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Supervising for Organizational Change
The following resources provide strategies and tools for supervisors involved in planning, initiating, or implementing systems change, including State and local examples.
An Exploration of Supervisor's and Manager's Responses to Child Welfare Reform
Regehr, Chau, Leslie, & Howe
Administration in Social Work, 26(3), 2002
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Analyzes data of a study of stress in child welfare supervisors and managers in light of recent changes in practice and increased demands on child welfare services.
Skill Set for Supervisors (PDF - 300 KB)
Center for the Study of Social Policy
Safekeeping, 7(1), 2003
Discusses skills supervisors need to be effective and successful. Critical supervisory skills are described for managing change, coaching workers, leading teams, and negotiating effective resolutions.
Supervision as Collaboration in the Human Services: Building a Learning Culture
Austin & Hopkins (2004)
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Focuses on supervision in the context of building a learning culture in human service agencies. It describes key aspects of effective supervisory practice that are linked to promoting a learning culture inside and outside the human service agency.
The Role of Child Welfare Managers in Promoting Agency Performance Through Experimentation
McBeath, Briggs, & Aisenberg
Children and Youth Services Review, 31(1), 2009
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Introduces three models of managerial experimentation, each of which seeks to improve organizational performance through trial-and-error experimentation and continuous evaluation of staff activities and program outcomes.
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 when supervisors are empowered to develop workers' critical analytic abilities, which are essential to effective casework. Attempting such an approach will likely involve questioning long-held assumptions, values, and policies of an organization.
State and local examples
AL-MS Child Protective Service Casework Supervision
Shackelford & Payne
Professional Development: The International Journal of Continuing Social Work Education, 6, 2003
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Describes a joint project developed by the universities of Alabama and Mississippi designed to promote evidence-based practice and to help supervisors understand their roles in effecting organizational change.
From Isolation to Teamwork: Mississippi's Story of Cultural Change in Child Welfare
Shackelford, Sullivan, Harper, & Edwards
Professional Development: The International Journal of Continuing Social Work Education, 9(2), 2006
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Reports on a project in which Mississippi supervisors in two regions were provided opportunities for ongoing peer support by engaging in structured learning laboratories of their own design followed by regular mentoring sessions with university faculty.