Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-sh8wx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-17T17:22:04.574Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Human Factor in Social Administration*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2009

John H. Smith
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The practice of social administration is founded on the human response to problems of industrialization and urbanization. Motivation and effort towards ‘social service’ were once taken for granted, but this seems no longer justified in the light of changes in the material and intellectual contexts in which service to the community is undertaken. These changes include the politicization of the service ideal; the emergence of radical social work; the managerialism of service reorganization; new interpretations of professional accountability; and new fashions in sociology and psychology. Although hitherto stable assumptions have been questioned, the dogmatic basis for recent developments and the reactions to them justify a fresh evaluation of the human factor in social administration. The human factor remains the basic resource in identifying and meeting social needs.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Social Policy , Volume 8 , Issue 4 , October 1979 , pp. 433 - 447
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1979

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Donnison, D. V., Social Policy and Administration Revisited, Allen and Unwin, London, 1975, p. 256.Google Scholar

2 The Guardian, 13 December 1978.Google Scholar

3 see Bentley, N. and Esar, E. (eds), Treasury of Humorous Quotations, Dent, London, 1962.Google Scholar

4 MacRae, D. G., Foreword, , Pinker, R., Social Theory and Social Policy, Heinemann Educational Books, London, 1971, p. v.Google Scholar

5 Haldane, J. (ed.), The Social Worker's Guide, Pitman and Sons, London, 1911.Google Scholar

6 Keynes, J. M., writing about himself at the Treasury – letter to Duncan Grant, 1917.Google Scholar

7 Management Arrangements for the Reorganized National Health Service, Department of Health and Social Security (DHSS), HMSO, London, 1972.Google Scholar

8 Ibid. p. 17.

9 The passage which follows is based on my contribution in Diana Marshallsay and Smith, J. H. (eds), Ford List of Parliamentary Papers 1965–1974, KTO Press, Nendeln, 1979.Google Scholar

10 Notional Health Service: The Administrative Structure of the Medical and Related Services in England and Wales, Green Paper, DHSS, HMSO, London, 1968Google Scholar; The Future of the National Health Service, Green Paper II, DHSS, HMSO, London, 1970Google Scholar; National Health Service Reorganization: England, DHSS, Cmnd 5055, HMSO, London, 1972Google Scholar; and National Health Service Reorganization: Consultative Document, DHSS, HMSO, London, 1971.Google Scholar

11 Draper, P., ‘The Organization of Health Care’, in Tuckett, D. (ed.). An Introduction to Medical Sociology, Tavistock Publications, London, 1976.Google Scholar

12 Senior Nursing Staff Structure, Ministry of Health, HMSO, London, 1966.Google Scholar

13 Ibid. p. 107.

14 Organization of Medical Work in Hospitals, First Report, Ministry of Health, HMSO, London, 1967.Google Scholar

15 Organization of Medical Work in the Hospital Service in Scotland, First Report, Scottish Home and Health Department, HMSO, Edinburgh, 1967.Google Scholar

16 The Functions of the District General Hospital: Report of the Committee, Central Health Services Council, DHSS, HMSO, London, 1969.Google Scholar

17 Report of the Working Party on Medical Administrators (Hunter Report), DHSS, HMSO, London, 1972.Google Scholar

18 Royal Commission on Medical Education 1965–68, Report, DHSS, Cmnd 3569, HMSO, London, 1968.Google Scholar

19 Health and Social Services Journal, LXXXIX: 4,623 (1979), 9–11.Google Scholar

20 Social Services Teams: The Practitioner's View, Report of the Research Study, DHSS, HMSO, London, 1978, ch. 5.Google Scholar

21 Kakabadse, A. P. and Worrell, R., ‘Job Satisfaction and Organizational Structure’, British Journal of Social Work, 8 (1978), 51–70.Google Scholar

22 Social Services Teams, ch. 7.Google Scholar

23 Report on the Accident at Knockshinnoch Castle Colliery, Ministry of Fuel and Power, HMSO, London, 1951.Google Scholar

24 Quoted in Chester, T. E. and Smith, J. H., Management Under Nationalization, Acton Society Trust, London, 1953, p. 61.Google Scholar