Social Work Commons^™

Nonprofit Leader Experiences In Sector-Bending After Lean Six Sigma Training: Tension, Concepts, And Changed Behaviors, Beverly Codallos

Dissertations

Government, business, and nonprofit represent three distinct types of organizations governed by different legal frameworks designed to facilitate collective action (DiMaggio & Anheier, 1990). The emergence of hybrid forms and increasing isomorphic pressures in the nonprofit sector (Bromley & Meyer, 2017; McCambridge, 2014) have challenged the traditional separation of organizational forms. This study explored the phenomenon popularized as sector-bending, “a wide variety of approaches, activities, and relationships that are blurring the distinctions between nonprofit and for-profit organizations, either because they are behaving more similarly, operating in the same realms, or both” (Dees & Anderson, 2003, pg. 16). This qualitative study …

Social Work Educators’ Perceptions Of School Social Work Leadership – What Are The Characteristics That Make A Leader?, Christine Vyshedsky

International Journal of School Social Work

Social workers in school settings are uniquely poised to propose and implement proactive solutions to climate stressors, but they may not capitalize on this opportunity to lead. This study explored the perceptions of Masters’ level social work educators, who set the tone and expectations for school social workers through curricula, towards the inclusion of leadership-related skills within school social work curriculum. A survey of educator administrators (n = 75) at Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) accredited institutions examined leadership as defined through a combination of two proposed definitions for social work leadership, delineated by Holosko, 2009 and Hopson & …

The Impact Of Leadership Turnover On Child Welfare Workforce Initiatives, Courtney Harrison, Megan Paul

QIC-Takes

Turnover among public child welfare leaders is prevalent. Across the eight QIC-WD intervention sites, leadership turnover was one of the most common implementation challenges observed by the QIC-WD team. Leadership changes can disrupt the implementation of a workforce initiative by shifting agency-level priorities, the organizational climate, or key staff.

Child welfare leaders may be appointed or hired in many different ways in different jurisdictions. In some states, the Governor appoints a cabinet-level child welfare director who oversees a stand-alone agency. This means that child welfare leadership changes follow the political election cycle with new governors appointing new agency leaders every …

Exploring The Barriers And Facilitators Of Puerto Rican Women Senior Leadership In New York City Nonprofit Social Service Organizations, Emily Lopez

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Puerto Rican women in senior leadership positions within nonprofit organizations contribute to the direction and governance of many New York City agencies. The findings in this research bring attention to their experiences and grit in the sector. According to Smith and Nkomo (2022) grit gives women of color in leadership the ability to bounce back after being discouraged and sidelined in their careers or to survive in hypermasculine cultures. Grit is defined as women who lead with passion, perseverance and know who they are (Smith & Nkomo, 2022). This study explores barriers and facilitators encountered by Puerto Rican women who …

Black Mental Health Clinicians' Experiences And Lessons From The Intersecting Crises Of Black Mental Health, Covid-19, And Racial Trauma: An Interpretive Phenomenological Study, Chanté Meadows

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This study explored the experiences of African American mental health clinicians’ during the intersecting crises of the Black mental health crisis, the highly publicized racial tension tied to extrajudicial violence and over-policing of Black Americans, and the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic started a global crisis that affected millions of people’s physical and mental health and overall well-being. Shared trauma explores the duality of mental health clinicians’ personal and professional experiences. Grounded in critical race theory and models of trauma, this study explores Black mental health clinicians’ lived experiences and lessons. This is an interpretive phenomenological study with narrative interviews of …

Competency-Based Social Work Education: 25 Years Of Innovation & Leadership, Zoë Breen Wood, Marjorie N. Edguer, David L. Hussey, Mark Chupp, Grover C. Gilmore, Paul M. Kubek

