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR OF UKRAINE

The article examines the characteristics of innovations in human resource management within Ukraine’s public sector. It defines the concept of innovation in human resource management as the introduction of new ideas, methods, technologies, and processes aimed at enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of managing human resources. The importance of studying this topic is highlighted, particularly in light of the need for the public sector and government bodies to adapt to the demands of wartime and the socio-political crisis, as well as the necessity to develop a strategy for advancing the public sector through the implementation of various international agreements. The main objective of the study is to analyze the specific features of introducing innovations in the human resource management system of Ukraine’s public sector. This includes identifying successful practices for implementing electronic systems, key areas for the digitalization of public administration, and promising research directions. The study demonstrates that several organizational, technological, and social variables influence the interactions between employees, management, and other stakeholders. For instance, technological innovations enable the automation of HR processes (e.g., talent management systems, HR analytics, electronic document management platforms) and the use of online tools for employee training and development (e-learning, webinars). Organizational innovations promote the adoption of new management models. The study highlights several priority areas for further development: strategic communications in public policy, shaping the corporate culture of government agencies, defining their mission, strategic goals, values, and vision; fostering innovative leadership; developing horizontal connections within organizations through innovation; and ensuring principles such as fairness, transparency, openness, and equal access through the digital transformation of public administration.

Debt Collection Model for Mass Receivables Based on Decision Rules—A Path to Efficiency and Sustainability

Debt collection companies buy overdue debts on the market in order to collect them and recover the highest possible amount of a debt. The pursuit of debt recovery by employees of collection agencies is a very demanding task. The aim of the article is to propose a rule-based model for managing the process of mass debt collection in a debt collection company, which will make the debt collection process more efficient. To achieve this, we have chosen a decision tree as a machine learning technique best suited for creating rules based on extensive data from the debt collection company. The classification accuracy of the decision tree, regardless of the possibility of acquiring rule-based knowledge, proved to be the highest among the tested machine learning methods, with an accuracy rate of 85.5%. Through experiments, we generated 16 stable rules to assist in the debt collection process. The proposed approach allows for the elimination of debts that are difficult to recover at the initial stage of the recovery process and to decide whether to pursue amicable debt collection or to escalate the debt recovery process to legal action. Our approach also enables the determination of specific actions during each stage of the proceedings. Abandoning certain actions or reducing their frequency will alleviate the burden on collection agency employees and help to avoid the typical burnout associated with this line of work. This is the path to making the organizational culture of a collection agency more sustainable. Our model also confirms the possibility of using data from debt collection companies to automatically generate procedural rules and automate the process of purchasing and collecting debts. However, this would require a larger set of attributes than what we currently possess.

From Medieval Religious Pageantry to Contemporary Social Messaging: The Medieval Cycle Plays in Honduras’ Teatro La Fragua

Using medieval religious drama as a model, Honduras’ Teatro La Fragua has developed a Gospel dramatization program that both reflects the practices of medieval theater in style and expresses the issues of a modern-day world in message. Their vernacular cycle plays are performed in public spaces by local people, written by and for the community, and staged in the streets and public spaces for ordinary people in both urban and remote rural areas. Medieval vernacular drama thus maintains an enduring stylistic presence in a modern-day counterpart as it underscores the Gospel’s message of inclusion, equity, and diversity while incorporating elements of agency and native culture.

Interagency Coordination to Manage Co-Occurring Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities and Mental Health Conditions.

The authors aimed to identify barriers to and strategies for supporting coordination between state agencies for intellectual and developmental disability (IDD) or mental health to meet the mental health needs of people with co-occurring IDD and mental health conditions. Forty-nine employees of state agencies as well as advocacy and service delivery organizations across 11 U.S. states with separate IDD and mental health agencies were interviewed between April 2022 and April 2023. Data were analyzed with a thematic analysis approach. Interviewees reported that relationships between the IDD and mental health agencies have elements of both competition and coordination and that coordination primarily takes place in response to crisis events. Barriers to interagency coordination included a narrow focus on the populations targeted by each agency, within-state variation in agency structures, and a lack of knowledge about co-occurring IDD and mental health conditions. Interviewees also described both administrative (e.g., memorandums of understanding) and agency culture (e.g., focusing on whole-person care) strategies that are or could be used to improve coordination to provide mental health services for people with both IDD and a mental health condition. Strategies that support state agencies in moving away from crisis response toward a focus on whole-person care should be prioritized to support coordination of mental health services for individuals with co-occurring IDD and mental health conditions.

