Savannah State University Information Gathered by Administrator Interview Discussion

I’m trying to learn for my Social Science class and I’m stuck. Can you help?

We can learn a great deal about human service administration by reading, discussing, and participating in class exercises. But one of the best ways to find out about human service administration is to talk with people who are administrators/managers in human service organizations. For this assignment, you are to interview an executive director, program manager, financial officer, or some other person in a management position in a human service organization in the Savannah (or out-lying) area. The agency can be either public/governmental, private non- profit, or private for-profit. The interview needs to be face-to-face. The interview should not take more than one hour of their time. The paper can be written in the first person if you prefer and it does not need to conform to the style of the traditional term paper. It should, however, be clearly and concisely written and free of grammar and spelling errors.

Based on your interview, prepare a paper (6 page maximum) outlining your interview, what you learned about human service administration, and any reactions you had to what they said. Relate your assessment of the interview with information that you have acquired in the field, in the classroom and in your readings. Be specific. Your findings will be presented in class.

Before you conduct the interview, we will spend time in class discussing relevant domains of information to be covered. There are many interesting questions you are expected to explore. For example, your interview will cover these questions:
• How they became a human service administrator?
• What organizational and administrative knowledge and skills did they acquire in their graduate program?
• What organizational and administrative knowledge and skills were not included in the curriculum?
• What organizational theory has been most useful in their work?
• Describe a typical workday.
• What are the biggest challenges they confront as an administrator in their effort to deliver social services?
• Describe the evaluation mechanisms used to evaluate administrators and staff.
• Describe the way(s) (including the evaluative tools and statistical package) that they use to conduct program review or program effectiveness.
• Describe the ways in which technology is used within the agency.
• Does the agency’s technology appear to be effective and useful for staff and for the delivery of service?
• Administratively, what do they see as critical issues confronting the human services today?
• What parts of their job do they like the most/least?
• What are the ethical dilemmas confronted by the agency?
• What strategies and philosophical approaches, policies, and programs do they have and use to meet the needs of employees/staffs who are minorities and when providing services to clients from underserved population or community?
• How do they integrate cultural competences and diversity in their organizational culture, practices, policies, and service delivery?
• How does the organization/administrator ensure a fair, just, equitable and conducive working environment?