Builds a coherent picture of ethical public management and provides students with a robust toolkit for making ethical decisions in a variety of settings. Thoroughly covers the essential topics and problems in public service ethics, and brings the theories and techniques of ethical management into sharp focus through compelling practical examples. Provides students with opportunities to apply concepts with exercises and case studies that illustrate real ethical problems confronting public managers. Fully updated with examples that interest students, including the Green New Deal, Black Lives Matter, the Biden administration, and the ethical challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and response.

Public Service Information Technology explains how all areas of IT management work together. Building a computer-based information system is like constructing a house; different disciplines are employed and need to be coordinated. In addition to the technical aspects like computer networking and systems administration, the functional, business, management, and strategic aspects all are equally important. IT is not as simple as expecting to use a software program in three months. Information Technology is a complex field that has multiple working parts that require proper management. This book demystifies how IT operates in an organization, giving the public manager the necessary details to manage Information Technology and to use all of its resources for proper effect. This book is for technical IT managers and non-technical (non-IT) managers and senior executive leaders. Not only will the Chief Information Officer, the IT Director, and the IT Manager find this book invaluable to running an effective IT unit, the Chief Financial Officer, the HR Director, and functional managers will understand their roles in conjunction with the technical team. Every manager at all levels of the organization has a small yet consequential role to play in developing and managing an IT system. With practical guidelines and worksheets provided in the book, both the functional team and the technical team will be able to engage collaboratively to produce a high-quality computer-based information system that everyone involved can be proud to use for many years and that can deliver an effective and timely public program to citizens. This book includes: Multiple layers of security controls your organization can develop and maintain, providing greater protection against cyber threats. Job-related worksheets you can use to strengthen your skills and achieve desired program results. Practices you can apply to maximize the value of your contracts and your relationships with for-profit companies and other contractors. New method for deciding when contracting or outsourcing is appropriate when internal resources are not available. Improved method for estimating intangible benefits (non-financial gains) attributable to a proposed project. An approach to deciding what parts of a business process should or should not be automated, paying critical attention to decision points and document reviews.

GOING PUBLIC is a character-driven narrative centered on the last five years of unparalleled change in how technology startups sell shares to the public. Initial public offerings, or IPOs, are typically the first time retail investors can own a piece of the New Economy companies promising to rewire economic rules. Selling IPOs is also one of the most profitable businesses for Wall Street investment banks, who have spent the last 40 years protecting their profits. In an era when algorithms and software have made the financial markets more efficient, the pricing of IPOs still relies on human judgment. In 2016, executives at music-streaming service Spotify sought to upend the status quo. Led by a trim and understated CFO, Barry McCarthy, and a shy but brilliant founder, Daniel Ek, they took a wild idea and forged something new. GOING PUBLIC explores how they got comfortable with the risk, and how they lobbied securities watchdogs and exchange staff to rewrite the regulations. Readers will meet executives at disruptive companies like Airbnb, DoorDash, and data miner Palantir, venture capitalists, and even some bankers who seized on Spotify's labor and used it to knock Wall Street bankers off the piles of fees they'd been stacking for so long. GOING PUBLIC weaves in earlier attempts to rethink the IPO process, introducing readers to one of Silicon Valley's earliest bankers, Bill Hambrecht, whose invention for selling shares online was embraced by Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin when they auctioned their shares in 2004. And it examines the recent boom in blank-check companies, those Wall Street insider deals that have suddenly become the hottest way to enter the public markets. GOING PUBLIC tells stories from inside the room, and more.

