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Why do countries intervene in other countries? This question has usually been addressed in reference to interstate war and civil war. Additionally, the focus of this literature has been state intervention into other states. We address this question from a different perspective and ask: why do states target terrorist organizations in other states? Using cross-national data on terrorist organizations and state targeting of these organizations, we identify several factors that help explain why some organizations are likely to be targeted while others are not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hating America - and targeting or killing Americans - at times seems like a mandatory activity for terrorists, yet only a small minority of known terrorist organizations target or attack American interests. Under what circumstances do terrorist organizations choose to target American citizens and interests? When do they actually commit such attacks? To answer these questions, we leverage data from the Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism's database on terrorist organizations and attacks. Our model focuses on two broad dimensions of organizations - their motivations and capabilities. Our statistical analysis finds that the factors that drive an organization to target US interests are not completely co-terminus with those factors that help to explain the pattern of actual attacks. The propensity to target and to attack US interests are both related to alliance connections and basing of US troops in authoritarian countries that host a given terrorist organization. Targeting is negatively related to the cultural and economic integration of an organization's "host" country with the United States and state sponsorship and positively related to adherence to an Islamic ideology. Attacks on US interests are positively related to cultural ic embedding, negatively related to economic embedding, and more likely when the organization is more experienced with terrorism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Though networks are an acknowledged "fact of life" and there is a growing literature about terrorist networks, there has been little rigorous empirical work done and much of it does not use social network analysis techniques. In this paper we examine what ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyzes organizational factors which help to define connections between members of policy networks. Evidence that resource dependence is a key factor in policy network connections, and in social structures generally, is discussed. The article focuses on factors such as reciprocity and transitivity, and the ways in which they can shape the political connections of organizations. Differences between the public and private sectors are described, and the responses of networks to crises or financial shocks are analyzed.

The article discusses how newly hired workers acclimate to an organization, and ways in which organizations attempt to help with their organizational socialization. The social networking aspect is emphasized, focusing on employees' efforts to acquire information and resources. Examples are cited from a longitudinal study of workers at the New York State Office of the State Comptroller. Some of the structural patterns which are found in social networks are described, and the influence of gender on social ties is discussed.

The article discusses the things that hold a policy network together and make it cohesive. While bureaucracies are held together by legal authority rooted in hierarchy, networks lack these things. Instead, they must remain cohesive through trust and mutual dependence. The authors examine the dynamics between individual and organizational social capital to establish a connection between social capital and resource dependence. They elaborate on a theory of enacted interorganizational relationships, which hold policy networks together.

In April 1984, 25 members of the Jewish underground were arrested by the Israeli General Security Service ('Shin Beth'), literally moments after they had planted explosives in five Palestinian-owned buses. Their arrest and sentencing brought an end one of the more sophisticated expressions of Jewish terrorism since the birth of Israel. Overall the group planned four to six operations (the number is not clear), one of which was the conspiracy to bomb the Muslim holy sites on the Temple Mount. The goal of this paper is to highlight that social links between the members of Jewish underground significantly facilitated the creation of this organization. We demonstrate that social capital in terms of networks, trust and norms, which are widely considered as a positive component of healthy democracy, can take a negative turn toward political participation in the form of terrorism. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For at least forty years political and policy scientists have been striving to create a conceptualization of policy and political processes that frankly acknowledges the role of public agencies and private organizations in policymaking. In recent years scholars have often referred to these social structures as "policy networks." While policy networks have been studied since the 1970s, only recently have the difficulties of managing these entities come under greater scrutiny. Studies of "network management" are designed to better understand the unique challenges of operating in a context where bureaucracy no longer provides the primary tool for "social steering." Yet most network management studies have failed to account for the "other" network that has emerged concurrently: the Internet. The Internet has changed the organizational, technological, social, and political context in