Chapter 8 USING YOUR AGENCY - Oxford University Press

Community Practice, Third Edition, Instructor’s Manual

Chapter 8: USING YOUR AGENCY The basic premise of the chapter is that the employing human service

organization profoundly affect a practitioner’s personal and professional well-

being. This chapter introduces students to the characteristics and dynamics of human

service agencies. Organizational structure, culture, and management strongly

influence what services community practitioners and social workers do, how well

and in what manner they do it, that is, how well and with what autonomy they are

able to do the professional work for which we are trained. Our work organizations

affect our self-image, our livelihoods, and our sense of accomplishment and worth

as human beings. Human services agencies are undergoing a sea change in

structure and operation: privatization, proprietarization, contingent and

contractual employment, decentralization and becoming virtual. This is true for

agency employed social workers and proprietary social workers receiving third-

party payments. Therefore, community practitioners and social workers need to

understand how organizations work and how to put that knowledge to use in

attaining personal and professional goals within and with social agencies.

Key Concepts Stressed in Chapter Agencies are evolving and the important concepts are expanding. The key

concepts are: Attributes of human service organization, bureaucracy, hierarchy,

division of labor, authority and power, organization chart, board of directors;

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Systems, open and loosely coupled system, rational organizational system, intra and

inter-organizational systems; Human service technologies; Entrepreneurial agencies;

Agency auspices: public or governmental agencies, non-governmental organizations

(NGOs), voluntary non-profit agencies, faith based agencies, for-profit and

proprietary agencies; Mission, mandate, sanction, fiduciary responsibility; Political

economy: organizational uncertainty, inter-organizational systems, organization

domain, domain consensus, task environment, opportunistic surveillance, boundary

spanning; formal structure and attributes: Informal organization, structure,

organization culture; Virtual organizations and technology, information technology

(IT), communication technology (CT), decentralization, tele- and WEB commuting;

Field of forces and force field analysis.

Critical Definitions

* Human Service Organizations are means-ends chains that are people-

processing and people-changing agencies in that “the core activities of the

organization are structured to process, sustain, or change people who come under

its jurisdiction (Hasenfeld, 1992, pp. 4–5).”

* Virtual organizations are a set of units; people and departments, that rely

on information and communication technologies across time and space to

communicate, coordinate, and control the organization’s production, data, skills,

knowledge, and expertise. Flexibility is possible because of reconfigurable

computer networks. Face to face communication is unnecessary and often

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discouraged (Kaser, 2007; Pang, 2001; Williams, 2007).

Discussion, Teaching, and Essay Ideas Social workers and community practitioners work in, for, or under contracts

with human service agencies (HSAs). They need to understand organizations as

systems inclusive of but more than the individuals who make them up. Organizations

are abstraction composed of real units or entities. Organizations and HSAs are

systems and part of larger systems. They have formal and informal structures and

cultures. Moreover, it is not always clear what elements are included as part of the

organization even though they can appear rigid and bureaucratic. Boundaries

sometimes seem to shift and shuffle, as organizations become part of shifting

networks and loosely coupled systems. For example, a school of social work’s

fieldwork agencies are a part of the school’s system, often within its organizational

purview, and have their own networks apart from the school. With increasing

virtuality, contracting and outsourcing, and contingent employment, HSAs are

becoming more loosely coupled.

Organizations and HSAs are pervasive aspects of social work and

community practice, agency analysis is a good way to get students to understand

practice at a macro level and organizations as tools and hindrances. We have found

that inexperienced students and new social workers are frequently uninformed about

human service agencies as systems in themselves and as part of larger networks of

service delivery, creation, and change. Agency managers and supervisors often do

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not take the time to explain even the most rudimentary features of their organization,

such as how it is funded; its mission; its size in terms of clients served, staff, or

funding; the range of its programs and services; its governance structure; and how it

fits into the larger service delivery system. Community and social work practice and

the lives of its clients are profoundly affected by organizational structure, culture,

and funding. Consequently, the questions that follow and the guidelines for agency

analysis at the end of chapter 8’s I. M. are aimed at raising awareness of human

service organizations as systemic entities and as possible target systems (or

sometimes client systems) for social worker intervention.