This book is based upon and extends the theoretical and empirical work of the author over the last decade. It integrates material deriving from his previous conceptual and empirical work in this field, together with new empirical evidence from emerging research. Public Service Logic challenges the product-dominant assumptions of the New Public Management (NPM) about the nature and management of public service delivery. Whilst the NPM has led to some important developments in public management, it has also had significant limitations and weaknesses. The book presents an alternative to this, as a framework for the future delivery and reform of public services globally. It draws upon the extant literature in the field of service management to argue for a Public Service Logic (PSL) for the delivery of public services. This situates public service delivery within the vibrant and influential field of service-dominant research and theory. It argues that effective public service management requires both that these services are understood as services not as products and that, consequently, public service management requires a focus on value creation as its over-arching rationale. The book presents a major new framework of value creation for public service delivery as a basis for public service reform, explores the role of service managers and staff and of citizens and service users in this value creation process, and evaluates the implications of this new framework for both the strategic and operational management of public service delivery, their performance management and the development and innovation of new forms of public services. It will be of interest to researchers and students in the fields of public management and public administration, as well as to policy makers and public service managers.

Organizations are ethically, morally, and legally required to maintain safe workplaces that protects employees, visitors and anyone who frequents their establishments. But why do organizations that employee uniformed security personnel as part of their overall workplace violence prevention program still struggle to create and maintain the safest possible workplaces? To meet these obligations organizations often employ uniformed security officers to deter, observe, and report criminal behavior, and in some contexts, they physically interact with dangerous individuals to protect employees, consumers and visitors from violent behaviors. Unfortunately, many organizations don't utilize their security personnel to their fullest potential and organizational and community members continue to be victims of workplace violence. This book identifies the flawed principles, policies and personnel decisions that organizations use, and it provides practical solutions to address them. The book covers two major themes: the misapplication of law enforcement community safety principles to private, free-market businesses and the use of risk aversive philosophies to their security officer's activities. This book covers the principles, policies and personnel necessary for maximizing the effectiveness of uniformed security personnel to successfully mitigate potential workplace violence and create and maintain safe organizations. There is a strong need for this book since workplace violence prevention has taken on a new focus due to increases in workplace violence incidents and new laws requiring organizations to take a more serious approach to workplace violence prevention. The healthcare and campus markets are most affected by these laws and are under public scrutiny because of their vulnerable populations. These two markets combined employ the most non-contract, propriety private security personnel in the country. Both markets rely on uniform security officers to create and maintain safe communities and play an important role in their respective workplace violence prevention plans.

The era of hybrid governance is here. More and more organizations occupy a position between public and private ownership. And value is created not through business or public interests alone, but through distinct forms of hybrid governance. National governments are looking to transform their administrative systems to become more business driven. Likewise, private enterprises are seeing value gains in promoting public interest in their corporate social responsibility programs. But how can we conceptualize, evaluate and measure the value and performance of hybrid governance and organizations? This book offers a comprehensive overview of how hybrids produce value. It explores the drivers, obstacles and complications for value creation in different hybrid contexts: state-owned enterprises, urban policy-making, universities and non-profits from around the world. The authors address several types of value contents, for instance financial, social and public value. Furthermore, the book provides a novel way of understanding multiple forms of doing value in hybrid settings. The book explains mixing, compromising and legitimising as important mechanisms of value creation. Aimed at researchers and students of public management, public administration, business management, corporate social responsibility and governance, this book provides a theoretical, conceptual and empirical understanding of value creation in hybrid organizations. It is also an invaluable overview of performance evaluation and measurement systems and practices in hybrid organizations and governance.

Malaysia and South Africa implement the most extensive affirmative action programmes worldwide. This book explores why and how to effect preferential treatment which has been utilized in the pursuit of inter-ethnic parity, specifically in higher education, high-level occupations, enterprise development and wealth ownership. Through methodical and critical analyses of data on education, workforce and population, the book evaluates the primary objectives of increasing majority representation in education, employment, enterprise and ownership. The book also critically considers questions of the attainments and limitations of ethnic preferential treatment in reducing disparity, the challenges of developing capability and reducing dependency and the scope for policy reforms.

