Social Work Commons^™

Human Resource Management Manual For Children's Services, Vicki Banham, Les Evans, Lynda Pragnell

Research outputs pre 2011

A Children's Services Human. Resource Management is based on the policies and procedures that define the staffing requirements for the effective operation of the children's service. The total process of staffing, from advertisement to employment, is based upon the specific criteria that is determined for the particular position required. Thus, the entire process is designed to provide the children's service with the best information necessary to select the most appropriate person for each staff position in the team.

Consequently, well defined inclusive personnel policies and procedures enable each member of staff to understand the duties, skills, knowledge and responsibilities of …

The Internet As Commons: A Tale Of Enclosure, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

The original model of the internet developed as an electronic commons for scientists and academics. It will be only a matter of time before the same rich and powerful information barons who already control such "fourth estate" communication industries as newspaper, magazine and book publishing, television networks and movie production facilities establish their toll-booths on the information superhighway as well. Fortunately, within this electronic ocean of corporate and proprietary feudalism, there may also be room for an archipelago of freistaaten; "free citystates" functioning as autonomous and self-governing islands for the arts, sciences, humanities, social service and community.

Service Centers: The Neglected Role Of The Town, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

The dichotomy of urban and rural areas does not fit the circumstances of contemporary social life in the United States. Although needy populations redistributed across the social landscape, almost no social service agencies serving rural populations are, or ever have been, located in either urban (city) or rural (countryside) areas. Social agencies serving rural populations are nearly always located in towns. The town is a unique and distinctive rural social, economic and political institution. An adequate approach to conceptualizing rural social work must begin with recognition of one of the fundamental insights of contemporary urban theory: the regional character of …

Special Events And Community Elites: An Exploratory Study, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Special events are an important phenomenon in the American voluntary sector, both as a form of fundraising activity and as celebrations of the efforts of volunteers and recognition of the importance of causes and problems. This unpublished paper reports on a study of a national sample of elite special events publicized in a national circulation magazine which at the time published a regular feature in each issue highlighting charitable events. Findings profile the kinds of events and beneficiaries identified as special events during the 1980s, before an extensive amount of fundraising research had been done.

The Commons: A Multidisciplinary Approach To Nonprofit Organization, Voluntary Action And Philanthropy, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

The task of identifying nonprofit organizations, voluntary action and philanthropy as the principal constituents of a single "sector" within the larger economy, society and polity has been a central challenge for the multidisciplinary paradigm which seems to be emerging in this field. The concepts of the commons and common goods are presented as concepts with important multi-disciplinary implications. The commons is characterized by uncoerced participation, shared purposes and resources, mutuality and fairness and the derivative concept of common goods, as desirable ends which are universal and indivisible within a commons but not necessarily beyond. Taken together, commons and common goods …

Finances And The Social Settlement: The Management Of Hull House, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

The development of social welfare history has powerful implications for the study of community practice theory. This historical study examines the Hull House social settlement as an actual, working social service establishment, rather than simply the stage for the activities of its most famous resident, Jane Addams. Hull House is examined as an organization, a campus, and a pioneering set of social programs. Its incorporation, by-laws are examined and all board members serving during Addams' 40 years there are identified. Various aspects of dealing with important donors, cash flows from donations and accountability issues are identified and discussed, as are …

The Executive Director As Keeper Of The Past, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

This paper outlines a rationale for the materials which ought to be preserved by executives of local agencies, identifies some of the legal issues involved in record keeping for historical issues and resources available at local and state levels and discusses access issues.

The Repertory Of Social Care Of The Elderly, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

This paper is an analysis of aspects of the emergence of a repertory of social care services for the elderly from the vantage point of the common theory of voluntary action. One facet of that theory, labeled here as endowment theory, is an emerging rational choice model of the praxeological implications of voluntary action within the pragmatic problem-solving tradition. Three terms – endowment, repertory and commons – are presented in the paper as terms whose conventional meanings contain previously undisclosed connotations relevant to a fuller understanding of voluntary action.