In our teaching of a required foundation-level course on social work practice

with communities and social service networks, all students complete an analysis of

their fieldwork placement agencies. Instructors may want to emphasize that the

agency analysis is not a term paper. It is an opportunity to learn or practice the

following skills:

Information gathering,

How to analyze an agency or organization,

How to distinguish formal authority from informal influence,

Organization and agency assessment or sorting out who is who and what is

what in the zoo, and

Assertiveness.


Some agencies react defensively to this analysis requirement. If the agency analysis

exercise is used, the school and course instructors may need to clarify this course

requirement with the fieldwork agency, the fieldwork liaison, and field instructor for

their cooperation. Agencies and students also need to be reassured that the

assignment is an exercise for purposes of student learning, will be treated

confidentially, and will not be kept on file by the school or used in any way as an

agency evaluation. In some cases, if a student is experiencing difficulty with

obtaining information, instructors may need to contact an agency executive or field

instructor directly to enlist cooperation and provide reassurance.

Some agencies maintain a veil of secrecy, in particular about their budget and

sources of funding. This is especially true and legal for proprietary agencies. Even

public and not-for-profit agencies in our present political economy assume an

entrepreneurial and competitive stance concerning their operations, although their

information is not proprietary. Students should be encourages to be enterprising

checking legal required corporate financial reports, public budgets, and contracts

under the Freedom of Information Act. Gaining access to this information can be an

excellent and challenging learning experience for a student. Instructors should bear

in mind, however, that the process can take more time than is reasonable for the

course or place the student in a vulnerable position.

Discussions and Exercises

1. In what ways are governmental and voluntary, nonprofit human service

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agencies similar to and different from proprietary firms? Given these similarities and

differences, do you believe that proprietary businesses (privatization) overall are

better able to manage (more efficiently, more effectively) HSAs than are

governments or the voluntary, nonprofit sector? Defend you answer with logic and

evidence. Provide examples to back up your position. Whatever your position, where

do you think the notion comes from that business firms are desirable models to

emulate, especially after the Great Recession and the BP Gulf disaster?

2. What is meant by the formal structure of an organization? Provide an

example from your own experience. What is meant by the informal structure of an

organization? How do we know an informal structure exists? How can we observe

it? Provide examples from your own experience. Which, in your estimation, is more

important in trying to understand how an organization functions? Why?

3. If we look at the organization as the unit of analysis, we should be able to

identify a variety of system-level concepts that could help explain organization

behavior. What might some of these be (e.g., organizational size, complexity,

technology, structure, climate)? If you were doing a research project, how would you

define these concepts operationally?

4. In working with an individual client, we often think about concepts such

as resistance, defense mechanisms, skills, strengths, and so on. How might we apply

these concepts to an organization as a target or client system? Provide some

illustrations. For example, how about organizational information processing

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capacity, accessibility or non-accessibility, communication problems of various

kinds, bureaucratic red tape?

5. In thinking about public human service agencies such as public schools,

welfare agencies, and hospitals, social workers are often overwhelmed by the volume

and complexity of client service needs coupled with the relative paucity of resources

to respond to them. What are some of the ways that this stress may be manifested in

organizational (systemic) behavior? Provide examples. How do social workers and

other staff members cope with this stress? What are some of the consequences for

clients? What might be some of the public relations consequences for those

agencies?