Scoping Review: Digitalisation in the organisational culture of safety and security agencies

Digitalisation has a significant impact on most aspects of society. State agencies with safety and security tasks have to develop effective strategies to manage the opportunities and risks associated with technological innova-tions and increased networking. Emerging digital technologies have the potential to affect work practices and thus the organisational culture of such agencies. To examine the extent to which scientific research has addressed the impact of digitalisation on organisational culture so far, a systematic scoping review was conducted. Preliminary results show that the overall research topic is still in an exploratory phase and studies are primarily from the global north. The analyses show that the majority of studies focuses on artefacts around information data leading to respective work practices around data work.

A process evaluation of the NIDUS-Professional dementia training intervention for UK homecare workers.

This process evaluation was conducted in parallel to the randomised controlled feasibility trial of NIDUS-Professional, a manualised remote dementia training intervention for homecare workers (HCWs), delivered alongside an individualised intervention for clients living with dementia and their family carers (NIDUS-Family). The process evaluation reports on: (i) intervention reach, dose and fidelity; (ii) contexts influencing agency engagement and (iii) alignment of findings with theoretical assumptions about how the intervention might produce change. We report proportions of eligible HCWs receiving any intervention (reach), number of sessions attended (dose; attending ≥4/6 main sessions was predefined as adhering), intervention fidelity and adherence of clients and carers to NIDUS-Family (attending all 6-8 planned sessions). We interviewed HCWs, managers, family carers and facilitators. We integrated and thematically analysed, at the homecare agency level, qualitative interview and intervention recording data. 32/141 (23%) of eligible HCWs and 7/42 (17%) of family carers received any intervention; most who did adhered to the intervention (89% and 71%). Intervention fidelity was high. We analysed interviews with 20/44 HCWs, 3/4 managers and 3/7 family carers, as well as intervention recordings involving 32/44 HCWs. All agencies reported structural challenges in supporting intervention delivery. Agencies with greater management buy-in had higher dose and reach. HCWs valued NIDUS-Professional for enabling group reflection and peer support, providing practical, actionable care strategies and increasing their confidence as practitioners. NIDUS-Professional was valued by HCWs. Agency management, culture and priorities were key barriers to implementation; we discuss how to address these in a future trial.

Justice With Aloha: Police Interviews of Rape Victims in Hawaii

Rape is widespread across the United States, yet survivors often fear making police reports. Effective police interviews can reduce the re-traumatization of survivors and result in more useful reports. However, rape survivors (most frequently women) often have difficulty accessing procedural justice. Little is known about rape processing in Hawaii, especially from the police perspective. A sample of 887 sworn police officers from the major jurisdictions in Hawaii completed a quantitative survey that measured their knowledge of interview techniques, rape myth acceptance, number of rape cases, degree of collaboration with victim advocates, and specialized training. Results indicated that low rape myth acceptance, greater amounts of specialized training, indicators of a positive agency culture, more extensive collaboration with victim advocates, higher rank, and greater experience with rape cases were positively related to interview skill. Female gender did not emerge as a significant contributor to interviewing skill. Implications of this study include the need for: training to counter specific myths, improvement of collaboration with victim advocates, careful screening of police officers assigned to conduct victim interviews, better training to respond to survivors with disabilities, and the development of a work culture supportive to citizens reporting rape.

