Transformational leadership is often lauded as an ideal approach, particularly within the nonprofit sector, for motivating employees to transcend personal interests and perform beyond expectations. However, an excessive application of transformational leadership can undermine its positive effects, leading to a "too-much-of-a-good-thing" effect. This study examines the relationship between transformational leadership and employee emotional exhaustion, suggesting a curvilinear relationship between these variables. We hypothesize that workplace social capital mitigates the potential adverse consequences of transformational leadership's "too-much-of-a-good-thing" effect by promoting strong interpersonal relationships within organizations. Leveraging survey data collected from 5,620 Chinese social workers, our findings show that workplace social capital significantly moderates the curvilinear relationship between transformational leadership and emotional exhaustion. When workplace social capital is high, the potentially negative effects of transformational leadership are significantly mitigated. These findings have considerable implications for nonprofit management practice, offering insights to curtail the "too-much-of-a-good-thing" effect of transformational leadership effectively.
Although occupational stress is a well-recognized and extensively studied phenomenon in social work, most research has focused on high-income countries, overlooking the experiences of professionals in middle-income contexts. This gap is relevant, as precarious employment conditions and weaker social protection systems may shape the intensity and nature of work-related stress. This study analyzes the stress experienced by social workers in Chile during the COVID-19 pandemic and compares it with that of other social service professionals. Drawing on the Job Demands - Resources (JD-R) theory, it examines specific stressors associated with social work and considers the influence of gender, socioeconomic status (SES), and workplace inclusion as a moderating factor. Using a longitudinal observational design with 370 participants, multiple regression models show that being a social worker is significantly associated with higher stress levels, even after controlling for demographic factors. Workplace inclusion - both group and supervisory - emerges as a key protective factor.
Based on the Job Demands-Control model, this study compared job demands, control, satisfaction, mental distress, and turnover intentions between child welfare workers (N = 587) and the general Norwegian workforce (N = 1599), using identical surveys. Cohen's effect sizes showed only minor differences, with child welfare workers reporting relatively similar experiences across all variables. Multigroup path analyses revealed comparable relationships between demands, control, and well-being in both groups. These findings challenge previous research concluding that child welfare work is uniquely stressful. However, the study focused on general work strain indicators; future research should examine occupation-specific stressors like threats, violence, and emotional demands.
Hospital-based violence intervention programs (HVIPs) provide assault-injured youth access to comprehensive services at the time of injury. Despite mounting evidence of the benefits of HVIPs, limited information is available about how to best implement HVIPs. In this study, we used qualitative interviews with a purposive sample of multidisciplinary hospital professionals (n = 17) to assess the needs of patients and the service structures important to HVIP implementation. Analysis using a grounded theory approach generated three themes: (1) Patients experiencing assault-related injuries have complex socioeconomic needs that impact recovery requiring intensive case management and service navigation; (2) Assault-injured patients have complex behavioral health needs at the individual, peer, and family levels requiring clinical intervention; and (3) Assault injured youth and their families require care, support, and mentoring. The results highlight the need for innovative hospital-community partnerships designed to expand services to address the long-term psychological and social sequelae of violent injuries.
Based on a study of eight Czech volunteer centers, this research examines how nonprofit organizations navigate consecutive crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine. Using semi-structured interviews (2020-2023), our study reveals key impacts on resource allocation, staff burden, and program activities. Framing our analysis through the Resource-Based View, we conceptualize organizational resilience as a dynamic interplay of resource retention, adaptation, and depletion. We also introduce the concept of "resilience retention capacity" as the ability to stay functional under cumulative strain, highlighting implications for organizational sustainability. Findings indicate that while centers were adaptable, this often led to internal strain and difficult trade-offs. The paper highlights the long-term consequences of these responses, thereby contributing to an understanding of how human service organizations respond to overlapping crises.
Sibling support is a small sector of human services work providing social support and advocacy for siblings of people with disability. A 2021 study was the first to explore the business-operation of sibling support, with qualitative interviews of providers in five English-speaking, western countries. This current paper reexamines those findings via a survey of 27 providers from 13 countries, from a broader array of language/cultural backgrounds. The findings clarify the characteristics that apply to most sibling support provider organizations that exist globally, while also highlighting that providers in countries with an individualist culture and that have a national/international/online scope have easier circumstances in staffing, resources and organizational capacity than those in countries with collectivist cultures and that have a more local-level scope. The end of the paper discusses the implications of the findings for both the functioning of the international sibling support sector and for other small, under-resourced nonprofit sectors.
The COVID-19 pandemic exposed structural inequalities in urban slums, where state-led responses often failed to address complex needs. This study examines the role of nonprofit human service organizations (NHSOs) in Bangkok's Khlong Toei district - Thailand's largest informal settlement - during the pandemic. Using 66 in-depth interviews, it analyzes four NHSO strategies: charitable donation, essential social service provision, information dissemination, and public awareness. Findings reveal that Thai NHSOs expanded these strategies through community-driven innovations. The resulting "Khlong Toei Model" functioned as a decentralized response system featuring volunteer clusters, digital tools, and collaboration with religious institutions. Key success factors included long-standing community trust, cross-sectoral partnerships, and politically neutral, needs-based engagement. Conceptually, the study extends Cai et al.'s (2021) framework by demonstrating how NHSOs act as both service providers and governance actors that translate policy into community practice. The Khlong Toei Model offers a transferable framework for understanding grassroots resilience and adaptive crisis governance.