6. The notion of individual psychopathology has been accepted by the

profession. The idea of organizational pathology is more difficult. We can

understand the pathology of an organizational executive who, say, has a problem

with alcoholism. Can we also conceive of the alcoholic organization? In what ways

might organizational pathology be manifested? How is pathology potentially built

into the organization’s purpose, structure, and culture? Is it the organization or does

it simply have some bad apples? Research and review the Minerals Management

Service of the Department of the Interior, the Catholic Church’s pedophile and

sexual abuse scandals, and the Philadelphia Department of Human Services and its

contractor Multiethnic Behavioral Health, an NGO. One is tempted to add the United

States Senate as a pathological organization. Consider structural designs such as

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particular rules, patterns of communication (the authoritarian organization, the

paternal organization), organizational culture (organizational myths, secrets, and

double messages) informal organization structure, and compliance and rewards

structures.

7. Select a human service organization you are familiar with and identify its

domain and task environment. Lay out the important elements of the task

environment (TE) in terms of the TE categories: (a) suppliers of fiscal resources; (b)

suppliers of non-fiscal resources; (c) clients or consumers and their suppliers; (d)

competitors; (e) collaborators or complementary service providers; (f) suppliers of

legitimation and authority. Explain the relationship between an organization's

domain and its TE. What does the agency exchange with the TE for the resources?

Explain the dynamics of power in organization/TE transactions. Identify a boundary-

spanning unit in the organization and explain how it helps the organization manage

its external environment.

8. Identify an organizational problem in a human service agency that you

would like to solve. (Instructor may want to identify a problem in the school of social

work, an organization that the students have in common, such as lack of student

governmental influence, course registration snafus, inflexibility, inadequate copying

facilities, or insensitivity to a particular population.) Carry out a force field analysis

of this problem (Force field guidelines are located at the end of chapter 8’s I. M.).

Review proposed change strategies and consider them in terms of (a) vulnerability to

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punitive sanctions of the social worker as change agent, (b) the method and degree to

which allies are mobilized, and (c) the potential for effective outside support if

necessary.

9. Analyze your field placement agency and convert as much as possible of

the agency into a virtual agency. Can it all be converted? If converted will the agency

be more efficient and effective?

Helpful Hints for Students in Preparing an Agency Analysis Paper Even though many students are relatively new at the agency they will be

analyzing, it is critical to learn how to obtain information about the agency quickly.

The assignment should be made early in the course term and completed within a

month or so. In any job students take in the future, they will want to know most of

what is on the agency assignment within a month or two. An option is to assign it

early in the course and due toward the end of course when students are more familiar

with the concepts. The analysis then should be more sophisticated. It is not important

to answer every question on the sheet; the sheet is merely a guide. Remember the

purpose is analysis, that is, more than a description of the fieldwork organization.

Thus the students will need to get a copy of the budget and describe the highlights

and analyze any unusual or prominent features.

Think of the different topics on the outline for the paper in terms of intra- and

interorganizational structure and dynamics. Also consider the politics of the

situation. For example, can you describe and analyze the formal administrative

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structure, the informal administrative structure, and the politics surrounding both the

differences between the two and the everyday management challenges? Who is on

the board and who oversees the agency? Are there any politics inherent in that

arrangement?

Real names are not needed. If field supervisors are uneasy about providing

certain information, the agency should be reassured that the papers are for the

instructor's eyes only unless he or she gets explicit permission to share the paper with

another student or colleague. Written contracts, releases of information, and

confidentiality agreements can be used if necessary.

It is the student’s job to get the information. Agencies are overloaded, field

supervisor are not expected to do the student’s legwork. Some students may overly

rely on their field instructors; however, it should be the student’s analysis, not the

field instructor’s. The learning is in the assessment and analysis.

Guidelines for Analyzing Your Agency1 Introduction The study of human service organizations is complicated, regardless of

agency size. Therefore, you cannot rely on any single source of information. As you

1 The agency analysis project is based on a guide developed by the late Professor

Emeritus William Bechill of the University of Maryland School of Social Work. It

has gone through many re-incarnations by the School’s Community Practice faculty.