Living with Algorithms: Agency and User Culture in Costa Rica by Ignacio Siles (review)

Living with Algorithms: Agency and User Culture in Costa Rica by Ignacio Siles (review)

Book Review: Living with algorithms: Agency and user culture in Costa Rica

Book Review: Living with algorithms: Agency and user culture in Costa Rica

Conveying gendered power through bureaucratic websites: A symbolic analysis of mediated child welfare culture

Child welfare organizations work directly with families to intervene in response to community concerns about child abuse and neglect. Other aspects of their services are symbolically conveyed through online presence. This paper explores the mediated culture of state-operated child protective services agencies with a focus on bureaucracy and gendered power. Our findings reveal alignment between mediated cultures that signify rigid, penalty-oriented bureaucratic cultures and those states with the highest substantiated rates of child maltreatment. Similarly, this content analysis indicated alignment between more family-oriented collaborative bureaucratic cultures of online websites for states with the lowest rates of substantiated child maltreatment.

:Living with Algorithms: Agency and User Culture in Costa Rica

:<i>Living with Algorithms: Agency and User Culture in Costa Rica</i>

Linking industrial culture and human agency in three (post)industrial towns: Collective and individual agency shaping development paths

The aim of this article is to better understand the relationship between industrial culture and human agency and how it influences development outcomes. The study is set in the geographical context of three small and old industrial towns, where traditional industrial practices are embedded in the material and institutional environment and people's behaviours that form a distinctive industrial culture. Conceptually, we use a relational perspective to investigate the dialectic between human agency and industrial culture: we examine how industrial culture can guide human agency–through motivation, legitimation, or specific behaviour; and how human agency reshapes industrial culture through its actions–destruction, modification, maintenance of cultural assets. The results show that a strong industrial culture implies a more reproductive type of agency and a pronounced collective behaviour of actors, aiming at a more incremental development that reflects the existing place-based culture. In the case where industrial culture is thinner, new development relied on individual agents completely altering development paths. Our research places particular emphasis on collective assets and collective agency in the context of smaller towns with strong industrial culture and their ability to influence the direction of future development. In addition, we emphasise the simultaneous role of (individual) change and (collective) reproductive/maintenance agency, which can lead to stable development without major disruptions to the institutional or cultural context. Our findings are important for understanding small industrial communities and how the collective aspects of industrial culture require that new development initiatives are aligned with industrial traditions and place-based culture.

Alliance for Scientific Autism Intervention: System Components and Outcome Data from High-Quality Service Delivery Organizations

Promoting excellence in autism intervention is arguably more urgent than ever for the field of applied behavior analysis. To fulfill this objective, autism agencies must operate from validated program systems and do so with fidelity. Program components include, but are not limited to, staff training and evaluation of clinical skills, functional personnel roles designed to promote positive outcomes for those served, and professional staff-communication-skill repertoires. Data on client outcomes must be tied to implementation of core program variables; and, contingencies between the data on client outcomes and staff performance must exist. Furthermore, these contingencies must be yoked across members of the organization to ensure a sustainable and effective program model. Finally, data on consumer satisfaction must be collected and used to evaluate program components and agency practices. Members of the Alliance for Scientific Autism Intervention have implemented key program-wide systems based upon the work of McClannahan and Krantz Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 26, 589–596 (1993) for decades and across various agency cultures. Data collected by six independent educational agencies on client outcomes, program implementation, and consumer feedback for a 10-year time span demonstrate the sustainability of the model and support the importance of key organizational systems and the relationship between implementation of the model and high-quality outcomes for individuals with autism.

Pushcarts and Fountains: Masculinity, Agency and Labour Culture among Water Workers of N'Djamena, Chad

ABSTRACTWaters fountain managers and private porters are essential workers operating in N'Djamena, the capital of Chad. Striving to supply water to areas and households that do not have connections to Chad's official provider, the Société Tchadienne des Eaux, water workers are subjected to a regulatory framework which complicates already precarious situations. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork around water spots in peripheral and working‐class neighbourhoods of N'Djamena, this article argues that precariousness and constraints associated with water labour produce a specific form of masculine working culture. This culture combines manifestations of solidarity with a flexible set of unspoken rules and norms. Designed as a response to precarity, harsh constraints and uncertainties, this culture has managed to prevail despite high turnover among workers. It identifies water workers as a distinct socio‐economic group. By turning the spotlight on this original, gendered infrastructure of water labour as shaped by workers’ solidarity, interaction with customers and struggles against authorities, this article contributes to ongoing academic debates on agency, labour and natural resource management in urban settings.