An in-depth introduction, Lean Six Sigma for Engineers and Managers: With Applied Case Studies presents a detailed road map and industry examples to help you understand and implement the LSS system. It discusses the LSS process to define improvement needs, measure current business performance, analyze performance results using statistical tools, improve business and financial results, and control peak business performance. It shows you how to realize the customer satisfaction benefits of Six Sigma and the cost reduction benefits of Lean manufacturing. A practical and technical guide to fully understanding and implementing LSS for any organization, from manufacturing to service facilities, this book is based on concepts related to total quality management, data analysis, and statistical process control. It details an LSS process that has been applied and refined during the past 10 years on more than 20 LSS projects around the globe. The book includes a framework for implementing LSS, discusses LSS strategies, and includes case studies from service and manufacturing organizations. The need for LSS has been brought on by increased global competition, sustained financial crises, and increased consumer expectations for higher quality and lower costs. Technologically complex products and processes combined with global supply chains have intensified the need for LSS. The benefits of focusing on LSS by individual organizations can lead to enhanced economic performance, strong levels of customer satisfaction, and higher market shares. With discussions of statistical analysis, training, implementation, common pitfalls, and best practices, this book gives you the edge in increasing your organization's competitiveness in the rapidly evolving global market.

The purpose of this book is to offer insights into the complex and often unclear context of public sector management, providing a new theoretical and practical approach to the analysis and interpretation of these issues. The book is grounded in the awareness that the public sector has too often shown inefficiencies, despite the expensive measures taken, and from manifold perspectives such as the economic, social, organizational, and institutional ones, among others. It acknowledges the lack of behavioral, cultural, and context-oriented research in the field, thus proposing to innovate the debate and to expand the current understanding of which organizational features characterize modern public administrations, what factors influence the predominance of different models, with a special focus on the Italian setting, benefiting from a wholly comprehensive innovative methodological approach. The findings offer key implications for theory, practice, and policy-making, contending the importance of holistic approaches to the debate and abandoning pre-constituted schemes to put forth the relevance of behavioral models. It offers a key message: contextual-specific and cultural factors influencing individual behaviors are important and should better influence policy-making processes, towards "glocalization" in order to improve quality.

Mastering RFP solicitations is a critical skill required of every public procurement professional. Designed to provide a strategic overview of the skills and traits necessary to fulfill the procurement function, Developing and Managing Requests for Proposals in the Public Sector explores the complex and ever-changing process of competitive negotiations, providing hands-on guidance for practitioners to successfully achieve the best value for both their entity and the taxpayer. While rules, ordinances, policies, practices, and procedures vary among jurisdictions, the book breaks down the basic steps involved in the competitive negotiation process, providing best practice guidance for public procurement professionals to help them navigate the formidable and exacting process successfully, fairly, and with transparency. This book is required reading for every public procurement professional and will be recommended reading for all public procurement courses as well as concentration and certificate programs.

This is a first of its kind book which examines the remittances in the two largest corridors in the World: India-Saudi Arabia and Mexico-U.S.A. This book aims to treat remittances as an act of social norm involving individuals, nation-states, and diaspora communities. It treats remittances both as an act of individual obligation as well as a social fact that needs to be understood from the perspective of the actors, i.e., the givers and recipients. Using theories of motives of giving, policy analysis, international development, and international relations, the authors offer a compelling narrative of how and why remittances occur and the impacts on both the giver and recipient. The authors - both scholars of philanthropy and remittances - bring their shared perspective and understanding of this crucial phenomenon and delve deep into examining its impacts on community development and the relations between the nation-states. This book offers a sophisticated understanding of how vital remittances are to the world we live in. The book sheds light on this important social reality and will be of value to researchers, academics, and students interested in remittances, as well as to practitioners working in the international development sector, NGO actors, and policy makers.