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examine your agency, you will be exposed to different sources whose information is

unconnected or even contradictory. Your task will be to make sense of these

differing perceptions and contradictions, including your own perceptions. In doing

your analysis, you must be cautious about accepting literally the information and

interpretations given to you by staff, clients, board members, and outside observers.

Assume an analytical stance and weigh all information received, including your own

perceptions, in light of other data that are available. As your analysis proceeds, many

of the questions raised below may not be able to be answered definitively.

Nevertheless, if they are studied and analyzed, you will acquire greater insight into

your agency's functioning.

Note to Instructors: The scope of the analysis should be adapted to your

intent. This analysis represents a major commitment of student time and energy.

Sources of information The student must triangulate measurements and data collection. This means

using more than one information source. In triangulating the student will be exposed

to often discrete and contradictory interpretations. The student’s task is to

comprehend and reconcile the contradictions and differing perceptions, including his

or her own individual perception, to form defensible conclusions, a case theory, of

the assessment. If in the agency analysis, agency many of the questions covered

cannot be definitely answered, the student is to describe the assessment effort and

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explain why important explanatory information is not available. They can be

analyzed and discussed for purposes of acquiring and demonstrating insight into

organizational functioning. The assessment needs to use and reflect the assigned

literature.

Students necessarily need to be cautious in their analysis. They must evaluate

and not accept literally information and interpretations given to them by field

instructors, agency key informants, clients, and other outside informants and

information resources. The student is responsible for the conclusions and case theory.

The task is to assume an analytical stance and to weigh all information received,

including one's own perceptions, in the light of other available data and theory.

Again, always triangulate information from a number of sources. Information

sources should include:

a. Actual observations by the student of the agency, of staff and clients, of the

community, and use of other key informants’ behaviors.

b. Interviews with board members, administrators, staff, and community key

informants.

c. Interviews with clients.

d. Agency annual reports, manuals, documents, by-laws, statistical reports,

memoranda, and other pertinent information about agency policy, practice, and

program Agency budget and audit reports available from the agency, the secretary of

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state, or libraries. (By law these are public for governmental and voluntary secular

nonprofit agencies.).

e. Community and social service planning reports, such as census reports,

chamber of commerce studies, and United Way studies.

f. Agency files and other types of records such as WEB pages and sites on

the agencies and community.

g. Relevant information about the community in which the agency operates

and reports about the principal outside agencies, groups, and organizations that

constitute the agency's most relevant task environment members and with which the

agency has its major exchange and competitive relationships.

h. Historical accounts and studies of the agency or similar agencies or

programs.

i. Historical accounts and studies of the agency or similar agencies and the

community.

j. Information in agency grants applications or funding proposals.

k. Literature and research on organizations and agencies usable for a

theoretical base.

Organizational governance and management Formal Structure: Prepare the organization chart of the agency showing

the division of labor and structure of authority. If the agency is subdivided into

smaller working divisions or units, also prepare a chart for your unit. This will give

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you a picture of how agency structure and functions are related, as well as noting the

formal lines of authority. Remember that this sort of chart is inherently static and

presents only a partial picture of the organization and its functioning. It is merely a

starting point for a more elaborate and dynamic analysis.

1. Staffing: How many paid staff and volunteers? What education, training,

credentials are needed for the different positions? What efforts are made to recruit

staff? What efforts are made to retain staff? How adequate are salary and

benefits? What kind of staff development or training is offered? Are there rules

regarding staff behavior? Where\how do staff find out these rules? What is the

nature of the work (creative, routinized, controlled, autonomous)? Is the

organization unionized? What is the impact? If not unionized, should it be? If a

faith-based agency, does the faith’s dogma influence hiring and promotion

decisions? Are contingent and contractual employees used and, if so, to do what?

