Supervision, Role Strain and Social Services Departments

Correspondence to Department of Social Work and Social Administration, University of Western Australia, Nedlands, Western Australia, 6009 Summary The paper analyses the potential for ambiguity and ambivalencetowards the supervision of practice in social services departments.While supervision may be integral to much social work practicein clinical settings, the culture and tradition of supervisionin social services departments looks to be permeated with confusionabout ‘supervision’ or ‘consultation’,the nature of accountability and the functions of supervisionof qualified and experienced practitioners. To move beyond anideology prescribing supervision, the paper considers evidenceof the effectiveness of supervision practice, analysing thetransition from practitioner to line-manager/supervisor andthe subsequent strain on the supervisor's authorities of positionand of expertise in some current arrangements for supervisionin field-work ‘teams’. Finally, there is an unequivocalassertion that effective supervision is an essential componentin the monitoring of client service and the maintenance of practitionersengaged in stressful forms of practice. Such supervision needsto recognize the managerial and administrative tasks necessaryto protect the agency and the client from poor quality practice,while also respecting the emotional and educational needs ofnewly qualified and experienced practitioners exposed to thedemands of high-risk judgement and practice.     

‘Customs in common’: The epistemic world of the commons scholars

Theory and Society -     

GOVERNING A GROUNDWATER COMMONS: A STRATEGIC AND LABORATORY ANALYSIS OF WESTERN WATER LAW

We examine strategic behavior in groundwater depletion within the setting of state governance of groundwater resources in the American West. Solving a dynamic common-pool resource model for its optimal solution and its subgame perfect equilibrium provides benchmarks for behavior observed in laboratory experiments. Three forms of legal rules—common-pool depletion with a "rule-of-capture" to establish ownership (absolute ownership doctrine), entry restrictions (prior appropriation doctrine), and stock quotas (correlative rights doctrine—are examined in terms of their impact on individual strategic behavior in laboratory experiments.     

THE RATE OF RETURN TO MEXICAN AMERICANS AND ANGLOS ON AN INVESTMENT IN A COLLEGE EDUCATION

Rates of return to an investment in a college education are estimated for Mexican American and Anglo male college graduates with majors in business, accounting, education and liberal arts. The returns, estimated for 1967, 1970 and 1973 graduates of Pan American University, are quite substantial for all but the Anglo education majors. The returns to the business and accounting majors substantially exceed those to the other graduates. There was no strong tendency for the rates of return to fall over time nor were there any systematic differences between the returns to the two ethnic groups. This latter result does not imply an absence of labor market discrimination against Mexican American college graduates.     

TEACHING TOOLS: TEACHING METHODS IN UNDERGRADUATE ECONOMICS

Lectures have long been the dominant pedagogical approach in undergraduate economics courses, but they are certainly no longer the exclusive approach. Much of the recent soul-searching in the discipline, dealing with the desirable characteristics of economics programs and their graduates, has largely ignored the issue of promoting the use of innovative and more active forms of teaching and learning. We review a considerable literature on new teaching approaches, developed by economists over the past twenty-five years, and argue that this should also be a part of the current debate about curriculum and training reforms for the profession.     

Wages and inflation in Quebec

La plupart des sociologues qui ont étudié L'inflation des années de L'après-guerre ont tenté de L'expliquer par la 'poussée des salaires, causée par le militantisme du mouvement ouvrier. Pourtant, les données en la matière souffrent d'une ambiguité qui est souvent ignorée. Je présente dans cet article une réévaluation de la question, et je propose une analyse de la relation entre salaires et inflation au Québec - une province où certains ont cru voir un mouvement ouvrier particulièrement militant. La thèse de la 'poussée des salaires' et les données québécoises sont incompatibles. Ces données suggèrent au contraire que les salaires ont eu tendance à suivre, plutôt que précécler, la montée des prix; et que le militantisme des travailleurs/euses a été une conséquence, plutôt qu'une cause, de L'inflation.
Most sociologists who have tried to explain the postwar inflation have done so in terms of the effects of wage-push' rooted in the militancy of the labour movement. The evidence to support this is, however, much more mixed than their treatment would suggest. In this paper I review and criticize the available evidence and assemble and analyse data on leads and lags between wages and inflation in Quebec, a province sometimes thought to have a particularly militant labour movement. The Quebec data are not consistent with the wage-push account. They suggest that wages have tended to lag rather than lead price rises and that worker militancy has been more a consequence than a cause of inflation.     

An integrated functional representation of concurrent engineering

A time-based competitive strategy is a driving force for enterprises that are striving to be competitive on a global basis. One of the methods to help in the time compression of the product development life cycle is concurrent engineering. Concurrent engineering is not only an approach that is used by the engineering function of the organization, but it is also one that crosses organizational boundaries. In this article an integrated functional model of the concurrent engineering process and its relationship with the product development life cycle is presented. A functional comparison to the traditional engineering approach for product development is also provided.     

Assimilation and Contrast of Presidential Candidates'Issue Positions, 1972

Voter assimilation, the tendency to exaggerate the similaritybetween their favored candidate's position on issues and theirown position, and contrast, the tendency to exaggerate the distancebetween their nonpreferred candidate's position on issues andtheir own position, were examined in the University of MichiganCenter for Political Studies 1972 national election study. Significantassimilation effects were found on all nine issues considered,for both McGovern and Nixon voters, replicating and extendingfindings for the Vietnam issue in 1968 election data. Contrasteffects occurred primarily on issues which polarized the electorateand on which the candidates were viewed as distinct. Assimilationwas enhanced both by party identification and by attractionto preferred candidate. These moderators did not uniformly enhancecontrast     

POSTED PRICES VERSUS BARGAINING IN MARKETS WITH ASYMMETRIC INFORMATION

A search model is employed to analyze the choice between posting a price and bargaining for the seller of an asset who is imperfectly informed about both buyer valuations and buyer bargaining abilities. A mean preserving increase in risk of buyer valuations is relevant (and beneficial) to the seller; however, only the mean (and not the distribution) of buyer bargaining abilities is relevant. If is sufficiently high, the seller utilizes a posted price. Interestingly, social welfare decreases in while an increase in reduces expected search costs, it also results in misallocation of the good because the seller is less discriminating. ( JEL D42, D83)