Language Policy and Provision in Social Service Organizations

This paper reports the findings of a survey into minority languagepolicy and provision in social service departments and largevoluntary social service agencies in England and Wales. It foundthat many organizations lacked specific policies on the provisionof services to minority language communities and that most werepoorly prepared to meet their needs.     

Theoretical and Methodological Perspectives on Domestic Violence: Implications for Social Action

Theoretical and methodological paradigms used by researchers and applied workers to conceptualise domestic violence are examined, with particular emphasis on the implications for social action. It is argued that the gender assumptions underlying the theoretical framework adopted are often implicit, unacknowledged, and that when they assume equal power between men and women may do a disservice to female victims. We maintain that the consequence of discrepant approaches of professionals encountering domestic violence is insufficient dialogue between researchers and applied workers, reducing the potential for effective social remedy. Some resolutions of this dilemma are proposed; specifically, these concern the adoption of feminist paradigms, the importance of making victims more visible, and empowering women to overcome violent oppression.     

Social Service Teams and their Managers

Summary A study is reported of the perceived effectiveness of teamsof social workers and their managers. Prior studies are reviewedand shown to give disproportionate emphasis to the supervisionelement in the manager's task. It is shown that in the sampleof teams studied the correlates of perceived team effectivenesswere quite different in area teams from those found in socialwork teams. Social work teams required a manager who was primarilysupportive, whereas in area teams the manager's role was foundto be less important than were group process variables.     

Carers' Perspectives on the Internet: Implications for Social and Health Care Service Provision

To date, little is known about carers’ experience of usingonline services and informa­tion. Data are reported fromthe Carers Online national postal survey of 3,014 adult carersand from an assisted access study involving 60 other adultswho had been given training and cost-free Internet access athome. Half of the survey respondents reported having used theInternet on at least one occasion for a range of purposes relatedto both caring and other aspects of their lives. Major barriersto use identified by both users and non-users included lackof access to equipment and the Internet, difficulties with equipmentand systems, cost, limitations on time, and lack of interestand skill. Fourteen per cent of the whole sample said that nothingwould encourage them to use the Internet. All of the assistedaccess group used the Internet for a similarly wide range ofpurposes. Key benefits identified included convenience, flexibility,speed and range of information available, while problems withequipment and systems and time constraints were major barriersto effective Internet use. Findings suggest that while directInternet access has some benefits for some carers, it shouldcurrently be only one of a range of ways of meeting their informationneeds.     

平衡计分卡在社会服务组织应用的探索

本文探讨平衡计分卡在社会服务组织中的应用,通过对机构内外环境的审视和分析,同时考量机构的使命、价值观和愿景,以平衡计分卡的顾客、内部流程、学习与成长和财务资源四个基本维度的平衡,来统筹设计机构的策略性目标。然后,将这些策略性目标串联起来而成为策略图,并为每项目标制订关键性表现指标、衡量方法、指标水平、以及行动计划,最终成为机构服务的表现蓝本。     

Towards Accountability in Social Work: A Case Review System for Social Workers

Summary After discussing the huge undifferentiated tasks facing socialworkers in the social services departments, it is suggestedthat one of the most urgent research needs is the developmentof systematic record and review systems to provide basic informationabout social worker activities and their effects on differentclient groups. The development of a social worker oriented computerizedCase Review System in close collaboraation with a group of fieldworkersin an area office is described. The system enables social workersto evaluate and plan their work for individual clients; it canassist the process of supervision; as a management tool it cancontribute towards the planning of fieldwork services; as aninformation system it gives an on-going account of the size,nature and scope of social work activities with different clientgroups. So far the impact of the system has been to raise questionsabout practices and to encourage a climate favourable to change.     

Accountability to Welfare Service Users: Challenges and Responses of Service Providers

Influenced by the consumerist sentiment in New Public Management,the last decades have witnessed a revival of the call for accountabilityto service users in the public service sector. As an act ofaccountability, social care and health care professionals areincreasingly obliged to involve their service users in the serviceplanning and monitoring process. Despite the popularity of thisaccountability and user involvement rhetoric, critics have,however, been skeptical of the prevailing user involvement initiativesas an effective measure of accountability to service users (Barnes and Wistow, 1994a,1994b; Bowl, 1996; Peck et al., 2002; Rea, 2004). Based on astudy of user involvement in the welfare sector of Hong Kong,this paper argues that the discourse of accountability to theservice users can be a source of unrest for welfare professionals,in the manifestation of accountability as a power relationship.Their ensuing response is to accommodate the ensuing challengearising from the demand for accountability to service usersby manoeuvring the accountability discourse. It is the contentionof this paper that the institutional inclusion of welfare serviceusers into a discursive space is a necessary but not sufficientcondition for the realization of a mandate of accountabilityto welfare service users.     