Abstract 13094: Eliciting Home Health Aides Perspectives Towards Achieving Cardiovascular Health

Introduction: Home Health Aides (HHAs) provide essential care to adults with cardiovascular (CV) disease in the home. Yet, HHAs themselves are a vulnerable workforce with a high burden of cardiovascular (CV) disease risk factors, which poses challenges to their own health, and potentially their patients’. We elicited the perspectives of HHAs towards achieving CV health within the context of their job. Methods: We conducted focus groups and interviews with HHAs from January to May 2023 in partnership with the 1199SEIU Training and Employment Fund, a benefit fund of the 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, the largest US healthcare union. We included English and Spanish speaking HHAs with poor CV health, defined as having: 1) hypertension, 2) obesity, and 3) ≥1 other CV disease risk factor (self-reported hyperlipidemia, diabetes, smoking, and physical inactivity). Interviews were audio-recorded, professionally transcribed, and translated. Data were analyzed thematically using the Social-Ecological Model. Results: Nineteen HHAs from 12 home care agencies participated. They had a mean age of 57 years (SD 9.3), 18 (94.7 %) were female, 9 (47.4 %) were Black, and 7 (36.8 %) were of Hispanic ethnicity. In line with the Social-Ecological Model, 5 themes emerged. At the individual level, despite having several CV disease risk factors, HHAs’ perceptions of their health ranged from poor to excellent. Many were motivated to eat healthier and be more active but faced challenges including insufficient time and their own physical limitations. At the interpersonal level, the HHA-patient relationship influenced both aides’ and patients’ health (e.g., food in patients’ home). At the community level, HHAs wanted to connect with peers to improve their CV health together. At the organizational level, shift work, long commutes, and agency culture influenced their CV health. At the policy level, structural inequities (e.g., access to health insurance, citizenship) were barriers to CV health. Conclusion: HHAs’ ability to achieve CV health was influenced by personal, interpersonal, organizational, and societal-level factors. The findings can inform future, multi-level interventions, aiming to improve the CV health of HHAs and potentially their patients.

Strategies for Enhancing Governmental Public Health Workforce Well-being and Retention.

Strategies for Enhancing Governmental Public Health Workforce Well-being and Retention.

How to develop a realist programme theory using Margaret Archer’s structure–agency–culture framework: The case of adolescent accountability for sexual and reproductive health in urban resource-constrained settings

Realist evaluation is in essence a theory-building and testing approach. We argue that in practice, the theory-building potential of realist evaluation, review and research is not fully exploited in the field of global health. Our assumption is that the Structure-Agency-Culture explanatory framework of critical realist Margaret Archer could stimulate realist evaluators to conceptualize and systematically explore how structural and cultural conditions interact with programmes that aim at introducing social change. We propose step-wise guidance towards integrating the Structure–Agency–Culture framework into the development of realist programme theories. We present a worked example from an urban adolescent health study in poor neighbourhoods of Kampala, Mumbai, New Delhi and Cotonou. The guidance aims to bring to the fore the role of agency and context through the analysis of the interactions between structure, culture, agency and mechanisms. This is helpful in realist research in general, and in evaluations of complex interventions oriented towards social change.

