F. Ellen Netting

Grounded Theory Managing the Challenge for Those Facing Institutional Review Board Oversight

The authors examine one of the earliest systematic forms of qualitative inquiry to identify some of the boundaries needed in grounded theory designs to provide a small corner of clarity in the discourse about what is acceptable science from the Institutional Review Board (IRB) perspective. Beginning with an overview of grounded theory research as it was originally conceived and extended, the challenges for establishment of a uniform standard are put forth. Within this background and context, the authors report the results of a content analysis of a sampling of dissertation abstracts claiming to use grounded theory. Results reveal the need to clarify standards for different types of grounded theory research to help those facing IRB oversight. The authors assert that there are two useful sets of standards that should be applied to the assessment of the quality of a grounded theory design and researchers should not confuse the two.

Mixing and Phasing of Roles Among Volunteers, Staff, and Participants in Faith-Based Programs:

In this grounded theory research project, face-to-face interviews were conducted with program participants, board members, administrators, coordinators, and collaborators in 15 faith-based programs. Findings concerning the roles played by participants, volunteers, and paid staff reveal the wearing of multiple hats, facilitated by a tendency toward cross-training, role diffusion, and doing what is needed. Boundaries created by roles appear to be less important than pragmatically responding to meet human needs. The moral imperative or faith-based nature of the work appears to be a recruiting tool for both paid staff and volunteers, as well as an expressed personal benefit for both. Challenges include turnover among paid staff and volunteers, heavy reliance on volunteers, and low pay. Psychological contracting with a faith-based community may be related to the ability to cope with fluid role expectations and associated ambiguities.

Volunteer and Paid Staff Relationships

Summary In this article, we examine theoretical perspectives and studies on volunteer and paid staff relationships to determine what administrators in social work can glean from theory and research. We also draw from the conceptual literature in the area of volunteerism, as well as our experience with one nationally mandated program that utilizes 90% volunteers and 10% paid employees. Implications for social work administration include recognizing the culture of ones program or organization and the norms associated with volunteerism, as well as understanding the nature of psychological contracting for both paid employees and volunteers. Guidelines for assessing volunteer/paid staff culture are provided.

Change Strategies for Integrating Women's Knowledge into Social Work Curricula

Gender integration seeks to bring gender to the center of the curriculum by examining critically how gender influences knowledge development and ways of knowing. This undertaking calls for a major transformation, since womens realities and experiences have traditionally been marginal or absent in social work knowledge construction. In this article, the authors examine the context and process for making the change toward a gender-integrated curriculum. The authors argue that change agents must understand the type of culture characterizing a school, the variety of leaders available, the opportunities that might activate effective leadership, and the contingencies that affect curriculum decisions.

Lessons Learned from a Practitioner-Academician Collaboration

The authors, a practitioner and an academician, report on their collaboration over a 4-year period as opportunities arose in which it was important to draw from one author’s vast practical experience and the other author’s academic expertise. Beginning with a historical view of collaboration grounded in the literature, the authors focus on factors to consider in dealing with collaboration and models of collaboration. After describing three of their collaborative opportunities, they conclude that there are fundamental organizational and institutional issues that need to be considered, even in successful collaborations in which personal and professional differences between the practitioner and academician are not prominent.

Authorship and Collaboration

With collaborations in social work articles on the rise, decisions regarding who gets authorship credit—and who does not—have taken on increased political and economic importance. A literature search of codes of ethics, manuals of style, and relevant articles found little guidance for social workers in this regard. This article solicits feedback from focus groups comprising faculty and doctoral students to identify issues in determining and negotiating co-authorship. Major points for consideration are offered to assist the collaboration of future scholars.

The Status of Instrument Development in the Human–Animal Interaction Field

ABSTRACT An overview of available instruments that assess characteristics of human–animal interactions is provided, followed by a matrix of 140 tools, what they measure, information on structure and properties, original published sources, and a citation, when available, to another study in which the tool was also used. Using Andersons (2007) book Assessing the Human–Animal Bond: A Compendium of Actual Measures, as a baseline, we systematically searched seven electronic databases. Suggested steps for future instrument development and research include greater accessibility through manualizing, carefully naming, providing design and conceptual rationales, defining key terms, describing revisions along with use and scoring instructions, providing scores from several populations, including validity and reliability data, and taking long-term responsibility for further refinement of instruments.

New Directions: Challenges for Human-Animal Bond Research and the Elderly

The potential health effect of the human-animal bond has been explored for over 15 years with limited success. Professionals from a variety of fields have examined the benefits a companion animal can provide for persons with special needs. We examined the research related to human-animal interactions and the community- based elderly. We reviewed recommendations from the 1984 Delta Society conference related to research endeavors in terms of the elderly population and proposed a theoretical approach for future research to evaluate the effect of the human-animal interaction in terms of life course development and perception of health and pet ownership.

Can we Prepare Geriatric Social Workers to Collaborate in Primary Care Practices

This article reports the results of a qualitative study of the professional identities, roles, and relationships of a variety of geriatric case managers located in nine demonstration sites around the United States. Beginning with an overview of social work and nursing roles in health care settings, the authors provide background on the study and its methods, followed by results that highlight the voices of persons interviewed. They conclude with implications for social work education in five areas: articulating social works great tradition, developing career opportunities, building alliances with students and educators in other professional schools, engaging in ongoing faculty development, and infusing the social work curriculum with geriatric content.

Differences in Types of Complaints and How They Were Resolved by Local Long-Term Care Ombudsmen Operating In/Not In Area Agencies on Aging

This article examines the differences between types of complaints and how they are resolved in the context of whether local ombudsman programs are housed in Area Agencies on Aging (AAAs). Nine of Kentuckys 15 local ombudsman programs are housed in AAAs, while 6are subcontracted to non-AAA agencies. All complaints analyzed for this paper were received in the first year of a pilot study and reported on standardized forms. Results revealed significant differences by program auspice. Implications for the placement of ombudsmen programs are presented.