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Managing the Challenges in Human Service Organizations
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Managing the Challenges in Human Service Organizations
A Casebook



July 2008 | 304 pages | SAGE Publications, Inc
Managing the Challenges in Human Service Organizations: A Casebook offers current and aspiring human service managers a view into the kinds of experiences they will likely encounter to better prepare them for the world they are about to enter. The cases are inspired by real situations and are designed to encourage students to determine how they would act and work towards a resolution of the dilemmas presented.

Key Features  
  • Simulates administrative dilemmas through cases that offer different aspects of agency administration and replicate aspects of actual practice
  • Levels the learning field for students entering graduate human service management programs with different managerial experiences
  • Orients students to the challenges of management by helping them develop mental models linked to the values of client-centered administration
  • Helps students develop a beginning sense of competence and understanding of managerial work while refining their analytic skills
  • Offers the opportunity for repeated learning opportunities using different analytical frameworks
  • Supplements fieldwork by providing more time to reflect and consider a broader array of alternatives than is found in most field experiences
Intended Audience  
This book is ideally suited as a supplemental text for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses in social work and counseling, as well as a much-needed reference for human services supervisors and practitioners.

 
1. Introduction
Overview

 
The Uses of Case-Based Learning

 
The Value and Benefits of Case-Based Learning

 
Conceptual Frameworks

 
Managerial Roles

 
Competing Values

 
Management Functions

 
Summary

 
 
2. Case Assessment and Debriefing
Case Debriefing

 
Use and Organization of the Casebook

 
Summary

 
 
3. Governance, Environment, and Structure
Governance

 
Case 3-1 Meddling Trustees

 
Case 3-2 KidsCan

 
Case 3-3 Dorchester House Board of Directors

 
Case 3-4 The Perfect Storm

 
Case 3-5 Poor Leadership Boundaries

 
Environmental Relations

 
Case 3-6 The Cabal

 
Case 3-7 Cost of a Tuxedo

 
Case 3-8 Choosing a Director

 
Case 3-9 Collapse of the Coalition

 
Structure

 
Case 3-10 Merging Colossal and Grassroots Agencies

 
Case 3-11 Poor Interdepartmental Communication or Competing Service Ideologies?

 
Case 3-12 Whose Interests Are Being Served?

 
Case 3-13 Greenvale Residential Treatment Center

 
Chapter Exercises

 
 
4. Leadership and Ethics
Leadership

 
Case 4-1 Empowering Staff: Real or Imaginary?

 
Case 4-2 Caught in the Middle: Mediating Differences in Gender and Workstyle

 
Case 4-3 To Talk or Not to Talk?

 
Case 4-4 Agency Director Uses a Personal Coach to Address His Leadership Style

 
Case 4-5 Founder’s Syndrome

 
Case 4-6 Executive Leadership

 
Case 4-7 Marian Health Center

 
Case 4-8 Mosaic County Welfare Department

 
Case 4-9 Project Home

 
Ethics

 
Case 4-10 Damage Control

 
Case 4-11 Philosophy Versus Economics

 
Case 4-12 What? Me worry?

 
Chapter Exercises

 
 
5. Planning and Program Design
Planning

 
Case 5-1 Mallard County Private Industry Council

 
Case 5-2 Be Careful What you Wish For

 
Case 5-3 Decisions on Resource Allocation

 
Case 5-4 Rational Versus Political Decision Making

 
Case 5-5 The Achievement Crisis at Girls Works

 
Case 5-6 Cutbacks and Performance Pressure

 
Case 5-7 Hillside Community Center

 
Case 5-8 Empowering Staff to Advocate for Chicano/Latina Clients

 
Program Design

 
Case 5-9 Banksville Human Services Center

 
Case 5-10 Massive Retrenchment

 
Case 5-11 Productivity and Performance

 
Case 5-12 Responding to Changing Client and Community Needs

 
Chapter Exercises

 
 
6. Financial Management and Information Systems
Fund Development

 
Case 6-1 Should We Accept the Gift?

 
Case 6-2 Changing the Ground Rules

 
Budgeting

 
Case 6-3 Showdown

 
Case 6-4 Improving Cash Flow

 
Case 6-5 Desperate for Program Funding

 
Case 6-6 Painful Choices

 
Information Systems

 
Case 6-7 Measuring Performance

 
Case 6-8 Information Services Overload

 
Case 6-9 Evaluating a Strategic Plan for Children’s Services

 
Chapter Exercises

 
 
7. Human Resource Management and Supervision
Human Resource Management

 
Case 7-1 The Case of Missing Staff

 
Case 7-2 Client-Centered Administration or Organization-Centered Administration?

 
Case 7-3 Union Headache

 
Case 7-4 The Influence of Religious Beliefs

 
Case 7-5 Growing Pains

 
Case 7-6 Challenges on the Line

 
Case 7-7 Selecting a Clinical Director for Friendly House

 
Case 7-8 Fire a Competent CFO?

 
Supervision

 
Case 7-9 SOS in DHS: A Problem of Motivation

 
Case 7-10 Deteriorating Performance of a Supervisee

 
Case 7-11 Helping Supervisors Manage Their Staff

 
Case 7-12 Supervising Five Case Managers

 
Case 7-13 Supervisory Leadership

 
Chapter Exercises

 
 
8. Organizational Dynamics and Change
Case 8-1 Implementing Organizational Change as a Newcomer

 
Case 8-2 Diagnosing Managerial Practice in a Budget Crisis

 
Case 8-3 How Are We Doing?

 
Case 8-4 Jefferson Hospital

 
Case 8-5 Thurston High School

 
Case 8-6 Leadership Challenges in Transforming a Public Human Services Agency

 
Chapter Exercises

 
 
References
 
Index
 
About the Authors

This book is currently applied for the Course of Social Work Administration for the second year students in Social Work in Hanoi. The book supports myself and students a lot on identifying the cases for seminars and open discussion. The book has been introduced to Vietnam Social Work Network website.

Mr Kham Tran
Office for Research Affairs, Hanoi University of Social Sciences and Humanities
March 23, 2014

The casebook is a great supplement to the other text that I have chosen "Management of Human Service Programs".

Ms Martha Stark
School of Public Affairs, Baruch College
December 1, 2010
Key features
1.  60 cases bases on real managerial dilemmas
2.  10 Guiding principles to make decisions  
3.  Questions provided at the end of each case to stimulate the student to consider the advantages and disadvantages of each option

Sage College Publishing

You can purchase or sample this product on our Sage College Publishing site:

Go To College Site

This title is also available on SAGE Knowledge, the ultimate social sciences online library. If your library doesn’t have access, ask your librarian to start a trial.