Basics of qualitative research: Grounded theory procedures and techniques

What makes organizations so similar? We contend that the engine of rationalization and bureaucratization has moved from the competitive marketplace to the state and the professions. Once a set of organizations emerges as a field, a paradox arises: rational actors make their organizations increasingly similar as they try to change them. We describe three isomorphic processes-coercive, mimetic, and normative—leading to this outcome. We then specify hypotheses about the impact of resource centralization and dependency, goal ambiguity and technical uncertainty, and professionalization and structuration on isomorphic change. Finally, we suggest implications for theories of organizations and social change.

The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields (Chinese Translation)

This article uses meta-analysis to develop a model integrating research on relationships between employee perceptions of general and work–family-specific supervisor and organizational support and work–family conflict. Drawing on 115 samples from 85 studies comprising 72,507 employees, we compared the relative influence of 4 types of workplace social support to work–family conflict: perceived organizational support (POS); supervisor support; perceived organizational work–family support, also known as family-supportive organizational perceptions (FSOP); and supervisor work–family support. Results show work–family-specific constructs of supervisor support and organization support are more strongly related to work–family conflict than general supervisor support and organization support, respectively. We then test a mediation model assessing the effects of all measures at once and show positive perceptions of general and work–family-specific supervisor indirectly relate to work–family conflict via organizational work–family support. These results demonstrate that work–family-specific support plays a central role in individuals’ work–family conflict experiences.

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Workplace social support and work-family conflict: A meta-analysis clarifying the influence of general and work-family-specific supervisor and organizational support

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.2307/3343529.pdf

Making Ends Meet: How Single Mothers Survive Welfare and Low-Wage Work

The upshot of these needs for change is both dismaying and exciting, both disturbing in the destruction of long-familiar patterns of dealing with human suffering, and paradoxically hopeful in raising the possibility that significant failures in our health care systems of the past — limited access to medical care and grossly inadequate public sector “non-systems”, for example — may now be addressed more successfully.

Administration and policy in mental health

Job retention in child welfare: Effects of perceived organizational support, supervisor support, and intrinsic job value

Child welfare policy changes have intensified the need for effective child welfare practice, yet little is known about the everyday practices of frontline child welfare caseworkers. Based in Michael Lipsky’s theory of street‐level bureaucracy, this study explores child welfare practice through interviews with frontline caseworkers and observations in juvenile court. The study suggests that best practices in child welfare are compromised not only by organizational pressures, such as time limitations, but also by pressures to conform practices to the expectations of powerful institutions in the organizational environment.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/378328

Child Welfare Practice in Organizational and Institutional Context

Aims. To assess the impact of a substance abuse treatment program for women with children designed to increase access to treatment through transportation, outreach and child-care services. Also, to assess the impact of using access services on the use of other services and on treatment effectiveness. Design. A quasi-experimental non-equivalent control group design was used with path analysis to examine the impact of participation in an enhanced services program that provided transportation, outreach and child-care services on the use of other social services and on the use of alcohol and illicit drugs. Setting. Treatment clients were interviewed in- person at enhanced treatment programs and regular substance abuse programs. Participants. Study participants included a randomly selected sample of women with children who were clients of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. Participants were enrolled in enhanced or regular substance abuse treatment programs. Measurements. Study participants completed in-person interviews about their characteristics, services use and past and current substance use. Findings. Participation in the enhanced program was negatively related to substance use. Further, use of access services was related to use of social services which in turn, was negatively related to substance use. Conclusion. The study indicates that services that enhance access to treatment and respond to the range of social service needs of women are important for effective substance abuse treatment for women with children.

Increasing access and providing social services to improve drug abuse treatment for women with children.

Client-service matching in substance abuse treatment for women with children

This study uses Cox regression to assess the relationships among parental drug use, drug treatment compliance, and reunification from substitute care. The study finds that drug treatment compliance is associated with faster reunification, even when accounting for ongoing drug use and three parenting measures. The findings are consistent with a conceptual framework suggesting that certain client actions, such as drug treatment compliance, may serve as markers that substantially affect client outcomes. Language: en

Brenda D. Smith

Papers

Job retention in child welfare: Effects of perceived organizational support, supervisor support, and intrinsic job value

Child Welfare Practice in Organizational and Institutional Context

Increasing access and providing social services to improve drug abuse treatment for women with children.

Client-service matching in substance abuse treatment for women with children

How parental drug use and drug treatment compliance relate to family reunification.