Browsing by Subject "Social work administration"
Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
Results Per Page
Sort Options
Item Environmental turbulence in human services administration: a conditional interpretation of the bureaucratization-work alienation hypothesis(Texas Tech University, 1984-08) Case, Jimmy DaleNot availableItem Exploring the individual and organizational effects of formerly homeless employee inclusion within North Carolina shelters(2011-12) Barnes, Suzanne Mallard; Streeter, Calvin L.; Ferguson, MiguelThis exploratory study examined the individual and organizational effects of formerly homeless employee inclusion on members of the homeless shelter community, including shelter directors, formerly homeless employees, professional employees, and shelter residents. The effects of formerly homeless employee inclusion on shelter residents' vicarious self-efficacy were specifically examined. A qualitative case study design was used to gather interview data from six homeless shelters in North Carolina. The interviewees included five shelter directors, three formerly homeless employees, and seven shelter residents. Professional boundary development was correlated with the impact of formerly homeless employee inclusion within the shelter community. There are more benefits than challenges to formerly homeless employee inclusion in homeless shelters. The challenges generally affected the formerly homeless employees themselves, sometimes to the point of addiction relapse. Formerly homeless employee inclusion provides the benefits of self-efficacy, tough love, and understanding and helping for shelter residents. Additional benefits were found for the formerly homeless employees. Benefits and challenges for professional employees were anecdotal and therefore not trustworthy. There are several major implications for professional practice resulting from this study. Shelter residents in the present study consistently viewed formerly homeless employee inclusion as positive. This positive experience may contribute to improved client engagement, retention, and outcomes. The challenges presented were infrequent, and considered manageable by the shelter directors. These findings may encourage other shelter directors to employ formerly homeless individuals, thereby benefitting others who are either experiencing or working to alleviate homelessness. Formerly homeless employee inclusion is also consistent with strengths-based practice and the social justice principle of the National Association of Social Workers Code of Ethics, as it provides meaningful opportunities for indigenous participation. Future research should focus on further understanding the correlation between formerly homeless employee inclusion and shelter resident outcomes and the effects of formerly homeless employee inclusion on professional shelter employees.Item The fragmentation of social welfare: the characteristics of state legislatures and temporary assistance for needy families(Texas Tech University, 2003-12) Krejci, Daniel ThomasThe U.S. welfare state has evolved through several stages, and is currently over a century old. As the federal government increasingly returns policy authority and financial responsibility for welfare and other policies to the states, it is important to understand how the different state legislative environments can shape policy outcomes, which makes this study especially germane to the devolution and legislative studies literature. Most studies of social welfare policy approach this subject using a one-dimensional perspective, a view that does not give us a complete picture of social welfare policy. My study uses a multi-dimensional institutional model to explore Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) as adopted by the states in 1996-1997 and the states' monthly cash benefit levels under TANF for Fiscal Year 1998. This study focuses on the strictness and cash benefit levels of state TANF programs, and uses state legislatures as the unit of analysis. The institutional model posits that certain characteristics of a state's legislature—political competition, percent Democrats, type of government, percent females, citizen ideology, change in the poverty level, Gross State Product per capita, and legislative professionalism—affect the strictness level of state TANF programs. In addition, I posit that these same characteristics, along with the strictness level, affect the monthly cash benefit level for a single parent with two children and no income. As is shown, political competition and Gross State Product per capita are the characteristics that best explain state monthly cash benefit levels. When it comes to the strictness of state TANF programs, only political competition provides an explanation of the variance between the states' strictness levels. From these multi-dimensional models, I posit two important propositions about state welfare policymaking. First, I posit that the states' social welfare policymaking is fragmented. Since the variables that affect the states' cash benefit levels (TANF Allotment Models) do not have the same effect upon the strictness level of state TANF programs, I assume that these two dimensions may be driven by other factors—factors that may not be common to both dimensions of state welfare policy. Granted, this is for future research to explore. Yet in order to provide comprehensive views of this fragmented policy, we must continue to use multi-dimensional models in our exploration of state policy. Second, since the states had such a short period of time in which to adopt this new policy, the "sense of urgency" may have been the determining factor in the states' TANF policy. The exceptions being those states that had a high level of political competition (Strictness and TANF Allotment Models) and Gross State Product per capita (TANF Allotment Model 2). In other words, if the states had been allowed a longer period of time in which to adopt the TANF program, then the other political and economic variables in these models may have had more of an impact on this policy area. However, since the states only had a year in which to adopt this new welfare policy, then the "deadline" may have been the determining factor.