Regulatory Oversight of Voluntary Agencies in New York State Serving Individuals with Developmental Disabilities:

Bureaucratic Power and Mission Efficacy of Quality Departments

Nicole Staszak, Master of Public Administration – Advisor, Miguel Reyes-Mariano

Through legislation known as the “Protection of People with Special Needs Act” signed into law by Governor Andrew Cuomo the Justice Center was established and went into effect June 2013. The Justice Center functions as a law enforcement agency in New York State and one of their main charges is to investigate and oversee the investigative process of allegations of abuse and neglect made against individuals with developmental disabilities.

In New York State a large percentage of individuals with developmental disabilities receive services through voluntary agencies that are governed by the New York State Office for People with Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD). Prior to the Justice Center, OPWDD was the only state oversight agency overseeing the functions of voluntary agencies, specifically the Quality departments at these voluntary agencies. With the inception of the Justice Center, Quality departments at voluntary agencies now find themselves operating under OPWDD and the Justice Center.

The purpose and intent of this explanatory sequential mixed methods research project is to explore whether or not mission efficacy of the Voluntary Quality Departments is reduced due to regulatory redundancy by the fact that they are now overseen by both OPWDD and the Justice Center.

 With the Justice Center only being in effect since June 2013,there has been little to no inquiry or studies completed that systematically examine the Justice Center’s effect on Quality departments at voluntary agencies. This study will be important as it will provide initial data that can open up the discourse and provide a framework on what can be done moving forward to understand and make recommendations with respect to optimal regulatory oversight in NYS of voluntary agencies providing services to people with disabilities.

Literature Review

Introduction Sample Selection

Research Design

Governments are often accused of regulatory overkill. Government bureaucrats respond that they are exercising the regulatory (policing) powers of the state to carry out the government’s primary missions: to protect life and property. Government bureaucracies are often accused of stifling innovativeness, promulgating redundant rules and regulations, tying up the citizens in “red tape,” and lacking in flexibility.

Innovativeness

The literature suggests that innovation is stifled at the hands of bureaucracy. As cited by Lee (2011) innovation is a process by which new ideas or unique practices that have never before existed within an organization permeate among employees so that their ways of thinking and working change. but what facilitates this innovative effort within an organization is fewer bureaucratic structures, greater professionalization, and decentralization.

Redundancy

When discussing redundancy, the literature suggests that there are two ways of thinking. One of the works often cited when examining redundancy and the new way of thinking is Landau (1969) who stated that in public administration the standard policy for improving the performance characteristics of an administrative agency has rested upon the classical axiom that the reliability and efficiency of an operating, man or machine, is dependent on the reliability and efficiency of each of its parts, including linkages and attempts to argue the case “that there are good grounds for suggesting that efforts to improve public administration by eliminating duplication and overlap would, if successful, produce just the opposite effect.”

Red Tape

As cited by Lee (2011) red tape is defined as “rules, regulations, and procedures that remain in force and entail a compliance burden but do not advance the legitimate purposes the rules were intended to serve.” Thus, red tape is recognized as excessive structural constraints and excessive procedures. Essentially red tape can create arbitrary demands that, when examined, do not aid in mission efficacy and “in many cases, administrative burden is a repeated, unavoidable, and time-consuming experience” Burden, Canon, Mayer, and Moynihan (2012).

Flexibility

When discussing flexibility, workers often have difficulty in providing the needed services to their clients because of the inflexibility of organizational rules and regulations Rai (1983). As cited by Franklin (2000) when discussing institutional controls, “an undesired reaction can be bureaucratic resistance to political mandates imposed by those outside the agency perceived as not fully understanding what it is like in the “implementation tranches.”

Literature Review (con’t)

References

Burden, B. C., Canon, D. T., Mayer, K. R., & Moynihan, D. P. (2012). The Effect of Administrative Burden on Bureaucratic Perception of Policies: Evidence from Election Administration. Public Administration Review, 72(5), 741-751. doi:10.1111/j.1540-6210.2012.02600.x

Franklin, A. L. (2000). An Examination of Bureaucratic Reactions to Institutional Controls. Public Performance & Management Review, 24(1), 8-21.

Landau, M. (1969). Redundancy, Rationality, and the Problem of Duplication and Overlap. American Society for Public Administration, 29(4), 346-358.

Lee, G. (2011). Uncovering the Blurring of Sectors: A Comparison of Perceived Organizational Values between the Public and Nonprofit Sectors. International Review of Public Administration, 16(3), 1-23. doi:10.1080/12294659.2011.10805205

Rai, G. S. (1983). Reducing Bureaucratic Inflexibility. Social Service Review, 57(1), 44-58. doi:10.1086/644071

The quantitative and qualitative sample will be the same in that the samples will be chosen from member agencies through the Developmental Disabilities Alliance of Western New York (DDAWNY), as well as other voluntary agencies throughout New York State. Through DDAWNY there is a total of 51 member agencies. Of those 51 member agencies, all will be asked to participate in the web-administered survey. In an effort to gather data from members serving in a variety of roles, from administrative support staff to Quality department heads, I will attempt to reach several individuals in each agency, as appropriate. At least 10 Quality departments will be selected through stratified sampling for follow-up open interviews. Depending on the location and accessibility to the member agencies, the interviews that will either be conducted via telephone phone or iin-person.

An explanatory sequential mixed methods design will be used that will first involve collecting quantitative data then checking (triangulating) and enriching the quantitative results with in-depth qualitative data.