Mission-driven versus Rule-driven Human Service Organizations

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony L. Hemmelgarn ◽  
Charles Glisson
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Service Provider ◽  
Human Service ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Service Organizations ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Case Examples ◽  
Provider Behavior ◽  
Shared Purpose

This chapter explains how mission-driven organizations require that all administrative, managerial, and service provider behavior and decisions contribute to improving the well-being of clients. This principle addresses the threat posed by the conflicting organizational priority of relying on bureaucratic processes and rules to guide policy and practice decisions. The description of mission-driven versus rule-driven organizations includes case examples, empirical evidence supporting the principle, and discussion of the central of role of aligning organizational priorities to focusing on improving client well-being. The chapter explains what it means to be mission driven, the role of leadership in supporting the principle, and why it is important. The chapter also describes the mechanisms that link being mission driven to effective services, including maintaining clear direction for all organizational members in their work, promoting motivation and shared purpose and fostering innovation. A case example illustrates ARC’s success to become more mission-driven.

Participatory-based versus Authority-based Human Service Organizations

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony L. Hemmelgarn ◽  
Charles Glisson
Keyword(s):  
Human Service ◽  
Service Provision ◽  
Middle Managers ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Service Organizations ◽  
Client Outcomes ◽  
Front Line ◽  
Participatory Approaches ◽  
Case Examples

This chapter introduces ARC’s principle of being participatory based. This principle requires the active, open participation of front-line staff, middle managers, and top administrators in decisions about practices and policies that affect the well-being of clients served by their organization. It counters the conflicting priority of prescribing change in a top-down manner without the benefit of the experience of those closest to service provision. The chapter explains how participatory-based organizations impact staff discretion, motivation, learning, and engagement with clients and reviews the empirical evidence that supports participatory-based approaches. This evidence includes research in social cognition and neuroscience. Case examples illustrate the positive impact of participatory approaches on service provider and client outcomes, outlining their influence through norms and expectations as well as underlying beliefs and assumptions.

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.

Improvement-directed versus Status Quo-directed Human Service Organizations

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony L. Hemmelgarn ◽  
Charles Glisson
Keyword(s):  
Continuous Improvement ◽  
Human Service ◽  
Research Evidence ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Service Organizations ◽  
Case Examples ◽  
Formal Organizations ◽  
The Status ◽  
And Behaviors

This chapter explains that members of improvement-directed organizations are never satisfied with the status quo and never stop looking for more effective ways to serve their clients. The principle addresses the conflicting priority represented by individuals in formal organizations resisting change and clinging to established protocols, regardless of whether the existing protocols promote improvements in the well-being of clients. The chapter describes improvement-directed organizations, including their application of continuous improvement processes, norms that support ongoing improvement, and behaviors that drive innovation and ongoing growth and development. The chapter presents research evidence and case studies to illustrate how systems and processes, decisions, actions, and behaviors, as well as assumptions and beliefs, need to be addressed to create improvement-directed organizations. Specific case examples illustrate ARC’s application to build improvement-directed organizations.

The Role of Mental Models in Organizational Change

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony L. Hemmelgarn ◽  
Charles Glisson
Keyword(s):  
Mental Models ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Service Organizations ◽  
Work Experiences ◽  
Case Examples ◽  
Quality And Outcomes ◽  
Improve Service Quality ◽  
Organizational Principles ◽  
Effective Service

This chapter describes ARC’s third strategy of employing mental models. This strategy fosters reasoning and thinking that reinforces the use of ARC’s organizational components and that maintains alignment with ARC’s five principles of effective service organizations. Reasoning and thinking are reflected in the mental representations of work experiences service providers hold, and these mental models guide priorities followed when providing services. Case examples are provided to illustrate work with mental models to influence organizational members’ thinking, reasoning, and subsequent actions to improve service quality and outcomes. This chapter reviews the empirical evidence for mental models, including research from social cognition and neuroscience. The description of this strategy highlights several activities and techniques used to explore and alter mental models. These activities foster examination of implicit assumptions and beliefs that help drive reasoning and thinking toward or away from ARC’s key organizational principles, tools, and desired OSCs.

The Campbell Collaboration

2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 6-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia H. Littell ◽  
Howard White
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Organizational Structure ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Behavioral Interventions ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Evidence Synthesis ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Campbell Collaboration

In this article, we trace the development of the Campbell Collaboration and its renewed efforts to build a world library of accurate, synthesized evidence to inform policy and practice and improve human well-being worldwide. Campbell systematic reviews and related evidence synthesis products provide unbiased summaries of entire bodies of empirical evidence, making them uniquely useful sources of information for policy and practice. With recent changes in organizational structure and new leadership, the Campbell Collaboration is poised to dramatically increase the production, dissemination, and use of rigorous syntheses of research on social, economic, and behavioral interventions. Campbell provides opportunities for social work scholars, practitioners, and consumers to contribute to knowledge about the processes and outcomes of social, behavioral, and economic interventions.

Balancing organizational justice and leader–member exchange to engage workforce

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 231-246 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daria Sarti
Keyword(s):  
Nonprofit Organizations ◽  
Organizational Justice ◽  
Work Engagement ◽  
Human Service ◽  
Human Service Organizations ◽  
Service Organizations ◽  
Leader Member Exchange ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Member Exchange

Purpose The purpose of this paper is, first, to examine the role of two key organizational determinants of work engagement among employees operating in human service organizations – organizational justice and leader–member exchange (LMX) – in nonprofit organizations – i.e. social cooperatives in Italy – and, second, whether any interaction effect exists between these two variables, more specifically if LMX plays a moderating role in the relationship between organizational justice perception and employees’ engagement. Design/methodology/approach The analysis was developed through the administration of a questionnaire to 290 employees operating in ten nonprofit human service organizations in Italy. Findings The results support the hypothesis of a positive relation between both distributive and procedural justice and work engagement. In addition, the aforesaid relation was moreover found to be stronger among employees experiencing high levels of LMX than those reporting little LMX. Research limitations/implications Despite some limitations, the paper has both theoretical and managerial implications. Originality/value This paper contributes to the research on the important role of organizational justice in enhancing employees’ work engagement and the pivotal interacting role of the leader in boosting this relationship.

scholarly journals Return Migration Process in Policy and Practice

2019 ◽  
pp. 261-282 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evija Kļave ◽  
Inese Šūpule
Keyword(s):  
Social Status ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Return Migration ◽  
Migration Policy ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Return Migrants ◽  
Return Policy ◽  
The World ◽  
Depth Interviews

Abstract This chapter focuses on return migration processes in Latvia, integrating analysis of return migration policy and the experiences of return migrants. The analysis considers the extent to which return policy activities correspond to the needs and expectations of the target group, and addresses the role of this policy in the process of making the decision to return. The data used for the analysis are policy planning documents, The Emigrant Communities of Latvia survey and in-depth interviews. The main empirical evidence of the return experiences of migrants in the chapter comes from 18 in-depth interviews with Latvian returnees from various age and social status groups, who left Latvia within a period between 1991 and 2011. This research finds that although the government’s policy corresponds to the general needs of return migrants, this policy has no impact on individual return decisions among Latvian migrants. The main reasons for return are non-economic. If economic reasons dominate the reasons for leaving – alongside a wish to see the world or get an education – then coming back is connected with homesickness, a willingness to spend more time with relatives in Latvia, a longing for Latvian nature, a desire to speak Latvian and to live in the Latvian environment. It also eliminates the risk of assimilation for their children in the society of the country they have emigrated to.

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