At the intersection of computer science and healthcare, data analytics has emerged as a promising tool for solving problems across many healthcare-related disciplines. Supplying a comprehensive overview of recent healthcare analytics research, Healthcare Data Analytics provides a clear understanding of the analytical techniques currently available to solve healthcare problems. The book details novel techniques for acquiring, handling, retrieving, and making best use of healthcare data. It analyzes recent developments in healthcare computing and discusses emerging technologies that can help improve the health and well-being of patients. Written by prominent researchers and experts working in the healthcare domain, the book sheds light on many of the computational challenges in the field of medical informatics. Each chapter in the book is structured as a "survey-style" article discussing the prominent research issues and the advances made on that research topic. The book is divided into three major categories: Healthcare Data Sources and Basic Analytics - details the various healthcare data sources and analytical techniques used in the processing and analysis of such data Advanced Data Analytics for Healthcare - covers advanced analytical methods, including clinical prediction models, temporal pattern mining methods, and visual analytics Applications and Practical Systems for Healthcare - covers the applications of data analytics to pervasive healthcare, fraud detection, and drug discovery along with systems for medical imaging and decision support Computer scientists are usually not trained in domain-specific medical concepts, whereas medical practitioners and researchers have limited exposure to the data analytics area. The contents of this book will help to bring together these diverse communities by carefully and comprehensively discussing the most relevant contributions from each domain.

Performance management can be an uncomfortable topic within the discipline of public health. Written by leaders in public health performance management and quality improvement, this book carefully explains what public health performance management is - and makes a strong case for why it is needed to tackle successfully the long-standing health issues plaguing communities and states. Notably, the book eschews the need to invest in technology or to learn a new performance management vocabulary. Rather the authors advocate for more thoughtful use of the resources already available in the organization, relying on public health leadership working in conjunction with well trained staff to manage their own organizational performance. To be broadly accepted within public health, performance management concepts and models have to be framed and populated with public health examples, and this book offers a wealth of practical insights and case studies that may be immediately applied to public health organizations, from assessing an organization's needs, introducing a performance management system to the organization, developing an agency's goals and targets, to implementation of sound performance management systems and plans. Collaborative Performance Management for Public Health is required reading for all public health leaders and employees concerned with maximizing the health impact of scarce resources.

Customer Service Management in Africa: A Strategic and Operational Perspective (978-0-367-14337-4, K410515) "Customer Service is Changing!" The message of 34 authors featured in Customer Service Management in Africa: A Strategic and Operational Perspective is clear: Today's consumers are no longer 'passive audiences' but 'active players' that engage with businesses at each stage of product or service design and delivery systems. Consumer demands and expectations are also increasingly being dictated by changing personal preferences, enhanced access to information and expanding digital reality. The customer service principles - strategic and operational - advocated by these authors are universal, but particularly compelling as they apply to Africa's unique and dynamic operating environment. In recognition of the importance of excellent customer service, this comprehensive and well-timed book provides an essential guide on the increasing role of the customer to business success. This book discusses the management and delivery of customer service under seven broad themes: Customer Service as Shared Value, Customer Service Strategy, Customer Service Systems, Customer Service Style, Customer Service Culture, Customer Service Skills and Customer Experience - Advancing Customer Service in Africa. Central questions posed and addressed include: What is the new definition of customer service management? How should organisations position themselves to create value for customers and stakeholders? How should employees project themselves to align with customer service promises made by their organisations? Overall, this book provides strategic and operational insights into effective customer service management in Africa. The customer service management concepts, roles and practices outlined, particularly as they apply to the African context, make it an important addition to scholars' or practitioners' reference works.