2. Clients and consumers: Are clients voluntary or mandated? What

influence does this have on their experiences with the agency? Do the clients

represent the groups that they agency wishes to serve? Are programs and services

designed to meet the needs of the clients? Are the hours of operation, location

accessibility, and other factors agreeable to client lives and schedules? Is there

outreach to current and potential client groups? In what ways are payments to or

funding of the agency lined to clients? Effectiveness? What input do clients have

in the design or evaluation of programs and services? Is funding linked to client

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satisfaction and behavioral changes? Are clients involved in agency governance?

3. Multicultural Development: Does staff diversity match the demographic

profile of the clients and community? Do agency policies support (or not)

multicultural development? Are programs culturally appropriate given client

demographics? Is the cultural competency of staff supported by the agency? Do

agency outreach efforts support multiculturalism? To what extent has your agency

embraced multicultural development?

DIVERSITY AUDIT2

Complete based on your information in your agency (you will probably

need to consult various sources).

A. Demographics – Board, Staff and Clients

Agency Component White Black Latino Asian Pacific Islander Native American Other

Board Management Line Staff Support Staff Clients

Women Men Board Management

2 Professors Karen Hopkins and Cheryl Hyde, then both of the University of

Maryland School of Social Work were especially instrumental in developing the

diversity sections.


Line Staff Support Staff Clients

How did you determine ethnicity?

Informal Structure and Organizational Culture:

All organizations have a culture. It is a set of beliefs, values and norms

that provide blueprints for behavior in the organization. For example, one agency

might value exploration, innovation, and excitement in serving the community

while another value order, efficiency, and self-control. The behavior of staff in the

two agencies is likely to be quite different. Although the formal structure provides

a framework for decision-making, many other human factors influence agency

decisions and their implementation. Among these are organizational culture and

informal relationships and channels of communication; agency participants who are

powerful by virtue of expertise, connections, charisma, control over needed

resources, sanctions, and rewards; organizational values and norms; organizational

climate and morale; and agency tradition and history. Identify some of the influential

members of your agency with power not derived from a formal position of authority

and illustrate how this influence was exercised in at least one instance of

organization decision making. Culture is expressed in formal, written, policies and

rules and in informal, unwritten codes of conduct and behavior. This section

requires participant-observation skills. Look at your organizational chart(s) and

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consider whether the people in equivalent positions seem as equal in reality as they

are on paper. Rank them in terms of their perceived power, access to the CEO, and

approachability. Note where formal lines of authority do not seem to be followed.

Does this help you detect who can influence and who can be influenced? Consider

other staff members in the same way--secretaries and administrative assistants, for

example. One way to observe who is listened to and to note staff-leader interactions,

is to watch who goes into and out of whose offices. A social work student who did

such a chart in one agency discovered that the staff person with whom everyone

interacted most often had the most inaccessible office. That staff person was moved

to a larger, more central office.

1. Describe the organizational culture or climate in your agency. Do staff and

clients feel comfortable? Why or why not? Describe staff’s morale. What are

the organization’s norms and values? Is there a difference between stated

formal and actual values expressed in behavior? Are there different "sub-

cultures" in the organization? How do you explain their existence?

2. How are clients treated? How long do they have wait at the facility for

service? How are they addressed? What are the physical conditions of client

service areas? Do you see a relationship between the way clients are treated

and the way staff is treated?

3. Please describe the informal system and the informal organization’s

variances from the formal organization and your assessment as to why the

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variance exists. Identify some of the influential members of your organization

with power and influence not derived from a formal position of authority and

the sources of the power and influence. Illustrate how this influence was

exercised in at least one instance of organization decision-making.

4. What is it like to work in this agency? Is the atmosphere friendly,

professional, supportive, stimulating, rigid? Describe the quality of

supervision. What is the status and authority of social work in the

organization and the basis for your assessment?

For this exercise, find a central location in the agency or subunit such as the

water fountain and draw a sketch of each office; then track the movements of the

staff and make lines showing the connections. It may be weeks before patterns show

up, especially since students are in the field part time. You will be experimenting

with a type of socio-gram. This method relies less on gossip and hearsay than do

some other methods of perceiving the informal system. It tells us more about office

communication, central figures in the work of the office, and networks of influence,

than about power.

