Social Welfare Agencies
~as a Complex Dynamic Agency~
Modern Trends
Introduction to Complex Socialwork
Phase 1
Within the organization and delivery of social care services, community service boards, and social work agencies, management and leadership are becoming increasingly important. However, their foundational frameworks often go unchallenged. On the positive side, there are many themes and theoretical understandings which inform our current ideas. From these various perspectives we might derive new ideas that promote innovative approaches to management and leadership within social care organizations. We could use these fresh insights into management and leadership theories and their implications for social work practice because older ideas persist, including some that were developed for the management of the Prussian military.
Theory is important: you must understand the theory before you can employ it. The command and control managerialization (of the linear systems of the past) has become a central feature of many social work organizations of today and frequently achieves its goals at the expense of flexibility and responsiveness.
“Social goals and targets do not need to be straitjacketed and can be achieved without the need for rigid authoritarian approaches. Good Management and leadership makes a real difference to the work done and quality of services. Good theory can help managers to do their job better”.
Three main trends are clearly discernible in approaches to management and leadership of human services organizations in both the public and non-governmental organizational sectors. The three main trends are: marketization, managerialization, and post-modernization.
Marketization is a trend in western democracies from the late 20th century, producing substantial public-sector reform, where governments sought to purchase services and utilities from a market-based provider rather than direct government provision.
This brought about a significant shift in relationship between agencies, including:
- A greater role for the independent sector
- A changing role for service users
- With more involvement in planning, delivery and evaluation of services
What term was employed to refer to the service user also changed to reflect this: from clients, to service user, to consumer. This reinforces the consumer emphasis of ‘choice’ in a market and de-emphasizes general citizenship.
“The constant specter of restricted budgets, combined with the transformation of social work into a managerial role of correctly carrying out the bureaucratic procedures, has given rise to organizational environments where needs-led, client centered approach of professional social work (as envisioned in the 1990 NHS and Community Care Act) is at best a subsidiary to the core objective of minimizing cost, and at worst no more than a myth".
(Martin et al. 2004: 484)
The managerialist ethos which has developed is based on the view that they should be in control of the organization they run and that they should be very proactive. It is this view of managers as controllers that underlies many of the reforms in the public sector. Part of the managerial ideology is that there is no difference between running a factory and running a hospital. (Flynn 1990)
Managerialization
This trend is to see the role of senior managers as key figures of importance in the delivery of social services to our communities. In essence, this view is one which believes that most, if not all organizations, have traits in common and that managers from any context (industrial, sales, manufacturing and textile, for instance) are well-suited in the transferability of managerial skills to social work agencies.
The trend toward viewing social work agencies within the context of markets and business environments lends credibility to this perspective of organizational manageability.
This perspective sees the agency as operating according to certain strategies and objectives and tasks the manager with their achievement, laying the responsibility for success or failure directly upon their shoulders.
Many of the more forward-thinking commercial enterprises have moved away from this view by now and those who still cling to it are also fighting to avoid bankruptcy and closure. However, some city-council influencers are still caught in the political sway of these out-moded models and continue to exert pressure on any aspect of community services that is under their thumb.
Further, the entire question of newer models of organizational operation (such as Holarchy and Complex Adaptive Organization, etc.) renders such trends as these antiquated. Directors and Executives are now relieved of sole responsibility for the complex dynamics of human communities and are afforded the satisfactions of professional development for their personnel and excellence of service for their local communities.
Post Modernization
Perhaps the most interesting trend, at least as far as the Complex Adaptive Agency is concerned, is toward Post Modernization of the social work agency. This is a fascinating topic, with especial regard to Mental Health services (more on this later). For the purposes of overview, we’ll skip this fascinating history for now.
Changes in social work management are taking place astride similar changes in society and worldview. We are well into a new era, fairly consensually known as the Post Modern. In the same way that Traditional society followed upon the Warrior society, the Modern period arose after and to address certain aspects of the Traditional culture.
Modernity has been characterized as a worldview which stems from the Enlightenment and emphasizes the application of rational thinking and independence over the environment via technology and command and control problem-solving.
The Post Modern recognizes increasing complexity and discontinuities, alongside changes in orthodox society and organizational processes. Among many other things, there is a wider recognition of the reification of privileged entitlements in the previous Modern period, leading to a greater appreciation of diversity in the Post Modern.
