UNIT 1 - THEORITICAL CONCEPTS OF SOCIAL WORK

ADMINISTRATION
Section 1: Administration
It is a process, a method or a set of relationships between and among
people working toward a common objectives in an organization. It deals with
the determination of goals and/or setting objectives, formulation of policies,
creating and maintaining an organization, making plans, security resources,
selecting necessary technologies for operations, designing programs and
services, optimizing organizational behaviors, evaluating results for the
improvement of services, and accounting for resource utilization.
Administration is a continuous process and it is a phenomenon occurring in an
government, schools, business firms, labor unions, hospitals, and in any
organized seeking group of persons.
Administration is a human enterprise and it is a continuous, dynamic
process for a common purpose or goal. The resources of people and
materials are harnessed and coordinated to achieve organizational goals.
Leadership is implicit in administration. Coordination, cooperation and
participation are the means for achieving organizational goals.
There are two primary elements of administration. The Organization and
Management. Organization - is a setting up of the structure of the various
units of the system to carry out district tasks for the attainment of the goals.
Management - an activity that allocates and utilizes resources to achieve the
goals of the organization. It is specifically the scientific utilization of
manpower, money, machines, materials, methods, time, space and all other
resources for the attainment of organizational goals.
Administration can also be applied in human service organization. It can
be a Social administration - focuses on the policies, planning, and
administration of goods and services in relation to the political, social and
economic institutions and to the determinants of the distribution of national
resources to social welfare needs. Another is Social welfare administration -
also referred to as social agency administration, the administrative processes
in a social welfare agency, the formulation of its policies and plans and their
implementation into programs and services for specific client groups.
Section 2 : Social Work Administration
It is a method of social work concerned with the provision and distribution
of societal resources so as to enable certain types of persons and people to
meet their needs and fulfill their potentials. It is based on the principles and
techniques of administration in general but addressed to the specific tasks of
solving human problems and satisfying human needs.
According to Harleigh Trecker, administration is responsible for studying
the community, determining agency purpose of basis for clientele selection.,
provide financial resources, budgeting and accounting, develop agency
policies, programs, and procedures for the implementation of agency
purpose, and continuously evaluate program and personnel, plan, and
conduct research. It provides the framework for social work practice that
relates it to other agency functions. It is the means by which identified social
needs are dealt with by appropriate social service, whether private or public.
It is societal action for improved or new services needed by specific client
groups or the community. Also, It is decision making at every level of
administration.

Section 3 - Social Welfare Agency

It is the structured framework within which the administrative tasks are
carried out. It is the instrument of society established through government or
voluntary efforts to achieve a social goal. Social welfare agency can be
classified in different types. It can be governmental or public agencies, private
or voluntary agencies, and Semi-private or quasi-governmental organizations.
Social welfare agency must be viewed both as administrative
bureaucracies and as social systems (Rosemary C. Sarri and Robert D.
Vinter). Administrative bureaucracies for they are established to attain specific
goals. Social systems because they adaptively respond to external and
internal pressures, and they generate informal patterns that may facilitate and
hamper goal attainment.