The aim of this study has been to highlight how school social workers experience their discretion, and furthermore how they feel about working in a context mainly dedicated to teachers. The study is executed with a qualitative research method where ten interviews with school social workers, in eight schools in the area of Stockholm have been conducted. The theoretical framework used to analyze the results was discretion, street-level bureaucracy and human service organizations.The main findings of this study imply that the most important ambition of the social work that was conducted in the schools was to help the students reach their knowledge goals. The assignment is, however, not clearly defined, which has lead to school social workers defining the mission and goals themselves. They all have wide discretion and great possibilities to decide how to execute their work, but how they use the freedom that was given seems to vary among them. An additional finding was that being a school social worker is often a solitary role in the organization, and therefore most of them highlight the importance of enjoying independent work and having a co-worker to discuss their work with.

Syftet med studien var att undersöka hur olika aktörer inom det människobehandlande området arbetar med hemmasittande ungdomar. Studiens teoretiska utgångspunkter är KASAM, systemteori och nyinstitutionell organisationsteori. Datainsamlingen skedde genom kvalitativa, strukturerade intervjuer med sex olika aktörer inom det människobehandlande området. Resultatet av denna studie visar att det är skolan som uppmärksammar problemet och att det inom vissa områden arbetas i större utsträckning med målgruppen än på andra, men att det inte finns något generellt övergripande arbetssätt med hemmasittande ungdomar i de aktuella kommunerna. Det framkommer även att samverkansformen SIP – samordnad individuell plan – används framgångsrikt i samtliga kommuner. Att genomföra samverkan beskrivs av de flesta aktörer fungera bra, men att önskat resultat av samverkan inte alltid uppnås. En bra relation mellan elev och lärare samt ett gott samarbete mellan hemmet och skolan är de mest främjande faktorerna för att få en elev tillbaka till skolan. / The aim of the study has been to examine how different actors within human service professionals deal with dropout-students. The theoretical perspectives used are KASAM, general systems theory and neo-institutional organizational theory. The data for this study was collected in a series of qualitative and structured interviews with six participants within various human service professionals. The outcome of this study shows that it is the school that signals if there is a problem and it shows that in some areas this pursues higher focus on target groups but there isn’t an overall way of working with dropout-students in the local authorities that this study contains. It also emerges that the form of collaboration – Coordinated Individual Plan – used successfully in all municipalities. To implement collaboration described by most actors works well, but the desired result of collaboration is not always achieved. A good relationship between student and teachers and a good collaboration between home and school are the most promoting factors to get a student back to school.

A recurring concept for social workers to relate to in child protection investigations and assessments of parenting capacity is the concept of good enough. There is no clear definition about the concept in research or literature. The purpose of this study is, therefore, to investigate how social workers in child protection relate to the concept of good enough and how their understanding might affect the assessments and investigations. To fulfill the purpose, semi- structured interviews have been held with four social workers. The results have been analyzed while relating them to scientific research and theories about discretion in human service organizations, Banks' (2012) thoughts about values in social work and Thompson's (2016) Personal, Cultural and Structural (PCS) analysis model.  The results show that social workers in Child Protection have room for discretion. This space is affected by the organization's framework. If the room for discretion is being restricted because of lacking resources, the concept of good enough may look different as it relates to the current situation of the social worker. Good enough is also affected by the social worker's subjective knowledge, intuition, and experience. Normative values on family situations may influence what is considered acceptable in parenting and children's living conditions. Factors such as culture, ethnicity, religion, disability, and gender identity could, therefore, impact on the assessments and decisions. If the social worker is not aware of these normative values and factors, they could have a discriminatory effect on the families who are being investigated.

This study aims to examine how students who are studying social work are experiencing the combination of full time studies and a part-time job in a human service organization. Furthermore, the aim of this study is also to examine how these students consider legitimacy and the rule of law in relation to their part-time job. To answer this study, we put the focus on students who are studying their sixth or seventh semester in social work at Linnaeus University in Sweden where some students are combining full time studies with a part-time job in a human service organization. In total, nine students with this combination where interviewed in this study, all with different part-time jobs. The outcomes of this study show that students who are studying social work and working part-time are working for different reasons. Some of them say that they work for extra money, and some of them would like to get work experience. The students in this study think that this combination goes well and that they can relate practice from work into their theory in school and vise versa. Some of the students in this study have not thought about legitimacy in relation to their work, which we think is interesting. However, all of the students had thought about the rule of law in relation to their work. What is interesting to us is that we also learned that the students think that they can implement good work even though they have not thought about legitimacy that much.