which network management occurs and has expanded the toolkit managers utilize when seeking to shape (or "govern") social processes. This paper examines theoretically and empirically how network management may change in the Age of Internet. The first five sections of the paper develop a resource dependence framework to conceptualize policy networks and network management, examines the role of the Internet, explores how the four "critical functions" that Agranoff & McGuire identify in their review of network management are affected by the Internet, and introduces a series of hypotheses regarding the Internet's effect on these functions. The last three sections introduce the case data used to test these hypotheses, presents findings and conclusions, and suggests areas for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the federal policy impetus towards EHR Medication Reconciliation, hospital adherence has lagged for one chief reason; low physician engagement, which in part stems from lack of professional consensus about which physician is responsible for managing a patient's medication list, and the value of medication reconciliation as a clinical tool for improving quality of care. The Technology-in-Practice (TIP) framework emphasizes the role of human agency (individual action) in enacting structures of technology use or "technologies-in-practice." Applying the TIP framework to the EHR Medication Reconciliation context helps frame the problem as one of low physician engagement in performing EHR Medication Reconciliation, translating to limited-use-EHR-in-practice. Concurrently, the problem suggests a hierarchical network structure, reflecting limited communication among hospital administrators and physicians in regard to the value of EHR Medication Reconciliation in improving patient safety. Integrating the TIP literature with the more recent knowledge-in-Practice (KIP) literature suggests that EHR-in-practice could be transformed from "limited use" to "meaningful use" through the use of Social Knowledge Networking (SKN) Technology to create new social network structures, and enable engagement, learning, and practice change. Correspondingly, the aims of this conceptual paper are to: 1) Review the literature on technology use to understand how technologies-in-practice may be transformed from "limited use" to "meaningful use"; 2) Review the organizational change implementation literature to understand how changes in technology use could be successfully implemented and sustained; 3) Apply lessons learned from the literature reviews to identify strategies for the meaningful use and successful implementation of EHR Medication Reconciliation technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the Children's Hospital of Georgia (CHOG), we found outpatient "revisits" for pediatric asthma to be significantly above national norms. According to the NIH, costly hospital revisits for asthma can be prevented through guideline-based self-management of asthma, central to which, is the use of a written Asthma Action Plan (AAP) developed jointly by the provider and patient. Our study sought to evaluate the potential of "patient-and-family-centered communication of the AAP" at CHOG, to reduce outpatient clinic revisits for pediatric asthma (by promoting self-management or home care). We conducted a 6-month intervention to implement patient-and-family-centered communication of the AAP at CHOG, using the "change-management" literature as our theoretical framework. Provider communication of AAP (on various patient-centered care metrics) was assessed through a survey of "Parent Understanding of the Child's AAP." A quasi-experimental approach was used to measure "revisits" for outpatient pediatric asthma care, pre- and post-intervention. Results showed that provider communication of the AAP was unanimously perceived highly positively by parents of pediatric asthma patients. However, there were no statistically significant differences in revisit behavior between pre and post-intervention periods, and revisits remained significantly above national norms. Results suggest limited potential of effective provider communication of AAP, in reducing outpatient revisits for pediatric asthma. Findings suggest the need for a broader community-based intervention to address social, living, and environmental variables impacting self-management and hospital revisits for pediatric asthma. Results indicate need for a revised "socio-ecological" theoretical framework, and provide insight into various policy, research, and practice implications for asthma management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores how public service motivation (PSM) develops as a dynamic trait (Perry and Wise 1990), focusing on the impact of social networks. Despite the importance of PSM socialization mechanism (Kjeldsen and Jacobsen forthcoming), few studies have assessed the role of social networks in building PSM, and certainly none have considered the co- evolving nature of social networks and PSM. Newly developed techniques for modeling simultaneous development of (1) networks (friendship) and (2) behavior or attitude variables like sub-dimensions of PSM (self-sacrifice, compassion, attraction to policy making and commitment to the public interests) make it possible to study network/attitude co-evolution rigorously. Using the techniques, we tackle the question posed by Wright and Grant (2010): the relative influence of selection and adaptation (socialization) effects on the development of PSM. In this paper, we will present findings from a network analysis using a sample of 67 students who entered the Rockefeller College MPA cohort during the 2012-2013 academic year. The paper will review the existing literature on PSM, social influence and exchange, as well as introduce the data, methods and procedures. Then, it will present the findings from the network analysis in order to draw out implications for the relationship between PSM and social network formation. We will conclude with a set of implications from our research so far. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many hospitals are unable to consistently implement evidence-based practices. For example, implementation of the central line bundle (CLB), known to prevent catheter-related bloodstream infections (CRBSIs) is often challenging. This problem is broadly characterized as "change implementation failure." Theoretical literature has suggested that periodic top-down communications promoting tacit knowledge exchanges across professional subgroups may be effective for enabling learning and change in healthcare organizations. However, gaps remain in understanding the mechanisms by which top-down communications enable practice change at the unit level. Addressing this gap could identify evidence-based management strategies for practice change. Our study sought to both evaluate the theoretical literature and address the gap. A prospective study was conducted in two ICUs within an academic health center; both units had low baseline adherence to CLB and higher-than-expected CRBSIs. Periodic top-down communication interventions were conducted over 52 weeks, to promote CLB adherence in both units. Simultaneously, the study examined: 1) the content and frequency of communication related to CLB through weekly "communication logs" completed by unit physicians, nurses, and managers; and 2) unit outcomes, i.e., CLB adherence rates. Both units demonstrated increased adherence to CLB, and significant, sustained declines in CRBSIs and catheter days (i.e., central line use). Results indicate that the interventions cumulatively, had a significant negative (desired) impact on catheter days. Data from "communication logs" suggest that "change champions" emerged early to initiate process improvements in both units. Findings help validate the theoretical literature, and identify evidence-based management strategies for successful practice change at the unit level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past half century, an increasing number of network alliances between multiple entities across sectors (i.e. public agencies, legislative offices, non-governmental organizations, and private sector organizations) have limited the power of governments and created collaborative spaces in the processes of social service policy decisionmaking and implementation. However, little is known about the variance of structures and compositions of these networks across policy contexts. All social service policy networks have been treated as if they are similar. Thus, we will present comparative findings from two social service policy networks in different policy contexts: (1) a mental health policy network with 40 actors and (2) an adult basic education policy network with 47 actors. Both were collected in the same state (we pseudonymed "Newstatia") in the U.S. through semi-structured interviewing in 2001 and in 2005, respectively. An exponential random graph model (ERGM) technique was used to analyze the social network data. Our preliminary analysis suggested that resource holders and seekers are active in a discretionary social policy network while resource holders are passive in a legally mandatory social policy network. We have also found that in a health policy context, legal client advocacy organizations and industrial and professional associations play an essential role in structuring the policy networks. In the education policy network, research and technical support organizations were important in shaping the network. The paper concludes with a discussion of propositions and implications for public managers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many hospitals are unable to successfully implement evidence-based practices. For example, implementation of the central line bundle (CLB), known to prevent catheter-related bloodstream infections (CRBSIs) is often challenging. This problem is broadly characterized as "change implementation failure." The theoretical literature on organizational change has suggested that periodic top-down communications promoting tacit knowledge exchanges across professional subgroups may be effective for enabling learning and change in healthcare organizations. However, gaps remain in understanding the mechanisms by which top-down communications enable practice change at the unit level. A prospective study was conducted in two intensive care units within an academic health center. Both units had low baseline adherence to CLB and higher-than-expected CRBSIs. Periodic top-down quality improvement communications were conducted over a 52-week period to promote CLB implementation in both units. Simultaneously, the study examined: 1) the content and frequency of communication related to CLB in both units through weekly "communication logs" completed by physicians, nurses, and managers; and 2) unit outcomes, i.e., CLB adherence rates through weekly chart reviews. Both units experienced substantially improved outcomes, including increased adherence to CLB, and statistically significant (sustained) declines in catheter utilization and CRBSIs. The study examines associations between communication content & frequency and outcomes, and describes the evolution of knowledge exchanges at the unit level. Findings provide insight into key unit-level variables enabling change. The study helps develop: 1) a theoretical framework on effective communication content & frequency for practice change, and 2) evidence-based management strategies for successful practice change at the unit level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]