Improving Organizational Social Contexts for Effective Human Services

Emphasizing five basic points, this chapter summarizes what the authors have learned in their development of evidence-based organizational strategies. First, human service organizations vary in their social contexts, and those differences affect the way services are provided. Second, the social contexts of human services can be changed with organizational strategies, and those changes can improve service quality and outcomes. Third, organizational social contexts are essential for innovation because they reflect the power of social systems to promote changes in individual behavior. Fourth, organizational research illustrates that social contexts affect the implementation of best practices to improve effectiveness. Fifth, strategies for improving an organization’s capacity for innovation build upon a century of work on improving organizational effectiveness that has direct implications for human services. This chapter introduces the ARC strategies that include: (1) key organizational principles, (2) organizational components that drive innovation, and (3) mental models to support improvement efforts.