As a community, aligning efforts across a community to support the safety and well-being of vulnerable and underserved individuals is extraordinarily difficult. These individuals suffer disproportionally from health issues, job loss, a lack of stable housing, high utility costs, substance abuse, and homelessness. In addition to medical care, these individuals often critically need access to community social sector organizations that provide a distinct and complementary set of services, such as housing, food services, emergency utility assistance, and employment assistance. These services are just as vital as healthcare services to these individuals' long-term health and well-being, with data suggesting that 80-90% of health outcomes can be attributed to factors beyond direct medical intervention. This book proposes a novel approach to the coordination of medicine and social services through the use of people, process, and technology, with the goal being to streamline coordination between medical and Community-Based Organizations and to promote true cross-sector patient and client advocacy. The book is based on the experience of Dallas, TX, which was one of the first metropolitan regions to develop a comprehensive foundation for partnership between a community's clinical and social sectors using web-based information exchange. In the 5 years since the initial launch, the authors have been able to provide seamless connection, communication, and coordination between healthcare providers and a wide array of community-based social service organizations (a/k/a Community-Based Organizations or CBOs), criminal justice entities, and various other community organizations, including non-collegiate educational systems. This practical how-to guide is the codification of transferrable lessons from successes and challenges faced when working with clinical, community, and government leaders. By reading this playbook, leaders interested in building (or expanding) connected clinical-community services will learn how to: 1) facilitate cross-sector care coordination; 2) enable community care partners to better provide targeted services to community residents; 3) reduce duplication of services across partnering organizations; and 4) help to bridge service gaps in the currently fragmented system. Implementation of services, as recommended in this book, will ultimately streamline assistance efforts, reduce repeat crises and emergency funding requests, help address disparities of care, and improve the health, safety, and well-being of the most vulnerable community residents.

First published in 1998, this timely study of an American acute care hospital examines decision making by patients and their families along with a cost analysis of social work services. The first part focuses on the patient's experience of acute hospital care and the second part examines the factors which influence the use of social work resources in providing services to acute hospital patients. Patients were asked about the treatment and discharge decisions made, the agreements that occurred and the problems they experienced while they were in the hospital and after discharge. Surprisingly, the patients reported little difficulty with the decision making environment although it was evident that many experienced a high level of difficulty once discharged. The second part focuses on the utilization of social work resources for these patients. The study uses an activity based framework to examine the cost drivers for social work intervention. It is the first example of the application of ideas from activity based costing to analysis of social work services in hospital settings. Patricia Hansen's interviews enable us to listen to the voices of those using social work services and the influences on their decision making, presenting a ground-breaking analysis of social work drivers. The findings question what can truly be achieved in such a brief period of time and Hansen presents several sound suggestions to provide comprehensive and effective psychosocial services for patients and families. Her study serves as a gold standard for future social work research on this issue.

New edition of a classic guide to ensuring effective organizational performance

Thoroughly revised and updated, the second edition of "Managing and Measuring Performance in Public and Nonprofit Organizations" is a comprehensive resource for designing and implementing effective performance management and measurement systems in public and nonprofit organizations. The ideas, tools, and processes in this vital resource are designed to help organizations develop measurement systems to support such effective management approaches as strategic management, results-based budgeting, performance management, process improvement, performance contracting, and much more.

The book will help readers identify outcomes and other performance criteria to be measured, tie measures to goals and objectives, define and evaluate the worth of desired performance measures, and analyze, process, report, and utilize data effectively.Includes significant updates that offer a more integrated approach to performance management and measurementOffers a detailed framework and instructions for developing and implementing performance management systemsShows how to apply the most effective performance management principlesReveals how to overcome the barriers to effective performance management

"Managing and Measuring Performance in Public and Nonprofit Organizations" identifies common methodological and managerial problems that often confront managers in developing performance measurement systems, and presents a number of targeted strategies for the successful implementation of such systems in public and nonprofit organizations. This must-have resource will help leaders reach their organizational goals and objectives.

This book gives the reader an inside look at creating a new healthcare service using practical examples and scenarios one would face if doing it themselves. This workbook is a follow-up to the recently published, Lean Design in Healthcare and offers a tactical version of the principles provided in the book. It parses the dialogue out into detailed reasons for the Lean Design in Healthcare's position and principles. This workbook contains examples and many exercises for the reader to complete to begin their own innovation journey. Lean Design in Healthcare chronicles the journey of a fictitious healthcare delivery organization using the Simpler Design System principles based on Lean methodologies. While the characters and actual story is fictitious, it is based on the journey many healthcare systems and clients have taken, the issues they have faced, and the successes and failures they've had. This workbook takes the initial story further and includes leadership quotes and best practices to support the dialogue introduced in the first book. Exercises will be custom designed to match the story flow and provides practical information that readers can immediately apply in their work. Each chapter will start with an introduction and contain 10 exercises per chapter. Tools include those gleaned from actual application of Lean Product Development, Agile, Design for Six Sigma, and Design Thinking Principles.

