The school psychologist shortage has been a persistent problem in education, and there is a lack of research on what current administrative supervisors are doing to address shortages. This study examined the perceptions of district leaders regarding the recruitment and retention of school psychologists. Participants included 19 administrative supervisors in public school districts in Colorado (CO), Utah (UT), Nevada (NV), and Wyoming (WY). Data for this qualitative study were collected by conducting semi-structured interviews with administrative supervisors of school psychologists. Interviews were transcribed and analyzed for common themes. A total of 10 themes were identified, and the first theme reflected concerns about school psychology graduate programs not producing enough school psychologists. Additionally, being farther away from a graduate program creates recruiting difficulties. Another related theme revealed that close relationships with graduate programs contributes to successful recruiting. Administrative supervisors noted the role that the surrounding community plays in retaining current school psychologists. They also expressed the importance of creating appealing workloads that matched salaries, being responsive, matching school psychologists’ preferences, and offering job flexibility. Other key themes included the challenges of finding school psychologists to hire and competing with neighboring local education administration (LEAs). Finally, administrative supervisors believe that they are in a worker’s market that favors the school psychologist. Overall, there appeared to be a theme of administrative supervisors feeling a lack of control over their current situation. Limitations for the study include collecting data across several months that may have influenced participants responses due to the demands of hiring during certain times of year. The sample included participants from states in the western United States, which may reflect limited perspectives based on geographic needs and trends. Directions for future research may include a larger sample size that reflects national demographic characteristics. Further research could also investigate the effectiveness of current efforts to address shortages on a systemic level. This could include researching how state and national associations advocate for school psychologists and how graduate programs grow and adapt to match current needs.

The goal of this thesis was to define the nature and outcomes of Australian professional supervision by applying Holloway's (1995) Systems Approach to Supervision (SAS) across professional groups. Many Australian professionals such as psychologists, counsellors, and accountants are required to participate in some form of supervision before being granted permission, via registration, to practice independently within their respective fields. This is the first study of its kind to investigate the supervision experience of a range of professional groups within Australia. The SAS model (Holloway, 1995) provided a well-researched theoretical and practical framework with the potential to be applied across professional groups for the purposes of developing, evaluating and enhancing supervisor and supervisee practice. Based on the model, Holloway proposed a number of teaching tasks and functions in a matrix to explain the process of supervision and to assist in the professional and personal development of supervisees. To date, most of the literature on professional supervision has failed to provide a theoretical framework from which results could be meaningfully interpreted. This thesis outlines a program of research which used the SAS model as a theoretical basis for understanding and evaluating the experience of supervision amongst a range of Australian professional and its relationship to effective professional practice. Four studies were conducted in accordance with Mackenzie and House's (1979) Model of Scientific Inquiry. The first study (Study One) was exploratory in nature, and aimed to define the term "supervision" and the anticipated outcomes of supervision activities. The second study (Study Two) was also exploratory in nature, and aimed to evaluate the modes of supervision delivery as well as to collect information regarding the key tasks and functions utilised in professional supervision. The third study (Study Three) was empirical in nature, and investigated the supervision experience of psychologists engaged in supervision in accordance with the SAS model (Holloway, 1995). It longitudinally tracked their performance over a 12-month period as evaluated by both their supervisors and work managers. The fourth study (Study Four) was confirmatory in nature, and was the same as the third study but comprised a different sample of business and accounting (who were not Certified Public Accountants) graduates. The four studies consisted of four separate samples surveyed with self-report measures developed from the SAS model (Holloway, 1995) by the researcher. Study One comprised a sample of 210 supervisor-supervisee dyads. Professional groups in this sample were psychologists, counsellors, nurses, occupational therapists, financial advisors, business consultants, and accountants (without CPA) all of whom were participating in a supervision process. Study Two comprised a total of 200 supervisees broken down into four groups of 50. The professional types included in this sample were psychologists, counsellors, nurses and business consultants and accountants (without a CPA). Study Three comprised 513 supervisees who were participating in supervision as part of the criteria to become fully registered psychologists. Study Four included 480 business consultants and accountants (without CPA) who were in the early years of their career and were participating in supervision as part of their professional development. The central aims of the supervision experience, according to supervisees and supervisors, were to develop skills in counselling, case experience, professional experience, emotional awareness, the ability to self-evaluate and network. The six reported outcomes of supervision were that professional supervision enhanced supervisees' ability to self-evaluate, gain academic knowledge, become emotionally aware, develop profession networks, develop both professional and work skills and to build on relationship skills. The findings supported and extended the SAS model (Holloway, 1995) by adding the tasks of academic knowledge and networking. The definition of supervision found in this research program also supported and built on the definitions already provided in the literature. There was considerable support for the SAS model's matrix in that particular supervision functions employed to teach certain supervision tasks were more effective than others. For example, on the one hand, to teach a supervisee the skill of emotional awareness, a supervisor is best advised to take a supportive/sharing approach. On the other hand, it was shown that the teaching strategy of monitoring/evaluating was not found to be conducive to teaching case conceptualisation skills. The findings also suggested two enhancements to Holloway's original conceptualisation of the SAS model of supervision delivery mode and supervisor allocation. Furthermore, the findings confirmed that the SAS model can be applied to teach and objectively evaluate supervision success by supervisors and managers across professional groups. There were six major contributions of this research program to the field of professional supervision: First, there was the application and validation of a theoretical model, Holloway's (1995) Systems Approach to Supervision, to the supervision experience. Second, there was the development and application of scales to measure supervision performance and satisfaction reliably and with demonstrated construct validity. Third, the methodology which included the collection of both qualitative and quantitative responses from supervisees, supervisors, and managers provided a multi-method approach to understanding professional supervision across professional groups. Fourth, a uniform definition of supervision was identified across a range of professional groups. Fifth, Holloway's supervision teaching matrix was empirically supported and the findings recommend it as a mechanism for developing, evaluating and enhancing supervisor and supervisee practice across a range of professional types. The SAS model was found to be relevant to health-related professional groups but also supported in business-related professional groups. Finally, the research recommended some modifications to the SAS model to incorporate factors such as supervision delivery mode. These additions and the results of the longitudinal research suggested that supervision effectiveness was a predictor of on the job performance ratings by managers. Based on a scan of the literature to date, this research program outlines the first longitudinal empirical study of the relationship between supervision effectiveness and on-the-job performance using a range of professional groups. Limitations and future directions were discussed.

