Social Context of Performance Appraisals in Public Parks and Recreation: A Statewide Study

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Mulvaney ◽  
Mike Kianicka
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
Evaluation System ◽  
Employee Participation ◽  
Performance Appraisals ◽  
Public Parks ◽  
Appraisal System ◽  
Public Park ◽  
Parks And Recreation ◽  
Park And Recreation ◽  
Supervisor Trust

Well-designed performance appraisals provide a formal evaluation system to measure employees’ contributions to the agency while motivating staff and enhancing productivity levels. Despite their prominence and popularity, performance appraisal systems are often a contentious activity within public park and recreation agencies. Appraisal literature has indicated that many of these frustrations stem from issues such as (1) criteria that is not job related, (2) unclear or confusing rating levels, and/or (3) poorly designed processes and inconsistent implementation techniques. Recent research has also suggested many of these issues might be linked to the social dimensions surrounding the appraisal system. The purpose of this study was to build upon the previous appraisal research in public parks and recreation by exploring the role of two process proximal social context factors (employee participation and supervisor trust) on the utility of the appraisal system. More specifically, the cumulative effects of employee participation at various stages (job analysis, instrument development, appraisal interview, and training related to the appraisal system) and employees’ perceptions of their supervisor on employees’ reactions to their agency’s appraisal system were examined. Analyses indicated supervisor trust and employee participation significantly contributed to public park and recreation professionals’ satisfaction with their appraisal system, satisfaction with their appraisal interview, and their procedural and distributive justice perceptions with their appraisal system. Study findings and implications for management are discussed.

Understanding the Agency-Foundation Relationship: The Role of Nonprofit Foundations in Delivering Local Park and Recreation Services

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas Andrew Pitas ◽  
Samantha Powers ◽  
Andrew Justin Mowen
Keyword(s):  
Service Delivery ◽  
Nonprofit Organizations ◽  
Public Park ◽  
Parks And Recreation ◽  
The Great Recession ◽  
Recreation Service ◽  
Park And Recreation Agencies ◽  
Park And Recreation ◽  
Potential Strategy ◽  
Equitable Outcomes

Inadequate funding is a common and longstanding concern for local public park and recreation agencies. Traditionally, these services are funded predominantly through tax-based allocations, supplemented by other streams such as earned revenue, dedicated levies, and sponsorship agreements. Cost-cutting measures such as outsourcing, overall staffing reductions, and an increasing reliance on a parttime workforce have also become increasingly common in the context of local park and recreation service delivery. Partnership with nonprofit organizations represents another potential strategy to adequately fund local park and recreation services.Partnerships between local park and recreation agencies and nonprofit park and recreation foundations have a long history, and help support local park and recreation agencies in a variety of capacities. Their importance may also be growing as a function of the decline in tax-based support and earned revenue due to both the Great Recession and the global COVID-19 pandemic. Such partnerships are not unique to local parks and recreation however, and are common—and widely studied—at the national and transnational level. Despite their importance to local park and recreation service delivery, and the established body of knowledge examining these partnerships at the national and transnational level, the local agency-foundation relationship remains understudied. In this manuscript we begin to address this gap by providing a clearer picture of the agency-foundation relationship, and identifying strategies for how local park and recreation agencies can most effectively leverage these partnerships. To do so, we employ a qualitative research method, interviewing leaders from both local public park and recreation agencies and nonprofit park foundations. Results illustrate a variety of motivations for initiating an agency-foundation relationship (funding/capacity, deteriorating conditions, and equity), as well as a number of distinct benefits of such a partnership (increased operational capacity, advocacy and outreach, expertise, and non-governmental status). Respondents also identified various characteristics of a successful agency-foundation relationship (effective communication, clear roles and responsibilities, strong connections, and flexibility/responsiveness), and challenges to success (competition for scarce resources, and equity). Based on these results, we propose several strategies to help local park and recreation agencies maximize these partnerships (communicate frequently and with purpose, build relationships, formalize ties, and strive for equitable outcomes).