Faculty Scholarship

The white paper chronicles the 25-year history of one graduate school of social work’s efforts in competency-based curriculum innovation. The authors argue that curriculum change is organizational change and share their experiences with a variety of curriculum assessment, design, and delivery efforts. Beginning with the development of the first social work competencies (labeled Abilities), pioneering efforts in assessment and holistic curricular design and delivery are reviewed. A new, one-semester, social work generalist curriculum is introduced. Emphasis is placed on the importance of developing a competency-based curriculum that is integrated both horizontally and vertically and that engages the social work student …

Transformational Leadership, Sarah Stepanek, Megan Paul

Umbrella Summaries

What is transformational leadership? Transformational leadership refers to leadership behaviors that transcend the basic employment contract and help motivate followers to achieve beyond expectations (Antonakis et al., 2003; Bass, 1999). Transformational leaders seek to “uplift the morale, motivation, and morals of their followers” (Bass, 1999, p. 9). Through the four facets of transformational leadership (idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration), transformational leaders help followers create meaning, selfactualize, feel part of a collective, find greater self-worth, and achieve great things (Bass, 1999). The dimensions of transformational leadership are further detailed below. ► Idealized influence: This dimension of transformational …

Who's There For The Directors?, Mark K. Nagasawa

Straus Center for Young Children & Families

This third report from the Listening to Teachers study’s second year focuses on a subsample of early childhood program leaders (n=113) in NYC. Among the key findings in this report:

• Support from supervisors lowered the odds of survey participants reporting potential burnout.
• However, the odds of program leaders reporting potential burnout were 1.7 times higher than for other respondents.
• The odds of Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color (BIPOC) respondents being in leadership roles were significantly less than their white colleagues.

While this study's self-selected sample makes these findings ungeneralizable, they do raise the critically important question, What is …

A Letter To Myself, My Hopes, And My Dreams: Won't You Listen Too?, Philyce Webb

2022 Academic Exhibition

In this oral presentation I will be sharing a few writings from my TELOS honors portfolio. Topics regarding leadership, social justice and service, transformation, exploration, and future career goals will be discussed. These writings represent a letter to myself. The things I have accomplished and discovered during my time here at Fontbonne and my journey into adulthood are all laid out on the table. To be able to share my truth and passions with peers, staff, and faculty at Fontbonne will be another affirmation that I have made it this far, and my future presents many more exciting and eye-opening …

The Role Of Organizational Leaders In Employee Self-Care: A Change Management Approach, Olivia Dawn Honaker

DSW Capstone Projects

Although literature demonstrates that helping professionals have had high levels of stress and burnout for decades, the COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated the issue. The already burdened healthcare workers, now facing increased workloads, long hours, and high-level exposure to trauma, have created an urgency to address this significant risk to helping professionals. The current capstone will bring awareness to organizational leaders regarding the importance of employee self-care and the benefits of implementing employee self-care programs. First, a systematic literature review will examine self-care in helping professions and explore how organizational leaders operationalize employee self-care programs. In addition, the capstone aims …

Bolstering Leadership Engagement To Community Coalition Work In Rural Appalachia, Melissa Slone

DSW Capstone Projects

Rural Appalachian communities are overwhelmed with high cancer rates, diabetes, disabilities, and substance use disorder. The challenges in addressing these increase when you factor in workforce shortages and limited funding. The literature documents the effectiveness of coalitions in addressing healthcare challenges within communities. The need is for leaders to reduce their hesitancy to engage in community coalition efforts and increase awareness of the impact community coalitions can have on addressing rural populations' health and well-being needs.

