Case Examples Illustrating the Importance of Social Contexts in Human Service Organizations

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony L. Hemmelgarn ◽  
Charles Glisson
Keyword(s):  
Human Service ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Services Quality ◽  
Human Service Organizations ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Service Organizations ◽  
Case Examples ◽  
Service Effectiveness ◽  
Worker Attitudes ◽  
Shared Beliefs

This chapter provides case examples from the authors’ work within human service organizations that illustrate the importance of addressing OSCs: including culture, climate, and worker attitudes. These examples of the influence of OSC provide the reader with an understanding of how social contexts affect human services quality and outcomes along with implications for improving them. The chapter explains the sensitivity of human service effectiveness to OSC and describes the social processes that explain its influence. Case examples are used to illustrate the influence of shared mindsets and worker attitudes within OSCs. These examples include the influence of shared beliefs, assumptions, and attitudes of service providers on client and staff relationships that affect services quality.

Relationship-centered versus Individual-centered Human Service Organizations

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony L. Hemmelgarn ◽  
Charles Glisson
Keyword(s):  
Human Service ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Human Service Organizations ◽  
Service Organizations ◽  
Support Network ◽  
Organizational Relationships ◽  
External Stakeholders ◽  
Effective Relationships ◽  
Relationship Centered

The chapter explains that relationship-centered organizations place a priority on developing and sustaining a network of inter-organizational and intra-organizational relationships to serve clients. Case studies drawn from the authors’ experiences in human service organizations illustrate the application of this principle, including ensuring that strong networks are in place to serve clients and maintaining underlying beliefs, assumptions, and mindsets of service providers that support network development. Research and examples illustrate the importance of establishing effective relationships among service providers, between service providers and clients, and throughout the network of stakeholders associated with clients. A case study illustrates how the ARC process fosters a relationship-centered approach with external stakeholders to achieve client success.

Understanding and Assessing Organizational Social Context (OSC)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony L. Hemmelgarn ◽  
Charles Glisson
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
Organizational Development ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Service Organizations ◽  
Organizational Improvement ◽  
Organizational Assessment ◽  
Case Examples ◽  
Social Service Organizations ◽  
Worker Attitudes ◽  
Multiple Dimensions

This chapter describes the OSC measurement system. The OSC measure assesses culture, climate, and worker attitudes as the key components of OSC. Including multiple dimensions of culture and climate, the OSC measure provides a personality profile of organizations based on the responses of direct service providers within the work units that are assessed. Empirically derived, the dimensions and resulting measurement profiles allow users to assess the health of their organization’s social context using national norms for behavioral health and social service organizations. The authors explain the use of the OSC measure in their ARC organizational improvement process, and they integrate research and case examples to illustrate how the OSC measure can be applied for organizational assessment and change efforts. These efforts include using social context profiles to identify targets for change, action plans, and objectives to achieve within organizational development efforts.

Results-oriented versus Process-oriented Human Service Organizations

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony L. Hemmelgarn ◽  
Charles Glisson
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Change ◽  
Mental Models ◽  
Goal Setting ◽  
Human Service ◽  
Human Service Organizations ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Service Organizations ◽  
Implicit Beliefs ◽  
Case Examples ◽  
Process Oriented

This chapter explains the ARC principle of being results oriented versus process oriented. The results-oriented principle requires that human service organizations evaluate performance based on how much the well-being of clients improves. The principle addresses deficits in service caused by the conflicting priority of evaluating performance with process criteria such as the number of clients served, billable service hours, or the extent to which bureaucratic procedures such as the completion of paperwork are followed. Results-oriented organizations are described in detail, including case examples from decades of organizational change efforts by the authors in human service organizations. The chapter documents the importance of results-oriented approaches and underlying implicit beliefs to help the reader understand how mindsets and mental models shared among organizational members influence results-oriented approaches and effectiveness in practice. Supporting research, including feedback and goal-setting research are highlighted.

scholarly journals Final Lines of Defense: Explaining Policy Advocacy by Immigrant-Serving Organizations

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Apolonia Calderon ◽  
Daniel E. Chand ◽  
Daniel P. Hawes
Keyword(s):  
Human Service ◽  
Nationwide Survey ◽  
Human Service Organizations ◽  
Service Organizations ◽  
Policy Advocacy ◽  
Law Enforcement Agencies ◽  
Chief Executives ◽  
Local Law Enforcement ◽  
Nonprofit Human Service Organizations ◽  
Nonprofit Advocacy

Abstract Nonprofit scholars have developed a rich literature on nonprofit advocacy. While the literature is rich, however, gaps remain in our collective knowledge, especially regarding specific sectors of nonprofit human service organizations. Here, we apply existing theory on advocacy by human service organizations to an important subset of the nonprofit community, that being immigrant-serving organizations (ISOs). Most prior research on nonprofit advocacy has not focused on politically polarized issues, such as contemporary immigration policy. Using a nationwide survey of ISOs, we find that unlike other types of human service organizations, the majority of ISOs do engage in at least some forms of policy advocacy. However, those that report using the H-election status on their Form 990s are significantly more likely to engage in advocacy and do so to a wide variety of policymakers, including legislators, chief executives, and even local law enforcement agencies. H-election groups are also more likely to perceive their advocacy activities as effective. These findings add to the evolving knowledge on when and how human service groups seek policy change for marginalized groups.

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