It should be noted, though briefly here, that each successive stage carries within it the recapitulation of its predecessor. This means that the Post Modern not only carries within it all preceding stages (the Modern, the Traditional and the Warrior stages) but the Complexity of the Post Modern also sees a greater intensification of these stages, such as greater intensification of rationality and even greater reliance on reified over-mining of status privileges etc., for instance. Diversity, Complexity and Intensity are greatly compounded in the Post Modern.
Some examples which apply to the Post Modern social work agency are: McDonaldization (greater rational uniformity for intensified cost-cutting and efficiency of delivery), marketizing differentiations to distance one agency from a competitor with similar services via ‘unique selling points’, detraditionalized family structures and bureaucracies, decentralized cross-partnerships, and vast service assemblages.
More general characteristics of Post Modernization include: decentralization (of economics and politics), localization, fragmentation and desocietalization.
What this looks like for social services is re-delegation of services from regional to the local level, planning and delivery of services by the consumer; vastly separated assemblages rather than holistic, generic, or comprehensive; and customized individualization. Many of these newer modes of manifestation are well suited to the Peer Movement and the Peer emphasis on self-advocacy.
Developing a Dynamic Agency
Remember that it’s about:
- expanding the scope of your service organization
- establishing your legacy in social work leadership and management
By Developing a Dynamic Agency, you are:
- Creating an Adaptive Organization
- Building a Learning Community
We can go about Economic Development in a variety of ways including:
- Business Startups
- Social Architecture
- Community Building
- Community Services (including MH and substance use)
- Building a Leadership Environment
Contextually:
- Influence and Thought Leadership
- Consulting
- Politics
- Grant Acquisition
- Delivery of Services
~to name a few…
Social Theory
What if you are only leveraging a fraction of the power and potential of your organization?
Effective adaptation and organizational learning are afforded by Complexity itself. Very rich opportunities to harness the dynamics of Complexity abound in these conditions:
- situations of increased variety, with many participants
- numerous interactions and expanded choice
- frequent opportunities for experiential learning and trial-and-error experimentation
- access to attempted imitation of each other and our successes ( and flops)
In such a context it really benefits us to maintain variety of choice and action in order to foster continuous learning and adaptation.
Experience the opportunities generated by learning and adaptation as we harness the exciting new frontiers of Complexity; designing new social systems and improving policy for existing social systems while developing the implications for your complex organization.
Designing Social Systems
By Harnessing the Frontiers of Complexity
Harnessing Complexity
via
Community Presence
Social Labs
Agency Branding
Complex Pluralistic Mimetics
Social Theory Reveals
Modern Socialwork is Complex & Emergent
Nothing has shown us the value of transcending the vicissitudes of impermanence like a rough ride through the turbulence of global disruptors. Had we only been foresightful and prepared for Complexity with more fluid approaches that embrace dynamic equilibrium, rather than confrontational exacerbations of binary conclusions over flexibility and inclusiveness.
Trimming our margins to the nth degree of efficiency left our capacity vulnerable to overload and then we were forced to shut the system down and go into self-exiled spectatorship.
Alas, the world is bigger than us and we cannot successfully direct its comprehensive totality. We can learn from Nature’s rapport with vortex and flow.
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Quick Reference
What kinds of things are we looking at?
- construction of frameworks for the systematic adaptation in particular arrangements and contexts
- make clear the deep relationships among partners and holons in complex systems
- examination of the continuous role of non-random interactivity in adaptation, informatics, population and replication of contributory sub-systems (it grows organically)
- applicable suggestions, useful questions, and actionable solutions informed by complexity theory
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Alternatives
Many are choosing to Opt-Out; Going Off-Grid
As society becomes more complex, there are outliers who are captured by strange attractors outside the conventional system. Many are distrustful of ‘big brother’ and are reticent to engage in social welfare providers (even when assistance is available). In what ways can flexible and dynamic approaches benefit social stability by engaging these new alternative explorations and prepare mainstream populations for dramatic shifts in the coming future?
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Integral Approach
Rich & Multidisciplinary
Taking note of insights from network theory and social design into the activities of people in social, political, and economic systems we need awareness gleaned from several integrated disciplines (such as economics, sociology, biology, quantum physics, psychology, comparative literature, history and political science, etc. to name just a few) because the entire panopolis of human experience is involved.