Product One was a systematic review focused on research that examined agency leaders’ perspectives on community coalition involvement. The purpose of conducting the systematic …

Educators’ Perception Of Their Psychosocial Support Of Elementary Students In Gabon, Africa, Michel Ikamba

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Although educators internationally have often provided care to vulnerable students who struggle to meet the needs of nutrition, health, protection, and access to essential social services, no formal social systems exist in Gabon to aid educators who work with these students. In the absence of relevant local research and drawing on Dewey’s theory of progressive education as a conceptual model, this basic qualitative study asked about educators’ perceptions in limited resource elementary schools in Gabon of the social needs and strategies employed with students who demonstrated signs of disengagement and alienation. Qualitative data collection included semi-structured recorded interviews with 12 …

Improving The Child Welfare Workforce Through Training: Common Questions And Evidence-Informed Answers From The Qic-Wd, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

QIC-Tips

Training is often the first intervention child welfare agencies use to address critical workforce development issues. This QIC-Tip aims to answer child welfare agency leaders’ questions about effective training strategies to increase knowledge, enhance skills, and improve job performance. Answers are drawn from the QIC-WD Umbrella Summaries which present a synopsis of the published meta-analyses of specific workforce topics.

What broad-based training approaches can improve employee learning outcomes and job performance?

Coaching uses a structured learning process, over time, to help the learner reach specific goals. Meta-analytic research on the use of professional coaches (not managers or experienced coworkers) …

Leadership Training, Megan Paul

Umbrella Summaries

What is leadership training? Leadership training is a broad term with no universal definition. For the purposes of this review, it refers to “programs that have been systematically designed to enhance leader knowledge, skills, abilities, and other components” and it includes “all forms of leader, managerial, and supervisory training/development programs and/or workshops” (Lacerenza et al., 2017, p. 1687). As with all training, leadership training can vary in many ways. Below are some of the more common aspects that have been empirically evaluated:  Needs analysis: whether a systematic process was used to identify training needs and design the training accordingly …

The Effectiveness Of A High School Girls Group On Self-Esteem And Leadership, Esperanza M. Harper

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The effectiveness of a high school girls group was examined using a pretest-post-test group design with young adolescent girls identified as having low self-esteem. Individuals were identified by teachers and counselors as having low self-esteem or being at risk for having low self-esteem. This research project includes a literature review that explored self-understanding and its dimensions of self-concept and self-esteem, as well as how this research relates to development. The curriculum used came from the Girls In Real Life Situations (GIRLS) group program created by Julia V. Taylor and Shannon Trice-Black (2007). The research study was conducted at a high …

Facilitating Racial Equity: Evaluating A Leadership Workshop Series For School Social Workers, Summer G. Woodside, Veronica Hardy

International Journal of School Social Work

This article provides an overview of a leadership training workshop series designed to provide professional development to Pre-K through 12th grade school social workers about racial equity and leadership. The series' objectives included promoting social workers’ understanding of and obligation to facilitating racial equity in schools, analyzing educational data through a racial equity lens, conceptualizing school social workers as influencers in addressing racial inequities in schools, and collaborating with school professionals of various disciplines to practice and implement evidence-based approaches for facilitating racial equity in schools. The authors conducted five workshops that were developed based on state school social work …

The Experience Of Children's Mental Health Leaders During Times Of Constraint: A Narrative Study, Jody Levison-Johnson

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Across the United States, each state has a public mental health system that is designed to support children and youth with emotional and behavioral challenges. This is critically important as recent estimates show that one in six children in the United States has a diagnosed mental health condition (Whitney & Peterson, 2019). The design and structure of these systems vary by state, but consistent across them is the presence of a state-designated leader who is faced with an array of constraining factors that influence their behavior and shape the resulting system. This study describes the experience of leaders in children’s …

Learned Lessons: Growing Social Workers’ Preparation For Upstream Policy Practice, Ann Curry-Stevens, Lisa Hawash, Sarah Bradley

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Over the last 10 years, the MSW program at Portland State University has gone from graduating 15% of its students in the macro concentration, to 32%, while the national average remains under 9%. This article traces that experience through a historically-grounded narrative line, and extracts learnings that are potentially relevant for the profession. Curricular practices include reviewing the content for horizontal and vertical integration, introducing macro content early in the first year of the program with sufficient time to inform students’ choice of concentrations, and providing students influence to shape content in the advanced year. Faculty specializations and community reputation …