This book gives the reader an inside look at creating a new healthcare service using practical examples and scenarios one would face if doing it themselves. This workbook is a follow-up to the recently published, Lean Design in Healthcare and offers a tactical version of the principles provided in the book. It parses the dialogue out into detailed reasons for the Lean Design in Healthcare's position and principles. This workbook contains examples and many exercises for the reader to complete to begin their own innovation journey. Lean Design in Healthcare chronicles the journey of a fictitious healthcare delivery organization using the Simpler Design System principles based on Lean methodologies. While the characters and actual story is fictitious, it is based on the journey many healthcare systems and clients have taken, the issues they have faced, and the successes and failures they've had. This workbook takes the initial story further and includes leadership quotes and best practices to support the dialogue introduced in the first book. Exercises will be custom designed to match the story flow and provides practical information that readers can immediately apply in their work. Each chapter will start with an introduction and contain 10 exercises per chapter. Tools include those gleaned from actual application of Lean Product Development, Agile, Design for Six Sigma, and Design Thinking Principles.

Health care reform is within our reach. According to George Halvorson, CEO of the nation's largest private health care plan, only by improving the intent, quality, and reach of services will we achieve a health system that is economically feasible into the future.

This year, Americans will spend 2.5 trillion for health services that are poorly coordinated, inconsistent, and most typically focused on the belated care of chronic conditions. What we have to show for that expenditure is a nation that continues to become more obese, less healthy, and more depressed.

In Health Care Will Not Reform Itself, Kaiser Permanente CEO George Halvorson proves beyond a doubt that the tragically inconsistent care that currently defines the state of U.S. health services is irresponsible, irrational, but more importantly, fixable. With detail that might shock you, he shows why the nonsystem we now use is failing. Then, applying the same sensible leadership that makes Kaiser the most progressive health care organization in the world, he answers President Obama s mandate for reform with a profound incentive-based, system-supported, goal-focused, care-improvement plan.

Halvorson draws from respected studies, including his own, and the examples of successful systems across the world to show that while good health care is expensive, it is nowhere near as costly as bad health care. To immediately curb care costs and bring us in line with President Obama's projected parameters, he recommends that we:

• Take a preventive approach to the chronic conditions that account for the lion s share of medical costs
• Coordinate patient care through a full commitment to information technology
• Increase the pool of contributors by mandating universal insurance
• Rearrange priorities by making health maintenance profitable
• Convene a national committee to "figure out the right thing" and "make it easy to do"

While this book offers sage advice to policy makers, it is also written to educate the 260 million stakeholders and invite their participation in the debate that is now shaping. What makes this plan so easy to understand and so compelling is that it never strays from a profound truth: that the best health system is one that actually focuses on good health for everyone.

All royalties from the sale of this book go to Oakland Community Voices: Healthcare for the Underserved