自我行动的逻辑——理解“新传统主义”与中国单位组织的真实的社会建构

中国单位组织中何以未能发生变革或终结其制度的集体行动？解答该问题的关键在于理解中国单位组织的“真实的社会建构”。本文认为,华尔德的“新传统主义”模式,已为研究中国单位生活中真实的行动及其制度再建构奠定了基础。进一步的研究,应当是对该理论的若干假设进行修正,并将其建立在更为坚实的行动理论的基础之上。这种特定的行动理论即本文旨在建立的中国人的自我行动理论。本文的论点是,中国人并非是个人行动者而是自我行动者。自我行动受自我主义和关系理性的驱动和约束。从自我行动到关系行动,再到小集团或派系行动,构成了中国人自我行动的逻辑进程。透过这一逻辑进程及其引致的后果,我们能更深入地理解中国单位组织的真实的社会建构。     

The Ethical Implications of Current Theoretical Developments in Social Work

Correspondence to Dr Mel Gray, Department of Social Work, University of Natal, King George V Ave, Durban 4001, South Africa. Summary The paper examines the ethical implications of current theoreticaldevelopments in social work and discusses important ways inwhich efforts at understanding within social work can be guidedby moral values. At the present time, there are a variety oftheories through which the world of social work can be understood.In attempting to achieve as accurate an understanding of socialwork reality as possible, it is suggested that social work needsto move beyond empirical rigidity, technological approachesand ideological dogma to a critical, reflective epistemologicalstance which takes account of the profession's worthwhile ideals.To this end, the paper discusses the notion of the autonomousmoral self and examines the implications of critical and constructivistthinking on this notion of selfhood. It considers what it meansto develop an adequate understanding of social work realityand re-examines the meaning of objectivity. Finally, it highlightsthe need for reflection on, and an appreciation of, the allencompassing nature of morality.     

Human Behavior and the Social Environment: Models,Metaphors and Maps for Applying Theoretical Perspectives to Practice

From Diagnosis to Treatment in Child Psychiatry. Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry. (New York: Jason Aronson, Inc., 1974.)

Psychotherapeutic Approaches to the Resistant Child. Dr. Richard Gardner. (New York: Jason Aronson, 1975.)     

Social Conflict: Implications for Casework Practice

Summary The concept of social conflict is examined in terms of its usefulnessin refining and extending social casework theory. Attentionis given to the influence of the homeostatic approach to caseworkpractice versus an approach utilizing a conflict orientation.Primary emphasis is given to Coser's sociological theory ofconflict in an effort to discover heuristic concepts which areconsidered to be applicable in the practice of social casework.Specifically, seven of Coser's original sixteen propositionsrelated to conflict theory have been selected for analysis.It is concluded that a conflict orientation would serve to clarifythe functional aspects of conflict as they relate to the dyadiccasework relationship     

Faith‐Based Social Service Organizations and Government Funding: Data from a National Survey*

Objective. The objective of the research reported in this article is to test four hypotheses concerning government funding among faith‐based social service coalitions: that it is positively related to size and organizational professionalism; positively related to attitudes toward government funding; positively related to social activism; and negatively related to organizational religiosity. Method. Our method is the application of OLS and probit analysis to data from a national survey of 656 such organizations. Results. Using three measures of government funding and 12 predictor variables, results are mixed in their support of the size and professionalization hypothesis and generally support the remaining hypotheses. These findings are replicated when we compare coalitions that had and had not applied for government funding. Conclusions. Our findings emphasize that greater religious expressiveness dissuades coalitions from both seeking and receiving government funding, but higher levels of social activism expedite both.     

Intergenerational Relations with In-Laws in the Context of the Social Convoy: Theoretical and Practical Implications

Intergenerational relations among in-laws are involuntary ties emerging as a consequence of marriage. As such, these relations provide a window through which the dynamics involved in restructuring social networks following life transitions may be observed. A questionnaire, based on the social convoy model, was given to an ethnically diverse sample of adults with living in-laws (N = 170), married 2–15 years. About half of the respondents included in-laws in a concentric circle network diagram of persons close and important to them. The strongest unique predictors of convoy placement for the mother-in-law were support, frequency of contact, relationship quality, and length of marriage, and for the father-in-law were support, relationship quality, and value similarity. This study sheds light on the dynamics of an intergenerational relationship that has been largely ignored in the literature, laying the groundwork for conceptualizing ways to foster positive in-law relationships as a necessary tool in managing the care of the growing numbers of elderly in the new millennium.     

Volunteerism: Social Issues Perspectives and Social Policy Implications

This analytic review focuses on theory and research on volunteerism. First, we define volunteerism as freely chosen helping activities that extend over time and that are often performed through organizations and on behalf of receptive causes or individuals. Next, we link these definitional features to the Volunteer Process Model, which depicts volunteerism as a process with three sequential and interactive stages (antecedents, experiences, and consequences) and at multiple levels of analysis. Then, we use this model to organize the empirical literature on volunteerism and selected work on social movements. Finally, we discuss implications for social policy issues relevant to individuals, organizations, communities, and societies.     

论社会自治组织的行政权力

一、社会自治组织的概念社会自治组织,是指“一定范围的社会成员自主自愿组成,实行自治自律,为维护和发展共同事业、共同利益和社会公共利益,对其成员提供一定的公共管理和公共服务,不以营利、政治