Women Ascending To Leadership Positions In Rural Nonprofit Organizations, Jose Carbajal, Kristin Bailey-Wallace, Bonita B. Sharma, Tiffany Bice-Wigington, Wilma Cordova, Shanta Scott, Aparecida De Fatima Cordeiro Dutra

Contemporary Rural Social Work Journal

This study investigates women’s experiences as they ascended to leadership roles in nonprofit organizations in rural communities, primarily in East Texas. The aim of this study is to understand the lived experiences of women in top management as they ascend into leadership positions, as the characteristics and experiences of effective leaders in rural nonprofits may differ from those of urban nonprofit agencies. There is limited research regarding women’s leadership experiences in rural nonprofit organizations. Using a phenomenological inquiry approach, we interviewed 32 women currently serving in leadership roles in rural nonprofit organizations. The research question guiding this phenomenological study was: …

An Exploration Of Managers’ Perspectives On Their Role In Managing Community Early Years Services : Influences And Insights, Jessica Lee

Dissertations

This exploration into theperspectives of managers of community Early Years services stems from the absence of a requirement of a qualification for supernumerary managers in Early Years services in Ireland and the resulting ambiguity of definedfunctions of such managers and contextually specific requirements. The aim of the study is to gain a deep insight into the perspectives ofthe participants on their roles in leading and managing their services. The objectives are to understand what internal and external factors have shaped their roles, to locate the dichotomies and harmonies between what iscontextuallyrequired of managersand what the true reality of a manager’s …

Is It Who Am I Or Who Do You Think I Am? Identity Development Of Adolescents With Substance Use Disorders, Danielle N. Treiber

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The purpose of this study was to unearth how adolescents with substance use disorders achieve the task of identity formation and the construction of self-concept in the midst of the drug culture and society that exists. It sought to uncover the social constructs designed to ignore and/or remove human complexities and allow an intersectional approach to be brought to a study on this population. Historically, there has been a failure to investigate the underlying social attitudes and behaviors that impact the very delicate and vulnerable process of finding self. Psychosocial and relational adjustment are strongly influenced by the extent to …

Segregation Of Student Financial Aid In Higher Education: The Effects On Low-Income Students When Ebt Is Not Accepted At University Campuses In San Diego, Ca., Tanisha-Jean Martin

M.A. in Leadership Studies: Capstone Project Papers

The student bodies of universities are made up of a diverse financial class of students which utilize various methods to cover financial obligations on campus, even with the use of welfare governmental assistance. Low-income students that are involved in government welfare programs are given an Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) card to support them while they are pursuing an education; however, every university in San Diego, CA (and nearly the entire United States), segregate EBT into an unacceptable category and refuse to accept the card at any venues on campus. The EBT card is a plastic card that can be used …

Patriarchal Culture's Influence On Women’S Leadership Ascendancy, Jose Carbajal

The Journal of Faith, Education, and Community

Biblical interpretations (hermeneutic) have influenced women’s ascension to leadership positions. A patriarchal societal framework that most Judeo-Christians have accepted as a norm often includes biased biblical interpretations regarding women. These interpretations are taken out of context, which reinforces old patterns that are incompatible with true leadership. This paper provides a literature review on women and leadership, with the literature indicating that a prevalent patriarchal perspective has influenced the portrayal of leadership roles in society. The literature on women leadership shows that many women might not be becoming CEOs or ascending to other high positions because of gender inequality in the …

Policy Advocacy And Leadership Training For Formerly Incarcerated Women: An Empowerment Evaluation Of Reconnect, A Program Of The Women In Prison Project, Correctional Association Of New York, Rahbel Rahman

Rahbel Rahman

There is limited knowledge on re-entry initiatives for formerly incarcerated women specifically focusing on building women’s advocacy and leadership skills. Our research highlights ReConnect, a 12-session, innovative advocacy and leadership development program rooted in an integrated framework of empowerment, and transformational leadership theories. Based on CBPR principles, we conducted an empowerment evaluation where ReConnect graduates, staff members, and evaluators in an egalitarian process designed, collected, and analyzed data on how ReConnect assists formerly incarcerated women in the reentry process. The evaluation’s purpose is to offer practitioners and researchers an explanatory model on how to help formerly incarcerate women access …

