The Future of Human Service Organizational & Management Research Navigating Complex Frontiers

This book provides panoramic overviews of critical human service organizational and management practice challenges, as well as new and needed research frontiers.

The Future of Human Service Organizational & Management Research: Navigating Complex Frontiers invites researchers, educators, and practitioners to explore: the intersection of the complex environment of public and private human service organizations; and the rise and uncertain effects of new developments in social work, public policy and public management, and other helping professions. The contributors identify how future generations of macro practitioners and scholar-researchers can:

• Improve service delivery and program effectiveness;
• Implement evidence-based practices and evidence-informed practices;
• Promote leadership and social innovation;
• Build linkages across micro, meso, and macro levels of practice;
• Train organizational leaders and educate practitioners; and
• Advocate for more socially just visions of social welfare and society.

This edited collection argues that human service organizational and management practice and research are needed to support new discoveries in social welfare, social work, and related professions.

This book was originally published as a special issue of the journal, Human Service Organizations: Management, Leadership & Governance.

Gratitude and Dedication

Introduction: Navigating Complex Frontiers: Introduction to the Special Issue on “The Future of Human Service Organizational and Management Research”

Chapter 1: Pathways for Promoting Macro Practice in Social Work Education: A Commentary

Chapter 2: Implementation Science and Human Service Organizations Research: Opportunities and Challenges for Building on Complementary Strengths

Chapter 3: We Could Be Unicorns: Human Services Leaders Moving from Managing Programs to Managing Information Ecosystems

Chapter 4: Modest Challenges for the Fields of Human Service Administration and Social Policy Research and Practice

Chapter 5: Evaluating Behavioral and Organizational Outcomes of Leadership Development in Human Service Organizations

Chapter 6: Human Service Organization-Environment Relationships in Relation to Environmental Justice: Old and New Approaches to Macro Practice and Research

Chapter 7: Social Good Science and Practice: A New Framework for Organizational and Managerial Research in Human Service Organizations

Chapter 8: How the “What Works” Movement is Failing Human Service Organizations, and What Social Work Can Do to Fix It

Chapter 9: De-Implementation of Evidence-Based Interventions: Implications for Organizational and Managerial Research

Chapter 10: What Can “Big Data” Methods Offer Human Services Research on Organizations and Communities?

Chapter 11: Crafting the Future of Macro Practice

Bowen McBeath is a Professor in the School of Social Work and Hatfield School of Government at Portland State University, USA.

Karen Hopkins is an Associate Professor in the School of Social Work at the University of Maryland, USA.