The study aims to describe and analyse how case managers reflect and act in the regards to self-determination when caring for residents with dementia diagnosis. Our main questions dealt with how the case managers handle the right to self-determination in relation to the residents’ relatives’ opinions when a person has dementia. To find answers to our questions, we interviewed seven care takers within elderly care in four different municipalitys in the Southern Sweden. We used qualitative interviews based on a semi-structured interview guide and two vignettes. The vignettes were based on two fictive narratives which both included persons with dementia but with different relatives and opinions. The purpose of the vignettes were to investigate whether there was different perceptions among the case managers in terms of consideration the residents’ self-determination in relation to their relatives. The results of the study were analyzed using Hasenfeld’s theory on Human service organizations, Lipsky’s street-level bureaucracy and Strauss’ negotiation-perspective. We displayed similarities to previous research showing that the case managers work with the residents’ best interest in mind even though relatives can be very obstinate. Our main conclusions are that the interpretation of self-determination is fluidity according to the case managers is fluidity and the case managers at some occasions try to persuade the person with dementia to apply for care and welfare. Furthermore can the relatives of the person with dementia be both beneficial and disadvantageous depending of the relation between them.

The American social welfare system is a mixed system consisting of loosely coupled government programs, private nonprofit and for-profit organizations, grassroots and religious entities. Although religious entities historically played a key role in the development of the social welfare system, the faith-based initiative of President George W. Bush targeted religious service providers to receive government funding and take on a larger role in service delivery to at-risk populations based on the belief that these providers were substantially different from traditional providers. Using a cross-sectional research design and a survey instrument created for the study, data was collected from 121 nonprofit service providers in the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area of Virginia. Nonprofit organizations were selected from three online databases using identified criteria and sent paper surveys and/or emails inviting them to complete a web-based survey. The study identified similarities and differences between characteristics of faith-based service providers and traditional providers and used a conceptual model composed of Resource Dependence Theory and Neo-Institutional Theory to suggest dynamics impacting similarities and differences between providers. Data analysis included univariate and multivariate analysis of organization characteristics. Univariate findings identified that faith-based organizations in the study were older, served more people in 2006, generally provided services via volunteers, received more funding from congregations and other religious entities and did not favor membership in professional organizations. Other than these notable differences, faith-based providers were fairly similar to their traditional counterparts. A multivariate analysis used a two-group discriminant function (DFA) procedure to determine which variables best discriminated between provider groups. Two variables, funding from congregations/other religious entities and funding from government grants/contracts, were found to be the most important discriminating variables. Study findings were consistent with prior research comparing the provider groups. Although some differences do exist, overall similarities tended to outweigh differences suggesting that the claim of substantially differences between providers did not fit the geographic area studied. For those concerned with community service delivery, the implication is that recent economic developments suggest that attention should be placed on collaboration and service delivery capacity-building rather than on the differences between service providers.

The purpose of this study is to increase the understanding for how home care services interpret and handle situations with and around caretakers alcohol use. Interviews have been conducted with two managers and six basic staff in two different home care service-groups. The interviews were individual with the managers and in group form with the staff. The interviews have been analyzed using Hasenfeld’s theory on Human Service Organizations and moral practice together with Beronius’ interpretation of disciplinary exercise of power. Our result showed that the handling of caretakers alcohol use differed both within and between the home care service-groups and there was a lack of guidelines on how to deal with this. Consequently it seemed to be a lot of individual assessments carried out by the staff, which sometimes led to a moral practice. Another important result was the fact that the interviewees quickly became very fixed on abuse and addiction, even though the interviews had focus on alcohol use in general. It is obvious that when a substance abuse problem exists, difficulties arise in home care services work.

