Concepts of Risk in Relation to Organizational Structure and Functioning within the Personal Social Services and Probation

The main argument of this paper is that personal social services, including probation, at both a policy and practice level are increasingly focused on issues of risk. We postulate that risk assessment, risk management, the monitoring of risk and risk-taking itself are rapidly becoming the dominant raison d'être of such agencies, thus supplanting ideologies of meeting need or welfare provision. In turn they have become key to priority setting and rationing, the basis for organizational rationales and structures, the central focus for professional activity and accountability, and measuring quality. Thus an analysis of risk as an organizing principle offers fundamental insights into the rapidly changing nature and organization of statutory social work and probation. There is very little literature that focuses on risk across the spectrum of services. Risk analysis, as such, is most developed in the criminal justice and child protection fields. However, the mental health literature, being centrally preoccupied with notions of dangerousness, is quickly adopting risk terminology. Apart from work on elder abuse, literature on child welfare and community care has been framed in terms of need, issues of risk only coming to the fore around potential admission to residential care. We contend that as issues of rationing and accountability become more dominant, so do concerns with risk. Thus we predict the extension of notions of risk as central organizing principles throughout the social services and probation.     

Power models and the farm workers' struggle: A case study of the agribusiness vs. UFW conflict

Power elite and pluralist frameworks are used to examine the conflict between farm workers and their employers, in California, from 1850 to 1977. Analysis focuses on four time periods which provide varying support for the contending frameworks. Assumptions and assertions of theorists in each camp are shown to be contradicted by some of the data in this case. We conclude by suggesting that a more accurate theoretical model of our national structure of power would emerge from a series of similar case studies of important national issues. This is a revision of a paper presented at the Eastern Sociological Society Meeting in New York, 1977. The research was supported by a generous grant from the Ford Foundation to the first author.     

Exact intervals and tests for mean of symmetrical population when one "sample" value possibly an outlier

The (continuous) data are n observations that are believed to be a random sample from a symmetrical population. Confidence intervals and significance tests for the population mean are desired. There is, however, the possibility that either the smallest observation or the largest observation is an outlier. That is, the population providing this observation differs from the symmetrical population providing the other n - 1 observations. If this occurs, intervals and tests are desired for the mean of the population providing the other n - 1 observations. Some investigation difficulties can be overcome if intervals and tests can be developed that are simultaneously usable for all of these three situations (a confidence coefficient, or significance level, has the same value for all three situations). Two kinds of intervals and tests with this property are developed. These results always involve both the next to smallest observations and should have at least moderately high efficiencies. Also, some extensions are considered, such as allowing each observation to be from a different population.     

Existence of every possible distribution for any sample order statistic

Given are any stated value for sample size and an arbitrary but specified univariate distribution. Let an arbitrary but specified order statistic for a univariate random sample of this size be considered. It is shown that a statistical population always exists, for yielding the sample, such that the distribution of the order statistic is exactly the specified distribution. Some asymptotic implications of these results are outlined.     

Therapeutic Communication with Psychotic Clients

With the current emphasis on evidence-based practice, the significance of the social worker–client relationship as a prerequisite to client goal attainment has been de-emphasized. This is particularly problematic with regard to practice with psychotic clients, with whom practitioners often have difficulty establishing therapeutic relationships. The purposes of this article are to examine the communication deficits of persons with psychotic disorders and, with an extended example, to describe five intervention guidelines for social workers toward the goal of developing positive working relationships with them.     

Gender,the Work‐Life Interface and Wellbeing: A Study of Hospital Doctors

Long and unsociable hours and intensive work pressure have been dominant features of the medical profession, especially in hospital work. The increased presence of women in medical occupations, however, has stimulated debate about the nature and consequences of such work practices on doctors' wellbeing. Against the backdrop of this debate the article explores how factors relating to the work–lfe interface affect the wellbeing of a sample of hospital doctors. A key aim is to assess whether gender differences are discernible in the pattern of factors associated with perceptions of job burnout and intentions to quit. The research suggests that female doctors were more likely to experience job burnout than male doctors. It also shows that aspects of the work–life interface affect the wellbeing of all doctors but women tend to rely on different forms of social support from men to alleviate burnout and reduce the likelihood of leaving their job.