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Managing in the public sector can be characterized as “managing on the edges”, between politics and administration and between administration and operations, as well as between external pressures and internal processes. Interestingly, this seems to come out most sharply, not in the upper offices of the capital, but down on the ground, where conflicting parties do direct battle with each other. But as these battles escalate, and enter the abstractions of administration as well as the peculiarities of politics, management gets caught in the middle. Describes three days in succession in the working lives of three managers of Parks Canada who sit in hierarchical order: a regional director, a park superintendent, and a park warden for the front country. Describes and compares their activities, in terms of a comprehensive model of the manager’s job, and concludes with a model of managing on the edges.

The federal budget process is a compilation of many rules and procedures, enacted primarily over the past century. Initially neutral as to budget outcome, that process, by the mid-1980s, had evolved to emphasize reducing the deficit. And the budget enforcement procedures put in place to control deficits, combined with robust economic growth, helped to produce historic budget surpluses by the end of 1990s. But in 2001, the economy slowed significantly. The budgetary effects of that slowdown, of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and other factors, brought a return of the deficit in 2002--- ironically, just as the budget enforcement framework put in place to control deficits expired. Now, lawmakers face the question of what new framework should take its place. This article discusses the evolution of federal budgeting, emphasizing the major characteristics of each period and what factors drove reform efforts at each stage.

The purpose of this study is to examine how the lodging market and the state economy affected by Hurricane Sandy have recovered from the damages sustained. Specifically, this study examines and predicts the influence of revenue management key performance indicators (KPIs) on recovery and lodging revenue in the affected states and the states’ economies. These KPIs include average daily rate (ADR), occupancy and revenue per available room (RevPAR).

Secondary financial data were collected for the states most damaged by Hurricane Sandy. Subsequently, pooled Ordinary Least Square (OLS) regression was conducted combining time and non-time dependent variables based on the states and radius from the landfall.

The results indicate that although the lodging market and the state economies have recovered since the onslaught of Hurricane Sandy, certain KPIs still need to improve.

Managerial implications are suggested in terms of dynamic pricing, market-based recovery, the KPIs, federal aid and facility management.

Despite its importance, research on the effects of climate change in the hospitality context has not actively progressed after Hurricane Katrina. Time and non-time dependent variables are combined in this analysis to gain a richer understanding of the impacts and recovery of KPIs on the revenue in the lodging market and the revenue on states’ economies. Additional analysis based on the radius from the landfall of the hurricane was performed to examine the impact and recovery based on geographical proximity.

This study investigates how outsourcing multiple public functions in a single contract increases the complexity of the services rendered under the agreement. We hypothesize that product complexity arises in these bundled service agreements due to several factors including diseconomies of scope, the 'lock-in' problem, and communications problems between the contractor, the government and the public. We investigate these questions using a textual analysis research methodology to examine the initial contract documents that formalized an agreement between the City of Sandy Springs Georgia and the firm CH2M Hill. The results of this qualitative study identified several ways that different combinations of functions increased product complexity. It also revealed ways the contracts were designed to mitigate the risks of outsourcing multiple functions in a single contract.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the nature of feedback offered by school mentors in three primary and secondary rural schools during pre-service teachers’ (PSTs’) professional placements. In the context of discussions about the need for more integrated theory/practice connections for PSTs which are “mutually reinforced by all programme components” (Teacher Education Ministerial Advisory Group, 2014, p. ix), it aims to examine whether certain contextual features of school environments have an impact on the nature of feedback offered to PSTs.

Through a phenomenological analysis of semi-structured interviews, this paper explores the relationship between certain contextual features of school environments and their impact on the effectiveness of mentor feedback practices.

It is suggested that teacher mentors are more likely to offer inquiry-oriented feedback informed by well-developed personal theories and values if they teach in schools where feedback processes are promoted as a central part of teachers’ ongoing professional learning. Professional learning experiences, which include classroom observations, peer feedback and a focus on using feedback to enhance students’ learning, extend and deepen teachers’ understandings and beliefs about feedback as well as their repertoire of strategies. Consequently, they are more informed and better able to work with PSTs using inquiry-oriented approaches.