Examining organisational subcultures: Machinery of Government mergers and emerging organisational microcultures

AbstractMachinery of Government restructures—transformations that create or abolish departments or move functions between agencies—often result in the misalignment of cultures and subcultures that impact business operations and customer service levels. An understanding of how subcultures are impacted during restructures is vital as they can reveal diffused microcultural boundaries that reflect highly problematic cultural tensions. This study provides rare ethnographic insights into how Machinery of Government restructures destabilise the delivery of optimal customer service by disrupting Business as Usual operations. Based on 74 interviews and ethnographic methods, the integrationist ‘DNA’ culture, subcultures, and emerging microcultures within Service NSW, a public sector agency in New South Wales (Australia), were examined during and after its merger with the Department of Customer Service. Microcultures were shown to function in a way that preserved Business as Usual activities and responsibilities to secure task independence, highlighting the importance of developing a conceptual framework for the detection and resolution of cultural resistance. Scholars and practitioners may adopt the framework used in this study to determine how, when, and where cultural resistance is likely to emerge.Points for practitioners This study critically analyses the ‘DNA’ culture of a service delivery agency in New South Wales during and after its merger with the Department of Customer Service. Service NSW's ‘DNA’ integrationist culture, the broader subculture of its ‘Support Office’, and various microcultures were detected. Microcultures were shown to preserve Business as Usual activities and secure task independence as reflected in backstage sites of enactment. The degree of intra‐ and interpersonal tensions experienced by Service NSW employees was opaque to senior leaders responsible for the restructure. Leaders and practitioners responsible for mergers should fully understand the changing nature of employee language and behaviour. It is advisable they act on the assumption that employees are experiencing tensions resulting from the organisation's disturbed social reality. Scholars and practitioners may adopt the conceptual framework and this case study's methodological approach to analyse a public service agency's various cultures, before, during, and after Machinery of Government (MoG) mergers or restructures, to pre‐empt, identify, and reduce cultural tensions, and should consider the feasibility of appointing a Workplace Change Committee. Workplace Change Committee Members act like first responders across impacted departments and divisions within subcultures. Workplace Change Committee Members manage emerging issues, specifically cultural disparities to ensure both the intra‐ and interpersonal safety of employees impacted by MoG mergers.

Addressing Community Health Worker Wellness and Self-care: A Formative Evaluation

Objective: Community health workers (CHWs) experience higher than average risks for chronic diseases and poor health and are disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic due to being from historically marginalized populations. Despite limited literature, these factors indicate a need for CHW-specific support programming for wellness and self-care. Therefore, we conducted formative evaluation using virtual focus groups (N = 5) using descriptive and interpretive qualitative research methods to inform a program called “HANS KAI.” Methods: The focus groups included CHWs (N = 35) and CHW supervisors (N = 5) to explore CHW-support programming needs and understand their perceptions of HANS KAI. Two moderators followed a semi-structured focus group guide with questions and prompts focused on 5 primary domains: (1) Intervention Initiation, (2) Impact of Agency Culture, (3) HANS KAI Meeting Details, (4) HANS KAI Meeting Topics, and (5) Intervention Incentives. Audio-transcribed data were aggregated and analyzed for each domain with inductive codes involving iterative cycles of descriptive and in vivo coding. Salient themes and sub-themes were developed based on the domains. Results: We developed 8 salient themes within the domains. Conclusion: Our findings reveal that CHW HANS KAI components reflect CHWs’ needs, may benefit CHWs, and provide insights into CHW-specific programming.

Hybrid ‘Authenticities’ in youth popular culture: performing costume and identity in the work of South Africa’s Sho Madjozi

The professional stage act of one of South Africa’s newest musical prodigies, Sho Madjozi, may be analysed as a quintessential Afropolitan example of the innovative and hybrid combination of music, costume, and dance in urban youth popular culture in Africa. This paper analyses the dynamic intersection between costume, music, and dance, presenting it as a crucial site where urban youth popular culture can reimagine tradition, while simultaneously demonstrating that contemporary African cultural identities exist in a constant state of flux. The paper borrows from scholarly insights on hybridity, identity, the Afropolitan and popular culture, as well as other writings in youth agency and popular culture, to argue that South Africa’s Sho Madjozi belongs with a tradition of contemporary urban youth performance culture that continuously resurrects and destabilizes elements of the past as it reimagines the future. Sho Madjozi’s unique style as a rap artist in Tsonga is presented as an illustration of the progressive role that contemporary urban youths in Africa can play as proponents of cultural preservation, even as they stand at the cross-roads between the old and the new.