Social Work 418
Organizations are goal-directed.
They exist for a specified purpose.
CH:4-3 Examine organizations serving immigrants in national and international contexts.
Various organizations serve refugees and immigrants on a global basis. These include intergovernmental organizations such as the United Nations and the International Organization for Migration. National organizations include both government and private organizations, the latter of which generally focus on the relocation and settlement process. Social workers can provide numerous services to refugees and immigrants in various macro contexts.
Institutional Perspective
• External pressure • Reponses to social institutions • Adherence to rule that implies legitimacy
CH:4-1 Understanding the macro context of organizations.
Organizations are"(1) social entities that (2) are goal directed, (3) are designed as deliberately structured and coordinated activity systems, and (4) are linked to the external environment"
CH:4-6 Demonstrate ethical behavior within organizational contexts.
Social work values stress democratic decision making, communication, and self-determination. Because traditional bureaucracy emphasizes autocratic decisions, a hierarchical power structure, and rigid control, value discrepancies between bureaucracies and social work are apparent.
Participatory action research
(PAR) is a method of involving people affected by a problem in efforts to study the issue, identify and carry out appropriate interventions, and evaluate the success of the effort.
Organizations are deliberately structured and coordinated activity systems.
Activity systems are clusters of work activities performed by designated units or departments within an organization.An organization coordinates the functioning of various activity systems to enhance its own efficiency in attaining its goals. Have structures.
LO 5-1 Use knowledge to propose organizational change through agency policies, projects, and programs.
Agency policies, which may be formal or informal, are rules that tell us which actions among a multitude of options we may take and which we may not. A project is a time-limited, planned undertaking with specified goals and activities to accomplish a designated purpose, such as improving services to clients, training staff, or solving some agency or community problem. A program or social program is an ongoing configuration of services and service provision procedures intended to meet a designated group of clients' needs.
Organizations are linked to the external environment.
An organization is in constant interaction with other systems in the social environment, including individuals, groups, other organizations, communities, and government.
**CH:4-8 Empower macro client systems to improve social and economic justice.
Barriers: 1. Funding that doesn't understand and/or support. 2. Lack of support within organization. 3. Competition. 4. Rivalry for clients 5. the challenges that staff may encounter/reluctance to let go of their control and direction in the intervention process.
CH:4-4 Employ conceptual frameworks and organizational theories to guide practice.
Classical theories: emphasize formal organizational structure, close supervision of employees, and efficiency. Scientific Management: 1. Jobs and tasks should be studied scientifically to "develop"and"standardize"work procedures and expectations. 2. Workers should be chosen on a scientific basis to maximize their potential for being trained and turned into productive employees. 3. Management and employees should cooperate with each other and work together following standardized procedures. 4. Management should make"plans"and"task assignments,"which workers should then"carry out"as instructed. The Administrative Theory of Management: 1. Division of labor. 2. Authority and responsibility. 3. Centralization. 4. Delegation of authority. 5. Unity of command. 6. Unity of direction. Bureaucracy: • Highly specialized units • Minimal employee discretion • Numerous specific rules Neoclassical organizational theories: theories shifted their focus to employees' motivation to participate. • Inducements in exchange for contributions • Motivation to participate • Motivation to perform Human relations theories: emphasized employees' satisfaction. • Employee morale and productivity • Motivation and leadership • Cooperation in immediate work groups Culture Quality: Theories stressing organizational culture and quality improvement characterized the final two decades of the 20th century and paved the way for future approaches. • Development of a strong organizational culture • A relationship between high-quality production and high employee commitment • Greater employee participation in decision making Feminist theories: stressed women's self-determination,using a gender filter, empowerment,"the personal is political,"the importance of process, and diversity as strength. - Women's fair treatment and self-determination - Using a gender filter - Empowerment - The personal is political - The importance of process - Diversity as strength Political-economy theory: stresses the importance of an organization adapting the effects of resources and power in the external environment. • Adaptation to the external environment • Effect of resources and power • Dependence on the external environment • Power struggles Contingency theory: Theory maintains that each element involved in an organization depends on other elements; therefore, no one best way exists to accomplish organizational goals. • No one best way to accomplish goals • Uniqueness of each organization • Use of different means to solve different problems • Flexibility in management approaches depending on the situation Systems theories: theories emphasize how all parts of the organization (subsystems) are interrelated, taking resources (input) and producing some kind of product or service (output). • All parts of the organization related to all other parts • Emphasis on the organizational is interaction with its environment • Constant assessment and adjustment of the organizational system's operation • Input and output
Allinski
First, according to Alinsky, power is essential to change the status quo.Power may come in the form of human or financial resources. Second, power is not the sum of what you actually have, but rather the sum of the appearance of what you have. it matters less how much power you actually have than how much power others think you have. Third, you acquire power by taking it from those who have it because power is not given to you. Thus, the very act of acquiring power is potentially confrontational. Fourth, use methods familiar to you (or the action system) and unfamiliar to the target system. It is easier to be successful when your opponents are caught off guard by your methods. Fifth, make organizations live by their own rules. Sixth, organize people around issues that are vital to them. Seventh, people in power respond to political pressure. Whether this is right or wrong is immaterial. If you know what buttons to push, push them. Eighth, and most controversial, remember that successfully attacking a target requires a clear demarcation between good and evil, or haves and have-nots. Ninth, turn negatives into positives. Tenth, prepare yourself to propose an alternative.