Practitioners operate in a necessary reality. We work in a space where project performance is above theory or methodology. In the best environments, delivery and an affirmative culture are what matter most. In the worst, it is politics and survival. In any environment, we are challenged to adopt best practices and adapt our style to the environment in which the project is occurring. This is a book about those best practices and practitioner experiences. It is a must-have reference and guidebook for project managers, general managers, business leaders and project management researchers. This book is the result of the hard work and dedication of more than 35 authors from more than 15 countries across four continents. It brings a diversity of experience, professional and personal. It includes practitioners, leading academics, renowned theorists and many who straddle those roles. The chapters cover experiences in software, large-scale infrastructure projects, finance and health care, to name a few. The chapters themselves take many forms. Check out the Table of Contents to get a deeper sense of the topics included. All provide real-world guidance on delivering high-performing projects and show you how to build, lead and manage high-performing teams. The Practitioner's Handbook of Project Performance is complete in itself. It can also be an enticing start to an ongoing dialogue with the authors and a pleasurable path to get deeper into the subject of project performance. Find your favorite place to begin learning from these chapters, to begin taking notes and taking away nuggets to use in your everyday. But don't stop there. Contact information and further resources for this diverse team of experts are found throughout. The Practitioner's Handbook is a modern guide to the leading edge of project performance management and a path to the future of project delivery.

This book reframes theoretical, methodological and practical approaches to public administration by drawing on complexity theory concepts. It aims to provide alternative perspectives on the theory, research and practice of public administration, avoiding assumptions of traditional theory-building. The contributors explain both how ongoing non-linear interactions result in macro patterns becoming established in a complexity-informed world view, and the implications of these dynamics. Complexity theory explains the way in which many repeated non-linear interactions among elements within a whole can result in processes and patterns emerging without design or direction, thus necessitating a reconsideration of the predictability and controllability of many aspects of public administration. As well as illustrating how complexity theory informs new research methods for studying this field, the book also shines a light on the different practices required of public administrators to cope with the complexity encountered in the public policy and public management fields. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Public Management Review journal.

How do policy makers and managers square the circle of increasing demand and expectations for the delivery and quality of services against a backdrop of reduced public funding from government and philanthropists? Leaders, executives and managers are increasingly focusing on service operations improvement. In terms of research, public services are immature within the discipline of operations management, and existing knowledge is limited to government departments and large bureaucratic institutions. Drawing on a range of theory and frameworks, this book develops the research agenda, and knowledge and understanding in public service operations management, addressing the most pressing dilemmas faced by leaders, executives and operations managers in the public services environment. It offers a new empirical analysis of the impact of contextual factors, including the migration of planning systems founded on MRP/ERP and the adoption of industrial based improvement practices such as TQM, lean thinking and Six Sigma. This will be of interest to researchers, educators and advanced students in public management, service operations management, health service management and public policy studies.

First published in 1998, this book sets out to shed sociological light upon the much under-researched realm of day-to-day child care practice. The text broke new ground when first published in 1987 and there have been few, if any, similar books that adopt an ethnographic approach to statutory child care practice. A second edition would still 'speak' to this rarely analysed occupational world. However, it would enjoy greater resonance when up-dated with practitioner viewpoints on the extent to which the findings remain pertinent today - which is likely to be the case. The book offers no conclusions other than it demonstrates that the 'invisible' world of practice cannot be readily understood or changed unless grasped through an interactionist sociology. The book is aimed at a social work/social welfare market as well as a sociology of profession/organization readership.

First published in 1998, this timely study of an American acute care hospital examines decision making by patients and their families along with a cost analysis of social work services. The first part focuses on the patient's experience of acute hospital care and the second part examines the factors which influence the use of social work resources in providing services to acute hospital patients. Patients were asked about the treatment and discharge decisions made, the agreements that occurred and the problems they experienced while they were in the hospital and after discharge. Surprisingly, the patients reported little difficulty with the decision making environment although it was evident that many experienced a high level of difficulty once discharged. The second part focuses on the utilization of social work resources for these patients. The study uses an activity based framework to examine the cost drivers for social work intervention. It is the first example of the application of ideas from activity based costing to analysis of social work services in hospital settings. Patricia Hansen's interviews enable us to listen to the voices of those using social work services and the influences on their decision making, presenting a ground-breaking analysis of social work drivers. The findings question what can truly be achieved in such a brief period of time and Hansen presents several sound suggestions to provide comprehensive and effective psychosocial services for patients and families. Her study serves as a gold standard for future social work research on this issue.