Peace, Or The Problem-Free Interval, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

This paper argues for wider recognition of general program indicators as evaluative criteria and sets forth four general dimensions of outcome measures that might serve as comparative evaluative indicators for a wide range of programs and services. Pragmatic problem-solving is outlined as a theoretical basis for an approach to such general indicators. The argument for general program indicators of problem presence, frequency, duration and severity is grounded in general problem-solving theory and is part of an evaluative study of a mental health crisis unit. Peace, defined as a problem-free interval, is offered as an example of a general program outcome …

Ua35/11 Wku Student Honors Research Bulletin, Wku University Honors Program

WKU Archives Records

The Western Kentucky University Student Honors Research Bulletin is dedicated to scholarly involvement and student research. These papers represent work done by students from throughout the university.

• Kesselring, Marcia. Attitudes Toward the Need for Computer Literacy
• Tuck, Janna & Karen Wiggins. Methylation and Confirmation of PGE
• Lewis, Gloria. John Donne's Attitude Toward Love
• Johnson, Linda. International Telecommunications Trade with Japan
• Sharpe, Greg. Precipitation Patterns in Bowling Green, Kentucky, 1980-1985
• Smith, Sandy. Religion and the Media: Alliance or War?
• Bell, Suzanne. Early Secret Involvement of the United States Military in Cambodia
• Scariot, Linda. Parental Divorce and Childhood Emotional Disturbances
• Daniel, Janice. …

A Commentary On Unicorns And Efficiency, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

The issue of efficiency in human services parallels in many respects the principle that unicorns should receive fair treatment. People have paid lip service to the idea that human services should be delivered efficiently for most of the last century. Yet, in all of that time there has not been a single study published showing clearly whether a particular instance of service delivery was, or was not, efficient.The underlying issues involved in defining and measuring efficient service delivery are complex and difficult and administrators, boards and other stakeholders have typically done little more than pay lip service to the idea.

Review Of Books By Vinter & Kish And Lauffer, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

During a decade of great changes in the organization and management of human service organizations, these authors have attempted to explain the changes that are occurring and offer guidance for how to deal with them for harassed and overworked human services managers and students.

Trends In Human Services In West Virginia, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

This article provides an overview introduction to the WV Human Services Trend Study, a statewide joint venture of the WVU School of Social Work, WV Human Resources Association, and WV Department of Human Services. Rather than a conventional needs assessment questionnaire, the Trend Study opted for a series of 15 county-level community forums to gather information on the future of human services in the state. From this eight subject areas of greatest interest were identified and experts were invited to develop working papers on each of these topics.

Breaking Even: Preface To The Revised Edition, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Breaking Even: Financial Management in Nonprofit Human Services (Temple University Press. 1980) was the first book-length discussion of nonprofit financial management ever published in English. This preface was prepared, along with several new or rewritten chapters and additional changes for a possible revised edition of the book. The publisher decided not to do a second edition and the original first edition continued to sell in its small market niche for 25 years.

Automating The Social Work Office: Science Fictions And Practical Realities, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Social work was not originally an office-based profession but has become one in the past few decades. In the process, the information technology of social work practice has changed relatively little. Social work practice has yet to develop unique computer applications, comparable to developments in medicine, law, architecture, education and other fields. Most interest in computer applications in social work to date has been clerical and made use of off-the-shelf applications. The potential of currently available technology for office automation in social work offers the prospect not only for important productivity improvement, but also for a means to dealing with …

Private Human Services In Welfare Society, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

This paper is an effort to propose a moderately optimistic future for the personal care sector of human services. It is proposed that the best available future scenario for personal care services between now and the year 2019 is to concentrate on privatization of service delivery on a small-scale basis. Government, in this model should be limited largely to three roles: 1) source of venture capital; 2) regulation of service delivery; and 3) income maintenance for the poorest populations. In this future, the main burden of personal care services will be carried by the private sector. Dramatic improvements in the …

Resource Development: Is There A Case For Commercial Personal Care Services?, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

The years since 1980 have been particularly troublesome and challenging for human service leaders at all levels in the United States. If the human services are to rediscover the future and with it a viable program for meeting identified needs, some acceptable alternative to the progressive vision of a service state must evolve.

Information Processing In Social Services: A Review Of Project Iniss, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Project INISS is a research project seeking to establish the information processing practices of social workers in Great Britain. This article summarizes its most important findings for U.S. social workers and social administrators. Originally published in 1983, this article offers a snapshot of information practices in human services organizations a decade before the widespread adoption of the internet and just prior to the early beginnings of ubiquitous – nearly universal – use of computers for record keeping and information processing by social workers.