Evaluation of staff in Healthcare Companies

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Troncone Raffaella ◽  
Coda Marco
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
Evaluation System ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Good Health ◽  
Rehabilitation Services ◽  
Individual Contribution ◽  
Personnel Evaluation ◽  
Good Evaluation ◽  
The Right

Evaluation is at the basis of any social context where all individuals are simultaneously "evaluated" and "evaluators" in all areas of daily life. The goal of a good evaluation system is to encourage staff to do "Good Health" through the provision of quality prevention, diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation services. The main reasons that lead to the evaluation of the personnel lie in the inevitable and primary importance of the human resource in achieving the corporate objectives, and by the pressing need for the quality of the service provided to the citizen, as well as the legitimate need of the employee to differentiate, clarifying its specificities and its own individual contribution to the general objectives of the company. In the working context, the "personnel evaluation" assumes a fundamental importance, if managed with the right criteria, in order to make the employee not a simple pawn to move and manage for use and consumption of the organization, but an integral part of the organization itself.

Walkability Design for Urban Public Housing Park

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dasimah Omar ◽  
Kamarul Ariff Omar ◽  
Saberi Othman ◽  
Zaharah Mohd Yusoff
Keyword(s):  
Public Housing ◽  
Urban Area ◽  
Publishing House ◽  
Public Parks ◽  
User Perception ◽  
Public Park ◽  
Outdoor Activities ◽  
The Public ◽  
Housing Environment ◽  
International Publishing

The walkability approach is essential to ensure the connectivity among space in the urban area. The design should be appropriate, safety, maximize and capable of reaching every inch of the spaces, just by walking. Good connectivity must allow people to walk freely and accessible in many ways. People have great chances to meet each other or having potential outdoor activities without any challenges. This study aims to measure the user perception of the existing spaces in the urban public housing environment that been covered and uncovered with the walkability linkages. The objectives of this study are to identify the existing pedestrian linkages in the study area; to investigate the user perception of the existing walkability system in the study area, and finally to conclude and provide a better solution for better walkability opportunity among residents to access the public park.© 2016. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies, Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.Keywords:outdoor space;  pedestrian linkages; public parks; walkability behavior

Parks in Urban America

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Schuyler
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Urban Parks ◽  
The United States ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
Public Parks ◽  
Public Park ◽  
Professional Career ◽  
Political Patronage ◽  
Calvert Vaux ◽  
Active Recreation

The creation and evolution of urban parks is in some ways a familiar story, especially given the attention that Frederick Law Olmsted’s work has commanded since the early 1970s. Following the success of Central Park, cities across the United States began building parks to meet the recreational needs of residents, and during the second half of the 19th century, Olmsted and his partners designed major parks or park systems in thirty cities. Yet, even that story is incomplete. To be sure, Olmsted believed that every city should have a large rural park as an alternative to the density of building and crowding of the modern metropolis, a place to provide for an “unbending of the faculties,” a process of recuperation from the stresses and strains of urban life. But, even in the mid-1860s he sought to create alternative spaces for other types of recreation. Olmsted and his partner Calvert Vaux successfully persuaded the Prospect Park commission, in Brooklyn, New York, to acquire land for a parade ground south of the park as a place for military musters and athletics; moreover, in 1868 they prepared a plan for a park system in Buffalo, New York, that consisted of three parks, linked by parkways, that served different functions and provided for different forms of recreation. As the decades progressed, Olmsted became a champion of parks designed for active recreation; gymnasiums for women as well as men, especially in working-class areas of cities; and playgrounds for small children. He did so in part to relieve pressure on the large landscape parks to accommodate uses he believed would be inappropriate, but also because he recognized the legitimate demands for new forms of recreation. In later years, other park designers and administrators would similarly add facilities for active recreation, though sometimes in ways that compromised what Olmsted considered the primary purpose of a public park. Urban parks are, in important ways, a microcosm of the nation’s cities. Battles over location, financing, political patronage, and use have been a constant. Through it all, parks have evolved to meet the changing recreational needs of residents. And, as dominant a figure as Olmsted has been, this is a story that antedates his professional career and that includes the many voices that have shaped public parks in U.S. cities in the 20th century.

