Towards better strategic management

Strategic management is concerned with determining the long-term goals on an enterprise and deciding on the most appropriate course of action to achieve them, considering changing environmental conditions, resources available and risk attitudes.

The deliberate practice of strategic management is still regrettably rare and rudimentary despite wide recognition of the threats to corporate survival under conditions of rapid change. Better use must be made of the tools of business planning and many more managers skilled in strategy development will be required.

The purpose of this article is to discuss some of the difficulties in inculcating a strategic climate within an organization and to propose some approaches for improvement.     

The roles of child support enforcement and welfare in non-marital childbearing

This paper examines the effects of stronger child support enforcement and declines in welfare benefits on changes in non-marital childbearing between 1980 and 1996. Economic theory suggests that stricter child support enforcement will increase the costs of children for unwed fathers, making them less likely to have a child outside marriage. Reductions in welfare benefits also are expected to increase the costs of non-marital childbearing for both mothers and fathers. We examine these hypotheses, using aggregate state-level data and fixed effects regression models to identify the effects of policies on non-marital birth rates. We find that both stricter child support enforcement and declines in welfare benefits deter non-marital births. However, the estimated effects of child support enforcement are more robust and larger than those of welfare. The estimates imply that in the 1980–1996 period, increases in child support enforcement led to a decline in non-marital birth rates in the range of 6% to 9%, whereas decreases in welfare benefits led to a decline in the range of 2% to 4%. Received: 28 June 2000/Accepted: 17 September 2001     

Income growth among nonresident fathers: evidence from Wisconsin

This study examines the changes over time in the personal incomes of nonresident fathers—whether divorced or nonmarital—in Wisconsin. Using data from the Wisconsin Court Record data base and the Wisconsin Department of Revenue, the authors examine the incomes of these fathers over the first seven years following a divorce or the initiation of a paternity suit. They also study separately the income patterns of initially poor nonresident fathers and fathers whose nonresident children receive welfare. The most important finding is that the incomes of nonmarital fathers, which typically are low in the beginning, increase dramatically over the years after paternity establishment—often to a level comparable with the incomes of divorced fathers. On the basis of their findings, the authors conclude that failing to establish child support obligations for nonresident fathers simply because their incomes are initially low does not appear justified. nt]mis|The authors thank the Russell Sage Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the Wisconsin Department of Health and Social Services for financial support. They also wish to thank participants in the APPAM panel on noncustodial fathers, as well as colleagues at IRP, especially Pat Brown, for helpful comments and suggestions. A preliminary draft of this paper was presented at APPAM, Bethesda, Maryland, in October 1991.     

How changes in price and salary affect economic satisfaction: Information integration models and inference processes

Preliminary studies demonstrated the interactive effects of changes in salary and inflation rate on feelings of personal satisfaction, and showed that the effects of price increases in different cost categories could he described by a weighted average model. Participants in the main study were presented with varying hypothetical economic situations which included salary changes (raises) as well as specific price changes. A ratio model was found to describe how raise levels and price increases were combined. The rationality of this model was discussed in terms of how variations in price and income would affect the amount of a given commodity that could he purchased. On some trials only partial information was presented. Low ratings of personal satisfaction were produced when information about raises was missing, and high ratings were produced when information about price increases was missing. These results were discussed in terms of inferences people make when a key source of information is missing.     

Estimating the costs of preventive interventions

The goal of this article is to improve the practice and reporting of cost estimates of prevention programs. It reviews the steps in estimating the costs of an intervention and the principles that should guide estimation. The authors then review prior efforts to estimate intervention costs using a sample of well-known but diverse studies. Finally, the authors illustrate the principles with an example, the Family Bereavement Program. They conclude that example by discussing whether and how the costs of the intervention might differ when implemented in a real-world setting.     

Enriching Social Work Supervision from the Competence Perspective

Abstract

Various aspects of social work supervision are viewed from the competence perspective in order to conceptualize the grounds for competence-centered supervision, and to point out the potential enrichment of social work education. The paper defines worker competence and outlines several basic guidelines for competence-centered supervision. Discussion of both the content of competence-oriented supervision and the characteristics of the competence-oriented supervisor follow. Procedures of evaluating the supervisee's competence then are suggested. Finally, the processes of competence-centered supervision are analyzed, and the usefulness of a unifying scheme of competence for practice, supervision, and education in social work is highlighted.