For example, from evolutionary biology, computer science, and social design we are interested in:
- the dynamic processes involved in shaping evolutionary success (rather than merely observing and explaining); including the role of symbiotic cooperation
- intelligent individuals with symbolic interaction, semiotic language systems and culture
- various measures of the different means and representations of success (rather than just the ability to sire offspring)
- systems composed of information, people and organizations, as well as their components, subsystems and structural assemblage.
- systems with long, rich histories of success (as well as notable failures)
- Learning organizations and systems where adaptation is framed in terms of people, their lives and efforts as well as what they value and believe.
- situations where people and their organizational lives and identities can evolve over time as well as the context and environment that they frame their meaning within, and
- situations where decentralization is both rewarding and problematic, especially with respect to their autonomy, institutional reflexivity, and personal agency, as well as collective integration.
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The 3 Key Processes of Complex Adaptive Systems
Interaction, Variation, & Selection
These are important concepts that are interlocking, generative, actionable, and productive in the Complex World beyond understandable comprehension. This very Complexity which makes the world so hard to understand also provides the affordances, resources and opportunities for success and improvement over time.
Continuous decrease in the costs of replication and recombination of information will lead to perpetual penetration of information technology into human life and social processes. Emphasis on the contextual forces determining behavioral patterns and modes of interaction will play an important role in the consequences of these factors.
This makes the framework of systemic diversity richer with more profound approaches toward complexity and how we should think about harnessing it.
Any emphasis on harnessing complexity is important as a contribution because it is agential rather than commanding; seeking to improve without imposing strict control.
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Chaos or Complexity
the Choice is Ours
Chaos
Chaos deals with turbulence that rapidly becomes disordered and unmanageable
Complexity
Complexity deals with Systems composed of many interacting agents
Harnessing Complex Adaptive Systems
Involves generating a set of Concepts, formulating Questions and Design Issues about how Social Theory and Systems Research can be made relevant to Social Architecture and Design Engineering, as well as what it offers to those who want to improve our world.
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Social Problems
in american society
We're All Human
A few words on our behalf: all of us are people. We cannot judge by a superficial glance what our fellow humans have gone through or what conditions have brought them to the place they are now. We are new Coworking Service Space, which is located in downtown, few minutes walk away from subway station. Etiam rhoncus vel enim vel pretium. Proin a augue ut tellus fermentum consectetur. Curabitur pharetra nisi at velit euismod, in congue nunc dapibus. In molestie feugiat sem at luctus. Phasellus in risus erat. Donec convallis a purus non ornare. Pellentesque habitant morbi tristique senectus et netus et malesuada fames ac turpis egestas. Donec ut sem turpis. Donec ac est vitae elit iaculis malesuada. Donec faucibus dui ligula, non interdum magna. Duis nec laoreet enim a lectus.
Emergence of a Better World Design
Called by the Future
Plucked from the Past
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Mauris a congue augue. Aenean nec purus vehicula augue congue eleifend sed ac ipsum. Morbi rutrum, elit sit amet faucibus vestibulum, orci est lobortis purus, et faucibus velit nibh pharetra arcu. Cras dignissim, ligula at lacinia accumsan, lectus dolor placerat purus, non semper est justo sed nibh. In pretium tristique erat nec.
Aesthetic Grotto
Privacy in a Nook by the Fountain
Let’s face it, Humans are creatures who appreciate beauty. Studies reveal that Aesthetic sensibilites lead to improved Mental Health.
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Mauris a congue augue. Aenean nec purus vehicula augue congue eleifend sed ac ipsum. Morbi rutrum, elit sit amet faucibus vestibulum, orci est lobortis purus, et faucibus velit nibh pharetra arcu. Cras dignissim, ligula at lacinia accumsan, lectus dolor placerat purus, non semper est justo sed nibh. In pretium tristique erat nec.
Private Clubs
Comfort and Security
Socialization is a prime factor in the good citizen’s health and wellbeing. Like-minded persons often congregate in private clubs because the networking benefits of homophily are more advanced. But why shouldn’t all citizens have access to such benefits from safe and comfortable avenues of socialization?
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Mauris a congue augue. Aenean nec purus vehicula augue congue eleifend sed ac ipsum. Morbi rutrum, elit sit amet faucibus vestibulum, orci est lobortis purus, et faucibus velit nibh pharetra arcu. Cras dignissim, ligula at lacinia accumsan, lectus dolor placerat purus, non semper est justo sed nibh. In pretium tristique erat nec.