Social Work Leadership: Emotional Intelligence In A Rural Bsw Program, Edward N. Randle

Contemporary Rural Social Work Journal

Social work leadership is valuable to the existence and future of the profession. Equally important is leadership within academia. Leadership in academia is impelled and obligated to the historical leaders, agency organizations, communities, and individuals influenced by the profession to lead, provide vision, and educate tomorrow’s leaders. Mary Richmond and Edward Devine assembled social work education in the 1900's and were pioneers significant in shaping the vision of social work. However, there is a scarcity of empirical research regarding social work leadership within academic settings. More specifically, limited literature is available that discusses the philosophical prisms, perceived realities, and behavior …

Social Responsibility In Higher Education, Maureen L. Mackenzie Ph.D., Melissa Mccardle Ph.D., Melissa Gebbia Ph.D., Susan Bliss Ph.D.

Faculty Works: Business (1973-2022)

Current events such as the recent removal of the CEO of United Airlines for being “bought” by port authority officials highlights the need to prepare students for ethical and effective participation in corporate, non-profit and civic life. Ongoing problems with the leadership of financial, political and social institutions, and increasingly diverse society and persistent inequities in the educational system point to the need for intentional learning opportunities that support the development of ethical leaders & informed citizens who are capable of solving complex social problems in a multicultural society.

The Impact Of Emotional Intelligence On Effective Leadership: Exploring The Perspectives Of Licensed Clinical Social Worker Leaders, Shannon Perry

Master of Social Work Clinical Research Papers

Transformational leadership has been found to be related to emotional intelligence. There has been limited research on emotional intelligence and transformational leadership in the field of social work. This study sought to explore the impact of emotional intelligence on leadership within a social service organization. Seven individual interviews were held with LICSW social workers that were leaders of an organization for at least one year. The major themes that emerged were: mentoring is an important component to being an effective leader, personality can impact transformational leadership behavior, transformational leadership can be learned, emotional intelligence means tuning into staff, and relationships …

Lean In: Women, Work, And The Will To Lead, Amanda Blanco

Journal of Financial Therapy

Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead is a self-proclaimed “sort of feminist manifesto” written to empower women and men. Sandberg gives insight into how to overcome and help others overcome the internal and external obstacles that may hinder success. This book is recommended for women in the financial services field, as women are underrepresented in certain segments of financial services.

Policy Advocacy And Leadership Training For Formerly Incarcerated Women: An Empowerment Evaluation Of Reconnect, A Program Of The Women In Prison Project, Correctional Association Of New York, Rahbel Rahman

Social Work Faculty Scholarship

There is limited knowledge on re-entry initiatives for formerly incarcerated women specifically focusing on building women’s advocacy and leadership skills. Our research highlights ReConnect, a 12-session, innovative advocacy and leadership development program rooted in an integrated framework of empowerment, and transformational leadership theories. Based on CBPR principles, we conducted an empowerment evaluation where ReConnect graduates, staff members, and evaluators in an egalitarian process designed, collected, and analyzed data on how ReConnect assists formerly incarcerated women in the reentry process. The evaluation’s purpose is to offer practitioners and researchers an explanatory model on how to help formerly incarcerate women access …

Development Of The Professional School Social Work Survey: A Valid And Reliable Tool For Assessment And Planning, Catherine E. Randall

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

School social workers are currently in a unique position to support and lead schools through the change process initiated by districts' adoption of a Response to Intervention model. This dissertation describes an exploratory study to develop and pilot-test a self-administered survey for use by school social workers for the purpose of assessing the effectiveness of school social work practice. The survey was developed using DeVellis' 8-step process for survey design. The survey consisted of four subscales theorized to measure school social worker effectiveness as determined by a review of current literature in the field: Response to Intervention, Evidence-Based Practice, School …