The following resources provide strategies and tools for managers who are planning, initiating, or implementing systems change, including resources to assist in preparing for the Child and Family Services Reviews. Resources include State and local examples.
Changing Hats While Managing Change: From Social Work Practice to Administration
Perlmutter & Crook (2nd ed.) (2004)
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Helps practitioners determine whether to shift their careers from direct practice to administrative practice and educates social work students about administrative practice.
Enhancing Social Work Management: Theory and Best Practice From the UK and USA
Aldgate, Healy, Malcom, Pine, Rose, & Seden (2007)
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Discusses the nature of management in the human services sector and examines the prevailing issues affecting both the U.K. and U.S..
Evidence-Based Practice in the Social Services: Implications for Organizational Change
Johnson & Austin
Administration in Social Work, 30(3), 2006
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Identifies multiple strategies and case examples for creating an organizational culture.
Gaining Buy-In From the Front Line During Times of Change (PDF - 440 KB)
National Technical Assistance and Evaluation Center for Systems of Care
Systems of Care Leadership Series (2011)
Examines the role of front-line staff in implementing comprehensive systems and organizational change and outlines key steps and strategies for engaging the front line during times of change.
Managing Change
Scott (2005)
In The Concise Handbook of Management: A Practitioner's Approach
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Explains strategies for preparing for organizational change and building the commitment to change, as well as reasons why employees are resistant to change.
Managing Change in the Public Services
Wallace, Fertig, & Schneller (2007)
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Explores the management of change to improve public service effectiveness. The book addresses why public service change is becoming increasingly complex to manage, how people cope with this new complexity, and implications for improving policy and practice.
Translating Group Learning into Individual Behavioral Change: The Role of Critical Analysis Tools in Professional Growth
Sundet & Kelly
Professional Development: The International Journal of Continuing Social Work Education, 9(2), 2006
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Explores the dilemma of training and development where supervisors are empowered to develop workers' critical analytic abilities, which are essential to effective casework. Attempting such an approach will likely involve questioning held assumption, values, and policies of an organization.
State and local examples
A Collaborative System of Child Welfare and Adult Substance Abuse Treatment: Site Visit Report
Children's Bureau (2010)
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Describes a leadership training program for midlevel managers in public and Tribal child welfare agencies that contributed to the success of a collaborative system in Connecticut serving families affected by substance abuse.
How Hollow Can We Go? A Case Study of Florida's Efforts to Outsource Oversight of Privatized Child Welfare Services
Yang & VanLandingham (2012)
The American Review of Public Administration, 42(5)
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Proposes six conditions that public managers must address in order to successfully outsource the contracting oversight function and describes Florida's experiment with contracting out financial and programmatic monitoring of outsourced child welfare services. The discontinued experiment in Florida illustrates the challenges that arise when outsourcing the contracting monitoring function in a politically charged environment.
A Review of the Oklahoma Department of Human Services' Child Welfare Practices From a Management Perspective (PDF - 929 KB)
Miller (2011)
Provides findings from an independent review of the management and administration of Oklahoma's child welfare system that was conducted to determine if the Oklahoma Department of Human Services (DHS) is meeting its mandate of protecting the children in its care after a Federal class action suit was filed against DHS. Key DHS management failures are cited and described and recommendations are made for achieving an adequate foster care system.