Faith in Action: Using Interfaith Coalitions to Support Voluntary Caregiving Efforts

Funded by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Faith in Action gives small grants to programs that provide informal care for those with chronic physical or mental disabilities. Program services are provided by volunteers, and programs are supported by coalitions involving diverse religious congregations and community-based agencies. This report presents findings from a national survey of 787 Faith in Action programs funded during the 1990s; it highlights their organizational practices, successes and challenges. It also outlines the practices linked with program survival, which include hiring directors with experience in key areas, implementing volunteer training and at least quarterly supervision, involving collaborators in fundraising and volunteer recruitment, and providing diverse services

Improving Social Work in Brazil

As part of efforts to improve social work provision, INGO EveryChild commissioned Dr Andrew Bilson, Professor of Social Work at the University of Central Lancashire, UK, to complete a literature review on the role of social workers in responding to children without parental care.The literature review, published in January 2012, explores the differing approaches and functions of social work around the world, and identifies gaps and challenges in current provision. It argues that, in order to better support social services, it is first important to determine which approach should be taken in a given setting. It also argues that governments and social work service providers must carefully consider the priority functions that social workers should fulfil in order to be most effective, and the kinds of training and support that these professionals need.Following on from this literature review, Family for Every Child, together with Dr Andrew Bilson, has been working to develop a tool which aims to:build on strengths in the social work systemidentify feasible improvementsdevelop a vision for high-quality social workbuild a movement towards implementation.The tool uses an Appreciative Inquiry (AI), action-based research approach which aims to identify and build on strengths in existing social work systems. The tool is designed for use by NGOs, UN agencies or governments in order to strengthen social services provision at national or sub-national levels.Brazilian member of Family for Every Child, Terra dos homens-ABTH,is the first to test the tool, with the support of Dr Andrew Bilson. The tool was used in Brazil from March to May 2012.This report provides an overview of the main results of the investigation. It outlines the context of children without parental care, alternative care and social work in Brazil found in a literature review, desk-based research, focus groups, and in-depth interviews. We hope the findings enable a consideration of how to improve social work, and are used both to improve local practices and to promote wider changes in social work policies

The construction of global management consulting - a study of consultancies’ web presentations

Management consulting increasingly appears as a global endeavour as reflected in the increasing dominance of a few large, global management-consulting firms. However, features of the consulting service (e.g. its immaterial and interactional character) as well as aspects of management (e.g. its cultural anchoredness) highlight the locality of management consulting. In this paper we approach this tension between the global and the local by seeing consulting as involving the creation of generalised myths. More specifically, we ask the question: How do global consulting companies construct the viability and desirability of their services? Based on a view of management consultants as mythmakers, we study the argumentation on corporate web sites of four leading global consultancies in five different countries. Applying a framework based on the sociology of translation, we analyze the translation strategies used in making the service of global consultancies both viable and indispensable. We find that the need for consultants is to a large extent constructed through defining management as an expert activity, thus creating a need for external advisors possessing globally applicable expert knowledge. In this effort, the consultants ally with three widely spread rationalized managerial myths – the rationality myth, the globalization myth and the universality myth. We conclude, that global consulting firms are actively involved in creating and reinforcing the very same institutions, which are the prerequisites for their future success.management consulting; globalization; myth making

Flexible Global Software Development (GSD): Antecedents of Success in Requirements Analysis

Globalization of software development has resulted in a rapid shift away from the traditional collocated, on-site development model, to the offshoring model. Emerging trends indicate an increasing interest in offshoring even in early phases like requirements analysis. Additionally, the flexibility offered by the agile development approach makes it attractive for adaptation in globally distributed software work. A question of significance then is what impacts the success of offshoring earlier phases, like requirements analysis, in a flexible and globally distributed environment? This article incorporates the stance of control theory to posit a research model that examines antecedent factors such as requirements change, facilitation by vendor and client site-coordinators, control, and computer-mediated communication. The impact of these factors on success of requirements analysis projects in a “flexible” global setting is tested using two quasi-experiments involving students from Management Development Institute, India and Marquette University, USA. Results indicate that formal modes of control significantly influence project success during requirements analysis. Further, facilitation by both client and vendor site coordinators positively impacts requirements analysis success

Reclaiming social work? an evaluation of systemic units as an approach to delivering children’s services

This report presents the findings of an evaluation of the systemic unit model as an approach to the delivery of Children‘s Social Services. The systemic unit model has sometimes been referred to as the ―Hackney Model‖ or ―Reclaiming Social Work‖ (Cross et al, 2010; Munro, 2011a; Trowler and Goodman, 2012). The evaluation is an in-depth comparative description of practice and the factors shaping it in three local authorities. One of the authorities used the systemic unit model; the other two authorities differed but both had a more conventional model for the structure of services. This involved individual allocation to social workers who received supervision from a line manager

Developing Online Team Skills

This paper discusses the development and delivery of a new course at the UK Open University (OU). The course makes a virtue of the fact that OU students study in a predominantly distance learning environment, by providing a structure within which team working activities are carried out with no face-to-face contact whatsoever. Issues that were considered in designing this course and decisions about tutoring and assessing the students' team working experience are discussed. Preliminary results from the first delivery of the course, including analysis of archived team conferences, are presented. Directions for future development and enhancement are indicated

A collaborative and experiential learning model powered by real-world projects

Information Technology (IT) curricula\u27s strong application component and its focus on user centeredness and team work require that students experience directly real-world projects for real users of IT solutions. Although the merit of this IT educational tenet is universally recognized, delivering collaborative and experiential learning has its challenges. Reaching out to identify projects formulated by actual organizations adds significantly to course preparation. There is a certain level of risk involved with delivering a useful solution while, at the same time, enough room should be allowed for students to experiment with, be wrong about, review, and learn. Challenges pertaining to the real-world aspect of problem-based learning are compounded by managing student teams and assessing their work such that both individual and collective contributions are taken into account. Finally, the quality of the project releases is not the only measure of student learning. Students should be given meaningful opportunities to practice, improve, and demonstrate their communication and interpersonal skills. In this paper we present our experience with two courses in which teams of students worked on real-world projects involving three external partners. We describe how each of the challenges listed above has impacted the course requirements, class instruction, team dynamics, assessment, and learning in these courses. Course assessment and survey data from students are linked to learning outcomes and point to areas where the collaborative and experiential learning model needs improvement

Unpacking the client(s): constructions, positions and client–consultant dynamics

Research on management consultancy usually emphasizes the role and perspective of the consultants. Whilst important, consultants are only one element in a dynamic relationship involving both consultants and their clients. In much of the literature, the client is neglected, or is assumed to represent a distinct, immutable entity. In this paper, we argue that the client organisation is not uniform but is instead (like organisations generally) a more or less heterogeneous assemblage of actors, interests and inclinations involved in multiple and varied ways in consultancy projects. This paper draws upon three empirical cases and emphasizes three key aspects of clients in the context of consultancy projects: (a) client diversity, including, but not limited to diversity arising solely from (pre-)structured contact relations and interests; (b) processes of constructing ‘the client’ (including negotiation, conflict, and reconstruction) and the client identities which are thereby produced; and (c) the dynamics of client–consultant relations and how these influence the construction of multiple and perhaps contested client positions and identities