LO 5-4 Appraise the potential for internal advocacy to improve client access to services.
Internal advocacy involves a practitioner championing or defending the rights of clients when such advocacy is not necessarily part of the job description. Rationales include being knowledgeable, promoting the agency's goals, supplementing informal communication channels, and assertively expressing one's right to advocate. Before advocating for change within your agency, you must appraise the likely success and overall impact of such changes on relevant stakeholders such as clients, coworkers, yourself, agency administrators, and others who will be impacted by the change.
Social Agency
Is an organization providing social services.
LO 6-11 Evaluate outcomes in macro practice.
Monitor Daily Activities and Evaluate Impact 1. Monitoring output is appraising how efficiently services are provided and learning how effectively clients are being served. 2. An impact evaluation investigates outcomes and determines whether program goals have been met. 3. The final step in the implementation phase establishes how services will be provided on an ongoing basis. Second, the new change should be linked as much as possible with other units and aspects of the organization. Third, the change's importance should be established within the context of other programs and services in the community. The fourth task involved in establishing a program on an ongoing basis is to develop a feedback system to monitor service provision, outcomes, resources, and efficiency.
Monitoring Before and During Implementation.
Monitoring is not the same as evaluating desired outcomes but is focused on the process. Nurture the Support of Participating Staff. How About a Trial Run? Consider Starting Out Small. Formalize Any Contracts that Might be Needed. Anticipate a"Honeymoon Period. Maintain Administrative Support.
CH:4-7 Recognize and manage organizational values to ensure social work values guide practice.
Organizational culture will not always support social work values. Power structures in the organization and agency politics may undermine professional values. Keep in mind that agency politics can be used for positive change and to avoid instances of unethical behavior, such as backstabbing.
Organizations are social entities.
Organizations are made up of people, with all their strengths and failings.
LO 10-7 Describe how participatory action research uses practice experience to inform scientific inquiry and research evidence to inform practice.
Participatory action research is a method of involving people who are affected by a problem in efforts to study the issue, undertake efforts to combat the problem, and evaluate the outcomes. It is a model with global utility that has been employed in many countries, with applications from small projects to large-scale change efforts. The PAR model is similar to the steps in any planned change project, beginning with assessing the problem, identifying logical implementation steps, and then evaluating whether the intervention achieved the intended goals.
LO 5-3 Assess personal strengths and weaknesses in the context of organizational change.
Personal strengths and weaknesses include perceptions of self, attitudes toward colleagues and the agency, emotional and intellectual factors, skills, and other variables potentially affecting one's ability to proceed with macro change.
Social Services
Services include the wide range of activities that social workers perform in their efforts to help people solve problems and improve their personal well-being. Institutional: Major public service system systems that administer such benefits as financial assistance, housing programs, health care, or education.
CH:4-5 Assess organizations and agencies from a systems perspective.
Social agencies can readily be viewed from a systems perspective. Concepts include system, boundaries, subsystem, homeostasis, role, relationship, input, output, outcomes, positive and negative feedback, interface, differentiation, entropy, negative entropy, and equifinality.
LO 5-2 Assess the potential for organizational change.
The seven-step process used to assess the potential for organizational change requires that you (1) identify problems to address; (2) review your macro and personal reality; (3) establish primary goals; (4) identify relevant people of influence; (5) assess potential financial costs and benefits to clients and agency; (6) review professional and personal risk; and (7) evaluate the potential success of a macro-change process.
LO 6-12 Use the Macro-Change Process to Establish a Culturally Competent, Empowering Organization
cultural competence is a multifocused, unifying thread connecting staff behaviors and attitudes, agency policies, and formal structure. Cultural competence in the organizational context is "a set of congruent behaviors, attitudes, policies, and structures, which come together in a system, an agency, or among professionals and enables that system, agency, or those professionals to work effectively in the context of cultural differences"
CH:4-2 Assess managed health care's impact on social well-being.
including health maintenance organizations and preferred provider organizations. Primary principles involved are retention of quality and access, while controlling costs. Methods for cost control include capitation, gatekeeping, and utilization management. Managed care has pros and cons. Ethical issues concern gatekeeping versus client self-determination, informed consent, and confidentiality.
Cultural Perspective
• Organizational culture as a context for work • An organization's unique mixture of values, standards, and presumptions about how things should be done.
