An intensive reunification program for children in foster care

While the Intensive Family Preservation Services (IFPS) model is widely used in preventing out-of-home placement, its application to reunifying foster children with their families has produced mixed results. This pilot project combined elements of the IFPS model with foster care-related services that included foster parent training and support, foster parent-parent linkage, and frequent parental visiting. Of 42 participating foster children, 79% were successfully reunified. At follow-up one year after their exit from the project, 91% of reunified children were still living with their family. Reunification was significantly associated with several characteristics of the families studied.     

Technology and the Conflict of Professionals in Bureaucratic Organizations*

This paper reports upon a secondary analysis of Richard Hall's (1968) data, indicating that two major trends–the increasing professionalization of the labor force and the increasing bureaucratization of organizations–are not necessarily incompatible. Because the bureaucratic and professional models imply different forms of organization, most research has been directed toward isolating the sources of conflict; the major emphasis being upon the incompatibility of professional and bureaucratic control. Using Thompson's (1967) classification of technology, the present research has focused upon two dimensions of professionalism (self-regulation, and autonomy) and three dimensions of bureaucracy (rules, procedures, and technical competence). The results suggest that the relationships between these dimensions vary by organizational technology and the nature of the professional tasks.     

Novel Ideas for Community-Centered Clinical Practice: Facilitating Graduate Students' Understanding of Sense of Community and Place

Community-centered clinical practice requires understanding of relational aspects of community and place and how these unfold in the lives of clients. However, many students lack such conceptual understanding and consequently struggle to define how they might be integrated into clinical practice. This article illustrates the use of three novels to facilitate such understanding in a graduate clinical practice course. The novels examine the experiences of a middle-aged White widower, a Black woman, and a young Aboriginal man as they alternatively avoid, reject, find, and ultimately cherish their place in community and their community in place.     

Causes of worker burnout

This research reports on a survey conducted with 183 protective service workers in the state of Michigan. These practitioners listed 166 separate statements representing primary dissatisfactions or frustrations with being a child protective caseworker. Such dissatisfaction was assumed to underly the various dimensions of burnout. The statements were collated and synthesized through a version of the constant comparative method which resulted in three basic categories reflecting perceived causes of burnout: (a) overloaded responsibility, (b) lack of recognition, and (c) poor communication. The three categories are interrelated and together they point to workers' dissatisfaction with their supervisors as one of the major sources of burnout. The paper also includes a brief discussion of four ways to reduce or prevent worker burnout: reduce the client-to-staff ratio, shorten the number of work hours, change the function of staff meeting, and provide in-service training.     

Using word processor macros for computer-assisted qualitative analysis

Keyboard macros used with microcomputer word processors can assist in some of the routine and repetitive aspects of recording and analyzing qualitative materials. Keyboard macros are recorded sequences of computer instructions that can be repeated on command. Defining and using these macros do not require programming knowledge when using the macro facilities of many applications programs such as word processors and special macro processing programs. Macros can assist qualitative researchers both in recording their fieldnotes and in managing and analyzing them.Revised version of a paper presented at the annual meeting of the Midwest Sociological Society, St. Louis, MO, April 10–13, 1985. In the early stages of this work, I benefitted greatly from discussions with Jonathan W. McAdams and Pamela J. Rosenberg about what an ideal microcomputer assisted fieldnote writing program would be like and how it might be created. Discussion or mention of any commercial hardware or software product shouldneither be considered to be an endorsement nor imply that I think the product is superior to others.     

C. Lange,S. Nakagawa,J. Onyx,and C. Schwabenland (eds.), Women’s Emancipation and Civil Society Organisations: Challenging or Maintaining the Status Quo?

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations -