Empowering Workers and Clients for Organizational Change

Marcia B. Cohen and Cheryl A. Hyde's book, Empowering Workers and Clients for Organizational Change, prepares students to successfully engage in organizational change practice. The editors focus on "low power actors"-students, line staff, volunteers, clients, social workers-who can utilize their experience and knowledge gained from client and community interaction to initiate broad scale change. These workers are often the most informed about the clients' needs andare well positioned to collaborate with clients, constituents, supervisors, and managers in ways that can empower everyone.The contributing authors provide extensive case examples of real-life organizational change instituted by low-power actors that demonstrate the theories discussed throughout the book. They then go on to discuss strategies to assess the structural characteristics of agencies, organizational culture, and empowerment. This book also covers present force field analysis as an assessment framework to help promote change within human service agencies at the client service level.

Cohen and Hyde's work delivers what it promises - a dynamic perspective on how individual culture and attitude impact the overall culture of the organization. This text provides an emphasis on empowering low power actors to drive organizational change, and provides practical case studies to demonstrate these concepts in action." - Michelle Evans, LCSW, CADC

Marcia B. Cohen (MSW, Columbia University; PhD, Brandeis University) is professor of social work at the University of New England, where she has been a faculty member since 1988. Her areas of scholarship include organizational practice, social movements, homelessness and poverty, and social work practice with groups. Professor Cohen provides consultation to and serves on the board of several local agencies, including a consumer-run mental health organization. She isa member of the International Association for Social Work with Groups (IASWG), and is cofounder and coeditor of the Journal of Progressive Human Services: Radical Thought & Praxis.Cheryl A. Hyde (MSW, PhD, University of Michigan) is associate professor and MSW program director at Temple University. Her areas of scholarship include community capacity building and civic engagement, organizational transformation, diversity in human service organizations, social movements and social change, socioeconomic power and privilege, and macro practice ethics. She facilitates training on a variety of topics including human service ethics, learning organization development, andsupervision. Professor Hyde serves on several social science and social work journal editorial boards and is former editor of the Journal of Progressive Human Services. She is a former chair of the Association for Community Organization and Social Administration.