Comprehensive What? Coordination Of Whom? Area Agencies On Aging And The Planning Mandate (Revised), Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

The rural agency on aging did not – could not – engage in effective social planning because it was charged with a full range of responsibilities for sub-state decisionmaking among competing grant applicants. Several aspects of the Area Agency on Aging (AAA) planning mission are identified and discussed including “plan preparation”, rational decision-making, sub-state allocations and needs meeting. Widespread acceptance of the legitimacy of AAA planning goals generated three alternative models, which are termed the case management, inter-organizational and community structural approaches. More effective approaches to rural social planning might have combined elements of these three approaches in a regional …

Love, Death And The Hexadecimal, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

This paper analyzes the role of information in social casework practice. Three models of computer-based information processing are discussed: Cybernetic, Management Information Systems and Natural Language Processing. The latter is most consistent with social casework information needs because of its potential to focus on the problems of the meaning of social action.

The Rural Social Development Research Group At West Virginia University, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

This paper is intended to present and discuss the emergent research program on social work in rural areas at the WVU School of Social Work, It also outlines a program of future research, and attempts to do that by outlining a research focus that is small scale, cost conscious, practice oriented and designed to place social work at its core. Finally, the intent is to suggest a clear and enduring linkages between what social work research and social work practice in rural areas.

Budget Making, Financial Management And Human Services Administration, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Budgeting is one of the fundamental aspects of human services administration in both public and voluntary (nonprofit) social agencies. Yet, for many social workers and other professionals in the human services, budget-making and the other related responsibilities of financial management in social agencies have an air of magic and mystery about them. The focus of this chapter is to demythologize budgeting and other aspects of the financial management process in human service agencies.

The Effect Of Administrative Mandate On Social Workers' Clinical Decision Making, Richard Arthur Anderson

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study is to explore the extent to which Social Workers' clinical judgement is altered by administrative needs in a population of Veterans Administration social workers.

The importance of this study to research is to find out whether administrative mandates do, in fact, influence social workers' clinical judgement, hence altering treatment to some significant degree. Administrators will be interested in seeing whether there is acceptance or resistance to their directives and what factors are involved in this dimension.

The Politics Of Aging And Rural Social Services: An Exploratory Analysis, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

The advent of federal funding for rural social services during the late 1960s and 1970s brought about changes in the political organization of rural America. A host of new organizational actors, like Area Agencies on Aging and various local aging agencies were created in rural communities across the country, in the wake of Baker v. Carr with its “one man/one vote” principle and funding through programs like the Economic Opportunity Act and the Older Americans Act. This article details a leadership succession model suggesting that local leadership of aging interests went through at least four distinct phases during this time: …

An Exploratory Study Into The Financial Situations Of Elderly Wards Of The Public Guardian And Conservator Of Multnomah County, Ruth D. Hudson

Dissertations and Theses

It has been the practice of the Public Guardian and Conservator (PG and C*) of Multnomah County to collect fees for service to elderly wards on an annual basis usually at the time of the annual accounting. The purpose of this study is to determine the profitability of deferring the assessment and collection of fees until the termination of conservatorship. The assumption is that such a policy would provide an immediate benefit to the ward who would enjoy more spendable income while he is alive and at the same time the Public Guardian and Conservator could still collect his fee, …

Matrix Analysis And Social Planning, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

This study is a follow-up to an earlier (1971) proposal for the application of Input-output analysis to social planning in human services (Repository item #753), and predates current models of human services as part of the nonprofit, or third sector. The manuscript details a study of financial inputs and service outputs in human services in the United Way system of Knoxville TN, noting a variety of quantitative ratios and measures of the human services delivery system, and assessing some of the strengths and weaknesses of the matrix approach.

The Empathic Accuracy Of Subordinate And Superordinate In The Social Work Bureaucracy, Beverly Louise West

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

No abstract provided.

A Matrix Model Of The Public Social Welfare System For The Aged In The U.S.: A Research Proposal, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

The creation or adaptation of planning tools will in all probability be an integral feature of the future development of social planning practice. One tool that offers a great deal of potential utility if it can be adapted to the constraints of the social planning milieu is matrix analysis utilizing input-output matrices. The specific focus of the proposed study is on the public welfare system of theaged in the United States. The fundamental hypothesis of the proposed matrix model proposed here is that the general overall characteristic most representative of the system of public social welfare for the aged is …