Through an examination of teacher narratives, this paper presents two frameworks for considering the nature of feedback offered to PSTs by their teacher mentors: inquiry-oriented and instructional-oriented feedback. It argues that teacher mentors are better equipped to use inquiry-oriented feedback approaches and build growth-fostering relationships if they are engaged in ongoing professional learning experiences in their schools based on classroom observations and non-judgemental peer feedback.

While there is established research that explores individual innovations across countries or developments in a specific health area, there is less work that attempts to match national innovations to specific systems of health governance to uncover themes across nations.

We used a cross-comparison design that employed content analysis of health governance models and innovation patterns in eight OECD nations (Australia, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and the United States).

Country-level model of health governance may impact the focus of health innovation within the eight jurisdictions studied. Innovation across all governance models has targeted consumer engagement in health systems, the integration of health services across the continuum of care, access to care in the community, and financial models that drive competition.

Improving our understanding of the linkage between health governance and innovation in health systems may heighten awareness of potential enablers and barriers to innovation success.

Tropical storms pose a significant threat to population despite the noteworthy improvements in forecasting and emergency management. Following the effects of Hurricane Sandy in the continental North America (USA and Canada) and the Caribbean, the purpose of this paper is to examine the mortality caused by the hurricane, focussing on differences in human vulnerability between these two regions.

The authors developed a database of 233 deaths, consisting of variables that provided a description of the circumstances under which the fatal incidents occurred and demographic details of the victims.

Analysis of the database showed higher percentages of female and young victims in the Caribbean than in continental North America, where mortality increased progressively with age and the ratio of males to females was higher. The majority of deaths occurred outdoors especially during clean-up and in vehicle crashes related to the storm. Physical trauma and drowning were identified as the most common causes of death, followed by carbon monoxide poisoning, hypothermia and others, although substantially different percentages were recorded between the two regions. Overall, indirect deaths presented a higher percentage than direct ones. Among the latter, incidents caused by storm surge and tree falls showed the highest numbers. Power failure and car crashes were the most common cause of indirect incidents.

The paper provides a thorough analysis of the circumstances under which fatal incidents occurred. It identifies parameters that affected the vulnerability of human life to the storm and discusses the differences between the Caribbean and continental North America.

While extensive reading has been widely implemented in face-to-face settings, few studies have examined how extensive reading in online classrooms is enacted. The present study aims to explore students' voice in online extensive reading classrooms.

This brief report is part of classroom action research. It involved 3 undergraduate students majoring in English education who undertook extensive reading course during the COVID-19 pandemic. The participants documented their reading experience through digital storytelling (DST) at the end of the semester. Data from the DST were collected and analyzed using thematic analysis with narrative approach.

The story began with the recollection of the participants' memories in the past when they studied English. It then moved to students expressing meeting the intersection between challenges and opportunities when becoming an extensive reader. The digital story ended with a reflection on the action of the participants when engaged in extensive reading and its learning tasks. The present research suggests that extensive reading teachers should involve students in meaningful but flexible online activities to develop reading habit and interest, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ample studies have investigated how students experience extensive reading class situated in either online or offline setting. However, few studies have explored students' voices when they have to do extensive reading online during university closure due to COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, this study investigates students' voice from DST as a data collection technique.

The purpose of this paper is to recover the narratives constructed by the disaster management policy network in Washington, DC, about the management of Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy. Recovering and analysing these narratives provides an opportunity to understand the stories constructed about these events and consider the implications of this framing for post-event learning and adaptation of government policy.

This research was conducted through an extended ethnographic study in Washington, DC, that incorporated field observation, qualitative interviews and desktop research.

The meta-narratives recovered through this research point to a collective tendency to fit the experiences of Hurricane Katrina and Sandy into a neatly constructed redemption arc. This narrative framing poses significant risk to policy learning and highlights the importance of exploring counter-narratives as part of the policy analysis process.

The narratives in this paper reflect the stories and beliefs of the participants interviewed. As such, it is inherently subjective and should not be generalised. Nonetheless, it is illustrative of how narrative framing can obscure important learnings from disasters.

The paper represents a valuable addition to the field of disaster management policy analysis. It extends the tools of narrative analysis and administrative ethnography into the disaster management policy domain and demonstrates how these techniques can be used to analyse complex historical events.