Since we are concerned with various dynamics, we must not overlook the

affective center of a workplace or key troubleshooter by concentrating only on who

controls things. As another way of looking at the informal system in the field agency,

the student should figure out who plays these roles in their agency or subunit (if

anyone). This is the person who

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• collects for flowers and baby gifts,

• gets things done, unclogs, or goes around the system,

• knows the institutional history of the agency,

• knows the janitors and all the nonprofessionals,

• knows the boss best outside of work,

• has the best outside connections, and

• best epitomizes the organizational culture.

Virtuality: To what extent does the agency use Information and

Communication Technology? Is it used and how beyond data processing and

storage? How is it used with and by clients? Is tele- and internet commuting

encouraged? What are the agency’s computer, internet, and email policies? Does it

provide IT and CT to staff?

Board of Directors/Advisory Boards: Interview a board officer, regular

board member, management, and staff about what the board does and how it works.

Review a copy of the agency's by-laws and constitution. For a public agency,

identify and review the legislation creating your organization. From this information,

answer the following questions

Auspices and Governing or Advisory Boards of Directors

1. What is the agency’s auspice? Is the agency a public, a secular nonprofit,

faith based, or proprietary profit? (b) If public, what is the governmental

unit?

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2. Briefly describe the agency's governing board of directors or relevant advisory

board (whichever applies). Include characteristics such as: (a) size, (b)

composition by gender, ethnicity, and socio-economic class (see above), (c)

assessment as to how well it represents the community and what parts of the

community are represented (community interests and organizations that current

board members formally and informally represent), (d) key committees, (e)

formal and informal process used for making decisions, and (f) major activities

or projects of the board for the year.

3. Is the board’s fiduciary responsibility clear? How is the board trained in its

fiduciary responsibility?

4. What is the board's role in hiring and firing staff and in making agency policy?

The executive director's role? Find an example of policymaking.

If any of the above information is not available, please recount your efforts to

obtain the information. Except for proprietary agencies, this information is public

information.

Organizational fiscal resources

Every human service agency operates in an increasingly competitive

economic and political climate. There are seldom enough financial resources to

do everything an agency wants to do. How an agency allocates its funds represent

the agency's true priorities. (Just, as is the case with your own personal budget.)

To truly understand an agency, you need to understand the budget.

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In most organizations, information about finances is sensitive. (Why is it?)

Consequently, some agencies treat budgetary information as confidential, even

though all governmental and nonprofit organizations must file financial report

forms of various kinds with the state and IRS. Secondly, they exist to serve the

public and this information should be public. You may have difficulty obtaining

specific line-budget information and this will be an area that will test your

assessment skills/ General budgetary information will normally be available for

your agency. If you have difficulty getting budgetary information, please consult

with your instructor. Again, this information is public even for proprietaries when

under public contract. Voluntary not-for-profit agencies are required to file a

Form 990 with the IRS. It is available to the public under the Freedom of

Information Act. Ask for it. Budget information on the agency also can be

obtained from www.guidestar.org , a watchdog group.

1. What is the size of your agency's budget? Provide figures for major areas

of expenditure (e.g., staff, upkeep). What are the major sources of

financial support for this agency? How do sources of support and

expenditures seem to affect the delivery of services or programs? What

budget information is available to staff?

2. If applicable, how large is the budget for your department or program?

What percentage of funds is allocated to professional staff positions?

What percentage to administrative and support functions?

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http://www.guidestar.org/


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3. Does the agency have a program budget? Which program receives the

greatest amount of financial support?

4. What is the starting salary for a professional MSW level social

worker? A BSW social worker? What salary could a supervisor or

administrator expect to earn after 5-6 years in the agency? What is the

salary range for the agency director? What kind of a benefit package

would a starting MSW receive?

5. Is the agency on firm financial ground? What is the basis for your

judgment?