This thesis examines professional supervision practice under new public management from the perspectives of probation officers and service managers in the Community Probation Service. In particular, the research explores the participants’ philosophy of professional supervision, their recent supervision experiences, and their aspirations and expectations with regard to professional supervision. In order to provide a background for an informed analysis and discussion of the research findings, the thesis discusses the key themes in the social service supervision and new public management literature. It also examines the Community Probation Service’s context and the history of new public management and professional supervision in this organisation. The thesis is a qualitative study that is informed by social work practice theory and utilises the phenomenological and hermeneutic approaches. The research findings show that amongst the participants there was: (a) an unclear philosophy of supervision; (b) minimal recent experience of supervision and little ownership or support for the agency supervision project; (c) a belief that the context increased their need for supervision, but at the same time reduced their ability to receive or participate in it; (d) an expectation that professional supervision would assist them to work more effectively with clients and staff; (e) an expectation of good committed supervisors who would support and help them develop; and (f) an expectation that the agency would support professional supervision through resourcing, guidelines, accredited supervisors and the establishment of a learning culture. The major implications of these findings are that: (1) there is a need for staff to be socialised into professional social service supervision; (2) that the professional supervision programme within the Community Probation Service, as currently implemented, is unlikely to be successful; and (3) that professional social service supervision needs to be focused upon persons and their environments, rather than upon the agency.

This thesis examines professional supervision practice under new public management from the perspectives of probation officers and service managers in the Community Probation Service. In particular, the research explores the participants’ philosophy of professional supervision, their recent supervision experiences, and their aspirations and expectations with regard to professional supervision. In order to provide a background for an informed analysis and discussion of the research findings, the thesis discusses the key themes in the social service supervision and new public management literature. It also examines the Community Probation Service’s context and the history of new public management and professional supervision in this organisation. The thesis is a qualitative study that is informed by social work practice theory and utilises the phenomenological and hermeneutic approaches. The research findings show that amongst the participants there was: (a) an unclear philosophy of supervision; (b) minimal recent experience of supervision and little ownership or support for the agency supervision project; (c) a belief that the context increased their need for supervision, but at the same time reduced their ability to receive or participate in it; (d) an expectation that professional supervision would assist them to work more effectively with clients and staff; (e) an expectation of good committed supervisors who would support and help them develop; and (f) an expectation that the agency would support professional supervision through resourcing, guidelines, accredited supervisors and the establishment of a learning culture. The major implications of these findings are that: (1) there is a need for staff to be socialised into professional social service supervision; (2) that the professional supervision programme within the Community Probation Service, as currently implemented, is unlikely to be successful; and (3) that professional social service supervision needs to be focused upon persons and their environments, rather than upon the agency.

In this thesis, I explore the impact and effectiveness of clinical supervision provided by external clinical supervisors, on workers from a variety of practice backgrounds in a residential rehabilitation centre, in the AOD sector. This thesis uses the framework of social work supervision, as defined by Kadushin (1985; 2002), with the administrative, educative and supportive elements. The research focuses closely on the latter two elements. For this purpose, I employ qualitative research methods, via a triangulation of methods, being guided by Participatory Action Research (PAR) and then conducting semi-structured interviews and focus groups as well as acting as a participant observer, to gather the data. The data was analysed using grounded theory. This research was based upon a clinical supervision project that was fully funded and provided free clinical supervision by external supervisors, providing both individual and group supervision, for a period of 10 months. There were a total of 16 respondents with varied roles and training backgrounds as well as an additional six supervisors, interviewed throughout different stages of the project. The various roles undertaken by me throughout the research process provided essential viewpoints on supervision, as well as the place of boundaries and need for support. The power of such a large scale intervention is discussed and ultimately highlights and identifies the particular benefits of supervision in this research arena. This thesis places clinical supervision in the context of workforce development in the Alcohol and Other Drug (AOD) sector. Thus, while this research elucidates a number of benefits and the factors involved with this experience, the clear separation of other modalities such as training, mentoring and Critical Incident debriefing are seen as integral additional avenues of support and professional development. This research concludes also with what the difficulties and hindrances were for people to continue with regular ongoing clinical supervision, and warrants the argument for interminable supervision in this setting. This research points to an overall paucity of literature on efficacy studies, especially in the AOD context in Australia. This research significantly adds to this dearth and examines the factors unique to the AOD sector in Australia, as well as what factors make for effective supervision. The particular impact of external supervisors and group supervision are explored, which underwrites the forwarded concept of a customised supervision for this setting. By making explicit in this research what the efficacy is on those new to supervision, it provides greater clarity for future studies. A number of recommendations are proposed as result of this research. New definitions of the supportive function of supervision and of clinical supervision are forwarded, as is a new look at the evolving history of social work supervision. This thesis highlights the impact of external supervisors and the unique contribution they offer.