Supervision as Collaboration in the Human Services: Building a Learning Culture

"This book is well-written, well-organized, and presented in a rational and systematic manner. The subject matter of the book is well-grounded in theory and a superb analysis of the literature is presented. The literature review is comprehensive, well-integrated, and provides a substantive synthesis of a voluminous body of published material. It makes important contributions to professional supervision practice and research in human service organizations."
―Roosevelt Wright, Jr., Ph.D., University of Oklahoma

"Graduate students, upper level undergraduate students, and college-educated practitioners would find this text both accessible and interesting. The discussion questions at the ends of the chapters are very helpful in further allowing immediate application of the ideas that were presented. It is  a well-designed and well-written text."
―Miriam Johnson, University of South Carolina

Supervision as Collaboration in the Human Services: Building a Learning Culture integrates the latest thinking in the human services to provide supervisors and those preparing to become supervisors with a new approach to the important skills and knowledge needed for effective practice in the 21st century. While it builds upon past efforts to define the principles and practices of supervision in the human services, it seeks to chart new territory that reflects the changing nature of organizational life. Supervision as Collaboration in the Human Services uses a framework that features the key aspects of a learning culture, the process of organizational learning, and the roles that supervisors can play in transforming traditional human service organizations into learning organizations. Chapter authors are authorities in their respective areas of practice and have shaped their chapters around this framework. 

The editors have divided the experientially focused chapters into sections that feature the collaborative and interactional nature of supervision, the managerial nature of the supervisory role, the analytic nature of supervisory practice, and the unique practice settings that affect the nature of supervision. The chapters include case vignettes and discussion questions.

This book is ideally suited as an essential core text for graduate and undergraduate students of social work and counseling, as well as a much-needed reference for human services supervisors and practitioners.

Michael J. Austin (Ph.D., Social Work; MSPH, Public Health, University of Pittsburgh) is Milton and Florence Krenz Mack Distinguished Professor of Nonprofit Management at the University of California, Berkeley, where the teaches a wide range of courses, including Assessing the Dynamics of Communities, Groups and Organizations, Management Practice, Research Resources, and Assessing Nonprofit Organizations. His research interests are nonprofit management and planning, organizational change, and policy implementation. He is the author or co-author of a wide range of books and journal articles.

Karen Hopkins is an Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Social Work, University of Maryland, Baltimore, and served as Co-Chair of the Management and Community Organization Concentration for 11 years. She has worked as a consultant and organizational/program evaluator for 17 years at the state and national levels with multiple nonprofit and public agencies related to supervision/management practices and outcomes, workforce development and retention, organizational learning and capacity building, and work–life integration. She is a National Peer Reviewer for the Standards of Excellence Institute, Board Member for the Society for Social Work and Research, and Associate Editor for the Human Service Organizations: Management, Leadership, & Governance (formerly Administration in Social Work) journal. She received a PhD from the University of Chicago, MSW from the University of Pittsburgh, and a BS from the Pennsylvania State University.