Bentley University faculty members Jane Fedorowicz, Rae D. Anderson Professor of Accountancy and Information Systems, and Professor of Government Christine Williams, and Bentley PhD student Arthur Tomasino received a Best Research Paper award from the Digital Government Society of North America. The award, which included a cash prize sponsored by IOS Press, was presented to Williams at the 11th annual international conference on Digital Government Research held May 17 to 20, 2010, in Puebla, Mexico.
The research, "Governmental Factors Associated with State-wide Interagency Collaboration Initiatives," explores the differences among state public safety programs, with emphasis on Public Safety Networks (PSNs) in the United States. PSNs represent a combination of police and other agencies that have joined together at various levels of government to share information and communicate when faced with public safety incidents. The paper is an initial effort to explain differences such as the size and maturity of extant state-level PSNs. It is a product of a larger research project funded by the National Science Foundation.
"Understanding what motivates collaboration among government agencies is of interest to those studying public sector policy-making," Williams explains. "Ultimately, the goal of our larger research project is to make recommendations about when and how these collaborations succeed in a variety of settings and situations."
According to Williams, although government agencies have long recognized the potential value of sharing information and communicating across agency borders, public safety efforts have been refocused as a result of events such as the failure of the U.S. intelligence community to prevent Nigerian national Umaru Farouk Abdulmutallab from attempting to blow up a U.S. passenger plane in December 2009.
"We seek commonalities among public safety collaborations at multiple levels of government, across geographies and across government functions," Fedorowicz notes. "Our study takes a holistic view of design principles in these initiatives, looking for patterns to explain why they form and why they prosper. These patterns can inform similar governmental collaborations, from criminal justice through emergency management and homeland security."
Fedorowicz adds that a unique feature of the study is that it combines extensive archival and survey data for the 50 states and more than 80 PSNs with detailed information about a small subset of individual cases. "To our knowledge, it is the only compilation of U.S.-based PSNs in existence."
In addition to Arthur Tomasino, the project team included five other doctoral students and a number of undergraduate research assistants. Tomasino looks forward to incorporating county level PSNs into his dissertation work.
About Bentley University
Bentley University is a leader in business education. Centered on teaching and research in business and related professions, Bentley blends the breadth and technological strength of a university with the core values and student focus of a close-knit campus. Our undergraduate curriculum combines business study with a strong foundation in the arts and sciences. The McCallum Graduate School emphasizes the impact of technology on business practice, in offerings that include MBA and Master of Science programs, PhD programs in accountancy and in business, and custom executive education programs. Located minutes from Boston in Waltham, Massachusetts, the school enrolls approximately 4,000 full-time undergraduate, 250 adult part-time undergraduate, 1,400 graduate, and 30 doctoral students. Bentley is accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges; AACSB International – The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business; and the European Quality Improvement System (EQUIS), which benchmarks quality in management and business education.