1. Introduction to Social Work Chapter 8: Administration & Research
SOW 3302
Professor Susan Mankita, MSW, LCSW
Adapted from Farley, Smith, & Boyle

2. Administration and Research, Chapter 8
Administration as heart of social work education and practice
Most masters level social workers move into admin positions within 10 years
Supervisors
Executives
Consultants
Agency directors
Some social work educators have advocated that the administrative process is the very heart of social work education and practice

3. Administration Definitions
Social work administration = ‘process of transforming social policy into social services…a two-way process:
transforming policy into concrete social services
use of experience in recommending modification of policy’ (Kidneigh)
Process of defining and attaining the objectives of an organization through a system of coordinated and cooperative effort (Stein)

4. Definitions... (con’t)
‘The action of staff members who utilize social processes to transform social policies of agencies into the delivery of social services….
The basic processes most often used are planning, organizing, staffing, directing, and controlling….’ (Skidmore)

5. Historical Details...
1914 First course in administration in a SW school
Even then, not considered distinct area
Included in social work curriculum in 1944
1946 – National Conference on SW had administration section
1977 – Administration in Social Work: Journal
1978 – CSWE – high priority

6. Basic Assumptions and Principles
Process of securing and transforming community resources into a program of community service
Administration in social work is concerned in a major way with
enterprise determination, which includes goal formation
‘provisioning’ the service
Executive is not a neutral agent
Executive’s functions within the agency combine the following:
Provide a seeing-the-enterprise-as-a-whole quality
Participate in a leadership capacity and policy formulation
Delegate, coordinate, and control the work of others to promote and enhance the work of board and staff
Administrator represents a person to identify positively with
Creative use of human resources – board, staff, and volunteer
Parts of the enterprise are interrelated and interacting
What one does not do has effects as well as what one does do
(Spencer/ Curriculum Study)
enterprise determination, which includes goal formation – agency is self determining with community bodies secondary and administrator is ultimately responsible for this…
‘provisioning’ the service administrators are concerned with logistics of programs and activities of the agency
Provide for board, staff, and community an executive who represents in personal attitudes, abilities, and activities a person with whom they can identify positively
Accountability - effectiveness must be studied
‘not to monitor client outcomes substantially and use that data to improve operations is tantamount to managerial irresponsibility, incompetence, and unethical conduct’

7. Supervision Means ‘oversight, control, surveillance’
Administrative process that assists staff development and performance
Supervision focuses upon the acquisition and use of knowledge and the application of skills to practice
Supervision as teaching
Supervisee participates actively in his or her own learning
Assumption is that the worker learns by doing
Worker learns by using his or her whole self
Worker-supervisor relationship is main dynamic in learning
Supervision is evaluation
Supervision for licensing

8. Consultation Technique for improving and expanding services
Specialized help and technical info
Interaction between professional persons who explore a problem to find a solution that will best serve the needs of a client
Principles of Consultation
Consultation is a helping process involving the use of technical knowledge and a professional relationship with one or more persons
Social work consultants derive their specialized information from social work

9. Collaboration
Collaborating in the social service system becomes a shared experience in which the knowledge of professionals, paraprofessionals, and indigenous workers is shared in the various processes of service delivery
Interagency
Intra-agency

10. Teamwork Concepts
Cooperative democratic group of professional individuals who work together to provide services
Union of interdependent inquiry
Individuality of the participating disciplines
Dynamic process that implies a capacity for growth and change

11. Shifting Power in Social Work Administration
Three groups are involved in agency services
Executives
Staff
Clients
Participatory administration
More power shared
A move away from authoritative power
Interaction/sharing of ideas
Interagency cooperation

12. Research Three research roles for social workers (Grinnell)
Consumer of research
Disseminator of Knowledge
Contributing partner
Major steps (Polansky)
Find researchable problem
Develop study design
Identify potential subjects
Method of data collection
Collect data
Analyze data statistically or qualitatively
Compare results/draw conclusions
Identify larger implications for theory and practice
Summarize and disseminate