Developing a research program in human service agencies: A practitioner's guidebook

Dennis H. Reid

Charles C. Thomas

A critical component in the provision of human services is the effective supervision of staff performance. In essence, supervisors in human service agencies are responsible for the work performance of the staff they supervise, with subsequent responsibility for the services staff provide to clients. It is the purpose of this text to describe and critically review organizational behavior management research and application as it pertains to the supervision of staff performance in human service settings. Over 120 applied research investigations are discussed that have evaluated methods of improving staff work performance in a variety of human service agencies. The developing technology is discussed, with special emphasis on those supervisory procedures that have been successfully used to resolve noted problems with staff performance as well as on current shortcomings of existing procedures. A portion of the research to be discussed in the following chapters is based on the authors own investigations in the management area and those of their colleagues. In light of the focus of organizational behavior management on developing supervisory strategies for improving staff work performance, and on applied research to demonstrate the effectiveness of the procedures, the information to be discussed in this text should be of particular relevance for two major audiences. One primary audience is supervisors (and aspiring supervisors) in the human services sector. The second audience is current and future researchers in the management field.

Staff Management in Human Services: Behavioral Research and Application

Politics & Social Sciences

Marsha B. Parsons

Carolyn W. Green

Social Sciences

Charles C. Thomas Pub Ltd

This guidebook will show how supervisors can ensure support staff to deliver quality services for people with disabilities whose quality of life is heavily dependent on how well those services are provided. Supervisors must ensure staff receive necessary training in their job duties, are actively supported to stay motivated to work proficiently and, at times, effectively assisted to improve their work performance. Supervisors have to overcome many challenges to fulfill these critical duties, often involving frequent changes in their staff work force and varying or limited resources. Complicating the job of staff supervisors is a lack of formal training necessary to perform their supervisory duties effectively. When supervisors do receive training in how to supervise staff work performance, the training is not always very useful. The training is frequently too general to equip supervisors with knowledge and skills to affect staff work performance on a routine basis. The training also is commonly based on unproven means of promoting quality staff performance, stemming from current fads or ideology that has little if any hard evidence to support the training content. Over the last five decades, a technology for supervising staff work performance in the human services has been evolving, derived from applied research conducted in many human service agencies. However, most supervisors have not had opportunities to become aware of these evidence-based means of fulfilling their supervisory duties. The purpose of The Supervisor's Guidebook is to describe the existing evidence-based approach to supervision. Description of the approach is supplemented with practical suggestions based on our combined experience encompassing over 100 years of supervising staff performance in the human services. The intent is to provide supervisors with detailed information about tried and tested means of promoting diligent and proficient staff performance and to do so in a way that maximizes staff enjoyment with their work.

The Supervisor’s Guidebook: Evidence-Based Strategies for Promoting Work Quality and Enjoyment Among Human Service Staff

Business & Money

Management & Leadership

The Supervisor's Guidebook Evidence-Based Strategies for Promoting Work Quality and Enjoyment Among Human Service Staff

Charles C Thomas Publisher, Limited

Self-Motivation for Professional Practitioners Strategies for Maximizing One's Productivity and Work Enjoyment in Human Services

Charles C. Thomas, Publisher

Training Human Service Staff

Elsevier S & T

This book presents practical strategies for motivating human service staff. Staff motivation is presented as a two-fold process for supervisors: (1) ensuring staff work proficiently and diligently and, (2) ensuring staff enjoy their work. Based on the authors' combined 65 years of supervisory experience and three decades of applied research on working with staff in human service agencies, tried and tested means of motivating staff are presented. Specific topics covered include efficient an enjoyable ways of training work skills to staff, making the overall work environment enjoyable for staff, how to monitor staff performance in ways that staff actually look forward to, pleasant and effetive strategies for supporting desirable work performance, quick and acceptable ways to improve inadequate staff performance, and self-motivational techniques for supervisors to maintain their own work efforts and enjoyment. A special feature of the book is a summary of what over 1,000 working supervisors have reported to be the best ways to motivate staff (and what supervisory practices impede staff work diligence and enjoyment). Selected background readings are also provided to support the content of each chapter.

Motivating human service staff: Supervisory strategies for maximizing work effort and work enjoyment

Habilitative Management Consultants, Inc.

Person-Centered Planning and Outcome Management : Maximizing Organizational Effectiveness in Supporting Quality Lifestyles among People with Disabilities

Habilitative Management Consultants

Supervisors of direct support staff have a critical and often demanding job in human service agencies. This guidebook describes in practical terms what supervisors can do day-to-day to perform their duties successfully and promote quality staff performance. Relying on their 60+ years of combined supervisory experience and over 100 published articles on providing support for people with disabilities, the authors provide tried and tested means for training, supervising, and motivating direct support staff. Chapter contents include a step-by-step evidenced-based protocol for fulfilling typical supervisory duties, straightforward strategies for ensuring job expectations are very clear for staff, performance- and competency-based procedures for training staff in necessary work skills, monitoring work activities in ways acceptable to staff, how to actively support quality work, how to correct problematic performance, and ways to enhance work enjoyment to promote staff motivation. Special features include 92 highlighted bullets of critical information for supevisors, common supervisory actions to avoid that impede staff work proficiency and motivation, succinct chapter summaries of key points for successful supervision, and over 300 references to selected readings providing research-based evidence and background for chapter topics.

The Supervisor's Guidebook: Evidence-Based Strategies for Promoting Work Quality and Enjoyment among Human Service Staff

Processes & Infrastructure

This book describes evidence-based strategies for staff in human service agencies to promote happiness among adults with autism and other severe disabilities. It is designed for human service staff who work with adults with severe developmental disabilities and have challenges describing their personal experiences of happiness and unhappiness. Contents include how to identify valid indicators of the private experience of happiness, means of measuring and evaluating indices of happiness and unhappiness, and research-based procedures for increasing happiness and decreasing unhappiness during daily routines. Ways to increase happiness are described in practical terms amenable to typical routines in human service agencies, based on the author's 40 plus years of experience and published research on promoting happiness to enhance quality of life among adults with autism and other severe disabilities.

Promoting Happiness among Adults with Autism and Other Severe Disabilities: Evidence-Based Strategies

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Dennis H. Reid. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Dennis H. Reid