Building Capacity for Human Service Organizational and Managerial Research

Background and Purpose: The concept of capacity building—involving the provision of organizational resources, role-specific training, and the development of supportive professional networks—has generally been applied to human service organizations and managers (HSO&M) as opposed to researchers (e.g., Austin et al., 2011; Jones, 2003). Yet it is important to build the capacity of HSO&M researchers to address the knowing-doing gap and promote the overall theoretical/empirical foundations of HSO&M practice (Nair & Guerrero, 2013). Unfortunately, few capacity building initiatives exist for HSO&M researchers, resulting in a dearth of specific supports for HSO&M research in university and agency settings. 

Objectives: This workshop aims to build on the successes of well-attended 2014 and 2015 SSWR workshops on HSO&M research. Building on lessons learned, the objectives of this workshop are to: (1) support doctoral students, early career investigators, and established researchers in carrying out original HSO&M research studies; (2) support the development of high-quality HSO&M scholarship of relevance to practice; and (3) create opportunities for HSO&M researchers to network and develop new scholarly projects. These proximal workshop objectives support a mid-range goal of enhancing the overall capacity of HSO&M researchers.

Content: As with the 2014 and 2015 workshops, the content of the current workshop will reflect the empirical and methodological interests of participants and their specific questions. Research topics of emphasis during the 2015 workshop included: interorganizational relationships; EBP dissemination and implementation; organizational change and functioning; connections between leadership/management practice and research; connections between organizational behavior and organizational theory; and tensions between HSO&M and clinical practice/research in social work. It is anticipated that similar foci will guide the current workshop and that participants will self-select based on their preferences.

Approach: The approach of the current workshop will be similar to previous workshops. The 2015 workshop involved 30 participants, who were organized by substantive interest areas into five small groups. The groups were engaged in dialogue by five co-facilitators who had different HSO&M substantive and methodological expertise and who represented early, mid-career, and senior researchers. In groups, participants discussed and received feedback from co-facilitators and one another on an issue of concern related to their current research. Volunteer note-takers in each group recorded specific research questions and strategies as well as implications for theory and practice. Post-workshop, participants received a copy of the workshop meeting minutes and were encouraged to remain in contact with co-facilitators and one another. With these efforts, we seek to achieve at least a 35% follow-up rate with participants. 

As with previous years, 2016 workshop co-facilitators will advertise the workshop via appropriate listservs (e.g., SSWR M&O special interest group, ARNOVA, GADE). Participants pre-registering for the workshop will be asked to submit a paragraph (a) identifying their scholarly interests related to HSO&M issues and (b) summarizing a substantive, methodological, or theoretical issue related to an in-progress research study they would like to focus on during the workshop. This information will be used by co-facilitators in pre-planning to organize small groups and thus to maximize workshop time for dialogue and learning.