Human Services Administrator Everyday Work - Term Paper Example

Human Services Administrator Everyday work life Interview: Describe your typical day at work What is the nature of challenges that you face while running this Human Services agency on a day-to-day basis. Does politics have any influence on your work? If yes, what are the political implications? Does the Human Services entail any form off collaboration? Who are the collaborators? What role do they play in the collaboration? What are the noticeable recent changes in the field of the Human Services? What does the future of the Human Services look like? What are the possible futuristic trends? Discussion Challenges The challenges faced by the human services administrators in the everyday work life are numerous. This is because, as opposed to the for-profit organizations which are driven by the urge to increase profitability, the non-profit human agencies are driven by the commitment to offer high quality human services to their clients (Brody, 2005). This simply means that there lacks a quantifiable measure of the human services agency’s success, causing little motivation for the employee and the staffs of the human services agencies to improve on their productivity (Sprague, Sheldon & McLaughlin, 1973). Another staffing challenge associated with the administration of the Human Services agencies is the ethical and professional conduct breach by the Human Service agency staffs. The staff of the agency do not adhere to all the required standards of ethical and professional conduct for the Human Services profession, causing a violation of the efficiency delivery of services to the clients (Brody, 2005). The budgeting challenge is another major challenge faced by the Human Services administrators on a day-to-day performance of duties, due to the shortage of the available resources for committing to the different needs of the clients (Slavin, 1985). The budgeting challenge is mostly increased by the prioritization need, due to the fact that there are different needs that require to be prioritized, yet the resource limitation requires the funding of a single or a few needs, such that other needs will be prioritized in the future. Further, aligning the functions and the daily activities of the organization with the organizational mission is still a challenge at times, due to the fact that the organizational mission may be formulated in a manner that it is more demanding than the existing resources (Mayers, Souflée & Schoech, 1994). This might cause some of the objectives that the organization has set with certain time limits to be unachieved, due to lack of necessary resources to undertake such functions. Political implications The political implications of the human services administration has been conflict with the local authorities over the mobilization of the grassroots support through the Human Services agency’s programs. The authorities have been piling pressure on the human services administrators to prioritize the services and programs that takes a political angle, at the expense of the more humanitarian services that may not add any political mileage (Wareing & Hendrick, 2013). Such conflicts have often seen the political implications in human services that causes administrators to enter into a dilemma of prioritizing the agency programs. This is because; most urgent needs might be the humanitarian needs, yet the political pressure forces the administrators to forfeit such priorities for the future implementation. The consequence of the political implications is that the Human services organizations end up failing to meet some of their core missions and objectives, so that they can first undertake the projects that the political fraternity favors (Wareing & Hendrick, 2013). The outcome is that the administrators of the Human services may come out as incompetent in accomplishing the missions of their organizations, or even face the accusations of misappropriating or not prioritizing the Humanitarian services programs, yet it is the political pressure piled on the administrators that causes them to act in a way that is inconsistent with the mission and objectives of their organizations. Opportunities for collaboration Nevertheless, while there are often conflicts of interests in program prioritization for the Human services agencies and the political authorities, a great deal of support and collaboration has been achieved in the implementation of the Human services programs. The major collaborators in the Human services programs include the religious institutions, individuals, educational institutions and certain government departments that are responsible for delivering human services in the area specialized by the agency. Most of the collaboration with the government and the local authorities occur in the form of resource mobilization and resource supplementation, which enables the Human services to achieve certain functions much easier than would have been, if they were left to operate on their own (Slavin, 1985). The religious institutions collaborate with the Human Services through offering material support both financially and in form of materials that are applied in the delivery of the Human services programs such as books, educational and inspirational pamphlets and also relevant technological devises. The individual and educational institutions on the other hand collaborate with the Human services agency through offering manpower and educational support (Brody, 2005). The manpower support might come in form of student internship, volunteering or even part-time job performance, especially in the field projects where