The study explicates a competency-based model of contemporary social work management practice and compares this model with frameworks derived from earlier studies. Using a purposive sample of 184 social work managers throughout the country, an exploratory factor analysis yielded twelve sets of competencies required of today's social work manager. A comparison of the present model to earlier management frameworks reveals that substantive changes in the nature, scope, complexity, and priorities assigned to management competencies and skills have transformed the role of the social work manager over the last decade. Implications for social work manager education are reviewed and future research directions are proposed.
Rapid and unprecedented changes in our modern society have created extremely turbulent environments for nonprofit human service organizations. These changes threaten to transform the very nature of our business in ways difficult to predict and prepare for. The author examines the collective views of 21 purposely sampled executive directors in the city of Baltimore, Maryland on the future of the nonprofit human services sector. In 1 hour face-to-face interviews, subjects were asked to respond to three questions. What major trends will impact the nonprofit sector in the near future? What potential impact do you see these trends having on the nonprofit sector? What strategies would you recommend that executive directors take today to ensure success of their organization in the future? Narrative responses to each question were aggregated, organized into dominant views, and summarized. Subjects identified a host of social, political, economic, and technological trends that will have major effects on the future of the nonprofit sector. Subjects recommend a variety of tactics for helping an agency respond successfully to these forces. These tactics emphasize three critical areas of strategic administration: planning, management, and leadership.
This article compares two human service professions-social work and organization development-on a number of dimensions, including values, ethics, theories, practice skills, and client systems. Sufficient similarities (and distinct differences) emerged from this analysis to indicate the utility of social work incorporating organization development technologies into administrative social work practice and education. It is suggested that such inclusion can strengthen the capacity of social work administrators to make the organizational changes needed to adapt to the changing social conditions of the 1990s.
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