Improvement Methods for Human Service Organizations

2021 ◽  
pp. 275-291
Author(s):  
Thomas Packard
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Change ◽  
Human Service ◽  
Human Service Organizations ◽  
Service Organizations ◽  
Research Network ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Evidence Based Practices ◽  
National Implementation ◽  
Fund Development ◽  
Practice Implementation

A number of methods for improving organizational operations are becoming more common in human service organizations. Capacity building typically addresses enhancing management systems capacity in areas such as strategic planning, information systems, and fund development. Benchmarking and best practices are tools that can be used at the level of the entire organization or for specific service delivery practices to search for models that can be adapted to one’s own organization. Implementing evidence-based practices, known broadly as implementation science, is a very common organizational change challenge for human service organizations these days. Formal evidence-based practice implementation methods for human service organizations include the exploration, adoption/preparation, implementation, and sustainment model and the work of the National Implementation Research Network. Organizational learning and learning organization principles are become increasingly better known in human service organizations and actually represent an arena of organizational change that can help organizations develop ongoing methods for continuous improvement.

Challenges and Opportunities

2021 ◽  
pp. 17-33
Author(s):  
Thomas Packard
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Change ◽  
Human Service ◽  
Service Organizations ◽  
Board Members ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Racial Justice ◽  
Technical Aspects ◽  
Organizational Goals ◽  
Staff Members ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities

Human service organizations are faced with environments of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. The COVID-19 pandemic, other healthcare challenges, expectations for evidence-based practice usage, and racial justice are vivid examples. Clients and communities deserve effective services delivered by competent, compassionate, and committed staff members. Taxpayers, donors, philanthropists, policymakers, and board members deserve to have their contributions used to deliver programs that are effective and efficient. All these forces create demands and opportunities for organizational change. Planned organizational change can happen at the level of a program, a division, or an entire organization. Administrators and other staff will need complementary skills in leading and managing organizational change. Staff deserve opportunities to have their unique competencies used to achieve organizational goals. Organizational change involves leading and mobilizing staff to address problems, needs, or opportunities facing the organization by using change processes that involve both human and technical aspects of the organization.

Conclusion and Future Challenges for Improving Human Service Organizations

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony L. Hemmelgarn ◽  
Charles Glisson
Keyword(s):  
Human Service ◽  
Human Services ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Extended Period ◽  
Service Organizations ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Specific Information ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Evidence Based Practices ◽  
Future Challenges

This concluding chapter suggests that future research and development efforts focus on four interrelated areas. These four areas, together, describe how more specific information about the ARC strategies can increase the capacity for improving human services. The authors argue that the emphasis on evidence-based practices should be expanded to include strategies that focus on the organization’s social context. Knowing which strategies are most effective to alter specific OSC profiles and knowing the sequence of strategies that are most effective for targeted outcomes will allow organizations to tailor improvement efforts with the greatest efficiency. The chapter calls for more information about how an array of strategies can be used most efficiently by an organization to target outcomes over an extended period and how to determine, a priori, the optimal application of the various strategies necessary to achieve success with the least amount of resources.

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.

An evidence-based approach to organization evaluation and change in human service organizations evaluation and program planning

2014 ◽  
Vol 45 ◽  
pp. 110-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert L. Schalock ◽  
Tim Lee ◽  
Miguel Verdugo ◽  
Kees Swart ◽  
Claudia Claes ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Human Service ◽  
Program Planning ◽  
Human Service Organizations ◽  
Service Organizations ◽  
Evidence Based
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