the agency might be experiencing a shortage of manpower (Brody, 2005). The collaboration from these diverse institutions has been valuable to the Human services agency in terms of adding to its capacity and capability to render the necessary services to the clients and the communities. The future trends of Human Services The future trends in the field of human services points to the continued reduction of resources committed to the Human Services programs, due to the fact that the current trend that is also likely to transcend into the future is dominated by the do-more-with-less principle (Wareing & Hendrick, 2013). The principle is increasingly becoming the rule than the exception, such that management efficiency is highly regarded as the basis of organizational success (Wareing & Hendrick, 2013). The principle of do-more-with-less is technology-oriented. This requires that the Human Services agencies should adapt relevant technologies that reduces the resource requirement, allowing for the agencies to be able to do much more with the limited resources they hold (Wareing & Hendrick, 2013). Additionally, the incorporation of cultures and technological processes has become an important aspect of delivering human services to the clients. Culture is an important factor in determining the human services success dimension, since the Human Services agencies can only succeed if they incorporate the sensitive cultures of the people in their service programs (Wareing & Hendrick, 2013). Therefore, culture is a factor will be playing an increasingly important role going into the future of the Human Services, in determining the manner in which the programs will be formulated and how services will be delivered. Another possible future dimension of the Human Services is the increased collaboration between the Human Services and the government agencies and departments, since the current legislations are targeting at streamlining the human services delivery by both the Human Service agencies and the government departments, through eliminating duplication of functions and services (Wareing & Hendrick, 2013). Thus, such legislations will see increased collaboration between the government departments and Human Services agencies in delivering coordinated services. Social funding is yet another developing trend in the field of Human Services, which entails the injection of capital into the Human Services entities by social foundations, targeting to have the Human Service agencies to achieve certain social interventions through external support (Wareing & Hendrick, 2013). Once the interventions have been achieved, the social foundations then recoup the investment they injected into the social services, together with some reasonable interests. Social funding is a quantitative-success measuring intervention, which only requires that the funding for social services can be achieved through non-governmental interventions, and only when the pre-determined social outcome is realized. The other possible future transformation in the Human Services is its integration with related fields, such as the health (Wareing & Hendrick, 2013). The field of human services cannot be transformed without its integration with the field of health, and the future points to the development of a Human Services field that focuses on the holistic development of a person. The sustainability of Human Services is purely dependent on its ability to assess and cater for the holistic welfare of the clients, as opposed to the partial attendance of people’s needs (Wareing & Hendrick, 2013). The current legislative development also points to the transformation of the Human Services into a field that offers health interventions in addition to the human services offered to the clients. Such legislations include the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which offer opportunities for coordinated service delivery, planning and infrastructure development, which creates the vision for integrated health and human services under the Human Services agencies (Wareing & Hendrick, 2013). The future of an integrated health and Human services is demonstrated by the Massachusetts Home and Healthy for Good, which seeks to offer housing facilities for the homeless in Massachusetts first, and then cater for their health needs (Wareing & Hendrick, 2013). The looming changes in the Human Services field then require that the leadership of the Human Service should transform towards more pragmatic and adaptive approach. The process of transforming the Human Services to align with the futuristic tendencies requires that the Human Services agencies start incubating change leadership (Wareing & Hendrick, 2013). This will ensure that the future needs will be matched by already well trained and adequately prepared leadership that will take on the challenges that are associated with the introduction of transformative change. Works Cited Brody, R. (2005). Effectively Managing Human Service Organizations. Thousand Oaks (Calif.: Sage, 2005. Mayers, S., Souflée, F. & Schoech, D. (1994). Dilemmas in Human Services Management: Illustrative Case Studies. New York: Springer Pub. Co. Slavin, S. (1985). Social Administration: The Management of the Social Services. New York: Haworth Press. Sprague, L., Sheldon, A. & McLaughlin, P. (1973). Teaching Health and Human Services Administration by the Case Method. New-York: Behavioral Publications. Wareing, T. & Hendrick, H. (2013, April 1). 5 Trends Driving the Future of Human Services. Government Technology. Web. December 6, 2014. < http://www.govtech.com/health/5-Trends-Driving-the-Future-of-Human-Services.html> Read More