ProfessorAlun C. Jackson,co-author with Frances Donovan of Managing Human Service Organisations, holds the Chair of Social Work at the University of Melbourne. Past academic experience includes appointments at Bristol Polytechnic (now University of the West of England) and Monash University. A former student of Frances Donovan at the University of Melbourne, he has emerged as a leading academic in the field of human service administration with particular expertise in program design and evaluation, and a commitment to practice research. In addition to his academic work, he has practised in the UK in local authority social work and in Australia in Aboriginal Affairs. His human service design and evaluation research and practice has involved close collaboration with policy makers, managers and front line workers in fields as diverse as AIDS prevention and treatment, child abuse and neglect, disability, Vietnam veterans and ethnic services. He has served as a Board member and Chair of a number of not-for-profit organisations in the UK and Australia. He is currently directing a large research and evaluation program on the social impacts of problem gambling, and is Director of Social Work Research at the Royal Children's Hospital.
Frances Donovan AM has been recognised for her services to social work education and social welfare administration by being awarded membership of the Order of Australia. She has also been recognised as a prominent and senior member of two professions through being made an Honorary Life Member of both the Australian Association of Social Workers and the Australian Human Resources Institute. She is currently a Senior Academic Associate of the School of Social Work at the University of Melbourne. Her previous academic appointments were at the University of Western Australia and the University of Melbourne and as Foundation Head of the School of Social Work at Phillip Institute of Technology (now part of RMIT University). Her wide experience covers training and practice in secondary school teaching and in personnel/human resource management in private industry in both Australia and the UK. Many years of practice have included management in small and large health and human service organisations, including a period as Director of the Social Work Service of the Victorian Branch of the Australian Red Cross Society. She currently works as a management consultant with her own agency and has worked in joint consultancies for some years with her co-author, Alun Jackson. She also brings to this book extensive experience as a trainer of volunteers, a service volunteer and as a member and Chair of the Boards of a variety of not-for-profit organisations.
Managing to Survive
Managerial practice in not-for-profit organisations
AlunC.JacksonandFrancesDonovan
First published 1999 by Allen & Unwin
Published 2020 by Routledge
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Copyright Alun C. Jackson and Frances Donovan
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National Library of Australia
Cataloguing-in-Publication entry:
Jackson, Alun C.
Managing to survive: managerial practice in not-for-profit
organisations
Bibliography.
Includes index.
ISBN 1 86448 728 3.
1. Nonprofit organizationsAustraliaManagement. 2.
ManagementAustralia. 3. Small businessAustralia
Management. 4. Success in businessAustralia. I.
Donovan, Frances. II. Title.
658.0480994
Set in 10/11.5 pt Garamond by DOCUPRO, Sydney
ISBN-13: 9781864487282 (pbk)
It is always difficult to identify all those who have contributed to the process of writing a book. So many of the positive influences are subtle and not so obvious, such as the encouragement and sharing of ideas that arise out of every day contacts. Working in the human services area, and in the not-for-profit field, means contact with a wide group of interesting, committed and often challenging people.
A special group of friends and colleagues provided stimulus and the benefit of their current and wide experience in the not-for-profit field that is the focus of our book. This group included Val Conboy, Ian Hardisty, Josie Prioletti and Melanie Sheldon all management practitioners or consultants working with not-for-profit agencies, and Jerome Winston of RMIT University and Bruce Lagay of Melbourne University, who were of assistance because of their special knowledge and interest in particular areas of our book. In acknowledging their contribution we need to stress that they of course cannot be held responsible for any faults in the final result.
Our thanks go to Allen & Unwin also for the encouragement we received from the outset, and for the assistance and expertise that helped us in the various hurdles to be overcome in the long process of writing a book. The indexer is often overlooked, but in a book aimed at practitioners the index plays a particularly important role and Elizabeth Wood Ellem was as usual very professional and co-operative.
Finally, each of the authors would like to acknowledge the contribution of their co-author. When two authors are working on a book together, not merely contributing separate chapters, a great deal of co-operation is necessary. The writing of this book, and the other publications that we have shared, has involved working together closely for many years. We have also shared a number of management consultancies and have found the collaborations stimulating and enjoyable and never marred by conflict. This may be due to the fact that both authors have a respect for the contribution of the other. Also, there are few differences of approach and no major differences in basic philosophies, although there are naturally some factors influenced by gender differences and the generation gap. All these influences have, we hope, contributed to the book.
Whether they are welfare, health or educational organisations, arts companies or sporting groups, not-for-profit organisations are facing unfamiliar challenges. The reasons are many and we mention a large number of them throughout this book. Whatever the causes, there is a great deal to be learned from the experiences of organisations that may appear to be different, but in fact have many similarities.
In many ways the stimulus to write this book arose out of our first book, Managing Human Service Organisations. We have followed that advice, although it has not been as soon as we would have liked.
The title Managing to Survive can be interpreted in a number of ways. We have been closely involved in practice with organisations that are struggling to survive. They are being faced, willingly or otherwise, with the need to come to terms with aspects of management that were not their concern in the past, and with financial constraints that are a recent development. The agencies that are our target are often small, under-resourced and underskilled. Many are looking for help in this new and bewildering world of 'managerialism', 'economic rationalism' and 'privatisation', which are accompanied by accountability demands, allied to performance and outcome measurement.