World Arches
Bridged from Our Time
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Mauris a congue augue. Aenean nec purus vehicula augue congue eleifend sed ac ipsum. Morbi rutrum, elit sit amet faucibus vestibulum, orci est lobortis purus, et faucibus velit nibh pharetra arcu. Cras dignissim, ligula at lacinia accumsan, lectus dolor placerat purus, non semper est justo sed nibh. In pretium tristique erat nec.
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Private Reminiscence
The Beauty of Compound Styles
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Mauris a congue augue. Aenean nec purus vehicula augue congue eleifend sed ac ipsum. Morbi rutrum, elit sit amet faucibus vestibulum, orci est lobortis purus, et faucibus velit nibh pharetra arcu. Cras dignissim, ligula at lacinia accumsan, lectus dolor placerat purus, non semper est justo sed nibh. In pretium tristique erat nec.
How to Find Us
Address
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Phone and Email
Phone: +1 (012) 345 67 89
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jwstaley
Social Architect
Experience
2005 - Present
10-01 Organization
CEO
The 10-01 Organization is a complex adaptive organization based on dynamic holarchy and emergent learning communities. It features Social Architecture (based on non-linear systems and social network theory), consulting, and services (including social, political, and environmental activism, events, and education). It also serves as home to several Indie publishing laboratories.
2013 - 2015
Courses
American Social Welfare System; Anthropology; Behavioral Management; Community and Urban Development; Composition and Rhetoric; Counseling Psychology; Creative Writing; Development of Sociological Theory; General Psychology; General Sociology; Group/Cross-Cultural Counseling; Inequality and Stratification; Phenomenology and Existentialism; Philosophy of Aesthetics; Philosophy of Art and Beauty; Political Sociology; Professional Social Work in Contemporary Society; Psychology of Personality; Race and Ethnic Relations; Research Methodology; Research Methods (Graduate); Social Change; Social Deviance; Social Problems in American Society; Social Psychology; Spatial Environmental Problems; Statistical Methods; Studies in Poetry
2010 - Present
Freelance
Social Architecture (Community Building); Social Theory: (Networks, Dynamic Fields, Ecological Complexity, Holarchy); Social Psyche: (Creativity, Extended Cognition, Philosophy; Process-Relational, Integral); Appreciative Inquiry. Practicum: Creative Specialties, INTP, New Modalities, Creative Intuition/Right Brain Specialties
About Me
Social Theory; Social Architecture; Creative Specialties: Author, Publisher, Composer/Producer, Website Design, Fine Art; Educator; Sociologist; Social Networks, Community Building.
Education
1980's
ASU: Social Theory
1985
Lenoir-Rhyne: Educational Research
1990's
Mecklenburg County Mental Health:
Behavioral Conditioning
1995
Academy of Performing Arts:
Instructor
2000
ElderCare/CompanionCare
2005
Design University: WebDesign
2010's
Field Investigation:
L.K. Walker Adjusters
Present
Danville-Pittsylvania Community Services
Skills
- Excellent Social skills and an insightful and intuitive People person
- Great Office and Clerical skills; including Office and Word Processing software; can Orchestrate and Delegate
- Good Presentation skills; am comfortable presenting in front of small groups and in close proximity
- Great Teaching skills and abilities (Talented); Gifted at Explaining
- Excellent Listening and Counseling skills; Good Practical Sense and Clear-eyed Assessment; very Creative at finding Solutions; Excellent Coaching and Life-Coaching Abilities
- Talented at Computer Graphics and Website Design (experience with relevant software); Artistic Eye for Arrangements and Composition
- Talented Writer (Fiction or Non-Fiction; text, instruction, policy); Can verbalize and express well in written form
- well-developed Documentation and Reporting skills
- well-developed Research skills and abilities
- a very able Learner; can learn new skills and abilities
- Disciplined; can practice and learn to apply new skills well
Social Architecture
98%
Author, Publisher, Composer, Producer
100%
Website Design, Fine Arts
99%
Consultant; Branding, Small Business
85%
Educator, Coach, Guide
94%
Sociologist, Social Worker, Activist
97%
Contact
- jwstaley: sociologist (about)
- jwstaley@sociologist.com
- (123) 456-7890
- (354) 5567 9900
Tiffany C. Kidwell
(617) 962 8802
tiffany@yourdomain.com
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Joseph Waddington
(510) 894 8525
joseph@yourdomain.com
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Diane Geter
(513) 585 5951
diane@yourdomain.com
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