New Directions for the Community Service Society of New York

Change in the goals, clientele, and technology of the country's largest family-service organization resulted from a combination of external and internal factors: increased prevalence and societal perception of urban social problems, and the agency's aspiration to be a leader in social welfare. New environmental conditions changed the criteria for social welfare leadership. Change was initiated by trustee leaders who exercised their power by appointing administrative and professional staff who shared their goals. Ratification of change is accounted for by trustees' lack of commitment to principal program departments, itself a function of limited opportunities for lay participation in professionalized welfare organizations. New policies were unanimously ratified but not successfully implemented because there was a discontinuity between the staffing strategies of planning and implementation stages: a failure to continue to acquire change-oriented professional leaders and a failure to restrict the participation of adherents of former policies. The study draws inferences about the power and function of trustees, professionals, and administrators and about the knowledge necessary for effecting organizational change

Agency (philosophy · Business · Function (biology · Organizational change · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Public relations · Ratification · Service (business · Social change · Social Welfare · Sociology · Staffing · Welfare · Law · Marketing · Nonprofit Sector and Volunteering · Public Administration · Social Work Education and Practice · Social Work