A Review on the Low-Carbon City Study: Development and Trends

2019 ◽  
Vol 07 (02) ◽  
pp. 1950006
Author(s):  
Wei JIANG ◽  
Wenmei KANG
Keyword(s):  
Evaluation System ◽  
Eastern China ◽  
Energy Utilization ◽  
Western China ◽  
Research Progress ◽  
Governance Mechanism ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Appraisal System ◽  
Low Carbon Economy ◽  
Low Carbon City

This paper, using literature analysis, explores the development of low-carbon pilot cities in China and its research progress, including the enrichment of the connotations of low carbon and low-carbon city, the progress in building China’s low-carbon cities, the relevant research by Chinese and foreign scholars and its trends. The result shows that for the construction of low-carbon cities in China, domestic and foreign scholars have conducted in-depth research on the connotations of low-carbon economy and low-carbon city, low-carbon index, carbon discharges peak value, technological approaches, energy utilization, low-carbon society, policy instruments and evaluating system, but the research is still subject to several limitations. For example, judging from the evaluation system of low-carbon cities, the research assigned small weights to the non-technical indexes such as low-carbon policies, governance mechanism and performance appraisal system. Judging from the spatial scale of case studies, the studies on the relatively developed cities in eastern China outnumber those on the cities in western China, especially in the minority areas. In terms of the factors influencing the construction of low-carbon cities, inadequate attention has been paid to the related psychological factors, in particular those of ethnic minorities.

Professional Development and Appraisal System for School Nurses

2002 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 229-236
Author(s):  
Jane Tustin ◽  
Gloria Canham ◽  
Joanne Berridge ◽  
Deborah Braden ◽  
Thora Starke
Keyword(s):  
Evaluation System ◽  
Nursing Practice ◽  
Evaluation Model ◽  
School Nurse ◽  
School Nurses ◽  
School Nursing ◽  
Professional School ◽  
Appraisal System ◽  
Nurse Administrators ◽  
The Individual

Dissatisfied with current school nurse evaluation instruments, school nurse administrators sought to develop an appraisal system that would emphasize the professional role of the school nurse and provide a means to enhance individual practice. The newly revised Standards of Professional School Nursing Practice and the creation of a state teacher evaluation model presented the opportunity to produce an instrument that could be adapted within the educational setting for school nursing practice. The appraisal system included not only the methods to evaluate practice, but the means to involve the individual school nurse through goal setting. The process also included a structured intervention plan that facilitated remediation. This article describes the development of the appraisal system, the components, and the implementation of an evaluation system for school nurses.

It’s time to bring performance appraisal into the twenty-first century

2015 ◽  
Vol 23 (7) ◽  
pp. 23-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shahina Javad ◽  
Sumod S.D.
Keyword(s):  
Performance Management ◽  
Performance Appraisal ◽  
Employee Performance ◽  
Performance Appraisals ◽  
Appraisal System ◽  
Business World ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Rating Method ◽  
Modern Business ◽  
The Right

Purpose – Examines the weaknesses of many current performance appraisals and shows how to improve them. Design/methodology/approach – Draws on examples from companies such as Cisco, Google and Infosys. Findings – Shows that there are two main sets of reasons for the failure of performance management – system related and people related. System-related problems crop up while defining the performance goals or designing the appraisal system. People-related problems usually arise while discussing the results of appraisals. Practical implications – Investigates the importance of the three key elements of performance appraisal – the appraiser, the appraisal period and the rating method. Social implications – Shows how important performance appraisal can be in the modern business world where skilled and talented workers are at a premium. Originality/value – Argues that present-day organizations need to develop an ongoing process to manage employee performance, make sure the right things are being measured, and that the feedback is carried out as constructively as possible.

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