6. Please fully describe the efforts you made to obtain the budget

information including the obstacles you encountered and what you did

to try to overcome them.

Organizational domain and task environment

Organizational Domain: An organization's domain represents the claims it

stakes out for itself in terms of (1) the range of human problems and concerns it

proposes to address, (2) the services offered and technologies used (e.g., family

therapy, emergency food, community organizing), and (3) the population entitled to

use the services it offers.

Identify the specific human problems and concerns that the agency is

organized to address. Classify these by the service unit to which the problem or

concern is related (e.g., individual, group, family, community).

Instructor's Manual to Accompany Community Practice

Identify and list the services that the agency offers vis-à-vis the problems and issues

that it attempts to handle.

Identify the units (individuals, families, groups, other organizations, etc.) that are

eligible for the services offered by the agency. Enumerate the conditions and qualifications

that have to be met in order to be officially eligible for the services.

Task Environment: An organization's task environment is the network of

institutions, organizations, and individuals that an agency must deal with in order to

accomplish its mission. It consists of the following categories of organizations and subunits:

(1) source of clients or customers, (2) sources of fiscal support, (3) sources of non-fiscal

resources, (4) collaborators, (5) competitors, and (6) sources of legitimation and authority.

Since an organization seldom has complete control over the elements in its task environment,

these elements pose various degrees of uncertainty that the agency must manage successfully

in order to accomplish its goals.

Map out the main elements of your agency's task environment. Which elements pose

the greatest degree of uncertainty for your agency and how does the agency attempt to deal

with this? How well is the agency managing?

Organizational goals

Cite the official statements, if any, that describe the mission and goals of the agency.

Have there been any recent changes in the content of these policy statements? In your view,

are the agency's mission and goals clear to the various members of the organization (e.g.,

staff, clients, board)? If not, why not?

As a result of interviews with members of the executive core of the agency, how

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would you describe their perspectives on the organization's goals?

1. How well do the administrators' perceptions of mission and goals conform to the

official statements? How are they different?

2. What aspects of the agency's programs do they see as best reflecting the agency's

objectives? What aspects are least reflective of these objectives?

3. What priorities do they seem to establish among the several formally stated goals?

4. What roles do they see the agency performing in the larger community?

5. What do they identify as the major problems or tasks in the agency's programs or

services that require prompt solutions? What major problems and tasks, in their opinion,

require more long-range planning and action?

6. What do they see as the major strengths of the agency in relation to achieving its

goals?

7. What perceptions do they have of the agency's clients, their relevant

characteristics, and their major needs? What do they see as the major goals of the agency

with respect to its clients?

From interviews with direct line staff, determine the following questions:

1. What do they perceive as the major objectives in serving the clients of the

agency?

2. Does any objective seem to have a greater priority than the others do?

3. What perceptions do they hold about the relevant characteristics of the agency's

and clients’ needs?

4. What are their perceptions about proper staff-client relationships?

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5. What role do they see they agency playing in the larger community?

6. What do they see as the major strengths and weaknesses of the agency?

From interviews with clients, answer the following questions:

1. What do they see as the major objectives of the agency?

2. What expectations do they have for the staff?

3. What would they like the agency to do that it does not do currently?


From interviews with a board officer and a board member (along with questions

about board functioning mentioned earlier), answer the following questions:

1. What do they see as the major goals of the agency?


3. What role do they see the agency performing in the larger community?

4. Summarize, compare and contrast the similarities and differences in the

perspectives of the board, executive core staff, line and clients about the agency’s

goals, priorities, strengths and weaknesses, and role in the community.

Source / Question Board Core Executives Line Staff Clients

5. From your observations of staff-client relations, what are your conclusions as to the

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actual tasks that staff perform? Explicitly compare to I.A. above.

6. From your review of the agency's budget, what are the agency's priorities? How well does

the budget support the agency's stated priorities? Compare the existing priority given to

various services and tasks based on allocation of resources to the priorities supported by the

executive core and other staff.