Social enterprise has been an under-examined topic in social work, which is committed to helping victims of social problems by addressing clients' material and emotional needs. The presence of social enterprises creates opportunities to transform the demerits of disadvantaged groups into strengths and to attract funding sources to compensate for the current funding-cut trend. Nevertheless, the roles of social workers in performing social entrepreneurship (SE) remain under-examined. A systematic review is undertaken to fill this knowledge gap through reviewing n = 28 peer-reviewed studies from social science databases. The result summarizes a 17-item list of SW expected roles. In addition, a 14-item list and a 16-item list of challenges and strategies were identified. The research findings show that SWs are resurging community logics into the marketization process, alongside optimism and democratic culture. Finally, we urge more research that incorporates the voices of SWs, data triangulation, and perspectives from non-English-speaking nations.
While many public organizations aspire to co-produce services with civil society, the relations between service professionals and co-producing actors, such as volunteers, may suffer from conflicts. In this study, I investigate how managers can reduce conflicts between staff and volunteers in public service organizations. Based on interviews in the sector of residential aged care in Denmark, I find that two management strategies are utilized among frontline managers in nursing homes with a low level of volunteer-staff conflict: Firstly, the managers prioritize "bridge-building" leadership acts by installing channels for clear communication and coordination between staff and volunteers, and by collecting and utilizing interpersonal knowledge on individual volunteers. Secondly, managers can facilitate social bonding between volunteers and staff by setting up structures for the integration of volunteers in the working community of the organization. The study highlights the importance of relations-oriented management in the context of co-production.
While resilience in social work has been widely studied internationally, its expression within Israel's unique sociocultural and organizational context remains underexplored. This study addresses this gap by examining how psychological resilience is experienced and sustained among social workers employed by Israel's Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, using Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory to frame the analysis. A qualitative approach was used, based on interviews with 14 experienced social workers. Data analysis revealed four themes: (1) development of professional identity, (2) impact of organizational climate, (3) importance of support systems, and (4) strategies for resilience. Findings suggest that resilience is rooted in boundary-setting, strong social support, and a sense of professional mission. Supervision and peer relationships emerged as critical resources. The study underscores the need for governmental and organizational policies that cultivate supportive work environments and promote shared responsibility for resilience across individual, organizational, and systemic levels.
The aim of the research is to analyse the impact of digitalization on social service clients and professionals, as well as to identify patterns in the use of technologies. This study was carried out in a specific geographical region, Andalusia and the province of Huelva (Spain). A quantitative methodology based on surveys targeting both groups was used. The results revealed challenges in the development of digital skills. Clients face barriers related to a lack of devices and connectivity. Professionals show deficiencies in areas such as digital content creation. Significant differences were identified based on variables such as age and educational level. The conclusions highlight the need for public policies that democratise access to technology and provide training to both groups. The importance of higher education is emphasised, and specific, tailored training programmes are advocated to reduce the gaps identified and improve interaction with the administration through telematic means.
Conventional methods for impact evaluation in social work often focus on standardized outcomes and experimental designs, thereby overlooking the complex and relational aspects of practice. This paper describes a year-long action research project involving a Community of Practice comprising practitioners from five social work organizations and academic researchers. Through participatory activities such as dialogue, collaborative mapping, and reflection, the group developed practice-based insights into various approaches to understanding and assessing impact. Thematic analysis led to the development of the ACCUMI approach, which is outlined by six guiding principles: Adapt and Adjust, Clarify and Claim, Cultivate Impact-Oriented Action, Uncover and Understand, Map the Path, and Interweave Perspectives. These principles frame impact evaluation as a context-sensitive, transparent, learning-oriented, and inclusive process. The ACCUMI approach provides a participatory model that aligns with the values, complexity, and realities of social work.
In current Western welfare states, human service industries are subject to evolving governance processes, with a growing influence of managerialist principles. Dealing with two sectors in Germany, this article examines how, in the context of plural governance, (including public regulation, organizational leadership, and individual self-management) emotional dynamics and power relations may combine to form a distinctive steering arrangement within relevant settings. Drawing on qualitative interviews, we show that, against the general backdrop of goal ambiguity, such arrangements are based on "diffuse power" with "mixed feelings." While they undergird key functions of the above industries in the short run, this effect is fragile and may translate into disruptive dynamics prone to undermine the groundwork of human service organizations. Insights into this configuration may make practitioners, including managers, rethink popular approaches to strengthening their staff's resilience as opposed to political action geared toward changing the rules of game more generally.
Nonprofits around the globe are facing a shortage of human resources, especially in regard to senior management and leadership. This challenge is particularly acute in human service organizations where leaders must balance complex client needs with organizational sustainability. This problem is exacerbated by the lack of programs on leadership development and skills training for nonprofit practitioners. Likewise, there is a dearth of empirical research on the efficacy of leadership development programs on leadership outcomes. An integrated nonprofit leadership development program, the Sustainability and Social Innovation Leadership Program (SSILP), was launched in Hong Kong in 2022. This study examined the efficacy of the SSILP in enhancing the leadership self-efficacy of nonprofit practitioners. A quasi-experimental, mixed-method research design with 65 survey respondents and 12 focus group participants demonstrated that the SSILP enhanced practitioners' overall leadership self-efficacy. Four themes critical to practitioners' learning and growth were identified: multiple pedagogical methods, peer-to-peer learning, iterative incubation processes, and cross-sector mentorship. Findings inform the design and implementation of capacity-building programs aimed to foster next generation of nonprofit leaders.