Success of nonprofit human services organizations depends upon the ability to cultivate high quality performance among staff members. Employees of such organizations experience lower job satisfaction when managers disregard their opinions or treat them as unimportant. The purpose of this qualitative, exploratory case study was to explore employees' perspectives on the quality of their relationships with their supervisors and impacts of that perception on job performance. The central research questions regarded how employees understood those relationships and their impact on their work success. Using the framework of leader-member exchange (LMX) theory, which centers upon the employee-supervisor relationship, data were collected through interviews with 32 participants including those at a supervisory level and direct-care providers. Archival documents from 2 non-profit human service organizations that reflected upon relationships between supervisors and employees were also utilized. Using Clark and Braun's thematic analysis strategy for coding and analysis, results indicated that manager-employee relationships characterized by themes of respect, understanding, positive interactions, and open communication allowed employees to feel comfortable and valued at work, and that relationships characterized by mutual loyalty, respect, and clear, reciprocal communication were optimal for promoting job performance. This study's potential impact for positive social change includes recommendations to non-profit service organizations to develop future leadership policies and training programs to assist managers and supervisors in improving relationships with their subordinates.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / This study examines organizational learning (OL) with member organizations of a state association for children and family services. OL has been studied in business organizations, but the concept has value in the context of Human Service Organizations (HSOs) as well. HSOs face increasing demands for accountability through evaluating outcomes, requiring new organizational skills and activities. The state association has collected outcome data from member organizations for nine years, and has recently provided external consultants to help organizations interpret and make use of the information to improve organizational functioning. The process of OL was measured pre- and post-external consultation using an OL questionnaire developed by Templeton, Lewis, and Snyder (2002). Sixty-two member agencies received questionnaires and 42 responded for a response rate of 67%. Qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with 11 CEOs/Executive Directors of HSOs. The OL questionnaire was found to have sufficient reliability and validity for the sample of HSOs in the study. Two factors were identified through factor analyses, Organizational Culture and Environmental Awareness. Satisfaction with an external consultant was not found to be related to increased OL. In the qualitative findings, the origins of learning themes that were identified were External Pressures, Philosophy, Planning, and Financial Pressures. The facilitating factor themes identified were Leadership, Philosophy, New Staff/New Leadership, Willingness, Planning, and Training. The perceived obstacles to OL were Resistance, Philosophy, Finances, and Time. External consultants were found to contribute to Evaluation, Awareness, Motivation, and Training. The main practice implication of the study is the identification of an instrument that may be used to examine OL in HSOs. The identification of facilitating factors and factors that may impede OL is a valuable contribution, as is the use of a standard definition of OL. The educational implications are for awareness in the education of future leaders by introducing OL and the application to HSOs. Future research is needed to address the development or modification of a better matched instrument for use with HSOs.

Government human service organizations regularly attempt to recruit ethnically and culturally diverse professionals to improve services to diverse communities. The assumption here is that organizational culture and structure support this organizational practice. This study considers the unique challenge for Aboriginal professionals who work in a government child welfare system responsible for the oppression of Aboriginal children, families, and communities. As a non-Aboriginal organizational insider and researcher, I use a combined Indigenous/ethnographic approach to explore these issues with Aboriginal professionals within the British Columbia Ministry of Children and Family Development (MCFD). This study involves a dual focus that examines the history, identity, values, motivations, and practice approaches of Aboriginal professionals as well as how organizational structural and environment variables support or impede their representation of community needs and interests. Analysis of these two areas results in significant findings for the organization, the social work profession, and various practice and organizational diversity literatures. Aboriginal participant descriptions of values, beliefs, and practices contribute to literature exploring contemporary Indigenous practice approaches that integrate traditional knowledge with professional practice. Consistent with some representative bureaucracy studies, participant descriptions of personal history, experience, practice, and motivation to work in MCFD indicate values, beliefs, and motivations strongly shared with their representative group: to reduce the number of Aboriginal children in government care and reconnect them to community. Aboriginal participant role tensions and dual accountabilities, resulting from their unique community/Ministry insider/outsider position, provide context to studies that explore tensions and contradictions that exist for diverse professionals working in their communities through mainstream organizations. Findings also contribute to studies in representative bureaucracy and other organizational diversity approaches concerned with the ability of diverse professionals to actively represent community interests. Organizational variables, such as low Aboriginal practice support, racism, cultural incompetence, hierarchical structure and decision making, risk-averse practice norms, poorly implemented rhetorical change initiatives, and institutional physical environments, among others, impede the ability of Aboriginal participants to actively represent community interests. Mitigating factors were found where some Aboriginal participants describe significant organizational support at the worksite level through dedicated culturally competent Aboriginal management and practice teams. / Graduate / 0452 / 0617 / 0631 / janerousseau@shaw.ca