7. What are your perceptions about how well the agency carries out its mission (agency

effectiveness)? What are the agency's strengths and weaknesses?

Guidelines for Field of Forces Analysis3 Field of Forces or Force Field Analysis is a mapping tool that divides and

assesses whether the units in the task environment promote or curtail the desired change,

and how the forces can be manipulated for change. The analysis organizes the agency or

community - the unit to change - into a field of forces that influences the focal agency, or

any other entity in the field, and can be influenced by the entity. The field is similar to the

concept of task environment. The field is not static. Any entity in the field is engaged in a

stream of activity and is subjected to the vicissitudes of the surrounding ecology or task

environment.

Concepts of Field Analysis: 1. Objects are the things, the entities, in the task environment or field that can move

toward or away from the direction of a desired change.

2. Field is the life space or space of an object with any and all other objects that influence

3 See: Lewin, (1976), pp. 1-36.

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it.

3. Force is the direction of movement of a particular actor, entity or object in the field.

The movement can be toward, a driving force, or away, a restraining force, from the

desired direction of change. Objects with their forces can be excessive with more than is

necessary for change of a particular force, unpredictable if an object changes its direction

without control, consistent if stable in direction, working or driving when moving in the

direction of desired change, and amenable if an object and a driving force that can be

influenced or controlled (Lauffer, 1982). The greater the number and potency of forces

that are driving and working, amenable, and consistent and when restraining forces are

amenable, the more likely change will occur in a desired direction.

4. Valence is the property of an object in the field - either positive or negative - in its

movement in the direction of the desired change or away from desired change. It is

positive when moving toward preferred change and a negative valence if moving away

from desired change.

5. Potency is the force’s strength for change.

6. Activity is the behavior of the objects in the field. 7. Tension reduction is the activity of an object in response to forces upon it. Objects

seek to reduce tension brought about by the force field. The object or target of change

responds to valence and potency of the objects’ forces. These forces are driving if they

move the focal object in the direct of the desired change or restraining if they move the

desired object away from the desired change.

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8. Blocks and barriers are static elements in a field that tends to prevent or cement

change.

Analysis is mapping the field to determine: 1. the field’s existing objects, 2.

objects’ force characteristics and activity (current state of the field), 3. desired level or

change of the field (change objectives). 4. identify actors, objects, and forces in field and

whether driving or restraining (valence) and characteristics of redundancy, predictability,

amenableness, and potency. Special attention is given to working forces and those

amenable to change in construction of an action system to change potency of driving and

restraining forces.

Diagram New Field Level Sought ---------------------------------------------- RESTRAINING FORCES = Existing level of field [blocks and barriers] [blocks and barriers] DRIVING FORCES =

3. Construct Action System. Procedures: 1. Assess number of valence and strength of driving and restraining forces. 2. Assess how to increase the strength of driving and weaken strength of the restraining

forces.

3. Assess and remove restraining blocks and put in place blocks under the driving forces.

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Blocks and barriers are static and neutral - as amount of money in a community. The

control and use of the money can be a driving or a restraining force.

References Hasenfeld, Y. (1992). The nature of human service organizations. Newbury Park, CA:

Sage.

Kaser, D.(2007). Virtuality, Information today, 24(3), 14.

Lauffer, A. (1982). Assessment tools for practitioners, managers, and trainees. Newbury

Park, CA: Sage.

Lewin, K. (1976). Field theory as human science. New York: Gardner Press.

Pang, L. (2001). Understanding virtual organizations, Information Systems Control

Journal, 6. Retrieved February 15, 2010, from: http://www.isaca.org/Template.cfm

Williams, R. (2007). Moving beyond vagueness: Social capital, social networks, and

economic outcomes. In J. Jennings, (Ed.). Race, neighborhoods, and misuse of social

capital. (pp. 67-86), New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

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